Fevers, ice, snow and more....

Been a few days since I have posted. Emily has been sick since last Friday, but that is only the middle of the story.....
Friday morning 2:30- Mick and I wake up to our doorbell going crazy and the answering machine going off....the power was going out and it was making everything act up. (from the lovely ice storm we had). Thankfully both the kids slept thru that episode, at least until about 3:30 when we realized that there were about 30,000 people without power and that it was going to awile before it came back on. So my ever prepared hubby heads dowstairs and brings up his "indoor emergency propane heater" (since the Sandberg's moved) and his hand-crank radio (yes, I made fun of him for buying it last summer). Luke woke up during that commotion and wanted to come snuggle in with mommy. About that time it was starting to get chilly, so Mick set up the heater and we stayed warm in our room for about 30 minutes until Emily woke up to eat. At that point we decided to set up camp in Emily's room, so in comes the heater and Luke's portable cot and blankets and the hand crank radio....I fed Emily, Mick helped Luke fall back to sleep and everyone was nice and warm and content...until about 6:30 when we woke up and the power was still out. So we sat in Emily's room and stayed warm playing with Luke's race cars and Emily's books. About 9:30 Emily was ready for nap, so the boys bundled up and went out to see the damage from the ice storm. Our neighbors tree was blocking our driveway and our tree was blocking the other neighbors driveway. The ice was so thick on the tress and our driveway was a skating rink. While we were outside the power came back on (at 11:00), so Mick went in to discover that the sump pump had turned back on, but the pipe running out of the house was frozen, so the water was being thrown all over his work room! GRRRRR! Once we got things back in order it was time to come in and warm up and take a nap....or so we thought....
Friday afternoon 1:30pm- Emily is so cranky, I think she is teething. I apply so numbing neds to her mouth and still that is not helping, so I give her some Tylenol and finally leave her to cry it out. She falls asleep and wakes up 10 minutes later. She feels a bit warm, so I take her temp and it is 101.5. That starts the fun! From Friday until Monday we are stuck in the house with a sick baby. Her fever peaks at 103.6, she vomits and has diarreah and does not want to eat or sleep. She is so uncomfortable and her little eyes look sooooo tired! ;( After 3 phone calls with the after hours service at her Dr. office, and being repeatidly told that unless her fever hits 105 or she has no wet diapers in 12 hours, there is nothing they will do and that she will get better. Come Monday morning Emily is still sick, still not eating and still not sleeping (which means that mom and dad are still up also). We take her into the doc and they check her over and say it is viral and must run its course.
Fastforward to Tuesday after her morning nap- Emily wakes up with green gunk leaking from her ear!!!! I call the doc and they finally call back and call in some antibiotics and numbing drops. She gets a dose of each and we put her to bed. She slept about 15 minutes and was up again crying in pain! Mick was up with her from 11-12 and I was up with her from 1-3. She finally crashes and wakes up at 6, still in pain. We decide to give her Tylenol on a 4 hour schedule and she seems content.
Christmas Eve night- she is such a little sweetie! After her 2 antibiotics and doeses of Tylenol or Motrin she plays happily during the Christmas Party. Crashes in the van on the way home about 10pm.
Christmas Day (TODAY!) She woke up about 1:30 this morning, ate, took some more meds and crashed until.......8:45!!!!!! Mick and I are shocked! That is the most sleep she has had in a week! (Us too!) Of course, little man was pretty excited so we got up and did presents about 7:30, but let Em sleep. We think she seems to be feeling better, say a prayer, that we can get her over this and back on a normal sleep schedule.

In other news- Mick got a punching bag for Christmas (he wanted one) and I got a CRICUT!!!!!! I am so excited to play with it tonight once the kids are in bed and during their nap times! I can not wait!!!! Luke got all kinds of GeoTrax and Ligntening McQueen stuff and castle and knight stuff. Em got a baby doll (her first!) and she loves it! Also a princess ball pit and a stroller for her doll. We are having such an awesome Christmas day-the kids are napping now and we are relaxing watching a movie before we start getting ready for another party! Merry Christmas everyone!!!

