Too much American Idol??

So with the new season of American Idol, I think Jack has watched it a few too many times with us. Either that, or there are way too many screamers on it this year!!

More videos to come...I finally uploaded and the last time I had done it was before Christmas!! No time tonight...Jack is having a rough time going to bed!

If you don't like gross pictures...don't look!!

So we managed to go 2 1/2 years without a major injury!! I got a call from Jen at 12:15 and she was hysterical...Jack slipped in the bathroom and hit his head on the edge of a corner. Well...lots of blood and tears later, Jack and I were on our way to see Dr. Wallace. When I got to Jen's house, Jack was playing with his dinosaur and the only thing indicating there was a problem was the large gash on the back of his head. He wouldn't let anyone touch it, so I thought getting it fixed might be a problem!! The only problem we had was when someone tried to touched it. So Jackson now is the proud owner of 4 staples in his little noggin! He wasn't too keen on getting the lidocaine shot and winced only a little bit when Dr. Wallace put the staples in. There were lots of tears involved, but one sucker later, he was cured! He fell asleep on the way home but wouldn't lay down when we got home. Luckily, he's still happy! He had a bath tonight, which he was happy to soak, but not so happy to have his hair washed, but could ya blame him?? So we'll see how he does over the next few days with this! I remember having staples after my knee surgery and boy where they itchy!! Hopefully this isn't the start of a "boy" life with lots of injuries!!

...and the verdict is...

Well...change the verdict folks, Jack has RSV!! We sent off Jack's DFA to be cultured, since it was negative and, sure enough, I got a call from Acute Care on Thursday and his culture grew RSV. So now we're onto albuterol nebs (which he hates) and trying to keep his fever under control. Today is the first day since Tuesday that he hasn't run a fever...horray!!! Today is the first day he seems more like himself, but he still has quite the cough going on. He hasn't been sleeping the best, but it's not entirely his fault. Every day, either Jon or myself has to get up and go to work. Most nights this week, he has ended up in our bed because he wakes up coughing. Well if one warm body leaves, this wakes our little guy and he's up for the day! Not so cool when it's 6:00 (or earlier). We haven't been able to get him to go back to sleep, so he's a little tired. Naps have been average, but today he's perking up!

A quick Jack story...today I asked him what he wanted for lunch and his response (everyday this week) has been pizza! So I asked him if frozen pizza was okay (since I've made pizza a few times already) and his innocent face looked up at me and said, "No Mommy, I want hot pizza." Ahh...the innocence of children!

Sick Days at the Burns house!

So it seems as if daycare is closed for other reasons, Jack seems to get sick...totally a fluke, I know...but kind of ironic! Jen called on Tuesday morning and said that she and Morgan were both sick with the stomach flu. So I stayed home Tuesday morning and Jon was home in the afternoon. Jack was great all day but when I called Jon when I got off, he had spiked a temp and started coughing. We decided to watch him yesterday and see what his temp did. Stayed under control most of the morning but when he went to go down for his nap...102.5...bummer! So by the time I got ahold of the doctor's office, it was too late in the day to head there. So off we went to Acute Care. While we were waiting, Jack told me that his throat hurt, "can you kiss it mommy?" "Sure...where at, Jack?" "Right here, mommy" I go to kiss his little throat (because we all know mommy's kisses make everything better!) and his poor little lymph node was quite swollen!! Well...1 throat swab, 1 finger poke, and 1 nose suck later...no straight answer. :( Well while we were there, some major bleeder came in, so we had to wait quite a while for the doctor to come back...2 1/2 hours to be exact!! While we were waiting, Jack kept saying, "I go to my house and sleep in my bed please." Then he goes, "I have an owie right here in my mouth." (pretty specific for a toddler!) Sure enough, I take a look at his gums and he has a little canker looking sore in there. I mention it to the doctor and bingo...answer is: hand foot mouth disease!! Which explains the high fevers and cough...so we're back to pushing fluids and watching his temp. Poor little guy didn't even want supper last night...we walked in the door and he immediatly asked to go to bed! That's never happened before!! So far today, he's been snuggly, still has a fever, but is doing alright. I haven't seen any more sores and no bumps on his hands or feet yet. Hopefully he keeps eating and drinking so we can stay out of the hospital. So far, so good, but it's only 9:00!

