Pics from Easter 2009

We went to my mom and dad's house last night for Easter.
Blake liked his "Honey Bunny". Kyle and Danielle showing off their bunnies.
A pic of Blake, my dad and me.
me and my honey bunny. ha ha!
This was when Blake woke up today.
Eric and I went to church separately, so the kids could stay home, and so Mom and Dad didn't have to babysit. After that, we went to Grandma and Grandpa M's house. We had an Easter egg hunt:
My niece Ashley and her fiance' Jeremy put the eggs out for them. Drew wasn't too excited about the whole thing. Blake was picking eggs up like crazy.
Blakey checking out his loot.
All total, I think they have a bazillion pieces of candy:

Thursday afternoon, after eating spaghetti, Blake went into the bathroom to wash his hands. Well, sometimes he plays in the water. I don't generally mind, but he had been in there awhile, so I went to check on him. I heard the toilet flush. When I got in there, did I find him sitting on the toilet? Of course not. He was standing in front of the toilet, looking at his handiwork:

He had dumped the entire contents of the (very full) wastebasket into the toilet and flushed it. First thing I did was put him in timeout. Then I snapped a picture of it. (aren't you so glad?) and then, I reluctantly scooped out all the trash. I attempted to flush the toilet, but of course, it didn't flush. Instead the water level rose and rose. I was scared it would overflow, but it stopped right below the rim. I tried plunging it to no avail. Let's just say that Eric was not too thrilled when he got home. He had Friday off work, so he attempted to fix the toilet. (he was not too excited about me taking pictures of him)
He had trouble getting the bolts off, so he called my dad for help. They got the toilet off and found an empty toilet paper roll stuck in it.
Thankfully, it is back in working order and we didn't have to call a plumber. And thank goodness for having two bathrooms!

Valentine's Visit

Eric's parents stopped by on Saturday afternoon. They had some Valentine's gifts for the boys. It was pretty surprising to see them, since it was their first visit since my father in law had his kidney transplant in October. They stayed about an hour.



My father in law had some medicine changed and it is helping him feel better. It was nice to see them out and about.

First dance of the year

We went to our first dance of 2009 last night. My mom and dad intended to be go, but decided to stay home. My dad has bronchitis, and possibly pneumonia.

My sister Kelly and her husband Tony, and Eric's sister Annette and her husband Ed have started taking dance lessons in January. This was their first dance since starting. Our instructors put the dance on, and they announced what each dance was, like whether it was a foxtrot, waltz or swing. We had fun and got to practice our new figures. We went to a class they had before the dance teaching some two-step. That was fun, too, though we didn't get the hang of it totally.

Kelly and Tony put their van in the ditch on the way to the dance. They are dedicated dancers, though, and had a friend pull them out of the ditch, and they went directly to the dance from there. We did a cowboy line dance. In the middle of the dance, Eric's sister slipped and fell down. She went down really hard, but was up almost as quick as she fell. Knowing her, though, she will be all bruised up.

We stayed until it ended and came home. My niece Jessica babysat for the kids, so she went home with Annette and Ed. We went to bed, and soon after, the phone rang and it was Eric's mom. Apparently, his dad's blood pressure was really high and he was having trouble breathing. So Eric got dressed and left. They went to the hospital, and my father-in-law has been admitted. They are going to run some tests tomorrow to try to figure out what is going on. He had a kidney transplant in October, so they are concerned about his kidney as well. Eric didn't get home until 10:30 this morning. He is such a dedicated dancer, he went to sleep for a few hours and we went to dance class this afternoon at 3:30. Good thing we learned something new, or it would have been a bummer.

Any prayers you could say for my father-in-law would be appreciated. Thanks!

Smartie pants

We normally leave the kids with my mom and dad every Sunday while we go to church. They are leaving for vacation this morning and won't be home to watch the kids. They knew Drew would be disappointed, so they stopped by last night for awhile.

We were eating popcorn. Drew was being quite protective of his bowl and didn't want to share it. Grandpa's popcorn bowl was empty, so he jokingly asked Drew if he'd trade him bowls. (Drew's bowl was quite full) Drew said, "Ok, Grandpa." and took his bowl. He dumped the popcorn into Grandpa's bowl and handed Grandpa the now-empty bowl. lol. He did ask to trade bowls, you know.

Kidneys

Eric's dad has been on kidney dialysis, and has been on a list for a kidney transplant for maybe six months. On Wednesday night, he got a kidney. It was a five and a half hour surgery. Eric's brother Mark posted an update on him at his BLOG. I am going to cut and paste it here:

Dad is in ICU at Miami Valley Hospital. We were told that his new kidney may take a few days before it starts working. Surprisingly, it began working this morning. Thank you GOD for this blessing. Of course, Dad is very tired and he is still feeling the withdrawal of the surgery drugs. He is also on morphine for pain. They made him sit in a lounge chair today for about 45 minutes to keep him moving, so not to get any blood clogs in his legs. He sent Mother and I home about 6:00 pm because he said he wanted to sleep. Which the drugs are keeping him relaxed. Thank you for all your prayers. I will post more news as he recovers.

