Tonsils

Avery had her tonsils taken out at the end of last week.  Taking them out was a decision made after repeatedly noticing that her tonsils were always enlarged even without any infection. We saw an ENT at the beginning of January and scheduled her surgery for the end of this month. 

We arrived early to our destination and she played with some new toys (bought with the intention of giving her something quiet to do during her recovery).  After about 30 minutes of playing, it was time to go inside!

She was the cutest little patient! In the weeks leading up to surgery, we tried to gently talk about the things she'd do in the hospital (wear a gown, go to a room without Mommy & Daddy for a few minutes & take a nap while the doctor took out her tonsils, then come back to Mommy & Daddy and go home and eat ice cream, etc.) 

It really helped that Michael remembered some of the procedures from when he was 5 and had tubes put in his ears by the same doctor. Michael talked to Avery about having a mask that would smell like candy and that the mask would make her fall asleep. This was super helpful because when the nurse listed all of the flavors of a mask smell that Avery could choose from, we knew this is what it was for!

Outside of her door, the staff created the most perfect name banner! On every child's door hung a banner with their name and something he or she was probably interested in based on age (Marvel characters, Winnie the Pooh, etc.). Disney Princesses was the absolute perfect choice for Avery! We got to take this home with us post surgery. 

She did awesome during the procedure & was very tired afterwards. We had to stay for about half an hour after surgery to let her medications kick in prior to our lengthy drive home. Once we were in the car she gave me this tired smile before sleeping for the rest of the ride home. 

Once we arrived home, she wasn't feeling super great. I gave her the first dose of the "round the clock" alternating doses of Tylenol & Motrin and Aaron went to go fill the extra prescriptions. 

After a short 20 minute nap on me, she woke up feeling a bit better and wanted to get right into her nail polish set from Aunt Bethany! 

I also remembered I had this metal drip pan that the boys used to use for magnetic letters, and Avery was able to stage her magnetic princesses and their dresses here!

She began enjoying some of the recovery foods we made the night prior (jello, pudding, etc.).

Nail polish was the toy of choice that afternoon and she painted her own fingernails & toenails but then had to paint my fingernails & toenails too!

Her loving daddy even let her paint his fingernails! 

The next morning, we were at it again! 

The brothers (who had sleepovers at grandparents' houses on the nights before & after surgery) arrived home midday Saturday & all three kids enjoyed watching a weather show. 

I didn't take too many pictures on Sunday. It was more of the same. Playing with Barbies, fingernail painting, reading books, watching shows, etc. Last night I snapped this picture because she was just making such a goofy face for no reason. Some of the medicine makes her say really silly things or apparently stare off into space for a couple seconds. 

Overall, she's recovering really well. We were told to be aware of day 5 because that's when some extra healing takes place but it's not comfortable. That day is coming soon so we are stocking up on our game plan of things to do to distract her from the discomfort. I'm super thankful to my parents & in-laws for keeping the boys for us during the surgery day, and for watching Avery this week during the daytime while Aaron & I had to return to work. 

Until Next Time,

Much Love, Reba

A Flurry of Excitement

On Sunday morning we were greeted to a light snowfall! As far south as we live, any amount of snow is something to be celebrated so we took some time to look at the pretty scene from our windows. Avery was the only kiddo brave enough to venture out to play in the snow before church.  It snowed last year around this time and she didn't really know how to react, and the time before then when it snowed several inches in January 2018 she was just a little baby and she didn't go out in the snow.  

She went outside three times before church. Once in a fairy dress and jacket, then twice in actual clothes and gloves. She enjoyed throwing snowballs and catching snowflakes on her tongue. 

Everything truly is more magical in the eyes of a child!

Until Next Time,

Much Love, Reba

Sayings of my Children

Here's the latest collection of funny things my kiddos have said. Enjoy!

Noah: You were born all the way in Virginia?
Me: Yep
Noah: Wow. You must've seen a lot of cool state troopers

Michael: Do you know why it's called Nutella? It's someone's last name. Sometimes people name things after themselves.
Noah: Like McDonald's
Michael: No

Me: Oh! Feel the inside of this pocket in your new pants, Avery!
Avery: I feeled it in Walmart
Me: It's so soft like a kitten!
Avery: Yeah. I love kittens. And I'm going to name this kitten Smoky

Me: You will get a turn in the future
Noah: But in the future there's flying cars

Avery: I saw a picture that said my name. A-B-C-E-Y! Avery Kate!


