the life and times of the drozd family

Sharkey... We hardly knew ya

2010-03-21T23:15:00.000-05:00

Sharkey... you were one of a kind. Well, not really. In fact, if you were among your peers I am fairly sure I wouldn't be able to pick you out. But that's okay because you had a great personality. Actually, you didn't have much of a personality. Ummm... you were amusing? Maybe for about 6 seconds. Beyond that you were pretty boring.

At least you can say you were a Drozd, Sharkey. That's gotta count for something. And even though your time with us was short, just remember... as you make your final journey to the bottom of your porcelain grave, which drains into that big fishbowl in the sky you will be missed (sort of... until Sharkey II comes home to take your place).

Adios, Sharkey!

What's For Supper?

2010-02-17T00:46:00.000-06:00

Last night for supper Melissa and I decided neither of us were going to cook. Instead we decided that we would get some chicken and sides from KFC. I left to go pick it up and when I got home Henry was at the door waiting to greet me... like an excited dog.

H: Hi Daddy!!!
J: Hey Bud.
H: What do you have?
J: Chicken.
H: Where did you go?
J: Kentucky Fried Chicken.
H: Oh.

So I take the food into the kitchen and start unpacking it. Henry wanders into the living room and begins to talk to Melissa.

H: Daddy is home!!!
M: Awesome!
H: He went to Kenf**cky Fried Chicken!
M: Where?!
H: Kenf**cky Fried Chicken!!
M: Kentucky Fried Chicken?
H: Yeah, Kentucky Fried Chicken.

So, we sit down to eat and as we're eating Audrey tells us how much she likes the chicken.

A: This Confetti Fried Chicken is yummy!
J: The what??
A: Confetti Fried Chicken.
J: Oh... it's Kentucky Fried Chicken.
A: Oh (giggle).

It's amazing how kids can say the funniest things without even trying.

On a side note I feel the need to commend our local Kentucky Fried Chicken establishment for their friendliness as well as the speed and quality with which they filled my order. Normally, I wouldn't think twice about this type of thing. However, I did pay attention yesterday because the last time I went there the staff was less than friendly. And it wasn't until after I placed my order and paid that they proceeded to inform me (and the other paying customers) that they were out of chicken. Now, I can understand if they had run out of corn on the cob or mashed potatoes... but chicken!!! Are you serious?! That's like Pizza Hut saying they are out of pizza. It's just wrong... just wrong to be out of your main product.

Mastercard Commercial (The Lost Ads) - #2

2010-02-03T00:29:00.002-06:00

Candy and toys to be used as an
incentive as you attempt to potty train: $20.00

New package of "big boy" underwear
because diapers are for babies: $8.00

Another new package of "big boy" underwear
in order to replace his favorite pair which
you accidentally flushed down the toilet: $8.00

Breathing a sigh of relief that you didn't have to
call a plumber and explain that the toilet is clogged
because you flushed a pair of "big boy" underpants: Priceless

Mastercard Commercial (The Lost Ads) - #1

2010-02-02T00:28:00.007-06:00

Paper blind you bought to cover the bathroom
window until you can find a curtain you really like: $5.00

Late night trip to the ER to get stitches because
you sliced your thumb with a rotary cutter
trying to cut the paper blind to fit the window: $350.00

Trip to the Dr.'s office to have the
stitches removed from the thumb you
sliced while cutting the paper blind: $120.00

Still having the ability to twiddle your thumbs: Priceless

A Valentine's Day Poem - By Audrey

2010-02-01T23:57:00.002-06:00

Valentine's Day.
Oh Valentine's Day.
Valentine's Day.
It is close. I will be
delighted. Henry is
delighted. Daisy sips her
milk and Maggie wears a
bow. Mom loves me!

Can I Get A Beer With My Slice?

2010-01-29T00:04:00.147-06:00

The following takes place around 10PM Saturday, January 23rd.

The kids had been in bed for a couple of hours and were sleeping soundly. Now, if I could only get the dog to stop barking. I was downstairs paying close attention to the news. Well, maybe it was more like nodding off on the couch while the tv was on, but now we're just splitting hairs. Anyway, so I'm downstairs and Melissa is upstairs doing who knows what. Just a quiet night at the Drozd household. But, if that's the case, then this will be a boring read.

All of a sudden I was awakened from my slumber... ummm... errr... my attention to the important goings on in the world was shattered by my wife screaming and yelling upstairs. As these weren't screams of excitement for winning the lottery or something similar I felt obligated to race upstairs and find out what was going on. Of course, I was at a loss as to what possibly could have happened to cause her to let loose with a (partially) profanity laced outburst loud enough to wake up the kids had it continued. I finally found her only to discover that her thumb was bleeding profusely while she was wrapping it in tissue. She didn't tell me that a slasher flick was filming at our house.

She finally calmed down somewhat. What follows is an excerpt of the conversation that we had:

J: What happened?!
M: I sliced my thumb.
J: How did you do that?
M: I was using my rotary cutter to trim a paper blind and it slipped.
J: Did you cut it off?
M: No.
M: I think I need to go to the ER.
J: Really?! Let me see it.
J: Hmmm.
J: (In a serious tone) Do you think you can drive yourself to the ER? I am not calling an ambulance to take you and I don't really want to get the kids out of bed.
M: I don't know if I can.

Fortunately, Melissa was able to get a hold of one of her friends who was willing to come over and stay with the kids while we went to the ER.

11PM We walk into the ER and it is dead. I think all of the nurses working that night were huddled around the reception desk just waiting for us to walk in. Melissa got checked in and brought back to a room right away. Both of us were thinking "OK, great... we'll be in and out." Ha! Guess again. It's the ER. Guests check-in, but they don't checkout. At least that's the goal. OK, bad joke... couldn't resist. The point is that the visit was not quick.

12:30AM The ER Dr. finally makes an appearance. I should point out that when he finally showed up to look at Melissa's thumb it wasn't bleeding very much and some of the pain had subsided. Of course, this made Melissa start to second guess whether she should have come to the ER. However, the next few minutes took away any doubt she had. First, the doc took the gauze off of Melissa's thumb. So far, so good. Next, he took the thumb between his fingers. Still doing OK. Finally, he squeezed it. At this point things got interesting as squeezing the thumb had two effects. Effect #1 - the thumb was now gushing blood. Effect #2 - the squeezing caused Melissa a teeny, tiny bit of pain. I need to clarify that I am not 100% positive Melissa was in pain. I am making an assumption that she was in pain based on the way she twisted and contorted her face (I didn't know her face could look like that) and nearly jumped out of the bed when he squeezed. Needless to say it didn't take him long to determine that stitches were needed.

So the doc left to request one of the nurses to bring a "sewing" kit to the room. 20 minutes later he popped his head into the room to see if the kit was there yet. It wasn't. He returned 10 minutes later with a kit in his hands.

1:30AM Doc finally has everything he needs and is ready to begin. He starts by getting out a syringe and filling it with the anesthetic to numb the thumb. At this point, being the good, supportive husband that I am, I used my hands to give Melissa a visual of just how big the syringe and needle were as she was unable to see it from her vantage point. For some reason this earned me a dirty look and a "Shut up" from her.

The doc took the anesthetic filled needle and stuck her thumb all around the knuckle (supposedly this is where most of the nerve endings are) to try and numb it. After a few minutes he tested the thumb to see if it still had any feeling. It did. This meant there would be a second round of numbing. Round 2 saw him stick the needle around and directly in the wound. I should note that once again Melissa appeared to be in at least a little bit of pain as the doc stuck her wound over and over and over with the needle. I think she actually got a few inches off the bed this time as he did this. But the important thing was her thumb was numb.

I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Or maybe it's just the overhead light I see and am having trouble making it out as my eyelids are getting heavy. Either way we're on the home stretch since he is now actually sewing up the wound.

2:30AM 3½ hours and 6 stitches later we are finally ready to leave. Now, I realize we could have been there much longer had there been accident victims, gunshot victims or a swine flu outbreak, but there was no one else there when we got there and only a couple of people when we were leaving, including one person standing in the hall holding his bleeding thumb. So, the way I see it there is no reason that I should not have been in my bed by 12:30AM at the latest. Alas, all is well... Melissa is still able to count to 10 on her hands. The stitches come out in a few days and we are taking the necessary precautions at home to ensure that she does not have access to any sharp objects without adult supervision.

Well, you've made it this far and have reached the solicitation portion of the post. This is the second year in a row that Melissa has made a visit to the ER in January. Last year she had the flu and became so dehydrated that she blacked out for a short period prompting a call to 911. Since it appears that she is going to make late night trips to the ER in January an annual event we are now putting friends and family on notice that they need to be available at the drop of a hat to come to our house when she decides it's time for her visit in January 2011.

P.S. Here is your medical tip for the day: When you have a cut, scratch, scrape, gash, laceration or other wound it is best to clean it with just tap water. If you have something like a medicine syringe or nasal aspirator (i.e. snot sucker) to squirt the water over the wound then that is even better. That helps to blow the bacteria out of the wound. Using antiseptic, peroxide, etc. can actually damage the skin and cause the healing process to take longer.

And So It Begins...

2009-08-20T23:22:00.012-05:00

Audrey's first day of kindergarten was Wednesday. Needless to say she was very, very excited. Now, she has been attending pre-school, pre-K, etc. for the past couple of years, but that doesn't really compare to kindergarten, does it? I mean we're talking kindergarten here... this is the big-time. Full day classes, eating lunch in the school cafeteria, her very own locker.

So, we drove Audrey to school Wednesday morning and went in with her since parents were allowed to stay with their children for a little while. First was announcements in the auditorium (more on this in a bit), then off to the classroom for our good-byes. Now, there were a couple of kids who were clinging to their parents legs holding on for dear life not wanting them to leave. Then there was Audrey... no tears... not even really looking at us, except maybe for a quick glance or two with an expression that seemed to ask when we were leaving. Little Miss Independent. All grown up (at least in her eyes) and ready to take on the world. 1 day down, 13 years and counting until college. And So It Begins...

(On a side note, we are now gladly taking donations for Audrey's [or Henry's for that matter] college fund.)

As I mentioned above the first order of business Wednesday morning was to head to the auditorium for announcements. There was the obligatory "let's be safe dropping off/picking up children" spiel, the kindergarten teacher (Mrs. Breedlove) introducing herself and then her covering some of the many fun things the kids will be doing this year. The final announcement was one that I wasn't quite expecting (at least not on Wednesday morning... the morning of the FIRST day... of kindergarten!).

A PTO rep stood up to introduce herself and explain about the PTO at the school and about the many wonderful things they have done for the school. OK, fine, so far so good. Then, of course, she started talking about fundraisers. Not unexpected, it is the PTO after all and fundraisers are their main source of income. However, she continued on and began talking about the first fundraiser of the year - what the kids would be selling, all the fun prizes the kids can earn, etc. And guess when it starts?

Let me pause for a moment and say that I am not naive. I knew that there would be a fundraiser or three before the school year was done. It's part of sending your kid to school. I get it.

Anyway, back to my previous question... guess when this fundraiser starts? To my (and probably every other parent's) delight it was starting that very same day. Woo Hoo!!! (note the hint of sarcasm) Audrey came home from school very excited about the fundraiser. The "Candy Man" visited her class to tell the kids even more about the fundraiser... or as Audrey says the "fun"raiser. (Two different sets of ears hearing two different things with vastly different meanings and connotations. Amazing!) And we'll get to do this at least a couple more times before the school year is over. And So It Begins...

Update

2009-06-10T22:58:00.003-05:00

The week started out really great with a trip up north and a day at American Girl Place. It was Grandma Karin's special treat for Audrey's 5th birthday. We ate at the cafe and Audrey got a new doll and lots of fun stuff to go with her. We all had a lot of fun! They boys didn't think they would be nearly as exciting about American Girl, so Grandpa, Jason, and Henry went to All Aboard Cafe instead. It is a restaurant with a train theme where a train delivers your order. I guess Henry got a big kick out of that!!

Jason has this week off as one of his layoff weeks so we are trying to get some stuff done around the house. Jason is painting the living room and I am trying to keep the kids out of the way! Today the kids and I went over to a friends house and had arts and crafts day with kids from preschool. Every Wednesday during the summer someone hosts and plans a craft project for all the kids. Today there was about 12 kids from the age of 9 mos. to 5 1/2. Kinda crazy, but fun.

Tonight I harvested a head of broccoli from my garden box and my first cherry tomato. So far the garden boxes are doing great and haven't been very much work. Audrey also started swimming lessons this week. She goes on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 4:00. The weather has been a little too cool for swimming, but the pool is heated so it isn't cold until they get out of the water. I have been enjoying the cooler weather and the fact that we haven't had to run the A/C. We are just trying to settle into a summer routine. I might put some stuff in a friends garage sale on Saturday so I better get back to sorting and pricing :(

Kindergarten Screening

2009-06-03T14:51:00.002-05:00

This morning we went to Kindergarten Screening at Hollis School. We have decided to send Audrey to Hollis instead of the primary school in our district and after today I am feeling like we made the right decision. It just feels so much more like small town school where everybody knows everybody. Anyway, Audrey did great and the teacher said she was definitely ready for Kindergarten (but we already knew that). The teacher is a nice grandmother type named Mrs. Breedlove :)

Pictures

2009-05-13T14:18:00.005-05:00

Here are some pictures taken of the kids a week or so ago. They are on my facebook page but thought I would put them on the blog for those of you who don't do facebook. I thought they turned out great. My friend and neighbor Karianne took them. She is starting a photography business and is using us as practice. She is going to take some family pics later on. We may also try to get some more pictures of Audrey and the kids together, because there weren't as many of those that we loved.

