More sickness...OMG! Ryan colors for the first time and Sherri gets to see the RTO at Montreaux

Wow, what a week! We just tackled the Swine Flu less than a month ago. Then here we go again. Ben first...puking and all the rest of it. Both ends. Poor kid! Lots of vomit in bed. Then Gary, then Kaitlyn. I've done more laundry of pukey sheets than I can count. The carpets in the boys room are looking pretty nasty. Nights are worse than the days, although Ben was really not having a good couple of days. Poor kid. He just was so puny. Grandma really loved on him a lot.

It has been a tough week for all of us. Family friend passed, more attorney stuff for both mom and Chip and I, financial worries...all of it. A lot of pressure. All of that along with another flu bug really pushed all of us to the limit.

Luckily Gary was the last one to vomit last night in bed, Kaitlyn is on the upswing and so is Ben and Ryan. Chip had a small bout and fortunately for me I didn't get it (knock on wood) and neither did Gillian.

The bright spot of the week was that we sat Ryan down yesterday the table and he colored with crayons! We'll save the first drawing and probably even scan it. These precious moments do take the edge off of the trying times. Chip got it on video and I took pictures (see attached).

The other bright spot was that I had the opportunity to attend the Legends Reno-Tahoe Open golf tourney at Montreaux. What a beautiful place with very large homes. I was invited by Bevin from RSCVA. Michelle Engleman from the Grand Sierra and I were her guests. We were invited to hang out in the Lakeridge Golf Course hospitality suite. It was a fabulous afternoon that began with a tour of Michelle's new house in University ridge. It's a beautiful one story home. I also met her husband Aaron. Great people. So we enjoyed a wonderful afternoon, having great wine and complimentary food all afternoon. Little did I know that mom and Chip were at home struggling with Ben and the other crappy stuff that came up this week. When I woke up on Friday and talked to mom and Chip I felt pretty guilty that I had a fun, carefree afternoon with friends. That didn't last long when Kaitlyn began feeling the bug and Gary and Ryan followed right after. By 7p on Friday I was exhausted and frustrated and drowning in sheets and blankets full of vomit. By 4 a.m. I was on the phone with the nurse line making sure I didn't need to do anything else for Kaitlyn who was really hit hard by it. It's just the way the cookie crumbles I guess. Saturday was a little better, still lots of sick monkey laundry. I was happy to just take a shower and do a little running around.

Today is far better, just reflective on the state of life right now. It's a bit rough and changes are in order for me and how I handle daily life. I'm grateful that the kids are on the upswing and thank goodness we have each other. It causes me pain to know the girls will only be here until Aug. 19 - 10 more days and we've had 10 days of sickness.

Boys - Babble, babble and finally...WORDS!

These boys are so picking up on words. Gary always attempts to say what is being said to him. He has the biggest vocabulary. He just wants to hear what everything is. He's so good with colors, cars and naming body parts. Gary especially says hieeee when we come in or get him out of his crib. He also says byeeeeee when things or people leave the room. It's SO cute!

Ryan is closing in fast and says a ton now too. The other day he said "marker". I was really impressed. For such a long time Ryan didn't say much. He and Gary are really close now.

Ben on the other hand is still the quiet one. He said car and hi a couple of weeks ago. He's really good at babble, but doesn't seem to mind not knowing how to say many words.

Lately it's been so strange to watch the boys. They are so little people now and no longer babies. I can't believe they will be 2 in about a month. My heart is full that we've done all that we have to raise happy, healthy kids. We certainly havent' done it alone. It's also incredibly emotional to know that those baby days are gone, even though they were incredibly difficult at times. The little guys are so interactive now and they just love to see new things, be outside, play in the pool and play with each other. We do have situations where (like yesterday) Ryan clocked Gary with a big truck and literally split his lip open. UNBELIEVABLE. Now we do time outs too. They get it. Glad that they do, but sad that we've moved to that stage.

I actually bought some big fat crayons for them the other day to see if we can get them going with those. Back in May when Christina was here we tried but the boys just wanted to eat them. Here we are a few months later and I think we will be able to show them.

