Dr's appt.'s, infections, teeth, and growing pains!

These things could describe my day this past Monday.

Claire is done with antibiotics and is so much better. Although she is extrememly clingy and still grumpy..(I'll address that again soon). But she (or daddy) decided to share the love with Jake and Lydia. When Lydia got home from school on Monday (Dan picked her up and dropped her off, then went back to work), the second she walked in the door, she complained her ear hurt. I immediately called the Dr's office and away we went again (I told the receptionist ladies that I thought they were sweet, but that quite frankly, I was getting quite tired of seeing 'this place.' although one of our visits was just 2 check-ups, but still). Anyhow, Lydia's ears looked clear, but her sinuses & throat were a mess...she has a sinus infection. I had all three kids with me and the nurse prac. was so sweet. She offered to look at Jake too, since he had the same symptoms...same thing. So, this is a first...both of them on the same meds at the same time. It is usually a back to back thing. She also looked at Claire's ears...she is fine now! When she looked in her mouth, she made this 'poor girl' face. Her gums where her molars are working away to come in are soo swollen...hence my fussy, screaming-mad at times, baby. Then, as soon as we get home, Jake starts to complain about his legs hurting him so bad. He kept it up all evening and even voluntarily layed on the couch...he NEVER does that unless he is sick (and I mean, feverish sick, not just a cough). I offered to rub them, but it didn't help. So, we just stayed on the couch together and read a bazillion books to try and get his mind off it (plus I gave him some pain reliever). The only thing I can guess is that it is growing pains. He said his entire legs were just aching. And the kids is growing like a weed...lengthwise, that is. His pants still fall off his rear, he's so skinny. Anyways...that's a little update on us. We had a fairly easy sick season until the beginning of the year. But I do hear it's all running rampid, so I know I'm not alone.

On another note, I recently was looking at pictures on our Picasa and I have fallen in love with so many of them all over again. So, I decided to start a "Flash From The Past." I'm just going to post a picture or two whenever I post, just for fun. (I am still planning on posting pictures of Jake and Claire's b-days, for those of you who weren't here. Lydia's b-day party will be on Sat. the 8th, so she'll have ones coming soon)! So...here is the first Flash From The Past picture(cheesy-sounding, I know).

Father's Day 2004
(you'll have to excuse Jake for what he's doing in the picture)

Happy Birthday, Sam!!!

I wish this was not so late...please forgive us Sam. I am fairly good at remembering birthdays the month before they come, but for some reason, not so good at remembering to send a message on the actual day. So, to help 'make up' for it, I wanted to create a page just for my sweet (and first ever) nephew. How can you already be 11?! We wish we could have come to Quebec and celebrated with you. We love you, Sam!!! And we can hardly wait for all the fun and good memories we will have together this summer, especially at the beach! Wahoooooooo!!!!

Bottoms Up!

Well, I wish I could say that Claire was this happy go lucky today, but unfortunetly, she has been a little sickie. We're going to the Dr.'s in a little over an hour, where they will probably give her a round of antibiotics. This will be the 3rd time she's had them since the begininng of January. Hopefully, after this, she will be done with germies for a while.

