Brodie's First Experience with Painting

Just thought I would share these pictures. Drew finally took a morning nap yesterday allowing Brodie and I some time to do an activity. He had an absolute blast painting and really didn't even make to much of a mess! He was pretty proud of himself, but of course when I asked him to smile for a picture he just makes a bunch of goofy faces. I can't remember the last time I got a nice smile from him for the camera.

Drew's appointment went well yesterday. His ears looked a lot less full of pus. The doctor did not give him another shot, but did decide to put him on a different oral antibiotic for the next 10 days. They are hoping that this will keep it from returning. I am crossing my fingers that this works. He has slept through the night the last 2 nights so I know that he is feeling better. Yesterday was a much better day.

We are taking the kids up to Grandma's house tonight and Will and I will be busy all weekend cleaning. It is going to take a lot of work but I think it will be worth it when we are done.

Quick Update

Well, we all survived the gastro flu bug. What else can go wrong? Brodie and Drew got the nasties on Friday night, Jake, Tony and Will followed on Sunday, and I got it on Tuesday. We all feel better now, with the exception of Drew of course. I had to take him in to the doctor again yesterday because he was still running a fever. 17 days and 2 antibiotics later he still has ear infection. So, they gave him a shot of Rocephin and we are taking him back in today for a recheck and possibly another shot. Poor guy. He has been so miserable for so long. I just feel so bad for him.

With the hopes that he gets better all the boys are going to Grandma Marys for the weekend and Will and I are going to stay home and clean the entire house! We are cleaning windows, curtains, carpets you name it. Hopefully getting rid of all these nasty sicknesses that have invaded our house this winter. It is suppose to be in the 40's so hopefully we can open the few windows we have and air things out a bit. I will update later on how Drew is doing.

So, I have decided that everytime I think the boys are getting better they get sicker. Friday evening Brodie started vomiting with Drew joining him about 10:30pm. It was a nightmare. Both kids were sick, I was trying to clean beds and floors and Will is on call so in the middle of all this he kept getting pages. And to top it all off...our washer broke. Yes, we just had our dryer break last week and got it fixed on Wednesday. I had all the laundry done except I had saved all the towels for last. Really really stupid because we had not one clean towel. Grrr. We were up pretty much all night with Drew who still continues to not sleep very well. It only lasted about 12 hours and now they are both fine...for now. Unfortunately, now today Tony has it. He has been in bed all day. Tonight is his party at my moms and he is going to have to stay home with Dad. Poor guy. I am crossing my fingers the rest of us don't get it. This has been the worst Winter for us. We did however decide yesterday that we were not paying to have someone come fix our washer. Will went to Menards and bought a new one. So now we have bought 3 washers and 2 dryers since we have lived here. And the house came with a washer and dryer which broke shortly after we moved in. So that makes a grand total of 7 washers and dryers. And, we have only lived here 7 1/2 years. Good grief.

Starting to come around

I had to call the doctor on Wednesday to get some antibiotic for Brodie. He started running a fever again and complaining of an ear ache. He was started on Zithromax and so far has not had any problems. His eyes are getting a little yucky so he might need to start on eye drops too. He still has hives every once in awhile so I keep giving him Benedryl which seems to help.

Drew is finally starting to get better. Today has been his first day with no Motrin! He has been taking it for 2 weeks! He is playing now and has kept food down since Monday. He is back to his regular diet and is even playing now. I think next weekend we are going to take the kids to their grandparents and Will and I are going to do some major deep cleaning. Hopefully the weather will be a little nicer and we can air things out.

I took these pictures last night of Drew giving Brodie "raspberries" on his belly. He is suppose to put his mouth on him and blow but drew just sticks his tongue out and blows spit all over. It was hysterical to watch them. Then of course it was wrestling time with Daddy and they both wanted to have rides on his back.

Just kidding

Apparently I was just kidding when I posted Saturday that the kids were better. I went in that morning to get Drew up and he had puked all over the place. Both boys had a terrible weekend. Needless to say Will and I got nothing accomplished which includes not fixing our broken dryer. I have not done laundry now for a week and it is getting scary. I had already planned Sunday night to take Drew back into the Dr on Monday. He was just not himself and has been on antibiotic for a week. Brodie woke up Monday morning with the hives. Scared me to death because he too was on antibiotic and the Dr had mentioned that he could have a 10-15% chance of cross allergic reaction. Most of you probably remember how horrible Brodie was when we learned he was allergic to Penicillin. Anther reaction like that could kill him. The hives were not near the extent of when he has PCN but it was enough. I immediatly took him off the medicine and gave him Benedryl and called the Dr. who wanted to see him too along with Drew.

