Sunday Morning with Johnny

John: Johnny! That's impossible! You're not allowed to do impossible things!
Johnny: Ha, Ha.

Our busy Saturday

We had a busy day on Saturday, it started out with a neighborhood garage sale. Where we sold a lot of our "Junk" and then we headed over to our community pool where we had a fun BBQ and pony rides. Hannah wanted a cat painted on her face.

And of course, Johnny wanted something completely equal and opposite--a dog.

They had the cutest little pony, the kids were even able to mount it themselves.

We started out the morning bright and early. Hannah manned the donut shop, which was a huge success. As soon as she earned enough money, she headed over to the neighbor's house and bought as much from their garage sale as she could afford. Now we might need to have another garage sale.

Johnny headed up our penny store, he loved playing with the money and helping people figure out how much to pay him. This was a hit with the little kids. I sold some of my MaryKay inventory and John loved the opportunity to de-junk and sell some of his movies and electronics.

The shoes of a princess

So what do you do if you want to dress like a princess, but can't quite figure out how to walk in the shoes yet? You wear them on your hands of course! Lucy loves clonking around in her princess shoes, especially on the tile floor and on our shower door.

Dragonflies

I have never seen anything like the dragonflies here, they are HUGE and sometimes as plentiful as misquitoes. Though, they are very hard to catch. Luckily Hannah found this one at her primary class swim party shortly after it died and brought it home in a styrofoam bowl. She was a little nervous about holding it to model it, but it was worth it in the end.

Fun at Castle Park

We actually took this outing a couple weeks ago, but the pictures were cute so I had to share. We took a lunch and one of Hannahs friends and spent the afternoon at Castle park in Fruit Heights. They had so much fun, but it is hard to keep track of little ones in this park, so many little places to hide. Hannah, Gabi and Madeline played princesses and Johnny was the evil "knight" who spent his time trying to lock them in the dungeon. It was fortunate that every peice of bark was a key and fit the lock perfectly.

It's done, it's done, yay it's done.

We have a patio now. Thanks John for doing such a great job, and for Alex, Billy and Melissa who came to help. It has a beautiful rustic look and we will enjoy it for many years to come. Now we will focus on staining our porches so that we can actually get to the patio.

Gotta Love her style!

Every once in a while Maddie surprises us with a little laugh, okay, more than every once in a while. This one ranks up there with her tromping across the dirty back yard in her most colorful pants, floppiest hat and fanciest shoes.

First day of School

Today was the first day of school for Hannah and Johnny. They are both gone for a full day of school now and it seems so quiet around here. Both of them were a little nervous this morning, especially about the bus experience. They did a great job at being brave and I love that the bus stop is just a one yard away and I can see it through our back door. Most of all I love that I don't have to wake Maddie and Lucy up from their naps on short days to pick the them up from school.

They both came back from school in pretty good spirits, and said that they liked their teachers. Tomorrow will be easier--I hope they make good friends.

A note about Johnny

I wrote a little bit about Johnny's little issues a few posts ago and decided that I had better write about what we had found out. We found out that he doesn't have Celiac, or any allergies. We are happy about that. Our doctor referred us to a pediatric GI specialist who we visited with last week. He gave Johnny a prescription for some migraine medicine for when he has an episode. He told us that it usually helps when given to children with cyclic vomiting. He also drew some more blood to check for enzymes. I am amazed at how well Johnny does with needles! He told the phlebotomist that he was okay her poking him as long as she put a band aid on it right after she finished :) The doctor suggested that we continue with the gluten free diet for the next three months to see if he has any relapses. For the past year he hasn't gone three months without an episode of vomiting and lethargy, so it should be a good test. In between episodes he feels fine, but I started noticing last year how quickly he gets tired and how he just didn't seem to have the energy level of other boys his age. Even his Kindergarten teacher noticed it and asked if there was anything wrong at home, I felt really awful about that. We started re-introducing milk after the allergy tests came back negative, but started noticing his energy level decline again. So we are back on a milk free, gluten free diet for three months. Today is going well, he has had plenty of energy. It was his first day of school, and he came home a little tired, but most first graders do. After a snack he went outside to play with some neighbor boys for about an hour. Later this evening we went swimming and he still had energy to spare at bedtime. We must be doing something right, but we don't know exactly what or why it is making such a difference.

Sometimes it's the little things that make a house a home...

...and sometimes it is the really big things. John decided that he wanted to do our back patio himself. He has divided the job up into three separate pour sessions and Saturday was the first one. We did it with the help of a very talented cement truck operator and a generous neighbor. Our neighbor and I screened the cement while John operated the rake and did the finishing work. It was exhausting work, but he did a great job despite the freak rainstorm that coincidentally started up minutes after he finished smoothing the last piece.

Eye drops and ear drops and nose drips, oh my!

We have had such awful luck this month with sicknesses. You would think that it was the middle of flu season. This is a picture of the latest thing going through our house. Lucy is feeling awful and I am feeling pretty crumby myself. I didn't think the nursery mom's would appreciate me helping in nursery in this condition, so Lucy and I decided to hang out at home.

