B had two t-ball games this week. As was expected, it has been windy and cold...not my idea of t-ball weather. (I can now just begin to appreciate the time my mom and dad spent out in the cold watching me play my sports. It is great when it is warm, but overcast, cold, windy and some rain and snow.....you want to be moving around, not sitting.) B is having a good time!




My week with 2 extra kids started catching up to me today. The last 2 days I have had a third child (while his mom worked) during the days. Crazy stuff. We have all survived and every morning everyone sleeps in a little longer. Marquis had baseball games opposite days from B, so between getting home from school, doing homework, getting everyone fed and then out the door to baseball, there is not much time for anything else. Sure gives me a taste of what it will be like next year if both boys play - one in t-ball and one in rookie. Their mom is suppose to be back by the end of the school day on Friday (unless a snow storm delays them...yes, spring up north).
I did somehow manage to keep the house somewhat clean!!

I am going to be helping a friend of a friend out this summer with some catering events. She puts the crew together and hopefully there will be some parties, etc to work most weekends. I have my first 'gig' this Saturday night for a few hours. Not tons of hours but enough to get me out of the house. Sounds like it will be a lot of setting up, serving, refilling, etc...just up my alley.

Other than a t-ball game and a few hours of work, a quiet weekend. I am ready.

The boys got small kites for Easter. (JB got one too, he was just sleeping when this one was taken).


We first took them out into the field behind our house. Then we loaded up the bikes and bike trailer and all headed to the Middle School. The boys had a blast. The older two have learned how to start their own kite, which cuts down on my work. The boys would let out about 10-20 feet worth of string and just run and run and run.

JB and JR decided it was much easier to just lay back and watch it.....

B got smart at one point and jumped on his bike while holding the kite. That was fine until he lost his wind and the string got all tangled up in the bike.

JB loved holding the string and regardless of how close you were to him, when he let the string go, you knew it. He would scream and jump up and down. I would tell him to run after it and he would bend down to try to grab it and the wind would push it further along. There were several times I picked him up as I ran to get it and he laughed pretty hard at that.

Since they were not a huge investment, they don't hold up real well. I will definitely buy a few more to last us the summer. No better way to burn energy than running up and down a field as Mom can sit back and watch.

Easter weekend was beautiful!!! On Saturday we rode our bikes to a local park where a church had an egg hunt. My favorite hunt because they conclude with the resurrection story told with the Resurrection Eggs.

I taught Children's Church on Easter and the kids did a short Easter Presentation. Afterwards we came home and had a snacky lunch. I have decided it is too much work to cook the all out Easter dinner. Especially given my boys do not yet appreciate it! Maybe one of these days they will eat ham, creamy potatoes and green bean casserole. (Anytime we have the 'traditional' meal, they eat rolls and dessert.)
A friend from church was having a neighborhood egg hunt, so went over there. It was the most organized thing I have ever seen. Kids had very specific colored eggs they were looking for. All the eggs were stuffed accordingly based on ages. Each kid found 10 eggs. Poor JB got so confused. He would find an egg and put it in his basket. I would tell him it is the wrong color and then I would take it out of his basket. Then he would find the right color, I would put it in his basket and then he would take it out.

I spent the better part of Easter evening cleaning the playroom carpet. JR painted some pictures on the climbing wall for our Super Hero loving boys.

Somebody did not put the paint away. Little hands got into the washable green paint! There was a spot about 2 feet x 2 feet on our carpet - it was saturated. It took me about 1.5 hours with our small steam spot cleaner to get it up. The verdict is still out. There is still a slight green tint, but sure blends better now than it did before all of my elbow grease.

We picked up the two boys today that will be staying with us for the week. Looking forward to having them.

Probably my most favorite song at Easter.....The CROSS - just one of the many things that says LOVE - God's unconditional love! Of course thankful for the cross, but also thankful for the EMPTY TOMB and the victory it brings!

ON A HILL FAR AWAY
On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,
the emblem of suffering and shame;
and I love that old cross where the dearest and best
for a world of lost sinners was slain.

Refrain:
So I'll cherish the old rugged cross,
till my trophies at last I lay down;
I will cling to the old rugged cross,
and exchange it some day for a crown.

