Stomach flu.....blek!

Our house was hit by the stomach flu!! Somehow I'm the only one that's managed to avoid it. The Jr. High called me Friday morning b/c Lexi had vomited at school. Of course it's never easy for me to figure out how to get the kids home b/c I obviously can't leave, but thankfully Grandpa Marvin was willing to pick her up and bring her home for me. She got sick off & on all day Friday, but then woke up Saturday morning back to normal!

Kiegan spent the night at my mom's Friday night and bright & early Saturday morning we dropped Lexi & Maddie off at my mom's so we could heat to the boat in Peoria with Trevor, Nicole, G&G Wunderlin and Joanne. When we got to the boat, us young folks had to have our licenses scanned and wouldn't you know - Travis' was expired! Just our luck and we probably should have taken that as a sign. Travis & Trevor headed to the driver's license place in Pekin to fix the situation and Nicole & I headed onto the boat. Neither of us were having much luck at all. Eventually the boys were back and of course there was a different guy working the front of the boat who let Travis on without even asking to see his driver's license - ugh! Oh well, at least it's renewed and he's driving legally now. The gambling went on and I think Grandpa Marvin was the only winner of the day. Afterwards, we went to the Burger Barge to eat and oh it was SO GOOD! They have so much to choose from on the menu that it's hard to decide on one thing. I ended up getting their Tavern Burger that had bacon, cheese, sauteed onions and a fried egg on it. It sounds weird I know, but it was the BEST burger I've ever had! Plus I had cheese fries and deep-fried pickles. I was stuffed when I was done!! I also ended up falling asleep on the ride home....the rest of Saturday night was a lazy one.

I made my weekly trip to Walmart with Maddie on Sunday morning. It's always so funny when she's at Walmart with me b/c she gets so much attention - she can't help being so cute though! I was picking up gifts for a birthday party we had that afternoon when Maddie set her eyes on this super-soft pillow pet thingy. So I gave it to her and she just kept hugging and hugging it and saying "Ahhhh" so I took a picture of her doing that with my cell phone and sent it to Travis with the caption of "PLEASE Daddy??" His response? "Anything for you Peanut!" So I may have to try that next time I want something!! LOL

We went down the road for the Masching twin's birthday party - can't believe they're 2 already! Everything was going well until all of a sudden Maddie vomited all over!! I've never seen men clear a table so quickly.....LOL! Travis & I were both covered in the curdled milk vomit and so was their garage floor so needless to say we cleaned up the best we could and headed back home. She got sick quite a few more times that afternoon and boy is it difficult to get a baby to throw up in a bowl! I ended up just getting one of our great big bathroom towels and catching it in there. Thankfully, after the one big vomit at the party, the rest of them were much smaller. Travis went to a buddy's house to watch the football games and ended up coming home from there vomiting! To top it off, Kiegan woke me up around 4:00 Monday morning b/c he vomited in his garbage can. So needless to say, I closed my daycare for Monday and just like Lexi - everybody was fine by the end of the day. My mom also ended up staying home from work on Monday with the same stuff. Oh and I guess Grandpa Marvin ended up with it on Sunday too! So whatever we have is very contagious, but we seem to bounce back from it quickly which is good!

So we're now all healthy and hopefully we stay that way for awhile. Kiegan is suppose to go to Blm. every night this week for his sessions, but of course we missed last night. My mom (who is feeling better) offered to take him for me tonight b/c I have a hair appt. So we will probably be having a lot of crock-pot suppers this week! I've already got some BBQ chicken thighs going in the crock-pot for tonight.

I'm hoping this daycare week is better than last week. Today's a pretty easy day which is nice - we talked about the colors blue & white. I went outside and scooped some snow into a bowl and let the kids play with it at the table for a bit and then we added some blue food coloring to turn it from a pretty white to a bright blue! Then I taped some blue construction paper to some bigger white paper and the girls cut pictures of things that were blue and/or white out of magazines and glued them on the blue & white paper. I made some blue Jell-o Jigglers first thing this morning so we snacked on those and they will probably want some more for snack this afternoon! I have one little girl here who is SUPER picky and she won't even touch the jigglers so she will probably have marshmallows for snack - at least they're white to go with our blue & white talk for today. :o)

Thank GOODNESS it's Friday!

Sleeping with her butt in the air.....



Oh this has been a week here at the daycare....nobody is getting along, they seem to have forgotten how to be nice to others, they've forgotten how to listen, etc. I'm not sure when the last time was that I've had such a rough week with the kids! By 9:00 this morning all of the kids but 1 had been in time-out at least once. Grrrr.....hopefully naps do them some good! (And hopefully parents arrive on time to pick them all up so this daycare day can END.)



