Seeds

We started some plants from seeds this year while the kids were sick. They were as super-excited as their sick little hearts could be! Though we started late, I hope it will turn out OK. If not, there were plenty of seeds left over to pland right into the ground later.  A few of them sprouted WAY faster than the rest of them, and "bolted". Decided that we waited WAY too long to start tomatoes, so we're just going to buy plants. Grandpa Hill always started his tomato plants on Valentine's Day. That's 6 - 7 weeks from the last frost date.  We will do that next year, too.

Christmas All Year

I can't go downstairs now.

Tom is listening to Christmas music at a very high volume, from his computer.

It's March. I don't want to hear about figgy pudding, or a happy new year.

Syrena has been singing Jingle Bells for a solid week now. Why? Not sure, but I think Tom must have had something to do with it.

He used to wait until about August. Each year he would has less and less resolve and start listening sooner and sooner. Now, he's just unabashedly listening to Christmas music all year long and it drives me batty. But it makes him happy. I think it losses some of it's special magic, but that's just my own humble opinion.

Ugh.

De-Railed!

The illness at Ketcham Hill has hit an all-time high. All three kids plus Daddy.

Sara is turning ONE in just a few days. Her birthday party is in six days, as of this evening.

I was planning on sending out *these* as her invitation:

because they perfectly match the cake idea that I fell in love with six months ago:

Sort of. Well, it's the *idea* that I fell in love with, the cake needs tweaking. It will probably morph into a mix of that one and this one:

Anyway, problem is, I've been derailed by The Sickies!

I've started those invitations, but not sent any. I ordered a die cut to make the butterflies. I went to pick it up from the friend I ordered it from, and borrow her die cutter. He kids are also very sick. She left the cutter on the porch for me. I got all the way back home, and we both realized that the die wasn't with the cutter. Had to go all the way back to her house today to get it. Mommies with sick children should not try to make a transaction. I then forgot to pay her. Now, it's going to be Sunday, no mail, and snow. Great. Fortunately, all invitees are either family or "family", and already know about the party, and have RSVP'd.  The invitations are just a "fun" addition to the day.

I have no idea what we're serving our guests.
I have not cut out a single fondant butterfly.
Got a lot of "cleaning up" to do.
etc.

This child was the first to get sick. She has had 2 illnesses, back-to-back, culminating in both a sinus infection and pneumonia after a brief rally. She wins the prize for highest fever, topping out at 104*, a high fever for her is very unusual. Pneumonia diagnosis came after the first antibiotic, prescribed for the sinus infection (which Dr. Mom knew was more than a sinus infection because at that point she had been fever free for a couple of days and had a return of low fever, and a wet cough - but actual doc said "nope, not in her lungs"), and her fever had gone away. Suddenly it returned to nearly 103*.



Early stages of illness



With Pneumonia and sinus infection

This child pictured below, has Pneumonia and continued general snottiness, which followed his back-to-back illnesses and has been sick for eternity.

This one here,

had a clearing up of the goop of the nose, didn't have anything get to her lungs, but has decided to vomit on me once per day. Methinks sinus infection, and so this one too, is on an antibiotic. She was snotty for 2 weeks, and I think that she's having drainage-causing upset tummy.

Driving you babies back and forth to the doctor's office is really getting tiresome!



Sickies

My baby is sick, my big girl is getting over being sick and my boy is certain to become sick shortly. Thing is Sara seems to have something different than what Syrena had. Fantastic. Sooooo.... What will Tae get? Hopefully not one after the other!!! Lord help ME!!!!! Plus, what will Tom get? What will I get? Sara sounds "croupy" (please, not croup or RSV!) and is super-snotty, but low or no fever. Syrena had a 103+ fever, no snot whatsoever. Eeney meeney miney mo!!!!

Aaaaaahhhhhhhhhkkkkkk!!!!!!

Bring on the Propolis, up the Vitamin C, and add in the Zinc!!

Broken Computer

Broken computer makes blogging much harder. But I'm going to try to stick with my post via super-handy iPhone, also on it's last legs.

