Summer is here...

We know summer has arrived when Ben's soccer season is over and we bring out the slip and slide!
Ben finished his third season of soccer with Coach Joe (aka Daddy) and many of his friends. It was a great season and everyone on the team played very well together for being 3 and 4 year old children. The final game consisted of a quick game, huge moon bounces, and trophy presentations. Ben was quick to say that this was his third trophy!
A few days ago on one of the nice hot days we pulled out the slip and slide. I always had one of these when I was younger and I loved playing on it! The boys absolutely loved it! Ben is still a little hesitant of sliding on his stomach, but he does a mean slide on his knees that is so much fun to watch. Eli loved it as well, but he mostly just played in the water. He did try to slide a few times and that mostly resulted in him falling backwards and crying. It was still so much fun and the boys love playing on it.
We are headed off to Patapsco State Park today with the boys for a picnic dinner and some hiking. Ben is so excited to go hiking and Eli is excited to eat a picnic dinner! :) I will post pictures soon if I can remember to bring my camera.

Supraventriculat Tachycardia, Benign Nocturnal Paroxsysmal Hemeturia, Tracheal Stenosis......

No, I have not gone back to school to be a doctor....this is the medical terminology that is used in relation to my Eli. He is one strong child!!
I have a feeling Eli will grow up to be a doctor. I say this because of all the time he continues to spend in hospitals and his pediatricians office. Last week Eli woke up with his 7th bout with Croup since late November. I quickly took him to his doctors office and he was placed on steroids to open up his airway. A few days later he was feeling great and back to normal. We had a great weekend and then on Monday he developed another small cough. By 4:00am on Tuesday morning he woke up with another croup sounding cough. This round of croup quickly turned into serious breathing problems and Eli's pediatrician sent us to the ER to get chest X-rays and further treatment for his breathing. At the ER he was given a stronger steroid and we were told we would be sent home with breathing treatments to do twice a day. It was finally decided that Eli was not getting croup, but rather having breathing issues related to his intubations he had when he was 5 weeks old and in the hospital on breathing tubes. Apparently the breathing tubes had caused scar tissue and any slight cold would turn into serious breathing problems for Eli. We were then told Eli needed to have an endoscopy procedure done to look at his trachea and would need to be under anesthesia to have the procedure. The ER pediatrician spent about an house on the phone trying to find an ENT at Childrens Hospital that could fit him in, but she could not. So, we were sent home with breathing treatments and one worried Mommy!
Side note: while in the ER we had the pediatrician that was on Eli's case when he was 5 weeks old and in SVT. The doctor was so excited to see Eli and was amazed at how big he was. She definitely spent some extra quality time with us and was giving us hugs. It was pretty neat to see how much it meant for her to see Eli.
We did the breathing treatments and laid Eli down for the night. He pretty much woke up every 10-15 minutes coughing and having respitory issues. It was a long night and in the morning he was still the same as he was in the ER. I went back to his pediatricians office and she said to see how the rest of the day goes and if there is any change in his condition for the worse, then I would need to go to the ER at Childrens Hospital in DC so he could be seen by the pediatric ENT. We went home and later that night when Eli was trying to sleep he woke up every 5 minutes coughing and had labored breathing, but this time he had a very high fever. I was in panic mode and called my sister to come watch Ben and Joe and I headed off to Childrens Hospital ER. We were there and they gave him another dose of the strong steroids and we stayed the night there with Eli. In the morning the ENT came and told us he had scheduled an appointment for a consultation for the scope procedure for this Wednesday. So, now we will go on Wednesday back to Childrens and they will schedule his procedure. If they do find anything when they do the scope they will likely laser it off and then we will have this whole mess behind us.
My little Eli likes to keep us on our toes! Please keep him in your prayers that the procedure will be easy on him and will heal him. While I am extremely nervous that he will have to be put under, I am extremely confident in the doctors at Childrens Hospital. They are the ones who saved his life and I know they will take great care of him.

They grow up way too fast!

We were at the park not too long ago and Ben decided to climb on the monkey bars. He is getting so big, so fast! I get sad because he is not my little boy anymore, but on the other hand, it is so much fun to watch him try new things and to learn from them. At least Eli still likes to cuddle with me! :)

Not the best blogger...

