Rather then making one post about everything that we have been up to over the past two months, I decided to combine them all into one so it didn't take me until 2017 to finish! As you can see, we have been pretty busy, had a rough couple of weeks in the middle there, but we also had a lot of fun!

There were several strokes of Mommy genius which ultimately turned out to not-so-Mommy genius, like the time I tried to be the chef in the house and cooked my chicken upside down (yup, that's why Daddy's the chef). There was also the time where I tried to be all super-mom and cut out an elephant shape in the kids toast, and attempted to cook an elephant shaped egg inside the toast. Yet another chef-ing FAIL. Both kids proceeded to eat the cut out elephant bread and didn't touch the majority of it.

We had spring pictures at school, work training for Mommy, a weekend at home with just Mommy and the babies as Daddy visited a friend (that's where the roller skates come into play), some promises of snow that never turned out so we made a cardboard fort, and some new attempts to be creative (and cheap with some DIY home projects). We were desperate for an updated spring wreath so I dismantled an old red/white one and hot glued on some pink and white flowers I had laying around the house. Not bad for spending $0! Does that make up for my lack of ability to cook?

We then got struck with the dreaded stomach virus where the kids got it the worst. Luckily, they were better in time for Jack's 2nd Birthday party complete with homemade Oreo cookie pops! But don't get too excited, that was about the only homemade thing at the party. #simplify.

It was then on to big kid gymnastics registration, parent teacher conferences at school, trips to home depot and more stomach viruses. Poor sissy got it the worst for sure. Somewhere in there we had Jack's 2 year checkup and found out he most likely has allergies and is probably allergic to dust. Ouch.

Then it was off to more gymnastics, birthday parties, and some more tiny home projects where Mommy got a little spray paint happy (our registers and mailbox look like new!!). Oh, and then some more stomach viruses.

::: head desk :::

Throw in lots of overtime for Mommy at work and there's our March in a nutshell!

Things started to calm down a bit in April and finally the weather started to warm up, so once all the stomach bugs were officially kicked, we spent a lot of time outside and got the kids their first 2013 snowballs. Of course being outside threw Jack into full blown allergy mode so it was back to the doctors for some nasal spray.

BTW: Have you ever tried to give a two year old nasal spray and have him inhale through his nose at the same time? Yeah, it's about as easy as it sounds.

Daddy and I did manage to squeak in a date night as a little early birthday celebration as well as a day off for a special trip to the zoo with the babies. Before we knew it, it was May and we were whipping up S'more teacher appreciation gifts, a mother's day celebration and a freshly painted dining room (more info to come on that one)!

Shew! I think that's about it! At least when it comes to the non-normal daily life stuff of cleaning, laundry, ironing, having full time jobs, etc. 

I have to say though, although it was a busy two months and we sure had our rough times with the stomach bug, I am LOVING life right now and soaking up every minute I can get with these crazy people that are my family.

Life is good.

Snowballs!

Clearly, life has not settled down much given my whopping one post in March and whopping zero posts in April. Pretty much the entire month of March and half of April was spent attempting to disinfect the entire house and each person in it since the stomach virus got a hold of pretty much everyone, and hit the little ones way harder then Mommy and Daddy. On top of the stomach virus, there were colds, sinus infections and a little boy who shall remain nameless ::: cough ::: ::: cough ::: ::: the squishy ::: ::: cough ::: who is now most likely allergic to dust, among other things. Until I can get a post out of what we have been up to over the past two months, here's a couple of updated pictures of the hurricanes babies.
I don't know why I love these pictures so much. You have probably already seen them on Facebook but I couldn't resist posting them here as well. This was the first time the kids got a hold of a snowball this spring. Emma had been begging for one for weeks, but the chill in the air and the clouds left most of the local snowball stands closed. Until now....

It's hard to pinpoint my favorite part of this picture. Its either the sunshine bouncing off of The Squishy's overgrown blond hair, the Kayne West sunglasses, the T-Rex racing jammies (despite this being at 3:00 in the afternoon) or the hard core look on his blueberry snowball stained face. It has to be the look on his face and the holding of the snowball that just screams "sup Mom".

I seriously can't get enough of this stinky little man.

Meanwhile, back on the ranch, Emma Kathryn was three-quarters done her snowball. I suppose technically The Squishy was too, but mostly because he spilled over half of it before his first bite.

#snowballsstayoutside.

