M.I.A.

So I know I have been away or a while, but life gets a little busy with 5 kids. There is also the fact that since I have found quilting, my priority changed. Since my bank account is feeling the impact of quilting, I am taking a break. time to refocus. I am going to try to get you caught up with our lives over the next few weeks, but for now I will leave you with a parting pictures.

Birthday to Remember...

February 14, 2011~ This was my 34th birthday, on Sunday the 13th Paul had a great day planned to celebrate, when I came home from Church ( I went alone since ALL the kids were sick and Paul and Nathan had gone Saturday night.) there was breakfast waiting!! Let me add that when I woke up this morning I was not feeling very well, just an achy feeling all over and NO energy. After a very nice breakfast I laid down Paul took the kids to the park and they played for a couple of hours. Then stopped by the bakery to pick up my yummy carrot cake! When Paul got back from the park I noticed Reagan who has been sick for about five days was really wheezing! After waiting too long because when your baby is wheezing you should not wait, I took her to the ER. She was then diagnosed with RSV and given lots of breathing treatments. She then started to eat (she barely ate on Saturday) and was sleeping. As an ICU nurse you see the worst case scenario all the time, so that is what I was expecting. After a few hours we were told we were going to be admitted, then told that the hospital we were at did not have a children's area and we would have to transfer hospitals. We rode in an ambulance, which was a first and spent the night in the hospital. We were released the next day and came home where we had to continue the breathing treatments.

Compare.....

Guess the baby....

Merry Christmas!!!

We wish all of you a very merry Christmas from the Hellen Family!!!! Love, Paul, Karen , Nathan, Kayla, Emily, Madeline and Reagan

caught up....

So as you can see I have finally caught this blog up to date, I understand most have given up on me, I would have as well!! I was busy with Maddie's quilt, which I love and then life has been going on around me. I hope you enjoy reading the blog, I am going to try to do a better job, but no promises time to get started on the Christmas shopping and birthday shopping, then I will focus on Thanksgiving!! Fingers crossed the baby comes a wee bit early so I am not a complete tired and grumpy mess over Christmas!! Anyway, enjoy the blog and feel free to leave comments!!!

Happy 34th!!

Today is Paul's birthday and he is a whopping 34 years old. For dinner he requested chili or lasagna and since it was not enough time for me to make lasagna I am making chili. Today is a cool gray and rainy day. Very much an English kind of day. The type of cake he wanted was a strawberry cake with strawberry frosting. Where this idea for a cake came from I am not sure, but that was his request so I set off to find a recipe. I found a recipe for both on the internet and when I was putting the frosting on the cake yesterday Kayla wanted to know, "Why is daddy's cake pink??" I then explained that daddy wanted a strawberry cake with strawberry frosting and that is why it is pink, from the strawberry's in the frosting. It should be interesting as it is a cream cheese frosting with pureed strawberries mixed in. I think it should be good!!!

Happy Halloween!!

This Halloween, Paul told the kids they had to come up with their costumes no buying anything at the store. I think this was harder for me than for the kids!! Nathan was a soccer player, Kayla was a black cat, Emily was a bunny, and Maddie wore a costume that was in the closet. Apparently while I was taking a nap, Nathan informed Paul that since Jake's dad dresses up for Halloween, Paul should as well. They went through Paul's closet in the hopes of finding a costume and came up with an old boy scout uniform. Well everything but the shorts as Nathan even agreed they were too short. The shirt was Paul's brother's, I am not sure how we ended up with it, but it completed the outfit. This year like last the dad's stayed home and set up a table with all of the candy buckets on it and they sat and talked around the campfire, while the mom's took the kids out for a walk to trick or treat! We started out at dusk and walk around until basket/buckets were filled then it was time to come home. The girls were dropping candy out of their baskets and I had to dump part of it in the stroller. I knew then it was a bad sign. Maddie enjoyed going up and getting her candy, her favorite candy are the lollipops. After returning home the kids were allowed to stay up for a while and play then it was time for bed. It was a good night, just wish it had been on a Saturday night instead of a Sunday. Another year!!