First ER Trip

Can you believe just a couple hours after these picture were taken, we ended up taking a trip to the ER?  Two words~nursemaid's elbow.  Garrett was seen for this as well.  Pretty common.   I was picking him up and had him by the wrist and he started to cry so I immediately knew what happened.  He laid on me for about 10 minutes cradling his left arm and whimpering so off we went.  We sat in the waiting room for an hour and he just laid on me which we all know rarely happens.  We got called back to triage and he needed to be weighed and have his temperature and pulse taken and I guess with that little bit of jostling and fighting the nurse, it popped back in.  We were taken back to the room and it was like a miraculous recovery, you'd never know anything was wrong.  The doctor said about half the time they pop back in themselves and he showed me how to do it should it occur again.  I think we'll try to avoid that.

The Crib

A few days ago I found a large screw in the middle of Jack's room and couldn't quite figure out where it had come from. Well you see that metal pole that is attached? Not any longer. That little booger has been using his crib as a trampoline and it made the screw fall out. We screwed it back in, but turned the crib around to give the opposite corner a chance to get such a great workout. Three kids in this crib...I guess it's met its match.

Merry Christmas

Three Men and a Baby

Just in case you thought I may have been exaggerating.

Festivus...for the rest of us

I know many of you have been eagerly awaiting the details of our Festivus with the "other" side of the family. In case you're wondering what the heck Festivus is, you must not be a Seinfeld fan. Festivus is a holiday made up by Frank Costanza, George's dad, in exhange for Christmas. When this was proposed to us, we immediately began referring to it as Festivus.

I'll just give you the highlights and let some pictures tell the story.

First, it was raining today, not heavy rains, but a light steady rain. So as we got ready, it never occured to me that "they" would proceed with their plans for a group hike. Silly me. So we drove to Almaden Park. Just so you are fully getting this picture, this is not a park with slides and swings, it's a county park with a sign that greets you warning you of mountain lions. Nice. So we pile out of the car, load Jack in his stroller (which was meant to stroll through malls, not forests) and head up the path. Not so bad until about a 1/4 mile in the paved path turns into a dirt path. Wait, I think I mentioned it was raining...so I guess the better word would be "muddy" path. Make that a very muddy path. It was steep and slippery and I nearly fell several times. We had to stop three times when the wheels on the stroller collected so much mud that it couldn't be pushed.

But we did get to enjoy some great conversations:

• 
  
  Angela told me as I was sloshing around in the mud that it's a no wonder that 20 and 30 years olds were better off being parents.


• Mike doling out compliments like telling 14 year old Brendan (step-nephew) that he's not as introverted as he used to be.


• 1/2 mile listening to Mike give details about his visit with a "roid" doctor.

I guess it was about a 2 mile hike and I chose not to bring my camera, but here are a few shots at the end. Keep in mind, we "cleaned" off walking in the grass and the sidewalk near the car. Like my choice of hiking shoes?

We developed quite an appetite after that hike and with it being around 1:30 when we arrived back at that house (oh and we drove by a street called Bose Lane, do ya think it was the street we used to live on?). And we had a tray of fruit waiting for us. Yummy! Can't tell you how that hit the spot! 1 1/2 hours later and trying to hide my grumbling tummy, we did have a nice lunch . As the fire warmed up the room and we began to dry off, we did have a nice time and played some games. The girls really enjoyed playing with Jack and he was really good. We left around 6:30. Angela did leave me with one parting shot as I was putting on my wet shoes. Jack saw the plate of cookies and since he already had 3 I told him, "no cookies" to which Angela told Jack, "your mommy is stingy and won't let you have another cookie". Stingy...yep, that's me!

A Card for Hannah

I verified this on Snopes.com. We'll add a picture later of the card we created for her.

ETA: Here's the card. I'm not much of a card maker, but I tried to put some extra effort into it. I hand stiched around the pocket and inside Morgan added a picture that she drew and a couple pictures.

This is a very special Christmas wish for a young child who is not expected to live beyond the next few months. I know you may see many of these requests but this really is a local child with a very simple Christmas wish. I just visited a friend who had cancer treatments with this childs mother and she gave me the following request from her cousin.