Drews ears were both still horribly infected. He is switching him to a stronger antibiotic and if this doesn't help then he will get antibiotic shots. He is still vomiting off and on so that is killing me since I don't have easy access to a dryer.

Brodie is now cut off from all Penicillins and derivitives of Penicillins. He said we shouldn't really treat him with antibiotics unless we really need to. His ear is still infected and the other one was starting to turn red, but we are going to go off of his symptoms before we try and treat him with another antibiotic. I am suppose to call if he starts running a fever or complaining of ear pain. So far, we are ok. I am still giving Benedryl for his hives and he is taking Mucinex for his really bad cough.

I am still struggling with a sinus infection that I have had off and on since Thanksgiving. I really can not wait for Spring so we can air out this cold infected house and play outside!

Drew

Drew is felling better. He is still really clingy but his fever is gone and his eyes are clearing up. He is finally back to eating normal foods again, although it isn't very much. Wednesday Brodie woke up from his nap and was complaining that his ear was hurting. He complained off and on and on Thursday I took him in to the Dr. and he had ear infection too! So, it has been a very loooong week. Brodie is starting to feel better too I think, so hopefully they have both passed the worst of it.

And now Tony's cake

So tonight is Tony's birthday party. He requested a Pokemon cake. What is Pokemon you ask? Well the definition is "pocket monster". It is off of a game that Tony likes to play. There is a ton of games out there with these little "monsters" and they all have different powers. Feel free to look it up if you want more info...or not. For now here is the cake, my inspiration and my helper!

Happy Valentine's Day

Poor Drew

Drew ran a fever all weekend and Monday we took him to the doctor. He has bilateral ear infection AGAIN! He actually ruptured his right ear drum. This is the second rupture he has had in 6 weeks. If he gets another ear infection before Spring we might have to look at putting tubes in his ears.

Needless to say he has been miserable and is still sick. He pretty much just wants to be snuggled all day, which is not like him at all. He has been vomiting the last few days and now has pink eye in both of his eyes. He is still running a fever as well. If he isn't better by today he may be going back in. I will keep you all posted. Please keep him in your thoughts. It is so hard having a sick baby.

Cake for Jake

O.K. I just had to show you what I made this morning. Jake is having his birthday party tonight with his buddies and it is a Rock Band party! So, I thought this cake was fitting...

Jenny, I LOVE my Wilton tips, they are the BOMB!!

Woodside Idol

Jake performed last night for chorus. The concert was named Woodside Idol (American Idol). All the kids got to choose a song and either sung it with a group, duet, or solo (it had to be memorized). It was great. Jakes group sang Jail House Rock. They all wore jeans, white shirts and dress shoes. They got the crowd going pretty good and everyone was clapping along with the song. It was much better then most of the concerts where you sit in the Auditorium and watch. This was like a talent show. It had the music, lights, costumes and everything. There was 4 judges as well all dressed up as different characters, Snoop Dog (the band teacher), Hannah Montana (one of the ladies who teaches instrument lessons) , Chuck Norris (a teacher) and some other guy that Jake said was suppose to be a wrestler (the GYM coach). It was so funny! Jake and I had a great time.

Snow

We got about 10 inches of snow here in 24 hours. The boys finally got a snow day! Usually their school is one of the last to cancel due to weather. But it was next to impossible to get out this morning. Today, they had a good day off. They spent most of the morning playing outside. When they came in they had to have hot chocolate and watch a movie. I made it outside to shovel, that was about it since I have yet to acquire some snow pants and boots. That is on my list of things to get on clearance hopefully! Will worked from home on his laptop so he didn't have to drive into work. We have had a pretty good day so far and tonight is family night. It is Will's turn to pick. I think we are watching a movie and playing Poker!

Iowa Stars

On Friday Feb. 1, Will and I and Jake and Tony and Mom, Joel and Jen went to the Iowa Stars Hockey game. Mom had gotten tickets to celebrate Jens birthday. We had a great time. We had awesome seats and the Stars won 3-0. It was at the Wells Fargo Arena and none of us had ever been there. It was pretty nice. The kids got to throw hockey pucks (fake plastic ones) out onto the floor, trying to win a prize. They didn't win, but had fun trying. Tony was all about trying to win the free shirts they were throwing to the crowd. That was pretty funny, he was standing up on the railing to be higher and the security lady came over and told him to get down. He just looked over at me to see if I was watching. I could see him breath a sigh of relief when he saw that I was smiling at him and not angry!