Staucie's Friend Party

Staucie had a friend party this year on the Saturday after her birthday. We had a pajama party! The girls wore their pajamas and brought their pillows. Daniel left the house with the 3 younger kids and so I had asked Staucie's aunt Brittany to come over and assist me. 

While the girls were arriving at the party they sat at the table and made beaded necklaces. When they had all arrived I sent the girls on a scavenger hunt around the house to find candy. After they found the candy we sang Happy Birthday to Staucie and then they decorated cupcakes and ate them.

 As they finished their cupcakes they made a bed on the floor. I told them it was time to go to sleep since it was a pajama party and they said, "do we really have to go to sleep?" Ha ha. I read them a bedtime story. "Goldilicious." And then I had them pretend they were dreaming silly things. Then Staucie dreamt she was blowing out candles and opening presents, so I had them all "wake up" so we could open presents!

 Then I had them all give me their stuffed toy that they brought and I had them go upstairs while we, the moms and I, hid them. Then they came down to find them.

 Then we had stuffed toy races, which was really funny. Animals were flying!

It was a lot of fun!

Happy Birthday, Miss Staucie!

She turned SIX

Staucie turned 6 on February 23, 2012. She was so excited for her birthday to come. Daniel happened to be home from work on her birthday for something else so we took cupcakes to her Kindergarten class at lunchtime and had lunch with her. After I picked her up from school we went to get icees and then she really wanted to open presents! So when we got home we drug Daniel down from working upstairs and opened presents.

 Then after dinner aunt Brittany, uncle Matt, Noah, Tessa and our neighbors/friends, and their two daughters came over too. Staucie wanted to invite Noah, 2, and Kaitlyn, who is 3, to her friend party, but we decided they were too young for that so they just came that night for cake.

 She told me she wanted a snowman cake...

Happy Birthday, Staucie! I kept telling her to just turn 4 and count back down to zero. And then she could go back up to 4 again and just stay with me forever. She agreed. But then on her birthday, at 6:30 in the morning, she told me she was SIX!


Staucie is such a sweet girl. She also enjoys being the "boss" of her siblings and is good at pouting when they don't do what she wants. Addie adores her and loves it when Staucie plays with her. She gives Staucie a big hug when we pick Staucie up from school.


I gave Staucie a box for her birthday and filled it with paper, makers, colored pencils, and such. She is always coloring and creating so she loves her paper and markers! I also gave her a leotard so she could start gymnastics! So far, she has enjoyed it.

We love you, Staucie!

Sick season and Valentine's Day

The kids had a fun Valentine's day even though all but Bensen were pretty sick. The day before we had taken all but Bensen to the doctor. No one had been sleeping, they were coughing all night long. We were so tired and sick ourselves. Parker was borderline pneumonia, had a pretty high fever, and had an ear infection. He had a breathing treatment in the office, a steroid shot, and an antibiotic shot. He also had to take oral steroids at home and do breathing treatments. Staucie had a terrible cough that had been going on for awhile and we started her on oral steroids and breathing treatments. Addie had a double ear infection and was wheezy. She was given a steroid shot and an antibiotic shot. She was also taking oral steroids and doing breathing treatments. After our visit we finally caved and bought a nebulizer for the breathing treatments. It was hard to remember all the medications and breathing treatments over the next few days. It was also exhausting. Plus, we had some major "roid rage" going on in our house for the next few days. I hate steroid side effects. 

They finally all got almost better and then we were hit with it again just recently. Staucie has a terrible cough. Everyone has a runny nose and they can't breathe at night and cough all night long. We just keep giving out medicine. We are so exhausted. Addie now has croup. I started her on steroids and breathing treatments this morning. Thank goodness we bought a nebulizer.

While Daniel had a cough he got a hemorrhage in his eye. It is common, I guess, with high blood pressure (which he has) and he was coughing a ton one night (I made him go downstairs so I could sleep). He woke up the next morning with a very red eye. His eyes still look terrible due to the lack of sleep we have been getting lately. It is getting ridiculous. I even laid in the hall for a couple hours early one morning to keep the kids out of our room so he could get in a couple hours of sleep before he went to work. I get up right after he leaves so I was super tired and my body did not appreciate the hard floor.

I am looking forward to this "sick" seasoning ending, but I am starting to dread the miserable heat that is fast approaching. It has been nice to spend lots of time outside.

...Valentine's day.

Staucie was able to make it to school that day and have her Valentine exchange. Parker was too sick to go to preschool, but I took him at the end so he could participate in the party and exchange his Valentine's. Bensen, Addie, and I stayed with him.

After we picked up Staucie from school the kids looked through all their stuff from school and the stuff from G&G and from me. Staucie and Parker shared their candy with Bensen and Addie. They are usually so good at sharing with each other. They just do it automatically.

Some random photos

Staucie celebrated her 100th day of school by dressing like an old lady and all the Kindergarteners and their teachers had a parade through the school. They were very cute. I went and helped in her classroom after the parade with one of their activities. The other kids usually come with me to help at Staucie's school, but this time their aunt Brittany offered to have them come over to play at her house. It was nice to be able to just hang out with Staucie in her classroom for a little while and do a project with her.

 Staucie's class.

 Addie was playing in the dirt with a shovel and she kept tasting the dirt. I pulled them all out of the dirt after awhile and Addie was not happy with me. Silly.

 I found this picture of Bensen on my phone... It is a Christmas game and you can create a greeting card. Apparently he saved his picture to my phone.

 Sometimes after we take Parker to school we go to the mall to play. Bensen requests it almost everytime we drop off Parker. Sometimes Brittany, Noah, and Tessa join us too. They are playing on the quarter machine cars. We never put in money but they think it is great fun!

 One day Parker was running up the stairs and tripped... the stairs won. Daniel found him bleeding on the stairs. His nose hit the step. It didn't bleed too long, but it looked good. I was also able to get the blood out of my carpet. I sent a picture to Brittany and she told or showed Noah it and he apparently tells everyone about Paker's little accident.

Houston Aquarium

In January on Memorial day we got to go to the Aquarium in downtown Houston for Parker's preschool field trip. Daniel didn't have work and Staucie didn't have school so we all got to go. I forgot my camera, of course, so we used our phones. I lost some pictures because Bensen figured out how to delete the pictures on my phone and I haven't gotten the other ones off of Daniel's phone.

Inside the Aquarium. They are sitting in a little wooden boat. My phone does not take good pictures when it is dark. I thought there were some other pictures inside, like ones of Staucie touching a sting ray, but maybe they got deleted or Daniel has them...

Outside we got to ride the train to go see the shark aquarium. It goes in a tunnel and the sharks are swimming above and around us. It is pretty neat.

 Then we went on the ferris wheel thing. It goes so high.

 Addie was scared and so was I. I will ride any roller coaster, but I do not like ferris wheels. This one is a little better because you are sitting inside something, but I still don't like it.

 A view of downtown. Daniel's office building is somewhere in there.

 The view to the east of downtown.

 This was a new ride from the last time we were there. I was excited to go on it. Staucie was too. So we went together first. I know I had more pictures of all of us taking turns on this, but they got deleted. Bensen was sad when Staucie and I went with out him so then Daniel went with him. Look how excited he is and how little he looks. You can see Staucie's boots to the left of the picture. She wanted to ride again. Eventually, we got Parker to try it. They all loved it. It shot us up and dropped us down and then back up and down a few times.