2009-05-11T22:22:00.002-05:00

I'm feeling crazy lately. I just can't seem to get my act together. Tonight I am trying to catch up on loads and loads of laundry so the kids will have clean clothes this week. I was going to sew some stuff that I cut out this morning but the cat has been hanging out on the ironing board and it needed washed before anything could be ironed. Darned cat!! I am feeling done with pets. They just create more work for me! I am really wanting to get stuff done around the house, like painting and redecorating, but we can't even seem to find the time to keep the house clean, let alone do home improvement projects. Audrey had a birthday party this evening for a girl from school. It was a Halloween in May party. They bobbed for apples, played pin the spider on the web, and had a haunted house in the attic. Every kid got a big bag of Halloween stuff to take home. The mom must have bought a bunch of stuff when it was on clearance after Halloween. Ingenious really. The family birthday party for Audrey and Henry is on Saturday and I still need to figure out the rest of the food and get the house somewhat cleaned up. Well, I better go put in another load.

Happy Birthday Audrey!!

2009-05-03T22:23:00.002-05:00

I can't believe Audrey is 5 today! She had a great day. We had a Hello Kitty party for nine 5-year-old girls at our house this afternoon. It was a little crazy but I think they all had fun. They played a couple of games, did the limbo, and danced. After the party was over Audrey played with her new toys and then went on a bike ride on her new bike. She told me that it was a perfect day for a princess. Tomorrow I will try to post pictures of the festivities.

Wildlife Prarie Park

2009-04-25T22:27:00.002-05:00

We spent 4 hours today at the Wildlife Prairie Park. We had an outing for the bear buddy program that we volunteer for with our church. We had a good time and the weather was perfect. It looked like it was going to storm for awhile but the rain held off. It wasn't too warm or sunny and there was a nice breeze. Henry's favorite part was riding the little train through the park. He didn't want to get off! Audrey liked looking at the animals. She even petted a snake! I remembered to bring my camera this time and when I took it out to take pictures the battery was dead! The back of my neck is sun burnt and Audrey's arms are a little pink, but Henry is looking terrificly tan!

2009-04-19T22:47:00.002-05:00

We had a crazy weekend! Jason worked 40 hours from Friday thru Sunday. There was some database problems that had to be worked on and he pretty much just came home to sleep and then was back at work again before we even got up in the morning. The kids were missing him and I have been about ready to loose my mind. This morning I dropped Audrey off at church for choir school and Sunday school and then came home to finish getting ready so Henry and I could go back for the late service. I was locking the front door and Henry fell on the concrete front porch steps and skinned his nose up and got his pants all muddy. I screamed as I watched him do it, but couldn't get to him in time. He was pretty freaked out. By the time I got him inside, cleaned up, changed and calmed down we were super late for church. Henry was still in a pretty foul mood, so we ended up just going to pick up Audrey and then headed to the grocery store because we were almost out of toilet paper, diapers, and bread. I did get about 6 loads of laundry done over the last couple of day (and we have a washer and dryer that is supposed to hold about double what a super capacity washer and dryer do!) I don't know why we seem to have so much laundry lately. Well, it is after 10 and Jason just got home and I still need finish Audrey's party invitations so she can take them to school tomorrow. Tomorrow I have Mommy Moments in the morning and a baby shower that I have to bring food for in the evening. Jason promised that I would be able to make it to the shower even if he had to work from home. It's a good thing because as of this morning I'm in charge of the shower because the original hostess is sick! I hope the rest of this week goes a little smoother!

Easter Pictures

2009-04-16T22:40:00.003-05:00

Thanks Grandma Karin for sending these (and remembering to take them)! Henry always smiles this cheesy fake smile when he knows someone is taking a picture of him. What a little ham!

Easter

2009-04-14T23:34:00.002-05:00

I don't have any Easter pictures to post. We went to Jason's parents on Friday afternoon. His sister was in from Colorado and we had a good time visiting, coloring Easter eggs, and eating. On Saturday night we went to Jason's Auntie Debbie's house and played cards with GAB and GURay who were also in town. It was a fun weekend, but I didn't take any pictures. In fact I forgot to take my camera at all. Hopefully somebody took one of the kids in their Easter duds and I can get a copy. I always seem to be so scatter-brained! Not much else has been going on. Just more of the same. I got 2 more bags done and am starting aprons. I also need to get busy with making decorations for our church's mother/daughter/friend tea. I volunteered to make paper flowers for the centerpieces of 12 tables!! I have also been working on the Hello Kitty invitations for Audrey's friends birthday party. I cut them out with my Cricut, but still need to assemble all the little parts of them. I can't believe how fast her birthday is coming up. May is always such a super busy month for us, so I should try to get some things done now so I'm not so stressed at the last minute. In May we have 2 birthday parties, the mother/daughter tea, book club at my house and lots of end-of-the-school year activities at school and church! Tomorrow morning Karianne is coming over with Tristan and the baby for a little visit. That should be fun and I'm sure Henry will be happy to have a playmate. I should get to bed. Tomorrow I think I will take some pictures of the kids and post them just because it has been so long since I have put any up and they are so stinkin' cute :)

2009-04-06T01:05:00.002-05:00

I'm up WAY too late watching the snow fall. I have to admit that I'm not nearly as enthusiastic about snow when it is April and Easter is only a week away! Early yesterday morning my neighbor (and friend) Karianne called and said that she might be in labor and wanted to know if I could come stay with her little boy while they went to the hospital. She said she was pretty sure that it was false labor, but the Dr wanted her to come in anyway. I went over in my pjs and tried to sleep, but didn't have much luck. At 7 Sylvain (Karianne's husband) came home and said that the baby was born at 3 am. It was a very fast delivery and not false labor after all! She had a little boy who is named Lucas. Well, that was my excitement for the weekend. Audrey is on spring break this week so I will get to relax and not worry about getting anywhere at a certain time. It will be kinda nice. I hope Audrey and Henry get along. Lately they are either best friends or screaming at the top of their lungs at each other. They fight a lot, but when I try to split them up and have them play separately , they get upset and still want to be together!?!

X-Rays

2009-04-02T00:19:00.002-05:00

Last week Henry fell down on the bottom stair and limped a little. I didn't think much about it because he didn't seem to be in pain. Well, he was still limping on Tuesday so I called the doctors office and they wanted to see him. Well, the doctor couldn't find anything so she ordered x-rays. They took a bunch and Henry was such a good boy through the whole thing. He laid really still and didn't start to object until the very end. Well, the results came back normal on all the x-rays also, and today he is not limping as much. I'm just supposed to watch him and take him back in if he isn't better in another week. Someone in our family has had emergency medial care every month this year. January it was me with the flu ambulance ride thing, February Jason went to prompt care with chest pains and had a EKG and chest x-ray (the tests turned out fine and they never found out why he was having pain), and in March Henry had x-rays. I hope Audrey doesn't have some emergency in April.

2009-04-01T23:57:00.004-05:00

I have been super busy the last couple of weeks. I have been sewing like crazy to try to get some stuff made up to sell. I made a bag about a month back and started carrying it and everyone wants one. I took a couple to a consignment store back home in Charleston and I have 3 people waiting on one and another place willing to sell them. So far I have made 4 of this style bag
Today I made a pillowcase dress for Audrey. This one I cut shorter to be a shirt. It was pretty fast and easy to make. I have another one cut out for a dress and I think I am going to embroider something on it. Audrey loves to model!

2009-03-17T06:22:00.002-05:00

We have all been sick AGAIN! This time with an awful cold that keeps holding on. Audrey ended up with an ear infection, which is pretty unusual for her. This is the first one she has had since she was a baby. Henry didn't have one as of Friday afternoon, when we were at the doctors office, but he has been acting pretty cranky and didn't sleep all that well last night so I'm not completely convinced that one isn't on the way. At least the weather has been great the last few days. We all went on a nice walk last night after supper. Audrey rode her scooter (most of the way) and Henry rode in his little push car. We stopped and talked to a few neighbors along the way. Everyone is so ready for spring! Yesterday was the first time that Audrey had been to preschool in a week! With our colds and the time change I wasn't about to drag everyone out of bed. This is my last year to have that option. For the next 16 years someone will have to be up for school and there won't be a choice. Wow, I just thought about that, 16 years!!! I can't believe Audrey will start school this year. We have decided to go ahead and send her to public school. With the economy the way it is I don't feel super comfortable with a big financial commitment like private school. I have been reassured by several people that the primary school she will go to is a good one and we know 4 or 5 kids that will be starting kindergarten there too, so that makes me feel a little better. Registration is at the end of April. Jason found out last week that he will have to take 4 weeks of rolling layoff this year. I don't think it will be too bad because he pretty much gets to pick the weeks and he can spread them out so it isn't as much of a financial strain. So that combined with his 2 weeks of vacation, he will be off 6 weeks this year. Maybe we can get some stuff done around the house while he is off.

Audrey's 1st Solo

2009-02-28T20:48:00.003-06:00

Our church had a variety show last night. It was put on my the children's choirs to benefit an orphanage in Liberia. All the children's choirs sang and then there were solo acts. Audrey said that she wanted to sing a solo. We had worked on a song for a few weeks. She sang "Come and go with Me To My Fathers House". She did so awesome. She was right on key, remembered all the words and even held the last notes out long! She smiled the whole time. I think she is a natural performer. She also loved the cheering and wild applause! She said "Mama, they loved me!" She was the youngest performer. I was so proud! I did get it on video, but still haven't looked into how to post it so here are a couple of pictures. My mom and dad came to watch her and then we celebrated my birthday a day early today by going out to eat.

A Mouse in the House

2009-02-25T10:09:00.004-06:00

We have been having a mouse issue lately. I have woken Jason up in the middle of the night a couple of times over the last couple of weeks because I hear "scritching" as I call it. I don't know why I use scritching, it just seems like the right word to me. Well, we must have Houdini mice because they weren't being tricked by the traps we set for them. In fact I think the traps just provided them with a midnight snack during their scavenging quests. After seeing a mouse run around the living room in the middle of the afternoon we decided that we had to do something else. Yes, we have a cat. I had to go find her, wake her up and practically throw her upstairs in the living room. She didn't seem to even sense that there was a mouse around and hid under the dining room table while the rest of use ran around and squealed. So, we decided to put out glue traps. I know, they are awful, but so is watching a mouse run around your house. Well, the next morning Audrey is yelling for me saying "mama guess what we caught, two of them". I didn't come down to watch but I guess Audrey was very interested it the 2 mice stuck to 1 glue trap squealing. It took Jason 10 minutes to work up the nerve to pick up the glue trap, but Audrey took a flashlight and examined them. She told me all about how cute they were and how their tiny feet were pink, and they made cute little squeaks. I am glad I didn't witness it! I was upstairs getting Henry dressed and I heard Audrey yelling out the back door frantically "Dada don't throw them in the garbage!!" He told a little fib and told her he was going to let them run across the street to the golf course. I think we are going to try to look for some other kind of traps. The glue traps are a little too traumatic for us I think. Today on the way to school Audrey and Henry were pretending to be rats. They were clawing and making gnawing noises!

2009-02-18T15:01:00.004-06:00

I haven't posted anything for awhile so thought I would give a quick update. We didn't have any big plans on Valentines Day. We met my parents, Sara and Sean in Champaign and had lunch at Olive Garden and then went to Sara's for cake and ice cream to celebrate my moms birthday that was on the 11th. We stayed there until late afternoon. I started a pilates class at the rec center down the street. I am pretty humiliated by my lack of strength. We do a lot of exercises on the balance ball and it is a lot harder than I imagined. There are quite a few senior citizens in the class and the instructor is over 60. Its pretty bad when you feel like your muscles are jelly and you can't sit up one more time, and you look over at the tiny 80 year old looking man and he doesn't seem to be having any trouble! What else has been going on? The back window of our car was broken out and they had to order a new one from New Jersey so Jason has been driving around with plastic over the back window and has worked from home a couple of times this week. Monday a couple of my friends came over to scrapbook while the kids played. We didn't really get anything done because there were 6 kids (5 boys and Audrey) under the age of 5 running around making messes and wanting things. The house was a disaster and my nerves were fried by the end of the day but everyone had fun! Next time I think we should get a babysitter though. Henry isn't feeling good again. I took him to the dr this morning because I was sure he had another ear infection. He woke up early this morning screaming and pulling on his ear. He said his cheek hurt. When I brought him in to the dr he said that his ears were fine and that his throat was a little red and his glands were a little swollen and that it looked like he was just coming down with another virus. Just goes to show you what I know. I was sure it was his ears and last time when he really did have an ear infection I had no idea it was his ears, I took him in because he was coughing a lot. I wish they would just give me one of those scope things they use to look in his ears and teach me how to use it so I wouldn't be guessing and running to the dr office all the time.