"THAT" mom....

I never want to be "THAT" mom again! It really sucks. I was "THAT" mom at the grocery store yesterday and it does not feel good (because it is all about my pride anyway, right?). You know the mom at the store with the whiny, annoying little child being a complete terror? Yep, that was me yesterday. We were grocery shopping and my little man decided to act like a complete stinker the entire time. Thankfully Emily slept the whole time in her chair, but Luke really tested my limits. It started fine, but about 2 seconds after we walk into the store he decided he wanted marsh mellows and when I told him no, they were not on the list, that was the beginning of the end. From there he wanted to get his little hands on everything in the store. From knocking over the bottles of BBQ sauce and blocking the aisle as people were trying to get past us, oh and how can I forget the constant " I have to pee!!". It actually got to a point to where one mom said to me, "you know, they do have a restroom in here". And then an older gentleman even offered to watch my cart and Emily so I could take him. (Mind you, Luke had gone to the bathroom 10 minutes before we arrived at the store, so he should have been fine to hold it). I declined the offer and told Luke he had to wait until after we paid, and then we could take him potty. So for the next 20 minutes of shopping and waiting to pay, it was non stop "I have to pee-pee!". I can not tell you how many looks of annoyance I received yesterday, but I did however, also receive a few looks of sympathy from moms who have been there before. I rather enjoy being the other mom, the one giving the smpathetic looks, not the one receiving them.

Luke's Third Birthday!

Click here for pictures!

3 short years...

Luke's 3rd Birthday 12-13-2008

Luke's 1st Birthday 12-13-2006

Luke's Birthday 12-13-2005


I can not believe that Luke is 3 years old!! He is pretty excited about his "Lightning McQueen" birthday party today at the rec center and he keeps asking for swords and GeoTrax. My little baby is wainting to play with trains and swords! It is bittersweet, I love seeing him grow and change and become an independent little boy, but I also miss the early morning snuggles I used to get from him. He has changed so much in the last 3 years (obviously!) but, I can not believe that the time is passing so quickly. A friend a church said to me once, "the days take forever, but years fly bye". It is so true, and it makes me realize that I need to treasure all the little moments, as they will be gone before I know it. Mick and I are beginning to talk about pre-schools and looking into the future, and trying to decide where to send him for school and I am still in shock that we are having these conversations about my little Luke. He is becoming such a young man also, today he told me he needed "priacy" in the bathroom to do his business. LOL. And the way he snuggles up to his little sister and tells her he loves her is priceless. Some of the things he says just blow my mind, I am constantly having to check myself before I say something that could potentially hurt his feelings, like the other day I told someone that he was being a stinker, and he looked up to my and said "mommy, I no being a stinker!". I had to apologize to him and explain that indeed he was, as he was not listening to mommy, but at the same time I should not have said that about him to someone when he was in the same room.


Luke has recently started "reading" books as well. He will sit with us and read to Emer's all of his stories. Of course, he is just paraphrasing what the book says, but it is so cute. Unfortunately, every time I try and get some video of it, the 2 of them get distracted and stop acting so cute. Oh well, maybe in the future. Enjoy and give your babies a snuggle today, as they grow up too fast!

I am still trying to find a way to upload his picsture from his 2nd birthday party...having some trouble, but I am sure that when my hubby gets done working in the basement he will be right on that for me! ;)

Videos

Here are some older videos of the kids from this summer that we were just able to get off the camera. Mick says you have to have Quicktime to view them.

