Sick, Sick, Sick

The best picture we could get at our annual outing at Oak Openings. Pretty bad, we know.

Joseph on Halloween. He screamed bloody murder when we tried to put on his costume, obviously he won and wore his jammies to greet trick or treaters.

This is the first year Andrew picked out his own costume and he chose to be a race car driver. Stunning. We were trying for Star Wars but he wanted nothing to do with it.

Well, the last three weeks have been a whirlwind of sickness in our house. We've taken the last 3 weeks and passed around the most awful cold. As of right now Mommy is the only one left with it. She has had it the longest and quite a bit more severe than everyone else. Better than us boys being worse off! We've been keeping busy enjoying our Indian summer and now we're getting ready for the Holidays! Mom is feeling very festive this year so it should be a good one! We hope you are all doing well!!! Enjoy the pictures!

Love Ya!

Andrew and Joseph

Great Quotes, You can't make this stuff up

"Poops are fun and stinky" Andrew Snowden
"I like farts, farts are fun" Andrew Snowden
"My peepee is big" Andrew Snowden

Can't wait to hear what comes out of Mo's mouth!

We're still alive!

For all of you out there that think we've disappeared, we're back! Just a little tidbit for tonight but mom will put in the full update sometime soon. We've had a busy summer with the kitchen and hurricane ike. We went and got our pumpkins today so you get fun pictures of all of that!

Love Ya!

Andrew and Joseph

More pictures!

Swimming with papa; sticking out the Simon tongue!
We're on our way to the ball game!!! Go Orioles!
Our little Ham!
After the big win! With an excited looking Uncle James in the background!
All 7 boys out to lunch!

We're Back!!!

Three candles and an ice cream cake covered in sprinkles!
Chillin' with uncle Chris!
The Big 3!!!
Little boys love cupcakes!
Water lovin' boys!

Sorry we've been gone so long. Things have been pretty hectic since we started our kitchen remodel. Mommy is sooooo ready to be done! Thanks for all the birthday wishes! We don't have too much to say today, but I'm making mommy post lots of pictures for you all while Mo is sleeping!!!! Hope you're all having a great summer!
Love Ya!
Andrew

A quick add on!

Mo's hospital room was right down the hall from the oncology wing. Seeing those poor children with cancer reminded us to tell everyone to register with the national bone marrow donor registry. Right now they are sending out their registration kits for free. Just go to their website, http://www.marrow.org/ it doesn't even take 5 minutes!!!! I got my kit in the mail about 3 days after I registered on the website and it took less than 5 minutes to complete! They especially need people from varied ethnic backgrounds.
Just imagine if it was your child who had cancer and bone marrow could possibly save their life. Wouldn't you want everyone possible to be registered?!
The Mom

Like a very bad dream....

The mommy didn't get to shower or do her hair, do not fault her for this. All of the cords hanging off of the little boy are his IV, his heart monitor and pulse ox.
Who every thought a bottom sticking out of a hospital gown could be this cute!


Today we get a little story...


