for to us was born...

a son! Our first son is 9 today! 9 I tell you!! Josh was and still is such a sweet baby. He was born after 6 hours of labor and came so fast that he had bruised cheeks. And alas- the epidural didn't work for the full time. I got it, it worked for about an hour, but I became so itchy! Needless to say that it totally stopped working. His birth was scary because he had the cord was wrapped around his neck 3 times. We were very worried about our little man. I didn't get to hold him right away and I remember telling the nurses that I wanted him. My OB looked up at me and then said to the nures, "you may want to hurry up, Mama is getting anxious." We fell in love right away! Clyde was so thrilled to have a son that he ran out and bought him the new nike Air Jordan's, a baseball glove, and a football. My parents brought a soccer ball to the hospital as well. The erruption from the Wards, when we told them we had a son was HUGE!

We are so blessed to have Josh in our family! Happy Birthday buddy!!

wolverine tooth

I do not enjoy going to the dentist, well until today. I have had a nasty sharp pain in a tooth that I needed to have crowned a little more than 3 years ago and I knew that the dentist could take my pain away. I would have rather given birth again than to have any more of the pain filled days/ nights like I have had. (and just to clarify...i am not pregnant.) I called around and found an endodonist that would fix this problem. Man is dental work pricey...too pricey!! I had an appointment this morning and all I thought they were going to do was x-ray it, tell me I needed a root canal and schedule an appointment for next week. After checking the health of the tooth, he realized that several of the roots, 2 of the 3 were already dead and the 3rd was dying. Then he said that he had time this morning and we could do it right then and there...no more waiting.

So after an hour +, here is my x-ray. I kinda like my wolverine tooth now. This was taken before all the t's were crossed and the i's dotted. The actual root canal procedure wasn't too bad...it's the after. Half of my face was numb for 4-5 hours and then there is the pain from holding my mouth open for that long. Then there is the pain from the after procedure, but overall the pain is bearable thanks to motrin. Of course once the endodontist was done, & I literally cut out a kidney to pay them, I had to go to my dentist to have it filled. That was such a rip off. I had to pay another $120 for my dentist to fill the crown instead of the endodontist doing it. (The endodontist drilled through my crown to get to the roots. I thought that the crown would be removed and then reattached. silly me.) It is still a business. Come on Public Health!!

itching to knit

"Pour!"
Welp, it's finished. I think this turned out so pretty. Penny liked it too. She needed a white sweater for church. I personally love the rosettes and the rib detail on the back. Problem is...I'm itching to knit another one! (not enough time, with Christmas only 95 days away!)

balloon volleyball

Ricky's fiancee, Mayra came for a visit on Saturday. Jacob loved his Marvel character t-shirt that they gave him!

After dinner, Mayra challeged the Wardlings to a game of balloon volleyball.

The boys have been bugging me to let them ride the bus. I gave in and walked them to the bus stop this morning. It was still dark out. We love using our little lanterns in the wee hours of the morning.

Load 'em up! Off to school they go... this was so hard to watch my new 6 year old get on the bus.

he's 6

Yesterday was a sad day...it was the last day our Jacob was 5 years old. Six years old today. Jacob came with such force! (I mean that literally...he broke my tailbone in delivery.) He has always been such a little man. When Clyde cut his umbillical cord, blood shot up and hit the wall behind us...as far up that it hit the ceiling. The nurses couldn't reach it with a washcloth on the tip of a broom to clean it off. They jokingly said that we'd be in the room forever. If you look closely to the photos, you'll see Libby's bright pink cast. She fell/was pushed, still unclear of the details, while goofing off on her bunk bed and broke her wrist. That is a good story for another day.

Here is our fella today. He wanted a cherry cheesecake for his birthday. That's my boy!! {Like the Christmas wrapping paper? :)} 6 years old...

How adorable is he??!! He has THE most stunningly beautiful blue eyes that I have ever seen.

Here is his favorite birthday gift. He is totally diggin Indian Jones. Heaven help us as he learns to use his Indiana whip. Happy Birthday 6 years old.

rag time gal

Last night was a grouplette for enrichment on ragging our girls hair. (Ragging is the art of curling hair without the foam curlers. If you have seen Little House on the Praire, you've seen Laura Ingalls with rags in her hair. My Mom would curl Raegen and my hair this way when we were little.) Since Libby has the longest hair, I brought her along. I haven't ragged my girls' hair in some time. Libby LOVED to have her hair foam curled and wore it everyday curly to school, in the 1st grade. It was a part of our nightly ritual to curl her hair. I think she has out grown it. I loosely ragged her hair and she was so embarrassed, even though there was only the mom who taught the class, 2 good friends, & one of their daughters present for the class.
She anxiously took out her rags this morning to find her hair to be a bit more curly than she wanted. She gave me the same expression of embarrassment when I wanted to document it. This picture was my favorite, because she is actually turning her head out of the way. There is not time in the mornings to do much with her hair, so she wore it in a french braid, to hide all traces of the curl.

