Busy, busy, busy

The title says it all for the past week of our lives!! I apologize that I haven't had the time to update on here- despite having that fact pointed out to me by several people! This will probably be a long post, but I will try to update y'all on what we have been up to (and try not to bore you too much).

Let's see.....

Last Saturday night, we got a call that my Grandpa was in the hospital. He is 92 years old, but never been sick a day in his life, so it came as a shock. He had been taken in for breathing trouble, and was admitted. He has been diagnosed with congestive heart failure, as well as having spots on his lungs discovered. He will be going through a PET Scan this upcoming week to evaluate how far things have spread. In the meantime, I have spent many hours worrying, and on the phone with family trying to get things in order. Without boring anyone with all of the crazy details, it is quite the stressful, crazy, mess that my aunt (in California) and I are trying to handle as best as we can from long distance. I am guessing that in the relatively near future I will be heading to my hometown with the boys for a bit of time to try to tie up loose ends.

On a happier note for last Saturday, while Jason continued to work on getting the new siding put on the house, the boys and I headed to a local mall where Brayden was able to go Christmas shopping. A local charity has set up a store for kids to go shopping, with a volunteer, to buy and wrap gifts. Brayden absolutely loved it, and was so excited. He started telling me what he got all of us, but I stopped him before he could tell me the actual items. All I know is that he got Daddy something because "he likes baseball and money", got me something because I "love our family", and Rhylan got "a silly little animal that helps Santa w/ his sleigh" (hmmmmm.....). After his shopping adventure, the boys went to see Santa, and we concluded the day with lunch with friends at the Chinese restaurant at the mall.

Sunday was another busy day for us. We attended a new church, and really enjoyed it- we will be back there again this week! After church, we went to a birthday party for one of Brayden's friends, followed by a play date, then dinner at a new pizza restaurant in town with the birthday boy and his family.

The following are some pictures of Rhylan and Evan from an event that my Mom's Group does on alternating Monday's that we went to. I can't believe how quickly they are growing!

Tuesday was an annual event at my work, called Hometown Day. It is a day dedicated to providing free exams and glasses to people in need. I volunteer to work this every year, and Brayden has always enjoyed "working" with me. He is in love with the Bee- the mascot from Hometown Buffet, which caters for the event. It was a long, exhausting, day- but very rewarding, as always. We were quite tired by the end of the day, which was apparent by some very out of character behavior on Brayden's part (which was even more tiring for Mommy!). I won't go into what all happened, but lets just say that it involved disrespect for adults, lying, and biting/destroying a $200(ish) frame.... and my blood pressure the highest it has been since the Dr. told me we had to deliver Rhylan "NOW"!!! Needless to say, this was the sight in our van within minutes of leaving:

Wednesday brought Jason's annual work party. This year it was held at the same pizza restaurant we went to on Sunday. The party itself was quite enjoyable.... However, we no sooner got out of our subdivision on the way there, and Jason's cell phone rang. It was our babysitter (her first time watching our kids) saying: "Brayden hit his head, and it's bleeding". We turned around to come home and find him with a HUGE goose-egg on his head, but the bleeding had slowed down already. I grabbed an ice pack, some Tylenol, and told her to call us if he seemed confused or started throwing up. We didn't get a call, so all was well.

Fast forward to Thursday. I woke up at 3 a.m. shivering and achy... running 101.5 temp. I don't know if I had a reaction to the flu shot I got on Wednesday morning or caught something (as 2 of my co-workers apparently had the same thing that day!), but was/am miserable! Brayden has his "Book Cooks" class on Thursdays, which I forgot about the past couple of weeks. I had reminded him several times this week to remind me to remember to take him this week. So, despite how I felt, I got him to class. (I begged Jason to stay home and take him, and his loving response was: "Honey, if you survived 8 months of your pregnancy with Rhylan, you can make it through today." As much as I wanted to punch him, if I had the strength, he was right.)

This isn't the greatest picture, but you can see how much he enjoys his class. It is really cute- each week they read a book, and then make a snack that corresponds. This week they made snowmen out of rice cakes and cream cheese, with raisins, marshmallows, pretzel, and carrot accessories.

The highlight of the day was when, out of nowhere, Brayden says:

"Mommy, do geese hatch from eggs?"

"Of course they do."

Shrieking "OH NO!!!!" and then he was almost in tears.......

Turns out that he thought that he was going to be spawning a bird from the lump on his head. I couldn't help but laugh hysterically- which only further upset him until I was able to calm him with an explanation of what it means to have a "Goose Egg".

Well, I think that sums it up in a nutshell. Doesn't seem like nearly the chaotic roller coaster ride in writing, as it has been living this last week. Hopefully I will have time to catch my breath in the coming days and be in touch with everyone soon!