Jett's 2 Months

Two months have passed since I held my newest love in my arms for the first time (well two months and a few days now). It's always crazy how fast time goes. It's hard to comprehend life without our precious little Jett.

It is so fun to see him smile at his siblings, it's amazing how he just learns that someone is always going to be up in his face, that he may get hit with a ball or accidentally sat on (there have been several times kids have tripped over his bouncer while he is in it in the kitchen and sat on him). I think that he likes the chaos though. It seems like he is happier when there is someone in his face and lots going on around him. I guess that's what happens when you're #5.

As much as I completely enjoy holding a new baby snuggled on my chest, there is something so sweet about when they begin to smile. I love when they make eye contact with you and their whole face lights up. 

I think he kinda likes me!

Jett has been spending a lot more of the day awake.  I feel like we are getting into a somewhat normal (whatever that means for a two month old) schedule. He has been sleeping up to 8 hours some nights! He's my little rock star. 

He does not, however, have the same crazy strength and drive as Titan did at this age. Ty was rolling over by 2 months but I kinda like that Jett's in no rush. He doesn't love tummy time but lasts longer if there is something fun and crazy going on in front of him. He enjoys watching their cars race around the track or lego building or ninja turtle playing. 

His eyes are bright, bright, bright blue. I do remember Quinton's being the same way and now Quinn is totally brown. We will see how he turns out! Before Jett was born all the boys in our house had brown eyes and the girls blue so we are all interested to see if his eyes change. 

I am incredibly thankful to be Jett's momma. He has just a sweet spirit even at 2 months. I love how quickly he calms down when I pick him up.

We have survived our first two months as a family of seven. Would not change a thing about our family.I am extremely blessed to snuggle him daily. Loving our Jett Abell Rude!

Q's FIVE!

Quinton Daniel is FIVE!
His actually birthday was yesterday, March 24th. It was a fabulous day! Breakfast with our whole family, church, a few presents when we got home from church, watched a little bit of a movie together during quiet time and then met some fabulous friends for pizza and came home to open presents just the 7 of us!

If Quinton were a Ninja Turtle he would totally be Leonardo.

"Leonardo, he's the leader in blue. Does anything it takes to get his ninjas through..."  That would be a line from the Ninja Turtle song and since our lives revolve around the turtles it would only make sense to describe my oldest as a turtle.

Aunt Jessica painted this picture of Leonardo for Quinton. She's quite the artist!

Quinton really is the leader of our kids. I'm sure that majority of that comes from being the oldest of 5 but he really does a great job of setting the tone for everyone to follow. He genuinely cares for his siblings and makes sure that they are all taken care of and doing well. I love each week at Sunday school he saves a spot for Rex because he knows that Rex won't go to Sunday school without him. He does a great job of coming up with fun games or ideas to play with everyone. I love watching him at church as he leads a group of friends running around. He is so gracious as he helps me around the house. About a week ago I was cleaning up after dinner and he called me into the living room telling me that he had a surprise for me. He had told Rex and Myla that they should surprise me and clean up their toys without being asked. This boy knows my heart!

We went out to pizza with some friends. They have 4 kids that my children just adore, Henry, Jack, Lucy and Claire. They put us in a back room with no other people in sight! The perfect spot for 9 little children! Sunday nights is magic night at the pizza place so we even got our own personal magic show. IT WAS CRAZY! He made them some balloon swords before he left the table. Such a fun time!

 Sweet friends!

 Quinton and Henry in their superhero shirts.

Most of the kids.

Lucy and Myla have become good friends. It's fun to watch them play together. Lucy has two older brothers so she and Myla both know how to interact with the big boys. They put up with being shot by nerf guns while playing house with their babies, they can wrestle and play superheros all while wearing princess gowns.
Love watching them together!

After pizza we hurried home to open presents. Quinton had been so patient all week. My sister's packages arrived earlier in the week and I made him wait until Sunday night to open them so when we walked in he was ready to go. He was so kind to his siblings allowing their little hands to help open all the presents. Birthday are such a hard thing with so many young kids. The concept of celebrating only one person and they are the only one opening presents is difficult. A couple of days before Quinton's birthday Rex suggested bringing up the Christmas tree so that everyone could get presents to open! But like I said, Quinn was so wonderful at sharing the opening and the toys!

