Saturday, March 31, 2012

Fam Playday

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Today was a Crazy day. Chris had a slumber party, and a birthday party, so we were more than relieved when Mom and Dad (and Aunt Teri) offered to bring pizza over for dinner as well as drop off some 'goodies' from Grandma Willman's silver collection.



This was our haul. Quite amazing, and it will be Gorgeous when it's all cleaned up. I must confess, those candlesticks were absolutely hysterical when I unpacked them after splitting a bottle of wine with Aunt Teri. It's hard to tell, but the two platters are really Warped. We weren't sure it was the heat of storage, or too much wine.

But there was so much laughter, there were tears. I love that.

As a chaser to our dinner, Mom wanted to go for a walk. So the kids drove and escorted us around.



A stitch and a half.



Don't trust this driver to get you to Orange Leaf. Better to leave the driving to the grownups. ;)



It was Mom, Dad, and Aunt Teri's first trip to Orange Leaf! It was a hopping place on a Saturday night, so initially we had to all sit outside until seating opened up inside. At least we all had our jackets, from our walk. It was a great time. A great ending to the month, and a great start to our Spring Break. So Yummy, So Yummy!

Poor Pitiful Pooch

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I have mentioned here, that Fina is not doing well. She has cancer, and her cocktail has been getting less effective. The last two weeks we couldn't get refills before running out of drugs, so she ran out. Off the antibiotic, her feet got stinky. Off the narcotic last weekend, she just made us crazy. She was following us, ants in her pants, just crazy. We finally called Dan for more drugs. Her cocktail is now back to working again, she's just getting a little edgy in the mornings and evenings. She chews her toes, making all kinds of slurpy noises, and making that front paw look even worse. I even resorted to trying to make her wear a sock. Yeah, that lasted 5 minutes. She looked pitiful, and slipped and slid on that one foot, wiggled until it was way down, or as soon as she hit the carpet, the sock would slip right off.



So today we upped her Tramadal, the narcotic to three times a day. Then twice a day, she gets Keflex, the antibiotic to prevent her feet from getting septic, Zyrtec an antihistamine to reduce the amount of histamine released by the oozy tumors, and Prednisone, to reduce swelling and make her just Feel Fabulous. And hungry. And annoying. And in our faces whenever we eat, because clearly Cancer Boxers who are literally wasting away NEED our dinner when we're not even done with it. Or God Forbid we don't go running to put bits in her bowl, and we sit around the table and talk. And she has to go to the bathroom all the time, sometimes she doesn't make it to the door. Can't blame her, my bowels would be bonkers too if I'd been on hearty antibiotics for a month. I can't tell you how many times I've yelled, "If you weren't already dying, I'd kill you." Only slightly joking. Yet sometimes I think she just floods the floor with pee to let us know she's angry at us for ignoring her, because she does at the most inopportune times, like as we're readying to leave on a school morning, or right before company is due to arrive.
She's kind of crazy, making us crazy. But not so crazy we're ready to let her go yet. It's just Tough. How much is annoying, and how much is pitiful? It's a fine line. And it feels like it's that one more thing that I'm not handling well right now. It's been really hard. Pray for all of us through the next few weeks.

Friday, March 30, 2012

Swell Times

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Yesterday we had some friends come over for playdate. Suellen and Parker were on Spring Break, so they came over to play.

At first the kids weren't playing too well together. Sam is in a place right now where he doesn't like to share. Then they discovered the Joy that racing brings. Racing grocery carts around the kitchen. Racing cars down the stairs.



There were some hiccups in the friendship, but it was such a lovely day we all decided to go visit Orange Leaf. It was even pretty enough to sit outside.



This the kids loved. The outdoor seating space is fenced in, and they were running around, giggling, and "hiding" from Cathy and the Camera.



When the ice cream (frozen yogurt) high kicked in, Sam was a little more open to the idea of a photo session. Mildly. But they were so sweet together, there at the end.



Unfortunately, naps beckon, and Spring Break is always too short, and our friends had to head back up to the far northeast side for us to miss them until we can play another day.



And by gum, it WON'T be this long next time.

SuperSam

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Sam poses in the cap and mask that his big brother picked out for him.



It would have been a perfect Wordless Wednesday picture, except that today is Friday, I've been slacking on my blogs, and I'm trying to get caught up. Sam had a mad case of the snoochies on Tuesday, and I was convinced he had an ear infection. Happily by the time I got him in to the doctor, he was just a little runny nose boy, and in a much better mood. This was a turning point.

Enjoy the Cuteness!

Therapy Flowers

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I picked a couple of the double tulips from the front yard for Sam's party on Saturday. After 2 nights in a row of going to bed at 10, they were a pair of pretty nuthin's come Tuesday night. In order not to lose it entirely, I left them having a snack, and I put myself in my own time out of sorts.

