Random

Here is lot's of randomness for you today....

 KC love!

I don’t have a Chiefs shirt, so I wear my ‘heart kc’ shirt to show my support!

I love it when my boys actually work together to do chores,

and then play well together without me having to yell at them, put them in time out…etc.!

Also - one of these days I’m going to get my hands on our kitchen and the basement.

But first, I have to finish the upstairs projects!

 Jaxen and I were enjoying a morning outside, watching Zane break sticks.

It was actually entertaining…especially to see the look of concentration on his face!
Seriously...this kid loves not wearing clothes or shoes - ha!

 Jaxen and his friend, Brooks were trying to sale artwork in the driveway one Saturday.

They had one buyer - Brooks older brother.

You would have thought they sold to 100 people with how excited they were!
They each earned $.25
By the way - Jaxen is begging me to have a garage sale.
I told him he could not go door-to-door but that he could have a table
at a garage sale to sell his pictures, and I would even let him bake and sale cookies.
Now he can't stop asking about it!

All the kiddos loved looking at Nik’s coin collection. 

I love my cute my little dragon!

This was my view last Wednesday night, outside of church.

My kiddos go to Wednesday night activities and I got to enjoy a beautiful sunset!

A neighbor down the road from us got 2 new puppies last week.

She brought them out for the boys to see while we were out on a walk.

Zane loved the puppies.

Jaxen was timid at first, but finally held the littlest one.

And no...there are no puppies in my immediate future

(at least until someone other than Nik or I can learn to clean up poop!)

Jaxen overhead me tell someone that I would like him to be able to mow the lawn next summer.

So while I was out mowing on Friday, he decided to try it out. 

He did about 2 rows before he was done. 

He is still a bit small right now...and it took a lot of effort for him to push.

But he'll learn - I just hope its next summer!

My boys favorite thing to do...ride bikes/scooters.

Their next favorite...go to all the houses in the neighboorhood seeing who wants to play with them!

We did get Sayde to come with us to the park on Saturday morning. 

No pictures - but the kids had a great time!

Nik & I

I gave you updates on Zane and Jaxen - so now here’s an update on Nik and I!

We are surviving.

Haha!

No, really, we are doing well.

I think we are in the swing of our family's schedule with school, pre-school, our jobs

and Wednesday night church activities.

If that’s all we had it would be a no-brainer…

but add in homework, chores, medicine routines, night-time reading, laundry,

the never-ending dishes and the never-ending cooking…

and sometimes I feel a bit overwhelmed.

I have been walking 4-5 times a week, in the early morning with one of my neighbors.

That has been good for me.

I have also been making myself be in bed between 9-9:30pm.

I don’t always go to sleep, but it helps me relax.

And…

I have been reading books!

In high school I was a really big reader, then stopped when I went to college.

Then picked it up again sometime after I was married, then stopped when I had kids.

And now, I have picked it back up again and am enjoying it!

I think I have read 4 books this past month. 

My job is going well.

We have a Board of Director’s meeting soon, which will take me out of town for a few days.

I am busy getting ready for that - but so far, it’s going well.

I am thankful that Nik will get to join me out of town (after my meetings are over)

so we can spend some time together!

Our 17th (crazy!!!) Wedding Anniversary is in November.

But this trip will be our “celebration”. 

And we are very excited!

Nik tries to get sleep whenever he can - he is about to hit his busy season for work.

I am very proud of him though…

He is learning a new area of work and is getting the hang of it!

While learning the Control Room, he often fills in for other supervisors 

in the in-bound, and out-bound area as well as train new supervisors.

In his spare time, he has been researching new cable companies,

looking into mortgage rates, paying our bills, running our errands and buying ant killer. 

Jealous huh?!

I guess that’s all you need to know about us!

All about Jaxen

The day before Zane started pre-school, Jaxen started 2nd grade! 

I don’t know that he was “excited” to go back to school…but he is having a good time. 

Especially at recess. 

What Jaxen does love more than school, is the neighborhood friends!

Everyday he asks if can play with one or more of the kids who live in our neighborhood.

His also loves to ride his bike!

He is ready, just as I am, to have more campfires! 

We had a blast at the one and only campfire we had this summer. 

Lots of neighbors came over and all the kids had the best time hanging out together until after dark :)

This is how Nik found Jaxen sleeping one night...

Jaxen loved the parade we went to, 2 weekends ago with some of my co-workers.

Jaxen is holding steady this year, rooting for the Cowboys.

He even made a sign.

He has yet to watch a game (always too busy playing with friends) but always asks 

how they played and if they scored a touchdown. Ha!

The one thing we have struggled with since the beginning of August is some random swelling and hives that appear in different places on his body.

It is so weird, and random, and shows up in the weirdest places…

hands, feet, thighs, lips….

We have been to his primary care doctor and she ran some tests and blood work.

What she can figure out is that he is allergic to trees and mold.

She told us to put him on daily allergy medicine and it has helped some.

I forgot to give it to him 1 night and by the next afternoon, he was swelling in two different places.

Our primary doctor recommended we make an appointment with an allergist.
We did, and went yesterday.

The Allergist was not concerned about his allergies to trees and mold.
That was not the reason for the hives and swelling.
Although he said it is near impossible to pin point exactly what it is,
he is pretty sure it is directly related to the sores Jaxen gets on his legs.
He is bad about picking them, and they get infected very easily.

The Allergist thinks the infections (although probably minor)
is feeding the random hives and swelling.
He put us on a course of treatment:
Zyrtec every day
Pepcid Complete (an antihistamine and H2 blocker) every day
Hibiclens Soap (cleans the skin and fights bacteria) every shower
Muprocin (antibiotic ointment) on his sores 3 times a day
I think that’s it!

After 7 days of no swelling, rashes or hives we will go off the Pepcid Complete.
After 7 more days we will stop the Zyrtec.
We go for a follow-up in 4 weeks.

At his appointment we learned Jaxen weights 56.4 pounds and is 49 1/2” tall.
A growing boy!

All about Zane

The last time I mentioned Zane on the blog - he was starting Preschool!

 

The first week, I received this note from Zane’s teacher: "Zane has been doing absolutely wonderful in class. He has lots of energy and would love to run the show ;) but has quickly learned his boundaries and is such an excited and active member of our class.” This made me smile and laugh!

He enjoys school, talks about school and has only cried once when going to school (it happened the Tuesday after Labor Day - and he was not the only kiddo crying as they walked in!). His teacher posts at least one picture of each kiddo everyday with notes about what they were doing. I absolutely love that! He will tell me about his day…but not in much detail. So I love that I can look at the pictures and ask him about specific things. I will share some of the pics…

Zane has grown too! Even the neighbors have commented on how big he has gotten this summer. I think his speech has improved and he is into doing everything on his own.

I do have some problems with Zane right now - he has learned how to get out of his carseat (while we are driving), he does not listen and does not like going to bed. All of which, we are putting forth so much effort to work on!

But he still makes me smile every single day! He tells me often “I miss you, mommy.” I think he picked that up after I got back from my trip and he heard Jaxen tell me that almost constantly. So now he says it. Lol.

Zane saw this character while grocery shopping with his daddy!

Zane decided he wanted to help me make cookies one afternoon.

 We have had 1 campfire this fall…ready for more, if the temps would cooperate!

Zane loves going to playgrounds - this one was new for him!

 Zane has gotten really good on his balance bike! 

He may be ready for a “normal" bike next summer.

 “Listen and Obey” ears he made in Children’s church. 

I sure do love this littlest boy of mine!