Wild Times

Drew went back to work Thursday after our trip to Oklahoma. It was warm enough that we were able to play outside and we even took a walk to the pond. When Drew got home from work we met John, Christina, and Josie at the zoo for Wild Lights. It was a nice little outing. The boys were hoping more animals would be out but the penguins were the only ones out. It was a great spur of the moment field trip.

New Years Eve Morning, we woke up and realized Max had gotten sick all over the house. Drew and I were shocked that we didn't hear him and were a little stressed out by the events of the morning. It was a nice morning so we left Max outside while we went to get donuts and coffee. When we got home, Drew took the boys to get haircuts and to rent a carpet cleaner. While he was gone I noticed that Max was continuing to get sick and he was starting to shake. I had no clue what to do so I called the vet and they said they didn't have any appointment openings but that they needed to see him so to bring him in they would fit him in. So Drew got home with the boys and the carpet cleaning machine, put Max in the car and headed to the vet.

The vet said that Max was extremely tender in his abdomen and that they were going to have to take an x-ray to see what was going on. The first x ray was inconclusive so they told Drew they would have to keep him the rest of the afternoon and run a series of x-rays so they could try and figure things out. While Drew was at the vet a severe thunderstorm rolled through and the tornado sirens started going off. Talk about a CRAZY day!

Drew got home around lunch time and then hopped in the car with Andrew so he could take him to his dentist appointment. After Andrew's last dentist experience I wasn't exactly thinking positive and figured that would pretty much stay in line with the day. But to my surprise Andrew had ZERO cavities!!! Here is the email Drew sent while they were at the dentist:

6 year molers coming in
12 year molers developing
Good health
No cavities
Will need braces later. $$$$$
Cleaning teeth now

Drew brought Andrew home and then went to pick up Max. They did 36 x-rays while he was there and really came to no conclusions. There "guess" was that he has/had a foreign body in his stomach. They gave him anti nausea medicine and told us to take him to an emergency vet if he got sick again.

Drew got home around dinner time, we ate, did a New Years celebration with the kids, put the kids to bed and you'll never guess what exciting thing we did after we put the kids to bed.... Drew finished his hours for his CPA certification. (He has to get a certain number of hours in every year and yes he waited until the very last minute). I went to bed at 11:30 and he came up at 12:01 and said he had just finished. I know, we are such the party animals.

2011 got off to a much better start. Everyone woke up healthy. Drew and I got out of the house for a couple of hours in the morning while the kids stayed with a sitter. We also had a little family celebration at grandma and poppa's.

Talk about an eventful ending to 2010!

Christmas in Oklahoma

We had a great visit with family in Oklahoma. Sunday, Drew's grandparents and aunt, uncle, and cousin came down to celebrate with us. Drew's sister Jenny was there with her 3 kids and Drew's brother Mike was there with his family as well. It was of course chaos with so many people, but fun chaos. We ate, opened gifts, and caught up. Molly was loving the fact that she is 100% a walker and she was all over the place. The boys loved playing with their cousins and trying to be like big cousin Conner. It was a great family day.

Monday we took the boys to the Lego store (Andrew's big treat) and then to the John Deere store (Matthew's big treat). The Lego store was perfect because practically everything was 50% off so Andrew was able to get a fun little Star Wars set for like 6 bucks. No one knew what to expect at the John Deere store. I had heard that a lot of them have a section with toys but we had never been. When we pulled up Matthew was in awe at all of the real life enormous equipment. Then when we walked into the store we realized it was basically a toy store. Matthew could not contain his excitement. It was perfect! After some shopping we went outside and let the boys (and Molly) climb on the equipment.

Monday evening, Drew and Andrew went to the OKC Thunder game with Mike and Conner. Ryan brought Ellie Kate and Henry over to Drew's parents so the little guys could have a fun night too. Of course the guys had a blast at the game. Andrew said his favorite part was his soft pretzel with cheese. They also had a sign making contest and Conner was a finalist and on the Jumbo Tron.

Tuesday we went over to Mike and Ryan's house to hang out. We had never seen their new house so we were so excited to see it. The kids had a great time playing with all of their cousins' toys. Mike and Ryan made delicious homemade pizzas and we had an awesome time laughing and catching up with them. Thanks for having us over!

