Ear surgery

Thanks to all who were praying for us. Dallas's ear surgery went great. Grandpa Dallas came over last night to stay at the house with Emily, It would not have been fun to drag her out of bed at 5:30 am

We were at the hospital by 6:00 am, and home by 8:30, with the bulk of that time being spent getting input to the hospital as an outpatient. The computer system that generates questions to ask, took over 30 minutes. Dallas did really well with the anesthesia. He was really clingy coming out, but had no problems downing two cups of juice and cuddling with me and his blanket. The Dr. said his ears were full of fluid, and he saw lots of evidence of previous infections. The left ear had some blistering from previous infections, they had to remove some tissue to correct and place the tube. I think his favorite part was the wagon rides Robert was giving him to pass the time while we waited.

weekly randoms

A couple of pictures to fill you in on what we have been doing this week...

Both of my kids love, I mean luuuurv tomato soup. I am lazy and use the Campbell's canned soup, but usually purchase the low sodium version (it makes me feel a little better). The love to float those fish crackers in and scoop them out with their spoon. I caught Dallas slurping the rest out of his bowl! No-one in our family really does this, so he must have been pretty proud of himself for thinking of it!
This is a picture of our main bathroom (the only one with a bath or shower). Notice the mirror, sink, toilet and shower surround are all gone, not to mention the flooring. We hope to be up and partially running again by Tuesday. Ironically it wasn't a bad weekend to be without water (if you have been following Ames flooding woes), as we had been planning our showers at the gym and at friends houses. We have hired some of this work, but after the big stuff is put back together, we will still have to texture the wall to match the others (the wall you are looking at needed all new dry wall), paint and hang and frame our new mirror.
Riding bikes/trikes. I try to make it outside with the kids everyday for some significant play time. But I cannot take the heat/humidity that we have had lately. I really don't love this kind of weather not pregnant, but holy cow, it has been miserable the past weeks. I am not sure it is entirely healthy for the kids to be out longer than an hour or so at a time. Emily is getting good at riding her bike, and Dallas is really content pushing the trike. His feet cannot reach the pedals, I am trying to keep a look out for a used trike that would fit him better.
Chalk has been a big part of our outdoor time as well. This is Emily's creation.

So all of this besides 500 year flooding in Ames, boiling water for days, not doing laundry and doing dishes by hand, with boiled water, it has been an busy week. We spent the day at the State Fair. I made it the whole day, although Rob said I looked pretty hot and miserable. I felt like I went from place to place, first getting water, then finding a place to go to the bathroom. I carried a kid much of the time too, perhaps they were hot and tired too. I do really enjoy going every year, and want it to be a happy tradition for our kids. We decided we need to figure out a way to "do" the fair, but not feel like we are rushing through everything.

Garden Haul

My garden is completely thriving under my "LACK" of supervision. I planted the garden, spent a day mulching around the plants so I wouldn't have to weed, and now I visit it maybe once a week. I am sure the weather helps, hot plus lots of water. With the heat, the mosquitos, and the belly, this hasn't been summer I had planned on initially, spending every moment outside!

to get caught up

We hosted Annika and Kiersten for a little bit on Sat. This is the girls playing princess bingo in the play house. Kiersten and Dallas slept the whole afternoon. Happy anniversary to Craig and Beth, hope the KC BBQ was great.
Ready to head down to Good Guys, where will that third carseat go?
Boat ride in Princeton, MN, hanging out with Scott, Sara and Christopher
As you can see this was an action shot. Dallas pulling Emily around in the mini John Deere wagon
First sweet corn of the season, July 2010. Dallas had some too, but we had to force it on him, so no picture was taken

Emily's 4th birthday Beach style

I tried to caption most photos. Emily picked some friends to come over to celebrate her birthday. It was loosely structured, think play date. We had two kiddo pools, the new sandbox, a borrowed mini jump house, and our beach ball sprinkler. We served a kid friendly lunch of ham and cheese sandwiches, cut out with dolphin shaped cookie cutters, fruit kabobs, blue jello with sharks swimming inside and juice boxes and water. The cake was the easiest ever. I made a 9 x 13 sprinkle funfetti cake (that is what Em picked) and a box of vanilla pudding. Cut up the cake into squares and layer it into the sand pail (clean of course), followed by a layer of pudding, until you fill the pail. I dusted the top with crushed Nila wafers to emulate sand, and added a chocolate sea shell or two and a drink umbrella! So fun and easy, but no frosting for you frosting lovers... You serve it up by dishing a scoop, I suppose it is a cake parfait, you can't see the layers. Emily had a great time, and once the pools were set up in the backyard it was a really easy party to throw. Happy Birthday Emily

Nesting Part 1 is over

These are pictures of before master bathroom and bedroom. The bathroom was disgusting when we bought it, we replaced the chipped toilet seat straight away and lived with the rest for five years. The bedroom we attempted to paint, and didn't love the color, then two years ago we got some new windows, so we updated the blinds.
This is where we ended up. I painted the bedroom cashew crunch from Sherwin Williams, the picture bleaches it out some, it is darker. I picked the color from the quilt. The curtains or mis-treatments are $3 sheets from Walmart, also the color is from the quilt. We spent a little more money in the bathroom. Ten dollars for paint, two quarts of Nautilus from SW, a $15 mirror from a garage sale, $30 light from Walmart, and the above the toilet cabinet was more of an investment but needed for space, $80 from Lowes. Throw in some misc, new handles for the vanity. I painted the vanity out to change it from dark wood to white. Rob also had to buy some stuff to make the wiring for the new light legal. Click on the picture to see the curtain details and colors larger.

I love the finished project! I wishe we didn't still have carpet in the bathroom, but we have not tackled flooring yet. I need some cute accessories for the exposed shelf, and perhaps the vanity top. Plus I would like to get some pillows for the bed. Anyone want to do some shopping?

Build-a-bear

Aunt Lynne gave Emily a trip to Build a Bear for her birthday. Let me tell you, this place was made for four year olds. Emily and I met Lynne at the mall for a girls night out. The deal was Emily got to pick out an animal and an outfit. We had never taken her inside any kind of place like this, we don't even walk down the toy isle in Walmart, so I can safely say she thought it was really cool. I posted a video too, I am trying to also upload the other video from my phone.

On top of this awesome experience, we also stopped into the bookstore to use a gift card Emily got for her birthday. She had so much fun picking out books, I wish I could buy her every book she wanted. It is a good responsible learning lesson to know how many books you can get for the money on your card. Thanks Aunt Cheryl! She picked 6 "learn to read level 1 and 2 books". It was so cute because she wanted to buys some for Dallas too, but her pile always had 9 or so books in it. We finally settled on 1 book for Dallas and they could share the rest, or as Em says it, "I will read them to him so he can learn it."
Making a birth certificate for "Hannah the bunny"

Taking home our newest family member