Never to young to be a Hoarder

Ok... I am really at a loss.  I don't know what to think about this or do.  Is it just a phase?  Will she stop on her own?  Will she be on the TV show Hoarders? Let me back up a little bit.  Addy loves her "stuff" as she calls it.  It started out small (at least now I think that)  she "collected" things and put them in her back pack.  She would fill this thing so full and heavy that she literally would fall over wearing it on her back or couldn't get up!  Nathan and I would laugh about it and she actually had the biggest back pack out of all 3 girls and how ironic that was.  There is now rhyme or reason to what she collects that day... at least to me.  It seems whatever toy or book strikes her fancy that day she would hold onto it... in her back pack.  Well... I guess that back pack got to small for her...  It grew to where she would put her stuff in her bed.  We would remove it every night for obvious reasons...  talk about a temper tantrum!  She hated this... Well I guess she thought she was getting smart or something... cause its no longer her bed that held her treasures it turned in to her closet. 

Please keep in mind that this is VERY MILD to what she has collected before...  I've cleaned out her closet 4 times now.

 It has grown to not only toys or books or blankets that she likes... but she is taking DVDs, my books, shoes and even food!  And putting them in her hoarding temple!  Laugh... I know its funny!  So... we have cleaned up gold fish from her closet and the most recent... popcorn.  She had taken bags of unopened popcorn out of the pantry and wrapped them in a dishtowel and placed it in her closet!  REALLY???  I get why she might take my stuff.  She likes it because I like it.  But food!?  Funny thing... she knows EXACTLY where everything is and when we are looking for an item... she'll say "Oh... its in my closet!"  So we clean it out every couple of days.

Here is the booger with her stuff! 

 So again...  She is a smart cookie, I guess she thinks we're not going to catch on...  Once we cleaned out her closet a couple of times... or maybe it was because she thought the closet was too small and she needed more room, because she still puts her stuff in the closet... Well she started putting stuff at the end of their bed.  So not only do we have a collection constantly growing in her closet it is at the end of her bed as well.

So I made her help me clean it up today.  I guess it's not that big of a deal... The main thing that bothers me about this is the toys are hidden and not available for Taylor or Payton to play with too.  I really, really hope this is a phase!!!!

Pulling himself up...

Big boy!  Jackson pulled himself up to his feet!  (on 3/2/11)  With being side tracked with sick kids I didn't post about it... but I still got a picture! 

Payton was excited for brother and showed him how the toy worked.  This was actually right before I cut his hair

Jackson 10 months old

10 months old!???  I think I say this every month... but really?  Seriously???  Where does the time go.  Jackson will be 1 in two months.  Wow...  I've been planning his party and having a blast doing it.  I love making the kiddos B-day parties special :)  Jackson is all over the place and gets in to everything!  His favorite places to crawl are the pantry and knock over all the juice or soda bottles that are on the floor in there.  The door to the pantry was off for a while to be painted... which is when Jackson discovered what a fun room it is!  His other favorite places to navigate to are Taylor & Addison's room or my bathroom.  Silly boy!  Jackson is alot of fun and laughs at his sisters.  No teeth yet... (Addy was a late teether too)  FINALLY sleeping through the night! :)  He might wake up once or at 6 am.  I finally had it and let him cry it out... literally took like 2 nights and he didn't really cry... Hmmm why did I wait so long???  As Nathan would say.. "b/c he's your precious baby boy!"  He is more interested in table food than baby food now.  Jackson is such a blessing and my sweet boy!

Update on Addy

Wow... I've been MIA... We've had alot going on... I think this is the first time I sat down in 3 weeks! LOL not really!  Just life has been going on...  The biggest thing is an update on our Sweet Pea, Addison.  I collected the 3 samples (and that was a TON of fun!) I was secretly hoping that "it" would happen when I wasn't home and Nathan would have to do it!  No such luck for me!  In fact all 3 times "it" happened Nathan wasn't home at all so I had to go at it solo!  Thats what I get! LOL  Anywho... her test came back normal!  Which I was happy to hear but that also worried me because she was sick the day that I got the results!  So I waited so patiently for 3 days for the DR to call me back and they refered us to a GI dr.  I called yesterday to schedule an appointment and I could wait until April 6 or they had a cancelation for today.  So after some thought... hmmm if I go tomorrow then I go with 4 kids??? But I did it anyway!  I was to anxious and ready to get the ball rolling on this thing!  So we went!  The DR seemed a bit puzzled b/c each sickness usually last for 24 hours - maybe 48 hours.  If was something of the obvious (like IBS) it would last longer.  He has somethings that he wants to rule out first.  So we have some test that we have to do ... which I knew that was coming.  We have to get blood work done to check her white blood cells and food sensitivity.  She also has to get a upper GI and a sonogram on her abdomen. Then those results will give us the answers to what we have to do next.  There was a lab at Nemours (the Children's hospital) so we already did the blood work today after her appointment and let me just tell you what a trooper Addy was!  She didn't cry at all!  She just sat there and watched as they filled 6 vials of  blood!  :)  All the kiddos did really good today I was so proud of them (I was very prepared too with snacks and quiet activites for them)  They all got rewarded with a ring pop as a surprise!!!  So I will keep updating as we know more...  Thank you everyone for your prayers for our baby girl!

