Cousins Are So Fun!

Davey was so excited when the day finally came that we headed down to Cincinnati to go see his cousins (and aunt & uncle, too, but what does he care about them really). I think he thought he would see them in MI and so he had been thinking about them  and missing them a lot.

One funny tidbit about the drive down.... We'd left Troy about 30 minutes previous, it had gotten dark and as we crested an overpass and Davey exclaimed, "Look at that pretty town!" If you have ever driven 1-75 south through Detroit, you know why this is funny. Just before you get to that point, you start to smell a foul smell and the "pretty town" is, at least in the daylight, a quite ugly Marathon oil refinery.

This picture must be doctored... it's not this pretty even all lit up at night.

Anyway, we had a very fun visit with Colter, Kelly and the boys. It was so fun to get to hold the little newborn Isaac, who seemed like a very good baby. I also really enjoyed, as always, getting to know the older boys' personalities better, especially Enoch since this is the first time I'd seen him that he'd really interact with me. Their boys are so well behaved. When they came home from school on Thursday, the house was pretty much just as calm as when they were gone... Joseph, Michael and Peter all just sat down in the living room and started reading. It was so amazing! 

Davey was in heaven the whole time, having so much fun playing with Peter especially, who even stayed home from preschool to play with him (thanks Kelly!). He loved sleeping in their room, all five of them together, and he got to play in the leaves - his first time ever. Hopefully I can get some pictures of that soon. We enjoyed time hanging out at home with them and visiting with Kelly's parents who had just come home from a mission.

Thanks for hosting us for a wonderful visit!

A Great Trip

This picture was taken on our first full day in Michigan and it summarizes our trip well - Grandma Paulson being involved with and spending fun times with the boys. Grandma and Grandpa Paulson always spoil us while we are home by giving baths, trips to the park, making favorite meals, babysitting while I have time out with friends or to myself, etc. And of course I always enjoy time with my parents and Benjamin as well.

Thanks for everything - it was a great trip!!

More Cider & Donuts!

On our last day in Michigan we decided to take another trip to the Franlin Cider Mill - it was a beautiful day!!

Isaac Schaefer Paulson

Isn't this little guy darling? He's our newest nephew! Isaac Schaefer Paulson was born on Tuesday, Septmber 22nd to Colter and Kelly. We're so happy to get to meet him in a couple days!

Davey absolutely can't wait to see his cousins again. He's been asking about them every day since we've been here in Michigan.

Pumpkin Carving!

When we got home from GiGi's house we had planned to have the Romneys and the Adams over for pumpkin carving with Davey - it was the first year we'd do it with him and I was really excited for it. Davey had been kind of crabby all day though and so I took his temperature before his nap and he had a fever.  :(

Hoping we hadn't passed anything on to GiGi (you saw how closely they played for quite a while - and luckily it turned out she didn't get it), we warned the Romneys and Adams and they both opted not to come.

We attempted having Davey help clean out the seeds and mush inside and you can see how much he loved it...

Look at that icky face!

Once he reached his hand inside (with a cup, mind you) and touched his arm on the side, he refused to be any more a part of it. Maybe it was because he was sick. Better luck next year I hope!

The pumpkins were so large and thick that my dad had to be the one to carve the face.

Grandpa at work

Uncle Ben LOVES Halloween so he had a pretty good time carving his pumpkin.

Eeew!

To GiGi's House We Go

We always enjoy our visits up to Midland to see Davey and Charlie's GiGi and the boys had fun seeing her. We usually go to lunch at the local Holiday Inn's restaurant and this time the Holiday Inn had been sold and a new one built, so it was time to try out the new restaurant - the verdict: not nearly as good (or kid-friendly) as the old one. But we still enjoyed each other's company.

GiGi with her two grandsons

Afterward we spent some time at GiGi's house. She and Davey played with the cash register toy for the longest time.

It was so cute!

My mom also accompanied us on this trip - thanks!

Romp N Stomp

Being a little wary of all of the yucky sicknesses going around, we tried to think of some new things to do that involved less exposure to all kinds of germs. We had been excited to return to Flip City gymnastics, but opted instead to try out the Romp N Stomp at the Ferndale Community Center one day. It turned out well because it was a lot of fun and we were almost the only people there.

