Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Eli is feeling bad again! Running a fever, runny nose, not eating etc.... Took him to the dr and he gave him an antibiotic so I hope that that is going to do the trick. Just look at how he feels here - actually this was the other night when we gave him some mashed potatoes. Mike thought he would love them and I think he was thinking it was ice cream and it was so shocking that it wasn't that he reacted this way. If you don't know - mashed potatoes is probably Mike's favorite food other than biscuits and gravy so he is wondering what is up with Eli!

Landon and Ella are doing well to have been at home for so long without any special outtings. Luckily today they had visits from Nannie and Pops as well as from Chuck, Caroline, Kelli, Sam, and Papa E.H. Landon was thinking it was about time that we saw Papa E.H. because it had been too long.

Hoping that everyone your way is feeling well and enjoying the weather!

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Eli is getting much better. He was pretty pitiful this morning and afternoon but by this evening he was eating well and started playing a lot. I was so excited to see him feeling better and regaining some strength. This picture was taken at bedtime when Eli was excited about getting his picture taken. Anytime you point a camera at him he puts on a big grin (when he is feeling well) so Landon got in on the action. Please excuse the goldfish in the picture :-)

For Landon and Ella it was a good day to play outside. We had plenty of sunshine to enjoy. Ella moved her flower collecting over to a friends house and collected plenty to fill up another vase. As for lovey, she made it through Sunday school with no lovey but was a bit disappointed when we made her take it back to her room this afternoon. She is doing a great job and there is no preschool this week so we will be working on it at home. Here's a picture of her just being Ella yesterday.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Eli is a bit better with his fever hanging in around 102 ro so. He doesn't have any energy and isn't eating a whole lot but is trying his best to be happy. This picture was taken tonight after we tried to put him to bed and he refused. He decided to stay up for a bit longer and hang out with dad watching basketball. He watches them up and down the court and constantly points and says "ball ball". When I took out the camera he automatically started his cheesy grins and would then go right back to snuggling and rubbing his eyes. Thankful though as last night he wouldn't even smile.

Ella and Landon were champs today playing well together and not bringing squishy lovey out. They went to the toy store to pick out a present for a birthday party Landon was going to and took their money to do a little shopping as well. Ella bought her favorite - candy of any sort. Landon bought 3 big balls - a green one for him, an orange one for Ella, and a blue one for Eli. What a sweetheart! The picture of him and Ella is their yoga attempt - the tree pose!

Here's hoping that everyone will be well tomorrow in our house and yours.

Friday, March 27, 2009

My Eli pumpkin is sick! He has been very pitiful today so please say a prayer for him to feel better. He woke up at 5:00 AM with a 103.5 temp. He went to bed with no symptoms or problems at all so I was shocked. Luckily he is drinking plenty of juice and actually ate a little breakfast and some bites of plain bread for dinner. Took him to the Dr who said it is just a virus but tonight his fever got to about 104.6. Mike and I were both very worried and after talking to our friend who is a pediatrician we put him in the luke warm bath and he cooled down a bit. He is sleeping now but still warm. He is trying so hard to be happy and laugh at Ella, Landon, and Daddy's silliness but it is tough. The picture is of us as we spent most of the day just like that.

Ella had a good day with no lovey at school and only snuck it out of her room once today. The rest of the day she didn't whine or complain about it being in bed. She said once or twice that "squishy lovey is afraid" but that was the extent of it. I was very thrilled with how well that went. Plus - she only pulled her pants down right outside of the bathroom door at school on the way to the potty. Her teacher thought this was a great improvement so hopefully she will keep up the good work. This picture is of her ladybug that she found on Tuesday. She loves bugs and worms and such. This one she and Landon thought they would keep so they took it inside and put it in Landon's wardrobe to "keep it safe". After explaining this to me I asked them to go and find it and we would make it a much safer house. Of course it was gone - maybe Landon will find it in his sock or something.