2009-02-12T14:34:00.002-06:00

We are managing to stay busy, but not healthy. Everyone has had a cold here lately. Henry ended up with the croup and an ear infection last week and this week I am all stuffed up. It seems like this winter I end up getting EVERYTHING that the kids get. I have been sewing a little because Jason was bugging me to know when I was going to use some of the fabric that I keep buying. I am somewhat of a fabric and paper collector. Today Audrey and I went on a field trip with her school to see Rainbow Fish. It was pretty cute but kinda stressful. Imagine a giant theater fill with 800+ preschool and grade school kids! I really don't know how teachers do it!!! I am watching Airforce 1 land at the Peoria airport about a mile from our house (0n TV of course). The president is in town today and giving a speech at a Caterpillar plant. I was going to go out on the front porch and see if I could see them fly over, but I guess I missed it. Audrey was annoyed that we were watching it on TV instead of PBS cartoons. She is less than impressed that the president is in town. She does know who he is though. The other day there was a picture of him on the yahoo homepage and Audrey pointed to it and said "That's Barack Obama. He's the president of the United States." I just kinda looked at her in amazement. She said she learned it at school. If we aren't careful people might think she comes from a family of Democrats.

Home "improvement"???? projects

2009-01-31T19:58:00.003-06:00

Well in typical Melissa fashion, what started earlier this week as a quick project that should have only taken a couple of hours, has turned into a HUGE, drawn out pain in the butt! There is this little area at the end of the entry hall that was closed off and previously used as a pantry or storage closet. It had become really jammed full of stuff, because when people were coming over we just kinda threw stuff in there. It really needed cleaned out and organized. Well when I took everything out I decided that I wanted to make it into a little entry way area instead of a closet. There is even a little window in there. I took off the bi-fold door and started to take down the shelves that were screwed into the wall. Well, the crazy person who had hung the shelves had over-tightened most of the screws and stripped the heads. I couldn't get them off. Jason worked on them when he got home and then we patched all the holes. I found a place for the extra junk that was in that closet and made plans in my head for a curtains, and a bench with matching cushion. Today, Jason painted while Audrey and I went fabric shopping. I was trying to think of some ingenious cheap bench that was narrow enough to fit and Jason was finishing up painting the trim and baseboard when the unthinkable happened. Jason tipped over the gallon bucket of white paint and spilled a large amount onto the hallway carpet. Now I'm not especially in love with this carpet, but it goes all through the hall, in all of the living room, up the stairs and in the upstairs hall. If we replaced it we would have to replace ALL of these areas, and that really isn't an option right now. I was really trying hard not to loose it and scream or cry. After scooping up as much as we could with paper towels and a dust pan, and ruining a little carpet spot cleaner, I got online and googled "how to get paint out of carpet". We then began using dawn dish soap and water. Then Jason worked on it for quite a while with our big rug cleaner. It is much improved, but isn't completely gone. I don't know if other people will really notice it or if I just do because I know it is there. Anyway, it is now day 5 of the project and we aren't even close to finishing. Oh, and I invited people over for dinner after church tomorrow!!!

Snowman

2009-01-28T13:59:00.003-06:00

Last week Marilyn from Audrey's school came over to sled in the golf course. All the kids near us play on the 4th hole that is right in front of our house. There is a partial snow fort there and a couple of sled tracks. Well, we decided to build a snowman. It turned out that I mostly built the snowman. It has been a long time since I have built a snowman and I had forgotten how much work it is! The snow was perfect for it and we had a HUGE carrot that we had been saving for just this occasion. Here are a couple of pictures. He is still there and Henry talks about him every time we leave the house.

Having a Ball

2009-01-21T22:40:00.003-06:00

Audrey went to a bowling birthday party on Sunday afternoon for a little friend from school. This was Audrey's first time bowling as it was most of the kids there. It was hysterical! They were all proud and excited if they knocked down any pins at all, and the bumpers were up! Sometimes the ball making it to the end of the lane was an accomplishment!

Matching outfits

2009-01-21T22:21:00.003-06:00

Great Auntie Barbara (AKA GAB) made these coordinating sweaters for the kids for Christmas. She even sent matching turtlenecks and pants for them. Henry was really funny about his sweater. When I first tried it on him I just put it over his pjs. I started to take it off and he was screaming. I thought he was getting made because his arm was stuck or something, but it turns out that he was screaming because he didn't want to take the sweater off. I put his arms back in and he happily wore it around the house over his footie pajamas for almost an hour! Thanks so much GAB! Sorry it has taken me so long to get the pictures up. Audrey loves to pose for the camera and Henry loves Audrey's Barbie castle (much to Jason's dismay). He really did get lots of "boy" toys for Christmas.

Some Christmas pictures

2009-01-21T21:44:00.004-06:00

Making cookies for Santa with her Webkinz dog

Grandma Kay with the kids on Christmas Eve after Church

Looking under the tree on Christmas Morning

Henry the Airplane Pilot

More Webkinz

YUCK!!

2009-01-15T19:26:00.002-06:00

Wow it really has been awhile. I have a good excuse this time. Last week I wrote that Henry got sick all over the living room, just once. Well he got sick just once, but that started a round of the stomach flu at our house that took it's toll on some of us more than others. Friday night I started to feel a little nauseous and started to have diarrhea and threw up a couple of times. I got out of bed at about 12:30 to get sick again and couldn't stop heaving and started to black out. Jason ended up calling an ambulance because I was confused and laying on the bathroom floor. I had my first ever ambulance ride and ER visit covered in diarrhea. I still am not really sure why they have to send 5 young decent looking guys to respond to a call of a girl laying in her own poo on the bathroom floor, but it was pretty horrible! Jason stayed home with the kids, who miraculously slept through the whole EMT thing. The ER was really busy and there wasn't a free room so I got to lay on the stretcher in the hallway while a nurse tried 4 times to get an IV started. I was feeling pretty crappy, both figuratively and literally, but wasn't really scared until the nurses started getting nervous about my blood pressure being 90/40. I guess it was because I was so dehydrated. Well after a shot of zofran, 4 IV bags of fluids, and 7 hours later, I was feeling better and got to go home. Audrey ended up throwing up and running a fever on Saturday and Jason had a slight fever and diarrhea for a day too! Jason's dad and brother came and picked up the kids on Sunday morning so we could have some time to recover. They have been there all week because the weather has been really bad. We are going to go pick them up tomorrow. So that has been our exciting week. Hopefully we are done with illness for the winter.

2009-01-08T20:55:00.002-06:00

So I am having a hard time getting back into the swing of things. We got a new camera and there are Christmas pictures on it that I haven't gotten the time or energy to upload. Audrey started school up again on Tuesday. I had to first drag myself out of bed and then both of the kids. We were all in slow motion. Henry had a doctors appointment on Tuesday at 12:30 so we went straight there from school. He just had a follow up for the ear infection that he had before Christmas. His ears are fine and he weighed in at 32 lbs! We had a long wait at the dr office and didn't get home until close to 2. Then the kids had to have lunch before naps. As soon as Jason got home from work I had to drive to a neighboring town, in the freezing rain, to deliver supper to a family from church who have a new baby. I didn't get home until around 7. It was a long day. I wasn't feeling very good this morning and Jason worked from home so that he could take Audrey to school and pick her up. It is really awesome that is able to work from home sometimes! Just after he left to go get her Henry projectile vomited all over the floor and love seat. It was pretty horrible. This was the first time that he had ever thrown up and it freaked him out. So today there was laundry to do and a lot of clean-up. We still haven't quite got the smell out of the living room. He didn't act sick before or after and has been fine the rest of the day so I'm not sure what it was all about. Hopefully it was a one time thing. Well I better try to get to bed a little earlier tonight. I'm glad tomorrow is Friday!

Recovering from Christmas

2008-12-31T15:12:00.003-06:00

So I really dropped off with the posts right around Christmas! Well were busy and having fun. Audrey received a Webkinz from Jason's cousins and we have become a little obsessed with webkinz world lately! We stayed home on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. It was nice and relaxing. My parents came on the afternoon of the 24th to see go to church with us and see Audrey sing in the choir. We came home and had soup and sandwiches and then opened presents from each other. After we put the kids to bed we started the assembly of Santa gifts and didn't get batteries in and everything put together until well after midnight. It might have taken so long because we had to play with the toys to test them out :) Audrey left 3 cookies for Santa and hot cocoa instead of milk because she was sure he would be cold and need to warm up a little! Audrey and Henry were so excited when they came down the stairs and looked under the tree. Audrey said that she got everything that she wanted and that it was the best Christmas ever. My parents left after breakfast (Jason made waffles AND eggnog pancakes!!) and as they were walking out the door Jason's parents were arriving! The kids opened presents from that set of grandparents and then we had Christmas dinner of ham, cheesy potatoes, green beans, and Hawaiian delight. I had a horrible sinus headache all day, so I just laid around on the couch in between getting stuff in and out of the oven. We all stayed in our pajamas all day and didn't clean up any of the Christmas mess until the next day. On Saturday we went to my parents to have Christmas with my sister and cousins. On the way there it stormed really bad and there were tornado warnings, and semi trucks blowing off of the interstate. We have had some weird weather here lately. It will be windy with a wind chill of -15 and then a couple of days later it is 65! Anyway, we had more Christmas fun at my parents house and finally finished up our celebrating and were home again on Sunday night. We have spent the last couple of days catching up on laundry and housework. I have a few pictures of Christmas festivities. I will try to post them this week.

School Christmas Program

2008-12-17T11:42:00.002-06:00

Audrey had her school program this morning. Her dress was a big hit. Her Bitty Baby already had that dress from a couple of years ago. Last week I found the cape at a resale shop and Audrey was so excited. I happened to find the dress and hat on e-bay in her size and she couldn't wait to wear it all for her program! The girls in her class always are so excited to get dressed up for programs. She did a wonderful job singing as usual. She is done with school until January 6th. We had more snow yesterday and it is really cold. I haven't posted anything for awhile. We had an early Christmas with Jason's brothers and sister this past weekend. We had a good time visiting with everyone. The next thing I need to get ready for is the progressive dinner on Saturday. We are the first house and we will be serving appetizers. I don't know what I'm going to fix yet and I'm sure I will wait until Sat. morning to clean up the house. I took Henry to the doctor yesterday to get his ears checked. He was really grouchy and kept pulling on one ear. Well he does have an ear infection and is now on antibiotics. They must be working because he already seems a little better. I'm glad we caught it when we did and hopefully he will be back to normal by Christmas.

Christmas Giving Tree Program

2008-12-10T23:37:00.004-06:00

Audrey did an awesome job in her choir performance on Sunday. She knew all the words and was so excited. I got it on video and we finally have the cable we need to upload from the video camera to the computer, but the files are too big to post on the blog :( I'm not sure if I can to something differently, I haven't figured it out yet. Tuesday we went to visit Hollis School. It is a small school not too far from us that accepts out of district students. The facility is really nice. There is only one class for each grade and the kindergarten class is capped at 18 students and has the teacher and a full time teachers aide. Audrey decided it would be a great place to go because they have an indoor pool and they swim twice a week in p.e. class! We are still trying to decided what to do about school next year. The public schools around here aren't very good, but the primary school Audrey would go to is one of the best ones in Peoria, but I'm still not completely comfortable with it. We have even considered homeschooling for Kindergarten, but I'm not sure it's what I want to do either. We still have a little time to decide. Last night I hosted book club. It went pretty well, but there weren't very many people here, and no one had finished the book. It was 600+ pages and I didn't get in until last week! While book club was going on Jason took the kids out to eat and then Christmas shopping.

Santa Breakfast

2008-12-06T23:39:00.003-06:00

Both kids had a really good time at the Santa breakfast this morning. Henry enjoyed all of it except the sitting on Santa's lap part.And yes, Henry is wearing his Spider man slippers. He asks to wear them all of the time and I thought, what the heck, at least the colors match. I didn't get very many good pictures , but there was a photographer there taking pictures and we will get some tomorrow at church. I think he at least got some good ones of Audrey. On the way there she was telling me all of the things she was going to ask Santa for, but when she got on his lap she drew a blank and just asked for Barbie dolls. Later she was worried that she would only get 1 gift because she had only asked for 1 thing.

Home from school again!

2008-12-05T10:09:00.003-06:00

Well Audrey is home from school again today. When she woke up this morning she said that her tummy and head hurt and she had a very slight fever again. I'm not sure she is really feeling that bad but I figured I would keep her home because we had a big day yesterday and I want her to be healthy for this weekend because we have a lot to do. Yesterday after school we went over to the Westbrooks to decorate Christmas cookies. Kristin and Jef were our first friends here in Peoria almost 8 years ago. Now they have 3 boys, Ashton 4 1/2, Logan 3, and Jett 5 mos. Poor Audrey is the lone girl in the bunch. Both Audrey and Henry have a great time with the boys and they are all really good friends! Audrey, Ashton, and Logan made a HUGE mess with the cookies, icing, and sprinkles, and I think they ate more cookies than they decorated, but they had fun. We didn't get home until around 4:30 and then after a gourmet supper of grilled cheese Audrey went to her first piano lesson. Karianne was impressed with Audrey's rhythm and said she thought it was going to be easy for her to learn. Audrey is very excited and is practicing right now. Henry is teething AGAIN, and is in a pretty foul mood lately. When we ask him if he has an ouch he nods his head yes and points to him mouth. Yesterday he brought me the Orajel and said "medicine, better". Poor little guy. Well, I should get busy. The 3 of us are supposed to go get our hair cut at noon. Tomorrow morning is the Santa Breakfast at our church. I'm sure I'll have some pictures to post. I just hope everyone is feeling OK and that Henry isn't totally freaked out by Santa this year :)

Let it snow!

