Birthday!

Ava celebrated her 4th birthday on June 10th. On the morning of her birthday our family picked up her friend Jacob and went to Hy-Vee. Each of the kids got to pick out a doughnut and we ate them in the cafe. They thought it was pretty cool. On Thursday we were in Sioux Falls and had a party at Grandma Sherri's house. Ava made her own cake and had a blast doing it. All I did was put the cake in the oven and frost it. The cake was pink with pink frosting and was decorated with sprinkles and all different kinds of pretty shoes, lipstick, purses, and princesses. When we were taking the cake to grandma's she informed me that if we dropped it her birthday would be ruined. Needless to say, I was very careful with the cake. We are so glad to have Ava as part of our family. I hope she had a very happy day!

Our trip to DeSmet, South Dakota

Last week we took a trip to DeSmet, South Dakota. It's the home of author Laura Ingalls Wilder. Our kids love to watch "Prairie on the House" as they call it, so we thought why not take them to the real place. It was a lot of fun. We got to tour the surveyors home that they lived in. Laura writes about this home in "By the shores of Silver Lake." We also toured the house that Pa built in town. This was the home that Pa, Ma,and Mary all lived and died in. Out at the homestead we toured a replica home that they lived in during "The Long Winter". For the first few months the six of them lived in a space the size a walk in closet. My friends think six of us in a 2 bedroom apartment is cramped. We've got it easy! The homestead was the funnest part of the trip. We got to ride on a covered wagon. The kids each got a turn driving it. They were also able to ride on little ponies. Ava didn't want to have anything to do with that part though. If anyone gets a chance to go, you should. It's great for a family day trip and only 2 hours from Sioux Falls.

Underwear Monster!

I thought this was funny so I decided to post it. Joseph is potty training and apparently thought it would be silly to put his underwear on his head and come at me like a monster. He just kept yelling "I'm a monster". OHHHH the fun we have at our home!

Say What?

Just a few silly things the kids have said recently. On Monday Joseph bought a $1 gun at Wal-mart. We brought it home and as expected from a cheap toy, it didn't work. I told him we would have to take it back cuz' it's not working.

The Wal-mart employee: Is anything wrong with the gun?

Joseph: It's piece a Junk!


This morning Ava was looking at my bumpy veins on my legs (thanks kids).

Ava: Why is it bumpy like that?

Me: oh, that just happens sometimes.

Ava: are you old?

Me: uhhhh I don't know.

A few weeks ago the kids were playing with Sam's stethoscope.

Bianca: I can't listen to your heart mom. I think there's to much fat around it.

Me: Well listen to dad's. He doesn't have any fat.

Our Anniversary

Sam and I finally got to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary. Our actual date was on April 23rd but with 3 kids and Sam in school, we weren't able to do anything until this past Saturday. My parents came to Vermillion and watched the kids for us so we could go to he Winter Quarters Temple down in Omaha. We haven't been there together since the day we were married. It was different than the last time we were there. Much less anxiety and nervousness.

We did an endowment session for my great-grandparents and afterword we did a sealing for them. On the way out I told Sam "Now they are happily married." His response, "Weren't they already?" Well, at least now it's for eternity.

After the temple we drove to Sioux City and had dinner at Perkins. Funny that's where I picked to go even though we had a million choices. I just really wanted some chicken strips and banana cream pie. Sam was glad to have a variety to choose from. Usually I drag him to mexican restaurants where the only thing he will eat is the chicken strips. He's kinda picky. This time he got a steak and shrimp platter with mac'n cheese and wildberry pie. Typical Sam Bair food.

Anyway, I'm blessed to have such a wonderful, supportive husband. He works hard at school and takes good care of us. I really depend on him for sanity and stability. I hope he still wants to be married to me 50 years from now!

Silly Boy...

I had a couple of funny pictures of Joseph that I have wanted to post, and I'm finally getting it done.

