Boys and bathrooms

Sitting at a basketball game last weekend a mom and I were chatting and she mentioned something about me having the 3 boys and of course how busy I must be. But then she said "I'd hate to clean your bathrooms, I only have two boys at home, I can't imagine three!"  So then it got me thinking, are my bathrooms always gross?  Do I need to clean them more then once a week?  Between my boys (2 of which are old enough to use the toilet) and all my daycare kiddos, that is a lot of little people using the bathroom!  After this little chat with this mom I've decided the best way to solve this problem is to teach my boys how to clean a bathroom, especially the toilet!  And while I'm at it I could probably give my husband (who told me tonight as I was sweeping the bathroom floor, that he swept that floor last week!  In which I so kindly told him "that's great but I clean the bathrooms once a week so it needs to be done again") a few hints too!  How often do you clean your bathroom?

Check this off our list please

As more and more time passes there are so many things that happen while watching these 3 little boys grow up that I always hope is not the last.  For instance everytime Cruz sits on my lap I hope it's not the last time.  Or when Levin asks me to snuggle with him in bed for just 1 more minute, I hope that's not the last time.  When Hudson laughs at playing a simple game of peek a boo, I hope that's not the last time that game is amusing to him!  But this week we had to deal with something that I hope we can say is our last and we can "check it off our list" of things we will deal with as parents!  An abscess!  Yuck and yuck. 

I noticed what I thought was an infected bug bite on Cruz's right thigh about 2 weeks ago.  We tried putting neosporin and a steroid cream on it but it was still looking pretty bad so last Friday I took him to his doctor.  She could feel the abscess and put him on an oral antibiotic but told me if it didn't get better or got worse she recommended taking him down to childrens ER to have it drained.  Well by Wednesday it was still the exact same, same size, hot to the touch, very red and painful to the touch.  So we headed down to Childrens that afternoon.  The nurses and doctors were so great with Cruz and Cruz was so brave through out the entire 4 hours we were there!  They ended up lancing it and then squeezing it to get all the infection out.  It took both Jake and myself along with 2 nurses and the doctor to hold him down while the PA lanced and squeezed it.  It was horrible!  The worse part was to see your child in pain and screaming for them to stop but you just have to continue to hold him down.  Aweful!  And then to top it off he had to be put on a very strong antibiotic so we had the choice of putting him on an oral antibiotic that was horrible tasting and he'd have to take 4 teaspoons of it 3 times a day or he could take 1 capsule 3 times a day.  We opted for the capsule but that story is a whole nother blog post!  Learning how to swallow a pill is not fun for the child or parent!

I'm so glad we took him in and he got that infection out of his body but now I just hope we really did cross that off our list and we never have to do that again!

Another Summer in the Books

It's hard to believe, but there is only one week left of summer before Cruz starts first grade!  Wasn't I just picking up my little kindergarter from his last day of school?  These past 3 months flew by so fast, now I'm curious, did we really just have a crazy summer or is this just our life now...

It probably didn't help that we started the summer off by moving into a new house the first week, we've had many projects around the new house keeping us busy all summer and I'm sure many more to come!

We had two weddings this summer, both of which either Jake or I were in.  So this also meant showers, bachelor parties and bachlorette parties.

Cruz had swimming lessons once a week (where he became quite the little fish, even jumped off the high board!)

I had daycare kids at my house every day during the week all summer long which was new for me.  Starting in the fall I will only be open Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays so I'm hoping that will help calm things down a little.

We took a family vacation with my parents, Katie, Jay and Makenna to Kings Pointe in Storm Lake, IA.  This was the perfect vacation for all 4 kids ranging in ages from 18 months to 8 years old, we will definitely go back again!

I ran my first triathalon as a team with Miranda.  She swam and biked and I did the run. This is something I will definitely do again as well :)

We celebrated the 4th, we went to Old Settlers in North Bend, made a trip to the zoo, re-put up a fence (long story), had a garage sale, enjoyed family dinners...let's just say I think we were busy every single weekend!

