Where to begin?

We have had a crazy busy weekend (and even a little more than that). Its hard to decide where exactly to begin, but I think I'll start with Thursday. The day was beautiful, there was LOTS to do around the house, and the case load at work had been pretty light due to Spring Break for a lot of the doctors. I decided to give work a call and let it be known that if I wasn't needed, I would be glad to stay home. Luckily, they made my day and told me, "stay home!". I had already asked for Friday off to get ready for the Stone Church Preschool PTA garage sale (that took place on Saturday). I thought to myself, "awesome, 4 full days off, I'm going to get so much done!" As the days went by, I realized that wouldn't exactly be the case. Anyway, I digress. Thursday was a beautiful day. Jeff had gotten back home from work and we were anxious to play outside once Adrianne got done with school. I spent the morning with Callum at the school sorting and pricing lots of other people's junk dropped of for the sale. That afternoon, at lunch time, we decided to give baby food a try with Callum. We started with sweet peas. We got the bib on Cal, put him in the high chair and gave it a go. This is the reaction we got :

"Peas are gross!"

After fighting through the gagging and crying every time the peas touched his tongue, Jeff suggested trying some carrots. I thought to myself, "they probably won't work, this is probably just his reaction to food, but we'll give it a try" Luckily we did because this is the the reaction we got from them:

Success!

After we cleaned up lunch, we headed outside to soak up some of the beautiful sunshine and warm weather. Adrianne had a blast running through Jeff's garden (the start of his garden, that is). We worked on kicking the soccer ball, played t-ball and got on the swing. Callum even joined us for the swinging, but this time he was much less impressed. He didn't last too long in it, I believe he was taken to his bed shortly after that and crashed out for a nap. Adrianne has taken an interest in scaring the life out of me by kicking her legs up as high as she can so that she all but dumps out of the swing, and when I panic and rush tocatch her she cracks up laughing. I'm telling you, it was just hilarious, really. (please note the sarcasm)

Adrianne giving me a panic attack (by now I knew what to expect, so I took a picture)

A couple of cuties!

"This was a lot more fun the last time!"

Running through daddy's garden

Now, onto Friday. Adrianne has done an excellent job with all of the changes a baby brother brings to the house. Lately however, she's been having a little bit of a struggle with the lack of attention from Jeff and I, and extra fussing from Callum. Jeff and I kind of got a wake up call that she needs a little more from us than we've been giving her, so we're trying to fix that. Friday morning I spent the morning working on the sale and Jeff held down the fort with Adrianne and Callum. At lunchtime I came home and we all went to Crown Center for their Fairy Tale Village exhibit and plans to eat at Fritz's restaurant. Apparently, it was such a good idea, that everyone else in the greater KC metro area did the same thing. The place was packed with people and the line for Fritz's was super long. We opted out of waiting there, and just grabbed some sandwiches and pizza from da'bronx. After lunch we headed to the exhibit which was also very busy. Adrianne was a little timid because of all the people, but still had a good time going from house to house checking out all the different sights. They had all kinds of stops ranging from the 3 bears house to Cinderella's carriage. I followed her around everywhere she wanted to go, and she loved that. After the Fairy Tale exhibit, we stopped at the candy store and let Adie pick out some of her favorite sugary treats. (great idea, I know) It sure did make her day. I will have to say, I think she's been hanging around her Grandpa Johnson a little too much because her choices of candy are sub-par. She filled her bag with black licorice and candy corn. Jeff and I had to toss some of our favorites in there just so we could sneak a few bites of something we'd enjoy. After loading up on candy and princesses, we headed home so that I could start baking for the bake sale (at the same time as the garage sale). I baked the entire evening and completely destroyed my kitchen. After I got it all picked up and put back together, I crashed in bed, knowing that I had to be up bright and early the next morning.

Adrianne and her daddy on our way Crown Center. (we had to park 3 blocks away because the garage was full. By the time we had parked and walked down, the garage was open again. Isn't that just our luck!)

Adrianne bursting with excitement to check out the Village

Riding in Cinderella's carriage

Callum tolerated the Fairy Tale Village very well!

