New give away

There is some super cute stuff being given away at Robyn's blog. Check the link!

I'm glad we are getting rain instead of snow. For now...

Additions

I cannot believe that it snowed so much right before Easter! I was out there snow blowing the driveway the day before Easter! What a crazy place this is!

We dropped 5 more trees this weekend. Our yard is such a mess! It's a good thing we don't have any grass to mess up!

I added videos and pictures of coloring eggs and the trees/backyard if you want to check out the links on the side.

And be sure to check out Robyn's give-away link. It is an awesome vinyl lettering product. I would love to have one of these!

After getting all the kids lunch, I left C in her chair while I did dishes. J came running down saying he needed help getting his ball. I asked him to wait a minute and he said it couldn't wait. He is usually a pretty patient kid, so I said, and I quote, "I'm only getting it down for you one time J. You can't throw it on top of things." "That's not the problem, mommy." I get up to C room, and the vent cover was up. That's not a good sign. I couldn't see it with a flashlight, and couldn't reach it. I told them it was gone. Oh the wailing that ensued! They were just distraught. J asked me where it went and I said tube goes to the furnace. He made me show him the furnace. After seeing the vent and the ducts, he composed himself and said that it would be okay, because it wasn't possible for it to roll that far without a hill. Are you sure you are 6?! Brad and I needed to get the vents cleaned anyway since it is a foreclosure and probably hasn't been done in the 3 yrs it was abandoned, so we made an appointment for Monday. Brad was the hero and tonight reached it himself. We are still getting the vents cleaned. :)

Our dinner

I usually make green food for St Patricks day. Appetizing, huh. :)

Hi grandma!

I have a really cool link that I'm adding to my blog. It is Brad's mom on her local news station. Next to the article (above her picture) is a video of the interview. At the end of the article, it mentions that she wears feathers in her hair (she is Cherokee). All this time I've been married to Brad, I didn't know it was to honor her mother. You learn something new everyday! It was also fun seeing the Indian Head penny she always wears. I should ask her what that is representing. We sure love her and miss her lots.

http://www.newson6.com/global/story.asp?s=8000218

More Monster fun

Today was rough. D doesn't have school due to parent/teacher conferences. J woke up complaining of a sore throat. I asked him to drink some milk. Still hurt. I asked if he wanted to go to the doctor or school and he chose doctor. That's a first. So, I figured I should keep him home. It wasn't a good day for it though.

C had her 15 mo appointment this morning. I had scheduled it for today thinking both boys would be in school. No such luck. It was harder than the dentist episode last week. I told the doctor she needed to get a baby run (similar to a dog run) so babies walk around all they want. Seriously, she was so hard to contain. She kept running off in her diaper. Cute, but not a good idea. It didn't help that the boys kept opening the door, fighting over toys, and in general making my life difficult. In between discipling boys, the doctor, who I really love, and I were able to talk about C. She is 31.3 in long which is 75% up from 30.5 in and 77%. Her head is 47 cm and 79% up from 46.4 cm and 69%. And finally,the much anticipated weight. She was 22 lb 15 oz and 52%. Last month she was 22 lb 8 oz and 53%. She has only gained 1 pound (exactly) since her 9 month appointment. Wow. But, the last few months, she's been holding steady around the 53%, so I'm finally going to stop worrying about that. We also talked about her 3 day Captain Crunch obsesession. She said that as long as over time, C has a healthy diet, not to worry about some glitches like that. I'm glad I didn't panic!

End of the story

Just because I'm sure you are all dying to know what happened with C and her Captain Crunch addiction, I thought I'd share. I kept doing the same thing I had been doing. Offering her what we were having. Having her refuse it and scream at me until I made her say please and she got her Captain Crunch. And guess what, she got over it herself. She didn't even ask for any today. She probably got sick of it. hahaha Anyway, she is back to eating table food with us. I appreciate all of the comments and thoughts though. She got over it all on her own. For the record though, I am a mom who gives my kids sugar cereals. I know I won't win any parent awards for that, but I'm not ashamed of it either. My kids do a great job of eating their vegetables (really, I'm not lying) and they also enjoy a variety of ethnic foods most kids aren't even exposed to. With all of my fears and concerns about my children and their health and well-being, giving them cereal in the morning isn't making my short list. I'm sure at some point, when I manage my sleep better and get up early enough to cook a breakfast, that will change. But now isn't that time for me. I hope it is some day soon, but I'm not holding my breath.

C

After Brad got home and we ate dinner, we all went on a walk. It was quite cold, but we all had fun. The boys drove a Jeep. They put their webkinz they got for J's bday in the trunk. When we had driven for a little while, they stopped and switched places (without our suggestion), and switched the animals in the truck as well. It was so adorable.

