Friday, February 28, 2014

Hanging with Gramee

Monday (2-10-14):

Notice what I did there..."Hanging with Gramee" and they're playing with hangers. :)

Gramee puts the hanger in her mouth when she hangs pants. Kora picked that up right away.  Reminded me of the time Kees started licking his fingers before he turned pages in his books.  



Cheese!

This girl loves dancing!
....and ice cream. She loves ice cream as much as her Daddy and that's saying something.


Tuesday (2-11-14):
Playdough!

Eating cheese and crackers. Notice Kora's baby lurking in the background.  Is anyone else weirded out by this?  Looks like she's coming for us. I'll probably have nightmares...

Mamaw watching "The Talk"

Kora wearing Daddy's shoes.

The kids have been in a "running around in circles" phase.


Thursday, February 27, 2014

Restaurant Redemption!

Saturday (2-8-14):

I definitely went a few days where I didn't take very many photos.

We went out to dinner at the Catfish Round-up.  Who remembers the last time we ate out, and Kora was a crazy person?  You know I didn't forget, but Kora was so good this time around!  I was glad.  I may have to start carrying ketchup packets in my purse.



Sunday (2-9-14):

I have very much enjoyed going to church since we've been back. We've visited many places, and being at Paden is always special, hearing my dad preach and having Sunday lunch with my family!


These kids are so cute.

They are always getting into Gramee's kitchen stuff and making toys out of it.

Watching Toy Story 3.

Couch Olympics in Our Jammies

Thursday (2-6-14):

Well, I'm old. I didn't take pictures this day until we were already in our jammies. So your guess is as good as mine.

Selfie with my sweet babies.

Kora brought a diaper over to me, and played with it. First chewing on it, then wrapping it around my face.


We watched Olympics coverage. This couple is awesome, love the height difference.

Olympics brings out the best in all of us!

We win the GOLD!
Grampa took them for rides up and down the hallway.

Does anyone feel like this could be an awkward family photo. Kora's expression is hilarious!

These kids are ingenious! They figured out how to make Mamaw's lift chair into a slide.  Kees had to help Kora up.
More rides...


Friday (2-7-14):

My mom has been reading this book.  So far, I think she has found it helpful.  I took a picture of the cover, so I'd remember to write about all the therapists that have been coming to see Mamaw. 

Caring for an elderly relative is not easy, and I have a lot of respect for my parents for going through this journey. It's especially hard with dementia, because there likely won't be a recovery, it will only get worse.  Since Mamaw had been sick a few months back, she qualified for therapy to help get her strength back. She's been working on her balance and endurance with her occupational therapist. She does word association games with her speech therapist, and she has a lady coming to help with baths.  It wears her out and she's not always excited to participate, but I think it's good for her, gives her something to be awake for and I feel like she has been staying awake for longer periods of time since they've been coming.  For my parents, it's a lot of juggling her schedule, and doing their best to get Mamaw up before they come.

I drove to town, can't remember why, but I took a picture of the melting snow when I got back.

Snuggling with Kees...he fell asleep again! I think it was the Benadryl he was taking. :)


Frosty SNOW Pepper! (Dreams really do come true!)

Tuesday (2-4-14):

Kees was such a pro about taking his medications.  They added watermelon flavor to his antibiotic, and I added simple syrup to his Benadryl.  Don't judge.


Kora wanted to take medicine too, I distracted her with juice.

More fun with Kees's car mat.

Kora loves these little books, she reads them any chance she gets.  I need to get a new (similar) set once we get settled in Idaho. These have taken a beating.

This is an epic day, that goes down in history.  FROSTY SNOW PEPPER.  I used snow ice cream, and stirred in some of my Dr. Pepper syrup.  So deliciously amazing.  It's great with regular vanilla ice cream too. Some day, I'm going to try it with Cherry Dr. Pepper.

Lunch with Grampa, glad he works close by and we get to have lunch with him.


I made quesadillas for dinner.  My dad always says they are the best he's ever had, way better than any restaurant.  So I felt a little nervous, since I haven't made them in a while. Thankfully, they did turn out fine, but if you've been around this blog awhile you know my cooking is hit or miss. Thankfully, this day, it was a hit!

Gramee and Grampa were quite disturbed that Kora kept de-robing this anatomically correct baby boy.  I was thinking, hey, at least she's undressing a doll and not herself.  So Grampa duct taped a diaper on the baby.


Another night, Mamaw had gone to bed, and the kids not only took her chair, but they got her Sonic chicken from the fridge.  She loves sharing her food, so I'm sure she doesn't mind, but it made me think of "Goldilocks and the 3 Bears"

Wednesday (2-5-14):

Kees slept in his comfy clothes from the previous day. Kora wore her jammies.  We didn't get dressed until late this day.  But we DID have P.E. lesson from Doug!

Kees playing with his cars.

Riding a bike on the Wii. This counts as P.E., Kees loved this!

And for our Math lesson, we stacked these manipulatives as long as they would go, then we measured ourselves against them. It was slightly shorter than Kees and longer than Kora. 


While Kora was napping, I was doing some GoodSeed orientation videos. I was totally nerding out and loving every minute.  Don't tell anyone.

 I took the kids to Awanas at church.  They both insisted on taking suitcases with them.  We're always "those kids". Oh, well, God made us special. :)

After we got home, Kees fell asleep on the couch and I enjoyed a little snuggle time.

