Porcelain Party

The week of Christmas started out quite unlike any other. On Sunday Aaron started with a mild fever. I did not think much of it, just though he was most likely cutting more teeth. The mild fever continued and Tim and I decided Wednesday we better take him to the doctor. I called and scheduled an appointment for Thursday and thus the fun began.

Wednesday night Ian would not go to sleep. He was lying in bed but continued to remind us that he did not feel like going to sleep. Then at 10:30 pm he hollered to inform us that he threw up. Ever since I was pregnant with Aaron, Ian tends to think that if you spit a little you are throwing up. So when he informed me he had thrown up I really did not think much of it. I went into his room to check anyway. I was greeted with puke all over the sheets, pillows, blankets, quilt, bed, floor, and himself. I am not sure how so much came out of a boy so small. He spent the rest of night puking and wanted to sleep in the bathroom. So we made a little soft bed for him on our bathroom floor. By about 4 am the puking stopped and everyone got a little sleep.

The next afternoon I took Aaron into the doctor's office. I was guessing he must have an ear infection since the fever had stuck around for longer than usual. He never did pull on his ears or act like they were bothering him. Although the number of tantrums he was having were through the roof and he was not sleeping well. At the office the Doctor informed me that Aaron had ruptured his eardrum. I am sure the look of surprise on my face was noticeable because the doctor reassured me it was a small hole and should heal, but I would need to come back for a follow up. They gave us a script for a strong Amoxicillin called cefdinir, and sent us on our way.

Thursday night I started puking. By some miracle both kids happened to sleep through the whole night (since Aaron has not been sleeping well with his infection). I messaged Tim at work to inform him of the wonderful news which he responded that he was not feeling well either. So from 10:30 to 4 am I enjoyed sleeping/dying on the bathroom floor.

Friday I called all of our family that was coming to our house for Christmas to inform them what was going on. Even though we were all feeling much better on I still wanted to be sure that we were all over it. The doctor had informed me that once you have finished puking the "stomach flu" is no longer contagious (don't believe that). Needless to say I took all the precautions and made sure to sanitize everything and anything that could be sanitized before company came. By Saturday we all felt a 110% and were excited to see everyone....and enjoy Christmas (I'll post about Christmas later)!

The day after Christmas Hunter came home from a sleepover at our cousins house because he did not feel well. A couple hours later my mom did not feel well. The stomach bug somehow managed to hit them too. That same morning my grandparents had all started their journey home. My family was stuck at our house hovering over the porcelain whether they liked it or not. With my mom and Hunter downstairs; my dad and brother barricaded themselves upstairs in hopes that they would not be a part of the porcelain party. We did all enjoy watching Top Gear. That same day we got a call from my grandpa Diamond that grandma was not feeling well either. Later on my grandpa Foster called to see how everyone was and informed us they had both been puking all night as well. And yes after my family arrived home on Tuesday Andrew woke up puking too! Somehow Aaron, my Dad, and grandpa Diamond managed to not join our party.

Which brings me back to our family. After my family headed back to Logan I decided I better take Aaron back to the doctors for a check up because he did not seem to be doing any better. They were able to fit me in that evening. So we all headed to the doctors office where we learned that while the hole seems to have healed he still had an infection but this time in both ears. The doctor went to write a script for some ear drops and another one for a stronger amoxicillin called omnicef. We sat waiting for the prescription from the doctor for about 5 minutes. The nurse noticed us looking a little irritated at the wait and asked us if she could help us with anything. We informed her we were waiting for Aaron's prescription. She looked a little surprised as the doctor had already gone in to see another patient without writing Aaron's prescription. She said she would have the script faxed over. I informed her I was heading straight to the Macy's to pick up the new prescription and wanted to be sure it would be ready in time. I usually have my prescriptions filled there. She said she would send it right over so it would be ready.

We got to Macy and I went to pick up the prescription. They informed me that no prescription had been called in. The annoyance on my face must have showed. It was not implied at the pharmacy but at the doctors office I had previous come from. Let's just say I am not a fan of this doctor's office. The pharmacist looked it up saw that they had called it into Walgreens. Without much thought I responded in annoyance, "I don't even know where that is!?! How do they mistake Macy's for Walgreens?" The poor pharmacy technician informed me it would not be a problem she could have the order filled there in about 5 minutes. I apologized for my annoyance with the doctor's office and decided to grab a few groceries for dinner while we were there (aka frozen pizza and garlic bread). While waiting to pay for our "groceries" Ian was watching the checker from his grocery cart car scan all the items of the lady in front of us. Just then the door on the car gave away and Ian slipped and bit his lip with a nice loud bang. Nothing major but it was quite the bleeder. I had a tissue but needed another so I asked the checker if she by chance had a tissue. The bleeding started to slow down and the checker informed me that her manager was on her way and that I needed to fill out an incident report about what had just happened.

