here's another good one from about a month ago:

So the girls are fighting right now and it's absolutely hilarious. first they were arguing because eden kept turning off the t.v. and faith wanted to watch it. i finally said, no more t.v. go play. faith is at the top of her drama moods today and it really is something to watch, lol. just the tone in her voice, as if the whole world is against her and there is no hope left for happiness. and what's so amusing is that eden is learning to copycat her so i've got 2 princess bees in the house! she's yelling at eden to stop yelling at her, eden is crying because faith is yelling at her and continues to yell at faith. once i sent them to their room, faith stands in front of the mirror watching herself cry yelling at eden while eden is still yelling back at her. that's alot of yelling! and the funny part is what they're actually saying. really edie just repeats everything faith says:

"you're not my boss eden, don't scream at me!"
"why you scream at me?"
"leave me alone edie, GO AWAY!"
"don't scream at me! daddy come home and spank you faith!"
"NO! daddy at work"
"yes!"
"no!"
"you're a bad butt faith"
"DON'T CALL ME BADD BUTT! GO AWAY!"
"you go away! why you scream at me?"

~OMG, this is hilarious and goes on for about 5 minutes. i'm just listening outside their door. so finally eden comes out all non-chalant telling me she has a bloody nose (not from her sister, don't worry, it's just the desert) and that faith screamed at her. i clean her up, go back in the room to talk to her and faith. i tell them to apologize to each other and to say i forgive you. they say it in the sweetest voices and they're all smiles now. i tell them i'll be right back (so i can sneak back here to finish this blog, lol) and not even 2 minutes goes by before i hear this:

eden: "no!" (about 4 times in a row)
faith: you're a stupid head!
eden: "I'M...NOT..A..STUPIDHEAD!"
faith: "leave me alone, edie!"
eden: "you leave me alone faith!"

~again this goes on for another few minutes and now i hear edie singing softly "you are so beautiful to me" (which is her fav song to sing right now) and faith being thankfully quiet.
ah the joys of sisterhood! that's the one thing i really wish i'd had growing up. the joys and horrors of living with siblings. although i have siblings, i didn't grow up with any of them so i don't have these memories to look back on and laugh at.

here is a blog from a few months ago. i thought i'd add it here since it was pretty fun:


I have never been a very artistic person. I hated art in high school because everything i did came up substandard. i've always proclaimed that i'm not a very creative person. but, i loove anything to do with the arts. i love going to museums and art galleries. i love going to plays and concerts. if you've ever seen Celtic Women on t.v., jimmy and i got to see them perform in Pasadena and it was beautiful. I'm still trying to get into the Getty Museum. i want to go to the Getty Villa in Malibu where everything showcased is on Ancient Greece and Rome. if it were my choice we'd do "artsy" stuff all the time. But when it comes down to actually being artsy....well that's just not me. or so i thought.

Someone had given the kids some bottles of crayola washable paint a couple of years ago. my first thought, obviously, was "this isn't happening" and stuck them on the top of the shelf and never thought of it again. well a few weeks ago, for some odd reason, i decided that it would be fun to let the kids paint. i pulled out some large construction paper, grabbed 1/2 dozen paint brushes, some stencils and we were set to go. oh, i know what it was, i wanted to eden learn her colors. i realized that she could count to 14, but didn't have a clue what her colors were besides pink and purple, lol. anyway, we had 6 basic colors of paint: blue, yellow, red, purple, green, & orange. (by the way, it did the trick she knew them all by the next day.) we had such a great time coming up with different things to paint and using all the colors.
i must include a note here: i am not usually the type of person to be able to do this. i'm a perfectionist, i have to tell them what to do and how to do it. and i get totally stressed out if they do it "wrong" or if they make a mess. (thank goodness for crayola washables!) but, i've really been trying to change. i don't want to be that type of mother. i want to just let them go, to watch and see where they're own imaginations take them. i want them to feel free. and i want to feel free of having to control everything.

so anyway, as i was painting i noticed how the different brushes made different types of paint strokes. i was intrigued and started playing around with that. before i knew it i had all sorts of things: flowers and trees, sun & clouds, fish and inchworms (lol, i don't know, so don't ask). just whatever came across my mind. and i had the biggest sense of peace during and after. i realized, that i looove to paint. i'm not necessarily any good, but that's not what matters. and so you know, it takes a lot for my perfectionist little self to say this. it doesn't matter what it looks like, but how it makes me feel. i went to Michaels yesterday and bought more acrylic paints and canvas and stamps. i have this idea i want to do and i'm super excited about it. if it turns out well, i'll take a picture of it and post it soon.

so, that's my story. that's how i found something that really makes me feel quiet and peaceful, content and comforted. i'm so happy because i've never really made time to do things on a regular basis for myself. that just comes with the territory of being a mother of 4, i guess. and what's great, is that my kids enjoy doing this with me!

Funny Thought...

4 ways kids are like Peeps...


