7/24 - Moving Nana in with us

On Friday morning we left to head to St. Pete to get my mom and move her up to Jax. On the way down, we stopped in Tampa for my first IKEA trip ever. It was so amazing. We ate a pretty good lunch there, the kids loved the play center area, and we found most of the stuff we wanted. We were pinched for time (the kids could only stay for 40 min) so I didn't get everything I wanted to but I was still overall pleased with the trip. We got to Nana's apartment and she had done a great job of packing things up. We did some light packing and then headed off to Bob Evans for dinner. Here is Aiden waiting for his french toast that he ordered. Iggy, the chameleon on his head, has been traveling around with us lately. Eli ordered spaghetti (which we don't eat at our house) and devoured it and didn't really make a mess. I was actually impressed.

On Saturday morning we finished packing up a few last minute things and then the guy power arrived. We are so blessed. My sister's brother, cousin, step-dad, and a friend came over to help us move. It was so awesome and sweet of them. My cousin Rachel was going to watch the boys but then my sister decided she would be in town too and it would be great to get the cousins together. That said, I ended up taking the boys to her aunt's house in St. Pete and she had her 3 boys with her and then my aunt and cousin came to help out too and we added in my 2 boys. I then took back off to go to my mom's apartment. The boys were already taking boxes downstairs and stacking them up. It took a while to get the moving van and trailer but Brad finally showed up with the MASSIVE truck. He tried to get a smaller one but they didn't have anything available. We got it all packed up pretty quick but the longest part were those last few items and then cleaning up. Here are a few pictures of the boys having some fun with their cousins:

I wish I could have seen all the cousins playing together. Aiden loves his cousins and I really wish we were closer to he could see them more. After all the stuff was out and most everything was clean, Rachel and Becky brought the boys back over to Nana's apartment to eat lunch. The boys had a great time with them and I just love this picture to the below. I haven't had a picture with my cousin Rach and my aunt Becky in a long time so glad we got a few pictures. 

It was finally time to put the trailer on the truck. The boys helped out and had so much fun. It seemed like forever from getting to truck loaded to actually leaving. I'm SO SO SO glad Rach and Becky stayed around to help with the boys while we did all the last minute stuff that didn't last a minute at all; more like an hour. The boys were so hot from being outside but I was scared to give them too much water because then we would need to stop and use the potty. I also knew it would take longer than usual to get back to Jax since we were following Brad in the truck and with the trailer. We did pretty good and just made one stop at a rest stop which was great because Brad didn't have to worry about driving that huge thing with a trailer and doing tight turns. 

It took us about 4-4.25 hrs to make the trip and of course, little Eli falls asleep with about 10-15 minutes to go. The poor little guy didn't get a nap the day before and then didn't fall asleep until 5:15ish on this day. His body is so confused. We let him sleep for about 20-30 min and then woke him up.

The boys have LOVED having Nana and Bronco home with us. We ended up not going to church on Sunday because the previous two days just completely wore us out. My mom didn't have any clothes either because they were all in boxes on the truck. With the help of some church friends on Sunday afternoon, we got truck unloaded and lots unpacked for my mom. 

The boys were showing Nana their activity dice and they were getting a little physical activity in on Sunday morning. Sunday night was the last evening of Sports Camp at church so I took the boys to that while Nana continued to unpack and Brad did a few things around the house. 

Here is Eli playing basketball. He's getting better put I think he is more of a power guy rather than an accurate thrower kind of boy.

Aiden loved playing all the sports but seemed to enjoy the 'lacrosse' he played. 

Nana is unpacking right now and getting settled in. I think the space she has upstairs is pretty nice for her. I'm sure there will be kinks along the way with 2 households blending in to one but with patience, prayer, honesty, and love, it's all going to workout just fine. 

12/25 - Catching up to Christmas

I meant to write a blog post before we left but that didn't happen. We celebrated Ms. Jennifer's (Aiden's daycare teacher) birthday the week before we left. Ms. Jennifer is so great to the kids and they had fun celebrating with her. Here are a few pictures from that day:

I've been having fun with my new dehydrator. I made a bunch of stuff to take with us to Iowa for Christmas. 

Fruit roll up AKA fruit leathers are so easy to make and are SO SO SO delicious. The boys love them (and so do I) and they have no sugar, preservatives, etc.

The boys found some puppies that I've had stored on a shelf and they have adopted them and are taking them around everywhere. Aiden's puppy is named Winston and even though Eli's have name tags that say otherwise, he calls his Woofie and Bronco.  They wanted their puppies to eat with them the other day so here they are all at breakfast.

Aiden even decided that he needed a blanket for his doggie so I bought some big washcloths and he made Winston two blankets.

We got all packed up and headed out for the airport last Friday. After two successful flights, we made it into Cedar Rapids, IA safely. Eli was feeling under the weather and wouldn't eat all day. We did lots of waiting on the tarmac after our planes pulled in, especially in IA.

It was a long day of travel but the boys did great. The boys went to bed very late and actually slept in for the first time ever (they slept in an hour). Eli was actually up in the night and threw up too.

The beautiful white snow was picturesque. Aiden was very excited to get outside and play in the snow. It was challenging because Aiden was feeling great but Eli was not. Aiden wanted us to do stuff with him and Eli just wanted us to cuddle with him. Thankfully, big cousin Kassie took Aiden and played with him for a bit.

