A Pictureless Post

Where do I even begin?
Have had a sick baby boy this week. Okay, we will start with that. Friday we went grocery shopping and then to the park for cake and ice cream to celebrate Derek's birthday. Saturday morning we delivered food drive bags to homes in our little city, which means the boys were stuck in the stroller all morning "helping" us out by eating snacks and not complaining too much about being stuck in the stroller. Sunday we hung out at home and got ready for Life Church. Life church Sunday night was great and we had a lesson about Gideon both in "big church" and "kid church" and then we went to Farrelli's for pizza and home to bed. Monday morning, Ryne had red swollen feet. I attributed it to the rain boots he had been wearing around sockless all morning. Then at lunch time I put him in his chair to eat and noticed some swollen knuckles. Upon further investigation I realized that not only were his feet and hands red, swollen and feverish but so were his elbows and knees. Laid him down for a nap after lunch and called the doctor. When the nurse called me back later that day she said to keep an eye on him and if it got worse to bring him in the next day. Well, it got worse. Red whelps started to appear on his torso, legs and arms by that evening. We called our friend Arin, who is a nurse, over to check him out and see if he thought we needed to take him to the hospital or not. Arin thought that since his breathing was fine and he wasn't running a fever that he would be okay to wait until the next morning. He suggested a dose of Benadryl, so we gave it to him and put him to bed.

Tuesday morning the swelling was down in the joints and the red whelps now looked like bruises. I called the doctor and got an appointment to take him in. As Ryne was up and playing longer the swelling started to come back and new red whelps started to appear. When we got to he doctor's office she pretty quickly ordered blood work. We went to the lab and they drew his blood...poor guy, it was more than just a finger prick. Got the results and headed back to the doctor where she told us that it was good news. No sign of any kind of infection. That's great! But what in the world is wrong with my baby? Bottom line, we have no idea. Our doctor seems to think that it was some kind of allergic reaction. She wrote Ryne a prescription for some steroids and said to watch and make sure his breathing is okay and that his eyes don't swell up then come back in a week and we will do some more tests. Allergy tests, I suppose.

Got the prescription filled and started. The boy didn't sleep at all Tuesday night!! Which means, neither did I...sigh. But Wednesday morning he was already looking much better as far as the swelling and there were no new red whelps. So, yeah for Ryne being better. Boo for how crazy this medicine is making him act. Totally wilder and more emotional than normal. Only four more days of it. Oh dear, four more days of it.

So, all of that to say we've had a sick baby and still don't know why. I've written down everything we did and everything he ate for the few days prior to this episode and hopefully when we go back to the doctor next week we can get the mystery solved.

I do have pictures of his red whelps and swollen joints but I figured that wouldn't be very cool of me to put here so I'll just let you use your imagination. And that is the only thing I have taken pictures of this week. Haven't been motivated to take pictures of anything else. Oh wait, there hasn't been much else. Just house cleaning and trying to keep up with our running schedule.

Yes, I said running. Oh, I can't get into that right now...I'll save that one for later.
So, here is hoping that you are not experiencing swollen joints and red whelps in your world this week. Can't tell you how thankful I am that God is with me every step of my boy crazy world!

Oh, what about Kade? Well, he was a trooper hanging out at the doctor's office with Ryne but he's had a bit of an attitude problem from time to time this week so he is currently grounded from his morning time t.v. shows for a week (which means t.v. altogether for him). I think our crazy summer schedule has kind of rocked his world and so I hope this helps him get back on track. So far, so good. He's been pretty good today!

Where is that Cleaning Fairy??

Ever have one of those days where the only thing you really need to do is clean the house and do some laundry? Has that day ever come on the very same day that the very last thing you want to do is clean the house and do some laundry? Well, that is what is happening in my world this very day!! Seriously, I cannot seem to muster up any desire to clean or do laundry. Maybe that is because today is the first day that we don't have planned for people to be in our home for some reason or another since I can't even remember when. Now, don't get me wrong, you know we LOVE to have people at our house. But that does mean that I try to keep things at least a bit tidy for our guests which isn't always the easiest thing to do considering the fact that I live with two little munchkins who are the world's all time best mess makers. Granted they can be good cleaner uppers too....just takes them a while to get it done and quite a bit of encouragement some days.

