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Thursday, January 28, 2010

My Doggie Bed


Me "Drew what is that?"
Drew "It's my doggie bed."
Me "Is your doggie watching TV?"
Drew "Yep, he's watching Wudolph."
Me "What are those red things?"
Drew "Those are for owies."

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Valentine Heart Craft

We are talking about the letter "H" this week and Brodie picked up on that right away. "Are we talking about h-h-h- hearts because it is almost v-v-v-Valentines Day?" he asked me. He has been sounding out everything lately.

For this craft you will need construction paper, foil, paint, scissors, glue and a Q-tip.Cut out a heart from the foil and glue onto your construction paper.I placed a dab of red and white paint on a dish and let the boys use a Q-tip to paint the heart. It turned out really pretty.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Update on Drew

Just wanted to let everyone know that Drew came through his endoscopy well today. The procedure only took about 10 minutes. The doctor thought it all looked normal but we won't have official results until we get the biopsies back later this week. He took 12 biopsies in all.

He recovered well. We had a quiet morning and watched lots of movies. By early afternoon he was up and playing just like normal. You would never know anything happened.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Our Weekend

We had a great weekend and are settling in and preparing for another week. We are waking up early tomorrow to take Drew in for his endoscopy. We have to be at the hospital at 7am. Sounds like it shouldn't be too bad. They will put his IV in after he is already asleep so he shouldn't feel any pain. Please think of him tomorrow.

We celebrated a friends 30th birthday on Saturday night. It was an ugly sweater party. Here is how we looked? (Will, me, my step-brother Jeff)

The kids got to spend the night at their grandparents Saturday night. Sunday we picked Jake up at my Dad's and before heading up to Will's moms to get the younger 3 boys we headed out to breakfast. It was really nice having some time with just Jacob. It is amazing to me how mature he is getting. We talked about his birthday next month (14!), getting his drivers permit and looking into getting a job this Summer. All this while he hammered away at a huge plate of strawberry crepes. Man that kid can eat.

Today we spent the day at Will's parents relaxing and finalizing plans for my chicken coop. My father-in-law is going to draw up all the plans for me so that I can get my wood bought. We are planning on building the first week of March.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

My First Etsy Purchase!

See my new apron? I just got it off of Etsy. Not familiar with Etsy? It is a place you can buy or sell all things homemade. My sister bought one a couple weeks ago and was happy with it so I decided to check into it. I have been wanting an apron for awhile now. I am always getting dirty when I bake.

My sister said she felt very taken care of by the seller. I couldn't agree more. Here is how my package came. Wrapped in tissue and sealed with pretty stickers. Very feminine. Something I need in this house! It even included a thank you card.There was washing instructions and a recipes included as well. Very personable. And best of all, I LOVE the apron! Check out Aprons and More, she has lots of varieties to choose from.

Friday, January 22, 2010

E is for Elephant

This week we worked on the letter E. We learned alot about elephants. Here is the project we did for our ABC book. I just cut the pieces from gray cardstock and the kids glued them together. Drew was really bothered that the elephant didn't have feet!Here is Brodie's handwriting. One morning I came out to the living room and he was in the chair writing his e's without me even prompting him. He also threw in a boat picture!Brodie has also been really into ABC dot-to-dots. I found a cute elephant one here.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Ice Storm

We were hit with an ice storm Tuesday night. Here are some of the pictures of around our house. We did lose quite a few small branches. Nothing major so far. We will have a mess to clean up when it finally thaws out. That doesn't look to happen anytime soon since now there is snow on the way this weekend.






E is for Elmer

Elmer the Elephant. We read this book today. I remember reading this book to Tony when he was little. In fact, he used to have a stuffed Elmer elephant. I wander what ever happened to that... Anyway the kids really liked this book. Here is the craft that we did to go along with it.
I drew these elephants on cardstock (are you impressed, he he) and cut them out. Then I gave each of the boys squares of different colored paper. They did the rest.Linked to Showcase Friday at Ramblings of a Crazy Woman.
As the older boys welcome yet another snow day today due to the current ice storm I thought I would let you all know Drew came through his upper GI ok yesterday. The test was rather traumatizing but the doctor thought on first glance that things looked normal.

Drew didn't cooperate very well so we ended up having to pin him down and forcing the barium down his throat with a syringe. Thankfully it is all over now and we can move on.

Monday, January 18, 2010

Drew Report

Today the Doctors office called to schedule Drew's tests. He is scheduled for his upper GI tomorrow morning at 11:30. This is where he will swallow the barium and they will take pictures.

His endoscopy will be next Monday the 25th at 8am. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers. They will be sedating him for this test. The risk factors are less than 1% but when there is sedation involved it always makes me nervous. I will keep you all updated.
Alright so this isn't the greatest picture of me, but it is a great picture of Jake.

