Happy Easter

Here is what we had planned for our simple Easter 2012 . . . Easter egg hunt Saturday morning out by Aaron and Ann's place, the guys were going to golf, then we would all meet up for a late lunch/early dinner.  Wake up Sunday, find Easter baskets/eggs, go to church, then head back out to Aaron and Ann's place to have an Easter meal with the whole family (Grandpa, Grandma, Ash, Mike, Aaron, Ann, Colt, and the babes), then head back home to spend the rest of the day playing with our new Easter "stuff".  A nice, simple plan.  Here's what really happened . . .

Got up Saturday morning to sort of unpleasant weather.  By 9:30am, it was drizzling rain constantly.  Made it out to Aaron and Ann's place at 11:00am - still raining, no Easter egg hunt.  The guys still went golfing, it ended up taking them about 6 hours because there was rain and wind (and they spent an hour in the club house waiting out the rain), ate dinner with everyone, then headed back to our place.  The kids were crabby, Trav was cold and still a little damp from being in the rain all day, and I was ready for bed considering we had had a late night on Friday.  Trav gives the kids showers, everyone is in bed by 7:45pm.  I run over to Dairy Queen to pick up an ice cream cake for my contribution to the Easter meal we would be having the following day.  When I get home, I'm sitting on the couch eating my strawberry shake (I can't go to DQ and not get myself a little treat), when I hear Lauren start crying.  I run back to her room just in time to see her throwing up all over herself - super!  Less than one hour after getting out of the shower, she is back in the bath crying and screaming while I wash all the vomit out of her hair (it should also be noted that I had just washed her bedding that morning, so I really should have expected someone to throw up, or have a bloody nose because that's just how things work in this house - and by the way, Ellie woke up covered in blood on Sunday morning, but I'll get to that later).  So I get Lauren cleaned up, throw all of her bedding in the wash, and put her in our bed where she'll sleep so I can keep an eye on her during the night.  Things were good until about 11:30pm, that's when I'm laying next to her and start to hear her gag a little.  I grab the bucket by the bed with  my go-go gadget arms (I was quick and somehow I think my arms grew because the bucket was way on the floor and somehow I managed to grab it, grab Lauren, and put them together all while barely moving from my spot on the bed), just in time to have her throw up again.  When it was all done, I laid her back down, and asked if she was okay . . . she didn't move or respond, she just slept so I'm not really sure she even woke up in the first place.  That was 11:30pm, and for the next 4 hours, Lauren would throw up, or dry heave (by the end) into the bucket every 30-45minutes.  And with the last two rounds, we also had another surprise . . . poop in the pants!  I had just washed out the bucket and was crawling back into bed with her when I smelled a bad scent.  I laid there for a second, then asked Lauren if she might have pooped, in her sleep, she says, "no, just fart."  So I lay back down and try to sleep, but the smell doesn't go away.  So I ask again, and this time take a little feel of Lauren's backside, and that's when the shit literally hit the fan, or in this case, my hand - the night just keeps getting better.  So I take her into the bathroom, strip her clothes off, throw her back in the tub, get her in new jammies, and lay her on the floor while I take off all of my bedding (thank god for waterproofTrav come upstairs, and because it is Easter after all, the kids find their baskets and eggs and all seems right in the world again - that is until Ryan tries out his new skateboard.  Let's just put it this way, Ryan's skateboarding career started at 8:47am on Sunday morning, it ended about 15 minutes later when he rolled over his fingers with the skateboard and came in the house crying - onto the next thing.  Maybe he should just take up painting or acting - anything that doesn't require much physical activity because it seems like the kid is always getting himself hurt.  Oh, and I forgot about the dog in all of this writing.  So last night Trav comes upstairs around 12:30am and says to me, "I put Scrappy out around 10:00pm and fell asleep, I just went out to get him and he isn't coming in."  Super, my kid is in the bed with me throwing up and pooing all over, and now the dog is missing in the night - could this get any better.  So part of me was like, "fine, stupid dog wants to run away and get himself killed in the middle of the night, fine by me, my wishes have finally come true."  And then there's the other part of me that knows the kids will be devastated if they wake up in the morning and find out their dog is gone.  So the nice part of me jumps in the van to go search for the dog all the while the "hate" side of me is saying, "god damn dog."  My search comes up empty, and I am certain that tomorrow I'll tell the kids "Happy Easter", and "oh by the way, the dog is gone", when my cell phone rings.  Someone else in the world is still up and they found our stupid dog - thanks, and "great, now I have to get dressed and go get the damn thing."  I get him, put him in the kennel, and curse a lot, and then go to bed (I think it was close to 1:00am at this point).  So nothing happened as planned, Easter will be spent at home, no good meal with family, no more Easter egg hunts, just laying around.  So this year, we've missed Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter due to the flu - great.  Trav has the kids downstairs watching "Hop" now so I'm going to wrap up, switch the laundry, and get some sleep.  Hope everyone else has a Happy Easter!!  The top two pictures are from a couple of days ago when we dyed eggs, the middle two are Ryan riding before he rolled over his finger, and the bottom two are of the girls on Easter morning - Ellie still has a spot of dried blood on her face and looks super happy!

