Saturday = Playground Time!

This morning I thought it would be a good idea to take Kayson to the playground near our house...  we had fun!!  Kayson hit every inch of that playground!  We even ran into one of his classmates from daycare, Michael, and his Mom and brother.  We got to know them which was very nice...

Kayson had a great time, and it prepped him for a super, duper long nap this afternoon!  We are at 3 hours and I even went into his room and opened the blinds!!!  He's still out! 



Weeeee!!!

 

Lovin' the park!

OMG - I HEART IT!

The painting is 90% done!!!  The main living area, kitchen, hallway & master bedroom are done and I love it... love it... love it!  The painter will return tomorrow morning to finish the entry and area down to the basement.  

The colors are perfect - nice browns, and an accent color of a rusty orange/red in the kitchen.  I'm so impressed how the clean lines look around the ceiling and how the white trim just POPS!  I can say now the house looks very warm and inviting.  I simply love it.  ;)

Kitchen

Living Area

Closed & Prepping

I'm not a big reader...  not at all.  But when I found a blog called http://www.mattlogelin.com/ (Life & Death all in a 27-hour period), I was more and more interested in reading.  The blog is about a young man who lost his wife 27 hours after she gave birth to their first & only daughter.  I've read the blog for nearly 2 years now, and he's written a book about the first year of his daughter's life and how he coped with being a single Dad.  I knew I had to get it when it came out.  It was a super easy read...  it brought tears to my eyes and brought laughter too.  I think about if something like this were to happen to me and Ryan, I'm not sure if I could be as strong as this man/father was and is.  It's an amazing story that teaches me that life REALLY IS TOO SHORT.  I'd love to pass the book along to anyone, if they'd like it. 

Now moving on...  we are prepping to have our house painted (interior).  We've been in the house for over a year now... and I've been tired of that flat builders paint for over a year!  We've made a decision that we'd hire someone to come in and paint for us (since Ryan and I don't do well at painting together!)  ;)  The painter comes tomorrow and will paint all day long (in hopes to finish in a day!)  I'm anxious and ready for the house to look more 'warm and homey'.  The painter will be updating our kitchen, main living area, hallway, and area down to the basement... along with our master bedroom.  I'm so excited to have it be done!!  Then maybe in a year or so, I can have him come back and do the bathrooms!  ;)  Last night I took all the wall stuff down, and tonight we'll move some of the small things away from the walls and then a couple large things (like the TVs).  I hope to upload pics at some point!

Repeat Weekend

We just experienced another super busy weekend (like last one).  (This post will be picture-heavy!)

With Easter, we headed up to Clarion Saturday morning.  We enjoyed some time on the farm (in the cold), but we tried to keep Kayson as busy as possible.  We watched Papa Paul move tractors in and out of his machine shed - even getting to RIDE in the tractor!  We played with Co-Co outside, and we played a ton inside too.  We also went down to my Grandpa's old farm and did some chores there.  Papa needed to feed the horses, a pony, a cow and some chickens!  It's like a zoo there!  Kayson thought the horses were really cool... and him and Dadda even fed the pony some hay.  Kayson did well and bossed Grandma & Papa around pretty well throughout the weekend!  (He seems to be famous for that lately!)  ;) 

Today, we attended church service with everyone...  Kayson did pretty well (sitting through about 25 minutes of it), then him and Grandma played in the Nursery/Kids area.  We enjoyed a great dinner with everyone on the farm too...  and the weather was great today, so right after lunch was ate, the kiddos were outside!  Playing ball, walking around the farm and we did a very short Easter egg hunt.

We were on the road by 3:30, home around 5 tonight...  Kayson was out by the time we got off Grandma & Papa's gravel road!  It's amazing what the car does to him!

It was a great weekend...  I'm ready for quiet time once K is in bed and I'm going to put my feet up (once the laundry is done and grocery shopping is done too!), but it WILL happen!  ;)

I hope everyone enjoyed a nice Easter weekend with families and/or friends. 

Enjoy the pics!

We all got to sit in the tractor at some point.  Here's me and my boy!

Papa giving Momma & Kayson a ride!

Feeding Zoey some hay.

Kayson enjoying his Easter gift from us - Tractors, plus a wagon!  We put dried macaroni in the wagon and would then scoop it up!  He loved it!

Heading out for the Easter egg hunt!  (Hope & Eden are in the Bahamas!!!)

Kayson sporting some 'boat shoes'.  He said to my Mom - "Grandma, see my boat shoes?!"  Priceless!

