Wrapping Up 2012

This is bound to be the most random post ever. I was going through my phone to see what I've missed along the way, and here is what we've been up to this Christmas break too... here we go!

Our greatest gift we've received, is a gift we didn't find under the tree. Remember the post about Reece's regularity? We were doing our best to stay completely away from dairy, and documenting every thing he ate and every time he used the restroom. Christmas came and I decided to throw all restriction out of the window, and let the kid be a kid. I was expecting bad things, but we must have been blessed with a Christmas miracle! He has been on a very "normal" diet with absolutely no issues since. Even adding yogurt, cheese and milk back to his diet. What ever happened those 7-8 weeks is baffling and I'm so thankful for the direction we are heading. I'm still being cautious and bugging Reece about what's been happening in the restroom, but all reports have been good! Please keep this up, buddy!

Our neighbors are in the process of laying fresh concrete.... it's been a lengthy process, so the boys, Savannah and Stephanie, enjoyed some play time in the sand. It's hard to believe just over a month ago they were in shorts!

LEGOS have kept the boys busy this cold break! This does  their Star Wars collection no justice, but they never get tired of it!

We are currently enjoying a white New Year's Eve!
This is probably more snow than we got all of last year, so we will enjoy what we got!

I'm starting a new bed time routine for the new year. I've taken ideas from Shenna, Jody and a 4th grade teacher I work with. Mrs. Razak stresses the "Hippo" part of our brain. It's a theory that if you review things right before bedtime, they "sink" in more long term. Well, I am putting it to the test, whether the boys grumble about it or not. They are now going to have to get ready for bed earlier, and have some winding down time before lights out. They can read, work on flashcards (the part I'm hoping the Hippo project works most on) or write to me in a "Dear Mom" journal. I will read and write back to them... thanks Pinterest. They have to fill out this grid of 25 stickers to earn a free night, where iPods or iPads are allowed before 8:30 bedtime.

I'm getting Reece started on multiplication with the new year starting. I've witnessed first hand 3rd graders struggling with this new concept and it's painful! Multiplication is something that you will use your entire life! Granted, I'm sure the kids that struggle, don't practice at home, but I am convinced to give Reece a head start. We are starting with the x0 and x1... wish us luck!

This Christmas break, we've added a couple new games to keep things fun!

Here is Riley's mask he made in art.

Reece made a castle.

And here is a "frame worthy" piece from Riley. I love it!

This is how Reece stays warm... socks, slipper socks, topped off with house shoes. Silly kid!

What is this? Reece is napping? I haven't seen this in years!!
Haha! Riley came down with a 48 hours fever, which meant a lot of Disney and Nickelodeon watching on the couch.... well, the laziness caught up with Reece! We feel so lucky that Riley's fever was just that! We are well aware of all the other crud going around.

A Christmas story I forgot to add... Last year, Santa let down Reece big time. He apparently did NOT follow Reece's wish list. Reece apparently did NOT forget about his disappointment. Reece put his wish list by Santa's cookies this year, and let's just say that Reece has confirmed he had a better Christmas this year! Phew! The pressure is a lot to handle!

A random picture of my brother, Shawn's family.
Shawn, Kait, Colby (10) and Camryn (8) and my favorite dog, Reese.
Exciting things are in store for them in 2013... shhh! Mums the word! ;)

My beautiful Utah nieces and nephews.
Cole(15), Sami(8), Sydney(10) and Brendon(13).

We went on the McPherson Trolley to look at Christmas lights.... let's just say we won't pay for that experience again, but we crossed a wish off of Reece's wish list!

This wraps up the last of our 2012.... Tomorrow is a new year, and Thursday we are back to the grind of "normal." School and work! Ugh.... We are half way to summer break!! ;)

Christmas

We had a wonderful, semi relaxing Christmas! Here are some shots of our day...

My mom and dad's fireplace.
35 handmade stockings, the siblings and spouses up top (15)
the grandkids on bottom (20)

Aidan getting very excited over.... tools. Yep! He wanted tools. Funny 11 year old boy! Grandma made his day!

Riley and all of his LEGOS!

Star Wars + Angry Birds = Marketing GENIUS! HA!

A little out of order, but the boy's art they brought home on Friday. Reece drew and colored the elf all by himself. Riley made the 3 smaller pieces for his classroom door.

Santa brought these "Indoor Snowball Fight" buckets... just incase we have a repeat of last year with very minimal snow.

I'm pretty excited! We get to take the boys to their very first KU game on January 6 VS. Temple! Yay!

Reece wanted mom and dad to open this gift first! Now we have one from him and one from Riley.

Christmas morning. Let the unwrapping begin!

Riley's new robe and LEGOS! They never get old!

Reece got a lot of Beyblade fun.... haven't figured out why these are so popular yet.

Lightsaber dual.... to break up the present giving.