Once upon a time (Friday), a little boy woke up happy as can be. This little boy (Mo) woke up as he usually does in the morning, smiling and talking, excited to meet a new day. It was this boy's mom's first of 4 days off in a row. Much was planned for the weekend. They had some shopping to do, lots of cooking, a bbq, finalizing plans for a new kitchen, the boy's dad had a tee time for golf....big, big plans for the days off. But...the little boy began to not feel so well. After breakfast he became grumpy and was inconsolable. He reluctantly went down for his nap. When he woke up from his nap his crib was full of vomit. He had woken up and vomited in 3 different places in his crib and then layed down and went back to sleep. Apparently not long before he woke b/c the stench was fresh (in case you don't know it is a very foul smell). There was vomit in his hair and all over his clothes. So the boy got a bath in the middle of the day. The boy was not happy about the bath, that is how the mom knew something was wrong b/c the boy always loves a bath. The boy's mom thought he might just have the stomach bug that was going around so she decided to keep an eye on him and call the doctor in the morning if things hadn't improved. The boy's dad came home from work early and they hunkered down for a long afternoon of vomit and sleep and vomit and sleep. The poor boy didn't even have the energy to cry. And he only wanted his mom (the mommy likes that feeling) and nothing to do with his dad. So the dad took over the big brother and the mom dealt with vomit and a sleeping baby boy. After trying fluids a couple of times the boy was able to keep down a couple of sips of pedialyte before bed and the mommy and dad were very relieved and thought the worst must be over. Then they went to bed. The next morning the dad tried to let the mom sleep in and got up with the boy. But moments later a very concerned daddy woke the mom to look at the little boys diaper and there was blood in it. Not a good sign, the mommy and daddy both know this. The boy had woken in a good mood and daddy had thought that everything was golden, but he soon became lethargic again (while mommy was walking down the stairs). Then mommy looked in the boy's crib at the vomit the daddy saw when he got the boy up. And there was more blood. An ever worse sign. so the mommy brushed her teeth and threw some clothes on and drove very quickly, but very safely to Dayton Children's Hospital. Once there an xray was done and it showed that the boy had and intususseption (the mommy is not sure exactly how that is spelled, sorry). Basically the boys intestines were telescoping into each other and creating a very bad situation. The daddy found out later that this could have killed the little boy in just 3 days if it hadn't been found. That really scared the daddy. The doctor told the mommy and daddy there was one thing they could try and if it worked the little boy would not have to go to emergency surgery. The mommy and daddy desperately wanted to avoid surgery. So the interventional radiologist (a very nice and very inteligent woman who deserves every penny of the probably half a million dollars she makes yearly) gave the little boy and air enema under flouroscopy (the mommy is afraid of what that bill will look like). And thankfullly (hallelujia, praise Jesus, thank you God), it worked to un-telescope the little boys intestines and he did not have to go to surgery. He did have to stay in the hospital overnight to make sure his intestines stayed where they were supposed to. Then, he finally got to go home. The mommy and daddy are so releived to have the little boy home, safe and sound. And can now just pretend it was all just a very bad dream.


The End.

Mother's Day, From the Mom!

Well, as we all know yesterday was Mother's day. I hope everyone called their mom! The weather was pretty nast here, rain and thunderstorms all day. Scott and the boys were not supposed to get me any gifts since I'm getting a kitchen, but they didn't listen! My day started with breakfast in bed, yum! For my gift we went and had our family pictures taken (something I have been talking about since Joseph was born!) The pictures turned out great!!! Probably the best ones we've ever taken. They would have been a lot better if my hair had cooperated! We'll get them posted soon! Then we went out to lunch and shopped around the mall a bit. I almost bought some jewelry but refrained myself until I can find exactly what I want. I don't want to settle for a piece that I just like. After we got home I got the best present every! Both of the boys took a 2 hour nap, AT THE SAME TIME!!!!! Then a trip to the gym and takeout for dinner. All in all, quite a good day! Today we're going for Andrew's piano lesson. Hopefully it goes as well as last week! We're hoping we'll get our piano this week, just have to get in synch with movers and such.
Hope everyone had a great day! We'll keep everyone updated on all of our project progress!
The mom!

***We're thinking of you Mimi!

Note from the mom!

Today was Andrew's first piano lesson! Miss Linda is his teacher, she lives right down the road and has been teaching piano for a long time. She has great experience in teaching young children! We went today for a trial lesson, to see if Andrew was ready yet. I was a little worried that she would think he is just too young. But, the lesson went well, Andrew enjoyed himself and surprised us a few times. Miss Linda says she would be happy to take him on as a student! I was sooo glad she thought that he did well and was ready to start. She had told us from the beginning that she would be straight forward and let us know if he was not yet ready. But she was very impressed!! Yeah! We're hoping this will help to reign him in a little bit with his wild tendencies! After his lesson we took advantage of the Momo free time and got Andrew's hair cut. He now has a faux-hawk. Too cute! What a big day for my little boy!
Final word came from the bank today for our kitchen remodel, we will sign our home equity loan papers on Thursday and finally get all of this work started. Right now we're in the process of trying to find a contractor and make some actual decisions. We'll be so glad when this is all done! We're hoping to keep our costs down by doing as much work ourselves as possible. We'll see how well that works......
Yesterday we finished off our raised beds with the new landscaping stone. What an amazing difference it makes! It was a lot of hard work but we were so glad we did it! The next day body aches could be done without though.......
On to the next project(s).
Hope everyone is doing well. We are looking forward to a great summer and lots of fun!
The Mom

