Playing catch up

We did enjoy a wonderful Christmas with our families. It has just taken me awhile to get in the mood to blog about it, I guess. We went to Bismarck in mid December to celebrate with the Michigan Jobes. So good to see them! It was so fun watching Andrew and Brylee, who are only 8 days apart, play with each other.

We stayed in El Dorado for Christmas Day. This is only the second time we have done this. Charlie and Lesa drove down Christmas Eve to be with us, too. Usually we are either in Pocahontas or with Kent's parents. After a good breakfast on Christmas morning and some good play time with the new toys, we packed up and drove to Pocahontas to be with our family there.

Here is our favorite gift and the following pics are what Santa brought the kids. My parents got us a "family gift" this year. We have had SO much fun playing with our Wii. We bowl, play tennis, and golf mostly. Since we are a competitive bunch, this is right up our ally.
Santa got Derek a soccer goal. He loves it!

Santa gave Austin a Nascar race track. Lots of fun!

And Brylee bear was given this fun ride on toy from Santa. She mostly pushes it around instead of riding, but fun none the less.

I do have more to blog about. Basketball season has started and both boys have played their first games. I'll post videos soon!

Shout out!

I know, I know I'm so behind on blogging about our holiday haul, but I can't sleep and so I'm doing a quick post about my AWESOME Razorbacks! We've beat 2 ranked teams in one week! If anyone had had a video camera recording in my living room an hour ago, we would have been on AFV. Derek and I were beside ourselves with excitement. And remarkably we didn't wake the 2 sleeping children. I promise to post soon about Christmas, New Year's yada, yada. Until then......WHOOOOOOOOO PIG SOOOOOOOOIE!

Baby's First Christmas

Merry Christmas friends! I hope you and your family are enjoying a special time of joy, love, and fellowship together.

Marathon day!

Today was a CRAZY day! In fact, I had to list all the things on our "to do" list out so we wouldn't miss something. Here's how our day went on this wild Thursday. Austin's play was today at preschool. He played Joseph (see video). I really thought he was going to all out ball on stage. I tried not to make eye contact with him and just kept a huge smile on my face the whole time. He did wonderful and he was so relieved when it was finished. From there, Kent went to speak at the nursing home and I went to Wal-Mart with my fellow PTA mom, Tina, and we bought 45 cases of Capri Sun for "movie day" at school tomorrow. Left WM and went to Mcky D's to celebrate Austin's performance.

A and I came home and made the cutest reindeer cookies for his class party tomorrow. He was a big helper and decided that the reindeer are of course Rudolph, but the brown nosed one is Blitzen.

I had arranged with Derek's teacher earlier this month to come and do a craft with the class. Today was the day, and it fit in my schedule around 1:30. So from 1:30-2:15 Tina and I made cute little snowmen with 21 second graders. They were very well behaved and it went much smoother than I had anticipated. Left school and went back to WM to buy items to make a dessert for our staff party at church tomorrow. Now it was time to go back to school and pick up D. Back to the house we go. Both little ones are napping, but I have to wake them up for A's doc appointment. This was just a follow up from surgery. Took B with me so Kent could get D ready for his basketball practice at 4:30. I took A's bball clothes with me to change after the doc. Man, was his office crazy today. Perfect! We were there for an hour for him just to look in and say "looks good, I'm here if you ever need me again". Thanks, but no thanks! I hope we're done with the ENT for ever!!!! (wishful thinking...I know)

Went to the boys club for practice and walked back and forth between gyms to see both boys practice. B was such a trooper and the loud noises of the gyms kept her alert and happy even though she's suffering with a nasty cold.

Left bball in time to come home and change for a boy scout dinner/meeting. D got 2 new patches. Left meeting, looked at Christmas lights, and came home to bake a cake for tomorrow. It's not a very pretty cake, so I hope it tastes divine. I'll let you know.

Sorry this is so long and rambly. We had such a fast paced day that my mind is still racing, I guess. Tis the season! And now it's time for bed!

Christmas Cookies are yummy!

We're home

Thank you all for your prayers. We are home. Austin did so good. He was nervous, so we took coloring pages and the dot game to keep him occupied. They gave him a "happy drink" but took him away before we could see how it affected him. When the doc came in to talk to us he said it was harder to get than he thought. He had to try 4 or 5 different instruments to get it out. Once they rolled Austin back to us, he was still drowsy. He was confused and didn't understand that the rock wasn't in there anymore. He was disoriented, he saw 2 Diego's on the tv...strange! He cried and was a little combative. But a little time passed and he was more like himself. The anaesthesia did make him sick though. All in all, it was an experience I will never forget. I do have the rock as a souvenir, too. Again, thank you friends for praying. Our God is an AWESOME God!

Are you kidding me?

Some of you may remember when Austin and I met Dr. Pillsbury in the spring of '06. That is the day Austin thought a small yellow flower would smell better in his nose than out of his nose. Well, we got to renew our acquaintance with the good doc today. When I picked Aus up from school at 1 he told me, "I fell on the playground and a rock jumped up and got stuck in my ear!"
Me: What!?! Let me see.
Sure enough, there it was, a bit out of my reach. Of course I tried shaking it out...ha, it didn't work. I called his doctor and the nurse said, just call the ENT doc. We head over to meet Dr. Pillsbury once again. Bless his heart, he really did try to get it out, but it slipped further down the ear canal. So, tomorrow we are scheduled to be at the hospital at 6:15 a.m. for Austin to undergo his first surgery. Poor baby! He's my first to be "put under". Please say a prayer for him tonight and tomorrow morning. I'll post when it's all over and let you know how he did. (And how I did :))

On a side note: We had pics taken yesterday. If you would like to take a look, go to
www.lairdphotography.smugmug.com
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