What a day it started out to be. I woke up before the kids this morning which is always nice to do. I had an appointment to take the van in for an alignment this morning, my mom was coming to follow me up to drop the van off. Braxton came out of the bedroom at 830 and was instantly complaining that his belly hurt. He went in to go potty and then wanted to eat. He took two bites of his breakfast and then laid down. No sooner got comfortable and he got sick. It never fails that he gets sick whenever I have something planned. Braxton got sick 2 more times, fell asleep for 2 hours and woke up fine. He was bouncing around, drinking and eating like nothing ever happened. This is the 3rd "episode" like this, this year. I can't pin point what is causing this but I am happy his return date to Ann Arbor is next month. I want answers. I am demanding them to at least re run the celiac panel, since they say it was a false positive. I want proof that it is negative.

Unfortunately I know all to well how Braxton feels. When I was younger I did the same thing. Randomly I would have these "episodes" where I would get really sick and end up admitted to the hospital for dehydration and vomiting. Thankfully his "episodes" aren't as bad as mine were but he still has them. I had always hoped and prayed that none of my children would have to go through that. It looks like whatever caused mine was passed down to him. It could be the gluten, good be an allergy to something that we aren't even aware he has.

Pray for Braxton that the answer is found to these "episodes", that the new gastro doctor we are going to see is a great listener and really truely hears us. That s/he has great bedside manner and is really good with kids.

Spinning out of Control

Have you ever felt that moment where life feels like it is spinning out of control? I have a few times and I am at that point again.

I feel like our children are out of control. Each one has their own personality and certain things really stand out. Makenzi is bored out of her mind being home all summer and she can't wait for school to start. Since she is bored she has decided to be naughty. She won't listen, refuses to sleep, whines and cries constantly. It is like having a toddler all over again. It is driving me nuts because she is 5 1/2 years old and knows how to behave. Her fits are out of control. Drives me nuts. I am at a lose of what to do with her. Tonight she "doesn't feel safe, something will get her".

Braxton is a very very persistent child. We have to be very firm with him. If he doesn't get what he wants he will kick, scream, cry for an hour. Today we were in Meijer and I wouldn't buy him John Deere fruit snacks he cried all the way through the store. I didn't give into him, I told him no and I stuck to it. He sure knows how to push my buttons. He is becoming a horrible sleeper. Tonight he has thrown 5 fits and woke both of his sisters up.

Makenzi has been going to Vacation Bible School at St. Michael's Church this week. She is loving it. She has been learning a new song every night and is really enjoying it. Thursday night she will get up in front of the church with her group and all of the other kids and sing these songs. Afterwards they will put on a big celebration for the whole church and their families. Makenzi is very excited about it.

Makenzi is also counting down the weeks until school starts. She is very bored at home and can't wait to go to school all day every day. Braxton isn't so sure about Makenzi going to school all day every day though. He will miss her tremendously.

Arianna is really starting to grow up fast. She has just started walking. She likes to crawl more than walk still but she is very capable of walking all over the house. When she sees something she really wants she takes right off. She says several words (momma, dada, kenzi, braxton, alex). Nothing extremely consistent but she can say them.

Braxton is peed trained on the potty finally. We are still working on the others but aren't getting anywhere. Which is very annoying because I really feel he is just being stubborn. Otherwise he is doing really well.

House Renovations

We are in the process of having a lot of work done to our house. Right now we are in the first stage: planning and deciding. I don't want to do any more planning or deciding and I am not done yet. We have decided we are getting new windows, new siding which also includes foam board insulation and tyvek, 3 new doors, all new outdoor lighting. That was our first decision...what all to do.

Now we are onto deciding window brands and styles and siding color and style. Windows we have figured out: double hung and 1 frosted window for the bathroom. Siding is a totally different story. I have the color narrowed down to 2. Cypress (green) and Natural Clay. We have decided that with either color we are doing white trim (windows, soffits, gutters etc). The corners will be the siding color. I never thought deciding siding color would be such a challenge. I really like both colors . The style I think we have figured out as well in siding. We are going with the Dutchlap style.

Light fixtures totally depend on what siding we go with. If we choose Cypress I am thinking Black lights, if we choose Natural Clay I am thinking Bronze for the finish. Although we could do white since we are doing white trim...maybe I should go that way.

Doors are the easiest. Two of them are going where doors already are and the last one was an easy pick.

Scott is not much help in these decisions because he likes both colors and told me it is up to me what I want. I have been driving around looking at houses with these two colors to see what I think. That is the best help but even with finding houses I can't narrow it down to just 1. Oh the decisions.

Ahna Baby

Well I posted yesterday that she refuses to walk. That all changed today. We were at my parents house and she was showing off to my parents. She took 9 steps to get a toy phone that Makenzi was holding. She actually would fall down and stand right back up and try again. She would take 9 steps fall down and then take 2 steps. She thought she was hilarious though. I am in no rush to make her walk. She is already busy enough when she crawls I can't imagine when she gets really good on her feet.

