Warning...This entry may contain potty talk...

Tyler is getting so smart. he stood in the TV room and pooped his pants, that's not the smart part...he then got a diaper put it on the floor and called for me. i went in there and he was standing there pointing to the clean diaper, i asked him if he pooped and he smiled at me, then i walked out of the room to do something, giving him time to finish. he crawled out after me, stood up next to me and pointed to his butt. it was so funny, so i carried him into the TV room and put him down, and he handed me his diaper and turned around so i could lay him down! he still didn't lay still while i was changing him, but he's getting there!

Kids say the funniest things...

Seth spent a good 5-10 minutes this morning trying to convince me that there is no school on Wednesdays! He even tried reciting the days of the week with Weds missing. It was an unsuccessful attempt, however, since he couldn't leave it out, probably force of habit. He loves school and doesn't usually give me a hard time about going, but for some reason today, he really wanted to play. He can be so funny sometimes!

Mischief...

Ok, so as I am starting this post it is only 9:17am. It has been quite a morning already with Tyler. He has figured out that it is so much fun to get into things. He's now at the stage where he moves right from one thing to another like it's nothing. Tyler has also discovered the word no, it sounds more like "na, na, na" in the cutest little voice ever, followed by "mama." Here are some of his adventures already this morning! I think it's going to be a long day! None of these pictures were staged in any way! This is all Tyler in his true habitat! (Except the dirty laundry on the floor, that was obviously added for effect. There is never any dirty laundry on my floors!)

He started the morning off so cute, with his blankie and bottle in his highchair...

Then he decided to bake me something yummy out of the ward cookbook! He is in love with the silicone oven mit I bought!

He's discovered standing on stools to reach things. I guess he thought he should turn on the oven so he could bake the yummy brownies...


He was so mad at me for taking away the stools.

Then he tried to "can" himself with my canning funnel, and he's sitting inside my pressure canner.


As I'm sitting here typing this he's walking around my legs, trying to grab the camera and play with the keyboard. Why is it that as soon as they can stand their reach is extended like 3 feet? Now he's in the tv room pushing the volume and channel buttons on the tv. I'm a pretty quick typist, and he's already over climbing the stairs. I wish I had 1/3 of his energy! What's in that special formula we feed him?

My Big Boy

Tyler is officially walking! He took his first 2 steps at church on January 13th, and he's been cautiously attempting it again ever since. Just this week he's mastered standing up in the middle of the room without pulling himself up first. Now he can stand and take off like nothing else! His biggest obstacle now?...Brooke and Seth. Most of our time is spent trying to keep them off of Tyler so he can do it himself. He's so proud of himself, it's so cute.

Dear Diary,

it's now day 5 after the mass sickness took over our home. i look outside the window at the beautiful falling snow and can only dream of the out of doors. what the air must smell and feel like, the bitterness touching the end of my nose. Memories of going outside as a young teenager, waiting for the school bus with wet hair, and the fun of crunching the frozen pieces of hair as we chatted with our friends on the way to school. All of that seems a distant memory now.

The natives have started to get restless. Especially the cute blond one. She speaks of activities outside of our house, like children's museums, and seeing the animals. She is hoping for her mommy or daddy to take only her because she is not sick. Until I get out the medicine, and her voice changes and there is pleading for drugs that might cure her imaginary sickness.

Seth is a trooper, I have to give him credit. He is currently suffering through the most horrendous medicine I have ever smelled. (cleocin) The pungent smell is reminiscent of a farm from down the street on hot, humid, summer days. He's now chasing the taste down with fruit punch flavored Motrin, or watermelon chewable Tylenol, depending on the current rotation of the meds.

Every 4 hours is a well orchestrated event, with charts, and medicine spoons, and bottles of fun flavored and colored magic potions. And of course, hopefulness that these concoctions will actually be effective on the flu germs that are plaguing these poor little bodies.

