First Day of School

Well...here we go again.

Jacob started 2nd grade last week (hence the two fingers, that was the best I could get out of him). He got the teacher that he wanted and is in a 2/3 split class. There are only 9 2nd graders and the rest are 3rd, we'll see how that goes.

We got there in time to walk with our friends from Kindergarten.

A quick shot before we were shuttled away.

Parker started today. He could not have been more excited! He's been asking me for days if he was going to school today. A few days ago when I could finally say, "Parker, you go to school in 2 days!" He answered, "I go-a school tomorrow next week?!?!"
They do group snack at his preschool, but because of his allergies, he just takes his own everyday. Which means we had to go get him his own lunch box. Again, could not have been more excited! He was carrying it around all morning and loading it with everything he could find.

In the classroom checking stuff out before they started. They weren't letting parents in, so we have crappy pictures through the window.

This is when I picked him up. Don't be fooled by his face, that was just because he wasn't sure about who was taking the picture for us. He told me about going outside, singing the monkey song during circle time, how much of his snack he ate...way more than I got out of Jacob when I'd pick him up.

So far so good for both of them. I already don't like helping Jacob with his homework because he has the attention span of a gnat and I'm terrified about letting Parker out of my control because I dread getting "the call" that he ate something he shouldn't have.

Other than that, they are off to a great start and I am so proud of them for how well they handle facing their new situations.

*An update on Parker and his asthma: he is doing better. I take him into the Dr. tomorrow to see if we need to continue the breathing treatments every 4 hours around the clock, or if we can lengthen them out a little. We have rescheduled the appt at the allergy clinic for next Tuesday and we go to the pulmonologist in few weeks to begin figuring out his asthma plan.

Thank you so much for all of the continued prayers and well wishes. It really does mean so much to me when people are going out of their way to check in and see how he is doing. We'll keep you posted!

How we ended our summer

The plan was to do some really fun things with our last few days, like join my friends at the beach today, and to collect all the school supplies together to make sure we have everything.

Instead, we spent two days in the hospital with Parker.

It started this weekend when his seasonal allergies were really bothering him and because we had an appointment with the allergist, we couldn't give him anything to get it under control. It then triggered the upper respiratory stuff that we love so much and we were back on the nebulizar by Sunday evening. After lots of breathing treatments and a really rough night, we headed to the doctor to see if it was something more. Once she listened to his lungs and after an additional treatment in her office, she said that was the tightest he had ever sounded. She sent us to the ER.

Seven hours in the ER, 3 more breathing treatments, 2 continuous hour long treatments, and a chest x-ray later...he was admitted and put in the pediatric ICU. They continued his treatments and added some more medication. He and Jamie had a sleepover in the hospital that he was not very excited about. He just kept saying, "I wanna go home". It broke my heart every time.

The nurses and staff all loved him and thought he was so cute. He was very good about taking his medicine and putting up with the whole ordeal. When all was said and done he was officially diagnosed with asthma. One more piece to his complicated little puzzle. I'm just glad he is home and we know what we are dealing with and have a plan in place.

Thank you Chelsea for everything you did for the kids and the house, (you don't really need to go back to school, right?) and thank you to the friends and family that were praying for us.

So not quite like I envisioned summer ending, but I certainly won't forget it anytime soon.

Our trip back east ... there are a lot of pictures!

We spent about 10 days back east at the end of July/beginning of August. As always, we had a great time and saw lots of family.

We started in Virginia for a few days with Jamie's parents and brother and family. Then we headed to Pennsylvania to my brother's to take part in my newest nephew's blessing. We then went to my sister's beach house and then back to Virginia for a couple more days before heading home.

This is my nephew Max holding Emma.

Here is Elliot James, the man of the hour. He looks like an adult baby, not an old man, just an adult. He was so cute and little. He was a very good boy for his blessing.

Jacob and Parker playing with their cousin Isaac. It was really nice to see my brother, Doug, and his adorable family. I didn't get pictures of my brother or his girls, but trust me, they were there and it was fun.

This is the Virginia part of the trip.
Jamie's brother, Nate, held Emma and even got her to fall asleep. I thought they both looked quite comfortable, it was pretty cute.

We visited the Udvar-Hazy National Air and Space Museum with Nate, Denys, and the kids. There were lots of cool planes, a space shuttle, even the Enola Gay.

Nate has a fancy camera that he does cool stuff with, including tricked out light saber photography. You can only imagine how much Jacob enjoyed that.

Of course Parker got in on the action too.

The group shot with Jamie's family after church.

Emma and I enjoying their neighborhood pool. We went there just about everyday and loved it.

This is the time spent at my sister Lauren's beach house. It happened to be my birthday so of course there was cake involved. It was a Parker friendly cake and you can see how excited he was that he was going to be able to take part.

We had some gorgeous beach days. My parents were there too which was very fun to get to see both sets of grandparents on the same trip. Lots of hanging out with cousins, digging in the sand, delicious food, with a little outlet shopping on the side. I do love Bethany Beach, DE!

Emma napping in her own beach tent.

Jamie sculpted Jacob into a Lego brick.

The older boys "built" a fire pit behind the house for roasting marshmallows for our s'mores. They were the biggest marshmallows EVER and oh so tasty!

The kids did a pretty good job despite the fact that they didn't go to bed before 10 every night and were up with the sun each morning. There was a fair bit of driving too. We visited 3 states but drove through many more, and they took it all in stride.

Parker had the toughest time. He got a peanut butter cracker, an ear infection, upper respiratory stuff that required breathing treatments (we now own 2 nebulizars) , and his seasonal/dust mite allergy hit him pretty hard too. A trip to the ER, an urgent care clinic, multiple drug stores, and lots of medication later, I was happy to get him home. But, despite Parker's best efforts, we had a really nice visit.

Jacob and Emma watching a little Star Wars on the flight home, Jacob put the headphones on Emma so she wouldn't miss anything. Always the thoughtful big brother.

I Like Friday the 13th

But mostly because that was the day we were married ... 11 years ago.

Happy Aniversary Jamie -- you still make me laugh!