It's bad, stinky and we're almost out of toilet paper.

I'm back home. This Thanksgiving will go down in history as my most memorable Thanksgiving. Ever. We left for New Mexico last Sunday, cramming the car up to it's gills with everything needed for a week away from home. The car drive down there went smoothly. I thought Greta would be more of a handful than she was. She did beautifully considering it was 16 hours each way. Wesley was slightly annoying chiming in with the "I want to go home" or "Are we there yet?". Luckily this didn't start until Albuquerque, only leaving 4.5 hours of this annoying chatter. It was wonderful getting to my in laws house. They are sweet people with a warm and inviting house. We always have a great time enjoying everyone's company. I got to see all my darling nieces, man are they growing up fast! Wesley and Greta had fun hanging out with all the girls. I sincerely wish we all lived closer.

Thanksgiving was delicious. There were 24 people there for dinner. My in laws are very generous people that opened up their house to people that didn't have anywhere else to celebrate Thanksgiving. I met many interesting people that evening and ate way too much food. Any weight I gained from Thanksgiving is gone now along with a few more pounds.

It started Saturday morning, the morning we were to leave for home. We awoke to the sounds of Greta throwing up in her crib. It was 5:30 so we cleaned her up and brought her into our bed. Poor thing threw up four more times before we even got on the road. That was the beginning of the end. Luckily she only threw up one more time while we were in the car. About an hour into our drive I look in the back seat to find Wesley throwing up. He got a full breakfast that morning so you can just imagine how much vomit was coming out of the kid. I didn't even have a bucket or anything so he completely covered himself, the car seat and stuff under his feet in the car. It was seriously awful. We pulled off on the first exit we could find to figure out what to do. Luckily it was southern New Mexico and the weather was in the 60's so we took the poor kid out of his car seat, stripped him down on the side of the road, and cleaned him up. I scooped up vomit that was in his car seat, there had to have been two cups just there alone. We ran out of baby wipes and resorted to using clothing from the suitcase. There are several things that probably won't be ever worn again.

The strange thing about kids when they puke is that you would never have known that they were sick before or after the event. Here was Wesley kicking, singing and all around being a three year old, then the next thing there is chuck everywhere, then he's back to kicking and singing. It's totally bizarre. As a bystander you might have not even know anything happened except for the hysterical woman in the front seat exclaiming "OH MY GOD, WESLEY'S CHUCKING EVERYWHERE.....HOLY COW IT'S EVERYWHERE SEAN......OH MY GOSH OH MY GOSH". This of course upset poor Greta and she started screaming at the hysterical woman (me).

So we get back on the road after our thirty minute clean up stop. We find a toy bucket that will suffice as a chuck bucket. Wesley proceeds to throw up every half an hour for five hours. Luckily he's at the age where he knows he's about to throw up and can remember to use the bucket. So we don't have anymore messes to clean up.  Every half an hour we would pull off on the nearest exit. Pull over, pour out the bucket (which contents got smaller and smaller) and pull back on I-40. If you were following us it might look like a game, we were constantly pulling over. After about five times of doing this we decided to just start pouring the chuck into a drink cup, then pouring hand sanitizer over it to mask the smell. It was awesome (please note the sarcasm).

We decided to drive home in one day rather than stop near Amarillo, TX and get a hotel. We thought if we were to stop and then get sick ourselves then we'd be stuck in the hotel for who knows how long. So we traded off sleeping and made it home at 3:50 am Sunday morning. The kids slept well in the car after their ordeal. We had no throwing up after 6:30 pm. I thought all was well. Wesley was keeping stuff down. We stopped and got some Pedialyte.

Then last night Sean and I got it. We were hit hard. All night long we were hugging the toilet. The fun thing about this virus is it affects you on both ends. During the night I got up after dry heaving to find poor Wesley sleeping in the hallway with his pants pulled down and his little potty full of diarrhea. The little guy had gotten to the bathroom but didn't make it back to his bed. He just gave up and was sleeping on the floor.  It was a bad night for everyone. The kids aren't throwing up anymore but the diarrhea is awful. Greta has the worst diaper rash I've ever seen. I just can't keep her dry.