McKee is now sequestered to his bedroom. I feel awful about this new development, but it had to be done. He threw up on my bed this morning, after sleeping in my room from 3am on. He woke up with a high fever again, as the medicines had worn off, and he was getting dizzy. He made it safely to my bed, Mike helped support his spindly body as he tried to walk. He is now hopeful of the magic wonders of the powerful Gatorade. I will try to visit him often, but I am also fearful of exposing myself any further to the terror that is the flu.

The little one seems to be hanging in there as of yet. Tyler shows no signs or symptoms of flu or strep throat (which Seth has been suffering from since Jan 7.) He is currently enjoying his life cereal in his highchair, which is so symbolic of his personality. He loves life, and enjoys putting things in his mouth.

You may wonder how I am fairing as the matriarch of this germ ship. I seem to be unscathed for the most part. The lack of sleep at night is starting to wear on me physically. I have not exercised in over a week, and am starting to feel the blahs of blubberness. I also have the startings of a sore throat, but nothing I am too worried about, as it is kind of dry in the house currently, and I believe it is just a small irritation.

Today is hopefully a day of healing, and of calm restfullness. Every effort will be made to keep things sanitized and who could forget the washing of contaminated sheets? It should prove to be another intersting day if nothing else.

Sweet Prayers from Little Girls...

Brooke volunteered to say the blessing on the food just now, and she was so sweet, I just had to share.

Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for this day. Thank you for the food, please bless our food. Please bless McKee to feel better. Please bless Ana's Daddy to feel better. Please bless Tyler to fold his arms better. Please bless Daddy to get home safely.
Name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

McKee woke up last night with a fever and this morning Brooke saw him laying in bed with me and knew that he was sick. Our good friends Christine and Matt are going through a rough time as Matt is battling cancer. Their daughter, Ana, and Brooke are really good friends. They love to play and they are in the same sunbeam class. We've told the kids that we are praying for their family because Ana's daddy is sick, but you never know if they are listening or not. She is obviously listening and learning how to pray and what to pray for. Tyler is so cute, when we say prayer time he fold his little arms, it usually only lasts until just after the prayer starts, but he's doing great considering he started doing that just before he turned 1. Brooke is so proud that he can do that, and prays for him to figure it out for the whole prayer. And last but not least, Daddy. Brooke loves her daddy, and always prays for him to be safe when he's away. This is just one of the many moments when I tear up and am so proud to be a mother. Especially of such sweet children who are learning and growing and becoming great spiritual people.

This one's for Lynette

I commented on Lynette's blog about crazy kids, not just 2 1/2 yrs old, but almost 6! Here is a fun video of Seth from just a couple short minutes ago...enjoy!

Play Garden

Yesterday we took the kids to the Playgarden at Medley Center. It's so cute! The colors are bright, the floor is squishy, and everything is kid safe. It's only $2.00/kid, and Tyler got in free because he's not walking yet. They had a great time!

Here is an aerial view from the upstairs of the mall. I want one of these in my basement! It's so cool!

Sicko...

