Thanksgiving 2010

I had great plans to take lots of pictures of Thanksgiving this year since it was our first time to host here at the new house. Sadly, I didn't get very many as we were having too much fun talking and playing the Wii. Nona snapped a few but I didn't think to get them off her camera before she left.

The turkey before cooking (in case you are wondering the yellow stuff is melted butter)


The turkey after being cooked


Taylor and Kelsey playing the Wii


Caleb, Riley and Shelby watching Youtube videos


Friday afternoon Nona and I took all the kids to see Despicable Me at the $2 theater. It was such a cute movie! After wards we came back to the house and had pizza for dinner before all the kids went home with Nona....my house sure is quiet!

A sweet note from Caleb

A few days ago Caleb brought me this "card" he had made for me. He didn't ask for any help with spelling anything. I am so proud of him (and flattered that he loves me so)! I love the words he picked to write me....so very sweet. I think their is truly a special bond between a mom and her son.

The cover (ignore the water on it, I accidentally sat it on some water on the table when taking a picture)


The inside

Thanksgiving Feast

Today was Madison's Thanksgiving Feast at school. I originally planned on going but decided not too...it wasn't actually a party that they needed parents help at so I decided just to spend that time doing a little Christmas shopping/grocery shopping/birthday shopping! It was nice to take my time and look around at a couple of different stores. I haven't done that very much since I seem to be subbing alot at school so far. I was able to get some stocking stuffers as well as my grocery shopping done.

When I got back I was able to take a quick picture of 2 of the art projects they have done this month as well as a picture of Madison who was known as "Little Bear" today.

I love how Madison's teachers decorate the entrance to their room each month...I love the November theme with the trees made out of tracing each child (and adding a few extra arms/branches)


Love this turkey made out of pieces of tissue paper


Each child brought an old tie and they created this turkey with them


Madison aka Little Bear

Tis' The Season

I love Christmas time. I love everything about it...the decorations, the cards that come in the mail, the parties, etc. It is the busiest time of the year and even though I spend so much time running around I still love it. I think though this might be the busiest year we have ever experienced though. Starting right after Thanksgiving we will constantly doing something. The 1st weekend in December will be the worst though as Matt will be away at Drill and my schedule looks like this...

Thursday night....My work Christmas party
Friday night.... Taylor will be marching in the Christmas Parade downtown with her GS troop
Saturday....Taylor has an all day hike
Sunday...Christmas Brunch at church
Sunday afternoon....annual Christmas pics with Santa and his reindeer and this is his last year to do this :(
Sunday night....H2H at our house

I am tired just typing it all

The next weekend is the Ladies Tea at church and our H2H Christmas party

Guess what I did....signed up to host a table at the Ladies Tea! Luckily we can decorate our table the night before and I do have another host...Amy T :)

The next weekend Matt and I will be stealing out of town for the weekend with Amy and Aaron to celebrate our birthdays and have a adult weekend before Matt leaves...this will be fun though. We are going to go to Dollywood Friday night so we can see a show and then plan on just sitting around Saturday and watching movies and playing board/card games :)

And somewhere in here I gotta finish my Christmas shopping!

On a happy note, I wrapped 5 presents today...wrapping presents makes me so happy :) And I got 8 pages in Amy's annual scrapbook...yeah me!

Kuddos to you if you made it to the end of this post!

Sweet Friends

Caleb has been asking to have a friend over to awhile, specifically Will from church. So last week I arranged for Will to come over this afternoon. Today worked good for Cindy as she was having Bunco at her house so we also invited Sam to come over which made Madison happy. Caleb and Will spent most of their time in Caleb's room while Sam and Madison enjoyed bowling on the Wii (I wish I had gotten a picture of those 2 bowling).

Since the boys were going to be eating dinner with us I picked up the stuff to make individual pizzas. I couldn't help but grab the camera and take a picture of the 4 of them making their pizzas.




The finished pizzas (well before being cooked)...the 2 extra pizzas are Taylor's and her friend that was over.


I also quickly snapped this picture...the kids had finished their pizzas and Will and Sam decided to bowl a quick game on the Wii for Mike got their to pick them up.

Finally.....Madison's test results

On Friday we had to be at Madison's GI dr's office at 8:00 (not sure what I was thinking when I made that appointment) to get the results from her endoscopy and colonoscopy. Actually once we got there I was glad we were there so early b/c by being one of the 1st appointments we cut down the amount of time spent waiting both in the waiting room and in the exam room. I was really nervous about the biopsy's they had done. I was also so worried that they were going to tell me Madison had Celiac Disease. And I kept praying if she had to have an allergy please don't let it be milk as dairy is the 1 food group I can always count on her to eat from. Literally the girl will eat cereal and milk for breakfast and then lunch will consist of ham, cheese and yogurt and then ice scream for dessert most nights.

The 1st thing her wonderful Dr said when she came in the room was that she was thrilled with Madison's test results. I sighed a HUGE sigh of relief! Madison's biopsy's came back negative...the eroded spots in her colon are to the consistent diarrhea. Madison's dr then said that she had really thought Madison was going to come back with a list of food allergies but she was happy to tell me that Madison was only allergic to one.......MILK! Yep, the one thing I was hoping she wouldn't be allergic to is the one thing she is allergic too! We are so thankful that things weren't worse and after talking with her dr we are going to try and limit her intake of milk and see if that helps things. Madison is lucky in that her only symptom is tummy ache and diarrhea which I know doesn't sound good but her reaction to milk could be lots worse. We are hoping this means her allergy is not too severe and that limiting milk will help, and not having to completely remove milk from her diet. We can't afford for her to lose weight as she is right under 30 lbs now so I don't want to take out numerous foods she will eat but most of them contain milk.

We also got the test results from Madison's echo on Tuesday and I forgot to blog about it....her heart murmur is what they call an "innocent murmur" at this time. Her pediatrician will continue to monitor it in his office on a yearly basis and if there is any more change then we have another echo. We are thankful that the pediatric cardiologist believes Madison's dr can monitor and we are thankful to not be getting to know another department in Children's Hospital though I am sure they are super nice!

Thank you to everyone that prayed for Madison (and us) during this long process. It means so much to us and we can never thank you guys enough.

Sweet and Sassy!

I wish I had half the wardrobe that Madison has! She has the cutest things and is really opinionated about her clothes right now...she always has to "look cute" as she says! She had been begging to wear this outfit for weeks and it was finally cold enough that she could. She was so excited and kept thanking me for allowing her to wear it. Love my sweet girl!

Halloween 2010

The kids were really excited about Halloween. We always go to a Halloween Party at the Lain's house but this year it was moved to Hope and Chris' house. Madison was excited about "hopefully" seeing one of her school friends, Molly, who lives in Aunt Hope's neighborhood. The kids really didn't need anymore candy as they had already acquired a ton but off we went anyway!

Madison and Abby having a bite to eat before trick or treating


Taylor with the cake pops she and Aunt Hope made


Madison enjoying a cake pop! (look at those black teeth and lips)


A group shot


Getting some candy!


They loved getting to pick out which piece of candy they wanted!


Madison with her huge bag of candy...so heavy she had to carry it with both hands!


Taylor with her loot all neatly organized


Caleb with his candy stash also neatly organized!


Madison with her candy though not nearly as impressive as Caleb and Taylor's b/c she didn't do as much at Trunk or Treat b/c she wasn't feeling too hot :(