4:48am

Three weeks ago, I posted about how sick Zander was. He was sick the 1st week, Zane had it fully the 2nd week and then the 3rd week Zander's cough was still lingering and just wouldn't go away. I took him to the Dr. 10 days ago and found out he had an ear infection in one ear. Since he's never really been sick before, and therefore never been on antibiotics, the Dr. we saw at sick care prescribed Amoxicillin for his ear. He said though, that his cough was from an upper respiratory infection and the antibiotic wouldn't help it, and that we could expect a cough for a maximum of 10 more days. I don't know if it just so happened that his cough was almost done or if by some chance the medicine did help, but his cough cleared up within 3 days of starting the medicine.

Now, on to the point of this blog post......2 days ago, Philip and I both noticed that his cough is starting to come back. Like before, it is mainly when he's laying down for nap or at nighttime.

This morning around 3:30, through the monitor, I hear him coughing. I decide to ignore it rather than being a good mother and getting out of bed to give him medicine. About an hour later, at 4:48am, he starts coughing again. Mother guilt gets the best of me, and I get out of bed. I fumbled in the dark trying to find the cough medicine. I'm purposely keeping all the lights turned off so that maybe I won't wake myself up too much and can crawl back into bed for another hour of sleep (even though my alarm was set to go off at 5:00am, I am thinking I'll ignore it). I climb to the top of the stairs and there are lights on in Eli's room. WHAT THE HECK? I can still hear Zander coughing, so I go to their room first. When I open the door, Zane sits straight up and says "bah-bahs" which is "passy." I give Zander his medicine and help Zane find his passy. Get them both laid back down and go across the hall to deal with the light in Eli's room. I open his door and he's in bed reading a chapter book. I quickly turn off his light ('cause I'm still hoping for more sleep for myself) and ask him what he's doing. His answer: "reading." REALLY? Me: "Why? It's too early. You should be sleeping." Eli: "I'm not tired." Me:"Try to go back to sleep and don't turn this light on till after 6:00am."

I go back downstairs, crawl into bed, and of course, I can't get back to sleep. I am laying there thinking how crazy is it that 3 of our 4 children were awake at 4:48am? And I'm wishing they hadn't been because my day has now officially started.

$1.98 bag of quiet

"Would the baby on aisle 2 please stop screaming crying?"

I'm pretty sure that's what the Walmart employees wanted to shout over the PA this morning when I was there with Zane and Zander. We went in for a few things (less than 20). Zander was fine the first 2 minutes we were there. He and Zane were both buckled into the kiddy shopping carts. (the kind that will actually accomodate twins!) The boys call these carts "ride."


We started off in the produce section and that's where the fun began. Zander got a little unhappy that he couldn't eat the strawberries I put in the cart. Then he got a little more unhappy that he couldn't eat the apples I put in the cart. Then he started crying when he couldn't eat the bananas I put in the cart. On and on the fun went. The real screaming crying came though, when I put "row-rows" in the cart. (row-rows = Frosted Cheerios). He was MAD and he got LOUD!!!


I continued on with the last few items on my list. Thought I was all done and then realized ranch dressing wasn't marked off my list. As I quickly pushed the cart back to the front of the store to aisle 2, I contemplated for one split second about getting Zander out of the cart. But this would cause several problems:

• remember I have the big semi-truck long kiddy cart? So, I'd be holding a near 30lb. toddler on my hip while still pushing this massive cart
• Zane who is perfectly content in the cart would probably start with his famous saying "Momma, hold you." (which means he wants me to hold him)
• This might lead Zander to believe that anytime he cries in the "ride" I will get him out.

So I decide to leave the screaming crying kid in the cart. As I zip at lightning speed down aisle 2, I am frantically looking for something I can yank off the shelf and stuff into his mouth. Asian Food? No. Ketchup? No. Mustard? No. Mayo? No. Oh, there's the ranch dressing. Throw it in the cart. Check. And what do I spot at the end of the aisle? Raisins and Craisins.......ya-hoooooooo! I know he likes Craisins because he ate cousin Jordan's when she came for a visit 2 days ago. I go cheap and get the smallest cheapest bag.....

and there is....................SILENCE.

