Meet Dino

We had a Vet clinic set up in our living room for awhile.  This was Drew's dinosaur, Dino.  Doctor Drew reported that Dino had a broken foot and a ruptured ear drum.  See...he's holding the cotton up to his ear to stop the drainage.

Poor Drew. He had a a rough couple months.  He had ear infection in one or both ears for half of the summer.  His ears ruptured twice or maybe it was 3 times I can't even remember now.  We went to see his ENT doctor who discovered that his nose was very unhealthy looking and thought the problems with his ears was stemming from his nose.  We tried some different medications and nose sprays and he ordered some allergy testing.

The allergy testing was more traumatic than I thought it would be.  He ended up getting 15 injections of different allergens.  We discovered that he is allergic to pollen, trees, grass, but his most severe allergy is to dust mites (shudder).

We initially thought we were going to do allergy shots or maybe surgical treatment to place tubes back in his ears but this week we went in and it looks like his ears and his nose are looking better.  We made some changes around the house and that, along with his new medicines seem to be working.  We bought him a dust mite and allergy proof pillow, pillow cover, and mattress cover.  I am no longer line drying his clothes and bedding.  We also have an air purifier in his bedroom.

 I am crossing my fingers that he continues to improve.

Princess Emily

Like most 3 year old little girls, Emily loves the movie Frozen!  Even before she saw that movie she would love to dress up in her princess dress and dance around the house.

Now she dresses up and wants me to braid her hair like Queen Elsa.  She keeps telling me "it needs to be longer".

I just like the fact that now at almost 4 years old, she is finally letting me play with her hair!!

Emilys First Haircut

At 3 years, 2 weeks of age Emily Joy got her first haircut.

Momma was tired of having her hair always in her face and covering her eyes so here are the results.

Now we can see those beautiful eyes and precious smile all the time.

Lazy Mornings

These are some of my favorite days.  Lazy mornings with kids in our bed!  

First Ponytail!

Emily's hair is finally growing!  She has had some curls in the back for some time but finally the hair on top and the sides are filling in.  I always try and play with her hair and she is NOT a fan.  Give her a hat and she will wear it all day.  Put something in her hair and she immediately pulls it out.

The other day I was able to put in a ponytail.  Isn't she adorable?

As soon as I took this picture she yanked it out. 








The ponytail lasted about 2 minutes.  At least I got her picture before it was gone!

Summer Buzz Cuts

 The nice thing about having boys is we can do our own haircuts.  Thankfully all the boys allow us to buzz their hair.  They all look really good with short hair too so that is a bonus. 

So proud of all my boys.  Aren't they handsome? 

What's been happening.

A lot has been going on this last month.  Summer is in full swing and it has been busy with all the kids being home.  Here are some of the highlights of the last couple weeks.

Jake got his driver's license.  He can now drive without a parent.  It is terrifying and exciting all at the same time.  I love that he can run errands for us but I get nervous every time he leaves. 

I have been busy in the garden every day.  I have been harvesting lettuce, spinach, kale, snow peas, regular peas and as of yesterday green beans!  Emily loves to help.  She is really good at holding the bowl and sneaking bites of anything she can. 
This is my first year growing pod peas.  It is so exciting!  Everything in the garden is doing pretty well.  My tomatoes and cantaloupe are blooming and I have squash and zucchini that has set on. 

Another major event that happened recently was closing ceremonies for T-ball.  At our last game we gave Will this ball.  I had all the kids sign it and present it to him.  Seeing who got the game ball  at the end of each game was always exciting for the kids.  That night they got to give their coach the game ball.  It was pretty neat. 

Closing ceremonies was held last Saturday.  Will thought he was going to miss it because he was taking Jake to Iowa City for a football camp.  He was able to walk across the field with the boys and watch them get their medals before leaving for the camp.  I was really glad he was able to make it. 

Here is Brodie receiving his medal. 

Baseball is officially over.  Football will start here in a few weeks and Will has already committed to helping out with that too.  The fun never ends! 

Poor Emily

Going through some older photos I came across these pictures of Emily.  Poor girl.  One day, she will get all those boys back. 

Summer Fishing

We found some time to squeeze in a little bit of fishing a few weeks ago.  We decided to hit a pond not too far from here and see if there was anything in it.  Right away the little boys starting catching fish.  They weren't very big but when you are 5 and 6 years old size doesn't matter.

There was TONS of wild life to enjoy.  That was Emily's favorite part.  There were geese and ducks swimming everywhere.  You could walk right up to them. 

There was a grandma there with her grandsons feeding the birds and they offered a piece of bread to Emily so she could feed the ducks too.  Instead she decided to just watch and munch on the bread herself. 

It was a pretty successful adventure.  We will definitely be going there again sometime soon. 

Last day of the 2012-2013 School Year

We are well into summer here at our house.  It has been a little crazy not having much of a routine.  There has been a fair share of arguments and whining.  Unfortunately I can't entertain everyone at once.  Thankfully the weather has been good and we have all spent lots of time outside.

We went to the library this week and got the summer reading logs.  The kids are excited to do those.  For every 75 minutes they read or are read too they get a trinket from the library.  We are hoping to hit the zoo in the next couple weeks.  Will wants to go with us for Emily's first trip.  That should be really fun.

We will continue to hit up the parks, play in the pool, craft and whatever else we can do to keep everyone busy.

Here are the kids last day of school photos.  They are all getting so big I can't hardly stand it.  Time really flies by.  I am hoping we can all enjoy our summer break together.

Preschool Graduation

Monday was Drew's last day of preschool.  He has done so well in school this year and really had a good time.  His teachers said he really matured over the year.  They still claim that he is one of the quietest ones in the classroom.  He is very shy, but has come out of his shell a bit over the year.  His best friend is a boy named Corbin and that is the only one Drew talks about.  He really loved both his teachers and they were awesome.  It was the same teachers that Brodie had last year.  

Tuesday was preschool graduation.  The kids came out and sang 3 songs.  The pictures don't show it but Drew really did a good job singing.

He even did the actions to the songs.  He looks sad in this picture but he was just really "stiff" throughout the entire concert.  He was pretty shy going up in front of all the people.  

Once the concert was over the teachers handed out their diplomas.  He was pretty excited.  Once all the diplomas were handed out we enjoyed ice cream sundaes.  

It's hard to believe that he will be in Kindergarten.  It was hard letting him go to preschool but Kindergarten will be really tough.  He seems to be really excited to go.  It will help alot that Brodie will be at the same school and they will ride the bus together.  

Beauty Sleep

Please don't mention to Drew that I posted this on here.  He really was embarrassed when Daddy showed him this picture and he screamed to "not put that on the blog!!"  But...how could I not?  He is so funny.  I got this sleep mask for Mother's Day (will be perfect for those migraine days) and he really wanted to try it out the other night.  He fell asleep in our bed wearing it.

Stop and Smell the Flowers

Yes.  I painted her nails.  Momma was painting her nails yesterday and Emily offered me her hand so what's a mom to do?  Doesn't she look so pretty?

Just look at the flowers Emmy.  Don't touch, just look.  Aren't they pretty?  Smell the flowers Emily.  Don't they smell pretty?

No.  No, don't eat the flowers.  Yuck.  Just smell them.

Emily, don't touch the flowers.  Just smell the pretty flowers.  Smell the flowers Emily, don't touch.  Just because you turn your back to me doesn't mean you can touch the flowers.   Just smell the flowers.

EMILY.  No Emily.  Don't pull on the flowers.  Emily Joy.

Thank you Emily.  But we don't pull up the flowered plants.  Just smell the flowers.