Friday, September 28, 2012

Jefferson's Tubes

What a morning we had today! Well I guess it all started this week really. Jefferson just didn't enjoy it at all. I could tell he had an ear infection on Tuesday because he was barely eating. Then he was having some major digestive issues all week. All we did yesterday afternoon was clean his poor little bottom, and rock him while he cried over and over again. Then this morning I had to wake him up an hour and a half early so he could get his tubes put in. All in all, it's not been an enjoyable week for him. 

The tubes surgery went very well today. He had a rough time in recovery though. Jewell would always cry and then be fine once we got in the car. But Jefferson, well, he did not stop crying!!! It took him almost an hour after we got home for him to calm down. I actually gave him a bottle just to soothe him. It was so sad. He did enjoy his time before the surgery though. He loved the nurses, and everyone was shocked he went back to the surgery so well. However, I'm pretty sure he might not trust me again! 

By the way, Jefferson DID have an ear infection. She said the left ear was infected, but the right ear looked good. I'm really glad he got tubes today because he hasn't even hit flu and cold season yet and he already had another ear infection. Here's to hoping we will be ear infection free this winter :).

Oh, and he's jumping on the couch now! I guess he's feeling better. 





Monday, September 24, 2012

Jewell's Sunday School Craft

Jewell is now old enough to go to Sunday School with the 3 and 4 year old class. Yesterday, they learned about thanking God for their senses. I thought her drawing was so cute I had to share. The Sunday School teachers couldn't wait for me to look at it! 


The Mom Van

It's official. I am now the proud owner of a minivan. Yikes! But here's a secret that I have sort of refused to admit. I am in love with this van. It has power sliding doors. The kids can get in so easily, and we even have room for the...yes, I'm admitting this...little kid potty chair. Hah! I really am a Mom :). I am so glad we bought a van. So here is the story of the van.

We couldn't find a good deal on a van in  Medford. So we looked all over Oregon. We wanted a Honda Odyssey or a Toyota Sienna. But the Toyota's seemed to be just a little over our budget. So we chose the Honda. Our good friends Matt and Cindy Borror volunteered to watch our kids for the entire day so we could go look at vans in Portland. We had been following a few on craigslist that looked like a pretty good deal. (I'm not really into buying new...I mean really, the kids are going to throw up in this thing...why would I buy NEW?) Anyways, we drove the 4.5 hour trip to Portland, looked at a small dealer on 82nd street and left without turning back. It was horrible. HORRIBLE! Do not look for a car on 82nd street in Portland. We then headed to the the dealer with the van we were really interested in. It was much better. And they guessed we went to 82nd street first by our stories from that day. The van was still available. After test driving it once we weren't sure. The dealer was so nice. He let us use his office to talk it through alone and pray. He then let us test drive it again. We decided to go for it. I think our initial uncertainty was more of a shock that we were actually buying a van. The dealer took FOREVER to fill out paperwork so we didn't actually get out of Portland until around 6:30 PM. And we still had at least a 4 hour drive back to Medford. It was a long day. And I'm so grateful for our friends that volunteered to watch the kids. It would have been a nightmare on 82nd street with the kids.

It looks like we will probably be keeping our Jeep for Matt now. We plan to sell his little Dodge Status here soon. But Matt's going to drive the Jeep to work this week to see what kind of gas mileage it gets for him. His current Dodge only needs filled up once a month. :)

Oh, and the van is a 2002 :). I know...it's like 10 years old! Gasp!!! But I'm not worried at all. It's a Honda! And we take really good care of our cars. Besides, we didn't get rid of Matt's old Honda until it was over 20 years old! Nice...

Here are the pics.




Thursday, September 20, 2012

Jewell Turns 3

We now have a 3 year old! We celebrated Jewell's birthday on Saturday night with the Borror family. We had dinner, cake, and opened presents. Jewell loves the Borror's and talks about their kids on a daily basis. So the evening was very special for our sweet girl.

Unfortunately, I just realized we didn't take pictures of her opening her presents! I'm not sure how we missed that. I'll double check the other cards we have for our camera later today. But she did get lots of funny little gifts she requested. In fact, I'm shocked because she now plays with her ponies for quite a while by  herself! She was so cute :).

I made Jewell a ladybug cake this year. It was the second time I've made the cake for our kids birthday's. I really like making them for them. It makes the birthday mean so much more. I am posting pictures of how I did it so I can remember how :). Plus, I am going to make our blog into a book for our kids to serve as their baby books. So I think it would be super special for Jewell to have it in print. You can see a small can of black frosting that I had in the background as a backup just in case I messed up the frosting like I did with Jefferson's football cake (note: don't add natural peanut butter to frosting...it didn't work for Jefferson's cake). I was so excited that I didn't have to use it :). I guess we'll have to do something else with it now.











Jewell had a great birthday! She's grown up so much this last year. We are so proud of her!