1. They're sweet, though almost always a bit sticky.

2. You can give them a little squeeze if they're yours-but not if they're a stranger's.

3. They're a known cause of stubborn belly overhang.

4. It can be hard to stop at one, but after two or three, the mere thought of having another may make you queasy.

~~~i thought this was funny, i hope you all enjoyed it!~~~

Pneumonia?!

So, Here's the scoop. Caleb has pneumonia. Can you friggin believe it? When I first found out, I was crying and asking, how could this have happened? Well, I'm gonna tell you the whole story...

Saturday night we were having dinner at Beka's house. I'd noticed throughout the day and evening that he'd been sleeping a lot and not eating much. But, I didn't think to much of it. Sunday we go to church and he slept pretty deeply until the afternoon, and again, not eating much. My parents came over that day and he'd started coughing pretty badly towards the evening. Still I didn't think much of it because he'd had a pretty bad cold about 5 weeks ago. The Dr just said to keep clearing his nose, vaporizer in his room, nurse as much as possible. Well, i thought if i do these same things, he'll get better soon. But that night, he woke up with a super hot fever, coughing uncontrollably for 2 hours straight, and just couldn't eat. I called immediately the next morning to get him an appt. They gave him a breathing treatment in the office right away. The Dr could have sworn he had strep throat because his throat was so raw, but the results were negative. She gave him a shot of an antibiotic that's so painful, they actually mix it with a numbing agent. I felt so bad for my baby! they also gave me some sample of the liquid so i could give him breathing treatments throughout the night, if needed. They also prescribed him amoxycillin. She said to call in the morning and if he's not any better they'd do a chest x-ray to check for pnuemonia. Because he's so little, she didn't want to do the x-ray unless she was sure it was necessary.

The next morning he woke up with a pretty sever breathing attack again, so she ordered a stat x-ray for him. I went straight back to the Dr's office. Lo and behold, he has patchy pneumonia in the lower lobe of his left lung. They gave him another shot of the painful antibiotic, prescribed him zithromax and prednisolone (a liquid steroid).

Well, that night, I had to give him a treatment like every 2 hours! And after the treatment he'd still be wheezing pretty badly. I was starting to get a little worried because it said to only give him treatments every 4-6 hours. So, i called the dr at like 9pm. She said to give him some more of the liquid steroid and to call her back in an hour. She was gonna get a bed ready for him at the hospital, just in case! But, thank God, he was better within the hour and she said to just watch him throughout the night and bring him in the next day (wednesday).
Now when i found out it was pneumonia, i was almost in shock. None of my other children ever had gotten sick like this. Even Cole, and he actually has asthma. I asked her how this could have happened, he'd only started coughing on Sunday which was 2 days ago. She said that in babies, there lungs and airways are sooo tiny that it just sets in that quickly. Most likely someone who was carrying the bacteria, kissed him in his face, and he breathed it into his lungs.
Also, we have a major smoke issue in our apt. Downstairs from us live 4 adult chain smokers. One of which is a man who's attached to an oxygen tank 24/7. Besides the fact that obviously he'd die because of his lung cancer, it's a friggin fire hazard! WTF?! they also have a 7 month old baby that lives in the apt, and none of the stupid asses feel it necessary to go outside to smoke, because "it's too cold" ARRRGHHH!!! So sorry to all you smokers out there, but I have absolutely, NO TOLERANCE for people who smoke and have children. Has anyone seen the commercial of the old guy sitting in his recliner smoking a cigg?Te camera follows the smoke through his vent to the vent in the upstairs apt. it comes out into this bedroom with a 2 year old playing with toys and he's breathing in the cigg smoke. I get sooo furiated when i see it, because that is EXACTLY what's happening in my house. I mean people think WE are smokers because our clothes and carseat, and diaper bag all smell like it. I have chocolate brown leather couches, and they're covered in smoke residue. You can wipe a wet cloth over them and it's so dirty, it's absolutely disgusting!In the morning when i go to take a shower, i open up the curtain and smoke practically billows out. The smell is so bad it makes me literally gag. I've talked to my landlord about it, but they're not even willing to offset the cost of some damn air purifiers! Anyway, back to the point at hand, (sorry about that, i told you i'm anal about cigg smokers) the Dr actually asked if it were possible for us to move! Of course, it isn't to she "highly suggests" that we purchase some air purifiers. She tells me that the cheap ones aren't going to work and only buying one isn't going to cut it. The cheapest we found was $130! Thank the Lord for my parents because they went out and bought us one. At least we can move it around the house with the baby. It's better than nothing, ya know? So, besides the air purifier she wants me to wash his bedding nightly because the smoke settles into the blankets. No stuffed animals near him and remember to dust daily! Great. And I have to do this when no one in MY house even smokes. It's really frustrating.

Anyway, so the drs didn't want to have to hospitalize him because babies so little have a really high chance of catching things in there. I mean think about it...hospitals are where sickness LIVES. But, Great News! Wetook him back to the Dr on Wednesday, and he's doing better. He's still having trouble breathing but each day it's getting more and more under control. They gave him another painful antibiotic shot and prescribed him some steroids to give in his breathing treatments. They want to see him once a week for the next month and then once a month for the next 3. They also want him to take the pulmicort (the breating treatment steroid) 4 times a day for another month after next weeks appt. Now for those who know me, you know that i hate giving my kids all kinds of medicines. I'm one of those parents that doesn't believe in over-medicating my child just because he's got some sniffles. I think your own immune system is stronger and your healthier if you let it fight on it's own. but, in some situations you do need antibiotics and medicine to help. ear infections, strep throat, pneumonia, just won't go away on it's own. If giving him all of this is what i have to do to make him better, than so be it. But i have to tell you, honestly, i pray over him a couple of times a day as well. Just a little xtra help, ya know? =)

So, to any of you who have babies out there. If they start to get a cough, please, don't hesitate to get them looked at by a Dr. right away. My baby got pneumonia within 2 days, so it's no joke. Please take it seriously!

Caleb James

Here's our new baby boy, Caleb James Garner, born on October 13, 2007. This also happens to be my older brother Josh's birthday and it was a special surprise for us.

Family Pics

Here a few pics of us....