Car Pool Lane

After going through all of this week's pictures I realized that lately the most time I get to spend with my children is when we are in the car. How did I realize that? Well, when you have 20 pictures from a week and 18 of them are from in the car...it doesn't take much to realize you miss your kids.

Thankfully it will only be for a few more weeks!

Every morning I wake up, hop in the shower and give myself about 30 minutes to find something to wear and "beautify" myself. Then I rouse the kids. I start with Josh because he takes longer to wake up. From the time I say, "Josh....it's time to get up" to the time he actually gets out of bed I have picked out his entire wardrobe for the day, picked up the previous day's clothes off his floor, woken Lauren up and sorted through the massive amount of her clothes to find something for her to wear.

Then I spend the next 25 minutes convincing him to dress himself. Honestly, if I didn't push him every morning it would probably be noon before he got his pants on! By the time I actually get them fed, dressed and in the car it feels like I've run a marathon. So the fact that everyone is still smiling in these pictures is amazing.





Not every car trip is as pleasurable as that one. Lauren's been messing up with everyone's sleeping routine lately so some days I get to listen to this for 25 mintues.



Oh....those are my FAVORITE days!! Those are the moments you honestly wish you were deaf.

Then on top of her screaming you have Josh screaming, "Warren...GET OVER IT!" and "Warren, stop screaming." and "Mom, make Warren stop screaming!"

Given that it's tax season and I'm working a ton of hours Larry and Toni have been taking the kids overnight on Thursdays so that I can go to work at two or three in the morning. The last two Thursdays I have given the kids their baths, dressed them in pajamas and packed them up only to ship them over to Grandma and Grandpa's.





Josh thinks it's the coolest thing ever and Lauren is just happy to go wherever Josh goes. It helps me out a ton and the kids don't even miss me! If only that feeling were mutual. I got home this past Thursday after dropping them off and turned on the TV and the Jetson's movie was on. Between the stress and lack of sleep I started to cry because I missed my kids already. You can't win, can ya?

Other than that....not much else is new. Lauren is standing up on her own more and more each day. Every day I swear she looks more like a little girl and less like a baby. **sigh** Does this ever get easier?

Easter Mania

Well, nothing really exciting happened this week. So I'll just post what you really want...pictures!! I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter...we did!













Have a great week!

Water Problems

In the renovation of our bathroom we needed the pipes moved so that our new vanity would be centered. No one in my immediate family felt that they were qualified to take on such a project and I was more than happy to hire a professional to do it correctly. The last thing I needed was someone cutting huge holes in my wall and the $250 saved by not hiring a plumber would go to a drywall person.

Well, that thought process didn't really pan out because the PROFESSIONAL ended up doing this....



and I didn't even take a picture of the hole in my bedroom wall!!! While he was trying to fix the pipe he broke he busted through to our bedroom. Oy vey.

Yesterday I took a small break from work to help Josh dye Easter eggs. The kind I bought this year had you put the eggs in little plastic bags and "rub on" the dye. It was not nearly as messy as usual and definitely more "hands on" for Joshua.



We only had a few casualties and Lauren was very impressed with Josh's handy work.





Lauren had her 9 month check on Friday. I thought she was a big girl but the stats from Friday only confirmed my suspicions. She weighs a little over 25 pounds and is 30 1/2 inches long!!! She was in the 99th percentile for height and weight. The poor girl has to stay in the rear facing seat until she's one and she has to sit criss-cross because he legs are too long to have them straight out!

With the way the girl eats it's no wonder she's so "healthy"!!





This was from dinner last night...shortly afterwards I ran her up to the bathtub and hosed her down. Josh was disgusted by the floating noodles in his bath tub and Lauren was busy trying to grab them and finish eating them.

That's my girl!!

Dustin's first day back at work is today. He's on "light duty" for now. Yesterday was rough for him. I think the anxiety of returning to the scene of the accident was causing most of his hesitation. That and I know he's going to miss spending so much time with the kids.

Have a great week!

Par for the course

I know what you're thinking. This is normally what my refrigerator looks like during tax season. And while that may be true, I had just gone grocery shopping and spent over $200. I bet you're asking, "Where's all the food then?" I know, it's confusing but all the food is in the trash.

Why you ask? Because when little boys go down to get a juice in the middle of the night and leave the refrigerator door open all of the food goes bad. And as an added bonus I have a little known fact...shredded cheese will melt in a bag if placed close enough to a refrigerator light bulb.

