Electronics and the Kelly's Don't Mix

If you know us very well at all, you know that we haven't had the best luck lately with electronics...so now we bring more electronic's in to the home.  Electronic item #1:  Levi just got the pager to carry for the next 14 months of clinicals...he teased me and told me not to wash it in the laundry like I did his cell phone.  I told him to "help me help you", and take it off before putting your clothes in the laundry.

Electronic item #2:  For Christmas Levi and I bought Marcus a little Pacman game device for $20 at Walmart.  We thought it was an awesome buy, that he would enjoy, and for his first "video" game it was the right price...(also fit our going to grad school, and having no job budget)  Well as soon as he opened it Christmas morning, he and Levi were in the kitchen doing something and Marcus set it on the counter.  Marcus reached up to get it and knocked into the sink full of water. Needless to say the mood sort of fizzled for a bit.  I took it in the bathroom to try and dry it with the hair dryer.  We plugged it in and it worked for about 15 seconds before it died.  My brother told us to put it in the freezer of all places!  He didn't know where he heard that but thought we should give it a try.  We put it in there over night.  When we got back to Kirksville Levi was unpacking, found the gadget, and hooked it up to the tv.  As he was doing that he said, if this works your brother is a genius!  CRAZY enough it works, and not only does it play Pacman, but it also plays about 10 other games you might recognize from the 80's arcades.  So thanks Greg "genius" Ballew for the idea!   Marcus has had a great time playing it!

We had a great time in KC, it went too fast, but it was fun.  We had 49 family members over to my Mom and Dad's house for the Ballew Christmas Eve, then spent the next couple of days watching movies and relaxing.  We had some quality time with my sweet little nephew Maven, who is already crawling by the way!  He is SO cute!  We also went to Amy's house to visit one night, and Jen came over another night to visit.  It was so fun to laugh and enjoy time with each of them.  I wish we would have had more time, but this far into the anesthesia program there are no more long "school breaks".  Next year we'll probably be lucky to get to go back to KC at all for Christmas, as Levi may be on call...oh well, we're doing what we can.   He know's he'll either be on call Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Years.  We have a bunch of  pic's from Christmas but they will have to wait as I can' t download them right now.  We are getting our home computer worked on so that it will run faster than a snail's pace!  It will be great to get it going as fast as when we first got it.

Well, I better get ready for tonight!  We're having Levi's family over for a New Years Eve party! Happy New Year!!!!!

Fun in the Snow!

Ready to have some fun! Marcus working on a snowman
Cole enjoying the snow

Smiley Carson

Marcus

Snow Angel

This morning I decided to take the boys out to play in the snow...they NEEDED to burn off a little energy. I think we accomplished that! It was really fun and we ended up being able to stay out there a few hours since it wasn't too cold. With the ice storm heading our way later today it seemed like we should get out and have some fun while we have the chance.
David and Deann will travel to Columbia today to see the specialist again, so please be praying for them. We are all praying that if they have to make any decisions regarding doing the procedure or not (to shrink the cyst in the baby), that it would be very obvious as to what they should do. I know they appreciate all of your prayers.

Update and Prayer Request

It's been a while since I  last posted... so I thought I better get that done.  Cole finished his eye drops for pink eye and is fine now.  Marcus got it a few days after Cole and finishes his drops today.  Carson is (so far) in the clear.  Marcus and Cole were both really good about letting us put drops in their eyes 4 times a day, and even got to where they would remind us about them.  Cole would say "edicine bops momma" (medicine drops)... it was kind of cute.  

I took Marcus to the doctor on Monday morning for his followup flu mist...and would you believe he had to have 3 shots too?  I really do deserve "Worst Mommy in the world" label because I assured him there were no shots.  I don't know where my head has been lately, I've forgotten the simplest of things.  The worst thing is that I did this to him last year too!  I just felt awful.  I explained to him that Mommy would never lie to him or try to trick him, but that I really messed up.  He did fine and took it like a little man.  In fact there was more crying and screaming going on before the shots than during or after them...as we left he stopped at the door and looked up at the nurse with the most pitiful look on his face and sadly said, "thank you".  Poor guy.  She said, oh even in your pain you are trying to still be polite.  

