The Daycare Crud

The only drawback to having Kyler and MaKenna out of Daycare for 3 weeks is their germ tolerance dropped. Kyler was back for 4 days and then on day 5 we got a call that he had a fever - 103.2!

That was only the beginning... Kyler loves to share with his brother, so naturally Jake got the crud next. Since I seem to be the one taking care of the sickies - I got it too. Just when I thought It would skip MaKenna and Steve (they are both to stubborn to get sick), MaKenna got it. Apparently she has a sweet side to her. Steve on the other had still hasn't gotten it and proves my theory of him being too mean and stubborn to get sick. Once we get over the lingering coughs I think we'll be ok.

Happy New Year

WOW - Where did the time go. The last post was right after Thanksgiving, and here it is the new year. I'll try to recap the last month (well what I can remember). We have all been out of our normal routine for the last 3 weeks.

Let's start with Jake... He's doing great in school and still really enjoys it. He's Aced all his spelling tests so far. They just had their big Banana Split party for passing the math timing tests. He passed each one on the 1st try. Now with all that bragging we'll see how his teacher thinks he's doing when he gets his 1st report card on Friday. Jake's had the last two weeks off for Christmas break. He goes back tomorrow and is looking forward to it. Jake has been an awesome help with Kyler and enjoys being the helpful big brother.

MaKenna has had a lot of "stay home days". Her and Kyler have been home from daycare for the past 3 weeks. She can be a wonderful helper - when she wants to, and she can be just like her father - when she wants to. She got a new bike for Christmas and loves to play outside and ride it. With all the cold and snow we've gotten the last 3 weeks, she hasn't been able to go outside much and has a lot of bottled up energy. Her favorite thing to do right now is torment her little brother. We are trying to re-direct that energy to something more productive, but haven't found that "something" yet. One would think that her room would be spotless as much time as she spends in there - but that is not the case.

Kyler - wow, where do I start? He has grown up and matured so much the last month. He is talking clearer, doing more himself, using the potty (about 1/4 of the time), and is now sleeping in a "Big Boy" bed. He's almost two and I'm not sure I'm ready for the Terrible Two's. I often wonder where my angel baby went... about that time MaKenna will run by and do something to him - that answers all my questions.

We hope y'alls Christmas and New Year was fun and full of happiness. We were definitely blessed this last year and I really look forward to what exciting things may come in 2008.

... after Thanksgiving

Now that Thanksgiving is over there are only 26 days until Christmas. I'm not sure where the year has gone.

The last week or 2 have been interesting. Flash had been sick and we had been treating different symptoms. The day before Thanksgiving we took him in for more tests and they showed that he probably had cancer. Flash had gone everywhere with us - on all of our road trips and camping adventures for the last just about 9 years. It was a hard and we'll miss Flash, but at least he' not suffering anymore.

The good news from over Thanksgiving break was I cooked my first Turkey! It turned out pretty good. We had all the usual stuff with it. The day after I did go shopping, but i can't say that i was very impressed with the sales. At least there wasn't much that I "had" to buy. My goal is to have Christmas packages mailed out this weekend. We will see...

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I hope y'all have a fun and safe time where ever you travel. We'll be staying at home enjoying a quiet and peaceful day - as quiet and peaceful as the kids can be. I'm sure it will be more like a long (starting at 5AM with Jake), loud (Kyler and MaKenna), wild and crazy (Kyler, MaKenna, and Jake).

JAKE
Jake starts his Thanksgiving break tomorrow. He rode the bus home for the 1st time yesterday - yes I took pictures. Today is his Thanksgiving Feast at school. The 1st grade classes are getting together and each bring something. His class is making the pumpkin pies.

MAKENNA
MaKenna was by big helper yesterday. She has an apron and loves to wear it and help in the kitchen - even if its just setting the table. I bought her one "her size" but it didn't have pockets. I'm not sure what I was thinking. "Everyone knows mom that princesses have to have pockets in their aprons for their lip gloss." I think we'll make a "pumpkin pie but with no pumpkin - only chocolate" for Thanksgiving. MaKenna's movie of the week is "Princess Diaries 1 & 2. We've seem them 4 times in the last couple days.

KYLER
What can I say about Kyler. He seems to have the sweetness of Jake on occasions, the meanness of MaKenna on occasions - and a gift to switch between them like you wouldn't believe. He loves to take his diaper off and go potty in the potty chair. He's such a big boy - he can do it all by himself! I try to keep an eye on him... I never know what he'll be doing, climbing on, destroying, etc. He's all BOY! He likes to ready books: this week it's Farmer Jones, ABC's, and Nursery Rhymes.

Steve and I are splitting vacation this week. I was home yesterday and he's home today. I'll probably be home tommorrow making pies and stuff for Thursday. We'll keep it simple and just do a turkey breast or something. Of course we have to have favorite salad and favorite bread and MaKenna's not so pumpkin - pumpkin Pie (chocolate).

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and fun shopping day on Friday!

Halloween

That previous post seemed to work, so lets try one with a picture.

Here are the kids on Halloween before they were turned loose at HP.

Is this right?

Well - I guess I have been putting off all this "new" computer stuff long enough.

Joleane sort of challenged me to do some kind of newsletter. I thought this blog thing might be a quick and easy way to keep folks updated about the kids and our crazy life. So we'll see how this works.