As for a funny saying today - Ella had a little issue with constipation today and she tearfully said to me - "it's my thought, Mommy" which she mean't "fault". As I explained that it certainly was not her fault, so she said "Oh, well then it's your fault mommy". Oh well.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

It's another rainy couple of days. We have been inside hanging out and trying to keep our sanity. Of course with the kids there are enough laughs to keep us going each day. The latest are from Ella..... When I went to pick her up at preschool yesterday the teacher came to me with a very serious look on her face and said "Can you please work with Ella on keeping her clothes on?" I was a bit concerned until she told me that she gets ready for the bathroom way before she actually gets to the bathroom. THEN she said that in music that Ella announced she was getting hot and then started shedding her clothes. That one is a little more worrisome for me but I think we can work on it. Later in the day Ella had a follow-up with her allergist since there were no brothers there to steal any attention she had them wrapped up. She talked to every nurse there and showed her doctor what he thought were "pirouettes" and she said no. He then asked if there were just "spins" and she said no again - "they are princess twirls". He made sure he called them the right name for the rest of the visit. The last funny for her I will mention that day is after she saw a picture of a pretty sunshine she enlightened me by saying "it may be sunny at our house" (this was on Tuesday when it actually was) "but it is moony at my pink house". Each of them crack me up every day and I hope to share more of them with you.

I will note that our "struggle" right now is we are trying to keep Ella's blanket in her bed during the day. This will be a huge issue for her as she is used to carrying this thing around everywhere she goes. Today she did very good since we were around the house but she mentioned several times that "squishy lovey" (the blanket's name) was sad, scared, and lonely at different times. She was trying to talk me into letting her get it and bring it out but after quick distractions she did very well. We will see how it goes tomorrow - I am sure squishy lovey will have many other issues to be discussed.

Pictures from today are of my Ella wide open last March. It's amazing that a year has passed. As I look at these pictures it seems like yesterday. She keeps me on my toes!

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

My post today is about Monday, but I will note that today was a great day with our friend Luke here. We had our regular morning routine of Bible Study and then the afternoon was full of naps and outside playtime.

Yesterday after my mom's trip to the doctor we all went to pick up Ella and then made our way to the science museum. The kids were so excited to have Nannie and Pops with them that they could hardly stand themselves. We started with a picnic and then we quickly took Nannie and Pops around the entire museum showing them all the fun things to see. Landon's favorite was rolling the balls with Pops trying to knock teeth out of the game, Ella's was probably playing operation with Pops and puzzles with Nannie, Eli's was being able to run around and push buttons, climb on things or play in the water. At the end of our visit we headed outside to take a walk to see the animals. Landon and Ella chased the otters around like they were swimming in their own pond. Eli took it all in and enjoyed a ride back on Pops shoulders. It was about 2 hours past his nap time so he was just about asleep by the time we made it to the van. I think about 20 more steps and he would have been out in this picture. I really don't think a trip to the science museum will ever be the same since going with Nannie and Pops.

At night we try to each talk about a "rose and a thorn" for the day while going around the table. Tonight Ella's rose was going to the science museum with Nannie and Pops - Landon said he guessed that she was doing her rose for the week. Enjoy the pictures.

Monday, March 23, 2009

What a beautiful weekend! I hope everyone had a lot of fun. Our highlights were t-ball practice on Saturday and dinner club on Sunday. The kids enjoyed it all. Landon is really having a blast with t-ball and talks about it all the time. He even got to play ball with his friends at dinner club and he really felt like a big kid, and the big kids really felt like kids too (Mike, Delane, and Ken were out throwing ball with the kids). He also got to spend time with his buddy Ben playing video games and just hanging out. Eli loved dinner club too as they had plenty of balls and Eli will try to shoot a basketball into any hoop possible. He shot in the little goal outside, tried and tried to have someone help him shoot in the big goal outside, shot in the little goal inside and then the hoop that was hanging on the door inside. Also, there was ice cream and if Eli ever sees ice cream he will be your best friend. He ate most of dad's and then switched over to eat some of mine as well. Mike and I enjoyed getting to catch up with friends. We were commenting last night that when we started dinner club there were no kids between all of us and now we have 11 and none of them are babies!!!!