I feel so bad for Seth. This poor guy has had a rough year already...let me give you the run down. He started the year on January 1st like the rest of us...and after going back to school on Jan 7th, woke up on the 8th with a fever of 102.3 and a sore throat. After 2 days and some communication with the school nurse I found out that there had been strep throat reported in his classroom. So on Thursday I took him into the Dr. and sure enough, strep. As we left the Dr's office I called the nurse at school to report the strep (so she can notify the other parents) and she had just sent home 2 more kids from Seth's CLASS, not from the school, from his Class. On Friday, there were 9 out of 19 kids out sick, with 3 or 4 confirmed strep cases. So we went through 10 days of amoxicilan, and he was doing much better...date now, Jan 16th. January 30, Seth wakes up with a fever and complaining of a sore throat. I figured it must be a virus since he just barely finished having strep and going through a course of meds. So Thursday, Jan 31st back to the Dr. his symptoms were not really going away. Sure enough, tests positive AGAIN for strep. We started a 10 day course of Keflex, a stronger med. This time Dr. Glowinsky scheduled a follow up after 2 weeks to make sure we kicked it out of his system. So February 9th, we finished the medicine, Seth seemed to be feeling better. Wednesday, February 13th, early morning, Seth wakes up 4 times during the night with "wet poops" as we call them, and pretty severe stomach cramps. We just let that run it's course, chalking it up to too many anti-biotics in a such a short time, or so we thought. So, back to the Dr. on Friday the 15th for his follow up for the strep, the rapid comes back negative, his tummy seems to be doing better, and we're off with a clean bill of health. This morning, February 18th, woo hoo, first day of vacation with lots of fun stuff planned...Seth woke up at 1am with a sore throat and feeling a little warm. I gave him a hug, sent him back to bed and went back to sleep. (Sometimes he wakes up with bad dreams, but isn't awake enough to know if he's feeling ok, or if it was the dream that woke him up.) 5am-ish, Seth comes back into my room. I can definately feel that he's warm now, he wanted to lay with me in bed, so I had him lay down next to me, and we both fell asleep. At 7am we woke up and he was burning up this time, 102.4 and coughing and complaining of a sore throat. So we went downstairs, gave him some ibuprofin and some juice, and called the Dr. So, we have an appointment at 10:45am to do another culture, and see what's going on. Over all, Seth is a really healthy boy, with a high tolerance for pain. This for some reason has been a really rough month and 1/2. I hope they can figure out what to do with him. I've been told that if you get strep too much, this close together they may take out your tonsils...surgery on one of my kids is too scarey for me to imagine.

UPDATE-We're back from the Dr. Seth does still have strep throat. They are saying that the germ isn't getting killed completely. So we're on another round of anti-biotics, I can't remember the name, c-something, anyway, she said that should kill it completely. The good news is that he's not contagious, which explains why none of us have had it. So he's home and resting on the couch. When Mike gets home from work later I'll go and get some gatorade and his medcine, and by tomorrow he'll be feeling good as new.

Boonshoft Museum

I'm really excited because someone told me about this museum in Ohio that has a great rate for families. An "Adventurer" membership is $100.00, and they offer reciprocity. That means that they are a members of a network of science museums, children's museums, and zoos, around the country, and when you are a member there, you gain access to so many more cool places. I just signed our family up. Here in Rochester we have the Rochester Science Center, Strong National Museum of Play, and the Seneca Park Zoo, all of which are on that network. I figured out the cost one day to become members of all 3 and it would be over $200.00. This week the kids have off from school so I plan on making the rounds. Check them out, they have reciprocity all over the US. http://www.boonshoftmuseum.com

Valentine's Day

We kept valentine's day pretty low key around here. The kids had their parties at school. Brooke was so excited for her first at school party with valentines. They had so much candy and they ate it all pretty much that afternoon. I figured it was out of the way that way and I won't have to keep telling them no for the rest of the week. They like being spoiled every once in a while. We took the kids out for a nice yummy Taco Bell dinner. They really enjoyed that too.


Mike and I went out to dinner and dancing for our big date for v-day. We had some of my favorite people go with us...Meg and Harvey Antczak, and my best friend Rachel. The Antczak's and Mike and I went to Yumbo's restaurant. The food was pretty good, the environment was interesting. You walk in and look at the big menu's on the wall, and then order and pay at the counter. After a little bit they bring your food out to you on a styrofoam plate and plastic forks. The food was really good. I had the beef brisket and pulled pork platter with awesome sweet potato mash and Mike had a "filly" sandwich. The atmosphere reminded me of an outdoor festival kind of place. It was great food and not very expensive...I'd go back. From there Mike and I headed out to Hilton to pick up Rachel to go dancing with us. The Antczak's went ahead of us downtown to High Fidelity to save us a spot so we could listen to my favorite band ever (besides NKOTB) Uncle Plum. I had not been to High Fidelity since they changed owners. It was nice in there, for a bar/night club. There were 4 or so leather couches, and Meg and Harvey were sitting on one of them. Uncle Plum was supposed to hop on stage at 10:30pm, but they ended up starting almost and hour late, but it was worth the wait. Rachel and I danced non-stop until 2am when they closed down. Mike shook it a little bit too. Meg and Harvey danced a little bit with us, but I think they were mostly laughing at Rachel and I for being goofy! All in all, I think everyone had a great time! I can't wait for the weather to warm up so Uncle Plum will have more show dates. I had the best workout in a while dancing all night!


