Brian's 34th Birthday

Brian's birthday was yesterday.

Birthday's definitely aren't as exciting anymore now that we're getting OLD!

But, we did our traditional donut treat breakfast and he opened his gift.

The kids wanted to get him a new Royals shirt (which I'm sure was fine with him!) and some candy.  We also got him a new Royals flag for our front yard.  The other one got all tattered and torn up last year, so it was time for a new flag!

Everyone helped blow out the candles

The kids agreed to a couple quick pictures - as long as the "blinky thing" didn't go off.

So I took the flash off and got some beautiful yellow-ish tinted pictures!

These kids love their Daddy so much!

Brian was able to pick the kids up early from school, they grabbed some tacos for lunch, and went to our neighborhood park to play for a while.  After I got home from work, we went out to dinner at 54th Street.  

Colin pretending he was missing a tooth (soon buddy, I'm sure you'll have a real hole in your smile!)

We took some silly pictures

Colin was laughing so hard and Maggie couldn't stop giggling

Everyone's "we're tired of taking pictures" smile

Brian enjoying his ice cream and cake birthday treat

We hope you had a great birthday, Brian!

We love you so much - here's to another year of good health and family fun!

Basketball weekend fun

Brian was able to get some tickets to the NAIA tournament in downtown Kansas City this past weekend.  We all had so much fun!  We were there for the Division I tournament, but Division II played their tournament last weekend in a different city.

Colin invited his friend Dylan to come with us.  

We were only there for a short while, but the nachos, popcorn, and soft pretzel made the afternoon fly by!  

They gave out score cards for the fans to judge the slam dunk contest that went on at halftime.

Brian left with Dylan and Maggie to take Dylan back for a soccer game, but Colin and I stayed and watched some more of the game before church.

It was so nice having some one on one time with Colin

And these are some random pictures I found in my phone from when we went out to dinner to celebrate the kid's fantastic grade reports at school.  They are both doing awesome and the teachers are so pleased with their progress.

What a silly girl!

Colin's health

For the past five months or so, we've noticed Colin staring off randomly, usually less than 10 seconds at a time, where there is absolutely no making contact with him.  He doesn't respond to his name, touch, movements, etc.  Much of the time, he ends up wetting himself when it happens.

At first, we thought he was just in deep thought or not paying attention to us, but it turns out, he was having a form of epileptic seizure known as Absence Seizures.

Pretty common in boys, usually presenting between ages 4-10 years.  After seeing the neurologist a couple weeks ago, we got an EEG scheduled to really look for a certain brain wave form that is typical of these kinds of seizures.

It was a sleep deprived EEG, meaning Colin (and brian and I), could only sleep from midnight to 4 am.  He couldn't take any naps or have any caffeine.  His EEG was at 9:30 the next morning.  

He was SOOOO tired, but he did a great job.  Once he got over the fear of laying back in the bed so the tech could put on the electrodes, he did great.

We were so proud of him, but man alive, that paste was super hard to get out of his hair!!

They let him rest for the first 20 minutes (which he immediately fell asleep for), then they attempted a hyperventilation technique (unsuccessfully!), and then did some strobe lights.

The tech marked many "events" throughout the study, meaning he had an abnormal EEG.

Looks like we will be starting some medication later this week, which he will likely remain on for 2 years.  They will wean him off of it then, re-test him, and see how he's doing.  The doctor said he will likely outgrow these and they don't do any damage to his brain, it's more of a hindrance to him while he is in school, having lapses in time that he just doesn't remember.

Here is is about ready to fall asleep

He insisted on Brian being right by his side, which worked out okay for me, because I was really interested in watching all the brain waves on the monitor anyway.  

After it was all over (and he got a 20 minute power nap!), we got a little smile from him 

Look at all that paste, yuck!

After the EEG, Colin talked me into taking him out to lunch.  I was an easy sell :)

Maggie had a birthday party last week for one of her classmates. 

It was at a gymnastics studio and she had a blast!

 She was (by far) the smallest kiddo there.

