Austin's birthday and RSV

Malachi loves to eat his big carrot

Both of these cute little boys love to eat big carrots, the bigger the better they say

Our bookshelves broke, and the books all fell to the floor, from a few of our bookshelves, so Malachi, Caleb and I built a little book tree

A lesson in static electricity on Austin's birthday, with Malachi's hair

Austin and her huge baskin robbins birthday cake

Austin, Betsy, and their friend Jessie

Samuel took a selfie

Malachi wanted to turn Austin into a dinosaur

Sweet little baby

Caleb is so full of Joy!!

Travis at "the cave of the seven sleepers"  in Jordan

Travis floated in the Dead Sea and then mudded down

cute little boy

Malachi happy about his breathing treatment due to Austin bribing him with candy

This little boy loves to stick his tongue out when he smiles

Playing at the big pile of dirt at the park

So, as usual life is crazy around here.  The main thing is that both Malachi and Gideon ended up with RSV.  So by Austin's birthday (the 25th) I knew Gideon needed to be seen again by the Dr., he was coughing, congested and still so fussy.  I took him to the Dr. in the morning and the Dr. tested him for RSV and the flu (he still had diarrhea and throwing up too)and discovered he had a double ear infection.  So we got him some more antibiotics, the poor little baby.  I tried to make Austin's cake, but the baby was just too fussy, I couldn't get anything done.  So a friend of mine picked up an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins for Austin.  Of course, Austin wanted the biggest one!  Anyway, by then the Dr. office called and said Gideon tested positive for RSV and to bring him in again tomorrow, and also Malachi to get him tested as well, since he was still struggling with sickness himself.  So I made the appointments, then we sang happy birthday to Austin and ate her ice cream cake.  She really wanted to go out to dinner with just Betsy, (their friend Jessie), Gideon and I.  I tried to convince her to wait until the weekend, but she wouldn't give in.  So we dropped Malachi and Caleb off at Jessie's parent's house, and left Joseph and Samuel home and went to the Cracker Barrel for dinner.  I warned her that if the baby woke up, we would need to go back home, but she lucked out and the baby slept in his carseat the whole time.  We had a nice dinner, and then went back home.  Austin was happy with the jewelry, and jewelry box, and scooter she got for her birthday.  She also got a bunch of cards (like 15) from Soldier's Angel people.  Even though she didn't know any of them, she loved getting the cards in the mail.  I'm so glad that Austin had a great birthday, even though her little brothers were sick.  I can't believe I have two teenagers in the house!!! Anyway, the next day I took Malachi and Gideon back in and they tested Malachi for RSV, and sent me home with breathing treatments for both of them.  So my days and nights have been filled with taking care of sick little ones,  I've missed church the past three Sundays, Luckily I have a wonderful family in the branch, our home teacher, that has taken all my healthy children to church for me each Sunday.  The wife, Amy, came and helped fix my dryer, and clean the house, and this last Sunday even kidnapped my van, (Samuel freaked out when he discovered that she had taken our van, but I assured him that she had permission) and cleaned it out really good.  I've also had two people bring us dinner.  So, even though it has been a very trying time, mostly due to my lack of sleep, I've been very blessed by those around me, and lifted up by prayer.  My home teacher also brought me the sacrament in my home the last two Sundays.  The first time, I had Malachi sitting on my lap, and we were looking at a picture of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.  I told Malachi that Jesus was praying for us, and he looked up at me and in his sweet little 2 year old voice said "Jesus, is waiting for a bus?".  Poor little guys ears were plugged up.  Samuel had his Blue and Gold dinner for cub scouts, it was a crazy night, I've realized I'm not getting enough sleep to take 7 kids to the church, and to all their various activities.  Joseph had a campout, and while there injured his ankle while playing football (must be a kirkman tradition), but thankfully, it was feeling better after a few days.  He also took the splint off his finger, and that is all better.  We had a crazy incident last weekend.  I was feeding Gideon and Malachi wanted to take a bath, so I told him to go ask Austin to start the bath for him.  A minute later I heard the water being turned on in the bathtub, so I assumed Austin was getting him in the bath.  When I was done feeding Gideon, I heard the door shut to the bathroom and the water was still running, so I went to go make sure Austin was going to turn off the water, because it had been running too long.  The bathroom door was locked, and when I knocked and asked Austin to let me in, Austin came over from the living room and said she wasn't in the bathroom.  I knocked again and asked who was in there, and got no response, but I could hear Malachi playing in the water.  I asked Austin why she wasn't in there, and she said she was never in the bathroom, Malachi didn't ask her to bathe him, he had started it himself, then Caleb said he shut and locked the door for Malachi so he could have his privacy.  I went and got out my little screwdriver to get the door open, but I could not get it to open.  I kept pounding on the door, yelling for Malachi to turn off the water or unlock the door, but he couldn't hear me with the water running.  I went and got more tools to try, and ended up breaking one of my screwdrivers off in the doorknob.  I started sending kids to neighbors and texting friends who lived nearby to see if anyone could help.  No one was home, and I finally got Malachi to try to come unlock the door, but he couldn't get it open and just climbed back into the bath, with the water still running.  I was starting to freak out a little.  I asked the kids to try one more time at neighbors a little further down the street, and kept trying different tools to try and open the door.  I was about ready to call the fire department, when Samuel said he got someone's Dad to come over.  He arrived and tried opening it with different tools and nothing worked, so he started getting out different credit cards and managed to jimmy the lock open that way.  I was so relieved to have that door opened and to see that although there was plenty of water on the floor from Malachi splashing, the overflow stop thing worked and the bathtub didn't overflow, and Malachi was still happily playing in the bath oblivious to my distress.  I thanked the Dad for his help, and drained Malachi's bath, and wiped up the floor. and after giving Malachi a bath, gave him a lesson in unlocking the door, and then took apart the doorknob to figure out how to open it from the other side if that happens again.  Betsy got to go to Kansas University as part of a school program, and got to see glowing bugs, and do fun sciency things, and got cookies.