Five Question Friday

1.  What is your favorite Easter tradition?
Gosh, this is hard...  I really don't remember growing up and experiencing Easter.  The only small thing I remember is hunting for Easter eggs one Easter with my Grandma Hardy - and we had to hunt inside cuz the weather was awful.  That was many moons ago.  But I've been told we have always done an Easter egg hunt, so I guess that's my 'tradition'!  We'll be doing that with Kayson this year (at my parents).

2.  Are you a 'shower' or a 'long, hot bath' kind of person?
Oooo both.  I loves showers - hot ones.  But I love to sit in the hot bath too.  I find myself taking a hot bath about 2 times a week...  it's just another one of my 'quiet' times.

3.  Can you parallel park and if so, when was the last time you did it?
Heck no!  ;)

4.  What is your favorite Easter candy?
Aaaaa man, another hard one.  I'm not a huge candy fan.  Ryan's favorite would be the Cadberry Eggs (YUK).  If I had to choose, maybe a Easter bunny sweet-tart!

5.  Easter: Do you go all out with the Easter Bunny or focus on the religious part of the holiday?
We do the Easter egg hunt...  not so much a Bunny (currently, Kayson is scared to death of the Easter Bunny)... and we do go to church and celebrate with our families. 

Nice, Long Thursday

I used PTO today.  About 2 weeks ago, Kayson originally had an ear appointment in the morning, then I had a hair appointment in the afternoon.  My thought was - "there's no reason to go into work for just a short time... I'll take the day off."  And I did.  Even tho, I rescheduled Kayson's ear appointment, I still spent some time with him this morning.  

He slept in for me - 7:40...  I was thrilled!  Then I took him into daycare to participate in JumpBunch around 9:00.  I stayed with him to watch...  he does SO well.  He was a little timid at first, pretty much because I was there...  but soon after, he warmed up and started doing all the fun activities.  Coach Kirby & Coach Rachel are great - I was very impressed with them... and in Kayson too.  He listens well, and does the activities.  Our little boy is so smart.  (I got the luxury of participating as well -- tossing chickens into the bucket, doing the obstacle course & dancing around!)

Following JumpBunch, I took K downtown to my work.  I know, I ended up driving downtown anyway, but that's ok!  I wanted to my work friends to see him...  and we had a great time.  He did great there too, and really started to warm up at the end of the visit by running in the halls.  Yes, wonderful.  ha.  He did great - talking to my friends and giving them high-fives.  

Then finally, I took him back to daycare where he spent the rest of the day.  I met Lacey for lunch (since I was her first client for the day), then went to the salon to get me dolled up.  I'm a little blonder, and just a trim of the hair.  I'm liking the length of my hair right now...  it's really, really close to being able to get a 'stub' for a pony-tail.  ha.  

I picked up Kayson, then met Martina & Tate (and Ryan - he got to come home tonight), at home.  I took some 3 month pictures of Tater Bean, then we just hung out. 

It's been a nice day...  I packed stuff in, like I always do on my days off, but that's ok.  It was all worth it.  One more day of the week, then off to Clarion Saturday morning. 

Tuesday night

This Tuesday night...

• ...Kayson got his hair cut again tonight...  he does SO well for Lacey.  Big thanks to her, as always.
• ...Ryan is traveling - in MN for the week.
• ...I'm catching up on some of my shows that I have DVRd.
• ...I'm looking forward to having this Thursday off.
• ...I've been asked to shoot a wedding this fall.  I'm pondering...  and am going to say yes, I just need to get my thoughts together on price.
• ...I'm very happy for our close friends who have decided to try a new occupation - Stay-at-Home Mommy.  Congrats to them!  I sincerely hope it works for them!
• ...I'm going to really work hard at getting to bed early (by 10:30) and try even harder to get up on time (meaning 5:45 and not hit the snooze!)
• ...My eyes are itching like crazy!  (Darn allergies...)
• ...I gave the dogs a bath.  Kayson loves to help!  It's a nice 'change' in routine.

It's almost 10 pm now...  better get ready to hit that 10:30 mark for night-night.

Firetrucks & Egg Hunt

We had one busy two days.  We headed to Creston Saturday morning...  with a full day ahead of us - Kayson was going to see the Creston Firetrucks!  And boy, was he excited...  until we pulled in and we hear "I don't like firetrucks!"  Oh this little boy!  He eventually warmed up to the fire station and the men giving the 'tour'.  He did really well... and got to see so much of the firetrucks.  Personally, I think the big boys (Ryan and Blair) liked the tour WAY better than Kayson!  It was great, very interesting...  big thanks to the Creston firemen, and Papa Mike for getting us 'in' to the station.  What a very nice treat for Kayson (and Tate).    

