

Chronicles of three, active boys and their parents.


January 23, 2011
Dear Family and Friends,
This week has flown by so quickly! Monday everyone was home because of Martin Luther King Day. We had a great day. We headed off to a community center nearby that has an indoor pool and water play area. The boys all went swimming while RM and I watched from a bench. J was a little hesitant, but eventually he was so happy he didn’t even want to get out, even though it was apparent from his shivering that he was freezing. B- man loved the water slide and went down it too many times to count. We went early on purpose so that we would miss the crowds and have time for naps in the afternoon. On the way out of the pool there was a little miscommunication. By the time I met up with the boys B-man was getting ready to climb a 30 foot rock wall. I fed RM and we cheered him on as he climbed. He tried about four times. Every time he got a little higher until he finally made it to the top. I was very impressed! We stopped for a quick bite to eat at Costco on the way home and then immediately put J to bed. He was wasted! While J was sleeping B-man played with some boys from the neighborhood. They were outside running around playing football etc. I ran quickly to a few model homes to try and get some ideas for decorating. When I got home B-man was still outside playing. I warned M that we should probably expect a meltdown at the end of the day because he had been doing SO many physical, demanding things. About twenty minutes after I said that B-man came in with a hurt nose. We got him fixed up and warned him that it was almost time to come in and have dinner. Well when it was time to come in and have dinner he wanted to go to a park in our neighborhood and keep playing. He had the ULTIMATE meltdown when we said that he couldn’t go. Luckily we were mentally prepared so we mostly found it entertaining. He even mentioned running away and living with his friends. I remember using that line. M even got out the video camera to record what he was yelling from his room. But by the time he got it going he was starting to wind down. Once he calmed down we were able to have a more normal evening. We ate dinner, and then had FHE and discussed faith.
Tuesday B-man got to stay home because it was a snow day. We had about an inch of snow and ice, and so all the schools were closed. Sadly there wasn’t enough snow to go sledding, but we had a good day of hot chocolate, playing the Wii, and reading books.
Wednesday was back to our normal routine. That night I went to a Relief Society meeting. Thursday was a super slow day. M traded cars with me so that we could get some work done on my car.
Friday went by super fast. I did visiting teaching in the morning, and then right afterwards M and I set off to buy a dishwasher off Craigslist. Right before we got there the person selling it said we couldn’t come because they couldn’t get the dishwasher out. We decided to go anyway, and M would figure it out. When we actually saw the dishwasher we decided that we didn’t want it. It was a little older than they said and was missing an option that we wanted. Since it was stuck it was an easy way to say “no thanks…” We then drove home and made it just in time to get B-man from the bust stop. It was a fun date in the car at least… We then went to Costco to get some things that we needed for the weekend before finally heading home. That night we did homemade hamburgers for dinner and then had our family party. We played on the Wii and had a healthy competition in bowling and baseball.
Saturday morning we all went to my basketball game. We were missing one of our key players and it was obvious. Plus the team that we were playing was really good. It was great practice for all of us and will keep us humble. In other words, we got creamed. We had a few hours after the game that were quiet. M then took B-man with him to set up chairs at our building for Stake Conference. When he got home he had to hurry and get ready for the Priesthood meeting. While he was gone we ate dinner, played games, and got everyone bathed and ready for bed. He picked up our babysitter on the way home, and then once he got home he took me back with him for the adult session of Stake Conference. We had a visiting authority (Elder Lansing) and it was a great meeting. Very good talks. After the meeting we then went to the home of a family in our ward. They had invited anyone that wanted to come over for appetizers and desserts. It was a nice way to get together and visit with people from the ward.
Today has been a good day. Even though Stake Conference was an hour later than church, we barely made it on time. Not sure how that happened. Stake Conference with kids is always an adventure, and today was no different. But we were able to get some good things from the meeting despite all our children trying their best to distract us. After dinner we had a great leisurely afternoon and then had some friends over for dinner. We have to be careful who we have over right now because we got rid of most of our chairs. Luckily this family only has one child. Now the boys are in bed and we are winding down for the evening.
We love you all!
The C Crew
January 16, 2011
Dear Family and Friends,
Here’s a quick rundown of our week. Monday was a fairly slow day. I did get a call from the school because B-man had snuck my phone in his backpack and it had gone off during class. I reassured them it wasn’t an emergency, just a sneaky six year old. I made a run to the grocery store, and we had a little FHE after dinner. M watched the National Championship football game with some friends after the boys were in bed.