Festival of Lights

We have had a wonderful family filled weekend! Yesterday morning we took the kids to the Santa Clause Parade in downtown Peoria, and this evening we just got home from the Festival of Lights Parade in East Peoria. Danell and her brother and SIL met us there with their little man, Isaac and Janelle joined us as well! The kids had a great time! WE loaded the van up with blankets and movies and laid in the van watching movies and eating dinner until about a half hour before the parade started. Emily loved seeing all of the lights and would lean back against me after a float would pass, but as soon as she saw another one, she would lean forward as far as her little body would let her. It was precious! Luke, of course, loved every minute of it and snuggled with his daddy the whole time. I think his favorite was the green dinosaur and the green dragon that blew smoke out his nose! And of course, it only made it better, since green is his favorite color! Afterwards we headed back to the van to see the fireworks.

CVS on Thanksgiving Day and other exciting news!!

I went to CVS on Thanksgiving Day! It was awesome!!! There were only a few other crazy CVSer's out that morning, but how could I pass up the mega deals??!! I was at home looking at the ads after breakfast and I saw the CVS ad, so of course I go to it and my heart starts pounding!! Literally! I told Mick, I HAVE to go to CVS. So I laid Emily down for her nap and took off! I spent an hour there and left with over $100 in merchandise and spent $32.00! But the best part is that I now have $41.00 in ECB's to spend! So not only did I stock up on toothpaste and make up and Gatorade and lotion and other items, but I was actually paid to shop there! AWESOME, simply AWESOME!



On to the exciting news in our life right now: Emily's first tooth has popped thru! I felt it for the first time on Thanksgiving Day, guess she really wanted to eat some turkey! Hehehe! She has been drooling like crazy for months now, so we knew it was coming, but it still was shock to feel it for the first time. Bittersweet for sure! My little baby has her 1st tooth!



In other news, I am very relieved to say that I FINALLY started my cycle again! TMI, but after 5 pregnancy tests over the last 14 days, I deserve to celebrate! (Wish I had coupons for them!) My doctors office laughed when I called them and told them I was 11 days late, and they asked if I had taken a test and my reply was: "Yes, 5". I am a girl who is always 28 days, and to not have it come when it was supposed to really freaked me out! After the first 3 tests, and still not cycle, Mick and were talking about how the tests could be wrong, maybe a bad batch etc..and we had both pretty much figured I was pregnant, but just a bit too soon to tell or that the tests must be wrong. We knew that we could handle it, but that it would be a lot harder, but also that it would have been our last for sure. With Emily only 9 months old, life is just starting to settle into a fairly predictable routine and something that I can handle with ease. I went and bought 2 more tests, a different, more expensive, digital brand and they both came back negative as well. Relief and confusion...why was I so late? The doctor said it was from nursing, but I have been nursing for 9 months now with a very predictable cycle and for this to happen really threw me for a loop. So with that said, sorry if I seemed a bit out of it that last 2 weeks, but my mind has been VERY pre-occupied!

$5.00

What can you do with $5.00? Here is what I did today. Went to CVS and purchased $20.00 worth of batteries and paid with coupons and ECB's. My OOP was $1.17. I then realized that I forgot to grab the lotion that I needed to purchase, so went back in and purchased my $20.00 worth of lotion and a few other items and after coupons and ECB's, I paid another $2.00 OOP. So after 2 fast trips to CVS I spent $3.00 and some change and purchased over $40.00 worth of merchandise!

This afternoon I decided to re-cover my dining room chairs. If you have ever seen them, you know they were in desperate need of re-covering. After 3 years with kiddos on them, they looked horrible. There was everything from applesauce and play dough to ketchup and...well...you can use your imagination with 2 little kiddos! LOL And all the kiddos that I have babysat for ;) So I was wanting to find a fabric that could be wiped down easily, but was also not very expensive, so that if it got stained or torn I could easily re-cover it again. I was looking at Wal-Mart and checked all of the fabrics for one that was easily cleaned and could stand up to abuse that children bring. As I was leaving, feeling defeated in my search, I saw it! I spent another $5.00 at Wal-Mart for this fabric. I decided to use a tablecloth! It worked so wonderful and I have to say that I am thrilled with the results! And with the kiddos, I can easily wipe them down after each meal. Plus if one gets torn or a bad stain, I can replace it with what I have left of the tablecloth still! I know it is far from Martha Stewart, but hey, she does not have kiddos climbing all over her stuff! And I do not have to feel guilty about changing them out when I get sick of the current color. I can just run to Wal-Mart and get another tablecloth that matches the house and the season!