On a side note, Jon has been feeling fairly well since his surgery. Still a bit sore at times, but overall feeling good. We got more snow in Sioux Falls last weekend, to which Jack announced, "guess we have to scoop snow again!" when he saw it was snowing. The little guy loves to go push around snow with his Daddy! We were skyping with our Texas family and took the laptop outside to show them the snow...Stacy was amazed! And to top off the day, she even got to see someone snowblowing (something her Texas eyes have never observed!). We quickly reminded her that it's not all that it's cracked up to be!!! Especially in February...we've done this long enough!

And every update deserves some pictures...so here's some from the past few weeks!

Mystery solved (maybe!)

So every now and then (like a few years in between) Jon has had this bad abdominal pain that no one could ever figure out what it is. The last few times it happened, I was pregnant with Jack and then it happened again when he was a few months old...so its been a while! Well, Jon woke up on Friday morning around 3:45 with the same pain. Because they have never figured out what it is Jon was being slightly stubborn about doing anything about it. He was supposed to work late that day, so I took Jack to daycare so Jon could rest. I called him around 9ish and he said it was worse, but still wouldn't come into the ER. I told him to call the GI doctor, but it took a while for him to hear from them. He still hadn't heard from them by noon, so I told him that was enough and I was going to come and get him. He refused and insisted on driving himself in because he just HAD to go to work that night!! So we got to the ER at 12:30 and started the drill for abdominal pain...labs, UA and a CAT scan. So by about 1:45, the CAT scan came back that he had acute appendicitis. So about 30 minutes later, the surgeon came through, explained the procedure and away we went! Nikki came up to the hospital, Erica ran to get Jack, Den and Julee drove up and Jon went away for surgery at 3:10. They came at 4:00 and said he was done. His appendix was "angry" as the surgeon said...luckily, didn't look infected at all, just inflammed. So by 6:15, we were on our way out the door...rounded up the 4 vehicles we had at Sanford and headed home. Jon slept in the recliner last night, but overall is feeling sore, but better.

Jack, on the other hand, now has a cold. So I now have two boys who aren't feeling up to par and needing some extra love! Hopefully both recover quickly and this weekend is somewhat relaxing! Thanks for all of your phone calls, texts and e-mails! We're so grateful for all of the friends and family we love so much!

The Beard

Man oh man, has January been cold or what?!?! This winter stuff is for the birds and can vacate anytime soon! Jon managed to stay somewhat warm on his ice fishing trip! So yes, there have been many requests for a picture of his beard, so here it is (it's farther along in the slideshow)! At first, it looked really odd, but it's starting to grow on me. Jack continues to tell daddy to "get that hair (or fur sometimes) off your face!" We'll see how long it sticks around this house!

Jack keeps working on potty training. Overall, he does pretty good for just being over 2! Daycare is a little harder...he's too busy playing to stop and go, so there are a few accidents at Jen's house. But hey...he's ahead of schedule with this potty training business, so I'm a-okay with that! Haven't changed a diaper in over a month and I'm fairly excited about that!!

Other than that...nothing too terribly exciting going on at the Burns house! Until next time...

Happy New Year!