Again, my look must have been worth a thousand words, because without saying a word for a few moments the checker started apologizing. 3 year old is still crying, baby with double infection is still fussing, and they would like me to sit there and fill out a incident report over a small minuscule cut on Ian's lip. You have got to be kidding! The manager arrived and I informed her that I would not be filling out an incident report because there was nothing to report on, I would not be suing the store because there was no reason to sue. It was a small accident and a little cut on his lip that had already stopped bleeding. She understood and asked if there was anything else she could do. I said we were just fine and thanked her for her concern. At that same moment Ian informed her that he needed ice. Thanks Ian :) So off she went to meet the three year old request. At least the ice kept him well entertained while I went to pick up the prescription.

I walked back over the the pharmacy. The technician went to hand the medicine to me and read the name -cefdinir. I wasn't positive but I was sure that was not what the doctor had told me that was the old prescription. I called Tim (who was having a peaceful drive in the car to work) to confirm with him what the doctor had said. He told me omnicef. Did you know omnicef and cefdinir are the exact same thing! The doctor did increase the dose by a 1/4 of a teaspoon but still. All of this headache at the store to pick up the same prescription that I already have sitting on the counter at home, which did not do anything in the first place?!?!? Annoying? I think so! I took it anyway because it was after 6 pm and I wasn't sure how much I had left at home. I could call the doctor in the morning.

I called the doctor this morning at 9:00 am and after talking with four nurses and telling them all the same story they finally said they would talk with the doctor and call me back. At 1:00 pm I called the doctor's office because they had not returned my call. Can I just say that our doctor in Logan would personally call us (yes the actual doctor) to see how things were going and if we had any concerns or questions. Doctors down here don't seem to care about customer satisfaction because there are so many dang people down here. So, I then told the same story again to three different people and they questioned if I had indeed called and if so what time. Finally they put someone with some competence (not much) on the phone that remembered I had called. She informed me that she had talked with the doctor and the doctor would like to leave the decision up to me. Too bad they could not see my face through the phone then maybe I would have got some answers. I tried to politely say that I would like to know if the doctor is aware they put him on the same medication? Would he be better switching to a different type of amoxicillin? Her response, "It is really up to you, if he is not better in a couple days please feel free to come back in and they can write you a different prescription." She did not even fully answer my question. Plus in three days our insurance changes over to the high deductible plan (long story short we rarely go to the doctor besides check-ups and we are always trying to burn through our flex money at the end of the year because we never end up using it -too bad we already burnt through it last week).

After being completely fed up with the office and not wanting a repeat of the grocery store incident. I finally agreed and went about my day. On Friday we are heading to Logan for the holiday, if Aaron is still not doing well I can take him to our pediatrician there! Hopefully he will be better soon but he has been on the "new" medication for 36 hours and there is no change thus far. I guess we'll see.

Christmas Party

On Friday Tim and I celebrated our six year anniversary. I can't say that we did anything exciting but we enjoyed time together with the family. I was able to help at Ian's preschool Christmas party and had a blast with the kids.
Then that night we also attended Tim's works party -which happened to be an ugly sweater Christmas party. Incase you are unaware ugly sweaters are hard to come by. So we made our own!!! The previous week I bought a couple sweaters at the DI to make into leg warmers. Which I did and I absolutely love them -thanks pinterest! It wasn't until the week of that Tim informed me it was an ugly sweater Christmas party. Not wanting to go and buy new sweaters we took the sweaters we had, added a little dollar store magic and tada.....ugly Christmas sweaters.
A picture of the whole family at the party.
We won second place at the work party. One of Tim's coworkers was wearing a slightly more disturbing ugly Christmas sweater. We had a great time and can't wait for next year!

Trouble Trouble

This post is all about Aaron! This week has been...challenging to say the least. Many things have been broken (he seems to go for the expensive items), tears have been shed, and the loud pitch squalling has not stopped.

Aaron moves at a full speed run. He does not stop for anything and loves playing chase especially when you do not want to play chase. He currently loves running for Ian's room while he is trying to take a nap and banging on the door. Thus, the game of chase begins. He thinks it is hilarious! I thought it was cute the first time he did it two weeks ago. Now it is just annoying.