Super Bowl, Super Snow


Sunday (2-2-14):

Kora woke up early, and it was snowing! My dad was already dressed for church, and it started coming down so fast, they had to cancel services! He was so bummed! 


Kora and I got to play while we waited for Kees to wake up.


We had a tea party/picnic!
Kora was really wanting to play with Kees. She set these chairs out and said, "Bubba!"

Kees finally woke up and saw the snow!!!


While we were looking out the window, I asked Kora to say, "cheese!"  So funny!
My kids loved the snow! And I am so thankful for the snow boots that were gifted to us (from Freedom Fellowship in Wisconsin). Every time we get to use them, it puts a big smile on my face! Not to mention, the kids LOVE them!  I got so many great photos, so bear with me!



And where there's snow, there should always be hot chocolate!

If I recall correctly, this was the day Kora tried to pour Sprite into her play teacup, that has a HOLE in the side.  My life is exciting!

Kees had just laid out his car mat, when Kora jumped right on top of it.  He wasn't thrilled!  The look on her face says a lot. 

This girl loves popcorn and Gramee.

Kora can do a lot of things that she used to not be able to.  That includes, but is not limited to, being able to help herself to the contents in the fridge.  Pure contentment and pride!

This girl's an eater!  Thank you, LORD! At least we have one.  She's slightly obsessed with corn.

Gramee and Grampa always, and I mean always, have suckers.  She's not complaining.

Gramee got this mat for Kees for Christmas, and he LOVES it. And they've been quite creative with it! They use it as a tent, roll themselves up in it, and pretend it's a blanket. 

Grampa's snow ice cream. Best recipe ever, ask him how he does it!

One great thing about being back at Gramee and Grampa's place, is playing with all our new toys.  Their house is the "storage" house, so there's plenty of fun things to do!  Kora got this new baby cart from them for her birthday. (In real time 2-27-14, this is the day we're packing up to move, and we are surprisingly going to have room for this puppy!)

Their curiosity is so fun!  I love how kids playing is their work. They are learning so much every day and growing too fast.

Dancing is always a good idea...
Eating dinner in their jammies, leftover brisket. Grampa made tiny pieces for Kora and put them in a cup for her.  And cheese, don't forget the cheese, under any circumstances.

Yogurt, seemed like a good idea at the time, such a mess!
More fun,  is anyone tired yet?  These kids have energy to spare.  If I could bottle it, I'd be rich, or stingy and really productive. (We were "watching" the Super Bowl, which was Super boring! Glad we had these two to keep us entertained, because unless you are a Seahawks fan, that game was like watching paint dry).
This happened.  Who remembers Stephen's idea for making Dr. Pepper syrup?  Yes, yes I did!
All of our lovely snow gear, drying by the door.  This sight made me happy as I was heading off to bed.


Monday (2-3-14):

It was still snowy out, and our day felt like "skipping school", even though none of us go to school, it was just a fun, fun day.  Kora and I made cinnamon rolls!

Who needs pants? Not this girl.

Seriously, these kids are so fun, crazy, yes, but fun!
Grampa helped Kora comb her hair. I'm pretty sure the comb went missing after this.  I think he eventually found it, but I'm not sure where it turned up.
Oh look, Grampa talked her into dressing appropriately! Yay, Grampa!

More fun in the snow, and guess what, we saw a dog!!!



This dog is bigger than both my kids.  And so cute, but not cuter than my kids, cause that's not possible.

This dog got dangerously close to peeing on Kora's snow boot. Which wouldn't be too concerning, except Kora is in a "lick everything in sight" phase.  So I was glad he missed.

Kora was not offended by the peeing incident and wanted desperately to feed the dog some of her snow.  He did not oblige her.

Kees ate snow off of our van, and Kora tried to shovel, but I think that shovel weighs more than she does.

This face!

Kora got to swing!  She was so excited.
Kees helped push her. Sweet brother.

Sometimes, I have genius ideas. And this one qualifies! ( I also made a Dr. Pepper snow cone.)

My kids loved it too!

While Kora was napping, and Mamaw was having one of her many "visitors" (speech therapy, occupational therapy, bath lady...take your pick), Kees and I worked on school work.

And then, we got to go with Grampa to town to get Mamaw's Sonic.  When we got to the bank, Kees said, "I love this spot.  I'm hiding in the dark, spying on all the cars that drive by."  This is what's hilarious, he started making these faces with zero prompting or posing.  I cannot make this stuff up.  I love, love being a mom!  (I should also explain, that we had gone to the grocery store and I got some Muenster cheese, Kees calls it "the cheese that Grandma likes" because Grandma Sheryl has some every evening as a snack.  He cracks me up.)
Kora loving on Hello Kitty.

Gramee spoils these two, in more ways than one.  This night, she tirelessly drove them up and down the hall to Idaho.  I love how she loves on my kiddos and has lots of conversations with them about where we're headed next, in a FUN way. I try to do the same thing, but I don't do it as well.  Great memories!  Thanks GRAMEE!

While Mamaw was sleeping, the kids enjoyed her lift chair.

Driving!

Kees packed this suitcase.  He told me that he would deliver some stuff to Idaho for me.  Such a helper.  Unfortunately, that suitcase is full of tiny teddy bear sweaters, too bad it's not full of junk I really need, like nail polish, Dr. Pepper, and Head Country BBQ sauce. ;)