2008-12-03T22:12:00.005-06:00

Audrey's fever finally broke last night and she was able to go to school on today. After I picked her up we got some lunch and then went to Sams. When we came out of the store it was snowing again. Audrey has really been wanting to play in the snow, but she was sick the first time it snowed and quite a bit of the snow melted. It is supposed to stay cold all week and there is a chance of more snow on Saturday. I have to say that as long as we can safely get out and about, I really enjoy the snow. It puts me in the Christmas spirit. If we could have snow on the ground from now until Christmas day and then no more snow the rest of the winter, it would be perfect! Audrey has been excited to watch the Christmas specials that are starting to be on. Tonight it was Rudolph. It is one of my favorites. For a while Henry sat on Audrey's lap and watched too. He really isn't into watching TV yet. It just doesn't seem to hold his attention. Henry loves to be read to before bed. We have been reading "Christmas In The Manger" and he has learned the names of all of the characters in the nativity story. It is adorable to hear his little voice say "wise men" and "baby Jesus". When he sees the page with Mary he says "Mary" and then "Christmas". He also said "Sean" when he saw the picture of Joseph, which made me and Jason crack up because the it did kind of resemble him.

Christmas Tree

2008-12-01T09:31:00.003-06:00

Well we have again had a busy weekend. Friday we went to the Santa Claus Parade. It didn't seem all that cold until you stood there for an hour and a half! Then we went and got lunch a went to a couple of stores. Saturday we went and got our Christmas tree. It turned out to be a good day to go because it wasn't all that cold and now there is snow everywhere. We found a nice tree but we kind of misjudged the height of the tree. We (Jason) had to hack off quite a bit from the bottom of the tree to get it to fit in the house and we still can't fit our star on top. I think I am going to try to find a big star ornament that I can wire to the top branch of the tree instead :) We also had a light situation and ended up taking a trip to Target for new lights. The kids are super excited about the tree! Henry says "wow" or "ohhh" whenever we come down the stairs and see the tree. Audrey was a good helper and put on lots of ornaments. It snowed a heavy wet snow on Sunday morning. It was so fun to watch Audrey's excitement when she woke up and looked out the window. I heard her squeal and then she came running into our room to tell me to look outside. She stood at the window for 5 minutes just watching the snow fall. Sunday afternoon I finally finished getting out most of the Christmas decorations. Audrey developed a fever last night and is home from school today. We are enjoying staying in our jammies relaxing and listening to Christmas music. We plan on staying in today. Jason said the roads were really bad and it took him an hour to get to work (it usually only takes 20 min.) We are supposed to get more snow today too.

Thanksgiving

2008-11-28T22:19:00.004-06:00

We had a really nice Thanksgiving and I didn't even get all that terribly stressed out! Sean did a great job with the food prep and I got to just concentrate on getting the house ready and setting the table, which is the part that I really enjoy the most. I have really been enjoying our house the past couple of days. It is nice to have so much more space. I would have never been able to comfortably have that many people for a sit-down dinner at my old house. I love having a formal dining room and being able to have my grandma's dining table. I remember so many family dinners around it growing up. I also remember playing under it with my sister and cousins! As I was sitting here, I was thinking about holidays when I was little and how much my grandmothers would have enjoyed seeing Audrey and Henry yesterday. I guess I am getting a little nostalgic and missing them both tonight. It is also fun to see Audrey and Henry develop such great relationships with their grandparents. I know they are building those same kind of memories with them. My family has so much to be thankful for!

2008-11-25T22:51:00.004-06:00

We have been really busy and been having a lot of fun the past couple of days. Friday was Audrey's last day of school before Thanksgiving break. They had a little performance and a
"feast" to celebrate. All the girls wore Indian shirts that they had decorated with fabric markers and beads. She had a head-dress with pink feathers and a pasta necklace. The teacher had chosen a name for each girl and wrote it on the back of their shirts. Audrey was Princess Wise Owl. Jason worked from home so that he could come with us. Saturday we stayed home the whole day and cleaned house. Sunday we got up and hurried around to get Audrey to church by 7:45 a.m. She did a great job singing the Thanksgiving song in the choir. It was her first official performance and she looked so cute in her tiny choir robe. She sang every word with a smile on her face and so much expression! She loves choir and LOVES being on stage. She was excited that she got to be front row center. Sometimes Jason and I wonder how two people like us got such a diva for a daughter :) Monday I had Mommy Moments at church and afterwards Karianne and Tristan brought McDonalds back to our house for lunch while we waited for the chimney sweep to show up. Karianne is very artistic and has a great eye for decorating. I was showing her my downstairs bathroom that I had started to work on and then kind of came to a stand-still because I didn't know if I would be able to do anything else before Thanksgiving. I was pretty bummed about it because I figured it was the bathroom that most people would be using on Thanksgiving and I had really wanted to finish. The problem was that I had started to tear down wallpaper and I got the first layer off pretty well but the layer underneath was original to the house and didn't seem like it was going to come down without tearing up the walls and there definitely wasn't time for plaster repair! I loved the original wall paper because I thought it looked a little bit gaudy but kinda cool, vintage gaudy. I mean we are working with pink tile from the 1940s here. Karianne had an idea to antique it with brown paint to make it look like it was supposed to be torn in places. She said that she had a little bottle of brown craft paint at home, and that we could put the kids down for naps and get this bathroom finished in a couple of hours. She came back with paint and brushes and we got to work. I ended up totally redoing my bathroom with things that she and I had lying around our houses and it got finished in 1 day!!! The only thing that was purchased was a couple of new hand towels. Here is a picture of the end result. The curtain is an vintage tablecloth and my grandmas china is on the shelf. I love that I found a place to display some of it. I'm not sure we will keep the bathroom like this forever but I think it is kind of a fun look for a little while. I had so much fun and this is totally unlike something I would have done on my own! Plus when I decided to change it there will be no guilt because it was all free. This Thanksgiving I am thankful God has given us awesome neighbors who have become our friends and make everyday life so much more fun!

Thanksgiving Countdown

2008-11-15T14:03:00.002-06:00

Well, I'm starting to feel the pressure pretty heavily of the upcoming holiday season. Up until last week I have kind of been in denial about how close Thanksgiving is. Time has been flying. Now with it only 2 weeks away, I am going to have to get my act together to get everything done! And right after Thanksgiving we need to start Christmas preparations because I have foolishly volunteered to have a couple of Christmas functions at my house at the beginning of December. Audrey is already practicing Christmas songs for choir at church! I want to start things early because lately it seems to take me a long time to get things done.
This coming week I have a doctors appointment, Henry has his 18 mo. check-up, we have a Thanksgiving "feast" at Audrey's school and a Give Thanks Harvest Celebration at church. Audrey's choir is also singing at church next Sunday, which means that we have to get her there by 7:45 a.m. to get her robe on and to warm up. This will be her first official performance in choir. I can't wait. She is so excited and has been practicing with her CD quite a bit. Well, I need to get busy. There is a mountain of laundry in the basement and we need to go to the store to fill a shoe box for Operation Christmas Child. I am supposed to be coordinating it for our Sunday School class and they are due tomorrow!

Picture Day

2008-11-12T15:19:00.004-06:00

Yesterday I took the kids to get pictures taken. I thought that I would try to beat the Christmas rush and could get 18 mo pictures taken of Henry at the same time. I found outfits for them that actually coordinated at Gymboree, much to my amazement and Jason dismay. I have been banned from the mall for the rest of this month. Yesterday morning Jason said "now don't get mad if Henry won't cooperate and you don't get any good pictures, just reschedule". When I took them for Henry's 12 mo pictures it didn't go so well, there was crying and screaming, begging and frustration! I told Jason that if Henry cried I was just going to have them take pictures anyway. Pictures are supposed to capture the moment so that we can remember what they really were like at each age, aren't they? Jason doesn't really understand what a pain it is to get them both dressed in matching clothes, and get them to the photo studio without someone spilling something on their clothes, or snot or droll ending up everywhere. Anyway, it was a really gross, cold and rainy day and we had to rush around and make a stop at Target (from which I am also banned for the rest of the month) before pictures. I came prepared with bribes, I mean incentives. I told Henry that I had m&ms for him and he could have some right after he got his picture taken. He said "OK" and plopped right down in front of the photographer and gave a cheesy smile. We had been practicing smiling for pictures for a couple of days and he was really hamming it up. Well, it went smoother and faster than pictures have ever gone. Even the photographers commented about how quick and easy it was. They did so well and we got so many good shots of them they I spent way too much money on pictures. It was impossible not to buy a lot when I looked at there chubby, happy little faces! I have plenty pictures to share and will be giving one to everybody, whether they want one or not :)

Update from this week

2008-11-06T18:07:00.004-06:00

This week has gone by pretty quickly. Monday I had moms group where we had a speaker about recycling. She also talked about vermiculture to compost and now I'm inspired to give it a try. I thought Audrey would get a huge kick out of it. We are calling it a worm farm instead of vermiculture though. We haven't started our worm farm yet, we are still getting ready. It will consist of a Rubbermaid bin with holes drilled around the top, with moistened shredded newspaper, and a few worms. We will keep it in the unfinished room in the basement and it will have a lid on it. You feed them your vegetable and fruit food scraps. They also eat and break down the newspaper and reproduce to the right amount for the food that they are given. Now who is thinking I am completely crazy right now. A bucket of worms in the basement!?! It seems like a really fun project to me and I guess the by-product of the worm farm is really great fertilizer that is completely safe around children and pets. We will see how it goes. I'm not sure where I will find the worms this time of year.
I have been trying to sort through and organize the toys before the Christmas onslaught. I gave some girl toys that Audrey had outgrown to a friend of mine and she traded me a box full of trucks, action figures, boy stuff. Henry and Audrey have been having a good time with a bunch of little Bob the Builder tractors. Henry has been talking so much lately. Last night Audrey was talking about numbers and said the word seven, and Henry piped up "eight, nine, ten". We all stopped and looked at each other in amazement. I asked him what he said and he repeated "eight, nine, ten". We are trying to teach him the alphabet. He will repeat the letters after us and cheer for himself at the end. He is also getting pretty good at animals and the sounds they make. He is at such a fun stage. I can't wait for Christmas! It is going to be a blast. Well, all except trying to keep Henry from destroying the tree.

This Weekend

2008-11-02T19:54:00.003-06:00

We were pretty busy this weekend. We spent most of Saturday catching up on some long overdue cleaning and organizing. We actually made it to early church (a few minutes late) and after Sunday School we went out for lunch with the Greens. They had never been to Kobe steakhouse so we wanted to introduce them to it. Our kids had seemed to like it and I thought theirs would too. Well, Emma is more timid than my daredevils and was pretty concerned about the fire and the noise. Audrey then felt the need to be afraid, since her best friend was. They spent most of the time with their hands over their ears and pushed back from the table so they wouldn't get burned!
Even Henry, who seemed to enjoy it last time, wasn't as thrilled today. In fact the only kid that did seem to enjoy it was Ethan, Brett and Ange's 2 year old. He pretended to chop and slice with this plastic toddler utensils. The hit of the restaurant was the giant fish in the lobby.

Leaves, leaves, everywhere!

2008-11-02T18:56:00.005-06:00

Jason raked up our front yard this evening and Audrey took the opportunity to jump in the pile. We don't have a very big yard and it didn't look like there was that many leaves, until they all got in one pile. We ran out of lawn bags and we haven't even started the back yard. It was such a nice warm day. I can't believe it is November!

Audrey's Room

2008-11-01T20:36:00.004-05:00

Well Audrey's room is basically done. We haven't really decided if we are going to refinish the floors or get new carpet (I'm leaning towards refinishing) but we aren't going to do anything until after the holidays. I need to hang a couple of things on the wall and put up her shelf, but other than that here it is.

Before

After This wall was the compromise. It is light pink, even though you can't really tell in the picture.

