A beautiful day!

We spent some time outside this morning enjoying the nice weather.

Gabe making a scary face for the camera:

Good Boys!

We had our second parent-teacher conference of the year today and Gabe had a great report!  I was so happy to hear what the teacher said about Gabe....  He is right where he should be and will be ready for kindergarten next fall.  She alluded to the fact (or at least I think it's a fact) that he is near the top of his class.  Aaron would probably disagree that she 'alluded' to anything... but I was listening close!  :-)

She let us bring home a few examples of his work.  Below his name on the red flaps it says Whom Do I Love?

He told me he couldn't get my feet right.  Well the size in comparison to the rest of my body is perfect!

This is my favorite.  I LOVE how he drew Jimi!

Dad, a fine looking specimen!

And Grandpa Gary.  We're not sure WHICH Grandpa Gary this is.... I'll let you 2 duke it out because there is something impressive about this figure.... 

Oops. Forgot to flip this one.  Just tilt your head.  It's worth it because it's cute.

Forgot to flip this picture.

On the back (again, forgot to flip) Gabe wrote his name.  One of my fave things he does is put a whole bunch of "sticks" on his E.  Not always... but sometimes and I think it is cute!

Moving on to this boy:

Oh my has he been a handful the last week.  Not with his behavior (it's fine) but with being SICK!  He has had a fever for the last EIGHT days.  Not a fun existence for mom and dad when we are less than 2 months out from a febrile seizure.  I'll summarize: 2 doctor visits, numerous trips home from daycare, antibiotics, acetaminophen, ibuprofen, acetaminophen, ibuprofen, "mama hold me", "sleep with mama?", blood draw today, RSV test (up the nose) today, "mama hold me". 

And he was so stinkin' good for his blood draw.  Of course he cried and yelled while the needle was in but when it was over he was happy to pick out 2 stickers (see his shirt below).  After the RSV test the ER nurses (had to go to ER for it... small town hospital... sharing of resources) gave him another bear (see above photo)!  After all of that we still don't have any answers.  Hopefully we will get some of the test results tomorrow (CBC, CRP, RSV).  The other ones had to be sent out so it may be next week (C3, C4....).

My consolation is that there is another kid at daycare going through the same thing.  He has had fever since Sunday but his have been much higher than Andrew.  I'm not glad the other kid is sick... but because he is it lets my mind think that this is just a nasty virus and not some weird blood issue for Andrew.  Trust me, my mind has been trying to go there and I just keep telling myself.... 'stop being crazy, Jack is sick too with the same thing. Stop being crazy.'  Ahhh, such is the life of a mom!

And on to happier things:

Gabe got 3 new books at the book fair.  Aaron picked them out and Gabe was so pleased!  Reward for getting such a great report from his teacher!  We have been reading a lot today....

And this goof saying cheese with his under-bite he likes to make wanted his picture taken.  He got 2 new books at the book fair too!

Tonight...

Gabe ate a bunch of ice cream.  Birthday Bash and Cookies & Cream.  4 scoops, down the hatch.  We have parent-teacher conferences tomorrow for this big boy.  Can't wait to hear how he's doing!

Little Andrew wearing his favorite pajamas "with snaps". 

Andrew and the blankets...

For some reason I cannot get these pictures rotated.  But it's late and I'm tired so this is the way it will be!

Andrew has this thing where he likes to cover up small items with a number of large blankets.  He also wants the blankets to be spread out perfectly and the edges touching.  So I get involved because he says "help me spread out blanket", or "help me cover up cars".

This time he also wanted to be covered up with the cars.

Fun in Florida

My boys and I had lots of fun in Florida at the beginning of the month.  We spent our time around the Stuart area with my mom's side of the family.  Jim and Linda rented a condo and let us all crash there, it was great!

Gabe enjoying a "Pepsi Diet" (as he calls it) on the airplane.

CHEESE!  Andrew was pretty good on the airplanes.... we had our moments but I don't think he made anyone regret their flight!  :-)

This beach was about a 2 minute walk from our condo.  The surf was crazy so we didn't actually go in the water but had a lot of fun playing in the sand and collecting seashells.

