Relaxing Weekend

A family tradition growing up was to eat popcorn on Sunday evenings. The boys have enjoyed this tradition and we often eat popcorn and watch Veggie Tales or one of our Planet Earth movies.

We had a relaxing weekend feeding ducks and playing in the park before we got ready to head out to see our Grandma and Grandpa in Utah. Daniel loves to feed the ducks but he also likes to keep his distance from them.

We just love the duck pond park on base!

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Bradley finally got brave enough to feed the ducks out of his hand. He and Daniel both preferred to throw the bread at them.

March 13-14, 2010

Happy 4 Months...

Eliza is now the ripe old age of 4 months! We have had so much fun with her that we can hardly believe it has been 4 months. Eliza has everyone in the family wrapped around her little finger. She is so cute she can stop anyone in their tracks. It happens to me all the time when I am trying to do laundry, cook dinner, etc... all she has to do is smile and coo a little and she has a captive audience!

Bradley loves to play with Eliza and he loves to get pictures with her. Daniel still won't sit still long enough to get a picture with her. You gotta love these boys!

We are working on rolling. She gets to her side easily, but she doesn't roll her hips enough to go clear to her tummy. It is fun to watch her, but I am kind of glad she can't do it yet.

This one is for our Grandparents. Eliza can't wait to meet all ya'll!

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Here are a few videos of things Eliza is up to these days!

This one is kind of long, but she is cute!

Eliza loves to play patty-cakes.

Sometimes at night we can hear Eliza talking to herself. It is something similar to this.

By the way, Happy 1st Anniversary Uncle Tory S. & Aunt Bethany!

March 13, 2010

A Picnic in the Park

Lots of our neighbors like to BBQ and there are some days we just have to join them! On Saturday Andy decided we needed to have hamburgers for dinner, so we headed to the park to grill them up. The kids had a lot of fun playing on the playground while Andy cooked burgers.

There was a very pink sky that night...anyone out there in love?

Okay...maybe it's because I love these boys so much!

Bradley is still in the posing stage.

Daniel has recently started wanting his picture taken, so that he can look at the picture on the camera.

Eliza had to stay tucked in the stroller so that the massive mosquitos wouldn't carry her away.

Daniel is a good helper!

" Needs a little longer Dad."

"I love me a charcoal grilled cheese burger!"

The chef isn't bad either. ;)

The notorious peanut butter and honey sandwich!

Don't you just love picnics in the park?

March 6, 2010

Rice Cereal...

First taste of Rice Cereal...mmmm!

Since I had been sick and not producing as much milk as usual I decided now was the time to try Eliza on some rice cereal. She actually ate a view bites the first time, but not since then.

Eliza trying to decide whether or not she likes it.

Once she realized she had an audience she was all smiles!

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Eliza's very first bite. She ate some rice cereal the first time we tried, but she hasn't eaten any since. She is such a little princess.

What a week!

This last week was quite a dozy!  It started out with our Realtor telling us that someone else put an offer in on the house I flew to North Carolina to look at.  He went on vacation the day after I flew home, so we didn't send him our offer until he was already out of the country.  He didn't get good Internet reception and we didn't feel rushed, so we told him we could wait until he got back.  Then he emailed saying the other realtor had contacted him to let him know the other offer was in.  He asked them to wait a day for him to get back to the states and get our official offer in.  Then Tuesday rolled around...

Monday night Daniel wasn't going to sleep very well and about 10:30 he started to throw up.  He threw up about every 30-45 minutes for the rest of the night.  He has been fighting a cold for almost a month and all the thick mucus draining down his throat made it a really really rough night!  The next morning he throw up for the last time about 6:30.  Bradley started throwing up about 6:45!  Needless to say Tuesday was a long day.

My sick little kiddos... you know they are sick when they will sleep during a movie.

Poor Eliza kept getting put aside while I tried to take care of all the "fun" things...like rinsing our puke bowls, wiping down the bathroom, washing bedding, clothes, etc...

(I know you are all jealous!)

When they weren't sleeping or puking they were snuggling with blankets and watching movies.

Daniel finally started eating cheerios and crackers around 10 am.

It took Bradley most of the day to get to where he could keep more than water down.

By about 4:30 they thought they needed some fresh air.  There was a little bit of a breeze, so they had to take their blankets with them.

