Ky goes for tests tomorrow.

Kylin has to go to Children's tomorrow morning for her tests. She has her ultrasound first. Hopefully her right kidney has caught up with the left. After her ultrasound she has her VCUG (click for a description). Last year she had stage IV reflux on both sides. Hopefully this has improved. If it has it means another 6 months on antibiotics and if it has not improved it means she has to have surgery. Neither option is great for me but both are better than her getting kidney damage!

I'm a stressing out a little about her tests. I'm afraid that she won't lay still and have to be sedated. I don't like that Josh isn't going to be there. I am thankful that Mema is coming with so I don't have to do this alone.

I'll post when I find out what's going on. Thanks for checking in!

Trick or Treat!

Happy Halloween! I hope everyone has a frightful night! Mema is coming up to hand out candy so Josh and I can take the kids out. We were out already on Sunday with Dylan and Emily. I think we went a block (It was a really big block) and that was it. I'm guessing it'll be the same tonight.












I'll get some pictures up soon of the kids. They were too cute!

Pink Eye = YUCK!

So my mom and sister were visiting this past weekend and we had a few things that we were going to do. I swear every time they come out Ky comes down with something. My mom watched the kids on Friday and I went to dinner with my Beth (my sis), her friend and Josh. I got home about 10ish and the kids were asleep. There were a few craft shows going on in town that we wanted to go to. I told my mom that I'd meet them at the one right down the road from the hotel at 9am. When Ky got up her eyes were all gross. I didn't really think much of it. When I showed her to my mom in the parking lot my mom said she had pink eye. I've never seen pink eye before. I didn't know your eyes grew boogers! We decided to check out the craft show with Ky and her booger eyes. I got some Tupperware and my mom got a fabric book for Ky. Casey got a balloon sword and I don't think Beth bought anything. They had some games for the kids and Casey had fun playing those. Ky won a big lollipop on the sucker game. Dum-dum suckers = one very sticky baby. I did pick a cream soda sucker for her so at least it was a clear sticky! After the craft show we got coffee and a muffin at a bakery/restaurant and then my sister went with me to take Ky to the walk in clinic.

I thought we would be put in isolation at the clinic since pink eye is pretty contagious. We weren't. Ky ran around with her booger eyes. I did try to keep her from touching too much. We saw the Dr. and the Dr. prescribed her some drops for her nasty eyes. She also said that there was some fluid in her ears so if she developed a fever she probably had an ear infection. So far no fevers!!! Once we gave her drops her eyes got better.

Josh dropped the boat off at storage and then came home to watch Ky so we could head out to the other craft show. My sister did stop at Walgreen's on the way home to get some hand sanitizer and Lysol. She was super anal about touching the baby. It was actually pretty funny! Once Josh got home the girls and Casey headed out. I got a pillow back rest thing for Casey and my mom got him an advent calendar and I think that was all that was purchased. Casey played at the park for a bit and then we went to the apple orchard. We got apples and stuff to make caramel apples but we didn't get to that. Maybe we'll do that this weekend. We did make some yummy apple crisp!

Sunday Ky's eyes cleared up a lot but were still kind of yucky so I didn't take her to church. My mom and sister came over and we went on a walk to the park. Josh had to go give shots at a flu clinic. I think I should have went and gotten one. After my mom and sister took off we cleaned up the yard. It was such a nice day and the kids loved being outside. We filled up 6 garbage pumpkins with leaves and black walnuts. I would LOVE to cut down that black walnut tree cause it sucks picking those things up every fall! At least next year we'll have two helpers!

We're almost all set for Trick-or-Treating! This year we're having it on Halloween instead of the weekend before. It's been on the Sunday before ever since we've lived there. Josh is taking off of work and working this Sunday instead. Mema is coming up and Casey told her she has to have a costume. I still don't know what I'm going to be...

What a difference a week makes...

If you saw my last post you saw what the kids were wearing ONE week ago. We went to the Milwaukee Zoo and look at what they had on.

That's crazy! I can't believe one week ago they were sweating wearing shorts and tank tops. Gotta love Oct. in Wisconsin!

Casey had zoo class and learned about nocturnal animals. He learned all about bats, fenick foxes and bush babies. I love the zoo classes. They do such a great job with the kids. Here's a picture of my little bush baby.

I'm sure we'll be back at the zoo next weekend for boo at the zoo.

Ky on the slide

Casey looking for ????

... the polar bear

My little monkey

all bundled up

St. Louis

So we spent another weekend on the road. This past weekend we were in St. Louis, MO. We were Papa's guests at Ameren's safety fair. Now when you think of a safety fair it doesn't sound like too much fun. Ameren puts on a pretty good safety fair. They had bucket truck rides, the kids got to operate the boom trucks, climb poles, go through a boot camp, scoop coal, eat nachos, carmel apples, ice cream, pretzels. We came home with so much stuff from there. Everyone got a T-shirt. The kids got a hard hat and a bike helmet. I don't even know everything we came home with. Papa won an Ipod shuffle in the raffle (we stole it from him). The only complaint for the day was it was over 90 degrees out! Is it October? Ok, just checking. It's a good thing there was plenty of water and other beverages. Casey had an awesome time and asked if we could go again next year. Of course we can!


