Taylor's Birthday - The Presents

The next day Taylor finally got to open the rest of her presents. Tom wasn't home, but we took pictures, so he could see. She'd had to wait long enough, so we didn't want her to have to sit at home ALL day long with those presents visible yet not be able to open them because Tom wasn't home. She wanted to have some of our friends over for cake, but they were unable to until the end of the week, so we saved the candle blowing and cake eating until then. She really handled the whole 4-part birthday celebrations well. Here is some of the pictures I took of the present openings.



She LOVES to play our go fish game and what kid doesn't love fishing, so I figured this game would be perfect . . . and I was right. The girls enjoyed it for the rest of the week. We played with Tom one night and it was a lot of fun especially as Tom taught the girls to steal fish right out from under others' fishing poles and turned it into competitive fishing. By the end fish we being pulled out and thrown everywhere and the girls were laughing and having a blast.



Shelby's had a Littlest Pet Shop for a few years as a good friend of ours got it for her on her 4th (I think it was 4th) birthday. Taylor has loved it, so it was definitely time for her own.



I Spy books are the greatest. My girls LOVE them. Taylor has an amazing memory and will look over and over the pictures so that when you read the puzzle with her the first time she already knows where many of the objects are. I hate paying full price for books, but this was one book I KNEW she'd love.



This is what happens when you don't get to open presents because it's not your birthday.

Taylor's Birthday - Dinner

Another tradition we have is that the birthday girl gets to pick a place to go out to eat for dinner. Tom's friend recommended the Rainforest Cafe, so Tom told Taylor about it and the robot animals it had. Of course, that's what she picked. It was a cool restaurant. It was like eating in a rainforest. They had huge fish tanks throughout the restaurant, a pool of water in the waiting area with a robotic crocodile in it, plants everywhere, and robotic animals everywhere. Every few minutes the animals would move and make noises, and every 15-20 minutes there would be a thunderstorm. The kids really enjoyed it. Unforunately the wait was huge!!!! We were told our wait time was 1 hr 45 mins; we only had to wait about 1 hr 15 mins, but it was such a long wait. Taylor really wanted to do it though. It was also an expensive place to eat; the food was okay, but didn't quite match with the price we paid. As a whole experience, it was worth doing . . . once. We all really had a lot of fun. It ended up being a REALLY REALLY late night, and Taylor had to agree to open her presents another day (we ended up letting her open one that night), but it was a great birthday night.



These were the cool drinks we got the girls. Taylor decided to show it off. I love her goofy face in this picture.



Shelby lost her tooth the day before and refused to eat or drink anywhere except on the right side of her mouth. She's so dramatic. At least she only has to clean up one side of her mouth after eating.



Here's the gang.



We fortunately got the corner table. This was our view of the restaurant. It's not the greatest picture, but you can see one of the fish tanks and the rainforest atmosphere.



Payden was being silly and pretending to be just exhausted (she was a little tired, but this is her playing it up). Her face just cracks me up.



Payden again, snuggling with her dad.



This elephant was behind me and would move around and make noises every few minutes.



Here I am with Taylor. I figure I'd post at least one picture of me.







This picture isn't the sharpest, but it shows the robotic butterfly above our table.



The girls all got tired on the walk to the car and I was hurting, so Tom was kind enough to pick up all 3 girls for a bit. They really enjoyed that.

Taylor's Birthday - Making the Cake

We have a few traditions that we do for each birthday. The day before the big day, we go to HEB and pay for those special carts and go on a birthday shopping trip. It's the only time we do those special carts, and it's nice because they don't ask me at any other time because they know we only do it for the special birthday shopping trip. It's a nice win-win situation; they still get to ride in it, but I don't get the whining each time I go to the grocery store with them. On the birthday shopping trip we buy cake, icing, candles, sprinkles, streamers, balloons, and ice cream. The birthday girl gets to pick everything out.

Then that night after the kids are in bed, Tom and I wrap the presents, blow up balloons, and decorate the house with balloon and streamers. When the girls wake up, they come down to a decorated family room and kitchen with birthday presents sitting on the kitchen table under a Happy Birthday sign. It's kind of like a mini-Christmas, and they love it.

