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From child Sand Box to Corn Box

So last winter we wanted to have something for Jacoby inside that he loved. What does he love more than backhoes and digging, absolutely notta! So we filled a baby pool with sand and put it in our (unfinished) basement. It wasn't too bad, but it got pretty dusty and you would have to bring down water to get the sand damp otherwise it was just too much dust. Sooo....this year we thought we would try corn. So far so good, it seems to be messier in a sense that it spreads, but easier because you can just sweep it up and dump it back in. The boys really really enjoy it. You can just get the corn at a farm store type place that sells feeds for chicken's etc. Enjoy my cutie patootie and please ignore the big ole mess in the background. Project frame and finish basement has begun! Stay tuned...dun dun dun. Scroll to the last picture for a preview of my men working on the "spacement"

What to do with baby's Coming Home outfit, Mama's getting "crafty"

Hey y'all!  So I am pretty proud of myself, and although I did see this idea on Pinterest AFTER I did these projects, I did think of this mostly on my own :)

I was going through all the itty bitty uber cute baby clothes that we have and just didn't have the heart to get rid of them yet.  BUT the little organizing your life book I got from the library was barking at me like a shoulder devil.  So I decided to keep a few special outfits that make me think of the boys when they were infants.  Then there was the dilemma of the Going Home outfits.  Now these outfits weren't worn as often or may not even stand out in my memories in the future, but they are the special outfits I felt worthy at the time of cradling my precious bundles home from the hospital.  So they needed an extra special home.

I scored a super great deal on the memory box frames on Turkey Day and then gathered, ironed the best I could, found a true newborn photo and created a name plate with their full names and birth stats.  Then I got pinning with some pearl tipped pins.  I wasn't sure if I wanted to really fill the frame with baby bracelets, and more but I kept them simple and maybe, if they survive the next few years without completely disintegrating, I will add their "Loveys". 

I really love how they came out and this is a special thing that I will have forever.  Yup, this is truly for me and I am glad I finally got around to doing them. Pictures aren't great because I hung them up in the hall by their rooms before I thought to take a picture.

Back To Reality!

Phew, the Holiday's are over!  Now, I truly do enjoy a good Holiday, but this year they just didn't have the same "umph".  I think I was still exhausted from Garrett's first birthday party to host Thanksgiving, then we had a family X-mas with different members of the family almost every weekend in December.  So therefore, actual Christmas didn't have the pizazz that I feel it warrants.  On top of that we had a pretty serious illness to boot.  And, for the second year in a row, we didn't do a thing for New Year's (sign number 100 that you are for sure getting kinda old).

As for New Year's Resolutions....hmmmm....I have a few, not too interesting though but I will share here. Not really resolutions but more of a TO DO list.

1. Balance my checkbook once a week. (even once a quarter would be an improvement).
2. Frame the boys "coming home" outfits. (stay tuned)
3. Put up the medicine cabinet I got for free with my Swagbucks MONTHS ago.
4. Really get control over the absurd amount we spend in groceries.
4. Overall smarten up in the moola department.
5. Fix this blog so it looks right. OH, and my mom says I shouldn't swear in it, so I will try harder :)
6. Spend 10 hours a week on my home based business.
5. And the usual, exercise, eat right, blah blah blah :)

NOW, I think these are pretty darn attainable.  If not, oh well, there's always next year.

Oh, and a really good part of the holiday's being ovah?! Pre-school is back in session :) 'Nuff said.

Oh Fuuuudddgggeeee......

The Soter's...starring in "A Christmas Story"

So it wasn't all bad.  But I'll re-cap here. 

Our "A Christmas Story" adventure started right on cue with a totally blown out tire on our way to the Christmas Eve celebrations at Aunt Sandy's.  5 degrees, and two kids and a dad all dressed up. We got there right about bed time.  Great.  When we arrived, although I didn't shoot my eye out, I did almost get a broken nose.  Believe it or not, smelling my kids ass.  Won't bore you with details, but blame it on Grandpa. 

The evening went well.  Christmas morning was alright.  Had a great yummy breakfast.  BUT I didn't think about the rest of the day. Ate eggs and chips.  Thought about Chinese, since that's what they do in the movie, BUT, we really didn't have a car!  My jeep has been acting ugly for months and wouldn't even start and we were nervous to drive Jason's because the blown out tire damaged some other thing.  Yup, that's the technical term.

Got some great presents, no Red Ryder Gun or fuzzy pink bunny pajama's but we did get this (see pic below) apparently it is a potato bin, and most of our family got one :) But it took us a long time to figure it out! Well, actually we didn't figure it out, a facebook friend did.  Now that I know what it is, makes total sense.

Back track to the morning.  Jacoby opened his "Grapple" (Toy Story Tri County Landfill) and absolutely would not open any more presents.  We just finished up this morning, two days later.  Didn't even touch his stocking.  See more detail of our actual Christmas celebrations HERE. (after you read this blog of course) It wasn't all bad :)

Now fast forward to after nap.  Jacoby woke with a 103.3 fever and was feeling really sick.  He  was just out of it.  Which may explain the morning's stalling of the present opening.