C has an addiction to Captain Crunch. I'm not even kidding. She goes crazy for them. I can't get her to eat anything else. I might consider just letting her get hungry until she eats whatever I give her, but I'm already uncomfortable with her dropping from the 95% to 53%. How tough should I get with her? I'll give her a grilled cheese sandwich and she'll scream. I get her out of her high chair and she'll run over to the Crunch and cry and cry until she gets it. With her lack of weight gain I'm scared to get into a huge food fight with her. Do I just wait for her to get over this addiction?

Dental happenings

Oh what a day.

We woke up to more snow, probably a few inches, but of course, no school delays. After taking the boys to school, C and I headed over to Meijer to get some stuff. I have a baby shower to attend and J's school party coming up. Yipes! C was not happy to be at the store. Oh was she hollering! The stares we were getting! I would let her walk around for a little while. She looked at the fish while I bought clothes for the shower. It freaked a lady out because she didn't see me. I had to get C when she wouldn't leave the dog biscuits alone. Yum. So, when I could, I would let her wander around. Someone asked how old she is and when I said 15 months, she said, "Wow, she is so small!" I don't think any of my kids have ever been called small.

After much screaming and what felt like years, we made it through Meijer. I went home and unloaded the van. I left C in her car seat since I was outside with her anyway. Then, with her still in the car seat, I cleared off the driveway with the snow blower. I can't believe how much faster that is! It is remarkable! We should have bought one sooner! I got 3/4 of the way done when the 1st snow blower died. Presumably out of gas. I got out the second and didn't get much further before it also died. Oops. I'll need to learn how to add gas soon. I finished the little remaining with a shovel and did the renters walkway. Our road was plowed... the whole thing. I don't know who did it. The county? Did our neighbors pay someone? Don't know, but I'm grateful. By the time I got done (10 minutes?) C was asleep in the van. We got J, I came home and put the groceries away and shoveled the front walk.

After getting D and Brittany we came home for a little while. Then, about 10 minutes before 1, I remember that Jaden has a dentist appointment at 1. Talk about a HLM (hand of the Lord moment). I wouldn't have just remembered that out of the blue. Thankfully, we got there in time (it is super close to our house). J was as jumpy and anxious as ever to have his teeth cleaned. He asked me to go in with him. Yeah, with D and C. Stressful! C won't sit still and D hasn't mastered that either. Then, because they had a cancellation, we did D too. He was much less nervous, but he has never had traumatic dental experiences either. All in all, it wasn't as bad as it could have been considering we had 3 kids in a small room with lots of equipment and wires. There were no cavities in either boy. J has about 4 teeth in various stages of looseness. He has 2 of his 6 yr molars in. My baby is growing so fast!

Brad was on call last night and didn't make it home until close to 1 am. Poor guy. This is his last week of surgery, then it is Cardiology for 4 weeks.

TOFW

Oh, there is so much to update!

Friday it was snowing. A lot. Syd got stuck and couldn't make it to Time Out For Women. We were soooo bummed. We started driving to Chicago and saw probably 15 cars off the road. The tow truck guys must have been so thrilled. On the way, we stopped at a chocolate shop. They sold truffles. I bought dark chocolate/mint. Heaven. We also stopped at Applebee's for lunch. They let me have 2 George of the Jungle cups for free. The boys were thrilled when I brought them home. Between driving slow for the snow, the insane Chicago traffic, and the food stops, we got there a later than planned. Because we had some people who couldn't make it, we cancelled one of the rooms. It was nice that they let us. I was stressed about that! We got settled into the rooms, and went for dinner. I had gotten sick from reading maps and all the traffic, so I didn't eat much. Then we went over for the night program. I was able to sell Syd's ticket out front. I was pretty lucky, there was a lady next to me giving hers away. But a group of 3 gals came up each needing a ticket. Worked out well!


That night we gathered in one of the rooms and played Apples to Apples and Perudo. We were up past midnight and got up at 6. We were a little tired. The next day we checked out and had breakfast before the talks. Merrilee Boyack gave an amazing talk on service. I loved it. Then we heard from Camille Fronk Olson. The singers, Cherie Call and Hilary Weeks did a great job too. We had lunch and then heard from Dean Hughes, Jane Clayson Johnson, and Carolyn Rasmus. I got a great book at the store. It is "The Ten Virgins" which is my favorite parable. And the pictures are done by Simon Dewey, who is phenomenal. It is a gorgeous book. I love the pictures. I got the CD that goes with it (there is a musical you can do with it) but the wrong CD was in the case. How weird is that?! I've never had that happen before. They are sending me a new one.

After it was all over, we went to a place called Smoque for some seriously yummy BBQ. Oh my! It was great! Definitely worth the trip. We got home around 11. It was a fun weekend. I'm so glad I went. The women all seemed to really enjoy it.