I needed to step outside and just take some pictures of Flowers. I think when I get frazzled, it helps me to take pretty pictures of something that doesn't talk back. And this little session, while quite cathartic, also turned out pretty darn awesome. too. Think I may be framing one of these.












My baby is 3

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Apparently this is the year of the Monkey, because my little monkeys woke up in a phenomenal mood on Sam's birthday. They were literally swinging from the rafters. It was hysterical.

Sam was pretty content staying home all day, he wanted to do two things for his birthday: Go to Chuck E. Cheese's and Watch Octonauts. Octonauts is his newest favorite show, and he watches a lot of it, but he watched it all morning, until he blew out his diaper, wherein he earned himself a bath.



After naps and brother coming home, the whole family headed to Chuck E. Cheese. Christopher was so worried we'd leave without him, but we didn't, and everyone had a wonderful time.



It's strange, like a switch suddenly went on. Sam turns three, and he becomes instantly capable of playing by himself. It was the most relaxing that a Chuck E. Cheese trip has ever been. I'll probably jinx future trips by saying so, but both my boys just had a genuine good time, celebrating with each other.

I am just so Blessed.

The one where Daddy overdoes it

We had this tree. Or bush. Or weed. Something. In the backyard that was growing crazy wild in three different directions.



To demonstrate, the above picture is from December, with Sam gazingly longingly into the snow. See that whacked out tripod tree/bush/weed thing in the background? Yeah.

It had to go.

So for some reason, Eric gets a little boost of energy on Sunday, and before mowing the lawn, goes around to pick up sticks. This is now a problem we have, now that we live on a lot with roughly 40 trees in the backyard. Er...39.

Eric took it upon himself to cut the whacky weed down on Sunday.

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It's like a whole new backyard, it'll be FABULOUS when we get the stumps out of there.

However, he doesn't have his full stamina back. He was absolutely exhausted just in time for us to leave to go to Money Class, aka the Financial Peace University (Dave Ramsey) class that Ryan is teaching - Teaching the entire Willman clan and a couple other people. It's awesomely motivating and interesting. We were all powerless to argue when the Fam wanted to go out for Tenderloins at Grindstone Charley's after. And by gum, the kids were being really cute.

Chris and Sam were oogling over the girl's Nintendo dsi games.



At one point, Christopher points to Lexi's and says, "Alexis, December 21st is my birthday and I will be 7. I want you to bring me one of those." Uh huh.

Then later, while Sam was contentedly eating his macaroni, Chris and Uncle Ryan were playing, making faces at each other, and after a while of giggling, Christopher gets exasperated, turns to Daddy says, "Your silly brother is doing everything that I do. Just like Sam."

Eric says, "Yeah, little brothers are like that."

The elder Willman boys laughed so hard there were tears. Sometimes it's easy to forget Eric was the big brother, and Ryan was the little. They must have been so much fun they were when they were little. As exhausted as we were not getting the kids to sleep until 10, it was worth it. We had a great day, a great night, one where we hadn't laughed that hard in a long time. I'm really enjoying this class, in spite of the financial stress, but enjoying all the family time even more. And now that Eric is recovering from his surgery, even not operating on full blast, confessing that he'd overdone it, it still was one our most productive days in a while.

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Sam's Birthday Party

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We had a Care Bear Birthday Party for him last Saturday. I can't believe my baby turned three this week. He's so old, he was blowing out his own candles.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Boys Bake

A Little Before:



Tis the season of Crazy around here. So much to be done, so little time, and with the stress of the last couple weeks, I was about to loose my mind. So my sweet husband took the yahoos to get their haircuts on Friday night, (they were desperate for it, look at all that hair - Sam had Curls!) and then he let me go to the grocery store. All. By. Myself!

And I had an entire hour in my house - Alone. I got caught up on my Words with Friends. I had fallen terribly behind, being that the only quiet time I got was at 10 o'clock when my mind is only capable of blithering, and not making words larger than 2 letters. Not that I haven't enjoyed all our quality time. It has actually been weirdly nice to have been sick, and blocking out all of the outside world. I just wish we were all healthy enough to enjoy it. Taking a week off for surgeries and sinus infections, doesn't exactly equal a spring vacation. However, as our collective health improves, we venture forth. Eric venturing out to cut boys hair, and I venture to go shopping, for birthday supplies and things for my sweet Sam turns 3 on the 26th. But his 3rd birthday party was Saturday the 24th.

And for that, we needed to make a cake. When everyone returned home, the boys chose, instead of a traditional family movie night, they chose to make a cake instead. Sam chose Black Cake for his birthday cake. So I let him help.



Turns out my sweetboys actually LOVE to help me cook. :)



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And the After:

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Sharing the Music Share

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Thursday was Christopher's First Music Program, "Wild about Animals" a Music Share Night. And he was a crocodile, he was so proud of his mask.



