We Have Officially Started!

We finally got pre-approved for a home loan. We are very excited to actually
start looking at houses now, instead of just seeing them online. I've been looking
at them for years online and always thinking I wonder when I will get to have a
house. Well the time has finally come and we got our ducks in a row and went to
the bank today with a huge stack of papers. Now that we are approved, we can
look and see which house will be the one for us.

Living in this trailer is "do-able", but definitely too small for 8 people. We're hoping
to find a minimum of a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom house, somewhere near Brookings.
We'll keep you posted!!

A True Artist

Jayden was painting with frozen paint. However, the paint

was not frozen very well. The spoons kept coming out.

So he started to just move the paint cubes around

with his fingers. It was cold! I took this picture just as he tossed

the spoon onto my white pants! I wonder what he's thinking?
Once the spoons came out we moved onto paintbrushes and he painted his high chair. He made little blotches all over and then smeared it together.

And proceeded to smear it all over his tray!

Forget paintbrushes, lets use fingers!!

A close-up of his masterpiece!

Back to the paintbrush for some final touch ups!

At the end he figured out how to splatter the paint! It was all over everywhere,including the wall, floor, camera and me!I think Jayden really had fun painting. It was a good texture experience for him because the paint was cold and had a crunchy feel to it since it was slightly frozen. In the pictures you can see his Mic-Key button on his tummy, well, he painted that purple as well! It took two baths to get him clean!

Harvest Festival

Jayden was scared to death of the parade! We had

to hold him the entire time. First the firetrucks and ambulances

scared him, then just regular vehicles scared him. Poor guy! He

did watch, but he had to be held and his head was resting on my shoulder.

Here's Devin in the cars, all ready to go for a ride!!
And here's where Devin was...but changed her mind

before the ride started. She was freaked out of all rides!

Lined up waiting for the parade. They got so much candy!
Jayden did love the football he received.

Bubbles

Jayden had his first experience with bubbles today. His OT (occupational therapist) was working with him. He was not enjoying therapy today, so she pulled out the bubbles. He loved them! He was stomping his feet and trying to catch them. It was really cute.

Here he is trying to touch the bubble.

And trying to catch the bubbles! I don't think he understood

where the bubbles went when he touched them.
They even landed on the rug for a few seconds.
That's his therapist blowing bubbles.

On a different note, we are off to the doctor today. Jayden's ear has been draining consistently for a week or so. He's been on antibiotics for a month. Nothing is fixing it again. We have to go have it cultured to see if it's MRSA (staph infection resistent to antibiotics). There's a chance we will be ending up at St. Paul Children's Hospital to see a Pediatric Infectious Disease doctor. Unfortunately we have to deal with the doctor ONE more time in Sioux Falls for insurance purposes before we can go to Minnesota. Stupid....but if it means insurance will cover it, then it's the smartest thing we can do. I will update on the culture in a few days as it does take a few days before we get results back.

Where did the weekend go?

It seems like it was just Friday and now it's Sunday night. Wow, the weekends always go so fast. I guess time really flies when I'm working on the weekend too. Mike was lucky, he got to stay home with the kids this weekend.

Jayden finally cut a molar. Maybe that explains his fussiness lately. It's so hard to tell with him when he's got troubles with his ears too. But I finally felt the tip of that tooth.

We go into another busy week for everyone. The kids have swimming lessons everyday, along with softball in the evening. The girls have their paper route each day too. I'll add some pictures of the kids and softball soon.

Zach

We had our favorite nephew stop by this morning! Ok, so he's our only nephew...we love him! He lives in Shakopee, so we don't see him much, but we were lucky enough to see him last weekend AND this weekend. How do we rate? I suppose it's just as nice to see his mom too....haha!

Great picture of Mike! His first time holding Zach. Jayden wasn't sure what to think of him.

Mike and his sister Lindsey (Zach's auntie) and Zach of course!
His mommy makes him smile...and so did I a couple of times!! Yay! He's

such a chunk. I swear he almost weighs more than Jayden!

Swimming Lessons

Shaylee is 2nd from the right

Shawndra is on the right.
Joseph has red swim trunks on.
Dalton
Shawndra doing the back crawl.

We have Shaylee, Shawndra, Joseph and Dalton in swimming lessons this summer. Shaylee is in level 5, Shawndra is in level 4, Joseph is in level 3 and Dalton is in level 1. He would have been in level 2 except last year he burned his feet so bad at the lake he wasn't allowed to soak them, so we had to pull him out of lessons.

The Sad Death of my Phone

So I've been looking for a new cell phone for almost a year. I can't seem to find "the right one", so I never get a new one. I waited until Christmas for the deals, but then I didn't care for the deals. I always let Jayden play with my phone...he likes to call daddy when he's working. Well lately, he's figured out speed dial and that if he holds a number for long enough he actually calls someone....then of course, I don't always know about it. So Jayden travels all around the house with it and even holds it up to his ear. It's very cute. Or was.

Let's travel in time a bit.....

I went to the bathroom, did my thing, stood up, and was going to flush the toilet. But at that very second, for one brief moment in time, I thought "Oh my gosh, what's wrong with me!?". As I glanced in the toilet (which had a reddish glow) I then realized I was fine. For the poor, sad, unfortunate glow of the toilet was my RED cell phone. I hesitantly looked at the water and thought oh great, NOW how am I going to get that out. Well needless to say, I reached in, pulled the poor dead phone out and laid it to rest on the sink. I hope it didn't suffer.....

Now, I guess I have to find a new phone, whether I'm ready or not. Hmmmmmmmmm....

Another Week in Review

We have been a busy household this week. Trying to take care of stuff from the reception, the boys and girls are in softball and swimming lessons. The girls play on Monday and Wednesdays and the boys play on Tuesday and Thursdays. They all have swimming lessons Mon-Thurs.

I'm back to work finally and actually on the schedule. It took awhile to get me back on there because of my surgery. Today is going to be day 6 of work for me. I'm definitely feeling exhausted from all of the hours, but it's nice to be able to contribute to our bills again! Haha!

Mike works four 10 hour days, which is nice for him. He gets Fridays off! He's considering applying for a lead position with the state. Wish him luck!

I got an email from Jayden's therapist stating she thinks she needs to gown up and wear gloves to his therapy sessions because of the MRSA in his ear. I replied to her that if she needed to come in looking like that I want the therapy to stop. She also questioned his Head Start teacher and daycare. Jayden has been like this for over 6 months and nobody else has felt this need. I do not need Jayden getting scared of a stranger coming into his own house all gowned up and wearing gloves. He's been exposed to that too much already with hosptials and clinics. Maybe I'm over-reacting, but the initial reaction was that. What do you think? Do you think it's ok?

Well I'm off to work for another day of work. I can't wait for a day off!

A Wedding Celebration

We had a wonderful day on Saturday. The weather was darn near perfect, even with the two minutes sprinkle! We had a good amount of people attend and even better food. Those of you who couldn't make it sure missed out on some super tasty sandwiches and salad. :-) The kids had fun playing with each other, with cousins, and other friends. And most amazing at all, after all that playing outside and in the long grass, we came home with ZERO ticks!!!

We decided Grandpa Larry's job was to hold the Citranella burner. Doesn't he look great?!

Aunt Lindsey was a huge help! She helped with much of the food, mowing, and entertaining!
And of course, the happy couple, posing for a picture. I have no clue what he was looking at!!
Devin was using the croquet mallet as a microphone while she sang "We Are The Champions"!

It was so funny! Her and another child were both singing!
A small shot of some family while eating. Did I mention the food was excellent?

We had a GREAT day! Thank you to everyone who came and celebrated with us!