Sugar High :)

So we have taken advantage of some of the fun fall and Halloween functions available on base. We went with Janelle, Wood, and KK to the Halloween Carnival last weekend and had a good time. The kids were introduced to glow-in-the-dark necklaces...Oh they love them. Ashley slept with hers for 3 days and then told me I needed to change the batteries when it was done. Haha.

Wednesday we went to the escape zone for their Harvest Festival. That was fun as well. They played some games, played with lots of toys, made a few projects, and got a goodie bag to take home.


Both kids loved the toy houses. Although they did fight over opening and closing the doors and windows.



Benny, my little elephant. We had originally planned for him to be a blue M&M. But for some reason he despised that costume. He threw a horrible fit every time I tried to put it on. So I gave out and whipped out Ashley's old costumes that I saved. The most boyish one was the elephant. And thankfully he didn't have a problem with it cause the only other one that would fit was a pink care bear. I don't quite think he would appreciate that later :)

Below is a funny series of photos I captured...Can you tell who the bully is today? I swear in our house it changes every few minutes.


sneaking up for the grab

the two handed grabber



the blowout battle ensues


Ashley was a butterfly for Halloween this year. It was really cute but the wings need some work...the frame inside kept sliding around so the wings would slouch, or be lop-sided.



Benny has been sick off an on this whole month. He has croup again and has been having problems sleeping again. The first night I think he and I got all of maybe 4 hours of sleep and last night I slept with him on the couch and we did better but he still woke up at least 10 times coughing/barking like a seal. He's also had a high fever, even with Tylenol round the clock we are staying at around 101. Today it was down a little so hopefully he is on the mend!!!!

I felt so bad. I was reading him a story and he was trying so hard to keep his eyes open. I should have grabbed the video camera but I'm sure that would have woken him up so I just kept reading. Finally the little guy passes out for about an hour.



His poor eyes were so dark around them from not sleeping. He just looked awful. Today he had a bit more color in him so that was good. The picture below is shocking to me because he just looks so long. Both Ben and Ashley weigh 28 lbs right now. The 2 year gap is disappearing quickly.



Today we ventured out to the med group's trick or treating. The kids enjoyed themselves but Ben didn't last more than 30 minutes without going into melt down mode. We made a quick retreat back to the car and made our way home.




And finally, here are the kids after the trick or treating tonight. We went for about an hour. It was shocking the weather was actually decent. It was 50 degrees out, very pleasant in comparison to the past snowy Halloween's we have encountered.



Happy Halloween Everyone!!!

Just lounging around on the weekend

We had a relaxing weekend of just piddling around the house. I loved it. On Saturday we all stayed in our jammies all day long! (yes, i did change Benny's diaper but just left on the jammies:))

The kids seemed to enjoy it. If you look out the window you can see our first snow fall. Yay, well not really but I'll pretend.

My blue eyed boy. I love those baby blues!!!!

Pumpkin Patch Time

Leaves, leaves and more leaves. We have been raking our front yard like crazy. I think so far we have gathered 16 bags of leaves.....holy moly! But I truly love the look of fallen leaves. The crisp air and absence of mosquitoes and sub zero temperatures, it is just beautiful.

We took the kiddies to the Pumpkin Patch. They had fun and wanted to stay way longer than mom and dad were willing. We had to fight both of them to go home..but mommy had a headache and just wasn't feeling the best.

I swear it can be so difficult to get a picture of them both (or either of them) looking at the camera. I took a bunch and had very few where they were actually looking, or had their eyes even open.

They both got to pick 2 pumpkins and had fun picking and choosing between all the varieties. I think they both really liked the warty ones even though neither picked one for their final selection.


All this pumpkin patch stuff really made me want to take a trip to the Roloff Farms in OR. I watch Little People, Big World religiously. For some reason I love the chaos of their family. Their house is a mess, they kids misbehave and get in fights, it just seems so normal and makes me feel better about my own house. Plus they are just funny people and I really enjoy watching their show. So I will add this to my to do list. I would like to venture out there maybe next fall since we will be in WA anyway...

Tagged!

I've been tagged. So now I present 6 random things about me. It has taken me awhile to come up with them, but now that you have read them, YOU are tagged!


1. I am short with BIG feet. I am only 5'2" but the shoes I wear are a size 9 1/2.

2. I have naturally red hair...ok, everyone knows that but in the back I have a skunk stripe of blondish-brown. You can only see it if I pull my hair up but it's really there. I used to trick kids in school saying that I dyed my hair red and they would usually believe me cause I would show them my "roots" :)

3. I have no musical ability. Mike can play the guitar, bass, drums, keyboard, and saxophone and has tried to teach me multiple times. I just can't get it.

4. I am messy. As much as I try to keep the house clean, I just fail. I think I am a messy person at heart. There are so many other things to do that are just more fun than scrubbing the toilet.

5. I love reading. I love it, love it, love it. And I love www.goodreads.com too. It is a great website and now that my school is done I am totally looking forward to reading for pleasure!!!

