Puke, Parties and the Pool!

To really start this story we need to go back about 10 days to my birthday. I don't really get to celebrate my birthday anymore so I had planned on just celebrating myself since it fell on a Friday and I was off work and the kids could go to the babysitters. Well, the sitter had to close so that kind-of put a kink in those plans so we ended up just staying at home and not doing anything. Birthdays are a big deal to me - that is why I celebrate my kids birth week instead of just their actual birthday only. Each year they are lucky enough to be alive is something to be celebrated!

That evening Noah started complaining of his stomach hurting - which was the last thing I wanted to hear since his birthday party was the next day! Well, he ended up getting sick that night. (It was a lovely birthday present) We were not sure if he had a stomach bug or what at that point because he acted fine after he got sick so we decided to wait until the next morning to decide on what to do about the party. He woke up fine so we went on with our party plans. On the way to the party he ended up getting sick again so we had to cancel the party and rescheduled it for a few days later. He seemed fine the rest of the day and so did everyone else.

Nathan got his old Nintendo out to try to cheer Noah up after we canceled his party

The next day was Father's Day. This year we decided to go to Byrd's for lunch and play in the Mulberry River to celebrate. Since my birthday has passed and my older brother's was coming up in July we had cake for us also. We forgot to bring candles so we blew the lighter out after everyone sang us Happy Birthday :)  We got Nathan a meat smoker for Father's Day. I also got him a key chain with the GPS coordinates for where the kids were born and made him a picture :)

Blowing out the lighter :)

Dad and the grandkids - Ryan is at a stage where she loves taking pictures :)

The next day was Noah's rescheduled party day! Unfortunately, Nathan woke up sick. So, the kids and I went to swimming lessons and then I took them to the sitters and went to work. I was only at work an hour when the sitter called to tell me that Ryan had gotten sick at daycare. So, here is was party day and now Nathan and Ryan were sick instead of Noah. I wanted to scream, or cry, or both. I decided since we had an expensive cake going to waste in the refrigerator to go ahead and have the party without them. The party was at our local movie theater and the plan was to watch a  movie after the party. We had to cut out all the games since our rescheduled time was half as long but it all seemed to work out good. About half way through the party I started feeling a little sick - but then I would feel fine. I couldn't decide if I was just psyching myself out because I assumed I would be getting sick, or if it was stress/worry because of Nathan and Ryan or if I was really getting sick. I ended up leaving Noah with my mom to watch the movie so I could go take care of Ryan and Nathan. Once I got home I started feeling better and felt fine at bedtime.

Trying to stay healthy long enough for Noah's party!

We missed Nathan and Ryan SO bad!

Noah used all his birthday money on this toy he had been wanting for awhile :)

Ryan and I spent the next day cleaning house and getting my flat tire fixed since she couldn't go back to daycare for 48 hours after being sick. We got Noah from daycare and I was optimistic that everything was about to go back to normal. WRONG! I got a text from the babysitter that now she and her son had the stomach bug so she would be closed the rest of the week. I had already been off work for 3 days so I decided to just take the kids to work with me after swim lessons. Swim lessons were going great! Noah has improved 100% and loves to jump in the water and do canon balls now :) Ryans instructor said her kicks were very good and natural and I think she learned a lot and got more comfortable with the water. The kids were doing fine with me at work, then Noah started complaining of a headache and stomach pains. So, I decided to take them home for lunch and see if he felt better after laying down. He ended up getting sick again! I could not believe it! Once we were home I quarantined him in his room and he continued getting sick until 9:00 that night and complaining of his head hurting and stomach pains. I could tell this was different though. He was starving in between getting sick and he had no other stomach bug symptoms. I watched him most of the night and he cried "this is killing me" and moaned in his sleep all night. So, I called the on-call doctor and they said he needed to be seen as soon as the clinic opened that day. So, I had to skip our last day of swim lessons and took him to the doctor. After lots of questions, the doctor diagnosed him with gastritis. Noah's stomach lining got inflamed after being sick so everything he was eating was hurting it and eventually it caused him severe vomiting. Thankfully he was not contagious and was actually feeling a lot better by the time we left the doctor. My mother-in-law watched the kids a few hours that afternoon so I could finally get a little work done.