Adrianne warping out from all her candy

Adie and daddy (looks like the candy's kicking in)

Adrianne and I

Enter Saturday. Saturday morning, I got up at 6:00 am to be to the garage sale at 7:00 in order to get it ready to open at 8:00. I woke up, took a shower, then glanced out the window. "oh great, the weather people were right, we got snow dumped on us" I thought to myself. The snow made for a wonderful day for a garage sale. I spent the whole day there, and only about 30 people came through. We had tons of tables filled with stuff, and it had to be gone on Saturday by 4:00. No body was coming through, and we still hadn't found anyone to come by and pick everything up. I was panicking a little bit. At the last minute, we got ahold of the Disabled American Veteran's and they were able to come by and collect everything that didn't sell. I don't know if they knew what they were in for, but they got a heck of a load from us. Jeff and Adrianne came up to the sale at about noon, brought me lunch, and hung out with me for the rest of the time until we were all done loading up the DAV truck. I was so grateful to have them there with me to help pass the time. After we were all done, we picked up Callum from MeMe and PaPa's house and headed home until dinner time. We met Jeremy, Christy and Emily for dinner, which was really nice. We enjoyed visiting with them. When we were done, I think we were all ready to crash. It had been a long day for all of us. I don't usually have any trouble falling asleep, but Saturday night, I really didn't have any trouble!

This brings us to Sunday. Today. Because we've been so busy, we spent the day today trying to reclaim our house. Jeff tackled the bathroom and I folded the most laundry I have ever folded at one time. Here's proof!

Yikes!

Since we still have a bunch of snow on the ground, Jeff took Adrianne out for one last (hopefully) day in the snow. They built a snowman and had a snowball fight. I stayed in side with Callum and made some hot chocolate on the stove for them when they got done. Adrianne loved drinking her hot cocoa out of a coffee cup. She thought she was such a grown up!

The finished product!

Now-do you see what I mean? This weekend has been a lot of fun, a lot of work, and very busy. I am a little bit glad to have a low key, very little plans kind of week this week. It will give us all a chance to breathe!

Here's a couple pictures of Callum too. He recently found his tongue and his newest thing has been sticking it out and moving it all around. He also screeches at the top of his lungs while he's got his tongue stuck out. Its hilarious! Stay tuned for some video, we're trying to capture it but every time we pull out the camera, he doesn't cooperate.

And here's a cute one from today. Jeff put Cal in his diaper box, it sounds a little strange, but he loved it!

That's all for now, I hope everyone enjoys their week!

Soccerballin'

Tonight was Adrianne's first practice for her first organized sport. She has been excited to start playing soccer since we first mentioned it, and today the excitement was more than she could handle. Once we got to practice, her nerves kicked in a little bit and she was a little reluctant to jump in and play. After just a little warming up, she got right in with the other kids and had a great time. Today's high temperature was 50 something degrees so when I left work to make it to practice on time, it seemed pretty nice out. By the time we got to practice, it was much cooler and kept with that trend as the night went on. Because I got home from work just in time to jump back in the car and head to practice, we neglected to bring a coat or hat for Callum. We had him bundled up in the carseat with his blanket and cover and figured he'd be fine during the practice time that way. Callum had other plans. He wanted to get out and see what was going on so we had to improvise. Adrianne had a hat for practice that lasted about 10 minutes. Since she didn't want to wear it, I put it on Callum, wrapped him up in the blanket and papoose-d him inside my coat. He just loved watching the kids run around and play. Our friends Luke and Jamie are coaching the team, and we are so grateful that they are taking it on. The kids were all very excited to be outside playing and running and not so much excited to listen to Luke or try to have some sort of organized play. Luke did a great job trying to get some basics in but overall, it was kind of a free-for-all. After it was all said and done, Adrianne got in the car and wanted to know the next time she'd be able to play soccerball again. I'm so glad she's having such a great time and can't wait to watch the fun week after week.

starting the kids out running a lap

Look at that concentration!

Adrianne cheesing, when she was supposed to be kicking the ball back and forth.

This was her asking me if she "won". Of course I told her yes.

Look how happy that made her!

Finally some fresh air

I think we all know the weather has been less than desirable the past several months. Last week however, we got a glorious, wonderful, amazing break from the dread with some 60 degree weather. Callum usually has a cover on his carseat with only a small window for him to see out of. Since it was so nice out, we took it off and it was like he was seeing the world for the first time. He loved being able to look out the windows in the car. He especially enjoyed being able to feel the fresh air when we walked to and from the car.

