Thinking of Dad

It's not the greatest picture of me, but that matters very little right now. Dad's health is declining, and I just wanted to reflect on the happy times that I've had with him. I do love him for all his odd-ball ways and his ridiculous humor.  I love him for so many other things too that I can't just summerize it in a few words.

Instead I'm leaving it just like this.

 

Proof!

Ok. Some of you know the challenges I have faced raising a certain "busy" child of mine. This post is to to display some examples of the messes and mind-of-her-own activities McKenna has been pursuing for the past 2 years of her life. Granted she's only 3, but I'm certain that her first year of life was her creative thinking phase. I'm not trying to complain or nothing (today at least), but I can exponentially tell you that I have the strongest-willed,  most mischievous little three-year old ever created.  I have turned in to her shadow because I end up having to follow her around throughout the day to try and thwart some misbehavior.  You may think I'm exaggerating, overprotective, or even too soft on the discipline.  I assure you. This is not the case.  After 3 kids before McKenna,  I get it that three-year-olds are challenging. All I'm saying is that this one is REALLY challenging!

 One cup of pudding + turning your back for 2 min. = HOLY MESS!

Notice the pajamas? Little stinker woke up before everyone else to get in the fridge and start eating the leftover cake in the fridge she remembered from the night before!



"I'm washing my feet with all the soap, mommy!"  Really ALL the soap.

  

Since McKenna is a "runner" I was so happy to finally live in a place with a tall privacy fence...Guess we need barbed wire too?  Another thing, McKenna is NOT shy.  She was always yelling at neighbors and passerbys since we lived on a corner lot.  I see a future as an announcer or broadcaster some day?!




I don't know...There's really no explanation to why she stripped off her clothes and climbed up to the top of her dresser.




Oh this...happened more than once. She was always finding some desitin.




Comparitively speaking,  this is nothing.  Little girls always paint their nails, right? But have they used marker, polish, toothpaste, white-out, elmer's glue,  or lipstick?



If you give a girl a spoonful of peanut butter...than she'll give herself a facial!

Another WHY?  Why did you empty all the crayons out of the container and instead pee in it?

"Mommy, can I get a toy for my bath?"  "Sure."
I guess in her mind  books count.

This is the classic case of mommy tells McKenna to not get outside of the yard.  A few seconds later I turn to see McKenna on the outside of the fence, but she quickly scrambles to get back in and gets her head stuck!  Of course like any good mommy I took my time to run inside  to get the camera. I knew she wasn't going anywhere!

And finallly.  This just goes to show, McKenna is "busy" even in her sleep.  Evidently she still gets plenty of rest because she's fully charged by the next day.

I hope you all were amused.  I swear I love McKenna to pieces.  She has an amazing personality. I'll blog in the upcoming days with some cutie-patootie pics. It's just too late tonight.

Changes

Instead of getting down about all the time that's flown by since my last blog, I'm going to look at the more positive side of it.  It hasn't been a whole year YET, and at least I got the information posted that Josie was born a year ago, or else everyone might of thought I was still pregnant!!! Ha ha.  The real task is to decide what to write about. I'm just gonna browse for a picture and upload it and go from there.

This was at  Caden and Conner's baptism back in Feb.  Every once in a while as a parent you think "How did my babies get this big?  They're 8!

Hopefully the pics and blogs will keep coming. Some days just have more hours in them than others!

Kids say the darndest things...

Here is a list Caden (my little scholar) made at school when asked to compare/contrast 2 items:
                          Pen and a Pencil

   Alike                                              Different   

you can write with them both     a pen has ink  a pencil doesn't

shape                                        a pen is larger than a pencil

both have pointed ends              a pencil is easier to break
                                                   than a pen

                                                 a pencil tastes woody and
                                                    a pen taste like plastic

 and then some laughable things from Benjamin...

Conner was doing "magic" and putting a quarter in Ben's ear.  However, Conner got distracted  during the middle of the trick and Ben quickly became upset and anxious, yelling "CONNER!!! YOU CAN'T JUST LEAVE IT IN MY EAR!!! GET IT OUT NOW!!!"

The other day the boys were arguing who had better super-powers.  Ben was having a hard time competing with the twins so he shouted, "WELL, I HAVE X-RAY VISION!"  Butting in (in an effort to help Ben compete with his brothers' super-powers) I asked Ben if he knew what x-ray vision was and then I proceeded to explain: "X-ray vision is when you can see through walls and peoples bodies,etc."  Ben quickly retorted, "Well I can see through windows!!!"