Tuesday evening Paw Paw took our clan on a special limo ride to look at Christmas lights. We felt like celebrities and the boys thought it was SO cool! Thanks for the special treat Paw Paw.

After a jam packed few days we were worn out and ready to hit the road back to STL. We had a great visit and an amazing drive home. We only stopped ONE TIME on the way home! That is a world record!!! We picked up Max from his "hotel" and were home sweet home. As always it was a nice trip but so nice to be home in our own beds. Matthew was the happiest to have his bed back!

Christmas 2010

Everyone was up and ready by 7am to open presents! Of course Andrew was up hours before his siblings but that's to be expected. Here they are waiting to see what Santa delivered.

It was so fun watching all 3 open presents. Matthew was tearing into every present, his or not. This was a big difference from last year. Andrew was reading everyone's names and handing them out while opening his at the same time. Molly found one of Drew's gifts that she tried to open pretty much the whole 15 minutes of present opening. Santa brought Andrew a Lego Garage and a small UPS truck; he brought Matthew a concrete pumper and a mini excavator with jack hammer attachment; and he brought Molly a new book shelf and a wooden activity cube. He brought me an new computer! And Drew got an ipod touch and GPS system for his car. We were very fortunate this year!

Once the presents were opened Drew finished packing the car while I got the kids ready. It was pretty hard for them to leave their new toys but they were excited about our road trip too. We left our house about 10 and noticed that Starbucks was open!!!! What a wonderful Christmas gift! We grabbed coffee, got gas and hit the road. Of course about 20 minutes in Matthew and Andrew began asking if we were in Oklahoma. But they were really good. We stopped for lunch in Rolla and found out that not even McDonalds is open on Christmas Day! We had to stop at a gas station, get their last loaf of bread, peanut butter, and jelly. I think all poor Molly had was crackers and goldfish, thank God for milk. We arrived in Norman at Drew's parents at about 6:30 and luckily they had nuggets and lunch meat for dinner. Drew unpacked and got the kids beds set up while I fed them dinner. We set Matthew up in a room by himself since he takes forever to fall asleep and usually sleeps the latest. Molly and Andrew slept in the guest bedroom with me and Drew. As we expected the first night was a little rough getting everyone to sleep but I think everyone was down by 10!

Christmas Week

Christmas week was a little crazy. The boys were off school and Drew was working crazy hours in order to take a few days after Christmas off for our trip to Oklahoma. Luckily we got out of the house on Tuesday the 21st for Kiersten's 5th Birthday. We had to miss her friend party at Chuck E Cheese because Matthew, Molly and I were battling bad colds. Her family party was perfect. Pete and Jill ordered Dominos (Andrew's favorite thing on Earth) and the kids just played and played. Of course Matthew decided not to take a nap that day and was quite the pill but luckily no one seemed to care. Kiersten got some really fun gifts and was so cute when she opened each gift. Happy 5th Birthday K!

Christmas Eve we started getting snow about 7am. It was so exciting to know that we were going to have a white Christmas! We took Max to the place we were boarding him because they closed at noon. We were sad to leave him but knew it would make our trip to Oklahoma a lot easier. Plus he got to stay at the "Ritz" of pet hotels because we started calling too late and this was the only place available. (He got a scone every morning and yogurt every evening:))

After we dropped Max off we ran a few last minute errands and then went home to play in the snow a little bit. This was Molly's first time playing in the snow. She loved it and of course the boys did too.

We tried to get everyone down for naps early because we knew we were going to have to leave our house at 3:00 to get a seat at 4:30 mass. We made it to mass just in time to get a seat and we were so thankful. I've never seen so many people in one place! After mass we headed over to Grandma and Poppa's for their annual Christmas Eve Party. Christmas Eve is my favorite night, I love the anticipation! We had Drew's favorite, beef tenderloin as well as many other delicious foods. We were the first to leave but knew we had a busy/early Christmas Day ahead of us. The kids went to bed perfectly knowing the sooner they went to sleep the sooner Santa would arrive!

Drew and I spend the rest of the night packing and organizing so we would be prepared to hit the road as early as possible the next day.