I wish I would have taken a before pic, so you could really appreciate all that I have done today and the difference looks amazing!

Last night Mick and I took Emily to Target to do some Christmas and birthday shopping for Luke, since he stayed at my mom's house overnight. I can not wait until Christmas and Luke's birthday, so he can see all the cool new stuff we picked out for him! Next week, we are taking Luke shopping for Emily, I can not wait to see what he picks out for her, I am sure it will be interesting.....I will diffently keep you posted....

Happy Birthday mom and Mike

Kristin, Matt, Emily and Jamie

Emily, my mom and Jamie

Luke and Jamie

We went to my moms house last week to celebrate her birthday (As you can see Luke and Jamie are busy putting candles on the cake). It was fun, but a bit strange since my brother was not there. He moved to Texas 2 weeks ago and this was the 1st family get together since he left. But, his girlfriend, Kristin, brought her laptop and her web cam so we were able to talk to Mike and see him thru that. He is living out of a hotel right now, and can I just say that I feel very bad for that maid! LOL...Luke was a bit confused by the whole process and really did not like it much, but I am sure he will get used to it since that is how we will be communicating with Mike from now on.

The kids and I went with my mom and sister last night to see the Rockettes! They were incrediable! I can not belive how perfect each of their moves were and how in sync they were! It was seriously something that was breathtaking. (Well-not so much for Emily, as she fell asleep) but Luke liked it and today he was talking about seeing baby Jesus on stage. Who knew a 2 year old would remember the part about baby Jesus more than the big Santa Clause number? From an adults stand point the nativity scene was pretty amazing, but so was the Santa Clause scene!

Emily is starting to walk now behind her push toys and she started eating Cheerios last week too! She is also wacing now and clapping her hands too! She is completly head over heels for her big brother too! Luke has started picking her up (which I have put a fast stop too!) and trying to carry her around...especially if she gets too close to his Geo Trax.

That is about all the updates for this week that I can think of...but if something else comes up I will let you know! LOL...Oh our close friends The Penrod's are coming into town the 1st weekend of December, so I am pretty pumped about that too!

Kroger-ing

Get out your thinking caps and calculators.... at least that is what I needed to accomplish this shopping trip. Here is what I purchased at Kroger tonight. They have a mega deal happening right now when you purchase any 10 items in the mega deal category you get $5.oo off your purchase immediately. They limit you to 3 mega deals per transaction, so I did make 2 trips. No biggie tho, I just went out to the van and unloaded my first 6 bags and turned back around and went in for transaction # 2. ;) Everything I bought I had a coupon for and was on sale (that is what my goal is now-to never pay full-price and always use a coupon!) So my total for both transactions was $110.00 and after my coupons and 5 of the mega deals discounts ($25.00 off my total) I spent $49.00 for all of this! I averaged .97 cents for each item! Not to shabby! Here is the list of what I purchased:

2 rolls of Viva paper towels

2 boxes of Orville Redenbocker popcorn

2 bottles Listerine

3 boxes of Extra-Strength Tylenol

2 boxes Betty Crocker instant potatoes

2 bags Pizza Rolls

6 boxes of Soft Pretzels

1 box of batteries

1 box of Swiss Miss

1 bottle of Johnson's baby lotion

3 bags of Betty Crocker cookie mix

2 bottles Welch's juice

18 boxes of cereal

1 bottle of Treseme hairspray

4 tubes Right Guard Deodorant

Thanks right, I bought 50 items for less than a buck a piece! Each receipt shows that I saved 69%, so that makes me feel pretty good! Oh and in case you are wondering-yes we love cereal in this house! It makes a great to-go snack and Emily is getting pretty close to being able to handle Cheerios. Plus Mick and I both enjoy sitting down to a bowl of cereal in the evening once the kiddos are in bed every now and again. I can not wait to go back to Kroger tomorrow, as I saw a lot of items that were not advertised in the mega deal that I have coupons for, which I had left at home.