Happy Halloween

2008-11-01T08:52:00.004-05:00

We had a fun time yesterday. Audrey had a fall party at school. They didn't wear costumes they wore orange and black. She came home with orange and black fingernails, her face painted and tattoos on her hands. They played sweep the pumpkins with brooms, and for snack decorated their own pumpkin cookies. We then went and met Jason for lunch. After that we had to stop by Wal-Mart for some cookies to take to our Halloween get-together. When we got home Henry went right down for his nap, but Audrey was still on a sugar high and never went to sleep. I made cookies while they were napping (or pretending to nap) and when they got up it was time to start the transformation into witch and spider. Audrey really wanted to be green so we gave it a try. I wasn't crazy about the greasy green make-up but she got a kick out of it. It looked pretty good at first but after about an hour it was smeared and her hair was starting to stick to it. It was pretty hard to wash off too! Henry was pretty funny during trick-or-treating. He wanted to walk up to the houses himself, and would say "treat" and "thank you". He was pretty protective of his candy bag. After trick-or-treating our neighborhood we went over to the Green's to have mummy hot dogs and chili. It was a very late night last night and Henry is still sleeping! Today Audrey has already gone through her loot and we have sorted the candy into chocolate and non-chocolate. Audrey still insists that she doesn't like chocolate. It works out pretty good for me and Jason. Jason was standing behind Audrey during trick-or-treating telling her to pick a peanut butter cup (his favorite).

Earring Update

2008-10-29T18:00:00.002-05:00

For those of you following the earring saga, as of last night they are back in. She decided I could give it a try and I was pretty surprised that they went back in. She was upset that she wouldn't be able to wear the turtle earrings that Aunt Sara had given her she let the holes close up. We are going to keep the starter earrings in for awhile and give them a chance to heal up again. We will see how it goes. I think she may have sensitive ears and that when she wore the cheap earrings for a few days it wasn't too good for her ears.

Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-29T17:07:00.006-05:00

This morning we went to Apple Blossom Farm with Audrey's class. It was pretty cold at first but as the morning went on we warmed up. Here are a few pictures from the playground area. I don't have any at the actual pumpkin patch because keeping track of Audrey, carrying the pumpkins, trying to get Henry to hold my hand, and picking him up off of the ground at least a dozen times after he tripped on vines, proved to be no little task. I tried to get my phone out once to take a picture, but they were telling everyone to head back to the hay rack. I am going to try to carve my pumpkin tonight and will take pictures of Henry and Audrey's pumpkins and probably post them tomorrow.

Henry the goat, Eliza the sheep, Marilyn the horse, Meghan the cow, and Audrey the pig
Henry went right for the choo-choo
Audrey decided to skip the gunny sack and just slide down on her belly. Henry and I went down a couple of time, though not on our bellies. We didn't go very fast. We got stuck and had to walk the rest of the way down.
I'm not sure the new pink coat will ever be the same.

Earring Trauma

2008-10-27T16:39:00.002-05:00

Well Audrey's days of having pierced ears was pretty short lived. She had been doing fine with them and they were healed nicely. We had even changed them a couple of times. When she went to stay with Grandma and Grandpa Drozd she had in some different earrings and one fell out while she was sleeping. She wouldn't let Grandma go near her ear to put it back in and said that it hurt. Well, when she got home I wasn't as nice as Grandma Karin and made her let me put it back in. It was a little sore but I thought that was the end of it. Well I thought that the one ear looked a little red so I was cleaning it more often and putting antibacterial ointment on it. Audrey was really complaining about having it cleaned and last night I took the earrings out to clean them really good and she wouldn't let me put them back in. I was afraid she would change her mind later when it was too late to put them back in, but so far she insists that she doesn't care if they close up, that she doesn't want to have pierced ears anymore. I am kinda aggravated about the whole thing, we spent good $ getting them pierced, and she had received quite a few pairs of really cute earrings as gifts. I decided that it wasn't worth fighting her about it anymore. Grandma Kay will be pleased. She didn't think she should have had them pierced in the first place.

Audrey Phonics

2008-10-23T19:53:00.002-05:00

This is a picture that Karin took when the kids were there a couple of weeks ago. Audrey sounded out some words and wrote them on the chalkboard. It says Today's Breakfast Bowl. Do you see it?

Playdate Lunch

2008-10-22T17:42:00.003-05:00

We had lunch at Karianne's today. She hosted a neighborhood playgroup/lunch. There were 2 other 4-year-olds there, 1 girl and 1 boy. Audrey had a really good time hiding with Norah from Mason, who was pretending to be a monster. Henry played with Tristan and a couple of other little boys about his age. I was actually pleasantly surprised by how well Audrey did with Norah. They are both very opinionated, outspoken little girls that like to be the boss. I was sitting with them around the kitchen table and Audrey was looking at Norah. Norah said "stop looking at me". Audrey just kind of looked at her like what's the big deal, but didn't say anything. Norah said "why are you looking at me, stop it!" I told Norah that Audrey probably just thought she was pretty. Norah says again to stop looking at her and Audrey deliberately looked away and intently stared at her sandwich and said "I'm not looking at you." The whole thing was pretty funny. I was surprised that Audrey did what Norah said and didn't yell at her or keep looking at her just to make her mad. You could tell by the look on Audrey's face that she thought Norah was a little crazy. I think Norah was trying to pick a fight and Audrey didn't take the bait.

Cat House

2008-10-21T18:23:00.005-05:00

Here are some pics of the cat house Audrey made for Daisy. The cat actually hangs out in there, without being coerced, even if it doesn't look like it in these pictures.

Happy Birthday Jason!!

2008-10-20T23:12:00.006-05:00

Today was Jason's Birthday. Yesterday afternoon Audrey and I went shopping for his gifts. She wanted to get him a waffle iron so that he could make polka dot waffles like Emma's daddy made for them at her last sleepover. Jason had mentioned that he would make waffles if we had a waffle iron, so I thought he might actually enjoy Audrey's self-serving gift idea. He and Audrey make pancakes together sometimes on Saturday mornings. I have to admit that I don't ever cook a big breakfast. I'm not a morning person and am usually being drug out of bed by Jason and/or the kids in the morning. I got him a Wii game. We went out to eat at Texas Roadhouse. We always comment on how there seem to be 20 birthdays and hour there, and how it is pretty obnoxious when they bring out the saddle on the sawhorse and whoop and holler. Audrey however thinks it is really fun. She just assumed that they would do this for her daddy's birthday too. Jason hates anything that draws attention to him and even downplays his birthday as a whole. I however agreed with Audrey that it would be fun to see Daddy on the sawhorse and saddle and hear everyone give him a big "Texas Roadhouse YEE HAW" I knew if I told the waitress that it was his birthday he would be perturbed, but if Audrey did it he would have to play along. Audrey told the waitress and Jason wasn't even mad because he saw how excited for Audrey was about it. He did try to put her in the saddle instead, but we told him he had to "ride" because it was his birthday. The people sitting around us were very rowdy and enthusiastic, which made it all the more hilarious. Here is the picture to prove it. I took it with my cell phone and it isn't very good, but I got a picture none-the-less.

Pictures from last weekend

2008-10-16T10:49:00.009-05:00

2008-10-15T22:41:00.002-05:00

Well, John and Karin wore the kids out over the long weekend! They had a great time and slept really well last night. If fact we were a little late getting around this morning because everyone was sleeping in. Henry is a little under the weather and Audrey is sleeping in the spare bedroom until further notice. We decided that we would wait to let Audrey see her room when it was all finished. Jason patched holes and taped tonight, so we should be ready to prime tomorrow night. It is going so much slower than planned! Audrey's most recent project is building a "cat house". Last night we put a cardboard box in the living room for the kids to play with. Henry was crawling in and out of it and Audrey would close him in. Audrey then wanted to decorate it and make it a house for Daisy. She saw something like this on an episode of Caillou. She worked on decorating it for a long time last night and today. She drew pictures on it with markers and put stickers and stamps all over it. She even drew rugs inside. We have a house full of toys and the cardboard box is what has been keeping her occupied.

Ughhhhh!

2008-10-12T13:55:00.005-05:00

Words cannot express my hatred for wallpaper!! The plan of surprising Audrey with a redecorated room isn't really going to work out how I had planned. The kids are at Grandma Karin and Grandpa John's this weekend and we started on Audrey's room. We have now been working on removing the wallpaper for several hours. We were having a lot of trouble until we discovered the trick was to peel the top layer off while it was completely dry, in as big of sheets as possible, scrapping the little pieces with whatever is left of your fingernails, and then use the Diff wallpaper remover to get the backing layer and some of the glue down, and then scrub the entire wall with soapy water to get the little scraps and glue residue off. Needless to say it is going to take awhile! I have made a vow to NEVER put wallpaper on any wall of any house that I ever own!!! I will post a picture when we get the walls done.....someday.

Halloween Tree

2008-10-09T09:41:00.005-05:00

Here is a picture of Henry and Tristan with the coveted Halloween tree. I watched Tristan again this morning. There were no meltdowns today over the tree. When Tristan is over it is almost like having twins. They actually play better together than Henry and Audrey do! They keep each other occupied, when they aren't fighting over the tree :) I might try to find a tree on ebay for Tristan. Again, like twins you need two of the favorite toys!

Leaf Hunt

2008-10-08T14:19:00.004-05:00

Audrey has been wanting to go on a walk and look for pretty leaves. She is really interested in the changing leaves this year. She points them out whenever we drive. We took the big trick-or-treat pumpkins that the kids got in their Halloween package and went out in the neighborhood to find beautiful leaves of all shapes and colors. Audrey also found a few pinecones and acorns. After the incident with the acorn collection last year (they hatched worms!!) I told her that all the "collections" needed to stay outside. Henry didn't come back with any leaves. He picked up a few as we went along, but then would empty them out again. The long walk and fresh air seemed to wear them out pretty well. They both went right down for their naps with no trouble at all : )

Big Boy Haircut

2008-10-08T14:13:00.003-05:00

2008-10-07T17:42:00.002-05:00

Today has been a busy day! I took Audrey to school and we actually got there early. Then Henry and I went to Cub to get some ground chuck that was on sale. A few days ago I got a freezer cookbook and was all motivated to make a few meals and put them in the freezer for days that I didn't feel like cooking. All of this is an attempt to eat out less. Henry and I came home and I started cooking. I had a turkey breast going in the oven, made a big batch of oven baked spaghetti, was working on taco stuffed pasta shells. I got quite a bit done before I had to pick up Audrey. After lunch Henry and I got haircuts. I decided I had had enough of my hair and got it cut quite a bit shorter and Henry's is pretty short this time too. He looks so much older. Audrey said that we both looked completely different. When we came back home the kids both took a nap and I finished up a batch of crescent ham bundles, and started to clean up the huge mess that our kitchen had become. I think I dirtied every pan, skillet, and mixing bowl we have! I still have a couple of things to make for the freezer but am too tired and think I will work on them sometime else this week. Audrey and Henry got a package in the mail today and they were very excited. It was Halloween treats from GAB and GURay. Both kids tore into the box and now we have little pieces of packing peanuts all over the floor. Audrey can hardly wait for Halloween. She was very excited to put up decorations and she has creepy spiders, bats, and black cat window decals up in her room. My camera batteries are charging so I will post a picture of Henry's new do tomorrow. He looks like a big boy and I don't think I like it!!

Parent Teacher Conference

2008-10-01T22:10:00.002-05:00

This morning I went to parent teacher conference at Audrey's school. Our neighbors Karianne and Tristan came over to play and stayed with Audrey and Henry while I ran to the conference. It is really nice to have someone close that can help out with the kids. I told Audrey before I left that I was going to her school to talk to her teacher and that her teacher was going to tell me if she had been good or not. I asked Audrey what she thought the teacher would say. She said "that I have been good.... I hope that's what she says!" Well, the teacher said Audrey is doing good and that she is very bright and a leader (code for bossy, know-it-all). I told her my concerns about her always wanting to be the boss when she played with other kids and being pushy. She said that that is sometimes a problem, but that she has made a lot of improvement since school started. She is a really good teacher I think. She has taught kindergarten through 2nd grade in the past. After I came home we all went to IHOP for lunch.

Family Reunion

2008-09-29T21:40:00.002-05:00

We were at my parents last weekend for the annual family reunion of my mom's cousins and their families. It was a really nice day. It was at Fox Ridge State Park. Audrey and Henry really love to be outside. Audrey spent most of the time playing with a wooly worm. She carried it around, made a little bed for it, gave it a drink of water. I had to babysit for it while she played on the playground equipment. She was actually pretty gentle with it and surprisingly enough it survived the afternoon. I made her put it back in the woods before we left. Henry boycotted all picnic food except chocolate chip cookies. He ran around and got sweaty and played in the dirt. We didn't get home from Charleston until about 10:30. The kids slept in pretty late this morning and we were rushing around to make it to school. I had Mommy Moments at church this morning and had to go because I had invited a neighbor. After lunch we had to go to the mall to get some more cleaning solution for Audrey's ears and we ended up staying a little longer than I had planned. Audrey and Henry were being so good and we just walked around and looked at stuff. Audrey did talk me into buying her some earrings and a earring/jewelry holder thing. Aunt Sara gave her some earrings this weekend and now Audrey is counting down the days until she can switch to the tiny turtle earrings. She has two more weeks. All the stores had out Christmas dresses and Macy's was putting up their trees. Audrey got all excited and said "Is it only a couple of days until Christmas?" She seemed a little confused when I told her it was a few months away. It is pretty confusing to me too, why all the Christmas stuff is out when we haven't even had Halloween yet. I do have to confess that I have already purchased a couple of Christmas gifts and am starting to think about what to get for people. You can never start to early :)

Henry's New Friend

2008-09-24T09:49:00.002-05:00

Our neighbor Karianne and her son Tristan came over yesterday morning for a play date. Tristan is 1 day younger than Henry, born at the same hospital. They were probably nursery mates for a day and we didn't even know it. It was a lot of fun. Henry and Tristan played together really well for a couple of 16 month olds. There was only one melt down over a animated tree stump toy that sings Halloween songs! Both boys were infatuated with it and didn't want to share. It finally ended up in the closet. I think Henry enjoyed playing with someone besides his big sister. She is quite the bully these days. Yesterday evening we went out for supper with Sara and Sean again. Sean is from around here and had a death in the family so they have been in town for a few days. Audrey is always so excited to see her Aunt Sara. We got home a little late and everyone was still a little tired this morning. Audrey said that she wished it was pajama day at school so that she didn't have to get dressed. I wish it was too!