Honestly, when I look at this picture I just think to myself,  "How lucky (blessed) am I?"

Trying to update blog, since it is an inventory of what's been going on in the Berry Household.  First and foremost, Glenn and I are buying a home!!! It's so grown-up-like to me; yet not really because 90% of my friends (that's only 3 people) already own homes and have for some time now. I don't know...It is a MAJOR decision and MAJOR debt, but Glenn really has enjoyed this last year in Ada, and it feels like we can settle down in a place finally for more than 3 years(that's the longest we've ever lived in a home as a married couple). The funny thing is, Glenn is the one who initially began house hunting. He kept bringing it up and actually called a listing agent one day to show us a house. Needless to say, we hated the house, but we were "hooked" into finding something better for the same price.  Well, 3 weeks later, and after about 6-7 actual showings, we were getting discouraged. Everything looked so 70's. So blah and plain. We were discouraged a bit, but then again, we had no real timeline to buy a house.  I figured we'd be real serious by the beginning of next year. Long story short: there was this tri-level home I loved and only I had been in to see it. I convinced Glenn he needed to see it too. Eventually he did and he walked out smiling. I just knew he had liked it as much as I did. Finally! We liked the same house, and that was it. Well,you can't just do nothing when you have such a meeting of the minds! So here we are, waiting on the appraisal and getting all the ducks lined up for closing on the 29th of December. Crazy! More details and pictures later. Now I'll just slap some pictures on here so you can see what my stinkers have been up to!

Nana visiting from Chico, Ca. 3 weeks after Josie was born.

This is me and 4/5 kids (Josie asleep in stroller) at the new Chickasaw Cultural Center in Sulphur, Oklahoma.  It's a beautiful facility, with a few hands-on learning experiences.



Sunday, August 22, Josie receives her blessing.

Peculiar thing: Conner calls my attention to his funny-feeling face one day, so we take him to the ER the next day to confirm that he has Bell's Palsy (paralysis of 1/2 his face).  Heavy drugs and steroids are started immediately and fortunately Conner makes a full recovery 4 weeks later.  This is a week-and-a-half later, so it's not near as funny looking as the first few days!



Last day Pregnant!!!

Well, well, well...Things have definately changed since my last post. I am no longer pregnant. Josie Louise was born on July 19th at 8:14am, weighing 6lbs 14oz by induction due to preeclampsia. Long story short I had been experiencing ocassional high blood pressure readings, but not consistently. For a whole week I was in and out of the hospital being monitored, but eventually ended up at OU Medical Center in Oklahoma City. I was held for further monitoring for 2 more days, until finally tests revealed that I did indeed have preeclamsia. Induction was started at 6pm Sunday, July 18. I labored well into the evening when at 9pm I felt my water break. After that I labored (dull back ache is all) until 3am, and decided to get an epidural. I was stuck at 5cm for practically the whole night. At 6am, the on-call dr. checked me again and found that I was still the same dilation, but she also felt my bag of waters was still mostly in-tact and blocking passage. She broke it, and 2 hours later, when the nurse decided to check me I was completely dilated. Everything happened so fast, and it was completely pain-free! I had to be told when to push! With 3 pushes, she was out! I have never had an epidural that worked that good. So here's some pics:

Oh my gosh!

 Pregnancy Update:
I am not photogenic, but I thought I'd include this picture, as it won't be much longer until I'm back to "good ole' slim-skinny Casey" Hee Hee.  This picture was taken last week sometime. I am now almost 36 weeks pregnant. I am feeling very fortunate to have come this far in the pregnancy with little to no pregnancy problems.  All 3 previous pregnancies were experiencing complications by now.  Glenn and I are so excited to be having another little girl too.  It's NOT FOR SURE, but most likely we'll name her Summer.  McKenna says it so cute, it's just kind of stuck. Funny reason though, huh?
I must tell you though that this baby might come earlier than as expected, because just today at my OB appointment, some signs of preeclampsia or toxemia has been detected.  Therefore I will require more frequent monitoring and some extra tests.  Dang blood pressure will probably continue to rise which in turn will lead to an induction, hopefully, and not another c-section. I will just have to keep you posted. As of now, I'm playing the "wait and see" game. Hey, at least I've played it before, and as I said, I'm glad I made it this far.  I truly do feel blessed in that respect.  That, and I will soon be a mother of  5 children.  Unbelievable!

