What kids do when they've been snowed in too long......

The boys took my camera the other day and were having a little too much fun in their room. The pictures are great quality, but if you look past that fact they're pretty funny I think. Enjoy!

This is Kaleb

And here is Damen.

Look Who Lost a Tooth!

Kaleb lost his first tooth on New Years day! He was so excited!! As the kids say, now everyone is our house has lost a tooth :-) He has a top one that will probably come out in the next day or two as well. And Damen has a bottom one that is pretty close as well. Once that happens the missing top teeth will no longer be as easy of a tell for who is who. 

Finally to an ENT

Today we finally made it to the ENT! He's about an hour and 15 minutes south of here. He asked if I knew what happened to the ENT in Alpena, as he didn't know either. I still haven't found anyone who can tell me what happened. The ENT today assured me he's been practicing for 20 years and hasn't missed a day and isn't going anywhere :-)  Anyway, the conclusion is Damen needs new tubes in his ears (surprise!) and he wants to remove his adenoids. That will be our excitement on March 16th. I have to say the lack of doctors in the area is frustration, but as I was relaying the appointment to Nathan tonight, I did realize the one positive things about all the doctors I've been to in Michigan is they all have taken us back on time (or early!) and the doctors have come in right away. There were times at the ENT in CT where I'd be waiting for almost half an hour in the room before the doctor came in. Today the appointment was at 2 pm and we were in the car on our way out by 2:22, that's good stuff when you have four kids! I liked the doctor today, he was direct, kept it short and handled the boys well. The office staff was super impressed by the girls who waited nicely in the lobby because they wanted to watch the TV. The good news from today is that nothing needs to be done with Kaleb, they just need to continue monitoring him because his tube still has not fallen out. Really? It's been in over 4 years, that's just craziness! So until it falls out he'll be being seen every six months along with Damen.

Working on Our Holiday Illness

Our family likes to get sick around major holidays, it's probably my fault, as I've done it for years before we had kids. Anyway, Kaleb has the stomach bug today, which meant no church for him. We kept Damen home as well because well....they are twins and are in constant contact with each other. The boys were super disappointed about missing church and the potluck afterward. But Damen did get to play in the snow a little and Kaleb has been chilling inside. We watched the service live, but it's still not the same. Hopefully we'll all be there next week and hopefully it doesn't go through our house this week, but if it does at least we didn't have major plans....

30 churches

Sunday after church there was a luncheon for people who have recently started attending the church. As part of the luncheon everyone went around and said there name and a little about themselves. Well, we had the area regional minister visiting our church on Sunday and he stuck around for the luncheon, when introducing himself he said that he had 26 churches, meaning there are 26 churches in the area that he helps with. Kaleb heard this and turns to me and said "He has 26 churches? That's not fair, we only have two! (we go to a different church on Wednesday nights for a kids program) When I grow up I'm going to have 30 churches!" Who knew the more churches you have the better? :-) That and the fact that Damen was practicing his preaching at the podium before the lunch began was super cute. They get behind it and there was nothing on it, so Damen said "oh no, we need our papers! Wait, we don't need papers, we need a Bible!" Unfortunately he wasn't quite tall enough to see over it and preach effectively, but he was trying.

At what age does one know better?

Sometimes I forget how young the boys are still. I'm realizing this more and more recently. They are only five. Five, not seven, not nine, just five. Let's remember what happened when we let Hannah and Evie play by themselves when Hannah was five, shall we? Take a look here. Right, that didn't turn out so well....so why I would expect my boys to do better? Maybe because they have two older sisters to help guide and direct them? I don't know....Sunday the kids were having quiet time in their rooms, which isn't always so quiet, but at least it's a little bit of a break. I decided to call my sister while this was happening, two minutes into the call Kaleb comes out with a lego shovel sticking out of his ear, I take it out and inform him we do not stick things in our ears! He said "No Mom, my nose! My nose! There's a lego in my nose!!!!!" and proceeds to stick his finger up his nose attempting to get it and pushes it further up...Nathan, who thought he was going to get a nap comes out when he heard me telling Kaleb we don't stick things in our ears, I hang up with my sister, we find a flash light and see the black lego (which I had attempted to see without a flash light and couldn't) up the nose. Nathan had him try and blow while I located the tweezers. Fortunately he was able to blow it out, so we were spared introducing the ER to another member of the Mayer family. Nathan said afterwards he thought we had made it past the age where kids stick things up their nose, apparently it can be done at an age much later than one thought. :-)

