Video Update

It is no secret that our boys have lots and lots of personality. These 2 videos were taken in the last couple of weeks and they are the types that I love and I keep going back to watch, over and over...

 

This particular night, Ben was just on fire with all sorts of silly things and showing off all the words he knows. As usual, Ben and I were the last to finish dinner. Jonathan went into the den to play with our new bunny and Michael is cleaning up and doing the dishes. The video is 5.54 min long...but it's worth it!

 

READ BEFORE WATCHING- Just to explain a few things that are happening...

*Ben knows almost every animal and the noise they make. His favorite is "moo" and "woof, woof".

*Michael and I were eating chicken for dinner and Ben asked for "some" (he points and says "some?") So I said, "sure, do you want some chicken?" And he smiled and "bac bac" (like a chicken!) It was awesome!!!

*When he says "shhhh" at the beginning, he is just repeating us, since we keep shhhhhing him! He was really loud!

*The screaming thing is really loud and crazy! We are trying to stop it! Please keep your hand on the volume and adjust as needed.

*But the growl, I think is so stinking cute!

*"Apple" to Ben, means all fruit and veggies.

*He always asks me if I'm hurt. And I say no, and then I ask him and he says no. It's just a silly game we play. (It is so sweet how it started. It was about a month ago and I had on a scarf and he was very upset and grabbed at the scarf and asked "hurt?". I smiled and said no and gave him lots of love for being so sweet, so I think that's why he keeps asking!)

*He can see the planes in the sky at night when we eat dinner and he always yells out, "Bye, Bye Plane!"
*Ben calls our new Bunny "Bun".
*I love the way he says "Pea?" for Please.
*I have been listening to a song that starts "I know..." and to my surprise, he can sing some of it too!!
*He is good a sign language for "all done" and "more" - mainly pertaining to food! :-)
 

 

 

This is a video of Jonathan. He woke up one morning and told us he needed to write a story in his journal. He got his little note pad and an orange crayon and went to town "writing" a story. He worked on it, off and on for about 3 hours. Finally he said he was done and wanted to know if I wanted to hear the story! UM, of course!!!

So I asked if I could record him telling me! Unfortunately I ran out of space on my phone and didn't get the whole story! I'm so upset about it! :-(

But it's an awesome story!

I love watching this, for those of you who have seen the video when I was around 5 and telling the story of Jesus', you might think this sounds kind of similar! ;-)

We 3 Sick People

You haven't heard from me in a while because Jonathan, Ben and I have been really, really sick! It was a tough time, but thankfully we we have made it through and we are all better! Except, Michael, who we all thought had made it out of this without getting sick, woke up with a sore throat! So we hope it will pass!!

It all started a couple of weeks ago with Jonathan, he just had a random cough. Then a couple days went by and he was coughing more. I picked him up from school on a Wed afternoon and he had a low fever! With no other symptoms, we just kept him home and let him rest for a couple of days. But by Friday, he seemed much worse and now Ben was coughing...Getting in to see a Dr on Friday afternoon is IMPOSSIBLE! So I finally ran Jonathan up to the Minute Clinic. I was sure that he had the FLU. Since I knew at least 3 people we cross paths with already had it. But the test was negative. Even more alarming, he had a lower respiratory infection. The nurse at the clinic urged me to take him to someone else to get him checked out ASAP! We knew that his Dr would be in the office the next morning, so we decide to wait and see him.

We took both boys into the Dr on Sat morning. It was crazy and chaotic, and I am very glad that Michael was there to help! 
The diagnoses:
Jonathan: Lower Respiratory Infection (not exactly Pneumonia, but close) and a Virus. He was prescribed an inhaler.
Ben: Had the croup. His poor little cough sounded like a wounded duck. He was prescribed a steroid to help with the swelling in his throat. 

By Sunday, they had kind of improved, but not much. Jonathan hadn't been able to keep anything down for a couple of days. Ben wanted to just lay on me. Both were super grumpy.

Sunday night, Ben's cough had gotten worse. He couldn't lay down. I held him for almost the entire night. I only got about an hour of sleep, I'm not sure how much he got. But the poor baby spiked up to 103 fever. That is the highest he has ever gotten!

Thankfully, Monday Michael was able to stay home and I got Ben into the Dr again. New diagnoses, double ear infection! He was prescribed an antibiotic.

Tuesday, Michael returned to work and we decided to keep Jonathan home from school, he just didn't seem ready.

Wednesday, once again, we kept Jonathan home, he requested it this time. And now all the sudden my throat hurt, but what hurt worse were my ears. Ignoring my pain, I decided we needed to get out the house.  Jonathan requested a restaurant with pancakes! So we went to Ihop! While we were eating, I became very, very hot. I didn't feel well at all. Minute Clinic is right across the street from Ihop, so I decided I should be looked at real quick! Turns out I had Strep Throat! Ugh!

Once I got over the fact that I was sick, I realized that Jonathan probably had it too. I remembered the Dr saying his throat was really red. He had been coughing a ton, and he hadn't been holding anything down! All signs that he has it! We were all so distracted by his breathing that we forgot to do a strep test! So, I called his Dr and begged them to just call us in a Z Pack and not make us come in again. And to my surprise they did! I also asked them to prescribe a nebulizer to help heal Jonathan's lungs. And again, they did! (When we went to the Min Clinic for me on Wed, I asked her to listen to his chest and she said it still sounded bad and encouraged me to get a nebulizer to help him out.)

By Friday, our sick trio was finally, finally feeling better!!!! YAY!!!!! I sure do hope we are done for the season!!!

