Holy Cow... January!

Oh for the love of blogging... it has been too long. I don't know about you but man my January has been flying by so quickly! We started our January off with a bang. Dan's brother Dave and his family were here for New Years. All of us Duckwitz's have a weakness for going out to eat so, every time Dave comes into town it's the perfect excuse! We decided to go to Olive Garden- Me and Dan got the all you can eat soup, salad, bread sticks if you haven't had their chicken gnocchi you really should try it. I had fed Evan prior to going, because that's just easier. But while we were waiting for our food to arrive I gave him a bread stick to chew on because he is a sucker for bread, just like his mama. Well immediately the kids face starts to swell up just like when he had lasagna. I panic because, of course, the one time I don't have benadryll in the baby bag is now. Me and Dan book it out of Olive Garden leaving Christian with our family and drive over to the grocery store in the same parking lot. Dan runs in buys benadryll and by the time he gets back, not only are his lips swollen but also his cheeks and his eye. We call the doctors and they say, of course, go immediately to the ER. Well amidst all the adrenaline and feelings that I am not in control- we realize what Evan is allergic too... Garlic!!! It's the only thing that matches up in the lasagna and the bread stick. It is a relief to know what he is allergic too, but man I am heart broken because I am a lover of garlic! And just so you know it is in EVERYTHING!!! For example, chicken stock, miracle whip, mustard, etc. I am going to have to become and even bigger label reader. I am hoping that he will grow out of this like my little nephew grew out of his allergies, but we will just have to wait and see.

This is a picture of poor Evan's face the day after our last ER trip the swelling had come down but his little face was so red and splotchy still.



This month we also became a family of 6! No I am not pregnant with twins, thank goodness! We watched our two adorable nieces Haley and Ashlyn for 5 days while their parents got some much needed R&R and celebrated their 10th anniversary in Hawaii! We love having the girls here and Christian was pretty much in heaven having a 24/7 playmate at his beckon call.

Greg and Erika put together little presents for them to open while they were gone, one for each day. This is them opening their presents, this time it was coloring books. Me and Dan learned that we would need to peek at the presents before they opened them because some were candy, and you try taking candy away from a 2, 3, 6 year old at 7 in the morning, not a pretty situation my friends :)



Haley has quite the imagination, she came home from school one day and she had this little ball of fur, it looked like something that had come off a girls coat. She was pretending it was a hamster named Joonr (her spelling). We immediately need to make him a home and get him fed because he had been in the cold for WAY too long. Needless to say, I panicked- I am not a crafty person by nature (I am learning how to be though) so I really had to stretch myself and channel my inner-Erika (Haley and Ashlyn's mom who is the queen of craft) and some how I was able to come up with a suitable cage, bed, food and water bowls, mirror, bathtub, and couch for dear little Joonr!

This is the inside of his cage



Joonr with Haley



The girls had never been away from the parents for this long, so we wanted to do everything we could to make them feel special and that this was a fun time for them too and not just their parents. We totally decked out their room. Both the girls kept calling the canopy a centipede. Silly girls!



Did you know... that Handy Manny lives at our house (Disney Channel character if you are not familiar). He has tools he carries around is very helpful by fixing everything. Christian is obsessed right now. He love to play Handy Manny, which is kind of fun since he has never pretended to be someone else until now. It's cute because he carries his little tool box around and sings "Handy Manny, Handy Manny" over and over, he also tucks a pencil behind his ear. What a cutie.

Of course where ever Christian is, that's where Evan wants to be :)




Handy Manny fixing our drawer



This drawer is a stubborn one, it needs fixing several times a day



Also other not so fun things that have happened this January: Stomach Flu, The Croup, Strep Throat, and lots of teething. But we are surviving! Also it was Evan's 1st Birthday- a little anti climatic because he is not feeling well, we postponed his birthday till this weekend in hopes that he will be feeling well enough to try a little cake. More pictures of all the fun stuff to come.