End of 2022 (October-December)

October 1st-December 31st

I caught a rare moment of the boys playing Go Fish together nicely with no fights!  I love seeing moments like these.  Hopefully as they age there are more of these moments.

Claire started daycare at the beginning of October and it has been rough for her since.  She has been feeling sick with multiple ear infections for weeks.  There have been many long nights with little sleep for Greg and I which has us questioning if daycare is worth all this lack of sleep.  I am sure she is on the road to ear tubes and we wish we could get it over with already.  Here is a picture I caught of her asleep sitting up because it was the only way she could get comfortable.  We obviously didn't leave her sleeping like this and I went in shortly after and let her sleep on me but it makes us feel bad she is so miserable!

Grant had his last taekwondo class and he was so excited to get his belt!  He was sad he did not get any special awards but we think he did a great job and learned so much so quick!  He would like to do it again sometime but we are going to take a break.  He was very overwhelmed with taekwondo and soccer at the same time so we are going to let him have a break from activities for a little while.

Greg had a weekend away with his friends to watch an Iowa State football game is Austin mid October.  It was a rough weekend for me but I think Greg had a blast and enjoyed the time away! Claire was so sick with double ear infections, wasn't sleeping and in a lot of pain. The boys really missed their dad and I have a picture of Grant so sad looking out the window because we wanted to play catch with his Dad.

We have rare moments where our kids will play nicely together. It is usually short lived but I am glad I caught this moment of Blake and Claire playing with a dog on video to remember. :)

Blake is such a cute dancer!  I love watching him especially when he shakes his booty or does his break dance moves.  Claire is thinking about dancing in this video but gets distracted with Mom's voice.

Blake somehow got an infected thumb.  He told me his thumb hurt a few days before but it just looked normal like a hang nail and I didn't think much of it after that.  A few night's later I heard him crying in his bed after bedtime and I went in there and he was crying about his thumb.  I looked at it and it looked horrible.  We gave him medicine that night and took him into urgent care.  They cut it open and cleaned it out and sent Blake home with an antibiotic.  We also had to soak it every night until it healed.  When the culture came back the nurse called me and said it was MRSA.  I have no idea how he would have gotten that.  It ended up being a fiasco with the antibiotic and they gave us a new one but did not tell us but luckily it healed without the super strong antibiotics and is all better a few weeks later. I tell ya what-if one of our kids is going to get something, it is going to be Blake.  Poor little guy.  He handled it very well.

We went to Howell's Pumpkin Patch one evening after school.  We loved it as always and the kids had a blast.

We had a play date at a park with one of Blake's friend's, Jack, from school.  They all had a blast playing and Greg and I enjoyed getting to know their parents, Kelly and Jake.

We carved pumpkins for the first year this year and the boys had fun even though Greg and I did most of the work. ;-D. Blake and I were a team and Grant and Dad were a team.  Claire was there for moral support!

Claire is learning so many fun things at daycare.  Right now she loves dancing to wheels on the bus.  So cute to watch!

Grant got to go to Paxton's birthday party at Spare Time and Grant had a blast.  Grant played a virtual reality game for the first time and didn't know what to think.

A cute picture of the boys with all of their teddy bears from Auntie Kellie.  And me in the background stuffing my face with cottage cheese. :)

Everyone was excited for trick or treat this year and we got to go twice!  Peter's office had a trick or treat a few days before and it was so fun!  The boys were the red power ranger and Claire was the pink one.  Luckily, it was a beautiful night out.  My parents and brothers came over to walk with us for a little while and the boys enjoyed that!

The boys started basketball at the end of October also.  Since the boys are only 1 year apart for 2 months, they were able to play on the same team.  We initially thought this would be a great idea but we were wrong.  Greg was the coach and the team assigned to him was too young.  It was a rough season and Greg is going to take a break from coaching after that one!  Grant loved it and was one of the oldest on his team so played great.  Blake was not too interested and refused to play a few of the games.  We are going to wait a little longer to put Blake in another sport.  And Claire just wanted to be out there playing with her brothers so someone had to be constantly walking around with her or else she would make her way back onto the court.

Grant had to disguise a turkey for a school project and he chose to disguise him as Chiefs player Patrick Mahomes.  He favorite player of the moment!  He was so proud of his turkey.

I went on a girls trip to Austin, Texas to visit Jackie with a couple girls.  We had a blast and it was nice to have time away. Greg was home with the kids and my parents took Claire one night so Greg could have a little bit of a break and go up to his family reunion that weekend.

We celebrated Grant's friends birthday party at Spare Time.  The kids had time to go and play some games and then we did one game of Laser Tag.  The boys seemed to have a blast! 

We celebrated with family the next day on his actual birthday.  In the morning of his birthday we went to the Science Center.  Grant loved it but I think it is a little too old for Claire and Blake's age.  I can't believe Grant is already 6!

Blake makes this deep growly voice when he sings at school.  Miss Janice took a video for us to watch and it makes us laugh so hard!

On his birthday afternoon we were going to have a Mom and Grant afternoon while the other kids slept.  Grant got a book about sports and wanted to read it so we went to Starbucks because he wanted hot chocolate and the date lasted all of about 10 minutes.  We got there, sad down, read one page and he asked to go home.  He enjoyed his reindeer cake pop though!