I don't have very many pictures of my oldest boy. I have no idea where the time has gone. He will be 14 years old in less than a month. Today he brought home paper work for me to look at about highschool. HIGHSCHOOL. I am suppose to attend a parent meeting Thursday night to go over the prep work for getting him set up for his classes.

He is pretty sure he wants to take Spanish for 4 years. He has also been recommended to go into an advanced Science class (10th grade biology?). He has really started to get his act together this year and he is doing so well. I am so proud of him. I just can't believe we are talking about highschool already. Next it will be his driver's license. I am so not ready for this.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Blog Award

I was excited and surprised to see that I was nominated for not 1 but 2 blog awards! Donette over at The Journey has nominated me for the Lemonade Stand Award. This award is given to bloggers who show great attitude and gratitude.Also Miller Moments has awarded me the Sunshine Award. This award is given to bloggers who inspire creativity and positivity in others in the blog world.While I am not good at passing these things along because I am such a hyper active blog hopper. I don't read any particular blog regularly, I jump around...alot. There are so many great bloggers out there that fit all these categories. Thank you ladies for nominating me for these awards. I am honored.

If you have a moment check out The Journey and Miller Moments for some great craft ideas.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Medical Updates

I had my root canal on Tuesday. That was less than enjoyable. I went to the dentist a total of 3 times this week. I go back on March 5 for my fitting for my crown and then a final apt. on March 17th for the placement of the crown. Wow, this whole process has been long and very dramatic and did I say EXPENSIVE??

Drew is feeling better. His fever is now gone and he is officially ornery again. He went to the Pediatric Gastrointestinal Doctor yesterday for a consultation. We made this apt over 2 months ago. He has been having a real problem with reflux. He has had issues ever since he was born but they have seemed to increase the last 6 months or so.

She has ordered a couple tests. First is an upper GI. He will swallow some barium liquid and they will take a picture of his esophagus as he swallows (not exactly sure how they think they are going to accomplish that with a 3 year old). The second test is a endoscopy. They will do this in the operating room, putting him to sleep. They will put a scope down his throat, through his stomach into his large intestine. They will also be taking biopsies along the way.

The first goal is to rule out any physical problems. Twists, growths, narrowing. If this is all normal we will move on. She says it also could be from some sort of allergy which would be much more difficult to figure out. Either way, there is a problem because there is no reason he should still be having this much trouble.

So, I will let everyone know when these tests are scheduled. Life is never dull around here.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Letter Y Crafting

So we continued with the letter Y this week. Most of our crafting was with Yarn. We made God's Eyes on Wednesday. The kids thought they were cool for about 20 seconds and then got too bored. This was definitely to much of an "older kid" craft. It was very frustrating to them and I ended up finishing them and we moved on.Today was better when we made these cute yellow chicks in the nest. We used yarn, pom poms, pipe cleaner, googly eyes and an egg carton. We glued the yarn into the bottom of the egg carton. Then I helped the kids hot glue the chicks together.And of course here is Brodie's letter practice. Linked to Showcase Friday at The Ramblings of a Crazy Woman.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Letter Y

This week we are talking about the letter "Y". Today we talked about the color yellow. Our project was to go through magazines and cut out all the things we could find with yellow on them. This turned into an hour long project and Brodie ended up cutting out not only yellow objects but anything that he thought was "awesome". We then glued our yellow pictures onto this poster.For our ABC page we made this. (I am planning on doing a post about the ABC book we are making later on.) I told Brodie I was proud of him for making a pattern with his blue yarn. He did that all by himself.Today was a pretty good learning day. The boys were both very interested. We have had a lot of down time lately so it was nice to have a little routine again. Thankfully Drew is feeling a little better and he joined us at the table for the entire time. If all goes well tomorrow we will be making God's Eyes with yarn. I also have a super cute bird's nest to make with yarn as well later in the week!
I think Drew is on the mend (fingers crossed). We went all day without his temperature going over 100 degrees. He was a little more like himself. Thank you for all who checked on him and commented.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Sick Baby

Today wasn't such a good day for us. Drew is still running a high fever and has a deep cough. This is his 6th day of high fevers so we decided to take him to our Pediatrician. The doctor did a CBC and it looks to be viral so for now we are just waiting things out.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Letter R

Last week we talked about the letter "R". We talked alot about raccoons and did lots of coloring sheets and projects about raccoons. With the cold weather we didn't make our weekly trip to the library so we watched some different videos of coons on Youtube. The kids are very familiar with raccoons because they frequently get into our trash.Here is a picture I took of the marker board that Brodie practiced his R's on. He is really doing well at writing, or at least I think so!Drew is doing a little better at table time. He still doesn't sit still very well and just scribbles all over the paper when given crayons or markers. But give the boy a paintbrush and he will stand there all day.Next week we are talking about the letter "Y" and talking about the color yellow, which is Drew's favorite color. I am anticipating a little better cooperation...maybe.