Sometime during the day we make the cake. The girls LOVE helping, so they actually help through the entire process. Their favorite part is decorating. I help with the icing, of course, but then they get to sprinkle their little hearts out. This time Payden got banished to her highchair because she thinks she's a big girl and doesn't listen to instructions or accept any help. Funny girl! Here are the girls decorating the cake as well as the final product.

Shelby's Exciting Spring Break News

Shelby comes up to me this morning bleeding and crying and holding a tooth in her hand. Apparently, Taylor had elbowed her in the mouth (I was in the middle of rushing the garbage out and wasn't able to get the entire story) and out popped her wiggly tooth. I guess that's one way of doing it and, since she's already lost a tooth by eating an apple and one by just pulling it out, this method was the next one on the list. She was a bit upset about it, but I'm glad it's out because it's been wiggling for awhile. Now we get to enjoy her beautiful toofless smile. (I told her she needs to hurry up and lose the other one so she can have an even more beautiful smile.)

A Nasty Lip

Tom came back from basketball and told me he'd hurt his lip. I could see the bruising, and it didn't look too bad . . .




. . . until he opened his mouth and showed me this.



I guess it's better than a sprained ankle or hurt elbow or hurt knee (some of his usual basketball injuries). Good ole church basketball.

Sleeping like an Orme

I looked in on Payden during her nap, and she was doing this:





Payden is definitely an Orme. First, all 3 of the girls love sleeping with their arms above their head like that. They don't fall asleep like that, but ALWAYS move to that position in their sleep. When they were younger, about Payden's age and younger, if they were sitting in their carseat and were tired, they would do that, too. We have always loved when our girls get into the Orme sleeping position. It is just too cute.

Second, her legs. It is such a funny position to sleep in, but she's not the only one who does it. I can't remember if Shelby and Taylor do it, but for sure, Tom does it. I remember the first time it happened when we were married. I woke up with NO covers on me because in moving into that position he lifted all the covers up off the bed. I thought it was hilarious (and a little weird). What's even more unbelieveable is that somehow it's genetic; at least, I don't have any other way to explain how Payden does it too. Too funny.

Payden the Colorer

Payden loves to color. Each day she grabs the colors and her coloring book, trots over to the kitchen table, and sits down to color. I love watching her because she's so intense.

Sleepy Taylor

Taylor seems to be phasing out of her naps, and, in true Taylor fashion, it's a hard and bumpy road. When she gets really tired, she gets mean and disobedient and out of control. Plus, if she doesn't get enough sleep during the day she ends up waking up 3-4 times at night. We definitely can't wait until she's finally done with napping and can still be a normal little girl during the day. Until then we'll have many bad days and bad nights with hopefully some good ones in between.

Anyways, on one of those days when she hadn't taken a nap, she'd been up a few times since going to sleep. At almost 11 I went to go to the bathroom and got quite the shock when I walked by the stairs.



I have no idea how long she'd been sleeping there or how she could actually fall asleep there, but I'm just really glad that she didn't fall down the stairs. I did get a good chuckle out of it . . . of course once my heart slowed down to normal from the shock of seeing someone on my stairs when the stairs were supposed to be empty.

The Decorated Cast

Here's the decorated cast.







Josh, this one is for you:



Of course, by the time she got it off on the 24th, there were even more names and almost no space left at all. After getting it off, the doctor said there would be some adjustment. Of course Shelby loves to be a drama queen and so she'd walk around with her arm bent at the elbow and pointing straight up with her palm facing her body (I forgot to get a picture of it). It was hilarious. She ate like that, walked around like that, and basically kept her arm up for the rest of the day.

Her homework that night was to write 3 sentences about Spring Break. It was the hardest homework session ever. At first, she didn't want to write with her right hand. Then she tried to hold the pen in weird positions. It took me at least 20 minutes to get her to start writing correctly. It also took her FOREVER to finish the assignment because she kept being a drama mama. Shelby, Shelby, Shelby!!!

Fortunately, the next day her arm wasn't feeling so weird, and I think she forgot about it through the night, so Tuesday was a much, much better day. I will say this . . . it is SOOOOOOOOOOOOO nice to have that thing off her arm. It's so nice to have our big girl back who can do just about everything by herself. Yeah!!!