Today, we celebrated our Easter 'get together' with the Taylor's.  We had a great lunch and hung out a bit...  Kayson soon became tired and doing the 'not listening' thing...  he wanted to be outside as much as possible and it was so chilly!!  We did a quick Easter egg hunt and then Papa Mike spent over an hour outside with him... keeping him busy and as warm as possible.  Again, thanks Papa!  We headed home this afternoon, Kayson was asleep before we were out of town!  Tonight we've just been doing our normal Sunday stuff...  depressing that the weekend is over already.  Enjoy the pictures attached.  There are more on his Picasa Web albums.

Touching the firetruck stuff!



Tate slept thru the 'tour'!!  Here they are sitting on one of the very old trucks.



Saying Thank You to the Fireman.  (Big Thanks!)

 

Junior Fireman hat and all!

Us.

By the way, really frustrated on how blogspot is uploading images and setting things now...  fellow bloggers - any hints for me!?!

Five Question Friday

1.  What is your favorite sign of spring?
Um...  the birds singing actually.  That seems so weird to me, cuz I don't really like birds (they kind of freak me out - swooping, pooping...  ahah), but when I hear them in the morning, it's kind of nice... plus Kayson hears them and mimicks their 'tweets', so I guess that's pretty sweet.  I also just like the fact that you see more people out and about getting fresh air.

2.  What was your best birthday ever?
When Ryan surprised me with a night out with friends (it was my 30th birthday).  He got all my/our friends (and family) together for pizza, beer and bowling... it was great.  He put a lot of effort into the planning, and I loved it!

3.  What is your favorite dessert?
Ice cream...  or a good, soft sugar cookie... 

4.  What is the best excuse you've ever used to get out of ticket?
I've never used an excuse.  I've been picked up a couple times in my life and if the cop is going to give me a ticket, he's going to give it to me...  no need in fighting it!   (But I prefer the warnings - like the recent one I had!)

5.  Do you wake up before your alarm, with your alarm, or after hitting snooze several times?
Ryan could answer this one.  ha.  I hit the snooze SEVERAL times...  it's awful, I know it, but I really can't get out of bed!!! 

This and That

• Kayson ate a full hot dog for us (BIG deal in the Taylor household)... since he apparently eats hot dogs at daycare, but wouldn't do it for us.  This weekend, he did.  ha.
• Kayson also ate maybe 1/4 of  Jr. Cheeseburger too.  Again, complete shock for us...  but awesome too.  
• It's Sunday.  Yuk.  The weekend went too fast...  and I unfortunately have to go to work knowing I'll be VERY busy.  My 'partner in crime', Brenda, is on a much needed vacation with her hubby, so I'm solo at our cube and will pick up her work on top of mine.  Yuk!! 
• I really liked the warmer weather this weekend, but I am going to complain about the wind.  It was gusty yesterday and today!
• We finally got Kayson to try on the shorts that we have for him.  I made a complete idiot out of myself by hooting and hollaring to get him to try them on...  making it fun.  ha.  He fell for it and tried them on.  We did find some that just aren't going to work, so those were returned.  With the really warm weather yesterday, we realized we don't have any summer pj's.  
• We found that Kayson loves Barnes & Noble.  We got some new books for him and he loved that place... the kids section is great, he just picked up book after book and would sit down and flip through the pages.  It was really neat to see.  He's just growing up so fast.  (I think I say that weekly!)
• I love my new camera. I had a photo shoot on Saturday and it went well... camera did well!  I'm anxious to see the prints and hopefully will see a difference!
• Speaking of books, I picked up "Two Kisses for Maddy", by Matt Logelin.  He's blogger that I follow.  This is his blog, if you are interested: http://www.mattlogelin.com/. The book tells of his love and loss of his wife and mother of his beautiful little girl.  I dug into the book this afternoon...  cried already.  It's gonna be a wonderful book. 
• I'll post some new pictures this week...  I took a few new ones of Kayson. 

Ears again

Kayson has another ear infection.  I've lost track of how many we are on. 