Johnny has also been very sick the past few weeks. While we were at our family reunion, Johnny and Hannah got sick the last two days we were there. We thought that it might have been because of late nights, their normal eating schedule being upset, and not drinking enough water. It didn't surprise us that Johnny got sick, he has always been a little more prone to throwing up and actually does so quite frequently, but Hannah hardly ever gets sick like this. Hannah got better within a day, but after about a week of Johnny vomiting and having diarrhea we started getting concerned because his spells don't usually last this long. We took him to the doctor, and he suggested that these vomiting spells might be caused by a food intolerance. I had never suspected this, I always thought it was because I wasn't paying enough attention to his food and water intake. We took him off of milk for a few days and he had so much energy, but then it started again without warning. The doctor suggested we take him off of gluten and have him tested for celiac disease. The gluten free diet has seemed to help, he seems happier and more energetic than I have seen him in a long time. We will find out the results of the test next week sometime, I hope we can figure this out. I just want my kids to feel healthy and happy.

Hannah's new hobby

While we were school shopping last week, Hannah came upon some cat treats, she was so excited to use them to teach Nikki some tricks.

Lucy's first haircut

Being the fourth and youngest in our family, Lucy sometimes has to experience life withouth a lot of the pomp and circumstance of her older siblings. Today while I was doing her hair I decided it was time to get her long hair out of her eyes. I pulled her hair back and cut her bangs up enough so that they wouldn't hang in her eyes anymore. So here you have it--Lucy's first haircut.

Good old outdoor dusty fun

We have been working on reclaiming the land which will someday be called our yard. We had a nice man with a tractor come and till it all under, it was very hard soil so it was a bit frustrating for him. It kicked up a lot and dust, which the kids have thoroughly enjoyed.

The morning after the yard was all tilled under, Hannah and Johnny decided to make a mural of our family out of dirt. They even included the fish and birds. Johnny wasn't feeling too well in this picture, but I was happy to see he had enough energy to go outside for a while and play. As you can see, Maddie was still enjoying some of her sweet Saturday breakfast cereal.

Cold Stone

John has been wanting to make some Cold Stone ice cream ever since we moved into our house. So the other night we stocked up on some chocolate ice cream and all the fixings and made our dream ice cream cones. We even dipped the waffle cones in chocolate and sprinkles to top it off. The stone wasn't quite cold enough because the ice cream was almost melted by the time it got to our cones, but it was still very tasty.

A new great idea

I have decided to take bribing to a new level. A few days ago I was reading in the Family Fun Magazine about a family who had tried this and it sounded like a fun alternative to our sticker rewards. In the past, our kids would get stickers for doing something very well, being polite or doing something the first time I asked. When they got ten, we would head to the local gas station and get a slurpee. Well, John and I have talked alot about how we want our kids to grow up knowing how to handle money, so I jumped on this opportunity. We have jobs that they can do to earn dad dollars, and when they have earned enough they can cash them in at Mom's Market. Mom's Market supplies fun activities such as: a tent night in the living room, or outside if dad is willing; a craft activity; an extra sweet treat or they can exchange them each for ten cents a peice and we can head to the dollar store. Anyway, so far it has been fun. I have even gotten them to floss their teeth and rinse of their own dishes and put them in the dish washer. the website is www.festisite.com/money

Sisters and cousins

Hands down, my favorite week this summer was when my sister Kathleen came to visit. I love having her around. We had a few adventures with her and her boys. We were able to go to the Oquirrh mountain temple open house (which I didn't bring my camera) to Tree house museum in Ogden, to see the Clydesdale horses at the fair, and swimming. Here are a few pictures of our time together: In front of the Clydesdale horse. By pure luck we discovered that these horses were on display at the fairgrounds. While we were at the tree house museum we ran into one of my old roommates and she told us about them. The kids were very hot and miserable at this time, but the horses were pretty amazing.
Vander using his super brain power to play chess with another willing and able little boy.


This is Maddie's dream come true--to be a princess.

Watching a finger puppet show.

If you have been watching Craig Fergusen lately (a guilty pleasure of ours) you will recognize this puppet. They have about five of them at the museum with their farm display.

What a handsome kid!

And my little Maddie, (please forgive the red-eye here)

Another handsome nephew.

And Johnny, my cute little clown.

We had a bystander take our picture for us here, it is a little blurry, but it is the only picture we have of all of us here.

Island Park with the Ackerman clan

Here are a few of my favorite pictures of our Ackerman Family reunion in July. We had such a fun time, and I feel so lucky to be able to call the Ackermans my family. John, Hannah and Johnny peering into Big Springs. It was very clear, beautiful water.
On our way to see Mesa Falls. Here is John, Maddie and Lucy with a few of my nephews and my sister Amy. Kathleen and Marilyn are in the distance.


Maddie sitting on the porch of the cabin that our family rented.


The ingenuity here makes me laugh.

Big Springs

Lucy enjoying her cone (with no ice cream) at the local ice cream shop.

My mom and niece, Naomi, working on a puzzle.

Maddie, and her cousin, Scott, working on a puzzle. Nothing brings people together like a good puzzle.

Or a good game of checkers.

We had so many fun experiences, John played a game of golf for the first time ever and we were able to see a melodrama together. We had lots of GREAT food and fun visits. We headed home a little early when Johnny and Hannah became sick and sadly missed out on floating down the river, something they were both very unhappy about. Maybe next time.