Don't worry, we got two nerf guns so that there could be a fair fight! Dan and Quinton were both excited to play with these!

Quinton has decided that his favorite basketball player is Lebron James and since my sister Kelly loves Dwyane Wade (he played for Marquette which is where she went to school) she was excited to get him some official Heat shorts. They are totally awesome!

 Of course no birthday is complete with Ninja Turtle stuff! Thanks Aunt Dana and Uncle Ry!

 They got him some basketball shorts too! Since it's all my boys wear I'm pretty excited about another pair.

 My sweet family of 7!

You may notice that no one is exceptionally happy in these pictures. They are all EXHAUSTED but I wanted a couple of pictures before they crashed so this is what I got.

I am still in total shock that I am the mother of a five year old. Five seems like such a huge milestone. He is so excited to be five years old. He has made some pretty funny comments about being five and how many things he can do now that he is five!

Quinn is truly such a blessing in our lives. I feel honored just to be his momma.

Happy Birthday to my favorite five year old.

Bubble Babies

Bath time, like many things these days, has potential to be a truly enjoyable time or a complete disaster. 

Tonight bath time was a BUBBLE BONANZA! I may have put a few too many bubbles in. I couldn't even rinse them with the water because there were too many bubbles in it. But it was totally worth it for all the smiles and the fun that they had. 

We have been doing great lately. Being a parent is all about constant adjustments. I feel like we are always trying to figure out how to make life work smoothly. Whether it's sleep, or our schedule, or sleep, or meals, or sleep, you get the idea! Our kids have all been great sleepers. I have no complaints about their abilities to sleep. I believe they got that from their Daddy! But it's hard trying to figure out if they need a nap or when to put them to bed so they won't be up at 6 am. I am an early riser, I got that from my Daddy, I love my morning time before everyone is awake to read my bible, enjoy my coffee, and mentally prepare for the day. We have been experimenting with no naps which means that bed time comes at 8 pm and they sleep until right around 8. Glorious! I have been in bed by 9 pm three days this week. The only downfall is that I lose my time in the middle of the day to share these absolutely precious faces with you. So I am sacrificing my sleep (all 5 are soundly sleeping and Dan is out late) to share these perfect smiles with you.

My Bubble Babes! All five of them. It will be even more precious when Jett is lined up next to them!

Every single person that spends ANY amount of time with Titan comments on how fun he is. He is just absolutely delightful to be around. He is so fun, so funny and just a joy. I think that I have mentioned this before but for four months now Titan has been able to climb up Quinton's ladder to his bunk bed and over the last month he has mastered getting down the ladder. THIS BOY CAN DO ANYTHING!

 Rex remains sweet with a little sass. Check out this face!

Quinton will be five on Sunday.

OH MY GOODNESS!

FIVE!!!

We were talking to my parents these other night on Skype and even on the computer they couldn't believe how tall he is getting. He is needing 6 slim pants. He's growing like a weed. I can't wait to put him on our grow board that my dad made for us on his birthday and see how much he has grown.

Five, if I think to much about it, it makes me tear up. I can't even believe how fast time goes!

Quinton Daniel is one good looking boy!

What a goof ball!

Rex is a boy of many faces.

Here is the handsome smile I was looking to capture!

This might be the last picture of my four year old that you see....

 

I absolutely love being a mother to each one of my kids. I still cannot believe that I have FIVE kids and FOUR boys. FOUR crazy, fun, loving, adventurous boys and ONE crazy, fun, loving, adventurous girl.

 I seriously cannot get enough of Titan's smile. He is so stinkin' handsome!

My blue eyed girl. I MUST, I repeat, I MUST get her newest dance moves on video. She's got the moves. 

I adore her! I especially love getting some time to go play doll house or do our nails together. Girl stuff, just the two of us.

And here he is, my seven and a half week old love. 

I'm not sure what this face is, but every face is precious. 

 

Jett all snuggled up!

He continues to be a perfect baby. He smiles quite frequently now making it even more fun to stare at him and snuggle with him.