Emma was totally digging her grape snowball. I finally got her to try the marshmallow in Mommy & Daddy's snowball and boy was that a hit. This girl is so crazy. She took a bite of a s'more last weekend and cried. But not the oh-my-gosh-this-is-delicious-cry. It was the oh-my-gosh-I-can't-believe-I-tried-three-things-I-love-but-they-were-mixed-together-which-is-so-scary-I-might-die-cry. She promptly spit it out.

Luckily, the snowball/marshmallow combo was much better received and she has been begging for one on a daily basis since then. Such a diva.

As soon as I turned my attention back to The Squishy (who is now nicknamed The Hurricane in school), I saw him reaching his grubby little hands over into Mommy & Daddy's snowball sneaking bites while Mommy wasn't looking.

If he wasn't so darn cute he would have been grounded for life. I then realized where he got his "snowballs are no funny business" personality from. Yup, the Mama.

Mine Jackson Douglas

It's been a heck of a week with two sick babies home from school most of the week and a busy work week for both Mommy and Daddy. Seems like March is a month where the kids always have something!! Until I can get my act together and catch up, here is some older pictures of the little Foofy, in honor of his upcoming Birthday!!

Just like his big sissy, the little man is getting bigger by the day. I can't believe he is going to be two years old in a matter of days.

And yes, my kids do have an odd fascination and desire to wear sunglasses pretty much all hours of the day. Notice Jack wearing his big sister's sunglasses, upside down of course.

Mine Emma Kathryn

Sometimes I can't believe how big my Emma Kathryn is getting. She amazes me every day with the things she learns and knows and comes home from school with. I knew she was getting to be a true "kid" and not a toddler anymore when she started talking about poop all the time. :) She now thinks its really funny to talk about poop and how yucky it is. And don't fear, Jack hops right on that band wagon and thinks its hilarious. Yup, he is going to be that kid teaching all his school buddies about poop.

Emma Kathryn cracks me up. For example, here a little snip-it of a conversation we had a few weeks ago...
       
          Mommy: "Emma, don't forget to brush your teeth this morning."

          Emma: "I won't Mommy. I haven't done my teeth yet this morning."

          Mommy: "I know sweetheart, that's why Mommy was reminding you."

          Emma: "I haven't done my morning toots either yet Mommy!!"

She is my princess. My morning toot, poop loving princess. :)

Typical Saturday Morning

Okay, so I couldn't help but post these pictures as my next "catch up" post. They make hysterical every time I look at them. Weekends tend to be pretty entertaining around our house these days. Weekdays are as well, but they tend to be filled more with tired babies and trying to squeeze in dinner and baths and coloring and snuggles all before bedtime. Our weekends lately have been pretty relaxing as I think we are all exhausted from the week.

Granted, we will still have our crazy weekends filled with lots of errands or birthday parties etc, but lately I have been loving the fact that life has seemed to slow down for us, even for just those two days once and a while. On those days, Emma usually starts out by asking Mommy and Daddy to have "a jammie day". To which I never refuse. If you know me, you know I like my comfy clothes. About 10 minutes later though, Emma is usually asking to wear a "beautiful dress".

So much for jammie day.

Once Emma is in her "beautiful dress", the accessories start piling on. First comes the necklaces, usually followed by some of her princess rings. Then come the sunglasses and asking Mommy for a pony tail (that's my girl!). She recently got wind of some of Mommy's headband-thingy-ma-jigs, so those are now some of standard accessories.

Case in point. This was Saturday morning. We weren't going anywhere.

Of course, little manly is not far behind. He is VERY into whatever his big sister is doing, so without fail, on go the sunglasses and necklaces. And yes, on multiple occasions, he too plays dress up with his big sister. At least he wears the blue princess dress. Although the Snow White dress really brings out his eyes. :)

Case in point. This was also Saturday morning. At least Jack stuck partly with jammie day.

I pity the fool!!!

And yes, I am fully aware that his hair is outrageous. We actually went later in the day to get it cut, then back again on Sunday to get it fixed again. Ack.

Now is where it gets good. You can't have kids dressed up like this and NOT break out the camera. So Mommy usually runs around trying to find the camera, and hoping that she can get the settings right before the babies lose interest in smiling (sometimes, they are actually into it without Mommy having to bribe them)!

This time, they were into it because they were sitting on a Dora potty. Go figure.

After taking some shots of them sitting down, I asked Emma to do a pose. She usually sticks her left hand up in the air, but this time, I got the cutest smile. I seemed to be having some good luck with the kids and pictures so why not keep things rolling right?

So naturally, I asked The Squishy to do a pose. And I'm not kidding. This is what he did....

You can put the boy in as many dresses and necklaces as you want, but he will always be a boy.

I don't know whether he then was embarrassed, trying to eat what just came out of his nose, or blowing kisses.

