Happy New Year!

Just wanted to give an update on what has been happening with the boys. Riley has been having ear infections since October. He has been on several different medications for these. On Thursday, December 27th he went to see and ENT and we got wonderful news...his ear infection was FINALLY gone! Yeah! We are setting up a CT-scan for him to have some other things looked at...he is getting croup a lot and they are concerned about this. Kids his age shouldn't be getting it as much as he is. We are waiting for the call to let us know when this appointment will be.

Last night a whirlwind occured in our house. At around 12:30...I was taking a picture of Aiden sleeping on top of Jamma. It was so cute. He had been coughing a lot during the day and had a fever...so sleeping on the couch with daddy was what relaxed him. Well, as he was sleeping I noticed that he was breathing differently. His stomach was rapidly moving up and down, which suggested to me that he was having difficulty getting air in. I called my sister, who is a nurse and she came right over. She listened to him breathing and we called our Pedetrician after hours emergency number. We were instructed to give him 2 nebulizers back to back and watch his breathing. If it didn't improve, then we would need to bring him in. Becca started doing some counting and said that we should probably take him in because he wasn't getting better...he also had a fever. So...we called my sister Rachel to come and stay with Riley since Jamma had to work. She was on her way over when Riley started screaming in his sleep that he had an ear ache. We debated on whether or not we should bring him with us, but gave him Motrin and decided that he would go to the Minute Clinic in the morning. The ENT had given us a prescription in case he started complaining again...so we just needed to fill it. We wanted to make absolutly sure that it was in fact in ear infection before starting a new medication. So, Rachel still came over and watched Riley.

We got to Children's Hospital around 2:00 or so. It took forever there! Aiden was checked in and taken to a room. After listening to him, they ordered 3 rounds of nebulizer treatments and an oral steriod to help open his air ways. They also did a chest x-ray. He was WOUND up...wide awake and seemed fine. At about 6:30 a.m. or so...he crashed. When they checked his oxygen levels....they were down...at 88%. They put an oxygen mask on him and went to talk to the doctors. Finally, they came in and turned on the lights and told us we needed to wake Aiden up! What the heck???? While awake, his oxygen levels went back up. He was crying a lot...and it was pretty scary for me to see his heart rate go up to 186 beats per minute. Becca reassured me that this was fine and because of all the steriods and because of his crying. Everything seemed to help a little bit. He was given an antiboidic for the swelling in his lungs. They said although they didn't see pnenumonia, they were going to treat him for the early signs of it. They also gave him an oral steriod to help open the airways and help him breath better. We have to still do nebulizer treatments with him! At about 8:15 or so Aiden was discharged. He fell asleep in the car on the way home, but didn't sleep much at home. He is pretty crabby right now which is understandable.

Jamma took Riley in this morning to Minute Clinic and he indeed does have an ear infection in his left ear and the beginning of one in his right ear! So...he is once again back on an antibiodic. He officially went without medicine for 2 days before it starting again. Tomorrow we will call our pedetrician and have both of them looked at and hopefully will figure out where to go from here!

Hopefully 2008 will bring us better health! It seems like it has been one thing after another with the boys! Thanks so much Rachel and Rebecca for all your help last night and this morning! I don't know what we would have done without you!

Christmas Eve

So...this is how we have been laying for the past 1/2 hour. We have been watching the Norad Tracks Santa website tonight and are so excited to see Santa almost in the United States. We told the boys that when Santa gets to the United States they need to get to sleep so that Santa will stop at our house.

The boys are watching Santa's flight as they arrive in the United States.

This year our family tradition has been broken. Usually we go to my parents house for Christmas Eve. We have dinner, open presents and then go to church. Today Riley and Aiden both woke up with the stomach flu. Riley has it much worse then Aiden. So...we made the tough decision to stay home tonight. We let the boys open a few presents this afternoon. They got legos and played for hours with them. Tonight they opened their traditional matching pajamas that we give them every year for Christmas Eve. The rest of the evening was spent checking Santa's flight and watching movies. I am really sad that we missed our traditional Christmas Eve, but it was a nice night spent with the boys.

Happy Birthday Aunt Becca

Sorry this is late...but we wanted to say Happy Birthday on the 15th. We enjoyed have lunch with you yesterday!

Love, Riley and Aiden

A Visit With Santa

We went to visit Santa today. When we got there...Santa was getting ready to go to dinner. We were given a number and were told to come back 1 hour later. We came back and didn't really have to wait to see Santa. The boys did pretty well.

Happy Birthday to Aunt Rachel and to Me

Today is our birthday (my sister and I). I wanted to share some pictures of us of when we were little. I don't know which one of us is which!

Aiden and Riley gave me a card. It was so cute! Aiden asked if I saw that he wrote his name with dots around it. I said, "Yes". He said, "That's because I wrote it in Spanish!" How cute is that!