They were suppose to stay in their chairs, but there were fighter jets taking off from base that we had to look for.  They are so cool!

The boys both went to sleep around 5:30pm and slept through the night until about 7 am!  Wednesday was full of trying to recover from all the sickness.  Bradley was good to help with Eliza while I tried to get a few things done.

Wednesday was a rush to get our official offer in on the house we wanted.  Our realtor emailed us the paperwork for us to sign.  We jumped in the car and ran to base for Andy to sign the papers.  He ended up having to print some more paper work off and bring it home during lunch.  To make this long and emotional story short, we offered them exactly what they wanted because a third offer came on the table.  The sellers went with the third offer and we were back at square one!

This is a picture of the house we wanted.  We had been planning all the things we could do when we got this home.  Now we are thinking we will probably rent.

To top it all off I started feeling sick during the night.  I spent have the night on or leaning over the toilet.  As careful as I had been to wash after working with the boys, I got the stomach bug!  Thursday was a pretty rough day too.  Luckily for me Angie lives close by and she took the boys all afternoon so I could get more rest.  Andy picked them up on his way home and took care of EVERYTHING for the rest of the night.  Friday was spent trying to reclaim my house from the roller-coaster week we had.  The silver lining of the whole week is that Andy and Eliza seem to have come through unscathed by all "fun" the boys and I had, and we were able to have a relaxing weekend as a family. 

So long...Farewell...

On February 23 I had a mole removed from behind my right ear. It has been there as long as I can remember, but now it's gone! I was referred to O.M.F.S.(oral surgery) on base. They used a topical lotion to help numb the skin before giving me the shot. Then they shaved it off. Originally they had planned to use the laser to burn it after wards, but felt a couple of stitches would close it nicely.

Andy was able to come find me on his lunch break. He got there just after in was removed and in time for the discussion on how to close. Since he was done rotations up there everyone knew him. The doctor even offered to let him do the stitches. He declined. I was glad he was there though.

Said mole...

The day it was removed. When I got home and showed the boys my stitches they started asking questions. When I told them about the shots Bradley asked, "Mom, were you brave?" Of course!

The 2nd day...

Andy, Bradley & Daniel kept daily track of the healing process.

the 3rd day...

The 5th day...

(the lighting isn't the best, but you can see that the band aids were starting to irritate my skin.)

the 7th day...

one week later...

Since I had sick kids on the day of my follow up visit, they told Andy he could remove the stitches at home. He did a great job removing them without inflicting any pain. The boys were proud of how brave I was.

It is looking pretty good. It still itches a little now and then, but for the most part if feels pretty normal. It was a little tender the first day after the numbness ware off, but I didn't have to take anything for it. For the next couple of days it was only tender to the touch. Now...nothing...it feels normal.

No Words!

At church Bradley was sitting next to me eating some snacks our cousins shared with Daniel last week.  (Daniel didn't want them so they went into the church bag.)  Once Bradley got done with the little cookies he picked up a candy and asked,

"Mom what is this." 

"It's a jelly bean."

"But there's no words on it!"

"That's because it isn't a Jelly Belly jelly bean, it is just a jelly bean."

With a look of discussed on his face he dropped it back into the bag and put it away...hum!

Feb. 28, 2010

Cute Kids

I might be a little bit bias, but I think I have the cutest kids! This last couple of weeks have been crazy with all our visitors and all the travelling we've been doing. Poor Bradley caught whatever bug has been going around. Daniel had this a couple weeks ago and we thought we had all made it without getting it, but Bradley finally did.

If any of my kids have to get sick I prefer it to be Bradley. This sounds bad I know, but he is the least whiny of all the kids. Of course my preference is that no one gets sick! Bradley is a trooper.

This is just another example of why we call him Daniel Piggy!

The boys just love Eliza! They love to play with her and are good helpers when I need someone to entertain her!

We love Eliza's "First Doll"s.

This one is from our Grandma Shirley. Eliza loves that she rattles.

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Daniel was having a hard time going number two yesterday so I put him on the toilet. He sat for about 45 minutes and only did pee pees. We read some stories and sang "Old Mac Donald". He is so cute when he sings...so last night when we were trying to get him to use the toilet again I gave him his Mac Donald book. A few minutes later I could hear him, Bradley, and Andy all singing. I had to capture it!

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Bradley was singing to Eliza last night so I had to get it!