Trick or Treat!

Tonight was trick or treat in our town. The boys had picked out their own costumes a couple weeks ago. Eric and I had our ideas about what we thought they should be, but when we got to the store, they both made their preferences clear.

They were both very excited about trick or treating. When Drew's aide dropped him off, she reminded him to come trick or treating at her house. They were both antsy to put their costumes (or as Blake called them--cartoons) on. They inhaled their food and wanted to go.

All ready to go

At the neighbor's house across the street from our house. Always our first stop

Drew's aide, Carol trying to get him to pose for a picture with her.
Blakey wanted Drew to hold his hand, but Drew didn't want to


Finally, we made it to Grandma and Grandpa V.'s house. Grandpa had just walked in the door from a twelve hour shift. Blake didn't mind the uniform:



I tried to get both boys to pose with me for a picture. I should have known better. It was right after we got there, and in the middle of a tranisiton. Drew started hitting himself, so we gave up. This is what we got:


My nephew Kyle and my niece Danielle:


The goods:

Alpacas are our friends

Eric and his parents took the boys to some alpaca farms last Saturday. Aren't alpacas weird-looking animals?

X-Men Visit the Farm

Our county had a farm tour yesterday, and Eric and I took the boys. There were several stops on the tour, and we visited most of them. First, we went to a dairy farm and saw several different breeds of calves. They were cute! Blake was a little scared of them, and Drew wouldn't even get near one.Here's one of the cuties
Here's Blake, being a little nervous around them.
They also had set up a little straw maze for kids. Drew liked it a lot.
Blake tried not to let the straw touch him.
It was an organic farm, and they gave away some of their organic chocolate milk. We got some for both boys, but Drew wouldn't try it. Blake, however, liked it a lot.

Next we went to a Belgian horse farm. They had 11 Belgian work horses. These things were HUGE! Drew liked them, but from a distancce. Eric picked Blake up so he could see them better. Drew had to look way up to see the horses.
They also had a big collection of antique wooden wheel wagons and other farm equipment to see. The boys were happy to get a free bag of popcorn, and Drew didn't want to leave this farm.

After that, we went to another dairy farm, and can I just say how stinky this place was?! Eww.

Moo!

Drew wanted to go in the calf barn, but it was blocked off.
And Blake was quite fond of this dog, though he was a bit cautious. After the stinky farm, we went to a pig farm. It was rather boring, as we were not allowed into the barn, and if we wanted to see any pigs, we had to look through the chicken wire windows at them. They were giving away free pork loin sandwiches, though. We passed on them. And finally, we went to the State Park, where they had an erosion exhibit, an apple exhibit, and free fishing in the lake. Eric called his parents to see if they wanted to meet up to see the boys go fishing. They did, and so they joined us at the State Park. Arriving at the park.Many varieties of apples to sample
Playing with the erosion exhibit

Drew and Grandpa M. heading out to go fishing
Blake wanted to carry his own fishing pole, but got himself tangled up in the line. Thankfully, Daddy was able to free him.

Eric and his boys fishing
Grandpa M. helping Blake cast
Grandma M. snapped this pic of me helping Blake. Let's just say that I put the hook into the brush a few times. Not good. After fishing we went out to eat with Eric's parents. We had a really nice day.

I'm back

It seemed as though I fell off the face of the blogosphere--for a couple people, anyway. :) I had a couple people ask when I was going to update my blog.

So, Friday and Saturday we had a garage sale. Eric schmoozed up the customers, and we made a decent amount. It rained for most of Friday, but we actually sold the most stuff on Friday. Then Saturday was a little nicer, and we sold the rest of our junk. At least most of the rest of it.

Saturday afternoon, we went to a suprise birthday party for my grandma's 80th birthday. They did surprise her, though I probably missed it by 15 minutes or so.

My mom with my grandma, the birthday girl
Grandma riding on the swing on her birthday
My cousins: Keri (FX carrier), Robbie (FX) and Gail (FX carrier)
Me and Keri
My uncle Rich(FX carrier) and his wife Betty
They almost had the right idea.
Cole and Caden, my cousin Natalie's boys
Grandma opening her gift from me and Eric. It was a stained glass suncatcher
My grandma and step-grandpa Don
Eric arrived late, so he was wishing Grandma a Happy Birthday
Blake had a blast playing with my cousin Gail's husband Jason. Jason was a good sport, because, I think Blake hit him a few times, and wiped his drool on Jason's leg
blowing out the candles

My grandma is the furthest back in our family to be tested for Fragile X. She is a carrier, and we know that three of her four children are carriers of it. One has not been tested. Some of Grandma's sisters and brothers were at her party and there are carriers among them as well. So that was interesting to me. And I was talking with my grandma about how many people there were at her party. She was shocked at the number of people there. She said, "And to think, it all started with me" Not referring specifically to the fragile x, but of the family who was there. She is the oldest of her siblings as well, so it really did start with her. She doesn't seem like she's eighty, that's for sure.