Wow...it's been a while since we've put anything new on here! Thought we'd just put all of our pictures from December on one slideshow. Jackson had a great Christmas with lots of new toys! He's been having a lot of fun with his new Cars racetrack! We've been reading lots of new books as well. Mommy and Daddy even hit the jackpot as well! Daddy got the grill he's been waiting a long time for...he's already made a few meals with it and we've only had it a few weeks! Mommy got a new cricut scrapbook machine and she's already gotten a lot of use out of it...and she hasn't even gotten any scrapbooks out yet! I meant to take some pictures of my projects, but forgot. I'll eventually get some on there! I broke out my sewing machine when my mom was up a few weeks ago and have a new project going. Can't share anything about it because it's a surprise, but I've gotten a few other ideas I want to tackle next weekend! Jon is going on an ice fishing trip with the guys next weekend so it'll be just Jack and me for the weekend. One of the prerequisits for this fishing trip is a beard...yes, Jon has been growing a beard since Christmas! It's starting to fill in a bit more, so doesn't look akward like he just forgot to shave. He's very proud of it, although Jack keeps telling him to get that hair of his face...hmmm....wonder who he hears that from!! :) Best go work on some projects. Jon went fishing with a friend today, Jack is down for a nap, so it's some quiet time to finish this up! Hope all is well with everyone. I'll try not to wait so long for another post! Happy 2010!!

Proud Moments

One of our favorite things about being parents is bedtime! (I know...not most people's favorite activity!) Our routine consists of rocking and reading books and then Jackson runs off into his room and crawls into his bed. He wants to be "wrapped up" (tucked in) and then says his prayers. Jack loves to have some songs sung to him before bed. We have quite the list of bedtime songs, but one of those songs we have sung to him since we brought him home from the hospital, which is Beautiful Boy by John Lennon. Tonight I was making supper and heard Jack singing it while he colored!! It is so amazing to know that he is learning and catching on to the many songs that we sing to him! Now when he sings, he most often just repeats the same phrase over and over, but I love listening to him sing songs and seeing how proud he is of himself.

Speaking of being proud...we have started potty training and it is going amazingly well!! We started this weekend after he went #1 on his own 2 different times he tried. He's still having a few issues with #2, but overall he's doing really well!! I always hoped we would have this accomplished by Christmas and never thought it would be possible! We're all pretty excited about this!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope everyone had a very thankful Thanksgiving! My brother and his family came up from Texas last Saturday, so we've had a lot of great quality time with them! Jackson is learning how to share his toys with his cousins, Rebecca and Ethan, and it's going much better than expected!! Everyone ventured down to Nebraska on Wednesday and we had a great Thanksgiving meal yesterday. Now, because of the fact that we have 3 toddlers, our dinner lasted a total of 30 minutes before the kiddos were done sitting and ready to get down. So it made for some fast thanking!! The kicker of the day was supper time when Ethan kept pointing at something and no one could figure out what he wanted. We got him out of his seat and he pointed at the mustard and the cranberries. So needless-t0-say, most of Ethan's supper consisted of handfuls of mustard and cranberry sauce...and 5 helpings later, he was done! Anyway, we hope everyone has had a very wonderful Thanksgiving and remembers all of the reasons we are so thankful! I know we have tons of reasons at our house.

Oh yeah, Jack quote of the day: We asked him what made him happy...and he thought for a little while and then looked up at us with those big blue eyes and replied "JESUS" It was adorable!!

Feeding Frenzy!!

So Jackson has been on a feeding frenzy/growth spurt lately!! On Friday afternoon, after his nap, he ate an entire cereal bar and a whole banana. For supper that night (which was only about 1 1/2 hours later), he ate two pieces of bread, a whole plate of spaghetti, 3-4 pear halves, plus 2 glasses of milk!

We're super excited because Uncle Reid, Aunt Stacy, Rebecca and Ethan are flying up on Saturday and will be here the whole week!! Jack keeps talking about it...I'm sure three toddlers running around our house could keep us all entertained!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! Count all of your blessings and remember all that you are thankful for...I know our list is a long one!

Ear and Tushy problems!!