I had one more memory that I want to share. One day Shelby and Payden were playing around. Payden was trying to run Shelby over with a push toy. She was chasing Shelby and the two were having a lot of fun. Payden started to just attack Shelby playfully - sort of tickling and hitting her. They were giggling and laughing. All of sudden I see Shelby pick up her right arm (she's right-handed, but it's the one with the cast) to tickle/hit Payden back. Poor Payden didn't now what had happened. Poor Shelby - it hadn't even dawned on her that the cast was a weapon and probably not the best thing to hit her sister with. I watched the whole thing in slow motion, knowing what was going to happen, but knowing I wasn't going to be able to stop it. Payden's giggles instantly turned to crying. Shelby felt so bad. She was definitely better after that about not hitting with the arm (except for our friend Joel who got quite the hit from Shelby after he had been teasing her). Anyways, it was pretty funny. It's amazing how much adjusting Shelby had to make for that thing, but she really did a good job and was a pretty good trooper.

A Few Payden Moments

Tom got Payden out of her crib after naptime. I went upstairs a little later and found this:



I thought it was soooooo cute, but I can't believe how big my baby's getting.



All I can say is she'd better not drive like this when she's a teenager!!!

Shelby's New Cast

Well, thanks to my friend Krista I was able to take just Shelby to her doctor's appointment today. I could only imagine the chaos that would have ensued with Taylor and Payden in tow (especially as both have been having sleeping difficulties lately). Shelby was sooooo excited to go. She was bouncing and jumping and wiggling all over the place.

I was amazed at the appointment because when we got called back, the doctor actually followed behind us, so we didn't even have to wait for him. Nice. He was fast and efficient yet still personable. He said that she had the nicest break you can have. Usually they require another x-ray to confirm the break has healed properly, but with the type of break Shelby has (a buckle fracture, which looks like a wrinkly or bumpy area in the bone) the x-ray won't be necessary. She has to wear her cast for 4 weeks. Of course when they showed her the colors she could choose from, she picked pink. Now she has a nice BRIGHT pink cast.



She let us be the first to write our names. Of course Tom started first by writing his name all nicely, so I followed suit. Tom helped Taylor do hers and went and did Payden's for her.



In our house, the girls LOVE to "be a family." In other words, if we all sit on the same couch together . . . it's a family couch. When we all sit at the table together . . . it's a family table. The girls look for every opportunity for us to "be a family" and in their heads that is the perfect scenario. Of course, Shelby couldn't be the only family member not on her cast, so she had Tom put her name on it as well. I love it. I hope the desire to "be a family" is something they stick with forever.



We'll have to get one more picture once she returns from school tomorrow. When I picked Shelby up from school, her teacher was already mentioning to Shelby about having everyone sign her cast. Her teacher is a great teacher with an enthusiasm that matches her students. Now I hope we can make it the next 4 weeks without getting her cast wet.

Taylor's Drawings

Taylor loves to color. Occasionally, it's her name and maybe a person here and there, but almost always it's just scribbling. I try and try and try to get her to draw - people, trees, rainbows, . . . anything, but being the strong-willed, independent child that she is, she just won't do it (I'm sure my requests to draw something else only pushes her further to continue scribbling even if I'm asking as nicely as possible).

While Tom was taking pictures of Shelby's new cast, Taylor was playing with the Magna Doodle. She told me she had drawn a picture of a Chick Hot Air Balloon. I looked up and saw this . . .



I thought it was so cute, and I was a bit relieved that she can draw, but just chooses not to. Tom and I praised her over and over, so she got pretty excited and drew another picture.



I just hope her enthusiasm continues because I'm excited to see what she'll draw.

Here's the Next Thing

I know . . . you're thinking, "What?!?!" But, yeah, the next things have already come our way. I think I write because I'm a bit incredulous that things are still continuing, but also so I can realize that I have been blessed to be able to make it through some really, really, really, really tough times. Did I mention how tough they've been? :)

Friday afternoon Tom went to a doctor's appointment. His lung was starting to bother him again; I don't think he ever fully recovered from his bout of bronchitis a few weeks ago. Well, they are concerned about his left lung, again, and that it is something worse. The most bothersome thing is his oxygen level. It's supposed to be 98, and 91 is CRITICAL. He's has been holding steady at 96. It may not seem like much, but any drop below 98 makes a BIG difference. They actually think he might have pulminary fibrosis and want him to see a pulminologist and get a chest xray. Anyways, we'll be off to go get another HUGE round of prescriptions in hopes to get this taken care of.