I guess she'll have to get used to that :)

Maggie in the foam pit

 In other news...

Colin was super proud of the puzzles he did in record time the other night

And he was also super proud of his playdoh snowman he built.

It lived a short life and did the opposite of melting (hardened and crumbled to pieces), before being thrown in the garbage

RIP blue snowman!

The past couple of weeks

Whew, just now finding time to get a few pictures on here.

I love these random, everyday pictures that I capture - because that is how we are living right now - our everyday life.  And we love it!

 Meemaw watched the kiddos when they had a break off school last week - and she was able to make it to Colin and Maggie's Valentine's Day party.  No picture of Colin and Meemaw, but she was there, too!

We went out to dinner one day last week and the kids wanted to try out a taste of a lemon...

 Colin did okay with it, just made some funny faces...

 Maggie was not a fan...At All!

But she was okay enough to do 'silly faces' for a while when we were waiting for our check

 Colin has been loving to play board games after dinner at night - this particular night he was super proud of his Angry Bird structure he built.  Soon to be knocked down by the one and only...

Moose.

 He's so curious about everything - he gets his big ol' nose into all that we do.

 He can "shake" now.

I know, I know... big time stuff here!  Isn't he amazing :)

 The kids wore their "blue crew" shirts to bed one night.  They love matching when they can.

Moose loves it, too!

 Grammie and Granddad got the kids lips suckers for Valentine's day - pucker up!

And finally, we surprised the kids with a trip to Great Wolf Lodge this weekend.

We had never been there and were looking for a little getaway from the winter blues.

This was a perfect trip for us, one night away from home, but tons of fun!

The waterpark there is HUGE and has tons of slides that both kids can go down.  Way more than at Cocokey because they are much more strict with height policies there.

 The kids got 2 sets of wolf ears to wear

 Their scary wolf growls

 The hotel did story time at 8 pm, these little animals moved and told a little story before Wiley the wolf came out to help read a story

 Wiley the wolf

You can't really tell here, but there were TONS of kids all lined up listening to this story.

 We stayed a little after storytime to get a picture with Wiley.

Fresh out of the pool on the last day - so much fun!

And somehow we managed to get out of there without spending a dime on anything 'extra' at the hotel.  

It was so much fun.  The kids had a blast going down the slides and playing in the lazy river.

Do you wanna build a...

SNOWMAN?!

The boys took advantage of a nice day (after some 3 inches of snow fell the day before) to build a snowman.  They were so proud of themselves.  It really did look pretty great!

Hey there, February!

I can't believe it's almost the middle of February!

We've been battling some nasty bugs around our house - the ones that bring really high fevers, coughing, sleepless nights, and extra-whiny kids (and parents!)

But, I am happy to report we are on the mend and doing much better.

Colin looked super cool for Hat and Glasses day for spirit week at school

(Maggie also looked totally cute, but was refusing to take a picture, silly girl!)

The 2nd day of spirit week was Superhero/Princess day.

You couldn't tell by looking at this picture, but this was the day both kids came home very puny looking and with high fevers.  Man those illnesses can come on quick!

Needless to say - we missed out on the rest of spirit week (BUMMER!) as well as school pictures that were the last couple days.  Oh well, they wouldn't have looked very good with pale faces and super rosy cheeks, anyway! :)

Colin wanted a picture with Moose, and of course, so did Maggie!

 They just love this dog so much, there is never a lack of attention for Moose, that's for sure!

 The kids perked up some the next weekend, so we did some baking for the super bowl.

Each kid made a batch of homemade pretzels (wearing the aprons that Meemaw got them for Christmas!)

 They are getting to be pretty great helpers in the kitchen

 And a selfie of Mags and I, baking away in the kitchen.

 Oh, and this was just a random picture of Maggie, after she found my glasses in my work bag.

I am supposed to wear glasses (well, bifocals actually), but I never do.  Maggie thought these were so funny when I wore them, so she tried them on, too!

My beautiful 4-eyed-girl!!