Caleb's last day

Last Friday we had a picnic at Caleb's preschool to celebrate his last day of school for the year. It was such a fun morning! They had different "stations" set up for the kids to play at before we had lunch -- they could ride trikes, play with the giant parachute, go to the playground, play with sidewalk chalk, bubbles, etc.

The class that he's in only meets once a week, and it's designed to get kids ready for preschool. Basically it's just organized play with some educational aspects thrown in. They sing, dance, read stories, paint, craft, get into play-doh, and play outside. He really loves it and every time we drive by, he always points out "my school". I love that he's proud of it!!

Caleb is going through a stage where he refuses to let me take his picture, so these are the best I got. Doesn't he understand how important pictures are to me???? UUUUUUUGH! Clearly, he missed the memo the past couple of weeks!! LOL.

Caleb with Mrs. Turek.

Caleb with Mrs. Haas.

Andrew watching Caleb ride the trike around. How hilarious is this face?? He totally cracks me up!

Caleb on the trike. Man, he loved zipping around the big circle drive on this thing!!

Summer break -- here we come!! Now... if only Katherine was done with school!

Love note

Because I never want to forget......

I got the sweetest love letter from Katherine last week. She drew a picture of her and I together holding hands and it read:

GRAJULASHINS MOMMY. YOR FANTASTIK!

How sweet is that??? AAAAHHHH, she's the best.... totally amazing, and I'm so thankful she's mine!

Happy Memorial Day!

If there's one thing I LOVE, it's a nice long weekend! We had a blast over the past few days -- a trip to LeMars, my nephew's graduation party, a trip to the Katherine and Caleb's favorite park, and hanging out with family. It was great!!

So first a "few" pictures from the park. Caroline and I took the kids (Katherine, Caleb, Leo and Gus) to the park for a little pre-lunch outing.

Katherine and Leo.

Katherine, my little poser. I was pretty much done taking pictures at this point, but when she asked me to snap a few more, how could I say no??? Yea, I couldn't!

Leo. Katherine and Caleb always love playing with Leo! I'm so glad he let me take a picture or two of him!

Katherine.

All the kiddos. Caleb flat out refused to let me take a picture of him, so I was beyond elated when he'd sit for a group shot!

Katherine

How cute are they??? A pretty good looking bunch if I do say so myself!! LOL!!

Here's little Gus.... Isn't he just adorable?? He's so smiley and happy!! He's just perfect!!

Katherine's latest obsession is the monkey bars. She does them ALL THE TIME. Literally, every chance she gets, she's rockin' those bad boys!! Her poor little hands have callouses across the palms, yet it doesn't bother her at all. She can't get enough!

Jacob is as close to a celebrity as it comes to Katherine and Caleb. They love and adore him like crazy and whenever he comes around they go wild! There's tons laughing, rough-housing, and chaos. Nothing is better than that!!

Here's a few pictures from Zach's graduation. Caleb and Leo LOVED the cake!!

Cheers!!

Jay and Debbie have the coolest bright orange room in their house. Here are the kiddos looking out of the cut-out in the wall going up the steps.

A kiss (or two) for Katherine!

All smiles!!

Here's little Gus just chillin' out!! I love these shots of him against the orange wall.

Andrew didn't sleep very well Friday night, so at the party he did a lot of this.....

Caroline and Gus --

Jay and Andrew --

Matt wanted to get back to Des Moines a little early, so we left LeMars on Sunday afternoon and just hung out today. I wasn't super keen on leaving on Sunday, but I must admit, I was glad that we had a day to just rest and relax as a family. Today we went to the park, took the kids out for lunch, and got ready for a short week! Woo-hoo!!

Another day... another first...

This morning Andrew and I were playing on the floor in the living room. He looked like he wanted to reach for knob on the train table drawer, so I pulled it out so that he could reach it.

He smiled, reached out his little hand, and grabbed on for dear life. Within 5 seconds, he was standing on his feet and trying to pull everything in sight off.... the buildings, the tracks, and the trains. It was so cute. He was all smiles and knew that he had done something pretty special!

I've gotta say... I wouldn't be shocked at all if he never crawled. The way he's going, it looks like he may skip that step and go straight to walking! Watch out world!!

It's official!

We have a roller! At 7.5 months Andrew has finally figured out how to roll over. In the past he'd turn over pretty far, but never made it all the way over. His little shoulder would get stuck, and he'd just flop right back over on his back. However, tonight he and I were playing on the floor and all of a sudden he rolled right over. So our lives are about to get pretty interesting. I have a feeling he's going to be an active little guy! He has super strong legs, and absolutely NO interest in crawling, so I just have a haunch that he'll go right to walking!

So thankful...

I am so thankful for great friends. Truly.

