Keeping up with the Erbs: Catching up

I'm a bit behind on blogging because we've been sick, but thankfully we are now all on the mend!

No one has gotten the dreaded and highly-anticipated H1N1, or as my Grandma pronounced it, the "Heeny" flu. Haha- love you, Grams!! :) (But the media is quick to remind us that it's most certainly going to hit our household soon. DUN-DUN-DUNNN!
Preston was even on his first ever antibiotic this week. (And has mastered coughing into his elbow.) It was the pink amoxicillin bubble gum stuff that I LOVED when I was little. For whatever reason, it was a nightmare to get him to take the stuff and we had to devise a little ramekin dish with a curly straw to entice him. CeCe was stuffy but never came down with anything major, but I am in the full-blown sore throat/head cold/exhaustion phase of whatever this is. Anyways, there hasn't been much to report since we've been laying low.

We took a trip to Elkhart last weekend so that Kevin, his dad, and his brothers could golf with my dad and Collin at Elcona. They had a beautiful day and Preston and CeCe got to make their first trip to Essenhaus which was delicious as always. Of course, I didn't have my camera with us for the trip, so I will have to wait to get copies of the pictures from Grandma and Grandpa Roberts! (hint hint, dad!)

Two weeks ago, we had a VERY fun day with a few high school friends and their kiddos! Erin Spencer, Michelle Byers and their moms brought the little ones to Fort Wayne for the day and Holli Adams and Finn joined us. (Wooohooo, CHS class of 97!) Seven kids and they all sat still for a picture on the couch! It was such a treat to have everyone here. All of these kids were precious, polite, played well together, and had a lot of fun. We missed you, Britt! :( Can't wait to do it again.
Meet our little friends Camille, Luke, Kate, Abby, and Finn. Preston and CeCe loved having them here!

In other news, Kevin and I have been busy on a new project in our unfinished basement. When we bought this house, we loved the fact that there was another 1000 sq ft down there and we planned on finishing it as a nice family room and space for the kids toys. Well shortly after we moved, we did the kitchen, then I got pregnant and was sick, then summer hit and all of our focus moved to outside, then CeCe showed, then... well, you get the picture. So now it's fall, the weather is changing and I panicked thinking we'd be stuck inside all winter with two restless kids and not a lot of space. Oh, and did I mention the basement held every box that existed in the house? With no organization, rhyme, or reason to the madness? Yep, it was just a giant empty space with cement floors and boxes of junk floor to ceiling. Long story short, we've made a hodge-podge play space that houses a few larger toys and will get us through till spring. I'd like to add some other specific toys and things for art activities down there, but for now, Preston is thrilled with the 24 pounds of macaroni I dumped into his train table. He can scoop, dump, fill, and generally just make a giant mess. (His favorite thing.)

Cecilia will be 7 weeks old tomorrow! She is all smiles lately and has had a generally great week. Knock on wood, she's even sleeping pretty well. Other than some fussy time in the evening, she's an angel. We've not had any luck getting her to take a bottle, though. We've tried frozen breastmilk from the freezer and I've also pumped fresh from the tap and she's just not interested. Preston took one with no problems. Any breast feeding moms experience this or have luck with a particular brand of bottle?

First smiles- she's a happy girl, but they are hard to catch on camera!

Here are some more pics and things we've been up to since my last blog post:

Our last trip to the zoo before it closed for the season! (as you can see, CeCe was completely enthralled.)

Making playdough- Flour, salt, water and a little oil makes a great playdough recipe. I couldn't find our food coloring, so we had to make something white. Meet "Percy James the snowman" (If your kid watches Thomas the Train, you will appreciate the name.)