I told you in my last post that Arin and Kristy made it here to Washington and showed you some of our "Welcome to Washington" party. We've had so much fun having people over to help welcome them and get to know them a bit.

Pirate Jacob, here, came over with his parents after church Sunday night along with a few other folks and we had a little pizza party. We even got a chance to have a big dinner at our place again Monday night. The Lewallen home has been party central for the past week now!

Yesterday we had our first really "down" day and I decided to take the boys to the library for the first time in a couple of weeks. We have been doing the summer reading program and they finished up these charts:

quite a few days ago but we haven't had time to let them go redeem their prize.
They got some fun little water squirting fish and were pretty happy about that. But we didn't stay at the library for long because it was apparent that in our couple of weeks break from library trips that they forgot how to remain calm there. So what did I do? Strapped them down in the car, hit the McDonald's drive through and got us all a cookie and drove around while they watched a movie that they checked out at the library. That was my down time for the day. Mom of the year award, right? Ha!

That's okay, I don't feel so bad about the cookie because today for lunch I fed both of my boys baby food sweet potatoes and corn. I know, that is crazy, but they LOVE it! Kade always has and started asking for it again when Ryne got old enough to eat baby food. Ryne never was very good at eating baby food but for some reason now he always wants it anytime Kade has it. Totally bizarre!
Anyway, I'm feeding my boys baby food for lunch today and waiting for the cleaning fairy to show up and the doorbell rings...not the cleaning fairy....just the UPS man. When the doorbell rings the second time before we finish lunch, I'm thinking surely this will be the fairy I'm hoping for. Nope! Even better...our former neighbor Audrey and her baby Adele dropped by to visit while they were in town!! You might remember me talking about how many of our friends were moving away a while back and I mentioned them. They moved to Arizona....one of those military moves. Anyway, she was back in town for a wedding and came by to see us.

Here are the boys with Adele. I'm telling you it is so hard to get my boys to pose for pictures. And I think Adele wasn't sure what to make of those crazy guys. It was so good to get to see them. Such a nice surprise, in fact, that I'm totally okay that the cleaning fairy still hasn't shown up. I might as well go ahead and come to terms with the fact that the only cleaning fairy in my neck of the woods is obviously busy with way more important chores. Guess maybe tomorrow I'll just have to be my own fairy.

And on a completely different note, we are getting one of these:

Okay maybe not such an entirely different note, they make messes, too, right?
Anyway, yes, yes, we are getting a puppy in a few weeks. The boys at my house are extremely excited and I'm starting to work up a little excitement myself.
We've only had one problem so far. Boy or girl was an easy choice....Kade said, "Let's get a girl dog, that way Mom has another girl in the family." Girl it is! What to name this girl puppy however has caused great friction in our world. Kade was determined she would be named "Ruffy." Kyle, on the other hand, had his mind set on calling her "Mazy." They have argued about it for two weeks now. We had to reach a compromise the other day because the man who has her is wanting to go ahead and start calling her by her name for us. FINALLY, we had an agreement on the name "Daisy" for our new little yellow lab puppy who will be joining our family the first of September. That gives me what, three and a half weeks to get my boys all trained up before we start all over again with a puppy? Wish me luck!

Seriously...

I look at the calendar and it tells me that today is August 1, 2010.
Seriously??? I can hardly believe that!
Time is flying. People have always told me that the older I get the faster time will pass. Well, it seems that they are right. It seems like only yesterday that we went to visit Kyle preaching at camp and I got this picture of Ryne:


And this picture of Kade:


Well, that was one year ago already. I know because we went to visit camp again this week. You will see pictures later. Please look back and see just how much these boys have grown in a year's time. Ryne has obviously grown more than Kade but I promise Kade is growing. He is just not growing quite as quickly as Ryne right now. In fact, this summer Ryne is wearing the exact clothes that Kade wore last summer. Yikes! I'm wondering if they will be wearing the same size next year? Guess that depends on Kade's growth spurts.

Anyway, getting back to the present...
We had a busy week and when I think back about it I can't even remember what all kept us so busy. The whole family was a bit under the weather at some point the past week so that certainly made the week seem like it was just dragging on. Probably because we had a few sleepless nights. Sure made me thankful that those days are few and far between for us. I really do like my sleep! Plus, I'm one of those people who really does need my sleep to function. So let's just say I had a few days that I was very low functioning this week. But I did manage to take a few pictures and we did carry on and do some fun things in spite of the yucky feelings and sleepiness.