As for the other something, last night I had been up with Payden for a couple of hours. She had finally fallen asleep and stayed asleep when I put her in her crib. I needed to go to the bathroom and was going downstairs since I hate bothering anyone upstairs. I peeked in the girls room to check on the time . . . 3:30am. I went to step to the edge of the top step with my left foot. For some reason I misjudged where I was, and instead of my toes landing at the edge, my heel landed right on the edge. With all of my weight going into the step, my heel slipped right out from under me and I fell backwards on my back and slid down about 6 steps. My left hip is slightly sore, but I haven't had any pain in my back, which I'm grateful. The problem is when I landed on my back, my right arm landed pointing to the top of the stairs (not in the comfortable way, but in the way you pull it back to stretch it out). Well, the arm is not supposed to be stretched like that. My shoulder HURTS. I think I just pulled the muscles, but any little movement seems to bother it.

So here we are: Shelby has her broken arm, Taylor and Payden are suffering from colds or allergies (that seem to be progressing to something more), Tom's lung is weak and causing lots of concerns, and I have completely hurt my right shoulder. I guess I know now what's next on our list of things to send our way. So here we go . . . off on another adventure with illnesses and such. Until the next time . . .

And On and On and On and On . . .

I'm just curious what's next in life. There seems to be some checklist of things to send the Ormes way this winter. RSV. Check. Pregnancy. Check. Severe Allergies. Check. Bronchitis. Check. Asthma. Check. Well I could go on with all the stuff that we've dealt with this winter, but that will take more time. It never fails . . . when we finally seem to have some calm, something else happens.

Well, the next something else to happen is that Shelby has pulled a first . . . the first Orme child to break a bone. Yep that's right. It's funny because with how our lives have been this winter it was easy to just go with the flow. Take her to the ER. Okay it's broken, so now we need to set up an appointment with a pediatric orthopedic surgeon. It's just another load dumped on our plate that we have to deal with, but we're so used to "dealing with" stuff that it feels like normal.

Anyway, she was in PE and they were jump roping. She fell down and caught herself with her right arm. She ended up with a buckle fracture on her radius. It looks like a bump on the bone. Fortunately she isn't one to carry on, so it was pretty easy to make the decision to go to the ER.

This morning she was asking why she had to break her arm. It was a good moment to teach her that we just have to deal with what comes our way, and it doesn't do much good complaining or wishing it had never happened. Just keep a good attitude and do what you need to get through the situation. Hmmmm . . . sounds like my life lately.

So here she is in her temporary cast from the ER (Taylor and Payden of course wanted their pictures taken as well). We'll get more pictures once we visit the next doctor. I'll be sure to post the next something else to happen in our family as well, so until then . . .

Funny Tuesday

First, Tom was leaving school on Tuesday with his motorcycle jacket on holding his helmet and wearing his backpack. He had on a pair of navy scrubs . . . the usual dental student attire. He's walking down the hallway when 2 University police officers come walking up and block him, making him stop. Both start eyeballing him with these huge grins. Tom looked at them, totally confused. Finally they said, "Hey, do you have any ID?" Tom had to actually show them his ID. Apparently he's a pretty scary looking guy. We got a good chuckle out of this.

Second, Tom was on the way to pick up a friend because they were taking Shelby, Taylor, and the friend's daughter to the Spurs game (with the Spurs tickets Shelby got for the award she won). On his way there, Tom pulls up to a light and sees this . . .



FYI the sign reads "I am a thief. I stole $80 from Grandma." I like his parents creativity. I will have to keep this in mind for future reference (hopefully I'll never have to go there.)

