Oink oink!

Oh no! Two of my nephews have swine flu! Jackson came home from school on Monday with 103 fever but it quickly went away. So my sister, a high school nurse, sent him to school on Tuesday. In her defense, she called at lunchtime and spoke to the nurse. The nurse took his temperature (it was only 99) and Jackson kept saying he wanted to stay in school. It was 104 when he got home. Today he was diagnosed and the whole family was put on Tamiflu, except Shane because he's not a year old yet. When Kim got home this afternoon, Shane already had a fever of 102. He now has an appointment tomorrow, but I have no idea what the dr. will do for him. Poor Jackson can't go back to school until Monday and he's very upset about that. So we will now be praying for both boys to recover quickly, no one else in their family to get it, and none of the rest of us to get it, because of course we spent lots of time with them this past weekend. Hope your week is better than it is at Kim's house!

**Update today 8-27-09: Shane had a positive diagnosis today and now Jeff is running a high fever as well. So in their house, all the boys have it but the girls have avoided it so far. I can't imagine how not fun their house is right now! :)

Andy's first day of school!

Andy began 1st grade today! It's so hard to believe that he's this old already. He woke up happy this morning and ready to go. I'm sure it won't last - what kid really enjoys being woken up at 6:45 every morning? But he was excited for school! We all walked him in for the first day and he did great. His teacher seems really nice and he was happy to see a few friends from kindergarten in his class.

Once we got settled back at home, reality hit and Colin got a little sad because Andy wasn't here to play with him. Of course, they've been arguing constantly for the past few weeks and everyone was ready for school and something new, but now that it's here, Colin was a little sad. So we decided to take a trip to the library. And once again, I realized why I don't like taking toddlers to the library. We were there for all of 12 minutes and in that time, Elizabeth and Ryan managed to pull no less than 20 books off the shelves, 5 movies off the shelf, and dump 3 puzzles worth of pieces onto the ground. I know this is typical 19-month old behavior, but it's maddening when there are 2 19-month olds! Just as I would clean up one kid's mess, the other kid was unloading another shelf! Therefore, we made a quick getaway. And as we were checking out, it starting storming. We got completely soaked - everyone needed a clothing change - but it was kind of fun to run through the pouring rain with all of them.

Adventures in Organizing a Household of 6

In honor of the new school year starting tomorrow, I'm attempting once again to better organize our household. One idea I've had (stolen from a magazine) is to create a "monthly menu." My hope is to list 20-24 different meals and just go through the list each month. That way, I don't have to come up with a meal every night if it's already planned out and we won't be eating the same meals each week, which you know is such an easy habit to fall into. Plus, if the meals are already planned, grocery shopping and list-making is much simpler.

So your job is......suggest recipes for me! I'm always in search of good family recipes for a little variety. So please send me any favorites your family has and we'll be happy to try them out! Think of how much fun this will be - you can read other people's recipes and get ideas for yourself too!

I'll let you know how my other organizational projects turn out and if they're worth the effort!

Yum!

Ryan thoroughly enjoyed Colin's birthday cake! And because he is our little entertainer, he made a big mess even bigger when he realized that Andy and Colin were laughing at him.

Happy 4th Birthday Colin!

On August 20th, our little Colin turned 4 years old! Overnight, he grew much taller and his muscles grew much bigger. Just check out those muscles in that picture!

Colin had a great birthday and celebrated for 3 days. On Thursday (his actual birthday), his daddy was out of town for work so we went to McDonald's for lunch to celebrate (his choice of restaurants, of course). Friday morning, he finally got to open presents when Daddy was home. Then we went to one of those places with lots of moonwalk jumpers to play on to celebrate his birthday and the end of summer. This morning was his actual party at Chuck E Cheese with his cousins and friends. We're a little worn out from celebrating! :)

Colin is still our sweet funny little boy who cracks us up without even trying. He loves firemen, cowboys, racecars, and playing with his favorite people. He's very excited to start 4-year old preschool next week. And he's going to be a fireman when he grows up.