OUR VALENTINE'S DAY

Thursday nights we usually have our Growing Kids God's Way class. In past classes, it is more of a group setting on Sunday nights. That seems to be the best time for most couples, but the worst time for us, so we were never able to go. Chris and Susan Link, the leaders, catered to us this time and we opted for a Thursday evening time. This has been a huge commitment as we have met for many weeks and have to find babysitters. I am so grateful for my mom, dad, sister, and friend Lisa, who were willing to do a rotation with us. It has been worth the effort though! This time around, no one else was able to sign up (there are usually about 4-6 couples), so thankfully, Chris and Susan were still willing to teach it with just Dan and I. While we are missing the aspect of a group sharing time, we do have benefits of it just being the 4 of us. Working around schedules has been a cinch and we can hash anything out for as long as we need to. Plus, it has been wonderful getting to know this couple better. Anyhow, now for the reason I began this paragraph...Dan (and another pastor, Mike Kildal) had their 10 year recognition service last Sunday evening. It was a nice tribute to the both of them. Chris and Susan were not able to be there, so they called Dan the beginning of the week and said they wanted to treat us to a double date instead of having our normal class. We went to P. F. Chengs to eat and it was oh, so yummy! We shared, family style, Kung Pow chicken, Mongolian beef, green beans, a mixture of brown and white rice, and lettuce wraps. It was delicious! I'd gotten carryout there once when they first opened, but I was pregnant with Claire. I was working at my mom's place of employment then and they were providing dinner. I was force feeding myself through most of the pregnancy and knew I had to eat something. I just remember picking at my food and not being very impressed with it. But I knew enough not to let my first impression of a restaurant be a true first impression, while pregnant. But I haven't had it since. It was some gooooood eatin.' Afterward we went to Borders and had some 'armpit' (Dan's other word for coffee), and discussed our homework questions. They sent us home with the dvd to watch ourselves. We had a very nice time and are thankful for their thoughtfulness! And a big thanks to Lisa for watching my kids (minus Claire...she was already in bed as I didn't want Lisa to have to be exposed to her). She read books, played games, and made a Valentine's cake with the kids! What a fun babysitter! (This is Lisa at Claire's b-day back in October...I miss my baby girl's flyaway hair).

Oh, and one more kind of funny thing...Dan told me he had a gift for me while we were out, but had forgotten to bring it. We usually don't do gifts on this day so I was surprised. Then the truth came out...at Chipotle, they were having a deal where if you bought a gift card, you got a free burrito! So, my gift was a gift card to Chipotle...wahoo! Hey, even though I am not obsessed with this place like my dear hubby, a gift card is a gift card!!! Thanks babe!=)

Brotherly Love

Ever since I was pregnant with Claire, Jake has been absolutely in love with her. I remember him getting so excited for his 5th birthday, not only because it was his birthday, but also because he knew shortly after that, we would be welcoming a new baby brother or sister into our family. When Claire arrived, that excitement grew into love as he interacted with her. He always wanted to be near her and was enamoured with her tininess. As she got older, he had fun making her laugh and would often want to feed her a bottle. He was/is also very patient with her as she would pull his hair or get into his toys or whatever else a baby does (much more patient with her than his other sister). He also gets so excited when she accomplishes something new. I know Lydia loves Claire too; there is just something about watching the big brother take care of his baby sister. I just wanted to share some sweet moments between Jake and his lil' sis.

In the hospital

BabyKisses

"playing" together

Peekaboo!

Sharing cake

CHEESE!

So, my sister in law, Jill (whom I think the world of) blogs. She was my inspiration for starting my own. A few weeks ago, she shared about one of her favorite sites to go visit...Shuttersisters. If I knew how to do the little link thing, I would. Anyhow, the challenge was to try and capture faces in unlikely places. Jill's was a cute little, sad-faced ketchup drip. It was quite amusing and afterward, I found myself looking around. Then, when I'd forgotten about it, I found 2 in one day. The first picture was leftover stir fry remnants on a wooden spoon. The second one I found on the top of an oatmeal container lid. I was making Claire her bottle and had gotten it fresh out of the dishwasher, so it was still drippy-wet. I layed the top piece down on the container lid while filling the bottle part with milk. When I lifted the top piece up to screw it on, I found a perfect little smiley face. I haven't found any other expressions, but it has been fun to look. I was reminded of this again tonight, when on the way to a friend's house, Jake wanted to play the cloud game. I'm sure some clouds have faces too! But all Jake found was a turtle. I found a flying pig, then had to stop and pay attention to the road...Silly road.

