The Grove Bowl

John and I ran in the Opening Eyes for Autism 5k Friday night.  Our friend Jessica runs an Autism program and we ran with her group.  I have not attempted to even jog since November of 2011 (when I was newly pregnant with Brody), so I made John run with me.  =)

Hanging out with Allison and Jessica before the race.  All the females in their group wore tutus. 

We survived!!!  We all ran together at the beginning for a bit, then me and Allison kept running/walking.  But more importantly, we beat all the guys.  

Me and Jessica at the after party.  

Some of the group that ran with The Angel Program.

We had a great time and I am so glad we did it, but boy my legs are sore today!  Some of our girlfriends are running another race in May so maybe this will jumpstart me to get back to running during the week!  

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We had planned to go to The Grove Bowl in Oxford today.  It has been a while since John and I went to the spring game and once we saw the weather was going to be nice, it was a done deal.  We unfortunately decided not to bring Brody.  It was going to be kind of a long day of being outside, and especially with him being on antibiotics and trying to get over this mess, we thought it was better.  It turned out to be a good idea because it was very warm and we all got a little too much sun. 

This was the best picture we could get before we left...I promise Mason was actually laughing here.   (Brody was asleep...he slept a lot while we were gone) 

We got there a couple of hours early so we could enjoy the day.  We ate at Oby's (one of my all time favorite places) and stuffed our faces with some good ole fried food.

(Mason being a little silly here)

We got our picture in front of the Walk of Champions.  =)

We brought a football to throw around in the Grove before the game, but I had no idea what Ole Miss had set up.  Mason was in heaven!  It was very much a fun family event and it was perfect.  Mason kicked his shoes off and had a blast.  

We did throw the football around for a bit and then got some new gear from the Ole Miss bookstore.  We all got new shirts and Mason a hat....he wore it the rest of the day. 

Just scouting out the players.  

Mason was a trooper.  It was hot and he was so tired before we even got to Oxford, but you wouldn't have known it.  He fell asleep as soon as John started the car to head home.

I was glad to see this little guy when we got back.  He is feeling much better!  

He was just glad to find his paci here.  =)

We ended the night with some crawfish.  There was a little stand sat up near our house we saw when we were on our way home.  They said they will be there the rest of the summer.

It is that time of year again.  =)

Sick Baby

Twinkies before the Trike-A-Thon.  Mason was pretty pumped they had the same shirt on.

They sent us some pictures of the fun event.  Mason was only one of two kids with a battery operated ride.  They said he had the time of his life just riding by everyone.  He did 20 laps.  He did run out of a little juice at the end, and apparently started yelling at the teachers that his battery died.  

We have had a great week of weather (besides the rain all day today).  We did a lot of grilling out and playing outside this week.  We are all a lot happier when we aren't stuck inside this house.

Brody had been a little fussy for a couple of nights, but woke up pretty upset Tuesday morning.  Instantly, I could tell he was running a fever.  We decided John would go on and take him to the early morning walk-in clinic.  He has ear infections and was put on Augmentin, thinking that maybe the last ones never healed.  Well the next night was even worse!  He was up from about midnight to 5:00am.  Here he was around 3:00, I gave him a little juice to try to cool him down because he was radiating heat.  =(

Mason was able to get a few smiles...but not much.

Bros

 We kept alternating Tylenol and Advil, sent him to Pat's house thinking surely he would feel better after 3 doses of antibiotics.  But she called around 4 and said his fever was 102.9 and continuing to rise even after more meds.  So back to the doctor we went last night.  He was one sick little boy.  It was pitiful.  

But after drawing blood from his finger, flu test, and a Rocephin shot we were back at home.  We got home so late and this little guy was exhausted.   (notice how sweaty and red he is...that darn fever!)

 She said she thinks the fever wouldn't break with medicine, because he possibly got a tiny bit of pneumonia on top of the ears.  But his blood counts were low enough that if so, the Rocephin shot would wipe it away, not to mention get control of the ear infections.  That shot was horrible.  They actually had to split it into two shots because he is so small.  =(

But here he was this morning!  The stuff was like magic...he slept all night.  He has run a low grade fever all day but we will take it.  

Mason has been so worried about Brody.  He has given him all kinds of stuffed animals to "make him feel better and make him smile."  I think he was just as excited as Brody that he felt better.  

Here we are playing in Mason's room after baths.  Much better.  =)

Trike-A-Thon

This is how our Saturday morning started out.  

When your boys go to bed at the normal hour and John and I stay awake to watch the Grizzlies game played in LA (late late late)...Mom and Dad are tired in the morning.  The boys woke up at 6:30.  I let John sleep and put cartoons on.  I guess John caught me sleeping when he walked in a little later.  =)

Apparently they were quiet and content with the cartoons if I was sleeping.

John and I took turns doing yard work Saturday morning.  Mason had a birthday party to go to at noon.

He is entertaining Brody in this picture and it is obviously working.  

We went to Finn's 3rd birthday party.  He is in Mason's class, but I was also good friends with his mom in high school.  It was at Kids Play in Germantown, and it is now my new favorite place.  It is awesome.  We will be coming back on rainy days.  Brody was wishing he was playing, so we promised we would bring him back when he was old enough.

They stopped playing for a minute and had pizza.

Mason and the birthday boy.  

Mason and his partner in crime at school, Aiden S.

Mason and his other partner in crime, Aiden.  (we know tons of Aidens!)