Apple Orchard

2008-09-22T17:25:00.005-05:00

This morning Audrey had a field trip to an apple orchard. Sara was in town and she went with us. Audrey got to pick a little bag full of apples. There were some animals to look at and some pumpkins, gourds and mums to see. We bought a couple of pumpkins and some apple cider. Then we went to one of the teachers houses to ride her horse. Audrey was so excited! She was first in line to ride. Henry liked to pet the horse. They both had a good time running around in the yard and playing on the castle/jail playhouse thing! It was really nice weather, but I would have preferred it to be a little cooler. We got a little sweaty! After we were done we went out to lunch with Sara and Sean at Flat Top Grill. We had a fun morning!

Book Club

2008-09-18T22:57:00.003-05:00

I had book club again tonight. Hardly anyone was there. I don't know if it was because it was on a different night, or because the book was really awful and nobody wanted to talk about it. I didn't even read the whole thing it was so bad! It was still good to get out of the house for a couple of hours. The girl who's house it was at just got back from a month long trip to France (her husband is French) and she served some good wine and cheese! Hopefully the next book will be better! It is supposed to be a really nice weekend. I want to work on Audrey's room, but Jason wants to clean out the garage while the weather in still nice. There is always such a long list of things to get done!

In the papers again!

2008-09-17T15:19:00.005-05:00

So Audrey is getting to be quite the celebrity! She has managed to make it into the newspaper again. If you click on the little box right at the top of this post, it should take you to the page on the newspapers website. If that doesn't work it is http://www.pjstar.com/news/x1362043240/
Night-Out-is-about-more-than-just-crime

Last night our neighborhood association had a cookout for the national night out against crime. At the end of our street there is a circle turn around thing and they blocked it off and had a cookout/potluck and rented a inflatable jump house for the kids. Local police and firemen were there and gave out safety stuff. Audrey even got to shoot the fire hose. The local newspaper was there and took a picture of Audrey with her plate of food wearing a plastic fireman hat. Jason was also interviewed, but must not have had anything insightful to say because he didn't make the cut :) It is really fun to live in a neighborhood where there are activities and people get to know each other. Our neighborhood association is fairly new. A couple about our age started it up last year. We have had a couple of cookouts, a Halloween parade, we had a float in the 4th of July Parade, there is a playgroup. It's really nice. Henry is talking so much! Now he says "tank ew" (thank you) when we give him something. We are still working on please. Mostly he just points and yells right now :) He wants to walk everywhere now. He doesn't want to be carried into Audrey's school, he wants to do it himself. Sometimes when people talk to him in the hallway he gets shy and puts his head in between my legs and hides. Audrey always wants to give him a hug and kiss before she goes into her classroom. When we come to pick her up Henry goes over to the coat racks and gets Audrey's backpack and carries it to her classroom door. He knows which one is hers! The whole thing is pretty cute. He says "sister" and "Audrey" really clearly. Audrey is working on writing lower case letters now. Up until now she has written everything in caps. She is getting better at it. At first she got kind of frustrated. She is getting better and better at sounding out words too. She may be reading and writing before she even starts kindergarten! Her favorite cartoon right now is Word Girl on PBS. It is actually pretty funny. It teaches vocabulary. Audrey really likes words. Right now she is on a "stupendous" kick. She always keeps things lively, that's for sure!

Eww, Ahh, Fire!

2008-09-13T08:36:00.002-05:00

Last night we went to Kobe steakhouse with the kids. Jason and I had been to a Japanese steakhouse before and thought the kids would get a kick out of sitting around the grill, the fire and the whole theatrics of it. We were around the same grill as another family with a little boy who was also 4. His name was Louis Charles :0 They called him his full name, Louis Charles, every time they spoke to him. He goes to preschool at Peoria Academy, a really expensive prestigious private school. I felt the pressure for Audrey to be well behaved and act smart. She was mostly. Everyone got a kick out of watching Henry. He had a really surprised look on his face during the huge flame part. He wasn't quite sure if it was fun or frightening. After he got used to it he kept saying "oh" with his mouth formed into a perfect little circle. It was pretty cute. OK, so I was commenting on Louis Charles and then started thinking, we had the names Henry, Louis, and Charles at the table. We pretty much had the British kings covered. Weird! Anyway, Audrey had more fun watching the food being made than eating it. She pretty much only ate the vegetables. Henry did eat pretty well though. He has finally come around and is starting to eat pretty much anything. All in all we had a good time.

Spoon?!?

2008-09-10T15:14:00.003-05:00

This is what happens when you decide to give a 15 month old a spoon to feed himself yogurt. He started out doing a great job. I went downstairs to put a load of laundry in and when I came back up he had given up on the spoon and was just dipping his hand in the container and sucking the yogurt off of his hand. He finished it, but I'm not sure how much yogurt actually made in into his mouth :)

2008-09-09T18:06:00.002-05:00

We had a great time this past weekend. We went to my in-laws to see Jason's grandpa. He was in town from Florida for a visit and his 80th birthday. It was good to visit with him and Audrey had a great time running around with her cousins. She is still having fun at school. She has homework this year, which she is really excited about. She got a kitty folder that she puts her papers in and then puts them in her new Tinkerbell backpack. I finally gave up on the duck backpack googly eyes :) She also gets a book each week to read at home and fill out a little book report. This week we have The Three Little Pigs. This cooler weather has made me eager for fall. Audrey is already talking about Halloween and Thanksgiving. She loves dressing up and trick-or-treating and she wants corn casserole at Thanksgiving. I am looking forward to apples, wearing sweaters, and going to a pumpkin patch. I think Fall is my favorite season!

Happy Meals

2008-09-03T14:59:00.002-05:00

We are still working on adjusting to our new back-to-school schedule. Over the summer we were pretty relaxed with bed times, naps, meal times, pretty much everything. Well, the reality of getting the kids ready and out the door every day of the week is setting in. So far we have all been up pretty early and Audrey has been excited to get ready for school so it hasn't been a problem. I am actually the only one really having a issue with it, come to think of it. On our way home from school I decided we would pick up McDonald's and take it home for lunch. Audrey said that she didn't want McDonald's. Now seriously what kid turns down a Happy Meal. She said that she just wanted a fruit and yogurt parfait. I told her she was getting a hamburger because that was what was for lunch. We came home with 3 Happy Meals, one for each of us. Henry carried his own box into the house because my hands were full. As I went to set stuff down on the counter I noticed that Henry hadn't followed us into the kitchen. I walked into the hall to see where he was and I heard "um,um". He was sitting right inside the front door with his Happy Meal box opened, his hamburger unwrapped and laid out on the floor chowing down on hamburger bun. He cracks me up. He ended up eating more of his hamburger and apples than Audrey did. He even had some of my fries!

A crazy face to match the crazy hair

2008-09-02T17:53:00.001-05:00

School and Pierced Ears

2008-09-02T17:02:00.004-05:00

Audrey's preschool started up again today. She is in the Pre-K class this year. She goes every morning from 9 - 11:30. There are only 7 kids in her class and they are ALL girls! There was supposed to be 1 boy but his mom decided to put him in another class. She wasn't sure he would have much fun. Here is a picture of Audrey on her first day of school. It is actually a recreation. I just took it a few minutes ago because the battery on my camera was dead this morning. She got some new tennis shoes for back to school. They are Disney princess and they light up when she walks. I have to admit that before I had kids I proclaimed that my children would never wear character clothes or hideous light up shoes. Anyway, she loves them, they fit well, and have velcro so she can put them on quickly by herself. She is just going to get them filthy playing on the playground anyway, right? I don't have a picture of her backpack either because Henry decided to pull off the googly eyes from the cute duck backpack. Now it just looks creepy. I have already glued them back on once today so it may just be time for a new backpack. Audrey was most excited about showing the girls at school that she got her ears pierced. She had been talking about it for awhile but when I explained to her that it was like a needle going into your ear, she had always changed her mind. Well we were at the mall on Sunday afternoon and walked by Claire's. She said that she was sure this time and she really wanted to do it. We even walked around awhile thinking she would talk herself out of it again, but she insisted that she was ready to do it. Well it kind of turned into an ordeal. I wanted them to do them both at one time because I was afraid otherwise she would be walking around with only one earring. She sat on my lap and I held her head still, they counted to 3. She sat very still and didn't even jump. It was over with and she was crying a little when one of the girls said "oh, oh this one is too high". One of the earrings was pointed upwards a little and didn't look right. She said that they would have to take it out and redo it. At this point Audrey is sitting there bawling, mad as can be, and won't even lift up her chin and look at the girl. I was just about ready to say take them out and forget it, when the girl told Audrey that she was just going to take that earring out and clean it and put it back in. Well she was lying and repierced it really quickly without telling her what she was doing. After 2 minutes of crying Audrey was fine and had to tell everyone she met that she just got her ears pierced. She told her friend Emma that you just have to be brave and that it only hurts for a minute.

Its been awhile

2008-09-01T17:21:00.003-05:00

So it has been awhile since I posted anything and I don't have any new pictures. Last week the kids and I went to my parents house for the whole week and hung out. We had a good time. The weekend before that we were up at my in-laws and went to "A day out with Thomas". It was at the Railway Museum in Union Illinois. They had a train that looked just like Thomas the Tank Engine that you could ride and other activities. Henry liked it, but was a little young to appreciate it fully, and Audrey didn't seem overly enthused. She said that she just wanted to go back home to Grandma's and swim in the pool. We haven't done much this long weekend. Jason came down on Friday night to pick us up from my parents. We drove back home on Saturday. Saturday night we went out to eat with the Greens and then Emma spent the night here. It was Audrey's first time having a friend sleep over. They did pretty good except I had to go lay down with them to get them to stop talking and finally go to sleep at about 11:00. They also woke up pretty early. It was also my first time getting two little girls ready for church. We just went to the 10:45 service so it wasn't too bad. Everyone was up at 6:30 so we had plenty of time. We even got out of the house early enough to stop for donuts. We ate them in the van though because I didn't want to mess with getting 3 kids in and out of car seats again :)

Walker

2008-08-11T15:57:00.000-05:00

Well Henry is now offically a walker. He has decided in the last week that walking is his preferred method of getting around. We went out to eat with the Greens a few nights ago and we were talking outside afterwards while the kids ran around. Henry didn't want anyone to hold his hand, he wanted to go like the other kids did. Audrey told me the other day that he was trying to run. He was throwing himself forward, but kept falling down. It is only a matter of time.

Build-A-Bear

2008-08-08T21:19:00.009-05:00

Build-A-Bear opened recently in our mall and Audrey has been wanting to make one. Tonight we decided to let her do it. She named her bear Ariel Laila Drozd. She said that when she is wearing her Ariel costume she will be called Ariel and when she is wearing other clothes she will be called Laila. I have no idea where she got the name Laila. We don't know anyone with that name and I don't think I have ever even mentioned that name to her before. I asked her, but she says she doesn't know where she learned it. She tried to talk her daddy into lots more clothes and accessories. Bitty Baby (named Violet) and the Bitty Twins (named Jack and Julia) already have a more extensive wardrobe than I do, all I need is to be buying clothes for a teddy bear too!! Audrey told me that her bear eats porridge for breakfast and fish crackers for a snack. Seems logical enough :) Making a wish on the bears heart Ariel Laila gets sewed upThe grooming station - a bath and a brushThe dressing room - the Ariel wig cracks me up!And here she is!

Chiefs Game

2008-08-08T14:50:00.003-05:00

Ready to go to the game!
Homer the mascot helps
with the starting pitch
Little Fans

On Wednesday we went to a Chiefs game. The kids had never been to a game and it had been a couple of years for Jason and me. The Chiefs are the minor league baseball team here in Peoria, they are the minor league team for the Cubs and Ryne Sandberg (Jason's hero) is their manager. We had really good seats. We were the very front row over the home dugout! It worked out well because the kids could get up and stand and look around instead of have to be in the seats all the time. Someone was there from the Pekin Times newspaper and took a picture of Audrey and Henry and the ball that was thrown up over the dugout to them. The guy took our names but said he didn't know if the picture would run or not. I had my friend Ange, who lives in Pekin (a neighboring town to Peoria), check and they were the feature photo on the front page. It is a really cute picture where both kids are looking out onto the field and Henry is clapping and Audrey is dancing (go figure). Audrey was so excited when she saw it. They both wore their Cubs hats to the game but didn't leave them on so they didn't have them on in the picture. Probably better anyway because I'm not sure we would have been able to see their faces as well if they had on the hats. Anyway, we all had a good time. It was perfect weather and it was free hotdogs and peanuts night. Audrey ate 2 1/2 hotdogs (just the dogs, no buns) and ice cream. I don't think we will be able to afford taking her if it isn't free hotdog night :) Audrey will only eat the hotdogs and Henry will only eat the buns so really it works out great!

