One more week down!

3 weeks left!

Can't leave them for a minute!

Last night I left Aaron in my bathroom for less than a minute to run downstairs and grab something. I literally ran. He was playing nice in my tub. This is what I found when I got upstairs.

My boy knows what he wants!

Friday night I ended up working late, way later than normal. I am usually home by 10ish and then I nurse Aaron and he and we go off to bed. Well I had a sitter and called her at 10:15 and told her to let Aaron fall asleep as I knew I wouldn't be home till close to midnight. I got home at 11:45 and of course he was way sacked out so no nursing him that night.

Yesterday morning I got up with Aaron at 7:45 and brought him to the kitchen so I could make my coffee. I set him down, he screamed at me. I thought Ok here's a breakfast bar, momma needs her coffee. He threw it down on the floor and screamed at me some more. I guess he just wanted his momma and his milk. Sweet boy!

Dancing Ducks!

This is my first experience for putting a video on our blog but I took this of Aaron on my new little camera. Chris gave me this dancing duck a few Easters ago in lieu of my usual ugly bunny and it has been a hit with all the kids. And these days Aaron dances to everything!

The Countdown has Begun!

Aaron only has 4 more weeks till he graduates from his helmet. Yeah!!!
We have put the countdown on the front of his helmet.
4 weeks left!

Are you the Easter Bunny?

Yesterday was Easter and of course the kids got up in the morning and the Easter Bunny had left eggs everywhere. The kids found them all as well as their baskets and we set off to get ready for church. After church Chris says to me that he over heard Meghan telling Katie that she thinks we are the Easter bunny. Yikes!

So I go to her in her room and say "I hear you have some questions about the Easter bunny."
Meghan says "Are you the Easter bunny?"
"No. I say - technically I'm not. Chris and I both are. Why do you think that?"
"Well you told us which way to go for the eggs and you use the same baskets every year."
"Well, we use the same baskets so that the Easter bunny doesn't have to drag them everywhere he goes. They are just here for him to fill and as for the eggs, dad and I were down stairs before you and saw where they went."
"OK" she says.
"Would you be mad if I was the Easter bunny."
"Yes!"

OK so I told a little white lie, but if it keeps her innocent for another year then yes I feel justified in doing it. Kids grow up way to fast and if she is happy believing in the Easter bunny and Santa Clause then I feel fine telling her there is an Easter bunny. I realize we are getting close to the whole charade being blown, but we will prolong it as long as we can. And if she still wants a basket and Santa gifts then she will believe.

Happy Easter 2008!

Look what I did!

This morning I decided to cut Aaron's hair. I have been contemplating it for the last couple of days but have been a little chicken because what if I screwed it up or what is his head going to look like underneath. Well this morning I bit the bullet. Now I have a handsome big boy!


Last night with shaggy head, sitting in the kitchen drawer.



Back view



Front view



My handsome boy!

I can't sleep!

Meghan informed us this morning that she thinks she knows why she is having trouble sleeping at night.

"I think I am not sleeping at night because my sheets are too soft."

Chris and I just stared at each other and he replied, "OK, we'll change them."

Seriously????? She can't sleep because her sheets are TOO SOFT? Yah, OK, guess I'll put the rough ones back on.

I have no idea!

OH what fun St. Patty's Day was!

We had a great St. Patrick's day dinner of Irish Stew and green cupcakes. We even let the kids have two. It was a holiday after all. Katie even went to dance with green hair, although I forgot to take a picture of that. How did that happen???

Here are some of the pictures from the evening.

Green cupcakes

Meghan loves her cupcakes

Aaron digs those cupcakes too!

Katie always gets food all over her face!

Ryan pleased that he waited as long as he could for those cupcakes!

Aaron's new trick: Crawling into the oven drawer

Best Friends: Aaron and Ryan

Cleaning up Aaron

Chris teaching the kids not to pick their noses!

Here's to the Irish!

St Patty's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We are all decked out in green and I am making Irish stew for dinner with green cupcakes for dessert. Katie is going to dance tonight with some crazy green hair and it will be a fun night for all.