All in all, we were home for 8 days straight, not counting the 4 Dr visits and Ihop breakfast. We had cabin fever many times over. Jonathan missed 4 days of school in a row, which has NEVER happened before. Ben just missed 1 day since he only goes once a week! The biggest thing was that we missed my nephew Will's 2nd Birthday Party, which I am the saddest about!

Sad, sick little guy.

At the Dr on Sat morning, doing a breathing treatment. So glad Daddy was there to hold his hand!

On Monday at the Dr Office. My poor baby had a 102.2 Fever and fell asleep on my chest...little did I know, at the same exact time...(see next picture)

Jonathan had fallen asleep! Michael took this picture and text it to me, right as I was taking that picture of Ben! Our poor little guys! It was just a sad day.

On Tuesday I made them get well soon lunches! That is a Dino Sandwich cutter!

Our get well soon picnic lunch! Jonathan insisted on having the stuffed animals join us! J had to line them up in a straight line! And Ben was determined to mess the line up the whole time! Their little personalities crack me up! The picnic lunch helped a little bit!

After we got our nebulizer! The first time Jonathan did the breathing treatment, (the night before this) Ben cried and cried and tried to pull the mask off J's face. He caused such a ruckus, I had to take him out of the room! The next morning, Ben decided he wasn't scared anymore, and in fact, it was his turn to do it. So I found Ben a different mask to wear and let him sit on a stool in front of J!

The masked brothers!

J doing his breathing treatments. Love those big beautiful eyes!

This one is for all the Jonathan Scrunchy Smile Fans!!! - Another fun thing to do when you are stuck inside, make a fort!  

(Blurry) Under the fort!

A sign (literally and figuratively) that Jonathan was finally better! He asked Michael to write this down and tape it to his door. I love it! I crack up every time I read it 'cause it sounds just like him when he talks. Michael says this was the short version of what he wanted it to say! Ha!
So we all gathered together and read some books and then we jammed out to music and danced! Yay! We are all better now! THANK GOD! (just praying Michael doens't get sick now!)

The Dallas Zoo

I mentioned a while back, we are members to the Dallas Zoo! So we are trying to get there as much as we can! My good friend Angela has a membership too and so we met up with her and her 2 sons, Grayson and Connor! Our boys are close in age and get along great! We had so much fun!

Ben is talking SO much lately! I have lots of videos I need to upload here to show you! He is great at communicating, it's amazing! So that morning, I told him we were going to the Zoo to see animals. And this began, and hasn't really stopped yet, where he says something that sounds like: "Zeue" and then "ana-mal"! You always have to confirm what he says, or he just keeps saying it, so I say, "Yes, ZOO and Animals!" and he giggles and giggles! Its so funny! He loves animals!

Ben LOVED this barn area with the petting zoo!

Conner, Jonathan, Grayson, and Ben checking out some large rabbits!

I thought these owls were beautiful and it was a little chilly, so they were tucked into their box.

Beautiful horse!

Heading into the Bird area, you can buy a cup of worms and a seed stick for a $1 each. They warned me that the birds would swarm me as I walked into their area with the worms, but I wasn't prepared for what happened! All I know is I blinked and all the worms were gone and I had only taken one step into the area!!! Crazy!

This is one of the birds that ate all my worms. But after he ate, he stayed on my hand and hung out with me for a little while! He is beautiful!

My little bird friend is flying away, and my Ben is taking off too...better go catch him!

The 4 boys and Angela feeding the bird their seed sticks!

This guy came to visit me for a while too! He is pretty awesome...he made me want a bird of my own!

Horse back riding time!

So exciting! (only $1 for a ride!)

I love the expression on his face! He had a blast!

Ben wanted to ride too! The man is putting him on for me! Ben looks uncertain!

Getting the hang of it!

No idea what I am trying to say here...I walked along side him to make sure he stayed on! He LOVED it! He has continued to talk about the horse, but when he says it, it sounds more like, "Hars". I love it! I can't wait to take him back and let him do it again!

He didn't want to get off... He kept rocking back and forth saying "Go, Go, Go!!!"

"Hars!!!"

Then we went to the reptile house! The boys loved it!

The little guys loved going into this thing. You are supposed to put in money and it blows hurricane force winds on you. We didn't do that, but they liked going in and closing the door.

I included this just to show what Ben looks like in most photos. BLUR! The red blur, that's Ben.

I forget what this reptile was called, but he was very active. The boys liked watching him.

Connor and Ben found a frog!

Angela and Connor!! (I made the scarf for her as a belated bday present! My first project on my brand new sewing machine!!!)

The Gaylord at Christmas



I LOVE The Gaylord Texan Resort, especially at Christmas. It is such a fun place to go and hang out anytime, but they really do a great job with their Christmas decor. We had decided that we didn't want to do the Ice exhibit (too pricey and too cold, it's 9 degrees in there). And then we found out that Santa only comes on nights and weekends...bummer! So we decided to go with our friends Kathryn and Avery and have some yummy lunch and walk around! It was loads of fun!

 

 

Ben is becoming very independent...he just took off...

Silly Jonathan is waiting on brother to come back! He didn't. So we didn't get a pic in the sleigh, oh well. 

Love looking at the trains!

Love looking at the fountains!

A VERY serious discussion about what to wish for...

Oops, he noticed me watching AND taking pictures.

I just loved this series of photos, their sweet little faces.  

Sweeties!

Trains!

I LOVE THIS PHOTO!

He is being shy from a lady, which was odd, since he is rarely shy.

Ben loves horses! He wanted to get on!

The 5 of us! Avery, Jonathan, Me, Ben and Kathryn!

Okay, I LOVE THIS ONE TOO!! That face! He is such a sweetie!  

Santa's boots!

Wow! Look at this tree, y'all!