3/14 - Big Green Bus and going to stores

The boys love going to exercise with us which is so great. I wish I was exercising more right now but until my medical stuff gets straightened out, I'll take what my body will allow. We went to base to exercise and then afterwards, we always let the boys play. Here is Aiden doing a pretty good job of kicking the ball. Eli is still entertained by us just chasing him so I don't have a video of that. Also, if the video will not play (I don't think it does if you are viewing it from Facebook) then you can go straight to the blog to watch it (http://hoytfamilyhappenings.blogspot.com).

The boys really wanted me to come see them on the Big Green Bus a few weeks ago so I did. They were having a great time and there are so many kids doing it now that Aiden and Eli are in separate groups. They had the rings set up this week and they have been practicing hand stands. They both did really good and were definitely having fun. It cracks me up that Aiden is swinging with the rings around his armpits (and barely, if at all, swinging) and Eli was just running and swinging as high as he could. This has been a great experience for them.

Brad has had mid-terms the past week so he has needed some extra time to read, study, and write papers. One night I took the boys to Chick-fil-a for dinner and we were super excited to see that Spot It! is the new prize in the kid meals. The boys LOVE this game and now we have a mini travel version.

After dinner, I took the boys to Bass Pro Shop and let them play and run around. They really could stay here all day if I let them. We planned on doing something special at BPS too - getting a new penny. We have started collecting/making the souvenier flat pennies to the places we visit and Aiden really wanted one more from BPS. Aunt Pat sent him and Eli $1 each for Valentine's day so they both decided to use part of their money to make a penny (it costs 51 cents).

Aiden was pretty excited about his new penny. He's been trying to find a safe place to put them but keeps changing his mind as to where he wants to keep his special pennies.

I've been shopping for a mini wardrobe/pantry to help me organize. My house looks so cluttered and even though I know where most everything is, it still looks so sloppy. I've been trying to find ways to organize and one thing that I am going to do is put all the boys coloring, educational books, etc. all together and I want to put it all in a pantry type thing. I took the boys to the store with me (so Brad could study/write papers) and they were great helpers. I am a sucker and always carry their jackets for them but I am getting tired of that so Brad and I just showed them how to tie their jackets around their waste. They thought it was pretty cool.

Here they are testing out the shelf limit weight!!  Shortly after this the store had an announcement on the loud speaker about keeping your kids right by your side at all times. I had to laugh at that.

I tell you what - Eli is going to be a great helper in the yard. He loves to mow with me and he even mows the neighbors yards too. This bubble mower that Aiden got for his 2nd birthday is officially Eli's now. Eli was so upset when he broke the $1 plastic rake the other day because he couldn't help me rake. I'm on the lookout for a new one that is more sturdy since he really does like to use it.

Bath time with this kid is so much fun. He makes me smile and realize that bath time does not have to be a completely horrible stress-filled time.

So here is the "before" picture of our iPad. We need to fix the screen but I need Brad's help and he's been really busy so our screen is actually still broken but now it has tape on it. Hopefully I can post 'after' pictures soon. Getting the old screen off is a lot harder than the YouTube videos make it look!

I love that Aiden says he wants to "play in the rain." After we got home from daycare one day last week, the boys put on their rain boots and I let them play outside for a good 30 min or so. Here is Aiden gently, slowly walking through the puddle.

This picture of Eli makes me smile because I can only imagine what is going through his head. I can see on his check his dimple which means he is smiling because he is about to do something crazy. I love this kid!!!  He immediately jumped (with both feet) in the puddle and got his pants all wet. I told him it was fine and to keep playing and we could change his pants inside after he was all done.

They were taking turns going through the puddle (Aiden would walk, Eli would run) and Aiden wanted no part in having too much fun and getting wet or dirty. Look at the expression on his face as he watches Eli run through the puddle.  He is grimacing like it is the grossest thing in the world that Eli ran through the puddle and may get water on himself.

Eli is Mr. Helper in the kitchen. He loves to help us cook. Aiden is also becoming quite helpful and get everything he needs for his lunch.