Me: Don't blame anyone
Avery: I'm not blaming. I'm telling.

Avery: Mommy, can you talk Spanish?
Me: Yes. Hola, me llamo mommy. Te amo. "Hello. I'm mommy. I love you." That's what I said.
Avery: That's not French.
Me: You asked me to speak Spanish.
Avery: Spanish is French. I learned Spanish from Peppa Pig.

Noah: I'm going to be a police officer when I grow up.
Avery: I'm going to be a mermaid.
Noah: Don't be mad when I say this but mermaids aren't real.
Michael: That's just because Noah hasn't seen one.
Avery: Stay right there. I'll show you. (Runs and gets a mermaid Barbie to show Noah what they look like)

Avery: My hair is getting long. I'm going to have really long hair like Tangled (Rapunzel). I'm going to be a grown up and be Tangled! I'm going to be a mom and have hair like Tangled! I'm going to be a grown up and your friend!
Me: I hope you're my friend when you grow up!
Avery: I WILL! I'll be a grown up and a parent like you and I'll wear your clothes and your headbands! And you will wear your headbands. We'll look the same!

(On an unseasonably warm winter day)
Avery: Hey, mom. Your hair kind of looks like a lion.

(Watching the show "Alone"- a survival show)
Michael: Hey Noah, that guy is a police officer.
Noah: Oh, so that's why his eyebrows always look like they're mad.

(A minute later...still watching "Alone")
Michael: Day 2, 9:10am. These guys are having snack.

At 7:24am
Avery: Can I have chocolate milk?
Me: That's what you want for part of your Breakfast?
Avery: No. It's what I want for dinner. (She hasn't grasped at what time of day we eat each meal.)

Playing rock paper scissors, and if we get the same motion Avery says "tie dyed!"

Avery: (Playing with alphabet cards) I spelled Superjet.
Me: Superjet?! Oh wow!
Avery: I was trying to spell God but it came out as Superjet.

Avery: (After meeting the ENT) I liked that blue doctor. Did he say I could have ice cream AND popsicle?!

Avery is calling her hair chalk "rainbow color hair chop" and she does a chopping motion with her hands

Avery was touching my eyelashes that had mascara on.
Avery: These feel like spider legs.

Avery: Mom, the world in real life is complicated.
Me: It's complicated?
Avery: Yeah. I'm having a boring day. 

I just love capturing what they say!

Until Next Time,

Much Love, Reba

Kid Room Cleanout

Like so many others, I am in an organizing mood as of late. Possibly it's due to the new year and the need for things to feel refreshed. More likely it's due to knowing that we plan to sell our home within a couple months and I'm trying to get our spaces ready. (Alternate reading: I'm trying to declutter on a magnanimous level!) 

Aaron & I semi-tackled the pantry last weekend and I'll share pictures of that when I get around to doing more but it wasn't a huge change and I don't have "before" pictures so I'll have to explain how it looked previously. 

Today rather, I'm focusing on how we decluttered our kids' rooms. This was a multi-step process for sure and my hope is that it remains clean at least until pictures are taken for the house sale. 

I don't really have "before" pictures of these spaces because I didn't like to look at the constant clutter, and I struggled to think of how to get toys off the floor.  The boys have lots of buckets and bins in their room that we were encouraging them to put their toys in, but toys were just haphazardly placed in them which meant they might only be half full and not fit on the shelf properly which led to toys randomly being placed all over the floor. Also, everything was all mixed up so if they were searching for something particular, all the toys would end up on the floor and most likely would not be put away. 

In Walmart this past week, I bought two canvas bins (one for boys' room and one for Avery's room). These bins kind of spurred along a new inspiration to organize. 

