It was Mom's crazy idea!

Yes, I know. Usually Conal is the fun parent. Not this time folks.

The kids had been bugging us all week to get out the Spiderman Slip n' Slide so we busted it out on Saturday. I don't know what got into me as I am usually the safety freak (not to be confused with the clean freak or germ freak which I have also been called =)) but I thought it would be a good idea to line up the play set slide and the slip 'n slide on the hill.

Yes, I know mom, "accident waiting to happen". I bet you are glad you weren't here to witness it all. ha ha. Especially since Jackson would never get out of the way:

and repeatedly got taken out by the older 3.

Anyway, when I first suggested it Conal thought it was a lame-o idea..........which of course he took back by the end of the day. However, I do have to say, knowing what I know now (that although we didn't know at the time Alexia had a broken nose{more on that in another post}) the slip n' slide alone would not pass my rigorous safety inspection.

Oh well. No one got hurt and the kids had a blast. Lucky for us, I think that slip 'n slide has had it's last hurrah.

Oh yes.....and leave it to Ali and Jack to find the nearest mud puddle.

After we got everyone bathed and dressed we headed over to Silver Springs State Park. It's a beautiful place near the Fox River.

We ate dinner, let the kids play at the playground and Conal and I even got in a few games of Bocce before Jackson started picking up the balls and chucking them. Luckily he didn't hit anyone. Those balls are heavy!

Conal won (of course!) but I got in a few good shots myself including this one:

which Conal promptly blew out of the water on his next shot, and these:

which Conal couldn't do anything about because I had the last turn. I HAD to take a picture of that one for proof. ha ha!

We had a great weekend.........and I have the mosquito bites to prove it!

Happy Birthday Blondie!

In one way I can't believe its been a year, and in another way it seems like we've always had Macy. Either way I'm glad that it is 7/07/09 instead of 07/07/08. ha ha.

Here is the run down:

We left for the hospital at 10:00 am because I was scheduled for the OR at 12 noon. Here is the before picture:

4 hours later (after getting bumped twice for emergencies) we have a 6 lbs 12 oz girl with light brown hair and blue eyes.

She had some trouble breathing so she was with us for a few minutes in recovery but after that they took her to the nursery and then since she was getting worse she was checked into the NICU.

I was unable to see her until the next day after I convinced them to unhook me a couple of hours earlier than they were supposed to. She spent the first 9 days of her life in the NICU.

This picture still makes me sad......Macy under the lights with an IV in her scalp. Every time we came in her IV was moved because she had ripped it out.

This picture won't mean anything to anyone but me. When I see it I remember exactly how I felt out the time. Conal had gone to my mom's to be with the older 4 kids and I went down to the NICU to talk to Macy's doctors about what course of action we were going to take at that point. Macy's lungs should have cleared but instead they were worse and because she was breathing so fast she couldn't eat and was losing weight. The doctors said that we needed to treat her aggressively or risk losing her. No mom ever wants to hear those words! I was really upset when I went back upstairs but I found this fruit bouquet (that my sister sent) and Conal there waiting for me. Both the arrival of the bouquet and Conal's arrival were perfect timing!


After 9 days we were so glad to take her home first to my moms and then next day to El Paso.

Now here we are a year later.

I had to add this one in so I remember how blonde her hair is. Actually this picture makes it look darker than it actually is:

A lot has happened in a year's time. We are glad that we've had Macy along for the ride!

Happy Birthday blonde girl!

Happy Father's Day!!!

I love shopping for Conal. Everything that I buy him fits and it always looks good on him. That is why I hooked him up with 7 new shirts for Father's day. What can I say besides Kohls clearance (I thought of you Carrie!)


Happy Father's Day Conal! You are the best hubby and dad! You rock!
Happy Father's Day Dad! Love ya!

Shedd Aquarium and the rest of the weekend

Conal worked on Friday evening so he had the day off on Friday. Yay for family time! It was a free day at Shedd aquarium so we packed up all of the kids and headed downtown to the aquarium. It is located right by Lake Michigan and it is so pretty in that area at this time of year.

Apparently, many Chicagoans had the same idea as there were SO MANY people there waiting in line to get into the aquarium.

We figured that since we had already driven all the way out there and paid for parking (which isn't cheap in the city!) that we would wait in line. This is when it got crazy. The thunderstorms weren't supposed to arrive until the late afternoon. Wrong-o Mr. weather man! After we were there for a few minutes we saw this:

heading right for us. To stay or not to stay? What can I say, we are crazy..........we decided to stay. It started mildly with a little thunder and a few rain drops, and ended with an all out down pour, thunderstorm and swirling clouds. Being the adventurers that we are we STAYED in line and got soaking wet. I mean, clear through dripping wet, where the guy behind us in line took off his shirt to wring it out wet. The worst part is that we had ponchos for everyone in the van but due to a misunderstanding, they never made it out with us. Oh well, the kids were great sports. Macy thought it was the funniest thing she'd ever seen and had all of the people in line around us cracking up.

