Mama got a new camera!

My wonderful husband finally gave me the "okay" to buy a new camera to replace the one Kaden dropped on the ground and, subsequently, broke! Thanks to the beautiful weather we've had, I have had lots of opportunities to use it.

Thursday was Kaden's LAST day of preschool for this school year! We got to enjoy Fun Day at Mt. Horeb Preschool, and it was a blast. They had a big bounce house and slide, tattoos, a balloon artist, and loads of food. It was a great way to end an amazing first year in preschool.

Otherwise, we have just been enjoying this gorgeous (albeit hot) weather! Patrick blew up the inflatable pool, so we have been spending pretty much every afternoon outside playing in that. We are looking forward to celebrating Memorial Day weekend by grilling tonight and going out to eat tomorrow while my parents watch the boys. We hope everyone has a safe and fun Memorial Day!

Swimming in the pool!

Noah loves going for a dip!

My serious boy :)

Kaden preparing to go down the bouncy slide

Taking a break from bouncing for some pink lemonade

In the bouncy house (before it deflated with him and 6 other kids inside!)

Getting his first tattoo!

Another afternoon in the pool

Totally random sepia picture.. but I wanted to play with my new camera features!

Kaden practicing his swing... he's getting the proper technique down!

Brotherly love :)

Noah mowing the driveway

Kaden showing Noah how to cut the grass

Another hat I wear...

I often think about all the "hats" I wear in my role as a mommy. Sometimes I'm a chef, other times I'm a chauffeur. I frequently act as a referee between Kaden and Noah, and I personally consider myself to be the world's best secretary and personal assistant who keeps everything (and everyone) in order! Well, over the course of the past week, I have added a new hat to my repertoire: I am now a wound care nurse!

For those of you who follow our family on Facebook, you probably already know that Noah was diagnosed with Impetigo last week at his 15 month well checkup. Impetigo is a skin infection that is caused by the staph bacteria. Kids can get it in a number of ways, and we really don't know how Noah contracted it; possibly by getting into some poison ivy that later turned into the infection or even from his frequent eczema breakouts. Regardless of how he got it, he has been absolutely miserable. The skin on his hands and feet looked like they were dipped into a vat of acid. They were broken and bleeding and just looked like they had been burned. Needless to say, nobody was getting any sleep as this infection was keeping him up itching and in pain every night.

So anyway... when we went in for his checkup, his amazing pediatrician Dr. Rickenmann determined that he had Impetigo. We are treating it with two different forms of antibiotics: one is an ointment that has to be applied to his skin 3x a day and the other is an oral antibiotic that is given 2x a day. On top of applying the ointment multiple times a day, I am also having to wrap his hands and feet (the most badly infected areas) so that he will not scratch them and risk spreading the infection to the rest of his body. This has been very interesting because, as I'm sure you can imagine, it is nearly impossible to wrap anything on a squirmy baby! It's taken a few days, but I've finally gotten it down. It is definitely a very involved process, and I have to plan everything out and get all the materials ready before I get started. It makes me appreciate all the work Patrick does everytime he has a procedure at work because I know he has to be a LOT more careful at work than I'm probably being. That said, we are about halfway through the treatment, and hopefully on Saturday we will be done with this! Thanks for all the prayers for our sweet baby. We are praying that once he shakes this infection he will stay well for awhile!

Here is Noah before starting antibiotic treatments. You can really see the Impetigo lesions on his knees, hands, feet, and face

Here's my little baby all wrapped up... you can't really see in this picture, but his feet are wrapped too.

Happy Mother's Day!

I just wanted to take a short blog posting to wish all my mommy readers a Happy Mother's Day! I feel so blessed to be the mama of my two sweet boys and love every day that I am able to watch them learn and grow. Only a mother can understand what unconditional love is, and I am so thankful that God chose ME to bring up these amazing boys that I get to call mine :) Hope everyone has a wonderful day - go hug a mom near you!

An early picture of Kaden and me (I think he is 5 weeks in this one!) Keep in mind I'm severely sleep-deprived in this picture!

Noah and me just minutes after he was born.

A recent picture of mama, Kaden, and Noah

...and another one!

Spring Update!

Hi Folks! Sorry it's been a month since my last update. We haven't been particularly busy, but I just haven't really been able to think of anything to write about. I figure since it's been a month, I'll just give you the 411 on what we've been up to and what we are looking forward to.

