Mom's Night!

After already having Dad's night and Grandparents day at preschool it was finally my turn to have a special day at preschool with Logan!

We had a lot of fun playing, painting, making chalkboard crafts, coloring, snacking and signing last night! Logan was very excited to show me all the fun stuff at school, and he did all the songs during singing time, and he was sooo cute! All the kids made crowns for their Mom's to wear and we all got a pretty flower at the end. What a fun night!

When It Rains...

It pours.

Matt will be jobless in about a month we found out yesterday. Please send get new job vibes and prayers.

Logan is still recovering from pneumonia, but doing much better and will be back in school on Thursday.

Ava now has pneumonia, caught it before it got as bad as Logan's so hopefully she will be on the mend in a day or two.

Well there's that, three bad things, which means we should be good for awhile.

I somehow managed to get perfect scores on all my lab tests last night, despite little practice because of the kids being sick and all the mental stress with the job situation. Go me!

And here is some pictures of our rainy/sick day fun two days ago.

Sometimes...

I feel like the world has it out for me.

We have had a tough couple of weeks, mostly over Matt's job situation and things are not getting better. I am praying that God opens a door for him very soon, because he is being pushed out of the door he's in now. I can't say more than that right now, but if you have some extra positive vibes and prayers please send them our way.

Last weekend we went out to lunch with a group of friends, which was great to have some adult time and a good meal. However we planned the lunch for the March 13, which was Peanuts due date and not really thinking about it we would be out to lunch with two preggo's, one about to pop. I didn't think it would bother me much, but get two preggo's together, one a first timer and that is all your going to talk about the whole time. My heart was just...sad. Matt also made a very insensitive comment about us having another baby, and while it was meant to be joking, it didn't come out that way, so basically it was just a crappy day all around. I am however very excited for these two friends of mine, I really am, it was just hard to deal with.

I was on spring break this week, it was nice to get a break, but I have to get back into study mode and it's really hard to do that with all the stress and uncertainly hanging over our heads right now.

On top of all this the kids got sick last week, fevers for a day, low grade and your basic cold. Ava got better and Logan kept coughing, not unusual for him but then he spiked a high fever Thursday night and his cough intensified so we took him into the doctor and we find he has pneumonia. He's on antibiotics, cough medicine with codeine and breathing treatments.

I feel so bad for him, always coughing and I just feel like it's my fault, my body's fault. Probably sounds stupid, but because I had a c-section he got the fluid in his lungs at birth and he developed pneumonia which probably caused weakness in that lung which is why he is so prone to coughing, croup, and bronchitis. He always gets sicker than Ava when they have colds too, then I feel really guilty that I wasn't able to nurse him exclusively because of his stint in the NICU and my bad milk production. Ava got the benefit of EBM until she was 5 months old and after that she still got more BM than formula until around 10 months and I made it until 1 year with pumping and it really shows, she is healthier and bounces back from sickness so much better than Logan. Mommy guilt sucks.

So that is what has been going on here. Bracing for some change over here, and telling ourselves we will get through just like every other obstacle life has thrown our way.

And not to be a total downer here a three good things about the last couple of weeks:
1. My new camera came, whoo hoo!
2. I got to go to Starts On Ice...it was awesome even though it made me miss skating so badly.
3. Ava's personality is really blossoming and she is a constant source of smiles for us, especially when we need them so desperately.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

From my two lucky charms!

More Crafty Fun

I ended up going back to Target and picked up another fun craft for the kids to do. I got this super cute herb garden set, I thought it would be great since Logan is very into plants and planting things, he watches "Planting A Rainbow" on demand about 100 times a day and Matt is always saying we need to grow herbs so we have some fresh so perfect I thought.

I ended up putting the terracotta paint on first and let that dry and then me and the kids each painted a out and planted our seeds.

Logan helped make the dirt as well and Ava, well lets just say she ended up in the bathtub after we were done (FYI getting wood type paint out of toddler hair is a nightmare).
Logan checks on the herbs every day and we keep the dirt moist waiting to see the first sprouts!

First School Picture!

I forgot to post this last week, we got Logan's school pictures back that they took in January and they turned out so cute! All I have is a picture of a picture since now both USB ports are busted on our computer and I can't hook up our all-in-one to scan it in, so sorry the quality isn't that great (between my camera and now the computer I am not having a good time with electronics lately, oh well we have a new one of each on the way!).

My big preschooler!



And his preschool class!

Painting Fun

I found these cute wood wind chimes on clearance at Target and thought they would be perfect for the kids to paint for Grandma's birthday.



Ava LOVED painting, she did try to eat it a few times, but other than that she did really good. They had a bunch of different crafty things like this on clearance so I think I am going to pick up a few other things for the kids to do, they are getting stir crazy and since we have had a couple of nicer days they have been teased with outside play here and there and they both want to go out a play all the time now, but between the weather and my needing to study we have been stuck in the house.

Anyway here are my little artists hard at work!

Chore Chart

First of all sorry my pictures have been so cruddy lately, my camera is on it's last legs, but I am ordering a new one and can't wait till it's in my hot little hands!

We recently decided that Logan needed to start helping out on a regular basis and start earning treats and whatnot instead of us just giving it to him.

I started my search for a chore chart, and found a lot of nice ones, but this one really caught my eye: http://www.mypreciouskid.com/chore-chart.html

I liked the idea of separating the time of days the chores needed to be done and I liked the variety of chores and the ability to add our own in as well. It also came with a ton of tokens which we use as payment and he turns in for special treats and rewards. We also take away tokens for bad behavior.

Logan really loves being able to take a chore off the hook and put it in his "I Did It Box" on the chart. At the end of the day we add up all the chores he did and he earns his tokens. There is no arguing over teeth brushing, pj time, etc anymore. We aren't telling him to do it anymore, the chore chart does. Usually all I have to say is check your chore chart and off he goes.

Anyway just wanted to pass along this cool find for anyone in the market for a chore chart, it's worked awesome for us!