Dreytons 5th birthday party

I decided to have Dreyton's birthday party a month early.  With moving, and Christmas at the end of December, it was just too crazy.

 It was nice to have it a month early, where not much else was happening so I could spend some time making his party as fun as possible.

my boy is all about superhero's, so it was no question to have a superhero party.

I enjoy making my kids birthday invitations with my digital scrapbooking software.   I planned a superhero training birthday party, where they learned to be superheros.   

I decided to make capes for all the kids.  Considering I really have never sewn before, this was a HUGE task for me to take on by myself.   They are not perfect, but they did the job, and the kids were excited to get there own capes.   These were 6 out of the 8 capes I made.   

Super food!   Dreyton strongly dislikes pizza, so we had hot dog wraps for his party.   

Since I am in the process of moving, and my house is a mess I booked the church for his party.  It was great to have so much space to plan and organize his party.

One thing I did not do was make his cake for him this year.   I wanted to spend my time making capes instead.   He picked this out at the "bakery" which he was super excited about.  

Uncle Shawn and Tenley.  Tenley had fun exploring the church, I had also set up a playpen and baby monitor in one of the rooms so she could nap.    

"Nemesis", the kids had to make sure he didn't destroy the party!

They had video's that they watched on the Ipad which "Nemesis" recorded, telling them the bad things he was doing to try to destroy the superhero training party.    

In order to become superhero's they had to have super speed, learn to fly, and super strength.   

Super speed was doing some obstacle courses around the gym 

Super Strength was lifting the milkjug full of ice 5 times above their head.   

and Learning to fly was jumping super high in the inflatable bouncer

After they did all their tasks, they earned their capes.

"Nemesis" froze superman's power in these balls and the kids had to figure out how they were going to get the balls out of the ice.   We helped them figure out they had to run it under warm water to rescue them.    

Next they had to find all the kryptonite "glow sticks" around the church, so they wouldn't lose there superhero powers.

At the end they found "Nemesis" and had to take off his hat (which gave him his evil powers), they found out it was Lee and he had accidentally put on a hat that gave him the evil powers, and they rescued him.

At the end, kids ran around in the dark gym with the inflatable bouncer, glow sticks, and lights in the fog (I rented a fog machine).
 

Tenley is now 9 months!

This girl keeps me on my toes!   She is very busy, and advancing way too quick.   With Zoë and Dreyton I was ready for them to learn new things and was excited to see them advance and grow.  With Tenley I want her to stay small and like a baby for as long as possible.   I know how fast it goes by!    Unfortunately Tenley has other plans....

Tenley at the science center in the baby area.   She is crawling, and pulling herself up on everything.   She loves to let go and try to balance standing on her own.   

She loved crawling through this tunnel of mirrors.  

Baby crawling track.

This pictures shows her in my eyes, a blur!    Can't keep up with this girl, I am usually trying to catch her from getting into trouble every few seconds.  

Unfortunately my camera is broken, so I have had to take poor iphone photos.

A typical Tenley picture, crazy hair!

Halloween 2012

Zoë was sleeping beauty for Halloween this year.  Lee took the kids to the halloween dance at their school this year, while I volunteered with raffle tickets.  

we did some pumpkin carving, I enjoy stenciling it out, and making it more of a shape then the jack-o-lantern style.  

 a witch and a angry bird

My little koala!   Aunty Erin works at a costume shoppe, and one day they had breakfast television coming to take clips of different costume ideas.   Tenley and Dreyton went early in the morning to be on TV, and as a gift they gave out costumes to each of them.  

Black Spider-man, Koala, and my Pirate girl (her costume she wore door-to-door)

I even dressed up!   I was a witch.

Their halloween candy (and Daddy's hard candy pile, he takes while they are sleeping)

Corn Maze

I love searching for deals, so when I came upon a deal of the day for a family of 4 to the corn maze I jumped on it.   I enjoy it so much more knowing it didn't cost an arm and a leg.  

My mom watched Tenley while we went, as it was quite windy which she would not have enjoyed.   

Kids love these "pillows", you can jump pretty high on them

Train ride through a part of the big corn maze

Big pedal quads?   

Dreyton saw his best girlfriend from school there - Ella.  Watching the pig races

Petting Zoo

Zoë just loves to pose for the camera, usually telling me to grab the camera and take a picture quite often

Going through the smaller corn maze, you colour your fingers with chalk and try to find all the colours.  