Monday afternoon I finally went to the doctor...I've been sick for over 5 weeks, but always felt up and down from day to day.  On Thursday of last week I started getting new symptoms on top of what I had already been dealing with, so I made an appointment.  I'm so thankful that I went because I have a really bad sinus infection.  I left there with 2 prescriptions to take for 21 days and a sample.  I can say I feel 80% better just after 2 days of being on the meds.  AWESOME!  I am glad I have a doctor here now too, I really liked her and it's good to have a doctor established for Levi and I when we need it.  With all the sickness around our house we haven't been out of the house too much in the past couple weeks (except Levi going to the hospital).  It will be so nice to get out and see people again.

In other much more important news, we wanted to ask you to be praying for David and Deann (Levi's brother and our sister in law).  She is pregnant (almost 22 weeks now) and they've found a large cyst on/in the baby's chest.  You can read about it here as they explain it very clearly. Please join us in praying for their sweet baby girl as well as David and Deann.

Good Times...

Well our newest thing is that Cole has pink eye...wonderful. Ever wonder how hard it is to keep three little boys from sharing each other's germs...I'm gonna say, it's nearly impossible. I am sure that we'll all have it before it's all over. At least we got him on antibiotic drops the day it started, but I will be very surprised it hasn't already spread, at least to Carson. Those two are pretty much inseparable.

Anyway, that pretty much describes our Sunday, trying to keep them apart. Saturday night we had a really good time at a couples Christmas party. David and Deann hosted and there were about 12 couples there. They had the house decorated so beautifully and it was such a good night of visiting, delicious dinner, and hearing encouragement from Clint and Jenny Leiter.

This week will be fairly low key for the boys and I since we won't be out and about. I'll be working on Christmas cards in my spare time. Levi will be working longer hours Mon. and Tues. of this week, as he is going over to the medical school to help one of the doctors on a lab with 1st and 2nd year med students. He'll be helping to teach intubations and different airway related things and then check each student off after they've learned the skills and techniques. Kind of a different couple of days for him, but sounds like fun too. Since the doctors in the practice here also teach at the med school I was thinking that Levi is really getting a great and unique clinical experience...and we are so thankful for that. He loves it too, so that is so neat to see.

Family Night

Our front porch
Daddy and his little helpers
Mommy and the boys

Working hard

On Friday nights we usually do something fun with they boys, but last night was especially fun! We brought out all the Christmas decorations and decorated the front porch and put up the tree. It was so funny to see the twins get so excited about it all this year. There were plenty of cute little excited comments coming from all the kids. It's been a really fun and busy past few days around here. My Mom and Dad came up Friday morning and spent yesterday and today with us, and the Couch family came over this afternoon to spend time with us and watch the game. Tonight we went over to the Gates family's house for dinner and visiting. It's really been a fun week for us and a blessing to see so many friends and family!

Thanksgiving pictures

We had the Kelly family at our house this year for Thanksgiving. It was a great day, we really enjoyed spending time with each other visiting, eating, ping pong, playing games, watching football, and napping. Levi read from Psalm 107, and then he had us all go around the table and say what we were particularly thankful for this year. We all have so many things to be thankful for...after we dried our eyes and pulled ourselves together we enjoyed a delicious meal that everyone made. God is so kind and merciful to us.

Happy Thanksgiving

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.  Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.  Know that the Lord is God.  It is He who made us and we are His; we are His people, the sheep of His pasture.  Enter His gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name.  For the Lord is good and his love endures forever, his faithfulness continues through all generations.

-Psalm 100

Life Lessons

Yesterday the boys and I were out running errands and we stopped by the bank drive thru. In the past they have been given suckers, but with the wintery weather the windows were up (and they are tinted) so sometimes the boys are not seen in the car and don't get a sucker offered. I usually remind Marcus that it is not polite to ask and that when we go to the bank IF he is offered a sucker he should just consider that a gift, but that he is never to EXPECT it. Yesterday I kept quiet, just to see what he would do or say. When I was there the girl at the window started chatting with me about stuff and asked about our car and how we liked it. She was interested in how much room we had in the back, etc. I rolled down the window in the back so she could see all the way back in there, and she said, "and you have three little sweeties just staring back at me! Would they like suckers?" Obviously they did, they said their thankyou's (very loudly as usual) and after she and I finished our conversation we were on our way...on the way out of the parking lot Marcus said, "MOM, that was SO neat that we got candy and the brothers and I weren't even planning about it!" The way he puts things sometimes just makes me laugh and appreciate his sweet spirit even more. What a funny kid.

Lego's and Interior Decorating...