Splash Down

2008-08-04T23:02:00.011-05:00

Our church rented out the Splash Down water park last night. It figures that after being so hot and humid, it would really cool off last night. Everyone was chilly but only the adults admitted it :) We would take Henry out every once in awhile when his lips started to turn blue and wrap him up. He would scream and want to get back in. It was a late night and both kids fell asleep on the way home. Today it was unbearably hot again.

Grandpa's Hat

2008-08-04T00:15:00.006-05:00

The Fair

2008-08-03T23:49:00.002-05:00

The Coles County Fair has always been a big deal with my family. I lived so close to the fairgrounds and I don't think I have missed but maybe 1 year since I was born. Audrey had a great time riding rides, watching bull riding, eating a pronto pup, cotton candy and drinking lemon shake-ups! While we were watching the bull riding Audrey said "YUK, What's that smell?" I told her it was manure, to which she replied "or bull poop". Henry had a great time riding the carousel. He started to scream when the ride was over and he had to get off of his horse. Of course, Audrey wanted to go on the Ferris Wheel. Jason isn't fond of heights, and therefore isn't a big fan of the Ferris Wheel. I ended up going with Audrey and I have to say that I think I liked it more when I was a little kid. I don't know what scares me more, the fact that Audrey seems little enough to slip under the bar or that the ride is set up and torn down every week by people that don't appear to be the brightest. Audrey, as usual, was fearless. She told me that she was sure she would be fine on the Ferris Wheel by herself, she didn't need anyone to ride with her.

2008-07-30T21:34:00.002-05:00

This week is Vacation Bible School at our church. This is the first year Audrey has been old enough to participate and she is having a really good time. She is memorizing Bible verses like crazy! The first day the verse was: Before the mountains were born, or You brought forth the Earth and the World, from everlasting to everlasting, You are God. Psalm 90:2. They told the younger kids that they could just memorize the end, but Audrey already had the whole thing down by lunch time! I helped one day in the nursery and today with the Kindergartners. I wasn't signed up for tomorrow, but I just got an e-mail that Audrey's leader can't be there so they want me to help with her group. Audrey got into a lot of trouble at the ball game tonight. We usually just let the kids run around and play during the game. Up until tonight they had done really well and played nicely and followed the rules. I was just thinking that it was nice to be able to give them a little more freedom and not have to follow a step behind them all of the time. Well tonight I learned that we probably should be keeping a closer eye on them because Audrey, Ashton, and Logan decided to pee outside behind the shed. Audrey is somewhat obsessed with peeing outside after I let her do it once in an emergency situation. Logan, who is only 2, couldn't get his pull-up back up and was running around naked from the waste down. They were also "washing" walnuts in green scummy water that was standing around the horseshoe pits. (There are always moms close around and we are at a fairly secluded private Church ballpark/playground so the kids are safe). When we got home Audrey went straight into the tub and then straight to bed.

2008-07-25T08:37:00.002-05:00

Last night before bed, Audrey was saying that her head and throat hurt. She sometimes has phantom ailments when she is tired and she didn't feel especially warm so we didn't think much about it. She woke up at about 11 and was really warm. I took her temp and it was 101.1 She was whining and crying so loudly that she woke up Henry. Luckily he went right back to sleep. We gave her Motrin and she went back to sleep, only for a couple of hours and then she woke up and puked all over Jason while he carried her to the bathroom. She didn't get much rest and neither did I. She came downstairs this morning and wanted to eat. She still has a fever but I think the Motrin might have upset her stomach last night and that's why she threw up. She had an empty stomach because she didn't eat but two bites of supper last night. She says she doesn't like rice, which is pretty funny because it's not like it has a strong flavor, and the kid eats asparagus and Brussels sprouts! Anyway, Henry can now walk half way across the floor, sometimes. He made pretty good progress in one day. He went from a couple of steps to half way across the room. By tomorrow he may be running around, if he isn't throwing up :) I am supposed to have a couple of friends over tonight to hang out and work on scrapbooks. I'm not sure if we will still get together and quarantine Audrey upstairs, or if we will just forget it.

First Steps

2008-07-24T09:16:00.003-05:00

Sorry the quality isn't very good. I used my regular camera to take this video, not the video camera. Still don't have the cable for that.

2008-07-24T08:43:00.003-05:00

We are sitting here waiting to see if there is going to be swimming lessons this morning. It is looking pretty rainy. Tuesday night I went to my first book club meeting. Some girls from our neighborhood have a book club and they invited me. It was fun to get out of the house and talk about a book that wasn't written for people under the age of 5! The girl that bought our old house was there. That was kinda weird, but she is really nice. She is in her late 20s and is a pediatric doctor at OSF. The girl who hosted the book club has a son who is 1 day younger than Henry, born at the same hospital. He is tall like Henry, and isn't walking like Henry. Henry has started to take steps the last couple of days. He is up to 4 or 5 before he falls or gives up. He is getting more interested in trying it now.

YUM!! Grandma's Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Glad Monday is Almost Over!

2008-07-21T20:20:00.003-05:00

We went to Jason's parents this past weekend. We spent quite a bit of time in the pool and just hanging out. We didn't get home until 10:30 last night. When we walked in the front door I thought that it felt pretty warm in the house, but didn't think much of it because Jason had turned the air down while we were gone. Well, after resetting the thermostat and waiting for awhile it still wasn't getting any cooler. Air was blowing out, but it wasn't cold air. Turns out our A/C is broken. It wasn't unbearably hot last night, but was pretty humid and everything just felt sticky. We opened the windows and turned on the ceiling fans and attic fan. Early this morning we woke up to strong winds and pouring down rain, which meant that we had to turn off the attic fan and close the windows. I was watching the trees blow around and we turned the TV on to see if there were any warnings. Well, there was. There was a tornado warning. Usually tornadoes don't come into Peoria. It must be something about the river valley or something like that, but I'm not usually too worried about it. Then we heard the tornado sirens go off. I really didn't want to wake the kids up and take them downstairs, but it felt pretty irresponsible to ignore it so we each got a sleeping kid and headed for the basement. We still haven't cleaned or arranged the basement and there really isn't any furniture down there, just boxes. I stood down there holding Henry for about 30 sec. and decided I would take my chances and went back up to the living room. By this point it was obvious that neither Audrey nor Henry were going back to sleep, so we had a pretty early start to the day. There were a lot of tree branches down around town, but no tornado touchdowns. So, we didn't have air today. Someone is supposed to be coming out first thing tomorrow morning to look at it. Henry had shots this morning at 9:30. He did pretty well. It didn't take him long to calm down. Audrey, on the other hand, gets pretty worked up about Henry getting shots! She has now proclaimed that she isn't going to go to kindergarten because she isn't going to get shots! She said that she wanted to go to home school. I told her that she would still have to have shots even if she was home schooled, and then she said that she was going to skip kindergarten and go straight to 1st grade. She talks about wanting to go to home school because her good friend Emma is being home schooled starting this fall. We have started to look into schools for Audrey. It seems really crazy that she is going to be starting school next year. We are checking on tuition at a couple of private schools because we don't feel comfortable with the public schools in our area. I also just found out about a good public school a few miles away that takes out of district student for a tuition fee. I seems to be cheaper than private school but you don't know if there will be open spots until last minute. I think they wait and see how many kids from the district are enrolled before they open enrollment to other students. Anyway, it is thunder storming again, and we are sitting here with the windows closed, steaming. I think it is supposed to be cooler the next couple of days. It probably will cool off and be nice as soon as the A/C is fixed :)

Play Ball

2008-07-17T18:13:00.005-05:00

We all had a pretty good time at the softball game last night. We picked up sandwiches from DQ before the game and ate while we watched. Henry didn't want me to pull his sandwich into pieces he just wanted the whole thing to gnaw on. Audrey was happy because her friend Ashton was there and they spent most of their time digging in the pea gravel on the playground. Jason had a couple of good hits and fell down once when fielding the ball. I was talking and totally missed it, but I guess he fell back and both feet went up in the air . I wish I had a picture of that :) Anyway the team won and is tied for 1st place.

"Bed" not "Bat"!

2008-07-16T13:02:00.002-05:00

Henry just did the cutest thing! He was pretty tired because he didn't have a nap this morning. We were finishing up lunch and his eyes were starting to roll back in his head when he would drink his sippy cup. I was about ready to take him out of the highchair and he kept pointing and saying what I thought was "bat". He really likes his toy bat and carries it around banging on everything like Bam Bam. I didn't see a bat anywhere and didn't know what he was talking about. I took him upstairs and was trying to read him a book and rock him when he just kept pointing and then I realized he was saying bed not bat. He was telling me that he just wanted to go to bed, he didn't need a story this time. I carried him into the spare bedroom and when he saw his bed he pointed, smiled, and shook his head yes. He was happy that I had finally figured out what he was trying to tell me. I put him down in the crib and he smiled and waved bye-bye. He still cried a little when I closed the door, but I thought the whole thing was pretty funny.

Henry's room

2008-07-15T17:50:00.005-05:00

Well, Henry's room isn't done yet. I didn't get a picture taken before Jason started so I don't have a before picture, but to give you some idea of what it looked like the wall color was the exact same shade of blue as that blue painters tape!! It took a couple of coats of primer to cover that up. Now his walls are "Bavarian cream". I like how it turned out. It matches well with his retro cowboy bedding. We decided to go ahead and pull up the carpet while the room was cleared out. We have someone coming on Thurs. to give an estimate to refinish the hardwood. If it seems too out of line we will just put down new carpet. So, everything is a big mess upstairs. Henry has been sleeping in the spare bedroom and the curtains in there don't block much light. He has been waking up really early because the sun shines directly in the window in the morning. I think we are going to have to move his crib back into his room even before it is all the way finished! Audrey used to like her room the way that it was and we thought we would wait and do her room last, but since we have been working on Henry's room she has changed her mind and now wants her room "all different". We have been talking about surprising her by sending her away for a weekend and redoing her room while she is gone. We will have to see. She wants a pink princess room. Audrey and I are going to have to compromise a little I think.

Last Weekend

2008-07-14T08:27:00.002-05:00

Audrey went to stay the night with Aunt Sara on Saturday. We met in Bloomington and Sara took her back to Champaign with her. I tried to get her to take Henry too, but she wasn't ready for that. They went to the mall, had pizza, rode the carousel, went to the candy store, bought a Hello Kitty bracelet, went swimming, and went to see Kung Fu Panda all in one day. Needless to say Audrey did NOT want to come back home and was very tired. We met in Bloomington again on Sunday afternoon to pick her up. We decided to meet at the Children's Museum and check it out for awhile before coming home. It had heard it is a really fun place and we hadn't been before. Well I think Audrey was a little too tired from the day before. We checked out the first floor and had been on the second floor for about 10 min. when Audrey said she needed to use the bathroom. There was one pretty close so we headed that way, but first Audrey had to look one more time at the life-size cows that you could milk. Well that was a big mistake because she didn't quite make it to the toilet. She was literally a foot from it when she declared that she had waited too long and had an accident! I looked in the stall to see her standing on the floor next to the toilet peeing with her shorts pulled down half way. Luckily there wasn't anyone else in the restroom and there was a floor drain in her stall! We didn't have a change of clothes for Audrey in the diaper bag because she hasn't done this in months maybe even years! Sean (Sara's boyfriend) was parked right outside the museum and drove Sara to her car in the parking garage a couple of blocks away, where Audrey's overnight bag was. They brought it back to Jason who was waiting with Henry (who by this point was not in the greatest of moods himself) by the front door of the museum so they could ride the elevator back up to us and give us a change of clothes. All of this took 15 - 20 minutes so I stood with Audrey (naked from the waist down and whimpering) in a restroom stall. Sara and Sean decided they had had enough and went home and we only stayed 10 more minutes. We had to promise that we would come back sometime soon. Henry was really tired by this point and has decided that he doesn't want to nap in his stroller. We walked back to the van in the parking garage. The elevator wasn't working and we were on the very top level, so we carried Henry, the bags, the stroller, and Audrey's booster seat up ALL the flights of stairs. The whole time Audrey was complaining that she wanted to go back with Aunt Sara and that she was tired and hungry. Henry ended up screaming off and on the whole way home ( a 45 - 60 min trip). Now if you haven't experienced Henry's scream it is something else! He uses his most angry, top of his lungs scream for everything from I'm near death to you aren't getting me my bananas fast enough. Audrey decided to join in every once in awhile too! Bedtime couldn't come early enough last night! All of this made me really think that 2 kids was enough. A lot of our friends have just had, or are pregnant with their third and Audrey keeps saying that she wants 3 kids in her family. I keep telling her that 2 is the right number for us :)

Look at me Mom!

