Made it past the holidays….

before the kids got sick…. Sort of.

The Thursday before New Year’s, Emily went to the City Museum with Grandma, Nina and Mike. I wasn’t really sure how much Zachary would be able to do there but it’s a good thing that we arranged to have Emily go with Grandma. We decided to take Zachary into the doctor. He had been dealing with a cold for over a month and was out of sorts. I had a huge “feel like a horrible Mommy” moment when they discovered that both of his ears were pretty infected. He never really ran a fever or complained about them. I really thought we would go and they would say that he’s just got a cold. Boy, was I wrong. Antibiotics should clear him right up.

Fast forward to January. After over two weeks of a wacky schedule, we were trying to get things back to normal. Stephen was going to work, Emily was going to school and Zach and I were going to the gym. That whole “get things back to normal” thing? Yeah, that didn’t happen. Emily woke up the next morning running a fever and hacking up a storm. So much for preschool. By Friday, it was decided that she needed to see the doctor since her cough wasn’t getting any better and the fever was just not going away. Bronchitis, as I suspected, and a really bad ear infection. I had no idea about the ear infection. Only once did she mention that her ear hurt. Apparently, that wasn’t wax it was puss. And Zachary’s ear infection hadn’t cleared up. New antibiotics for both kids. Luckily, the antibiotics were helpful when Zachary developed bronchitis.

One day I decided that the kids needed to get off the couch and do something else. I found some empty shoe boxes, paint and marbles. They had a lot of fun choosing colors and shaking the box. The results were pretty cool. They really liked their marble paintings, as did I.

Luckily, everyone is on the mend and sleeping through the night again. It was one long week!

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Preschool Christmas

Emily had her Christmas party last week at school. A party isn’t complete without a visit from the jolly one himself of course! Zachary and I ran up to the school so we could get a picture of “Sisser” sitting on his lap. We didn’t stay for the rest of the party. Zachary was a) wanting to sit on Santa’s lap b) join in on snack time and c) play with their toys. Not really a good combination. After getting a few quick shots we snuck out and went to the library. More fun for the wee man.

When we arrived, Emily and her classmates were finishing up music class. It was so cute to hear their little voices yelling singing Christmas songs and dancing to the music. Then each child got to take a turn sitting on Santa’s lap and telling him what he wanted for Christmas.

Super cute class! Hard to believe that this is her last year in preschool.

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Kid projects

Don’t worry, the kids had a few projects as well. I haven’t been hoarding all the fun! Emily decorated her gingerbread “shack”. I say shack because I could not get the sucker to stay together very well. I keep saying next year I am going to find a pre-assembled house. Much easier. Now if I can remember that I saw them at Dierbergs this year…

Zachary, my non-crafty child, painted a candy cane. He is so funny. For being all boy, he does not like having dirty hands. I had to make sure that he had a paint brush and that we had a wash cloth nearby.

A visit to the jolly fat man

The kids and I decided to head over to the Bass Pro Shop to check out their Winter Wonderland last week. I have heard that it is a lot of fun but it is super busy. We live very close to the store and know that traffic is atrocious on the weekends and try to avoid the area at all costs. I decided that I would take the kids to see the fat man after Zachary’s nap one day so that we might have a fighting chance of seeing Santa without feeling rushed and overwhelmed. Wonderful decision!

We headed over there around 3:30 and there was one child ahead of us to see Santa. Poor little girl was about 2 or so and wanting absolutely nothing to do with him. Emily took her turn and sat right down on Santa’s lap. She told him all the things she wanted for Christmas, the big one being a new bike. She also told him that Zachary loved cars and he wanted a trike. When it came time to have Zachary sit on Santa’s other knee I began to question whether or not he would do it. It took a little coaxing and arm twisting but he did it. I am sure I told him that we needed a picture for Gaga at one point. I can bribe that kid with Gaga all day long. He wasn’t too sure of the situation but we got a decent picture and that’s what counts!

After we gave Santa our list, we decided to check out all the fun things Bass Pro had set up. We rode the little carousel three different times. It was awesome! There were no lines; no waiting; no worrying about what animal we were going to sit on. The kids got to play with the remote control cars and even take target practice with the toy gun game they had set up. Zachary loved the train set they had set up.

Definitely a good experience. Definitely glad we went during the day.

