Spring is Here

In Iowa you know it's spring when the tornado sirens start ringing and the ground turns to MUD. Seriously, if we're not in the basement "hiding from the tornado" (like Austin says) we're playing outside and that means lots of cleaning up mud for me.

I took the kids on a bike ride yesterday and Landon decided to go "mountain" biking. Before I could stop him he was off in the mud. His bike got stuck and his shoes sunk 2 inches into the ground. I had to go in after him and dig out his bike and help pull his feet out. It was T H I C K! Luckily, we had a long walk home, dragging the bike (he couldn't ride it because the front tire was stuck with mud), for Landon to stomp the mud off his feet and tires.

(click to enlarge and check out the mud over the front tire)

and isn't he cute?!!

Friends

I've been thinking about moving lately, obviously. It seems the closer it gets the closer I get to my friends. I'm going to miss them. From the day we moved here I had great friends. Two girls brought me dinner, when they found out I had moved here with a four-day old baby, and told me about a playgroup they had started and instantly I had made wonderful friends. When our family moved out of the University Ward I made even more friends and they have become my serogate family.

Today we went to Bluestem, a campground by Coralville Lake, and all I could think was how much I'm going to miss my friends, my house, and even Iowa itself. I've really loved it here. I couldn't have asked for a better place to have spent the last four years.

Last weekend I went to Chicago with some of my friends and I had so much fun. It was a well deserved break, I must say. What girl wouldn't love a weekend of shopping, makeup, late-night girl talk, Wicked, Cheesecake Factory, birthday celebrations, and even a trip to the temple?

We stayed at the Drake Hotel

We spent a LOT of time getting our makeup done and went to a Mac makeup class

I took my first Taxi Ride

We did a little haircut in the bathtub
We were just a "little" silly!!
And just for fun here's a picture from St. Patty's Day. We had a green party at the church. (just pretend the picture says 2008 - oops!)

When it Rains it Pours

Seriously! I spent last week with Austin sick as a dog and late this afternoon I found out that Land-o has pnemonia. Why are they always sick???? I'm not kidding - I have been to the doctor at least once a week for the past month. I am so tired of it. Poor Landon. The doctor said that when she listened to the bottom of his lungs she couldn't even tell he was breathing. He's had a fever of 101-103 since Sat. He looks horrible, even the doctor said she hadn't seen a kid that looked that sick in a while.
The amazing thing, though is Landon's worst complaint has been that his tummy was hurting. He's been pretty lathargic and tired so he's spent most of the past few days on the couch with good ol' Scooby Doo. He has had a great attitude. He must be really tough to not be complaining very much.
No parent likes seeing their kids sick but I am definitely TIRED of sick kiddos. Please summer come and take all the yucky germs away...oh wait then we'll move to Colorado and be exposed to a whole new set of germs... wish us luck!!

Dear Austin,
It's midnight and I can't sleep. All that keeps running through my mind is what could have happened to you yesterday. You had a severe allergic reaction to the antibiotic I gave you for your ear infection. It's haunting me to think that had your air way swollen up as well you could have died. I wish there was something I could do to make your body stop reacting to things like this.

This is the second time you have had an allergic reaction like this and both times I wasn't sure what to do. I'm sorry for my ignorance. I'm sorry that I don't always know what to do for you.

My heart is broken when I think of you in pain. And I am so sorry that it took so long for us to get you some medicine to make it better. The benedryl I gave you yesterday seemed to be working but I should have checked on you closer in the night. I didn't know. When you woke up this morning I called the doctor right away so we could get you some other medicine. You were still so swollen and red. I took this picture just after I gave you prednesone so that I could compare and make sure the swelling was going down. It helped so much. But then your lips were cracked and bleeding from the swelling. I wish I could make this go away.

The prednesone makes you grumpy and irritable. The doctor says it's because it makes your heart race and gives you a light-headed feeling. It also gives you tummy aches. I have to make you take it though, because it is helping your body stop fighting itself. It's only for a few days.

I often think, "It could be much worse, he could have a terminal illness or something." But at this moment I feel like you might as well have one. I feel like we're in some sort of guessing game, wondering what will make you sick this time. I don't want you to be sick and itchy. I wish I could just make everything better.

I love you so much, little guy. I wish you knew how much I worry about you all the time. I wish you knew how thankful I am that God watches over you. I wish you knew how often I pray for you and for me to know how to help you. Everyday, I worry that something you eat will make you sick. I am trying to be more vigilant in keeping an eye out for things that you can't eat.

Inspite of it all, you have such a happy personality. I am so proud of what a good little boy you are. You are happy and laughing - always cracking a joke. I love how you sing all the time and when you don't know the words you make them up. I appreciate your help; you love to help me with chores around the house and I can always count on you to get me something I need for Isaac. Watching you interact with Landon and Zac makes me so happy. You have a fiesty spirit sometimes, which can get you into trouble but you're such a charmer it's easy to forgive you. You are very good at sharing. Your laugh is contagious. You get excited for the rest of us and our accomplishments. For all of these reasons and more I love you.

I want you to know that I will do everything I can to keep you safe. Dad will too. He feels like I do. We will try hard to keep this from happening again. In the mean time thank you for being you. We will appreciate every moment.

Missing the Hubby

click to enlarge

We've been missing Cameron around here lately... he's in Des Moines doing an externship. He comes home on the weekends but that's definitely not enough daddy time. I've been taking advantage of my free time, though. I started working out regularly (only missed three days in two weeks - and only because I killed my back and had to let it rest) and I started digital scrap booking. I'm loving it. As a tribute to Cam here's a layout I did for him. In the words of Landon, "Everything's better when Dad's here."

"The Best Day of My Life"

Landon woke up in a great mood yesterday. He came upstairs to my room at 6:55 am fully dressed and ready for school. So, of course, I made him lay in my bed while I caught ten more min. of zzz's; well I tried. All he wanted to do was talk about how he was going to hockey after school. When he got home from school he was ready for hockey. I took the kids to dinner at the mall to help pass the time; mostly to get him to stop asking when it was time for hockey to start! After hockey, in the car, he said, "this has been the best day of my life! I jumped the highest in my PE class, I wrestled with Nick, I practiced basketball, I got to eat at Panara, and I played hockey. I even liked giving the cow a high five!" (we gave the Chick Filet cow a high five after dinner) I'm so happy that Landon had a great day! Amazing what a couple of sports will do for a kid (oh, and a cow!)


Other Happenings: Zac is almost sitting on his own. He uses his hands to hold himself up but he's getting there. He just got weighed and he weighs 19 pounds! He's growing up so fast.



Last week I let the kids build a fort and it's their new favorite thing to do. They even ate dinner in it one night. They get all the art stuff out and pretend they are working in a car factory. They "build" cars out of construction paper and they LOVE it.