In the first one you may think he had a serious head injury or something. NOT the case at all. He was playing and somehow poked his eye. The only way he would stop crying was to have a wet rag on his eye. Well, Sam got tired of holding the rag in place so he wrapped Joseph's head with an ace bandage. Every time I look at the picture I laugh.

In the next one Joseph was pretending to be Mandi's little girl "baby Kenna". I put a bow in and he crawled around with his tongue out just like she does.

Our trip to Yankton

A few weeks back we had some really nice weather and decided to take a trip down to Yankton. For those of you who aren't from around here, Yankton is about 30 min. northwest of us. It's nice little town that is just a little bigger than Vermillion and is on the Missouri river. We like to go down to the fish hatchery in the summer and feed the baby fish. We also go to a lake and swim. After all the fun, it's nice to hit the Dairy Barn for some really yummy ice cream in large portions.

Anyway, on this particular day the temp. was 70 degrees and perfect for feeding the ducks at the pond. The kids always have a blast. After the ducks were fed we had a picnic dinner and played at the park. What a great day. Hopefully the South Dakota winter will shape up soon and we can have many more fun days like this.

Ava's Ears

A week ago Ava had tubes put in her ears because she's had quite a few infections in the last year. I thought it would be a simple "slap 'em in and send her home" surgery, but it turned out to be quite and ordeal.

We had to be to the Yankton medical clinic by 7:00am so Ava and I left at 6:15 to make sure we were there on time. My mother-in-law came down to spend the morning with Joseph so Sam could go to school. Anyway, after we got to the clinic the nurse checked Ava in and gave her a cocktail of Demerol, Versed and Tylenol. I guess this helps the kids to get really relaxed so they don't get nervous or anything. Ava sure did get relaxed. In fact she acted down right drunk. It was the funniest thing I've ever seen. She kept saying silly stuff. For example...she was looking at a National Geographic magazine and all of a sudden she stops at a picture and says...(imagine a drunk person talking)

Ava- "Hey, I know that guy"

Me- "You do?"

Ava- "Yeah, it's my dad!"

Me- "That's not dad"

Ava- "But my dad wears a shirt like that!"

Later on...

Ava- "Momma, how come you got three noses" she tries to unsuccessfully touch my nose and gets my mouth instead.

Also...

Ava- "Hey, whats that weird smell over there. Smell it momma" she is pinching my nose and pointing to the corner.

Me- "I can't smell anything, cuz you're pinching my nose and I can't smell the corner."

On with the story now. About 10 minutes before she goes in for the surgery she somehow slides down the foot rest on her chair and bonks her head on the floor. The nurse pops her head in and inquires why she is crying. I told her that she bumped her head a little but is fine. The nurse then goes on to say that they won't be able to do the tubes now since Ava had a head injury. WHAT!!! The anesthesiologist comes in and says that if she has a broken blood vessel in her head the anesthesia could make it bleed more and that would be a problem, so he won't put her under. GOOD GRIEF.

The nurse shows us to the recovery room so Ava's cocktail of medicine can wear off. During that time a pediatrician came down to check her out and said she was fine for surgery. She went and talked the anesthesiologist into putting Ava under. Fifteen minutes later she was done. An hour after that we were sent home.

An hour after we got home, Ava started throwing up every 20 minutes and wouldn't stop. This went on for a few hours, then she started throwing up blood. Apparently when you heave that much, it can cause small tears in your esophagus which results in the blood. I took her to the acute care clinic in Vermillion. The doctor on call got a hold of Dr. Krell. He said to send her to the hospital for observation. When we got there, Dr. Krell showed up and had her hooked up to an I.V., since she was dehydrated he had her spend the night and following morning. We were finally discharged at 1:00 the next afternoon. Apparently Ava didn't take well to the anesthesia and that's why she vomited so much. I sure hope we never have to do this again.

