Another snow day...what are we going to do all day?!

Well we had more snow days yesterday and today.  As fun as snow days can be at our home there is something called cabin fever.  Zack and I take turns getting work done in the office and then we spend some time all together having fun too.  Here are a few things we do on snow days...

Try on mommy's shoes...

 

 

Try on mommy and daddy's shoes...

Talk a lot to Rocky...

Wear boxes as hats...

Yep, boxes as hats...

Have picnics with our monkey and doggie...

And finally, blanket swinging with daddy!!!

Ava says, "Me too!"...

SNOW DAY!!!

Yesterday was a snow day for us!  With about a foot of snow we weren't going anywhere.  So you know what that means right?!  Pajamas, special snow treats, and chili in the crockpot.  Here are a few pictures to see some of the highlights...

A picture of our deck before the snow had ended.

Reese watching daddy shovel a path for Rocky off the deck and into the backyard.

Making snow ice cream!

This snow ice cream is pretty good!



Ava digging in the snow pitcher.



A friend of mine sent me the snow ice cream recipe when the snow began to fall and it was a yummy treat after naptime.  Here it is in case you want to try it...

Snow Ice Cream

3 oz instant pudding (chocolate, vanilla or lemon) (we tried vanilla)

2 3/4 cups milk

2 teaspoons vanilla (omit if using chocolate)

1 1/2 cups sugar

dash salt

Mix all ingredients until foamy.

Add 3 quarts new fallen snow.

Mix and eat immediately or freeze. Enjoy!

 

I've also included a couple videos from last week.  In the meantime, as much fun as the snow day was, we're looking forward to spring and summer. 

 

 

I'm not sure who Reese learned this from...it definitely wasn't me!

 

 

We are getting better at counting but still need some work!





A Few of Our Favorite Things...

Our favorite things are definitely different than Maria's in The Sound of Music but just as the song goes...These are a few of our favorite things....

Sitting on the "big people chairs" and reading books.

Playing with our friend Nolan and his tractors.

Going to the park with our friends Payton and Colton.

Going to the Great Mall to play on the quarter rides.  WHAT!  These things actually move?  (Mommy and Daddy are cheap!)

More Great Mall fun...but only if Mommy and Daddy wash our hands right after we get off.



 

 

Licking the almond butter off of our toast.



 

 

Attempting to do somersaults!

One of our LEAST favorite things is the flu.  Reese caught that bug last week and spent 4 days with 100-105 degree fevers, not eating and laying around.  Not fun.  Luckily Ava didn't catch it.  All the hand washing and sanitizing paid off.  Is spring here yet???

Snow Much Fun...And Then a Turn for the Worse

A couple weeks ago, KC got a couple inches of snow.  So on New Year's Day we decided to take the girls out to sled around the neighborhood.  We found little inclines in our neighbors' yards (thanks Southards, Robertsons, and Ahrings!) and took advantage of them.  The girls had a pretty good time other than Ava falling face-first into the snow and Reese's fingers turning into popsicles!  

(Hope to add a few more photos but the site was not allowing me to upload for now.)

However, just a few days later the downward spiral began.  It went a little like this...

Thursday (Midnight) - Ava coughed all through the night and has a 101 degree temperature.  A little Ibuprofen helped the fever but of course not the cough.

Friday - Ava wouldn't eat anything, had almost no energy, was very grumpy, coughed continuously, required oxygen when attempting to sleep, needed breathing treatments, and needless to say slept horribly, but didn't have a fever and would drink her whole milk with instant Carnation Breakfast.  She would have very short spurts of energy to pick up a toy but then sit or lay down on the floor or couch.

Saturday - Same status for Ava and talked with the doctor who wanted to wait it out assuming it was a virus.

Sunday - Same status for Ava and now Reese starts getting a nasty sounding cough.  Ava is now wanting to spend time either in her crib trying to sleep or in our arms.

Monday - Same status for Ava and the doctor wants to see her.  We find out she has an ear infection in one ear on top of everything else.  Ava starts antibiotics and steroid.  I get hit with flu symptoms of body aches, chills, queasy, etc. and spend the majority of afternoon and evening in bed.

Tuesday - Same status for Ava.  I spend the morning in bed sleeping and by afternoon start feeling better.  Reese still has yucky cough but no other symptoms.

Wednesday - Doctor wants us to take Ava to Children's Mercy South Urgent Care.  They deep suction her airway through her nose, give a breathing treatment, check her oxygen saturation and determine she has a double ear infection now.  This doctor believes it is a cold virus with the double ear infection and that we need to wait it out in addition to continuing the antibiotics to knock out any bacterial infection.  Zack is now feeling queasy and ends up spending the afternoon and evening in bed or in front of the toilet vomiting.  Reese coughs through the night, chiming in with her sister. 

Thursday - Ava slowly turns the corner and eats a few bites of food throughout the day as well as makes it until her normal nap/bedtime instead of crashing early.  Zack is still feeling weak and crummy but by afternoon/evening begins to feel somewhat normal other than lower energy and lighter appetite.  First night in 6 nights that Ava and Reese have a quiet, cough-free night!!! (Zack and I were pretty thankful!)

