Full speed ahead!

Today I brought out these cars and the kids where having "races" and when they where all done Walter said "everybody was looking at my car and I got a trophy." I said what place did you take and he said "thirteen hundred and I got train snacks too." Then he said "Rose E got seventy and one half place and she also got a trophy." He is still talking a lot about the car show that he went to with Daddy and keeps asking to go to another one and oh he has also been holding train shows in our living room! I just love to see too that he is getting more and more into playing with his sister and helping her with things.
Rose E's new word yesterday was "happy." When she woke-up in the morning and I picked-her up out of her crib she said "happy" then I washed her hands after lunch and when we where all done she said it again. She has been all into throwing toys in play so today I brought out a container of balls and she loved it she carried the bucket full all over the house.
I am so pumped because we had the kids pictures professionally taken yesterday and they turned out so beautiful. We had them taken at the museum in Lake Linden. What is cool too is that she is going to have the ones for our house done for us tomorrow so we can hang them for our home tour. We are still working like mad here to get ready for this tour and it will be a relief when we are completely done! We ordered some flowers for it too and I am excited to see how they look. Jeff is getting better but is still pretty exhausted from his illness.

Happy Birthday Kirsten!

Tonight we celebrated Kirsten's Birthday at the camp (cabin). The kids sure did have a good time playing in that Lake Superior sand and playing with a boy who was visiting next door (Von). I included a picture of Kirsten with her mermaid cake, the kids having fun in the sand, Rose E with Oma(Jeff's Grandma) and lastly one cool cat (Jeff's brother Matt).

On another note: this morning when I was getting Rose E ready for church she was playing with a shoe, of course, and driving it around like a car while saying vroom. It's amazing to watch at such a young age the imagination running wild already. Her new word of the day was "ten" for tent (Walter has a pop-up tent on his bed right now. Walter's big accomplishment today was counting to 14 (before it was 9 or 10) while pointing to things (he was right on the money most of the time, we counted things at church and at the camp).

One Mama for sale!

I had to laugh at my girly girl tomboy today as I snapped this picture. She still has that shoe fetish going on. In fact today I tried on Walter's first pair of Nike's on her for her to play in and they where a little big but she protested big time when I tried to take them off so she went outside wearing them and carrying a pair of dress shoes to boot. She did a balancing act as she pushed this tractor and a train around carrying one to two shoes in her hands. Oh and today when I was going through the shoes she said "Nike, see that." Her words are just amazing me! At breakfast this morning she was making me laugh too because she was setting her cup on her tray and saying "sit down" then she would pick it up and start it all over again. She also has been covering her eyes like she is going to play peek a boo and saying "see ya." Little goof just like her brother. The kids have been playing a lot with a wooden road toy set too. Anyway, Walter noticed that one of the road signs where the same colors as the Walmart sign and said "does this say Walmart?" I said no and read it to him then he set it on my lap and said "mama for sale!" I said "how much do I cost?" He said "fifty three six four" I said "Uh oh that's a lot of money I don't think Daddy can afford to buy me" he said "Daddy can just go to one of those money machines." Speaking of Jeff, he is starting to get a little better, still pretty worn out but has started to eat a little bit today. I gotta settle this boy down because he is having a hard time taking it easy though between work and our home tour coming-up next week. Well, I suppose I better sign off and get some work done myself. Any spare time I have lately I have been cleaning to get ready for the house tour. I decided to do one room at a time and have been washing everything from windows to walls to woodwork and everything else in between.

Road to recovery

Jeff is back home from the hospital, thank goodness and seems to be getting a little better, all though still pretty tired and not eating much yet( his doctor wanted him to stay another night but he wanted to come home so he agreed to let him). After all of the test results they still are uncertain what really happened, it was some kind of bacteria causing an infection but from where they don't know. They did however, find some gallbladder stones and he has set-up an appointment to look at that further. I am just so glad to see him improving and to have him home and hope that this is the end of whatever it was. He is taking two antibiotics so hopefully it will take care of everything. The kids are happy to have him home too. Rose E I think is teething right now and woke-up from her nap screaming and all she wanted to do was to be in Daddy's arms and Walter asked if he could snuggle with Daddy instead of going to sleep in his bed tonight. Last night Rose E was calling "daddy?" and Walter said "Rose E daddy is at the doctor's getting fixed he'll be coming back soon."

