A date with my boys

Mitch is taking the boys camping on the beach for the next few days. Which makes me feel left out.   So I decided to take the boys out to dinner to spend a little time with them.  I took Jackson and Asher to the Hershey Pantry. Oh, it was chaos! My boys are more McDonald Play Place kind of kids so it was asking a lot for them to be good at a sit down restaurant. But Jackson is in love with their pretzel roll ham and cheese sandwich and has been asking begging me to take him to the HP.  I though, if it was just the two big kids it wouldn't be so bad.  Those of you that know the Hershey Pantry, know the space that I was dealing with there.  Those that don't, I'll just say, it's not big, like the size someone's living room, maybe. 

They just remodeled their bathrooms there and added the new Dyson hand dryers.  Have you seen or used these things?  They are loud and powerful. 

Just before dinner came I sent the boys to the bathroom to wash up.  Within a few minutes of sending them off, all of the patrons and I heard a blood curdling scream, followed by laughter followed by another blood curdling scream and more laughter.  I got up and ran, (as fast as I can waddle these days) to the bathroom to see what was going on.  Asher was scared of this hand dryer, so every time it came on it made him scream. Jackson thought it was so funny, (the laughter).  I was just horrified. 

We made it through dinner with mostly no incidents, I am proud to say.  Jack did tip his lidded soda onto Asher word find he was diligently working on, which provoked some very loud words and got the table of old people next to us to give us the death glare.  But I have learned to pay little attention to such people.  Like they never had kids that made noise in public? 

It was chaos, I should have just taken them to Red Robin or McDonald's, but really I think the Hershey Pantry experience will be much more memorable, at lest for me.  Like I will remember to never do anything like that again.

But then again, look at those smiles.  I love these boys!

Asher's Day at the Dentist

The list of crazy little medical issues with Asher continues.  About a month ago he complained of a bump on his gums.  Mitch looked at it, and it was a big, yucky abscess.  I took him to the dentist, he recommended antibiotics, and if that didn't work then his two front teeth would need to be pulled.  One month, and a few dentist appointments later, his teeth were pulled. 

before

I had to schedule this appointment when Mitch was home since there was no way I could deal with a drugged up six year old.  I am so glad that Mitch was able to do this, however I so wish I could have viewed the scene that Mitch described to me in the dentist office.

The strategy for sedating children at this pediatric dentist office is to have all the kids come in an hour early where they are given the sedation medication, then sent off to the waiting room to wait for the medication to take effect.  The kids went into the waiting room and began to play, eventually each of the kids, about six of them, started to feel the effect.  One boy got up and tried to walk and almost fell, his mom barely caught him in time.  Mitch was watching a bunch of drugged up children.  I so wish Mitch would have used the video on his phone, but he didn't want the other parents to see him filming their kids.  It just sounds so funny.

After the sedation took effect they took Asher back and gave him nitrous in preparation to remove the teeth. It didn't really work for him, he would not fall asleep.  He is a stubborn little guy.  They gave him injections to numb the gums, and the teeth were removed.

He was silly and loopy when he came home and sat happily on the couch, and ate Jell-O, pudding, and applesauce.  He got to play his DS and watch TV.  He eventually fell asleep for a few hours on the couch.  Once he woke up he was ready to play with Jackson and continues to ask me what cool toy he could get from the Tooth Fairy, (which he knows is me) for losing two teeth at once. 

My favorite side effect is his new lisp.  His (S)s are really funny.  He can, however, still whistle which makes him really happy.  One of his biggest concerns with getting his teeth pulled was that he would not be able to whistle anymore.

I love his new smile

Cocoa Castle

Cocoa Castle is a favorite in our town. We will miss having such a cool park nearby.

I love how this picture turned out all vintagy.  Asher really is a happy child despite how he looks in these pictures.

We bought a house!

We make plans, we change plans, we think we know what we are doing and then everything turns on it's head. 

Our plan from the beginning, was to move and rent for awhile to get our feet on the ground and then decide weather or not to buy or build.  Then we started looking at houses for sale, just to see what was out there.  We found a house, fell in love, and then watched it sell, to one of Mitch's future partners no less. We went back to the rent plan, but every so often we would look at houses, just to see if something came up.  After a while of thinking about renting we  decided we really would rather buy a house and only have to move once.  Simplicity is really what we are after with all the chaos in our lives right now. 

This particular house we have been looking at for awhile, but I was stubborn about a few things so I wouldn't really pay attention to it.  Mitch, knowing all along that if I would just look at it, I would love it as much as he did.  Suddenly one night, for some reason, I decided to give it a good look, and I was hooked.  Mitch and I talked about it.  Mitch called our realtor the next day, and we decided to put in an offer.  It's a good thing to, because there was a competing offer already on the table.  We won the bidding war, and we are now under contract. 