This is the happiest we saw Riley. His very own iPod Touch. Because sharing with Reece wasn't good enough!

My wrapping at it's greatest. I used 4 different kinds of paper on that bad boy!

Showing off the KU tickets!

The Jayhawk loot! Woohoo! Of course, we ALL needed a new blue shirt to wear to The Allen Fieldhouse!

The biggest surprise was an iPad from Grandpa McMillan! They look a bit confused here...

But they figured it out here! Thanks, Grandpa!!

The new robe, with a hoodie!

Here is Santa's treats. Reece was shocked that all of them were gone in the morning. Santa worked hard this year.
I ordered 5 dozen Christmas cookies from my sister to give to neighbors, and I had a few left over to share with "Santa." YUM!

Santa got Riley the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid book, The Fifth Wheel. Reece got the Super Mario 2 for his 3DS. Then they both got new Lego Star Wars planets, a couple new balls for outside play and the snowball fight with some Sour Patch Kids on the side.... he must know those are their favorites! 

So we had our Christmas in the morning, and I was shocked the boys slept until 6am. We cleaned up a bit, and played with our new stuff for a bit, and then it was off to Wichita to celebrate at my parents. Jake and I snuck out later, with my sister, Jaime, to see the new movie Les Miserables. It was amazing.... we don't usually enjoy being a part of the crowd to go out and take time away from "family time" but it was a movie Jaime and I were very anxious to see, most of our family was off to go home and play with their Christmas gifts, and it was either in the awesome Warren Theater or a sad McPherson theater. The movie did not disappoint.
We have so much to be thankful for and we were truly blessed this season! Now it's officially time to relax. I haven't done that since early August.... I hope I remember how! 

Tradition

Last night Riley asked me, "When Reece and me get older, and have our own families, will we come to your house just like we go to Grandma's house now?" (Yes, that came out of my 10 year olds mouth...) I said, I hope so, if that's what you want to do. He said he wants to, to keep that tradition going, because he loves having fun with his family. Sometimes this kid gets way too far ahead of me. :)

Extreme Regularity

I've avoided posting about this following issue we've been battling for 7 weeks now, for obvious reasons. It's about Reece's bowels, and it's just not a topic I imagine friends and family wanting to read about. Well, I think we've made it to the point, I need to get it out. Maybe even to just have it documented.

The weekend before Halloween, Reece started using the restroom more frequently than normal. He had been on a sugar diet, as most kids are this time of year. His cousins had just gotten over a stomach bug, and we had been hanging out with them that weekend when we had the birthday party at my sister's house. I didn't think much of it, he wasn't complaining much at all. Monday night, is when I was fully aware that things might be getting bad. He had 3 explosive diarrhea episodes right before bed. Yuck! The next day, he seemed fine, I sent him to school and when he came home he told me he used the restroom 8 times at school. What? Sometimes diarrhea, sometimes not. It continued all night. You would have never guessed this kids was having any issues, as he was his usual hyper, bouncing off the walls self. Just needed to pause often to run to the bathroom. This night, we start treating him with Immodium. It worked great! Well, maybe too great.... it turned into constipation with just one dose a day. The constipation was so bad it hurt him, and we ended up keeping him home on the Thursday and Friday, just after Halloween. I was just sure he got a bug and it would run it's course over the weekend.... I was working in Wichita on the weekends, so I warned my parents about his need to be near the restroom and we packed the Immodium, just in case. Things didn't get better. We couldn't even make the 50 minute drive to Wichita without stopping at the halfway point to relieve himself. I emailed his teacher to let her know what was happening, and to please be patient with us. She put in a plan that Reece could get up at any time and leave the room. She is constantly reassuring me that she totally trusts Reece, and things are fine.

The next Wednesday, I got Reece in with the doctor. He thought what started as a bug, left us with some lingering side effects. He was sure that the bug wiped all the bacteria from his intestines...including the good bacteria. His plan was to stay away from cheese and milk, but eat a lot of yogurt to get that good bacteria back in there. He also recommended a salty diet. This was so his body would retain some water in his intestines too. We also added a Probiotic to his vitamin regimen, to help with the digestion process. Pretty easy, so I was relieved. Well, things didn't get better. Every time I told myself I was going to call the doctor, he would have a random "good" day. Funny how that happens, huh? They never stayed good. I continuously emailed his teacher, saying "sorry" or "thanks for all your patience." Eventually, we decided to take ALL dairy away. Milk, cheese, AND yogurt. We added almond milk to his diet. No change. It got so bad we had to buy the poor kids wet wipes to save his poor rear.

 About two weeks ago, we made it back in to the doctor. He was stumped this time. He ordered blood and stool tests. Stool test was easy to get, the blood was a challenge. Reece hates needles.... this macho kid is a big weenie when it comes to this aspect of life. To make things worse, we got a phone call the next day, to find out they didn't get enough blood the first time for the test they needed to run. Overall, Reece got poked three times, and each one worse than the last one.

