12/15 - Yes we are alive

I've never been away from the blog for this long. Brad has been extended out in San Diego and things got really crazy here and I'm just now recovering. Recovering isn't even the correct word. I can breathe now at least. Recovery will happen once Brad is and the holidays are over. So what has happened in the last month?

Well, my mom and I took the boys to the fair. We went on Veteran's Day around 1pm and got in free and then we also bought some wristbands and then just went wild. Aiden loves the fun house with mirrors and did a great job navigating us through it. We all went on the giant ferris wheel which was great because then the boys could see all the other rides and we knew where to go. Eli just made the cut-off for many of the rides so his world was great. He needs to grow really fast next year so I don't have to go on so many rides. The boys had a ton of fun but we left around 5:30ish because it was starting to get completely crazy with hundreds of people showing up and we were tired.

Aiden has had a few events at his school over the past couple weeks that I've been able to go in and help with. He is doing so great in school. His teacher just told me he has a few first grades sight words to work on and then he can go to second grade. I had no idea he knew so many words. My mom and I were able to go to Aiden's class one day and help make rice krispie treats which I had never actually made before. It was fun and the kids did a good job following the recipe. Aiden really wanted Nana to help at his table and that was cute to watch. Aiden's teacher invited the parents in for Thanksgiving for Pumpkin Pie which was fun. Aiden started off crying because someone gave him a slice and I ate a little bite and then convinced him to try a bite and he liked it. He then proceeded to have a second piece of pie. They even sang a few songs for us and they looked adorable in the attire they made for themselves. Aiden has earned a V (very good) for his behavior everyday this year. His teacher said an 'E' would be extremely hard to get and if you saw one or two during the year then that was really good. Aiden finally got an 'E'! He was so excited and had no idea. I called him over and then took his picture when I showed it to him (middle right picture) and he was so excited and then held up his paper to show me. 

Eli's daycare invited the parents to come and have Thanksgiving lunch. We signed up to bring mac and cheese and green beans. It was cute and the kids made their own place settings. Eli ate a ton of food which doesn't really surprise me. We were able to read a few books together while the rest of the parents showed up. Nana and I didn't get the memo that we would be almost the only women because all the dad's came (there was one more mom). It was a bit shocking but warmed by heart too. Eli's daycare is going okay. It was touch and go for a while but we are just trusting in God that he is in the right place and with the right teacher. I used to get things from his folder almost everyday and when he moved teachers, there was nothing in his folder ... for weeks so I eventually stopped checking it. I finally did check it last week I realized that they have started to doing things which is great and that he missed a birthday party (boo on mommy for not checking his folder). 

Brad was able to take leave and come have Thanksgiving with us which was great. We did a low-key dinner here and were just excited to be together. The night that Brad came home, a group of guys from church came over and helped do a bunch of random stuff like change lightbulbs, get all my christmas stuff out of the closet and put a ton of boxes in a closet, trimmed a hedge, and then put chrismtas lights around our house on the roof. It was so helpful because they did almost everything on my to-do list for Brad which enabled us to have family time together instead of Brad is here to work. I actually had A TON of grading to do so Brad played with the boys quite often so I could grade. I did take a solid couple hours off and we went to Wild Adventures in Georgia. It was about 2 hours away and I was nervous after driving that far and not seeing one sign for it. You then pull up and it looks like it's in someone's backyard and I got really nervous. It ended up being awesome for the ages of the boys. They were able to go on about 70% of the rides which was great. Military got in free which is why we went in the first place. We had a blast there and it was much colder than we were hoping. We were there for 6 hours I think and I was certainly worn out. 

 After church on Sunday, we made a stop to Home Depot on the way home to get a Christmas Tree. I wouldn't be able to get one without Brad so if we were going to have a tree we needed to get it now. We even put it in the stand and in the house before Brad left. I put lights on it after a few nights and then the boys wanted to put ornaments on it so we did that for a bit one night. I never actually went back to "fix" anything so we have a ton of ornaments from hip height and down and few from me that are up higher. I also added a few lights on the house as well. It's not in the picture below but we also have our blow-up train and my 3 spiral christmas trees. Our house looks quite nice. I blew the circuit the first night so I had do some creative plugging in so that everything wasn't going to the same circuit (the garage and outside outlet are on the same circuit). I haven't really decorated inside because well, I would have to take it down and if I don't have time to put it up, I surely won't have time to take it down. :)  It can stay in the box and hopefully next year will be less hectic and I can properly decorate.