Thrown a curve ball

Phew it has been quite the day! Jeff is in the hospital right now, yes you read that right he is spending the night there. He woke-up this morning at about 5:00 a.m with some stomach pain and as the day progressed it got worse and worse. He went to work and by 3:00 this afternoon he couldn't even move he had so much pain everywhere with a fever. So I took him in, they have run all kinds of test; blood, urine, and have even done a cat scan and are not sure what is causing the problems. Right now they are leaning towards Colitis (inflammation of the intestines which didn't show up on the cat scan), gallbladder problems (the are doing in ultra sound in the morning) or a sensitivity to food bacterias that most people can tolerate. They have him on I.v's and are administering an antibiotic, a nausea medicine and a pain killer but he is just wiped and soar. I feel so bad for him and so helpless. Talk about scary, you just never know from day to day what life is going to throw you!

Congratulations Peter

Yesterday we went to Jeff's grandma's house and celebrated his cousin Peter's high school graduation, he is the one in the front in their family picture (Jeff's Aunt Mary, Uncle Dave, and cousins Jake, Tim, Joey, and John are also in the picture). They are visiting from Wisconsin. It was a nice evening, the kids enjoyed playing with toys and balloons as well as a game of duck, duck goose. The next picture is of Kirsten chasing Walter. Rose E I could tell was wishing she could get in on all the action as she was trying to say
duck duck goose too. I posted a picture of her too. Her cousin Brady was falling asleep in his stroller and she loaded hers with toys and pushed it around. A little mommy already!
Then today Walter had his first official dental appointment. It went well and he let the dentist dig around his mouth. He said his teeth look healthy and to come back in a month for a cleaning. Walter was excited because after his appointment I let him pick out some new Geo Trax train track at the store. This evening we had another home tour meeting so it kept him entertained with the babysitter (they set-up a big layout in our living room). The meeting went well, we where introduced to the red hat society ladies who will be assisting us with the tour and discussed a few other details. Jeff and I also

snuck in another date and ate at Quincy's so that was nice and after the tour a boa

rd member gave us a tour of his historic home (it is still a work in progress so it isn't on the home tour) and that was very inspirational too see. The past few days the kids have said a couple

of cute things too. Today Walter walked in some grass and noticed that he was stepping on a weed flower and said "oh I sorry pretty flower for stepping on you." Then an ambulance went by and Rose E said "hear a whee ooo whee ooo." She has been waking-up in the morning and saying "hi" to us all too, it is so cute.

Walter's first field trip!

Tonight after the story through the summer literacy program, the kids went for a field trip to a dairy farm. Walter loved it because he got to pet some cows and cats and got to ride in a hay wagon behind a tractor too(I posted a picture of Walter and I on the wagon along with his Auntie Emily and cousin Kirsten below). It was neat because a calf had been born only a couple of hours before we arrived and it learned how to stand-up for the first time while we where watching it. Talk about hard work being a farmer too! Nonstop from sun-up at 4:30 a.m until evening every day, I don't know how they do it! Not only did Walter learn quite a bit, but so did I. Walter couldn't wait to come home and tell Daddy that he went on his first field trip. He is getting so much more detailed in what he has to tell us now. This morning he woke-up at 5:30 a.m and called me into his bedroom to tell me in great detail all about his dream about going out to eat with Grandma. He's a story teller! Rose E's new phrase today was "give it" when Walter had something she wanted(I guess she has heard a few times me say give it back to your sister). She has also been into hauling her clothes around and she slept cuddling with a pair of shorts today, I know it sounds odd but whatever keeps her happy I guess. Anyway, she woke-up and said "see" as she showed me how she could put her arm in and out of the leg part. It's those simple things that seem to entertain the most!