Pass the Disinfectant PLEASE!!!

So several weeks ago we all passed around this nasty eye goober thing. Peyton quickly referred to it as "...the boogers coming out of my eyes..." It started with me, then Peyton, then Parker. My lucky duck husband was exempt from this illness, as always. Grrr. Parker's eye boogers, however, were much worse, and wouldn't go away. A quick trip to the MD revealed that he had a cold, turned sinus infection, turned blocked sinuses, turned boogers out the eyes. GROSS! More frustrating, they ordered a 10 day dose of an antibiotic to help him out. Well......all that did was produce a child who will no longer take ANY type of medication via mouth..and I mean ANYTHING, that yummy tasting Bubblegum, Grape or Cherry tylenol...yeah, not taking it. Matt and I would have to literally pin him down, and pray to God that he wouldn't aspirate. It also gave a nice round of diarhea that left a very unpleasant diaper rash that left me washing his bum in the sink for diaper changes. Ugh! After 7 days of that, we all washed our hands of the med and tossed it out!

Parker and the beginning of his GOOBER eye.

Thursday that week, Peyton and Parker were throwing up all night. Peyton, strange little kid that he is :), actually enjoyed it! He was the first one to tell EVERYONE "I threw up in my bed!" very proudly! Saturday night I started throwing up and by Sunday Matt was joining me! The one and only time that he's sick! Welcome to the club, Matthew!

The following week Parker had his 18 month check up and aside from some drainage the doc approved my stopping the med early and gave Parker a clean bill of health, after verifying that I didn't feel that my child was autistic, because I guess on a questionaire I filled out I checked two boxes that are only checked for autistic children. I'm blaming my answers on lack of sleep, from booger eye!

Peyton making his own doughnut at Krispy Kreme!

So, the doc appt was Monday, and Wednesday after babysitting at church we decided to visit the zoo. We hadn't been there in a long time, and the weather was great! I packed a little lunch and we hit all our favorite spots at the zoo...Peyton was even brave enough to do the dark Kingdom of The Nights. We watched the gorillas play. We sat by the flamingos and ate our lunch, fed the ducks, and looked at the bears!

Against my better judgement we went to the petting zoo. Peyton has an obsession with goats, so when I saw some mom's whimp out and tell their kiddos it was "too muddy" I knew I had to find a way. After all, I am supermom! So, I found a back gate that wasn't so muddy, lifted Peyton over a huge mud puddle and pushed the stroller into the petting zoo. The goats started swarming us like a puppy does after you've just gotten home from a long days work. Gesh...no petting all winter had left these goats missing some lovin! Parker started screaming, and I figured it was from the mass amounts of goats swarming around the front of the stroller! There were a lot of "kids" (baby goats for you non-goat lovers out there, which I have joined you now since this incident!) that were born late last summer that were becoming quite rambunctious. I walked around the front of the stroller to find bright red blood dripping all down his finger. FLIPPING GOATS!!!!! I quickly picked him up, grabbed Peyton and the stroller and walked through the disgusting piles of goat poo to the mud puddle exit. There were two zoo ladies outside the pens that offered to go get something to clean him up. They brought back a wet paper towel, a bandaid, and a peacock feather, "Better then a bandaid" she said. Geeez, thanks! She left me with the very calming reassurance that "The just had their shots last week!" Well, that's a relief!

                                  

I quickly went to the front desk and they had an EMT look at it. She said it was pretty bad...it broke the skin on both sides of the finger. It, actually looked like the goat bit down and grinded it's teeth into Parker's finger. She said we should see our doctor and that Parker would most likely get put on antibiotics. What?!?!? He was just on antibiotics a week ago for the first time ever, and it was...well, there's really no other word....hell! No way! It's just a goat bite, he'll be fine. WRONG-O! Our doc informed us that goats carry a hard strain of Ecoli, that shuts down the kidneys and liver. Pleasant! So, again, for such a senseless incident, Parker was put on a hard antibiotic, that we AGAIN had to pray he wouldn't aspirate as we held him down, he had to take a healthy bacteria to balance out his stomach and eat lots of yogurt. The greatest thing is that no one from the zoo bothered to call, because the guy who handles medical issues like this was "out of town." Really, you don't have anyone else to cover for this sort of thing? Needless to say, I again stopped the antibiotics at 7 days because of exhaustion with fighting him to take it all and the pooping!