I like to move it move it!

This is one of my favorite outfits that Emer's has right now (thank you AF!) She looks so old and so stinkin cute! We have had a pretty fun week so far! Last night Mick and I went out to dinner with some of my girlfriends from high school and their hubby's. We all had a great time! We checked out this place downtown called Water Street Wine Cafe and it was really neat! It was a very small place tho and with a group of 9 of us we pretty much took the place over! I had a wonderful glass of blush wine that was oh so yummy! We are meeting next month at a local Italian place that will be pretty good (no, not Avanti's). It was so nice to get out and have some nice adult conversation with no kiddos and no worries! Of the 5 of us 3 of the girls are going to the reunion and 2 of us are not. I am happy that I am not the only one not going of our group. On Wednesday night we watched Facing the Giants with some friends from our life group and again I had a great glass of wine! This one was from Kickapoo Creek Winery and it is one of my favorites! I so enjoy a nice glass of wine with dear friends!

The kids and I went to Safety Town on Wednesday morning and had a good time. Luke drove his Little Tykes car around while I pushed Em in the stroller. We were the only one's there enjoying one of the last nice days before mean ol' Mister Winter arrives. Today we are going to see Madagascar 2 at the theater this afternoon, that will be a good time! Luke is pretty excited and I am thinking that Em will fall asleep in my sling.

Oh boy am I am ever excited to head to Kroger's tomorrow morning! They are having some serious great buys right now and when you pair it with the coupons that I have, I think I will get some seriously sweet deals! Can't wait to plan it out tonight once the kids are in bed....some Friday night fun, huh? LOL.....At least it is my idea of fun! I love it and look at it as a challenge to see how much I can save at the store and I LOVE it even more when the person behind me makes a comment about how much I save. It totally makes my day! Have a great weekend and I will be sure to post about my serious deals later tomorrow!

70 degrees on November 2?

It was a beautiful weekend here in Peoria! The weather has been crazy nice the past few days, so we decided to take advantage of it and have some family fun! We went to Detweiller Park on Saturday afternoon and played football and at the playground and then decided to take a hike in the trails. Luke thought it was the coolest adventure ever to be able to run in the woods! We had fun flipping over dead logs and looking for bugs. We found spiders and worms and other little creatures, we listened for "reindeer" but I think we were too loud. Luke thought it was pretty neat that we were at the top of the hill when we came around a curve, and loved being able to run back down. He rode on Mick's shoulders for a bit and liked reaching up and grabbing the trees also. Emily was in her sling and really enjoyed watching the trees pass by. She played in a swing for a bit and thought that was really neat! We ended up stopping for a quick bit to eat on the way home. What a perfect Saturday! Of course I forgot my camera, but after church on Sunday we headed to the Shoppes and had another great afternoon. I still can not believe this weather!

Reason # 1045....why 2 year olds should not have markers:

Luke did "paper work" this morning with me while Emily napped. He ended up with marker all over his hands and face and arms and of course on the table and chairs.....He even had it behind his ears!

Extreme Make Over Part 2

Well Monday was CRAZY busy at the Extreme Make-Over house. With deadline looming everyone was running around crazy! But the difference in the house from when we left on Friday and came back on Monday was insane! The house was up, the window was in (must have solved that problem), the floors were done, the rooms had paint and wall paper, the bathrooms were complete, the kitchen was done and the laundry room was to die for! I basically just cleaned the floors for about 3 hours and then we were hustled into the basement so they could film upstairs. We worked for a bit on the 2 bedrooms in the basement, but then stopped and realized they probably forgot about us as we had been in the basement for about another hour! We heard the crowd outside cheering, so we went upstairs to see them filming the "unload the furniture" scene. We snuck out the backdoor and went down to the food tent for some dinner. When we came back to the house we were turned away (by some very cranky designer assistant) and told to come back to clean in about an hour. Well that was at 7 and our shift was done at 8, so we left. We never got to see Ty ;( But this house is amazing! We did see Michael again, (he seemed cranky) We saw Ed again, and this other chick designer that I do not know. Pauli was there, on his cell phone or what we thought was Pauli...but turned out to be a producer of the show...lol...I am so happy that I was able to take part in this and to have a chance to see a behind the scenes of this show that our family loves to watch!

