Ralph

Ralph
April 28, 1993 - December 26, 2008




Here are a few pictures of Ralph...

He was 15 1/2 years old. He kept having bladder problems. Although the vet could not feel anything in his bladder I think he had cancer somewhere in there. His mother had bladder cancer and his symptoms were a lot like hers. She went to dog heaven 6 years ago yesterday. So far, Max is the only one that has asked about Ralph. I figured Sam would be the first.

Ralphy will be missed.

Wii

The kids love the Wii. We have had it since late summer time. Sam loves making new Mii's and if there was a game of just making Miis- she would love it. I bought her the Petz Dogs 2 game. She likes that game but I think she is too young for it. It would be good for about a 10 year old. You have to do a lot of reading. It is different tasks you go and do while unlocking more maps. There are snakes, bears and a few other mean animals out there. This means when she plays this game, I am usually there with her and a lot of the time completing the task for her. It has 4 places (slots) to save the games. If you want to switch dogs, you have to start all over. Which was done several times. Max has also formatted the Wii, therefore erasing all saved games. Start over again! We got pretty far in the game, saved it and stopped playing for the night. The next day, we had a power surge. The Wii would not work- neither did the neighbors. Pete figured out you had to unplug it, wait 90 seconds the try agian. It worked. Guess what, games were gone!! So irritating! So start over again. A few days later, Max was playing it and saved all his games over Sam's, erasing all her games- again!!

Right now Tanks is a favorite game from the Wii Play games. Also, Sam and Max see how many medals they can get for different Miis playing the Play games. It is usually a race after school on who is going to play the Wii first. Joe LOVES Sonic. It is a gamecube game (they can play on the Wii as well). However, it stopped working after Sam stomped on it when she was mad at Joe. Santa has another copy of that game he plans on leaving for Joe.

Max likes playing around with everything on the Wii- That is how he learns the ins and outs of things. He has formatted the Wii at least once (probably way more times), he has "reset" the Play games several times (making us restart all the games over), he has erased every single Mii we had saved, and once he even changed our language to Spanish. That was fun too!

Max is a pro at the sports games- especially bowling. He kicks my butt every time. I think I have beat him 2 times. That is it! Boxing- also a pro. He played with the next door neighbor boy who is a little older than him and creamed him- 3 times. The neighbors have a Wii so he knew how to play. Within 7 seconds of the first game Max had him knocked out. The next game was almost as bad. I suggested they play another game!

Ike loves having a wii remote and "playing" the games as well. He also thinks you can switch the TV channels just by shaking the TV remote.

The Wii is fun!

funny story.. or gross one!

Ok, sorry for the lack of updates. I just really haven't been on the computer much lately. I do have a funny story that happened after that last sickie post.

I was getting lunch ready for Sam, Joe and Ike. Joe and Ike were standing on stools in the kitchen so they could see what was going on -- I think stools are a standard in our kitchen. The kids always fight over them and always have them lined up along the cabinets. Anyway- they wanted pancakes for lunch. I had 3 plates, each with a pancake, cut and waiting for syrup. I get in the silverware drawer to get forks. Ike thinks if I get something out of that drawer, he too has to get something out. So he opens the drawer grabs a few things and leaves the drawer open. I put the syrup on the pancakes and as I am putting that away Ike decides to throw up. He got the cabinet, the counter, the floor, the stool and yes, about a 1/4 of the silverware drawer. Wasn't that nice of him. So Joe starts dry heaving. I tell him to stop looking at it (the puke) as I grab a towel. Sam also starts dry heaving. I make her leave the kitchen. Joe finally pukes. Hitting the counter, cabinet, floor and stool. Ike heaves again and this time includes his plate of food for the target.

I think we are all pretty much better by now. Ike has had a fever off and on but acts pretty normal. He is always hitting his face on something. I don't know how he doesn't have bruises all over him. Yesterday he was climbing on the bottom of the cart at Sam's while I checked out. As he was climbing out he somehow didn't catch himself with his hands but used his face instead. He cut his lip with this tooth. Today he has hit his face about 3 times on different things.

runny noses, pink eye, croup and vomit...