6. My kitchen counter is covered with stamping supplies.

sickness

Ok so fall is here and with it came the colds. Yuck. Benny started it with his bout with croup. But thankfully his shot of steroids helped him lots and now he is better. About a week later Ashley came down with a fever. There were no signs of a cold at first but a slight runny nose and cough developed. Then she started complaining when she was peeing, so off she went to the dr. They tested her for a bladder infection which came back positive and for strep which was negative. They said that her throat looked suspicious so they gave her an antibiotic that would work for both a bladder infection and strep in case the rapid strep test was wrong.

Today Ashley is going to the dr again to deal with her constipation problems. I swear this is a losing battle. But we are going to do everything we can for her. To combat everything she has begun refusing to take her medicine. Which doesn't help with the poop issues or the bladder infection but I am really trying to be creative at disguising it. I feel awful, but seriously getting a 3 1/2 year old to swallow medicine when she is determined not to is no fun. I feel awful holding her down and forcing it upon her but I really have no clue what else to do. Hopefully the dr. today will have some ideas or another option. At this point, if they were able to give her her antibiotics by shot I would do that because at least then she can't spit it all over me, and it's done in a flash.


Personally I think I have a mix of a cold and allergies. So fun. I've had a bit of a fever but really nothing compared to Ashley's. I've been a little achey and totally worn out, but honestly I'm just thankful that it waited until my classes were done to arrive!!

My classes are done!

Here are a couple quick snapshots from the past week.

The first one is Ben showcasing his new drawing skills, hahahah.


And here is Benny again, wearing my hat! He thinks it is the funnest thing to wear mom and dad's stuff. As I type this he is wearing mikes shoes and walking around the living room.



And finally, the little girl who doesn't need naps, or so she thinks. She has pretty much given up on the idea of napping. I'm not too happy about that but I take it as it goes. I do make her take "quiet time" in her room where she can play or read or do whatever as long as it is quiet and doesn't wake up her brother. That gives me a few minutes of quiet time which is needed too!



I took my finals on Thursday. I feel like I did alright but I am anxious to get my grades back. I should be graduating with honors, just depends on this terms grades to see what level of honors.....I'm hoping for the highest! I should find out in the next week or so once the grades are posted. And then my diploma for my degree should be in the mail sometime after that!!! WHOHOOO

My next project is to dig through a box of clothes my dear friend Susan gave me when she moved. Ashley is short for her size and is just now moving in to size 4 clothes. Her 3's are little highwater-ish now. So that is my project for today.

Oh and my other creative project is beginning to work on the baby announcements I promised to make for my little sister Kerri who is due in late November. I haven't really *played* with all my crafting stuff. I'm embarrassed to admit I have sets that are still in the package and have never been touched. Hopefully this will be the time to dig into those and get them inky! Right now I am in the idea generating stage and boy oh boy is that stage difficult when you have been out of practice.

Some quick pictures

Ben enjoying one of our final sunny days in GF.


T-ball anyone. Ben loves it.


Ashley spinning in the grass, with "tada" sound effects

Ashley just finished her puzzle book. She needed me to take a picture to show Grandma :)


My little teething boy

Spinning in the office chairs...a new fav pastime


Just like Daddy


Watching Cartoons

Our Trip to the ER

Ben started with a cold a few days ago. Runny nose, sneezing, and a bit of coughing, nothing too serious. Last night he had a rough time falling asleep but after a few tries we had success. I stayed up until about 12:30am working on my paper and was probably asleep by 1am. Only to be woken up by a mysterious barking noise coming from Ben's room. The poor guy sounded awful. I was pretty sure it was croup, as Ashley has had it once before. But this was way more serious. He was struggling to get a good breath and it did not seem to be improving.

I called the on-call dr. on base and they said that there was a referral in place for him to go to the ER. So Ben and I hopped in the car at 2:20am to head downtown. We arrived just before 3am and at this point I was very thankful for living in a small town with a small hospital. We were the only people in the waiting room and thus were seen very quickly.

They diagnosed him with croup (mom was right). Although all the struggling he was doing to breath his oxygen levels were still very good. The administered a steroid shot to relax and reduce the inflammation in his throat, gave us some home care pointers and sent us on our way. We were home within 2 hours of walking out the door, so that was quite impressive.

Still I didn't get to sleep until after 5am and the kids were kind enough to wake me at 8:30. Yikes so today I'm pretty zoned out. After dealing with sick kids, an ER trip, and no sleep, not to mention the last week of classes before finals I am a little frazzled. But that's the life of a mom right?

Catch up time again...