This past Wednesday, Parker started running a fever. It just came out of nowhere and was over 103 for much of the evening. Friday I was running an errand and the little rash that I noticed on his tummy in the morning was spreading to his face. By the time I could stop the car, I swore his head was swelling, and the rash had covered 100% of his body (even inside his ears). I called Matt in a panic, because I was close to the ER, but about 30 minutes away from our doc, and I didn't know where to go. (I was also supposed to pick my mom up from the hospital from her surgery!) I ended up at the doctors and he diagnosed Parker with Hand Foot and Mouth Disease. I quickly learned that that was not, in fact, what Parker had. I kept doing research on it and it just didn't fit. I am now diagnosing it myself as Roseola. Either way though, it's a virus that you can't do anything for, but wait it out. The fever finally went away yesterday, 6 days!! The rash is still vaguely there, but has faded quite a bit. Now aside from a "junky" cough that Peyton, Parker and I have...I'm hoping we are on the mend!

               Poor Baby Cakes. :(

I should have stock in Lysol now!

Standing in God's Rain

1 John 3:1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

I looked up the word "lavish", because it's just such an amazing word! Lavish: expending or bestowing PROFUSELY! It doesn't stop...it just keeps on a coming! The word lavish comes from a Middle French word for "downpour of rain". Ahhhhhh! I want to stand in God's downpour of rain!

Oooo..and I'm not using an umbrella, cause I want to soak up all the love He is lavishing on me!

AMAZING!

Missing Heart

The other day I was putting some salt on my scrambled eggs for breakfast, and Peyton asked for some on his as well. Not being too much of a salt fan, and not usually doing it myself I started to tell him no. He asked why and I proceeded to tell him that it was bad for his heart.
He told me that he didn't have a heart anymore and that it was missing, all while pointing to his stomach. I redirected his finger to the acurate location of his heart and reassured him that it was there!

"My heart is missing, Mommy."
"Where is your heart Peyton?"
"Jesus took it and I'm NOT getting it back!"

He was so matter of fact that Jesus really had taken his heart. I am so impressed by the way that his child mind has taken the concept of asking Jesus into your heart and having Him live in your heart, that he just figured God took it out.

This whole conversation has me wanting to be more like Peyton. I want to give my whole heart to Jesus! Take it Jesus! It's yours...all yours!

It makes me think of the passage in Matthew 18:1-6:

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. 6But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.

Busy Bees

It seems like this past week things have moved from a turtles pace around here to faster then fast! New journey groups started at our church and Matt and I joined one! WOO HOO! It's been since Peyton was a baby since we've done one! Matt and I will be learning how to become a contagious Christian...so you all better watch out! ;)

The boys and I started a Bible Study this morning, that I'm very excited about. It's called Bible Study Fellowship and it's an international Bible study that has been around for over 50 years. The really special thing about me enrolling my kiddos in it is the fact that my mom did BSF when I was a child and so I went through the program that my boys will be too! It comes full circle! The boys will be in their own age appropriate rooms, where they will sing study a Bible story that goes along with what I will be learning in my class. I'm so excited to be sharing this experience with my kids! I feel like I'm bursting at the seams! Peyton's little mind is so eager to learn right now, and his brain is soaking up EVERYTHING around him! I caught him earlier singing a song about God, and when I asked him where he learned it, he said "...at that new church." The greatest thing about today though was Mr Parker. He has had separation anxiety issues since, well, forever, and refuses to let me leave his sight. His teacher, who is a friend of ours, said that he sat there and folded his hands during the prayer and listened to his Bible story! :) Ahhh! The peace that that brings to my heart is overwhelming! God works small miracles like this all the time! Thank you Jesus!

Oh and just so you know...I let my shaggy, mullet child Parker get his first haircut! :) He's so handsome, but lost A LOT of his baby face. :( I'll post pictures when I have time to upload.

I do have a request for the prayer warriors out there! We have some friends who's little boy is undergoing several brain surgeries, and they could use all the prayers they can get! I cannot fathom what they are going through. Specifically, right now, they are needing him to have seizures so they can perform another surgery tomorrow. Please keep Xander and his family in your prayers!

Temper Tantrums and Soap

So, Peyton, has been doing this new thing of talking back quite a bit lately. Like, if I tell him "Stop throwing that." He'll turn around and yell, "No, you stop throwing that!" We've been trying different tactics to get him to stop, and have started telling him that what he is saying is naughty and deserves soap.

