Rock Stars!

Sammi and Maddi decided to be rock stars one afternoon and showed us the result. Needless to say, Matt and I laughed really hard after we took pictures. Ah, Maddi.

Eli's Forthcoming Blessing...

We'll be blessing Eli on March 29th, 2009 at 1pm. Friends and family are welcome!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Last Monday was Matt's 31st birthday. Since his birthday landed on a weekday, I planned months in advance a surprise party in his classroom at lunch. Much to my dismay, about two weeks beforehand, one of the gals in his class that was helping me, told me that his birthday was the same day as Solo and Ensemble, and he would be out in Eagle the whole day! Grrr...but, we worked around it, and spread the word to the students to come AFTER school and surprise him. As for getting Matt back to the school, I had the Principal call him in for a "meeting". Matt was pretty upset at having to go back (he thought he could come home early and hang with us). It all worked out great - he came, he was surprised and he got delicious cake and a present even! The kids all pooled together and bought him a DVD Player (for the TV in our room) and a $20 gift certificate to Cabelas. Sweet! We then went home, and I gave him the present from me...a flatscreen TV for our room (to go with the DVD player). He was excited. :) Later, his parents came over and brought him some cake and the Planet Earth series. Happy Birthday Matt!

Eli's First Smile

Eli gave us his first smile a few days ago. Actually, he smiled at Matt but I was able to see it. I love how I do 98% of all the "baby care" for these little tykes, and it's Daddy that gets most of the perks: first smiles, first word...hm. But, I guess in truth, even thought they're aimed at Daddy, they're perks for me too. Maybe more so because they're aimed at him. I'm so thankful everyday that my kids have the dad they do.

Avoid Contact With Eyes

Last Saturday we had a little adventure. The infamous tale begins with Matt laying on the couch after he had just changed Keith's diaper. (note: it was a poopy one - this is an important fact in support of my case:)I came downstairs with some stuff including our huge bottle of Germ-x (knowing he wouldn't want to get up to wash his hands). I came up behind him and said "here". He held up his hand and I squirted it. Now, normally, it just gently oozes out, but I think that with the combined factors of the weight of the bottle and me doing it with one hand it ended up shooting out with rocket-like speed. Matt didn't even have a chance to partially close his eye. It got the full blast. He even reacted like he got shot, the way his head flew back and he rolled to the ground. I was stunned and just stood there, the kids and I watching him writhe. Bless him though, he wasn't even grumpy with me at all. He later said it was because he was in so much pain he couldn't even talk. Poor guy. We flushed his eye and it was huge, red and swollen. Later he called a nurse and she said he should have gone into the ER, but, to stand in the shower and just let the water run right into the eye, and go into the ER if it didn't feel better. A few hours later his eye, eyelids and cheek were still swollen, so he went to the ER.

(The above picture was taken the next day - the swelling was down quite a bit, but he was still puffy. Poor guy)
Turns out it burned his cornea plus the outer protective layer of his eye, his eyelids and the alcohol even seeped into his skin a quarter of an inch down his cheek. :( I felt so horrible!!! They gave him some antibiotic drops to clear up the infection he already got in his eye (that protective layer, I guess, is pretty important :) and other drops that help it heal If he didn't have this, after a day or so, every time he blinked he would feel a wrinkling of the trying-to-heal layer. Ew...creepy. Luckily, though, the eye heals fast and he hasn't been mad at me at all. In fact, once he could see again, he thought the whole thing pretty funny. Lesson learned...when they say avoid the eyes on product labels, they mean, AVOID THE EYES! :) I'm also assuming the rest of the cautions are just as plausible. We will therefore NOT be planning on ingesting or inhaling Germ-X anytime soon. :)