2008-07-11T10:22:00.005-05:00

So there is really no reason that this kid isn't walking already. He can get to standing in the middle of the floor without holding on to anything. This morning he was standing up over and over again and smiling at me - he was so proud he doesn't try to walk once he is up he just looks around then sits down.
Here are some pictures of his new haircut. I don't know if you can see much difference, but isn't he a handsome little guy!

2008-07-10T15:14:00.002-05:00

Today has already been a pretty busy day. Audrey had swimming lessons again today and right after that we picked up McDonald's and met some friends at the park for lunch. Audrey is upstairs napping right now, she should be pretty tired out! She changed from her swim suit to her play clothes in the van and was going non-stop all morning! They got so filthy at the park that they had to have a bath before getting into bed for nap time. For some reason every time Audrey plays outside lately she has a head full of sand and dirt when she is done. Maybe it is because she is always playing with boys :) Last night Jason had a softball game for the church league. The FUMC team is pretty good. They win most of their games. We usually go with him to watch and talk to the other wives and kids. We don't have any place to be tonight so maybe Jason will actually get to start painting Henry's room. Henry is sleeping in the spare bedroom because his room is all taped and ready to be primed and painted, but the evenings go by so quickly and not a lot of progress had be made so far. Right now his room is painted the most hideous shade of bright blue and there is blue carpet. I'm not really sure what the people who did that were thinking!! I love old houses for their character, plaster walls, hardwood floors, glass doorknobs, etc. but we have our share to bad decorating choices to fix. At least we aren't tripping all over each other anymore. We have about 2x the space that we had in the old house. I'll try to get some before and after pictures of Henry's room posted so you can see the progress.... eventually.

Swimming Lessons

2008-07-08T14:55:00.005-05:00

Here are some pictures from swimming lessons today. They didn't turn out that great. I couldn't get as close as I wanted because I was afraid Henry would try to get into the pool if I stepped away from him. The girl swimmers have to wear swim caps so that they aren't distracted by their hair. It is actually a good idea and Audrey sometimes wants to wear hers when she is swimming other places. The swim caps are one size fits all and her head is so small that it sometimes starts to come off or come down over her eyes. I think it has gotten stretched out a little. Henry likes to watch and calls the pool "bath". After swimming we came home and ate really quickly and then went for haircuts. Henry even got one today. It was his first real hair cut, but I have trimmed from the back a couple of times when the "wings" got a little too crazy. It doesn't look a lot different, just a little less mullet-like. He still has his curls in the back :)

Anyone have a toothbrush?

2008-07-06T09:40:00.002-05:00

Audrey won these "teeth" as a prize at the carnival birthday party we went to yesterday evening. Good thing she is going to the dentist next week :)

Happy 4th

2008-07-04T14:01:00.006-05:00

Henry was in a bad mood this morning so just Audrey and I rode in the parade. Audrey had fun. After a little while she didn't want to wave her flag anymore, then she said her hand was tired of waving, and finally she said she was tired of smiling. Luckily by that point we were near the end of the parade route :) We saw quite a few people we knew along the route and met some new kids from our neighborhood. The kids are napping now and then we are heading over to the Green's for a cook out and possibly swimming. It is a really nice day today but only in the upper 70s. It doesn't seem warm enough for swimming to me, but I'm sure all the kids will still want to get in.

Finally new pictures

2008-07-03T22:49:00.006-05:00

Henry received this ball pit for his birthday (thanks GAB and GURay!) A couple of weeks ago it finally got blown up and put in the play room. The playroom is actually a sun room attached to the living room, but for now it is filled with all the bigger toys and art stuff. It is really working out great because the kids are still close and I can keep an eye and ear out to what they are doing and I can truly say that they could do about anything out there and it wouldn't hurt anything. There is OLD carpet and wood paneling :( Someday when they have outgrown giant plastic toys I hope to paint the paneling and use it as a true sun room with a tile floor and white wicker patio furniture! Anyway, the kids have been having a blast in the ball pit or as Audrey calls it the jumpy-jump. She uses the rings for the ring toss as "necklaces" and insists that Henry really does like to wear them. They laugh hysterically at each other and thrash around wildly in there. Henry does occasionally fall on his head while trying to get out but he is learning.
Audrey had a good week at swimming lessons. On Tuesday she graduated to the next higher class. She was so excited. They get a little diploma and a fruit roll-up. I think she is the youngest one in her class. Henry got his first pair of walking shoes. We went to Stride Rite and they had to order the ones I wanted for him in size 4 1/2 extra wide! I love those chubby baby feet!!! He still isn't walking though. He has only really taken 1 step unassisted. He is the fastest crawler I have ever seen.
In this picture he has on a Spider Man pj top and Cars pj shorts. Yes daddy did get him ready for bed that night :) Our anniversary was on Tuesday. We waited too long to look for a sitter for the kids, so we took them with us out to eat. I told Jason that it wasn't nearly as relaxing as 6 years ago on that day. He is such a good dad because he replied "No, but it is more fun!" I'm not really sure how I should take that. I think I'll have to disagree. As much as I love my kids, eating at Red Lobster with them doesn't hold a candle to the beach at sunset in Maui. Plus most of the dinner conversation was Audrey asking questions about death and Heaven. She told me the other day that she wants to learn about muscles, blood, how the body works and dead. Sometimes she is too smart! Aunt Sara brought her a model of the human body that you can take apart, complete with bones and squishy organs. I think Jason and I have about as much fun with it as she does. Tonight Audrey and I went to see the American Girl movie Kit Kittredge. It was really cute. I love going to the movies with Audrey. She is so good and always wants to sit on my lap :) Her Grandma Karin told her that she could go to the American Girl store for her 5 year old birthday and eat lunch and pick out one of the bigger dolls. She has been saying that she wants Molly because we watched that movie a few months ago. I asked her tonight if she still wanted Molly or if she had changed her mind and now wanted Kit. She said that she didn't know and that she still had lots of time to make up her mind. On the way home from the theater she declared that she wasn't Audrey she was Kit. When she first got her hair cut in a bob, she looked in the mirror and said "I look just like Kit!" Well, I will have more pictures after tomorrow. Audrey and I are riding in the West Peoria parade with our neighborhood association. Henry may ride too, it just depends.

So Busy!

2008-06-24T14:08:00.003-05:00

So it has been a long time since I have posted anything. We have been super busy and I don't have any pictures to post because I'm not sure if what I need to upload them to the computer is even hooked up. We still have boxes stacked in the basement and spare bedroom. We have been working in the yard quite a bit. The previous owners left the back yard in pretty sad condition. Audrey has been swimming quite a bit at Emma's house and at swimming lessons. I think she is making some progress. The kids seem to have adjusted quickly to the new house. Audrey likes to watch golfers, and we have had a few golf etiquette talks about not yelling when people are teeing off, or talking to the golfers. Now she just waves. We have found 2 golf balls in our yard so far. Audrey should set up a stand in the front yard and sell lemonade and golf balls. When we moved in there was a HUGE, playful mastiff puppy that lived next door. The neighbor would take him for walks in the evening on the golf course to let him run. Sometimes he wouldn't put him on a leash and he would shoot out of the house and come bounding toward us. Now, the neighbor guy says the dog is friendly, but it is still frightening to see a dog that big bounding toward your kids! Audrey of course thought this was very amusing and couldn't understand why I wouldn't let her go play with him. The dog wasn't used to being around kids and Audrey is used to a dog that will pretty much tolerate anything. Well, the neighbor finally got wise and gave the dog to a new home. One where the people had lots of room for the dog to run. We don't have very big back yards in our neighborhood. I was pretty relieved. We had our first get-together at our new house last weekend. The Greens came over and we grilled hamburgers and then had a Drozd vs. Green Wii tournament. I am sad to say that we were creamed by the Greens in bowling, even with the home advantage. It must be that we have such full lives that we don't have time to waste practicing Wii night and day. Anyway that's the story I'm sticking to. Audrey and Emma put on a fashion show for us and Henry and Ethan gave a fine performance at the dinner table on how to throw every food that you are offered on the floor! Well both kids are napping so I better get stuff done. We have a dinner at church tonight and I need to give the kids baths and have everything ready to go when Jason gets home from work. I will try to get picture posted soon.

The Move!!

2008-06-06T23:27:00.003-05:00

We are still living out of boxes, and trying to adjust to the new house. This weekend we will be making a real effort to get unpacking done. It was kind of a rough move for everybody. It started when I got the stomach flu a couple of days before moving day. The packing wasn't done and I was just laying around in bed. Luckily the kids were gone (they were with Grandma Karin and Grandpa John). We ran out of room on the moving truck, Ange offered to take Audrey for the night and Audrey ended up throwing up all that night and part of the next day. I told Ange she could bring Audrey back home, but she kept her until the next evening. Now that's a true friend!! We got to the new house and had electrical problems. Audrey and I still weren't feeling good so we laid in bed while the truck was unloaded. The day after the move Henry started having diarrhea, and then Jason had to leave early on Sat. morning for his trip for work. I was left to deal with a house full of unpacked boxes, sick kids and I had no over head lights in the kitchen, the garage door wouldn't go down, and couldn't use my dishwasher or washing machine. You realize how important your washing machine is when you can't use it and everyone has had the stomach flu! I spent a lot of time on the phone with my realtor. He has been really nice! He came over with a worried look on his face and cold diet pepsi. I think he was a little worried that I might snap and go postal or something :) The neighbors have been really nice and helpful too. Well, all electrical issues are now resolved, and Jason is back home as of last night so hopefully we will start getting some stuff done. Audrey started swimming lessons this week. We found out about a lady really close to our house that offers lessons from her home. It is a really nice set up with small classes and I think it is going to be so much more convenient for us. Audrey would spend every waking moment of summer in the pool if she could. I need to get Henry in the pool more often too. His first time swimming was while we were at Disney World. He loves the water too! If he hears water running in the bathroom he speed crawls from where ever he is to go check it out. He often cries when we take him out of the bathtub.

Picture Day

2008-05-23T10:57:00.010-05:00

Yesterday morning I took Henry and Audrey to get pictures taken. I made the appointment for first thing after the photo studio opened, thinking that the kids would still be fresh and in a good mood. Well, it didn't really work out like that. I really wanted to get 1 year old pictures of Henry and thought I would put Audrey in a couple and have some of them together. Henry decided that he would scream every time I put him down. We thought he might calm down if he could sit with Audrey, but he didn't. He finally got to where he would sit and play with the stuffed animal props they had, but as soon as I moved him in front of the backdrop he would throw himself face down on the floor and scream again. I decided it would just have to be an Audrey photo shoot, since I didn't want to totally waste our time. Audrey then announced that she didn't want her picture taken either (the first time that has ever happened). I firmly said "we got up and got ready SOMEONE IS GETTING THEIR PICTURE TAKEN!! " The photographer convinced her to pose, and we even managed to get 1 picture on Henry with Audrey and 1 by himself, in between fits and him crawling away. I had a cubs outfit, hat, ball and bat for Henry to wear and it was going to be so cute, but ... Anyway here is what we finished with. Audrey was very proud of her new jelly shoes! Sorry these are sideways. I can't figure out how to turn them. It won't let me edit them.
I don't think Henry looks much different than his 9 month pictures. He had his 1 year check up on Wednesday. He is 24 lbs. 31 1/2 in. long. He is still in the 95th percentile for height, but dropped from the 90th percentile, to the 75th percentile in weight. He started out so big, I think he is evening out a little. Looks like he is going to be a tall boy though!

Dance Recital

2008-05-21T23:39:00.006-05:00

Audrey had her first dance recital tonight. It was really chaotic getting her where she needed to be at the right time. The whole thing didn't really seem very organized, but she did a great job and looked so cute! She had two numbers. The first was her tap number called "follow the band" and the second was the ballet number called "rodeo" ( we called it "beef, it's what's for dinner" because it was to the music they have for that commerical). We went out to eat with Ange and Emma afterwards and didn't get home until 10:30! We saw the director of Peoria Ballet at the restaurant and she remembered Audrey's name and that she was a newer student! She must have a really good memory because there are A LOT of students there. Anyway, it was a fun night, especially for Audrey. She kept asking Emma (her best friend) if she saw her and if she did a good job. We went to Emma's recital last week and they had to compare notes about everything. These pictures are from dress rehearsal on Monday night. No flash photography was allowed tonight.

Henry's 1 Year Old!

2008-05-19T22:41:00.007-05:00

Well, I can't believe it, Henry is 1 year old! He had a good party. I think he had a pretty good time opening presents. He had a lot of help from his big sister. She wouldn't stay back, she was so excited. I think sometimes she forgot whose birthday it was. He wouldn't really mess in his cake, he just picked at it. The guys dug up the swing set in our yard and loaded it onto a trailer so it could be relocated to my parents yard in Charleston. The house we are moving to already has a swing set. When I look out the kitchen window now and see the spot where it used to be it makes the upcoming move seem more real, and I freak out a little. I get nostalgic and emotionally attached to cars, so you can imagine how I am with the house. I am excited about the new house but am also kinda sad to say goodbye to this one. This is going to be another busy week for us. I will try to post more pictures later of this weeks activities.