Friday we cleaned house and got groceries and all our normal stuff. Every time one of the kids yelled "Momma" or coughed my heart would sink because I thought they were getting sick again. I am a little gun shy on that right now :) I am not a stay at home person. I cannot be at home for long periods of time - sick or not it seriously bothers me. So, I decided to take the kids shoe shopping for Noah's pageant and to eat lunch on Saturday. It felt so good to get out of the house for more than just a quick trip for more lysol and gloves. Saturday night was one of our local fireworks show. Since we didn't get to do Noah's pinata at his party we did it with his cousins there :)

We LOVE Cracker Barrel!

Sunday we decided to go to the lake with my brother and his kids for a little sand and sun :)

I have never been so happy for Monday and my normal routine! I get very high anxiety sitting at home for days on end like that. I like being out with people around. I only took 2 weeks off with each kid when they were born! I informed Nathan after this 10 day ordeal to never worry about me wanting to be a stay at home mom - the boredom and lack of activity would make me fat and crazy! Now, bring on our July full of Independence Day, a weekend at the races, Branson with the Gunn's, Little Mister Pageant, The Peach Festival and Noah's Leap Start in Kindergarten! Now that is more like it! I like being busy!

Our business lately...

Thursday our awesome church reserved our local water park for the evening! We had so much fun splashing around and taking a break from the heat we had all week long!

Friday was finally the night Noah had been literally waiting on for 2 years! We first heard about the possibility of a new Jurassic Park movie being made two years ago and Noah has asked about it every time we have went to the movies since then. That morning he ran into my room and put his forehead to mine and said "It's Jurassic World day!" His sitter said he talked about it all day - even telling her what he was going to get from the concession stand (medium popcorn and a water) :) I went and got our tickets during the matinee showing of the movie in case there was a crowd later - good thing I did too! The place was packed and it took Noah and I almost 30 minutes to get through the concession stand line and luckily we were able to get the last 3 seats together that were not on the front 3 rows! Nathan was running late at work so I hid his ticket outside and he made it just before the movie started. I really liked the movie - it would be hard to beat Jurassic Park, but also I was younger when it came out so my memories of it are pretty exciting - but watching Noah get all excited while watching this one was awesome - he even applauded when it was over :)

Noah is going to be in the Little Mister Johnson County pageant. I really went back and forth on whether or not to ask him if he wanted to do it or not. I finally decided to just ask him and let him decide so I explained what all he would need to do and once I said if he won he would get money - he asked if  he could buy a toy with the money and I said yes it would be his money to spend and he said "sign me up!" :) Also, everyone gets a trophy (or a challenge as Noah calls them) for participating so I knew he would be happy with that either way.  We have been practicing his interview questions and he is cracking me up with his replies. I am hoping he doesn't get shy and talks to the judges the same way. He just has the best personality.  We had to take his head shots for the pageant program over the weekend - he did so good! Then they showed me 30 pictures of my adorable kid and said "ok, pick one!" That was tough! I got his outfits in the other day too - he was cute before, but put him in a tie and oh my goodness! He is so adorable! He kept saying "stop looking at me like that" when I had him in his suit - he was seriously adorable.

Behind the scenes of his head shots :)

We also got to celebrate our friends son Mateos 2nd birthday party. He had the cutest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle party! Goof food and good friends made for a great day :)

Ryans loved the pizza cookies :)

Noah got confetti bombed by the pinata :)

Happy Birthday Mateo!

Ryan started swimming lessons this week. The first day she really wasn't wanting to do much that she was asked to. When I told her to blow bubbles in the water she just said "nah, momma blow them and I pop them". She wouldn't even jump in to me and she jumps to me from the kitchen counter all the time. But, she warmed up the second day and was doing much better! She is awesome at floating on her belly and her back and can kick her legs like a champ :)

I want to give a shout out to my biggest blog fan Hannah! Hey girl hey!