Decorating the tree

We set up our tree the day after Thanksgiving but really didn’t start decorating until Saturday. Emily was chomping at the bit to get started. She is really at a fun age! She loves Christmas and all the decorations. She really has a good time and did a great job on decorating the tree. Zachary wasn’t really sure what to think about decorating. He loves the tree. Surprisingly, we are able to leave it open this year. We weren’t sure if we were going to have to gate it or not this year but he’s doing great with it. He has only messed with it a couple of times. Our main concern is if he is going to apply the brakes on his pooh train in time before he loses control and crashes into the tree. The boy gets some major speed!

I know this will be such a fun year with both kids! Emily really gets it and Zachary is just fun. We are having a good time with our elf, Fred, and Zachary likes to point out lights and “Ho Ho”. We are going to enjoy every minute!

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Once upon a time….

Emily loves books, her Tag reader and Tangled. She has listened to/read the book dozens of times. She surprised me the other day by reciting the first part of the book. Little girl has a pretty good memory!

 

Picture by Emily

Emily drew this picture at school recently. She is such a little artist. Always drawing, painting and coloring. I LOVE it! Notice that “Dad” is TOTALLY spelled wrong. I *think* she knows how to spell it but her little friend at school told her it was “DASM”. LOL!

Pictures

It’s that time of the year. Picture time. We were wanting to get fall/Emily’s birthday photos taken. I decided to try something a little different this time around. Instead of attempting to get photos done at Picture People, which let’s be honest here is a crap shoot, I decided to try out my friend Anastasia. She has taken pictures of several families that in our playgroup. She does a wonderful job. I love how she just kind of let’s the kids lead. She doesn’t expect them to “stand on the dot” or “place your arm on the tip of your ear while standing on your toes”.

We decided to try some outdoor shots down on Main Street. I have always wanted to have pictures taken down there because it is so beautiful. You have old buildings, the gazebo, and nooks and crannies galore. We even went across the street to the park so we were able to get a few picture at the train depot and by the train tracks (now the trail). Wonderful venue for having photos taken. I think we took Emily down there a few years back right after Thanksgiving to get some shots for our Christmas cards. BRRR!

Anastasia did a great job with the photos. Emily, as always, was a more than willing model. Always hamming it up for the camera. Zachary, on the other hand, was Zachary. He was very reserved with his smiles. Which is not like Zachary in real life. He is usually very smiley and funny. Not so when it comes to having pictures taken. Anastasia was able to get some really good shots of both kids. Go figure Zachary started to warm up and smile towards the end! She took so many great shots that I made a little slide show to share. I am not even including the entire shoot in the slide show. She did that good.

Thanks Ana!

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An Interview with Emily

I saw this idea where you interviewed your child on their birthday. The idea is to ask the same questions each year and see how much they change. This activity

Emily- age 5

was a lot of fun! Some of Emily’s answers were surprising and/or funny. The one with the biggest “awwww” factor was “Who is the coolest person on Earth”. I really didn’t get the answer I was expecting. Super sweet.

Let’s see if I can remember to do this next year.

And another party…

3 parties. 3 cakes/cupcakes. 3 opportunities to open presents. That’s how we rolled this year.

The Saturday after Emily’s birthday we headed to Centralia to visit my family. We were planning on going to their fall festival, Halloween parade and celebrating Emily’s birthday. We even booked a hotel room in Mt. Vernon so we could get a longer visit in and not feel quite so rushed.

We met my family in the downtown area. Emily decided that she wanted to watch the Kiddie Halloween parade this year instead of walk in it. She really enjoyed seeing all the costumes and floats. After it was over, we met up with my siblings and the kiddos. We decided that we were going to check out all of the fun stuff going on. Stephen and my brother headed over to the chili cook-off, Jason and the two boys went to check out the cars while Heather and I took the girls and Timothy to the bounce house. That was the original plan. After seeing the line, we decided the pig races were a better option. After lunch we headed over to the train area. We got to take a ride on the little train and boogie to the music.

After all the fun in town, we headed to the Tate’s house. Cupcakes and ice cream! And presents! Emily was really spoiled by everyone. We never made it to the big Halloween parade. It was really cold that night! And people had been securing spots since early in the morning along the parade route. We decided that it would be a lot more fun to stay at the house, be warm and not have to worry about the kids running into the road for candy. I think we made the right choice. By staying in,  we really had a good visit. It was really nice to get to talk to every one and unwind. The kids got some bonding time in while the rest of us had lots of laughs. We really need to do that more often!