All of Walmart can now shop in peace. Zander is being fed and he likes it!

Sweeties in Snuggies

For Valentine's Day, I bought my 9 & 7 yr old sweeties a Snuggie. I can't believe I paid money for a blanket with sleeves! But Emma Kate had been wanting one for a couple months, and I knew if she got one that Eli would probably want one too.

But look at the great deal I got...

the Snuggies came with matching socks...

full-body Snuggie shot....

masked Snuggie shot....



While the big kids were posing with their Snuggies, Philip was reading a book to the little boys...

Valentine's Day 2010

Ordinary February Friday

Fridays are homeschool days.

February is during the middle of gymnastics meet season.

This Friday combined both those things.

Eli and Emma Kate are sitting at their table doing their schoolwork.

Zander is doing a paper of his own.

Looks like a plate from breakfast is still on the table.

And EK's hair is up in the special blue gymnastics rollers!

Later that day we traveled an hour down to Ft. Smith for the Flame Meet. At this meet the 7 & 8 yr olds were combined together. I think there were about 15 total. Emma Kate placed 4th all-around which is great! But even better is that all 3 girls who placed higher than her were 8 years old (and EK had only been 7ys old for 3 weeks)! Here are the top 5 all-around winners from Right to Left....


EK's cousin Haley also competed at the same time. The girls love seeing each other at meets!

Valentine's Party

I very much dislike making Valentine boxes. Last year at the class parties, I saw a good idea using the Build-a-Bear houses that you get when you go to BABW. So I saved the only 2 we had and wouldn't you know...we didn't even use them. Emma Kate's class was supposed to decorate kleenex boxes during the party. Eli was supposed to decorate his at home, but he wasn't interested in doing anything with a Build-a-Bear box. :0 So....I came up with the idea of doing a football field....only problem was that I lacked the artistic-ness to pull it off.

DADDY to the rescue!!!!
Finished product....

accepting Valentine's the next day at the 3rd grade class party....

Eli handing out his Valentine's....

Party Food! You can see the 2 heart-shaped fruit pizzas I made. I signed up to make them as long as another mom would cut up the fruit...ha! Thanks Becky!

Some of the great moms in Eli's class came up with several really neat games for the kids to play. One of those games was to unwrap a Hershey's Kiss while wearing gloves...as demonstrated below by Eli

Next I walked over to Emma Kate's class. They had just finished decorating sugar cookies. Looks like she went heavy on the M&M's....

Next, they decorated their Kleenex boxes....

She likes to make silly faces when she knows I'm wanting a picture of her....

Finished product....

Handing out her Valentine's...

(will someone PLEASE remind me next year not to send my kids Valentine's in a Walmart sack? Seriously, how tacky is that?)



Love this glimpse of her eyes...that's so her...hiding behind others

How fashionista is she with her rain boots?

Daddy showed up at the parties toward the end. Since we could each be with one kiddo, I walked back over to Eli's party. Another mom in Emma Kate's class took this picture after I left....

Camera Test

Philip is wanting a new camera with better picture-taking capabilities as well as a large zoom lens. He borrowed the one his brother has so he could see what features he did and didn't like. I really like these individual pictures he has taken of Zane and Zander. He has captured their everyday expressions so well....

Bright blue eyes with thick straight hair for one boy

and

big big brown eyes with thin curly hair for the other!

Snowball Fight

We had another beautiful snowfall all day yesterday. It was perfect in the fact that it didn't stick to the roads at all.
Zander had a Dr. appointment (for a persistent cough that's been going on for over 2 weeks), so we had to get out in it. When we got home, Philip hurried out of the car and ran outside. All the kids were still in the car so I went to see what Philip was doing. He was hiding with a snowball in his hand. He was ready to pelt Eli and Emma Kate when they got out of the car.
Emma Kate came out first but she immediately spotted him. She remained quiet and we all waited for Eli to lolly-gag take his time getting out.

