It's a Two Bath Day!

These are the days when I hate letting toddlers learn how to feed themselves! It's no wonder she's getting thinner when she wears all of her food instead of eating it! But who can resist taking a picture of that cute little face covered in oatmeal. She's learning the natural beauty tricks early! I tell you.. she's a girly, girl! We love you soooo much Reese... even when you make a huge mess... these days just go by too quickly!

Our life in pictures...

NO GAS!!! There is a serious shortage of gas in Charlotte and all the surrounding areas and they are now saying it may be 7 - 10 days before some stations get more gas. There are a few stations that are still able to get small shipments and the lines are miles long with people waiting to get more gas. It's horrible. They reported on the news last night that people were even having fist fights over filling up. Looks like we will have plenty of time at home to organize and dejunk! Nowhere else to go when there is no gas and if you do find it, you'll pay $4.00 per gallon and wait and hour to get it!

Nice haircut Mark - now he's 2 inches shorter! He finally got sick of the thinning hair on top and went back to the ultra buzz cut instead. It was hilarious to see Reese touch his hair and look at him all weird. She was about 7 months old when he started growing his hair out for the pageant. She definitely did not remember her Dad with a fuzzy head!
Party Popper Fights!!! We survived Brennan's birthday party sleepover.. even though we had to delay it a week due to sick kids. Most of the boys were able to come and we all enjoyed some late night bowling and a movie. They made it to bed around 2AM... and were up by 7:30AM... ugh!!! We introduced the boys who slept over to breakfast burritos and pancakes with chocolate chips, strawberry jam and whip cream! YUM! Brennan has some great friends!
Caught! Brock thought it would be funny to give the Princess a sugared donut! She LOVED it! If only we could get her to eat other things... she is soooo picky!!!
Tanner and Mark had fun at our friends house on the unicycles. It has now started an epidemic at our house and I do believe that Tanner has talked to every bike dealer in the Carolina's trying to find himself one... and he has spent countless hours shopping online for the perfect deal. He was VERY good at it and was able to get his balance after just a few tries. AMAZING!!! Mark... well.. let's just say that he won't be joining the circus anytime soon.. but he might need to visit a chiropractor. Good thing he has a day job! Thanks Hafener's for a great time and a wonderful 1st birthday party for Miss Abby!

Excuse me... WHAT did you just say???

It's not often that I have blogged about other people, but this mornings walk made for a good reason to start! Today has been absolutely beautiful so Mark and I took Reese in the stroller and went for a walk in the neighborhood. It was such a great time to talk and enjoy the cool weather and just relax... UNTIL... a certain person in our neighborhood decided she would greet us with the most bold and stupid comments I have ever heard in a long time. This person started her own photography business last year and photographed our family last fall. Last year she made a huge stink... in a very sarcastic, and rude way about how LARGE our family was. She commented several times about how she would have to move back to fit such a huge family into her lens and how she just didn't know what to do with so many kids. At the time, I was not impressed, but I was very happy to finally be getting some photos of the entire family and truthfully I just let her comments roll off my back.

Today however... she couldn't stop herself, and went too far. As we walked by today.. she shouts from her mini van as she loads one of her two daughters into the car..."Hey, I'll have to take your pictures again, UNLESS you've got another one coming ...sigh of disgust...(in the same breath...) Are you done yet???... Do you think you'll have anymore??? How many more DO you think you'll have?" HELLO... do I ask you why you stopped after two girls? Do I rag on you for only having TWO children... I hardly even know you... what makes you think you can shout out to the street questions about how many kids I have and then determine whether or not you'll take our pictures. Why do you even think that it's your business to ask me about the size of my family? Well I can PROMISE you that she will never be burdened with having to try and fit our LARGE family into her little camera lens ever again!!!

Mark and I love these children with ALL of our HEARTS!!! I certainly think we are doing a fine job of raising our LARGE family and wouldn't change a BIT! Yes it's challenging at times, and yes we are as busy as can be, but we LOVE every minute of it - even the not so pleasant minutes. We make mistakes as parents all the time, but I can assure you that NONE of our children are mistakes! We have a blast together. There is no perfect number of children for a perfect family. Everyone is different and we can all handle different things.. I just hope that she knows that I know EXACTLY how many kids we can handle. Sadly.. her business name is "In His Image"... I just don't think she gets it! It is all part of His plan that leads us to such a beautiful family!!!

We're getting better!

Hooray! We are crossing our fingers, but it apprears that we are finally getting better! All the boys are in school this week...yippee... no calls from the school nurse..hooray... and Reese is doing much, MUCH better. She seems to be back to her usual self and has even changed her sleep habits to a much more tolerable early bed time. That's is certainly worth celebrating. Hopefully this trend will continue. We feel so blessed to have everyone feeling better and can only hope and pray that Reese's tests will all come back normal and then I can finally take a deep breath.