I eat Lego's
and I secretly like to nap with my brother still.
Goober
Fall decor?
Winter is coming?

Just a few thoughts this week...

***I'm not sure if Marcus thinks his mother needs some help in the decorating department or what. One week I noticed him taping this fake leaf to our front door, and I might add that he swiped  (a big no-no) it from my Mom's wreath she has on her front door. It kept falling down so I helped him a few times to tape it back up there. Then last night Levi and I were watching TV after the kids had gone to bed and we noticed the leaf was gone, but now there was something else taped to the door. After closer inspection it appears to be a snowflake, or something resembling a snowflake. (he tore this out of a book, also a big no-no)  I readily admit that I'm not the best at decorating, but I think it could be worse... :) I may have to step up my game a little considering I now have a little silent "helper" who appreciates these type of things.

***Should I still be worried about a two year old putting toys in his mouth?? Apparently the answer to that question is YES! Last night Marcus was yelling and upset because Cole ate one of his Lego's! I asked him if he did such a thing, and he sweetly smiled at me and said, "Yes Momma." I tried to see if Marcus knew which one he ate...I guess trying to decide how serious this was. Marcus knew exactly which one it was. "It was the little round headlight to my car that I make." I was somewhat relieved as I thought well, it's little, round, probably will come out just fine. Better than a bigger, rectangular Lego!

***I found our Lego-eater sleeping in bed with his brother today during naptime...which was pretty precious! I think he'd like to sleep with him all the time, except that I always catch them laying in bed together (usually playing and not sleeping) and split them up into their separate beds. Maybe I shouldn't be so quick to do that, as today they took the longest nap they have taken in a while. :)

Long Time, No Post...

Well, I've been sick for the past week and a half so I'm sorry there haven't been any posts...just haven't felt like doing much other than my day to day things that have to get done. Levi has been busy this weekend getting paperwork done for school. He's hoping to get all 70 of his care plans finished before Thanksgiving and mailed off to school. At the beginning of the semester he sat down and counted the number of work days before all the paperwork was due, and there were a little over 70...this meant he needed to do a care plan on at least one patient per night. That meant an hour or so (up to two at the beginning) of paperwork each evening. He'll be glad when this semester is over and the requirement of care plans is a little less next semester. He recently got his on call schedule starting at the beginning of January, so we know or have a good idea of what that will look like too. While he is in school he will be on the same rotation with the residents, so basically he'll be on call an average of every 3rd day/night, and one to two weekends a month. Since we live so close to the hospital he can take call from home, however they get called in quite often. He is loving his work and really enjoys the group he works with. We are praying that God would open a door if we are supposed to stay here after graduation, and that all decisions would be easy and very clear to us. We'll just have to wait and see, one thing we've learned in our years of marriage is that His plans are always greater than ours. We feel extremely content right now, and we are thankful for that.

Ballers

The boys enjoy going up to the gym with Levi and I. On the weekends there aren't very many people there so you can bring your kids and let them run around in the gymnasium. Our little guys kept VERY busy playing, throwing balls around, and were very curious about the climbing wall. Marcus was trying to learn how to dribble a basketball. They are at such a fun age where they all get so excited about every little thing!

Celebrations!

Marcus enjoying his cake and ice cream

David and Kaitlyn

Kaitlyn and Meghan checking out a gift

Time to blow out the candles

Kaitlyn, Marcus, Meghan, Cole, and Carson

The kids playing

Grandpa Kelly

The Grandma's

Aunt Vivian and Uncle Chuck

Reading with Aunt Vivian

This past weekend we celebrated Marcus 4th birthday and his cousin Kaitlyn's 5th birthday together! It was a lot of fun and neat that they wanted to share this special day. Also it was really neat to have my Uncle Chuck and Aunt Vivian come up to spend the weekend as well. They live in the KC area near my parents. We enjoyed visiting and catching up.
My Mom and Dad were able to come up Friday morning so we were able to get more time together than usual, which was great. Mom helped me take the twins to their 2 year well check on Friday while Dad and Marcus stayed at the house to play lego's. Marcus went to the same doctor here on Monday for his 4 yr well check. We are really happy that she was recommended to us. She took lots of time to make sure the boys felt at ease with her and really gave thorough exams. We felt very comfortable with her.
I took the boys to the park yesterday it was SO nice out! This is kind of crazy to have mid 70 degree weather in November, but we'll take it! Yeah, Missouri weather!