So much to blog about, so little time...

I have this laundry list of things that I plan to blog about and plenty of pictures to post, but I just haven't found the time to do it! So, I'm starting in chronological order, just because my brain operates that way :)

Update on Landon: We got the hard wax removed and he had an amazing difference in hearing! That was quite a blessing! Within a few days following, I noticed that his hearing was indeed considerably better, but was still not what I would consider "normal." After doing our follow-up with the Audiologist, we found out that he still has fluid in his ears, but yet tested within the normal range for hearing. That now leaves us with the option of doing tubes if we'd like. We haven't made any decisions on that... on one hand I'd love for this hearing thing to be done with, once and for all, especially with Landon heading into school (three-school, mind you). On the other hand, I don't want to do something that isn't completely necessary and then need to deal with the little things that go along with having tubes (i.e. always having ear plugs around if he's going to swim). Neither seem to strongly outweigh the others, so we'll just keep praying about it.

At his three-year well-child visit (this is more for me than you), he was of course tall and big! He was 40.25" tall and 36 lbs., which put him in the 96th percentile for height and 86th percentile for weight... a little different than the previous year when we mistakenly got the obesity speech :) On a side note, if they had a percentile for feet, I think both he and Madisyn would be off the charts! I just can't get over how huge our kids' feet are! This doesn't mean much to most of you, but you with little ones close in age will understand; Landon wears size 11 and Madisyn wears size 1! Madisyn's shoes look like they could fit me! These kids are growing up WAY too fast!

Just for fun, above are some pictures from out Whitecaps outing with Rob's work.

Madisyn's Graduation

Yes, 'tis true... our baby has graduated from pre-school! I'm really not ready for the next step in her life, but alas, she just keeps getting older and growing up! We were blessed with a wonderful year and phenomenal teachers! I was thrilled to be able to spend a lot of time in the classroom (something that I would have otherwise not been able to do, had I still been working). Madisyn also made some amazing friends who we've been able to keep in touch with since she's been out of school. Here she is with one of her closest girlfriends, Chloe. I absolutely LOVE how cute they are playing together! The bottom picture is Madisyn on stage (this program went remarkably better than the Christmas program, where she wouldn't even stand in front) next to another one of her best-friends, Lauren.

Landon's hearing

We have gone through quite an interesting experience with Landon regarding his hearing. I started noticing that he didn't always respond to me telling him things about three months ago, but what three year old does? I figured it was just a normal age, selective hearing thing. He also has a lot of ADD tendencies (but again, which child his age doesn't?) and it runs in my family, so I thought that may also be a contributing factor. Finally, it got to the point where he could be looking at me and I'd have to repeat something four to five times, louder each time, before he finally heard me. I would also say "key" words around him (i.e. ice cream, candy, etc...) and he wouldn't hear those either. That's when I really knew something was up :)

Long story short, we saw his Pediatrician, who somewhat reluctantly, referred us to an Audiologist, who immediately detected a large amount of hard wax in his ears. She showed me a couple of graphs that were showing how much sound/noise was making it through the outer and inner ear canal and his "bad" ear was registering below the graph! Yesterday we got his ears irrigated and the difference is absolutely amazing! Now he's continually telling me that he can hear! We're so grateful that it wasn't something permanent and that it was correctable!

Florida (pictures galore)

We had a fantastic Spring Break with Rob's side of the family (Dad, Mom, Dave, Kate, Joshua and Levi)! We were fortunate that Rob had enough frequent flier miles for us to fly down there and meet up with the rest of the family. Of course, the kids thought the plane rides were great!

Arrived at the Pensacola airport

The view from outside the house we stayed at... You can see the land across the Sound (we were on a beautiful island just south of the panhandle). Because we were on the Sound side, it was much quieter, there wasn't an undertow, the sand was gorgeous, the water was shallow and the it felt more like fresh water than salt water... it was really perfect!





