My new trick!

Zachary can walk behind his push toy now! He goes in a straight line and when he runs into something he looks at you like, "what do I do now?!"

Ear muffs

I LOVE that Aidan calls these ear muffs!

Update on Zachary's poor ears. 6 days into his antibiotic it was determined that it was not working as the infection is worse. We have changed antibiotics and are praying that it works this time! His poor poor ears (and his poor poor parents-it has been a long weekend).

Racing like the pros

After watching a little Nascar, Aidan set up all of his cars around the coffee table like they were in a race. Of course, when asked who was winning, he said, "Rust-eze Medicated Bumper Ointment Lighting McQueen!"

Razorbacks!

We often get onto Aidan for doing more singing at dinner than eating, but we thought this was too cute!

Affirmative

I took Zachary to the doctor and he had an ear infection in both ears. The doctor actually said that his ears looked gnarly! He is back on antibiotics and seems to be getting better.

The haircut and Van Lear ears

This is Aidan's new haircut! He is pretty cute and not been mistaken for a girl (by the little old ladies at walmart) since the haircut. To see the difference refer back to the last post.

This is some pictures of Zachary I took outside. I realized, after I downloaded them, that half of him were of him pulling his ears. Hmmm...he has been fussy.

Cute new pictures

There is really no theme with this post. We have taken some cute new pictures lately and wanted to share them! Zachary is almost 11 months old and is very mobile. He is not walking yet but he a crawling machine and very quick! Aidan got a big boy haircut last week and has had rave reviews on it. (Thanks, Jennifer!) I don't have any pictures posted of the new haircut yet. FEMA is here in Springdale picking up sticks for the next six weeks or so. Aidan thought it was fabulous that they had all of their machines picking up sticks in our neighborhood. We were late to preschool that day so we could watch them clean up the block!

Breakfast time!

We love breakfast time at our house.

Oh, the sickness

We are tired of all of the sickness in our house. It is really only the boys that are sick, but it is getting old and we are ready for warmer weather. Zachary is on is second round of antibiotics for an ear infection and Aidan got an ear infection for the first time since he had tubes put in. Aidan was running a fever last Sunday and we had bought tickets for Bob the Builder Live at the Walton Arts Center months ago. We gave him Motrin and went anyway. He had a good time but was a lot less chipper than the other children there! Because he was sick he did not ask for the absurdly priced Bob the Builder toys that were for sale!

Let the clean up begin!

Darren and Robin came to our house last weekend (after we got power) and helped Jake clean up our yard using chain saws. We are going to be picking up sticks for some time and are still wondering if one of our trees is going to survive. We are warm and safe though! We did not have any house damage either. Anyone need firewood??!

"Ice Storm 2009"

We have officially survived the natural disaster now know as "Ice Storm 2009." Its seems everyone here has their own story about how this week panned out for them. Our week went like this: We were told we were going to probably lose power due to the nasty ice falling out of the sky and we kinda thought, "nawww, not us!" Well, we lost power at 11 am on Tuesday and the coldness started. We decided to tough it out, Aidan had fun with flashlights, we played games, as we kept adding layers. Jake looked into a generator when we realized this was going to be a problem for awhile and we found out those things cost $800+! We ate some cold cooked chicken and an apple for dinner with flashlights. Zachary was diagnosed with an ear infection the day before so he was fussy, confused, and on drugs. Zachary went to bed in a snowsuit and slept the best out of all of us. Aidan wet his bed and woke up shivering and crying. We had to completely change his clothes and his bed (and had no way to do laundry) at 2:30 am with flashlights. After asking him all day if he was cold, he said "Daddy, I am starting to get cold now!" All night we heard loud crashes of trees breaking from the 1.5 inches of ice on each twig. We went to bed with our house being 58 degrees and woke up with it being 51 degrees. We had had enough and called our friends, Nick and Emily, to see if they had power. We were not the only refugees at the Ogles. At one point there were 9 adults, 7 children (4 years to 3 months), and 2 dogs trying to get home. This part was enjoyable with hot showers, hot coffee, and hot pancakes! We stayed at the Ogles for two nights. On the last day, we put all of the clothes we had brought into the washing machine and right about when the cold water filled the machine, the power went out at their house. Luckily, the power came back on three hours later (the Ogles say they had power because they live across the street from a nursing home). At one point while we were there, Aidan was played with a battery powered toy. I asked why it was not working when he pushed the buttons, and he simply said, "because it does not have electricity!" On Friday, Jake went to our house to work on some tree damage. Not long after being there, power returned to our house and we could not have been happier. We packed up our things and headed home. We looked for food to salvage in the deep freezer. It seems some things will be a waste, but not the frozen breastmilk bags that I made sure to bring to the Ogle's freezer! (It is golden and cannot be replaced!) Saturday, Darren and Robin came to help us clean up our yard and get our lives put back together. This was a huge help! We are not ready to do this again anytime soon but will not soon forget it. There are still thousands here without electricity and we feel blessed to be sitting in a warm house with lights on! It will be a long time before our town looks normal again but people are working hard to clean it up.

Hanging out with Daddy