Jacob's 4th Birthday Party

Well Sunday was Little Jacobs 4th Birthday Party. The party started around 2pm. I made some Homemade Lasagnas (Jacob calls it zalagna. lol) that turned out great. We had garlic bread and a big salad. Some friends of ours that came brought 3 peperoni pizzas (which was so nice). We had a veggie tray that my mom brought. It was good. It was nice having it all cooked by the time everyone got here as well, so we could relax and enjoy it all too. Here are some pictures from the day.

This was the table with all the food. Jacob's nephew was playing with my camera and was taking silly shots around the house and I actually like the way this one turned out.

Here is some people at the table eating. (Yes that is Jacob's sister with the fushia hair. I like it, and really that is so his sister. She is crazy like that and it totally fits her. She usually has a diffrent color with different holidays and sesasons)The pinata was alot of fun. Jacob, Caleb, Hailee and Elizabeth were the only ones who wanted to hit it. Well alot of swinging and hitting it, it didn't break so Jacobs sister Jamie got in there and busted it open for the kids.

There was alot of playing pool table as Jacob calls it. He loves to sit up there and shoot the balls into the pockets. He has loved playing pool since his second birthday party. Maybe one day when he gets older he will make mommy and daddy alot of money doing this. LOL. He is pretty good too. He holds the pool stick better than I can.

He got alot of presents as usual. He got some a new bike from mommy and daddy. We saved his big gift to give him at his party instead of his actual birthday. I am glad we had decided to do this especially since we came home from the hospital on his actual birthday too. He got clothes, movies, toys, a basketball hoop, a cars tent, a rocker thing (like a horse but not a horse), hand held video games, grandpa jim made him some mini wood golf clubs, a travel light brite (oh how I loved mine when I was younger), crayons and coloring books. Just all kinds of stuff. He loved it all, but especially his bike. He told us the other day that "It was the best bike he has ever seen." I am so glad he thinks so. I had to go to a few different store to find it.

He had NO idea he was getting it, and was so excited when Daddy wheeled it in from outside.

Then we had cake and icecream. I made cupcakes actually. I made 40 plus cupcakes and decorated them to look like sports balls. We had footballs, baseballs, basketballs and soccer balls. The cupcakes were all the same, chocolate and yellow cake swirled. Then the footballs all had chocolate icing and the others all had cream cheese and just the basketballs I made orange icing with food coloring. Then designs on top were just little gel icing decorating things I got at the grocery store. One day before Valentines Day I found these valentines that were a box with sports ball chocolates in them. Well I got a few boxes of each kind, and didn't know exactly what I was going to do with them, but loved that it was our theme. So I decided to add them to the top of each of their coordinating cupcake. I think they turned out cute.

Well when everyone was over my sister in law Jamie showed me the invitations to her daughters birthday party and they are soooo stinking cute. It is a princess party and the invites are mini scrolls. They are adorable. I can't wait to get mine. I think that idea would be so cute as a little baby girl birth announcement too. I will share when I get mine.

I am waiting for my mom to bring home Little Jacob from their birthday date. My mom wants to take each of the kids out for their birthdays for lunch, just the two of them. So since we were at the hospital and then still not feeling our best when we got home, they decided to do it today. She took him to Johns Incredible Pizza. I am sure he had a blast. They will be home soon I think. I miss him, and it is so weird him not being here with me.

I guess I could get some cleaning up done around here since Caleb is now asleep too. All this quiet is weird that is for sure.

Well I think we might have house guests again tonight. Ryan and Marcus' real mom is here from Germany and her and her husband stayed here the other night, and I dont' know if they are staying tonight too, or not. I want to take some pictures of them with her and their other half brother too before she leaves.

Ok off to clean up the kitchen now...I think.

Busy Busy Busy today

Man we were really busy today.

Got up and took Ryan to school at 7:45am.

Jacob took Marcus to school at 8:45am so that I could take a shower.

Went to breakfast at 10am at Dennys with Jacobs two sisters and his mom and dad.