We went to Home Depot to build a race car the first Saturday in March. The boys had a blast. Aiden did a pretty good job of trying to build it himself and putting all the nails in. Eli will give a good effort (a few hits with the hammer) and then he really just wants someone to build it for him while he bangs the hammer on the table and makes all the screws bounce off onto the floor. That is not frustrating at all! :) They built their cars and then we roamed around Home Depot for a bit so I could search for organization ideas and price some things out. The boys eventually found the floor cleaning machine and they stalked this poor guy for a long, long time. The followed his path all around that store!! We even stopped and talked to the guy for a while. They were fascinated. After about an hour, I told Aiden we needed to stop following him because it was probably a little freaky to the guy so we went and said bye to the man and then played on the tractors for a bit before leaving.

I have one more update to do. We took a quick trip to Atlanta last weekend and it was great. Pictures will follow soon. Brad is doing great in school although he is so ready for it to be all over. I have had some problems with low potassium and was even had to go to the ER at 4:30am a few weeks ago. Apparently the medication I take for adrenal insufficiency can lower my potassium level and a low potassium level can be a very dangerous thing. I saw my primary care dr on Monday and she is referring me to a neurologist so that I can get a sleep study done. The thinking is that I am so blasted tired all the time because maybe my body truly isn't getting any rest at night. We shall see.

12/9 - Aiden & Amy sick; Papa visit

Not long after we got back from Papa's house, Aiden got very sick. He took his turn at Urgent Care and we found out he had influenza too. Man. He seemed much hotter than 101-102 but he was pretty miserable for a few days. He was put on Tamiflu again and bounced back pretty fast.

Eli still had to go to daycare and that was a bit of a challenge. He loves to go to Aiden's class when he first gets to daycare and thankfully, Ms. Jennifer still let him in her class even though Aiden was absent. We tried rewarding him for being well and spending some special time with him when we picked him up. Here is one day where we went exploring around daycare and he had a blast. We climbed up stairs, rolled down hills, and played with all the buttons in the van. He was pretty proud of himself that he figured out how to put his window down and how to open his door.

This picture just makes me smile of Eli. He was so excited to just sit in the front seat of the van and play with buttons. 

Brad put a new Chick-fil-a app on his phone and the boys were pretty excited about it. We can scan the comic books the boys have gotten there and the cows come to life and karate chop each other. It's fun.

It's actually so much easier when both boys are sick at the same time. Eli already took his turn at being sick so he was full of energy while Aiden had none. We've let the boys play a little more with the Wii and they have fun with it. The can play Diego, MarioKart, or the WiiFit. Aiden felt so bad that he didn't even want to play (that's when we know he is sick).  

After a few days on the medicine, Aiden started feeling much better. Here are all the boys playing around one day. 

While Aiden was sick, I was browsing on my phone for photo apps. I found a couple free christmas ones that the boys love. They asked me to take pictures of them with various backgrounds for a couple days in a row. Here is a sampler:

I had to have some fun with the cat too. Pouncer cracks me up!! I love him so much.

Aiden and Eli decided to ride their bikes the other day. Aiden stopped riding his bike because he said it was too wobbly. He was riding Eli's but that was creating problems. Needless to say, Brad fixed the training wheels on Aiden's bike so that it doesn't wobble at all. I think it's safe to say that Aiden may never get rid of training wheels and he will be perfectly fine with that. We'll have to find a cool trike for him to fit in later :)

Crazy little Eli has lots of fun just playing in dirt outside the house.

He did finally decide to use his bike and the pedals!! This is huge. This boy has something against using the pedals. He is finally figuring it out and learning to use all his leg muscles at the same time. He has to really concentrate but he can do it.

We got a somewhat of a surprise visit from Papa in the middle of the week. We gave him his Christmas present early since we won't see him this year during Christmas. We got him some long range walkie talkies so that he can use them up at the farm. Aiden was pretty excited about giving them to him.