He has started full blown tantrums. If he has it and you take it... beware. This is the tantrum cycle...big inhale, pause for a moment, scream and cry at the same time while throwing your entire body in an arched back to the floor (ouch), stop after a minute because you realize that no one cares that you are screaming on the floor, stand up, deep breath, give mom a hug, and move on. I look forward to the hugs, but Ian and I plug our ears for the rest.

We have had a few time outs lately. He broke our nice speaker dock last week. I was making dinner listening to Christmas music while the boys were playing with cars. Aaron managed to get a hold of my phone and somehow bend the connecting piece. Magically the dock started working again today!!! Bonus

Aaron and I were playing on the floor in the family room. He was placing his play cookies on top of the entertainment center. He then giggled, hit the blue ray player with his hand, somehow managed to hit the open button at the same time, pulled out the dvd and threw it at the tv, while pulling on the dvd slot till the front snapped off with the other hand. Let me be clear this all happened in under two seconds. I put him in time out, was able to snap the front back on, and put the dvd back in. I think all is well but now I am realizing I did not make sure that the dvd played. Hopefully all is well. No harm was done to the tv.

Aaron has also been pulling everything out of cupboards. I have been begging Tim to install child drawer locks in the kitchen for months and months now. But if you would like to borrow tin foil you can pull some off of our wrinkled tin foil ball we now have. Well the other day I had a few math tutoring appointments and Tim was home with the boys. I got home and the helped to put the kids to bed. The next thing I knew Tim disappeared and was found installing locks on the kitchen cupboards! Hallelujah, I guess he did not like trying to keep Aaron out of the cupboards :) On the other hand I have broke 3 nails trying to open the cupboards.

Aaron has also decided that at any moment he may throw his plate, fork, spoon, or cup on the floor and giggle. Do not be mistaken, this does not mean he is done. Even though to mom and dad it means dinner is over for him. Thanks heavens we have a dog!

So clearly we are going through an...unpleasant phase right now. Yes, there are still positives. Ian and Aaron have a blast playing together and running all over the house. He has the cutest laugh even when he knows he is in trouble. He is very relaxed about going to new places and doing new things. The funniest part is for nap time and bedtime he literally dives out of my arms into bed and falls asleep immediately. So here is to hoping he does not try to break any other expensive or inexpensive items this week. And since this post is all about Aaron I had to show you his little baby hair mullet. I refuse to cut it because then he is not my little baby anymore. Plus it looks so cute with that little bit of curl -love it!

Santa

On Wednesday morning Ian headed to school like any other Wednesday. However, when he came home it was not the same. They reminded the children at school about the Christmas party that night. They also informed them that Santa would be there. Below are pictures I snapped of Ian after school -he was bouncing off the walls.

He was so excited that unfortunately he was unable to take a good nap. When it finally came time to go to the party he did not really want to go. As for Aaron, he was just happy to be there. Not to mention that they had tables and tables of amazing food!

As soon as Ian saw Santa he ran and gave him a big hug.

Santa's beard stuck like glue to the Velcro on Ian's coat. I did not see any children looking complete horrified, so I think it everything was ok. I had to laughed given Ian's first encounter with Santa at 7 months; death grip lock on Santa's beard.

After retuning from New York Ian has decided that he would like a tarantula spider for Christmas (Tim's mom has one). Don't worry we reminded Ian that Santa makes toys, he cannot bring a Spider because it would not survive in Santa's toy bag. Ian did not care and asked Santa for a spider anyway. Santa even gave a us a puzzled look when Ian told him he would like a tarantula. Then they discussed all kinds of spiders. I think Santa might of told us he has a tarantula we could have -definite no! Yes grandma nana (no matter how much Ian begs) a tarantula will never be allowed in our home! Ever!

We had Aaron sit with Santa too. This was the only expression we could get from him...

It was a great Christmas party. We had a lot of fun and enjoyed all the wonderful food. Everyday I am more impressed with Kid's Village. Ian absolutely loves going to school and is learning a million new things everyday! I can't wait to come and help out at their class Christmas party on Friday!