Birthday, babies, teeth, and hair

Going back to last Thursday . . . Trav was out with some friends after work so the kids and I headed over to Aaron and Ann's to have some dinner, hold some babies, and help celebrate Ann's birthday a couple of days early.  Here are a couple of pictures of kids and babies - I'm so happy there are two babies, this way Ryan and Lauren have no need to fight over who gets to hold the baby first - thanks Aaron and Ann for helping out with that situation!

On Friday we had big plans to travel south to get our annual "family teeth cleaning" - talk about fun!  So we packed up early Friday morning and off we went.  The big kids did great, Trav and I did great, Ellie was another story.  She was supposed to stay with Trav and the other kids while I grabbed a cab and went and got my hair done, but in her typical Ellie fashion (something she has been perfecting in the last month or so), she screamed at the top of her lungs when I tried to leave.  So with a quick change of plans, I took Ellie with me to the salon, and left Trav with the two older kids at the dentist office to finish up.  Luckily Ellie is a great "buddy" when she is with me so having her at the salon wasn't a big deal.  She just laid back in my lap, crossed her legs and sucked her thumb the whole time (she was only there about 20 minutes than Trav and the big kids came to get her when they had finished up at the dental office).  In fact, my stylist said she almost forgot Ellie was even there considering she never made a peep.  With Trav and the kids off to the mall, I finally got my 30 minutes of "me" time and when I left the salon, I was looking fresh and clean with much lighter (in weight, not color) hair, and some nicely shaped eyebrows - thanks Hilary!  When I met up with Trav and the kids, we had just enough time to grab some lunch and then head out to check out Katie's (wife of dentist) gymnastics building (K&G Gymnastics in Mankato) and let the kids run wild!  The place was amazing, and huge!  The kids had a blast trying out all the equipment and Ryan's dream of doing a front flip came true when Katie "assisted" him and he managed to stick the landing - maybe the kid could be a gymnast after all (or maybe not considering he would be the tallest, skinniest gymnast ever) - we'll see.  After letting the kids go crazy for a couple of hours, we all packed up and headed to the Olson house.  When we got there, the kids still had endless energy so they all ran off and played so nice together which meant the four adults had a lot of "adult" time with no screaming kids - a real treat in my book!  As the day was coming to and end, and the kids were starting to get hungry, Trav and I lucked out and Grandpa Doug and Grandma Connie agreed to take the kids for the evening so we could spend a little more "adult" time together with Brent and Katie.  So with all the kiddos at grandparent's houses, the four of us went out to dinner then back to the cabin for some cards and a heated (literally, we were on fire, think scores all in the upper 200's and low 300's) game of Yahtzee.  It was great to be able to spend time with some good friends (especially those who have kids roughly the same ages as ours and who play together so good) - hopefully we'll be back again before our next teeth cleaning, but if not, we'll be down in October again for sure!

After a crazy busy Friday, we took it easy on Saturday with everyone just bumming around the house.  At night, the kids all had baths, and by 7:30pm, everyone was sound asleep.  I used the free time to finish up my second book in as many weeks (I'm in a "reading" mode right now), and then went to bed myself.  It was great going to sleep that night and knowing that we still had a whole day left of the weekend - if only Trav could have every Friday off!  Tomorrow we check back into the real world - Spring Break is over and school is on for everyone - the morning should be interesting!!

Zoo, weekend, zoo

Last Friday we spent our first official day of Spring Break at the zoo with Lauren's friend, Myles, his brother, Ty, and their mom, Monica.  It was the perfect way to start our "vacation."  Lauren and Myles obviously get along great, and Ty and Ryan really hit it off too so basically we (the moms and Ellie) just tried to keep up as the four of them went from one animal to the next.  Ellie chilled in the stroller and snacked on whatever I could find to keep her busy - she was a trooper!  I tried to snap some pictures but because they were always moving, and moving fast, I didn't really get any good ones.  Here is the best shot I have from the day . . . it is Lauren and Myles from the backside watching the leopard walk right in front of them - they were very impressed with that, "big cat."