So Jack woke up Sunday morning with really goopy eyes. Jon and I debated whether or not Jack had pink eye...so away Jack and I went...off to Acute Care (one of the germiest, worst places to go right now!!). We got there a few minutes before 10:00, thinking we'd be close to the first people there, so would avoid the germy crowd...strike 1!! There was already a line and when we got through, we were #16!! So I tried my best to keep away from any masked person there was...strike 2!! It seemed like every single time I sat down, some masked sick germy person would sit behind us or next to us. Don't know how many times we moved!! So we get back to see the pediatrician and she takes a look in Jack's ears and Jack has a MAJOR bulging ear infection...strike 3 against mommy!! For the past month, Jack has been sticking his fingers in his ears and saying "I'm plugging my ears" so we figured he learned how to stick his fingers in his ears. Last weekend, he did it again so I asked him what was wrong...so when he stuck his fingers in his ear and said "What's wrong in there?" I didn't think much of it! Talk about feeling like a terrible mother!! AND he had a fever about 3 weeks ago and I figured it was just viral so didn't take him in. So needless to say, I felt terrible about missing all of Jack's clues. So Dr. Carroll asks me which antibiotic works best for him and for the life of me, I couldn't remember! So she put him on Augmentin since it has the best coverage. Jack gets 3 doses of this lovely antibiotic and starts having nasty diapers....which leads to quite the diaper rash. I figured out something was wrong when I went to pick him up from Jen's house and when I went to sit him down to put his shoes on, he started screaming....went to put him in the car seat...screaming again! We got home and he started saying "my tushy hurts" over and over! He wouldn't sit down at ALL...not to play, not to eat...not for anything! He wouldn't even sit on my lap to read books...he slept on his tummy and everything. Jon stayed home with him yesterday because he was so miserable! Today was a better day but he keeps complaining that his tushy hurts. So hopefully his ears get better and his tushy heals quickly!!

Hope you had a BOOtiful Day!!

Jackson had a great Halloween! After his nap, we carved a huge pumpkin that my parents got for us! It was around 75 lbs and when it was done, Jack could fit inside of it!! He thought that was really funny!

Needless to say, when the doorbell started ringing at supper tonight, Jack was anxious to get out there! He thought trick-or-treating was a blast!! Whenever we left someone's house, he'd say "that was very nice of them!" as we walked down the driveway...it was super cute! He lasted almost 2 full blocks before his little legs got tired and he was a kinda cold so we headed home. We had a successful night and he had so much fun!!

Jack's new songs

As many of you know, Jack can be quite animated! This video took a while to get because he'd jump the gun singing before I could start recording! And obviously, when he starts saying his prayers, he's a tad bit intense! :) He normally doesn't say them quite like that, but it makes me giggle every time I watch it!! And yes, every single night, he asks that the angels watch him through the moon...don't know if he just thinks that's what it is, or we laughed about it when he started doing it, but he does it ALL the time!! Makes Jon and I smile every time he does it!

Snow....OH NO!!

Yes, my friends, it is snowing in South Dakota tonight! Jon came home from work around 8:45 and about 10 minutes later, the snow began to fall. We have literally only had a few weeks of fall. This could be a nasty winter! On a side note, Jackson has been having some...well...sleep issues the past few nights. He's not being naughty or bad, just not able to fall asleep for some reason. Last night, Jon was working late (as usual on Thursday) so we did our nightly routine, get pjs on, read a few books in the living room, run to the kitchen to get water, he climbs in bed, we say prayers, sing a song and then good night! The little guy went to bed as typical as ever, not a sound out of him as I shut the door. I'm sitting in the living room, watching Grey's Anatomy, and around 8:40, I hear this little Jackson voice, "MOMMY" out of nowhere! So I ignored him for a while, but then Jon got home about 10 minutes later, which kept him up. So we went in, said prayers again, sang another song and said good night. No noise and then tears about 10 minutes later. Who knows! So Jack didn't end up falling asleep until around 10:00.