I have been out of commission this weekend due to my entire email account being deleted by our provider. Of course it doesn't seem as though anyone is missing me cause no one has called to say, "Why is your email being bounced back." Oh well. It's hard to be loved by so many. :) Hopefully they will be able to restore my old email, but maybe not since they have a new policy of requiring a 4 character email address and mine is three. But on the positive side maybe I can get one that people don't mistake for my husband's. His initials are CJA and that is the beginning of my email address. Why did he choose that? Cause it stands for Chris, Jen Andreachi. Whatever! It was supposed to be only my email address. Last time I let him choose for me. I just dread all the work it will be to change my email address on everything. UGH! I don't know how people change addresses so much. Seems ridiculous to me.

Well off to the store. Take care and have a Happy One!

An Update!

It seems as though nothing is going on, but really there is a ton going on. HA!

First, Meghan has officially sold 371 boxes of girl scout cookies and I look forward to logging in all the cookie orders this weekend and getting them ordered. She is thrilled because she beat her goal 3 times. 200/300 and then 350. We are so happy for her. She will be a member of the 350 club and get invited to the district pizza party - which I pray is in Fargo so she can go, she gets to vote on next year's prizes or recognitions and she gets a special pin. Yeah! Meghan!

Katie is having issues these days and she seems very stressed out about life. I hope it will pass soon as I hate seeing her so sad. She doesn't want to play piano any more but we can't let her quit when she only has two more months left before lessons are done. I just think she has a lot on her plate and she is the one that likes to just sit and vegged and all these things are cutting into her vegging time. But DI will be done in 3 weeks, dance after that, and then Faith Formation will also be done. She is truly talented we feel at the piano and we hate to see her not have the opportunity. So to help, for the next three weeks we are only having her practice 20 minutes a day instead of 30. I know once DI is done, things will lighten up for her, AND us.

Ryan is a barrel of fun as usual. If you ask what is in his mouth he will proudly tell you "CROWNS" and then show you his crowns. Yesterday I caught him and he had shoved toy animals down the back of his pants. No idea why. Just thought he should. He does like to play with his brother at times, but hates when Aaron gets into his stuff. For us it's just deja vu with the girls.

Ryan posing for me.



Aaron is walking so much faster these days. He is hard to catch. He steals my keys and goes and hides, spins around in circles, turns off my computer and dances every time there is music on. He loves to dance and he has some good moves to boot. It's very cute. He only has 6 more weeks left to wear his helmet which kind of makes me sad but I know it will be fine.

Aaron toilet diving!



Chris is training for the half marathon in May. We are probably going to go up to a friends house to see him run. Hope we will be able to get back to watch the marathoners come by our house, but if not that will be ok. The girls are going to run the 1.2 mile with the neighbor girls and Ryan will run the 1/2 mile. Should be a fun day.

I am busy trying to do some spring cleaning around the house and plan the projects for the summer. Next weekend we plan on painting the front entry way. I know it's Easter, but unfortunately it's the only open weekend we have had and will have. Very sad I know. I am also over halfway done treating the wood in our house. There is a lot of wood. UGH! It's fun to see it all clean and shiny.

I enjoyed my weekend in the cities and hope to go again this summer to catch up with some other friends. Chris and I need to get away too but I have no idea where we would go. We'll figure something out I am sure.

Well that's it from here.

Read Across America and Dr. Seuss' Birthday

Today the boys and I went to school with Katie in our pj's and celebrated Read Across America and Dr. Seuss' birthday with a story time and breakfast. We read all our favorites including Green Eggs and Ham, the ABC book which I have by heart now and Mr. Brown can Moo! Can you? We had a couple of her classmates join us and that was fun too. We had juice and muffins and read stories on the floor with blankets and pillows. They are also have green eggs and ham at snack time with the rest of the second graders.

Here are some pictures from our morning.

Pushing Buttons!

Katie is the DI group that Chris and I are running. Last night we asked her to read the information we had printed out on the invention of TV and write some lines from it to put in her play. We got the ugly face. And maybe a little stomping too. So Chris says, "just go highlight some lines." About 5 minutes later she comes back with highlighted lines on the printout and NO written lines. Again, Katie you have to write some lines for your play. We get an even uglier look. So off to her room she goes complete with slamming door. We might have been egging her on a bit at this point.

Ryan goes up and wants in her room to play. She starts screaming at him and more slamming doors results. He starts screaming at her. So we tell him to play with Meghan. "She doesn't want me either!" More screaming. Katie slams door again. We laugh and start our puzzle. Two minutes later, there is still screaming from Ryan at Katie, Katie screaming at him, Katie coming down stairs and whipping her stuff animal across the room. I go after her, more screaming, more doors, more laughter on our part.

