Back to work

Thanksgiving is over, back to work. Getting the kids back into the morning routine is always a challenge after a long weekend. Cooper's arm is all better, the other kids are healthy also. The Johnson Thanksgiving was here Thursday, and there were no major food mishaps, just a small problem with the meat thermometer, and the deep fried turkey. We traveled to Cedar Rapids for "Ellsworth" Thanksgiving and the roads were snow and ice covered on the way home, the two hour drive took nearly 4 hours. The kids were getting cranky by the time we got home.

Remodel is still in progress. We had a dining room hutch delivered, Jeff installed two new light fixtures, I have been busy staining chair rails and doors. Need to get the drywall finished so I can paint, and then get the carpet installed.

Here is Lexi from Halloween:

Busy Weekend

The weekend started early Friday. The school nurse called and I had to pick Cooper up from school because his right arm was swollen, red, hot, and inflammed. I took him to Dr. Jay and we determined he had a reaction to the flu shot he had on Wednesday. We spent the weekend keeping it iced and elevated, and drugged up on antibiotics, Zyrtec, and Ibuprofen. He was feeling pretty good today, so Jeff took him to Mnpls for his first concert - AC\DC. Saturday was busy running errands - picking up oak trim for the dining room, picked up the side of beef, scout popcorn pickup, winterized boat picked up, and we went to the food and wine show downtown and took advantage of the yummy samples. It was like Costco on a Saturday, only better food, and no old ladies telling us where the product was located. They had alcohol samples too...it was all good.

Thanksgiving dinner at our house this year, so I need to figure out the menu asap.

Here are a couple for the baby books:

Dining Room Remodel Started

There was a cold air return in the wall so it couldn't be torn out completely. The drywall guy didn't show up this weekend, so I will be looking for another contractor if he doesn't call soon. Jeff installed new light fixtures, we found a china cabinet that matches our table, ordered carpet, and decided on paint color. We still need to find a chair railing that matches what was already in the room. Next weekend we will be painting and staining. I can't find sitting room furniture within my budget, so I need to keep looking.

It is cold!

It turned cold this weekend. I am not ready for winter. Halloween was last week and it was unseasonably warm for Beggar's night. Surprisingly, Brody ended up wearing his costume, but drew the line at wearing the hat part. We took him trick or treating just in the cul-de-sac, and he caught on pretty quickly to put out his bag and he would get candy. At some point he decided to start giving back, he would select some things from his bag, give it to the person handing out candy, say bye, and run away. So by the time we got home his bag was empty, because he had given away all the candy he collected. He had fun, and Cooper got enough candy for everyone anyway.
In other Brody news, he got a haircut, and didn't bite the girl so I don't think we are banned from that Great Clips yet. He also out of the blue decided to go potty on the toilet this weekend. We haven't started potty training, and in my excitement didn't expect him to follow up his business, by washing his hands in the toilet. Oh well, baby steps.

I was looking for some old pictures and found these:

Going Out of Town...

Jeff is pheasant hunting today, I am trying to get the house in order because I need to travel to Florida for work Monday am. Tonight we have tickets to Metallica, next week we will see Rain at the Civic Center for my birthday. Last night was Logan's 4th birthday party.

Cooper's last football game was Saturday morning. He scored a touchdown, and got several flags on defense. I missed it, I stayed home with the kids because I thought it would be too cold to take them out. Cooper is working on his first major school project, he needs to recreate a continent with land forms they have been studying. Daddy has been helping him and it is coming along nicely.

Lexi moves to a new room at daycare next week. She will be a grasshopper. Brody pushed her off the steps and she has a battle wound on her forehead.

Brody doesn't think much of wearing his Barney costume. We tried a test fitting yesterday and it didn't go well. Hopefully he will warm up to it by Thursday.

Catching up...

It's been awhile since I have updated. I took Cooper to see Walking with Dinosaurs at the beginning of the month. The live show of the BBC tv series. He quickly surmised the large dinosaurs were mechanical, but the smaller ones were more convincing. It was a good show, the official review from the seven year old - The teradachtyl was lame, and there should have been more dinosaur fights and kills.

Jay and Jessi had a small wedding at the Rose Garden at Greenwood Park. I helped out by taking pictures that day.


I needed to take Brody to the ER because he couldn't walk. We couldn't figure out what was wrong and it didn't get better so after a good dose of Codeine, xrays, blood work, and 4 hours in the ER, he miraculously started walking after not for two days. Final diagnosis was no broken bones, and some sort of inflammation in his hip. He is all better now...

We had the softball team and lots of others over to the house for a party. Small keg and lots of Jello shots made with some fine Hawkeye vodka, a cornhole challenge, and just hanging out to celebrate the end of the softball season.

Lexi started walking! Cooper rocks at spelling, needs to work on math. One more football game left. He was asked to be on a basketball team, need to decide if we will do that. Here are some pictures from the pumpkin patch.

Halloween Costumes

I got Lexi's costume in the mail Friday. She is going to be an Octopus for Halloween, we tried it on, and it didn't bother her at all. I was trying to find something for her and Brody to be together but let's face it he will not wear anything I choose, so if I have a chance of him wearing any kind of costume, I am going to try for Barney. The kid is a freak about Barney. They watch videos in the afternoon and that is how he knows who Barney is, problem is...Barney is not popular. You can't go out and buy a Barney costume or a Barney toy. Barney is so...1991. That is why someone invented Ebay I guess. Cooper is going to be Janga Fett for halloween. I guess the money I saved last year buying his costume on clearance, I just spent this year on discontinued costumes for the little ones. Here they are last year. Cooper loves to "help" me scrapbook his pages. He helps me pick pictures and tells me to move stuff around. When I realized a while ago, who I was scrapping for, and unfinished pages are never printed and seen, it makes me want to try to keep getting layouts actually completed.

In other news we played three ballgames tonight. We took 3rd place in the end of season tournament. I slid into second base and scraped up my leg and I am already stiff. Oh well we have all winter to rest up for next season.