Happy 5th birthday, Jack!

Our big guy turned 5 last weekend! He had "the best birthday ever!" according to Jack himself. We celebrated on Saturday with a party for some of his friends from school. We invited all of their families, and it was a nice chance to let the kids run around and for us to catch up with their parents. It was a pirate theme, which Jeff and I had fun preparing for. The kids didn't get into it quite as much as we had hoped, but we were still proud of ourselves for pulling it together. On Sunday, which was Jack's actual birthday, we celebrated with a waffle breakfast and a new bike! He has outgrown his balance bike, and we thought it was time he learned how to pedal. The one we bought is slightly too big, but he would have outgrown the next size down by the end of the summer. We've run the risk that he will get frustrated easily with this one, so keep your fingers crossed that he grows quickly this summer! Here are some pictures of his party--I haven't taken any of his bike yet, but it won't be long!

Walking the plank

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle walkie talkies!

Leftover cake on Sunday night and another celebration with family

Earlier this month Jeff and I took a day off work to take Jack skiing at Sundown Mountain in Dubuque. Jack did great! At one point we took him out of the practice area onto a real hill, and it was immediately clear that he was not ready. Jeff and I got mad at ourselves for trying to do too much with Jack too soon, but he was a trooper. After some tears and falls, we made it down. We gave him the choice of quitting then or trying to do more back in the practice area, and he chose to keep going. An hour later, he had mastered the training area and was ready to call it a day with some more hot chocolate! Our only goal for the day was for Jack to have fun so that he would want to go back again next time, and we succeeded. Not sure if we'll get out again this year, but by next year he'll be ready to pick up where he left off.

  

Also last month was Grandma Jane's birthday! She was feeling pretty recovered from her surgery and was just about to have her first round of chemo, so she was ready to celebrate with some cake.

Mid-winter sniffles and blah-dom

We are in the midst of the Iowa-in-February blahs. We are all just fine but feeling a little stir crazy, tired, and sick of being sick! The kids seem to have been sick every weekend for the past few weeks, or maybe just run down, so it feels like we haven't done much of anything. Add to that Nike being really busy at work (and being in Cedar Falls more than usual), Jeff being out of town for a conference, and not seeing Grandma Jane as much as we'd like! Ugh. In the grand scheme of things, it's all fine, but I think we're all ready for a vacation. Hope the mid-winter blues are staying away from your households!

Before Jane's surgery last month, we had a small celebration for Connor's birthday. The boys were thrilled with the Minion cake and blue frosting!

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas and happy new year! We hope you all had wonderful holidays. After a couple of weeks of both kids being sick, we recovered just in time for Christmas weekend. Jeff had to work inpatient at the hospital on Christmas Day and the day after, so we did presents super early. After that, the kids and I enjoyed a lazy day at home with the Fleming side. Then we hosted the extended Fleming and Colgan aunts and uncles on Saturday. It was lovely! There is nothing better than watching the chaos of grandkids opening presents and playing with them all day. We had great family time and lots and lots of yummy food.

Unfortunately, a few days later we learned that Jeff's mom's cancer is back. Here's a link to her blog if you'd like to keep up: janefleming.blogspot.com. The news has been a little easier to take this time since we know what to expect, and we know that her cancer responded really well to the chemo regimen we used last time. Please keep her in your prayers over the next six months.

To finish on a positive note, here are some pics of the kids at Christmas:

Searching for our perfect Christmas tree

It was an exhausting experience

I had a very good helper in the kitchen getting ready for all of our company

Liddy got new headbands in her stocking

Jack was very good at supervising Lydia to make sure she didn't need help unwrapping her gifts. He was just dying to do it for her and, for the most part, showed restraint in letting her do it herself.

Lydia enjoying her new backpack and a new book with Grandpa Bob and Jeff

Pinehurst

In this post, I am thankful for shoulder and elbow surgeons. Not because we have needed them for our own health, but their professional society meets in a fancy location every year, and the shoulder and elbow therapists plan their meetings to coincide. Jeff is a member of ASSET (American Society of Shoulder and Elbow Therapists), and this year he presented at the annual meeting in Pinehurst, North Carolina. It did not disappoint. The location was beautiful, customer service was excellent, and as the tag-along wife, I got to enjoy the spa, the pool, and lots of free time. We took an extra day after the conference to sightsee in the Raleigh-Durham area. We visited Duke in Durham, which has a beautiful campus. A local told us about a brewery in the old tobacco factory district, and it was one of the best meals we ate all weekend. The next day we visited UNC's campus. In contrast to the private school beauty of Duke, it looked more like a public school, albeit one with a lot of history and some very old buildings.

