Playing catch up...

I plan on blogging and making photo collages for the next hour and a half...because that's when I leave to pick the boys up from school and Olivia is content on the couch watching the movie Bolt.  So let's see how much I can accomplish in 90 minutes...

First I need to take care of a few items of business before we get to this post 'highlight'!  

KJ had his Cub Scout Blue and Gold banquet.  He played a part in a skit and I was proud of him for being the main character as he is super shy when he performs in front of crowds.  He did great.  I don't think I see an Oscar in his future, let's just say acting is not his forte.  :)  The cake assignment this year was to think of something that has changed the world for the positive.  He chose to make a steam engine cake.  He had fun decorating his 'Oregon Duck' steam engine.  

I am a counselor in the YW program and I have loved every minute of it.  I REALLY love working with the youth.  They give me hope for my own children that the 'teen' years don't have to be that bad!  We have a fabulous group!  We had our New Beginnings night and it was hilarious.  I love those girls. 

Dan took KJ and Olivia to see the Monster Trucks.  Jack said he didn't want to go because it's too loud, so while Dan took the other kids, I took Jack to a movie.  It was a great date night with my little man.  I told Dan to be sure to take pictures and this is all he could come up with.  Now we see why I am usually the one behind the camera!  But they had fun and Olivia wants a dirt bike now.  :)  She sure is a well rounded child.  She's not scared of a thing.  

It has been unusually warm this March.  We've seen 80* a few times and the kids are loving it!  I also love that for Spring sports we've had great weather so far.  I remember Spring sports in the past have been FREEZING so this has been very welcome weather!  

Liv made us some grass stew for dinner.  I love that she so easily keeps herself entertained.  

Jack has finally mastered the swinging monkey bars.  Now at recess, it's all he wants to do.  The poor guy has blisters and calluses on his teeny tiny little hands.  But he has gained some confidence on the playground, and I was so proud of him.

KJ has made his way back to the dirt bike park.  He's also gained his confidence back after his 'wreck' last year.

I started babysitting a friend's baby over the past few weeks.  He's such a little cutie pie.  Originally I thought this would be a great cure for my baby hunger, but alas, it's only gotten worse.  Here is Ryder.  The kids and I did a photo shoot with him the other day.  He gets lots of love and attention at our house.  Isn't he a sweetheart?! 

We have a new family photographer.  I uploaded pictures from our Spring Break and was shocked to see that I had 316 pictures.  186 of them were taken by Jack.  I didn't upload most of them, but you get the picture of what's important in Jack's world.  What a little stinker.  

I know this is silly, but I have to blog about this...Taco Bell has a new taco.  The shell is made of a giant DORITO!  Brilliant, I tell you, Brilliant.  And so so delicious.  We stopped here 2x in a few days during our road trip.

Which brings me to our feature story for this post...SPRING BREAK!
We were able to meet Grandma and Grandpa Howard in Kansas City for a long weekend.
It's always fun getting to spend time with them.  We all had a great time!


Here are some of the things we found ourselves doing during our 'mini-road-trip-vacation'...

We, of course, had to try a few Kansas City BBQ joints.  Mmmmm.

We stayed at the Great Wolf Lodge and shared a very large 2 story room with Grandma and Grandpa!.  It was a kid's paradise.  There were all kinds of fun things to do.  

Most importantly...there was a giant water park.

Our hotel was next to a nice shopping center...which is always a bonus for me. 

Grandma and Grandpa treated us to a fun day at the Kansas City Zoo.  Perfect weather.  Lots of fun.  My favorite part was the Polar Bear.  He would swim laps and laps and bounce off the glass walls right in front of us.  What a fun and memorable day that was. 

Since we were out of town for St. Patty's Day, we found the next best thing to having a green dinner at home.  We went to Ihop for breakfast and they had fun & festive 'green eggs and ham'.

 I'm glad we had the chance to do something fun for our break.  

The kids said it was the best trip ever.  :)  

A BIG THANK YOU to G&G Howard for driving to meet us there.  

We miss you guys already.