This picture below was on my Time Hop app (love this app) tonight, this was taken 5 years ago when we made our last trip to the ocean in North Carolina before we moved back to Nebraska.  When I think back to this time in our life I just remember it being so calm and so, lets call it "boring".  With no extended family in North Carolina most of our time was spent with just our immediate family.  Sure we had friends but I guess we didn't do a whole lot with them.   I remember thinking on the weekends when we lived in North Carolina how I couldn't wait to get back to Nebraska so if we were bored we could just run over to the grandparents for a visit or call up one of our many friends to come over with the kids for a play date.  Flash forward 5 years, now 3 little boys instead of one, and our life is far from boring, it's almost crazy sometimes.  And at times I find myself wishing for those North Carolina weekends so I could have that feeling of being bored so we could take a random trip to the grandparents or have friends over.  This might be how life is from here on out so I should just be grateful for the time I share with my family, whether its boring or crazy :)  But maybe next summer I will make it my goal to not over book us!

A few pictures from our summer...

Baseball

4th of July

4th of July

4th of July

Slip n Slide at family dinner

Heath & Mandy's Wedding

Jerimy & Kelsey's Wedding

Kings Pointe

Kings Pointe

Kings Pointe

Kings Pointe

Tooth Fairy

The day finally came where the tooth fairy owed our house a visit!  Cruz had been working on his loose tooth for quite some time and most of his friends had already lost a tooth so he was getting anxious to lose his first tooth.  He spent all day wiggling and wiggling and before he went to bed he was questioning what would happen if he lost it while he was sleeping.  Or even worse what happened if he swallowed it!   Well I laid him down and probably half hour later he comes walking out of his room with a strange expression so I asked him what was wrong and he held out his hand and in it was a little tooth!  He was so excited, daddy was out looking for a new vehicle that night so he had to FaceTime him right away to tell him the news.  And he wanted to call grandma and Grandpa and send a picture to almost anyone and everyone he could think of.  So cute, I love that kid!  Anyways from what I hear the going rate for the first tooth is $5.00 and $1.00 for every tooth after that.  The tooth fairy was right on because sure enough the next morning there was a $5.00 bill sitting under the cup on the counter that once held his tooth :). Cruz wanted to display is $5.00 bill for all to see but luckily I convinced him to just put it in his piggy bank.  None of his other teeth are loose as of right now so the tooth fairy will have a break from our house for awhile!  What a fun experience!

Typical Boy

I think I finally have a little boy that is going to be more like the "typical boy".  Normally when someone finds out I'm a mom to 3 little boys I get the concerned look, the tilted head and they usually say something like "wow you must be busy" or "you must have your hands full!"  Up until a month ago I would respond with "it's not that bad, my boys are very good and I wouldn't trade it for the world"  I also have told people that my boys are not "normal" boys, as they aren't always busy, they aren't always causing trouble and they are always rambunctious....then Hudson started to walk.  This kid has no fear and is ready for anything put in front of him.  He climbs things Cruz and Levin never would have, he dunks his head in water (which Levin still won't at almost the age of 4), and he's very strong headed so me telling him "no" like I did with the other two just makes it that much more fun for him to figure out a way to do what he's not supposed to be doing!  

Good thing he's cute and still really good most of the time :)

And the moving begins

We closed on the new house on Thursday so we're trying to get as much done before we move in next Saturday.  We decided first on the list was to put up a privacy fence.  The neighbors to the south of us already had a fence so we were able to hook right into theirs.  So Friday night Jake, Craig, John (new neighbor) and Joel (new neighbor) got all the post holes dug in a few hours and then they had all the posts set in concrete that night.  Luckily they all had enough beer that they didn't realize how sore they were till the next morning :)  Craig and Jake (with the help of my dad after he got done painting the bedrooms, hallway, living room and kitchen, yes he fast and awesome if anyone is looking for a painter!) finished the rest of the fence by 9pm on Saturday!  It looks so good and make our yard look so big!  The boys and Tucker are going to love it.

I had also sent the boys over night with my Mom and Dad on Friday night so Miranda, Pam and I got my whole kitchen moved over and organized as well.  It feels good to have that project done!  I babysit my niece over the summer and today was her first day here and we decided to make cookies for the big moving day on Saturday.  We ended up making a double batch of chocolate chip cookies, mixing the dough up in the one pan I left at the house and cooked them all on the one cookie sheet I left at the house. :)  It's going to be a busy week of moving stuff each night but I'm excited to get all moved in on Saturday and start unpacking and decorating!!!

Graham Crackers

Hudson has a new favorite snack, he loves graham crackers dipped in milk.  Cruz and Levin both love this too so we seem to be going through a lot of graham crackers lately!  It's funny how quick Hudson catches on to things and always wants to do things like his big brothers!  He's definitley into "dipping" food, if he sees you have the ketchup out and don't give him any he will throw quite the fit!  I love how his personality is starting to come out :) 

Two Sold signs are better then ONE!