So fast forward through the day to tonight. Same story...different night. He goes to bed at 8:00 with no problems. Jon was working late again, so he calls at 8:40...still no peep out of Jack. And then I get off the phone, start picking up toys and hear that oh-so-familiar toddler voice..."MOMMY." When he was still talking to himself at 9:30, Jon and I went in. Here's the cute part: So its snowing right now...and we said something about snow and Jon asked Jack if he remembered what snow was. He's all cuddled up on Jon's lap and you can tell he's thinking hard and then suddenly says, "its kinda wet." It was sooooooo cute!! So to get him to go to bed, we had to go to the window and watch the snow for a little bit. (And yes, to our Texans, there is enough to see!)

And onto another very exciting event in my life...we've lived in Brandon for 3 1/2 years now and I still have to drive to Target way across town...until now! The new Target has opened on the East Side and it's AMAZING!! Jack and I went yesterday, not even knowing it was open. We were being curious when I saw some cars drive that way and sure enough...it was open! Hallelujah...no more Wal-mart runs for us!!! Ah...the small joys in life! :)

Another Major Milestone!!

Jackson taking a nap...sideways of course!
This is how we found Jackson one night!

We've accomplished another big milestone at the Burns household! Jackson is officially sleeping in a BIG BOY BED!!! We tried it at Oma and Opa's house last weekend and he did just fine so when we got home, Daddy converted his crib to a toddler bed! He thinks it's great that he can get in bed by himself. Ironically, even though he can, he does not get out of bed and try to escape...yet! The past few mornings, he has been shouting out (like he usually does) "Mommy, I get out of my bed!" and then he'll wait until you get there to get out. Don't know how long it'll take him to realize he can get out of his room, but neither of us plan on showing him! :)

Sleeping in on the hide-a-bed at Oma and Opa's!

On a not-so-fun note, Jack has caught his first cold of the season. Monday night he had a temp of 100 and then around 2 in the morning spiked to 102. He's got quite the cough but luckily hasn't had a temp for a few days. The cough is pretty nasty, so hopefully he recovers quickly!

Apples, Apples Everywhere!!

It's been a great week at the Burns' household! On Wednesday night, I went out with my two very best friends, Christina and Erica! Christina just graduated from PA school and was back from Oregon for a wedding. It was awesome to be able to to have a girls night and hang out. We haven't done that in years!! While I was gone, Daddy showed Jackson something new. As you can see from the pictures, Daddy taught Jack how to hold a baby...his baby penguin! He wrapped him up and I guess Jackson sat for quite a while rocking his penguin.



Friday night, we went to the Brandon Valley homecoming game. Jack did awesome through the whole game!! He had so much fun and really enjoyed watching the band. Saturday Jon had to work so Jack and I met Christina and her family for the Apple Festival. He had a great time jumping in the bounce house, seeing all the animals, dancing to some goofy guy singing, and, of course, picking apples!! He got to ride on the tractor hayride AND the horse hayride, so he was in hog-heaven!! He's still talking about picking apples from the tree. Last year, the pictures we took at the apple orchard were my favorite and this years rank right up there! That place makes for some awesome pictures!! Like most parents, when we try to get him to smile, we say "cheese"...well we better think of something different because Jack just scrunches up his eyes and has a huge wide smile....but his eyes are never open!! Hence, the around 10 pictures we have with no eyes open. :)

Needless to say, with so many apples, we've had a lot of cooking going on! Last night I made apple crisp, Jack and I had apple muffins for breakfast and then we made apple cookies tonight! After peeling a whole lot of apples, we have enough in the freezer for 2 more apple crisps and 2 apple pies! Mmmmm...can't wait!

