Snow Day

We actually got a little snow on Thursday (which promptly melted by Friday morning) so after Max's dentist appointment Thursday morning I bundled the kids up and sent them out into the backyard to entertain themselves. Max rolled around and built things with the snow while Emily wandered around and fell down repeatedly. She would cry each time she fell down and them Max would "help" her get up, usually bringing on more screams from Emily. It was so fun to watch them play together and have so much fun while also giving me some mostly kid free time. When they came in they drank hot chocolate and ate warm cookies I had baked while they played outside. Watching them play together was one of those special mom moments that I want to always remember.

Birthday Boy Max

Last week was Max's fourth birthday. It is hard to beleive that he is so old. He is getting to be such a grown up boy. I have a hard time sometimes realizing that he is no longer a toddler, but a little boy. His birthday was on Friday. We gave him a barn playset that I made along with a toy tractor and some farm animals to put in the barn. I think he likes the gift, because he put it in the window by his bed. Anything that he likes seems to go there. I guess he likes to have it close. His dad made another yummy chocolate cake, but it did not turn out as well as Emily's. It looks good in the picture, but on the side closest to Max it is pretty much falling apart.

Darren, Jake, Tacie, Bethany

Drew, Emmalee, Sarahi, Andrew, Max

On Saturday Max had his first friend birthday party. Max wanted a Dinosaur theme for his party. (Dinosaurs are a big thing with Max right now, thanks in part to the PBS show "Dinosaur Train".) The kids decorated a dinosaur mask, and then they hunted for dinosaur eggs. They played a lot of games, and they seemed to have a lot of fun. I made Max a dinosaur cake that I forgot to take a picture of. After the cake and ice cream Max opened his presents. I couldn't believe how excited all of the kids were to give Max the gifts they had brought him. It was actually quite fun to have a household of four year olds for a couple of hours. They have such cute little personalities. It was really fun to watch them play and interact with each other.

Happy Birthday, big grown up boy!

No More

Emily had her yearly testing today for her kidney reflux. Every year there is a 20% chance that she will "outgrow" her reflux, and I guess this was our lucky year. Jeff and I were both sure that she would still have reflux and I had geared myself up to do battle with her doctor over our difference of opinions over her treatment, but after a horrible half hour for Emily we were told that her test didn't show any more signs of reflux. I'm excited to have no more (expensive) testing, no more antibiotics, no more probiotics to counterballance the antibiotics, and no more stress about her being on antibiotics for years or trying to potty train a child with reflux.

I personally feel that we were due some good news in the medical department, especially after learning last week that due to bad enamel on Max's 2 year molars he already has three cavities that we need to take care of. (Apparently this happens occasionally and they aren't sure why. It has nothing to do with genetics or his hygene.)

We were so excited by our good news the whole family went to Burger Dude (aka. Rich's Burgers) for lunch. Mmmm. Makes my mouth water just thinking about it.