Happy Birthday Aunt Rachel! We hope you have a good day!

Love, Riley and Aiden

Yeah! Snow!!!

This morning when we told the boys to look at the window they got so excited and started to scream when they noticed all the snow. They asked late this afternoon if they could go out and play in it for a little bit. After bundling them up...they had sooo much fun in the snow. They came right in to look at their rosy cheeks in the mirror! We love the snow...it's beginning to look more like Christmas.

Never Ending Illnesses

So....a lot of people have been asking how the boys are feeling. Well...this is what I have to report. Since Riley has been in school he has missed several days of it. It seems that he is getting sick with everything. He's had the stomach flu, croup (twice) and ear infections. Today we made another trip to the doctors. On November 3rd...he had an ear infection. This was his first one that he has had since he has been a baby. He took his medication for a week. We then went in and he had his ears checked on the 14th to make sure that they were clear. We found that he had fluid behind one of them. We were just suppose to watch it. During that visit, we also found out that he was wheezing. He was put on a steriod so that it didn't develop into something worse. We also found out that Aiden had a fever. He was going to get his flu shot...but I mentioned that he was coughing a little bit the night before. They took his temp and he had a fever. So...he didn't get the shot. That weekend they both ended up having bad colds. They seemed to be doing better, until early this morning. Riley woke up crying saying that his face and throat hurt again. We gave him some Tylenol and watched him during the morning. He complained about his ear hurting at Aunt Becca's house. He was going to stay home from school...but after having Tylenol, he felt better and wanted to go. When I got done with school, I went to pick him up at his school. When I got there, he looked horrible. He fell asleep before we even left the school parking lot. When we got to the doctors office, he ended up having a high fever and bad ear infection. He was sad when the doctor told him that he had to stay home from school tomorrow. Before we left, Aiden ASKED if he could have his flu shot. They took his temp and he was fine. The lab tech came in and asked us to take his pants off so they could give him the shot. He WOULD NOT do it. He did not want to show his underware. It was so funny. We pulled his pant leg up and he SMILED almost the whole time he was getting the shot. He had no tears. He was so brave. We are hoping that he stays healthy and that Riley is better soon!

Getting ready for Christmas

This has been a truely enjoyable weekend...as we have watched the excitement on the boys faces as we have gotten ready for Christmas. They helped put the tree up, decorate it and they helped find places in the house for all the other decorations. They have been looking at the ornaments on the tree, finding the ones with their names on them and they have been telling us which ornanments they hung. Yesterday I went to put a decoration on a table in the dining room and Aiden almost had a fit. HE found a special spot for a Christmas candle that I usually put in the entry way. I went to move it to put something else there. He WOULD NOT let me move it because he put it there. Tonight we put out the Nativity Set. They wanted to know about each piece as we were putting them by the manger. They then sat and played by the manger. If you look closely in the first picture...you will see that they thought their Ninga Turtles belonged in the manger. It's so fun watching their faces as they sit by the tree and look at the decorations. Aiden also loves going for rides at night. He really enjoys pointing out all the "pretty" Christmas lights.

Timberwolves game

Riley and Mommy


Riley enjoying his cotton candy.

Aiden drinking some pop.

Aiden and Daddy.

A friend gave us tickets to go to the Timberwolves game last night...so we thought we would attempt to take Riley and Aiden to their first game. They lasted until half time. They loved the popcorn, cotton candy and pop. They also loved listening to people howling like wolves.

Jamma

The above two pictures were taken in April....before Easter...before Jamma's gastric bypass surgery. He weighed around 335 ponds.

These two pictures were taken the weekend before Thanksgiving. He weighs 235 right now. He's looking great and feels great. He has a lot more energy and feels good. He is still working on losing more. His goals is to get to 200 pounds.

Excitement in the Air!!!

Aiden looking out the window...watching the snowflakes fall.

Aiden loved hiding in the balls this weekend. He kept burying himself...asking us to find him!

Riley with the picture that the stunt bike rider gave him for his birthday. He was so proud and excited to get this picture. He took my camera and took tons of pictures of it so that we could "email" it to his friends!

Riley and Aiden were so excited to see the snowflakes falling from the sky today. We were all impressed by the size of the flakes. Riley and Aiden stood at the window and watched them fall. Right away Aiden said that it was time to blow up our inflatable snowman. He has been waiting for this day for a long time!

Happy 6th Birthday Riley!!!

Riley and Mommy

Aiden, Grandpa S., Riley and Grandma S.

Riley with his birthday crown from school.

Riley blowing out the candles on his cake with help from Aiden.

Aunt Rachel, Daddy, Riley, Mommy, Aiden, Grandma S., Grandpa S., and Aunt Becca at Applebees.

Riley with an Eagle book and Eagle from his birthday.