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

ENT (Tubes) & Finger Paints

Wow! We had an event filled day. This morning was a bit emotional for both kids for some reason. Once we passed that, we had to clean the upstairs (the kids rooms) and vacuum the house. Vacuuming is always interesting in our house. I never really know how the kids will react to it that day :). We also washed all the sheets and towels, and put them back on our beds and in the bathrooms. We then headed out to Jefferson's ENT appointment. 

I had already taken Jefferson to the ENT once to get a pressure test. That was for the doctor to see if he really needed an appointment. Let's just say, I've never had an ENT get us in so quickly. And I've been to a TON of ENT appointment for my kids. The doctor came in and said he had tons of fluid in his ears. This did not surprise me at all. 1) His pressure test was supposed to show a bell curve, it was a flat line. Not even Jewell's did that (and she had 10 ear infections in a year). 2) Jefferson has an ear infection or fluid in his ears every single time he goes in for a well check. Actually, I don't think I've taken him to the doctor yet without hearing the phrase, "He has a ton fluid in his ears". I'm mainly concerned about the fluid because I can tell he can't hear himself well or me very well. 3) I don't want to end up in the doctor's office during flu season with a newborn, or being 8 or 9 months pregnant all because Jefferson has yet another infection. I had considered taking him to a chiropractor. And had it been more affordable, I probably would have tried it. But I have amazing insurance for my kids now so I'd like to go with tubes. Especially because I can tell it's hurting his speech. I also have hearing loss due to all of my ear infections, so I really want to make sure he gets this fixed ASAP. Jefferson will probably get his tubes by the first week of October. Praise the Lord!!!

I always try to spend a good portion of my afternoon with the kids doing something fun with them. Especially Monday's and Tuesday's because it takes me quite a bit of time in the mornings those days to do some regular housekeeping. So today we finger painted, did some letter work with Jewell, practiced using scissors with Jewell, and played with the hour hand of the clock. Jefferson "colored" while we did the preschool work (and cried...), but he did get to finger paint. 







"This looks yummy...."


"Oh no...that's sort of gross..."

"Okay, it tastes more nasty than it looks..."



Jewell did great with touching the paint, but then all of a sudden she realized her fingers were covered! She then freaked out and sort of panicked. No worries, she did wonderfully well with the sensory practice.




Just a little disclaimer here... I really don't have a big craft time each day. It just depends on the day. But I do really try to on Monday and Tuesday if possible since they play for so long by themselves in the mornings on those days. I also don't necessarily do "preschool" with Jewell for so long. I've tried to not push it since she's JUST turning 3 here this week. If she's super interested, then we keep going. But she's 3...she sort of has a "short" attention span :). 

I really did enjoy my kids today. The day definitely had it's ups and downs, but it was good overall. We finished the day with a family bike ride and a bath :). I'm sure the kids will sleep well! 

Monday, September 10, 2012

Baking With Toddlers

Today we made cookies for our fun afternoon activity. I felt bad for taking so long cleaning the bathrooms this morning. So I decided to make sure I really do something fun with the kids after naps. Let's just say, I learned a few things about baking cookies with 2 toddlers.

1. Always take out all of the ingredients before attempting to bake a new recipe with creative toddlers. Always. Or else....your cookie baking materials will be scattered about in a very "unorganized" way.

2. Taking turns dumping the ingredients into the mixing bowl is a great idea in theory. However, one must be willing to accept that the other child who doesn't have a turn that time will be helping assist in the dumping of the ingredients. That is after they shout, "I can do it by myself."

3. All utensils WILL be thrown to the floor at least once throughout the cookie baking process.

4. When baking with creative toddlers, amounts well...there really aren't exact amounts with them...

5. Never leave toddlers in front of the flour mixture alone. Never. Or else, handfuls of the flour mixture will be all over the floor, all over the counter, and all over the cabinets.

6. NEVER and I mean NEVER turn your back when the toddlers are standing in front of the Kitchen Aid mixer while it's beating something. Or else, the very creative toddlers will put utensils into the mixing bowl while it's still mixing, causing screaming from overwhelmed and flour covered mother.

7. Taking pictures of creative toddlers helping the overwhelmed mother bake cookies is just well, dumb.

 8. This is the biggest one my friends. NEVER EVER EVER EVER sweep AND mop before making cookies. Yes, I did this. Guess what gets to get done again tonight...

I had a blast making cookies with my creative toddlers! But I will definitely be keeping these things in mind for the next attempt :).

Here are a few pictures. And yes, I know Jewell is only wearing panties... if you wonder why? Just read the list again and give a wild guess as to why I didn't care :).


This boy doesn't do anything without a ball.





They were very excited to be in front of the mixer now!

Seriously amused by the mixing.



Licking the beater!!!!





Mommy! They're growing!!!! 


Yummy!