river, park, red car

Andrew going for a cruise in the "red car".

Posing with the car by the river.

And of course throwing rocks in the river!

Gabe ready to let go...

Our Family

Here is a shot of each of us taken on our way home to Iowa after Grandma Gena's funeral

Cousin Time!

We traveled to North Dakota for Great Grandma Gena's funeral.  We stayed at a hotel in Grafton and celebrated GG Gena's life at Trinity in Edinburg.  We were sad to say goodbye to her but I know she is happy that the cousins had so much fun seeing each other and playing!

Racing down the hallway to the pool...

Uncle Mike hauling the boys around and playing any and every game Gabe made up for him to play!  What a good sport!

Seriously.  Adorable.

All 5 of Gary and Mitzi's grandboys.  When will the girls start arriving??

Holding Tommy

We were so lucky to get to hold Tommy this weekend.  We all got a turn (except Andrew) but there are no pictures of me holding the little man. :-(

Smiling for Uncle Aaron.  He smiles when we talk about Grandpa.

Gabe did awesome holding Tommy!

Kisses for my cousin

Feeling pretty grown up!

Hudsen is 5!

Gabe and I went to Hudsen's house today for his birthday party.  It was loads of fun!

One of my favorite parts was seeing Tiptyn.  So precious!

Gabe getting ready to whack the pinata!

Hudsen got to go first....

Gabe's turn....

On one of Gabe's turns he knocked it on the ground!

When they dumped out the candy the madness ensued....

Gabe was so sad to leave even though we stayed an hour after the party ended.  They are the best of friends!

Andrew at the river...

Dad and Andrew have spent some time tossing rocks in the river.

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.