As a part of Clyde's teacherly duties, he kept score at his school's first football game. Thus making it Libby's first Middle school football game. This is old news for Erin. Erin was anxious to show Libby the ropes of cruising @ the game. I think that they all had a fun time, running around, eating Middle school football game hotdogs, drinking sodas, and making hand gestures. Clyde so loves his girls!

Thank You Mrs. KB for sending us this picture of the 3 of them! :)

the jealousy bug

I do alot of waiting during the week. I wait for Penny, during her multiple speech sessions per week and wait for the boys in the car rider line. While I wait,I knit. I also knitted while waiting for Ty to get out of surgery. I am a good portion complete with this little cotton cardigan. I debated on making it a shrug, but once I saw it on my model, I realized that it needed to be a sweater. Hopefully my project will be completed soon.

This is the new fella in my life. Isn't he adorable?! He is a very pleasant baby to tend. Penny enjoys having a baby around the house, though I must admit, the jealousy bug has bitten more than once.

Earlier this week, I noticed that Jacob had on one short sock and one tall sock, when we were heading out the door to school. I said to him, "Hey- buddy, you have one short sock and one tall sock." Jacob said, "It's ok, I'm only in Kindergarten." Alrighty then... off to school he went, with one short sock and one tall sock.

the plot thickens

more info on the attack... there were more than the original 2.

innocent til proven guilty

This has been a very interesting few days, as my family finds out more and more about what happened early Monday morning. Here are the 2 men that are being charged for the crime. Ty and H were the 2nd attack that night. The story linked above doesn't mention my brother, only the more brutal of the attacks. Only one has been arrested while the other one is still on the run. I understand that we are innocent til proven guilty and that this will be a forever long road, however it is still unnerving to have one of those guys on the loose.

penny's day

Ahhh...to be four! Each of the Wardlings gave Penny a little something. She loved the fairy wings. The crown, blue fairy wings, baby bottle and little purse were other little gifts.

We got her these nice little Tevas. They are quick and easy to put on and take off plus, she loves them. Here is our Penny blowing out her four birthday candles on her bunny cake. I learned how to make this type of cake in high school. It turned out really cute, if I do say so myself. We hadn't finished singing "Happy Birthday," before she blew them out. Clyde was sweet and re-lit them so she could make her wish after the song.

We started the day off with a Dr.s appointment at ye olde Duke University hospital, for Erin. Penny was a good sport and tagged along with us. (all is well with Erin, BTW.)

Happy Birthday Penny!

Ty update...

He is still in ICU. Clyde visited him yesterday. Ty was giving his nurses a hard time, in a good way. He was joking and was very pleasant. He is recovering well.

penny and ty

Today is our Penny's 4th birthday. I treasured her being a baby, considering she was our last. The last to have the newborn smell, the last to have the newborn cry, the last umbilical cord to have fall off. The last first steps to watch. Simply the last. It was so bitter sweet. A huge decision. Her delivery was the smoothest, considering that with her the epidural worked it's glorious magic and that i didn't have to wait to get it, 24 hours into labor. Two pushes and Penny was born. We had an idea for a name, but not until she was a few hours old did we actually agree. We both liked Penny, but to be honest I loved the name Ruby, and Clyde went through a Sophie phase (thanks to the DiVinci Code by Dan Brown). I thought about the name Royal for her middle name but again Clyde and I didn't agree. He said that Penny Royalty was a Nirvana song. Who would have known that? and when has that ever stopped him for his Nirvana kick?? So again, we agreed on Penny and Clyde liked the name Jill, keeping it soft and sweet, and very feminine. it stuck. we love our Penny Jill! All of the Wardlings loved to hold her. She was always so holdable, hug-a-bly soft. (The pregnant Ashley photo was taken 4 days before she was born.) We love our Penny! Happy 4th sugar plum!