O that old rugged cross, so despised by the world,
has a wondrous attraction for me;
for the dear Lamb of God left his glory above
to bear it to dark Calvary.
(Refrain)

In that old rugged cross, stained with blood so divine,
a wondrous beauty I see,
for 'twas on that old cross Jesus suffered and died,
to pardon and sanctify me.
(Refrain)

To that old rugged cross I will ever be true,
its shame and reproach gladly bear;
then he'll call me some day to my home far away,
where his glory forever I'll share.
(Refrain)

JB did great on Wednesday with the ear tubes. The ENT said there was quite a bit of fluid behind his right ear. My guess is, his first tube only stayed in for a week and then came out. Everyone at the hospital was amazed how well he did. The anesthesiologist took JB from me and walked off. JB did cry a little later when he accidently saw me down the hallway. I did remember the camera this time!





He has been to speech twice since his surgery and both times he has had an awesome session. The first one she heard over 30 imitation sounds, more than any previous session. Let's hope things continue on!

B is out of school Friday and Monday. Therefore his class had their Easter egg hunt yesterday. Every child was to bring in 1 doz filled plastic eggs. She needed volunteers to hide them, so I volunteered. I headed out with 26 doz. eggs. I did not know of any others helping, so I called a friend who met me over at the park. We ran around like crazy for 15 minutes hiding eggs all of this park. About the time the kids were to show up, my phone rang. It was the teacher and I was at the wrong park. Yes, I had hid 26 doz eggs and now I needed to go gather them all up. It was a big park/area, but fortunately, not a lot of really good hiding places. Most eggs were very easy to see as you got close. I recruited two other people and we got them all gathered up in about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, the kids happily played in the light rain at the other park. When I showed up, some parents were humored and some not so much. Oh well. We got them all 'hid' on a baseball field and the kids did not seem to mind a bit. They were just excited to be out running and finding stuff. (To my credit, I came back home and pulled out both of the notes the teacher had sent home about the egg hunt. The first one said it was at the fire dept park. The second one said it was at the ballfield park. I guess when that first note came home I just put it in my head it was at the fire dept park and never thought about it again.) Needless to say, I think in the coming years, I will volunteer to help hide eggs but I will not be the parent that shows up with them!

Monday is the first t-ball game. Monday is also the day the other two boys will come and stay the week with us. Should be pretty low key (commitment/meeting) week but lots of running around town, picking up kids, doing therapies, baseball, homework, etc.

FINALLY got a good family photo - of course before haircuts.

This kiddo needs a haircut.

So does this kiddo.

(Although his hair always look ragtag when he has slept on it because he loses his curls.)

I had said I would not give either a haircut until something happens. Well, IT finally happened.


B finally lost his first tooth. Once he lost that first tooth, the one right next to it was loose. B wanted the other tooth out, so dad grabbed the pliers. By the end of the day, he had lost 2 teeth!



He finally got to use this, a gift for his 6th birthday from his Granny.



So, as much as I did not want to, I did IT.





The two of them watching Beauty and the Beast. JB did awesome. Did not utter a word and did not move much at all.



He looks like such a big boy and amazed how narrow his face looks. I actually see some of B in him.

In other news, JB went back to ENT. Now the PA on Friday told us his ears were clear and it looked like the tube was in but protruding out. Today, the doc said there is fluid in the ear and the tube is laying (stuck to) the eardrum. The tube has come out. It happens in about 1% of the cases and in this case, our child is in the 1% category. So, they had a cancellation for Wed, so we are going back in to have them redone. At least this time around it should be even shorter because it is the gas mask and not general anesthesia. Last time when we got to the hospital I was kicking myself that I did not have my camera. I guess I get a second chance to take pictures of him in his little hospital gown.

Took JB to the ENT yesterday. As I pulled into the parking lot, I remembered Fridays are his surgery days, so knew we would be seeing the Physician's Assistant. After looking in his ears, she had no explanation why the right ear is still testing as a normal ear drum (as opposed to one that has a hole/tube in it). She said it looked like it was starting to pull out a little bit (like what you would expect 9 months after insertion), but that it still appeared to be through the ear drum. She and I went back and forth. I told her I have done 2 rounds of the ear drops and he always let me willingly put them in, so I did not feel like it was a matter of them not getting in. She kept saying the only explanation she had was the tube was plugged with fluid. She suggested we do another round of ear drops and come back in 2 weeks. Fine. Then as I was checking out, she stepped out and said, can you come back on Monday and let the Doc look at it. I would feel better if he looked at it. Sure. So, I guess on Monday the Doc can put a puff of air in his ear (the PA was not very good at this procedure she said so she did not try it) and see what the ear drum does. Either way, it does not seem to bother JB. JB actually has some upper respritory stuff right now and neither of his ears are fluid filled or infected, so probably a good sign. It just bothers me that there does not seem to be an explanation to this problem (other than they think I am not putting drops in).