Kassie was so good with him. He was so cute describing what the snow felt like and just discovering snow. He didn't like walking in the "deep" snow but thought it was pretty cool that he left "big footprints." He found a spot in the driveway where there was no snow and said it was missing some and decided to kick a little ball of snow over to the spot and then proceeded to stomp on it to cover the bare spot (see upper right). Kassie and Aiden walked down 2 blocks and then Kassie made a pass through the snow with the disc and then let Aiden go. He did a great job although he seemed a little nervous/scared the first time he went down. Kassie had to teach him to walk up a path by where they came down at (rather than in the same spot the came down) and then he wanted to go again but sitting on Kassie's lap this time. I took another picture and then took off back to the house to check on Eli. 

Eli was feeling quite miserable and aunt Steph was cuddling with him. He continued to not eat all day and was extremely lethargic.

Aiden finally came back with Kassie. He got pretty cold and asked to come back. His feet were bright red and almost frozen. He had so much fun. We warmed him up and put some new socks on him while he cuddled with Stephanie. 

Eli just laid around all day and watched the same DVD about monster trucks, airplanes, etc. He continued to not eat all day. In the evening, Eli seemed to brighten up a little and we thought he may be on the road to recovery.

 

Aiden took a great nap from all the playing in the snow but wanted to burn off some more energy later that night by running on the treadmill. He gets so excited that he is able to run faster and faster on it.

We went out to dinner this evening and poor Eli just layed in my arms the entire time and didn't eat a thing. He even asked to go to bed. I wanted to get a family picture but Eli just wasn't in the mood for that yet. Here is a cute one of Aiden with his parents.  

On a slightly side note, Aiden has made so many improvements in the last 2 months in therapy that it is amazing!!! He was even attempting to wrestle with his cousin Bryce. My Aiden. Trying to wrestle. That means voluntarily touching someone and understand that they are going to touch him too. AMAZING!! And he was having fun - not crying!! 

Eli ended up getting sick 2 more times throughout the night and he was just throwing up bile. I wasn't hesitant to take him to an urgent care clinic because he just had a low-grade fever and was lethargic and not eating. As long as he didn't eat, he wouldn't throw up or go diarrhea. 

After some praying and conversing with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law, I decided to take Eli in to the clinic. My MIL drove us in to town (about 20 min) and we waited over an hr to see the doctor. The dr was really nice and she thought it was the rotovirus. I thought he had been vaccinated for it but I guess they stopped doing that a year or so ago because it was causing some type of intestinal issues. She thought he was on the hump of getting better since it had been so many days since he had first showed signs. He dropped 4 lbs in just 2.5 days!! He fell alseep right after we got back in the truck to head back home. Poor little guy.

The doctor prepared me that Aiden may also get sick because the rotovirus can spread easily. Brad stayed home and was sick the entire time I was gone to the doctor. It was looking like we were about to have a pretty miserable christmas with Eli and daddy sick and a high chance of the rest of the family following in those footsteps. I'm happy to say that Eli significantly perked up later this day and is doing great. I'll update more tomorrow or the day after but didn't want to have to catch up on too much time.  God is good and He answered our prayers for better health and an enjoyable christmas together.

6/4 - Sunday school party & the cousins

On Saturday afternoon after Aiden's party, we had a sunday school party to go to. The kids were allowed to wear their bathing suits to play in the kiddie pools. Both of the boys wore their suits and I brought extra in-case the cousins wanted to get wet too but they decided not to change into suits. Here is Eli in the red swim trunks trying to fill up a water gun thing.

Here is my dear friend Stephanie. I can't believe she is going to be moving to Texas in less than a week. I'm pretending like she's not really moving yet though. In case I haven't mentioned it, her family is moving to Houston, TX to plant a bilingual church. They are not bilingual (yet) but have been taking spanish lessons for the past 6-7 months. God is going to use them in amazing ways. Their church is called Advanced Church of Houston. Please pray for them as they start this new journey.

OK. Back to the party. The cousins were pretty worn out from getting up really early to drive to Jax for the party and from playing so hard during the party. In fact, they all fell asleep on the way to the sunday school party that started at 4:00pm. Aiden fell asleep in the car too since he didn't take a nap. It took the cousins a while to wake-up but once they did, they were having a good time.

Grayson was helping Aiden and Eli and showing them how to put water in the guns and squirt them. Aiden even "washed" Grahams feet off with the water. Once we all ate, we inflated the bounce house and the kids had lots of fun playing in there. Poor Grayson was such a good sport. He was mobbed by all the kids but he was still playing with them all. Look how red Aiden's face was after the bounce house. It's a little hard to see but it was actually bright red. He rehydrating with daddy by drinking some water.

We came home and my boys went to bed right away and the cousins went to bed not too long after that. On Sunday morning, the cousins were playing while we got various kids ready and got things packed up. They played so well together at the train table. Aiden and Eli don't play well with other kids at the train table .... except with their cousins. It was quite amazing.

After church but before nap time, we blew up the bounce house. This thing weight 175 lbs and Brad was such a trooper for setting it up again. We also needed to set it up so I could clean/sweep the inside of it though. Daddy and the boys played for a bit and it was fun to watch.

Eli loved running over to Brad and tackling him. He had the cutest, most determined look on his face too. It was adorable.

The boys actually did well chasing each other too. It was a good way to burn some energy right before nap time.

In this last picture of the boys, the were about to gang up on daddy and try and catch and tackle him. They were all having fun.

I decided to flip around for a bit too. It's been years since I've done anything but I did some backhandsprings and some back flips too. These first two pictures are as Aiden says, "flips with my hands" and the last one is a "flip without hands."

It was fun to play around for a bit. We had a great time with the bounce house and thought that for $120, we got our use out of it since we had it from Fri late afternoon to Sunday late afternoon. :)  The boys went to daycare today and I've been busy working on a few projects. I need to go help Steph move and get a workout this morning before Aiden has his feeding and speech therapy later this afternoon.