Little Boys Updated

Hello everyone!! I'm sure you've all been missing us! We've been keeping mom busy testing her patience....you know, all the things little boys do! We've been working hard on our yard for the past couple of weeks! Mommy started planting early, but she couldn't resist!! Thankfully no frost or freeze so far! We'll be safe on May 15!! We put in a shade garden under the magnolia tree. A new sun garden went in on the side of the house. Our new herb and strawberry garden is currently in progress. Mommy dug it all out, but the plants still need to go into the ground. Mommy says maybe we won't put them in at all b/c they are doing soooo well in their little containers! We also started filling in our already existing flower beds and have started switching everything out to landscaping stone! This is the year for our yard!!! We'll post pictures soon! We have had a lot of fun playing in the dirt and making mud with the hoses! We've been blessed with beautiful weather so far, just a couple of cold days!!! It's been great.
Right now mommy is talking to contractors to remodel the kitchen!!!!! We were hoping to wait till next year, but we can't put it off any longer! We're very excited, but it is a pain! We'll update when we have some finalized decisions. As of right now all mommy says is that we are gutting the kitchen. Whatever that means!
Mommy is posting some pictures of our recent trip to the zoo! What fun we had!!
Hope everyone is doing well!!! We'll chat at ya later!
Love Ya!
Andrew and Joseph
***We're thinking of you Mimi! We hoping you're feeling "better". Call us if you need anything!

Better Late than Never!

Mo on his new tractor!!!!!
Quality time with the pups....
Birthday boy!!!!
Chuck E Cheese!!!!!
Brotherly love, Andrew feeding Mo his birthday cake.
Mo turned one!! Yeah for MoMo!!! We had a great time at Chuck E Cheese. Mom says it should show us how much she loves us that she took us there! We had a great time playing and seeing everyone. Mo was still a litle under the weather, but did well. We also got our pictures taken and went to see Uncle John on his visit to Columbus. We had quite a busy week!! We hope everyone is doing well!!!
Love Ya!
Andrew and Joseph

you can see our pics at searphotos.com login kimberly.simon@sbcglobal.net password mouthers

Clarification from The Mom

Maybe we weren't clear. We're not pregnant!!!!!!! And even if we were we would not EVER have a girl. We think someone we know is pregnant, but have not been told yet. That's all we meant, nothing more to read into that one!
Also, we like Aunt Amy's birthday ideas, much potential there.
Love Ya!
The Mom

From the mom

Ok, so we all know a certain someone (Mo) turns the big 1 pretty soon (like 8 days!!!!!). What's a mother to do?? We need some kind of birthday plan (this is kind of an important one, don't you think?!). Normally we would have a little party here on the homestead, but I'm really not feeling it this year, for multiple reasons.
#1 would have to seriously clean the house, and of late am way to lazy for that
#2 the kitchen of the house is a bit (detect sarcasm here, bit should be some exorbitant amount) embarrassing, really don't want anyone seeing said kitchen if they don't HAVE to
#3 not sure many will make it this time around, Chelle will be oot, Grandparents Simon at a baseball game on the EAST COAST, Kidders are crazy busy this time of year, brothers Simon far, far away
#4 am working extra the day before the birthday (want money to remodel embarrassing kitchen)
#5 two large dogs, very large dogs, like to bark, a lot, want food off of table in embarrassing kitchen, I could go on and on (we LOVE our pups! except for the dad, he wants them gone but boys and mom get too much joy even with the barking and sometimes stinking and snoring, could go on and on here too)
So, any ideas folks???
Would appreciate ideas sooner than later!
Love Ya!
The Mom
**on a positive note, birthday pictures will be coming!!!!! i know everyone is dying for new pictures!!!!
***also, we think someone we know is pregnant. fess up already! inquiring minds want to know these things (it's an excuse to go shopping that the dad can't argue with)

Hippity Hop!

The Bunny!

Playing at the mall a couple of weeks ago
I'm king of the world!
Flashlight egg hunt
Mo lost his clothes!
Waffle blocks, what fun, what fun!

Well, Easter has come and gone. :( We had a great time though! We got to go see our cousins, Jared and Josh, and Grandma and Grandpa Simon and Jen and James, and Great Grandma Simon.....the list goes on and on. Mommy and Daddy took me to flashlight egghunt! (It was after Mo's bedtime) What a good time! I found lots of eggs with my flashlight and they all had candy in them!!! That was just what I needed at 9pm, sugar! We had a lot of fun, but we're pretty tired. Hope everyone is doing well! Mommy has posted some pictures for those of you going through withdrawal. We will try to post more soon and let everyone know what we're up to!

Love Ya!

Andrew and Joseph

Resting Up!