Bloody Wednesday

Nathan had a pretty rough day yesterday, our lead pastor is out of town and Nathan had to do a hospital visit for the first time ever and some one in the church died. Never fun to deal with. Anyway, we're sitting down at dinner today and I asked him how his day was, and he said productive, no, deaths, hospital visits, or anything like that. I said "what? No blood?" and then started relaying my day.....Kaleb crashed his bike a took several layers of skin off his knee in a couple places. Blood dripping down his leg, onto his sock everywhere. Damen was accidentally elbowed in the mouth...cue bleeding take two. Kaleb was accidentally kicked in the nose, bleeding take three. Monday was bloody when  Damen went mouth first into the pavement, don't get me wrong, but at least it was only one incident. Today was slightly more exciting with multiple events! The good thing about today was two of the events were Kaleb, he doesn't freak out about blood, he's pretty cool with it. It makes it much easier to deal with, get cleaned up and move on. I can tell we're finally getting to the fun stage with boys :-)

A Hair Cut

Kaleb decide to use the scissors to cut his and Damen's hair Tuesday night, shortly before bed. Yesterday I gave them both hair cuts to help even things out a little.

See the nice spot in the middle of his head? 

He started wailing when I told him I was going to shave his head because he didn't want to be bald! Damen is trying to comfort him. 

Now he's nice and cool for the summer! 

Kaleb didn't take nearly as much off Damen's head and I only had to bring Damen down to a 1 on the clippers, not that there is much difference :-) 

Kaleb on the left, Damen on the right, as you can see, Damen's hair is a bit longer, although he was very upset that he would no longer be matching Kaleb.

Three Down....One to Go

Kaleb decided he was done with training wheels yesterday. We took them off and he's good. He can do all the basics, go, stop and turn :-) Damen is not so eager to go without the training wheels. But we are not giving him a choice, yesterday he was sharing a bike with Kaleb because the bearings on his had gone, so he didn't have a choice. Today, our neighbors found us a fourth bike by asking around and gave it to us! It's bigger than what the boys had, but Kaleb is working with it and figuring it out, it's a little big for him, but he'll grow into it soon enough. Anyway, here is a video of Kaleb riding yesterday. He is excited about his bigger bike, as it's the same size the girls have right now (they need bigger bikes soon too) so he can keep up with them.

Here's a short clip of him riding! 

ENT the continued saga

Today the boys had an ENT appointment. They've been having these every six months or less since we got them over three years ago. They came with tubes in their ears. Tubes are supposed to fall out in a year or two and you move on. Well at this appointment both of Damen's were finally gone. Yay! Except wait, his ears look horrible because he's had a cold and they are completely filled with fluid, can't hear a word you say poor boy, so he has to go back in a couple months to make sure the fluid has drained or he'll be getting new tubes. Kaleb.....my Kaleb.....he STILL has a tube in his left year. It's been three and a half years people! Three and a half years!!!!!!!! And the doctor said it looks like she just put it in last week, it looks great. Except it was supposed to have fallen out over a year ago! So we have the option to wait and just leave it in and continue with our every six month appointments an hour and fifteen minutes away or we can have the tube removed. I am pretty tired of wasting half a day to travel half way across the state to be told "Yep, it's still there" and for various other reasons we are going to have it removed. Maybe just maybe we will actually have a final appointment with the ENT this year!

Someone is starting to write

Kaleb asked me how to spell Mom and then proceeded to write it. I think he did a pretty good job!

Answered Prayers

Yesterday was a snowy day here. Not a lot of snow, but enough that with the hills you couldn't necessary get places. I had committed to bringing my friend to a test she needed a ride home from. We had to leave around 12:30 and it started snowing around 10:30. The roads were not looking good at noon, but I had been praying that we would be able to take her to the test. Well, the plows came through at 12:15 and we were able to make it to drop her off and back to our house without a problem! Score 1 for God. It continued to snow through the afternoon and when I got the call that she was ready to be picked up our neighborhood hadn't been plowed again. There was more praying and I asked any of the kids if they wanted to pray. Kaleb volunteered and he prayed for us. We made it to pick her up slowly, but safely. However, I knew that if the plows hadn't come through there was little likelihood we'd make it up the large hill outside our neighborhood. By the time we made it back to the hill it had been plowed right up to our neighborhood, our neighborhood had been plowed and then the plow truck had gone back down the hill. How amazing is that?! Kaleb was SO excited to see his prayer answered so clearly! Everyone in the car was praising God. God is awesome and showed up in clear ways yesterday! Praise be to the God of the universe!