Went to do x-rays for Jacobs foot so that they can approve his referral for his foot.

Went home so that jacob could call the DMV to find out about his drivers license (expired back in September...oops!)

Got ahold of the DMV and then we decided to brave the DMV and see how long the wait was.

EXTREMELY long line at the DMV so we decided to do it first thing in the morning.

Went to Best Buy looking for a new CD drive for the computer, but they didn't have what Jacob wanted.

Went to Circuit City...the only thing we got there was 100 CDs for 12.50.

Went home again.

We were only home for about 30 minutes and then we had to leave again to pick up the kids from school.

Got gas

Went to Jacob's sisters house to pick up some brakes they had for Jacob for the expedition.

Dropped some steps off at his mom and dads house.

Went to the grocerry store to get some chicken for dinner (even though I just spent 400.00 at the grocerry store on Friday)

Came home and Jacob made dinner.

Kids got baths.

Made popcorn.

Put in a movie and Jacob was asleep right away.

I am sitting here typing this and not paying attention to my movie....

Tomorrow is going to be busy as well. We have to face the darn DMV. That will be a task in itself.

As soon as I get a chance I will post birthday photos.

Here is the layout for the sketch too..

A new Sketch

Thought I would share another new sketch. It is late so I will post the layout tomorrow. It was a busy weekend full of birthday parties. Saturday was my grandmas husbands 80th birthday party. It was a surprise. Then on Sunday we had Jacob's 4th birthday party. He had a great time. He LOVES his little bike that we got him. I will share pictures later.

Wedding Invitations and Envelopes

Getting back to our "normally scheduled program" isn't the easiest of things. I feel like we have been out of sorts for longer than a week now. Today Ryan stayed home from school because he is sick. Oh boy will this ever end. I had to take Jacob in to our pediatrician yesterday just for a follow up from being in the hospital. He still has two ear infections, but is on amoxicillian so that is working on that. Caleb has two ear infections and in now on amoxicillian as well. The pediatrician also has us giving Caleb albuterol breathing treatments to help with his little bit of wheezing. Man I swear. I want all the kids to get better and for me and Jacob to NOT get sick at all. We don't have time to get sick that is for sure. So I thought I would share the wedding invitations and envelopes that I finished up last week before the hospital event.
Here is the inside of the invitation.

Here is the outside, all folded up together.

Here is the matching envelope.

Ok the colors on these pictures are not the greatest. I was going to retake them and just didn't get a chance to do it. What is hard to see is that the insides of all the flowers have a small silver pearl and the inside and outside of the actual invitation have a tail of silver pearls on them as well. I am really happy with the way that they turned out.

I am working on a few all cardstock layouts that I hope to share within the next day or so. I am going to be so busy all weekend. Tomorrow I have to go to the bank, grocerry shopping for Jacobs birthday party and two weeks worth of dinners and food, Saturday is the Grand Prix and my grandmas husbands 80th surprise party in Lancaster and Sunday is Jacob's 4th Birthday party. I am exhausted already. I have tons to get for the party still too, since I didn't have a chance to get it this past weekend. I have alredy been getting stuff here and there, so I am really glad for that. Mostly just the food stuff, but I have to get his big gift and candy for the pinata too.

Off to make tostadas for dinner tonight.

RSV (in combination with a few other things)...

