Useless Organs

Dave ended up getting his Appendix out on Friday, February 19. The surgery went really well and faster than expected. They had prepared us for a long 3 hour surgery, but they only had him in the OR for 1 hour at the most. It was a LONG 1 hour but the surgeon told me it had healed really nicely and everything came out beautifully. We got to come home 3 hours after his surgery. He hurt, but was back to work by Monday morning. SUCH A MAN! He did hurt very bad Monday night and we got him to take his pain pills. He was more upset that they shaved his stomach than the pain. We tallied all the bills that came because of his 'useless organ' and they came to a grand total of $27,250. We are SO lucky we have GREAT insurance and had to pay less that $1,000 of it. I'm glad it's over and he is better.

We're going back people

These last few months have been a whirlwind!! I need to get caught up on blogging for our journaling sake. My camera just stopped working right before Easter with all the pictures I needed upload. So bare with me as I try to remember all the way back to 2 months ago.

7 Years!

It's hard to believe that we have been married for 7 years. 7 YEARS!!! Am I that old? These last 7 years have been a wild ride. I'm so lucky to have found a man that is as great as Dave. I love him so much. He is such a great Dad and husband. The boys are CRAZY about him. All day Sam has told anyone that will listen that I am getting married tonight. I do believe he found his own babysitter for tonight also. He is so thoughtful. I'm excited to see what is in store for us in the next 7 years. I have such a cute family, I'm so lucky!

Its all gone!

All those beautiful curls are gone! Dave has been telling me we need to cut his hair for months now- like 8 months, but it is just to cute! Well, Logan has had a fever for a few days now and is so hot and sweaty that I decided to be a nice mom and cut it for him. By cut it, I mean buzz it because those are the skills I have in the hair cutting department. I know he is not going to hold still for anyone, so taking him to someone else seemed dumb. I sat him in the bathroom and cried as I saw all his gorgeous blond curls fall to the floor. I guess the good in all of this is that he wasn't so hot last night and he slept.
But these curls will be back in a few short months.

My camera decided to stop working on Easter so the pictures were taken with the boys camera. Not all that clear but still pictures.

Children's Museum

While Linda, Dave's Mom. was here we took the kids to The Children's Museum in Memphis. The boys had so much fun. It had so much for them to do, and try. There were only 4 or 5 other kids there, so we pretty much were able to let them run wild and go from place to place without worrying about other people. This is a stage where they had dress-up and you could dance and play different instruments. They didn't have any desire to dress up but the played and danced around. I think they should start a band.

The Mississippi River was neat and SO WET!! Everyone was SOAKED after playing but they loved it. There was fishing poles and nets to catch fish and boats. They could have stayed there all day to play.

Logan's potential future......?

Sam loved the Airplane, the picture is blurry because he wouldn't
stay turned around for even a second.

Grocery shopping was made for Logan! He is my shopping helper, we do our shopping when Sam is at school. He had a blast in there. The rules are you can only get 3 things, but we were the only ones in there. I unloaded his cart so many times so he could refill it.

Sam just wanted to check everyone out. He is a good cashier, but
he gets to keep ALL the receipts.

It was just so cool! A mini Kroger!

Logan is NOT allowed to be in the car at all unless he is buckled, so he loved being
able to drive and just around in there.

This just proves that Logan IS a Marlatt! I love it! He is just so cute and SO excited about Ice Cream. The simple pleasures in life.

That's a Fro!

I am a firm believer that boys need to have boy hair cuts, but how could I cut this hair! He is so stinkin' cute. His hair is so curly, I love it!!

(Sam was trying to make him stand still so I could get a shot of the hair in all its glory, unfortunately he helped by making faces which Logan HAD to copy.)

Tennessee Snow

WARNING: PICTURE OVERLOAD!

In the almost 4 years we have lived in Tennessee, we have been lucky to get one good snow a year. It will snow during the night, then be melted by dinner the next night. So we are super excited to see it and play in it. These are the ONLY snow clothes we have for the boys. They have warm coats and mittens, but whats the point of buying them snow suits they will only wear once before they outgrow them.

Dave, being the engineer that he is thought up a brilliant plan to keep the boys dry. He cut up garbage bags and made them snow pants. What a smart man! ( That's why I married him!!)

I wasn't sure how long or if the snow would stay so I sent them out as soon as we noticed it was snowing to play. Poor Logan's hat kept covering his eyes. Sam was a great big brother and helped him adjust it several times.

Logan didn't like snow inside his mittens.

Another ingenious idea of Dave's. Homemade Sled. It worked great.

There was 1/4 inch of ice on top of the snow....snow angels didn't work.

They were to heavy to slide together, but they sure tried.

