What a week

It's been an interesting and long week in our house. Lots of Dr visits unfortunately. On Monday, Jenna's nose decided to start running like a faucet, and then in the middle on the night/early morning on Tuesday she started running a temp, so Jenna and I stayed home on Tuesday. She was fine all morning, but then woke up from her nap complaining that her ear hurt.....which caused visit #2 to a Dr.'s office that day...she has an ear infection.

The 1st Dr. visit that day was for our yearly follow up for Andrew from when he had surgery as a baby. That went well and we were told we can maintain our yearly visits (yea!). Going to Children's always reminds us of how fortunate we are to have 2 happy, healthy kids. We also realize how lucky we are that we only have to go once a year as a follow up. There are lots of families that are there a lot more, and are dealing with a lot of difficult issues. A visit there always reminds us of how blessed we truly are.

Let's see...that brings us to Wednesday. On Wednesday when we picked Andrew up from school his teacher mentioned that after rest time, he was pretty upset because his top front teeth hurt. He's complained about his teeth hurting, being cracked and/or loose on and off for a couple of weeks, but we had chalked it up to him really wanting to loose a tooth since some of the neighbor boys are loosing theirs. We decided we should probably get him in and have it looked at, just to make sure there wasn't anything wrong.

So today (Thursday) we took him in to the dentist. Since it was a late in the day appointment, everyone came with. It was Jenna's 1st experience with a dentist office so she was full of questions, and was taking everything in. Luckily the hygienists and our dentist are really good with kids, so I think they made a good impression on Miss Jenna. Andrew did great, and they were even able to get a quick x-ray of his front teeth. The dentist thinks that he is grinding his front teeth while he sleeps, which in turn is causing them to hurt. This would explain why they typically hurt after nap time and when he wakes up in the morning. Unfortunately there isn't anything that can be done about it. Fortunately kids typically stop grinding their teeth once their adult teeth come in....so only a couple more years, unless of course he stops on his own before then.

Tonight before bed, Andrew seemed a little warm (low fever), so I'm hoping that he's not coming down with whatever Jenna has. On top of the ear infection she's got an awful sounding cough (think smokers cough, but from a 2 year old). Hopefully it was just from all the wrestling he was doing with Bruce tonight :)

Tomorrow at school the kids get to dress in either their hibernation clothes (jammies) or migration clothes (beach wear) and he was really looking forward to wearing his PJ's to school. Plus he's got a play date on Saturday w/ one of his friends from school, and I'd hate to have to cancel it.

Here are some pictures of the kids from tonight. Here's Jenna in one of her new favorite shirts, testing out Andrew's Nerf shooting glasses:

Here's Andrew with one of the many paper airplanes he and Alex made this past weekend. Alex has the neatest book on paper airplanes. The boys (Bruce & Chad included) all seemed to enjoy testing out the different planes.

Hopefully we'll be able to get and/or stay healthy this weekend!

Neigborhood watch

Andrew's been busy keeping an eye on things in the neighborhood :)

Patty Cake

Water Park

We spent this past weekend at a hotel w/ a water park - the kids LOVED it. We considered going to the dells, but in the end decided to go someplace close and to save the dells for later. We ended up staying at the Holiday Inn in Maple Grove. They have a water park that turned out to be the perfect size for Andrew and Jenna and as an added bonus it is only open to hotel guests. We stayed in a kids suite, which had bunk beds (or as Andrew calls them 'funk beds'). Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Checking out their 'room':

Getting ready to explore the pool:

Splash!

I'm gonna get you!

Waiting for food:

After a full day of playing and splashing, both kids picked out an ice cream treat. Jenna picked out a cookie (no surprise) and Andrew decided on a cup of vanilla ice cream.

Here's Jenna with her ice cream cookie (it was huge!):

Later that afternoon we turned around to see Andrew had moved a chair over to the counter with the food & ice on it, and was helping himself to a cookie....he did offer Jenna one too :)
The kids held a "party" in their room that we weren't allowed to attend.....Andrew figured out that if he stood up on the top bunk he could see over the wall. As hard as Jenna tried, she couldn't see over the wall, so she made sure we could hear her instead.

Here are the two little fish....it was time to leave:

Both kids loved swimming and Andrew surprised us by going into the 'big' pool. He could touch in certain areas and his head was still above water, which he enjoyed. Jenna is a little fish, and has no fear. The 1st day she wore a life jacket and enjoyed jumping off the side and floating. The 2nd day she didn't want to wear a life jacket, but still insisted in jumping off the side; the only problem was she wouldn't always tell you she was going to jump.

Fairy Princess Jenna

Jenna decided to wear her fairy wings this weekend, and added her pink fluffy skirt to it...then announced she was a fairy princess. She then told me we needed to go in the bounce house because it would help her fly - so off we went to the basement so she could 'fly'.

Waiting for the bounce house (it only takes about a minute):

Flying:

Seeing if Sadie wanted to come in:
Fairy Princess Jenna:

Today she told me she wanted "Pom-toe soup" and "salt dackers" for supper....it took me a minute, but I figured out she wanted tomato soup and saltine crackers for supper. Tomato soup has become one of the things she consistently eats, so we've put into the supper rotation. She's also been requesting dirty pancakes - a.k.a chocolate chip pancakes, a lot. She has made us appreciate how good of an eater Andrew has always been.

