Fun With Friends

It was a fun filled weekend! We had friends of ours from Oregon visit. The last time we saw them was 2+ years ago when the boys were just 2. So they had never met Abby and we had never met the addition to their family who is now a little over 1. It was so fun to finally get together again and to have all of our kids meet. The kids all got along great, although LJ didn't know what to think of how chaotic our house can get at times. When he was around all the kids he was pretty quiet but when you got him with just one of the kids he was more chatty and playful.
We went to the Children's Museum on Saturday for Zooseum day. It was when they bring animals into the zoo. Abby loved it! She loved the bunnies and the service dogs the best. She even got to give the dogs a couple of treats. The boys didn't seem particularly thrilled with the animals but they still loved playing at the museum. We had a quick lunch and the boys, Robb and Z headed to the Nebraska basketball game. It turned out to be a pretty exciting game, I heard. The girls and the little kids headed back to the house for a much needed nap. After putting the kids to bed that night (which was quite the chore getting 4 kids to sleep at the same time)we had a nice quiet movie night. It was so fun to catch up and we were so glad that they were able to make it to Nebraska to see us since I don't think we will be flying with 3 kids anytime soon.
To finish the weekend off, we had John and Megan over for supper Sunday night. The kids always love to play with John and Megan. It was mostly a nice dinner with a few interuptions from moody kids. Now back to the weekly grind.

Spring Cleaning

This last week we decided that the house needed a serious cleaning! There were things that had been put off for far too long. I had thought that our house would stay cleaner when I wasn't working anymore. I thought that I would be able to keep up on the day to day cleaning so we wouldn't be spending weekends cleaning, but I was wrong. I guess a lot of things I expected of myself when I was home all the time didn't happen. Anyway, by the time that I get the kids taken care of and meals made I barely have time to pick up let alone do deep cleaning. So Robb and I worked together and got the house cleaned. Not just picked up clean but deep cleaned. It is a great feeling. I guess we need to do it more often it was just exhausting.

Is It Spring?

I know that it is not Spring yet but that doesn't change the fact that it has been BEAUTIFUL out. I plan to take advantage of all the nice weather we can get! Who knows if we will get one of our late March freak snow storms again. It has been wonderful to get the kids outside to run off some of their energy.

Naughty Sleeper

She fell asleep in the doorway to her room and she put a headband on first.

She brought her entire bedroom out in the hall to sleep with.

Sleeping to close to the stairs = DISASTER!

Laying by the dog food.

Never a good idea to sleep by the toilet when you have 2 little brothers!

Oh Abby Girl

Abby has been a terrible sleeper for a long time now! Since she is finally healthy after both of her surgeries we decided that we need to take steps to get her to be a better sleeper. Phase 1: Get her to put herself to bed at night. This has been going terrible! We read books, say a prayer and tuck her in...then we listen to her cry and scream for an hour. She is in a big bed now and she can get her door open so there is no containing her. I think we need to invest in another baby gate for her door. The pictures below show where she has fallen asleep in the last week.
So, Robb had a thought tonight as we were listening to her cry and throw a fit. He thinks that she is sad because Bryce and Caleb get to sleep in the same room and Robb and I sleep in the same room and she has no one. Poor little girl. I have never looked at it like that. So we gave in a little and made her a spot on our floor. Needless to say I think Robb may have figured out the problem. She was asleep in 2 minutes.

Brave Little Bryce

Feeling a little loopy.

Cute Smile! Trying to be Brave.

A little confused.

Caleb looking in his ear to see if he can see the tube.

Adios Adenoids

Today was the big day. Bryce got his adenoids out and got tubes put in his ears. I felt bad for him, he was so nervous about everything. Just Bryce and I went to the surgery center early this morning. Poor Caleb didn't know what to do without his brother, so dad took him and Abby to buy Bryce a balloon and popsicles. We waited a LONG time for it to be our turn and it was hard to entertain him in the waiting room for 2 hours without drinks or snacks.
When we finally got back to the room he got is preop "happy juice", which made for a very silly little Bryce. He was hiding his little panda that he had brought and when someone new would walk in he would pull it out and start growling at them. The bathroom humor also became about 100X funnier when he was loopy! I don't know how many times he made his panda pretend to shoot a poop bomb at me. Really, it was way to early in the morning for me to sit through much of that.
When they finally took him into surgery he looked terrified and I felt terrible leaving him. He was done in about 10 minutes and the doctor said everything went great. I had to wait about another 30 minutes to see him.
He was not a happy camper when I finally got to see him. He was sitting in a chair crying that he wanted his adenoids back. Poor Kid! He was so confused. He kept asking where he was, if he was done, if they really took his adenoids out, if he was in a different room and if I was his mom. I kept answering all his questions and then he would frantically feel his face like he expected there to be a big hole where they cut his adenoids out. Luckily the confusion was short lived and we were out of there in an hour.
Caleb and Abby were very excited to see him! Caleb wanted to play and kept trying to look in his ear to see the tubes. Poor Bryce was just tired and sore and wanted it quiet so he could sleep. Everyone took a nice nap and when he woke up Bryce was much happier. Hopefully the Lutz family is done with surgery for this year!

PreOp Appt

Bryce and Abby in the chair at the ENT doctor.

Round Two

Last week Abby got her ear tubes put in and did great, so this week it is Bryce's turn. The poor kid is just old enough to understand a little and not old enough to understand the whole thing. He is pretty nervous. I feel bad because he saw what a disaster Abby was after her adenoid surgery. He will be getting his adenoids out and tubes put in his ears for the second time. He had tubes when he was 9 months old and it was a life saver. Those tubes lasted about a year and a half and then they fell out. He really hasn't been having problems until recently. The first concern we had was last winter when he was evaluated by the Lincoln Public Schools, they said that his hearing test was concerning. They recommended that we have him retested in a few months which turned out fine. So we thought things were going okay until he got an ear infection the end of December and we couldn't get rid of it. He has now been on 4 different antibiotic for this one super ear infection. I feel really bad that he had to have surgery but hopefully it helps in the long run.

