Charles' first school Christmas program

Charles had a Christmas program at school. We had not been able to attend any other programs because of my ability to stay awake and manage the girls on my own while watching Charles perform. You can imagine I was really excited to see my little man sing the songs he had learned since the beginning of October! And I finally figure out what one song was and he had been singing it wrong the entire time.

Before the program his teacher had a special story time and gifts. They invited the parents to come and listen and see the kid open their gifts. My Mom came to help me with the kids and to see her grandson. Aaron joined us when the show was to begin.

The girls enjoyed the kitchen/home living area. They weren't interested in the story at all!

 

We went to the sanctuary and found some seats, but we were told wrong and we had to move to the other side during the first song. So my pictures aren't as good as I planned.

 

Charles and his buddy Kade next to Mrs Holder. Aaron and I thought that was funny because why else would those two have to sit with their teacher!

This little man has grown up too fast! He really enjoyed dressing up for the program. He picked out his shirt and tie at the store and wanted to wear it all the time. He had matching socks too! He's a handsome dude and I think he knows it too!

November 2011 round up!

Well November was a fun month but it came to an end rather quickly. Here are a few pictures that had no place in my other posts.

The day before Thanksgiving Tabitha, McKenna and Charles had an appointment with our pediatrician. The nurse told me they referred to this appointment as the triple Hanke. Sounds like a ice skating trick to me. And most times it is a trick or a miracle I make through the appointments. we love our pediatrician and his nurses!

Tabitha had a follow-up from being in the hospital and she checked out great. She even showed off her rolling over skills. McKenna got a re-check of her ears and she still had an ear infection. And Charles had his 5 year old well visit and he had fun going with the nurse to do his hearing and sight screening. And the Doctor had him do some cool tricks. He checked out just fine!

 Afterwards we took the kids across the street to Mellow Mushroom. They love eating pizza there and so do we!

 Tabitha enjoys this play mat as much as the other kids did. And McKenna is enjoying seeing her old toys out again!

 After Thanksgiving we got out the kids nativities and Charles enjoyed helping McKenna play with hers. Here is one of their set ups.

 Tabitha has grown so much!

 Batman was eager to help his Daddy mow the lawn. Aaron didn't mind one bit. He can't wait till Charles can do this for him all the time!

 We took advantage of some cooler weather and started wearing our Christmas gear. Beautiful girls dressed for Wednesday night service!

Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving was spent with the Wood family in Lakeland. We alternate Thanksgivings every three years. So in 2012 Aaron and I can do whatever we want. Which means we will probably have our families to our house at some point during the holiday weekend.

My Mom fixed an excellent meal for us all. She made little turkeys for the kids to eat at the table. McKenna helped herself to some turkey prior to dinner. Aunt Mary played with her girls. And then there was nap time. Tabitha had a fun first Thanksgiving!

This is the same outfit Charles wore on his first Thanksgiving in 2006. He and Tabitha were the only ones to wear it.

Birthday Party

Mandy and I decided to have a joint Birthday party for our boys. Ethan is one year one week apart so it makes sense to do a family party together. We treated the kids to a party at the Family Fun center in Lakeland. We let them play in Funtasia and had pizza and cake. It was a fun afternoon and we were so glad everyone could come. (Except Ellie, Angel mixed up the dates so they  missed out. Too bad it wasn't the weekend they showed up early for the party)

The theme of the party was superheroes. Ethan likes Iron Man and Charles likes Captain America. Their gifts were pretty much all superheroes too.

Halloween

Halloween was so much fun this year! Aaron didn't have to work so he was able to enjoy all the festivals.
Charles school, OCP had their festival on Saturday afternoon. So dressed the kids up and went out to check it out. My Mom and Dad came with us. It also happened to be my birthday, so we went out to eat afterwards. We went down to Joe's Crab Shak and McKenna loved being there. She danced all night long whether she was in her high chair or not!

This is Charles' best friend, Kade. I mean Batman's best friend Captain America.



The Angry Birds trunk was the best one there. The kids stood in line for a long time to take a try to get some pigs!