We took Papa to Bass Pro Shop on Wednesday. We haven't been there since they decorated for Christmas and it was quite festive looking. We had a good time and the boys really liked the race car they had set up in the Christmas area. They only had 2 boats to get on which made the boys sad but they forgot about it soon enough. We tried to get a picture with Santa but that didn't work out so well with Aiden. He said he was "too shy" to talk to Santa and then freaked out on us. Thankfully, Eli didn't really care that a giant man with a furry red suit and lots of facial hair was holding him. Whew.

Here is what our Thanksgiving Tree ended up looking like. It was a really fun and neat project to do. We are definitely going to make a tradition of doing this. 

I took a picture of the just the leaves  so we can look back to see what we wrote. Green = Aiden; Orange = Eli; Yellow = Brad; Plain = Amy.

These boys love each other so much and it just warms my heart to see them so sweet to each other. Don't get me wrong, there are times when they are not so sweet but usually you can see the love.

OK. A little rewind for a few days. On Tuesday morning, I went to my primary care physician to see about getting in to an endocrinologist soon. I had an appt in mid-February but I can't wait until then. I have zero energy and cannot even do my everyday activities anymore. So, God intervened on my part and after a frustrating visit and talk with referral people, a nurse ended up getting me an appt on Wednesday at 9:00am with an endocrinologist. I was shocked. Brad went with me on Wednesday morning and after lots of waiting to get my medical records from base, we finally saw the dr. We both liked him and he said he needed to order an ACTH test to see if my adrenal glands were working. I went back on Thursday morning at 10:40am to get the blood test done. They take blood, inject (via IV) a medication that is similar to cortisol, and then you have to wait an hour and have blood taken again. Well, they took blood, injected the medicine, pushed it with some saline, and then boom .... I pass out. The medicine I got is supposed to increase your blood pressure and heart rate and mine went straight down. To make a long story short, I'm the first person to have such a response and faint in the dr office, first time I have been treated and transported by emergency rescue personnel, and the first time the ambulance has a mileage of 0.0 for a trip (I was in a clinic office that was less than .1 miles away from the hospital so they rounded the trip to 0.00). Because my body responded completely opposite of what it was supposed to do, the doctors kept me overnight on oxygen and a heart rate monitor to just make sure everything was okay. They took LOTS of labs over the course of the 24+ hours I was there. The endocrinologist should get the labs back by Monday, Tuesday morning at the latest, and then he's going to decide what to do next. It was a scare for us but thankfully God provided wonderful people to take care of me and keep me safe.

I got out of the hospital on Friday afternoon and Brad had a Winter Ball for his work on Friday night. We already bought the tickets ($70) and I was way too cheap to let them just sit there. So, I dressed up and we went to the ball. I finally have two new dresses to wear to these kind of fancy events thanks to a shopping trip with Stephanie back in Florida. I got ready and then thought I made a terrible decision by trying to go because I felt so horrible and weak before we left. I rested while Brad picked up the babysitters and then we made an appearance. People from Brad's work were shocked that we came but they don't understand that I wasn't going to waste that $70! Haha. We left after dinner but before the silent auction and all the dancing. I slept awesome on Friday night but had a really hard time waking up on Saturday.

Once I finally got moving on Saturday, I was good to go. Aiden played with his new erasers that he got for doing a great job in Cubbies so far, Eli was playing on the iPad, and Brad was reading for a paper due on Monday. I took a nap that afternoon and then in the late afternoon, took the boys to Sears with me. We finally found a mall in Montgomery!! It was crazy busy and I was so scared I was going to loose a child so we'll have to go back when I have Brad with me and/or it's not Saturday night a few weeks before Christmas.

