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!