The tests came back looking good. They even tested for a gluten allergy, which was negative. I was quite relieved, but at the same time we were back to square one. This time the doctor order a 30 day "Dairy Free" diet. Well, since we've done the obvious no dairy (milk, cheese and yogurt) diet, I decided we needed to take this seriously, and find all of the hidden dairy....which is in everything! The nurse did say we could still use Lactaid if he wanted a cheese pizza or something else we can't resist. I'm so bummed about this.... I struggle in the kitchen anyways, but having to think and shop differently will be tough. So far he has had two pretty good days and one rough day. I am trying to take this seriously, and we are logging everything he takes in. If we do this for 30 days and don't see a change, we will be referred to a gastrointestinal specialist. Yikes! Wish us luck!

I'm so confused about this dairy thing. I'm actually still in denial about this dairy thing. How does a kid who lived on milk, cheese and yogurt, up until 7 weeks ago, suddenly not tolerate it anymore? It doesn't add up to me. I'm bummed because it's Christmas, and there are so many treats we eat as a tradition, that I know I will not be able to deny him. Guess I will need to stock up on the Lactaid... Well, we are only on day 3 of 30, so time will tell.

Half Birthday

Riley gave Aunt Joanna a description of what kind of cookie he wanted to take to school to celebrate his1/2 birthday... They turned out much cuter than imagined! Combining Christmas and Birthday was a great plan, Riley! You are almost officially 10.5!

He Loves Me

"He" is my adorable, 4 year old nephew, Owen. I got this picture emailed to me yesterday. I hear stories from his parents about how much he talks about his Aunt Jacque. He is always asking how to spell my name. He is always asking when I'll come over. He is such a sweetheart! I love this kid! (Disclaimer: I love ALL my nieces and nephews the exact same. Owen just shows me the most love ;)

Reece Turned 8!

We made a very quick trip up to Kansas City this weekend. (Sorry we couldn't spend more time to see our friends... the boys really wanted to!) The timing just worked out for us to us spend Reece's day there too. What really brought us up, was I finally got to cash in one of my Mother's Day gifts. Ticket's to my favorite musical, Les Miserables, on Friday night. It is the 3rd time I've seen it, and the first time since the new touring company picked it up. I loved it! Jake and I got a hotel room close by while the boys were very happy to stay with Aunt Jaime. We took them out of school early on Friday to head up there. Jake and I woke up super early on Saturday, so we could get to our birthday boy. I can not believe our baby is 8!!

We got the birthday boy this boring piece of paper.
It was good for a dollar amount to spend at The Lego Store.
I made Reece laugh, because I wrapped this paper in a box, wrapped in a box, wrapped in a 3rd box. Haha!
I had to liven up a boring piece of paper some how!
Reece needs to work on dollar amounts with decimals and zeros... he read this as $100,000 to spend... not so much! 

Reece also wanted to watch the movie,  Rise of the Guardians.  He wanted to go to the Fork and Screen, so we made it a lunch and show with Aunt Jaime. It was a good movie, I think we all enjoyed it! We just can't do those kinds of things here in McPherson.

Here is what Reece made it away with from The Lego Store. He's a pretty happy boy!
When I asked what the best part of his day was, he told me, "Spending time with Aunt Jaime."
It was so sweet..... maybe I could have saved a lot of money on the Legos and just given him more time with her!?

At Aunt Jaime's... with the box, wrapped in a box, wrapped in another box.

Waiting for our food before the movie begins.

We got back in to town very late, and stopped for a bite at Applebee's.  Reece likes this place, because he thinks it's the only place that gives free birthday dessert. Funny kiddo....

That was our 30 hours in KC. It went so fast, but I got some Christmas shopping done, and I'm pretty sure Reece had a great day. I am always amazed I have survived this many years with this energetic kid.... but, life would be pretty dull without him. Happy 8th Birthday, to a pretty cool kid!

Birthday Treats

Today Reece gets to celebrate his birthday at school. I let him scroll through all the cookies Aunt Joanna has made and he chose the Jayhawk, of course. Well, I didn't want to force anyone to eat a Jayhawk, so we were kind and ordered Wildcat cookies too. The "cool" kids will just get a slightly larger cookie. Here is Reece showing them off and then being silly, acting like the wildcat cookie is torturing him. Two more days till the real birthday, and my baby will be 8!!! Yikes!

Strings Concert

Riley had his very first strings concert last night. It was a 5th through High School orchestra Christmas concert. I was very impressed with this 5th grade group. Imagine 100 kids learning a screechy stringed instrument for the first time.... Well they sounded pretty darn good! Loved all the music! Great job, Riley!