Patty Cake

New York Vacation!!

Kathy and Samantha with all of the kids going for a ride on the golf cart at Kathy & Dale's new cabin.

Driving away on the golfcart.

Eric and Oliver in front of the pond at the cabin. Oliver like to look at the water and I'm pretty sure would have been more than happy to walk into the water.

Rainbow in front of the Canadian side of Niagara Falls.

A shot from the pedestrian bridge between Canada and America. It was the first time either of us had walked across the bridge and it was neat to see the falls from a different perspective.

Eric and I in front of Niagara Falls on our anniversary trip.

At the Syracuse Zoo doing the obligatory tiger shot. Kara and I got to join in so we could officially have all of the kids that were on the trip in the picture.

Oliver and Henry got popsicles for dessert on Saturday. Oliver enjoyed it, but held onto the popsicle and ate the popsicle stick. Henry was thrilled to have the popsicle and was all smiles about it.

The five kids that spent so much time playing together outside at Kathy & Dale's house. Poor Randy and Kara trying to get pictures of 5 kids together soon- it took some work :)

We left for New York on Friday, June 25th and got there late that night. My mom went along with us and Oliver enjoyed having her or me in the backseat. I think Grandma was more fun because she sang more songs and read more books than I did. We spent a lot of the week relaxing, but we managed to fit a few things in. We visited Kathy & Dale's cabin and Kathy/Dale were able to get a 12 passenger van for us and so we filled up a van- Kathy, my mom, Henry, Kara, myself, Oliver, Sophia, Samantha, Alex, Max, Randy, and Eric. It was nice to be able to all fit in one vehicle and visit on the ride up there.
On Tuesday, Eric and I left for Niagara Falls for our 5-year anniversary. It was a fun get-away. We relaxed, went out to eat, did a lot of walking, and enjoyed seeing the falls. Oliver stayed at Randy & Kara's while we were gone and didn't seem to bothered by us being gone. I think having 4 kids to play with, plus the toys that come along with that, was way better than having mom and dad for a few days. We are very thankful that my mom, Kathy & Dale, Samantha, and Randy & Kara were all so willing to take care of Oliver while Eric and I got away for a few days.
On Friday, we went to the zoo. It was a warmer day than earlier in the week, but was still fun. The kids got ice cream after the zoo visit which they all enjoyed.
Saturday was a relaxing day and we went out to eat for Kathy's birthday.
On Sunday we went to church, where Alex was an altar server at mass. After church, we went back to Kathy & Dale's and loaded up a few last minute things and were on the road by 9:35. We had a great drive home and saw a few fireworks on the way. We were back to our house by about 10:30 that night.
It was a great trip and we can't wait to do it again some day. My mom drove back to Dunkerton on Monday. Eric, myself, and Oliver spent the day relaxing and getting ready for the next week.

Pool Fun

Oliver was attempting to blow bubbles in the pool. I think he mostly got a few drinks of pool water.

Relaxing in the pool!

It was a warm day today and this afternoon Oliver and Andrew went swimming. They loved it. Oliver is a little fish in the water. He loves splashing and jumping in the water. He likes to lay on his tummy and "swim."

I know it has been awhile since I've posted any pictures, as you can see, the little boy keeps growing. He stays busy and loves to climb. I am starting to feel better which I think is pretty wonderful. We are glad the weekend is coming and are looking forward to it. We haven't made any plans for Father's Day yet, but I'm sure we will find something fun to do for the day. Hopefully I will continue to feel better and my posts will become a little more frequent.

Happy Friday Eve!

Its a ???

The bad news is we won't be home for Christmas. The good news is that Oliver will be a big brother. If you are like Eric and can't read between the lines... we are pregnant. :) Our due date is December 31 and we are very excited. We may be more excited once the first trimester is past, because Sara has been feeling under the weather these past few weeks due to morning sickness.

So this marks my (Eric's) first post to the blog. We do have an ultrasound picture of the lil one. Although there is not a lot to see at this point. Maybe I will post it for everyone to see if I get a spare second.

Update

Oliver painting with watercolors

Oliver enjoying a snack outside

Oliver has learned to blow dandelions. He isn't the greatest at it yet and tends to end up with pieces of the dandelion in his mouth. I wish I could have gotten a video of the first dandelion he picked, he bent down and was pulling on it and when he finally picked it, he fell on his bottom. :)

Oliver loves sitting in my computer chair. Yesterday, he was able to get into it by himself.

Eric is done with classes for the semester! He is (and I am too) looking forward to a weekend without homework looming. Eric mowed our lawn yesterday so our yard is looking much better. Not much else exciting going on. It is almost Friday!

Healthy Boy

Oliver woke up this morning with a temperature of 97.6! He has been feeling quite a bit better today- he still doesn't have much of an appetite, but is taking in plenty of liquids. We went back in for our follow-up appointment today and the doctor said he looked good. One of his ears still had a little fluid, but the blood cultures didn't show any bacteria. The did give him one more antibiotic injection to continue to fight off what he had. Oliver definitely knew what was going on when the nurse came in to administer the shot. He cried just a little, but was fine pretty much as soon as she was done. We came home and spent a little time outside which was nice for all of us- we even got a few weeds pulled. We plan to take it easy this weekend and let him get back up to 100%. I'll try to get a few pictures tomorrow, I haven't been very good at pulling the camera out lately. Eric and I are very glad that Oliver seems to be back to his normal, happy self. Now if he actually sleeps all night long, we'll both be ecstatic!

Happy Friday Everyone!

Oliver's Fever

Oliver has continued to run a fever. We went back to the doctor this morning and she said his ears looked better than they did on Monday. While we are glad his ears are fine, that means something else is causing the fever. So we headed over to the lab and Oliver had blood drawn. He did awesome - no crying, just watched and sat with Eric. Myself, on the other hand, was in the hallway with my head between my knees, trying not to pass out. I dread the day of having to take Oliver for a blood draw by myself. We are still waiting on more test results, but the nurse just called a little bit ago and said that he has an elevated white cell count and we are to head back to the doctor's office at 4:00 for Oliver to receive an injection of an antibiotic. After that, we will just wait for more results to come back in and hopefully his fever to break. The poor guy wasn't feeling like himself this morning, he was cuddling me and that doesn't happen often. So hopefully the antibiotic helps and we'll keep up with the Motrin to keep his fever down and maybe in the morning his fever will be gone. I'll update if we find anymore out from his blood tests.