Unfortunately, the party was cut short.  The birthday boy had a pretty scary medical emergency and had to be taken to the hospital.  Definitely one of the scariest moments of my life, so I can't imagine being a parent.  Fortunately, he seems to be doing okay now.  There were a lot of prayers for that little guy last night.  

I will say, none of the other kids really knew what was going on, which was great.  The staff continued letting them all play (and played with them to help distract).  

We decided to grab Mellow Mushroom for dinner.

Mason was sitting next to me, and John was with Brody.  Well Mason decided he wanted to sit on the other side.  I was all by myself.

 Mason entertained Brody the entire dinner and even helped by giving him Puffs.  He was very helpful over there.  

We had much more yard work to do today, so we headed out to Home Depot.  We ended up getting front and back yards cleaned up well, all the flower beds, and even planted new flowers and bushes.  Successful weekend, but my arms and legs are already sore. 

I got some Parsley and Cilantro.  We will see if I can keep it alive.  

Mason has his Trikathon for St. Jude tomorrow at school.  We were going to use his Big Wheels, thinking that surely he has grown enough to be able to make a couple of laps at the event.  But his little legs are still having such a problem peddling the thing!  He also has his bike he got at Christmas, but the chain broke and John is gonna need help fixing it.  

Here we are giving it a whirl.  (notice his decorations on the helmet)

We took a break from riding (so John and I could figure out what in the world we were going to do) and Brody was hungry.  Mason wanted to help (although Brody can do it himself).  But hey, if he wants to him, he can go right ahead.  =)

We decided to go with his little 4-wheeler.   I'm not even sure if it is legal, but I hope it works.  It was either this, or he was going to get really upset that his Big Wheel wasn't going anywhere.  Mason helped me hang the streamers. 

Star of the Week

It was Mason's turn to be Star of the Week at school.  He had been looking forward to it for a while.  We worked on his poster last weekend and had it ready to go Monday morning.  Ms. Williams prints us out a layout and we just color, add writing, and photos.  It was fun listening to all of Mason's answers.

*His favorite color is red.

*He likes to eat cheeseburgers, chicken, mac n cheese, any fruit, and he lives on PB&Js.

*Favorite book is Wacky Wednesday by Dr. Seuss.

*Dislikes: spiders, snakes, the Crocodile in Peter Pan, pickles, taking naps

*When he grows up he wants to be a Super Hero. (in particular...Spider Man)

*Really good at: being a big brother, running, being silly, Angry Birds, picking on my brother.
*Hobbies: playing with cars, t-ball, soccer, putting stickers everywhere.

 He was pretty excited with the finished project.  Monday morning, he got to show it to all his friends at school and explain everything.  He got to be line leader all week, start the prayers, pick out books and toys for the class.   

Tuesday we made it to my office first thing in the morning.  He is three and a half (almost) and definitely ready for the dentist!  I was kind of excited and a tad nervous at the same time.  He did absolutely perfect and was the best little patient.  Best of all, he had no cavities and I think we are doing a pretty good job brushing if I do say so myself.  Now he keeps saying, "Dr. Henry said to keep my fingers out of my mouth!"  (but he is still sucking them)

He was pretty funny while we were there.  Every time someone came in to talk to him, he would say "Hey, my name is Mason and I am three."  My friend Leann stepped in the room to see how he was doing and he told her his mommy was pretending to be a doctor.  Ha

But he left happy and with a ton of stickers.  He also picked out a toy for him and Brody.  I would call it a success!

After his appointment, I dropped him off back at school.  Since he was Star of the Week, I went and read to his class.  We read Dumbo and they loved it.  I ended up finding some great books at the Dollar Store and handed them out to the kids.  Mason said he picked out Dumbo because he loved the ride at Disney. 

 I will admit, I was a little nervous about reading...but when I got there, I told myself I was reading to a bunch of three year olds.  They would have no idea if I messed up and certainly didn't care.  It was fun and I am glad I did it.  Mason was very proud.  =)

I had to made a cake for a lady I work with.  She got into hygiene school and we threw her a little party.  I was in charge of dessert.  I made a homemade angel food cake with cream cheese icing.  Let me tell you, an angel food cake is some serious baking!  Fortunately, it turned out really good.  I ended up cutting it into the shape of a tooth.  

On that note...we are trying to eat healthier these days.  I'm trying to "clean eat" and we are liking it.  It isn't too hard at all, but we are having to eat out much less (of course this is not a bad thing for the checkbook).  Lots of cooking going on in the Brower house.  

But to be even crazier, I bought a juicer.  Several people I work with have one and live by it.  I will say, the drinks are not bad at all and if it fills me up all morning (not to mention getting an enormous amount of nutrients from veggies/fruit), I think we can stick to it.  It does seem to give you much more energy.

Mason had soccer tonight.  It did not go too well.  He is having such a hard time during the scrimmages.  He is fine with practice, but when it comes time to run after the ball (and someone else getting to it first) , or someone knocking him down, or basically anything, he gets so upset.  We shall see how the rest of the season goes...

 ***there were a couple of kids out there who were fighting (an actual punch was thrown) so it could be worse! =)***

Then we get home and this little guy was all over the place.  He has figured out how to get in the crawling position VERY well now.  He can go backwards, and almost forward.  He can also get into the sitting position from there now.  Can't believe this little baby is moving.  =(

It is going to be a beautiful weekend!!!!  I couldn't even remember what the sun looked like before today.  I see a lot of yard work and outdoor time this weekend! =)