So behind...

I realize that I have been so lazy on keeping up with the blog lately.  I am not sure how or when my life became so crazy busy.  I also feel a real lack of motivation and creativity as of the past couple of months.  Maybe it's the loads of allergy medicine's that I'm taking every day just to be able to function.  I have a love-hate relationship with Spring.

Olivia had surgery this morning and so tomorrow, when I'm not so exhausted from a long day of taking care of my little princess, I plan on catching up....in case any of you were wondering.  ;)  I just know you are on the edge of your seats waiting.  Who am I kidding, I'm not even sure if this blog is still read by anyone.  But I am determined to keep up on this blog if it kills me.  This is my own personal way to journal about my family and it's been fun to go back and read our blog in book form.  It always brings back lots of fun memories.  

So for now... I'm signing off for the night.  

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.......

Jack's T&A...

Our little Jackie Boy got his tonsils and adenoids out 2 weeks ago.  This morning is the first day I have sent him to school without having to take some Tylenol!!!  He is also happy that after today he gets to eat chips and pretzels.  We survived.  It was a rough first week, but now that it's behind us, I'm glad it's done!

Because of Jack's metabolic disorder he had to have his surgery at the hospital instead of the surgery center.  The anesthesiologist felt that it was safer and wanted to have him admitted for at least a full day.  Luckily, his blood counts were so good, they let us go after 14 hours!  No sleeping in the hospital is always a plus.  

 Jack was actually excited for the surgery because he knew he was getting a few gifts from us, and both grandma's.  Little did he know...

 Checking in to the hospital bright and early

 They gave him some 'sleepy' juice and it was hilarious.  He was acting so funny.  KJ thought it was the funniest thing ever.  Jack kept telling all of us that we had 2 heads.

 Here he was being a little comedian. 

 Wheeling him away to the Operating room.  This is when I started to get nervous.  He was brave with his Mario blankets and all of his favorite stuffed 'friends'.  

 The recovery room was a nightmare.  Something I want to forget.  Poor little Jack lost all control.  He was 'freaking' out coming out of anesthesia.  I was back with him and it took 6 of us to hold him down so he wouldn't rip his IV out.  He was screaming bloody murder for hours.  I had been told that kids with Aspergers have a hard time coming out of anesthesia because it is complete sensory overload.  I was not prepared to see Jack like this.  It broke my heart.  I tried every trick in the book to try to calm him, NOTHING worked.  The only thing that calmed him came from the anesthesiologist giving him more meds to 'knock him out'.  They had to do this 4 times.  He finally settled down hours later.  We were ALL exhausted.  Jack, Dan, Me, the nurses, and the Doc's.  It's hard to see your little one be constrained and not be able to help or calm him.  I still cry when I think about it.  I hope we never have to do that again.  Rough morning.  

I had friend offer to watch KJ and Olivia for the day, but they wanted to be there (they weren't in the recovery room) for Jack.  They were so good.  It was a long day and they were very good at keeping themselves busy.  They were very concerned and very sweet.  Jack came to a room full of cards and pictures made by them.

 He was very tired and worn out.  

 They had a therapy dog come and visit Jack.  It was the first time he was happy.  He LOVED it.  I am so appreciative of the people who volunteer their time to help make the day of a sick little one.  He spent a lot of time with the dog, they had a special bond.  

 They finally took out his IV at around 9:00pm after all his blood work cleared and his doctor gave us the Okay to go HOME!!!  It felt like FREEDOM!

 This is the first meal he wanted to eat the next day.  Raspberries and mac n cheese.  

 The next week we had lots of snuggle and nap time.  The snuggle time was nice as that doesn't happy very often.  I'm proud of Jack.  He was one tough cookie.  

He had his check up and is healing nicely.

Next up...Olivia's turn.  She is scheduled to have hers removed on the 27th.  She will be having her adenoids and tonsils removed as well as tubes in her ears and blood work done for allergies.  The only bonus is that we've already met our family yearly deductible.  :) Why not get it all over with at once?

Wish us luck...