I think I'll go with blowing kisses. :)

Last Season on "Life with The Odom's"...

So, you know how they re-run the entire last season of a show and then play the 30 second recap just before the season premier comes on that night? Yeah, well, we are going to skip over that re-rum of the last season and jump right to that 30 second recap before we move on to the season premier. Where the premier is me most likely talking about how I am going to blog more, but then getting side tracked and not actually doing it. Dang. I think I just gave away way too much of the plot. #seasonpremierfail.

Here's a little bit about what we have been up to over the past three months since Emma's third Birthday...

Wes's best friend's wedding, date night, beach vacation with the babies...

Braving restaurants for dinners out with the babies, tumbles, tumbles and more tumbles...

Little men with big smiles, and also big fevers that send you to the Emergency Room...

Special shopping trips with my baby girl, her first trip to Friendly's, home improvements, failed transmissions, you know, the usual....

Did I mention tumbles? We also had some big changes and went from the kids being at home with a Nanny to full time daycare for the Foofy and full time preschool for Sissy. They have thrived. Oh, and I have dark hair now too....

What do you do two weeks into putting your kids in school?

Well, you rip them right back out for a week to go visit their Gigi and Pap on the other side of the country. Babies were amazing on the airplanes. Outside of the 35 minutes Jack screamed because he was tired. He eventually fell asleep, drooling on my foot on the floor of the plane....

Disney and big cousins. That is all.

The babies...

Then we flew back into Fall, trips to the farm and the occasional special treat before school because my babies are awesome.

Not pictured: Jackson with croup, Emma with croup, Jackson with walking pneumonia prior to hoping on the airplane, Mommy working until 2:00AM, school pictures, Jack's 18 month appointment, play dates, trip for Mommy and Daddy back to college and probably a lot more.

VCUG/DMSA Round Somethingorother

One of the reasons that May has been so crazy for us (and for my lack of posting) was that we were rapidly approaching another big day for Emma when it comes to her VUR. I pretty much just tried to put this day out of my mind for most of May, but the closer we got the most I couldn't shake the awful feeling of having to put my Emma Kathryn through another day like this.

I have to preface this by saying that we are INCREDIBLY lucky when it comes to our babies. So much so, that I can't even put into words how blessed we are. The babies are truly healthy and happy and I couldn't ask God for anything more in my life. It's pretty easy to slip into the "Whoa is me" mode, like I'm sure we did before Emma's VCUG/DMSA scan this year, but it sure didn't take long before being at one of the best hospitals in the country, to be reminded of how truly lucky we are.

It's been just about one year since Emma's last DMSA scan. The DMSA scan is a nuclear medicine test that provides a detailed picture not only of how the kidneys look, but how they are working. So during this test, they look for things like kidney scarring/damage as well as how hard both the kidneys are working. It seems like each year it gets harder and harder to put Emma through this as she gets older but its what she needs, so as her parents, that's what we are going to do. This year, was a doozy though. We have done both the VCUG and DMSA tests before, but never in the same day (the VCUG test is the test where you determine if the reflux is still present or not). Again, have to pause here and say how truly amazing the staff was at the hospital. It is incredibly hard to schedule these tests because there is a lot timing restrictions that go into it, and they made special arrangements just for us to keep from having to shuttle us back and forth between buildings (they are moving to a new children's center). Amazing.

First up was Emma's physical. Although she goes regularly to her pediatrician, she has to get a physical the morning of the tests to get the green light, mostly for the sedation portion. Emma did absolutely amazing during this part. Because of her VUR and what she has had to go through, Emma developed a big fear of doctors. So much so, that we couldn't even take her to the vet when we brought Shamie in, because she would freak out when the vet walked in with their white coat. But, we have been working through that and she was so brave when it came to getting everything done. All went really well until we had to get her IV to get the DMSA fluid started before we were rushed off to the VCUG test first.

Once the IV was in and her arm was all taped up against the board, we were off to the VCUG test which is certainly the worst of the two. This is the test that determines if she still has VUR or not. It basically consists of stripping her down (which is scary enough for a toddler), and stressing her bladder as much as possible by filling it through a catheter and taking x-ray images throughout the process. No sedation. Awful. I have never heard Emma scream like that in her life. She was so scared. She didn't understand. Wes and I had to help hold her down. We just wanted to rip her off that table and run. This was the first time we had gone through this procedure while she is potty trained, so trying to convince a toddler that has just been traumatized that she needs to pee on the table (after you just spent months telling her she can only pee on the potty) was pretty tough. Finally, she couldn't hold it anymore (and was complaining that her belly hurt) and she got some relief. Soon it was over (and I know there is a lot that I am missing, partly because I just don't want to relive that moment) and we got Emma dressed and settled and I have never been so proud of my baby girl. She was such a trooper. Probably more so than Mommy and Daddy.