Oy vey.

Of course there isn't enough going on in our lives right now so we decided, or I decided, to add a little remodeling to the mix. This weekend Dad and Thomas came down and we gutted our main bathroom and put down tile. Between going into work at 3:30 in the morning Saturday, the weekend projects and working till midnight on Sunday, Monday and again tonight...I'm wiped.

When Lauren heard that we were dealing with some plumbing issues she decided to contribute her bit to the situation. Unfortunately, she was only able to provide a little "plumber's crack".



Nonetheless, our bathroom floor has gone from this...



to this...



In all my spare time I will be grouting tomorrow night (with any luck) so that the plumber can come on Friday and move some pipes and install our new vanity. Dad and I put the toilet in on Sunday and if I had known what was all included in installing a toilet...I would have added it to the list of things for the plumber to complete.

Other than that, Dustin is improving every day. He appears to have full mobility of his hand thanks to all of his hard work in therapy. I haven't shared any pictures of the actual injury but I did take a picture of his "Michael Jackson glove" after I changed his dressing the other night.



Tomorrow he has another doctor's appointment and they will decide when/if he can return to work and determine his work restrictions. I'm not sure if I can actually go with him but I will certainly post an update as soon as possible.

I'm so proud of him. He went through a lot and I guess he's trumped my "I grew and carried a person inside of me for 9 months...and then had them removed from me!" speech for awhile.

As Lauren says in her new diva glasses....Peace Out!

Quel Nightmare!

A little update on Dustin...each day he's improving dramatically! The doctor's decided against any grafting so he's taking it slow and working on his hand movements daily. I still do his daily dressing changes and still cannot believe how much the human body can heal in the matter of a week. We continue to thank God that it wasn't worse and are eternally grateful for all of the thoughts and prayers.

In light of all the drama lately, my blogs have been lacking...to say the least. So I figured I better get my act together.

I had been giving Dustin baths to help avoid getting his hand wet so last week Josh thought it would be funny to switch things around and give his Daddy a bath for once. He thought it was hysterical and Dustin and I were touched by how much he wanted to help his Daddy.




It was so cute!! Josh wanted to make sure he cleaned his hips (who knows where that came from) and then he had the cutest little giggle when he told me he "washed Daddy's 'nickles'"!

In other news, Miss Lauren went potty on the potty!!!! I had noticed she was dry from the night so I thought, "Ah, what the heck!" and threw her on her potty chair. Two seconds later she went potty!!!



Of course she's not done it since.

Josh has been going through a phase where he doesn't want to wear pants. He'll wear them to school - because that would be just silly - but when he's home he'd rather just have a pull-up on. So the other night I told him to get ready for bed. He ended up wearing the sweater he wore all day, a pull-up and his Curious George slippers.



Quite the fashion statement, wouldn't you say?

As if my life hasn't had enough stress I decided to schedule Lauren's 9 month photos and the kid's Easter photos for Sunday afternoon. It always sounds like a good idea and I always love seeing the result but the actual process is enough to make me lock myself in a padded room.

The first hurdle is timing the naps. The is by far the most crucial of all the steps. I scheduled the appointment at 4 assuming that Lauren would wake up from her nap at 2:45, I'd get her dressed and we'd hop in the van and make it there just in time. Yeah, when she woke up at 1:30 I should have walked directly to the phone and cancelled our appointment. On top of that Josh wouldn't even lay down so I already had two strikes against me.

The next step was getting his suit on him. This is always a battle. "I don't want to button the top button." "These pants are tight." I don't like these shoes." "Why do I have to wear a tie?"

I kept threatening him by saying, "If I don't get a good picture we'll just keep going back like we did at Christmas!!!!" Then Dustin was kind enough to chime in and inform Josh that his entire life would be made easier if he would just succumb to the fact that mom gets what mom wants. "So do what she says and don't complain." While that theory may work on a "trained" 28 year-old man it does little to influence a 4 year-old boy.

The next step was to fix his hair. He didn't want me to put the sticky stuff in it because it freezes his neck (hairspray). So I showed him how I was doing Daddy's hair and then reached for the hairspray to do his. At this time Josh looked at Dustin, turned around and headed straight out the bathroom and said, "I'm out."