Do you want some of this? Come and visit us. You're sure to get something fun!

All the kids have had runny noses for a few weeks. They are pretty much cleared up now but Ike. I now have a cold and I think Pete does too. Max had Pink eye, which of course meant I did too! Luckily though it did not spread through our house like wildfire. Ike had croup a week ago and is just now getting over it- only to have a cough/cold. Joe also has croup and I hope is getting over it as well. Yesterday Ike puked 3 times. He doesn't act that sick. He has been sleeping in later though-- which is nice! However all the kids have been going to bed way to late. Maybe that is part of it!

So- if you would like some crazy fun, come hang out with us.

deck-before and after

We have talked about making our deck bigger for some time now. It was 10x10 feet (I think). Really not big enough to do much on. It was full of stuff- grill, glider/rocker bench thing, some plants and a few kid toys. That was it and it was full. My parents made a new deck for their house a couple years ago. It is big and nice. My brother pretty much did the whole thing (with 'help' from dad!). So we asked my brother if he wanted to help us build a bigger deck. He was in. It took us 8 weekends (I think) to do it. Lots of help from everyone. After the Buddy walk- do you know what our families did- that's right- we put them to work.
We are not completely done. but we will finish it up in spring. We are looking for some type of roof/awning and will replace the original railing as well. We will also put a kid play area on the bottom, under the deck.

So now here are the pictures! ............


Our deck BEFORE


Our deck AFTER (about 14x40 feet)

The kids slide that ends in the rock pit.

six things about me

I was tagged for this from Blessed with girls a while back....

Also- hop on over to her blog to visit. Her husband is in the hospital right now.

OK- so six things about me that you may not know...

1. I never wear make up. I do wear lip gloss but that is it! I don't get why people plaster the stuff all over their face.

2. I like frogs. I have several frog 'figurines' and also got a frog tattoo on my lower back when I was 18 years old.

3. I am a simple person. I'm not into fancy items. Example- dinnerware/china, silverware and all that jazzy stuff from the kitchen.

4. I love pictures. I have tons of pictures plastered all over the house!

5. I am told by many people that I must have a lot of patience. Usually this is when I have kids climbing all over me and trying their best to distract me but I act like nothing is going on. So maybe I have patience- but I'm not sure if I will ever have enough!!

6. My house is always a mess! Even if I do pick up all the crap the kids drag out - within a day they have it trashed again. One more I guess I could add to this-- I don't understand why people make the beds every single morning. We generally just pull the blankets up and call it good. My mom always had me make my bed. Why? It's going to be unmade again at the end of the day!

Now for tagging 6 more people... Let's see, I don't remember who all has done this already so if you have done it, ignore the tag!

Meet the Parmers, The Muncks Quiver, Sunflower Stories, Opposite Kids, Life with Bubba and Chicky, and The Rocking Pony


I was also tagged by Opposite Kids and Sunflower Stories for the Kick ass blogger award.

If you want it, it's yours! I like everyones blog listed over there on my blog roll.

School Halloween parties

At school the kids had a costume parade then the parties. Max's and Sam's classes are very close together so that was a bonus for me. Joe, Ike and myself watched the parade then went to Sam's class for the beginning of the party. We then skipped on over to hang out in Max's class for a short time and finished back up in Sam's class.

Here is Sam making finger print spiders.

Joe and Ike entertained themselves by playing (or eating!) legos.



Max playing Bingo with some friends. His Para dressed up as a biker chick.


Notice her arm? It is a 'tattoo' saying "Max" -- pretty neat!
Joe kept busy playing with these shapes and grouping them together for each number
Back at Sam's class Ike ate some "bones"
These kind of bones..... bread stick bones!
Ike also kept busy climbing the bookshelves.

The parties were fun. The kids enjoyed them.

Halloween Night

Here are my 4 kiddos before heading out to collect their loot! The night was perfect! You could not ask for more perfect weather. The kids filled their buckets!

Ok- stop filling my mailbox now!