We started looking for a new, bigger, house about a year ago.  Finally one we both liked came available around April 1st so we went ahead and put in an offer and they accepted.  Which was great but our current house wasn't even on the market yet so that weekend we spent the whole weekend cleaning and organizing getting our house "show ready".  It went up for sale that weekend and I've spent the last 7 weeks keeping my house "show ready" while raising 3 little boys and doing daycare, it was not easy or fun!  We had several showings and open houses but there were no offers coming in.  Everyone kept telling me it just took one person but I was still stressed about the possibility of having two house payments!  Well on Thursday a guy that is moving his family here from out of state for work came and looked at our house and Friday morning we had an offer.  (His wife must really trust him because I would never let my husband buy a house without me seeing it in person!)  Anyways we accepted and our house is SOLD!  It felt so good to see the SOLD sign in our yard.   We close on our new house on Thursday the 15th and move that following weekend, Memorial Day Weekend.  This whole thing has been a very nerve wrecking whirlwind but I feel so blessed the way it's all working out.  So yes, even though it was exciting to buy a new house, it is even more exciting to have SOLD signs in front of both houses at the same time!

Ready For Summer

With highs in the 90s yesterday we took advantage of the hot weather with the sprinkler and water table!  I think we are all anxious for summer to be here. 

Almost Walking

Hudson will be 15 months tomorrow and is almost walking.  Cruz & Levin didn't walk till they were over 14 months so it's no surprise that Hudson is a late walker too.  Plus, like the doctor said, if he didn't have two older brothers to get him everything he wants instead of having to try to walk to things he may be walking already! :)  Here's some quick clips from tonight of him walking!

Dragons and Dinosaurs

Quote of the night from Levin... "It smells like dragons out here"

This was said after we walked out of Ra-Ra's (Grandma Aufenkamp's) house and someone had a camp fire going. So yes obviously one would think that fire smells like dragons right :). Well you would if you were 3 and in love with dragons and dinosaurs!

May Day

This is the first year we have participated in the May Day tradition and wow, what a blast!  Cruz was adamant last night at bed time that we needed to deliver some May Day Baskets today so after taking Levin to preschool I headed to Walmart for the supplies!  When Cruz got home from school both Levin and Cruz took turns filling the cups with all the goodies and they were ready to be delivered after dinner.  While eating dinner Cruz's friend Davis tried to sneak one on our front steps but Cruz was too quick and caught him in the act. He was so excited to catch him!  So after dinner we piled in the van and made our rounds it was so fun to see the excitement the boys had at each house, always planning where they were gonna leave the cup and who would ring the door bell.  What a fun night and we will definitely be carrying this tradition on for next year!

Mother's Tea

Today was one of my favorite days of preschool, Mother's Tea.  We get to go spend some one on one time at school with your child, listen to them sing a few songs, eat some cookies with them and let them show you around the entire classroom.  And the best part is always (though nerve wrecking) finding out what they told Mrs. Kassmeier about yourself.  Below is a picture of Levin's from this year, apparently I like to clean, eat broccoli and watch basketball (none of which I really do enjoy but with the only basketball I watch, March Madness, just on and us having several showings on our house in the past month I can see where the basketball and cleaning comments came from. The broccoli I'm still not sure about, yuck)

Going to try this whole blogging thing...

A conversation with our middle child the other day made me once again say "gosh I should really write a blog" so here it goes.  Cruz is now 6, Levin is 3 1/2 and Hudson is 14 months so sometimes I feel our days are a blur but with an app now downloaded on my phone, making it easier to write anywhere or anytime, I'm hoping to not write for the pleasure of others to read but mainly write for the sake of being able to look back some day and remember the funny or memorable moments in our crazy life!  Maybe I'll last a week and maybe I'll last much longer but here goes nothing :)

My Conversation with Levin the other day at lunch. (Levin loves animals and dinosaurs and has quite the imagination and personality!)  I should add no one at the lunch table was talking about dinosaurs!

Levin: "mommy, mommy, mommy, umm dinosaurs don't have any butts"

Me: "Really?"

Levin: "ya they just have tails" 

And then he goes back to eating and he was on to another subject. I love his random thoughts :)