By the time we were done with our campus visits, we were more than ready to get home and see Jack and Lydia! They got to spend the weekend with both sets of grandparents, enjoying Iowa's homecoming festivities without us. This was the first trip we took where Jack was old enough to understand that we were gone and really miss us. After the first day, we mostly texted back and forth because he seemed to get more sad when he heard our voices. The grandmas assured us that the kids were fine once we hung up, so we decided it was better they not hear from us if they didn't need to! All in all, it was a great trip for Jeff and I, as well as a good chance for Jack and Lydia to have some special grandparent time without us around. Thank you, shoulder and elbow surgeons! (And obviously, also a big thank you to our parents for taking care of kids for a long weekend!)

The clubhouse at Pinehurst

The view toward the 18th green of Pinehurst No. 2

Enjoying the Veranda Bar, looking toward the 18th green of Pinehurst No. 2

The Carolina Hotel

Sarah P. Duke Gardens on Duke's campus

 

Chapel at Duke University

Wallace Wade Stadium at Duke (clearly Duke is not a football school!)

Durham Bulls Athletic Park, home of the minor league Durham Bulls

As for the rest of the fall, we've stayed busy going to Hawkeye football games, seeing family, and keeping our family of 4 running! When our plans to visit friends out of town fell through at the last minute, we took the kids to the Wisconsin Dells. They had a blast at the indoor water park at our hotel, and it was a fun get-away. All of the pictures are fuzzy because of the humidity! Uncle Jimmy came home twice in November, and Uncle Scott and Connor were home while we were in Pinehurst and again for Thanksgiving. The kids have had some great cousin and uncle time this fall, and we expect the same over Christmas too! We got our Christmas tree and put up lights last weekend and yesterday. We are getting into the holiday spirit and trying to slow down and breathe as much as possible over the next few weeks. We hope you are able to do the same with your family and loved ones.

Driveway demo

A couple of weeks ago we took on our biggest home improvement project yet, or more accurately, yard improvement project. Our driveway to the unattached garage in the back is narrow along the side of the house and then it widens into a two-car garage. When we bought the house, the cement coming out of the garage wasn't quite wide enough for two cars, and it had a weird angle so that it was hard to back a car out of the right side. We decided that if we were going to park two cars in it for the winter, we needed to have the cement redone in a more practical shape. It was a busy couple of days around our house, but the end result is beautiful (if you can say that about a cement driveway!). It is wide and flat and perfect for cars, but more importantly, it is also perfect for riding bikes and playing basketball. A basketball hoop will be part of next spring's projects. Here are some before and after shots:

Although I didn't get a true "before" picture, most of the area where the dirt is on the right side was an overgrown herb garden and lots of weeds.

Now the driveway is wide and flat coming out of the garage.

The first two pictures are of the corner of the garage, where you can see the cement didn't even span the full width of the right side of the garage before. You can also see the area of rock and weeds where the side garage door is.

Not only did we widen the driveway, but we had them pour cement along the side of the garage as well (thanks for the idea, Grandpa Steve), so now we have a place to park garbage and recycling bins. Because the new cement was higher than the existing yard, so we had to fill in with dirt. Then Jeff spent all of last weekend laying sod to even it out.

Before our demo, the "walkway" from the driveway to the back door was a bunch of broken bricks that were half-buried in the ground. It was an awful tripping hazard for everyone and would have been a nightmare once ice and snow came.

Not so anymore.

The south side of the patio was also overgrown, weedy, and full of old mulch. It is a high traffic area to the backyard, so we didn't want to lay sod but Jeff re-mulched and evened it out, and it looks so much better.

The left side of the driveway and the left side of the garage were also overgrown with weeds, trees, and plants. We tore all of them out and replaced them with rock to clean up the look and eliminate the need to maintain it in the future. I don't really have a good "before" picture of the left side of the drive, but you can see in the last two pictures how clean it looks with the rock there now.

I should clarify that every time I said "we" above, I really meant Jeff. He did so much work to get ready for this project and also to put the finishing touches on afterward. He takes impeccable care of our yard, and the kids and I are so grateful. We also owe a huge thank you to both sets of parents who helped with the manual labor and with childcare while Jeff was tied up outside. I'm not sure we could have pulled off a project like this in Denver. Thank you!!