We feel really good about all if this, in fact, we feel like we have been guided during this process.  I really can't explain why I suddenly decided to look at this house, but once I was in, I was all in, and everything fell into place in such a short amount of time.  We are so excited.  The kids are super excited.  We will have plenty of room for our family and friends to come and visit us, so those of you that never made it out to PA while we have been living here, (that is ALL of you!)  feel free to come and visit us in our new home.

68 days until the move!

Easter Sunday

We fill the living room with jelly beans and let the kids go crazy. It's an awesome tradition that came from Mitch's family. The kids LOVE IT!Then we take it outside for an egg hunt.The, "right before church in our spiffy Easter duds" shot. The kids looked so good, but it was super windy, so it was hard to get a good picture.these are may favorite, I don't know what these two were doing, but they had me laughing.Lily loved her dress. She could twirl in it, and hold out the edges like a real princess. She it just so sweet.

Hunting Easter Eggs

I love Central PA!  It is going to be hard to leave. Spring comes early, and is lush and green with the most amazing blossoms I have ever seen.
One thing they know how to do in our neck of the woods is candy.  At Halloween, there is over a week of events to attend that all include candy.  It is the same around Easter.  There are Easter Egg Hunts everywhere for at least a week with lots and lots of candy.  We made it to two and the kids had a blast.

Egg hunt one was at Pumpkin World.

Mitch and Jackson helping Lily with her strategy. She figured it out pretty quick and got the most eggs out of anyone in either age group. All you have to do is tell a girl that is related to me that they are getting candy, and they know what to do.Asher watched the first age group very pensively, working out his strategy.Mitch helped him with his strategy. This is serious business people!Sadly, when we thought it was Jackson's turn, we found out that the age groups only went up to 6, so he didn't get to participate. The good news is Lily got enough eggs for everyone. Also we had another egg hunt to look forward to at the kids school. There Jackson was all business and got his share of eggs and then some.At the school egg hunt the kids got a change to get a picture with the Easter Bunny. Look at how excited they were to see him. We don't really make a deal about the Easter Bunny, in fact we have told the kids from the beginning that there is no such thing. . 

Belly Laughs

This pregnancy has not been an easy one.  I have been on bed rest since week 13, that was back in January.  Also, for some reason I have not been able to calm the craziness in my head this pregnancy.  I just keep fearing the worst.  I am able to pull myself back from the edge when I need to, but for awhile there I was going into my doctor's office weekly, just so they could pacify me and show me that everything was okay.  With every week that passes I do feel just a little better.  I am now at 27 weeks.  I  feel like time is moving so slowly but then I remember that before I know it, this little baby will have out grown her first clothes and I will be crying over how fast the time has flown by.

One thing that has come with this pregnancy, is I find things so sad, or so funny.  Like so funny I can't stop laughing.  Like my belly will hurt, and there will be tears running down my cheeks, but I still can't stop laughing.  It happened just yesterday.  Something struck me as funny, and I started laughing, and then I realized that what I was laughing at wasn't really that funny, so I started laughing harder, then I realized how ridiculous I must look so then the laughter became uncontrollable.  Mitch was there to witness this scene.  He says he thinks that my laughing is probably more dangerous that me taking a walk around the neighborhood for this baby.  He kept telling me to stop, he didn't want me going into labor.  But the harder I tried to stop laughing the harder it was to stop laughing.  Jimmy Fallon, and "Wait, Wait Don't tell Me"  are  the biggest perpetrators of these laughing fits.  Mitch thinks I would be better off to stop watching/listening to these shows than being on bed rest.  He just might be right.  But I do love to laugh, and an uncontrollable laugh is kind of fun.  So I guess, for now I will risk it.

Check it out, I can still see my toes.  Yes my feet look tiny, but it is because I am so tall, and my belly is so big.  10 weeks to go.  How much bigger can my belly stretch!

A Cool Cave Man!

Since we have been back to Hershey I (Mitch) have planned on taking the kids to Indian Echo Caverns.  They are only a few minutes down the road from where we live.  It is a pretty extensive cave system with an interesting history related to the Susquehenna Indians and the local miners.  This last saturday was rainy, so I thought it was the perfect day to go caving.  The kids loved it.  The gift shop was more of a hit than I would have liked, since the kids wanted to buy everything in site.  Jackson and Asher loved the tour and soaked it all in.  Jackson has been telling everyone that will listen for the past week about everything he learned about the history of the cave.  Lily just kept repeating the whole time "Wow, cool cave".   I couldn't find our good point and shoot, and my waterproof camera was not ideal for cave lighting, so sorry for the blurry pictures. 

Asher and the "Gold" chest

Lily wanted every "stuffed animal in a purse" toy in the store