Maks' 4th Birthday Party Invitations!

Got Maks' birthday party invitations completed today! He decided that he wants to have a Lorax party again this year (that was also the theme for his 3rd birthday).  He and I sat down and looked around online and decided on a format that he liked and I sat out to make something close to it.  I am happy with the way these turned out!  Now I just have to figure out how to print them at a good quality because our good color printer is broken and since I made them in Word I can't save them as an image file to print at a retail store! Grr.

For his presents this year Maks is asking for tall socks, keys and sunglasses!  He is such a unique little boy and we wouldn't have him any other way!

Kale on Memorial Day

Down the street from my parents house there is a small airplane field. Thy have tournaments for small gas powered planes. This weekend they were having a big tournament so we walked down to watch. Kale made a friend yesterday with an older man who has been flying for years. So this morning Kale HAD to be back by 9 am to watch him! In honor of Memorial day he wore his new hat from Uncle Josh!

Babysitting

Tonight Erin and I had the girls while Monica and Michael went to a dinner meeting.  Having all four kids at once used to be a nothing short of a circus now well.....it's a more well orchestrated circus!  Actually, scratch that, it's more like a crazy dance party and who doesn't love a dance party!

Here is one of the first dance pictures of the evening. Kale and Marisa dancing....Maks eating, surprise, surprise! (Malea was helping me take pictures)

To start the night the girls wanted to eat and the boys wanted to play.  After about five whole minutes the boys had decided they were hungry too, but the girls decided playing was a better option! In the end we ended up ordering pizza and compromising to eat then play again afterwards.

After dinner it was decided that we would have a dance show and presentation of a song (words of Marisa).  So Marisa sat and wrote a new song to perform.  It took her a while to come and out and sing for us but after she got over her "stress" (again her words not mine) she put on quite a show!

After the song came the dance portion of our evening.  I honestly think that each year, we should get the kids together and play a song and video tape it while they dance. For now I am sure they would love it, when they are teens maybe not so much but who cares, as parents I'm sure we would still love it!  Note to self:  Pull out old videos of the kids dancing and let them watch while secretly reminiscing about their younger days!

The kids throughout the evening were so much fun to watch.  They are all developing such different personalities and it's a lot of fun to watch them interact! Kale is the oldest.  He is the most social of the group. Kale has never met a stranger and never been afraid to speak to anyone or put on a show for them.  Marisa is next in line.  She is very proper and caring.  Marisa never wants anyone to be sad or upset, no matter what is going on.  She is always there to take care of her sister or give the boys advice.  Maks is the wild one for sure.  He is always wanting to race someone, play catch with the tennis ball, throw the football or dribble his basketball.  He's our little sports boy and if it is not sports it is wrestling someone!! Malea may be the youngest of the group but it sure doesn't mean she is the baby. She is very independent, she is just fine playing off on her own or inventing new games for everyone to play.  She loves using my camera to take fun pictures or dancing to any song that comes on the radio.

Here are a few pictures to show the kids and their personalities:

Maks and Kale trying to scare Marisa while Malea sits back and watches.

For this reason alone I would love the kids to all go to the same school! Talent shows would be so much fun if the kids would do a dance together!  They have so much fun doing them!  Left: during the dance Right: End of dance pose

This proves their generation will always be the tech-savvy ones!  Kale decided they all needed a picture and he insisted on doing it himself!

Had I uploaded the photos on that camera I would've posted the pictures that he got.  He is really fairly good at the self photos!








I wanted a few photos of them all together on the couch. So here is how it started. Maks took a toy from Malea. Malea got mad/sad so she started crying. Marisa came over to take care of her.

Once Malea was happy the photo shoot resumed.  

These are the scary faces.

 These are the Ninja, Action Figure Dance poses.

 Now Malea said she was done but the other three were not. This is just a true personality shot!

 Cousin Love!

Next it was movie time 100 and Dalmatians was the movie of choice (really 101 Dalmatians but they can't remember that name for some reason).  They all wanted blankets and to sit together! 

It was so peaceful, for a few minutes! 

Another photo, different angle! 

All in all we had a great time.  We did a little drawing, dancing, singing and even watched a bit of a movie.  The kids are really starting to be fun together. They listen....well most of the time they listen and they enjoy playing with each other.  It sure doesn't make me want to have four kids anytime soon but I love the times we get to all hang out together.

Family cheerleaders

Marisa and Malea are the fan favorite cheerleaders at all the HCC basketball games (even if they wear jayhawk outfits)! They are really outgoing and have lots of fun cheering for the Blue Dragons. After the games we go down on the court ti wait for AJ and the girls go running right for the Dragon Dolls! Here is a photo of the two of them posing for me tonight after our big win against Seward.

Maks and the Chiropractor

For the past two years Maks has woken up at least once every few nights screaming that his legs hurt. Some nights are worse than others but we just never knew what we could do to fix it.  After x-rays, blood work and numerous conversations with the Dr. we just weren't finding anything.  If he woke up and we gave him Tylenol or Ibuprofen he did go back to sleep but we did not like having to give him medicine on a daily basis.  