Last night was our homemade pizza for dinner night. The boys did really well helping this time.
a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBlrOf9M2ZGaESHTfHipTHb8IHhfuUuqmS4UgDPftl5rGivjKIJ-l3Sgn-jYGj2t3gQ0ZMUftcI9dHpjdqwXXeCWwUUg_dFKdmZQKrhIBgIJpzpvzcONodx47AypqhybSkSqBhCOoIlw/s1600/pizza+and+crib+007.jpg">
It is nice that they are getting old enough to actually be productive help with certain tasks.

This morning I turned them loose on the old CD player. We have probably taken about 25 screws out and they are amazed how many more screws there are. Jbird has decided while B works on the CD player, that he will go and take off all the lightswitch plates. All I know is they are entertained and working on those fine motor skills. Would be nice if in a couple of years they were able to make sense of it all and build things.

B has never eaten a hot lunch at school. He always takes his lunch from home. I usually send a sandwich, chips and then one or two other fun things (granola bar, cookie, etc). I have always been able to monitor how much he eats cause his trash always came back home. I guess he got tired of me commenting about how he does not eat all of his sandwich but eats everything else. So he has gotten smart and throws all his trash away at school. I can only hope he is eating everything and not throwing things away. As for eating and Jbird, he is my messy eater. He no longer asks for napkins but goes straight for a wet washcloth.

Marquis, the friend we take to AWANA and Sunday School, and his 3 year old brother are going to be spending 4 nights (school nights) with us. Their mom has the opportunity to take a trip with her parents, so we are taking the kids. We will have t-ball/baseball every night, have 5 kids to get out the door by 8am, do homework and take two kids to therapy appts twice a week. It will be very chaotic, but really looking forward to having them in our home. They come the Monday after Easter through that Friday.

Off to see what damage has been done with screwdrivers.

We have finally pulled out all the bikes and put up most of the winter gear. (It is never safe to put it all away, as we can get snow 12 months out of the year.) These were taken on a recent nice day.

I love the tongue in the next picture.

JB was down yesterday with a fever and has another cold.

JR and B both went to the eye doctor yesterday. B has no problems with his eyes, but JR needs bi-focals. JR is quick to tell me that I am older than him but now I have one more way in which to tell him that I may be older in years, but my body certainly thinks it is younger.

Had first t-ball practice. Went pretty well. The team appears divided, as far as boys and girls. Will be interesting to see how B does this year, being one of the older ones. Hopefully the leader in him will emerge.

Took JB back to the audiologist to test his right ear. She is still getting the same reading, indicating that there is something wrong with the tube (either it is not actually in or still plugged - not likely it is still plugged because we are still doing ear drops). We have a post op appt with ENT on Friday.

On Sunday afternoon we had a scout outing with our Den. We went to visit the local University's Research and Teaching Farm. I had always known it was there but had not a clue what they do. Now I do. They have horses, sheep and cows. We got to meet two of their very special 'science' cows. These 2 cows have a canula inserted into them. It is about as big as a frisbee, with two identical sides, kind of put together. In the middle is a plug that can be popped out. One side of the canula is sewn into the cow's hide and the other side of the canula is sewn into the stomach wall. Yep, you guessed it. You pop the ol' plug out and you can see directly into the cow's stomach. Some of the scouts donned shoulder length gloves and reached on in. My boys could not bring themselves to do that, so of course, mom did not want to show them up, so I declined too. Everyone kept saying how warm (it's about 100 degrees inside their stomach) and squishy it was. Just looked like lots of watered down hay. The two cows are so big, 1800 pounds, that a few days before our arrival one of them got stuck in the walkway on the way to the chute. So, the lady showing us around had not fed the cow we saw in about 24 hours. Amazing how much stuff was still in her stomach. There are several different ways these science cows are used. If a rancher has a cow that has some stomach issues (diahrrea), the rancher can bring a thermos to the University farm and get a thermos full of good gut material to take back and inject into his sick cow's stomach. They will also take these 2 science cows, empty out their stomaches, then send them out to pasture with different grains. Then after a few hours, bring them back in to see which grains were preferred. They also use them to test minerals, etc. It was all very interesting. We went and saw the sheep too. They each have a numbered electronic tag in their left ear. Their feed is set up so that it sits on a scale and only one can eat at a time. So, anytime one eats, the number of the animal, the amount eaten and how quickly, all pop up immediately on a computer screen. Here are a few pictures. Here is all the kids standing in the chute. This is where the animal is contained for testing or for them to weigh them before giving meds. Here is a side view of the canula. Here is a kid sticking his hand inside the cow. Here is a close up of the canula. Could not really get a good shot of the cows showing there size.... The only time that B puts on his uniform is for a scout event. So, he does not wear it often. There have been a few times though, either before or after an event, that we were out in public. The comments we get from people when they see his uniform is amazing. Almost similar to what I would expect a military person to receive. So many of the comments are along the lines of 'good for you', 'stick with it', 'what an honor to wear that uniform', 'hope you make Eagle someday', 'takes a special person to wear that uniform'. It makes me proud to see him wearing it. He has decided to continue on next year. I am very glad for this.