We FINALLY have grass in our backyard!!! Yes, it took a year and a half, but it's finally here and down. My parents bought the boys a swingset for their birthdays, and Patrick's parents bought the boys a sandbox, so we have been having a ball playing out there on our new toys :) Some other "family news" is that we all went to see Disney on Ice a few weeks ago. What a show! Kaden and Noah were both mesmerized by it. We were on the first row (not including the three rows that were actually ON on the ice), so we had a fantastic view. It was so much fun, and I really hope the show comes back next year so we can make it a tradition. Otherwise, it's been business as usual around here. Patrick has been working a lot and completed his application to grad school, so keep him in your prayers! We are looking forward to a busy weekend. Kimbo graduates from Carolina on Saturday, so we are going to her ceremony and then to a party in her honor that night. Sunday, of course, is Mother's Day, so I am looking forward to spending the day with my sweet boys and then eating dinner with my own mama :)

Now, on to the boys! Kaden is almost done with his first year of preschool! In just a few weeks, he will officially be on Summer vacation. I cannot believe how quickly this year has gone by and how much has changed since those first few weeks of crying all day at preschool. Now, he gets in the car and talks nonstop about all the fun things he does everyday. He has such an incredible imagation and honestly is just the smartest kid I know! I need to start a journal of interesting things he says everyday because he never fails to amuse and amaze me. We are almost done potty training! He has finally graduated to wearing big boys pants at preschool, so now he is officially out of pullups for good (hallelujah!). He is still in diapers at naptime and bedtime, but over the summer we are going to work on that. I can't believe how fast time is flying by, but it's so exciting to see all the neat changes he makes, so I'm okay with it!

Noah has had a tough couple of weeks lately. We were at the doctor a few weeks ago because Noah was just not himself. He had been running fever, had a horrible cold, and his voice was really hoarse. At the doctor we learned that he had Croup! I was so worried about him because Croup can cause children to stop breathing, but luckily we never had to experience that. It took about a week, but he finally started feeling better and is now back to his normal happy self (thank God!). He is still very little - he just recently hit 20 lbs. so we were able to turn his carseat around which has made car trips more pleasant for everyone. Noah is also starting to sign! So far he only does "more" and "thank you" but he picked them up pretty quickly, so I will probably start working on a few more with him very soon. We have such smart boys!

We hope that all of our readers are doing well! This week is National Nurse and Teacher Appreciation Week, so make sure you thank any of the nurses or teachers in your lives for all the wonderful things they do! Take care :)

Noah enjoying his swing

Kaden playing on the slide

Kaden playing in the sandbox

Noah in the sandbox (after eating some sand!)

Our wonderful view at Disney On Ice

Both of my "forward-facing" big boys!

Noah loves pizza night!

Kaden loves pizza night too!

Happy Easter!

We really enjoyed our Easter holiday this year. Saturday, we took the boys to the Easter egg hunt at the church. This was Noah's first time hunting for eggs, and he was so funny to watch! Rather than putting the eggs in his basket, he would pick them up and throw them! After throwing the eggs for awhile, he would walk around with one in each hand. I think toward the end of the hunt we finally got him to put some eggs in his basket, but he wasn't too sure that's where he wanted them. Kaden was an expert egg-hunter at this hunt and got right to business. I think he had more eggs in his basket than anyone and even gave Noah some at the end because he had too many.

Sunday, we all woke up to find that we had been visited by the Easter bunny! The boys thoroughly enjoyed getting to eat candy for breakfast and then we got dressed in our Sunday best and went to church for the Easter service. We rarely go to church these days because the boys just have a really hard time sitting still for that long, and church-time usually coincides with naptime for Noah. Both boys did really well at this service, though, so I was a proud mama! After church, we went to Grandaddy John's house (or, GrandJohn, as Kaden calls him) for lunch with the family. It was delicious, as usual, and the boys enjoyed ANOTHER egg hunt. Noah did better this time and understood that he was supposed to find the eggs, and Kaden racked up once again and found lots of eggs filled with candy and money :) I love holidays and spending them with my family and hope to raise our boys in a way that will encourage them to enjoy their family and spending time with them. From our family to yours, we hope you had a blessed Easter and a happy Spring!

Getting ready for the Church egg hunt

A very happy Kaden with his Easter basket

Noah checking out this big ol' basket

Trying to get a good picture of the boys before church

My handsome fellas :)

Daddy helping Noah at GrandJohn's egg hunt

Kaden hunting for eggs at GrandJohn's house

How 'bout this weather?!

After the cold, wet winter we've had, the boys and I are SO happy to have this beautiful weather! We are really taking advantage of it. We spend pretty much every day at the park and even bought a zoo membership so we can go all the time :) Fortunately, the rec center in Chapin has 2 different parks we can visit. It is so much easier being a stay-at-home mom when you don't have to stay at home! Kaden is an expert on the playground now and climbs and slides with ease. Noah loves to walk across the bridge and slide down the slide on his belly... we have a good time! Here are some pictures of our latest visits to the park!

It's Party Time!

With the boys' birthdays being so close, and since they are still to young to care, we decided to have a joint birthday party on Sunday the 28th. It was a small get-together with family and friends, but the boys had a great time and got some really wonderful gifts. Thanks to everyone for the gifts! We feel so blessed that our boys have such loving friends and family :)

Kaden was pooped after a long day of partying!