We were on base twice last weekend for Christmas stuff. Last weekend the squadron that Brad is checking in to had their children's christmas party and I took the boys to it. They had blast watching Santa fly in on a helo and then just playing in the bounce house and watching a magician/comic for a bit. Aiden was obsessed about participating in a cake walk (I didn't even know what it was). Well, he had a complete breakdown after his second time walking because he still didn't win. They let him participate in the last one (they had 4) and surprise, he won. They totally let him win because he was crying after the other one from not winning. My kids seems to do that alot and I told them I am tired of it. I told them I will be a better mommy and make sure they are disappointed more often because clearly they need practice in how to deal with disappointment and loosing. So, we have been practicing that lately :)  

So the rest of this is just some randomness that I wanted to include: 

I never thought I would see the day where Aiden would peel an orange but here it is. I'm so thankful for all the therapy he has gotten and how much it has transformed him. He hasn't received any on-going therapy since we have been here in FL and is doing great and his food choices are coming along so well. 

Little Eli had some testing done the other day and we had to stop by the store so I could get some cold medicine. We found these santa ears and Eli tried them on. He' facial expressions just crack me up most of the time. He did well on his testing but is very weak in fine motor skills but also scored much higher in cognitive thinking skills than I thought which is sorta troubling for me. He can be smart if you make it fun and a game but usually doesn't want to put in the effort to have to think. I think this child is going to test me so much when it comes to school and academics.

 We were able to help a friend celebrate her birthday a few weeks ago. The day before this and the day after this had highs in the 60's and this one day it was about 80 degrees in Florida at the end of November. It was crazy warm at the park and the boys were seriously sweating. They had lots of fun celebrating Jordyn's birthday and seeing some of their friends again though.

 This is Brad and I when I dropped him off the the airport after Thanksgiving. He really does balance me out which is why it's so hard on me and us when he is gone.

We did do our Thanksgiving tree again this year. It wasn't the same without Brad here though. I have a before and after picture but Blogger isn't letting me access to those so I'll have to post them next time. I love our Thanksgiving Tree and it's so neat to see what the kids have come up with every night. It's great when I've had a stressful day where everything seems to have gone wrong because it also puts everything back into perspective for me and I realize how truly fortunate and blessed we are.

In mid-November I was blessed with tickets to see Toby Mac in concert. I invited Arin along we had a great time. We were shocked to find out our tickets were floor tickets, just one section back from the stage. There were lots of awesome artists there too. Our friend from Maryland, Cindy, sent the tickets to me about 2 months before the concert just for fun. How awesomely nice that was. 

Things are going to be busy here over the holidays as Brad's parents come to visit us. It will be great to see them and it will be an awesome Christmas present to get Brad home before (or on) Christmas Day. Merry Christmas everyone!!

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!!

11/5 - Halloween Pictures

So I had some cool pirate costumes for the boys and then Eli refuses to wear his ... little stinker. He didn't like the belt thing I made for him but it totally made the outfit. Needless to say, he went as a Harley Davidson biker guy and Aiden went as a pirate. They were so excited.

They dressed up that day to go to daycare. Aiden dressed up as "daddy" as he says (which is a flight suit) and Eli wore the biker boy outfit but was asking to take it off before we even entered the daycare building. They were both in regular clothes by the time I picked them up later in the day. We left our house at 6:00pm and went trick-or-treating to a couple houses that were on our way to daycare. The church that the daycare is part of had a trunk-or-treat with bounce houses and games. It was quite a production. The boys were so excited. After we got some candy, the boys were itching to go on the bounce houses. They stayed together for a while but eventually, they split up to do different bounce houses.

After they were done After we made them go inside, there were lots of games to do. They both waited in a long line to do a little putt putt game. Although Aiden holds the club akward, he did well enough to hit the ball down to the hole. 

Eli on the other hand, just did his own thing. Brad tried to help him but .... Eli will hit how he wants. :)

They then found a baseball game where they had to throw the ball into the hole. Aiden did pretty good and got 2 balls in.