Well, he and his brother were doing their new favorite thing of taking the TP and streaming it through the house. I told Peyton that his beloved brownie making wasn't happening, because he wasn't listening. He started to throw a tantrum and said, "I will make brownies, stay away from me!" He kept rambling some other things, and then stopped and said "Oh, I say sorry. I need to get the soap." He then proceeded to go into the bathroom pour a huge pump of hand soap into his hand and licked it! Then he looked at me, standing there in disbelief, and said "Mommy, I said naughty things."

I'm so bewildered, and I really am not sure how I should feel! :)

Forever again!

Alright...I'm not one for setting myself up for failure, so I tend to avoid the whole "New Years Resolutions". However, I (cross my fingers) am going to make one now! Better late then never, right? I am making a resolution to blog about our lives at least once a week...wait...scratch that, once a month! That seems doable, right? Let's hope!


Our little family after Peyton's (and Parker-he was a little munching animal on stage for a song)first Christmas program at church!



So, Peyton is 3, and, oh my goodness, my spitfire! He is one of those kids who plays hard, loves hard, and fights harder! I definitally have my hands full with this child! I am loving every minute of watching him grow. He is so inquisitive, and LOVES learning! He loves reading books, talking a mile a minute and helping mommy with her foster doggies. He's gotten pretty bad though, at thinking he can just "trade" our dog Zoe (whom I've had for 10 years) in for a different dog. :)He is still into sports, and I really can't wait for spring to watch him excel even more in what he does best...Baseball!

Parker is already 17 months! We've obviously been hitting all the normal milestones, such as crawling, standing, walking and now are in a full all out blazing ball of running fury! He is absolutly crazy and has NO FEAR! I catch him all the time doing "naughty" things that I've heard is just normal for boys. WHAT?!?! I'm going to have some serious gray hair with this boy! His favorite place to be is on the top of the toilet (not the bowl part, but the tank!). He has mastered crawling up the fort of the swingset, which Peyton could barely do when we got it in the spring! He is so silly, and is always making goofy faces to get us to laugh. You will always hear Peyton saying, "Not funny, Parter!" to keep his pesky brother away! :)

Crazy Parker!

We just purchased a new home! On a whim in beginning of December we decided to put our house on the market. In todays market, especially during the winter, we thought for sure our house wouldn't sell until the spring 2010. Well, God had different plans, our house sold and closed the last week in December! We were planning on moving in with my parents until we were able to find a house, but as our deadline to close grew closer we grew antsy and threw down an offer on a house. We were told our offer wouldn't stand, but we just had faith that God knew what he was doing. We then entered a bidding war with the sellers, and went back and forth and finally agreed on a price! It was amazing and we've been told it's something you don't see every day! We know that we've only one Man to thank, JESUS! The last weeks in December were crazy trying to get ready to move and trying to figure out when we could close on the new house to avoid a double move. Up to the very last day we were told by everyone we wouldn't close until 2010, which was how we would have ended up doing a double move. God performed another miracle and we ended up finding out late on the 30th that we would close on the 31st! It worked so perfectly...God's perfect plan! It's amazing what God does, when you step back and just let God be God! It's been awesome to, to be able to tell people who we have to thank for this whole situation.

Our home is so cozy and we just love it so much! We've been having fun unpacking and making it our home. My dad has been over, quite a bit (I'm pretty sure he has all the hours tracked on a time sheet!:) ) to paint the whole interior of the house! He's a very talented and precise (sometimes too much for Matt, who just likes to get it done) painter, and we have him to thank for a beautifully painted house! Because we bought the house so fast, and we've had some crazy snow storms here, we have no idea what the yard looks like! We have discovered, as the snow is melting that the house has a lot of rocks in the landscaping! Matt's already talking about the fact that if the kids break windows they'll be locked in their rooms for a week, and will only be able to come out to eat and go potty! :) Hee hee!


Our Home!

We have a fireplace!

Boys Bathroom

Our room...they must have had a sale on disgusting yellow paint! Updated pictures to come!

Kitchen <3

This little guy, who Peyton and daddy named Hopps, was found in our egress window downstairs. We had to call the Humane Society to get him out! This is the same officer who came to get a St Bernard from my yard (who layed down and refused to get up and ended up having to get picked up with "reinforcements"! Ha ha!!)


Well, I better leave somethings to blog about later! ;)