Friday - Everyone wakes up feeling pretty good, with pretty good appetites and in pretty good moods.  Coughing is only at a minimum from Reese who also has a clear runny nose but is a piece of cake to cope with after the past week! 

We are optimistic after Lysol-ing the house, washing sheets and towels, sanitizing toys, cell phones, light switches, doorknobs, and on and on and on, we are getting healthier every day.  Washing our hands continuously won't get us any hand modeling jobs but the dry, cracked hands are well worth it in order to fight all these winter infections. 

Boycotting the Carseats

The Christmas holiday was wonderful but let's just say the girls would be willing to give their carseats away if mommy and daddy would allow! 

The craziness started when our family had our annual Christmas party on Dec. 15th.  We've had this for three years now but had to skip last year with the girls' being home with such weak immune systems.  It was a time to have neighbors and friends from our church campus over to celebrate and enjoy the time of year together.  I love how the group keeps growing but as you can see, before long the adults are going to be outnumbered by the kiddos!

Then on December 20th the girls turned 2!  It's hard to believe it's been two years since they came into this world.  They will soon find out that birthdays don't typically last 7 days though!  We had a birthday party with a few friends at home on the 20th and then celebrated two more times with family.  Spoiled little girls!  The birthday party with friends was a book theme since the girls are so in to reading books right now.  We had books scattered around, cakes made to resemble book characters, coloring books to enjoy, etc.  Lots of fun!

Then the next morning, December 21st, our travels began.  And since the girls were officially two years old, we turned their carseats around so they could be forward facing.  It was a big hit for the first half hour or so...then they remembered they were still in their carseats!  We were headed to Madison, WI to my mom's sister's house.  Our trip turned out to be 10.5 hours due to the snowstorm in Iowa so the girls actually did pretty well in their carseats considering the circumstances.  Only about the last two hours were bad.  We got to spend time with grammy, aunt Amber, uncle Chad, cousin Brandon (Bubba), aunt Nancy, uncle Steve, and all of our cousins and their kids.  It was so much fun to have everyone together!

Then off to Galesburg, IL on December 24th to spend Christmas with all of daddy and mommy's family.  We got to see Nana, Pappy, Gigi Pat, Aunt Alice, John, uncle Sean, aunt Heidi, and also Nana's brother and his family.  More time with Grammy, aunt Amber, uncle Chad, and Bubba too!  The girls were really getting the hang of opening presents by this time! 

While in Galesburg, we also got to go to Peoria, IL to see daddy's good friend Matt, along with his wife Jill and Emie.  It was fun to see all the girls play together!

Then on December 28th we headed to Minneapolis, MN for a wedding of mommy's college friend.  Daddy and mommy agreed that a wedding in Minnesota during the month of December is crazy but friends are worth it!  It was a lot of fun for mommy to see so many of her college friends.  Heidi and Steve's wedding was beautiful and we were so happy to be a part of it! 

Finally, on December 30th we headed home.  It felt wonderful for us to be in our own beds and in our own home.  We had a pretty uneventful trip but as the title of this post refers, the girls don't have any desire to get into those carseats anytime soon.  We had a low-key New Year's Eve with our good friends next door, the Southards.  We had a special toast of sparkling cider at 9:30pm to ring in the new year!  Pretty crazy for some 30-somethings and a bunch of toddlers! 

We hope everyone reading this had a wonderful Christmas with your loved ones and will have a happy new year in 2013!

Busy Bees

I know it has almost been a month since I made post.  Things have been busy around here.  For Thanksgiving Uncle Sean and Aunt Heidi came from Chicago.  We had a great time with them hanging out and doing our thing. 

The following weekend Grammy came to stay.  That Friday evening (Nov. 30th) we had a "Thank You Pizza Party" for all of our nurses.  November was officially our last month of nursing and we are missing our nurses already.  It's so weird having these individuals in your home for a year and a half and then just going back to our family.  It was an adjustment getting used to having nurses IN our home and now it's an adjustment having nurses OUT of our home!  We miss them and plan on staying in touch.  With that said, we have a fabulous nanny who had been watching the girls along with one of our nurses and is now taking over a couple days a week.  We couldn't ask for any better!

That weekend we also took Ava and Reese to see Santa.  As you can tell from the pictures they weren't too fond of the big hairy fella.  They didn't mind him from the comforts of mommy and daddy's arms but once we sent the girls down on Santa's lap...flood gates opened!  They much preferred the carousel and coloring station. 

Last week the girls went to the doctor's office to get their synegis shots for RSV.  Much to our surprise they both had ear infections that the doctor informed us about!  Ava had been a little cranky a couple days prior and they had not been sleeping as well but neither girls tugged on their ears or seemed to be in pain.  After just a few doses of their ten-day supply of antibiotics, they were pretty happy and sleeping great.  Thank goodness for meds!

Other than that we are just loving the girls and their fun stage of toddler-hood.  They are learning more and more words every day and personalities are revealing themselves more and more.  Reese is testing limits loud and clear while Ava is the quiet sneaky one.  As you can tell from the picture, we are also getting hair long enough for pig tails!  Giving hugs and kisses is popular around here too!