The fun never ends around here!

Yesterday was one of those days that you dread - we shopped for and purchased a new washer and dryer with 4 kids in tow. Okay really, we went to 3 stores and lunch, then I dropped off the kids and Kyle at home while I went back to make the actual purchase. Between my very elderly salesman just learning how to use a computer and the ridiculous amount of steps it takes to actually make the purchase, I spent 2 hours in Home Depot. And that was just the buying trip - I already knew the exact make and models that I wanted! But it was a necessary trip, since our dryer completely died on us last week. And while we could have had it fixed, I really wanted to upgrade. Our washer and dryer have been great for 7 years, but when we bought them I did not know I would be constantly buried in laundry for a family of 6...it's time for bigger ones. So we bought the front-loading types of washer and dryer. And I'm very excited about them too! From what I hear, the load size is much larger than a traditional machine, which means fewer loads! I know they have all sorts of energy efficiency benefits as well, but I'm just happy about the fewer loads and some of the fun features my new dryer will have. So while the actual shopping and buying experience was a big fat pain, I'm very excited to receive them on Wednesday. And since I will not have done ANY laundry in over a week, they will be put to immediate long-term use - I'll let you know how they work!

I think this is one of those moments when you know you've definitely reached adulthood - you get excited over things like washers and dryers. :)

Andy's Surgery

Last Friday morning, Andy needed surgery to repair a hernia. We are very happy to report that the surgery went well and his recovery has been great. The surgery itself only lasted maybe 40 minutes and then we were able to be in the PACU before he even woke up. This is why I love Texas Children's Hospital..... No IV is put in until he's already asleep so there's no pain or trauma with that. He's allowed to choose to "flavor" of anesthetic gas and this was a huge decision. There were about 10 to choose from and he debated for a long time between root beer (ew!), bubble gum, and cotton candy, but finally settled on cotton candy. And instead of a gown, he received new pajamas from the hospital and that was very exciting (can you tell by his picture?) So all he remembers is walking into the operating room, it had lots of machines, he climbed up on the "skinny" bed (not a big bed like the one he sleeps in, he told us), smelled cotton candy air in a mask, and woke up in my lap. And he ate 3 popsicles in the recovery room! He was in a little pain that afternoon, threw up a few times, but once he started eating, he started feeling much better. It's been over 48 hours now and he's still moving a little slow and walking a little hunched over, but doing really well. He doesn't complain about it hurting unless something touches it, so we're really pleased that it's gone so easily. Thank you to those of you who prayed for him!

Warning!

My dear faithful readers, I know you would hate to miss any of my very exciting posts, so I thought I'd warn you that I'm doing a lot of catching up right now. Because I started several posts many weeks ago and waited until now to add pictures and finalize them, some of them are appearing out of order. So there are a few new ones added after the post about my dad. One of them has a lot of cute pictures, so I wanted to tell you to scroll down and look for it. And happy reading...I hope to be caught up soon!

Naked Children

Our niece, Micah, turned 3 last week and we had a swimming birthday party for her in our backyard. Well, I must admit, that when we're outside playing or swimming, the boys find it amusing to go to the bathroom out there. What can I say? Boys will be boys. I guess Ryan and Elizabeth pay far more attention to everything than I realize because we captured these pictures. As I was getting them undressed after swimming, Ryan started saying, "tee-tee, tee-tee!" We are absolutely NOT potty-training now or anytime in the near future, but I let him walk off and show me what he was talking about. He ended up by the fence (Colin's favorite spot) and kept saying "tee-tee" as if it would magically appear when he was near the fence! Then Elizabeth walked over to the fence to see what he was doing and decided to join in. Neither one managed to produce any tee-tee, but we sure had a good laugh at them! I especially like the picture of Ryan lifting up his leg!