Horse-back riding.   Zoë's pony's name was snowball

Don't remember the name of Dreytons

Bought some sugar pumpkins, and made some puree for the future.

Gallbladder Surgery

Since Zoë was six months old, I have had many gallstone attacks.   They are EXTREMELY painful, and come on quick.   Some may last 10 minutes, while others hours.  I had planned on getting it removed over a year ago, but I decided to take a pregnancy test the night before my surgery and found out I was pregnant with Tenley.    They didn't want to operate on me while I was pregnant so I had to postpone it.    So on Friday, I finally had it taken out.

I was very nervous about surgery, not so much the surgery, but getting put to sleep.   I had never been put to sleep before, as the only surgery's I have had was my c-sections, which they kept me awake for.   It was so weird as I was wide awake, and then someone told me to think about a beach and then I was out.   I don't remember closing my eyes, or even feeling slightly drowsy.  It was SO instant...

Recovery is better then a csection, but still quite sore.   I am supposedly not allowed to pick up more then 5 lbs for at least a week.    Which means I cannot pick up Tenley, let alone with a carseat.    Which makes it next to impossible as I take the kids 3x a day to school, and I have Tenley to watch while Lee's at work. So we will see how long that lasts...

I have 4 seperate incisions, which will blend well with my stretch marks.  

If you are interested in what the surgery entails, this is a description

The Laparascopic Gallbladder Surgery Procedure

The gallbladder is a small organ whose function is to store and release bile, which is a digestive fluid secreted by the liver. Bile performs the critical function of breaking down fats so they can be absorbed by the digestive tract. 

Gallbladder removal surgery is called for when gallstones have formed, blocking the flow of bile and leading to attacks that can cause severe pain and discomfort.

Laparoscopic Gallbladder Surgery

 
With the invention of the laparoscopic procedure in 1989, the surgery can now be performed through several small openings, can be completed in one to three hours, and has a much shorter recovery time.

• After the patient is anesthetized, the abdomen is inflated with carbon dioxide to create enough space that the surgeon can both see and maneuver inside the abdominal cavity.
• Next, four tiny incisions are made, including one in the naval.
• A laparoscope is then inserted, which is attached to a camera, allowing the doctor to see inside the abdomen and identify the ducts and organs.
• Using the camera and screen as a guide, other instruments are inserted through the other incisions. These instruments are used to close off the ducts and blood vessels with small metal clips.
• The gallbladder is then separated from the liver and from the ducts and arteries running to it.
• The gallbladder is drained of all fluid through the naval opening and is then removed through that incision.
 

 • The procedure usually lasts about an hour to an hour and half.

After getting out of surgery, and out of the recovery room I went to the day use beds where I stayed for a few more hours before being released.  I was really drowsy, but I remember asking them to get my husband but since he was gone the first time they went to get him (think he was at the cafeteria) they didn't get him again until over 2 hours after my surgery.   

I know Lee is excited to get back to work (well he starts with my dad tomorrow), so a new job.   But having to take care of me and the 3 kids mostly on his own has worn him out.  

Luckily I won't have to worry about getting anymore gallstone attacks now!

 

My ever growing baby girl

 

Tenley's hair was way past her nose, and even when I had it up in a ponytail, little strands would get loose and cover her eyes.   So I decided to get her bangs cut, which has made a HUGE difference.  She was so good at getting them done.

     

Having her bangs cut makes her look so much older.  

  

Zoë loves to help take care of Tenley, and play with her.  They have such a close bond, she can get Tenley to smile so easily when she comes in the room.   She will feed her, change her diapers, and help me carry her while i'm still healing.    Not to mention just playing with her and making sure she's included in any family time.

She currently army crawls, but she is getting on her hands and knees and rocking to start crawling, I give her less then a week.  She says the sounds ma-ma and ba-ba.  I haven't been practicing sitting with her much, but she's almost to the point where she can get to a sitting position herself.  

She is now eating cheeries/puffs, baby mum mums, a few different baby foods, and rice cereal.  

She is sleeping so great at night now, over 10 hours a night!

Tenley is so happy, and very rarely cries.    She goes down for naps very well, and can play on the floor for so long playing with her toys and learning new tricks.