After a long, fun day at the zoo, we headed back home for some rest and to pack for our next adventure . . . a weekend trip to the lake.  We were in the mood to kick back and relax a little so the lake sounded like the perfect get away (it also doesn't hurt that Buffalo Wild Wings is near the lake and Trav would do just about anything to eat at that place - it is weird how much he likes it!), so off we went.  Grandma Connie and Grandpa Doug joined us on Friday/Saturday and as always, the kids loved spending time with them as well.  By Saturday night we were back to just our family and after two full days of lots of fun, we finally had to call it quits and go to bed early.  I think Trav was first to fall asleep (around 7:30pm), then it was Ellie, Ryan, and Lauren around 8:00pm, and I finally tucked myself in around 9:00pm - clearly we all needed some rest!  On Sunday, we picked up the cabin and headed back home to Shakopee.  Here are a couple of pictures from the lake.  The best part of the weekend . . . Grandpa and Trav put up the trampoline which always makes for some good times!

We finished the weekend with our BodyPump class (to work off all the chicken wings and beer we consumed), and then got ready for another week ahead.  That brings me to today (yesterday was pretty boring so I'll just skip it).  Today we ventured back to the zoo, this time it was just me, the kids, and Colt.  We decided to take things a little slower today (compared to last Friday when I think we covered the entire outside portion of the zoo in a little less than 2 hours).  We started with a Dolphin show which the kids loved!  The dolphins did tricks, waved, and even played catch - talk about amazing!  Here are the four kids having snacks and taking it all in.

After the show, we hit up the inside portion of the zoo (it was way too windy to be outside).  We saw penguins, monkeys, birds, snakes, you name, we probably saw it!  The place wasn't packed so it was nice to be able to take out time and really check things out.  After seeing some animals, we stopped to have our picnic lunch, then headed outside to see some more.  The kids did great!  Ryan and Lauren both helped out with their, "little buddies" - Ryan had Colt, Lauren had Ellie so at the end of our visit, I bought them both those huge lollipops they have at every snack stand at the zoo.  They are far too big to actually eat the entire thing, but the kids always beg for them and since they were so helpful today, I finally gave in.  Look how happy they are . .

And then there is this picture . . . Ryan said, "look Mom, now Colt will follow me everywhere!"

Clearly I should I bought the lollipops first!  Is it wrong to taunt a 17 month old with a lollipop in order to keep him where you want him?

And here are a few more random shots from the day.  The last one was taken about 5 minutes after we left the zoo.  The babies are sleeping, Ryan is sleeping, and Lauren is mad - so typical!

Before and after

The big day finally arrived for Ryan . . . time to get his teeth fixed!  He has been quiet, shy, and not wanting to be noticed since the accident, but the first thing he wanted to do after his teeth were fixed was to go check himself out in the mirror - a very positive step in the right direction!  I swear the kid was back to his old smiling, social self the minute his teeth were fixed, and we're happy to have him back.  In fact, he loves his new "smooth and shiny" teeth so much that he said, "they might actually be better than my old ones" (and I think he might be right considering the new ones are perfectly rounded and the old ones were a bit jaded on the bottom).  We're so happy Ryan is back to normal and look forward to many more years "teeth accident" free!  Here are a couple of before and after pictures I took today.

Birthday Boy!

Trav's birthday day in review . . . work, BodyPump, dinner, cake, and bed - it was simple, but sweet (I hope)! Here are a couple of pictures of Trav and his favorite "birthday helper" - Lauren. All day she talked about Trav and his birthday. She referred to him as, "handsome birthday boy" and was willing to sing "Happy Birthday" as many times as possible - these are the times she is so sweet. She loves making other people happy, especially if she can help blow out the candles! Once again, Happy Birthday Trav!

The past few days

We've had a lot going on the past few days.  Where to start . . .

This past Saturday Aaron, Ann, and Colton came over for one last grill out before the girls arrived.  They stayed until about 8:30pm, the rest of the neighborhood however was up well past 1:00am (on Sunday morning though, I'm guessing everyone wished they had left when Aaron and Ann did) - it wasn't pretty!  So that was Saturday, you can guess how Sunday went.  Other than forcing ourselves out of the house to go to BodyPump, we pretty much did nothing.  That was fine by all of us though considering the kids had stayed up late and made smores by the campfire.  So that was the weekend.

Then came Monday . . . time to finally meet the little ladies who have been camping out in Ann's stomach for just over 37 weeks - it was time!  The day was long (they checked in at 6am and didn't have the girls until 5:30pm-ish), but when they finally made their enterance, they had a whole crew waiting to meet them.  The kids were excited, I was excited, we could hardly wait.  And all the waiting was well worth it.  Aaron and Ann make cute kids, and Avery and Charlotte are no exception!  They are tiny, they are cute, they are perfect!  Congrats again to Aaron, Ann, and big brother Colton (boy is he in for a change!).  In addition to the girls being born that day, Ryan also had a musical "informance" (not exactly sure what that means, but it looked a whole lot like a music "concert" to me) on Monday afternoon so the girls and I stopped by school to watch him.  He was a little shy (with the whole mouth/teeth thing), but got through it and even did his solo up in front of everyone by himself - I(we) were so happy for him!

