A Week with Mom

Mom and Marcus
Dad building with the boys
Marcus watching the coffee maker

Story time

The boys wearing their Daddy out!

Wrestling all three at once

Having fun in the "penalty box" :)

Cole showing me his piano still works even though the end broke off when he stepped on it

This past week was so fun for me! Not only did my parents come up to visit last weekend, but my Mom also stayed with us all week. She took a week of vacation and came to hang out with us. It was such a big help to me to have her here, especially on a week when Levi was on call and gone quite a bit. We had a great time visiting, playing with the boys, shopping, and just hanging out. God has been so kind to give me such a loving and sweet mother...I've always known that, and having this past week with her meant so much to me. I love you more than I can even adequately express Mom. Thanks for sharing the week with us!

Dad drove back up last night after work and Levi's parents had brought dinner over. We had dinner and played mexican train domino's most of the evening. It was a lot of fun. Levi was in and out most of the evening. He got home from work, and then was paged and went back in two more times before his head hit the pillow last night. So far today he only had to go in once, so it's been a relaxing afternoon for him.

We're having Levi's family over for the Super Bowl tomorrow, so that will be a fun time! Hope you're having a great week!

On Call and Other Fun Stuff

I've had a lot of people ask about how clinicals and on call is going for Levi so far...so here goes. This has been a nice and quiet week for us so far. Levi was on call quite a bit last week, so he was gone a lot more. It seems like there is a bit of a baby boom around here lately so a lot of the time he's going in for epi's or c-sections, and an occassional emergency surgery. When he was home we just kind of layed around in waiting for the next time the pager would go off...but it will all feel more normal as we get into this more and more. We're just trying to make sure things are restful at home, I'm trying to have dinner in the crockpot on those days so it's always ready no matter when he gets here, and going to bed early anytime it's possible.

I remember having to be on call when I worked at Cerner, and the "weighted down" feeling I always had when it was my turn on the pager. The worst part about that is it was my job to troubleshoot and fix things, so you know the client was not happy about it either. You never felt like you could relax, go too far from home, or really enjoy anything for fear it might be ruined if you got called in. Luckily I could do alot of my on call work from home, so I wasn't gone too much. I'm SO thankful I had that job, but I am also so glad those days are behind me and I can spend my days and nights focusing on taking care of my family...and understand, sympathize, and appreciate Levi's efforts, even more, to be the provider in our family. It feel so good to say that in about one year he will be done. We are thankful God has allowed this opportunity for our family, and I'm really proud of my man for his hard work and determination. He'll have a month away from us this summer while he goes to Iowa for hearts and neuro clinical, which will be hard on us all, but hopefully we'll get to see him on some of the weekends. Thankfully he can stay here in town for everything else, so we are thankful for that.

Meanwhile, back on the ranch :), I've been dealing with a few minor issues with the twins. They have heard big brother say (a few too many times) "But MOM, I just don't want to"...so they're catching on, Carson will say "Jus sdon' what to!", and with Cole it gets less and less clear...but I know what he's saying and he still gets in trouble for it even if it's not clear english. Other than that they are their usual busy little selves, enjoying life to the fullest. We've been trying to work with Carson and Cole on counting, the alphabet, etc. They are catching on, and seem to enjoy learning as much as Marcus does. Marcus has slowly been transitioning to no naps. He's doing really great, and usually either plays quietly with lego's or likes to do his "school work" (as he calls it), or sometimes will just chill out on the couch for a while. He had been sleeping less and less so we figured he was outgrowing naptime. Seems to be working out ok so far.

First Video Game

Marcus - 4 yrs

Marcus playing...Carson cheering him on!
The crew

Hat tricks? Not sure what they are doing here...
Marcus

For Christmas Marcus got his first video game...you can read two posts below to find out how that started out. Anyway long story short, he loves it and is actually pretty good a few of the games on there. It's funny to watch him play with the serious concentration on his face (notice the same look on his father's face while playing), and the twins just sit and watch in awe. Here's a few pic's of our little gamer.

Christmas 2008

All the grandsons

The boys coming downstairs Christmas morning
Checking out the presents

Little sneaky guy heading for the tree! Carson and Cole having a snack
Smiley Maven! (this is how he is most of the time...what a joy!)
Greg and baby boy

Marcus enjoying a gift from Grandma and Papa
Mom enjoying her Grandsons
Maven opening a present

Carson excited to see what's inside

Marcus thrilled with a gift from Mommy and Daddy

Cole opening a gift

Alexis, Maven, and Greg

Sweet Maven...and his first Christmas

Cole with Papa Ballew

Brothers

An early Christmas Eve gift...it sounded like an all out emergency around the house for days!

Finally I'm getting around to getting my pictures posted of Christmas in KC. We've had our computer back for a while, but I just haven't had time to get these posted until now. Speaking of our computer, it runs great and so fast now that we had it worked on! (Thanks Grandma and Papa Kelly!) It is so nice because it's back to the speed of when we first got it!
We had a great time back in KC, but I've already blogged about that in the previous post. So, here are a lot of pic's, hope you enjoy! AND, a belated Happy New Year!