Dad, Mom and Tabitha went as Bucs fans and Charles is Batman, Isabella is a Doctor, and McKenna is Strawberry shortcake.

a whole hand!

Charles turned 5 years old this year! I can' believe he is this old already!

He had a pretty good birthday. He FINALLY got the Batman cave he has been asking for all year. He was extremely excited about it.


His teacher, Mrs Holder, gave him a Batman cake at school. His sisters got to join him and his class for the party.


As always we get to share a birthday cake. We made it look like Two Face this year. Charles liked that a lot! It also aloud for us to use things we already had in the house.

Happy Birthday to Mommy and Charles!

Virus

Today has been an interesting day. I woke up at 4am to feed Tabitha and checked my phone for a text message. My Grandma Wood was admitted to the hospital and has pneumonia. After waking at a more normal hour, 6am, I spoke to Aaron about when I should go see her in LKLD. We decided I would go Thursday after school. As I got the kids dressed for the day I noticed Tabitha seemed warm. She was still in her jammies and fussy so I changed her and waited for her to calm down to take her temp. Once I did (and I almost didn't take it) I immediately checked our pediatricians newborn sheet on whether I needed to call him or not. A temp of 101.7 was much higher than the allowed temp in an infant 8 weeks or younger. Tabitha just turned 8 weeks on Monday. I took Charles to school and headed over to the doctor right away.
After an exam and two negative tests in office he sent us to the hospital to do blood work. If it's viral we do nothing, if it's bacterial we can administer meds. I was to come back at 2pm for results.
We got back to the pediatricians and they bagged her for a urine and gave her another exam. Since 9am she had developed a rash on her torso (the doc in the ER called it her trunk). It was small red pin spots. That rash sent her straight to the ER. :-(
We arrived at the ER around 3:30pm. Aaron got there about an hour later. They did a urine, got an iv started, did chest x-rays and a spinal tap. With infants this young they have to rule out all possibilities, including meningitis. About 7:30pm we were admitted and sent to peds. The children's ER was nice but peds is so much nicer. We are much more comfortable than we were 2 years ago when Isabella was here.
It's midnight and Tabitha is resting comfortably, she's receiving antibiotics as a precaution. Aaron and my Mom are home with the other three kids. Oh yeah, those kids...Mary called and said McKenna was having interesting diaper blow outs. Since 2pm McKenna has had nothing but diarrhea. And since 8pm Isabella has had diarrhea. Sooooo, Dr. Lacy believes that girls all have the same stomach virus. GREAT! Stomach virus, we can handle!
As far as I'm concerned our prayers have been answered. Nothing more has been said about meningitis at the hospital. We are just waiting for all the official tests to be run and results to come back. In the mean time we are keeping her comfortable and trying to keep the fever down.
My Grandma remains in the hospital but is feeling better. I will not be going to LKLD to visit with her. We'll have to wait till all this has passed.

Numbers

I wanted to make t-shirts for the kids to wear after Tabitha was born. I looked at a few ideas but came up with a simple number on the front. The number is their birth order. It was fun to get all the kids together for a little photo shoot. Although not everybody wanted to participate at the same time, such is life.

Isabella thought Tabitha needed a headband.

The best memory from that day is McKenna LOVED wearing her number. And she often looked down at it and touched. She is so proud to wear the number 3!

Pumpkin

We took the kids to our favorite pumpkin patch to pick out a pumpkin to carve. It was so fun to have Daddy come along. He hasn’t done this with us in 4 years due to work responsibilities.

Our first family picture since the hospital. We look pretty good!

Once we got home, Aaron took the kids out back to play and carve the pumpkin. Tabitha and Mommy stayed inside to eat and clean up. Mama took a few pictures as Tabitha’s schedule allowed.

The kids chose to do a scary face! I asked them all to give me a scary face! Thanks for playing a long Daddy.

Checking out the pumpkin all lit up! McKenna loved that pumpkin she would touch it every time she passed it. It lasted about 5 days in the Florida heat.