Dog Days Of Summer

 At the beginning of June we participated in a fundraiser for a friend of our friends...catch that?!

My friend Sara's friend from high school has a baby with Krabbe Disease.

Sadly I don't know everything about it but she has a blog at Sweet Williams Way!

 

Here is sweet William!

 The fundraiser was a shuffle board tournament!

Each team had a sponsor and donated so much money for each point played!

I hate to brag and all but our sponsor (Spratt Construction) had to pay a hefty fine because Travis and I came from the losers bracket and got 3rd place! 

We scored the highest amount of points out of anyone there!!

It was a fun day and we had a fun Williamsburg group that traveled to play!

 

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I caught these three taking a selfie of themselves...how adorable!

Wish I had the outcome but unfortunately the phone was fake;)

 

 

My dad took Pierce to the farm one day and my mom took this!

Pierce looks up to his great Uncle Pap (Pat) and great Uncle Tommy. 

He's taking it all in here!

All these men are hard workers, they have great work ethic and they are amazing role models!

 

 

We did swim lessons in Williamsburg for the first time this year.

Pierce did great and learned so much!

Cash did great for the first 6 lessons then did not participate the last 2...oh well!

They were his first swim lessons ever so I'll take it!

 

Story of my life....

 

We had a day planned at the pool then the weather was crappy so we decided to check out City Park in Iowa City.

The kids had so much fun and it was cheap entertainment!!

Love this picture of my boys:)



 

 

Ahhh yes....and we've officially hit the dog days of summer!

Pierce finally mustered up enough courage to go down the BIG RED SLIDE!!

{It's a big deal people!}

Now I can't keep him off of it!

 

Not sure I've mentioned this before (since I'm so far behind in blogging I doubt I have!) but Cash won a family membership pass to the pool from his preschool prom!

We have been taking every advantage of it too:)

 

 

 And here I am...forcing my kids to take selfies with me....because without selfies I wouldn't be in any pictures!!

He loves me...he really does;)

 



Fishing, Golfing and St. Louis

We've been having a lot of fun this summer! 

My motto is YOLO (you only live once!).

 

Travis went on a guys only fishing trip to Wisconsin over Father's Day weekend.

He had a lot of fun and came home with only one picture!

Look'n good Trav, looking good:)

 

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We've gotten into a few golf tournaments....

....and we ALWAYS have fun doing that!!

 Not sure what Mark is doing in the top left corner;)

Four couple best shot!

The four lady best shot is always a good time too!



 

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At the end of June we took a family trip to St. Louis with a group of friends!

 

After a long drive down (we were about 30 miles from our destination and there was flooding over the road so we had a detour that lasted way too long!) we visited Grants Farm!  It was a great outing I highly recommend! 

Out of all the kids in the crowd Pierce was chosen to go down and help the presenter at a show...

....and this is as excited as he got!  Seriously?!

 

 

Pierce and Bryson in the bird cage...this is as close as I could get!

I'm NOT a fan of birds!

 

 

Our local Raider baseball team was having a fundraiser selling tickets to the Cardinal/Cubs game! 

All 18 of us went to the game and had a great time!

 

We are a Boston Red Sox family so I was unsure who to cheer for!

I got the kids shirts at Wal-Mart for way cheap, I bought Travis' for $5 at our Outlet mall (Vanity Fair) and I borrowed my tank from my friend Kay!

We had the Cubs hat and I decided to wear it to be neutral!

Cash's hat came from our friends Demi and Karli.

 The game was a 7pm game to begin with then went into extra innings.

We left early and watched the ending in the hotel.

The boys were asleep within minutes!

 

Our group took over the hotel pool!

Saturday we went to the city park and enjoyed the splash pad!

 

We also went to the City Museum!

I only got a few pictures because it was a lot of climbing and keeping track of your kids!

It was a great weekend away packed full of everything fun!

All the kids got along great and were up for anything!

St. Louis is a family friendly city and we loved that!



Outer Ear Infection

The week before Memorial Day I started getting an ear ache...

...it started getting worse so I visited my doctor here in town.

 

Diagnoses: outer AND inner ear infection.

She gave me drops and an antibiotic.

 

Neither of those things touched the pain or cleared anything up.

It was the last day of Kindergarten for Pierce and I couldn't even function:(

I was miserable and beyond bummed!

 

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Side Note: I had a bride scheduled for a spray tan Friday night in Sigourney (about 40 minutes away).

I did not want to let her down so Travis stepped up and took me!

Best.Husband.Ever.

 

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I called Mercy On-Call Saturday and they said give the antibiotics and drops a few days to work.

I have never had pain like this before!

I had a fever, I was emotional and just down right a hot mess!

 

I toughed it out Saturday and had another restless nights sleep.

 

Luckily Mercy does a follow-up call 24 hours after and they asked how it was going.