Dinner at Yumbo's

The Boys at High Fidelity

The Girls

Bar Fight! I can't take these two anywhere...

Tyler's Birthday

I never did blog about Tyler's first b-day, and now that it's Feb 11th and he's 13 months old, I'm finally remembering to do it. We had a great day. It started with us going in and waking him up so I could get the sleeping and then sleepy pictures on the big day. I know you're thinking I'm mean, but I waited until the time when he would normally wake up anyway. We spent the day getting ready to have some family over to eat some cake, and then we had the party. (I apologize for the very detailed description of the day! :) It's almost midnight, and for some reason I can't sleep, but I can't seem to remember details either.) After a yummy dinner of specialy selected foods, because of his allergies and restrictions, we had cake. I managed to find him a vegan chocolate cake recipe online. It actually came out pretty good. I was only able to taste a little bit because he sneezed on it while we were trying to convince him to eat it and get messy. I did however make a normal cake also for everyone else to eat, so we all still enjoyed some cake. He wasn't going for the whole messy thing. It took a lot of convincing to get him to really eat any. He wasn't too excited about the presents either. I thought he would love ripping off the paper, but that took some convincing too! He's a funny boy. His favorite gift of the night seemed to be the .93 ball that mommy and daddy got him. It was big hit! We also got him one of those toys that you walk behind to learn to walk, or it morphs into a sit on rider toy. He loves that now, but at first he just kind of looked at us like ok, now what! Enjoy the slides of my big boy!

My Sweetest Man

So sometimes I look at Mike and think about how lucky I am. He's so gentle and kind, and handsome, and loving, and a great dad. He's very good at giving of himself, even if it's not the most convenient for him. A couple days ago we got some snow, it wasn't too much, but the next day it was blowing around. So when Mike got home he went out and shoveled, and was patient enough to let Brooke come out and shovel with him. After a little bit I looked out the front window and didn't spot these two in the driveway. I looked over next door and caught them shoveling the next door neighbors driveway also. A little bit later, when I thought they should have been done and back inside, I looked outside again. What did I find? Brooke and Mike one house further down doing their driveway also. After finishing the first one, Brooke said to Mike "I want to do one more." I'm so grateful for his example of service to others. It really does follow you, and of course the children are picking up on it, even at 3 years old. I love you, Mike. I'm a lucky woman.

Hinckley Challenge

For anyone who hasn't heard about this, here it is. Go to www.hinckleychallenge.com and you can register to be part of the challenge. The purpose of the challenge is to honor President Hinckley and read the Book of Mormon in 97 days, because he was 97 years old. It sounds like a great way to get motivated to read our scriptures. When you sign up you can log how much you've read and it keeps track for you. (Hence the goofy chart on the side of my blog, which i'm still trying to resize...stay tuned) It tells you how many pages you need to read each day and tells you how many "warriors" are taking part in the challenge. What a great way to honor such a great man!

Happy February

Good morning. Well, it's 5:20am. For some reason my eyes popped open at 4am to the sound of the furnace ticking (it always does that but I usually don't notice) and haven't been able to go back to sleep. Then Tyler just woke up and I fed him and rocked him for about 20 minutes before I finally put him back to bed. I miss rocking him in the chair. I don't miss waking up way to early though. So I thought since I'm wide awake now, I might as well get caught up on some blogging. Here are some fun pics from the last couple months of the kids since I forgot to post some! If you click on the slideshow and then hover over the pictures you can see the captions I typed in.