I was exhausted by Saturday night. Mornings are the roughest times for me because it's like my adrenal glands don't produce anything to get me up and moving in the morning. I USED to be a morning person!!! Anyway, I barely pulled my act together to go to church but we did make it on time. I love our church up here. They are so caring and sweet and are great prayer warriors. I was wiped out this afternoon but didn't get a chance to take a nap so I'm trying not to fall asleep as I type this. Eli had a hard time waking up after naps. Here he is cuddling with Pouncer. I'm trying to catch up with my on-line class and grading. Oh yeah, and Christmas cards. I just don't have much energy now so I have to really determine how I am going to spend the little bit of energy that I do have everyday.

We went back to church tonight but there was no Awana (or Cubbies). Instead, the Children's Choir put on a musical which was really cute. At the very beginning of it, the Preschool Choir came and sang a few songs. Cue Aiden's first time on a stage in front of people. He was too cute although lots of wiping of the eyes and ears with his hands and arms. I'm not sure if that's a nervous coping thing or that his allergies are just getting that bad. I'll post an update with the church pictures and pictures that I will take on Tuesday night at the Christmas production for their daycare. It should be rather cute!!

10/23 - While mommy was away ...

It's been a crazy week. Here a picture that Brad took of us last week making a silly face as Aiden calls it.

Last Wednesday morning (very early) I drove to Birmingham to catch a plane to Tampa to see my mom. It was a quick, but productive visit. Here is a picture of us on the day I got there.

Mrs. Jennifer, Aiden's teacher, was nice enough to send me a picture of my boys that afternoon. I have a picture where Aiden's eyes are open but Eli's smile is too darn cute here so I have to use this one. 

On Thursday, I sent this picture to Mrs. Jennifer and asked her to show it to the boys. They told her about Bronco. It was good to see Bronco again. Him and Nana are getting along really well and it's a great relationship. He gets her outside to socialize and walk; two very important things that are healthy.  I got to Skype with the boys on Thursday night for a few minutes. It was good but Aiden was so sad and wanted to "cuddle" with me. My heart was breaking for him but daddy tried to comfort him and snuggle with him.

I was busy getting mom organized with the office and medical stuff. We met with an insurance agent and I was on the phone quite a bit with SHINE (the Florida assistance program for the elderly with insurance-related questions). She is not considered elderly but because she is on disability, she qualifies. They gave us some good ideas to help us find the right insurance plan for her given her medical conditions. On Friday afternoon, I got to see my dad. He came and picked me up and took me to lunch out at the Pier. I haven't been down there in ages. We had a yummy lunch although I was struggling to stay awake. I hadn't slept in a few nights and was beyond exhausted. The Pier is getting demolished in May 2013 so I'm not sure I'll be able to take the boys there and show it to them. They would have liked it.

Here is a picture that Mrs. Jennifer sent me on Friday. I sent her a picture of me holding a wind-up alligator and Aiden saw what it was and got excited. He said he had an alligator on his shirt too.

On Friday, Brad picked the boys up early from daycare and took them to Bass Pro Shop with 2 other daddy's and their kids. It sounded like they all had lots of fun. Here are some pictures that Brad sent to me. Of course they had to go check the boats out:

Here they are trying out different chairs. I love the little tiny chairs and would love to get the boys one someday.

Here they are in the tents and Aiden is reading to Eli. I am so so so so so blessed to have such an awesome husband who can do such a great job taking care of the boys.

I got lots of stuff done while at my mom's. She will be moving this summer to Jacksonville to live with us or near us (we aren't sure of all the details yet). I came home on Saturday morning and by the time I drove 1hr+ from the airport, got home around 10:45am. It was so great to see the boys. We played until lunch time and then got up after naps and played some more. That night, we went to Zoo Boo. I'll post pictures tomorrow or later today about that. Also, hats off to an awesome husband who helped with Cubbies on Sunday night. We were down one leader and needed another adult so I asked him and he didn't bat an eye. He had schoolwork to catch up on too and still came to help out. What a blessing to me and those Cubbies he was.

Here are two final pictures. Brad took these last night after he picked up the boys from daycare. Aiden has full pads on for his skateboarding experience! He's so safe.

Both of our boys could spend an hour playing with the air pump. It's an air pump ... it cracks me up how they think it's the coolest thing around.