 McKenna turns 2 !!!
 I think everyone knows how much I've enjoyed having a little girl these past 2 years.  McKenna is as rough and tumbly as the boys, yet as girlie as they get too! She loves to cuddle, play with babies, dress up, wear jewelry and has a high-pitched scream that makes you wish you were deaf! She is the princess of the family (so far) and we love her to pieces! Happy Birthday! 6/5/09

McKenna is always around mommy when it's time to make dessert.  She says "I help." Which really only means she's a professional taste-tester or licker the whole time.

McKenna got another baby (I think we have 11 of them now), a new high chair for bay to sit in and (not pictured) a gently used wooden baby cradle.

Please don't stare at the cake! I never know what goes wrong with my baking (or cooking for that matter). There is a landslide occurring on the side I tried to hide from the camera...again...I don't know what to say...

Description of Our Circumstances:

I thought it would be fun to add a few pictures of my wonderful husband Glenn and his recent trip to Maryland back in May.  Less than a year ago, some momentous things happened in our family.  #1: Glenn graduated from Missouri State University with a Doctorate degree in Physical Therapy.  He is now a licensed PT.  #2.  At nearly the same time, Glenn applied to be a US Public Health Commissioned Corp Officer; under the direction of the U.S. government.  It's hard to explain, but essentially he is considered as active duty military personnel; only he'll work in a "professional/clinical" setting (meaning no weapon training or field stuff) as a PT, serving in clinics and hospitals that the government oversees.  For us this means, Indian reservations, and/or prisons.  That brings us to change #3: We live in Ada, Oklahoma because this is a Chickasaw Indian "hub", where there was a vacancy for a Physical Therapist at the time and it was one of the closest to family and one of the less remote places to move to so far.  Anyway, I thought I'd explain  our situation a little more, since I was just reflecting on how our lives have changed in the past year.  It does feel like we've had to spread our wings as a family, leave loved ones behind, and really piece together and find our way in this "new life" over the past year.  It's been exciting though.  And Glenn and I both agree in the old adage that you should "bloom where you are planted", and so we've created a happy home, with new friends, and new places to always explore and learn about.  It has been an adjustment, but well worth the time. So without further delay, here's the caption to these pictures: 

Glenn is obviously standing in front of some statues he got to see while taking a day off from his 2 week commissioned corp training in Maryland.

This is one of the uniforms Glenn was required to get, along with some bdu's.  Technically, Glenn could be called out to serve in case of a severe natural disaster or calamity, so he'd need to be appropriately  dressed, right?

Glenn's having ALL the fun!

As I suggested in the title, I'm basically jealous of Glenn.  In one week he got to do 2 totally fun activities.  On Monday April 25, the twins' school had a field trip to the OKC zoo.  Glenn took the day off work to spend it at the zoo "chaperoning". He ended up spending all day with just Caden and Conner, visiting the sights. They even stayed longer, past the time that all their classmates had to return home on the bus. It was a bit chilly and overcast most of the day, so Glenn had to spend $40 on these ugly jackets from the zoo store.  None-the-less, they had an awesome time. It isn't very often that Glenn gets to spend time with just one or two of the kids at a time (me neither for that matter), so the quality time is well spent.  Now for the captions:

Apparently Caden and Conner were both climbing on this rope and fell off. Conner went down 1st, with Caden landing on top of him.  It hurt, but Glenn insisted they take a picture right then and there!

More pics of Caden and Conner at the zoo.  There is this neat bird enclosure that allows you to purchase nectar and feed the birds from your hand.  The boys loved this activity so much that they returned later in the day to do it again.

Daddy even treated them to some swan paddle boats for 1/2 hour.  That was a new and exciting adventure as well.

FATHER AND SON CAMPOUT

Here's some pictures of all three of the boys while at the father & son campout sponsered by the church. For the second time last week, Glenn took off with the boys and had a fabulous time.  The camp was 2.5 hours away and our family was the only ones to attend from Ada, Oklahoma. Glenn reported that is well worth it, and though it rained for a little bit Sat. morning, the boys waited it out and stayed hours longer than everyone else.  They did lots of hiking, some fishing and visited a very nice nature museum. The campsite was located in the Wichita Mountain Wildlife Reserve.  There were free-roaming buffalo, texas longhorns and lots of prairie dogs.

 Glenn took tons of pics, but there's no way I'm going post them all.