Buttons!

Here Evie is being a sweet older sister and reading to her brothers, I believe she read them several books that day.

See the shirts the boys have on? A month or two ago the boys decided that these shirts were going to be their "work" shirts. They have buttons just like Daddy's work shirts and they would wear them EVERY day if they were clean. The first time Damen put his one he decided he was going to button it. It took awhile, but he buttoned the whole thing by himself! Kaleb started working on it too, and once they had worn them a few times they became expert buttoners! They are now super fast at buttoning and only once have them been in the wrong holes.

Photo Shoot

One nice day while the sun was shining Kaleb and Evie were playing on the deck and grab my camera. Here are the out takes of Kaleb's photo shoot with Evie.

Selfie with the photographer

On the phone with his agent? 

Can I help you?

Oh, you wanted the hat back on me?

Creative pose or stuck? :-)

Stuck

Damen came running into the house yesterday afternoon and said Kaleb was stuck. They were sliding down the deck steps and he got stuck. I went out side to see what had happened and I found Kaleb......

Like this, but with a smile on his face, he got mad at me because I went in to get the camera before helping him. I figured if he was stuck he shouldn't fall and I should totally take a picture! 

I freed his foot, which is what had gotten stuck and he and Damen promptly jumped back on the rail to slide down it. Don't worry, I did stop them, but I'm sure they'll do it again! Who taught them such a thing? You can talk to Evie about that.

The crazy life take 2

And I thought last Tuesday was crazy. Today, I woke the kids up at 6:40 am to leave the house by 7 am for Kaleb's 8:30 am ENT appointment half way across the state(okay, maybe not quite half way, for over an hour away). All the kids were in the car at 6:57 am. I go to start the car and it doesn't start. Nathan's not home because he left at 5:20 am to cook breakfast for and attend a men's Bible study. I call my friend in a panic not sure what's wrong with my car and ask if I can use hers, she said yes, but I had figured out, thanks to the girls help (they found the trunk light on) I just needed a jump, so her husband came over and jumped the car, we ended up leaving the house at 7:27 and arrived about 10 minutes late for the appointment. We did hit traffic and were going super low for about 15 minutes, but the rest of the time I went with the flow of other cars, which is WAY faster than I would normally drive, but resulted in making very good time. The ENT said that blood coming out of the ear isn't a big deal, she understands it freaks people out, but I really shouldn't worry about it. She also said she'd still recommend leaving the tub in through the winter and that the tube couldn't cause the bleeding, it's probably just due to drainage in the ear. My pediatrician said she wouldn't agree that it needed to come out. However, she did say she understands if we want the tube out and she is willing to take it out at this point if we'd like. Nathan and I will have to talk and figure out what we think is best. I made it home from the appointment fine and made it to the girls orthodontist appointment without a problem as well. Did you catch that? Girls plural? Yes, Evie had a consult because of her "petite" mouth. The orthodontist said we can wait off doing anything with her at this point and check back again in six months and probably start something then.

The Crazy Life I Live

Last Monday the girls had a dentist appointment. Evie has two "sticky" spots in her not yet fully in six year molars. How is that even possible? That should not be possible! And she needs a consult with the orthodontist. That is no surprise. We have an appointment Friday to fill the sticky spots and Tuesday both girls will see the orthodontist. The boys had an appointment with the ENT last Tuesday. The ENT that is an hour away that I thought wasn't going to be a big deal because surely their tubes wouldn't stay in that long and we'd be done with it ENT. Well, when we went in the Spring the boys both had a cold and failed their hearing test, so of course we had to go again in three months. Fortunately they passed with flying colors this time. However they both still have one tube in their ear. Kaleb has his left, Damen in his right. It's been three years since the tubes were put in. THREE YEARS! Tubes are not supposed to be in that long, the ENT said Damen's looks like it will fall out soon, but Kaleb's was in good, so we'd talk about removing it in six months when I got for the follow up. Well, yesterday Kaleb's ear spontaneously started bleeding. His left ear. I took him to the pediatrician who said the tube had dug into the ear and caused the bleeding, so the tube needs to come out. Really? Why couldn't this had happened right before the ENT appointment? We'll be heading back to the ENT on Tuesday. At 8:30 am. Fun stuff. I was hoping to have all the appointments out of the way before starting school. But since I have so many follow ups I gave up and started school today. That, along with having people at our house for the past week has added to the craziness. Anyway, hopefully I'll be updating more on those adventures soon!