The hospital here has done a great job of taking care of my kids when they've been admitted. There is a lady that works there named Kari Jo. She works with pediatric kids and always makes sure they have enough toys and fun things to keep them happy. She sent home a little sack for each of my kids. The sack contained a surgical mask and bonnet, band-aid, medicine syringe and medicine cup. My kids love playing doctor with the stuff.


Ava in the hospital

Yes! It's edible...

Well here's another project the kids and I did together recently. I really have to scrape for ideas when the weather is chilly or downright cold. Not that it has been lately. We did this a few weeks ago. Anyway...we made peanut butter playdough. It was especially nice for Joseph because he insists on eating regular playdough. I know it's non-toxic, but I just don't want him eating it all. How are we supposed to play with it if all of it's in his little gut? Boy, the kids had a great time playing with, then eating it through out the day. And yes, Joseph is wearing girls clothing, but that's a story for another day:)

Makin' a Pinata

Recently we saw some of our friends at Wal-mart and they were purchasing a pinata for a birthday party. My kids really wanted one too, but we refused to pay $15 just for the heck of it. Sam said we should just make one. So, we did. We all had a lot of fun. We made our own paste out of flour, water and sugar and picked up some newspapers at the broadcaster. After letting the kids deliberately tear up a bunch of paper, we got our hands gooey gluing all the paper to a big balloon. We let it dry for a few days, then the kids and I painted it different colors and hung streamers on. We can't wait to fill it with candy and crack it open. Maybe we'll do it on Easter since it's the shape of an egg!

Beat the energy out of those kids Dad

Gosh, we had some really crappy weather last week. It had to happen during spring break too when everyone was out of school. The kids were restless, and grumpy. We couldn't go outside and I didn't want to drag them out in the cold to go to the dome, so we had to come up with something fun to do at home. Sam suggested he build a wrestling ring in the living room and "beat the kids up". He brought out our queen mattress and the kids 2 twin mattresses and set them up. The kids all had a blast tag teaming on dad. Ava brought out pillows. She holds them in front of her and BASHES into Sam as hard as she can and knocks him down. Joseph likes to do it too. It was a good way to get out some pent up energy. We left the mattresses out and after dinner the kids got to "jump on the beds". SO, if you have some crazy kids, try this out!

Girl from the 1800's...

Well a few weeks ago, Bianca studied Laura Ingalls Wilder at school. Everyone was supposed to dress up in clothes from that time period. Of course I don't have a bunch of bonnets on hand, so I decided to make one. I, not knowing anything about sewing, thought it would be a snap to slap together. But it turned out a bit harder than I thought. Sam and his mom talked me through it and Brenda also assisted me in reading the directions for the pattern. After recruiting all those people to explain the pattern to me, I finally got the bonnet finished. I am quite proud of the finished product and should be able to do the next one completely on my own with no explainations. It turned out really cute and can actually be unbuttoned on the sides and turned into an apron.

Baptism

As you can see, I'm finally getting around to posting about Bianca's baptism.

What a wonderful day it was. We had originally planned to have it on Sunday December 21, but of course South Dakota had to give us some yucky weather. My parents and in-laws couldn't get down to Vermillion from Sioux Falls, and my Brother Matt and his family were stuck in Minnesota. So...we had to postpone it until the next day. That of course made me irritable, cuz I hate it when things don't go as I planned. Bianca cried and cried but I told her it was better to have it the next day then for Grandmas and Grandpas to get killed on the interstate. That quieted her down.

When the day came it turned out perfect. Lots of people were able to come and we even had to set up more chairs in the R.S. room and in the cultural hall for the "after baptism food".

Bianca looked beautiful in her white clothes. The speakers were her Dad and her papa Steve. Sam spoke about the Holy Ghost and Papa spoke about baptism. They were both quite entertaining. Sam even sewed and stuffed a cute dove and threw it at Bianca. She loved it.

I was standing on the side of the font when her uncle Jake baptized her and of course I cried like crazy. Afterward, Bianca said she felt really good. I am so proud of her for the choice she made. I love you Bianca!

We're working on the plumbing!

