Clifford the Big Red Dog

What a night! Last night Andrew woke up with a croupy seal cough. This isn't unusual in our home. Whenever Andrew gets a cold it quickly goes straight into his lungs. We have a nebulizer that turns his medicine into a fine mist so he can breath it into his lungs. With this, his seal cough will go away long enough for him to have a good night's sleep and after a few more doses and a couple of days later his cough will be gone. So, last night I gave him a nebulizer treatment and it seamed to have no effect. He threw up, had a hacky seal cough and it seamed painful for him to breath. I began to worry! Kelly and I decided the ER might be a good idea. When we got there the doctors said it was a good thing we had come in because his throat was swollen and that is why he had a hard time breathing. They gave him an oral dose of steroids to help the inflammation in his throat. They said that it can take up to 6 hours for that to work 100%, so they also gave him a misted medication to help right away. Mr. Andrew was scared and wanted nothing to do with any of the doctors or nurses that where helping him. Then our nurse said, "Give me a moment and I will be right back." About three minutes later she came back with this darling Clifford the big red dog. She handed him to Andrew and asked him if "Clifford could come and live at our house." Andrew was putty in her hands. Andrew loves dogs! She didn't know it but that was the perfect animal to pick for Andrew. Andrew wouldn't let anyone else touch him except his new friend Joyce our nurse. So after a two hour visit they sent us on our way. It was about 5 a.m. by the time Andrew and I had gotten home. We were so exhausted from a long evening. Boy am I thankful for modern technology and medicine. --emily

Bowling party

On Friday we went to Jacob and Andrew's cousins' birthday bash they had it at the local bowling alley. The kids had a splendid time. It was a very laid back place. At one point all three boys were tossing their bowling balls down the lane at the same time. One or two would get stuck and the employee that was working that afternoon would unclog the balls. He was great. He would say, "It looks like your boys are having fun." It was nice that the boys could learn to play in such a fun and relaxed atmosphere. They could have played for hours longer! This picture from left to right is Andrew, Jacob, and Simon. --emily

Making Brownies

While Andrew napped today Jacob and I made brownies for the missionaries that are coming over tonight. We thought it would be fun to have a member discussion over some yummy. . . Chocolate. . . Brownies! Jacob did a great job cleaning out the bowl. --emily

Afternoon at the park

The boys had a great time at the park this afternoon. The weather wasn't horrible outside. There wasn't any rain or wind, so we ventured out to a park about a block away. The boys where so cute. They played so well together. Jacob would help Andrew up all the hard parts and they laughed and giggled together. They had a great time. It was quite refreshing!

While playing at the park, Andrew found this little plastic dog. Andrew is so cute with all things dog. Andrew made him walk around, dig in the bark, and play fetch. He clutched him in his hand the whole time. The dog had dinner with Drew, a bath with Drew, and he is currently snuggling asleep with him.

Jacob was a great big brother the whole park outing. We might be rounding a new corner with him. It is quite exciting! I love his silly faces. --emily

Playing in the Snow

Today Kelly had the day off work so we went up to the pass to find a good free sledding hill after Jacob came home from pre-school. Since the snow in the northwest is so different every year, it is difficult to find a sledding spot that consistently has good snow. So we went for a family adventure to find the greatest sledding hill we could find. We have had only a dusting of snow at our house this year, so we went to a local ski resort, about 15 miles from our house. It was a little hike in, but that is what makes life an adventure. We all had a great time--even Gordon. The boys could have stayed and played for hours longer. Everyone stayed dry and warm in their snow gear. I'm glad we got some use out of them this season, because it will probably be too small for them next year. --emily

In this video Jacob is climbing up the hill and Andrew is sliding down.

Lego compitition

For Family Home Evening we had a friendly Lego space-ship building competition. The boys already have a large bucket of basic building Legos, but we thought it would be fun to go and purchase the little lights, steering weals, tires and other random parts. The boys had a great time looking in the big bright buckets and picking out whatever they wanted to accessorise their ship.

Here are the boys building their amazing ships.

This is Jacob's well-designed flying machine.

Here is Andrew's ship. He would hand me parts and pieces and I would put them onto his ship. Every once in a while Andrew would rip a piece off and toss it back into the pile.

This ship belongs to Mom. It was well-crafted with as many lights as I could fit on it!

Here is dad's color-coordinated ship. I only got one picture before Andrew tossed in across the room and it broke into lots of little pieces.

We are wanting you, our blog readers, to be the judge. What ship is your favorite? Please make a vote in the comments box! We can't wait to see what you think. --emily

Making cookies with Andrew

Jacob requested chocolate chip cookies for our afternoon snack today. The boys both had immunization shots at the doctor earlier, so I indulged Jacob in his request. Andrew helped me make them. He is such a great helper. He was eating just as much dough as he was putting on the tray. He would look up at me like, "Am I supposed to be eating this because it is so yummy!"

I let him get away with it. --emily

New City Hall

Our city recently finished the construction of a new city hall building. They had a dedication ceremony and open house on Saturday so that the local people could come and view the new building. We had been looking forward to the event for days. It is a completely "green" building and it is beautiful. The dedication meeting started with the mayor giving a speech and thanking everyone who was involved in the planning and construction. Jacob and Andrew didn't have the patience to sit through it for very long, so we snuck out early to see the rest of the building. The boy's favorite part was the elevator. They love to ride on elevators, mainly because they like pushing buttons. It was fun to go to an open house of a building such as this in our community. They had great artwork throughout the building. There were amazing glass sculptures and paintings from local artists.

The exterior landscape was also amazing. There were grass mounds and rock formations. The boys enjoyed running and playing all over. I had a hard time pealing Andrew from his new-found fun! He had a great time walking around and around on one of the rock formations that was in a circle shape.

I am glad that we went. We had a great time. --emily

Decluttering

The year 2010 is going to be a great year for actually accomplishing our goals. One of our family goals this year is to clean up the clutter. Not that we live in a disaster zone, but we do have a few drawers and closets that need help. So today being day number two of 2010, we are off to a great start. I cleaned the hall closet today and Kelly worked on the closet under the stairs. We both made great progress! Here is a picture of the closet that I worked on. I even made space for all the games that had been in random places all over the house. Yeah for us. --emily