Random Catch-Ups

Well, now that it is November, I have some summer catch-up to do here in blog world...mostly for my own sake since I use this blog as a somewhat scrambled form of scrapbooking....but also on point of the matter. I will be caught up by the time I need to post the Thanksgiving pictures (ha!).

So let's see....catch up since summer....

The boys did indeed take swim lessons this year. Drew did great and can now confidently swim most strokes on his own. He graduated to the back pool (where there is more room for actual swimming to occur) and was super proud of himself for it. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't proud of him too. He worked hard and loves to swim. I can't for the life of me however, find the pictures of Drewski swimming that I took this year, so you're just going to have to trust me on the fact that he did great! Collin also did great and loved his time in the water. This year was Tan Tan's first year of lessons and until the very last lesson cried each and every time he got into the water. On the very last lesson though (go figure!), he loved it and was all smiles the entire time! Just a few highlights...

Tanner and his sweet teacher Marin.

Collin and Tanner

Coll-monkey learning to dive

Medal time for Tanner! They let all the boys stand up with him in hopes of avoiding tears for Tanner.

It worked! He didn't burst out in tears (as the older boys have done in years past), but he wasn't altogether thrilled with the medal ceremony either.

Collin's last lesson for the summer landed on his birthday, so during the end part of the lesson when they put all the kids on a raft and sing, they had Coll stand up and instead of their regular song, they sang Collin happy birthday, which he loved.

A hard earned medal!

This summer also brought lots of time with cousins:

Tanner and Emmie

All the boys' cousins on Nathan's side with Grandpa

Tanny "helping" Emmie eat

Coll and Elsie

Tanny and Elsie

and the cutest quilting helper on the planet, Miss Maddy.

I promise, the boys got to play with her too, but I made sure to get my share of snuggles while she was in town too! Love her!

We also got a bit of time with "The Big Cousins" (aka, my cousins on my Mom's side):

My cousin Garrett, Drew, and my cousin Trevor

My sweet cousins Hannah and Cassidy with Tanny

While The Big Cousins were here, my Auntie Pam and Nammy were here too so we were able to celebrate Nammy's birthday with her, which was a treat.

At the end of summer, Drew started kindergarten (!!). ...I'm telling you, they don't lie when they say time flies! He has loved school so far and his favorites aside from anything art related, are science and math.

We also had that little rolly poley puppy we brought home...

...grow...

...and grow...

...and grow!

And last but not least, this summer also brought a new one in terms of medical care in our house: Lego Arm removal! 

Poor Collin was pretty nervous about what to expect with this one.

Collin quietly and somewhat sheepishly told me one Sunday evening that he had shoved a Lego arm up his nose and couldn't get it out. Ummm, what?! At first I wasn't sure I believed him. Maybe he had shoved it up there and didn't notice when it came back out....Lego pieces can be tiny, you know. In any case, I needed to ease my mind and decided to have him lay down so I could look. I couldn't see the Lego though, even with a flashlight. Curious, I asked him what color the arm was (usually they are the traditional Lego yellow but they do come in black, navy, red, etc too). He told me it was black (Of coooooourse it was black. The hardest to see in a dark nose!). I tried looking a few more times and then roped Nathan into looking too, but neither one of us could see anything. Collin kept sneezing though, so I figured something was most likely up there and made an appointment with our pediatrician for the following morning. Sure enough, first thing in the morning, we saw through that lovely doctor's Otoscope, a tiny black Lego hand....exactly as Collin had said. His pediatrician made multiple attempts to get it out, but Coll had stuck it so far up his nose that she couldn't get to it, so we were referred to an ear, nose, and throat specialist. Fast forward a few hours and there we sat, in a new doctor's office, looking at the same stuck Lego piece with a new doctor. He numbed up Collin's nose and sprayed something to help his swollen membranes relax and then attempted to get a better look....and wouldn't you know it...Collin had stuck that Lego arm so far up his nose that the doctor grimly turned around to tell me that he had only a 50/50 chance at being able to grab the Lego without knocking Collin out in order to get it (only Collin....). Fortunately, after multiple nostril sprays, a surgical table and a huge magnifier that had awesome little grippy claws tiny enough to go up Collin's little nose, that talented doctor was able to grab the Lego arm. (Phew!!).

Gross, I know! And of course they ask if you want to keep it, to which Collin and Drew both shouted, "YES!!" (Oh, the horror of even just one Lego being thrown away!!).

And thus, we ended our summer...learning (over and over again through the voice of every doctor and nurse we ran into) that nothing smaller than your elbow belongs in your nose or ears!