Lexi ended up coming back home from school this morning vomiting (thank-you Grandpa Marvin for bringing her home!). She doesn't have a fever, but she has vomited a few more times. She just asked me to make her some toast so we'll see whether or not it stays down. I just hope she doesn't share it with the rest of us!

As soon as the daycare kids leave, I have to head to Pontiac to the bank and to pick up my Market Day order. I haven't ordered from there for awhile and I'm excited to get it! (Kinda sad that an order of food excites me! LOL) They have the best single-packaged chicken breasts - actually all of their food is really, really good. I should probably get my Walmart shopping done while I'm in town, but I haven't made my grocery list or my dinner list for next week yet and I just don't shop good without a list!

Speaking of next week, Kiegan will be heading to Blm. Monday thru Friday for his sessions to make up for what he missed this week. Oy! I cancelled his session for Wednesday & Thursday b/c I just didn't want to attempt driving in the nasty weather. It will make our evenings VERY hectic, but I just keep reminding myself that it's all for a good reason! I did learn that Kiegan is now getting some extra help for the last hour of each day with a separate teacher who is working with him on his organizational skills, reviewing with him what his classroom teacher taught that day and just asked me today if I was ok with her working on his reading skills with him. Of course I was ok with that - my only concern is that he tests out at a 3rd grade reading level so I don't like that he's expected to understand 4th grade material when he's still trying to conquer 3rd grade stuff. I'm still waiting to hear back from her on that....

Quiet time is almost over now - yikes! Hopefully these last two hours go smoothly......

Another yummy recipe!

Lexi whipped up some SUPER yummy cinnamon rolls last night from a recipe that my mom found. They are SOOOO good - even though they have cinnamon in them, Travis REALLY liked them too!

CINNAMON SWEET PUFFS
1/2 c. sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 (8 oz.) cans crescent rolls
16 large marshmallows
1/4 c. melted butter

Combine sugar and cinnamon. Separate crescent rolls. Dip marshmallows in melted butter and then roll in cinnamon/sugar mixture. Roll marshmallows in crescent roll starting from a pointed end. Seal all edges very well and dip ball of dough in butter. Bake for 10-15 min. at 350.


The weather outside doesn't look so great right now - the entire East side of our house is ice-covered. I've already decided not to go to Blm. for Kiegan's session tonight. Hopefully the roads will be better for us to head down there tomorrow! Travis said that the temp. is suppose to drop another 2 degrees this afternoon so the roads should be just a blast for driving on.

Today the daycare kids were really testing my patience. I guess this is what happens when you have a house full of girls - the cat-fighting starts at such an early age! I even ended up not doing our craft that was planned for today due to their lack of listening skills and behavior. Quiet time will be over in about 30 minutes so hopefully a nap will bring them back to their well-behaved selves!

I'm excited for Saturday! It sounds like we're going to the boat in Peoria with Joanne and maybe Trevor & Nicole for the day. I know a group went last weekend and had awesome luck so I'm hoping for the same thing for us!! My mom will be taking the crew for us and keeping them entertained while we're gone. I'm sure they're not going to enjoy being with Mamaw one single bit!

Maddie is so funny and I wish I could just keep a video camera going on her at all times. She loves to dance now and she can really BOOGIE! I don't even know how to explain it - you have to see it to appreciate it.

Ok - well my newest little baby seems to be waking so I should probably get her changed & fed. I've got some chicken going in the crockpot so I need to figure out what I'm going to with it for our supper - chicken tacos maybe?

Be careful driving out there!

Yummy Pretzels

Thought I'd share this recipe I made yesterday during quiet time - it's one of Lexi's favorites!

1 bag of Pretzel Nuggets
2/3 c. oil
1/3 c. sugar
1-2 tsp. cinnamoon (I always use 2)

Put the pretzels in a microwave-safe dish. In a seperate bowl, combine oil, sugar and cinnamon - pour over pretzels; stir. Microwave, uncovered, on high for 2 minutes; stir. Microwave 3-4 more minutes on high stirring after each minute.

Lexi's likes to take these in her lunch instead of chips!

Tuesday, Tuesday

Tuesday's are typically pretty easy-going days for me b/c I have a fairly light load of kids, but Maddie is making it rough! Goodness she's grumpy and she keeps like bonking herself in the mouth or the head with her own hand and then looks at me and starts crying as if it really hurt....gee are we trying to get some attention or what?! She's sleeping now and hopefully she takes a GOOD nap. I think she might be having those "night terrors" b/c she keeps waking up through the night crying like somebody's just scared the ba-Jesus out of her, but when I pick her up it's like she's not really with it. Sometimes I can tell that she's still mostly sleeping so I don't pick her up, but she'll lay there and cry out which I don't like to listen to. So I'm hoping this won't last for very long!