One of the highlights of our trip was a visit to the Loggerhead Marine Life Center.  It rained the whole time but we were able to see the turtles that are being "healed" and learn a lot about sea turtles.  They also had a fun gift shop.  This turtle pictured here had severe injuries from a boat propeller.  She was so sick that they were feeding her with a feeding tube (red thing by her neck). 

Gabe was blessed with a "Florida birthday party" complete with cake and presents!  It was fun... thanks to my family for making Gabe feel so special!

Another highlight of the trip was visiting the Florida Oceanographic Center right by our condo.  The best part was feeding and petting the stingrays.  SO COOL!!!  The boys both tried to feed them but ended up just petting them.  They are very soft and smooth, kinda squishy feeling.

At "Treasure Coast Harley Davidson" we spent most of our time outside.... after Andrew broke a salt shaker in the store!  The ladies were very nice and didn't make me pay for it.... so I then took my children outside so as not to cause any more trouble!

Gabe built a nice sand castle cave complete with a moat!

Gabe and his buddy Uncle Jim.  They had a good time together bonding over crocodile killing TV shows and walks to the beach!

Us with our Florida family....  Missing were the kids and the husbands of all us girls!  Well dad was missing too!

Pretty girls... our cousins Nicole and Andrea.

Mom, Alfred and Linda.... the "older" cousins!  Their moms were sisters.

A nice pic of us at Karen and Al's.

Build A Bear

While in Florida I took Gabe and Andrew to Build a Bear.  It was their first time and they had so much fun!

Andrew picked Alvin the Chipmunk, named him "Friendly" and bought him 2 outfits....  A Lightening McQueen and Woody from Toy Story outfit.

Gabe chose a camouflage bear and named it "Connor George" and bought 2 football outfits.  The Miami Dolphins and Florida Gators.

Blizzards at Home!

The boys helped me make oreo blizzards... Just like Grandpa does... 

Bubble Wrap

We got a package in the mail from Auntie Kristi and it had bubble wrap!!!  The boys had a great time jumping on it and popping as much as they could as fast as they could.

Current Project

I finally sucked it up and cut the fabric for this table runner:

I think I did a good job of cutting fabric this time.  When I first started to sew/piece I though this would be my favorite part.  Turns out it is not!  I find it somewhat confusing and seriously nerve wracking because you only get one shot when you start that rotary cutter going.  Now that I have it cut I can start piecing it together...  Should be pretty when it's done!

Due to my lack of confidence cutting fabric I thought I would watch some YouTube videos for tips.  Wow are there some bad ones out there!  There are also good ones but seriously scary what some people think are good tips... I thought this one lady was going to cut off her finger every time she made a cut!

I think the only thing that will help me is more practice and maybe one other kind of ruler... Like a 12 inch square or maybe a 24 inch square?  Not sure yet.  The reason I say that is because I find myself using the cutting mat as a guide when I know I should only use the actual rulers to measure. 

Supper Tonight - Chili & Cinnamon Rolls

While I made supper the boys put together puzzles.  I think I heard "mommy, help me!" about a hundred times from Andrew.

I'm not sure if this is an "Iowa thing" or sort of a central mid-west thing but people around here always have chili and cinnamon rolls.  It's on the school lunch menus, fund-raisers serve it so I figured we needed to try it.

They look pretty excited to eat, don't they?

It was really good!  I just used those store bought cinnamon rolls in a tube (love them) and made my favorite chili using soy crumbles instead of beef (sorry Grandpa F.).  It is SO easy and SO good!  The boys had a few bites of the chili which was more than I expected so I was happy.  Gabe said if it didn't have "those green things" (chopped green chiles) he would like it more.  Andrew ate the top of his cinnamon roll... he gets that sweet tooth from me!  If you would like to try the chili (seriously it could not be easier) click here.

BFF

Hudsen came over on Saturday and spent the day.  Both Gabe and Andrew were so happy!  And the big boys were pretty nice to Andrew.

There was one incident where Andrew was trying to take Gabe's blanket from him and they were screaming and pulling on the blanket.  Hudsen jumped in saying "Andrew you can't have Gabe's blanket, Gabe I'll help you"... then it was 2 on 1 and was quickly over.