march birthdays

Logan did not want a big party this year; he simply wanted to spend the day(and night) with his good friend Andy, who no longer attends the same school as Logan. So a day of rollerskating, basketball and legos was followed by a night of ice cream cake and late night giggles

While Logan was born nine years ago on March 7th, our beautiful and sweet cousin Ava Lauren was born one year ago on March 8th. We were so hoping she'd come on the 7th, but she was in charge, so she came when she darn well wanted to.

Late winter blues

Oh.... six days of high fever, no school, the Tylenol and Ibuprofen dance, and forcing liquids on kids who didn't even want popsicles. Finally took them to the doctor and was told to quarantine them. The sickness: the REAL influenza. That's what we get for not getting shots this year. First time in the history of Brian and Treva. Ever. Ugh. Bad parents.

Yay!

Day 1 of many

Snow had fallen, snow on snow. But do you think I had my camera when there were 6 boys playing all day in my front yard? Nooooo. And what about when the boys built the coolest fort/ barricade? Nooooo. But here is a beauty of our poor butterfly bush I took from the comfort of my warm kitchen.

news

Well, I suppose I could have taken a picture of the champagne glasses we used to toast Brian's new job, but I wasn't exactly thinking clearly. Plus, we had one boy with a fever. Now, 6 days later I have two boys with fevers, and am under strict orders from the doctor to quarantine them. Lovely. I've taken 3 days off work to stay home with them, and I'm not even sick. And... they're getting better, which is proving a jolly good time for me. Not. It's sad when they're down with a high fever, but at least the house is quiet. But once they start feeling better, here comes the whining, nagging, and arguing with each other. "He's looking at me, Mom." "Mom, tell him to stop smiling at me." I am not kidding. ugh.

Needless to say, we are over the moon about Brian's move to Anacortes. How it will change our lives. No more commuting, no more being torn between two rival teams. Goodbye Bulldogs. Hello Seahawks. So many good things. The boys have been great. Michael doesn't really understand all the implications, but Logan is putting things together and has already asked some hard questions. We will love him through the tough things he might have to face. He's a strong kid and knows his dad is a good person. The rest, we'll just cross when we get to it.

Pictures of things will be posted after I take them:)

Days of Christmas

So a few quick photos of the days following Christmas. Michael recovered enough to try out his new electric scooter from Santa. And fun was had by all... until Logan got sick. Can't win them all.

Michael tried so hard to stay up until midnight on New Year's Eve. His lids finally dropped at 11:45. whisper:Happy New Year!

Christmas

The boys were allowed to open one present Christmas Eve after church. Fortunately, they opened the one from Uncle Ed's family: Star Wars Lego set. This was perfect because they sat in the kitchen peacefully working together while Brian and I prepared our traditional German Christmas Eve spread: knockwurst, sauerkraut, German potato salad, all of which was plastered on the walls and floor of the boys' room when Michael violently threw up at 11:00 pm.

Pa in his cap and me in my kerchief had just settled down for a long winter's nap, when blitzen and donner, what did we hear above? What sounded like furniture moving turned out to be Michael getting very sick, projectile fashion, from his top bunk. Brian helped Michael in the bathroom while I tried to clean up the room. This involved actually removing their rug to the deck and washing it under the Christmas lights. We very well could have seen Santa and his sleigh. Then on to the laundry and getting Michael to a different bed. We didn't want to put him with us because we didn't want Logan to come down on Christmas morning without his brother; so we set up camp in the upstairs TV room. We even moved Logan in there so he wouldn't wonder where his brother was in the morning. Michael and I stayed up pretty much all night, dozing every now and then between bursts. He kept saying, "Mommy, I'm so scared that Santa won't come because I'm still awake". Poor lamb.

Michael did manage to open one present from Santa. The rest were opened for him by me. He just rested on the couch with his head down most of the morning. We eventually decided to go ahead and go to Oma's later that day. Had to pull over on the way for Michael to get more out of his system. What a trooper.
Logan didn't quite know what to do without his brother. He had all these presents to play with and just walked around like a deer in headlights. He eventually got the hang of playing solo.