Surgery

Well, since John has been sick (almost) all week with a fever, and Stephen has another double ear infection.... I went ahead and scheduled their surgeries.
I have to say, I am not at all wanting to do this.  I am anxious and exhausted just thinking about it.  We are doing theirs both at the same time.  I am praying that everything goes smooth and they both have very speedy recoveries. 
John is having his adenoids out.
Stephen is having his adenoids out, tubes in and a lung study done.

Another week full of appointments ahead of me...pre-ops for both, John's speech/OT x3 and of course the surgeries...

It will be nice to get this done before it is super nice outside! =)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!!!

Today, John got to play with his Uncle Mark!  Being St. Patrick's Day, and it being Mark's first St. Patrick's Day of age, I was very impressed he wanted to spend it with his nephew.  I was thrilled though! =)  I had an appointment to go to, so I took SJ with me and JR and Mark stayed home to play. 

Mark reading Three Little Pigs

They read books, played with water and soap in the sensory table, counted potato chips, ate very buttery Mac & Cheese, and Mark taught him how to shoot rubber bands.  Clearly, they both had a blast!!!  John took a 4 hour nap this afternoon...

One of John's favorite parts of the day is when we get the mail.  He just loves tearing apart all of the junk mail and even our bills.  Well, tonight JR and SJ got a card from Nana and Bompa!  :D  They sent a sweet St. Patrick's Day card for the boys, the best part is that they sent shamrock stickers too!!!  Very fun! Thank you Nana and Bompa!

Stephen wearing his shamrock sticker.

As we were reading the boys' card, my parents stopped by.  They brought a green spider! (plastic of course!!) haha  We chatted and hung out.  I very low-key St. Patrick's Day here. 

John has been sick this whole week-  On Tuesday morning, when Ryan went to check on him before he left for work at 5am, he found JR had thrown up all over in his bed.  On Tuesday, he seemed ok, but as we were putting him to bed we realized he was running a fever. He had a fever all day Wednesday, woke up today without a fever, but threw up again tonight.  Stephen has a double ear infection this week again--- 9th one of his 9 month life. 

I am so excited for the weather to warm up!!!!!!!!!  We have been getting estimates for a wood fence for our backyard this week, it will be great to have our yard fenced in.   

Cornbread, Sensory Table Fun and Popcorn for a Bedtime Snack!

As the weather has began to warm up, I decided that we better eat up our chili's and stews in our freezer.  During the winter, if I make a soup I would always freeze the extras for a cold night that I didn't have time to make a dinner.  White Chicken Chili it was for this week! 
I thought it would be fun to make cornbread with John to eat with dinner.  He could measure out the ingredients and help mix it.  What could go wrong... it was corn bread!?  Well, all was going well until I tried to take a picture.  I asked John to hold the can of corn meal for the picture... umm...

Darling smile John...  :)

Then, As I was setting the camera down, he poured all the cornmeal into the bowl!  Well, we have a ton of cornbread muffins now! haha

After our dinner of white chicken chili and cornbread, we had some sensory table fun!

Snow + a little green food coloring = easy peasy fun! =)

Sporting the fireman hat!  (backwords of course!) ;)

Nummy! Snow!! 

John was having the boat carry the snow.

BRRRRR!!  The snow was super cold!

Smile big John! I love you little man, you are so sweet!

After Stephen went to bed early, Ryan and I decided to make popcorn with John for a bedtime snack.

John saying, pop! pop! pop!!

More popping! =)

Carefully watching, waiting for the first kernel...

And the fun begins!

DONE!  :D  However, he was not a fan of the popcorn...  Ryan enjoyed the buttery, salty treat! ;)

XO John!

Our Weekend!

Pizza Party!
On Friday night, we had some of my cousins and Sara over for a low-key pizza dinner.  It was so much fun to catch up with Miranda, Tina, Rachel and Jake!  All, while John, Stephen and Jack played toys. 
Miranda had a lot of news to fill us in on regarding her and Javi's wedding!!  EEEk! We are super excited for their wedding on August 19th-  the colors sound amazing!  You will be a beautiful bride Miranda. 
Jake and Rach were sweet as ever, Rachel brought a yummy Snicker Bar pie to share with everyone.  It was neat to hear a little more about Jake's family business and life in Lonsdale! :)  <3
We would love to do this again-  you are all the ideal guests!!  We had a blast hanging out with you!

John and Jack playing on the Trampoline


Saturday Night With the Travelers!
Jana and Steve just got home from Cabo on Friday night, welcome home!  We had them over for dinner on Saturday.  It was great to hear about their trip with Lauren- deep sea fishing seemed like it was the hit! 
Jana brought John a huge sucker, he was thrilled! :)  We had pork tenderloin, cheesy mashed potatoes, carrots and crescent rolls.  It was a great meal, SJ ate his heart out! After dinner, Jana and I bathed the boys and Ryan and Steve cleaned up dinner.  John had a blast jumping on the bed after tub-time. 
Once the boys were both fresh and smelt of baby lotion JR and Nana built with our big cardboard blocks as the men watched the HS Hockey Tournament.  All of the sudden, JR said "HOC-KEY!" I am so glad that the Patrick grandparents were here to hear him say hockey for the first time!

Sunday-Funday!
About a month ago, my mom called me and said that her and my dad want to watch the boys one evening a week so Ryan and I can have some "us" time. Wowo!  I was thrilled when I got of the phone-  dates, every week??!!!  I'm there!  However, the more the idea was talked about, the more it was not going to happen. My mom works (very) long days- she doesn't get home until 7pm (or later) - and we go to bed here by 8pm.  That was just not going to work for either of our schedules... bummer!  My mom pushed the subject again- (yay!) and we came up with a plan for Ryan and I to do Sunday morning dates.  Much more our style!!  Now, we have been going to church together (kid-free) and then to run errands.  
This week we went to Assumption in downtown STP at 9:30.  From there we made a return at Kohl's, stopped at the battery store for a new battery for my Polar watch, and then to Target to get the boys their Easter baskets!  Ahhh, SO FUN.  I picked out bubbles, pinwheels, sport shaped eggs, and matching trucks.  Ryan picked out chocolate bunnies, jellybeans, chocolate eggs, a Nerds rope, and stickers!  We love being parents to our little bunnies!! :D 

STA Pride

I am still a CDH Raider- I will always be one!  But, I am happy for Ryan! 

He was very excited that STA won the HS State Hockey Tournament!  

 He wore his STA gear all weekend, and even had SJ wear JR's sun hat from when he was a baby. 

Congrats STA - you deserve your title!