The boys were cheered up because packages arrived...

C.G. and Grandaddy sent some goodies.

The punch balls were a huge hit!
Literally....


They have played with those things like crazy...and so have all the other kiddos that have come around this week. (As you will see in a bit, there have been quite a few kiddos around here.)

I really do wish I could better remember this past week but all that seems to come to mind before Thursday is laundry, Bible studies, making myself run when I didn't want to, dishing out medicine, and praying for my boys to sleep.
But Thursday I do remember...that's when we decided to just have fun anyway!
But first we had to take Ryne to the doctor.
Kade and Ryne had both been to the doctor the previous week. Kade had an ear infection and got medicine and was finally all better by this point. But on Thursday morning at about 5:20 I hear Ryne in the monitor saying in the most pitiful voice, "oowee, help. help, oowee, oowee. help, mommy, oowee." I wake up enough to realize what he is saying and think that he must have his arm or leg stuck in the crib. So I run to his room to find him with all limbs still inside his crib. I say, "what's wrong, baby?" And he reaches up to his little ear and starts touching it and saying again, "oowee, help mommy, oowee." I felt so bad for the poor little guy. Obviously he had an ear ache. So as soon as the doctor's office opened I called and got him an appointment.

So, I got to do my Bible study Thursday morning, which I always look forward to and then we made it to the doctor. Got Ryne some medicine and headed to meet some friends for lunch.

Red Robin with Russell, Belinda and Matt was lots of fun once we got Ryne occupied with a cup of ice cream for lunch. Oh, it was such a mess but he was finally happy and that was the important thing at that point.
And Kade was happy, too...

Mrs. Belinda was letting him play a game on her phone!
Belinda is so good with our boys. They just love her to pieces! And so do I.
In fact, they were here for dinner last night (you'll see that later) and I told Kyle that Belinda spoiled me and asked if we could just invite them to dinner every night. He said he thinks we ought to just let them move in with us. No kidding, we love Russ, Belinda, Ryan and Jana!

After a fun lunch at Red Robin we headed to camp.
Kyle wasn't preaching this year so we just went out to visit everyone and let the boys play a bit.
This is where you can look back up at the first pictures of them at camp last year and see just how much they've changed in a year.

Kade played SO HARD...

down the huge slide all by himself


down the huge slide upside down with Keith
Kade was loving the slide no doubt.
But the biggest hit was the water slide...

down it first on Mr. Craig's back


then down time and time again all by himself



Now check this out...

Look at my little bitty guy running right smack dab in the middle of that pack of big boys. Sometimes I really don't think he knows he is so little. If he does, he certainly doesn't seem to care!


Then he tried out a ride down in the boat.
then back to the ring...


I told you the water slide was a hit!

Ryne....

well, he did try out the big slide with Tyler and liked it pretty good.
(side note here: Tyler is a friend from AR who came up with a group from AR to help out with Sunbreak's camp. It was fun for us to see some friends from "home.")

But mostly, Ryne just let me hold him...

The fact that he even let me hold him while all the other kids were running around playing is evidence that he did not feel well at all. And if that isn't enough proof, just look at the poor guys face in this picture. Don't get too upset, he is feeling MUCH better know!


And he did feel good enough for a little bounce on the ball.


And a ride in the boat (on the grass, not on the water slide).
We did have a fun time the few hours that we spent at camp. Kade had so much fun that he passed out on the trip home and we couldn't even get him to wake up and eat supper when we got home. Little guy just curled up on the couch and went back to sleep.

Friday was spent prepping for our guests to arrive. You know we always seem to have guests but these guests are a bit different than the usual. These guests aren't just visiting. We are excited because Arin and Kristy Jenkins and their four kiddos have moved to DuPont to be a part of Life Church. Arin is going to be our Worship Leader!!
They moved here from New Hampshire. Their cross country trip landed them at our place on Friday afternoon. And they are hanging out with us until they get to move into their own place on Monday. It is a great fun bit of chaos around here right now!

Yesterday morning, Ryne and I took a little break from the chaos to go see this guy:

Our neighbor, William!
He and his mom, Michelle, were doing their belt testing for taekwondo.
Just look at this guy go..