 

I still had a fever.

My ear was so plugged the drops weren't getting to the infection.

My pain was at a 10.

I couldn't hear ANYTHING out of my left ear.

The whole side of my face and jaw were swollen.

The infection started in the other ear as well.

 

With all those things they gave me the green light to come to the ER.

{they told me I put up a good fight and it was time to try other options!}

 

I was excited to finally get some relief but I had no idea what I would have to go through to get there...

 

The ER doctor could not believe how bad my ear was.

He wanted to wash a lot of the infection out.

 

That involved him shooting saline through a syringe directly in my ear...

...HOLY PAIN beyond belief!!!

 

I about jumped out of that bed and ran home!

I am not a crier...I hate crying...

...but I bawled like a baby and couldn't stop sweating and shaking!

{I have given birth 2 times and I never cried once...not once! 

This was so much worse then child birth!!}

 

They decided they wouldn't go any further until I had an IV of narcotics!

That was so much better!

 Thank you Jesus for good narcotics;) 

 

I felt amazing after the doctor was done...that might have been the narcotics;)

They inserted an ear wick...

...which sucked for my hearing but it was getting my drops to the infection!

The ER doc also told me I did not have inner ear infection but a nasty outer infection!

 

It was another couple days of pain and recovery but I survived!

I had 3 appointments with the ENT (Ear Nose & Throat doctors), 2 more wicks inserted and removed, a hearing test and too many days off:(

 

Luckily it all happened over Memorial day weekend so there was a few days I didn't have to take off from work!

 

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THE CAUSE OF OUTER EAR INFECTION (for me):

 

Excessive use of Q-tips!

I have chronic itchy ears and i got a little aggressive itching them!

{Travis said when I use Q-tips it looks like I'm rowing a boat!}

I thinned the tissue in my ear canal enough to let infection in!

 

Luckily I was already on enough meds and drops so when it moved to the other ear I just started doing drops there also. 

Thank God my right ear never got as bad as the left ear!

 

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I could not have survived the week long illness without Travis for putting up with all my bitchiness and emotions, for trying really hard to be compassionate when I know that's not your strong suite, for doing all the cooking and cleaning and for taking care of the boys and getting them out of my hair when I needed it the most! 

 

Also a huge thanks to my parents who came and got the boys when Travis was working and I was miserable!  It's tough when you don't have daycare and momma is sick and dad is working!  My mom also made me amazing homemade chicken noodle soup!  Moms are the best!!

 

Another huge thanks goes to  my daycare families!  I understand it's a bit stressful when your provider is sick and you're left finding backup!  Thanks for understanding that sickness happens and there's really nothing we can do about it!  You are all the best and I'm the lucky one to have your kids all day!!

 

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Sorry for the long post!

It was not a fun time and I pray it will never happen again!!!

 

No more Q-tips for Kim and the ENT doc prescribed me with drops for my chronic itchy ears...YAY!!!



May 2015

The weather is finally warming up and we've been finding things to do as a family!

Finding something we all enjoy is a real battle but the boys won and we went fishing....

I made the most of it:)

LOVE LOVE LOVE this picture of the boys!

 Travis does all the work...thank goodness!

 

This was a separate outing for Pierce with daddy and Uncle Austin!

 

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I had a great Mother's Day this year!

Travis and the boys gave me my first ever diamond necklace!

It's actually the first piece of jewelry Travis has gotten me since our wedding rings 8 years ago....

...not sure what I did to get that but I'll take it!!

I have it on in this picture but you can't really see it!

Take my word...it's beautiful! 

 Mother's Day was also the first time all year I spray tanned my legs!

Love having tan legs:)

 

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My mom buys her grand-kids matching Easter Outfits every year...

...and every year we never spend Easter together!

 

In May we had a family BBQ and decided to make the kids wear their outfits!

All we wanted was one good picture...and that's not possible!!

 This is how many tries it takes to get a decent shot!

Delaney Jo was not having it...and all the older kids would laugh at her and makes things that much worse!! :)

 

We managed to get a few and that's all that matters!!

 

Love this one of Cash and Kadence!

 Grandpa was in time-out for changing his nice church clothes to old raggedy cut off jeans and tank top....so he was left out of the picture;)

They look so cute and innocent here...but we all know better;)

 

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Cash had a playdate with friends and came home saying it was "THE BEST DAY EVER!!"

Seeing this smile during his nap I believe him:)

 

Cash is learning how to write his own name! 

He also learned how to draw flowers!

I love it:)

 

Pee Wee Baseball started and Travis is Pierce's coach!

It was a great season and Pierce loved it!

I love this picture of Travis pitching the ball to Pierce!

 

 Travis and I got in a golf tournament with friends!

It was freezing but the beverages kept us warm;)

 

Can't believe May flew by so fast!

Bring on June!!