11 Months

Sara is 11 months old. I can honestly say I can NOT believe it. She's still my baby. She's showing no interest in walking, and other than waving bye-bye, clapping and maybe an imagined "all done" she's not interested in signing either. She's amused by my efforts, though!! She hasn't really said any words yet, though we are pretty sure she might have said "Da-Da" once, and "Tae" once. She has no need for any of these things. Tae and Syrena play with her crawling around on the floor, and she LOVES it like crazy!! They chase each other all around the floor, she laughs and screeches and squeals with delight! Words, or signs? Who needs those things when you have subservient minions who know your every desire at your beck and call 24 hours a day?!?!?! Ahhhhh the life!!!!

Hopkins

Migraine update to be posted later

10 months

Our Sara is 10 months old!

Here is what she is doing now:

Clapping
Waving bye bye
Trying to sign "more" but gets confused and just claps :)
Crawling faster
Attempting the stairs
Pulling up to stand
She can play the kazoo. For real! And Sadie sings along. She will even look over at Sadie, expecting her to join in!

Lastly, drum roll please.... She got her first tooth!! The bottom right. Next one is right behind it though because after one restful night sleep she then has had two nights in a row of needing to be held ALL NIGHT LONG... ugh. I am planning on having a long heart-to-heart with our Lord in Heaven one day about how teething fits into his great plan. I just don't get it!



Yayyyyy!!!!!!



Snow Day!

A photo post for fun!



Sweet Sara contemplating the winter wonderland

Sara's first time "experiencing" the snow






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Snowman!

Adding hair

Done! Noooo - Syrenaaaaa!!



Hmmmm...



Syrena thinks it needs one final arm!

 

Looking for a victim...

Sledding with a mogul= crazy air!

I like snow!

Basketball anyone? Nope!

Snow Angels!





lAmazing neighbor who plowed all our driveways with his Bobcat. Thank You!!

Busy Start of 2011!

Lots of things have been going on in the Ketcham household during the first few weeks of the New Year!

Tae: 

Tae started Basketball. He's on a team with one of his best friends, his coach is that friend's mom and Tom as the Assistant Coach! Yay, Daddy! Yay, Tae! They are having a great time. Mom, Syrena and Sara tried to attend the 1st game which happened to be right about lunch/nap time for Syrena, plus she might have been getting a cold. Let's just say the entire gym heard her screaming from out in the hallway, and "The Girls" will now ONLY be attending the 4pm games. Fortunately, there are two of those, including one today that I'm very much looking forward to going to AFTER Syrena wakes up from a nap :P (Update – the game was great, the team came back from a sleepy first half to shock the opposing team with their tough defense! Syrena loved cheering for Tae "Go Bubba, Go Bubba!" and Sara wondered why Mama was screaming like a crazy lady – (well, I had to get our team fired up – we were getting steamrolled – and Tae was actually listening to me for once!))

 

Tae also attended his first sleep over. Yes, a bit later than many kids, but he wasn't at ALL interested until fairly recently, after he had developed a few pretty strong friendships. Then, with boys and their early Saturday morning sports schedules and church, getting one actually planned took some time! It was a fantastic success, and I'm sure there are many more in our future - Yay! The sleepover was followed by big-time go-karting in Fredericksburg for his friend's 8^th birthday. For this kind of go-kart, the minimum age is 8 years old, they go FAST! The boys and their dads had a blast!

Syrena:

Syrena started her first "real" ballet class at Warrenton Ballet Academy. She took "creative movement" over the summer, and refused to let Mommy leave the room. This is not allowed in the next class up, so I had to wait a while. She was finally ready after Christmas when all she wanted to watch was the Angelina Ballerina show and The Nutcracker Ballet performed by the Bolshoi Ballet Company on TV. She is having a great time, loving every minute of it. I have not had to stay one single second of class, and she's very proud to be in "big girl' ballet class! It's so stinkin' cute I can hardly stand it!!!!

Sara:

Sara has been a busy lady as well. She learned that cabinet doors and drawers open. This discovery delights her! Fortunately I already have locks on the important ones since Tae was a baby. She also discovered Sadie's food and water. This discovery delights her even more that the drawers!! It annoys Mommy. If I place her down on the kitchen floor, she makes a beeline for the dog bowl. Man, it's a pain in the you-know-what! Lastly, Sara was attacked by a falling fireplace tool while Mommy sat idly browsing Facebook by the fire. Yes. Completely my fault, I should have moved the dang cast iron things, but I didn't, and Sara started to play with one of them and it fell off the stand and hit her. In the face. And I'm guilty of not protecting her. And she had her 9 month photos scheduled.

Pictures of Sara to come, they're on Tom's computer.