Virginia City - Girls day out

Yesterday I took the day off and took the girls, just the two of them and me and headed up to Virginia City. They had asked me a few times to go up there since neither of them had been there. We had a grand day! It started with meeting up with Patrick Gilmore from the visitor's center. On to the trolley tour that started at the Bucket of Blood Saloon. We heard all about the history of the city, the people and the massive amounts of silver that have come from Virginia city as well as highlights of things to see. After that we did the Ponderosa Mine tour. Really a neat experience to be inside a mine and hear the stories. After that we went on to do the stagecoach ride. Gillian chickened out (it's ok). Kaitlyn and I did it and it was so fun. Bumpy, but fun. After that we did an old time picture. That was one of the highlights of the day! Gillian wasn't too sure what to think about it, but me and Kaitlyn jumped right in. After lunch at Red's we went on to take the V and T Steam train to Goldhill and back. Again, hearing more history. We experienced being "robbed" for charity and a skit to go with it. It was lighthearted and fun. Once back in Virginia City we ended our day with a tour of the Fourth Ward School. More great history and both Kaitlyn and Gillian played on a typewriter. Yes, an actual antique typewriter. Gillian had not ever seen a typewriter like that. They both sat in the historic desks. Gillian asked me what a dunce was when she saw the cap in the corner. I had to laugh as I explained it. We ended the school tour with both of them ringing the bell. The historic class pictures were just amazing. After a great day of playing tourist, we headed back home. When I asked them what they thought of the day, Kaitlyn said it was everything she thought it would be. Gillian said it was "way cooler" that she thought it would be. Both of them want to go back again. It was a fabulous girls day. We spent a long day up there and didn't even scratch the surface of what a visitor can do. It's so worth driving up there.

A great visit so far with the girls

The girls arrived on 7/13 and we lost about 6 days due to flu. As soon as we could we jumped into doing stuff with the whole family.

One of the first things we did as soon as Kaitlyn felt better was to go to the Sparks Farmers Market on Victorian Square. It happens to be right outside The Nugget where I work, so we thought it would be fun to take them. Kaitlyn and Gillian had never been to a farmers market, so they enjoyed it. However, the little guys were pretty restless and we couldn't stay long. I was glad they got a glimpse of how fun it is to try the fruit samples, so the booths and entertainment that makes the farmers market really fun.

Weekend with Grandma

Library

West Street Market/Truckee River

Kings Beach Tahoe

New wii game

Cooking together

Geocaching/hiking

Sparks Farmers Market

Ben Giggling with Gillian

Gillian and Ben play in the living room. The giggles are so precious that I had to post it. It will be cherished by us for a lifetime.

Recent July Videos - Gillian plays with the boys

This is just so cool to watch Gillian interact with her brothers. She's so great with them. Kaitlyn is too, but in more subtle ways. It gives me great joy to see the bond between the boys and the girls. Unlike was said by "experts", they ARE close.

Really? Influenza A? Swine Flu??? You've got to be kidding!

We were so excited because the girls would be spending 5 weeks with us for their summer visit. It was a little scary and yet exciting to have the family together for a good amount of time. Both girls flew in on 7/13. Kaitlyn had called me earlier that day and said she wasn't feeling well. I asked her if she was nervous or if she ate something that didn't agree with her. She said no. I told her to rest, lay down and hopefully it would be better later in the day. So I went to get the girls at the airport. Kaitlyn and Gillian walked out of security and I gave them both huge hugs. It had been over a month since they had been to Reno, so I was really happy to see them. Kaitlyn just looked awful. Pale and she said she definitely didn't feel good. I stopped at Trader Joes and Longs on the way home because it was near the airport. Kaitlyn stayed in the car and was pretty lethargic. It just didn't seem right. We got home and I took her temp and it was 102. I started freaking out. Then came all of the other stuff that goes with flu. The poor kid was miserable. She made it through the night and the next day she said her throat hurt. I thought maybe she had strep throat so I wanted to get that taken care of right away if she was going to be sick with something contagious.

We head to the doctor that afternoon. Kaitlyn was still so under the weather. Seeing the doctor was an afternoon ordeal. She was not poked, but boy they swabbed her throat and her nose twice! Poor kids. Turns out that Kaitlyn didn't have strep, but did have Influenza A flu. The next bit of news was that it could possibly be the same strain as Swine Flu. WONDERFUL! So the doctor said since it could be swine flu, we ALL as in all 8 of us needed to take Tamiflu just in case it is swine flu. So she wrote us 8 prescriptions. I couldn't believe it was happening. OMG. The girls had just arrived the night before! I was beyond angry that the time was being eaten with illness rather than family time. Kaitlyn was really great about not touching the boys when she arrived. She herself said she wasn't feeling good and didn't want to pass on any germs. So along with illness, we waited at the pharmacy for 2 hours to get all of the medicine. The copay bill came to $307.oo. That was with our insurance. Kaitlyn and I headed home after that...now 7 p.m. in the evening. She's feeling crappy and I've simply had enough. All of us did our job and did the Tamiflu. The boys had liquid and apparently it didn't taste good. Quite the chore to get it into them. A few days later we did learn it was swine flu. Wow. I certainly had quite a bit of anger towards her dad because he had been sick a few days prior.