Whew! Need to catch up!

It has been a very busy couple of weeks! My grandmother from mississippi came to visit, Jakob and Kaleb had their ear tube surgery, Gavin is switching schools, Kaleb trying super hard to walk with Jakob right behind him, getting coupons for free shutterfly photobooks and having only a few days to finish them up and order and I STILL need to do J&K's thank you cards! Along with the rest of the hecticness in our lives....it has been just a little bit busy :-) Instead of doing a bunch of different blogs, I am going to put it all in here, so you have been warned that this will probably be a lengthy one :-)

Grandmother's Visit!
My Grandmothers visit was so much fun! This was her second time seeing J&K since they were born. It is not the easiest thing for her to travel, I think it is more intimidating than anything. I cannot blame her because flying is not one of my favorite things at age 33, I would imagine it will be at the bottom the list when I am 76 y/o! She arrived on Thursday evening with no flight delays (miracle in itself considering she connected in Atlanta and flew in to Philly!) Friday we played around the house for a bit with the boys. Then that afternoon we went to the Polish Festival so Gavin could ride some of the rides. The rides there could really use some updating or just a paint job :-P I can remember all the amusement parks, carnivals I went to as a kid....I never thought of the cleanliness or safety of those rides....strange how being a parent gives you an entirely new perspective on those things :-P Gavin had a BLAST!! He kept screaming " I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!" and I rode the ferris wheel with him...um that was scary! lol which is strange because I used to be the first one on all roller coasters but the kiddie roller coaster at Dutch Wonderland made my back hurt....I love getting old :-P
Friday night I took my grandmother to the Moms of Multiples Resale and found some great deals! She had never seen anything quite so large and seemed to enjoy it as well! I got a lot of utensils, sippy cups and plates for the boys. It seems I can never have too many of those :-P A few books, a fun Busy Zoo for a steal and a few light fall clothes for J&K. They have a ton of 18 and 24 month clothes from Gavin but most are too warm for fall.
The rest of the weekend we spent time at the house, went for walks and played dominoes! My grandmother taught me to play dominoes as soon as I could add or maybe she taught me how to add!  It is always fun to play with her :-) Growing up, my mom and I lived right across the yard from my grandparents in Mississippi. They are a huge part of my life. My grandfather passed away a couple months before Gavin was born. I miss him so very much. I know that both he and my mom would have so much with Gavin, Jakob and Kaleb! And I also know that we have two very special angels watching over us everyday, that makes me smile :-) I am so blessed that the boys have their Great Grandmother in their lives. She may live far away but she is always sending them cards, talking to them on the phone and keeping in touch with their lives.
Gavin definitely missed Nanny when she left on Tuesday. We were outside playing later that day and a plane flew overhead. He told me that Nanny was on the plane in the sky. I said, 'yes she took a plane ride to get to her house.' he thought about that for a second and yelled "I LOVE YOU NANNY!" so cute!

J&K's Tubes!

We did not want to get tubes. We went to the specialist with an open mind. We saw Dr. Barth at AI and cannot say enough good things about him. He was very straight forward and we felt comfortable with his suggestions. He had 2 very good points 1) they have had all of these EI over the summer....winter will be worse 2) Gavin is in preschool and will bring home every germ he comes in contact with! We decided to wait until the boys got one more infection before tubes. Wouldn't you know, a week later Jakob had a really bad EI in his right ear *sigh* So we decided that we would do the darn tubes! I was super scared but I was nervous. It isn't a major surgery but still.....I had more anxiety about the fact that they couldn't eat or drink before the procedure. Jakob is just like me....if you don't feed him, he is CRANKY! Luckily, we got a morning slot for their procedure. J&K did great without their breakfast!! Kaleb was expressing his starvation more than Jakob, surprising :-P I am pretty sure the funniest part of the morning was when the boys got their 'loopy' nose spray....that was hysterical!!! Jakob is normally a very happy, laughing kid. After he got the loopy stuff....he looked like a drunk toddler, glazed over eyes and even more silly than when sober. He was starting at things like they were the best things ever and just laughing at all the nurses. Kaleb got his and just chilled out on my shoulder sucking his thumb. Can these two be any more different? hehe They took Jakob back first and within 10 minutes the doctor came out and said he was done and did great. They took Kaleb back and he was also out within 10 minutes! Once they were coming out of the anesthesia, that was tough. They were really upset and the nurses told us to expect that. After a good afternoon nap, they were back to their normal selves! Now let's see if the tubes do their jobs and we are EI free this winter!!!
On another note, the staff at AI were amazing! They were so nice and accomodating, especially since we took the big double stroller and had all our of stuff and so much going on. Not to mention, not a single person told me I had my hands full when they found out we also had a 3 y/o at home...that alone makes them great in my mind :-P

Gavin's School
For the past month, Gavin has been attending TLK Learning Center by our house. He goes 2 half days a week. You may recall the drama we had with original school :-P We weren't actively looking but a few weeks I had scheduled a tour of Glasgow Christian Academy for yesterday. It was intended as a tour for Gavin to possible go to 4 y/o preschool there. Once I got there, I was told they still had spots in the 3 y/o rooms!!!!! ( cheering silently in my head!) So we saw the classrooms, I asked all my questions and I really liked it. It was so clean and not cluttered, lol of course this stands out to me first thing :-P They do bible stories, show and tell, colors/numbers/letters of the week, holiday plays, etc. It was just more of a school setting that we were looking for intially. But when I called there earlier this summer, Gavin was not potty trained :-( Of course after all the drama, he is...well for the most part. So we withdrew from TLK today and Gavin will start at GCA Tuesday!!! Not only did I like it better but it is so much less expensive than TLK! YAY!!!!!! And Gavin will be in his friends class which I think may help him transition a little easier :-) I feel like that worked out for the best.

My photobooks are getting done!!! I had blogged a while ago about making the boys each a photobook from their previous year every birthday. I have them partially done but not 100%. I was waiting for coupons to finish them. Well all the coupons came within 2 weeks of each other and I only had so much time to finish! So I have made and received Gavin's. Waiting for Jakob's and need to have Kaleb's done by Monday! Two of them free and one I got 20% off :-)

I am giving Kaleb 2 weeks and he will be walking. Jakob won't be far behind, YIKES!!!! I want them to walk but then I feel like they are still too young to walk :-P They will always be my babies. I wish they could go from crawling to expert walking. The drunken clumsy walking is not going to be fun with 2 toddlers and Gavin, whew! But it will be so much easier to get them places once they are good walkers, so I am looking forward to that!

ok must go get on treadmill and get those thank you cards finished! have a great weekend everyone! If you kept up with me this long, thanks!:-)