Update on Rachel

So let me take you back to December 4. It was on that day that I took a pregnancy test and found out I was pregnant. Yeah!!! Our last baby (due the beginning of August). Well, with all of my pregnancies I get SICK at exactly 6 weeks along, so I quickly did my math and figured out that I had about 5 days of feeling good. Sure enough Monday the 10th rolled around and I started feeling nasty with the usual - exhaustion, nausea, hatred of food, just overall sickness. Usually after a few weeks I can get to a somewhat functional state. Generally I am sick a few days and will have a good day (where I try to get a lot done) and then more sick days of doing just about nothing. Then on December 20 (while I was still getting used to the pregnancy sickness) I got sinus headaches, sinus congestion, nasal congestion, a runny nose and all that sort of fun stuff. I was sick for a bit, but things seemed to get a bit better over the holidays. I returned from Christmas in Houston only to have my symptoms worsen again. I figured I'd just caught the bug that everyone else in my family caught. Then the symptoms weren't going away. They weren't lessening, but rather holding steady. Then the few medicines I can take as a pregnant woman stopped working, so I was left with these horrible symptoms and no medicine.

Since then my symptoms have stayed (we're going on almost 2 months now), and as you can imagine my sleep has been HORRIBLE. I don't get much sleep, unless my nose decides to unclog for the night, which is rare. Even when it is unclogged, it generally doesn't last more than 5 hours and I wake up every few hours to pee anyways. A good night for me is 5 hours of sleep in 2 parts. I feel blessed when I get that sleep. When my nose is clogged . . . well I don't even know if you can really call it sleep. I end up waking up every hour to a mouth completely dry of moisture, which causes me to drink a lot, which causes my overly-sensitive-pregnant bladder to pee a lot, which causes me to wake up more to empty my bladder. A nasty little cycle.

So my extreme exhaustion from my nose problems has led to me not functioning hardly at all. My house is in a state that it's never been in for this long of a period. My parents helped clean my house last month and already have offered to come again for February. (Amen for good parents who love me!!!) Laundry gets done on an as-needed basis as do the dishes. My family does get fed; it's not always home cooked meals, but they're not going starving.

I found out recently that since Dec. 17 (remember I started all this sickness on Dec. 20) a nasty little pollen called Cedar has been here in San Antonio. I'm assuming that's what's causing my problems. I normally have bad allergies and pregnancy only amplifies them. I'm hoping that when the Cedar leaves (which might not be until March) that my symptoms go away and I can lead a more normal life. (I have learned there's something called pregnancy rhinitis that causes these same symptoms and lasts the ENTIRE pregnancy, but I'm not going to think about that.)

I tell you this not to make you feel pity for me (my life is quite pitiful as it is lately), but rather so you understand why I don't blog, write e-mails, answer phone calls, go to functions, and have basically dropped off the face of the earth. I must say I definitely know how to do survival mode, but it's getting rather old. At this point I figure once this all goes away it can only get better. Right? Anyways, I apologize for the silence, but for now don't expect much from me. One of these days I'll be a normal person again. I promise.

For all of you who are interested in finding out about Orme Baby #4, we will be finding out the sex in March and will post something immediately upon finding out. I must say I am hoping for a boy, but I must take the advice of Shelby's teacher . . . You get what you get, and you don't throw a fit. Wise words that are appropriate for more than just Kindergartners. Hopefully I'll blog more than I have been, but if not I promise definitely to spread the news about our next baby once we find out.

Thanks to all of you who have showed concern. I really appreciate it!!! It means A LOT to me. Thanks!! Here's to a healthier future!!!

What is This?

The girls were playing outside enjoying the nice weather. Taylor came in to tell us about a bug on the chair. Tom and I kept telling her it was no big deal and to just go back outside and play, but she just wouldn't go outside. Finally I turned up the blinds and saw this bug crawling on the chair. No wonder she didn't want to go back outside. That is a NASTY bug. I have no idea what it is. I'm definitely curious though. It eventually crawled on the window. The girls all ended up inside checking it out. I checked this morning to see if it was still there and it must really enjoy our window becuase there it was. I tried to get Tom to move it to someone else's yard yesterday, but he wouldn't. I hope it goes away soon because even I don't like being out with it for too long. UCK!!!!

Tom and His Girls

Our girls love to cuddle. If either Tom or I sit down on the couch, it's a guarantee that at least one will come up and sit right next to us or even on top. Sometimes it ends up being all 3.

Tom came home from school and was exhausted. The girls were watching their 2 shows on PBS - Cyber Chase and Fetch. I was cooking dinner. I went to check on them and saw this. It was too cute. I just hope this never stops because Tom and I LOVE the cuddling.