Thursday morning - early - say 12:05 am.  I wake to him crying...  I pat him and tell him it's ok and he drifts back off.  12:10 am, he's fussing again...  this time when I went to his room, he's now crying hard and really rubbing at his right ear.  I pick him up...  first thing out of his mouth - "Ear hurts Momma".  Enter - HEART BREAKING MOMENT.  We rocked for a minute... and he literally rubbed at his ear about every 10 seconds.  He would rub it so hard either with his fist or on my arm/chest...  I knew instantly it was an infection.  We did the drops, but knowing those really don't work simply because his ears are clogged - the tubes aren't even doing their job now.  (We found this out at our last ear check up appointment about 3 weeks ago).  So basically - a clogged ear is pretty much like not having tubes at all.  Needless to say, the drops didn't help at all.  I gave him some motrin and that seemed to 'dull' the being awake for nearly 3 hours!  Poor guy. 

Ryan took him in yesterday morning to the ENT.  We got some meds.  We go back in a couple weeks for another check up.  In my opinion (and in my frustration), I think we should remove the tubes that are in there, get his ears 'cleaned out' (if possible), and insert new tubes.  Again, just my opinion!  What do I know!!  ha.  I just want him to be happy and not in pain.  This is like a vicious circle - happening about every 4 to 6 weeks. 

Here's to the weekend.  I'm ready for it. 
(No Five Question Friday today) - Sorry!

We have a Spitter

Yep, that's right. We have a spitter on our hands.  This has been going on for about a month now, but has seemed to get worse over the past week or so.  The attitude is coming out even more too.  We definitely have a 2+ year old little boy. 

I spoke with Kayson's daycare teacher this morning to get a better idea if this is happening at daycare.  Her response was, "Yep - he starts the spitting."  Wonderful.  He likes the attention and when he spits, he gets the attention from the teachers AND the kids... the kids laugh, so Kayson thinks that's fun.  Oh man, this is tough.  My heart is aching right now...  makes me so sad that our 'perfect' son is acting out and pushing buttons for us and his teachers. 

I received some suggestions from the teacher this morning...  just a better idea of what they are doing at daycare and what we can do at home.  All of the things she suggested is stuff that I know to do, but I'm realizing it's much harder when it's your own kid...  I see this stuff on TV and think "what a rotten kid" --- well obviously, Kayson is not rotten...  he's just 2 and he's testing us, he's using his imagination and he's learning what works to get attention. 

I'm sad today...  we've had some rough evenings at home over the past week and this just hits the top of the list and makes me sad, confused, heart-broken...  but also more motivated to try anything to make this better for all of us.

81

At some point this afternoon, Ryan's truck temperature said 81 degrees.  WOW.  We spent the day with Blair, Martina & Tate today... we had a great time!  Had a quick lunch and we then played outside... we took advantage of the warm temps!  Ryan and I were not prepared for it to be that warm - we both had on jeansand I had a thermal long sleeved shirt!  Wow - I was sweaty! 


We went for a long walk to a great playground area - Kayson loved it.  We did the slides, climbed things, did the swings, and played some basketball!  We then walked some more for a 'treat' - ice cream!  Nevada has a great little 'hole in the wall' ice cream place. 


Here are some pictures of our afternoon.  We are all exhausted from all the fresh air!

Having so much fun on at the playground!

The boys playin hoops!

SHOOT!

Kayson & Tate

Tater Bean.  What a doll!

We've had a really nice weekend.  The weather has been great and it just made us more productive!  Ryan did a ton of work in the garage on Saturday morning/afternoon...  Kayson and I had a quick play date with Lacey and her boys.  Then Saturday evening we had neighbors over to eat and play.  It's been a good weekend of being with friends/family AND being productive. 

Five Question Friday

1. Have you ever had surgery? I've had oral surgery to remove my wisdom teeth, but that's it. I've been very lucky!

2. Ever ride in an ambulance? I haven't... again, very lucky. My son would love it if we WOULD ride in an ambulance... of course, that's just being 2 and thinking those big vehicles are 'cool'! I tell him they really aren't! ;)

3. How are you in a medical emergency? Panicked? Calm? Hmmm... Really the only medical emergency I've been in was being in labor. And I was very calm, simply because I KNEW I had to do this, I had no choice! If I would be experiencing something that was sudden and wasn't expecting, I'm sure I would be panicking a little!

4. Do you have a garden? Flowers or veggies? No garden... but I have a pot of flowers that I put out each year... that's about as close as I get to a garden!

5. When did you move out of your parents house? Officially after college. I still had 'my room' during college, but once I was done, I got an apartment in Ankeny and was on my own!