I apologize, I have not been a very good blogger the last few months. Here come the excuses... :)

I am neck deep in school, my final classes of my bachelors degree whoohoo. Only 2 more weeks to go, thank goodness. I have senior-itis bad!!! I have two papers due next week that I honestly haven't done more than brainstorming to come up with a topic so that will be quite a challenge to whip those out and obtain good grades!!!! My goal is to get A's in these classes, isn't everybodies? But if I do I will gradumacate with a 3.9 GPA and the highest honors Park offers. Whooohooo! Mike is also taking his last classes and will have his UCAF done in 3 weeks. So that makes for a crazy house in itself.

We have been having some relationship problems lately. At one point I was ready to throw in the towel and run home to my mom but then we took a step back and reviewed the situation. So now we are in couples counseling to work through our "communication" issues. I think that most of our problems stem from different communication styles and a lack of communication between us. So hopefully we can make some progress through this and come out stronger.

On a completely lighter note~~~~I got such a bargain on a cute pair of shoes....you wanna see?
They were 49.99 and 90% off so I walked out with them for only 4.99 Whoohooo, super cute



Oh and I dyed my hair. At first it was almost black and I HATED it but now that it is starting to fade it's dark brown but you can still see the red in it which i like. Something different for a change.



I went to take the trash out the other day and when I came back I noticed some funny door knob accessories around the house.....yes, if look closely they are tampons stripped of their wrapper and applicator. Now isn't that sweet. Apparently the cabinet that I have to stand on the toilet to find what i need is now accessible to them also. Great!



Ashley also got into the bandaids while in the cabinet. This was a really fun one to remove since she had pressed it into her bangs, as well as her eye brows and eye lashes. Sweet!!!



And my little Benny! He is such a handful! He is still suffering from separation anxiety and most of the time when I leave him with someone I get a phone call to come and get him. oh so much fun. Oh well, i was the same way when I was young so its just payback, right!

Dr Appointment

Well Benny finally had his 18 month well baby appointment....only a month and half late. I had it scheduled on the actual day he would be 18 months but of course I got sick and wasn't able to make it. And of course when I tried to reschedule it the pediatrician was on leave. So his was the soonest appointment they had.

Everything went well. He is in the 75th percentile for height, weight, and head circumference. Other milestones are on track. The only little bump we have had is his separation anxiety, which I think has gotten worse.....fun times. But it is still completely normal and the Doc gave me some pointers on practicing separation throughout the day. I'm sure he'll come around and before I know it he won't want to spend anytime with me, so I guess I should take advantage of the cuddles now, right?

I haven't taken many pictures lately so no new picture updates for ya. But I do promise some soon

KK's Birthday Party

KK our neighbor had her 4th birthday last weekend. So we all ventured out to the gymnastics place downtown for her party. The kids had a blast. My only complaint was that it was so darn hot in that building. Wow!



The kids both loved the rings.



Ben loved the trampolines, "boing, boing, boing...."

Super Stud!

My little ribbon dancer.

My little drummers

We got the kids a new drum set. Mike was really excited to teach them to play. And so far they seem to be enjoying it quite much. I snapped a quick video of them playing. Ignore the mess on the couch as we had just unwrapped the drums and put them together.

Oh and school

I finished up my classes last week. Yippee. I ended with 2 A's for this term and now I only have 2 more classes to take. I will be done in October. Hooray! In August I will begin taking Woman's literature and intro to human resources. These are both electives that are needed before my degree would be complete. Whooohooo only 8 more weeks of classes.

Yeah

Ice cream anyone

With all the warm weather comes Ice Cream. We got the kids their own ice cream bars the other night. Oh my oh my were they in heaven. Ben pretty much finished his and what he didn't consume the dog did!


Ashley on the other hand ate about half and then gave it t0 me because her tummy hurt. She informed me that I was not to eat it but instead save it for her for tomorrow. How cute.


Sprinkler fun. I don't think I realized as a child just how cold sprinklers are. But now when my soaking wet child decides to sit on moms lap I realize that they are far too cold. Brrr.

Ben wasn't much of a fan of the sprinklers but he did like picking Janelle's vegetables and running into her garage, oh and stealing his sister's drink, caught red handed.

Ashley's first chore. She loves sorting and is really good at it so I decided to put her to use. I throw the clean laundry on the couch with an empty basket for each person and she sorts it all for me. It is such a help, all i do is grab the full baskets and take them to the correct room to put them away.

I've got some catchup to do.....

Susan gave me a wonderful book about a year ago full of games, songs, and activities. I absolutely love this book. The other day we made a homemade playdough that the kids loved playing with. They really enjoyed playing with it and only tried to eat it once. Apparently the taste is not so great, but at least I know what is in it. Flour, oil, lemonade kool-aid and water all safe to eat.

I broke out the cookie cutters, rolling pins, spatulas, and keys to play with. They has a blast.

Apparently after my night out with the girls I had left my make up out and my sweet little girl found it. Here she is with my eyeshadow smeared all over like lipstick. I cleaned it all up and put it away only to find out that she had already hidden my waterproof mascara for later :)


We've had great weather lately and the kids have loved getting the chance to hang out in the yard. I encourage it as much as possible since I do know what the GF winter will bring.