My four big kids haven't grown tired of him yet. They still enjoy holding him, helping me with him, lovin' on him. I think their love for him will only grow as he smiles more, begins to laugh and move around!

 I had to capture the eyes that melt my heart!

And the blue eyes that match mine!

I am working at getting back into the weekly groove of sharing pictures. I hope you enjoy these faces as much as I do. I am one BLESSED momma!

Rexy

Life around our house is always exciting. Our kids like to keep us on our toes. They like to make sure that we are always bringing our A-game. 

Rex Michael surprised us with a 104 fever the Saturday before my birthday and a horrible cough and if we've learned anything in the past with Rex getting sick, it's don't mess around just bring him in. So he and I and Jett sat in the ER on Saturday night (it was the only thing open) and walked out with some steroids, an antibiotic and were told he had the beginning stages of pneumonia. 

After 5 days of no fever but no improvement on the cough we brought him back in and ended up in the hospital for 6 days. Pneumonia had spread and his blood oxygen levels were too low. They started him on 1 L of oxygen, a few hours later moved it to 4 L of oxygen and the next day he was up to 8 L of oxygen. Like I said, he likes to keep us on our toes. 

There is nothing scarier than having a sick child and although it was not nearly as extreme as it was two years ago it still is scary, it still gets the tears flowing, your heart pumping and your mind racing. It makes you feel absolutely helpless as a parent looking at your baby, and not being able to do anything to help them. 

Even in the midst of some rough days, Rex was a champion. Every nurse and doctor that we had commented that he was, "THE BEST THREE YEAR OLD THEY HAD EVER HAD!" And many of them had worked there for 25-30 years. We were quite proud of our little superhero. I can honestly say that besides telling us a few times that his nose was sore from the tubes up it, he never once complained. He didn't complain about the people in hourly to mess with him, he didn't complain about the tubes and the needles, he didn't complain about being stuck in a bed most of the time. He was just a champion!

He did get some fun things to entertain him and cheer him up while he was there. Staying with our extreme love of the ninja turtles the kids and I picked him out a katana (you can see it laying next to him in bed). He always had it by his side, I'm telling you, he's a good fighter! He loved when we would blow bubbles and he could slice them with his katana. Several people that stopped by were aware of his Ninja love and brought stickers, coloring books, new ninja turtles, ninja bubbles. He was quite excited about each new thing.

One really sweet moment was when Rex was given a chance to pick a toy from the treasure chest. There were tons of toys to pick but he found a My Little Pony. He looked at Dan and I and said, "I'm going to pick this for Myla." What a precious little guy we have. 

Dan and I seem to work quite well together in stressful situations. I'm constantly amazed by the strength of the man that I married. He never once left the hospital. He ate, slept, showered (not nearly enough), and loved Rexy the entire time. Rex has always been Dan's #1 fan and this just confirmed that even more! I took care of everyone else and was blessed by so many friends and my sister Dana (who just so happened to be in Iowa for a day) to help watch a couple kids at a time so that I could go to the hospital with one or two kids. Once Rex seemed to not be getting worse he enjoyed having all his siblings up to visit him and play. Quinton and Myla even stayed the whole day with him on his last day there. 

For the first couple of days all Rex wanted to do was read books and then when he had a little energy, slice bubbles with his katana. 

A couple of times we ventured into the play room across the hallway. All the nurses fell in love with Myla and her curly hair. She just talked and talked with them. She's quite the charmer. And Titan just flirted with anyone that smiled at him. 

Quinton, Rex and Dan playing Toy Story Memory. Rex' katana is close by!

My three big kids enjoying a movie together in Rex' bed.

Rex and Dan came home yesterday. I remember the last time Rex was in the hospital they told us that kids can go from fine to horrible so quickly and horrible to fine just as fast. That was the case both time with Rex. Once his body started kicking the virus' butt he went from requiring 8 L of oxygen to 1 L in less than 24 hours. 

Dan and Rex after they got home. Already playing Ninja Turtles with the gang!

 

 My little gang back together again.

I'm so thankful for all the prayers that were said for Rex and our family. We were blessed by so many people in just a few days. I'm so glad that we are all back in the same house and it just makes me even more anxious for summer. Hot, sweaty, beautiful summer.