and 5 nights and 6 days later we are now home from the hospital. What a LONG week. It all started last Monday. Little Jacob started to get a runny nose and you could tell that he just wasn't feeling well at all. Then on Tuesday he didn't want to do anything but sleep in combination with the runny nose and now a cough and a high fever on and off all day. Then on Wednesday it did not get any better, and he was saying his ears hurt. So I figured it was a double ear infection like he had before and a little cold he had with it. So after we took Jacob dinner on Wednesday we decided I should take him to the ER. (Our pediatrician was out of town until Tuesday). Just that afternoon Marcus had said his ear was hurting him really bad too, so I said what the heck if we are going, lets take them both. So Marcus, little Jacob, Caleb and I went to the ER at Victor Valley Community Hospital. Well actually I had to go home first and print out our new temporary ID cards since I have only requested new ones since the beginning of the year 4 times now and they only keep sending me ones for Caleb and Daddy Jacob. Then my printer gets a printer jam and won't work. Then I wanted to make sure that with the new insurance carrier (but still the same insurance we have always had) which hospital we were supposed to go to and couldn't get a hold of anyone at the insurance place (they are only open m-f 9-4, because you know no body gets sick after those hours). But finally I got it all figured out.
We got to the ER at 6:50pm. They called us back for triage to take the kids' temperatures, blood pressure and all that great stuff. Then we had to wait in the waiting room with about 100 other sick and nasty people. I had heard at one point it was a 4 1/2 hour wait. So we couldn't do anything but wait. We saw many interesting things though that is for sure. There was a crazy lady that was escorted out of the hospital twice, and while she was she was cussing at the security and had a real trash mouth, with all these kids there in the waiting room. Yeah real class there.
So after we finally get called back (I believe it was about 10 pm ish by this point), then we had to wait a bit more. The doctor was horrible. She would be in the middle of talking to you and just walk away then yell back oh I'll be back in a few minutes. She did this in the middle of checking out Marcus a few times too. So they determined that Marcus was fine. His ear was just sore, and had a little bit of wax build up in there. Then they did a breathing treatment on little Jacob and we had to go for a chest x-ray. Then Daddy Jacob was off work and came to pick up Caleb and Marcus who were getting restless being there.

So after all this they finally decided that he had asthma and we had to get shipped down to Loma Linda. However they said there was no beds available for him there, so we were put on a waiting list to get one and they were going to call around to other surrounding hospitals. But they said that we might have to wait as long as 12 hours in the ER here until they could find us a bed at any hospital. The {rude} doctor had told me they were moving him 'in case' he got worse. They just didn't know if he would or not. Then it was he was so sick they had to move him. Nothing she told me was making sense. I was getting so mad, and I wanted to go home, or whatever was going on to just happen already. I got so mad at one point the {rude} doctor was walking away in the middle of saying something to me and this time tells me to wait here (in our little ER room) and I said something like "Yeah ok because I am going somewhere?"

So then since we are on the fast track side of the ER (where they are supposed to get you in and out faster....ha ha) and they closed at 1am, and it was now 1:30 am they had to move us to the regular side of the ER. So over we went. There they had to start an IV, draw vein and artery blood, do an RSV test, do more breathing treatments. All kinds of crap was done to him. So then the doctor on this side tells us that he did test positive for RSV, but it isn't asthma it is pneumonia, RSV and ear infections all together. So they tell us that they did get us a bed at Loma Linda and they are sending a transport team to come and get him, and that I won't be able to ride in the ambulance with him. WHAT?!? So I ran home to get some things of little Jacobs and to take the truck to Jacob, and he brought me back (my mom was waiting with little Jacob). So he brought me back and was going to come down first thing in the morning. So the ambulance came to get him, and he did really well. He didn't even cry when they said I couldn't go with him. The nurses were really nice to him and he was doing great. So my mom and I followed the ambulance down there. We arrived to Loma Linda at 5:30 am. They got him settled in his room in the Pediatrics Intensive Care Unit and then we got to go in and see him. To go in and see him you had to wear a gown and a face mask since the RSV is so contagious. By this point I had been awake for over 24 hours. The head doctor asked us a million questions to put into the charts. They did this and that to him. They had to put him on breathing medication full time since he was struggling so hard to breath now. Hook up his IV again. All just a blur really. Then the child life lady came in and she brought him back a TV with a VCR and some movies, and a few little toys to play with. At this point he still just wanted to sleep and do nothing. We did put in a movie and I was watching it with him and at one point one of the PT nurses came in and was talking to me but I was asleep (this was like 32 hours of being awake). Daddy and brothers came a little later. You had to be 14 to come in the room and it could be arranged for the others, but they didn't think it was a good idea for Caleb since the RSV was still highly contagious. They had NO idea when we would get to come home, we just had to wait and see when his little body would not have to struggle so hard to breathe. It was so sad to watch him breathe, his whole little body had to make this huge effort just to take a single breath. His diagnosis at Loma Linda was RSV and asthma. RSV is a form of pneumonia, so that is why they all really went together, and also the ear infections.