Please STOP the Merry Go Round.. We Want OFF!

Please.... we are now heading into week four of constant sickness at our house and frankly... we are SICK of it... no pun intended! My goodness this has made us really appreciate our health and the times when everyone feels well. Reese's fever finally ended on Friday followed by an amazing lacy rash that cover her body. With three trips to the doctor for her last week, chest x-rays, and blood test (not pleasant on a 1 year old), the doctors still feel that she just has a virus. By Friday morning as she was returning to normal, Brock woke up with a stomach ache and diarrhea and by noon Tanner had called from the middle school with an awful sore throat and stomach ache too. Hello! This was beginning to become comical in a way.

With the doctors warning me that Reese was probably susceptible to getting sick again with her immune system down, I decided I would stay home from church with her, Brock and Tanner but get rides for Tate and Brennan. Then this morning, much to my dismay, Tate woke up with a nasty cough and running to the bathroom and Brennan had an awful cold. I feel like we are being pummeled with dodge balls and we have no defense!

Oh and did I mention that on Friday, just before I took Reese back to the doctor she pulled a can of green beans out of the cupboard and it landed on her big toe causing the nail to lift and gush blood everywhere. Ouch!!! She screamed for a loooong time... and then seemed to calm down until she would look at the bandage on her toe and it would start all over again. She really is starting to be quite the Drama Queen. She has inherited my lovely pouty bottom lip and man can she use it. I remember when I was a kid my Mom would tell me that a bird was going to come and poop on my lip if I didn't stop pouting. It's hilarious to see her now use her little lip as bargaining power. Especially when Daddy is around. After the toe incident, needless to say, Mark felt really bad since I have been asking him for weeks to get the baby proofing locks on in the kitchen. We'll be starting that project first thing Monday morning for sure.

If there is any consolation to all this madness... I'm not spending at money shopping and we certainly are saving gas money by not driving anywhere. One that note... most of the gas stations in Charlotte are currently out of gas thanks to the horrible hurricane Ike that hit Texas. However the price gouging started the day before the hurricane hit. When I drove Reese to the doctor on Friday I passed a station that had gas at $3.61 for regular... an hour later on the way home it was up to $3.89. To make matters worse, when Mark went over to get gas 3 hours later, it was at $4.29... and GONE! He drove to another station closer to home only to find their prices the same and LONG lines and very grouchy people. ( We'll save that story for another day.. but let it be known that Mark was waiting in line for ever despite the rude comments and horrible tantrum a lady through at him when she though he was cutting in line.) There is great prudence in being prepared for storms long before they occur... people get NASTY when they are desperate! And that was only gas... I can only imagine how people would act when it was a fight over food. Stock up that Food Storage.. angry people are waiting!

Well we can only hope for this virus to pass quickly and get things back to normal around here. We had to cancel Brennan's birthday party that was supposed to be on Friday night and now it's rescheduled for this next Friday. Hopefully this week will work much better! Ahhhhh...

It's the Most Wond-er-ful Time...of the Year!

Remember that old Staples office supply commercial where the parents are singing the Christmas carol... "It's the most wonderful time of the year..."??? It's my new theme song! Well if you remember it...the father is singing away as he rides the shopping cart through the store buying school supplies while the kids are sadly walking as slow as can be with such grumpy faces. I am sure that Mark and I are far more excited for the kids to be back in school than they are now. I think the novelty is wearing off for them and reality is setting in. Early mornings... homework... projects... early bed time.. you know, all the GOOD stuff.

Now that the kids for the most part are getting healthy again, this was my first week to not have any sick kids at home with the exception of Reese. You can imagine the excitement at our house this week. FINALLY... I have been able to conquer the house again. After a summer full of wild, mind-blowing, mess-making, tornado-trashing kids running around the house, I was more than ready to regain control of the house in every which way possible. It truly had been months since I felt like I had the laundry and clutter under control and I can't remember how long it has been since I was able to decided what to have for dinner before.. hmm... 5pm. I guess it has unfortunately helped that Reese had been very sick again this week with a fever and we have been stuck at home too. I get a lot of things done when I am home all day with just a little one around. We are all breathing a sigh of relief to have the house back in order...There is much wisdom in having a house of order. And on that note... back to the dishes. Grrrrumble, Grrrrumble!

The Big DOUBLE Digits!