Then silence. Chris and I continue our puzzle, and after 15 minutes we hear stomping around and loud talking and figure out that Katie is practicing her lines. Another thing we told her to do. She comes down 10 minutes later with lines and a smile on her face. Who knew she had such a temper.

That night in getting ready for bed she comes down and says "I'm sorry for all the evilness in my life so far." Well thank you Katie you are forgiven. What a funny little girl. Then she wants a snack and we tell her pretzels. UGLY FACE! So much of getting rid of all the evilness.

On a side note, Meghan and Katie took lunch to school yesterday. Katie brings home her lunch box, Meghan does not. They both want lunch today so we dug out the biggest brown paper grocery sack we could to put Meghan's lunch in, figuring it would embarass her. It even has Andreachi on it in big letters. Nope, she likes it!

Six More Boxes!!!!!!

Meghan only has to sell 6 more boxes to hit 350 boxes of Girl Scout Cookies! We are so proud of her and she is thrilled. Her original goal this year was 200 boxes but we kind of blew by that after 6 days. So she raised it to 300 and now she is at 344. She will hit the next prize level once she hits 350 so she is really looking forward to that. Not only does she get prizes, she gets I think either $40 or $45 to spend at the Girl Scout Shop. We have till next Friday the 14th to sell. Go Meghan!

Meghan made it to 356 boxes as of 4 PM today!!!!

Ryan has two crowns!

Today started way too early for Ryan and I. Ryan's surgery to fix his teeth required him to be at the hospital at 6:15 am with surgery at 7:15. So I got up at 5:30, threw some clothes on and got the bags in the van. Then woke Ryan up and got him ready and we were out the door at 5:55. Ryan was great. No whining or crying, just went along for the ride.

Once at the hospital we got checked in and Ryan got to pick out a cart to ride up to his floor in. He picked the red car. Once on the 2nd floor we went to the play room and waited for his nurse. That took maybe 5 minutes and Ryan was brought to his room to get ready for his surgery. He got to sit in the big recliner and watch cartoons while I answered questions. His nurse Nancy reminded me of Aunt Mary. Her mannerisms, voice, looks, everything. It was funny. She said she has been told at least 5 times in her life that she reminds people of a Mary. We wonder if it is our Aunt Mary????? HMMMM???

After that the anesthesiologist came in and asked a bunch of questions too. He was the same one I had when I had Ryan. He gave me my epidural and came back when I needed more drugs. I liked him. So I felt really comfortable having Ryan have him for his anesthesia. He also told me that he would be giving Ryan a mild tranquilizer to calm him down when we brought him back. Wished they would have done that with Meghan 6 years ago when she had her surgery. Chris and I both remember her screaming down the hall when they took her away.

Dr. Holman, his dentist, came in next and explained his surgery. They would take X-rays to see if there were any other areas they needed to work on and would let me know. After that Ryan got his tranquilizer and it took effect quickly. Then we packed up and walked down to the surgery wing. Ryan went willingly with the nurse and didn't make a peep.

I sat in the waiting room after that. The surgery was supposed to take about an hour and a half. At about 8 o'clock I got a call saying they had found some more work to do and it could be another hour or so. Dr. Holman came out at about 9 and said they had finished up and Ryan ended up getting 2 crowns and 4 cavities filled. Yikes! We knew he was going to get 1 crown and 2 cavities, but had no idea how bad his teeth were. Ryan will go back in 6 months for his next check-up. He will be brushing and flossing and now will use Gel-Kam on his teeth. The dentist did put sealant on his molars to help ward off cavities. In talking with the nurse, apparently there is a short time frame in which enamel forms on teeth while in utero and if I were sick or not feeling well during that time, it wouldn't form well. That made me feel a little less of a rotten mother. Considering we had done nothing different with Ryan's teeth than we had with the girls.

After that I went back to see Ryan. He was awake and disoriented. I sat with him, he cried but became much better after he got some juice. We sat there for about 45 minutes before getting dressed. We started walking toward the elevator and Ryan was taking big, wide and unsteady steps so we got him a wheelchair and cruised him down the hall. I guess we got home at about 10 and he sacked out on the chair with dad. Right now it's almost noon and he is cruising around the house a bit and getting back to normal.

So he is doing well and is such a trooper. I am so relieved his surgery went better than Meghan's. She was SOOOOOOO mad at us!

Here he is in his hospital jammies



With nurse Nancy (Mary)




After waking up!



Upper Crown



Lower Crown