Thanksgiving Day

The wednesday before Thanksgiving Justin loaded up the car and we headed to Baltimore to Susan and Graham's apartment. We left our house at 1130 am and got to Susan's at 945 pm!! All went well with the dog and kids traveling. Caroline learned a new phrase and loves to use it anywhere we go. It is a phrase from my childhood..... fanny fatigue!! We sure did have it after all that driving. Then Saturday we did it all over again as Justin had to head out on a work trip Sunday morning. Thursday the boys went out on an errand and ended up at the driving range. Will had a blast and loved being with the boys! The girls finished up some food prep and then around 1 we went to Susan and Graham's friends, the Jensens. They have 2 kids, Grace, 6, and Jack, almost 3. so it was perfect playmates for Caroline and Will.

Caroline loved jumping on this trampoline. Below are all 4 kids, Will, Grace, Jack, and Caroline. Quite a site with all that blonde hair!
Justin, Will, Grace, and Julie Jensen getting ready for dessert!
The chocolate pumpkin cake I made. All from scratch even the icing! It was delicious!!

We didn't end up leaving the Jensens house until 8pm and the kids were exhausted from playing ALL day. Friday Justina dn Graham went to play golf and Susan and I took the kids to her gym and went swimming. Home for lunch and naps then it was off to meet the Jensens again for some duck pin bowling. It was so much fun and I can't wait to do it again! The kids lasted 2 hours!! What a great Thanksgiving! Thanks for having us Susan and Graham! We love you!

Church choir

This is the first time the kids have been allowed to sing in a church choir. The church we currently attend is full of very old people. All the old folks LOVE Will! He isn't afraid to speak out during the children's message and makes the congregation laugh on a regualar basis. Nothing like entertaining them with talk of daddy making pancakes and telling the truth to keep the old folks' hearing aids turned up! Nothing wrong with that but the kids up there singing are the only young ones at the church (besides a few babies). Notice Will is the only boy and the youngest! If you can see his mouth he is singing all the words though. That's what listening to the CD about a million times will do for you! We can't make it to practice since I teach a class that night so the lady in charge made a CD for us.
You will recognize the song even though it has been jazzed up!


This is the 3rd song they sang. This one was harder for Will because he doesn't know his days of the week. Catch-y tune

Hump day

Wednesday. My week is half over already! Last night was another rough one but not with Will this time. Caroline was up coughing for what seemed like most of the night. When she has drainage due to a cold or allergies she gets asthma. so basically she just coughs and coughs and coughs some more. Nothing really stops the cough. She does have an inhaler and she takes one puff in the morning and another at night. so far it is working tonight! I also put a humidifier in her room and gave her some allergy medicine. Anything for a good night sleep for both of us. So with her being up coughing I didn't send her to school today even though she didn't have a fever. So the 3 of us stayed home all day and didn't go anywhere but on a walk around the block! There aren't many days where that happens. It was nice. While out on our morning walk I noticed that our neighbor down the street had big washer and dryer boxes by the curb. So after our walk we got in the car and went down the street to get the boxes! The guy came out of the house so I got to ask if it was alright if I took 2 of the boxes. He gave me a strange look!

So what did we do with the boxes? Colored, painted, played, cut, taped, colored some more, put cars, legos, blankets, towels, and a baby doll bed in them! IT was finally complete when they had me cut a mouse hole!

Overall the boxes provided hours of entertainment for the kids today!! That was the only thing they played with all day!! it truly is the simple things!

So far this week

This picture was taken back in the beginning of October. I think we had just gotten home from church. The kids both just had their yearly check-ups. They are doing well and growing like crazy! Caroline has gone up 3 shoe sizes since May!! Will is in the 50% for height and 75% for weight. I have a hard time believing that since you can see all his ribs! He is solid muscle. Caroline is in the 75% for both height and weight.
I guess that is one reason for such an expensive grocery bill! Saturday Justin noticed that Will was constantly eating and at snack time Will noticed that Caroline wasn't eating and told Justin, "Caroline's not eating!" Like how could she not be eating! If he is always eating now I know when he is 13 it will be worse!!

So I was hoping to have a nice relaxing morning, just hanging out with Will before the week gets too crazy. That was all thrown out the window when he threw-up 3 times by 11pm. So I have washed the bathmats, my duvet, his sheets, mopped the floor and cleaned carpet this morning. He didn't have a fever and after he got up, lunch, dinner, and then dessert he slpet fine. He has been his usual self this morning and all is back to normal. I am not sure what he ate that upset his stomach so but I should have the results of his allergy testing back by the end of the week. I really am hoping that will have some answers and not more questions. Is that too much to ask for? We have been able to keep him from throwing-up for about 3 months, which is good, but I hate that he gets sick. Well, wee will just have to see.

