Guess who's allergic to Amoxicillin?

Stairs

Andrew has figured out how fun it is to climb the stairs. This is a mixed blessing for us. It keeps him really happy, and lately he's started climbing the stairs right around nap time. That makes me really happy because I don't have to carry him! He doesn't know how to go down the stairs yet and has no interest in learning. I keep trying to "teach" him, though, and I pull his feet gently down the stairs. Really, I'm just trying to avoid having to carry him! Our stairs are pretty wide at the bottom, and there's no way to block the stairs, so we have to watch him more closely now. He likes to climb up on the landing, reach out through the railing and grab whatever is on the piano. After Christmas I think the piano will be bare.

Snowmen

Check it out! I actually made something cute! I made these snowmen for all of Caden's teachers and helpers at school. The smaller ones were Hershey's bars and the bigger symphony bar was for his homeroom teacher. The hats are the tops of socks that never stayed on Andrew's feet. The buttons are buttons that I glued on, and I just drew on the face. I thought I'd share it in case someone was looking for a fast, easy Christmas gift. I got the idea from here.

What a day!

I started the day yesterday with such big plans. I was going to do Christmas cards, finish baking cookies and making candies, deliver goodies and wrap presents along with the usual make dinner, clean house, etc. Then I get up and find Andrew and Dallin both have pink eye--Caden had had it for a few days already. Great, now I'd have to get medicine for them too. I have to get Caden to school and then I called the doctor and got that settled. Andrew finally went down for his morning nap and I got to take my shower. When I came downstairs I heard a strange dripping noise in the front room. When I investigated it, I found a little puddle in the carpet and a small hole in the ceiling with water dripping! I quickly got a bowl and then called Steve. Of course he wasn't answering, so I had to wait until he called me back. By this time Dallin was whining about how hungry he was so I made lunch while I was waiting. Steve called me back and I told him what had happened. He was busy with something at work but would come home as soon as he could. I called some plumbers in the mean time to see if we could get a free estimate. It turns out most charge a service call, but I found one that didn't and could come by sometime between 3:30 and 5. Great.
Steve came home and Andrew woke up. I nursed him and fed him lunch. The water had stopped dripping by this time. Steve cut a bigger hole in the ceiling to see if he could see anything. He couldn't. He had me flush the toilet, run a bunch of water in the sink and tub, and he still couldn't see anything. There wasn't any water on the floor to give us any hints, so all we could do was wait for the plumber.
Now, I should tell you we've been tiling the master bath for the last three weeks and it's still not grouted. And the shower in our bathroom is missing a rubber piece at the bottom so it leaks and we can't use it until we get it fixed. So all day yesterday I was thinking, "We can't use our bathroom, now we can't use the boys bathroom, our main floor toilet clogs with anything more than 3 sheets of toilet paper, which leaves the basement bath."
So, now that we couldn't figure out the boys bath, Steve ran over to Home Depot to get some parts for the shower door (which they didn't have) and I finally ran over to Walmart to get the boys medicine. I went right over to the pharmacy, and it was closed! The sign said they close for lunch from 1:30 to 2. It was 1:32. So we walked around the store, trying to keep Andrew happy. We found the toy vacuum Santa is bringing him and now I know he will love it. When 2:00 came around there was a line of people waiting for the pharmacy. We got home just in time for me to get Caden from school. I got the kids snacks, helped Caden with his homework, practiced spelling, and made dinner. When dinner was ready the plumber came. I was so worried it would be some big repair. He looked around for quite a while and couldn't find anything. He couldn't find any signs of moisture anywhere. That's good news, right? After he left, Steve noticed the plug for the shower head had slightly pulled away from the wall, and that's our best guess as to where it came from. So now we wait and see if it happens again. After dinner, Steve started grouting our bathroom so we could at least have our toilet back, which means I was left to cleaning up, listening to Caden read his book, getting the kids ready for bed, and tucking everyone in. The boys decided they didn't want to cooperate and I was very frustrated with them after the long day I'd had. I was getting the jammies on Andrew when the doorbell rang. It was 8:00 at night. Who is coming by at 8:00? I grabbed Andrew, who was only half dressed, and went to answer the door. The bell rang again. Tinkerbell was going crazy barking and running around and the boys were watching from the top of the stairs. I answered the door and at least 20 teenagers started singing "Frosty the Snowman"! It was really sweet, but as I looked around, I didn't recognize any of them! I thought it must be mutual, because it was Wednesday night and I could see some adults way off on the sidewalk, but again, no one that I recognized! They gave me a little gift and left singing, and I had to check the tag to make sure it was the ward! I went to the garage to tell Steve who it was and he said it sounded like a mob there were so many people. :) After the day I had just had, that really lifted my spirits. Someone knew that I needed that. But now we have this hole in our ceiling...

Christmas Concert

Tonight was Caden's Christmas concert at school. He's been excited and a bit nervous about it. I came prepared with my camera and video camera. I was holding Andrew so I told Steve he was in charge of taking lots of pictures. When the concert was starting, Steve pulled out the camera and immediately the batteries died. Great. At least we had the video camera. I was just using that and it said there was half an hour left, plenty of time to record the five songs that Caden's class was singing. Steve went to the back of the room to stand and record them. Five minutes later he sat back down and said the batteries died! So disappointing! Of course it was after that that Caden found us and started waving and blowing us kisses. It was really cute and will be a great memory, but would have been even better on video! Darn it!

Hungry?

This is how we eat breakfast at our house. Care to join us?