Onto today...much happier than yesterday and it wasn't because it was my birthday. Yes- I turned 29, for the 4th time yesterday. However, a phone call @ 5am didn't seem to start my day out right. When the phone rang and awoke me from a deeply dreaming sleep, questions raced to my mind and I knew it couldn't be my brother calling to wish me happy birthday. Something was wrong. It turns out that my brother Ty and a good friend of his, H, were attacked by some random strangers @ the end of H's driveway. It happened around 2am and the fellas were outside chatting when a car drove by, then turned around and drove back by and when they came back by they threw something @ Ty and his buddy. Being boys they yelled @ them. The car then turned around again and jumped out of their car. One of the men, took his belt off, swung it and hit Ty across the ear, cutting him and the other man starting fighting H, Ty's friend. H, to his advantage was just released from a military tour and Navy Seal training in Italy, so he had his attacker, Ty on the other hand was caught off guard, due to the belt hitting him. Ty's attacker then rammed Ty and cheated...pulled out a knife and stabbed Ty twice in his side. Ty having 3 brothers and 2 sisters, who grew up with 4 brothers, made some nice counter moves and was able to get his attacker off of him. (However, when Ty and his attacker hit the ground, they rolled in briars, thorns, and thickets, getting mangled and cut in the process.) H got his attacker in a hold, was making him cry in pain and got Ty's attacker to run to his car. Once the 1st attacker was in the car he let the other one go. Ty came up to H, and noticed that he was bleeding and was quite mad that the man had cut his favorite fraternity shirt. H got Ty to the house and then got his Mom, where she insisted on going to the hospital. The gashes were deep, way deep, and there wasn't alot of blood. internal bleeding. H's mom got him to the hospital where he called my folks and it just so happened that my Dad couldn't sleep that night and had been awake to get the call. They of course rush to the hospital, where they talked to the Er Dr., that smartly required some CT scans, which showed all the internal bleeding and the gash in his spleen and they were told that Ty would lose his spleen. Ty was taken in for emergency surgery. My sister, her husband, and I were out the door and on the road, just 20 minutes after getting the phone call. We met up with my other family members in the surgery/family waiting room. After a few hours, Ty's Dr. came out to talk to us to tell us that they didn't have to remove his spleen, but were able to repair it. He stitched it, glued it, patched it, glued it, & patched it several times. He removed the 500 cc's worth of blood from his belly, due to the internal bleeding, as well as giving Ty 3 pints back in. It is now a waiting game. Ty is in the ICU. We are waiting to make sure that 1- his spleen resumes normal function while accepting the stitches etc, and b- to watch out for infection. It will be a very long recovery for him. I feel awful for him.

I cannot believe that this happened or that it happened to my baby brother. Of all the people to get hurt, he is hands down the least deserving. I absolutely hate this! The attackers did get away and H was horrified knowing that he let one of them go. On a side note, H's Dad grabbed his gun and headed to the street, stopping every car that passed by his house, even a State Trooper, who was looking for the same men. He is determined, as we all are, to catch those attackers, who did this. This is just terrible. Please say extra prayers for my baby brother. He can use all he can get.

pneumonia and more

the past few days has been quite interesting around the house. wednesday night, jacob began to not feel well. we wanted to have a dinner out and when we got to the oh so yummy shane's rib shack, jacob began to get upset and proceeds to tell me that he needs to, 'fro up.' so i dash him to the bathroom, where he proceeds to prove himself right, and throws up. he looks pale and quite nasty. we get our food to go and come home. he feels terrible and begins to cough with that deep chest splitting cough that hurts. he does throw up a few more times. since clyde had to work the next day, i took the evening shift. it was so hard listening to him breathe that night. as soon as our pediatrician's office opened the next day, i called and made an appointment for him to be checked out. to be quite honest i was terrified that he would have H1N1. he had several of the symptoms...fever, shakes, vomitting etc. this is how sick i was...when our PA said that he did in deed have pneumonia, i felt relief. how sick am i? my son is horribly sick and i am thrilled that it is only PNEUMONIA. he was given an rx for some antibiotics and is jacob again. i hate it when the babies are sick. such the paranoia.

now, onto the whole obama speaking next week. regardless of your political views, i am amazed at how our country is reacting to the president of the united states speaking to the children of america. parents are all in an uproar, planning on pulling their children out of school, schools now requiring parental signatures from the parents before they will allow their children hear the president speak. i am nearly positive that his speech would include such topics as staying in school, having goals, achieving their goals, encouraging them to stay in school and getting good grades. on FB people are comparing obama to hitler and stalin. are they serious? i may not agree with all of his agendas, but with which president did we agree with everything that he was doing? surely, not the bush's or clinton, reagan, ford, carter, nixon...all the way back to washington, adams, or jefferson. there were good things and bad things that came about from each president. i would hate to think that this is a mere racial decision on americans thinking that obama will be the downfall of america, when the preceeding presidents who did a good job at crappin' up america were white. to be honest whomever was elected after g.w.bush was in for one heck of a job. 70% of americans thought that obama would be that man who would be the best @ it. the children of america do not care about agendas, healthcare reform, deficits...they are about being good americans, citizens, students of our country. they need motivation, praise, and encouragement. last year there were polls taken and lessons galore on the responsibilities of the president, in school. why now is it not ok to hear the man speak?