Extreme Make Over Home Edition....

Sorry for the delay in the update, I have been fighting a horrible cold and sore throat! Mick actually asked me to stop talking on Saturday because I sound too much like a man! LOL....Anyway-Ty was not there on Friday when I worked, I worked from 2 pm to 8pm and had a blast! I pretty much just worked in the basement and tried to keep the mess to a minimum. A few friends and I had to climb into the crawl space and push broom that out-let me tell you that my thighs were killing after that! We also helped carry out excess supplies and swap out de-humidifiers and massive fans so help the drying process of the floors and dry wall mud. I did see Michael, he was wearing leather pants! Let me remind you that is was raining and freezing! Leather pants? He came in and did a few takes by the HUGE bird cage they are building in the house. I also saw Ed, he actually looked more like a volunteer, he was in jeans and a sweatshirt and did a few takes. Also-Pauli was there, he was outside helping the carpenters figure out a problem-the MASSIVE picture window was too big to fit! I think they have it in now tho....it was really funny though because in the show it looks like the designers are there the whole time working and that is soooooo not true! They ride up in their little gators and hop off and do a few takes and then head back to the comfort of the warm, dry trailers! Ty was in Pennsylvania doing a home reveal on Friday, but I heard he was back in town now, so maybe I will get to see him today! We are not allowed to bring cameras, but a few of my friends have picture phones so I will post some pics of me in my hard hat when I get some! Oh and I know you are jealous- I have my own blue Extreme Make Over T-shirt now!

Rub a dub dub

2 babies in the tub
and who do you think they would be?
A cute little blond boy whose name is Luke
and he's about to turn 3!
Another little blondie whose name is Em
and she is as cute as can be!

Extreme Make-Over Home Edition...

is coming to town! Well, they are already here, as they arrived this morning and suprised an amazing family in Pekin! The family is off to Orlando, Fl for the week while everyone back here works endlessly over the next 7 days to give this family an awesome gift. And guess what?! I am going to be helping out!!! I will at the house for 6 hours on Friday and again on Monday! The reveal is on Tuesday, so I am really hoping to be able to see the house...oh and see TY! I just saw him on the news and told Mick that it made my "heart jump!" He then replied "Well, the only person that makes my heart jump is you honey." Oh how sweet! Yeah Right LOL, if Jennifer Aniston or Gwen Stefani were in town he would have his "heart a jumpin`". ;0)But seriously though, this is such an awesome oppourtunity and I just know that this will make a huge difference in this family's life. They family is from Pekin and they have fostered over 250 children in their home and they have 5 (I only think one is adopted). The little boy has dwarfism and "brittle bone disease" and basically just pushing an elevator button can break his little fingers. Can't wait to see what the design team comes up with! I will be sure to let you know when the show will ait also. For more info about this family check out www.week.com or www.pjstar.com

Flowers and Buzz??

Here are the babies ready for Howl-Zoo-Ween tonight!! Luke was pretty excited, but I do not think he really knew why...LOL. Once we got there though, he quickly caught on and had his bag filled with treats! The zoo was pretty cool at night and it was lite up with a ton of orange Halloween lights and decor! Luke... I mean Buzz... loved jumping in the big blow up bouncer as well. Emily just hung out in her stroller- it was pretty chilly, so I think she was happy to be all bundled up and nice and toasty! Well, even though Halloween is still 2 weeks away...Happy Halloween!!!!