Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Randomness

What have we been up to lately?

Isaac was off for spring break last week so it was nice having the eldest home. Life slowed down a bit with no school, no practice, and no track meets. Josh and I took him to see the movie, Divergent, and left the littles with the grandparents. Both Isaac and I read the book, so Josh got to listen to us discuss what was different about the movie. He loves that ;) Isaac is growing up so fast; it makes me sad and happy at the same time. On Thursday he worked on our church's park with his youth group  and then had a few of his friends over to spend the night and have an air soft war. Our woods make the perfect spot for 'wars'. Thankfully no one shot out an eye. 

Audra, Amber and I took all the kids (6 under 6) to the Nature Center in Asheville while we were on spring break and they had a blast. We saw the animals and they played on the play areas. Afterwards we had lunch at a local BBQ restaurant in Black Mountain. 

Carter, Eli, Maddie and Rachel at the BBQ restaurant
Amber gave me a starter for sour dough bread and I've made 3 runs of bread so far. Speaking of which, I just finished kneading my bread and it's rising as I type. I'm going to have to give some away because I definitely don't need to eat any more! I'm getting a bread bulge. I've been a slacker about going to the gym.. I went on Saturday for the first time in 3 weeks. 


I did find 3 cute bathing suits at Target for my not finished swimming pool. Hey, I have high hopes! While we are on the topic of swimming pools.. I've been on the ball. I met with an electrician, met with the gas company, called a pool company about plumbing, and met with a guy about decking. I'm meeting with the pool people about plumbing tomorrow so I sure hope they will take the job and not charge an outrageous price. 

Olivia wants to wear her princess dress and boots all the time. She alternates between the cowboy boots and the pink rain boots. I let her nap and go to Eli's soccer game in her princess dress the other day because she was so determined. Geeez... I guess there are worse battle to pick.


Audra and I had to make a trip out of town on Friday to sign our taxes so while we were gone we ate at Chik Filet (always a good choice) and then took the kids to the mall. Eli begs to jump on those mall trampolines whenever we go. The cousins always have fun together with just a wee bit of fighting mixed in. 
Cousinly love- Eli, Carter, Olivia and Camden

Sampson went missing for a day and I freaked out! I was crying and so worried about that dog. I didn't realize how much I loved him until I thought something happened. We went driving around the surrounding neighborhood the next morning and saw him coming out of a neighbor's garage. The neightbor didn't know who he belonged to and had put him up so he wouldn't get run over. I was so thankful that he was okay, that I even gave him a shower in my bathroom. It took me 2 hours to get it clean enough where I couldn't smell dog. I made him an appointment to get neutered the next day. He's such a good pup and the kids just wrestle him and love on him. He even warned us of a bear near the house the other day.


Sunday, it was a beautiful 79 degree day and after church we took the boys fishing. Isaac and his cousins all jumped in the creek. I did catch a little tiny fish on Eli's Lightening McQueen rod. He was more interested in getting his feet wet than fishing.


My garden is ready! Last year we tried to grow a garden but it never grew (my theory is that it didn't have enough sunlight). So this year I decided to make a raised bed. I had Audra bring me 4 railroad ties, I used a mattock to loosen the dirt and then added garden soil from Lowes to the bed. I planted: cucumbers, squash, zucchini, tomatoes, hot pepper, bell pepper, onions, lettuce, Brussels sprouts and asparagus.  I've been told asparagus take a few years before it actually produces asparagus so I'm going to give those to mom and put some okra in that spot. I've been watering it religiously. I'm hoping it will survive the uncanny cold weather that came in today.











Sunday, April 13, 2014

Olivia's artic video


The last time Olivia had speech langauge testing, Hannah and I discussed that Olivia probably could do an articulation test since she has such a large vocabulary. She was right at 22 months old when I filmed this and she's wearing both hearing aids. I think she's doing great to have a moderate bilateral hearing loss and to not even be two years old! She will leave off some final consonants and doesn't make a /f/ correctly yet in any position, but you can understand most of what she says.





Here is a cute car clip of Olivia counting. She usually counts correctly but her lovely brother Eli was wanting to count as well and got her off target.



Eli is getting glasses

When Eli went for his four year check a few weeks ago he blew every thing out of the water.... except for the vision screening. At first the nurse said they would just re-screen him the next time he came in. I felt uneasy about that decision but I didn't say anything. However, the next day his doctor called and said they would like to go ahead and refer him the eye doctor.  I definitely think that some pediatricians can be too lax about things... I've had many kids that don't get early intervention for speech because their doctor says they will outgrow it. So I was very thankful that our pediatrician didn't 'wait' to see but went ahead and made a referral. I think our Mommy gut feelings have a lot of weight.

Eli was able to get an appointment right away at the eye doctor because of a cancellation. He did great during the eye exam and read the letters like a champ (well the one's he could see). He didn't even make much of a fuss getting the eye dilation drops in his eyes. He has a pretty bad astigmatism and he's near sighted as well. The doctor said he needs to wear his glasses full time. I was hoping he wouldn't get my eye sight because my vision is horrible. I got my glasses in 8th grade and I can definitely remember looking at the trees and saying, "Wow you can see the leaves." After we picked up Eli's new glasses, he looked up at the sky and said he could see airplane tracks!

I know it's going to be a challenge keeping the glasses from being broken, lost, etc.. because Eli's the wildest of my three children. So far, he's doing well and doesn't seem to mind wearing them. I think he looks adorable!


Eli's 4th party and Disney Live

Eli wanted a Lightening McQueen party this year so of course Mommy delivered! I did scale back :) After last year's Mickey mouse theme where I went Pinterest crazy I decided to go for simple. You know, like the old fashioned birthdays we used to have at Burger King back in the day. I opted for Grace Park, a few balloons and plates, pizza, and cake. After it was over we took the trash to the nearby dump and clean up was sooo easy! When we started to cut the cake and I realized I had forgot the forks and spoons!  Oh well.. our fingers worked. The kids loved having the park equipment to play on, the day was sunny and warm and I think Eli had a great time! We were thrilled our family and friends could come out and celebrate Eli turning four.














After Eli's party we had a special surprise and had tickets to see Disney Junior Live Pirates and Princesses. Eli and Olivia both love Jake and Sophia and loved watching the show. We did get robbed on the 25 dollar Jake sword and 15 dollar Sophia cup icee. Afterwards we walked through downtown Asheville and ate at Doc Chey's with some friends. Needless to say, Eli was tired by the time we got home. Happy 4th birthday SWEET BOY!

Enthralled with Jake

So happy to see Sophia. She kept yelling for her.

They especially liked watching the characters fly.


Mommy and Daddy were suckers

Walking to dinner. Olivia wouldn't let go of her new Sophia cup.