Andrew helped the neighbors flood the ice rink yesterday, and then 'skated' with his boots. We are hoping that he'll be willing to test out ice skates again this year, but he's still not sure about actually ice skating. Bruce, Andrew, and the neighbors all went ice fishing together today. It sounds like everyone had a lot of fun. Now that the weather is getting a little warmer I'm sure they will be out fishing a little more. Hopefully we're done with the frigid temps until next year.

Backseat conversations

At times the things we hear coming from the back seat due to the conversations the kids are having crack us up....today we had two little tidbits that cracked us up.

I can't remember exactly what was being discussed this morning, but I do recall the following:
Andrew: God makes everything Jenna
Jenna: It MY sippy cup

Apparently she wasn't sharing her sippy with anyone :)

Tonight after picking them, the following conversation was held:

Jenna: I can't see
Me: That's because it's dark out
Jenna: I can't see
Andrew: Open your eyes

I don't know if she actually had her eyes closed or not, but if she did I guess that would have made it so she couldn't see :)

Christmas Vacation week

We all had last week off and enjoyed spending time enjoying our new Christmas presents and hanging out.

Here's Jenna & Bruce watching the Viking/Bears game:

She tested out her new vacuum at home too.....and even decided she needs to store it next to the real vacuum in the closet. She still doesn't like others (Andrew in particular) touching, looking at or playing with the vacuum, but she is working on sharing it. She loves her new Tinkerbell PJ's, but decided that after all that vacuuming she was too hot and took her shirt off.

We may check into finding a kids size vacuum that works....the floors would be spotless!

Playing with her bath time baby:

Andrew spent the night at his friend Will's house (next door) on Tuesday, and had a blast. Andrew and Will spent about 6 hours playing on Sunday too....they had to check out each others Christmas gifts. This was his 2nd sleep over. It was strange to know that he wasn't in our house that night, but at least he was only next door :)

We spent New Year's Eve at the Ramthun's house (playgroup/church friends). The kids all played together really well (at one point there were 10 adults & 13 kids) and the adults were actually able to talk, and get in a few games of low bag (corn hole/bean bags indoors). Now we're set for when we start league in a few weeks. Both Andrew & Jenna stayed awake until midnight! They even slept in a little the next day (8:30).

Saturday we went to the Children's Museum. Andrew was really excited about seeing the new dinosaur exhibit that they have. The kids enjoyed the museum (like always), even if it was busy.

checking out the turtles:

Pretending to be turtles:

'driving' the clouds:

Andrew and Bruce also went out ice fishing a few times. They had fun, and are looking forward to going out again soon (maybe once it gets above zero!). They also went sledding, and Andrew and I went to see the latest Alvin & the Chipmunk movie (which he loved). Tomorrow we head back to 'normal' with school, daycare and work. It was fun hanging out for the week, but I think we're all ready for the 'normal' that comes with the routine we're used to.

Fullerton family Christmas

We spent Saturday in Owatonna celebrating Christmas. The kids once again made out like bandits. Jenna enjoyed seeing Thor again (I think she missed him). Both kids liked being able to eat as many of Aunt Lynn's cookies and other treats as they wanted, and we all enjoyed spending the day at Grandma & Grandpa's house.

Jenna loves her new baby. Not only does it have it's own bathtub, but it can go in the bathtub with her. So far it's been getting lots of baths.

Andrew tested out a new method for opening presents this year....he threw the wrapping paper over his shoulder. We aren't sure why he decided to do this, but we're hoping it brings good luck (kinda like throwing salt over your shoulder!).

Here's Jenna seeing if Grandpa's new sweatshirt fits..... it might work as a dress for Miss Jenna (in a few years!):

Checking out her new Jewelry box ( w/ dancing ballerina).

Testing out the new racetrack:

After 2 nights and 3 days of Christmas, all of our 'stuff' barely fit in the Tahoe. I'm pretty sure Bruce couldn't see out the back window! It took us most of Sunday to assemble and find new homes for everything. We hope that everyone had a great Christmas - we sure did!

Bongers family Christmas

We drove down on Christmas eve (typically we drive down on Christmas day) due to the weathermen predicting that there was still a storm headed our way (they were a little off). We did get some snow, but I think we got more rain than anything, which is turning out to be a problem now due to the ice it left behind.

The kids got to open their presents from Santa prior to everyone showing up, it saved us from answering "can we open presents now?" for at least an hour before they started up with the question again.

Jenna helped Grandma make breakfast:

Then while Andrew, Bruce and Grandpa headed outside to snow blow the driveway & play in the snow, Jenna helped Grandma do dishes, which turned into playing in the sink (she was just a 'little' wet by the time she was done).

After everyone arrived it was time for presents again:

Both kids made out like bandits. Jenna got tons of stuff for her babies, her 1st girl movies (Tinkerbell & Barbie Fairytopia), and a vacuum. Andrew got a few more Nerf guns, optimus prime (transformer), Slime, and the batcave; plus lots of other stuff I'm not mentioning ;)