We were still there on Valentines Day. Which made me cry. I had planned to make us a nice steak dinner and all the good stuff to go with it and a nice dessert, just for the 6 of us. Well at this point I was having fast food twice a day while in the hospital. (Thanks to Jacob and my mom). Jacob came down on Valentines Day and brought me a very nice card that he wrote in that sort of lifted my spirits, but still.

I was really hoping to be out of there by Monday, since that was little Jacob's 4th Birthday. We had a great night nurse 4 nights that we were in the PICU. Her name was Michelle and she was only 24. She was great with him and he seemed to like her too. I am very thankful for her. Every time they had to do some blood on him or change his IV (3 times) I would help hold his arm, and talk to him and rub his head with my other hand, to try to help keep him calm. She told me I should be a nurse. She said I would be great with it, since she saw how good I was with him. :) She was so excited that it was going to be his birthday and she would play with him while we were there. She asked me if I needed all the time.

He finally started eating and drinking things on Friday evening. They started him out on a clear diet. But then quickly said whatever he will eat and drink is fine, once they determined that he was going to keep it down. So on Saturday night at 4 am decided he wanted his soft taco. lol. I had them heat it up and he ate 2 of them.

Everyday he was looking better and you could really tell there was an improvement each day.

So finally he was doing much better and on Sunday they got to take out the 24 hour breathing medicine and just go to giving him a breathing treatment every 2 hours. He still had to be on oxygen though since it kept dropping too low. So on Sunday night they moved us to a step down room, which was just the step before we could finally go home. We had to share a room there (ugh). The nurse there did slowly decrease his oxygen and he kept it up just fine. So on Monday the doctor came in and told us we might get to go home that day. WOOHOO!!!!!! He didn't know for sure, the team had to discuss it and they would let us know. So I went to go down to the gift shop to get him a balloon and get him a slice of cake in the cafeteria for him. Well the gift shop was closed for the holiday and so was the cafeteria. I found him a slice of cake in the rotating vending machine and got that. Nothing great, but was better than nothing. The nurses brought him in a little cupcake with sprinkles and a candle. The HR lady at Daddy Jacobs work sent him a big basket of teddy bears with a few balloons attached to it as well. That came Monday too, which made his day. So finally they tell us that we are for sure going home that day. Well then the pass is closed for Daddy to come and get us. OH GREAT. Well he is on the phone with the Highway Patrol trying to figure out when the road would be open again, and then I was watching the news. Finally they said it was open again about 10:30 and I called Jacob right away and he was going to leave to come and get us before they closed it again because of the weather. He got there and we were ready to go. We were home by 3pm.

While we were there daddy had been at home cleaning everything to make sure the germs were all gone. He washed everything in the house, all the dishes and more in the cabinet, did all the laundry including all the towels and all the bed sheets. He had the carpets cleaned on Monday morning as well.

It was so great to be home and take an actual shower. I did get to take one shower at the hospital but you have to make an appointment.

We ordered pizza for him for his birthday when we got home and relaxed the rest of the night. We were all so tired that we all slept through the alarm 3 times the next morning. We decided to let the older boys stay home again yesterday too, so we could all relax the entire day.

It is definitely hard getting back to our normal routine and schedule today, but a nice feeling at the same time.

Layout for the sketch

Here is the layout for the sketch I posted the other day. I also love the mix of black and white photos with color photos.

Off to put my cranky children to bed now.

Where we have been...