This story just keeps getting worse and worse....I forgot Josh's tie so we had turn around as soon as we got to the mall, Josh feel asleep in the car so he was cranky and had the imprint of his seat belt on his face, Lauren didn't want anything to do with the photographer and I sweat like a pig while trying to lovingly threaten my children to smile.

Miraculously, I did get a few good shots and will attempt to get them on the blog this weekend. But here is a preview of Lauren...



Funny Josh story:

I went to pick the kids up from mom's on Wednesday. I was greeted by Josh at the door and he had his hand on his butt.

Josh: Mom, I had an AWFUL poop.
Me: You did?
Josh: Yeah, it was hot.
Me: (laughing) It was?
Mom: I may have given him too much juice.
Me: Ahhhh.
Josh: Mom, it was hot.
Me: I'm sorry.
Josh: Like lava.
Me: (laughing) Yeah, Grandma said she may have given you too much juice.
Josh: Well, don't let her do that again!

Then we got home and I drove up the mailbox to get the mail.

Me: Josh, can you believe that the snow is all the way up to the mailbox?
Josh: Yeah, you sure don't see that every day!

I swear...I don't know where he comes up with this stuff.

Have a great week!!!

For better....for worse.

Thank you for all the thoughts and prayers over the last few days. Dustin is improving every day and we are slowly making adjustments in our every day life to make all the recent changes work.

We had an appointment at the University of Iowa Hospital Burn Unit on Saturday and they decided to cancel surgery for Monday. We have another appointment tomorrow and hopefully we will have a better idea of what we are up against. His index finger is probably the worst of all the fingers and that's the one I am most concerned about. His thumb and back of the hand are probably the next worst.

Every day I have to change the dressing and clean the wound. Yes, it's about as fun for both of us as you can imagine. He's been a great patient, though. He hasn't screamed or thrown anything at me. :-) I cannot fathom the pain he is in and he does his best to put on a strong face for everyone.

You can imagine what something like this can do to an active family of four. Life has turned into quite a circus but thankfully God has given us wonderful family, friends, co-workers, daycare providers and church members to help. I keep telling Dustin that his main focus is to heal and everything else will fall into place.

We continue to thank God that it wasn't worse. After being on the burn unit for a few days it doesn't take long to realize what COULD have happened. The hair on each arm was singed up to his elbows and it is an excellent reminder of just that.

Prayer Request

I ask that everyone reading this post will please say a prayer for my husband. He had an accident at work yesterday morning and received 2nd and 3rd degree burns on his hand. We have another appointment on Saturday morning at the University of Iowa Hospital Burn Unit and will know more then about the extent of his injury.

I will be sure to post any updates on the blog.

Snow for Sale

First I want to say that I hope everyone had a nice Valentine's Day. Dustin had to work so I actually ended up making dinner for my brother and his roommate...and doing their taxes. So I can't really say I had a romantic dinner...but after two kids I can say that I don't really have high expectations for this particular holiday anymore.

Even without a romantic dinner Dustin was able to get the message across...



Josh picked out the balloon and Dustin found the cutest card from the kids. So I guess I can't complain. :-)

My gift to Dustin was to go with him to the camper shows on Saturday. I had gone in to work VERY early Saturday morning and got off mid-afternoon, took a 15 minute nap then got ready to look at campers. He was happy, I was tired, Josh was happy and Lauren was just glad to be brought along.

And while there is no camper in our driveway yet....I'm thinking there probably will be soon. I've only been hearing about getting a camper for 5 years now and coming up with reasons why we shouldn't get one is getting harder and harder each year.

Then Sunday....

Yet another snowstorm has dumped on us. And because a challenge never scard Dustin or me...we decided to brave the storm and even went it to church in the middle of a blizzard. We are crazy.








While the boys "played" out in the snow, Lauren and I made potato soup and watched their progress from the comfort of indoors.



As soon as they came in from the cold they were pleased to enjoy the fruits of my labor and warm up with some of my yummy soup. Miss Lauren liked it too!




I honestly cannot remember a winter like this one. Thankfully, I hadn't planned on working today anyway so the kids and I have been holed up at home all morning. And since I haven't had to go out in this stuff yet today I can't complain too much.

But talk to me tomorrow morning when it's time head to work.

Wii Free Weekend

I'm not sure if it's the fact that the weather has not permitted outside play or the fact that mom and dad are working a ton of hours, but Josh is hitting a bit of a rough patch.

As of Saturday morning he had lost all rights to the Wii for the entire weekend. As much as he loves that machine you would have thought that would have taken care of it. Oh no.