After literally years of listening to Maks complain we finally decided to try a new method of treatment.  We took him to see a chiropractor.  After visit with Dr. Lackey and deciding what we thought had happened Maks got a lower back and hip adjustment.  After just one visit Maks had completely stopped complaining.

Maks did so well at the appointment I believe he actually fell asleep.   We are happy he finally got some relief. 

While there we talked to Dr. Lackey about the bumps he has on his face. He gave him some things that he thinks will help.  Maks now takes Arnica tablets, Cod Liver Oil, and a probiotic.  Yup that is right, Maks takes Cod Liver Oil and loves it. He takes it daily and even reminds us when he needs to take it. His face is starting to clear up very quickly, we are really happy with our decision to see the chiropractor and so is he!  

HCC Basketball

 The boys have really taken to basketball this season.  Maks is playing very well with his team and really doing well at dribbling, still working on shooting (the goal is still just a little too high for him). Kale is mainly there to socialize but he still plays hard. Also this season the boys have become good friends with AJ Spencer.  AJ is a basketball player at the College.  He came out an started talking to the boys after one of the HCC games one night and as they were talking the boys told him that they play basketball as well.  AJ promised to attend their games, and well he did! We were so happy that he kept his promise to the boys and actually he hasn't missed a game since. Kale and Maks love AJ and count down every week until the day they can watch him or that he can watch them!

AJ and Kale with Malea cheering them on. 

Maks didn't want any help (can you imagine) so he showed AJ how he could shoot himself

AJ in action

AJ picking up Kale after their win. Kale and Maks run to the sidelines as soon as each game ends to hopefully catch a high five or quick hug before AJ heads to the locker room.

Maks' Christmas Breakfast (9 days before Christmas)

This morning Maks and his dad decided to make breakfast for the entire family. They decided to make pancakes and eggs for us.

For those of you that don't know Maks' is our little chef! He always has to be in the kitchen with us when we cook and enjoys helping no matter what you are making (even if it is something he won't eat).

Somewhere along the line they decided to make Christmas colors, which ended with green eggs and red (or as Kale says, "pinkish/red pancakes")!  Here is a picture of Maks mixing up the eggs with the green food coloring in it.

Time to cook the eggs!

Here is Maks mixing up his red pancakes.  He loved watching the mixture change colors as he stirred everything together!

The flipping of the pancake!

 

Daddy's special creation for Maks. (I will throw in a plug for myself, I made Kale a heart-shaped pancake but there is no photo proof as it was eaten quickly and I don't ever think to take photos of my own things)!

Family Update

Well after working on the blog most of my afternoon, I have realized I am much farther behind than I ever realized! I'm trying to update major past events and date them accordingly but I now realize that I need to make time each week or two to update as things happen! So, I will now try to keep that promise to you our family blog readers!

For an overview, currently we are all trying to stay healthy.  It seems none of us are really getting terribly sick, but we have all had our days recently were we sure were on the edge of sickness.  I am achy and have chills but they just seem to come and go and I never really get any sicker. Not that I am complaining.  Today, Maks started up with coughing and a low grade fever so we will watch that.  Kale has been fighting a cough for the past few days.  We ran out of his good meds recently and haven't gotten a refill yet cause its extremely expensive and we are trying to see if the Dr. can get us an discounts.

As for a medical update for Kale he is doing well.  He is living and dancing (his favorite thing) just like any other boy his age.  He is currently playing basketball.  His dad is his coach, which has turned out much better than I expected! Most of the time on teams where the dad coaches his kid the kid usually doesn't play or throws a fit, but Kale and Erin have done very well with it! His friends Jalen and Gabe are on his team as well.  Ok, back to the medical part, I get side tracked easily if you can't tell! Kale had an appointment with his new Dr. in Wichita about 6 weeks ago.  We switched to a Dr. in Wichita because we were not happy with his Nephrologist in KC.  We stayed with Children's Mercy but the new Dr. we choose to go with is actually located in the Wichita Branch so it works out even better for us.  We did decide to stick with the Urologist in KC, so once a year we will still have to travel back there but he is worth the drive, especially if we ever end up in surgery. We really trust him.  As of now Kale's kidneys are not changing, which is not necessarily a bad thing.  If they begin to change it could be them getting worse so we will take no change over change!  They did find a protein leak at his last visit.  This alarmed us slightly but the Dr. spoke to us about what it could mean.  Essentially a protein leak can speed up the kidney failure.  So her recommendation to us was to start Kale on a Blood Pressure medicine.  Although we weren't sure about this for a while (we got a few other opinions) we have ultimately decided to start Kale on the new medicine.  It seems very odd to us to have a 5 year old on blood pressure meds but the point of this is to save the kidney.  Although Kale typically does have high blood pressure that is not why he is on the medicine.  Blood pressure medicine protects your kidney.  So hopefully this will help prolong his remaining kidney function.  Also, in this appointment they discussed with us the urgency of checking into growth hormones for him. We have been giving it more thought as he starts getting older, but we are working with window of opportunity and we are starting to lose time.  Our first appointment with the Endocrine Dr's will be in January.  We are hesitant about doing this because often times forcing the body to grow will through children into full Kidney Failure but in-order to get him back on the growth line he should be we need to look into our options.  Kale is very small for his age. At the appointment they will give us a more accurate guess at how tall he will end up being at the rate of growth he is showing now and we will have to decide our plan of action.   All this seems like a lot but Erin and I take it as it comes.  We watch our boy grow and play at the rate as any other child and appreciate his wit and charm on a daily basis.  He keeps us laughing and loving daily.  We explain everything to Kale as he goes through it in order to help him understand what is going on but we can only take it one day at a time and continue to enjoy every moment we have!