Eli is still working on his aim (he is only 3) and eventually walked right up to the hole and threw his ball in. It was priceless. We didn't even have to tell him it was okay to move up; he just decided that on his own.

We found a game where the kids had to throw a hula hoop over a pumpkin to get a prize/candy. Aiden had a little trouble doing it. He actually just knocked the pumpkin over one time and thought he was in trouble (see the picture below). He's so cute. He had to scoot up pretty close to get the hoop over the pumpkin.

Apparently Eli did a great job observing his brother try a few times because he went and got it on the first try. Whenever people would let Eli choose a treat, he always went for the dum-dums. This boy truly does love lollipops.

A favorite game of the boys is fishing. I'm not sure why they like it so much. I'm always surprised by how long they will stand in line to play this game. Amazing. Totally not worth it in my book but ... I'm not a kid. They both had fun though.

We finally convinced the boys we had done/seen all the games inside and that it was time to go home. We parked our stroller by the fire truck and when we came back out, they were letting kids sit in the back to take pictures. Here are Eli and Aiden. It's actually hard to see Eli because he's in the shadow of a pole.

 

We walked home and stopped at 2 houses on the way back to trick-or-treat. It was about 8:00pm and the boys were excited for people to come by our house to get candy. Once we got home, the boys set up their chairs outside and waited extremely eagerly for trick-or-treaters. They were so cute. They got so excited when people would come. They would get out of their chair and start walking towards the person who was 15 feet away in the driveway. I had to coach them and tell them to sit down and wait and be patient. They had a blast handing out candy. I only got one bag so we ran out quickly (I didn't think any trick-or-treaters would be left by the time we got home). I had to turn our lights off so people would stop coming to our house. Aiden was so sad when I had to do that. He said, "mommy, there are people coming." I told him we were all out of candy and he looked in his bag and pulled out 2 pieces and said he would give them his candy. What a heart of gold.

Here are a few random pictures from the past couple days after Halloween. The boys were playing frisbee outside. Aiden is getting pretty good at throwing it but his wind-up (see below) cracks me up and is kinda scary if you are standing by him. I thought he was going to decapitate Eli in the picture below but he actually threw it out in the yard.

Eli is getting better too at throwing it. They love throwing the frisbee and having brother go run and get it.

We started our Thanksgiving Tree. It spent a long time cutting this tree out but think it looks pretty good. Every evening, we all say what we are thankful for, write it on a leaf, and put them on the tree. I can't wait to see what it looks like at the end of the month.

We had a movie night for the boys a few nights ago. Here is Eli watching the movie after his dinner. This is what our living room looks like on movie nights. I have our picnic blanket down, the boys both have a stool they eat on, and we get to watch a movie. We do have to stop the movie and/or remind the boys to eat their dinner during movie nights. I try and let the boys have a movie night once every week or 1.5 weeks.

We were watching something that was a tad scary the other night. Here is Eli just rolling around in the living room watching TV. 

Aiden on the other hand, gets so scared during tv shows and movies. He was hiding under a blanket for some of it (I actually think it was a Dora or Diego episode they were watching). He usually gets up and leaves the room during the "scary" parts. I am very thankful Eli hasn't picked up this habit :)

Here is our tree after a couple of days. Eli  ALWAYS says he's thankful for God and Jesus so I told them you can only say something one time to put up on the tree. Eli has had to branch out a little and Aiden has been encouraging him and giving him ideas. It's pretty cute. Tonight, Aiden was thankful for going out to eat and getting to play and Eli was thankful for church. 

There are some really big changes coming to the Hoyt Household very soon. I've completely freaked myself and Brad out and we are taking dairy and simple carbohydrates out of our diet. In fact, most carbohydrates are gone except a few whole grains. Some of the research out there is terrifying and crazy. I feel like the USDA has just blindly given America recommendations over the last 30 yrs without the kind of research needed to do that. I'm a little nervous about such a big change for us but at least we are all in it together. We are going to eat more like they did in the olden days: lots of meat and protein, very little carbs. It's called the Paleo diet although it's not a diet, it's a way of eating. We'll see how it goes. There is lots of research to show that a number of diseases and disorders can be prevented by eating this way.