This year our family summer vacation consisted of going to Washington and then a "staycation". We took the kids to Great Wolf Lodge. Great Wolf Lodge is a large resort located in Grand Praire, they have others in other states. It has an indoor water park and a small outdoor one. There are several larger slides, a medium size play area for the kids and a younger toddler section as well, a lazy river and a wave pool. We have taken the kids once in the past and they loved it. We had a large group of friends their with us too. The McMurdies' (Brian and Mandie, Mark and Michelle and Eric and Sheena), Greg and Jennie Furness, Matt and Carrie Baird, Carrie's parents (the Criders), some friends of the Bairds, Brian and Angie Lines, and Adam and Emily Murdock. I think that is everybody. We had a great time with family and friends. We decided to go in September just after school started to avoid the crowds. So we went the second week of school and went on Friday and Saturday. We had a great time and the kids came home exhausted-mission accomplished. Here are a few pictures.

Mikayla's Perspective

I want to blog what happened from Mikayla's perspective as she told it to me. She went out to follow her dad out on a walk. They took a short walk and were headed back home. She got ahead of her dad, but was going too fast to make the turn down the long driveway so she went past. As she turned around to head back to the driveway, a large truck pulling a trailer got between her and Scott. She couldn't see her dad as he turned down the driveway and went inside. She waited for the truck to move and then headed back toward the house. She said she rode by but could not find the driveway. The driveway is a hidden drive between two homes that is long and leads back to their home. Their home is not very visible from the street and there is a large tree in front of the house. So she said she could not figure out where to turn. She figured she could find it so she kept on riding. Then it started to rain. She started to cry and became scared. The streets were wet and some were very steep. As she went down one of the streets that was steep, she slid and feel off her bike and got her shoe wet in a puddle. Mikayla decided to say a prayer and ask Heavenly Father for help. As she prayed, Heavenly Father told her where to go and that someone would help her. She got back on her bike and followed where Heavenly Father told her where to go. Just as she came to a large tree, she said Jesus told her to stop here. She stopped and sat there and a man came out of his garage and asked her how she was doing. Mikayla didn't respond and started to cry. He asked if she was lost. He told her to get in the car and he would help her find the way home. She said that Heavenly Father told her it was okay to get in the car with him. As they drove, she gave him more details. She told him what the house looked like and that the house next door was number 210. He asked more questions and she told him she was from Texas and was just visiting. They drove around the neighborhood looking but could not find it, especially since it was hidden to view. She also told the man that her dad was in a black car like a Tahoe but it was not a Tahoe (we had a black Yukon as a rental car). As they discussed details and what things looked like around the home, she sat up from the back and saw her dad and he passed her on the street in his car. She pointed to him and told the man that was her dad. Scott said he saw her sit up and point in the back of the car and he pointed to her too. They stopped and Mikayla got out and hugged her dad and she cried. She was so grateful to be back with her family. Later that night, we prayed together in gratitude to Heavenly Father for helping her when she was in need and directing so she could return home safely.

Washington Trip-Where's Mikayla?