Thanksgiving in NY

This year we decided to head to New York to visit Tim's family for Thanksgiving. We have not been back to NY for three years. We were all excited to visit with family and catch up, but not to excited for the journey there. I had so many things for the kids to do on the plane that Ian only watched a 2 minute Duck Tales video clip the entire day. The flights went surprising well. While sitting waiting for take off I realized we did not have Aaron's blanket. This is not any blanket. It is a minky blanket that he loves and will not go anywhere or sleep without it. The moment I realized this they also announced that we would be stuck on the plane for another hour due to some problem in Chicago. We immediately called nan and she went on a wild goose chase through New York for a similar blanket. Amazingly enough there was no crying, screaming, or whining on the flight:)

The biggest hit on the plane was the small bag of windup toys I brought that Aaron is unwrapping. The second was the puff stickers because you can stick them to the back of the seat and then pull them off and move them. They also enjoyed playdoh, magic coloring books, finger puppets, dry erase board, magic doodle, and new paperback books. I had also purchased a cars 2 coloring book that uses a water pen to color. If you are looking for a good stocking stuffer these were amazing. You fill the pen with water then color on the white page and color appears. The best part is that is drys white and you can do it all over again. It kept Ian entertained for a good solid 45 minutes. When we landed in New York the boys were exhausted. They slept in the car on the drive to Papa and Nana's house where we put both of them right into their beds. Nan and her friend Melissa had found the perfect blanket for Aaron (which he now refuses to use his old one since we have been home). I have never been able to transition Ian from sleeping in a car straight to bed so I found it quite miraculous.

The next morning we headed to visit Nana at work. Ian loved all the attention! He also had fun playing with the children, eating snacks, and getting to see all the reptiles that Nana had there.

Feeding the chameleon a caterpillar

We then headed into the city to visit the American Museum of Natural History and see the balloons being blown up for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. Below is a picture of the boys just outside of Central Park.
It was raining a little so we decided to put the canopy on the backpack carrier for Aaron. Everywhere we went this received the MOST attention. My favorite comment was a women hitting her husband telling him that they definitely needed one of those. She also quickly added that they needed a body builder to carrier it as well. I am not sure that speaks highly of her husband but Tim was feeling pretty good. We planned on heading to the museum first and then checking out the balloons after. However when we got there they already had a lot of the balloons inflated. We were also able to watch them begin to blow up some of the bigger character balloons. The best part is hardly anyone was there, which everyone loved. The amount of people it takes to inflate all of the balloons is insane. Ian enjoyed riding on everyone shoulders for an even better view.
We headed into the Museum and had a bite for lunch (which Ian told me was his favorite part of the trip -silly boy). Then explored there new aquatics exhibit. The pictures do not do it any justice. You really have to see it for yourself. The whale was amazing.Ian, Wendy, Andrew, and Maddie laying under the whale.
Ian got along with Maddie so well. Maddie was very patient with him and was great at showing him all of the different exhibits in the museum, and keeping up with him.The kids took some pictures in the photo booth that had all of us laughing.

Another one of our favorite rooms.

We will definitely have to visit the museum another day. It was incredible! As we left the museum this is what we came outside too....
Millions of people looking at all of the balloons. The balloons are inflated around the block of the Museum. I was glad that we were there early. It was way more entertaining to watch the balloons inflate and see the amount of people it takes to even begin to inflate the balloons. Plus, hardly anyone was there (future reference we were there at 1:30pm). Aaron immediately fell asleep when we got outside.
As for Ian, he was ready to roll! Buzz Lightyear behind us. As you can see it took us a long time to get through the crowd and back to our cars. We then headed to Uncle Jim and Aunt Suzanne's house for a delicious dinner. Aaron was analyzing Grant.

Ian showing Aunt Suzanne all of our pictures from the day on my phone.

Aaron now analyzing Uncle Jim.

Ian took this picture of Maddie and Aaron. I know it is a little blurry but I thought it was too cute. Grant showed Aaron that it was fun to smack his hands on the glass table. Aaron thought it was pretty exciting. Aunt Suzanne even pulled out a picture of Grant as a baby doing the exact same thing.

It was a day jam packed with tons of family fun, and we all had a blast!


Turkey Day!!!
We had thanksgiving dinner at the MacNair house. Maddie and Wendy brought over a Teepee projects for the kids to do. Ian absolutely loved it. However give Ian scissors and a glue stick and he will be entertained for hours. April and her family were unable to make it. They were struck with the stomach flu and stuck at home.

Wendy helping Aaron build a teepee

Uncle Jim (probably wondering why I take so many pictures), Andrew cheese grinning for the camera, & Grant learning to ignore me

Grant locking Ian in jail

Aaron and I

Aunt Suzanne and Nan preparing a delicious dinner

Eating dinner

Aaron playing with Papa

We did not get a chance to read through our thankful list because I left it home. I wanted to be sure to keep a record of it. Ian and I every morning would write down what we were thankful for. Basically he would talk and I would write. My favorite are decorations (Tim and I took down all of the halloween decorations that night and Ian was not very happy with us in the morning), and two ovens (we made a lot of cookies that day). Yes, there is one blank spot we left for Tim to write what he was thankful for. He mentioned he had to think about it and would do it in a minute. Yes, apparently his man minute is still going?!?!