We eventually made it in the doors

and were dripping the whole time we were in the building. Actually, we were still wet when we got home.

One of the great things about being married to Conal is that he rarely complains. When everyone else around us in line was complaining and getting upset Conal said "Now THIS is a great adventure!" That is definitely the attitude you have to have with 5 young kids. ha ha. You really are pleasant to be around Conal.

Unfortunately, it is too dark in the aquarium to get any good photos and you can't use flash photography. However, I did get a picture of this:

which if you look closely and beyond the reflection of my feet, is an anaconda. I was seriously creeped out by this snake and thought I'd creep you out too. hee hee.

Saturday was another busy day. After running errands all morning, Garrison, Hailey and I went to Samantha's (a girl in Garrison's primary class and the daughter of the YW pres.) baptism. I was glad Garrison got an opportunity to see a baptism since his is just around the corner.

That evening we took advantage of the beautiful summer weather. We ate Popsicles. Conal played kick ball with the kids.

Alexia gathered some sticks in the yard and kept rubbing two Popsicle sticks together to make a fire.

I couldn't resist giving her a bag of marshmallows when she asked for them.
Macy entertained herself by playing with a Popsicle stick and crawling around in the grass.

We ended a perfectly pleasant evening watching the fireflies. Awesome.......I still can't get over the fireflies!

School's Out for Summer

School is out! I love having all of the kids home. It's definitely a little more crazy around here but we are all enjoying it.

One thing that I enjoy about the end of the school year is that the kids bring home all of the things that they have been working on all year. Garrison and Hailey had been writing in a journal everyday at school. It was so fun to read about what they thought about things and also to be reminded of some things that I had forgotten. Garrison had written a bunch of short stories in his free time. Although this is by far the shortest and most simple story, it is my favorite.

It says: Nolan my grandpa. He is funny. He says where is Garrison? and I'm right there! He always says Holy Macro! He asks me what website I'm on and he says the opposite.

I laughed and laughed when I read this. He has my dad down to a tee! I knew exactly what Garrison was talking about. It reminded me so much of my childhood.

I called my dad to tell him about this and within a minute of talking to him (and before I told him about this) he said "Holy Mackerel!" I busted out laughing and told my dad what Garrison had written.

Another thing that I enjoy during the summer is "learning time". We have this all year around but at the beginning of the summer we have a family council where the kids make a list of things that they want to learn before the next school year. All of the kids get to participate and they even added some on Macy's behalf. They can put just about anything on the list. It can be something like learning to tie a shoe, ride a bike or play the piano to something like learning multiplication and division.

We also talk about things that we want to do and see while the kids are out of school. Our summer is getting filled up pretty fast!

We knew that things were getting out of hand when Hailey insisted that she learn how to golf this summer (sorry sweetheart, Mommy has never been golfing before and it's kind of an expensive hobby for a 6 year old), and that we all go on a cruise (isn't there enough to do in the Chicago area? After all, we do have a long list of things we want to do) and that Garrison learn how to drive. Um, sorry no. I have to draw my line somewhere.

What a Week

I'm sure that most of you know that the week of June 7th was a crazy one for the Whetten family. The short story (I'll let Conal give the details if he so desires) is that Conal's dad had a major stroke and nearly passed away. We fully expected him to once he was taken off of life support. One week later he is doing things that they said he would never do again and we are SO grateful for this miracle!

I just didn't want any more time to pass before I said thank-you!

• Thank you Cedric for the buddy pass to get Conal out to Idaho Falls.
• Thank you to Conal's co-workers for making it so easy for him to just pick up and leave in a couple of hours notice.
• Thank you Mom and Dad for being willing to have company on 3 hours notice and for picking up Conal and Macy late at night even though you were sick.
• Thank you to the YW presidency for being flexible, switching things around and taking care of things so that I could keep my head above water while Conal was in Idaho.
• Thank you to all of Macy's aunts and uncles who helped Conal take care of Macy in IF. It took a lot of convincing for me to let her go and I wouldn't have if it didn't mean so much to Conal. Thanks for taking good care of the both of them!
• Thank you to our family and friends who have checked up on on us, kept the family in your prayers and just let us know that you care.

If I have forgotten anyone or anything.........THANK YOU!

I must be a Twilight nerd to buy this candy just because it is Twilight candy when I haven't eaten any sugar in more than 2 months. I just couldn't resist (buying the candy that is........I can TOTALLY resist eating it).

Hailey insisted that we buy the box with Bella on it although Garrison thought the box with Edward was cooler.

The hearts say:

true love

I love EC

Dazzle

Live 4 ever

bite me

U R my life

bad guy

lamb

The two hearts in the left corner are supposed to sparkle like Edward. I wasn't too impressed with the sparkling though. I wasn't too impressed with the sparkling in the movie either. ha ha. I guess the book leaves more to the imagination.

Conal couldn't figure out what "lamb" was for. Come on Con! You need to read the books again. Well OK. I guess reading the books once is good enough for a guy. I wouldn't want you to get in any more trouble with the guys for giving in and reading the books just to get in good with your wife. Love ya Con!