Davey and Ada loving the bounce house

Charlie and Lucy exploring

I'm including this next picture for two reasons: 1) it's fun to see my two boys playing together, which is happening more and more now that Charlie is mobile, and 2) I love how you can see both of their little cheek and chin lines. I think that is just the most adorable veiw of a child's face, the little bumpy line of their cheeks and chin.

Darling boys!

After the Romp N Stomp, we stopped by the Pancake House again for lunch...

YUM!

Sunday at the Adams'

On Sunday we were able to spend the day with the boys' grandparents at their apartment in Farmington Hills and it was an extra special treat that we were able to see Aunt Katie and Uncle Bryan as well!

As you can see it was a lazy day, hanging out and relaxing...

Chillin' with Grandpa Adams

Terrorizing Uncle Bryan's nap

Davey doesn't like dogs except for Dallas.

They had lots of fun together.

Grandma Adams being silly with Davey

Davey really enjoyed reading a sailing magazine with Aunt Kate

Charlie was kind of clingy most of the day but enjoyed the tissue paper from Grandpa Adams' birtnday presents...

We always enjoy spending time with our family and it was nice just to hang out and spend some quality time together!

Keri, Sam and Emmalee

Emmalee

Sam, Emalee, Keri, Me, Davey

(Charlie was already in bed)

While I was in MI, my cousin Keri came for a visit with her husband, Sam, and her daughter, Emmalee. It has been so nice to see Keri more often in the past couple years since she has lived in Indiana and always makes the drive to come see us when we're visiting MI. I also really enjoyed meeting Sam and seeing darling little Emmalee again. She is sooo cute and is talking amazingly well for a 15 month old. Thanks for coming, Keri!

Breakthrough!

After months of crying for hours at at time during the night, we had a breakthrough! Two days before we left for our trip to MI, Charlie made it 11 hours through the night with NO crying! I can't tell you how relieved I have been that it has also continued since we've been here. Since Charlie goes to bed at 6pm, it means I wake to feed him around 5am, but that's still a great improvement. Maybe once we get home I'll try to move that one until after he truly wakes for the morning, since he's been going back to sleep until 7am and I'd love to sleep through until then.

Another couple exciting events that happened the day Charlie turned 9 months is that he started saying "Mama" and drinking formula from his sippy cup! The "Mama" these days is still much more rare than "Dada," but I'm still happy because he said it first :) We are also making great strides toward weaning and me being able to truly have a day off - today I fully replaced a nursing with a feeding from the cup. It felt so good not to have to nurse at church.

Franklin Cider Mill

Our first (and definitely one of the most important!) outing was a trip to the Franklin Cider Mill. The town of Franklin is picture-perfect and their cider mill has the BEST cider and donuts. We met up with my friend Amy and her girls Ada and Lucy.

Davey enjoyed watching the cider press at work.

We were lucky that the weather warmed up after the first two days of our time here, but this day was sooo cold. It didn't stop us from loving our treats though! I always have to get a caramel apple - YUM!

Three happy kids!

(Yes, Charlie even got to eat some donut; Lucy was sleeping)

My 30th...

...has been so fun to celebrate! Though I'm not sure how I feel about hitting this milestone, at least it means I got to have a lot of fun with my friends and family!

Since Dave wasn't going to be around for my birthday, he planned a little celebration the Saturday before by having our friends over for some good Italian food (from Hasta la Pasta - whose food I love and name I hate :) and to play some games.

Haylee, Fumie, Amy, Charlotte, Jamie, Mendy and I
with the amazing cake from Ooh La La!

Mendy and Dave conspired to put together a "How Well do you know Jasmin?" quiz game. It was interesting to see that one of my new friends (Jamie) tied with one of my friends from high school (Chris) for first!

We had a lot of fun hanging out, playing the Great Dalmuti and Apples to Apples and eating some good food.

Thanks Dave for a great birthday bash!

On my actual birthday, my mom and I and the kids went to one of my favorite places (The Original Pancake House of course) for lunch. Mmmm!

The following day my parents put together a dinner at Olive Garden with some friends of mine who still live in MI. My mom made a wonderful german chocolate cake that is to die for.

