Tidbits

I forgot to mention the other day when I posted about Zach's friends coming over that he had a little incident with his bike. It was early in the playdate and he was pushing his bike, not riding it, when he somehow flipped over the handlebars and landed on his face! I'm not quite sure how he did it. He cried (well, actually screamed) for a few minutes then went back to pushing his bike. The boo boos on his nose didn't show up till about an hour later.

I took that picture after nap since I forgot to take one before. It very quickly healed and by the following Sunday you would never have known about it.

Last weekend it was beautiful out, not like this weekend, so we spent a lot of time outside. Kristin was making sure he didn't get any boo boos this time and put elbow and knee pads on him.

For some strange reason he actually enjoys pushing his bike.

Kristin looking cute in her sunglasses.

He's still wearing his helmet and elbow pads to play softball.

Last Sunday we went over to Grandma and PopPop's house for dinner and saw all the family. Here's Lauren being silly while she's holding Alex.

Kelly was playing around with Zach.

It was nice to see everyone especially after this harsh winter and not getting out that much. Hopefully that will all change soon with the warm weather coming.

Lauren's 1st High School game

Her very first high school soccer game was yesterday and she told me the day before after practice that she thought she would be starting. After picking Megan up a little early from school we got there a little before start time. I'm so glad I made it too because I didn't know that they announced the starting players. So they begin announcing and they called quite a few names (I wasn't counting, just seemed like a lot) and just when I thought she wouldn't start there it was, her name and number was announced. I guess she was the last one because she was a freshman.

She told me afterwards that that was the best part of the game! Since she was the last one she got to run out and high five the rest of the starting team.

Not only did she start but she stayed in almost the whole first half. She came out for a couple of minutes to put her mouth guard in, she had forgotten it, but then went right back in.

At the half her team was winning, 5-0.

I had to include this picture. For some reason I seem to always get goofy looking shots of her.

She started the second half too and within a few minutes she scored her first goal! It was an easy shot, the goalie was out and it was an open net, but nevertheless it was a goal. Then two minutes later she assisted for yet another goal. I knew she really wanted to score in her first game and she did. I was so happy for her!

After that she was taken out so some of the other players could get a chance to play too. They ended the game winning with a score of 7-0.

It was a great first game for her. She started on varsity, got announced and even scored. Yay!

She did it!

Lauren made varsity as a freshman. Woohoo! It took her coach long enough to tell them, I think all the other schools have known for at least a week. Of course her coach had to tell them either today or tomorrow because their first game is this Wednesday.

Her uniform colors are yellow and black:

The yellow one fits her nice but the black one is an extra large. Being that she's one of two freshman she got to choose her uniform last. Oh well, maybe next year she'll actually have a better chance to get a uniform that fits. I'm just excited that she made varsity!

Fun with Friends

We finally got together with Annie and G (and new baby Elizabeth) today. We hadn't seen them since December! Zach was so excited that they were coming over and kept looking out the front door for their car this morning.

When they did get here they had so much fun playing together. They went outside and played on the deck, rode their bikes (they brought theirs) and then came inside to play. I didn't even think of grabbing the camera until they were inside. Here's Zach playing cars with Annie.
What cute little bunnies! Zach very nicely let G have the blue bunny ears, what a gentleman.

They were having so much fun we just couldn't let it end so they stayed for lunch and then they went back to playing. During all their playing little Elizabeth was such a good baby, just taking it all in. Can't wait to play with them again.

We're trying to win tickets...

...to go see Elmo. A local radio station has a coloring contest going on and they're picking 2 entries per day all this week. The winners get a 4-pack of tickets. So far we haven't won, 2 more days and 4 more chances to have one of the kids names drawn.

I checked the radio stations website to see if the winner's names were listed (they weren't) but they have posted some (or maybe all) of the entries. I was surprised when I saw my kids pictures on there!

Just a warning, even though it was a coloring contest the winners are not necessarily the ones that color the best. It stated in their rules that they randomly choose the winners from all the entries. So, Megan and Kristin just hurriedly colored theirs (the contest was for ages 2 - 13). I only had them do it so I had 2 more chances to win!

Zach's picture.

Megan's picture.

Kristin's picture.

I guess Kristin forgot that Elmo is red! Good thing they're not judging by how accurate they are or none of them would have a chance. Wish us luck! If we don't win maybe I'll buy tickets and take Zach myself, just him and I. I'm sure he would love it.

Yep, we're still around...

I know, I know. I haven't been updating like I should but really there has not been much going on to write about.

Lauren has started soccer with both her school and her travel team. The school one has been keeping her busy every day after school and she's played in one scrimmage game already with them. Her coach hasn't determined who's on varsity or JV yet but Lauren has been playing and practicing with the varsity. Hopefully he decides soon!

This morning she had her second scrimmage game with her travel team. During the first half it just drizzled but during the second half it downpoured on them. Her hands and arms were so cold when it was over. I had the heat cranked up in the car on the way home to the point that I was hot but she was still shivering. Great, she's just getting over bronchitis, now I guess she'll have pneumonia. I can't believe her team even played in weather like this.