Happy Birthday Brennan! Yep.. Brennan hit the big 1-0 on Friday! Brennan had a party weekend and will continue the fun next weekend with his friends. Wow! That's a lot of celebrating... but hey, he's 10! Actually, we had a very quiet celebration on Friday going out to the Olive Garden for dinner and then home to watch a movie.. College Road Trip. We were all so full from the dinner that we decided to wait and have cake on Saturday night. His choice was ice cream cake for this weekend and I'm not sure what he'll want me to make for him and his friends - it sure made my life easier to buy his cake from DQ!!! This next Friday, he is having several boys come for a sleepover and to go bowling, etc. This should be interesting.. We've never done sleepovers with more than 2 friends so... I think we may be in for a little bit of trouble. It's already like a sleepover here every night just trying to get all four of the boys to get in bed and to sleep each night... add five more boys all Brennan's age and I think we have a recipe for a really wild night. We'll have to report more on that later. Brennan is a great kid with such a huge heart! He is such a blessing to all of us and we are so grateful to have him in our family!

Why we need some LAND!

Some days I really wonder what goes through the brain of an 11 year old and his mighty accomplices. What in the world would give them reason to think that it would be o.k. to buzz cut the backyard into their own personal bike / motorcycle trail??? This was not something we thought about when we let Tanner start cutting the grass this year. In a matter of minutes yesterday, our backyard went from being lush and green - which is extremely rare for August in the south - to a mess of burnt out paths all through the backyard. Who knew that he even knew how to lower the blades on the mower! The boys had also wrangled all their friends to come over and bring their bikes and had jumps etc. Mark was inside the house thinking that Tanner was just cutting the grass like he was asked and I was at the grocery store. You can only imagine the joyful comments our neighbors heard once we discovered their invention. If there was a silver lining.. at least it wasn't the front yard too. I can promise you that there would no longer BE any bikes or motorcycles to ride around here if that was the case!!! And this continues the saga of the JOY of BOYS.

Note: Picture was taken this morning... just one day after the cut. Yikes! It was a seriously hot day yesterday... there's no chance of that grass surviving... ahhh, yet another landscaping project. Grumble, grumble.

First Day School... a little late.

Brock -Smile??? or Nervous Jitters, Brennan - Chillin' into 5th grade, Tate - the "I think I'll like it" look. And that sunrise... who could ask for a better backdrop than that. I guess there is one benefit to catching the bus at 6:45AM!!! They would take the extra sleep anyday over the sunrise though. (I found the sunrise an extra special blessing since we had just gotten home with Reese at the hosptial two hours before this - ahhh the beauty our Father in Heaven gives us to look at.)
Still nervous... but he really did have a huge smile when he saw the bus coming and knew that he could actually ride it this year with his brothers.
Tate is growing up SOO fast! What a good looking little man!

Brennan was very excited that he has earned the right to sit in the back seat of the bus as a 5th grader. Oh my... let's hope he doesn't take Brock back there!




All smiles, Tanner gets the lucky opportuinty of starting school at 8:45am so catching the bus at 8:15 is a breeze. Mr. Cool was very happy to start middle school and enjoyed his first day.

Mark's New Secretary

It seems that I may have to keep an eye on the beautiful, young, blond haired, blue eyed hottie that Mark hired for his office. Hmmm...

Tender Mercies from the Lord...

It's taken me several days to calm down enough to even write about what happen on Sunday night, but words just can't seem to express the gratitude I have for a loving Father in Heaven that watched over our sweet little Reese. On Saturday night, Reese started with a fever and so I stayed home with her on Sunday from church. By Sunday afternoon she was still running a pretty decent temperature and just very tired. (I should have known that something was starting when she took two 2 1/2 hour naps on Saturday... giving me a wonderful break while Mark and the boys were all at the lake.) We came to the conclusion that she must have an ear infection again and so this time I thought...I really don't want to go spend the entire afternoon in Insta Care so why not see if the neighbor across the street that is a family practice doctor can take a look at her ears just to tell me if they are infected. They have lived here about 4 1/2 years but they are never outside and we have rarely said more than HI or waved occasionally to them. I thought it was a strange impression to go and see her but I figured it was a good idea. Little did I know how much I would need that beginning of a friendship later that evening.

Sure enough her ears were red and we started her on Omnicef - a strong antibiotic that she has been on before. After dinner, we started into the back to school bedtime routine as the first day of school was Monday. Mark took the boys upstairs and I stayed down to nurse Reese and see if I could get her to sleep. Shortly after they went upstairs, she started to doze off and I was so thankful that she finally was able to get some rest for the day. She had not been able to get to sleep all day and was sooo tired. After just a minute or so, she started being startled every few minutes in her sleep. I noticed that she was starting to get the chills and instantly grabbed a blanket to wrap her in. (Not the thing you are supposed to do with a feverish child, but I really was not thinking that her temp was very high.)