I think I'll just stop here. I could keep writing about how bad these past two days have been but I think I've painted a pretty vivid picture without going any farther. It's bad. It's stinky and we're almost out of toilet paper. Pray for us.

The Wednesday Write Up

-This time of year is just plain crazy. I'm exhausted from staying up late trying to get Christmas orders done and it hardly seems like I'm making a dent in the list. To add to that, we are preparing for our annual trip to New Mexico. I'm totally excited to see everyone but I am absolutely dreading the drive. Who wouldn't be though. Fifteen some odd hours in the car, each way, with a three year old and a one year old. I'm cringing at the thought of it, so I just won't think about it. See, all better, not thinking about it.

-Preparing all these animals for me being gone is quite the undertaking.  I think I'm ready though. Feed is purchased and piled up, two round hay bales delivered, dog house made, heated waterers and stock tank heater working. I am so lucky to have a friend that will come over twice a day to run dogs, feed animals and collect eggs. Thank you Jessica, without you I don't think we'd be able to go on trips. Ever. Seriously.


-Greta is blossoming into a little girl. She's growing her personality and it's just adorable to watch. Her newest thing is waving nigh night. If you say it's time to go to bed she grabs her blanket and waves to everyone (including the dog). It just melts your heart. She's finally starting to cruise the furniture while walking. She gets up behind a chair and will push it around the hardwood floors. Wesley started walking at 15 months, she's probably going to be more like 16 months I'm guessing. Which is fine, I'll miss her little crazy crawl she has when the walking starts..


-Wesley's first Christmas program is approaching. His preschool teacher has been teaching them all sorts of Christmas songs in preparation. He sings them during dinner, while playing and even during bath time. It's freaking adorable. I can't even imagine how cute the actual program will be. We're hauling Grandpa and Grandma along. Can't wait.


That's all that's happening around here. Hope ya'll are staying warm!

Cuties

So many pictures, so little posting. Here are a few winners. Just soaking up the vitamin D.

Hello Fall

Hello Fall. You have arrived seemly overnight. Making all the beautiful trees turn red, yellow and orange. You have brought beautiful crisp cool days. Days where Wesley and I put on a jacket and run through the yard kicking piles of leaves into the air. I don't know what I'm going to do with the kid once you leave and we are left with Winter. I shall not think about that right now. For now we are enjoying your presence, soaking up the sun while it's here.

 

 We have five of these ginormous oaks around our house and I always thought they were red oaks but was told they are probably pin oaks. Anyone know?

Lucky for us we have our very own leaf eating machine.  She's about 140 pounds and eats as many as she can fit in her mouth. If she is pregnant she only has a month and a half left before she kids. The previous owner, Jennifer, told me about a blood test that can confirm her pregnancy. If I felt more comfortable drawing blood then I'd do it in a heartbeat, but at this point I figure she'll let me know in a month and a half one way or the other. Although I'm still dying to know.

She's looking fairly rotund, so my bet's on there being baby goats in there. Here's hoping! Otherwise I suppose I need to lay off the treats. What do you think? (Jennifer, please tell me what you think if you happen to read this...you would know more by looking than anyone else I can think of).

Last but not least here is a picture of my children's morning routine. They watch Curious George on PBS every morning. Usually it's just Wesley who watches, on the ground with the couch pillow and a blanket. Then Greta wanted to join in the fun, so she crawls up on the pillows and plops back to watch a few minutes. It's a rough life.

One of those mornings

Being a stay at home, work from home mom has afforded me some luxuries. One of them is almost no schedules. I wake up when the kids wake up, we take it easy throughout the day doing whatever comes to mind. Doctor appointments are never scheduled before 10 am. This worked for us, especially with two young kids. Then preschool started. I have to wake up to an alarm clock twice a week (God forbid), rush around trying to get two kids awake, fed, clothed and out the door at a specific time. Mind you this is only two days a week and I can hardly do it. Oh and we're talking about getting them out the door at 9 am....this isn't even like 7 am. I have no idea how the rest of the civilized world does this on a daily basis. No idea. It's crazy on those mornings. Lately I've been getting better, I'm more organized. Things have to happen in a specific time frame or we'll be late. I'm getting it down.