Hope you all have a great start to the week.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Cool weather for the beginning of spring. At least there are flowers in the yard and sunshine, wait, ooops there are no flowers.....what happened to them all. Let's just say that the flower collectors came I caught them in the act but it was so cute that I couldn't resist letting them finish. Now I have 3 vases full of daffodils on the kitchen table. They didn't make it to the front yard so there are still a few to enjoy while we are outside.

Landon started T-Ball this week. For years I said we would only do one activity at a time for each child and now we have Landon in taekwando, t-ball and getting ready to start them all in swimming lessons. So much for my idea of one per child. I think we will be going somewhere every day of the week now and changing clothes for each event. My posts may begin to fall off again as I forget where I am going and for what over the next couple of weeks. Eli is catching a lot of the craziness as I lay him down for a nap and while he is still sleeping I am putting his shoes on him and grabbing him up to load him in the van to go somewhere else. Thank goodness he is pretty laid back.

Now on to yard work for the first of spring!

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Eli is 17 months old today. It is hard to believe how fast it is all flying by. Right now he is napping away after a big morning. I spontaneously decided to take the kids to a play this morning at the nice "theatre" downtown today. It was a traveling group putting on "If You Give a Pig a Pancake" and other stories. We lucked out and were 3 rows from the front and in the center. The whole place was packed with school groups and Landon and Ella were excited. With our slow mornings we got there in just the nick of time and barely had to wait. When the show started Landon and Ella were mesmerized and Eli was in the "love, hate" relationship that he was in when we went to the zoo. He would watch and clap and then he would cry. He did this only about 5 - 10 minutes this time and then calmed down and enjoyed the whole show. Afterwards we snuck right out before any group left so we didn't have to wait at all. Then we went to "Daddy's tall tower" to meet Daddy for lunch. After lunch Eli enjoyed looking out of the 28th floor window while I nervously held his shirt and pulled him back from leaning on the window with all of his weight. I know that he can't fall out but it makes me very very nervous. Then I ran into a friend of mine from my IBM days. It was so nice to catch up and the kids were well behaved and waited patiently. Now I see why Eli was eager for his nap.

The weather has been beautiful the last couple of days. Yesterday we went on a picnic at the playground to enjoy the sunshine. Later that day we made cupcakes but you couldn't tell from looking at Ella could you?

Monday, March 16, 2009

Rain rain go away, come again another day!! A lot of rain today but I guess we are still catching up. Landon and Ella were so tired of being indoors today that Ella begged to wear rain boots and splash in all of the puddles outside while it was pouring down. I was too tired to handle the mess so I didn't allow her to, plus I knew that Eli would want to too. Landon tried to get Ella to play every board game we have and when that didn't work out they decided to pull out every toy downstairs and line them all up on the stairs to the basement. It looked like a retail store displaying every toy imaginable in no order. Needless to say, I am looking forward to some warmer drier weather tomorrow. Hopefully I will get to see some of these cute faces in the sunshine and toys all over the yard instead of the steps.

Hope your day is sunny and warm too.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Rainy weekend here. We had a good one. Ella had a great time at Nannie and Pops for her first sleepover with all of the attention to herself. She ate it up and was so sad to leave. I think she got absolutely everything she asked for including her favorite meals, games of all kinds, egg hunts, sleeping when she wanted and where she wanted and undisturbed access to her favorite Noggin video game.

Landon, on the other hand, had a big disappointment on Saturday as I mixed up the time on his birthday party he was supposed to go to and we missed it. Can we say oops!

Today we had a nice day having lunch with friends and then a surprise visit from Nannie and Pops. I think they were so concerned about Ella being taken care of, after spoiling her so bad on Friday night, that they came for some more. It was great to see them and the kids loved the attention. I hope you all had a great weekend too.