Sam got white washed! He liked it; it wasn't that mean.

Later, we went to a friends house and Dave and Chad rigged up a redneck sled made out of a piece of solar panel, zip ties, rope, and an old piece of chair. It worked great and everyone had a blast. Later that night Dave, Josh, and Chad broke out some snowboards and a four wheeler and added a little class to the redneck sled adventure. All it takes is an empty cornfield 8 inches of snow and a four wheeler and it was like Park City all over again. They ended up making a jump out of the sled and loads of snow. Needless to say, Dave is still hurting from it. Boys will ALWAYS be boys even when they get older!


IT SNOWED AGAIN!!!!!

The boys and I went out tonight to make a snowman for Family Night.

Not too shabby for a Tennessee snowman.

Who needs a resort....

when you can stay at the Hospital for 4 days!! We got home early Tuesday morning and on Friday we were at the ER. Dave woke up at 2:00AM on Thursday with really bad stomach pain. He rolled around in pain until 9, when I called my neighbor and told her I needed to drop off my kids to take Dave in. I helped him to get dressed and put him in the car and hauled him off to the Urgent Care. (we don't have a regular doctor) The Doctor said it was his appendix.... so he sent us to the ER. We then sat in the ER for several hours before they could get Dave in to do a CT scan. When he came back from the CT scan at 4 they told him to get into a lovely flowery gown, and wait for the surgeon to come back in. Within 5 minutes the surgeon was there informing us that Dave's Appendix was in fact the problem and it had already burst!! WHAT!!! He continues on to say the surgery is to complicated and dangerous to do now because they would have to take part of his small intestine and colon to get all the pieces! OK...... so what are we suppose to do? He said it seemed to have walled off (contained itself) but he wants to keep Dave in the hospital over the weekend so he can watch to make sure the infection doesn't spread. They then wheeled him up to the 6th floor and hooked him up to several Antibiotics and there we sat for 4 days! Of course, I wasn't going to leave him alone there; not because he wanted me to stay but because there is no way that I would have let him leave me alone in there. Poor guy, he hates to sit still and 4 days in bed was way to long for him. He was released Monday morning with a slew of meds to take to finish killing the infection. He is feeling reasonably better and will have surgery to take it out next month. Now to the other half of the story.....OUR KIDS!!!! You didn't think I would keep them at the hospital with me did you! Lynsee, Amanda and Josh and Teil watched the boys for us. They were LIFESAVER!! Lynsee took them Friday, Amanda took the Saturday and Josh and Teil stayed over with them at night. You all saved my life! REALLY. We are so blessed to have such good friends here that are willing to step in at take our kids so willingly. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!! Dave's Mom was able to fly in late Saturday night and stay with the boys for the reminder of time. Linda is still here making sure Dave is well and done with surgery before she plans on leaving. She really is the greatest Mother-in-Law. She has been so helpful. My stress level has gone down so much with her being here. Thanks Linda, WE LOVE YOU!! Anyway we have had a busy month! I will post after his surgery!

SNOW!!

It snowed in Moses Lake just a few days before we had to leave so the boys headed out to play. We don't have super warm winter clothes because there is no reason to in TN so they were really cold, but the had fun. We only played outside for maybe 20 minutes before we were all to cold to move, but we played hard for the few minutes. The only other time Logan had seen snow was 1 night last year. It was 10pm but we bundled them up and took them out to see the wonder that is snow. He liked it a lot more this year. I think they enjoyed eating it more than playing in it.

Sam was trying to teach Logan how to make a snow angel.....in reverse. I'm not sure why the had to make them face down, but they laughed and enjoyed themselves.

Random Pictures

One morning the guys took all the kids out to the sand dunes to ride motorcycles. They had such a good time riding and playing in the sand. I think the water was iced over but I'm not sure. Dave loves to play at the dunes so I think they had a good day.

Mayme, Logan, Sam, and Jade

Sam, Jade, Edyn, and Avry

Logan and the babies! This is Rory, and Logan LOVES her. Rory (Tom and Alisha's) was 7 weeks old over Christmas. Casey and Sylvia's Emma was 2 weeks old. They are so cute I still can't get over it. I loved those babies up, so did Logan. We had to keep a watchful eye on the babies cause Logan always wanted to touch them and love them. He was very soft and gentle with them, but he would not leave them alone. Thanks to Alisha and Sylvia for letting Logan look and play and touch your brand new babies. He is so big, but he has such a big kind heart. He wanted to make sure they always had their pacifiers and were always cozy warm. He couldn't walk past without checking on them and giving them a kiss. It was so sweet to watch although it was also nerve racking. I'm so glad I got to watch him around other children besides Sam. I have really good nice boys.