Ben, Jan, Me, Amy, Mark, Jared, Pam, Dad, Mom

I didn't have the easiest time getting those candles out in one breath...

Just... can't... quite... get... there...

Thanks so much to my family and friends for a great birthday and 30 great years!!

Pumpkin Pancakes

Yesterday morning we made some really delicious pumpkin pancakes for breakfast...

If you like pumpkin, you should really try them. They're so delicious. Actually, Dave's not such a pumpkin fan and he loved them too. Thanks to my friend Mikal for this recipe; I'll be making it a lot!

1 cup flour
2 TBS packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp each baking soda, baking powder, ground cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup plain or vanilla low fat yogurt
2TBS butter melted
1 large egg
mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt.
wisk pumpkin, milk, yogurt, butter, and egg in large bowl until blended.
add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and stir just until mixed (will be thick).
heat griddle over high heat. Reduce heat to medium and oil grill lightly. for each pancake pour about 1/4 cup batter on griddle. Cook 3 to 4 minutes until lightly browned on underside and bubbles appear on surface. Turn and cook til browned on bottom.

Doctor, Doctor!

It seems like I have been to the doctor so many times lately. I am just not used to it. We went about a month ago for flu shots, again two weeks ago when Charlie had a cold that wasn't going away/getting worse, and then were back again last week for a double well check.

Davey has always been a very healthy child and Charlie's medical history doesn't contain anything serious, so I know we are blessed. But it was still very strange to me when we were sent home from that check up about the cold with a prescription for amoxicillin and a non-specific diagnosis, but the antibiotic did seem to take care of whatever was bothering him.

The day before the well check-ups, Charlie woke up from a nap with some strange bumps on his face. They looked like a mosquito bite looks when you first get it: white, raised and irregular-shaped with red around it. But they were gone within the hour so I just forgot about it. The next morning, he had the same thing but on his thighs and covering a much larger area, also disappearing within an hour. Luckily we had an appointment already with the doctor that day, so when I asked her about it she said it sounded like hives, an allergic reaction to something. She thought it was strange the way it showed up when he slept but said just to watch it but not be too concerned unless it returned with regularity or more severely.

That afternoon we were at the park and it showed up again, only this time all over his body. When we got home and I went to give him a bath, it was gone from the skin that had been exposed, but was very severe under his diaper and part of his back. It looked like big red welts all over him. This picture is about 20 minutes later when it was much improved...

I contacted the doctor who recommended giving him children's Zyrtec, so that's what we did. I'm still wondering what it could be, since I haven't given it to him the last two days and we haven't seen it again. I'm thinking maybe Davey tracked something in his crib from outside (he loves to climb inside his crib and play with him) and then we encountered whatever it was at the park, too. I'm thinking of taking him to an allergist to see, since the last reaction was so bad it scared me.

As for the stats from the check-ups, they aren't very reliable. They told me Charlie was 19 lbs 14 oz but I don't think there's any way he's that heavy. The next day I compared him against my friend's boy who weighs just over 16 lbs and Charlie felt lighter. They also weighed Davey at 30 pounds, but the scale was already reading 3 lbs when he got on. When I weight him at home, it reads 28 (15%), so I'm going to go with that. As for height, Charlie is 28.25 (40%) in and Davey is 37.5 (40%).

And just for fun, some silly pictures of the boys...

Brother Bonding

I love to see these little guys laughing and playing together. I am really enjoying watching their relationship blossom and how Charlie tries to copy Davey and how Davey is learning to share and put up with Charlie following him and ruining train track set ups, etc. 

(Yes, that is gum in Davey's mouth. I can't believe I let him chew it. It's so weird to look at him and see him chewing gum. Especially since I hate to be around people when they're chewing it. But it's one little treat I can give him when he asks and not feel like I'm always saying no and don't have to feel too guilty about a lot of sugar. When he stops being obedient about spitting it out we'll stop the habit.)

Last night I let them bathe together for the first time. They loved it!

"Talking" - so cute!

They were both all over the place. Luckily there weren't any collisions.

They had so much fun that now I fear I won't be able to bathe Charlie without Davey climbing in. It's a little tricky to get them both out and dried on my own... (Since Charlie goes to bed at 6pm, I can't do it with both of them after Dave is home.)