It was a wonderful day. We are sorry that April and her family were not able to make it.

Black Friday
We had no plans of partaking in black Friday. Although we decided that we would head to the mall later in the afternoon to see if we could find Ian a pair of shoes. While in the city he kept complaining that his feet were hurting. We knew he needed some new shoes we just did not realize how badly he needed new shoes. I think it is bad when the sales associate asks Ian to stop curling his toes in the new shoes he is trying on. You would not believe how difficult it was to find him a size 11 pair of shoes. Before we left Ian and Maddie had fun playing on the swing set and in the fort outside.

At the mall they did the trampoline bungee together. Ian was hesitant for a whole second and then was ready to fly high. He kept informing us that he was taller than we were.

(Add video Clip) Aaron did not mind the mall as long as he had food in his hands he was happy. Below he is eating a pretzel.

He came home and fell asleep in the family room watching Megamind with Maddie. Infact I am not sure that he even saw the opening credits.

That night April and her family were able to come and stay over night. The kids had a blast playing together and loved all of the attention. Below Lily, Evan, Aaron, Gracie, and Ian. Aaron loved the Little Tikes car his parents had.

We all enjoyed a spaghetti dinner -especially Aaron.

Thought this was a cute picture of Maddie balancing the block on her head.

Train Show at the Botanical Gardens
This was very impressive! All of the buildings you see below have been built out of natural materials such as bark, twigs, acorns, fruits, pinecones, and more. While I don't think the kids appreciated the amazing buildings they loved watching all of the trains.

The picture on the right above cracks me up. Sure it doesn't seem like much but Grant is currently giving Ian a ten minute lesson on Water Molecules. The funny part is Ian is politely listening to everything he has to say and trying to process it all.

Most of the grandkids with the train conductor. Andrew is in the background and Jake is missing from the picture.

Some of the family at the botanical gardens after getting off the tram ride.

Leaving the park Aaron is sleeping as usual.

On the way home in the car all of the boys were asleep. Evan and Ian had wanted to ride in the car together. Ian was asleep before we could even pull out of our parking spot. Before you knew it in the next couple of minutes everyone in the back was asleep.

Tree Cutting
The next day we headed over to Tim's grandparents house to take care of some tree that were falling into the pond. Below is the picture of the guys pulling (or getting ready to pull everyone looks to be doing something different) the tree down.

Ian and Aaron had a blast at their house. Ian loved playing with Paige (Grant's girlfriend) and gathering all the sticks around the yard. Aaron also enjoyed playing with the sticks, dirt, rocks, and everything else.

We headed back to his parents house and packed for the journey home. Plus had some of Tim's favorite Danny's Pizzeria. Nan put on a puppet show for the kids before bedtime which is Ian's favorite. While Aaron played in the rocking chair.



Homeward Bound
We headed out of New York at 6 in the morning. Around 10 o'clock at previous night Aaron woke up with awful croup. It was a bit of a surprise since as a whole we have all been very health all year. Aaron had an ear infection at 10 months and that is the only sickness/infection he has ever had. After being up with him for hours he was tired all day and so were we! Our flight from New York to Dallas was uneventful and everything went well. Tim was beyond excited to fly into Dallas so that he could enjoy some BBQ brisket on a bake potato (he had this four years ago when we got stuck in Dallas overnight and still remembers it). After searching through the airport he realized that was ate at Dickie's BBQ a few years ago. He grabbed a menu and read that they are now a franchise and have a store in American Fork (10 minutes from our home). We all had a good laugh. He had waited four years and it could have been a 10 minute drive.

When leaving Dallas we sat on the plane for about 45 minutes. The pilot then came over the intercom and mention that there was a mechanical problem with the front wheel and we would need to find a new plane. Aaron was super tired so we pulled down his seat and let him snooze in the isle.

Once we loaded the new plane (30 minutes later) we were off and everyone was asleep. Except for me.

Yes this is how Ian fell asleep. Too cute!


We finally made it into Salt Lake City, felt the freezing cold dry air and knew we were home! We then loaded into our car and got the kids all buckled up. Ian asked why we were in our car and not Papa and Nan's car. Then it clicked, and the tears began to flow. He wanted to be back in New York playing with Papa, Nan, and all of his fun cousins. Hopefully we will see them all soon! We all had a great time and were so thankful to be able to spend the holiday with family.