Memorial Day

Want the good news or the bad news first? I always want the good first, so that's what we will do. Good news: We pulled off my mom's 60th SURPRISE birthday party and she had no idea! It was so much fun. We held it at Cannovas in Freeport and she thought we were just meeting some friends there for an early birthday dinner. My sister and her family made it back for the weekend too, so we had my cousin babysit all 4 kids, and off we went. She was so surprised. There were about 40 family and friends there and we had a great night. A big thanks to everyone who helped me out getting things coordinated and all lined up :) We also had fun on Sunday at our family friend, Butson's, annual Memorial Day party. The kids went home early with Kyle's parents to spend the night there, so Kyle and I enjoyed a night out kid free. It was a good time!

Monday we spent at Kyle's parents house hanging out enjoying the nice weather. Reese always has such a good time playing with Maddy and Mekenna. Ready for the bad news? Izzy broke her left leg Monday evening. Kyle's brother accidentally stepped on her while he was also playing with his dog in the yard. I had figured it may just be sore, as my foot would be if it were stepped on, but come Wednesday when she had stopped eating and drinking, I called to get her in right away Thursday morning. Sure enough, x-rays showed a break in her left fibula and tibia. So, we were left with 2 options. Surgery to fix it (a plate with screws in her fibula, or put her to sleep. The surgery was not cheap. But I couldn't imagine putting her to sleep. Only 6 months old, and when you sign up to be a pet owner, you also have to take into consideration that something like this may happen. So, surgery it was. They referred us right away to a surgeon on the south side of Indy (about 40 minutes from our house), and by 12:30 on Thursday we were on our way. They went over the x-rays and surgical plan with me. We were on our way home around 2:00, and Izzy was going into surgery at 3. He called around 4:15 and said everything went great and we could pick her up in the morning. She is on a STRICT plan. Antibiotics for 5 days, pain killers for 10 days. She has to be confined to a 5x5 or smaller area (basically her crate) for the next 2 weeks. At 2 weeks, she gets her stitches out of her leg (about 20 of them) and then she doesnt have to stay in crate all the time, but she still cant run/jump/or go up and down stairs and on a leash at all times when outside. At 5-6 weeks we have another appointment for x-rays, and if they are good, she will be released for all normal activity. So, we are looking at 5-6 weeks of a puppy with alot of energy being crated and restricted. No fun! But what are you going to do? Atleast we have her and she will be all healed up and good to go once she is healed. 

So, we had lots of good times, and one not so great thing happen while we were back home, but it was nice to be back and see everyone for the weekend! 

May 2014

Ok, back to the beginning of May. The first weekend in May was spent in FLORIDA! One of my good friends from college got married in Clearwater, FL, so Kyle and I had a nice long weekend (Thur-Sun) without kids. My parents came out Wed- Mon so we were lucky to be able to fly out of Indy. The weekend was a bit gloomy, rain everyday, but the wedding and company of friends was far from gloomy. We had a great time and the wedding was gorgeous!
We got home on Sunday eve, and on Tuesday Kyle had to fly out to travel to Germany until that Friday for work. Not fun for him. Little did I know it was not going to be fun for me either. Preston came down with a 103 temp Tuesday eve and it just would not break. It was awful. Imagine a crying baby, nonstop unless he was sleeping, hanging on your body ALL day. Talk about tiring. With no help from Kyle since he was traveling. Finally on Thursday I took him in and they were quite worried. They put him on antibiotics for a sinus infection, and said if he fever did not break by Saturday they wanted him back for more tests (he tested negative for strep and the flu). They were also worried about dehydration since he wouldn't eat or drink on Wednesday and Thursday. Finally Thursday night I got 2 juice boxes in him, and lots of popsicles on Friday. His fever was upto 102 still on Friday afternoon, but must have broke during his nap, because it was at 99 all evening, and back down to 98 on Saturday. Kyle got home Friday night, and I took a deep breathe, poured a large glass of wine, and took a 40 minute shower- BY MYSELF :) I may chalk that week up
to one of the hardest I have had as a parent.
Oh, by the way, he leaves Monday again for another week in Germany, let's pray it goes smoother than last time....
Here are some wedding pictures and some new pics of the kids I took this past week:

Grabbing some lunch and drinks with the bride!