Within a few minutes, she suddenly had this terrifying glazed look in her eyes and became very limp and lethargic. I immediately screamed for Mark and tried getting her to snap out of it. Then she started having trouble breathing and I immediately ran out the front door and to the neighbors house across the street. Without earlier having gone to her house I really don't think she would have come to mind in this emergency. By the time I ran across the street and go to her door, Reese was having trouble breathing an gurgling. She immediately took her pulse and gave her mouth to mouth. We were able to get her to snap out of what we were soon to find out was a seizure brought on by a very high temperature. The ambulance showed up just a few seconds later and I ran her to the street to meet them. In getting her into the back, they took her temp and found it to be 104.2 which is actually 105.2 internally. They told me that she probably had a febrile seizure from the temperature and that we would take her straight to the ER. I called for Mark to get my shoes and bring my wallet and we rushed off. In the meantime, the neighbors were all outside trying to see why there was an ambulance, fire truck and four other volunteer fire dept. vehicles at our house. Mark called for a neighbor to hurry in and watch the boys and he jumped in the car to follow us to the hospital. Words cannot even begin to describe the pain and agony we felt as you see your little baby in these conditions. It still is hard to write about...

On the way to the hospital the EMT was able to get an IV started into her arm on the first try (what a miracle) and gave her another dose of Tylenol. She was such an angel and soooo good throughout the entire ride. At this point she was very tired but alert and responsive. I guess it is normal for them to be very tired after a seizure. They gave her oxygen and had all kinds of things hooked up to her. On the way to the hospital, I called the bishop from church and asked him to meet us at the hospital to help Mark give Reese a blessing. They were there when we arrived and we were able to step into a room and give her a blessing. In the blessing, she was blessed that she would be able to recover and be o.k. and I breathed a sign of relief. I was never more grateful for the priesthood power that at that moment in my life. How thankful I am for a husband who honors his priesthood and keep his covenants so that at a moments notice he is able to give any one of us a blessing if we need it.

The doctor in the ER agreed that it was most likely a febrile seizure but she wanted to run some other tests to see if everything else was o.k. She had a CT scan, chest x-rays, blood tests and urine cultures ( catheters are no fun on infants)... and everything so far has come back normal. We are still waiting on some longer cultures from the lab for her blood and urine, but hopefully that will all be normal too. We were able to leave the hospital about 3:15AM and I just can't tell you how good it was to walk out to the car with her that night.


With two hours of sleep, we woke Monday morning to get all the kids off for their first day of school. Tanner - 6th grade, the big middle school, Brennan - 5th grade, top of the elementary, Tate - 2nd grade, hooray, and Brock - Kindergarten - yeah for big boy school! If the pictures have him looking a little scared, you'd never know it when he got home that day. What began as a very scary evening, awoke to a very exciting first day of school. One we all will never forget. Hooray for awesome teachers and what will be a GREAT year for them all.

It truly was a tender mercy from the Lord to have her be healed! I must say that some of the most touching things that I have been told by neighbors since then was how the boys all in tears, gathered together in prayer for their sister in the front yard - and many other times. The love they have for her is beyond anything I can describe. Countless times Tanner would call us while we were in the ER wanting to know what was going on so that he could tell his brothers. They all had the hardest time getting to sleep and shed many tears on her behalf. I am very thankful to say that she is now fever free four days later and we have our sweet little sassy Reese back bossing all her brothers and the cats and dog around again. She is such a blessing to each of us and we all love her so very, very much. And one that note... some one's just waking up and calling... "Maaaa.... Maaaa!!!"

Boys will be Boys... KABOOM!

Who would have thought that we could mysteriously use almost 1 1/2 gallons of vinegar in our house in just 5 days??? Hmmm.... last week as I was in the laundry room, I heard the biggest explosion come from the driveway followed by loud roars and cheering. I ran to see what was going on only to find about 10 boys huddled around a completely blown apart water bottle. Thus the makings of yet another "bomb" science experiment for the Kenison boys - and this was just the boys not Mark - although he was eager to learn the methods of their madness! Leave it to my boys to find a way to make simple household ingredients into one of the loudest explosions I've ever heard. Note - see ingredients above... call Tanner for directions! Seriously!!! Believe me, we have played around with several vinegar and baking soda experiements, but nothing was like this! It's even louder than dry ice bombs... Shhh - I have held back on letting Mark teach those things. It won't be long. Somehow the dry ice has always mysteriously been gone after the root beer has been made - wink, wink. Hopefully we can make it through the boredom and not have anyone arrested of fined before school starts on Monday.