I HAD to post this picture of Glenn since it cracks me up when he gets all "out-doorsy".  I tease him about all the accessories that begin to appear on his belt.

Cutest kids EVER...no really!

 I decided I like blogging. Honestly most of my days feel like the regular hum-drum of housework and tons of managing; better known as mothering. One of my sisters pointed out that sometimes it's hard for her to blog because she doesn't always have something "flowery" to say like apparently most blogs do. She got me to thinking about the reasons I blog.  It reminds me of the annual christmas letters that go out sometimes, highlighting or at least "spicing up" the negatives that happened in review of the year. I admit blogs do seem to encompass "happily-ever-after" posts exclusively.  Mine does too.  But I just wanted to clarify, why this is, at least for me. Statement #1: My life is full of upsets and arguments and loudness and choas sometimes.  We do get sick and sad and even tired of eachother often enough too. There's never enough $, and time and energy seems to slip away so easily. Life IS NOT perfect, no matter how I try to present it, or how it appears. Statement#2: Actual pictures and posts usually only occur for me when I am upbeat, energized and totally excited about a recent event, or I was fortunate to spot a glimpse of the innocense and simplicity of childhood behavoir. Statement #3:  I personally try to blog, if I have pictures to go along with it. Fortunately, no one is around snapping pics when the kids are arguing, I've lost my mind for the zillionth time, or dinner has been burned.  Besides, what kind of read would that be for all 5 of you out there who read my blog?  With all that said, I'm restating my 1st statement.  I like blogging. It is a break for me so that I will focus on my family and the blessed life we do have. I experience the regularities of life like everyone else, so what I report here are my oasis (es? How do you make that word plural?!) of happiness.  I'd miss them or forget about them if  didn't document them.  I'm not blogging to show off.  It's for me to relax, and remind myself of all the good that surrounds me.

Here's Ben all dressed up as wolverine.  Ben has always been my best make-believer.

McKenna loves playing out in the sand in the backyard.  I still don't know why she tastes the sand everyday, and then walks around with that gritty texture in her mouth for a little while.

McKenna helping mommy bake a cake. She repeated over and over, "I wanna tase it. tase it pweeze." 

O.k.  This one's a real jewel.  McKenna had been freely coming in and out of the house all afternoon, playing just fine, until I realized it had been a few minutes since I've seen or heard from her last.  Here's what I found; she had slipped on my tennis shoes that were by the back door, pulled down this pot of soil off the patio rail and began taking handfuls of dirt and placing it down in the shoes as best as she could.

 Another 80+temp day so we let the kids take turns spraying eachother with the hose while on the trampoline.

Easter and such...

At the end of March my in-laws came to visit from Chico, California.  This was their first visit to our home in Oklahoma.  We had a relaxing, but fun time together.  I must say, all my kids loved seeing their grandparents, but McKenna was really smitten by Nana and Papa.  Could it be all the attention they give her? Hmmmmm....

Here's picture of Nana holding McKenna and being silly together.

There is an awesome children's museum in Seminole, Ok (about 45 minutes away). We have a season pass and decided to play there one afternoon while Nana was visiting.  In this picture, the kids are acting in front of a green screen, like they do for weather forecasters.  All children like seeing themselves "on tv".

There is a pretend car repair shop at the musuem too.  Ben is changing the tire, while Caden and Conner do various other mechanic jobs.

This picture of Conner is blurry since he was standing inside a giant bubble that he created around himself simply by pulling on the rope.

The Easter bunny made a visit to a local park where there was a huge easter egg hunt.  Of course Glenn always corrects me and calls them easter egg rushes since it's over in less than a minute, and there's no hunting involved at all. I was sad to see that the twins are no longer enthralled by the easter bunny anymore.  What?! They're too old (7yrs.).  **sniffles**  Sadness.

Here's papa (a.k.a Larry; Glenn's stepdad), hanging with 3 out 4 of the grandkids. 

This is Glenn's family who came to visit.  There's (left to right) Elaina, Sarah, Glenn and his mom and dad. The only one missing is Glenn's other sister, Melissa.  I should of told Glenn to put on some sunglasses in order to fit in!

Last, but not least, even though there are a dozen more pictures beyond what I've posted, Nana orchestrated the dying of eggs.  Sometimes I'm a party-pooper when it comes to potentially messy projects so I was happy when Nana and Sarah dyed the easter eggs with the kids.