I mentioned in my blog yesterday that Kiegan was sailing through his sessions in Blm., but I think things are starting to become more challenging for him. He suddenly didn't want to go last night and started getting a headache. I asked him if the program (it's all done on a computer) was too easy or too hard and he said that it's more like medium so I'm thinking it's starting to challenge him which is good! To top his night off, his Nintendo DS stopped working so he called Travis to tell him who gave us the thumbs up to buy a new one while we were at Blm. Walmart buying a new Wii to replace the one that got fried Christmas Eve. So we should have all working electronics now!! LOL

Lexi LOVED her new room when she got home yesterday! Travis was so excited for her to see it (it was his idea for the kids to switch) so he was happy to hear that she liked it so much. :o) She almost didn't want to go to Blm. with us b/c she wanted to stay up in her room! LOL She also didn't mind a single bit that Maddie's crib is eventually going to be moved in there so I was relieved about that.

I think I'm going to make Cheesy Pizza Macaroni for supper tonight. I know it makes a lot and will make for some great leftovers for the daycare kid's lunch tomorrow!

A few pictures and a short update....

Maddie's new trick: climbing into the rocking chair all by herself



Almost got it!

Getting turned around...

And then we do this....which Mommy does not like!

"What?!"

Big baby in a little high chair....

She kept trying to squeeze in between the wall and the toy, but would get stuck every time!

I guess being stuck became fun after awhile.....

Artist in the making!

She really gets into her work...

We had spaghetti for supper....I kept trying to catch her smiling, but my phone camera would snap the picture right after she'd stop!

She looks like she's pouting, but every time she'd take a bite she'd say "Num, num, num" while chewing.

Yep - she had some help getting into here....

Enjoying her birthday cupcake!

Good stuff!!

Here we are 18 days into 2010 and one of my New Year's resolutions was to be a better blogger - not looking so hot am I?? I decided that even if they're just short blogs, that'd be better than no blogs!

Maddie is a year old now - so hard to believe! She measured in at 28 1/2 pounds and 32 3/4 inches long. Doc said to start working with her on her basketball skills b/c with the height it looks like she's going to have, she can start working towards a college scholarship. That's what I'm talking about! LOL She walks darn near everywhere now with a few crashes/wipe outs, but they don't seem to upset her too much. What I love the most is how she wants to fall asleep every night in Travis' arms. As soon as she sees him lay down in bed, she's wiggling out of my arms to lay with him and she will be out like a light within minutes! Travis absolutely LOVES it and he'll lay there with her forever before letting me "transfer" her to her crib.

This past weekend we ended up having the boys swap rooms with Lexi - she needs more room than they do! It looks SO great!! The boy's bunkbeds have been slowly falling apart and they finally just gave out so we bought each of them a futon which they think is SO COOL b/c they fold up into couches. It literally took the entire weekend to do this and you wouldn't believe how much garbage we came across in their two rooms! Lexi will see her new room when she comes home today - I'll just have to break the news to her that her sister will also be moving into her room.

We are all doing well so far this year. I feel like my days are so busy that I have very little time to do much else. My daycare is full and I've got families "reserving" me for 2011 already which is very flattering! I've been trying to step things up a bit more than before and would like to get to the point where we have certain themes for each day such as manners day, craft day, music day, etc. We will see! I've also finally starting working on some accreditation which will take some time to get done, but I'm glad to have finally started. I have a 75-hour training starting next week - hopefully I get some good stuff out of it! I love having my daycare and I want it to be more than kids just coming to play all day and they LOVE when we do crafts!

We did learn that Travis' Aunt Jane has breast cancer so please pray for her, her husband and children as they deal with what's to come. It's a very rare form, but they seem to be getting things taken care of as quickly as they can!

In some exciting news - Travis & I can finally announce to everyone that we are going to be an Uncle & Aunt in July! Trevor & Nicole are expecting their first and so far Nicole has been feeling pretty great which I'm so glad for. They don't plan to find out what it is, but I have a hunch that it's a boy. :o)

That's all I've got for today - we're heading to Blm. tonight for Kiegan's session. So far he's just sailing through everything which they said is how it will be until he hits his plateau. I'm still hoping that we will see this program helping him soon!

Till next time...