Casey's future?


Or he can do this...


Or this...

We needed a ton of water


Ky taking a break


Peak-a-boo


Papa and Lala working the T-shirt booth


Before we went to the safety fair we checked out Soulard Market. It's a big farmers market in St. Louis. We wish we had a way to keep stuff cold for two days because there was a lot of good looking food. All we bought were some mini doughnuts and grapes. Both delicious! They had fresh water prawns there (Josh wanted those) and an awesome looking meat market and the produce looked great. My grapes didn't last too long. I guess grapes in a plastic bag in the back of the truck in the 90 degree heat isn't such a good idea.

After the safety fair we ate dinner at Rigazzi's in The Hill neighborhood. It was pretty good but had to wait over an hour for a table. Casey was out cold the whole time. I feel bad that he didn't eat dinner but there's not much you can do if your kid won't wake up.

On Sunday Casey got up super early so we played games on my computer which woke Ky up. Since we were up we went and ate breakfast at 7. We were hoping the pool would open early so we could go swimming but it didn't open until 10 so we had to hang out in our room. LaLa came a knocking at our door and told us the pool was open so I took the kids swimming. Usually they love going swimming but Casey didn't want to get off the steps. I think it goes back to camping and him getting in the lake a little too deep. I made him swim, he was screaming but he needs to get over this fear. He had his arm floaties on and his head wasn't going under but he still felt the need to scream. Kylin had a great time in the pool! After our battle in the pool we took a shower and got ready. Casey went to church with Mema, Papa and Lala and we stayed and got everything ready to go. Josh and I took Ky to Union Station to run around. All we got was a smashed penny for Casey and a sucker for Ky. We finally got a hold of Mema and we decided to go to Budweiser. Casey was a little too excited to see beer! I told him I'd get him a horse if he was good on the tour. I ended up buying a horse and a dalmation for Ky. Ky was so cute hugging her puppy.




Ky and her new puppy

Casey with the only horse he will ever have

Casey and Ky slept most of the way home since we stopped for lunch and didn't get on the road until probalby 4ish. We stopped 1/2 way to top off the gas and go potty. Casey fell back asleep for probably 30 minutes and woke up bawling! When I asked him what was wrong he said, "this ride is too long." We all agreed with him. Then he started crying agian and said, "I don't want you to not be my mom. Like when you're old, like 52." I have no idea where this came from but I assured him that I will always be his mommy!

Happy Birthday, Mom!!!!

Spiderman Casey and Butterfly Princess Alyssa

Happy Birthday, Mom! I took the kids back to Minnesota to celebrate my niece, Alyssa, and my mom's birthdays. Alyssa's birthday was on Friday and Mom's on Sunday. We had a pretty good trip. It would have been better if we didn't have to sit in road construction traffic.

My sister and I, well, mostly my sister, had a tea party for Mom. We went to McHatties in Woodbury. It was an old farm house that was very nicely decorated. My mom's sister and four friends joined us for morning tea. It was quite a lovely day. We enjoyed good tea, good food and great company! We started off with a white chocolate cranberry scone. It was the best scone I'd ever had. It was nice and moist and full of flavor. Then came the quiche with fruit. That was very good. We also had dessert. I was too full to eat mine so I ate it later that night. My sister ordered mom a cake but we didn't cut it because everyone was stuffed. I'll put some pictures up later.


Me, Mom and Beth




Yummy breakfast!


Dessert for breakfast?


The birthday cake
After tea my sister and I went to an art show where my sister had some of her pottery up for sale. She does great work! I ended up buying a rag rug for Ky's room and a necklace for my friend Sarah. There was a lot of neat stuff there and if I actually had money I would have came home with a lot more.


My sister's creations

Is she good or what?

My favorites

Click on my flickr account if you'd like to see more of her stuff.

We were late to Alyssa's party but I think that turned out to be ok. Mom and Dad took Casey and Beth and I waited for Ky to wake up from her nap. Alyssa invited 18 girls plus Casey and her other cousin Zack, who is about the same age as Casey. Holy chaos! I'm glad we were not there for the whole thing. There was a lady there painting faces. She did great work but Casey had paint everywhere. 18 girls do not stay still to watch presents being opened. Alyssa turned 7 but by the presents she got you would have thought she was 17. I believe she has more make-up than I do. That isn't too hard since I don't wear it but does a 7 year-old really need make-up? Is this what I have to look forward to?



After the party we went to Space Aliens for dinner. I was thinking it was going to be like Chuck E Cheeses but the food was actually good and there was only one room with games in it and it was separate from the dining area. At one point they had a guy in an alien costume come out and say Hi. Casey was playing it off pretty good, he HATES people in costumes, until the alien came by our table. He crawled under the table and was crying. I hope he gets over this fear.


I'll just take this bow

On Sunday we went to Olive Garden for lunch. Ky was sitting next to Beth and when Beth got her pasta she couldn't get it to Ky fast enough. At one point Ky pointed to Beth's bowl and then to her own. It was too funny!


I love my Grandpa


Go Go Granny Racers