Bed time: as I was feeding Garrett his bottle I was reflecting on the past few days and the humor of it all.  Then when I turned him over to rock him, I patted his cute little butt and found a large bow.  I immediately thought, none of it matters, this is what the holiday's are about, babies, kids and family.  It really made me feel calm.  BUT yet again, Santa had one more gift for us.

Jacoby woke us up around midnight VERY sick.  I knew at 2:00am that he would be going to the doctors as soon as they opened.  Well, they didn't open.  Ugh.  Had to take him forty five minutes away, got great service, and sent to the emergency room.  My poor guy was not well and it was pretty scary for a time.  Read more details about Jacoby's first trip to the hospital HERE.  I DID get chinese on the way home, GD it I had to finish the movie out right!

Now, Jacoby is doing better but his meds are making him batshitcrazy.  Wish me luck y'all.  I will leave you with this.

Soap pppoooiiisssiiiooonnniiiinnngggg....



 

Fra-gee-lee

Ho Ho Ho!

So I think we had about FOUR Christmases.  I actually think this was good because it spaced out the gifts and gave the boys a chance to actually play with the toys for a bit and not be so overwhelmed.  Our first Christmas was with my extended in-law family.  I forgot my camera that day but we had a good time as usual and did our traditional Yankee Swap.

Next, we did a Christmas with my MIL, FIL, Aunt Jacki, Uncle Herb and Aunt Jamie.  The theme to these gifts were music.  The boys (Jacoby) LOVE having concerts and playing in bands.  It is a daily activity here.  Jacoby got a great guitar and a CD player with microphones.  Garrett got a drum filled with other lovely noise makers.  They also got a wagon (can you believe we didn't have one?) which they LOVED to play with.  Here are a few shots of the "Soter Brother's".

Next we had traditional Christmas Eve at Aunt Sandy's.  Read about our start to this day HERE.  We also did a Yankee Swap here.  It was the first year, and a big group.  It went pretty well without too much stealing and arguing.  Here are a few shots of Christmas at Aunt Sandy's with my extended family.

Lauren and Garrett

LOVE!!!

Yankee Swap getting heated!!

Jason and his sis Jamie

Yankee Swap Crowd

Meghan and Garrett

And finally, Christmas morning.  Jacoby got up like normal and didn't even once mention Santa.  We finally had to get him excited to come down.  This kid is ANYTHING but materialistic.  He never asks for anything and never begs to open presents.  I hope this trait stays with him.  Once he opened his "Grapple" Toy story Tri County landfill, he was done.  We had to persuade him to open any more gifts, he took 2 more days to finally finish opening.  The big hits were the landfill obviously, the cash register (surprisingly), more large cardboard blocks, cleaning kit and Garrett enjoyed his new hardhat.  Here are just a few snapshots.  Enjoy!

Santa Came, I love the Lovey's laid out by the boys, this was not staged :)

The "Grapple"

Working hard on their new picnic table

Garrett finally gets a hard hat to wear

He just enjoyed putting the bows in the "bow bag"

Love their profiles! They are the same :)

All Xmased out, observe the Lovey's.  Awwwww

Little Man Down

So Jacoby had his first hospitalization besides his birth week in the NICU.

He's had a cough, little kids are gross and boogery, we get that.  I am NOT a paranoid mom that runs to the docs.  I hate going there, it is not fun.  But on Christmas Jacoby was not well.  He woke up later that night and was really struggling to breath.  He was gasping for breath and his temperature was burning up.  Again, I didn't panic and was just waiting around for the doctor to open.  Although it never crossed my mind "should I take him?" it also never crossed my mind to take him to the ER.

Well apparently that is their holiday, so only one of the offices was open and that was 40 minutes away.  We had great service and got right in.  After taking a look at him she sent us right over to the ER.  I wasn't prepared for that in any way! Mentally or physically, I didn't have any good stuff in the diaper bag for a long day.  Oh well :)

His fever was still really high, his oxygen saturation levels were not optimal, his heart rate/pulse were extremely high, he was looking gray and having lots of trouble!  They got us right into the ER, I even heard them tell some people that had been waiting a long time that they appreciated their patience but they had to take a child over them.  Surprisingly, that was us.

They got him right into x-ray, started an antibiotic, prednasone and breathing treatments.  Jacoby was an AMAZING trooper and very cooperative.  I'm sure it was his fever helping him be complaisant. 

Eventually everything they were doing helped to stabilize his breathing so much that after 5+ hours or so we were able to go home and continue the treatments at home.  I was surprised how quickly they were able to manage his breathing from how he was when he came in.  When he left his oxygen levels were back up to normal and his heart rate and pulse had slowed down some.

He was diagnosed with Bronchilitis caused by RSV.  We were very lucky to be able to go home and he seems to be improving here.  What they didn't tell us and we learned in our follow up today is that the prednasone will make him batshitcrazy and grouchy and the inhaler will hype him up.  Today was a LONGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG day.  He was more 3 than he has ever be!  It's a tough call because he gets so hyper but then he starts hacking.  It seems like a catch to me.

So that concludes the story of Jacoby's current illness.  Hoping for a quick recovery.

My poor baby.  He REFUSED to wear the Johnny.