Saturday afternoon after I had gotten off of work we had to run a few errands. Normally, he is a my good little shopper. Saturday...not so much. Whining, yelling, running, crying, throwing toys out of the cart, screaming...he did all this and more. I was so frustrated by the time we got home I sent him straight to bed for the night.

Then Sunday morning. I got up and made breakfast. Everyone came down to eat and Josh started playing with the kitchen drawers. At first he was just opening and shutting them. Then it turned to opening and forcefully shutting them. Then it turned into opening really fast and slamming them. Dustin and I each told him at least twice to stop. Then it happened. He slammed the door so hard that the actual drawer shot back towards the wall and the front broke off.

The drawer slammed so hard that the board connecting the drawer to the front split in half exposing eight nails. Dustin and I sat there completely stunned for a minute or two. When you see the front of your kitchen drawer fall to the ground it takes a second to realize you aren't imagining things.

In the time that it took my brain to register everything, Josh had scooped up the front and had begun trying to figure out how to fix his problem. When the front kept falling down he finally turned around and smiled at us all while holding the front of the drawer in place...like maybe we didn't see anything.

That's about when Dustin freaked. All Dustin did was yell, "Josh!", get up from the table and start to walk over to him and Josh buried his hands in his face (thereby dropping the drawer front) and immediately began crying.

At first Dustin just stared at the piece of wood in disbelif...at least so I thought. I punished Josh and told him to go to time out and returned to Dustin. I surveyed the damage and Dustin looked up at me and said, "YES! I get to use my nail gun!"

He is a 6'2" child. I swear.

Needless to say, Josh now has the tv taken away, too. Not having any other distractions allowed Josh to get all his Valentine's signed and assembled.





Then the kids had a field day opening their many Valentine's Day gifts from everyone.


Let's just hope that Josh comes back around and that Dustin doesn't need to use any more power tools in the meantime.

As promised....

It's hard to believe that just 24 hours ago we had little to no snow on the ground. That's certainly not the case anymore. Depending on which news channel you watch, they are saying around 12 inches of snow in about 12 hours. Josh is overjoyed and Mattie hops through the backyard like a bunny rabbit because the snow is cold on her tummy.











When we pulled down our street this afternoon the sight was similar to the water display in front of the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas...except with snow. Every house on both sides of the street had their snow blowers going. I laughed right out loud because it was so odd looking.

Tonight I went out to get the mail and the hum of snowblowers and the smell of gas fumes hang in the air.

The six o'clock news said that this isn't the end....we're expected to get snow for the next three days. This is about the time when I miss snow days.

Step Aerobics

Here it is February 5th and as if we haven't already had enough snow and winter weather, we are preparing for yet another major snow storm. This storm is expected to bring 8 - 13 inches of the white stuff and when I told Josh he shot out of bed with excitement.

In other news....Lauren has figured out how to climb the stairs!!!! The kids and I were playing in the family room and all of a sudden Josh started screaming, "Lauren!! Lauren!!" I looked over and she was just topping the stairs into the kitchen. Josh and I were screaming and jumping up and down and she looked back at us just long enough to crawl like hell into the next room.

Being the good mother I am I didn't want Dustin to not see it so I made her do it three more times so that I could get it on video.



In our attempt to get Lauren to climb the stairs several times, I caught a cute video of Josh encouraging his little sister.



Jaime, our daycare provider, had a "Pajama Party" last week and all the kids wore pajamas for the day. Somehow, even though it should have been an easy morning, we were running a little behind. So that morning it would only make sense that since I have to leave the house by 7:10 that Lauren would make a "dirty" at 7:05. This "dirty" wasn't just any "dirty". This was the KING of all "dirties"! It went up her back and almost touched her neck. I kid you not and if I thought you each had the stomach I would have taken a picture! I basically had to give her a bath with baby wipes and find her a new set of pajamas. It was disastrous and disgusting.

Nonetheless, I was able to grab a quick photo of the two of them in my haste to make it out the door.



It was a good thing that they were already in their pajamas that day because by the time I got home with them in the evening they were wiped. I thought it had gotten quiet in the back of the van and after pulling into the garage I opened the van door to find this.



I guess playing hard all day can really wipe a person out!

I'll be sure to post pictures of all the snow. And if we really get that much snow I guess Punxsutawney Phil was right!



Stay warm!