Ok, so I am not the greatest at keeping up with this blog. I blame it on being a busy mom of 2 very acitve, yet wonderful boys! I guess I have a lot to catch up on, so I will give try to do a few posts in the next few days.

To begin, we had a fantastic time in North Carolina visiting Nonny, Grandad, Aaron, & Melissa. There is just something wonderful about the Carolinas and I tell Joe every time we visit that I could move there in a heartbeat! Everyone is friendly...they say hello, how are you?, nice to meet you, have a great day, and have great southern accents to boot!
Our trip consisted of many fun activities, but the ones that really stood out were the strawberry picking...which I forgot my camera for :( and taking the berries home to make homemade strawberry jam. Ben had the greatest time mashing all the berries and he earned the nickname, "THE CRUSHER" while doing his job. We made 6 batches of jam (which is 36 jars of the most delicious homemade jam you have ever tasted) and we split the jars between a few different groups. I never knew it could be so much fun to make jam, but we had a blast!
We also played some golf. That was not a typo! I actually played golf for the first time in about 3 years! Joe and I went out together and played the practice course, so I didn't have to pay any money to be terrible! It was still a great way to spend time with my husband, so I had a blast! Ben got really into hitting golf balls again on this visit. He can actually make pretty good contact when he pays attention to what he is doing.
We took many walks, fed turtles and fish in the ponds, and we went fishing too! We all caught fish...it was pretty fun! Eli even had his hands on a fishing pole after Joe snagged a fish. All in all, it was a great mini vacation!

Crazy days!

It is a sad day when I am too tired to post pictures onto this blog. The Knights have been way too busy with soccer, work, traveling, working on the townhouse (which had the fire in it), and just trying to get to bed earlier than midnight every night.
Poor Joe has been going to work for 8 hours a day and then promptly heads over to the townhouse to get more work done on it. We are in the home stretch and our tenants are back in the house, so there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
We leave tomorrow for a long weekend at Joe's grandparents home in North Carolina. We are so excited to enjoy the laid back ways of Pinehurst and eat delicious food, all while being surrounded by family. Good Times! I am sure I will post some pictures of my boys playing golf, so stay tuned!

It has been a while...

Sorry for the long pause on the blogging. We actually went on vacation to Disney World and I didn't check email, facebook, or anything else for a whole week! It was wonderful!
So much happened the week we were gone, but I will start with out trip! It was amazing! We definitely have become Disney World addicts and might need to get into some sort of rehab for it. Ben is 4 years old and has already been there 4 times! GEEZE!! Eli is only 18 months old and this was his second visit! It will definitely be a while before we go back, so that made this trip even more special!
We spent 5 nights and 6 days in Disney and visited all the parks except the water parks. The boys had the time of their lives and Joe and I had a great time as well. There is something about that place that just makes you happy! Everyone there was happy! People say hello, please, thank you, nice to meet you, have a great day, and are just overall happy people! Joe and I said the world would be a much better place if it were filled with people that go to Disney! :)
I got to meet up with Amie, a friend from college while we were there as well. She came with her son and daughter and we had such a great time hanging out with them in the Magic Kingdom. Unfortunately her husband and older son were not able to make it because of school and work! It was still so much fun to see the three of them. Thanks Amie for braving Disney with two small children! It is always fantastic to see you!
On Wednesday we got the wonderful news that our dear friends Justin and Sara welcomed their second child into the world. Arabella Jun joined her sister Adelaide Rose. I am pretty sure my sons are betrothed to their daughters now! :) We are so happy for them and look forward to having many play dates when they move back from the PI!
On Thursday we got a call from our tenant that the townhouse we own had caught on fire. The dryer had caught fire and our tenant was unable to put it out so she grabbed her three children and left the house and called the fire department. We are so happy that everyone got out of the house and are safe! The house is repairable, but the whole second floor needs to be redone. The ceiling also collapsed in on the first floor from all the water on the second floor. The fire restoration people are saying in about a month the house will be good as new! Joe is hard at work taking care of everything...what a wonderful husband!!
I think that about catches you up! I will post again soon!