After Monday of course comes Tuesday.  Tuesday was a pretty mellow day.  We hit up the Y in the morning, ran some errands, then just relaxed until Trav got home.  And when he got home, he wanted to eat, so that's what we did.  He wanted to go to the Buffalo Tap, but gave in to the kids' wishes to visit Perkins (also known as the only restaraunt that serves rainbow pancakes - a big deal in our house).  This was Trav's "birthday meal" considering we would be at BodyPump on Wednesday evening so the fact that he gave up Buffalo Tap for the kids were kind of amazing, but then the big letdown happened . . . Perkins changed their menu and Rainbow Pancakes were no more - WTF?!?  Ryan was less than thrilled, but still managed to find something else to eat so the crisis was averted.

And then there is today . . .  March 21st - Trav's 34th birthday!  Can you believe my young, strapping husband is still my (sort of) young, strapping husband.  BodyPump is keeping him fit, and my lack of cooking lately is keeping him trim (your welcome Trav).  I have a feeling 34 is going to be a great year for him!  We love you Daddy and wish you many more wonderful years (with your equally wonderful family) to come!  On a completely different topic, Ellie had her first "pee-pee" on the potty today - yay!  She woke up dry from the night so I thought we'd give it a shot and wouldn't you know, the little girl took care of business (while slamming her morning cocoa on the potty of course - just a little something to help get the pee-pee moving).  This by no means means she is ready to start potty training, but it is a step in the right direction so I'm happy.

I'll leave with some pictures taken over the past few days.  The first two are the girls on a bright March morning.  Apparently they dreamt about dancing in their sleep because when they woke up, they walked onto the the deck and danced (it was about 7:15am).  They ended with some booty shaking (shown below) - classy, must have picked that move up from their dad!  After that, there is a picture of Lauren dressed from head to toe in pink (she choose the outfit), brushing what she calls, her "beautiful hair" before school.  Warning . . . we might have a Diva on our hands!  Then there is Ellie running naked down the hall this morning after she went pee-pee on the potty.  She was so happy to be diaper free, then I literally had to chase her down and make her put a diaper back on - talk about fun!  And finally, Ry Guy showing off his Angry Bird face painting.  Tuesday night is "Kids Eat Free" night at Perkins.  And as one of the perks of eating there, they also offer free face painting - free food and free face painting - not a bad deal!  And last but not least is a picture of the little ladies . . . Avery on the left, and Charlotte on the right - see, I told you they were cute!

More lost teeth

The days just keep getting worse for Ryan.  Yesterday afternoon he was riding bike when somehow, he lost control, lost his footing, and fell off his bike right onto his mouth.  I didn't actually see the fall so when I walked over to help him up, I was a little surprised when Ryan screamed, "I broke my tooth!"  And sure enough, when I got him up to a standing position, he was right, his front tooth was indeed broke.  There was lots of blood, lots of screaming, and lots of tears.  When we finally got him cleaned up, we figured out he broke one tooth almost in half diagonally, and the one next to it was broke just slightly on the side (it was a horizontal break).  So now he has a huge swollen lip and a couple of missing teeth (or at least missing parts of his teeth).  After a call to our dentist, it sounds like we'll wait for the swelling to go down, then we'll make a visit to the dentist to have him fix everything up.  Apparently he broke them in, "a good way" which (hopefully) won't require any major dental care, but until we actually see the dentist, we don't know for sure.  Trav and I feel so bad for Ryan.  The kid is probably the most cautious kid ever - never breaks rules, always works hard to be real safe, and even with that, he has already had a broken collarbone (fell off his bed while sleeping), and now broke two of his permanent teeth, all by the age of 6 - talk about bad luck.  I know his lip and teeth are sore, but I almost think he is more concerned about what he looks like.  He absolutely refuses to go anywhere because he doesn't want anyone to see his mouth/teeth.  We let him skip school today and then we'll see how the weekend goes.  If the swelling goes down and the teeth aren't sore, we'll be able to get things fixed sooner rather than later, if the swelling takes a while, or the soreness doesn't go away, it could be up to a week before we get to the dentist - not sure how that's going to go over with him.  We'll take it day by day.  Here are a couple of pictures I took last night while he was sleeping (there is absolutely no way he would let me take a picture of him while he is awake).