Friday, March 13, 2009

Whoa! 3 days going - check it out!!! Guess I am as surprised as you all are. It's been a colder wet day. School for Landon and Ella, Eli got into everything. I think his favorite is finding every crayon in the house and dumping it in the kitchen floor. Ella went to Nannie and Pops for a sleepover tonight and boy was she excited! I called tonight and she didn't want to speak to me and when I told her I would see her tomorrow she said "Pops says I am staying". I am sure I will have to pull her claws out tomorrow to get her to leave. Landon and I went to the mother and son safari night tonight at the local Children's Museum. We had lots of fun playing games and eating pizza. Landon's favorite was getting to race through the whole museum while everyone cheered him on. He was a little disappointed that we missed the part where they handed out first place prizes but he recovered quickly when they gave him a fake bug and he got an extra for Ella. To top the night off we went by Krispy Kreme and he got a chocolate covered doughnut. Of course we bought a dozen so everyone could have their favorite or their favorite two or three :-) Nothing like a doughnut full of sugar right before bed! Sleep well.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Two days in a row. I am trying not to be too optomistic. Mike is working late tonight so I just got the kids to bed and am going to wind down. We got a lot done today with allergy shots, a trip to Costco, the library and lastly Landon to taekwando. The time change is still giving us a hard time. Ella and Eli were sleeping hard this morning and I finally got them up around 9:15 or so. I find ourselves rushing to get Ella to preschool at 9:00 when she goes and I don't know if I need to get them to bed at 6:00 one night to solve it but if they get up too early then that means I would have to too.

Tonights pictures are from back in February. The first is showing that no matter what you get for kids they always like the box the best. I think they played in this box for 2 days. The second picture is just "dreaming big". Eli loves a ball or anything that resembles it (such as something brown in our yard left behind by the dogs - yep - he went for it saying ball all the way but luckily I stopped him before he actually picked it up). Anyway, I remembered taking a picture of Landon doing the same thing and was able to find it and post it here on the right. How cute! They have a lot of similarities but there are a lot of differences between the two boys as well.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Still not getting better with my posting ability. Kids have been great! We have had snow one day and 6 days later having weather in the upper 70's. The snow was beautiful and kept us inside coming up with entertaining ideas. The warmer weather brought outside chores and time to even play in the water.

Landon is doing so well with school work. Today in geography he told me that he learned the location of all of the Mexican states. I was a bit confused as I thought he meant the Central American countries but sure enough he learned all of the states that make up Mexico. I am not sure of any of them but maybe one day it will be helpful. He has also been a good big brother by taking Eli and Ella and our friend Luke for rides around the back yard in the "yellow hummer".

Ella has had a little sick spell where she had an asthma attack. We didn't know that she had asthma but since I grew up with it I had a very good idea that it was the case. She gave us a good scare. We have been going through quite a bit of different meds but she is a trooper. Outside of that she continues on her string of collecting things. With the warmer weather she has been collecting worms. Or shall I say, she finds a worm and then carrying them around for hours. She carried one around last Saturday and ran in the house to show me, it was probably 6 inches long . As she tapped me on the back to show me I kind of jumped out of my seat. I tried to calm myself down quickly and praise her find but I am still not as much of a bug lover as she. She even finds the dried up ones and wants to keep them. She would swing it around like a jump rope, carry it, squeeze it, wash it and so forth. After it was drowned (lifeless) in love she let Daddy hold it. He quickly sent it away and she was not so happy when she went back to get her wormy. It's ok, she found another within minutes.

We have decided that Eli is part rooster. He will climb to the highest point he can and stand there waiting for attention. There are very few things he hasn't learned to climb on. Luckily we can get to him pretty quickly to keep him from falling but I am sure he will take more tumbles than the other two ever did. His other favorite is just being outside. He wants to be outside all the time. Today he had so much sand in his diaper, which I still can't figure out how it got there, that I had to give him a bath before I could let him take his nap.

I really am going to try to post more often so I don't miss so much but I know my track record isn't so good.