Labor Day Classic 2009

Jon and I took our annual trip to Worthington for the Labor Day Classic! At the last minute, one of my parent's neighbors passed away so we took Jackson down to Oma and Opa's house for the weekend so they could go to the funeral. I drove him down Thursday night to Sioux City, which turned into quite a fiasco!! Oma was going to keep driving past Sioux City until we met. Well...we figured out where both of us were and agreed to meet at the next exit...unfortunately, there was a lot more road construction than either of us knew about and ALL of the next exits were closed until Beresford!! So Jack and I had to turn around and drive the 15 miles back to the next exit, which happened to be Beresford! Oh well...it got everyone where they needed to be!

Jon and I headed up with Stu and Crystal and met Becky and Jamie, Den, Julee and Nikki in Worthington. Adam and his girlfriend, Bethany, got there later that night. The guys played their practice round, playing some crazy game/competition that none of us girls could figure out!

The weekend was so much fun! The guys didn't play as well as they wished, but we all had a great time. They couldn't complain a whole lot because an Augie golfer won the whole tournament this year! It was awesome to get to spend the weekend with everyone and we can't wait until next year! Enjoy the pictures!

A little bit of this and that!

Here's a bunch of pictures from this summer!

Yesterday, we had an absolutely great day!! Mommy and Jackson went and walked in the Heart Walk with Aunt Nikki and some of Mommy's co-workers. Then after a trip to Target and a nice long nap, we all went golfing. Jackson did extremely well!! He stayed in the cart when he needed to and got out and putted...he did great! Then we decided that we would go to our first Brandon Valley football gam! When we got there, we couldn't find a single seat on the home side, but found a few people that we knew! Mainly, kiddos from Jack's daycare, but it was neat to see people that we knew!! So we decided to venture over to the visitor's side and see if we could find a seat there. As we were walking, we saw Charlie, another kiddo from daycare! Charlie and his family were sitting with another daycare family, so YAY for finding someone we knew to sit with!! We had a great time visiting with the other daycare kiddos and Jack was excited to see them too! We made it to the end of the 3rd quarter before Jack was kinda tired and it was getting pretty chilly. So we don't know if Brandon won or lost, but it was fun anyway!!

Happy 2nd Birthday Jackson!!

Jackson Conrad Burns has officially turned 2!! His Mickey Mouse party was a success! He woke up Saturday morning and saw all of the plates and his face got this huge smile on his face and goes "my party!" He was so excited!! He watched all morning as I made his Mickey Mouse cake and wanted to eat it so badly. His party was fantastic. We had all sorts of family and friends come and celebrate with us! He got lots of great gifts, including Mr. Potato Head, a dump truck, some new tricycles, racetracks, semis, a lawn mower...the list goes on and on!!Jack enjoyed having all of his friends over to play. They blew lots and lots of bubbles, played on the swingset and ate cake and monster cookies. Jack loved having Happy Birthday sung to him over and over since Saturday!



Jackson also had his 2 year check up today which he "passed" with flying colors! He weighed in at 25 lbs 10 oz and was 33" long. Dr. Wallace laughed at him when she walked in and Jack said "Hi, Dr. Wallace" with his ever-so-cute smile! She got a kick out of it!

Until next time...

"Fire"-Free house!

It's been a while and Jack has had a few new accomplishments since the last time I posted anything! The biggest accomplishment Jack has made so far is that he is now PACIFIER-FREE!!! YAY!!! That (well, besides potty training) was probably the thing I was the most nervous about. I just made all of the pacifiers disappear and then when it was time to get ready for bed, Jack went to look for on and I just said they were gone. He told me they went on a trip and that was that! The first 4 or 5 days was a little rocky for bedtime and Jen said naps were a little sketchy for a few days, but as of last Wednesday, Jack has been going to bed without a fuss (most nights) and has been sleeping great! So YAY for something I thought we would never accomplish!

We spent this last weekend in Hartley for Jon to play in the Northwest Iowa Amateur Tournament. He played really well and placed 7th. Out of 350 people, I'd say that's pretty awesome! Anyway...I'm trying to upload some new videos, but am having some troubles...hopefully can figure it out soon! Check back soon!