Hannah’s Christmas Wish

This is the true story of my 5-yr old 2nd cousin, Hannah Garman, who was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme, a rare and incurable brain tumor. She was going to be the flower girl in our wedding in May, but was diagnosed a week after we asked her to be the flower girl. This is especially sad because her mother died 2 yrs ago from breast cancer. Right now she has lost most of her motor skills. She is confined to bed and cannot really do anything or play with the gifts she is getting from people, but she LOVES getting cards - she has gotten so many from people she does not know and just loves to have grandma read about the people who send them and see their pictures and is so proud of all her cards. Her room is just filled with cards. When asked what she wants for Christmas she said she wants to see how many Christmas cards she can get. Many people have passed this wish along to their churches, prayer groups, friends and family. There are school groups where children are making her cards. People are including pictures so she can see who it is that is sending her the card. If you would like to help with her wish, you can send a card to her at:

Hannah Garman
704 Orchard Rd
Lititz, PA 17543

THANKS! Let’s see if we can have the cards coming in big postal bags
for her this Christmas.

Somebody Get This Kid Some Blocks

Guess we can cross this off the milestone list. He actually does have blocks, but has discovered that cans make good towers. Can you tell how proud he is? He's stacked 4 high and we've only had one can burst open.

The Family That Dances Together...

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Animal Crackers

Just sharing a few layouts I did using Making Memories Animal Cracker line.

Last Weekend

Soccer tournament last weekend. Don't let the sunny skies fool you, it was so cold, the parents were bundled up on the sidelines. Garrett played all four games and was out a total of about 5 minutes and spent the rest of the weekend on the couch exhausted.

Saturday was our town's Christmas parade. This parade is infamous. Infamously boring, that is. Seriously the parade consists of the two high school bands and no less than 50 brownie/Girl Scout troops, Boy Scouts, and oh, Indian Princesses. So that's why we go. Morgan loves being in this parade. Garrett enjoyed being with his friends and the occasional candy that was thrown his way. And Jack loved looking at all the lights. But after an hour of Brownies, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, we headed out to dinner with friends and missed Santa on the fire truck. We did get to see the crowd favorite, the Tube Platoon. All the boys in the one picture were in first grade together and six years later, they are still hanging out together.

The Jig is Up

Among the many hats I wear as a mom, playing role of tooth fairy has been a pretty regular job for the last seven years. Morgan is on a roll, she's losing teeth faster than Jack is getting them in. The one downside to the job is waiting until the kids are sound asleep before making my entrance. Lately this has not always been easy, not just the staying up, but the remembering and we've had a few slip ups around here. Well the other night around 11:00 I entered Morgan's room and while searching for her tooth under her pillow, I was caught red handed. There was a blanket nearby and I quickly grabbed it and claimed that I was just covering her up. I shoved the money under her pillow and left. The next morning, thinking Morgan might just think it was a dream, she approached me and let me know that she knew that I was the tooth fairy and Santa Claus. I just played dumb, told her I had no idea what she was talking about and left. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, just surprised it took her this long to confront me!

For the Lucky Ducks Living Near Pottery Barn Outlet

Pottery Barn Outlet: Spend $100, Get $10 off and more... now through 12.10.08
Offer expires 12.10.08. At least 40% off everything in the store and 50-75% off select merchandise.Buy More, Save More:Spend $100, Get $10 offSpend $150, Get $15 offSpend $250, Get $25 offMust use this printable coupon to redeem this offer:http://tinyurl.com/PotteryBarnOutlet


Wish I could go :-(

Walgreens

Monday and Tuesday only, Walgreens is offering $5.00 off coupon on a purchase of $25.00. There are lots of coupons in the circular as well. www.walgreens.com to print it out.

Busy Boy

Make a Smilebox postcard

Make a Smilebox postcard

Here are 4 video clips. The top one is just listening to him "talk" one day when he woke up from a nap. The second is a video I took when he discovered that he could throw~not good! And lastly are a couple of Jack playing golf. You better watch out Art, it won't be long before "you're going down!"

Easy Vegetable Squares

1 (8 oz) pkg. of crescent rolls (they have a garlic variety now-yummy!)

