First Week of Summer- boo it's a sick week!

This picture is actually from last month, but I just discovered it on my phone and I am in love with it so I had to post it!


You know it's summer when you see a scene like this...actually our dog sheds this much everytime I brush him--I'm just having to do it super often and it doesn't stay nice for more than a day. Whenever I am brushing him- I picture myself living in the Andes mountains making sweaters from 'Duke the alpaca.' I swear I really could make sweaters...

Being off together is one thing we have missed over the school year with David's days off being during the week--not much time for going out and doing things together. We are planning on making up for that over the summer!!
Natalie's last two days of school last week were half days, it also happened to be David's day off. So we took Natalie to the new Texas In-N-Out!! She was SO excited- we used to eat there in Arizona and back then she didn't even like hamburgers and never ate bread- but she has good memories of the place. Now that she likes burgers A LOT- it was the perfect treat. She was especially excited because we took Stephen the week before when they first opened and she was in school and missed out.
Later that afternoon we made our second trip of the summer to the pool and had a much better time--but the water was still cold even though it was HOT outside!!

Her lips were as purple as her bathing suit pretty quickly...
But she kept going and was having a blast!
She's starting off right where she left off last year--mermaid spunk still intact!!!


Stephen didn't last long at the pool and was acting like he didn't feel well. That night he woke up with a fever and a yucky, weird cough during the night. So--the next day after Natalie OFFICIALLY finished school-we stayed home instead of doing anything fun! Later the night while David was at work the poor little guy ran a 105.3 fever and I was pretty sure his cough was croup--he sounded like a seal. I took him to urgent care and he was the BEST little patient ever. So cute and well mannered and did everything they asked without getting upset--including a blood draw from his arm. It was croup so we were homebound...
Of course Natalie & I got sick too (even though I was sick three days the week before and pretty sure I was the one who got little guy sick in the first place) so we spent a lot of the week in pajamas!!
That was perfect for The Colonel who can't get enough of pajamas!! He is so in love with wearing pj's- for months now he will change into three or four different pair of pajamas per day. He wants to wear them out and prefers them over clothes a lot of the time. I'm not sure if it is because they are more comfortable or just cuter--he of course has superhero ones that are his FAVS--so that might be it!
Eating peanuts and hanging out together...
Love that smile! He seems to love to pull out random hats and wear those too.
One afternoon we spent hours doing stickers...an old favorite past time of Natalie's since she was itty bitty. Stephen loves it too and they had a ball. That led to tatoo's...
Tatoo's are always a fun way to brighten the day!
The white board made an entire afternoon fun--but there was some drama... You see the line down the middle- Stephen is such a tease and thinks it's so funny to upset Natalie. He kept erasing all of her words so the line was drawn down the middle--isn't that such a sibling thing? I love The Colonel's little duck...
Writing in spanish--now we just need to get her to speak more!

I have had a turkey in the freezer since New Year's Eve--never got around to cooking it. I thought it would be fun to cook it for the end of school...
My helper!
It made a sick day a special one...
Natalie developed a full body allergic reaction during the week too--she had an itchy, bumpy rash all over her legs, arms, face, and ears. It got worse than this and was VERY itchy. Since it was at the same time as having fevers she went to the doctors to make sure it wasn't a strep rash or something weird. The doctor said she maybe got a bug bite (Nat thought she had a mosquito bite) and for some reason had this allergic reaction to it. So weird and the poor thing was SO itchy even with all the benadryl.
The ear was probably the most itchy and even though the steroid cream helped her arms and legs it only temporarily helped her face and ears. We ended up giving her an oral steroid that the doctor prescribed in case she got too uncomfortable and it helped VERY quickly! Good old steroids--Stephen was on them too for his croup and he has had some rough days with his temper!! Before Nat got sick I had no idea steroids killed Leukemia & Lymphoma cancer cells but everyone will say they are one of the worst parts of treatment!! I've always had a love-hate relationship with steroids:) But wow, they sure worked fast and helped that cough and rash--wonder drugs!!

One highlight of the week was the family movie we watched.

David was flipping channels and the Princess Bride was on. Such a classic movie-both of us loved it as kids. David remembers that is the first movie he went to in the theater with just him and his Mom, so that is special. David always likes to quote lines from things and that movie is a classic one to quote.

Well, David let the kids watch it with him for a few minutes--it just happened to be the sword fighting scene and Stephen was ENTHRALLED!! Natalie was totally into the movie too. But David decided he wanted them to watch it from the beginning- so despite the protests he turned it off and found a viewing to record a few days later.

It was a bit of a drama though...the kids looked forward to it for days and when we finally sat down to watch it--just as it was getting to the start of the climax the recording stopped. Some random, weird error!! So we had to wait several days more for another one to be on...the kids chose to watch it from the beginning again and were so happy to finally see the entire thing. It was something fun to look forward to since we didn't go out with being sick!
So cute, hiding during an intense scene!

This is Stephen watching the sword fighting scene with his 'magic pen.'

This is SO cute and sweet- I love that his is making up songs like his sister. And how does this not melt a mother's heart?