Let's play catch up...

Surprise! I'm actually updating our blog. These pictures are from a while ago... I meant to post them, I just never got around to actually sitting down to upload them. And, since it has been so long since I last posted, I have obviously forgotten how to upload pictures in the right order. These pictures are sort of backwards and out of order.

Watch out! Our little Brookie Bear has learned how to crawl.

I took Brooke swimming for her first time. She loved it!

After an afternoon playing with Aunt Kimmy, Brooke was too tired to stay awake for dinner.

Jena went to the dentist for her very first time. I know, I'm awful. She's almost 5! But, since she will be starting kindergarten in the fall, I figured I had better take her. Luckily, she had gone on a field trip to a pediatric dentist close by our house, so I decided to take her there since she was already familiar with the place. She was so good! She loved that she got to watch a movie and wear sunglasses so the light wasn't in her eyes. And the best part.....no cavities! Wahoo!! Way to go Jena!

Dreyson still loves to play dress up. He now has his own box of boy dress ups (ya know, a pirate, superman, race car driver, cowboy, etc.) thanks to Grandma, and somehow I still find him in Jena's dress ups most of the time. Notice how he put the dress on by himself.

In February, my father in law took all the sons and grandsons to see the Harlem Globetrotters. Dreyson loved it! He still talks about when he and Dad got to go to the basketball game and how there were "no girls allowed!" He thought it was pretty fun to go and spend time with just Dad.

He even got his basketball signed by Special K

Since all the grandsons got to go to the basketball game, my mother in law took all the granddaughters to do something fun as well. Jena and I got to go with her cousin Mary and her mom to Disney On Ice.

This was right up their alley. They both love the princesses and loved seeing all the characters.

Kevin and I took the kids ice skating for Kevin's birthday. It was so much fun. I was impressed at how well they could do it, even though they are still so little. Whoever thought up these "walker" type things for the kids to hold onto while on the ice, is a genius! It was awesome because they could hold on to them and skate by themselves. It made the kids feel like they were so big and could do it by themselves, rather than having to hold on to Kevin or me.

Chaos!

February 15th started just like any other day. We got up, got breakfast, and got Jena off to school. I cleaned up the house a bit because my mother-in-law was coming over to get her hair done. (Have I told you yet that my salon is done? Take a look... I LOVE IT!) ...While I was doing my mother-in-law's hair, my cute little Drey comes down the stairs to tell me, "Mom, there's water dripping on the table." I thought that maybe he had gotten a drink by himself and had spilled it. So, I ran upstairs quick to see what kind of damage he had done. He was right! There was water dripping on my table that was coming from the light above my table. No, not just dripping....pouring! There was a huge puddle of water on my table and it was starting to go on my floor. You see, earlier, while my mother-in-law's hair was processing, I ran upstairs and started a load of laundry. I went back downstairs to finish her hair, and I guess my washer decided to break and flood my house. Our laundry room is on our top floor, just above our kitchen and family room. So, the water had soaked through the carpet and the floor upstairs and was coming through the ceiling on our main floor. It was a mess! I ran upstairs to shut off my washer, that was still running. (It probably ran for a half an hour trying to fill up the tub with water, but never could because there was a hole in the bottom of my washer.) My kids rooms were soaked. My hall way was soaked. My hallway bathroom was flooded as well. Water was everywhere! Thankfully, my mother-in-law was here. I didn't have a clue what to do. I think I was kind of in shock . I just stood there and looked at all the water, trying to think of how we were going to clean up this mess, and she got right down to work and started moping up water. We used every single towel in my house trying to soak up water.



The results: Carpet was pulled up in all 3 of my kids bedrooms, (only halfway in Brooke's, so her room was still usable) carpet pulled up down my hallway, and carpet pulled up in my family room on the main floor. All the pad was torn up and thrown away. Then we got this:

3 lovely big holes in our ceiling where the water had come through...

This is where the light was above my kitchen table

This all resulted in the rest of my house looking like this...

And this.....we threw Jena's mattress on the floor and our kiddos slept in our bedroom for 2+ weeks. All 5 of us were in our room for a few nights, until everything dried out and I could put Brooke in her own room again.

I about went crazy here. I had to go stay at my parent's house for a few days because I couldn't stand staying at my house. We had 10 of those giant fans going 24 hours a day for at least 4 days. You couldn't even have a normal conversation because it was so loud. My kid's couldn't go anywhere in our house really except for my bedroom because all the carpet was up and we had those carpet tacks everywhere. All of their toys were just thrown into a big mess because we cleaned their rooms out in a hurry, so we couldn't even get much out to play with. Being stuck in one bedroom all day long with 3 kids and nothing to do but watch cartoons is no fun!

Things have finally started to come back together. We were able to reuse our carpet, we only needed a new pad. They have patched and repainted the holes in our ceiling. We got our living area all back to normal and we are starting to get things put back in to the kids bedrooms.
Add on a baby with RSV, an ear infection, and no sleep for a few days and I think you can say we have had complete chaos for over 2 weeks!