Easter from afar!

My mom and dad sent the boys "Easter Baskets" in the mail and they came today! The boys were super excited about all there fun toys, candy and money!

Thanks Nana and Papa Jackson!

Easter at the Squadron

David's Squadron had their Annual Easter Dinner/Egg Hunt and it was lots of fun! The food was delicious and the company was even better! The kids had a blast! This is the first year Matthew really got to go on a "hunt" and it didn't take him long to get the idea! Then he realized there was CANDY in those eggs! SCORE! He was taking the candy out and trying to eat it wrapper and all! Thanks to all the Ravens who did such a wonderful job planning and preparing!

They were READY for some fun!

This was a HUGE hit! They had a professional face painter! Jackson was a bunny (check out his carrot finger)

and Matthew a puppy!

And the Easter Bunny made an appearance! Matthew was all over him - I was kind of surprised!

On to the Egg Hunt.....Jackson was FAST!

It didn't take Matthew long to figure out this game!

He finally decided to carry his basket!

Look at all those eggs!

Mommy even decided to get her face painted!

Another Zoo Day

I do love our zoo! We are starting to take advantage of the year pass now that the weather is warming up! You can tell it is Spring there also because there are LOTS of babies being born! We saw baby ducks and this new baby chimp! S/He was very playful putting on quite the show for us! Word was that a new baby giraffe was born just this morning, so I hope we can see it in the next week or so!

Jackson and this monkey were having a staring contest!

Oh and Matthew was able to feed the giraffe this time! He LOVED it! I think this is all of our favorite part of the zoo!

Nothing is much cuter

than my little ones in there rain boots! Note: on this day there was no rain and it was in the 80s! Wowza!

Bumps, redness and itching - oh my!

Matthew has been dealing with some allergies lately: runny nose, itchy eyes, sneezing and coughing, but I have been letting it pass hoping it would go away after Spring.

Then we played with some friends all Saturday morning - outside, in the water, play, play, play! That night I didn't notice anything unusual as I bathed and dressed him for bed, but Sunday morning I woke to a BIG surprise. He was covered partially in little red bumps. It was mostly the back of his legs, a little on his arms and on his belly. I thought we just got hit with another eczema flare after months of thinking he was over it. So I put his steroid cream on him and made him wear pants to help with the scratching.

With talking with some other moms of kids with allergies and eczema and doing a little research of my own I felt really sure that we had an eczema flare due to the pollen/allergies outside.

I called Monday morning was was able to get him into the clinic early afternoon. I felt sure he needed to be on some type of allergy med - even though I had postponed it as long as I could.

So here they are - waiting on the Doc....being pacified with lollipops!!

The Doc was WONDERFUL! He listened to my concerns and I gave him a rundown of his symptoms, ect. But when he looked at him he didn't think it looked like true eczema, but more of a contact dermatitis caused by allergies. Great! He also said it was going to be a trial and error thing with treatment though b/c he is most likely allergic to tree pollen which is out now. He said summer is more of the grass pollen, fall is a different pollen, and winter is usually dust mites/dogs,/cats, etc. So Matthew is on Zyrtec once a day now. If in 2 weeks all symptoms are better, then continue through June. I can take him off if I want and see how he does....maybe he will just have springtime allergies. But if it turns out he is very allergic all year round we can keep him on the Zyrtec if need! Let's just hope he doesn't have an allergy to dogs! :( I guess a lot of kids don't even start to develop allergies until they are about 2 years old.

So here is the back of his little leg - taken this morning. Believe me it already looks better!

And while at the Doc I asked him if I could get some more eczema cream just in case and he said SURE! Pictured below is what he prescribed (in the jar). The little one is what we were given before. Wowza! I think we have enough eczema cream for all of Kansas!

My new favorite thing!

I have been looking at this table and chairs for a while now and I do love them so much! SO I decided I deserved them and I bought them this past week! My front porch has been bare for over a year and this set just completes it! Now if only my boys (well Jackson) would sleep in some, so I could enjoy my morning coffee out here - that would be great and a miracle!

Book Worms!

Jackson wanted his brother to lay down with him and read books! How sweet are they!

I love that Matthew has his book upside down! And I LOVE that they LOVE books!