Might be busy!

The last couple of weeks have been pretty busy but, whats new! Almost two Mondays ago Justin left for work but didn't come home. That afternoon he flew to California for work, came home around midnight Wednesday night. Then he left for work before 7 am Thursday morning. Friday he left from work and drove to Chicago to go to a funeral. He got home late Saturday night. Sunday he was supposed to go to the Pistons game with his boss but he asked to stay home and was allowed to do so. Monday was work as usual (meaning 12 hours or so) then Tuesday he left from work to drive 6.5 hours to Indiana for another funeral. He got home at 3 Thursday and was given the day off.
The kids and I have not been as busy since swim lessons ended a week and a half ago. But this week they start again. So my schedule is looking something like this; gymnastics one day, swim lessons 2 day, teaching water aerobics 2 days, cleaning, walking the dog, going to the grocery store, doing laundry, and cooking. I will also exercise just to keep my sanity everyday. Justin is headed out to do another funeral in Chicago Tuesday and then traveling to Virginia at the end of the week.
Next week Caroline has 2 half days of school and is off the rest of the week. We will be leaving around lunch time on Wednesday to drive to Maryland to have Thanksgiving with Susan and Graham! I also have to take the dog to get his stitches out before we leave.

Please for give me if I don't get around to blogging much before Thanksgiving. I don't not blog on purpose I am just tired at the end of the day! I have some pictures that I will try and share this week too.

Why, Why, WHY!!!

Will has been stuck in the "why" stage for quite a while now. I am getting tired of it!! Caroline's why stage didn't last too long if I am remembering correctly. Justin would just answer her why questions with answers full of long drawn out explanations and big words. Then end with you understand right? Most of the time Caroline would nod and say yep! But that stopped the why, why, whys. It isn't so easy with Will. For exmple he tole me he was so tired and I responed with well ok lets go on upstairs for a nap. What did he say...WHY? Are you kidding me! It is that kind of thing that drives me crazy. The why just for why sake.
I have a solution. Now when he asks why I tell him no, ask a better question. Another example; I pointed out a flock of birds flying while we were going to pick up Caroline yesterday. What did Will say, WHY, of course. So I said no, ask a better question. His response, why do birds fly? What a great question!! Much better than why and that is a question I will answer all day!! My answer was that is the way God made them. Which then led to a series of totally unrelated questions but none of them ending with WHY! I do reinforce the good questions and let him know that that is what I like. I'm making progress and I have only been doing this since Saturday. There is hope for me yet!!



I also want to say THANK YOU to all the veterans and to Andrew and Justin!! We love you and appreciate all that you do and sacrifice for your country!

Swim lessons

Every Wednesday for the past eight weeks we have been going to swim lessons. Caroline loves her class and all the previous swim classes she has had. Will on the other hand is just the opposite. Doesn't want to go, doesn't want to get in the water, or for me to leave his sight! He does fine once he gets in the water. It's the getting him in that's the hard part. I have practically thrown him to his teacher!
Caroline started lessons this summer and this video is from her 22nd lesson (we missed 2 over summer vacation). 3 eight class sessions, 3 different teachers, and never more than 4 in her class. This time it was just 2 kids. She obviously is pretty good!


She will be advancing to the next level. I really like the swim program at the community center and plan on taking full advantage of it while we live here. The classes have low numbers and a low cost! Maybe she remembers the movement from when I swam all those laps while I was pregnant with her!!

Trick-or-treat day!

Saturday was a cold one! After dropping almost 20 degrees from the day before I wasn't looking forward to going out in the dark, cold, windy night. But the kids sure were! We ran errands in the morning and generally had a great day. Below is our perfect pumpkin before Justin carved it.After the night was over I got one last shot. Caroline was Jasmine and Will was a baseball player. They were still so happy even if it was late. And no they weren't on a sugar high. They only had 2 pieces.

One of our neighbors invited us to her church's fall festival. There were games, candy, horse rides, and a petting zoo. There was also several moon bounce things, the kids favorite! Some stuff was outside and some inside so that was nice. They got tons more candy than they would have gotten if we had just gone trick or treating. Not sure if that is a good or bad thing!

making peace with a deer (pretty sure it was a deer, it not that is what we told him anyway!)!! The deer started nibbling on his jacket and he thought it was hilarious.
What a great day!!