A quiet week!

JB has made some breakthroughs with speech. This week he started twice a week. The therapist is hearing more and different sounds, just not on demand - which is the goal. He is babbling a lot more at home too. This past week he mastered the 'f' sound while trying to blow out a candle. As the therapist said, he needs to realize that sounds come from air moving out, so we are getting baby steps. Still he does not have any intentional words, although we are getting a few intentional sounds.

Several weeks ago I noticed JB was pooping so decided to put him on the toilet. He loves sitting on the potty now. I don't know that we have timed things right yet for him to be productive, but he is getting the concept down. Hopefully running around without a diaper this spring/summer will help. Ready to be done with the expense of diapers - although I have been supplementing with some of the diaper covers/pads.

I have been doing some more purging. I tend to think we don't have much more to purge, but I always seem to find another bag to fill. We have a few empty kitchen drawers, cabinet space under all the sinks and empty shelves in all the closets. Still trying to decide if I want to have a garage sale in May or just give everything away. I have a few more weeks of the weight loss challenge. Have not been doing as well as I had hoped, but still losing every week. I am hoping in another 4-6 weeks I will have to do some clothes shopping.

JR has been busy working. With the end of the ski season though, the after 5pm work should slow down considerable. He is hoping to go out next weekend camping somewhere in the woods. Hopefully it will be the first of several weekends getting out this camping season.

I anticipate May will be a month of milestones, as several things are in the works with the kids! We have a wall upstairs where we measure the kids and mark it on the wall. In the last 5 months, B and JB have grown 3/4 of inch and Jbird has grown 1/2 an inch.

Yesterday we went bowling with the cub scouts then walked to a park to pick up trash. Had a really good time. The cub scouts sure know how to put on an activity. The adults even had a good time and I had a pretty good score, thanks to the bumpers they put up.



JB had his hearing tested last week. He passed with flying colors. However, she noticed that one ear gave her a reading that she would expect with a hole in the ear drum (ie a tube). The other ear gave her a reading that she would expect in a normal ear (ie no tube or hole in the eardrum). The ENT seems to think that maybe one of the tubes is plugged from some of the fluid draining. We did ear drops for 10 days to prevent that, so not sure what is exactly going on. The ENT would like another hearing test in 10 days, just prior to our 1 month post op appt.

One thing that I love about this time of year is all the fresh fruit and that the prices come down on a lot of it. We were at Costco yesterday and bought 4 pounds of strawberries. The boys finished them in less than 24 hours. (How can I say no to them wanting more fruit.) We also buy the 3 pounds of frozen mixed berries. We polish those off in about a week. While shopping at Costco I always like to watch the Vita-mix demonstrations. JR was with us, so the five of us stood there for about 10 minutes and sampled several things. The fruit juice drink was good, as was the black bean soup (that was made in about 3 minutes) but what really impressed me was the cabbage, spinach and lemon sorbet. Jbird and JB licked their samples clean. B hardly tried it. It was really pretty good and a great way to get their veggies in them. Will have to consider getting one. I think JR was even impressed with what it can do. (Anybody have one and if so, would love to know what you think...)

Going to enjoy the last quiet week. T-ball starts in a week and then the craziness begins until school gets out.