Well I am here finally. Thought I would finally share a few photos of what I have been up to lately. So these photos of flowers and pearls are what will soon become my wedding boquet. Our colors are navy blue and white, but I loved the shade of these light blue gerber daisies. When I was holding all the flowers together at Michaels a lady stopped me to tell me she thought that they were beautiful flowers all together like I had them. That made me feel good. So I thought we could sprinkle in a little light blue here and there for an extra little detail for the wedding. We are still looking for where we want the food to come from. Little by little it is all coming together, but still so much left at the same time. I got round tulle circles and we are going to put dark blue, white and light blue jelly beans in them and tie them with a dark blue sheer ribbon and a "Thank you for sharing our day " and the date tag as the guest gifts. I want to go back to Michaels and get some more of these flowers and make my mom and his mom a wrist corchase (ok really don't know how to spell that one), and a boutineer for Jacob and the boys and my step dad and his dad. I think it would be pretty to have some of these flowers on the guest sign in book too, and also the flower arrangements on the tables. Little at a time for these as well, since just these flowers cost me 30.00 (and most of them were on sale too). But I will get some each week or something.

In between all the wedding preps too I have been planning Jacob's 4th birthday party. We are doing a sports theme. Instead of cake I am making cupcakes and decorating the tops like different sports balls. Here are the invitations. The envelopes are brown and look like footballs, and have basketballs and soccer balls on them.

Here is the new laptop. I love it. :) It gets to sit on my desk. I say it is mine and Jacobs and he says it is really mine, but if he has to go away on work trips he will take it with him then. Thank you my baby for my new toy. I have been busy organizing all my pictures on it. Jacob moved them all from the big computer to this computer for me. :) Then we moved my HP Photo printer to the top of my desk and hooked it up with the laptop so now I can print photos whenever I need them, instead of waiting until Jacob or the kids are off the big computer. I totally need a silhouette now :) Really thinking of getting one now. Watching a few on ebay as we speak now.

Here is a layout that I mentioned before, that I did a few weeks ago. It is up at the store right now. I really didn't like this Basic Grey line at first, and then it really grew on me quickly. I really like the butterflies. This layout has 18 pictures on it. On a single page layout. Is that alot or what. It was a fun layout too becasue it is old pictures of me and Jacob through the years. It made me smile to look back at how much we have changed in the 10 years.
Here are a few other things I have done. I made both of my cousins a bookmark and a set of cards. They were baptized a few Sundays ago and this was the gifts I made for them on that day. The bookmarks were inspired by one that I made myself, but a bit bigger. I didn't take a picture of that one yet though.

Let me see what else we have been up to lately.
We cleaned the garage, started painting the boys/guest bathroom, doctor appointments for the babies and Daddy Jacob, enjoying the rain, dinner with Jacobs family one night, got our fridge fixed, loaned Jacobs brother his truck, so have been down to one car for the last few days, registration due on both vehicles and his needed a smog too, playing with the laptop and organizing all of my photos, wedding planning, my step dad was admitted to the hospital on Thursday for chest pain and had to stay the night because they could not rule out that it wasn't a heart attack but he came home last night and is doing ok, mounds of laundry as usual, grocerry shopping, making a few valentines day gifts, the kids are busy with school stuff, Jacob working alot as usual, and all the general things in between as well.

Well I have to work tomorrow and I am hoping to get all the wedding invitations cut out and started on. I would like to have those out by this next weekend. :) HOPEFULLY is the key word here.

A 10 photo sketch

I used photos from Jacobs work, and him at work for this layout. I did the journaling about his promotion to a supervisor last March. My favorite part of the layout is that I was able to include his business card on the layout as well. Instead of the smallest photo, I replaced it with the business card. I think that is one of my favorite things about sketches is that you can completley adapt them to your own personal needs. I will post the layout I did for this sketch tomorrow. Maybe by then I can get some pictures taken of some of my other projects I have been working on.

Just busy

I have just been so busy lately. I feel like there is so not enough hours in one given day. Hope to be back to posting regularly again soon. I have so much stuff that I have been working on lately.
However I am posting this while laying in bed on my new laptop. I just have to tell you what a great deal we got on it. We walked into best buy and got it for 399.00. We got the laptop, an optical mouse and a 4GB memory stick. This thing is wonderful. Off to bed.