That next week we went to Iowa City to have a 24 hour EEG with Blake.  We asked Grandma to come along for another hand.  Blake had to have his leads attached for 24 hours and he couldn't leave his bed.  We were worried about keeping him still for this long but he did great! We were very impressed with how well he did.  He did not like the leads being put on or taken off his head but other that he did amazing.  And we got AMAZING results!  We are so thankful!!!  He did not have any seizures and no spikes of epileptic activity noticed on his EEG.  The doctor also did not notice any slowing of his brain waves or epileptic encephalopathy.  They were amazed with the results and said they did not expect it to looks this good comparing to the previous EEG only about 11 months ago.  We are SO happy!  We have let Blake have some dairy as of now and since the EEG results looked so good we are going to continue with that.  Blake loves cheese and is eating so much better now that he has more options.  We are going to keep doing what we are doing and hope in about 15 months we can get another one and possibly try weaning off meds!! We are just taking it day by day right now and our short term goal is to get to one year seizure free in February!

The boys loved pushing around Claire in the doll stroller and she loved it too!  So much so it is now hidden in the closet.  She was a little too heavy for it and it kept breaking.  I am sure the boys will love pushing her around when the weather gets nicer and we can go outside.

Blake has been asking for "rocket shoes."  We didn't know where we were going to find those but luckily the Nike swoosh is a rocket shoe in Blakey's eye.  He loves his new shoes!

The boys have been dying to put up the Christmas tree.  So we put it up a few weeks early.  Claire was a "big help" and kept breaking all the ornaments.  We ended up only having ornaments on the top half of the tree and only a few soft ones where Claire could reach.  Not the prettiest tree but I love this season with kids so I think it is just beautiful that way! We love the Christmas season and the boys do to so why not enjoy it a little longer?

We got out the boy's old battery powered Thomas the train and Claire loves riding it also.  Greg and I loved the Thomas the Train days and are very sad they are over so we loved seeing Claire enjoy it also. And Blake is such a sweet big brother.

Claire loves her brothers so much.  She walks up to them every morning and wants hugs and kisses.  She will even walk up to them if they are crying so hug them. So sweet she picks up on this already. Grant is such a good big brother to let her give him hugs and kisses like this.

Claire is so cute doing her "so big."

Claire blows kisses and it is the sweetest thing.  She is getting so fun!

Someone in our family finally plays with our kitchen!!  And she is so good at playing by herself at times.

We got to see Santa twice this year.  He made a special appearance at daycare and we saw him at Hy-Vee with Mrs. Claus one day also.  Grant wants all things Kansas City Chiefs, Blake wants a Hot Wheels dinosaur garage, and Claire has no idea what is coming!  It is an exciting year for us with the kid's ages but also a sad one with it being the first without Grandpa.

We went over to our neighbors house to make ginger bread houses.  Blake wanted noting to do with the houses (until it was time to leave) and just wanted to play with their toys but Grant loved it.   Claire had fun playing with Karley. Greg dropped it on the way home accidentally but luckily our elf, Henry brought a Super Mario one the next day!  We have fun decorating that one.

Claire and Grant playing together so nicely and holding hands!

Grant lost another tooth and has lost a total of 4 with one of the bottom ones almost in.

Greg has been working hard building board and batten on our wall in our master bedroom.  It looks great and I am very happy with it!  I think Greg would say he is happy with it but learned a lot in the process.  He is going to build a half wall in our entryway with all that he has learned. And my next project is to find a bedroom set so we can finally get rid of the mismatching dresser and one end table from way too many years ago.

We decorated Christmas cookies with Greg's family to continue their family tradition.  I made Blake special gluten free cookies and I was very proud that they actually turned out and weren't too bad tasting either! 

Blake plays so nice with Claire. He is just the sweetest!

We went to Des Moines Golf and Country Club on the 23rd like always.  This was the only time seeing Santa that Claire hated. The kids did well for the first hour and we over stayed our welcome a little too long.  The boys ended up wrestling in the middle of the floor.  Greg and I were very embarrassed.  We haven't been out to eat very often since Blake's diet changes so it was fair to expect much but we were hoping they knew not to wrestle.  Ugh.

Christmas Eve we went to Nana and Papa's house in the morning for presents and then to the Stern's for dinner.  It was a fun but busy day and the kids are so excited for Santa to come tonight!

Christmas morning was fun!  The boys got everything they wanted from Santa.  Everyone got up and Claire had pooped so Greg came in to help me and Blake ran downstairs and yelled "you guys have got to get down here there are so many presents!"  and Grant goes "I already know there are a lot of presents and Santa came." I was so sad to miss Blake's reaction to Santa.  The excitement only lasts a few years.  We went to Auntie Kellie's house later that day for Christmas dinner and got even more presents. It was a very busy but fun Christmas!

How many sports can we play at once?  The boys love their helmets and jerseys and want to wear them every day!

A few of Greg and my friends has moved away so when they come back to visit family for the Holidays we get to see them too!  Here is a picture from one night Greg went out to get beers with his friend, Brett, and there was a rare moment of all 3 kids sitting quietly one the couch watching TV.  It didn't last long but I enjoyed it while it did!

Grant went to play with his friend, Tyler, over break.  They ended up both getting jerseys and helmets.  The boys loved that and were so excited they were both wearing their jerseys!

Greg took Grant sledding one day of Winter break and he loved it.

Grant got to go to a football camp 2 days over break and had so much fun!  He had a few friends there and was so proud of himself for getting a touchdown!

We celebrated Grandma's birthday on the 31st.  Greg, Kellie and Barb got a hotel room and the boys went to the pool for a little bit.  The adults had a little too much fun that night (;-D) but it was good for them to have time together!

We had such a busy last few months of the year, but looking over this, SO much fun!  This stage is very exhausting, demanding of time and energy with not enough sleep but we had so many good memories of birthdays, activities and holidays to remember it with.