This stingray was right on our beach!


The Golf was a short walk across the island.



Although we missed out on the Blue Angels practice due to cloudy skies, we had a good time at the Air Force Base in Pensacola and even ran into Madisyn's teacher!

Spring is in the air

As I'm currently enjoying the beautiful view of the Santa Rosa Sound from the deck (one of three in the house we're staying at for Spring Break - more on that later) in Navarre, Fl, I realized how terribly far behind I am at posting (again). We finally have pictures because we've been using our new camera and it excites me greatly to have a decent amount of pictures of the kids and their daily activities again!

Last month the kids both got kites from Grandpa and Grandma Grandia for their birthdays and we've had a lot of fun using them on the nearby Unity fields.








LD and Sierra (and baby doll) had a great time riding the car around the neighborhood while all of the other kids were at school!

Birthday Party

It is extremely difficult for me to believe that another whole year has passed and that we could possibly be parents of a five year old and an (almost) three year old! I don't know if all parents go through this, but it just amazes me.

We had a very nice family birthday party for both kids. It was nice to have a large, but not overly large birthday party. The four kids (our two and our two nephews) kept things crazy enough :) It was also nice that most of the family went in on one gift for the kids (the Power Wheels), so the kids weren't going wild opening gift after gift. They did, however, get a few other things, including the superhero capes from their cousins, which they absolutely LOVE!

Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate another wonderful year with us!

Madisyn's Birthday

I think this is the year of celebrations :) Seems as though the kids' birthdays are getting a month long... and they're loving every minute of it! On Madisyn's actual birthday we went to Chuck E. Cheese with Papa and Nana Dykema. I found a picture of her riding the same ride on her 2nd and 5th birthdays! The middle is her 2nd birthday and the outside are from her 5th birthday.



And LD:



Us with the birthday girl!


The Monday following the big 5th birthday, she celebrated at school by bringing cupcakes with her favorite colors (green, purple & pink) and princess crowns, complete with princess liners... we have quite the girly girl!

That night we had some of her girlfriends over for ice cream and a princess get-together (accompanied by plenty of girly screams). It was actually really fun to see her in her element with several of her girlfriends!
(L to R: Jordan (back), Jada, Madisyn, Lauren & Lydia)

(L to R: Madisyn, Lydia, Jordan, Lauren & LD)

THEN... this weekend we had the birthday party! So, more pictures to come :)

School project for Madisyn

I admit, I've been terrible at posting... but we finally got a new camera!

I'll post Madisyn's birthday pictures soon, in the meantime, here are a few pictures of a school project that we worked on. She brought Pablo the pelican home and we did "K" activities (flew a kite, kicked a ball, made him a king...), she and Landon loved it!

The BIG 3-0!

Rob turned 30 nearly a month ago (goodness, I'm behind!). Thankfully Allison had her camera with to capture some great pictures of our mini-surprise party. We did a combined party for our cousins Tim & Lisa (who also turn 30 within a month of Rob). It was tremendous fun getting out for a late night! Thanks again Dad & Mom Dykema as well as our phenominal sitter (former nanny) Abbie for making it all happen!

Honey, thank you for being the fantastic husband and father that you are! I love you SO much and can't wait to celebrate your 60th and 90th birthdays (and every one in between)!

OH... and you can read about the cake catastrophe here.

[Me, Rob, Katie, Jonny, Brad, Dan & Allison]

[Lisa (cousin who also turned 30), me, Allison & Katie]

[us :)]

[the topsy turvy surprise cake]

Thanks Melanie "The Coupon Goddess" for posting this article! It's so great to see that someone understands!

Doing the Math on Coupons

How could I not love this article, the title alone has two of my favorite things... math and coupons?!

I seriously can't begin tell you all how blessed I am! I am thrilled that last summer we made the decision for me to stay home, full-time with the kids! My days have been thrilled with lots of craziness and SO much fun and love. :)