We found out right then and there, she still has VUR. VCUG FAIL.

Not only does she still have it, but it's worse than we had originally thought. It's a Grade 2/3 which means the urine is backing up all the way into her kidneys. Ugh. During her first VCUG test, when she was just under one, we were told that she had Grade 1 VUR, maybe Grade 2. During that test, the little stinker kept peeing on the table as they were trying to fill up (stress) her bladder, so they never got it truly full. But they sure did this time.

I'm pretty sure Wes and I were devastated at this point. Again, not because this is life threatening, but because we just wanted this to be over for our baby. We were both convinced going into this day that it was gone. We wanted to be done with being worried that she has a bladder or kidney infection every time she gets a fever. We wanted to be done with catheters at the doctor's office every time she has a fever to check for UTIs. No more VCUG tests. No more DMSA scans. We just wanted it done for her. But, it was time to move on and deal with the path forward. 

At this point, although we were upset that she still had VUR, I felt slightly relieved. We still had several hours to go, but the next step was to have Emma sedated for the DMSA scan. At least she wouldn't be screaming. She wouldn't be in pain. We even tried to do the test without the sedation because my poor baby was so tired and wiped from the VCUG, that she just fell asleep in Daddy's arms. Unfortunately, she woke right up when we tried to move, so we had to go with the sedation. This time though, it went much smoother. She didn't fight it, she didn't thrash around, she just fell right back to sleep.

Then we sat. And sat.

And watched our baby girl as she slept on the table for an hour.
We giggled as she let out a toot here and there, and snorted a few times, but then just kept sleeping.

We watched as the giant camera, rotated around her, looking like it was filling her up with gas.

 It was such a big machine, for such a tiny baby.

What is so amazing about this, is that they time everything so perfectly, that the minute (and I mean the minute) the test was over, Emma was ready to wake up. I am so thankful that she came out of her sedation so well. She was certainly loopy and tired, but nothing like last year or the year before.

We then headed off to get some lunch in the cafeteria before our appointment with Emma's urologist. At this point, we were just happy to have the hard parts over with, and to have Emma doing so well. She ate a HUGE lunch (which she has done the previous two times as well) and we were off to our appointment.

Long story short, we met with the urologist for probably half hour after to discuss the results and path forward. We came to find out a day or two later, that there was a small amount of possible kidney scarring on her left kidney (the side where she has reflux) but the hospital had just switched to much more powerful cameras, so they were taking the position that it was always there (probably from her original bladder/kidney infection) but that they just couldn't see it before. We then went over what our options are for moving forward:

• A) daily antibiotics (now that Emma still has VUR she gets kicked off the study she was part of) along with strict potty and eating rules
• B) DEFLUX (injecting a bulking agent into the bladder wall around the opening of the ureter where reflux happens to stop the back flow of urine to the kidneys) or
• C) surgery (sever the ureter from the bladder and then reattach it at a different angle so that urine can't back up).

After talking it over with a lot of different people (including her pediatrician that we 100% trust), we pretty much immediately ruled out the major surgery at this point. So far, she hasn't had a UTI since we first found out before she turned one. So to us, even though surgery is the only true fix, it's not justified at this point. Same for the DEFLUX. At this point, our decision is if we should keep Emma on the antibiotics, or try to manage it with just the strict eating and potty routines. I think for now, we are going to keep her on the medicine since the goal is to prevent long term kidney damage and at least give her the next year to try to grow out of this (there was a much higher chance she would grow out of this by the age of 3, but since that didn't happen, we are keeping our fingers crossed that she just needs another year).

So, here we are, with a new prescription for antibiotics and praying that when we repeat the awful VCUG in a year, that Emma will have outgrown VUR for good.  

Emma hasn't really spoken much about the day she got "pictures of her belly" taken, so I'm hoping that she doesn't even remember much of it. But she probably remembers the 1,576 treats that Mommy and Daddy gave her for the rest of the day to try to make up for it. :)

Weekend = Success & "Punchweed" The Worm

Easter may have been a bit of a FAIL this year (more to come on that later), but we sure made up for it with an absolutely amazing weekend. It's so easy to get wrapped up in everything that needs to get done on the weekends when most of the week is spent at work and lose sight of what the weekends are really about. I started to feel like we were in a weekend-rut lately because of all the laundry and cleaning and errands that need to happen every weekend to get us through the week. Normally there is some kind of activity with the kids, but I think the focus can easily get misplaced on everything that needs to get done, instead of truly spending time with the babies. They always come with us, but it's just different.