Eli finally came out and WHAM!!! He had no idea it was coming. When I saw how much fun the 3 of them started having trying to hit each other with snowballs, I ran inside for the camera.

Zane and Zander had been waiting patiently in the car while all the snowball fun was going on. I got them out and Zander went straight out into the snow with the most priceless expressions....

Momma caught him and snapped a picture with him. You can tell by the look on his face that he would've rather been running around....

We tried to get Zane to come out in the snow but he would have none of it. He stayed in the garage where he could see us and vice versa and played with balls.

I know we are under-dressed (no hats, no coats, etc...), but we were literally walking from the garage to inside our house when this impromptu fun took place. And we were outside for less than 10 minutes. We survived.

Mr. Bubble

My little boy that likes to pilfer (that would be Zane in case you don't know) has been at it again. He and Zander were in the bathroom with me yesterday morning while I was getting ready. All was going well. They were playing with various things. I proceeded to talk to my sister on the phone. Apparently I got really wrapped up in the conversation because I look over at the boys and find Zane doing this....

By the time I spotted him, almost the whole bottle was emptied. All over the floor and the side of the bathtub (see Zander spreading it around below?)

Of course I immediately ended the phone conversation and had a split-second decision to make. 1)Gather up the towels and start cleaning like crazy. or 2)Run to get my camera and take pictures like crazy. I chose #2! And I'm so glad I did so that I could capture this moment....

Yep. Fighting over the now-empty bottle of Mr. Bubble. Zander must've thought that Zane's idea of pouring it all over the place and making a mess looked like bubbles of fun!

At that point I thought I would get all the towels out and have them help me "wipe." They think that's so fun and the distraction ploy worked!

In case you're wondering about Zane's headband, click here to read the original post about his love of this thing. Seriously he finds it everyday and wears it. He covets that particular one. No one else can wear it. No one else can touch it. It is HIS!!!!

Emma Kate's 7th Birthday "Party"

Emma Kate's birthday falls right in the busy time of gymnastics meets, so we usually have to do it mid-week or wait a couple of weeks after her birthday.

This year we waited until 2 weeks after her birthday when she had a weekend off from gymnastics. Rather than a traditional party, she wanted the 4 other girls from her team to go out to eat and then to a Gymbacks Gymnastics Meet. (yes, everything for her revolves around gymnastics. She seriously needs a shirt that says "Eat. Sleep. Gymnastics.")

I was thinking we'd go someplace cheap for dinner like Cici's Pizza, but she wanted Shogun. I immediately said no, but not 5 minutes after saying that we happened to be driving by Shogun and saw a banner that said $4.95 kids meals. Wow. That is cheap. So I called Cici's and their price for kids is $4.76. So I could totally justify taking the girls to Shogun. It's a win-win for me too because I don't really like Cici's to begin with but I love me some Japanese!!

One of her teammates was going out of town so it ended up just being 4 girls total. Emma Kate, Lauren, Sammy and Amanda.

It wouldn't be Japanese teppanyaki without the fire....


The chef was soooo good with the girls. He gave Emma Kate an egg to hold (look in her lap) and told her to come inside the cooking area to crack it, but she said no. That is typical Emma Kate. Doesn't like to be the center of attention as you can see by this look on her face.

Something tastes good using these kids chopsticks....

Once again a disgusted look on her face. They lowered the house lights and turned flashing lights on so the whole restaurant could sing Happy Birthday to her. She was not thrilled.

Once the lights were turned back on, our little group of girls sang Happy Birthday to her and she was much happier.

She picked out these sparkler candles (I didn't even know there was such a thing). They were a bit tough to blow out.

Mmmmmm, cookie cake.

Then we were off to the Gymbacks Meet. The girls were H-Y-P-E-R by this point. They skipped and sang a made up song from our car all the way to the arena. The song went something like "This. is. the. best. night. EVER."

Inside, propped up on a balance beam display...

Still all smiles at the end of the meet!

Happy Birthday to my 7 year old. Can't believe you are already 7. My quiet, sweet, helpful Emma Kate.