Christmas 2015

We tortured the boys on Christmas Eve by making them wait to open gifts until after we took a picture.

We made it even worse by making them take turns opening and watching while the other opened their gift.

Snow shoes!  Now he can be just like his heroes, the Alaskan Homesteaders!

Rain boots!  Now he can be just like his big brother splashing in all of the puddles!

One of Kade's favorite things to do is hunt, I'm a little worried we aren't going to be able to see him out in the woods when he's wearing this!

Since mice are Mason's favorite things ever, it seemed appropriate to gift him with a "mou" toy.  He was so excited when he opened up the little critter in his hand.

Kade loves the hamper hoop.  I thought I would love it too but he loves it so much he's been throwing clean clothes into it.  So, I don't love it that much :-)

I thought Mason would love the Little People jungle toys but really he just loves…

…to put the mou all over it.

Erik and my gifts had a bit of a theme to them.  Looks like we need to make some gym dates!!

The boys playing with their gifts after all of the presents were unwrapped.

Santa brought Mason a toy mou with a cage.  He's been  in Mou Heaven ever since!!!

Merry Christmas!!!!

Lice: Part II

Does the title say it all?!  Just when I thought we were in the clear, the little F-er's returned for more.  This time on my head.  Today I took a 4 hour round trip drive and spent the afternoon getting critters removed from my head, and I brought my mommy with me (because that's what 36 year old "girls" do when they get lice in their hair!  They go running to their moms!  Right?!?!).

On Friday night, at 10:00, after my shower I was combing through my hair and discovered 2 lice on a loose hair that had come out.  I googled lice removal services (because although Erik and my mom are useful 99.9% of the time, when it comes to lice removal they are 100% useless).  The nearest salon is a 2 hour drive from my house and they happened to have 1 time slot left for the next day.  I checked them out on Facebook, they seemed legit, I was desperate so I went for it.

They were amazing.  If you are ever in need of lice removal service, I cannot say enough wonderful things about "MN Lice Lady".  Seriously, amazing.  Apparently lots of other lice infested people think so too because that place was hopping!  And it was a normal day for them.  And they are open 7 days a week.  That MN Lice Lady found herself a niche!!  I tried my hardest to talk the technician doing my hair into moving closer to us and opening her own salon.  I don't think I convinced her.  But hopefully we are done and we never have to see her again anyway :-)  The boys are bald and my scalp has been scowered.  There's not much left to do besides cross our fingers and wait.

Onto more pleasant news:  Christmas

Last week we had our annual cookie baking day with Erik's family.  Lots of cookies were baked.  Lots were frosted.  And LOTS of sprinkles were applied.  It's the most delicious time of the year!

The boys made gingerbread men decorations before the cookies took over the kitchen.

Kade and Kurt--the best cookie making duo around!

Mason getting a frosting and sprinkle tutorial from Grandpa and Grandma.

We met cousins Violet and Isaac at Santa's temporary hang out.  None of the kids were actually too thrilled to meet him but we took pictures anyway.  Kade knew he wasn't the real Santa, he was just one of Santa's helpers.  Because we all know the real Santa is too busy to be hanging out at a random toy store when the real toy making action is going on at the North Pole.  Duh.

Isaac pretty much sums up all 4 of their feelings.

They had way more fun hanging out at the train table!

And finally, Kade's class had their Christmas party this week.  They made gingerbread houses, exchanged presents and surprised us with a rousing rendition of Jingle Bells and We Wish You a Merry Christmas.  Seriously--it was loud.  But oh so cute!!!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like….Santa?

As I was looking through this week's pictures, I noticed a recurring (and completely unintentional) theme.  Santa.  It started on Monday when Mason brought home his artwork from daycare...

 On Wednesday, we found the Santa hats when were looking through packed away Christmas decorations (we don't have much out this year since our basement is getting finished and our upstairs is overrun with toys).

To cap off our unintentional week of Santa, I did a Santa Fun Run 5K.  There were 500 runners dressed up in Santa suits.  It was a very festive sight to see!

Even though we aren't very decorated (by my Christmas decorating standards, anyway), we did manage to put up a tree.  Kade did really great this year!  He put up the lights and most of the ornaments all on his own.  Initially, he was putting them on the bottom but quickly realized there was a cute, little ornament thief following behind him and removing all of the ones he had just hung.  So, our tree is Mason proof.  Except for one tiny little ornament…a mouse.  Mason's favorite thing in all of the world right now is mice.  Or as he calls them "mou".  We left "the mou" within his reach.  He shows it to every visitor that comes to our house and he takes it off and puts it back on the tree at least 3 times a day.

Love my boys!!!

A Rough Start...

Thursday, Thanksgiving, was a great day-we ate too much and watched too much football.  Kade had a red spot on his face but we thought it was just a pimple (he gets them on his arms and legs once in awhile).  We both had Friday off so we decided to take the boys ice skating.  Kade's red spot appeared to grow a little but still, not worried...

Waiting for the ice skate guy to show up and rent us some skates.

 Kade thought he needed the bars to help him skate, it didn't take him too long to realize he didn't.

 Mason, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with the bars.  He thought he could manage the ice just fine without them.  These boys couldn't be more opposite!  Have I mentioned that before? :-)

We ran into our friends, Braeden and Colin at the rink!  B plays hockey so he's very comfortable on skates.  Nothing cuter than a 7 year old telling Erik he would be a better skater if he just bent his knees!!

By Saturday Kade's red spot had spread and no longer looked like a pimple.  It was definitely some kind of a rash but it still didn't look that bad and we were thinking (hoping) it would run it's course and be gone by the next day.  Besides, we had an adult day planned!  We had tickets for the Gopher/Badger football game with 4 other couples and the boys had a sleepover planned at the farm!  It was a great day...

Erik, his sister, Jenna, me, Jenna's husband, Jay

I had a feeling Kade's rash was impetigo.  I had it as a child but mine covered a much larger portion of my face and I was puking sick when I had it.  Kade's was still a relatively small spot and he definitely wasn't sick but when I googled it my suspicions were confirmed.  Sunday morning we picked up the boys and headed straight to Fast Care to get an official diagnosis and medication.  Yep, impetigo.  A highly contagious, fast spreading skin infection.  Yep, the thumbs up to use Kade's ointment to treat Mason immediately because we all knew he was going to get it too.  Yep, this story gets worse...

Monday morning, as we were getting ready to leave for daycare, school and work I noticed Kade itching his head.  I assumed he didn't do a good enough job getting all of the soap out of his hair so I inspected his head, looking for dandruff.  Instead I found little white critters and little brown eggs.  LICE.  UGH!!!!!!!!  I admit, I said said the F word multiple times (and told Kade to not ever repeat it).  I called Erik and told him to leave work, stop at the store and come home with lice shampoo, a lice comb and a magnifying glass.  I called school and daycare and let them know the boys would be staying home and coming back bald.  And then I got to work with laundry, cleaning, bagging, shaving heads, de-bugging scalps and trying not to lose my mind with every tingle I felt on my scalp!!!  My OCD is out of control right now.

After 5 days of impetigo treatment, 5 scalp checks per day, and more loads of laundry than I can count, I'm hoping-praying-fingers crossing that we are out of the woods.  We won't know for sure for another couple weeks (that's how long it takes for eggs to hatch) but so far we are all clear.  The only one who has actually had anything is Kade but Mason is getting treatment right along with him.  Better to be proactive instead of reactive!

The holidays can only get better from here, right?!?!?