The Farm and The Farmer

A few months ago, I met a really nice older man at the gym that would bring me vegetables and talked to me almost every time I saw him. He said that we should go out to his house as a family, and he would show the boys the farm he lives on. I told one of my friends that, and she said it sounded creepy, but he was such a nice guy, and he wanted Kenney to come with us so I promise it wasn't creepy!

I am so glad we went!  The boys had an absolute blast and Mr. Langston did too!  He was so cute and had the entire afternoon planned.  He started by showing us his porch, where he left his pumpkins and scarecrows out just to show the boys.  He showed them the windmill, and then took us on a ride in his mule (a little farm truck / 4wheeler thing) to the barn where the tractors were.  He let the boys climb in the tractors and even go for a ride.  We then went inside where he had hats set out for the boys to pick out and take home and a goody bag with a ball and key chains inside.  He had cookies and juice ready for them, and then showed them all of the Santa decorations his wife had set out.  I was so impressed he had so much planned for us!  It was so sweet and kind of him.  The boys keep asking to go to the farmer's house again!

This is my favorite picture of the day.  Mr. Langston was so excited to show the boys everything.  He wanted to hold their hands and take them everywhere.

He had to the coolest little tractor the boys could ride like a bike.  It was a hit!

They had to ride the tractor several times before we left too.

Damon tried to keep up, but he mostly just followed Kyler.

The steering was a little off so Damon had a little trouble.

Radley was not about to be left out.  He wanted to ride too!

The windmill was pretty cool.

The boys climbed up on one of the cotton strippers.  The boys loved it!

They all climbed inside the cab with Mr. Langston, and he let them push all kinds of buttons.

I was amazed at how nice those tractors were on the inside.  He said that was an 2006 model and it cost $120,00!  Wow!  He didn't use them much when he farmed.  His son-in-law now farms, but he still helps out.

He started this stripper up for them, but we didn't take it for a ride.

Those tires are even bigger close up!

They were finding all kinds of things to drive.

Mr. Langston explaining all kinds of things about cotton farming.  He was even a gentleman before we came to the barn and got me one of his jackets to wear!

They found another tractor!

Takin' a ride!

Inside Mr. Langston giving the boys hats and goody bags.  Everyone was so happy!  We didn't get pictures of the cookies or Santa Clauses, but we all had a really good time.  I'm not sure if the boys or Mr. Langston had more fun!

Christmas Tree & Snow Cones

Kyler made me feel like a horrible mother last year during Christmas because we didn't have a Christmas tree. He would go into other people's houses and he would say, "We don't have one of those at our house." That was a shot strait to the heart! I still feel bad. However, we didn't have room in our tiny apartment, we weren't going to be here for Christmas, and we didn't even have a tree.  I knew we had to do a tree this year.  A friend of ours gave us a tree, we went to the dollar store to get decorations, and couldn't wait til Daddy got home.  They were all excited and ready to go!

The next day we got free snow cones and the boys thought they were in Heaven.  Kyler had to get a green snow cone, and Damon had to get a blue one.  The boys have been a little obsessed with their favorite cartoon Wild Kratts and have been making me call them Chris (aka Kyler) and Martin (aka Damon).  Chris has a green outfit, and Martin has a blue one.  They only want to wear clothes that are either green or blue and plates, cups, toothbrushes, etc. has to be their color.  It is getting pretty intense!  They even called Oma to ask her to make them Wild Kratt costumes.  They were extra excited to get snow cones in their colors!

Everyone got involved this time.

I agree with Kenney when he said, "I'm so glad they make these ornaments plastic now."

I am so glad we got a tree out this year.

Look at Damon's smile!

The boys are starting to take pictures with the camera now, and they pose for one another.

My attempt to get a picture with all the boys and the tree.

It was obviously not successful.

Damon wanted all of them together.

Kyler was beyond excited and is so ready for Christmas.

Before Kyler moved a lot of Damon's ornaments.

Just a funny shot of Radley hanging out one day!

Radley did not want to share with anyone, but I didn't get him his own.  Luckily he let me sneak a bite or two!

Everyone was happy about snow cones!

Kyler espeically!

Look at that face!

Yep, typical Damon!

Thanksgiving, But Mostly Cousin, Fun

These boys were so excited to go see their cousins, and they actually got to see ALL of them. It was fun and a whole lotta crazy having everyone together! There were 23 immediate family members there at all times, and it is only going to get bigger; two more babies are joining the family early next year!! The kids absolutely love it, and it is really fun to watch them have so much fun with their cousins.
Even though there were a lot of people in the house, I think this was the smallest Thanksgiving I have ever been to at the Keys' house! I'm not sure we even made it to 50 this year! The boys discovered that they love pumpkin pie! All the pies are on the pool table, and both Kyler and Damon would sneak pieces of pie all day! They kept asking for more the next two days too. I think Thanksgiving was a hit this year!