Thursday afternoon: our only few hours on the beach

 Cassie, me, Darcy- college friends

Before the wedding

The stunning bride, Lauren

Easter

I am cut short on time due to Kyle needing his computer for work, so I am doing a quick update of our Easter in pictures! We had a quick trip back to IL over Easter weekend and loved enjoying the great weather outside. We did three egg hunts- the first was the Winslow community hunt at the Winslow park, the second was at my parents house, and the third was at Kyle's parents house. Reese sure had a blast!

Zoey (her friend) and Reese coloring eggs

They did a great job!

 Preston loved the slide at the park

Reese and Grammie swinging

Cheese!

 All her eggs she found at the first egg hunt

Preston didnt care about searching, he just wanted to open them up!

He even won the raffle Easter basket for his age group!

Didn't like Santa, doesn't like the bunny either (I do have to say, he is creepy!!) :)

Easter morning

Trying my hardest to get a good picture

Usually they keep their distance....

 and RARELY do we catch a hug :)

Cousins- Preston- 1, Mekenna- 7, Maddy- 9(almost 10!), Reese- 3

Pics and more

Kyle made it back safely to the States late Friday night and my sanity was re gained yesterday :) Kidding, but not really. Last week was a tough one. Reese was a stinker the whole week, and by saying stinker, I am trying to be nice. I can think of many more not appropriate words that I could say instead :) She was a handful to say the least, even turning into a teenager at one point saying (I mean screaming) "Mom, you are so mean." Ugh, terrible 3's. She was doing a lot better, but lately we have been struggling. And it only seems to be with me. She doesn't treat Kyle badly, or her teachers, friends, etc. Just me. I'm sure its because I'm with her the majority of the time. So, we have a whole new set of consequences I have set up when she acts out, and it seems to be working the past 2 days. I hope we are turning a corner.
In other news, we enjoyed a BEAUTIFUL weekend this weekend, and spent it all outdoors. We hit up the zoo yesterday and had a BLAST. The last time Preston was there was last summer, when he just took a joy ride in the stroller the entire time. This time was SO fun because he LOVED watching all the animals and made all the animal noises along the way. It was really neat to watch him watch the animals. His favorite was the penguins, which he proceeded to shout at them "DUCK, DUCK, DUCK" very loudly and attracting a lot of attention to himself :) It was quite funny.
Here are some pictures to recap our past month or so. Hope you all have been enjoying the nice weather. We hit 81 yesterday and 77 today- Spring has finally arrived.
We head home for Easter next weekend and Reese is very excited to see what the Easter bunny will bring. We are coloring eggs tonight, so she is counting the days!

Our fur baby Izzy- 4 months old, 7 lbs 

 Lauren's (college roomate) bachelorette party

AMAZING truffles at a winery on our bachelorette expedition

Playdate with my MOPS friends and kids (Mothers of Preschoolers)

A sucker make the haircut much more pleasant :)

Mr. P sporting his Cardinal gear

Enjoying a morning at the park

Quick post

A quick update on life so this will be short and sweet :) Kyle is busy traveling for work this week over in Europe. He made his way to Germany Monday And Switzerland yesterday until Friday. I talked to him today and he just got done running in the Swiss Alps- sounds rough :)
We are keeping busy in this end too- I had a good friends bachelorette party this past weekend in New Buffalo, MI. We had a blast on a tour of 4 winery's, a great dinner, and some fun bar hopping!
Now I'm excited for her wedding next month in Clearwater, Florida! A nice long weekend away from the kids, on a beach, with cocktails- woo hoo! The kids and dog are wonderful too, and I will update with pics once Kyle gets home and I can use his computer instead of the iPad. Enjoy the Spring temps this week!!!