This morning we had to get my car down to the body shop so that they could take a look at the tire before we head to LeMars this weekend for my nephew's graduation. Since the dealership didn't open until 7:30, Andrea immediately offered, without being asked, to take me (and all the kids) down there so that Matt could get to work at his usual pre-dawn time.

About 2 hours later, there was a surprise knock on my door. Michelle stopped over to deliver my daily caffeine addiction -- a 2 liter bottle Diet Dr. Pepper and a bag of my fave candy (Swedish fish) because she knew I'd need it today. How thoughtful is that?

Busy weekend!

We've had a super busy and incredibly fun weekend! Actually, this is the first 5 minutes to myself since ...... aaaahhh, I don't know.... Thursday???

Friday night, on the way home from work, Matt called me and asked if I wanted him to pick up Cool Basil. AAAAHHH, yea!! LOL! I called and called but couldn't get an answer. In the meantime, Andrea called. One thing led to another, and they decided to join us. So, Friday night the Hodapp clan was over for yummy take-out. While the grown-ups relaxed and enjoyed some wine, the kiddos headed to the basement for a little fun of their own. I felt bad for poor Katherine... She was the only girl with 4 boys to play with. Oh and those boys -- when you put them together they usually manage to find themselves in hot water. When I went downstairs to check on them, I Caleb and Colin climbing on Katherine's huge Barbie house and jumping off. I have no idea how they even climbed up there, but man... it just looked like a broken bone waiting to happen!

Saturday night was a different story though... Since Rick and Danyel are moving, we wanted to have a going away party for them. Since they already had plans last night, it didn't quite work out as we hoped, but it was fun anyway. The Hodapps, Allens, Miners, and Sokolowsis came over for a BBQ and since it was so cold out, we busted out the fire pit. The kiddos had a blast running around the backyard, having a picnic in the middle of the lawn and roasting marshmallows. When the sun went down, the kids retreated into the house while we stayed outside enjoying the fire. I have tons of pictures which I'll upload after tonight.

Tonight we invited the whole neighborhood over for a little going away party for Rick, Danyel, Walker and Ryan. It's our little way of saying goodbye to great friends. Hopefully it'll work out to throw a big bash when they come back to close on their house. So save a night for us guys!!

Anyway, I'm off to clean. My house is an absolute disaster after this weekend. We've had people here almost all weekend long, and my house is a pit!

update...

Where do I even begin??? So much has happened in the past couple of weeks....

The obvious place.... Andrew's surgery. It went amazingly well. He was such a trooper through it all. You would never know the pain and discomfort the poor little guy had to feel judging by the constant smile on his little face. Through it all, he was happy and playful -- literally you'd never know anything was wrong with him...

Thankfully, Matt's parents came down the night before his surgery and helped us out more than words can say. They did it all -- took Katherine to school, helped out with laundry, played with Caleb.... everything. We couldn't have done it without them. His dad left Monday morning and then Matt took his mom back to LeMars the following Friday (as in -- she was here over a week). We had him dedicated in church that Sunday (Mother's Day) so they turned right around and came back down a day later. Thankful does not even begin to describe how I feel. I am incredibly blessed and overwhelmed to have in-laws who are more like parents to me that "outlaws"!

A few things I'll never forget --

* How horrible I felt handing my baby boy over to the doctor and watching them walk down the long hallway knowing what his next few minutes would be like and I wouldn't be with him. I stood there watching Andrew laugh at the doctor and grab his face, while I had tears streaming down my own. The pit in my stomach at that moment made me physically nauseous.

* The long wait while he was in surgery. Matt and I had breakfast, and then he went back to the hotel to check out while I paced the hallways. That time seemed to drag on for a lifetime........

* Being called back to the waiting room knowing that Andrew was out of surgery but we couldn't see him yet. All of a sudden an older woman ran into the room and asked me two questions -- if he had any allergies and if he was breastfed. When I told her yes to the later, she said, "Well that explains that" and ran out of the room. She was super odd, so I didn't give it much of a thought. About 5 minutes later a young girl came to bring me back to Andrew. Evidently only one of us could go back, so Matt waited in that recovery room while I went to get him. As soon as we rounded the corner, I head him crying ... eeerrr... screaming. The young girl told me that there was NO WAY it could be him as we were way too far away from the room that he was in. Sure enough, down a VERY long hallway and through two sets of double doors the screaming got louder and louder... It was Andrew, and he was inconsolable... In fact, he was so ticked off that he kicked the IV out of his foot and the nurse had to call the doctor to put it back in. She thought he was in a crazy amount of pain and needed something to take the edge off. I immediately grabbed him from the nurse and started cuddling with him and singing. By the time the doctor got there he was fast asleep.

* The quick pit stop we had to make in Williamsburg to buy ginormous onezies which he would live in for the next two weeks.