I loved how all of them sat here together, even if they were watching a movie!

All watching one iPad Mini, not even a big one!

They looked so small sitting at this big table and in big chairs.

He LOVED seeing all the lights.  He had to point and grunt at everything!

Ready for the ride

We went downtown again and rode the hayride to see Christmas lights and drink some hot chocolate.  Kyler did not understand HOT chocolate.  Kenney told him it was hot, but he took a big drink, screamed and spit it out.  It was pretty funny.  Damon took a big drink, made a face and spit it out quietly.  Kyler was still upset when we snapped this picture.

He was so cute on the trampoline.  He got tossed around and flipped and tripped, but he stayed out there with the big kids, most of the time!

I know this is gross, but I thought it summed up our days wiping noses constantly!

Waiting for family pictures.

Wild Boys

Crazy Boys!

Proof that, at some point, Radley did sleep while we were gone.  He had such a hard time throughout the whole weekend.  He learned how to climb out of the pack-n-play (without it being a fluke), so he refused to take naps.  He was just miserable, therefore Mom and Dad were pretty miserable too.  He was the first one up every morning (before 7am) and played hard/cried all day.  Lucky for us, now that we are home, he climbs out of his crib everyday too!!  So much to be thankful for (that's a joke, but really all of Thanksgiving break and now we're stuck with the consequences).

It was so fun to have Savanna's bridal shower while she was in Texas.  We all had a lot of fun and learned a lot about her and Kevin.  We are really excited for them to get married!

She got so many cute things; I want to have another bridal shower to get that kind of stuff again!

Kerry did a great job with planning the whole thing.  The food, invitations, etc. were all amazing!  I had fun making some of the decorations.  I was just glad Savanna seemed to be happy with all of it! (Thanks for the pictures Savanna.  I copied them from your Facebook)

These boys are getting a lot more crazy when they get together.  Damon got to the point that he would stop going for the ball and just push people down.  He was ridiculous!  I'm not sure there will be a house big enough for all these boys as they get older!

Our Little Cherry

Saturday night I noticed some red spots on Radley when I put his pjs on. I wasn't too worried, but wondered what it was. Then Sunday morning he had a full body rash!! It was everywhere. Surprisingly he wasn't acting sick or tired and didn't have a fever, which calmed our fears, but we still had no idea what was going on. I stayed home with him all day while Kenney took the other boys to church and tried to get him to sleep. I gave him Benadryl hoping to help with the rash and help him sleep. Of course Benadryl has the opposite effect on Radley and made him hyper. He refused to take a nap! Thank goodness I never tried to drug him to sleep using this before; it would have totally backfired on me! So after his nap it seemed like the rash was spreading but clearing up at the same time. In the places that were red before now seemed more pink and the places that were white now seemed red! We didn't know what that meant and whether it was getting better or worse. Kenney researched stuff all day about rashes, and I was debating if I should take him to a doctor (if it wasn't Sunday I definitely would have taken him). The only thing keeping me sane was that he acted completely normal and was not sickly whatsoever.  Also Kenney seemed pretty confident about the rash being hives.

That night when the rash spread more to his face, Damon asked, "Is Radley going to turn into a cherry?"  Haha Then during prayers that night, both Kyler and Damon prayed that Radley wouldn't turn into a cherry!  I guess they do love their brother!

This morning the rash looked better on his trunk, but had moved to his extremities even more and was swelling and bruising his skin.  I took him to the doctor, and the consensus is that he broke out in hives because of a viral infection.  (insert by Kenney ......"I was right about the rash being hives")  The attending physician also looked at him and agreed.  She also thought we should give him some steroids to help it heal faster since it was so severe.  I thought he looked pretty good today, so who knows what they would have thought yesterday!!  Thankfully the steroids are working well and quickly so he is almost back to normal.  So we don't have a cherry or a diseased looking child anymore!!

This was the  morning he woke up covered.  I was slightly, ok maybe very, concerned.

Damon asked, "Mom why did Radley paint his-self?"

I didn't think it could get much worse, but it did!

In the morning it hadn't gotten to his back yet.

In the afternoon when he woke up from his nap it had spread more to his face and back.

This is what he looked like when Damon asked if he was going to turn into a cherry.  He did look like a cherry!!

Poor little guy looked awful!

Thankfully he was pretty much himself throughout the day.

He was COVERED!

His poor little face got it too!

On the bright side, Radley is starting to talk a lot more and knows all his animal sounds really well!