So we're going to ignore the fact that I haven't posted in 2 months and move on from here. Deal? Our computer broke a while back and so we didn't have anything - then this computer I still haven't figured out how to download photos. Not that I've taken any... but you never know!
So what have we been up to lately? Well, I sort of gave up on my cleaning spree. I did the entry, the living room, the kitchen, the dining room, the downstairs bathroom and started the family room. The kitchen was amazing to me. Just reorganizing all the cupboards and throwing away SO much stuff. The furnace closet in the family room, I threw away 2 garbage bags worth of stuff and a huge box. I'm still going to finish it. I need to go through the boys closet with all those clothes. That was really why I started it, so I could just go through all my piles. All the places where I know I'm not being efficient with my space - it just bothers me. So I will continue. I promise!
Next, I'm going to have a brag moment for my Eli. He is doing SO well with his little reader books. They take these books home to read and practice and learn words. I haven't counted how many words he knows, but we're well over 100 by now. Words like that, them, what, who, am, sand, like, fish, shut, me, see, meet, and, the, feet, run, sad, sheet, well, shell, did, let, and tons more. It's so much fun to see him notice words in other books and realize he can start to understand things. Chris has also taken him out to learn to ride his bike on 2 wheels. He still has a long way to go on that one, but he is trying!
Nathan is so much fun right now. His speech is coming along. He still mumbles and blubbers his way through most sentences, but it amazes me sometimes just how much I understand. And, yes as his mother I understand more than most, but still. He is learning! Finally! He had pneumonia a few weeks ago which was a little scary. He was fine in the morning and then after his nap he woke up with a high fever. I didn't even think to check it, but he kept saying his ear hurt. It's Sunday afternoon, so after about 1/2 hour of him worrying me, I took him to the urgent care figuring we'll get the ear infection taken care of and be done with it. Well, his temp was 104.9, he had an ear infection and unbeknownst to me, he couldn't breathe. In the 3 1/2 hours that I was at the clinic, they gave him tylenol, a double shot (one in each leg) of antibiotics, a steroid pill for inflammation, and 3 breathing treatments with a nebulizer. If he hadn't cleared up by the 3rd one, we were on our way to the ER. Luckily he did, and when I took him back Monday morning for a followup, he was perfectly fine. It was insane.
Speaking of ER's, that's where I went the following week. I was having some chest pains and my left arm kept going numb. Then I started freaking out and wound up with a full blown panic attack. My arms and legs were almost totally numb and felt like 100lbs, I was dizzy, clammy, and all the other symptoms. Never did really find anything or any reason - but now I know what it is. We'll go ahead and say ambulance trips - I can do without them. Thanks. And yes, everything is fine now.
Then this last weekend we were down at Chris' sisters house hanging out and Eli was playing with the kids. He hands Nathan this little ball and tells him "Don't stick this in your ear". I'll give you 3 guesses what Nathan did. Again, Sunday afternoon. So we head to our new favorite people at Urgent Care. They wouldn't touch it, but the Ear, Nose and Throat doctor on Monday did. Scooped it right out of his ear and traumatized my little 2 yr old. (hopefully in to never doing it again) He is fine now. I'm just hoping this is the end of it. Please, let this be the end of it!! LOL! I can only take so much.
I am definitely looking forward to a nice getaway at my sisters house over spring break. I want us all to be healthy and happy and for it to be spring and enjoyable... is that too much to ask? Probably, but it'll be nice to spend some time with my family. It's been too long.
On to 1st grade!!!!!!!
So this was our section that we needed to fill in. I wish I had a before picture of it. 10 days ago it DID NOT look like this. It had rose bushes and tons of other plants - all of which I don't the name of. Last weekend we got most of the bushes and things up, but Chris brought home this little Bobcat excavator thing and we were able to really get the ground level. The dirt was also way high - we took 2 full loads to the dump. Then Chris dug some new sprinklers and we finished leveling... 
NEW GRASS!!!!!!!
There was just this little patch right at the front with all these rocks. I think there might have been a tree in there when we moved in, but it's been gone for so long I don't really remember. Filled that in too. 
Another view. We're going to do a rock border around the tree with large boulders which we don't have yet. All in time. 