Another experience that we had in Washington that still makes my heart race and eyes tear up. Those emotions are out of pain, fear but most of all gratitude. About the fourth day we were there, on Tuesday. Kimball had gone to work. Marianne and Reece left to take two of Marianne's children to a Xylophone summer camp. Scott and I were home and the children were all playing outside and I was inside withe Lexi and Kaylee. I saw Scott put Keira in the stroller to go for a short walk and Mikayla got on a bike and followed Scott out. Later I saw Scott on the back porch and the children all running around playing. It started to rain so we gathered all the children under the patio and Scott and I were holding Kaylee and Lexi. As the children gathered under the shelter of the patio, Mikayla never came in and I looked at Scott and asked where Mikayla was. He said she had come in after their walk. I jerked my head towards him and said firmly, "no, she never came back in the house." Immediately, fear, anxiety and heartache came over me. One of my biggest fears was staring me in the face. My heart raced and I tried not to cry. I gathered the children and brought them all into the house. I asked each one to check their rooms and closets and the rest to check the other rooms in the house, giving them each a room and making sure all the rooms were thoroughly checked. Scott immediately grabbed the keys and ran out the door, jumped in the car and sped off. I hesitantly walked out to the garage, fearing what I would see, the bike was still gone. I took a deep breath and went back into the house and gave the two babies (who were screaming after sensing the tension in the air) to the older children and said everyone sit right here. I need to go look for Mikayla. I walked out the door, headed up the driveway while I called Scott on my cell phone. He answered and I prayed I would hear him say he had found her. He did not, he said he hasn't seen her or the bike anywhere. I felt the lump in my throat and my eyes start to tear up. I held my breath and told Scott, "I can't do this! I can't lose my baby!" I overhear him talking to a woman asking her if he had seen a little girl. She responded no and said she would help go look. In the mean time, I start walking the streets and yelling for her. I begin to think she has been gone way to long and we don't have the man power. Thoughts and fears poured through my mind, how scared she must be and it has been raining and she is on a bike, how I have not prepared her for this situation, how I will self destruct if we don't find her, how could I be a mother to my other children? How could I not blame my husband? How could I ever go back to Texas without her? My heart raced faster and faster and my tears started to well up in my eyes. I told Scott, "I think we need to call the police." So I called 911 and reported her missing, something I never in a million years I would have to do. The dispatcher just kept telling me to check the house, that 90% of the time the child is in the house. In the mean time, Marianne had returned home and I told her Mikayla was missing and her and Reece were in their car out looking as well. I explained to the dispatcher that she was gone and several people had checked the house. They insisted she was probably in the house. I could hardly keep myself calm, knowing she was out there by herself, scared and alone and knows nothing about the area, knows no one. What seemed like an eternity went by, filled with questions from the dispatcher and finally I hear the sirens coming. The police get there and I come out of the house with my hand over my mouth, trying to swallow the lump in my throat and not fall apart crying. I started to breath heavily, like a child before they are going to wail. The police officer told me to take a deep breath. He started to ask me questions, my cell phone rings and my husband was calling. I answered it and he said, "I have her, I found her!" I apologized profusely to the police officer who was very kind and told me it was okay. Scott pulls up and goes around to get Mikayla out of the car. He opens the door and she wraps her arms and legs around him tightly and buries her head sobbing uncontrollably. He carried her to me and I just sat down on the stairs leading up to the front door. I held her as she cried and I stroked her hair. I immediately said a prayer of gratitude as I held my sweet baby girl. I love her so much and could never imagine life without her. I am so grateful for these dear, sweet children Heavenly Father has allowed me to have and am so grateful I could be their mother. They are amazing and the sweetest spirits and I hope to cherish everyday I have with them.

So I decided to update my blog and start blogging again. I can't believe it has been so long and I am so lazy. I thought it was ironic when I opened my blog to see my last entry was kidney stones. Guess what I just did???? Passed another kidney stone. Last Friday we were hanging out with Anna and Sean (my cousin and their two kids), we had just gone swimming and were having quiet time. Most of the kids were asleep and Keira had fallen asleep on me. As soon as Keira woke up, I got up and immediately noticed a tightness and pain in my back. I went in and told Scott I thought I had a kidney infection. Scott and Sean were suppose to take the boys to the Ranger game and were leaving in just a few minutes. I really did not want to ruin our company's fun or my sons (Tyler is a HUGE Rangers fan). I begged Scott just to go to the game with Sean and Austin, Anna would keep the kids and I could call his mom to take me to the ER. So, Bonnie came and picked me up. As soon as I got in the car, my back pain started to intensify and I knew. . . .kidney stone (it is a pain you never forget). I started to panic on the inside knowing the amount of pain that was coming and how quickly it comes, so I wanted to get to the ER ASAP!!! We got to the ER and were the only ones there. I signed in and they immediately took me back, we didn't even sit down. They started checking all my vitals and the pain started getting worse quick. By the time they got me to the room, which was within 10 minutes or so of being there, I was in serious pain. They hooked me up to an IV and started fluids and fairly quickly gave me morphine. At this point, I am already dry heaving from the pain. The morphine gave me zero relief and I was really, really hurting. They took me for a CAT scan and determined I definitely had a kidney stone. I checked into the ER at 5:15 and they discharged me with drugs by 7:15. I was still very uncomfortable, weak, and dehydrated. Scott's mom took me to get prescriptions and some food, which I couldn't tolerate. We got home and I laid in bed in severe pain. I threw up constantly until Saturday night. Finally, I got the pain under control and was able to get off pain meds by Monday. I had to go to the Urologist (which officially makes me old, everyone in the waiting room was at least twice to three times my age). She said just to wait it out that is was small enough to pass. I eventually passed it on July 4th at 12:25 am. I birthed my seventh child Pebbles McMurdie. :) I can't tell you how relieved I was. I was so excited I even woke Scott up. The good news is my urologist is convinced that this was a stone that was left over from the pregnancy and is hopefully I won't do this again. We can only hope!