So cool to see Mom and Son in their taekwondo uniforms together.
More of our favorite people!!

Then last night we had a PARTY at our place!

A welcome to Washington party!
You know we love adventure and we love any excuse for a party.
This was both!

Here is Arin and Kristy with Avery, Jace, Kadence and Ainsley.

And everyone else:


I think Kade and I counted 22 people at the "Welcome to Washington" party.
We did have a lot of fun and a lot of adventure with all the kiddos running around while trying to get dinner ready for that many people. Kyle cranked up the grill and, as always, did a knock-out job cooking some meat!

He even went the extra mile and cut Ryan's up for him to enjoy!

Just check out this meat eater. He was cracking me up! I think Ryan had two steaks...maybe even three??? I love it!
And I love these...

Aren't those the coolest flowers?
Remember how I was telling you that we wanted the Knights to move in with us?
They brought us these!
Plus I thought ending with the picture of the pretty flowers was better than the crazy meat-eating boy. Ha!

Looking forward to Life Church tonight!
And looking forward to a having a week of well boys in which we get a little sleep!
Hope you, too, have a restful week.

A Week At Sea!!

I have to start with this picture:

Doesn't that just make you smile?
Mosquito bite on the forehead, and all, isn't that little guy just the best??
I sure think so!
I also think the world of his big brother here:

Who has turned into quite the colorer. Seriously, this boy could color all day long. I most definitely took advantage of the 20 cent boxes of crayolas at Wal-Mart this past week and stocked up!

We had a celebration this week...

Kade turned 3 1/2!!
You might remember me mentioning that we celebrate half birthdays as our own little family tradition. The half-birthday honoree gets to choose what's for dinner and the flavor of their half-birthday cake. Kade chose lasagna for dinner and chocolate/chocolate birthday cake. Since we did the airshow all day the actual day of his half-birthday we had to have a celebration for lunch last Sunday. I remembered why I buy frozen lasagna....it's a lot of work to make lasagna from scratch. But it sure was yummy! Besides, when it's my half-birthday, I can choose to eat out and not have to cook or clean. Yes!
Kade did enjoy the lasagna...

But he was most excited about his chocolate/chocolate cake!

There was a High Seas Expedition in town this week and you guys know how much we Lewallen's enjoy adventure so we couldn't miss out.

This captain charted the course for a week of Vacation Bible School
and
Kade got to go to his very first week of Bible School!
I checked him in on Monday morning and he went right to work...


Said goodbye to me and Ryne and never looked back!
He did great!

These guys did a great, too:

Deck Hand D and Captain Kyle!
Kyle and Derek had the privilege of doing the opening and closing for VBS each day. They really did do an amazing job.

Ryne and I would hang out to watch in the morning and come early to watch them again before picking Kade up.

Here is a bit of what we caught Kade doing....

holding the rope with his class, making his way to his seat.

snagging his leader's cell phone so that he could type a message

standing in line waiting his turn at the pinata

taking a swing

and another at the floating boat

bagging up some of the candy that rained down from the busted boat
Every day that I picked him up, his teacher said that he did great. And every day he told me what lesson he had learned and all the fun things that he had done.


Ryne had to get his picture taken with Captain Kyle on the last day
because...

all the other children were lining up to have their pictures taken with him.
Isn't that great?

Know what else is great?
Packages!!!

This one came from Granna and Paw!
And it had goodies from their trip to Florida!
T-shirts and Airplanes!


I think the boys were especially excited about their airplanes after last week's trip to the airshow. They have been flying them around like crazy.

Speaking of crazy....One night last week we had our friends Corbin and Aeden come over to hang out while their mom and dad went on a date. Those boys had crazy fun!!
They ran and played so hard outside. How hard?
Well, hard enough that we fed them supper and let them have movie night, and this was this result:

Those boys never moved. I'm sure the movie was good, but seriously, come on, you know that they had to be worn out when all four of them sat still for a couple of hours in a row!
My boys are hardly ever still and quiet at the same time!

Ryne, however, did get quiet the other day...quiet enough that I knew it was time to see what he was up to. The first place I always check is the pantry. And sure enough....

I found him there!
Sitting in a box devouring a package of crackers that he had managed to get open.
I'm telling you, there is never a dull moment around here!

Wonder what we will get up to next week?