Adrianne was able to get outside with Jeff to "help" him work in the yard. She had a blast playing with her bubbles and digging in the dirt. The goggles she has on leave many minds curious, but I believe she picked up the idea from a commercial she saw for goggles that make bubbles look 3-D. If that isn't the reason, then I have no idea. I do know that it makes for a great picture!

We met up at the park with Nate, Michele and June. This was Callum's first time going and he decided he loves being outside. The kids had such a good time running, climbing, sliding and swinging. I think they have missed it and are definitely ready for more days like it. Callum got in the swing for the first time. The first attempt went a little rough. I put him in, let go to push, and before I could start pushing he leaned forward with his arms by his side and slammed his nose into the edge of the swing. Needless to say, he wasn't too happy. I got him out, calmed him down and after a while, gave the swing another try. This time, being much more careful, he LOVED it. He smiled the whole time. I'm thinking he'll want to do that again the next time we go.

Lately, the weather has kind of gone back to the normal chilly grey yucky stuff but I know blue skies and sunshine are coming back to stay soon. Until then, we'll just remember the great time we had.

Here we go...

I have been wanting to, and meaning to, sit down and start a blog on this site for quite some time. Because we have been cutting costs and saving money everywhere we can, we have eliminated our old site along with our own web address and website. I have lots of friends who use and enjoy this site, so I'm going to give this a go. I can't remember the last time I gave an update about our family, so if I leave something out or repeat something, please forgive.

The month of February was a whirlwind. Not only do we have about 300 birthdays to celebrate (and important ones too, not just friends or acquaintances) our family battled illness the entire month. There was not a single day that there wasn't someone in my family on some kind of anti-biotic. It all started with Adrianne, who brought home an upper respiratory infection and croup from school. (I'm not 100% sure school was the culprit, but its an easy thing to blame, so I'm going with it) She and I were sick the week before her birthday and I focused on getting us well in time for her birthday festivities. Then, Callum woke up coughing. Jeff and I both looked at each other with a kind of "oh crap" look in our eyes, and we headed off to urgent care to try and get to it early enough so that it didn't get too bad. HA! We went, they listened, and they sent us home. All that was presenting itself at that time was an upper respiratory infection, which was nothing too bad to worry about. The week carried on (now the week of Adie's birthday), and he maintained the sickies which I thought were just par for the course. Finally after a night of coughing and crying, I took him to our doc. Turns out the upper respiratory infection was now RSV. I thought to myself, "oh crap, babies get put in the hospital for that stuff." Thankfully, the doc thought he'd be just fine at home and gave us a list of things to watch for. He sounded terrible, acted like he felt horrible, and made me worry even more than I usually do. There was nothing to be done for him though, so we just watched him closely and took advantage of all the cuddles. As the week passed on, he was in much better shape and Jeff and I breathed a collective sigh of relief. At some point, Jeff acquired a sinus infection and felt pretty crummy too, but when there are a couple of sick kiddos in the house, the sick mommies and daddies are left to fend for themselves. Thus, I don't remember much of his junk. Both the kids were doing alright for about a week or so, and then Adrianne spiked a fever and was feeling achy and weak. Off to the doc we went again where we discovered she had a sinus and ear infection and throat that looked "streppy".

Adrianne in the midst of her sinus, strep and ear infection. Poor baby looks miserable.