Kidney Stones!!!!

Some of you may have seen this post on facebook but I wanted to post it here to, for memory sake!!!

I passed a 4mm kidney stone on Sunday!!! I feel like I have accomplished some major feat (like running a marathon or something). It has made me feel like I am more of a woman or something. I was going to post on my blog a thing saying,

You might have a kidney stone if:

1. You think you are in labor and you're not pregnant!

2. You think someone might have stabbed you in the back, unbeknownst to you when this occurred.

3. Vicadin doesn't even dull the pain.

4. You wonder if there is a God or a supreme being of any sort.

5. Child birth (all natural) looks and feels like a walk in the park.

6. Death seems like a good out.

7. You are asking doctors or anyone to put you out of your misery.

8. You think becoming a drug addict might be in your future.

9. I ran out of ways to describe it, other than I hope to never do that again and don't wish that on anyone, altough it does make you feel like a part of some elite club, so if you like a challenge this is a good one, it will REALLY tell you what your are made of!

Uh-Oh!!

So while I was in hospital, Scott told me about an incident that occurred. I thought it was so funny I wanted to remember this one. Apparently, at about 6:30 am, Scott heard a loud crash upstairs. He went running up to see what the noise was about. As he entered Tyler's bathroom, he discovered Tyler sitting on the stool. Scott asked, "What happened?!" Tyler simply puts his finger in the air and says, "Just give me a minute, I need to calm down!"

We laughed and laughed about this. Scott said he couldn't be mad at that point. So I guess Tyler had decided to try to hang from his towel rod in his bathroom. He had just gotten up for the day and just couldn't resist trying it out before getting ready for school. He managed to pull the rod and the entire anchor with some sheetrock right out of the wall. Apparently, this wasn't a 100lb anchor.

Sometimes don't we all need just a second to calm down? It was ingenious because it avoided a whole lot of yelling from his father. They both had a minute to process and calm down! The things kids say!

Pregnancy!!

I will NEVER openly admit this to my husband but sometimes I wonder what the problem with my body and pregnancies seems to be. For those who don't know by now, I am in the hospital with a bladder infection, severe dehydration from a virus and kidney stones. It appears that every pregnancy I have some fluke, random condition occur that would probably not ever happen otherwise. I have been a very healthy person but I get pregnant and it all falls apart.

So I think there appears to be a common denominater to any and almost all health problems I have ever encountered-PREGNANCY!!!!

What we will put ourselves through for our children?! It is SO worth it though, those sweet angels. I WILL use this as leverage later in their lives though, you better believe it!

#4

I guess I haven't updated my blog in a while, surprise, surprise!!! So for those who don't know, we are expecting another baby. We are 19 weeks and find out on January 10th if we are having a boy or a girl. We didn't find out the sex with Keira and I thought it was fun but Scott said he needs all the emotional preparation he can get, in case we have another girl. hehe (Scott cracks me up). So he said he won't miss that OB appointment.

We are very excited and feel very fortunate to have another one on the way. We also feel grateful that baby appears to be healthy to this point. I have been a little more of a worrier this pregnancy due to the miscarriage at 13 weeks with the last baby in April. So we will keep everyone posted.

Two, only two?