What's a post without pictures? Zach has been a big helper around the house lately. Here he is making brownies for us for dessert one night. He starts by mixing the batter by hand:

Then moves on to using the electric mixer:

After the brownies have baked and cooled and cut into star shapes he then ices them:

They were delicious too! I think only one star brownie was leftover. Not sure if you can tell or not but he was getting mad at me because I wouldn't take the mixer back. He had to wait till I got his picture first, silly boy, he should know that by now.

On one of those warm days last week I took him outside to ride his new bike he got for Christmas. Before he could do that though he saw his little snow shovel sitting there and said he had to "shovel a little bit." Sure, go for it! So he shovelled what was left of the snow. I hope he's still this enthusiastic about shovelling when he gets older!

I never did get a picture of him riding his bike. He's not very good at pedalling and I tried to help him but he kept telling me he wanted daddy to do it. Well okay then. If we ever get a non-rainy weekend I guess Paul will have to help him and then maybe I can get a picture.

At preschool they've been talking about different people in the community. Last Thursday they talked about chefs and the kids got to make their own snack. When I picked him up from class he was wearing this chef's hat so I put it on him while he was helping daddy with dinner that night.

He really likes to cook so I guess we'll have to do more of that this summer.

Zach's Mystery Illness

I mentioned before that a few weeks ago Zach had a reaction to penicillin and that now he's labelled as being allergic. Well, about a week later (which was last week) he came down with a high fever (almost 105!) and he still had his joint pain so once again we visited the doctor.

My sick little guy.

The doctor ordered a whole bunch of blood tests to see what was wrong with him because even though the joint pain could still be due to the "serum sickness" or penicillin allergy the high fever was not. Plus he started complaining that his head hurt too. So off we go to the lab to get his blood work done, that was so not fun.

It took a few days to get the results and everything he was tested for came back negative or within normal range except for his white cell count which was high and his hemoglobin was low. The huge thing that really worried his doctor though was that his c-reactive protein was about 25 times more elevated than normal. So she ordered another round of blood tests which I took Zach for yesterday. He was so funny. As we were walking into the building I asked him if he was going to be a big boy and his response was, "No, I think I'm going to cry," all matter-of-factly. He was great while we were waiting even though he knew what was coming since it was his second time in a week to get a needle in his arm. As soon as we got in the chair though it was a different story and it took two of us to hold him down and a third to draw the blood. He kept screaming to the woman taking the blood, "do NOT do that, do NOT do that..." over and over. Poor kid, very heartbreaking.

Afterwards we stopped to see Lola and she gave him a doughnut. All was better! Next time you see Zach ask him who Lola is and he'll probably tell you she's the person we see "where we get daddy's mail." She's always been so nice to Zach and Zach just loves seeing her. She always has a treat for him or something neat to show him.

That brings us up to today. I took Zach into the doctor yet again so she could check out his joints and she already had the results to yesterdays blood tests. Everything is back in the normal range! Until today I didn't realize how worried the doctor was about him either. I guess whenever the doctor calls you personally it's a concern and I've probably talked to her at least 5 times in the past week. She even went so far as to call me on my cell phone while I was waiting to pick Lauren up after school one day just to check on him.

Feeling MUCH better.

So, the verdict is that he had serum sickness and the symptoms can linger for a few weeks so that's the reason for the joint pain. Then he must have caught some kind of wicked virus to give him such a high fever and have his blood levels go all crazy. His doctor still wants him to have another blood test in 2 weeks just to be sure it's not mono. He was tested for that and it was negative but she just wants to be sure. Whew! What a couple of crazy weeks this has been. Between Zach and all this snow, I just want it to be spring already!

Cowboy Zach

The kids got dismissed early today from preschool for a wild west family gathering that was planned. Since the staff have to help during the event I asked Mamaw and Papaw if they could come and be with Zach. So here's my little cowboy after being picked up from his class.
Zach showed Mamaw and Papaw where the party was. He got his tattoo first and then dug for his 3 pieces of gold in the gold digging station.

I was helping supervise the gold digging station but was able to leave and snap a few more pictures before they sat down to eat. Here they're waiting to take advantage of a photo op.

Giddyup Zach!

After eating Zach and I showed Mamaw and Papaw how to get out (it's confusing the first time you're there!) and then he was able to dig a little in the rice before we had to clean everything up.

He was a great helper afterwards. He helped carry things and even helped drag the sensory tables across the floor. Then it was time for the staff to go in the kitchen and grab a plate of food. That's one advantage he has over the other kids, he gets to hang with the big people in the kitchen, a place where none of the other kids are allowed. He ate a little bit of my pasta and even got a brownie. That was good since he didn't eat anything but a roll when he was sitting with Mamaw and Papaw.

And that was it, another event done. I think the next event is Bagels with Dads/Buddies sometime in March but at least Paul should be able to do that one with him.