Tuesday morning we had a showing of our house. We are now under contract so it should really start to slow down. In fact we didn’t have any the rest of the week.
Wednesday we went to go look at houses. We went back to a house that we have a contract on to take pictures, and we also went through one other house. It was nice to get some pictures of the house we may be moving into so that we can remember all the details and plan what we want to do. That night I went to play basketball with some friends right after dinner. I’m lucky to have M. He always insists I go and never complains about watching all the kids and putting them to bed.
Thursday was a pretty slow day. I watched my friend’s kids for her while she went to the grocery store. She had watched the boys for us while we looked at houses. It’s a good arrangement for me; hopefully she feels that way too.
Friday was another nice slow day. M came home a little early which was great, and we had a fun family party. I made pizza and then we watched the rest of “Up.” B-man wasn’t thrilled with our selection. How is it that a he loves “Star Wars” but was scared to tears by “Up?” We learned our lesson thought, when he says it is a scary movie, he means it.
Saturday was a great day. We had a leisurely morning, and then got ready for my basketball game. Right before we were set to leave a guy called back about an item we were looking at on Craigslist. So M took J to go check out the item (a microwave) and I took the other boys to the game. The game was fun. It was against our neighboring ward, and had several players on the team that used to play for our team! It was a competitive but polite game and we came away victorious. After the game we came home and put J down for a nap. After his nap we headed over to a friend’s house. She had made a bunch of 7-Layer dip and needed help polishing it off. She knew who to call… The kids played well together while we enjoyed good conversation and food. After our snack break we did a quick Costco run before coming back home for dinner and then bed.
Today has been a great day too. M had no meetings so the morning went pretty smoothly. We are still adjusting to our new church time. After church we came home, and ended up eating dinner pretty early. I made a roast and all the trimmings. The only problem was that the roast ended up cooking WAY faster than I thought, and so it was done more than an hour before we were supposed to eat. I guess that’s what hot gravy is for. After dinner we struggled to figure out how to fill the rest of the day. B-man was pretty wiggly by the end of the night. A game of Uno helped to calm everyone down before it was bath time.
We love you all!
The C Crew
Here are J’s favorite things these days.
Cookies
RM
Coloring
He also loves to bite off the end of the marker. Why? I have no idea.
January 9, 2011
Dear Family and Friends,
The story of this week is pretty similar to the last several weeks. Sick kids and showing the house. RM has started to make a lot of improvement, but J had some lingering symptoms. We just kept hoping things would get better. We had showings almost every day this week too. I am getting more efficient at getting the house ready.
Thursday J developed a high fever. Given all that he has had in the last two weeks I decided that he should be seen. Luckily I was able to get an appointment during a showing when I had to be out of the house anyway. Unfortunately the appointment was at an office that was further away. I called the school and had them tell B-man to go to their house after school. They live in our neighborhood and apparently he did a great job of walking to their house by himself. He is getting so grown up! The appointment at the doctor’s went well. They did several tests to try and figure out what he has going on with him. They also gave him a nebulizer treatment. He screamed and writhed the entire time. He was a very sweaty feverish mess by the time he dislocated the tubing from the machine and the rest of the medicine dumped out. I was so relieved it was over! After some debate the doctor sent me to get a chest x-ray. I then hurried home and picked up B-man. Then we all drove over to the radiology place and waited. Thankfully M was able to meet us there. I then took B-man and RM home so that we could work on homework etc. Turns out the x-ray was negative for any obvious pneumonia, but they will be treating him as if he has it. That night I went to book club. We discussed “The Room.”
Friday was a slow day at home. I shot around with some friends in the morning. M was home and was able to help me take J and RM in for their “Well Baby” check-ups. It was so nice to have an extra set of hands. That night after dinner M and B-man went to a little party at our Bishop’s house. It was designed to let people get to know each other.
Saturday morning I went to play in a stake basketball game. B-man came to cheer me on. I am really out of shape, but the game was still fun. After the game we rushed home so that I could get cleaned up before a meeting with a realtor. We received an offer on our house and he wanted to meet to discuss the terms etc… The meeting went well, and the rest of the day was wonderfully relaxing. We played games and just enjoyed being together. We were happy to see that J’s fever had finally broken and he seemed to be feeling a little better. We were also waiting to hear if our counter offer had been accepted. That night we watched some episodes of “Lost” and got news that we had another counter offer to consider. We countered again, and then went to bed.