Maks ohhh Maks.  He is sure giving us a run for our money.  Maks couldn't be more different from Kale.  He is a spit fire. He is a huge sports fan, he wants to be outside running and playing every chance he gets.   Maks is also playing basketball at this time.  He is really enjoying it and does very well.  His favorite part is dribbling! Maks is not as social as Kale.  We switched him a few months back from Miss Debbie (his in home daycare) to a larger facility to help him socialize more.  We have had our struggles with this and often still find him off playing by himself but all in all it has been a good transition.  Maks just doesn't want to be away from the house or his comfort zone for any length of time.  Maks is also about to eat us out of house and home. I never really understood that statement until Maks came along.  That kid eats and eats and is still hungry! He is my grazer that will eat then 30 min later be starving.  One morning at Grandma Smiths house he ate 6 times before lunch time! I'm just not sure where all the food goes!

Erin is doing well, if you didn't already know he is now working at Kohl's.  We got a new Kohl's store back in September and he took a position with them as the Supervisor of Loss Prevention.  He is enjoying the job but still trying back into the swing of a Retail schedule. As I mentioned he is also coaching Kale's basketball team and enjoying himself.  We had to step in and help because the prior coach had a medical emergency and was unable to coach this season.  So far their team is doing great, all the kids love Erin and he is having a great time with all of them and their different personalities and skill levels!

I am still working at the College.  I am the Transition Coach for the Adult Education program at Hutchinson Community College.  I am really enjoying my work and the perks it comes with during our 3 year grant. I've been able to travel and attend many great conferences.  My travels this year have taken me to Long Beach, California twice, San Francisco once and Baltimore, MD once. I really have learned a lot about of Adult Education and believe that I have found a great fit.

Kale is 5

It just seems like Kale was my little boy crawling around the house chasing the dog and now he is our little man! Kale has grown up before our eyes and never stops amazing us with his humor, love for others, imagination and smarts!

This year Kale got to have two birthday parties.  Since he has been able to ask we have always told him that he would be able to invite friends to his birthday when he turned 5! At the time we were saying it seemed so far away! He never forgot so we let him have one party for family and one party for friends this year. 

At his family party this year we missed his Uncle Josh, Aunt Nicole and cousins Evan and Paige but the timing just didn't work out.  Kale had lots of fun with his cousins, Marisa and Malea as well as their parents and both sets of his Grandparents. 

Kale loves to smile for the camera no matter what is going on....Maks on the other hand has to be in the "right" mood.

Here is Kale's Batman Cake he picked out and the Lego candles his brother picked out for him. 

Kale and Marisa.  These two are 8 weeks apart. Marisa will have her 5th Birthday in January. 

Kale trying on his new "California" coat for the first time.  On my most recent trip to Long Beach, California I found this at the Laguna Beach Surf Shop. I couldn't pass it up!

 Kale showing off his 3 new Wii games from his brother and dad!  He loves playing them.

Kale standing in front of his cake before blowing out the candles.

For Kale's second party we decided to have it at the KS Cosmosphere.  It turned out to be a great time but taught Erin and I a few things. 1. We never want 7 kids. 2. Two hours IS long enough for a kids birthday party. 3. Blue frosting is overrated. 4. Make sure kids are not scared of loud noises prior to taking them to a Dr. Goddards Lab show!

Kale showing off his excellent candle placement on his spaceship cake! (Again with the blue frosting!)

The group!

From Left to Right

Kayla, Marisa, Jalen, Sophie, Maks, Kale, Malea

I took this before the kids went into the Dr. Goddards Lab show. It's almost impossible to get 7 kids under the age of 5 to all look at the camera at the same time! Kale is the oldest kid in this picture. They were really great but there was WAY too much kid energy!

Speaking of energy, Malea had a lot! Here is one of her videos.  She was our Pre Dr. Goddards Lab entertainment.  We had to wait outside for about 10 min so everyone was trying to keep each other occupied.  Malea turned out to be the star of the show! She was the youngest there and was the star of the party! Everyone loved her.....even the strangers out there waiting! She is singing Shake Your Groove Thing.

Here is everyone, minus Maks, waiting for the show to start. This was before we discovered a kid was tired, one was scared of loud noises, one was ready to go home, and one was bored. It got interesting after this point!

Well that about concludes the story of Kale turning 5.  All in all it went wonderfully, Kale, Family and Friends all had a great time sharing his birthday with him. Can't wait for next year!