I thought you'd all enjoy some of the festive songs and pictures from that evening. First they got to sit in the audience with us and play on hand drums, and sing along.



Then they moved to the gym floor, where they demonstrated some of the activities, songs and whatnot they do during class. I loved that they got to run around a bit. And ham it up a bit too.



Christopher learns so much better when there is some physical movement associated, like an exercise break before and after reading, or counting on hands, or hand motions to a song. This was right up his alley. I love his teacher!



They learned about Saint Saens and his piece The Carnival of Animals, and danced as Kangaroos for it. Brilliant.



The last song about a Little Frog in a bog. I love his cute little hops.



He makes me so Proud. He's my little Rock Star!

Mmm..Mint Frappe

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A wonderful opportunity on Wednesday, as Eric was feeling good enough to let me out of the house. He stayed home with Sam, while I got to take Chris to Kindermusik class. As a little reward to myself, to enjoy in the relative quiet, I tried the Literate Bean's (our library's new little coffee shop) Minty Leprechaun, a scrumptious latte of Mint and White Chocolate, that the barrista was kind enough to make into a frappuccino for me. It's the little things.

First Daffodil for me

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What a great Gift on Tuesday! I was dashing outside through the backyard after running Christopher to the bus stop, since we missed the bus, and had to run into the neighborhood next door. It's our Bus Riding Back Up System.

Anyway, imagine my surprise when I saw the beginnings of a daffodil bloom starting to open. By the time we got home for lunch, it was Wide Open like this.



Bam! Spring!


Gorgeous against that smidge of brick background. And a bit of grass. There's just Something about that vibrant yellow, that first vibrant bloom of spring that just gets me. Love it.



I was so worried that the squirrels had eaten all the bulbs. Then this little beauty showed up.



Oh happy happy day!

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Garden Walk

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Can you believe this was our last day of winter? 80 degrees and Ducks waddling in the yard, and flowering pears blooming with a vengence.



Spring is here. Even if it is a tad early.

Word Up

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Grandma got the boys these hats, now they think they are the coolest of cool. They want to wear them everywhere. Even to church. We put a stop to that, by skipping church this week to do a birthday celebration with Emily. So the kids wore their hats. Supporting Colts! Even if the Colts have entirely dashed the team by losing Peyton. It's funny, my kids don't care about the details. It's our Home Team, and they'll support them. No matter what bad decisions they may make. We supported the Colts as our team before Peyton, and they'll still be our team after. We'll just be supporting Peyton in Denver too. I continue to learn a lot from them.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Happy St. Patrick's Day!



Love, Chris and Sam


*Better late than never. ;)

Birthday Brunch

Nothing says Avoiding the Crowds like Sunday morning at Chuck E. Cheese.




Happy Birthday Emily!

Monday, March 19, 2012

Finding my own green food

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Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Being that Eric and the boys were still feeling a bit under the weather, we decided we needed to stay in. Handily enough, we'd made no plans for the day, solely becaues we didn't know what Eric was going to be feeling up to doing, let alone if I was going to feel like leaving him alone.

So we had no concrete plans, but Eric was hungry for breakfast, and I asked if he had picked up anything special at the store for breakfast, because I had picked up a little food surprise at Costco early in the week, you'll see in a few. He hadn't, but while I was getting ready, I came downstairs to Eric putting a bowl full of green biscuit dough together. I love it, since we didn't have any fancy plan, we made our own green food!

Though he got it mixed and was Done. Exhausted. So I got to finish. I made the biscuits into shamrocks using a heart shaped cookie cutter, and baked them.



They turned out wonderfully. Now, traditionally, I am NOT the one to do the cooking. But these were great, and even the boys loved them!



I especially don't cook raw meat. It ooks me out, ever since my pregnancy with Christopher. But my friend Nicki makes This wonderful sausage gravy. So I made that. Raw meat and all. Ick. But following her recipe works every time. And the results were Scrumptious!



Even the boys loved their breakfast for St. Patrick's Day! (And since we had all the ingredients on hand, it was a lot cheaper than green beer) ;)



Then my Dad, and they don't get more Irish than my Dad who was born in and adopted from Ireland, stopped by with my stepmom to bring us a couple 'new' tvs! They even stayed for lunch. We had this wonderful pasta, shamrock ravioli stuffed with Dubliner cheese that I picked up as a St. Patrick's day surprise for my family from Costco. And it was wickedly awesome!



There was a party in our tummies. So Yummy, So Yummy! ;)

A Snowdrop

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Our first snowdrop bloomed at the new house! Hooray! This little fella was so tiny, but so pretty. I'm so happy to have flowers at the new house. I thought the squirrels had eaten all the bulbs. Hopefully, the first of many.