And we just happened to have a little bit of grass leftover. There was this small rectangle of weeds where we just put the doghouse and some random toys. It was outlined in concrete, but when we realized we still had some rolls of grass left, we went to town on the weeds and concrete. In maybe 30 minutes it was ready to go and we had EXACTLY enough grass to fill it in. I think we had one more little 1'x1' square left. Out of 280 sq feet that's not bad... 
..pardon the junk on his mouth. So the left front tooth got shoved back and up and the right front tooth got chipped. 
Nathan wasn't really sure what to think. I'm right there with him. 
So this is with everything put away, the baseboards and floor cleaned, the shelves wiped out, etc. Looks a bit better. The problem I had though was I didn't want to put ANYTHING back. I wanted it to go somewhere else so it didn't clutter up the space - not really thinking that the cubbies and hooks were MEANT to have coats and shoes in them. So not only is this "organized home project" a work in progress, but I am too. 
Next week is supposed to be the living room, but since the foyer (while a pain in the butt) only took a day I thought I'd squeeze the living room in as well. This is an ACTUAL before picture of the messy room. I have not picked up in here since we took the tree down, so it is starting to get a little crazy. Luckily this picture doesn't show off the mess. (It's all behind the couch... you can see some of the books and papers coming out from behind the couch next to the fireplace and the rest of it is in the corner behind the lamp) I cleared out 90% of the clutter yesterday and moved the furniture so today is cleaning the walls, baseboards, curtains, fireplace, dusting the furniture, vacuuming, and anything else I can think of - as well as moving the furniture back to where it belongs. Wish me luck!!!
After presents, it was just opening all the boxes, putting LOTS of batteries in and seeing what was junk and what was fun. Eli's helicopter already lost a piece and now it doesn't fly. 5 minutes of flying and we really didn't even figure it out completely. Panda Express was open so Chris brought us lunch, I watched Julie & Julia for the first time... which I LOVED! and since I got a nicer recipe box for Christmas I really want to go update all my cards and clean out my recipe cabinet. It'll give me a project for next week. Can't wait!! I want to learn to cook after watching that movie. Seriously. That toasted bread thing with the tomatoes and vegetables on top (that she made at the very beginning) - looked amazing. 
And this next one is the scariest picture yet... it's after we cleaned up the wrapping paper. You can barely tell!!! It's going to be a week before that room is livable again.
And.... DONE!
One glove, 2 boots (that were Eli's last year) and no clothes. Although I will admit the baby fat on this kid would keep him warm for a couple minutes, I did not let him outside like this.
oh well.
Well, Eli is in kindergarten and they have a homework book with writing your letters, word families, and basic stuff like days, month, pledge of allegiance, address, phone # etc. He is passing it off today. There are like 75-80 words he has passed off that he can read (he still knows most of them, and the ones he has forgotten he can at least sound out... it's a work in progress). He was on his last one (months of the year) and he got it. Now that he is finished he'll come home with little reading learner books. I think it starts off pretty basic with words he already knows well, but they get progressively harder. I'm so proud of my little man.
And this little guy... he is now sleeping in a big boy bed. Ok, that's a little misleading. I took his crib mattress out of his crib and threw it on the floor. So he is sleeping on a mattress on the floor - but he is out of the crib! I wanted to make sure he was ready (before I put him in an actual bed for Christmas) and work out the kinks if necessary over the next few weeks. I'm probably jinxing it by saying this, but he has done so well!! He has taken one nap and slept through the night twice on the mattress. Today is nap #2 and hopefully it'll go just as smooth. Seriously as long as he has his little dog and pacifier he is good to go. The pacifier will have to go eventually, but when the kid actually wants to take a nap - why mess with success?
I know you've already seen this one, but I just had to laugh. I didn't notice my oops until AFTER the holes were punched of course. I guess in this little fish land they'll have 2 suns. LOL!
Dinosaur land. It's a mountain range in black and water in blue if you can't tell.
So that is it. The cover doesn't have holes yet because the 1st page is the Noahs ark which I still need to get the interior pattern for. I may start stalking the lady who started this whole thing if need be. Once that is done though, sew a couple pages together, poke 6 more holes and I can close this chapter of my life (for a month at least). I must say that for a quiet book i'm mildly amused at how "boy" it is. I mean, most of it is unisex - but at least to me, you can tell it was made with a boy in mind. Maybe it's the colors? Lots of black and blue? Also, now that it's tied up and done I'm starting to get lots more ideas for pages I want to do, but I ran out of the heavier weight fabric for the base of the page. Bummer huh?