In Avery's room after Christmas, we bought a red storage bin and put her stuffed animals and baby dolls in it. She has a vintage doll bunkbed and we use it for shelves. She has a few baskets on it (one for her favorite doll's clothes, one for her most played with Barbies, and one for dress up clothes). She also has a couple small plastic bins with lids and I moved the rest of her Barbies into one of these bins, then I put Barbie accessories in the smaller bin. These are stacked in her dress-up basket where she can easily access them and easily put them away.  She used to have her big Barbie toys (camper, grocery store) in a striped canvas bin on her floor but it took up so much space. I eventually figured out if I really moved all of her stuffed animals to the red storage bin, I could free up the lower level of the doll bunk bed to put the striped pink bin.  I put her Paw Patrol characters into a clear zipper bag and placed it under the bunk bed. Next to the pink bin, I placed the new canvas bin from Walmart & we're storing her horses and unicorns in that bin. The only things on her floor now are the Polly Pocket unicorn, the Paw Patrol tower & a trash bin. 

It seems so much more spacious! For the moment I'm keeping her gigantic unicorn bean bag on her bed since it takes up so much space. This might move back to grandma's house when we list our home. 

In the boys room, we have done ALOT of work over the past couple weeks. The boys spent New Year's morning sorting through toys & really deciding which ones they wanted to keep. We've made one run to the donation center and still have one or two loads to do over the new few weeks (the donation center was overwhelmed with stuff on New Year's day so we're giving them time to process what they've received before we inundate them with more things). 

Noah has collected garbage trucks and police cars for four years or more and amassed quite a collection. We brought out a big plastic bin to the living room last weekend and lined up every garbage truck, police car, firetruck, and bus and told him he could keep whatever fit into the bin (with the lid still being able to close). He did VERY well and this eliminated about a third to half of his collection. 

Yesterday, we hauled out every bin and bucket of toys into the living room and sorted them according to type ("emergency vehicles," "Legos," "Utility Vehicles," "Random Toys" etc.). Then we selected bins to match the amount of toys in each category (so "emergency vehicles" like hot wheels size police cars and police stations etc. were placed into an appropriate sized bin). These bins were then placed accordingly on their shelf. Today we reminded them that if they play with a toy, they should put it back in its bin before moving on to something else. 

Tonight, the boys & I spent some time in their room cleaning out from under the bunk bed. We eliminated half a garbage bag full of trash! Little torn up slips of paper, broken toy pieces, etc. are now no longer hiding in the room. Taking pictures of the clean area & loads of floor space to prove to ourselves that this can be done was a great boost to our morale!

I feel WAY more at ease about the potential to photograph these rooms for a listing and I hope that playtime is more enjoyable for my kids since they can easily find the things they enjoy. 

Until Next Time,

Much Love, Reba

Noah is 8!

Today, our sweet Noah boy turns 8! I simply can't believe it! Eight sounds so old! 

Noah is as spunky & active as ever. He still loves all things police car, garbage truck, and school bus. A new interest lately is weather. He loves to check out library books about tornados and hurricanes, and he watches YouTube videos about these weather patterns and the scales that are used to measure the severity of the events. 

Noah is a great sleeper and usually falls asleep before 8:00 at night. The flip side of this is that he wakes up super early! "Sleeping in" is considered 6:45 and this happened only once over Christmas break. Most of the time he's up by 6:00. 

He's a pretty good eater although he prefers snacks over actual meals. He'd choose to snack all day if allowed. He does not like chocolate, so his favorite desserts are fruit based like carrot cake or blueberry pie. He prefers cheesy things like string cheese, Cheez-its, Goldfish, etc. 

He is not afraid to pick favorites and often chooses favorite songs on the radio. His current Christmas favorites are MercyMe's "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and Lauren Daigle & Chris Tomlin's "Noel."  His current contemporary songs are Casting Crowns' "Start Right Here" and Andrew Ripp's "Jericho." 

For his birthday today, he just wanted family members to come over for carrot cake. He'll have a birthday party at a future date. 

Noah,

You're so much fun to be around & you're so full of life! Simple things bring you lots of joy and this is so much fun to watch. Your interests have remained pretty consistent over the years and I'll be interested to see if you choose one of these career paths when you're older. The way you absorb information is amazing & I enjoy learning new things from you about the things you're interested in. 

I love that you still enjoy cuddling and hugs. Your sensitive nature reminds me a lot of myself, but your outward appearance is exactly like your dad at this age! Your crystal blue eyes are still the bluest I've ever seen and your smile is easy & true. 

I pray that you seek Jesus early & always. He is the only way to a full life. 

I love you so much, sweet Noah boy. I'm so glad you're 8. 

I love you forever, 

Love, Mom 

Happy Birthday, Noah!

Until Next Time,

Much Love, Reba