Pets for a day

My kids have started a frog club. They have a theme song, which I totally need to get on video, but haven't. They have been going out pretty much every morning to catch frogs/toads and some times in the afternoon as well. They have been catching wood frogs, toads and tree frogs. It's been quite exciting and they can always find at least one. Last year we did not do well keeping frogs or toads overnight, so the house rule is you always let them go at the end of the day. The kids are okay with this and it is working well. Tonight Hannah had a tree frog she wanted to show me before letting him go. His name is Fire. She called me from the door and said "Mom, you need to come see Fire" I thought this involved going outside, so I walked over towards the door and said "Just a minute" then I saw her and the frog.

Cute aren't they? :-) It stayed there for a good long time too, Hannah finally took it off. 

This is their other pet, Kaleb caught it, he's getting good at catching things, he caught his first frog this week too. This beetle's name is Casey. It's a pretty big beetle. This is the second large (over an inch long) beetle we've found in the past week, the first one we didn't keep. This one has been around for a few days now. It reminds me of the roaches in Texas.

Today

Our lives haven't been very exciting lately, that's part of the lack of blogging. I do have caterpillars to tell about, but I'm still working on that story. But today, today was a blog worth day of excitement. The day started as most do, the kids up earlier than I'd like to be up, having a cold I haven't been getting enough sleep, so really any time is too early. The girls asked if they cold make scones, I refused and made pancakes instead, I didn't want to deal with the mess of the girls making scones and we've had a lot of scones lately. A rough life to be sure. Well, at 9 am it was 65 degrees and the girls were begging to go to the beach. I refused and they suggested the park. Okay, good idea, we'll go to the park for the morning, do a 1 pm Bible reading at church and head to the beach in the afternoon. We got everything we needed together and were off. Maybe a mile from our house I hit a bird. It was in the road, few off and then came back, I don't know why, into my car. There was a thump and a pile of feathers behind us. I don't think I've ever hit a bird before. Anyway, the park was pretty uneventful, I ran into a friend there so we chatted awhile and over all everyone had a good time. We head from the park to church, where our church is reading through the entire Bible out loud. I got to read the last two chapters of Exodus and the first 12 chapters of Leviticus as the kids ran around the sanctuary. Okay, so Evie did read four pages from her Bible (NIrV) during that time and Hannah read an entire devotional book, the boys also looked through their Bibles which I had brought. So yes, there was craziness, but they also did sit for some of the time. I did read for an entire hour and it was fun, I really enjoyed it and Leviticus really can be quite interesting. After that we came home, had second lunch and headed for the beach, where we had a lovely time for the first hour and a half. Then Kaleb scraped off part of the end of his toe so after having the lifeguards try to clean it up and fail I figured I should probably take him to the doctor. If nothing else to get the large flap of skin removed because I have nothing good to cut it with at home. So we made it to the doctors at 5 pm and they took us in and the doctor was able to cut off the skin, most of which was just dead skin, but he didn't even attempt to clean the sand out....I soaked it tonight as instructed, but still didn't get much sand out. We made it home around 5:50, Nathan got home around 6:15 we ate some burritos and Nathan left to go do the reading at church with the youth. And now all the kids are in bed. How exciting was your day?

things the boys love

The other week in Sunday school the boys were learning how they should love God above everything else. One of the things they did were talk about the things they love.

This is Damen's, it says he loves, Daddy, Ice Cream and Chocolate Cake

I at least made Kaleb's list :-) It says, Mommy and Daddy, Spaghetti and Bacon

Apparently we feed them too much :-)