* The trouble we had getting him to take his medication -- all three bottles worth -- Tylenol with codeine, something for bladder spasms and an antibiotic. It was horrible. He would cough, gag and try to spit it back out.

* The horrendous diaper changes. I couldn't have done it without Fran. Two diapers, a catheter, ointment, the works... Changing his diaper was an event in itself. It was quite the production...

* His first bath -- watching the water turn red, trying to take off the bandage, and then seeing the flow of fresh blood. It looked HORRIBLE, and Fran and I were terrified. Neither one of us felt competent to care for this!

* Through it all, spending every day with a little boy who always had a smile on his face and couldn't wait to play with you and interact. He was soooo happy... You'd literally never know he just had surgery.

We went back to Iowa City on Tuesday and had his catheter taken out. His doctor said that everything was perfect, and most likely he'll never have a problem. We need to bring him back in the future just to make sure everything is OK, but it looks like we're in the clear!

Sooo... in other news....

I HAD A DAY YESTERDAY.....

Katherine's car seat was in Matt's car and since she had gymnastics, I ran downtown to pick it up from him. I loaded up the boys, picked up Jimmy John's for lunch, and went down to meet Matt. We sat in the car, had lunch together and just hung out for a little while. We said our goodbyes and I was on my way. On the way to the interstate, I got into a horrible car accident. It was my fault. My kids were in the car. I just cried and called 911 and Matt. I have no idea what I was thinking but I was reading the signs to get to the interstate and looking a block ahead of me and totally missed a red light. I went right though, and didn't even pause. I got T-boned right in the side door where Andrew was sitting. Oh man.... The other vehicle was a 1993 Olds car and I'm positive it'll be totalled. We hit hard enough that the impact swung my Sequoia around 90 degrees and Caleb's car seat was jarred sideways. Oh man.............. I'll never forget the sound of the impact ... the glass breaking, the metal denting, the other car being ripped apart. I can still hear it when I close my eyes. The other car looks horrible. Glass and metal were all over the intersection. Shockingly enough, if you looked at my car, you'd NEVER know it was in the kind of car accident that it was. The other car hit my tire and side running board thing. Other than that, there is very little body damage. The impact, however, was so hard that Matt was literally picking pieces of the other car out of my tire.

Thankfully, he arrived on the scene before the police and took care of everything. I'm so grateful for him.

I'm sure they'll be many more "accident" updates to come.....

Today the Launderville's came over and Caleb and Caden played all morning. They had a great time! After they left, the boys and I went to Katherine's school for her art show. It was so cute! A little background.....

On Wednesday I went with her class on a field trip to the Art Center. Mrs. Seybert taught them about 6 different artists and told the tour guides to specifically point out paintings by those artists. What I didn't know was that she had each of them create a piece of art in the same style as each of the artists they studied. Today, she had the class replicate the Art Center experience for the parents. They all made matching paper mache hats and each child had a job to do. Katherine was a tour guide -- she was supposed to tell parents 3 facts about each artist, and there were also security guards that made sure we didn't "cross the line" (LOL), greeters, restaurant staff (they handed out lemonade and cookies) etc... It was sooo incredibly cute.

The real kicker.... When we got to Van Gogh, Katherine immediately started crying. She couldn't remember her three facts about him and was WAY upset about it. All of a sudden, Caleb gives her a hug and says, "That's OK Katherine. I don't know anything about him either, so we're twins! Actually....". LOL!! How sweet is that!!

Oh, and one more thing before I call it quits on the blogging front tonight.... (Yea, I know how random and rambling this is.....)!

Matt got me a DQ cake for Mother's Day -- evidently weight watchers was forgotten that day! LOL. Anyway, after dinner we all had a piece. I looked at Katherine's plate and noticed that she had eaten all the vanilla and hadn't eaten any of the chocolate yet. So we have this conversation:

Me: Why are you eating your cake that way?

K: (Laughs).

Me: No, I'm serious. Really why haven't you eaten your chocolate yet?

K: (Laughing and nervous at this point). I will.

Me: No, Katherine. I'm not kidding. I HAVE TO KNOW. WHY HAVEN'T YOU EATEN YOUR CHOCOLATE YET????

K: (She's totally giving me this 'you are insane mom' look). Why???

Me: Matt, Look at this!! Look at the way she's eating her cake!!

K: What???

Matt: Laughing... OH. My. Goodness.

Me: Katherine, Seriously... I need to know. Why didn't you eat a bite of your chocolate ice cream yet? I really WANT to know.

K: (Laughing). Because I like it better than the vanilla so I save it for last.

Me: I knew it! I knew it!

K: What?

Me: That's exactly how I eat my cake! And for the same reason.

Can you believe it? Katherine and I are one and the same. We've got the same quirky idiosyncrasies, that just keep popping up. It cracks me up! AAAHHHH.....