So this weekend, I decided to push back my incredible need to clean or do laundry (at least at first) and along with Wes, we made it a true weekend with the babies. I think a lot of our weekend-rut stems from the anxiety that I still struggle with, but that's no excuse. The majority of every Monday through Friday is spent at the office and focusing on work, so each week, the two days that I have left to focus on my babies, needs to be just that.

It was an especially long week at work last week, with several nights back on the laptop after the babies were in bed, so I was eager to head out a bit early on Friday and enjoy the absolutely gorgeous weather with the babies. I made a quick dash on my way home to Michael's to pick up some new picture frames for our hallway (they were having a 50% off sale and I had an additional 20% off coupon). The weather was too nice to not head outside so while Daddy cut the grass, the babies and I played in the backyard. I put the final coat of paint on our Board and Batten in our hallway after the babies were asleep (I just wasn't happy without one more) and it looks even better now.

Emma Kathryn and I headed out bright and early Saturday morning for some special Mommy-Daughter time. The plan was to go to IKEA to pick out our new "bench" for our hallway but since the babies get up so early, we were ready to head out before the story was even open, so off to Target we went. Finally, it was time to head over to IKEA and boy did Emma LOVE it there. She was literally bouncing off the couches and chairs and loving all the "pretend" rooms. Since it was such a special Mommy-Daughter day, and because she was such a good baby, we stopped on the way out for a little frozen yogurt.

After lunch at home and some afternoon naps, we headed out as a family to the babies first ever carnival!! There is a small carnival that comes every year and it usually brings cold weather and rain. Emma wasn't quite sure what to think of it at first, and all the people made her a little nervous but we had a blast! I think she takes after her Daddy though and has a bit of a fear of heights so one turn on the Ferris Wheel was enough for the both of them. :)

Sunday was a bit cloudy in the morning, but was going to clear up and get warmer throughout the day, so we headed out as a foursome again to get some flowers to plant later that day. Daddy and Emma hung out outside for a bit when we got home since it was still a bit chilly and planted some flowers. This is when we got introduced to "Punch-weed" the worm.

Emma Kathryn is pretty much as girly as you can get. She is getting more and more into clothes, loves everything princess related and is very into dressing fancy, finger nail polish, tutus, you name it. She normally FREAKS OUT whenever there is a bug anywhere near her (I don't blame her - definitely got that from her Mama). If there is an ant on her play set, she won't go near it. Yet, she found a new best friend, punchweed the worm.

She carried punchweed (and we have NO IDEA where that name came from) around for an hour. I'm not really even sure how he lived that long and I'm pretty sure he met his maker at the end when Emma came running to Daddy saying "Oh no! I broke punchweed!!" Turns out, punchweed's twin was just around the corner and now lives in our flowers out front. :)

After some lunch and another quick nap (I think Emma napped for about 45 minutes ACK) we were back outside. It was gorgeous and the perfect time to clean out the babies pirate ship/water table and get wet. The Squishy had just woken up too and it was warm so he was just hanging out in a onesie. So we threw on a comfy pair of shorts (I think they were PJ shorts) a bucket hat and loads of sunscreen and off we were.

You have probably noticed at this point that the majority of pictures that I took were of The Squishy while we were outside. I really tried to get some of Emma Kathryn but she is becoming very camera shy and the minute she gets a whiff of Mommy taking her picture, she does something like this...

Yeah. So that's why most of the pictures are of The Squishy.

I did manage to snap one or two when she wasn't looking and watering the grass. :)

Daddy had a great idea to grill out for dinner since it was so nice out, so we continued to play in our sobby wet clothes and bathing suit until dinner was ready. Since we just had to shell out a bunch of money for car repairs (sigh) we put the purchase of a patio set on hold. Ergo, dinner at the Little Tike's kids table and Squishy in a kitchen chair with booster seat.

The kids SCARFED down dinner and must have been starving from all that playing. It was such an amazing day, that Daddy brought the babies a little surprise ice cream with chocolate syrup. Needless to say it was a hit across the board.

Even though we still had some errands to run, and we still had to do some cleaning and laundry, it wasn't the focus for once and was an absolutely amazing weekend. I'm already looking forward to next weekend. Granted, I had one BIG pile of laundry to fold afterwards that the Squishy "helped me" sprinkle around the downstairs, but it was a thousand times worth it. :)