I'm pretty excited today. Joseph has been wearing underwear since he got up from his nap. That was at 4:00pm and it is now 7:30pm. When he woke up he said he needed to go potty, and he sure did! Yippee. I hope it keeps going so well. If he does as good as Ava did, then he should be trained in a week. However, I'm not going to get my hopes up to high. The minute I put his diaper on so he could get ready for bed, he filled it up. But at least he didn't make a mess on my floor.

Gee, we might not have to buy any of those expensive swim diapers for the pool this year. I hate paying for those things.

At Last

Well, Joseph finally came home from the hospital today. After being there for 2 days we were all really excited to get him home. I hope we never have to do that again. I can now really empathize with families that have sick children. We were lucky it was only for a short while. I can't imagine how hard it would be to be in the hospital for weeks or months. The doctors and nurses were wonderful. Joseph had all kinds of toys to keep him entertained. One of the ladies from pediatrics brought in a playschool car for him to drive around in. He loved it. We could even take him in the hallway with it as long as we took the I.V. pole with and put a mask on him.

Joseph still has a cough and will be on oral steroids for the next 3 days. We also have to give him nebulizer treatments of Albuterol as needed for a few days and Pulmicort everyday for the next few months. The pulmicort is for his asthma and keeps his airways from becoming inflammed. He was off the pulmicort for two months and I was hoping he could stay off....but I guess not. I'll do anything to keep him breathing though.

I'm greatful to all our family and friends that called and checked on us and prayed for Joseph. The doctor was amazed at how well and how quickly he responded to the treatments. Usually it takes a lot longer. Thanks so much.

The Results Are In.....

It's a GIRL!!!! I had my 20 week ultrasound today and we found out we are having another girl. I was kinda hoping for another boy to even things out a bit. I'm happy with what we got though, and girl names are easier to pick anyway. At least Joseph won't have to fight for the title of sweetest little boy ever. Speaking of Joseph, before I went to Sioux Falls for the ultrasound, I took JoJo to see Dr. Krell. He had been feeling poorly for the last 4 days and we finally decided it was time to see the doc. It turns out he has RSV and his oxygen levels were lower than normal. Plus he has asthma which makes it even worse on his lungs. Dr. Krell admitted him to the hospital in Vermillion. They had to hook him up to an I.V. and give him fluids, put him on oxygen and give albuterol treatments every few hours. As of right now he is still there and will be spending the night. I'm not sure when he will be coming home. The doc said that once his stats stay up he can be released. Sam is spending the night with him and I'll be with him tomorrow while Sam is in school. Bianca is soooo upset. We went to visit JoJo after we got back from Sioux Falls. When it was time to leave she cried and cried. She told me "I just love him so much and I don't like that he's sick and in the hospital". She is such a softy. Ava on the other hand said "everyone is crying but me"! Yep, she's a tuffy. Well, I'm going to relax and watch Medium on t.v. for a bit. I'll keep everyone updated.

Nada

So if you can believe it, I never feel like I have anything to say. It's always the same old stuff going on here in Vermillion. Maybe I have the idea of a blog all wrong. I keep thinking I can only post stuff that is super interesting. What I need to do is go back to December and post Bianca's baptism. First I need to pester Mandi about getting the pics to me for all of you to view.

Things are going well with me. I'm feeling better pregnancy wise and am getting more excited with each week that passes. I keep thinking that maybe I'm a bad person for not being ecstatic about this pregnancy, but maybe it's because it really crept up on me. NO more of the counting days method for me. It obviously didn't work. Anyway, my older brother had a baby on Jan. 19th up in Brookings. It's his 3rd baby but first boy. Seeing that new little baby got me more excited for my own to come. It's fun to anticipate what they will look like and what their personality will be. I'm hoping for another boy, just to even things out a bit. In the beginning of March I will find out what we are having. I'll be sure to post right away with that one. Well, I need to vacuum, scrape the snow off my van and pick Ava up from head start. See ya'll later.