1 (8 oz ) pkg. softened cream cheese

1 (3 oz) pkg. softened cream cheese

1/3 c. mayonnaise

2 tsp. buttermilk ranch salad dressing (powder mix)

3 c. toppings*

1 c. shredded sharp Cheddar, Mozzarella or Monterey Jack

Unroll crescent rolls and put into a 15 1/2 x 10 1/2 x 2 inch baking pan. Bake according to package directions. Cool on wire rack. Meanwhile blend cream cheese, mayonnaise, and ranch mix in a small bowl. Spread evenly over the crust. Sprinkle with desired topping, then shredded cheese. To serve, cut into squares. Makes 32 appetizers.

*Toppings: Finely chopped broccoli, cauliflower, or green pepper, seeded and chopped tomatoes, thinly sliced green oninon, ripe olives or clery, or shredded carrots.

Note from me-I was not able to find a 3 oz package from cream cheese and was able to make it with just the 8 oz package and a little less mayo. As for the topping, pick anything you want!

Thanksgiving 2008

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Collage

Okay~Here's a draft of the collage. I can't control where the pictures go, but I can re-do it and jumble it up. I can change the color of the background, change the title, delete the title (which will make the pictures a bit bigger). Any feedback? Click on the pictures to make it bigger. This will be printed as a 16x20. I ended up using 25 pictures, but can use up to 30. So let me know what changes you'd like.

This and That

So just a few miscellaneous items today...
A friendly reminder to keep saving your boxtops for Morgan. There's an ice cream party at stake here and you know we're really competitive. So if you have any don't forget to bring them to us next week.



And let's not forget about EBATES That's my check I just got-free money. Now is the best time to sign up, you get $10 if you make a purchase by Dec. 31. Just click on the word Ebates to sign up and start saving. Ask Mom, finally got her hooked and now she's seen the light :-).

And here is something I just found out about. I can't tell you first hand, but I understand it's legit. www.restaurant.com Honestly we probably won't go to most of the restaurants listed, but there are a few good ones nearby. The way it works is you purchase the gift certificate online and print it out. You can only use one gift certificate. So let's say you buy a $25 gift card for only $10, on your $35 bill you would have to pay an additional $10 so the total cost of your meal would be $20. Anyway, take a look at the restaunts and it certainly seems like a good savings.

In case you didn't notice, the "o" on my keyboard is sticking, so if you had trouble reading that last post, I went back and edited it and you can read it straight from the blog.

Typical Day

A couple days ago, Mom mentioned that she and Nana had spent some time together and it had come up that they wondered what Jack was doing now. Well, just last month I did a scrapbook layout in Jack's book documenting a typical day. Here's the layout:

What you probably can't tell from this picture is that it is an interactive page meaning I was able to use 16 pictures that I took throughout the day. Here is a look at the hidden pictures:


Some fold in accordian, some open like a book and one twists on a brad. Pretty clever, huh?
Here is the journaling that is written on that page:
This is you TODAY-October 15, 2008-13 , months old-While every day is just a bit different, you definitely have a routine and there are things I can expect to be exactly the same as the day before. You start your day by 7:00 every morning. Daddy usually gets you out of your crib and spends a little bit of time with you before you come wake Mommy up. We give you a cup of milk, but most of the time you toss it aside. About 7:50 we get everybody in the car and take Garrett and Morgan to school. Once we get home, it's just you and me for most of the day. We start by feeding you breakfast, hot cereal and a jar of fruit. Then you spend a few minutes playing before you start getting cranky. So by 9:00 I give you your pacifer, your small blanket and two other blankets that you have to have, turn on your music and put you to bed. You nap for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours and are awake by 11:00. It's time to get you dressed. We play a little bit more, sometimes go outside and then have some lunch. Your favorite lunch lately has been grilled cheese and bananas. If we have time, we also run a few errands like to the mall or grocery stre. You like getting out of the house. By the time we come back it's time for your nap again. We do the same routine and around 2:00 you are down for your second nap. Garrett and Morgan get home about 3:15 and are anxious to see you, but they usually have to wait until 3:30 for you to wake up. You get a cup of juice and a snack and then it's back in the car and off to take Garrett and Morgan to soccer and gymnastics. We come home around 5:00 and you are usually fussy which makes it hard to start dinner. By 6:00 we have dinner, sometimes it's just the two of us, but sometimes it's the whole family. You love meat right now, especially chicken. I will usually feed you a jar of vegetable baby food. Around 7:00, it's time for a bath for you which you love. Then pajamas. Dad is home by now so you get to play with him a little and show him any new tricks you're doing. You love books so you settle down to be read to and sometimes with a cup of milk. By 8:00 we start the bedtime routine with the pacifier, blankets, music (with a projection on the ceiling) and that's it for the night. We see you toss and "nest" in your crib, but you always go down without a problem. And then the day starts all over again.