First time on the Metro!
Happy boy in the rainforest at the aquarium

Family photo op!
Waving to the dolphins!


We're back from vacation and just trying to rest and recover. We had a great time. We got to see all the sites in D.C., did some great shopping, went to the air and space museum and hit up the aquarium, and spent lots of time with the family. We all came home sooo exhausted! But it was a lot of fun! Enjoy the pics!
Happy Birthday Beth! We hear 7 is a great number!!!!
Love Ya!
Andrew and Joseph

The Great Flood; Big Steps!

So much has been going on here we don't even know where to begin! On Monday our sump pump decided to die, right when the endless monsoon came. We had about 2 inches of water in our basement. It was not fun. Mommy and daddy spent lots of time clearing out all of our destroyed belongings, taking all the laundry that was in the basement to the laundromat, ordering new carpet (not the way mommy wanted to go about getting new carpet!) and just generally trying to pick up all the pieces. They just keep saying it could have always been worse. I don't really know about that. The house was pretty stinky for awhile and there are boxes of stuff everywhere in the house! We can't wait until it's done. Mommy and daddy are going to make the basement into a big play/media room for the two of us so that will be great!

On a much happier note Mo is walking! He decided to take his first walking steps yesterday (for daddy, of course). Now he is trying to master the whole thing. His greatest setback right now is that he gets sooo excited when he walks and tries to run and falls after about 5 steps, but it is progress! Mom has uploaded a couple of pictures of us for everyone going through withdrawal. We'll keep you updated on the basement progress!

Love Ya!

Andrew and Mo

Near Death Experience....

Tonight my life flashed before my eyes. My brother tried to kill me. Now I know many of you think that I must be exaggerating, but I can no longer believe all these (very painful) "accidents" are just that. Tonight Andrew drove a giant Tonka truck straight at my head; full speed. How can anyone say that is not an attempt on my life?! The pushing and hitting have all been questionable up to this point. No more. Pray for me and the giant knot on my forehead and the big black eye that has started. Hopefully the beating mommy gave him will prevent any further attempts. I'm not gonna hold my breath. I can only hope I will survive long enough to get big enough to defend myself.
Love Ya
Joseph

*****GO BUCKS!******

Time for an update!

Wow! What a crazy holiday! Momo and I had a great holiday, even though Mo was sick again; it seems like he is always sick. All day Christmas he had a temperature of 103! Mommy and Daddy had to to hold him all day long b/c he felt so bad he didn't want to lay down alone. We had to cancel our visit with Mimi b/c he was sick and yesterday the doctor put him on more antibiotics for a sinus infection which has flared up into an all over impetigo like rash (ask Mommy what that means!). The good news though, after 24 hours on the antibiotics he seems to be doing much better. Hopefully he can just stay healthy!
The Sunday before Christmas was our get together in Archbold; Santa stopped by for a visit and we had dinner and desert with the family (Papa and Gamma were in Mexico and missed out). We drove up and came back in the same day and that was a little tiresome but we made it. Christmas eve was with Daddy's extended family in Middletown. More yummy food and lots of fun playing with Great Uncle John. Christmas day was just the four of us at home with lots and lots of presents! Momo was still healthy when we opened presents so we got to enjoy that time together. Mommy made us a turkey for dinner and it was sooo yummy; I couldn't stop eating it! The day after Christmas was Daddy's birthday (he's soooo old!) and we went to Grammy and Grampy's for gifts and dinner (Applebee's takeout, a nice change after all of the holiday food). I didn't eat too well though, I was too excited about all of the presents. I must say we got a lot of gifts! Mommy says it looks like Toys r Us exploded in our house! I like it like that! Mommy worked New Year's eve and day so we just stayed home and relaxed with Daddy. Mommy says it is too dangerous to go out on New Year's so she works so people who want to go out can and she knows we are all safe b/c we aren't out and about.
Mommy didn't waste any time and took down the Christmas tree the day after Christmas and "took back the house". Now we are busy trying to get everything clean and organized. Mommy has lots of projects planned for this year and wants to get started! Yesterday the new light/fan went in in the kitchen; next will be the basement redecoration and the tiling of the fireplace. She is hoping to plan out the kitchen remodel after our Ikea opens this spring! Yeah for Ikea!!!
Well, I think that updates you all on our recent doings. A belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all! Pray for Momo's health this year!!!!
Love Ya,
Andrew
***Mommy will post pictures this week sometime!