Sunday mornings are much busier now that we have 9:00 church. M has very early meetings, so he is gone when the rest of us get up. We got up and going. M got home just in time to help straighten up the house while I finished getting myself ready. Sacrament meeting had excellent talks on Fast offerings and setting goals. Then we took J to nursery. He walked right in happily, but after a diaper change by me he wasn’t too excited to stay in nursery without me. When we arrived home, we noticed that there were strange cars in front of our house. We realized that someone was in our house right then! We were glad that we had taken the time to get it mostly ready. After spying on them, and watching them leave we went home. I enjoyed a nice afternoon nap, and the boys had a good time reading and such. We received news from our realtor that the people that came through our house without notice were probably going to put in an offer. That was very exciting. We love multiple offers. B-man invited a neighborhood friend over for dinner. B-man was excited to have him, and he was super polite and ate all the food even though it was a strange meal. After dinner we video chatted with M’ parents and then got the boys ready for bed. M then left for a meeting with a Stake Presidency member.
We love you all, and hope you are doing well. Hopefully our house will be sold soon!
The C Crew
January 2, 2011
Dear Family and Friends,
Happy New Year!! I can hardly believe that it is 2011. Seriously where does the time go? This week has been a pretty slow one. Full of very sick kids and lots of showings on the house. Monday was the worst for sure. I had just taken RM to an urgent care the day before, and they said things were fine. But all day Monday he had these coughing fits. He would just cough, and cough, and cough, and then fall asleep all coughed out. It was very sad, and more and more troubling as the day went on. B-man did get to play at a friend’s house, which helped him feel like he was having fun. After FHE M and I continued to be really concerned about RM. He and J both had very mild fevers, which I was monitoring very closely. Fevers in tiny babies are not a good thing. Finally before going to bed M gave RM a blessing.
The night went slightly better, and in the morning his coughing seemed much better. We decided to take him into our doctor. I got the earliest appointment I could and was so grateful that M was able to watch the other kids for me. After several tests, and a coughing fit (that I was glad the doctor heard) we were sent to get a chest x-ray. The doctor said that he definitely had RSV, probably pertussis, and wanted to rule out pneumonia. I was so sad, but was so happy to have some things to get this little guy feeling better. Later on that day we found out that the chest x-ray was clear, so there was no pneumonia. After a very lengthy stay we finally made it home. M headed off to work, and we stayed close to home. Eventually we had to get out so that we could get his medicine.
Wednesday I took RM in to get checked on and make sure he hadn’t worsened. Thankfully he really was improving. He is on a nebulizer and an antibiotic and things seem to be helping. Wednesday and Thursday were slow days. We tried to take care of J and RM so that they could get over their illnesses. We were all on the mend this week. I felt bad for B-man. His break from school has had less playing in it than we would have thought, but we just couldn’t go anywhere or have anyone over with our germs.
Friday M didn’t have to work. In the morning I sent him and B-man to a community pool that is in a neighboring city so they could have some fun. M didn’t swim because his suit is in storage (whoops) but B-man was so happy to play in their indoor pool. It is a great place with a lazy river and a big water slide. After their morning fun they came home and we had to leave for a while so people could go through our house. That night we had a family party for New Years. We ate pizza, had a WII tournament, and we let B-man use those poppers. J was not a fan and started to cry. We then put the boys to bed at their same bed time. I don’t think B-man minded one bit. Then we decided to go to bed early too. We’ve had a lot less sleep lately with all the sick kids. J had a hard night though, so we ended up being awake at midnight because he had been crying. Oh well.
Saturday morning we made pancakes in Star Wars shapes. It was a big hit. The rest of the day was very lazy and relaxing. We had a group come through the house, ran some errands, etc. RM has decided to start smiling. I know he must be feeling a little better to show off his gums. That night I went to go work out at the gym. I was amazed at how empty it was until I was informed that it was closing in fifteen minutes. Just enough time for me to get in a little work out.
Today was our first Sunday with 9:00 church. We were all very excited, but sadly I had to stay home with the sick boys so that we don’t pass our germs along. After church M went home teaching, and then we had dinner. We finished off the evening with a video chat with M’ parents.
We love you all! We hope that you had a great New Years.
The C Crew