So glad the elections are over! This picture is from ONE day of junk mail- all election crap. Most of them just bash the other running mate instead of actually stating what they believe/support.

October 31 - pictures for Down syndrome awareness month

Max feeding his newest cousin. He loves babies.

I was planning on posting something Halloweeny -- but this will have to do! I didn't get pictures of him and his pumpkin so I will have to do that still.


Hope everyone enjoyed looking at a months worth of pictures of my sweetie pie Max. Thank goodness for scheduled posts too- otherwise I would have never made it!


Happy Halloween everyone!!

behind...

I am so behind reading others blogs. I think with so many people doing the "31 for 21" it has finally caught up to me. I will get to them soon!

October 30 - pictures for Down syndrome awareness month

Max likes our cat. I can't say the same is true for Tinkerball liking Max but she tolerates him as much as possible.

Max loving on Tinkerball....The last one Max looks like a cat! I think he had cat fur on his face or mouth.

October 29 - pictures for Down syndrome awareness month

About a week and a half ago we had our Buddy Walk. Kansas City's buddy walk was the LARGEST in the world this year!! Over 7000 people showed up, and over $450,000 was raised. They are still taking donation thru the end of the year.


Here is a picture of our star: MAX!
Max with the Chiefs football player, Rudy Niswanger
Here is Max after the walk getting a medal from Chiefs football player, Brian Waters
It was a cool morning but it warmed up rather nicely by the time the walk started at 12:45.

October 28 - pictures for Down syndrome awareness month

Cheesy grin Max!! Max loves computers and can figure anything like that out in no time. He can operate anything electronic.

He is one smart cookie!

October 27 - pictures for Down syndrome awareness month

Max has always loved popping bubble wrap. He still does I just don't have a current picture of it!

October 26 - pictures for Down syndrome awareness month

A couple of pictures back when Max was learning to walk with the push walker.

October 25 - pictures for Down syndrome awareness month

Max has always loved looking through phone books. It reminds me of Rainman!

Max as a little youngster..
A little bit older..

And Max just last week or so looking at the phone book!

October 24 - pictures for Down syndrome awareness month

Only 1 more week till Halloween!
This is Max when he was 2 years old. I have been trying to talk Joe into wearing it this year. I guess I'll find out how that goes on Halloween!

October 23 - pictures for Down syndrome awareness month

Handsome little boy showing his stuff!!

October 22 - pictures for Down syndrome awareness month

A sad picture of Max after one of his many surgeries. He never had major surgery but has had several sets of ear tubes placed. He also had tonsils out recently. This picture is from when he had new tubes put in, his tear ducts probed (that helped SOOOO much), and his adenoids out. He had blood coming from his ears, eyes and nose! He really acted pretty much normal though.

October 21 - pictures for Down syndrome awareness month

Max is just barely 3 years old in this picture. He went through a stage of lining up his cars all the time. They generally had to be facing the same way and touching! If you messed with them, he let you know he wasn't happy about that!

October 20 - pictures for Down syndrome awareness month

A picture from the park. He loves slides. He was 3 or 4 years old here.

October 19 - pictures for Down syndrome awareness month

This is where I found Max one morning. I guess he was coming up to our room during the night but fell asleep on the stairs instead!
He can fall asleep in strange places sometimes.

October 18 - pictures for Down syndrome awareness month

Max and Sam


back in the innocent age....

And the not so innocent age....
Yes, that is the bedroom wall they decorated. I made them both scrub it for a while. I scrubbed it, I used the Magic easer, but nothing was getting that off! It took 8 coats of paint to cover that lovely artwork up. And that was not all of it. They did every wall, and part of a mattress as well. Oh and themselves!

October 17 - pictures for Down syndrome awareness month

A few messy pictures...

Max eating spaghetti. Luckily he isn't this messy with it anymore!


Max after eating OREO's. Glad I got this picture because he won't touch them anymore! He is a very picky eater.


Max eating chocolate with one hand and holding the TV remote with the other. He is still messy with chocolate but not this bad. He still will eat chocolate but only certain kinds- Hersey bars, kisses and eggs. I think that is the only chocolate he will eat.