A Weekend Of Fun

Last Friday and Saturday Dan was out of town. While we missed him, we decided to do some "special" things while he was gone. At Lydia's preschool, the bookmobile had given out some fliers inviting kids to come to the library and pick out 2 free books. We had extra fliers leftover, so Lydia was allowed to take one for Jake. Cool...who doesn't want free books? So, Friday, we went to the library and I let the kids pick out their books. Jake picked There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly and a Dr. Seuess' ABC board book for Claire. Lydia picked out Crysanthemum and a book which I can't remember the title of, but had the name Ella in it. She picked it out for a friend of mine who is planning on adopting a girl and naming her Ella. We went home, made pizzas, and read our new books (plus many oldies but goodies). Saturday morning the kids and I had a cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Here is a fun picture of Lydia looking longingly at them; you can even see her reflection. And of course, Jake being silly knowing the camera was out. Later, we went over to my friend Beth's house for a playdate. The kids had fun being loud and crazy. We can hardly wait for spring to arrive and hit the playgrounds again. But until then, other friend's toys and company are a nice change. Although Jake did try to say there was nothing he could play with since he was the oldest there. He quickly got engaged in a tinker toy set. Wore the kids out good there and headed home for bedtime. Time for my second chick flick. Sunday, we had unified services at church. I had nursery duty so I brought my camera and took some pics of Claire having fun. She loves to play with the baby dolls and pick at their eyelashes (now that I think of it, none of our dollbabies have eyelashes). We had lunch at the church and then came home. Normally, Lydia takes naps on Sundays, but I let her stay up for two reasons. Jake had a project due for school and we had worked on it together as a family. The other reason was that I wanted to put the kids to bed early. So, we worked on Jake's project, which was for his 100th day of school (we were to come up with 100 of something and bring it/display it any way we wanted). We decided to to 100 faces so we could all spend some family time cutting. We had done that part already but still needed to do the pasting. It was a fun time together. I don't have a picture of it, but later that night, my dad came over to watch the Superbowl with me. That was a fun father/daughter thing. (Dan was watching at the church with the the teens). Jake and Lydia watched/goofed off until halftime. What a good game that was to watch the Giants beat the Patriots!!!! Yay!!!! I was so happy for them! And to those of you who are wondering, I have slowly become a football fan. In fact, would you believe that I turned on Mike and Mike of my own doing Monday morning to hear the post-Superbowl talk. Dan had it on downstairs, but I couldn't hear it, so I turned on the kitchen radio. Oh my, I am even shocking myself!!!

My Silly Boy

A picture says a thousand words, so they say. In this case, it is the truth. I could try my hardest to paint a picture using my vocabulary but this is something you truly had to see to believe. Every night before I go to bed, I go into Jake and Lydia's room to check on them. They are typically sprawled all over the bed, occasionally with a leg dangling off or an arm over their head. So, imagine my surprise when I see this. What you don't see is the red sheet that was completely covering his head and upper body before I removed it to take the picture. When I went to check on him, I start to laugh and realize he's done it again (2nd time). He has taken just about every one of his stuffed animals and shoved it into his shirt (which is actually daddy's). The last time he did it, he even managed to stuff an entire fleece blanket up there. I just stand back and giggle to myself. After removing the items, a drousy, dazed Jake manages to go back to sleep. I wonder...does he remember doing this or not? Silly boy!

Learning to blog

Please be patient with me as I try and 'get with it' with this whole blogging thing. I've kept a written journal for years now, but figured this would be a good way to stay more connected with friends and family. Dan left this afternoon for a Dare to Share conference with some of the teens. I'd gone to the library and rented some chick flicks before he had to leave, so I am planning on watching those once the kids go to bed (the older ones...I layed Claire down at 6:00 (!!) She was GRUMPY, tired, and ready for bed. The pediatrician says she is working on her 1 year molars, so I'm sure that is linked to her fussiness). We have not yet put Christmas pics or pictures we took from January on the computer yet, so I'm gonna try and leave ya with some pics from back in October (Jake and Claire's b-days). The last one is my all-time favorite shot of all three kiddos.