Tooth #2!

Brigham's 2nd tooth has made it's way through!  I figured the crankiness during the night this past week, and some nasty diapers were signs of another one on it's way.  Hopefully he will be back to a quiet night of sleep real soon...for his benefit and mine!  He is really starting to like his cereal and small amounts of baby appleasauce.  He's swallowing more than he's spitting out so we are making progress! 

 We dug out the high chair today!  He's a little small for it yet but it's nice to have another place for him to sit and watch what's going on!   

On Sunday night we had 8 families over for a grill out!  There were 18 adults and 18 kids!  Life sure has changed for our group of friends.  5 years ago some of our friends weren't even married yet, and now we have enough off spring to almost outnumber the adults!  (2 babies are one the way!) All of the kids are 5 or under.  Boston is one of the oldest and Brigham one of the youngest!  It was so fun to get everyone together and see the kids play together.  The kids had a blast!  There were a few meltdowns when it was time to go home so we'll definetely have to get everyone together again sooner than later!  Boston said to Derek and I that he made a new best friend that night (Landon).  When we asked him who it was he said 'I can't remember his name but he helped me chase the girls all night!'

Brigham & Chloe Elgersma

 Some of the kids eating!

It's hard to believe we are in the second week of August already.   The summer has gone so fast!  Later this month Brigham will be 5 months old already and Boston will be back in school 3 mornings a week.  We have kept very busy this summer and still have some fun activites planned for this month.  I am still loving being home full time.  I don't want anyone reading my blog to think my life is perfect and that everyday is wine and roses...because there ARE days I think 'is this really my calling?'.  For the most part though, the good days outweigh the bad so I am still happy with my decision to not work outside the home.  Speaking of other activities planned for the summer... we are off to the Sioux Empire Fair tonight!  Looking forward to spending the night with my friend Jessica and her family, and for the fair food!  Boston is talking big about riding a roller coaster and the ferris wheel.... so we'll see how that plays out :) 

Enjoying a nice cool summer day outside!

Swingset Upgrade!

Boston spends hours playing on the swingset in our backyard.  When my dad first built the swingset, Boston was just turning 1, so he built the swingset for a toddler.  Last year we added a longer board for the swings so that Boston could have 'hangy bars' and both swings up!  Well now that Boston is 5 and getting even bigger, Boston thought he needed another upgrade...  so Grandpa Ron to the rescue!  The main reason for the change was that Boston loves the sandbox and it was getting too small for him, especially when his 3 neighbor friends come to play! A huge thank you to Grandpa Ron for all of his hard work this week in getting it finished!  It ended up being a lot more work than I was expecting but Boston is loving it!  The fort is quite a bit bigger than we had before so Boston thinks him and I are going to sleep out there some night in the near future.  We'll see about that :)

This is the most recent 'before' picture I could find!

We tore down the old fort & started fresh.  I didn't realize it would involve needing a taller ladder and extra boards and rocks on the rock wall. I guess I didn't think it all through!  

 Grandpa Ron hard at work on the roof while I supervise and Boston talks with the neighbor boys. Actually Brigham took 3 hour naps both days my dad was over working so I did help as much as he'd let me:)

 The roof is complete, now onto the railing!

 Great work Grandpa Ron!  Ignore the hot pink and orange mess in the yard behind us.  That's the neighbors swingset..the neighbors who aren't the friendliest.  We are really looking forward to our wooden cedar fence that will be up early next week!  The posts were set this week!

I have a little painting left to do but this is pretty close to the finished product!  I've said this before, but what would we do without my dad?! We love you!

It's been another busy week!  On Monday afternoon Boston's friend Jude came over to play.  Those boys are such good buddies.  They had loads of fun and were both about in tears when Jude's mom showed up to take him home!  On Tuesday I ended up taking Brigham to Acute Care to have his ears checked out.  He had been up crying/screaming during the night for 2 nights and just was not himself all afternoon on Tuesday.  He was inconsolable at times and that's not like him.  It was not an ear infection so we are led to believe it was his teeth really causing him some discomfort, or it was the ween off of his prevacid.  He got 1/2 of his dose of pills for 3 days (26th, 27th, and 28th), and then was completely off of them on Friday the 29th.  So he was off of the meds completely for about 3 days before the screaming started.  It's hard to pinpoint exactly what it was, so we started the prevacid again and continued with tylenol and orajel.  Tuesday night, after going to the doctor, he slept all night.  9 pm-7:30 am.  We never heard a peep out of him, and he's been fine since.  We will continue giving him the prevacid for awhile longer just in case it was a combination of teeth and reflux.  It looks like his 2nd bottom tooth could break through real soon so we'll keep an eye out for that!

Boston & Jude cooling off in the sprinkler!

 They posed like this on their own!

On Wednesday, Derek, Boston and I headed to Wild Water West.  Aunt Shana came over to take care of Brigham so it was nice being able to enjoy some time with just Boston.  He is really into the water slides, wave pool and lazy river, so it's much easier to entertain him at at the water park without a baby along.  It was a beautiful day!  Derek and Boston did most of the swimming.  This mama relaxed in the lawn chair and got a little too much sun, but it was great!  We also ventured to WWW again yesterday!  It's been so nice not having it so darn humid.  Brigham was great at the pool.  He loves to watch all the excitement but doesn't necessarily like getting splashed with the cold pool water!

All over his crabbiness!

 Brigham during one of his 3 hour morning naps!

Nap time at WWW!

It's a busy weekend ahead, but we are looking forward to it!  Tonight we are having a grill out with our neighbors and then on Sunday we are hosting a get together for a ton of our friends!  It'll be a house full but we never have the opportunity to get adults and kids together so it'll be fun to see all of the little ones playing together!  I'm sure there will be a blog post and loads of pictures after our time together Sunday.  Until then, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend with your friends or family.  God's blessings!