Riley getting ready to eat his Walleye dinner at Applebees!


Today was Riley's 6th birthday! Riley had so much fun! We went to Applebees tonight for Riley's birthday dinner. He wanted Walleye. After, we came home and opened gifts and ate cake.

His favorite gift was one that Jamma got for him. This year Riley saw a 15 year old do some stunt tricks on his motorcyle at a local town festival. He decided he wanted to be like this boy and started practicing all summer on his bike. He learned lots of tricks and was so proud. We took some pictures and Riley made a book out of them. Jamma decided to contact the young stunt man to see if he had any posters. He did...and he signed it for Riley. Jamma had it mounted and gave it to Riley tonight. Riley was soooo excited...he got teary eyed when he saw the picture. He was trying to be really brave and hold back the tears, but we told him that it was okay to cry when you are excited or happy...which he did. It's fun to Riley be so inspired by someone. He has the determination to be like this young man.

His other big thing that he was so excited about today was his birthday cake. He went from wanting a Sponge Bob cake to a dog cake to a chicken cake. We kept wondering where the heck we were going to find a chicken cake...when Aunt Becca stepped up and offered to make it. This morning Aiden, Aunt Becca and Riley baked the cake. They added some toy chickens to it, a fence, some m&m's for the feed and a farmer. It looked awesome and he loved it! Thanks Aunt Becca for helping to make his b-day wish come true. What normal 6 year old wants a chicken cake???

We had a great day! We love you Riley and are proud of everything that you have done during the past 6 years! You are a blessing to us! You made us a mommy and daddy 6 years ago and we have loved every moment of it! :)

Halloween

Riley, Daddy and Aiden carving pumpkins.

Riley thought he should have a pumpkin mouth.

Aiden tried taking the stuff out of the middle of the pumpkin and thought it was really gross. He didn't want to touch any of it any more! I would have to agree!


Riley thought it was gross too...he asked if he could use a spoon.

Daisy, Aiden and Riley at the Anoka Halloween parade.

Riley and Aiden sitting in front of the giant inflatable jumping pumpin.

Riley at the pumpkin patch.

Riley and Aiden at the pumpkin patch. We went to the Anoka Halloween parade first...they didn't want to take their costumes off...so we let them wear them at the pumpkin patch.

Mommy and Aiden picking out pumpkins.

Daddy and Aiden Halloween night. Aiden had a mask to go with his costume, but it kept covering his eyes, so he asked if he could wear white make-up instead.

Riley in his costume at the Como Zoo. We went trick or treating there.

The boys definitely got use out of their Halloween costumes this year. On the 27th, we went to the Anoka Halloween parade with some friends. There were tons of people there and we ended up getting a pretty good spot to sit...the kids had a good time watching all the people dressed up and getting candy. While walking back to our car, Riley liked the attention he was getting when people were pointing out his Ninja Turtle costume. He was waving at them...like he was actually in the parade.

After that we took Riley and Aiden to the pumpkin patch to get our pumpkins. We came home and carved them later that night. Aiden hated the gooey stuff inside the pumpkin. Riley asked to use a spoon to get the stuff out.

On Sunday, Riley asked if there was anywhere we could go that he could wear his costume to. He liked wearing it on Saturday and wanted people to see him dressed up. Yes, this is the same child who will not talk to people and is very shy when he is first meeting someone. So....we decided to look online and see what was going on. We found that the Como Zoo had something called the BooZoo. Jamma went and got our tickets at Cub Foods. We got to the zoo and the line was soooo incredibly long. We were thankful we had our tickets and got to go right in. I felt sorry for the people who had to wait in line. While in the zoo...Aiden kept getting really frusturated. He didn't like all the people waiting in lines. He wanted to keep walking. They had fun.

Finally, on Halloween night, we went trick or treating. Riley has a friend whose house he wanted to go to. That's the only place he wanted to go...then he wanted to go home so that he could be home when the little boy got to our house. It was really cute. Aiden on the other hand, was really excited to go trick or treating. He and I stayed out longer than Riley and Daddy. Aiden would go up to a house, ring the doorbell, say, "Trick or Treat, Thank you". He would then say, "Next" and run toward the next house. If I would have let him, he would have gone to every house in the neighborhood and every other house in town. It was fun to see the excitement on his face as he went out this year. When we got home the boys handed out candy to everyone that came to our house. Riley kept yelling at Aiden telling him that he should only be giving the kids one piece of candy so that we wouldn't run out! At 8:30 we finally shut our lights off so that we could give the boys baths and get ready for bed. Riley and Aiden couldn't understand why we wouldn't answer the doorbell anymore whenever people came. We tried to explain that our lights were off and we didn't have any more candy. They didn't get it and had a hard time....leaving kids standing on the door step.

