Germ Season

It seems like every couple winters, we get hit hard with the germ season. My poor Drakie has had a fever on and off for the past week. Looks like we are headed back to the doctor tomorrow morning. The good news is between sick visits and Dorothy's surgery, we are already over half way to our deductible for the year!

At the end of January, Dorothy had tubes put in her ears and her adenoids removed. The ENT, thinks a lot of her speech delay is related to the fact she couldn't hear well with fluid in her ears. We have already noticed a big difference; she is very chatty now and even sings some songs. Right now, her favorite is "Let it Go" from Frozen.

I was so anxious about her having to fast before the surgery. This girl is so cranky before she gets breakfast! She has told Dave to "no touch me" or "no talk a me" before she has had something to eat. After some sugar has hit her blood stream, she loves her dada!





I explained to her a few days I advance that I wouldn't be able to give her any breakfast when she got her tubes, and thank goodness, it worked! She didn't even ask about breakfast and only hovered a little bit around people eating snacks in the waiting room. She was pretty grumpy afterwards, but cookies seemed to help when we got home.

Lincoln has had terrible winter allergies, which is new. He had to miss a couple basketball games, because whenever he started running, he would cough violently. A couple rounds of steroids and an inhaler did the trick. He will be able to finish the basketball this week!






Several people have had trouble with allergies, because our weather is so crazy here. Today we had a high of 80, but later this week the low will be 30!

It was so beautiful one afternoon, it seemed ridiculous to go inside for homework. Drake worked on his sight words.




Any holiday is fun with kids. We decorated canvases for Valentine's Day and decorated our mantel.







We have been trying to clean up Dave's shop, which means Lowe's trips on the weekend. Lincoln doesn't seem to mind as long as he has a book.




The 2 littles CAN play nicely together...sometimes. This picture proves it! I heard them playing from the kitchen and snuck a pic.




Dave and I celebrated our 11th anniversary. We were separated from each other, because he had to travel for work. That stunk, but I'm so proud of all he is accomplishing! He unexpectedly won an award at a sales conference in Arizona this week.




One last random event, Dorothy had her first hair cut. She didn't want to be left out when the boys got a turn. She just had a little trim.




She let me braid those beautiful curls one day. So jelly of those locks!!








Crossing my fingers we get through this germ season quickly, and so hoping all of our friends and family are staying healthy!!

The New Year

Yay for a new year! So far, we can't complain about anything that has come our way in 2017.

The kids were stoked to get snow!! The best part of the snow, was that it happened mostly on a weekend, so we could enjoy being snowed in with Dave. We had multiple meals with our fabulous neighbors and just enjoyed being outside.







The kids only missed 2 days of school, since the roads were pretty icy.







I've never really enjoyed snow, but I found myself getting excited, since the kids were. Dave took some cute shots of our snow babies all bundled up.



















I will always wonder how hats, gloves and boots manage to fall off!! My excitement wore off as I had to take my gloves off to re-attach the kid's gear. As well was shoveling ice off the driveway, Drake walked all the way from the backyard with one boot on and one boot off. He was completely barefoot!! He had to tell me his sock fell down, so he took it and the boot off. Crazy boy! All the kids loved zooming down our back yard, and especially when it iced over. They would go lightning speed into the woods and didn't care if they happened to get scraped by the brush.

Dad was able to come down Sunday night to party with us for Dorothy's birthday. She remembered all about presents from Christmas time, so she was a pro at opening all her gifts. The first one she opened was an owl purse full of chap stick. That was a real winner, because she kept coming back for the chap stick, even though she got some really nice presents!














Dave made her a super cute owl cake, that she kept calling her "happy birthday owlie cake."

Owl cake picture

I'm still trying to believe she is actually 3. When the boys turned 3, I had babies in the house. Dorothy is such a joy and brings a lot of fun and happiness into our house. I can't wait to see more of her personality when she starts talking more!

More Christmas!!

Dorothy had her first performance! Her 2 year old preschool class sang Jingle Bells and Happy Birthday Jesus. Dorothy didn't sing, but she did nail being cute!!




Dorothy had her hearing checked and the audiologist couldn't get a reading, because she had an ear infection and fluid in another ear. After being on anti-biotics, she started really talking. It makes me thing she hasn't been hearing well, so she has an appointment with an ENT soon. I'm hoping this will help; it has been so great to hear the things she says, especially "I love youut." Here she is wearing a dress me mom made for me.



Preschool has been great for Dorothy and for me! I was able to go on a field trip with Lincoln one morning. We went to ovens auditorium to see the play "A Christmas Carol." We had a great time!




Dave was in charge of the Angel Tree at church. Our church collected gifts for 20 kids at church and 20 kids in our community. Our house was full of presents, and it was a great teaching tool for the kids.





Reed came home for Christmas, so we were back and forth to Hickory a lot of the break. The kids decorated Papaw's famous sugar cookies.








One night, all the guys had a sleep over at Cleve's house. The adult dudes stayed up until 2 am watching bad ninja movies. The girls watched Christmas with the Kranks and painted nails.




On Christmas Eve, we all went to see a movie, a tradition that has been going on since I was a girl. This year we saw Moana.

We opened presents at our own house, ate homemade cinnamon rolls, and went to church.


















Dorothy got lots of princess toys and baby toys. Dave and I redid my old baby high chair.







Drake asked Santa for whatever Lincoln asked for plus Jurassic Park Lego game. He was excited to also get kinetic foam, Star Wars play-doh, and Pokémon cards.

















Lincoln asked Santa for Pokémon cards and battle bots. He was also thrilled to get more Diary of a Wimpy kid movies and books.










Later that afternoon, the Hickory family came down for a Pirate Christmas/birthday party. We thought it would be fun to have a themed holiday, and it was! Reed cracked everyone up when he came in wearing Ariel Jammies!!














Dave made delicious Carribean food and a super yummy tropical fruity cake for my birthday. It was so warm outside, the kids jumped on the trampoline and played for a while. Inside, mom and Dad had a scavenger hunt for them. I wish I could have enjoyed the day more, but I came down with a weird 24 hour bug with a fever and some stomach issues. Dave is my hero for cleaning everything up and putting the kids to bed, so I could get in bed.

The next day, I was able to eat and get some energy back. We opened up all the boxes of toys and just had a chill day. We did a lot of playing with toys over the rest of the break.







We did make it out to Discovery Place one day.














Also, we had say goodbye to Uncle Reed 😪😪.








Reed was so sweet to get me a ukulele for my birthday. He gave me a few lessons after I told him I wanted to learn for my primary kids (I'm the music leader.). He told me I could have one of his, but it wasn't sounding that great. It was such a nice surprise when he gifted me one for my birthday!!





Mom and Dad spent the night, so Dave and I could go out together. We went to Pike's Soda Shop, where Shallow Hall was filmed, and out for a movie. We had a great time, and the kids had a great time with their grandparents!

Our family tradition on New Years is to have finger foods to eat, while watching a movie. This year we watched The Secret Life of Pets. We cheered the New Year in with glass bottle sodas.