Checkups and Conferences

Preston had his 18 month check up a week or so ago and he is one healthy little boy. We are still dairy free, and sticking to almond milk as his milk substitute. He sure is growing, and getting taller by the day! I have really started to notice it as his 18 month pants are getting too short.He is right on target for gross motor skills (typical boy-climbing and running are second nature) and he is doing well with verbal skills too. He probably has 20ish words now, right where he is supposed to be. He isn't putting two words together yet, but he sure is becoming Mr. Repeater, anything you say, he says. Here were his stats:
Weight: 26.4 lbs (56%tile)
Height:35 in (98%tile)

Reese also had a "checkup" but of different sorts. We had her preschool conference on Monday morning. Kyle was unable to attend since it was at 11:00 am, but I was able to go.  Overall, she is a playful, fun, social girl who loves to interact with everyone and loves to learn. The teacher said she is doing well in almost every area, but we need to start working on number recognition a bit more, and learning when to use listening ears (not shocking to me) :) I guess her and another little girl like to talk during story time and her teacher has to remind them quite often to be quiet during stories. Again, not shocked by this :) She is quite the talker and loves to tell stories about anything and everything.

I started obedience class with Izzy last night and it went really well. It's an hour class with 15 dogs in it. It was all conducted "off leash" last night, so it was fun to see how Izzy reacted to all the other dogs. She did FANTASTIC. She is really a social puppy (thank goodness) and loved playing with them all. We learned how to sit, lay down, and then stand last night. As well as recall (coming when I call her name). Some of the dogs were much bigger than her, but she held her own and would jump right up on them and play. A good sign so far!

February

Oh February, where did you go? That may have been one of the quickest months on the books for me. We had a busy busy schedule so it went by in the blink of an eye.
Here's a little recap of our month:
As stated in the last post, we brought Izzy home. She was 2.8 lbs when we got her Feb. 1 and she is now 4.2 lbs as of last week when she got shots. She is such a good puppy, crate trained right off the bat, sleeps through the night, and is getting better with potty training. We still have to keep a close eye on her to get her outside, and I start obedience classes with her on March 11 (a 6 week class.)
We celebrated Preston's baptism in February as well. The whole family (minus Kyle, my brother in law, and Aubrey, my niece) made the trip. The weekend started out great- and ended not so great. Preston got sick once Saturday night, but was then fine, leading me to think it was maybe something he ate. We made it through the church service and baptism fine on Sunday morning, but come Sunday afternoon, I got hit with it. A yucky stomach virus that would not only hit me, by 11 of the 14 people that were in our house all weekend :( Not fun.
Last weekend, we loaded up and went to Chicago to celebrate one of my best friend's, Kelsey, engagement to her new fiance, Steve. We took the kids with, and my parents met us in Chicago and watched the kids at the hotel while we went out. Reese was SO excited because she got to swim at the hotel, and Preston was content spending time with Nana and Poppa. We took the kids to eat lunch at the Rainforest Cafe, which Reese thought was really neat. We had a great night out and I was so glad we were able to make the trip up there to help our friends celebrate! We are looking forward to their wedding in Mexico the beginning of December!!


Kids update:
Reese is getting smarter, and more wity each day. She amazes me with her vocabulary, things she thinks about, and how she processes information so quickly. She also has the memory of a steel trap. She LOVED her Valentines day party at preschool this past month, and had fun decorating cookies and handing out Ariel valentines to her friends.

Preston is what my Mom would call a "bruiser". And I couldn't agree more. He is SO aggressive and very hands on- but he is also a sweety at heart. He is my cuddle bug and is usually such a happy, smiley little boy.
He is starting to talk much more. He is now beginning to try to repeat things we say. He probably has 15-20 words he uses on a regular basis, and is learning new ones daily. He is upto 10 teeth- and he got all 4 molars at once!

Both kids LOVE the dog, and now our cat, Jack, is beginning to love her too. Instead of being scared of her- he is now starting to play with her. I can see a friendship in the making :)

Here are a few pictures of our adventure in February:

 Day of Preston's baptism- Feb. 16th

 Godmother (my sister) Courtney- the best pic we could get :)

 The next few pics are dark (taken in the church)

 Courtney, Godmother- Ryan (Kyle's brother) Godfather

Chicago Engagement Party L to R:

Steve and Kelsey, Kyle and I, Jody and Tim

Pearl City Crew

"Mrs. Sraga" hanger I gave Kelsey to hang her wedding dress on the day of the wedding