Dinner with Friends

Last Saturday night we had dinner at the McDaniels with the Petersons, minus Cory, and the Schaefers, minus Joel. Amy made amazing chicken and noodles, and we enjoyed adult conversation while the kids ran wild and played in the basement.

Here's a picture of all the kiddos, minus Will.

Brenna, Holden, Ellie, Grace, Jonathan, Lejer, Andrew and Sydney

Hard to believe just five years ago we were childless and carefree and had dinner parties that lasted past 8:30 pm!

Here's another try at the picture with Will. It's mighty difficult to get this many little eyes looking in the same direction!

Brenna, Holden, Ellie, Will, Grace, Andrew, Lejer, Sydney and Jonathan

Brenna enjoying some brownie pudding cake. Notice the fork in her other hand. I love it!

Grace, Brenna, Jill and Ellie having dessert.

Holden, Lejer, Brenna and Grace eating dinner

Andrew and Sydney ate together at the bar. Neither wanted their picture taken.

Lejer and Andrew playing with a cool race track.

Sickness Update

I'm happy to say that we are all feeling better, finally! It's been a long couple of days, and aside from Jonathan's runny nose and my hacking cough, we are back to normal. Praise the Lord!

So now, I just have to find a way to keep us all healthy for the rest of the winter. Any suggestions?

Here's a couple of pictures of my healthy boys playing in the game cabinet yesterday. Who knew a locked cabinet would provide so many hours of fun?

Now you see him...

And now you don't

This is the cupboard in our living room where we keep the games. See the child-safety lock? It's not effective when the child can take it off...

Are you in there?

Andrew has decided this is a great secret place to play. Which is OK, until Jonathan tries to find him and then there are pinched fingers and crying.

He was not amused at my attempts to photograph him. He informed me he did NOT want to take any more pictures!

The Petri Dish formerly known as the Ayotte Household

That's how we are feeling over here - a big old pot of germs, floating, spreading, infecting.

It all started a week ago with me. I came down with a killer chest cold complete with mucus and cough. So it was inevitable that at least one child would be coughed or sneezed on and catch my junk. What I didn't expect was for the stomach flu to infect our house too!

Jonathan started puking Thursday night, but I thought it was because he had a lot of mucus and was having trouble managing it. We finally got him to sleep only to have him get up in the morning with more puking and what I thought was trouble breathing. We go to the doctor praying for some anti-mucus drugs, of which there are none. Stupid FDA. And come home to the FOULEST diarrhea I have ever experienced. (I described it to my mom as old man breath mixed with poop. Lovely!) So, now I'm wondering if it's still the mucus or if it could possibly be the stomach flu picked up at Kid's Day Out on Wednesday. Jonathan eats 4 saltines for dinner and a couple bites of applesauce. No puke and no diarrhea. Hooray we've rounded the corner.

Friday night - not to bad. Everyone sleeps through the night and Jonathan seems to have a little more of an appetite. I think we have rounded another corner only to find another hill to climb on Saturday.

Saturday night - Jonathan screams when I try to put him to bed. He'll only sleep if I'm holding him. So, I finally give up the fight and put him in bed with us. Midnight - Jonathan's finally asleep and then Andrew comes in our room to tell us he just got sick. So, we are up from 12-3 cleaning up after poor Andrew. Who, after throwing up a couple of times declares, "This is a bad day." Amen to that!

3 a.m. - Andrew is finally sleeping and now Jonathan is screaming. I give him some Motrin and we doze in the chair for a couple of hours. I finally successfully transfer him back to his bed and get to sleep, only to have Andrew up and ready for a new day a little before 8. Stop the madness! Keith and I look like we've been hit by a truck at this point, and Keith's stomach is starting to feel funny.

I call my mom to vent about having a houseful of sickies. She surprises us and comes to offer some relief in the late afternoon. I called her our Angel of Mercy. Andrew acted fine all day, but had very little appetite.

This morning at 5, Andrew was puking again and is now a very sick little boy. He doesn't seem to know that and keeps demanding that I feed him pizza without pepperoni, pretzels or anything but Pedialyte, which he needs. Keith is still sick and Jonathan still has a snot nose and refuses to sleep unless I hold him, and then I have trouble transferring him. I'm still coughing up a lung and hoping we round another corner tonight without any more hills!

And right now - everyone is sleeping and I should be too, but instead I'm writing about the sickest weekend we have every experienced and hopefully will never experience again!

More Andrewisms

Here are some recent words of "wisdom" from Andrew that I haven't had a chance to post:

Said randomly at dinner one night, "Oh, What a day I had!" (Can you see him with his hand to his forehead? He didn't go that far, but once he starts his acting classes, I'm sure that gesture will follow!)

Me: "Andrew, why is your brother crying?"
Andrew: "Because I was being mean."
Honesty, you gotta love that in a 3-year old!

A couple of weeks ago, my parents watched the boys while we went to a Christmas party. Grandpa put Andrew to bed and prayed with him and then asked Andrew if he wanted to pray. Andrew said, "No, you prayed enough for both of us."

Occasionally I call Andrew "dude," to which he takes great offense and says, "I'm not a dude! I'm a boy!"

Today Andrew was humming loudly, as per usual, and I asked him to PLEASE be quiet. This is what he said to me: "It's OK Mommy, I was just singing Beethoven - Ode to Joy." Now before you think he's a child prodigy or something, let me explain. He got a Little Einstein's keyboard for Christmas and it has quizzes about various composers and songs, which he has memorized. *sigh*

New Year's Day

Playing a little Blokus - 3 & 4 year old style - no rules!

Someday Tiana may not appreciate this picture, but it is so stinkin' cute! She has two grapes in her mouth and looks like a chipmunk.

Natasha and Jonathan, with his ornery grin.

Natasha entertaining Jonathan so I could play some Rook!

"Umm, are you in jail or am I?"


On New Year's Day we spent another fun day with the Nislys at Ken and Gina's house. Lots of yummy food - a taco bar, guacamole, ice cream dessert thingy, BBQ ham, sweet tea, olive dip, home made bread - you get the picture. The boys played until they couldn't play anymore. Jonathan managed to only sleep 45 minutes the whole day and was still a happy little guy! They both crashed on the way home and it was a wonderful quiet ride and a great way to start the new year!

Happy New Year!

Joel came up with the brilliant plan to start a movie, "Wall-E," in the secret room under the stairs. The kids loved it and were contained and quiet, sort of.
Ellie, Andrew, John Paul, Lejer, Holden and Grace

Little baby William, who's not so little, crashed way before the New Year.

Karen and I tried to get a picture of Joe and Jonathan together. It was not easy!

They are only two months apart, but are about the same size.

Why will only one look at the camera at a time?

And, picture time is over. They are outta here!

Happy Joe

Joel and Ellie blowing good-night kisses.

Notice the look on Jonathan's face - He's after someones bowl of ice cream and chocolate-covered eclairs.

So, I'm a little behind posting, but we had a fun New Year's Eve Party at the Schaefers with the McDaniels and the Ridders. We started early - 4:30 and ended before 9. We realized half-way through the night that we, the adults, were outnumbered by the children. Scary! And did I mention LOUD?! But the kids had a great time playing, and we had a great time talking, eating and catching up. Thanks for hosting the chaos Schaefers! We had a great time!