Valentine's Day

Paul and I went out to dinner Saturday evening at our church. Every year the youth group always does a Valentine's dinner and this is the first year that we've ever attended and Lauren and Kristin's first time helping serve. They really did a great job! The room was lit by candlelight and soft music was playing in the background. All the youth helping wore black pants and a white top, they all looked very nice and professional. Kristin brought some of the food to eat at home, none of the youth could eat until it was over so they got to choose from all the leftovers, she choose fettuccine alfredo.
The next day, Valentine's Day, I gave each of the kids a box of chocolate. Each one was different, Zach's was a crab with big googly eyes, Kristin's had a puppy on the front plus she got this...

...a boyfriend! I gave Lauren the same Grow A Boyfriend with a Twilight box of chocolates.

I found the neatest box for Megan, it has a chalkboard on the front.

So now we have enough candy to last till the Easter Bunny comes!

Did they really go to school today?

Yes! They FINALLY went to school even though it had snowed overnight and had started snowing again this morning. Only a coating though so it wasn't too bad. I'll take a coating any day over what we've been getting. At preschool Zach's and my class were finally able to have our Valentine's Day parties. We both brought home so much more candy. Zach got this heart shaped lollipop from one of the other teachers that he visits after school.

There's a room that connects ours and once school is out Zach will wander the halls and loop around through that room then pop back in mine. The teacher in that room is so nice and just thinks he's so funny and cute. She's the one that gave him the lollipop.

Megan finally makes a wish...

...by blowing out her birthday candles. Since she didn't feel well on her actual birthday we postponed the cake till the next night. So I of course had to include that here.

Which now ends her birthday for this year. Hopefully next year's is better!

Happy 10th Birthday Megan!

Megan's birthday was yesterday and she was home since there was no school. (Not because of the snow, this was an already scheduled day off for a long President's Day weekend.) She started off celebrating by going out to lunch with Mamaw and Papaw to Red Robin. She had a huge bacon cheeseburger off of the adult menu and then they brought her an ice cream sundae and sang happy birthday to her.

Paul brought her flowers when he came home from work. He's done that with all the girls when they turned 10 so he had to continue the tradition with Megan.

Even though she went to lunch Megan still wanted to go out to dinner with the family. She chose to go to Red Lobster so that's where we went. Boy was it crowded there! I think everyone was just wanting to get out after being stuck in the house the past few days. I drove so after dropping everyone off at the entrance I then tried to find a parking spot. What a challenge that was. Between the huge piles of snow taking up lots of spots and the amount of cars I ended up parking sooo far away from the restaurant. I guess it was no big deal that it took me so long to park since we had to wait an hour to get seated anyways.

We finally get seated, order our food then Megan said her belly hurt. She spent most of the dinner in the bathroom and since I didn't want to leave her there that meant that I also spent most of dinner in the bathroom waiting for her. She said to me, "I didn't get my special dinner" and I said, "You got it, you just didn't get to eat or enjoy it." When everyone else was done we left, unfortunately Megan didn't get sung to by the waitstaff at Red Lobster. That's always the highlight of the kids birthdays, it puts them in the spotlight for their special day. Oh well, it'll be a birthday she won't forget that's for sure.

We get home and after laying around for awhile she decides she wants to open her presents. She got a game, a necklace and some clothes from Paul and I. Lauren had gotten her a lotion/bath gel set, some nail polish and these earrings.

She was absolutely fine the this morning so she had one of her friends come over and spend part of today with her. They put on a fashion/singing show. Megan is modelling one of the jackets she got for her birthday.

They call themselves "twins," her friend's name begins with M too so they're "M & M."

It was such a bummer that she didn't get to enjoy her birthday dinner but I think having her friend over helped it end on a good note. Thankfully whatever was wrong with her was very short.

Getting ready for Valentine's Day...

On Thursday since we were snowed in for part of the day I drug out some art stuff and had the kids decorate for Valentine's Day.

They made heart prints...

handprint flowers...

Valentine cards...

and just plain got messy!

Still haven't made a snowman yet but with the amount of snow outside I'm sure we will still be able to do it next weekend. Here's hoping we do.

Yet another post about snow

This is getting a little old. Unfortunately this snow is going to be hanging around for quite sometime, it's going to take forever for it all to melt. This time we got 12.8 inches, much better than the 18 to 24 that was predicted! We didn't go outside at all yesterday because of the blizzard like conditions but had to get out some today. We waited till Paul had done most of the snowblowing before venturing out.
It was so bright out that we had to wear sunglasses!

Megan is queen of the mountain. Here she is showing off our huge mound of snow. I think we should take bets on when that's going to melt, I'm thinking sometime in April!

Zach liked sliding down the snow on the edge of the driveway.

Megan and Zach did a little sledding in the front yard. There's just so much snow that Megan had a hard time walking in it so she resorted to crawling and pulling at the same time.

Hopefully we can go back out either later today or tomorrow and make a snowman. It's perfect snowman making snow.