This weekend we talked about putting our Halloween stuff away, but the boys aren't ready for that yet. Riley had a sleep over at my sisters Friday night. He came home yesterday and said his ear hurt. He kept complaining about it and was holding it and crying. We finally took him in to have it looked at and found out that he had a double ear infection. He had a fever and swollen lymph nodes. He hasn't had an ear infection since he was a baby. He had a pretty rough day...poor thing. He has been ASKING for us to give him medicine....which isn't typical for him. Hopefully...he'll feel better soon!

A complete turn around!

My soon to be 6 year old has made a complete turn around. A couple of months ago he was having a difficult time getting adjusted to kindergarten. He begged me to stay home and "home school" him. I have never figured out where that came from...but to him a was a great idea. He eventually liked going to school, wouldn't say good afternoon to his teacher, but liked it. This weekend as we drove to Brainerd, he wouldn't stop singing songs and asking us how to spell words (the entire car ride...both ways). He has stated how much he LOVES school. Now that he learned the days of the week...he knows exactly what days he will be going to school and how long the weekends last.

Well...last week he had an ear check-up and failed, so we needed to make an appointment at an ENT specialist. Okay...we can do this...it's probably nothing. The only day I could get him in was today at 2:45. I took the appointment. On Monday, we finally told him that he would be going to the doctors today and that he would be missing school. On Monday night he was talking to Jamma as he was going to bed. He got teary eyed and said that he didn't want to miss school...he wanted me to reschedule the appointment. I said I would try...knowing that it wouldn't happen. So...we decided to not bring up the subject again.

Fast forward to today. We woke up and got ready for our day like normal. At 2:00 my sister brought Riley and Aiden to school so that I could leave from there and bring him to the doctors. He didn't seem to know what was going on. I buckled them both into their seats and headed for the doctor. That's when all hell broke loose!!!

We were driving toward the doctor and going down the road that he goes on toward his school. He looked at the clock and asked where we were going. He said, "Mommy, it's past 2:00. I was suppose to be in school a long time ago. Where are we going? I want to go to school now!" He kept saying we could still make it. I then decided that I should tell him that he was not going to school today! It was at that point that I realized that if looks could kill....I would have been dead right there. I watched in the rear view mirror as he glared at me. He had a frown on his face and was holding back tears...and ohhh...the daggers...they were going in the back of my head. He started telling me to cancel the appointment. He didn't need to go...he needed to go to school to learn! I said I couldn't. Again, telling him this was the only day I could get us in. He asked if I tried for Saturday or Sunday...because he doesn't have school those days. We went back and forth until we got to the doctor. He stormed out of the car and stomped the whole way into the office...muttering I'm not sure what, under his breath. We got in the office and sat for 30 minutes waiting to get in. I thought this was a good thing. It gave him a chance to calm down as I read him some books. Finally we were called back. He was being good...cooperative...and seemed to forget that he was missing school. Then it happened. The nurse asked, "So what grade are you in? Do you like school?" Sh*& why did she have to ask that? The head went down and he started to pout again...daggers came out and I got the if looks could kill look! I explained to her what happened and she said, "Oh I'm sorry!" Same thing happened with the lady who tested him and with the doctor! He was cooperative and did great! He does have some hearing loss, but he is still within normal range, so we aren't going to do anything about it. On the way out...I told him that he was going to get the fish that he was asking for because he did so well at this appointment. Things were looking good. He was happy.

On the way home he was asking again how to spell different words. He then started asking what 1+1 was and 10+10. He then said, "4+1=5." I said, "Yes, how did you know that?" He said, "It's like this...If I have 4 apples and someone gives me one more...I have five apples. I told him that he was very smart and asked where he learned that? He said that he just taught himself that. He then said, "The only way I can get smarter is by going to school! When I am in school...I learn!" He then said, "So don't you dare...ever keep me from going to school again!!!!" And I thought he was over it! Apparently not. I wonder how long he going to hold this over my head. It's not like I just kept him out of school just because....I'm glad that Riley loves school and I hope he continues to love it through all of his school years that lie ahead!

A fun weekend...

This weekend we took the boys to Three Bear Lodge in Brainerd. They had so much fun. On our way the to hotel, we spotted a controlled burn in Ramsey. We stopped to watch as a house was burning down. We then headed to Garrison and spent some time looking a Mille Lacs lake and playing on the monument that were there. The highlight was all the lady bugs that the boys were trying to catch. When we finally got to the hotel, the boys were excited to see that in our room...they had their own mini room with bunk beds, a tv and a window in the wall that they climbed in and out of. We spent the evening in the indoor water park. They loved the HUGE bucket that would dump water on top of them (I couldn't get pictures because things were spraying all over the place and I didn't want to ruin my camera). We spent time in the pool, on the lazy river and the boys went down waterslides. In the morning we spent time playing in the arcade before heading home! It was a great weekend!