The Countdown is On....

If you scroll to the bottom of the blog, you'll see that there are just 42 days left till Christmas. So I came across this website that you need to check out: http://bfads.net/
They compile all the great deals out there for Black Friday.

We're busy making lists over here. Garrett is easy, he's looking to get some software for his computer and can always use gift cards for iTunes. Will start thinking about everybody else.

Fall

He's a Mudder

An "after" picture of Garrett from the game last week. They basically gave them the choice to play in the rain or postpone the game and they chose to play, the fields were closed after this game. His team is currently 6-1-2 and in second place. With one game left to play, they must win in order to hold onto second. A big improvement from last place last year.

And in gymnastics news, Morgan did awesome in her last meet. She got an 8.5 on beam, bars and floor. Vault...well, she did great, by far her best vault I've seen, but it got a 7.2 :-(. That was the lowest score she's ever received on vault and it was far from her worst vault. Everybody's score was really low (her teammate had a 9.5 a couple weeks ago and a 8.5 at this meet). Anyway, after I keyed that judge's car (kidding!) Morgan still went home with her highest all around score of the season.

Awww....

Just got these from the photographer. These are his official one year pictures that were taken back in September. Can I get a group "awww!"? I'm afraid these pics will have to be admired via the computer screen. They were uber expensive and I might just have to sell his whole wardrobe on ebay to pay to look at these on my walls. I'm telling you, in my next life, I'm going to be a photographer...a RICH photographer.

Sugar High

Happy Halloween! Was hoping to post some fabulous pictures of some frightfully cute kids, but this is about as good as we could do. We might have to do some post-Halloween pictures to make up for it. Anyway, on Friday morning Garrett and his buddy Ben (who had spent the night-no school on Friday) were working on a school project and I had on Regis and Kelly and they had a Halloween costume contest. Let's just say there are some pretty creative people out there! Anyway, take a look at the winners. (click the word winners). So I called out Ben and Garrett who had no idea what they wanted to be and they were excited about this costume. It seem totally do-able to me, just a box and few odds and ends, right? Ha, ha! We tried so hard, but just didn't have the engineering talent to make it work so at 4:30 we abandoned the idea and the boys found old black cloaks and threw something together and off they went with their group-therefore, no pics of Garrett and we were already late for a neighborhood potluck. So snapped a few pictures.

Including one of Jack surrounded by some of the neighborhood girls. He's quite the ladies' man already, huh? So we had some sprinkles that kept threatening our plans for the night so Chris "volunteered" (read: wimp!) to stay home with Jack and pass out candy and I took Morgan out. She was a solo trick or treater which turned out to be a good thing because people seemed to take pity on this poor little girl out by herself and give her handfuls of candy. Anyway, we were able to catch up to Garrett around 8:00 and decided to call it a night. Came home and Chris (remember the eager volunteer) had already turned off the porch lights. Morgan spent the rest of the night sorting through candy. Garrett went over to his friend's 13th birthday party to spend the night.

Terror

I think I mentioned that Garrett played some really strong teams this week. Look at this shot taken by one of the parents this weekend. He titled it "Terror". If you click on the picture (if you view this from the blog), you'll get a bigger picture.

Pick of the Patch

Back to Joan's Farm for us again last weekend. There had been rumors that they had closed down. We have

been hearing that for years. But when we arrived in the late afternoon, it was a

zoo. We stayed long enough to grab a few pumpkins, take a few pictures and then leave. Which I'm not sure if you can tell by Garrett's expression, could not happen soon enough.

Sports update: Garrett's team is currently in second place. If they win the rest of their league games, they'll hold that spot, if they lose then they are going to need some help to maintain second. This weekend they played in Livermore's Headless Horseman Soccer Tournament and let's just say it was pretty scarey. They were grouped with Under 14 Division 1 (they are Under 13 Div. 3) players. They managed to win one game, but the games were very physical and they were clearly out matched. Garrett is currently icing his ankle :-(.