We got some medicine, and headed home. When we got home, we pulled out the medicine to get her started and the minute it touched her tongue, everything in her stomach came up (all over my kitchen). We cleaned her up, gave her a drink and I got another dose ready. This time I threatened her with everything she cared about not to throw up again. Well, sometimes even the fear of your mother (believe me I'm pretty scary) can't stop the puking, and on our second try, the same thing happened. At this point I was on the phone with the doc pleading for a new prescription. I stopped for a second to imagine a week of doing that twice a day...and what I could imagine wasn't pretty. Thankfully, they gave us something else, and it went over much better. Every time it was time to give it to her, she had to make sure it wasn't the old medicine. She recovered and was feeling much better. Since she was feeling better, it was about time for something with Callum to go wrong again, and it did. Over the weekend I had noticed him really rubbing at one of his ears and fussing a lot. I made him an appointment at our doc (again, to our doc's office, by this time they had seats reserved with our name on them in the waiting room). I was just sure they were going to look in his ears, see something infected give us an anti-biotic and send us on our way. Negative. They looked in his ears, and they looked fine, but when they listened to his lungs, they informed me that he sounded terrible. I had no idea. I felt like the worst mother in America. Well, maybe not America, but at least our city. They gave him a breathing treatment in the office and sent us to get an x-ray of his lungs to check for pneumonia. Jeff met me at the x-ray place and took Callum back for the x-ray. The minute I sent just Jeff back, and stayed to wait in the waiting room, I regretted it. I needed to be there... to help, to see, to know. I waited nervously and kept thinking, "I could just ask to go back" but stopped myself reminding myself that Jeff was more than capable of handling it on his own and that they'd be right out. That worked until I could hear Callum screaming from the waiting room. In that instant I jumped up, gathered our things and went back to cuddle my crying boy. Apparently for infants, they have to put them into a harness like contraption in order to keep them still, and funny enough, babies (callum in particular) hate it. Jeff had to hold his arms up and assist in the torture, so you can all imagine how he felt about it. We all recovered from the trauma and headed home to find out that there was no pnemonia, and we were just to proceed with a z-pack and breathing treatments 4 times a day. At first, we had to fight him through the entire treatment, but as the days went on he either got more used to them or just admitted defeat and tolerated them. Most of the time he would crash out to a coma like sleep about 2 minutes into each treatment.

Mommy and Callum getting the breathing treatment over with

Anyway, both Adrianne and Callum have returned to good health and we are leaving the illness in our dust. Please lets all do a collective knock on wood to ensure I won't eat my words later. Whew.

In the midst of the sickness, the birthday celebrations continued. It was still Adrianne's birthday and that could not go unnoticed. On her birthday, we had family over to our house for a lasagna dinner and cake.

The following Saturday we had a birthday party for her friends at Lakeside Nature Center which is a really neat facility with tons of native Missouri animals. The people who work there brought in 3 animals to show the kids and gave little explanations about each one. Adrianne had a blast, and I think the other kids did too. Needless to say, she was once again sufficiently spoiled and is super proud to be 4!

Callum is now 5 months old and learning more and more everyday. He loves to lay down on the play mat and roll from side to side. He's not yet ready to roll over onto his belly, or sit up completely by himself.

Callum Boy doing what he loves the most

Those are the things we are working on. He chatters all the time and love love loves to watch Adrianne run around like a wild woman. If Adrianne or Flint are in the room at any given time, everyone else might as well forget trying to get his attention. He's fascinated by both of them. No one else can make him laugh like Adrianne does, and its one of my favorite things about having two kids, watching the way he loves her and the way she loves him. I expect them to do that forever and ever and I don't want anyone to tell me they'll grow out of it.

Adrianne is still loving preschool and everything that goes along with it. She loves it when she's the "helper" and looks forward to playing with all her friends there. She has begun reading simple books. We read together every night as much as her attention span can tolerate, and I'm amazed by how she can sound out words and put sentences together. She begins practice tomorrow for her first season of "soccerball" (as she calls it). She's looking forward to it, but is disappointed that the shirts are baby blue. "I really wanted a violet shirt" she told me today. I tried to explain to her that we just don't get to pick those things. Her games will be every Saturday for 8 weeks. Jeff and I can't wait to watch her and the other kids do their best to figure out the sport.

Jeff and I have begun finding ways to minimize most aspects of our life. He is going full speed ahead with a garden in our back yard and spends most weekends working on something for it. This past weekend he built a composter and is now working on the fencing he's going to put around our little vegetable and fruit garden. He found somebody off of Craig's List looking to get rid of a lot of different kinds of wood. Jeff went over to take some of it off his hands and has used it to build everything he needs for the garden. I'm so proud of him for being so resourceful and for being so passionate about his new project. So far he has built a rain barrel system, a composter and set posts for the garden area. He has a lot of work still to go, but he's making progress every chance he gets. If you want to read more about his endeavors check out his blog, www.missouriminimalist.blogspot.com

I think this is probably enough info for now. I hope to be able to keep this up, but as we know from past experiences, I make no guarantees.