Our Week (end) in Review

It feels like the kids haven't really gone back to school since Christmas. They were on Winter break for 2 weeks, then went back to school for only 3 days. Thursday and Friday were snow days and they are off tomorrow for a teacher in-service. With the highs in the negatives last week needless to say we spent all of our time indoors. Yes, cabin fever is beginning to develop. How I long for Spring already.

There has been lots of movie watching going on. And LOTS of Lego playing. The lego bins have been dumped out multiple times.And just some usual car playing. The little boys are very happy to have their train table brought back upstairs. We didn't have room for it upstairs during Christmas and in fact, I took it downstairs early last Fall. Sometimes keeping those things out of site for awhile and then bringing them back out brings on a whole new excitement. I try and rotate alot of toys this way. It gives them something new to look at every few months and keeps them entertained a little longer. Today we actually got out of the house. We did a little shopping at Menards and Home Depot. We were pricing hot water heaters because unfortunately we are in the market for one. We also went out to Barnes and Noble where the kids got to get some new books with gifts cards they got for Christmas. It was good to get out and get a little fresh air, even if our nostrils froze.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

At the rate we are going the kids will be in school until June. Mother Nature gave us another round of heavy snow last night. Like we needed more. Another snow day for the kids, another day of working from home for Will.

The wind chills are -30 so we are hunkered down in our little home all cozy and warm. The younger boys are not feeling well. Drew especially is sick with a fever and cough. This made for a pretty lazy morning. The older boys had lots of video game and computer time. I got lots of organizing and cleaning accomplished.

I have been working on our basement for a few days now. This is what we started with.Here was our solution. As well as purging a few items!And this is how is looks now. There is still some work to be done but all the hard stuff is done. I am pretty pleased with the transformation and it is so much more manageable. We can actually find stuff now!

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Right Now...

Heavy snow is falling outside.
My oldest and youngest are playing Legos on the stairwell.
My husband is playing a serious game of Wizard Chess with my 2 middle boys.
I just put a batch of homemade dinner rolls in the oven.
Everyone is calm, quiet and happy.

Right now, life is good.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Getting Back to Normal

Things are returning to normal around here. Christmas decorations are put away, the tree is down. The boys went back to school yesterday and Will returned to work. It is pretty quiet around here. Ok, not really.

We are glad to be back on somewhat of a routine. We had a lot of table time yesterday and Brodie was more than happy to get back to doing a "project" and talking about a new letter. This week is "R". We will be talking about raccoons and reading The Kissing Hand.We also did a lot of puzzles. Drew is really getting into puzzles and really likes his new Dora puzzle and these alphabet puzzle cards by Melissa and Doug. You match the letter with the picture. He did really well at it.The foam letters are also a big hit. Notice Brodie's name? He did that all by himself. Once the letters were all attached it was turned into a race track. I think everything in this house is turned into a race track at some point or another. I guess that's what boys are all about.

Friday, January 1, 2010

Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa Bryan's

My kids are blessed to have so many grandparents!

It was a slow ride but we made it up to Will's moms safely. Once again we opened gifts.Aunt Jenny got Jake a Cowbell shirt and an actual cowbell! Jake loves it and has already worn the shirt multiple times. Thankfully mom hasn't heard the cowbell much.Tony was pretty excited about some finger drums and a magic set from Grandpa and grandma as well some Halo Legos from Jenny.Brodie and Drew love the new giant dump truck and bulldozer they received!Drew was pretty excited about his new Doctors kit as well. And of course leave it to my sister-in-law to redecorate my kitchen for me. In what else besides...chickens!! I got a new rug, towels and hotpot holders. I needed all of those things and I love them!!We had a wonderful time. We spent a few days just relaxing and playing games. Joel's sister and brother-in-law were there visiting and we had a great time learning some new games and getting caught up with them. The boys just love Roger, who is Grandpa's brother-in-law. I can't believe I have NO pictures of the boys with him. They spent most of their time playing with him or playing with all the fun gadgets on his Iphone.Brodie and Drew also love to chase Jake down and play guns with him. Here Jake is hiding in the basement. The little boys are not allowed down there so they are just waiting for him to return so they can ambush him. Brodie and Drew also got awesome snow shovels. They immediately wanted to go out and use them. They were so excited. Thankfully it snowed overnight so the next morning they could get out and put them to use. Needless to say our Christmas day was wonderful. Busy, but wonderful.