Fun, Busy Weekend

This weekend was anything but relaxing but it was a lot of fun. We kicked off our weekend by going to the Stars hockey game with the boys and Lutz's. Saturday we went to the Frosty Flick movie. This is one way to take the entire family to the movie, get a ton of snacks, and still not spend a fortune. We debated on whether or not to take Abby, and in the end we decided to let her come. We were worried that she would be to antsy to sit through and entire movie but she did great. We watched Despicable Me which was a very cute movie that we all enjoyed. After a quick nap for the boys, Robb got them ready to go and they were off to the Nebraska basketball game. Robb said they got a little tired of watching the game about half way through and were a little annoying but they still enjoyed most of it. Abby and I used our boy free time to do something we both love, Shopping! Well I don't know if she loves it, but she is usually really good and likes to look all the pretty things. Saturday night we took advantage of an early bedtime, since we wore the kids out, to watch a movie together.
Sunday morning the boys announced that they loved Sundays, because of Sunday school and Super Bowl Sunday. I guess at least they said they liked it because of church and not just because of football. After Sunday school we snuck in a quick nap for the kids while I ran errands and Robb worked on making chicken wings. We woke them up at 3 so we could get them all dressed up to go take pictures. I wanted pictures for Abby's second birthday but I also wanted a couple of my handsome boys. We got the pictures of the three of them done first and all the boys headed home to get ready for the Super Bowl party. Abby and I stayed to finish pictures, which I think turned out great. She was very happy and cooperative which is kind of rare for Abby to be so cooperative. After pictures we headed to the neighbors house for the football party. We ate a lot of snacks and got see some of our neighbors that we don't see much of in the winter. The boys had a lot of kids to play with and Abby had a baby to watch that kept her entertained. Robb got to watch football with the guys and I got to chat with the girls. All in all a great weekend. Now that it is Monday I feel like I need a weekend after my weekend.

Hockey Game

Friday night we took the boys to their first hockey game ever. We aren't huge hockey fans but it is fun to go to one or two games a year. Robb's parents and brother also came down to Lincoln to go to the game with us. I never really realized how loud it is in there or how much swearing there is until I had two 4 year olds with me. They watched in awe at all the activity. The thing they were really waiting for was to ride the Zamboni. We had bought them tickets to ride the Zamboni for Christmas. Before the first period was over we headed to the Zamboni pit. They looked terrified as we put them up in the seat and they continued to look pretty nervous as the Zamboni made its way across the ice. When it was over they said they "Loved It!".

Surgery Take 2

Smiley for 6:00 am

Riding the Buggy with your baby

Happy after the procedure

Abby Gets Tubes

Today was the day that Abby finally got her ear tubes in. She had her adenoids out a month ago and has had chronic ear infections since. It had gotten so bad that the oral antibiotics weren't working anymore and she was having to go in to get shots every other day to keep her ears from getting infected. So, while I was sad that she had to have surgery again, I was ready for this to be done.
Lincoln and Omaha were in a winter weather advisory and we were supposed to get a lot of snow so we decided to go stay in Omaha on Friday night. Although we didn't end up getting as much snow as predicted, it kept us from driving on bad roads really early in the morning. It was actually kind of nice to go the night before because we got to go to supper with our friends Rick and Brittney that live there. Since the boys were at grandma and grandpa's house it was pretty easy to handle one kid at supper.
We had to be at Children's Hospital at 6:00 am and her surgery was scheduled for 7:45. She was happy, even though we woke her up ridiculously early. The only thing she complained about was that she wanted juice and couldn't have anything to eat or drink. They gave her a preop sedative so that she wouldn't be scared to leave us, which was nice, since she had just been there a month ago she was a little nervous. We pushed her around in a little buggy car to keep her busy until they took her back. The doctor was back in the room to talk to us about 10 minutes after they took her back. He said that they sucked a lot of green snot out of her ears. Yes, that was the medical terminology that he used.
Abby came back from the recovery room happy and holding her cup of juice, that she had been waiting all morning for. We got discharged about 20 minutes later and started home. The drive home was a bit treacherous, but Robb got us home safe even though the Omaha streets and interstate were very slick.

Sledding

Bryce and Caleb finally got to go sledding. They have been waiting all winter to do this and it was always too cold or too dark by the time Robb got home. We went sledding at Grandma and Grandpa Lutz's on Sunday afternoon. It was still pretty cold but once they were all bundled up they didn't mind being outside. It was hilarious to watch them try to hike back up the hill dressed like little snowmen. One time the sled almost made it to one of the small trees. Bryce was in front and bailed and luckily the sled slid enough it wasn't headed for the trees anymore.
Bryce and Caleb were lucky, they got to stay with Grandma and Grandpa an extra couple of days. Bob and Susie offered to watch the boys Monday and Tuesday so we would only have one kiddo to worry about when Abby got her tubes in. It made the house seem so quiet to only have Abby on Monday. I don't think she knew what to do without her boys. She was clingy and didn't want to play by herself. I think she was feeling a little lost without Bryce and Caleb.
The boys had a blast with grandma and grandpa. They were even lucky enough to be there on a snow day so Brook their cousin got to come play and uncle Andy was home. According to Grandma they were on their best behavior and didn't get in trouble at all. I don't believe it for a second.

Cake Time

Abby is 2!