I was late getting home yesterday because I had to return to the GI doctor and get the results of my colonoscopy and biopsy. The good news: no cancer. The bad news: I have ulcerative colitis, a chronic irritable bowel disease (not to be confused with irritable bowl  syndrome). It's an autoimmune disease and will probably never go away. I have to start taking a medicine 4 times a day and then hopefully can move to taking 2 pills 2 times a day. I cannot even entertain stopping the medicine until I go at least 5 YEARS without any symptoms. That's a long time!! I'm sad but hopeful to get this under control so I can start feeling better. I felt fine for 2.5 weeks after the procedure while I was taking a different medicine the doctor gave me, but as soon as I stopped it, my symptoms came right back.

I'll be updating again soon with pictures from Boo Zoo and Aiden's therapy session today. Have a great week.

7/25 - Our outings

I visited my first Bass Pro Shops a few weeks ago. We picked the boys up early one day from daycare and headed down the street. Bass Pro Shops is actually in Prattville (rather than Montgomery) so it was just a few minutes away. The boys had a great time. We just stared at all the fish for the first 10 minutes.

We headed upstairs where they had a children's event going on. The boys were not interested in sitting and listening to a lecture but they were up for trying a mini bow and arrow. Both boys got to shoot it with daddy's help and hit the target which means they got a prize too.

The trigger was a little hard for them to pull but otherwise, they enjoyed it.

They also got to play with fishing poles. I was surprised they were able to figure out how to push the button to lower the line. I didn't even attempt to teach them how to cast the line but they had lots of fun reeling in the line after they pushed the button to let it down.

They also had a ton of fun playing in the boats. Here is Aiden pretending like he's catching his daddy.

We participated in Cow Appreciation Day for Chick-fil-a about a week ago. Here is Aiden showing me the iTouch he was playing on.

Eli wasn't so excited to wear his cow costume because he didn't like the shirt. He could feel the giant black cow dots and that really bothered him. I would figure Aiden would complain about that before Eli. Eli wore his long enough to get his free meal. Brad made shirts for him and I and they turned out really cute.

We went to the zoo last week for the first time. It's about 20 minutes away which is half the time it took us to get to the zoo in Jacksonville. Oh yeah. Speaking of Jacksonville, we are headed back there next fall for Brad's Department Head tour. We let the boys play on the playground for a while at the zoo before we started walking around. Here are Aiden and Eli on the climbing ropes.

Aiden and Eli got to feed the giraffes which was pretty fun for them. Eli just dropped his lettuce leaf on the floor the first time but thankfully he got another one and was able to feed the giraffe the next time.

We got a year membership to the zoo along with unlimited train rides. We ended up riding the train two times around this visit. It's a great ending activity since they are so tired by then.

Here is one of the playgrounds across the street from us at the elementary school. The boys enjoyed playing and getting some energy out of their system before the rain came.

It was snack time so they both had snack on the playground. Aiden chose this bouncy platform for his snack area.

Eli just camped out by one of the slides to have his snack.

Since there was no one else there, we let the boys practice climbing up the slides. They always love it when we let the climb up slides!!

Here is little Eli drawing circles on the chalkboard. He's doing such a good job drawing (he's even holding the chalk correctly) and scribbling.

Aiden was being so cute the other day and told us he was going to read to Eli. Eli sat right down beside him and Aiden had a picture book and was telling Eli what each picture was. Too cute.

Here are both the boys in our new sitting chairs playing on the iPad and iTouch. These boys are starting to get really good at some of the games.

Today we went to the pool and tomorrow we will be going to the movie theater to see How to Train Your Dragon. Aiden also has a screening appointment to get the ball rolling to start any therapies he still needs. I have an early appointment to get some blood taken and Aiden will be going with me since he has an appointment at the base too (for his testing). This will be the first time we've taken Eli to a movie theater. Thankfully it's just the $2 movies so we can leave if he can't sit still that long. Things are going fairly well and we are just enjoying Brad's last week off before he starts school.