Blogging+margarita= scatterbrained

So, I started this post to be all about Travis.  Then I had a margarita....after a glass of wine. 

Then I found this picture as I was looking for pictures of Travis.  I was recently discussing with my friend, Misty, about our favorite things about men.  I love men's forearms.  She posted a picture of her husband with rolled up sleeves on a dress shirt and I remembered this one of Chris.

  Weird, but true.   

 Travis' first surgery at 3 mos.  That was horrible. 

Didn't eat/drink more than a dropper full each day for a week. 

 I was prepared for the palate surgery to be as difficult as the lip.  So, I set him up in front of baby Einstein and snuck the fluids in through the corner of his mouth while he watched.  Worked like a charm.  This surgery was much better than the first. 

 Travis wore double bibs for the entire first year of his life to catch the drool.  Two surgeries on your mouth before

you are one creates a lot of drool!

 Then I found pictures of him looking this cute....

And this cute and sweet with crazy hair
when he woke up from his nap....

...and I literally was ready to start smooching the computer screen by the time I found this. 

This reminded me of the time a young boy looked at my kids and said "they have cow eyes?"   Yes they do!

Marie's cow eyes...

Eva's cow eyes...then I realized how much these
two looked like each other. 

Marie on her tummy.... 

Eva on her tummy.  In a fort.  With the dog.   And then I really went off course finding pictures of the kids and Toni. 

  Trav and Toni.  

Eva and Toni.  

Toni has been covered in blankets and

stuffed animals quite a few times.  

Luke on the pontoon with Toni.

Eva and Travis played in the van all the time with Toni.  Luke and Marie do things like cover the interior of my van in pen and shove paper in the CD player and spread chapstick all over the windows when they play in the van.  So, they are not allowed.  

As Toni's looking older, this was the first and only time I let them pile every rug on her. 

Can you tell which rug is Toni's? 

Luke liked the cage; Toni did not.   

 Marie reading books with Toni when she had her

owwee leg this winter.  So sweet!

 OK, and then I realized I'd be here all night and needed to finish this up. 

Some other things we've been doing..........................

Eva injured by a kick to the nose.  Going off on a tangent about Eva getting injured would definitely mean I'm sitting here all night. 

Marie picking her own fabulous outfits.  

Luke making telescopes in Sunday school.  In Sunday school where I am the teacher. 



Travis' 8th birthday.  Wow.  8 year old boys are LOUD.  Chris came into the garage with the eleven

8 year old boys plus Luke at one point and said

 "I'm pretty sure my heart doctor wouldn't think

it's a good idea for me to be in here."  So right!  

 Birthday party May 13th was HOT, HOT, HOT. 

The kids ran the marathon.  I am too
"Buckhoused" to be able to run. 

The kids' marathon was a mile long.  They ran at least that much while they waited for it to start and goofed around by playing tag and acting crazy. 



Luke running with mom.

Jeff Braaflat and his daughter Brynn "run" with Marie and Chris.

Chuck, Andrew and Norah came to visit Travis the weekend before his surgery to help take his mind off of it.  Saturday may have been the nicest day we've ever experienced in our back yard.  It was a good thing they were here because there were many tears shed the night before the surgery and I have a feeling it would've been worrying about it all weekend if they wouldn't have come. Thank you Evens!!!!!

It was a weekend of eating anything Travis wanted. 

Popcorn it is!

Psy has nothing on these three.  Plus, Luke adds water to the show.

And then came surgery day.  Different than last surgeries, I was able to "suit up" and be with him until he fell asleep.  Still hard to do, but easier than dropping him off at the doors with strangers.  That thought from the previous surgeries makes my stomach turn.  

Much easier with an xbox and an

8 year old vs a baby and nothin'.  

Day after the surgery.  Home, but not feeling too good.   

 Day 3: feeling good enough to sit in the chair and do legos....

Working on a Star Wars sticker book and dad reading him a Beverly Cleary book.  

 By day 4 he graduated to the table to do legos. 

Day 6 is today. Marie got the stomach flu, so we shipped Travis off to grandma Tree's so he wouldn't get it.  Grandma texted me and asked "Travis says he can eat popcorn?!?!?!?!"  Absolutely nothing but soft food for 3 weeks you sneaky kid!

"Hers" instead of "she's"

Okay, yes I know you can't understand her.  Don't worry, she's in speech therapy.  But, her imability to speak clearly makes her story even funnier I think? 