Here is the cutie...  This is her on any given normal day... being silly! :)

Jackson's First Haircut

Nathan and I have been putting off cutting Jackson's hair.  We wanted him to have long "boyish" hair... but truth is his hair was a mess!!!!  It was all different lenths and mostly looked like this...

BEFORE:

 So we figure we have to cut it and get it even then we can let it grow to a "boyish" long hair look.

AFTER:

He is sooo cute!  Now I can really see those baby blues!  I wonder now why we waited so long.  Nathan hasn't seen it yet :)  I cut it while he was at work.

Hilton Head Part 2

We spent most of the day at the lighthouse so here are more pics from that...  These rocking chairs were so cute and fun.  They looked out to the harbour and lighthouse.

Addison loves the beach.  She talks about going all the time.  So she was excited to be there.  She just stared out at the water and was taking it all in.  She told her Nana (Boo) that she wanted to go to the other side of the beach and Boo asked her well how would you get there and Addy pointed to some canoes that were nearby and said we just take one of those boats and paddle to get there!  Smart Cookie!!! LOL  Very cute!

This is the view that Addy was so intently looking and and wanting to cross the water to the other side in a canoe :)

Nathan and Taylor - Canoes in the background

Papa, Nana & Addy

US :)

Ben, Teresa, Lily, Abigail and Nicholas

The day we left we visited the beach.  It was a gorgeous day and we built sand castles! 

I love this picture!

We had a wonderful time!  We played tons of games, saw some of Hilton Head, relaxed and enjoyed our family!!!!  Best Vacation!!  Wanna go back when its warm!!!  In May Carl!!! :)  Gotta LOVE ME!!! 

Hilton Head Part 1

I am finally getting to post about our Hilton Head trip... Jeeesh!  You 'd think I had a house full of sick kids for over a week at how I have gotten NOTHING done! ;)  So...  I mentioned that we were going out of town for 4 days and everything it took to pack for our family... but its all worth it!!! 

WARNING.... TONS OF CUTE PICS!!!!

My in-laws invited us and m BIL and his fam to Hilton head for the week.  HECK YEAH!!!!  Let me say that I fell in love with Hilton Head.  It is beautiful!!!  If you ever get a chance to go - GO!!!  Absolutely gorgeous!!!  Even in February.  I would recommend that you go when its warmer... (we want to go back in May and trying to convince Carl... Boo is on board ;)  So... Carl!!!!! ;) 

Here is Nathan with his parents and our cute kiddos :)
A pic of Nathan with each of our girls...

There was this cute HUGE chess set at this resort that we looked at (we didn't stay there)  the girls loved it... that was fun and cute!

We "looked" at the beach on our first day there... literally stood there at the edge and didn't touch the sand! LOL  it was very cold, windy and rainy our first day there. 

The girls really enjoyed this piano at the resort that we looked at but didn't stay at!!! LOL 

Seriously??? Can they be any cuter???  A day spent looking at the shops.

When Ben and Teresa and their family came we had fun at a park complete with a picnic, valentines party and looking at the light house and some of the big boats.  This was Jackson's first time in the swing.  He didn't like it.  I was shocked all 3 girls LOVE the swing...  Look at his face...LOL  Silly boy!

Swings and kisses with Daddy

Addy is so hard to photograph cause she is always on the go!

My sweet Doodle Bug

I really enjoyed taking these pictures of Jackson with the beautiful background...

Ugh...

Today... I am so mentally tired.  With the kids getting over the flu.  Thank you Jesus that is over with!  Payton and Jackson still have bad coughs but no more fevers!  Today is the 3rd day with no fever.  Well yesterday....  Addy wakes up from her nap and starts to have diaherra she threw up 6 times.  FUN!  She is actually a really good sick kid.  So during one of her trips to the bathroom she passed what looked like blood clots and when I wiped her there was nothing but bright red blood!  Scare me!!!  So I did some research online and ended up calling the DR, who of course told me to go to the ER.  I had to wait until Nathan got home from work, he had to work late last night.  I was really worried and scared.  You see Addy has had this diaherra thing about every 3-5 weeks it seems, for the last 6 months????  Nathan and I had decided if it happens again that we should take her to the DR.  Well it happened again and much worse.  So I take Addy to the ER and we get there at 9 pm.  It is crowded!  And I mean not enough seats crowded... awful.  Why does the ER have to be so awful???  So we waited and waited... people are getting antsy and rude.  I'm getting antsy and feel like being rude.  But I wasn't.  So after waiting for about 3 hours and contemplating leaving.... I was surronded by PEACE a feeling that can only come from God.  Alot of people were praying for us. So I left!  I really felt like she could wait until the morning ( I made sure that the bleeding had stopped before we left and it had ) I also didn't think we would be seen for like another 12 hours and by then her DRs would be open so why not go home and sleep and see the DR in the morning... so we did just that!  We saw the DR this morning and she seemed concerned and wants me to get 3 different stool samples (meaning a sample from three different poops) and then they will do lab work.  She thinks its more than constipation since there is vomitting with it.  So for now I have to be on top of and make sure I know when she "goes" and get it in time! FUN!