I was taking Mikayla and her little friend to school. I always love the conversations you overhear between children. So Mikayla was telling her little friend that there was a baby in her mommy's tummy. Her little friend said that her mom is not going to have any more babies because she already has four and that is enough. Mikayla proceeds to tell her little friend that she is only going to have two children because kids are just too much work and when she is the mommy she has to do all the work. I just sat there and laughed.

Well! Atleast one thing has been made abundantly clear in her mind, which is that mommy's work hard and it is definitely a lot of hard work. I wonder where she got this information from, could it be that I have made this very clear? Surely not! At any rate, I believe that the comment came as a result of her watching me change a less than desirable diaper of Keira's and her making the comment that it was nasty and that she didn't want to change diapers like that. To which I responded, when you have children you will have to change these diapers. She didn't like that idea too much and it apparently left a lasting impression on her. Kids say the darndest things that just crack me up. I love it!

Our First Break-up

So this happen!ed back in October (Yes! I am that trrible at doing this blog thing!). I was walking home with Tyler from the bus stop and he says I broke up with Jacob as my best bus buddy. I say, "Oh really, what happened?" Tyler said that he told Jacob that if Jacob wouldn't sit by him on the bus then he wouldn't be his best bud anymore. Jacob decided not to sit with Tyler so Tyler declared that Jacob was no longer invited to his birthday party and that they were breaking up as best bus buds.

Wow! The things kids come up with, it just cracks me up. So we officially had our first break-up. Of course, there was an extensive discussion about coersion, black maling or bribing on the rest of our walk home. What do you do?!

More pics at Galveston

Look at the sky behind Keira. It was great.

Uncle Brian and Mikayla going out to the water.

Carter found himself a fellow man amidst all the girls. He definitely found

a new buddy in Tyler. It was really cute to watch him follow Tyler around.

I think Tyler liked it too.

Why wait?

Galveston

We went to Galveston, TX and stayed in a beach house with some family and friends. We had the Bairds and Brian and Mandie stay with us. We had so much fun. It was perfect because we were about 500 ft from the beach, right off the back porch. It was overcast the entire time we were there, which made it wonderful. It stayed cool and would storm at night and then usually rain while we ate lunch. But it kept the temperatures down and the beach from being sun beaten. It was perfect. Plus, who doesn't love a great storm to sleep.

Where's the sand? Where's the water?

This is the house looking back from the beach.

Houseboat

The kids and I went to Lake Eufala in Oklahoma. Scott was unable to go with us. So I took the kids and Allyson Roscher with me (to help supervise children). We had a lot of fun. It was quite eventful, to say the least. The kids and I stayed in my parents fifth wheel RV, which is super nice. We had two houseboats, 12 adults, 10 children (the oldest being Tyler-5), two wave runners, a party barge and two trailer/campers. WHEW! Did I mention it was quite eventful?

I'll hit the hightlights. We got to the RV trailer about 9 pm the first night. Nothing was set-up properly. I have three children crying, my car is 30 minutes away and all of their blankets are still in the car, the RV water is not working, the electricity blows a fuse, there are no sheets to put on the beds (I start covering my children with their towels to sleep on a plastic wrapped matress). I finally get the children settled, go to bed about 2 am, wake-up and we have no breakfast because it is all on the houseboats across the lake.

The next day I spend my day trying to get things set-up properly. We finally get settled, my dad comes to get us on the wave runners and the wave runners break down leaving me and my three small children sitting on rocks at dinner time for about 1 1/2 hours, until the party barge comes looking for us.

I am only recording all of this for memory sake. We really did have a good time it just seemed like EVERYTHING that could go wrong was going to go wrong. It was VERY comical. Ask Allyson. So thank you, thank you, thank you Allyson. I could not have survived it without you. The children loved it and we really enjoyed being out on the water and spending time with family. I have very few pictures because I was a little distracted from taking photos to remember things. Here are the few I did get.

This was when we were trying to get the houseboats out on the water and load all of our stuff on them. This is the only picture I have because like I said, I was a little busy after that dealing with the situations.

My girls (continued)

My girls

So Mandie took pictures of the girls. It was suppose to be Keira's two year photo shoot. However, Keira wasn't super interested and Mikayla was overly interested in taking pictures. So we got some really cute ones of them both. Here are some of them.