Teddy Bear Tea Party

 

I took Marie to a Teddy Bear Tea Party today.  So weird how girls from the same house and same family and same gene pool can like such different things?  Although, Eva spent most of her toddler/preschool years watching me sleep 12 hours/day, lay on the couch, eat, eat and eat while I was baking her siblings.  I'm not sure she saw me use make-up or dress up more than once a year?  Marie has seen that happen much more and she is very into it.  

 She loves it when I do my hair and put on make-up and jewelry... I even wore a dress for this girl!

This picture makes me laugh; the mix of cars with horsies.  I've said it before; If I was going to recommend ONE TOY to buy out of all the toys in our house, it would be these blocks.  Universally used by boys and girls and for many years and activities.  

 

 

Something I have definitely gotten better at in Eva's ten years of life: Baking!  Red-velvet cake for this girl.  Appropriate that basketball is on in the background since that's how Chris spent his "paternity leave" when she was born.  

They all slept over.  So well-behaved were all!  (Madeline, Lauren K, Miranda, Eva, Maggie, Liv, Lauren L, and Emma L.)

 This was Eva's first party out of the house.  Last year, the party was in our garage and we chalked and rode bikes and scooters.  This year, we drove through a blizzard at 20 mph to get to Casselton to swim.  They didn't seem to notice that it does not normally take 45 minutes to get to Casselton.  I did!

 

"Healthy because" says Luke

I have to put this on here so I remember the story.  I came home and Luke was eating these right before dinner.  I said "Who said you could have these?"  He said "well, it's okay becuase they are healthy.  See, there are ZERO GERMS in them."  Funny kid.  

Jamaica

Chris and I went to the Iberostar Grand Hotel in Montego Bay Jamaica for 7 nights with some friends: Todd, his girlfriend, Kylie, and Todd's cousin Tom and wife Teresa.  We had never met Tom and Teresa, but felt like we had known them forever and had a great time with all!  Grandma Tree and Grandpa Gerry, along with some help from Allison, "got" to take care of the kids all week.  Thanks Grandma!

We really had only one bad part of the trip; this bus.  It sat in the parking lot for about 40 minutes before leaving.  A 10 minute ride from the airport took at least 30. 

This is what Todd thought of the bus situation...

The view from our balcony and...

 a fridge filled with these, helped us quickly forget about the bus ride.  

Mornings started with breakfast served on the balcony.  

And the busy, hot day began!

Chris soaked up the rays and listened to his new Bruno Mars album...

The rest of us who can read books did so.

The view from my "Girl with the Dragon Tatoo" reading post was fantastic.  

When the heat got to us, it was time for the swim-up bar.

I played some volleyball.  Guess which guy we referred to as "schlong" all week?  

Tower building with beer cans.

They did zumba everyday right in front of the pool.  Here are the boys looking at everything but the girl in the pink bottoms I'm sure.  

We got all dressed up for fancy dinner and drinks each night.  

The Girls.  

The Boys.

I love him more than 10 years ago.  Chris, not Leo.  

The discussion was if Todd could learn to catch the egg on the side of the spatula like the chef did in less than 10 tries.  Tommy and Chris said no.  I said less than 7 because Todd had already told me he had a gift for throwing small things into small cups, so I thought this may require similar ability.  See video below to see what happened.

Pirate beach party.  

Marie has been dressing up in the flower girl dress and sparkly red shoes each day since we've been home, so it's kind of like the evenings in Jamaica.  Kinda not.  

The crazy evenings made for some sleepy days...and snoring.  But, I'm nice enough to not put that video on here.  

It rained only on the day we arrived and late afternoon of our last day.  I had decided to ignore the slight pain I was having in my knee the days before and play with the other volleyball obsessed in the rain.  

Which meant I spent the next morning laying in bed with ice.  Buckhouse + sport= injury.  

The Many Talents of Todd

Luke turns 5 and how is Toni?

Many of you have kindly asked how Toni is doing...she's doing great!  This is very mean to say, but I kind of like her better?  My two things that drove me crazy about this dog was the dog hair everywhere and that she would run away when we weren't watching her.  She hasn't left the yard without someone (yet). For those of you who know her, you know that she had a scratching addiction.  Vet had said it was her "nervous tic."  Well, she phantom scratches now!  Ha!  Sends much less dog hair flying all over the place!  I even let her leave the rug now.  She has even jumped in and out of the van.  So, the 11 year old, three legged dog seems just fine.  

Luke turned 5 December 22nd, but we always celebrate it a month late.  He likes it because the whole month of January gets to be about birthday planning.  Another Bison championship cake!

Marie, Hugo, Luke, Gunnar, Travis, Eva and Sam

 Halle- my niece.  No way could she be in trouble looking this cute?