Family Update!

I haven't done one of these in awhile so I figured it was time again. Start with the youngest and go up.

Arianna Mary aka Ahna or Ahna Butt. She is almost 14 months old (on the 15th) and is a very busy child. She still isn't walking and shows no real interest in it. She can stand herself up without holding onto anything in the middle of the floor with no problems, she can even have a 10 minute temper tantrum standing up with no support for she refuses to take 1 little baby step. She is very stubborn. She climbs everything in sight. We took her for pictures today and she was trying to climb everything at JcPenney. They have a small couch that is used for pictures and she wouldn't stay off it. Ahna is our very shy baby and she doesn't do well with strangers at all. She actually busted out crying when we sat her down for her pictures today and the photographer talked to her. Otherwise she is doing well and is still our peanut. She is about 20lbs and just a peanut butt.

Braxton oh Braxton is doing very well. He has finally decided (knock on wood) that he is ready to go pee on the potty. Tuesday and Wednesday he woke up dry in the morning. I thought great he is showing signs again. Maybe it will happen but decided not to push the idea. Thursday night about 2 hours after bedtime Braxton was at the top of the stairs crying that he had to go potty. He came down and actually went!! Friday we started him in underwear which was completely his choice. He only had 2 accidents all day! Today was even better. He didn't have any accidents at all! We still haven't had success with pooping in the potty but I think we will get there. He wants to use the potty like Leo and Josie (his two cousins). He also knows he has to use the potty before he can go to school and he really wants to attend school. We will see.

Kenzi girl has been a totally different child lately. She is having horrible fits lately. The one day she was kicking, screaming and hitting me because she didn't get what she wanted. The next day was no better but thankfully today we didn't have any fits. Hopefully me taking her from the place we were and making her come home was enough proof that I meant business and it was not acceptable. Makenzi is very excited about going to kindergarten this year. The count down until school starts has begun...even though I am enjoying summer and in no hurry for school to start. She can't wait to go school shopping either.

Scott started his new job a few weeks ago and is enjoying it. His first student is doing very well. Scott had a week off of work for the first time since 2007. We enjoyed our week. We went camping for 5 nights 6 days, went to Michigan's Adventure and just relaxed.

I am doing well. I am getting ready for my classes to start at the end of August at Delta. I am going into the Physical Therapist Assistant program. I am excited yet very nervous. I may be nuts taking on School, the kids fulltime and everything else. I am sure I can do it though.

We are planning to do some major house renovations also in the next month or two. We are getting new siding, 3 new doors, 19 new windows, new gutters, soffits etc. Our house will not look the same. We are also doing so landscaping to the house. I just put a bunch of new mulch in all my flower beds, planted a bunch of flowers and now we are planning to rip out bushes, more mulch and more flowers. I am going to take lots of pictures through the process. I am excited to see the difference and the outcome. We are thinking the new siding will be a Natural Clay color with white trim.

Michigan Adventure

We spent all day Thursday at Michigan Adventure. We didn't have the best weather but it was still lots of fun. We went with my brother, sil, 2 nephews, niece and my mom and the four of us. Arianna got left behind for the day because she hates the car seat and stroller. We left home around 830 and arrived at Michigan Adventure around 1130. We got out of the car and Braxton's eyes were huge...he was so excited. Makenzi remembered the place. We were there 2 years ago and she loved it.

We went in and my main goal was to get Braxton on a couple roller coasters that they have. I took him right over to Zach's Zoomer which they classify as a Moderate Thrill Ride and it goes 65 mph and has a few hills. Big for the kids. We jumped right on and Braxton threw his hands up and giggled through the whole ride. We weren't even at a complete stop yet and Braxton was yelling to do it again. Makenzi enjoyed this ride too.
Here is Braxton and I riding Zach's Zoomer.




We were shocked at how many rides the kids could ride. The big rides of course they couldn't(Thunderhawk, Shivering Timbers, Wild Cat, Corkscrew). In the front part of the park they pretty much rode everything. We got brave and headed into the water park. Scott and all the kids went in the water. Braxton and Leo enjoyed the Wave pool. Then we headed back to the water slides. Makenzi went down the Snake Pit water slide. She wasn't so sure about it, she got sent down backwards and those slides are pitch black. She did ok but didn't want back on it again. Then we went into the kiddie section back there. They had a blast. They went on the little waterslides and the ship. We didn't last real long back here though, they got to cold.


The kids also loved the Frog Hopper. It is a really cute ride too. I can't even count how many times Braxton rode this ride. He would throw his little hands up in the air and giggle through the whole ride. As you can see in this video. Braxton, Makenzi and Leo (our nephew) are right in a row.