But now a road block as arisen. A three foot road block who's name is Wesley. Five minutes before we are to leave I get shoes on, backpack ready, jacket on. Then my little road block tells me he has to poo. *sigh* So off come the shoes, jacket, pants and undies and off he trots to sit on his little potty and read. You see he has this slight phobia about pooing on the big adult potty. He knows Miss Cindy, his preschool teacher, doesn't have a little potty (how does a preschool teacher NOT have a little potty I ask??) so he always goes poo on our little potty. The problem here is that he inevitably  does this three minutes before we are to run walk out the door. All morning I tell him if he needs to poo then to do it before we are ready to leave. And every day he trots off to the potty as we are leaving. Today was bad. We ended up being five minutes late to preschool because of his this. This is even after prying him off the potty because he was just sitting there. He was crying that he needed to poo, clock was ticking, nothing was happening. I'm starting to think this is his way of stalling going to preschool. Some days he loves preschool other days he wants nothing to do with it. I just wish he'd figure this out before I go insane. Three year olds, you can lead them to the potty but you can't make em poo.

Birthday Boy!

We spent the weekend in Kansas City celebrating my nephews very first birthday. He's turning into quite the little man! Hard to believe these babies are one now. It's fun watching them get together, we can just toss them on the floor and they entertain themselves for long stretches of time. I just thought I'd share pictures from the weekend. Hope everyone is having a nice and relaxing one!

The Birthday boy! Happy Birthday Emery!

Emery is going to be a big brother in April. Betsy at 19 weeks along.

Wesley had fun playing this weekend.

Blake and Greta. She just wouldn't crack a smile.

The babies and I.

Emery's monkey cake took me some time to make, but I think it turned out cute....

.....and Wesley thought it was delicious.

The look on Greta's face cracks me up. She looks paranoid about Papa back there.

Halloween 2010

I think I'm going to start planning for Halloween 2011 now. Every year I want to do super cool stuff for Halloween and every year it comes and goes and nothing gets done. This year was the same way. We got pumpkins....but failed to carve them (maybe we'll do that this week?). We did go trick or treating but it was for only two blocks because it was getting too late. Both kids had costumes but I didn't even try Greta's on until we got out of the car to go trick or treating.....and then found out that the costume didn't "work" for her. Every year I want to dress up too, but never do the proper planning to make it happen. Oh to be more organized. Maybe next year!

In the end it doesn't matter. Wesley had fun walking down the street holding my hand in his Thomas the Train costume. He got a bucket full of candy which he's ecstatic about. Greta didn't have to wear her uncomfortable duck outfit for more than one house (my parent's house), so she was thrilled just to be held by Daddy and walked around. All in all, a fun evening with my family. Next year though, we are so planning everything!

Never did get that duck head to stay up.

Poor kid didn't know what to think. Too funny.

Such a cute little Thomas the Train.

Brotherly Love?

Often I feel like I portray my kids as two little angels that play wonderfully together and share everything. This is not the case. There might be 4 minutes of bliss a day when I might peek around the corner to find them building with legos together, or sitting back to back reading books. But this is super rare. The other 11 hours and 56 minutes of the day they are screaming, stealing toys, throwing things....you know, being kids. I've had the good fortune to have my camera around on two occasions in the past few weeks and I ran across these gems the other day and thought I needed to share. Wesley is roughly two years older than Greta and every day I pray that she will make it to adulthood with Wesley as her brother. Why might you ask?

Example one:
I hear screaming and come out of the kitchen to find this:

I don't "think" he was trying to choke her? Makes you wonder though. He likes to see what happens when he does certain things. He's in the cause and effect stage. I don't think Sissy likes being the guinea pig though. Of course he sees me and out comes the smile. Little turkey.

Example Two:
Greta is his little play toy. He tries to put clothes on her like a doll, or stack toys on her head. Yesterday I come into the living room to find this:

Instead of "Where's Waldo" let's play "Where's Greta?" Apparently he took all the couch pillows off and stacked them around Greta. She couldn't even move her arms. She just sat there waiting for me to help her. She's a good sport most of the time. Hey at least they are "playing" together!