Human Pin Cushion

My daughter has been a human pin cushion for the past week or so.  Friday, Sunday, and Monday she had her first round of Rocephin shots, in attempt to kill, what appears to be an unstoppable ear infection.  Thursday she had her 4 month shots because her right ear looked good and her left ear looked better.  However she did not sleep again last night....so back to the after hours clinic we went, for another Rocehpin shot.  We did quite a few rounds of these with Buggy Boy as well, but not this close together...and not this young.  I hate, hate, hate doing this to her and do worry about her becoming resistant someday, but tonight was the worst.  Ever.  It honestly looked like the nurse was using a dull needle - or maybe baby girl has developed calloused thighs due to all the shots, but it did not want to break the skin.  The nurse had to use quite a bit of force, and it broke my heart :(  Poor Baby, on so many levels.  But having been through this before, I keep reminding myself, "This Too Shall Pass".

Christmas - 2010

Merry Christmas!

Sweet Girl Cousins

 Gingerbread House Demolition

Karate Chopping Ninja Demolition!

This is pre-sugar rush!

Baby 'Rissa slept through it all

 Cookies for Santa (?)
This job was taken seriously by the kids....



For a little while, anyway.  Then Nater decided he was the cookie inspector.



Santa-smanta...let me have them!



This one needs a little more FROSTING



OK, that's better!



Don't worry, 'Rissa got some goodies too

Opening Gifts

The Glo stick from his cousins was a huge hit

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!



Not real sure if these are Santa PJs, Elf PJs, or Where is Waldo PJs.  But either way, Nate rocked them!







 Christmas Morning

Granny came over and we opened gifts at our house.

My 1st Christmas!





Christmas Lunch -

Mommy did a horrible job with pictures, but we had a wonderful Lunch at GramAunt and Uncle Mose's house with their family.

Then we came home, had a nap and spent the evening playing with toys.

Playin' songs on his new guitar

Silly boy loving his new Thomas Train!







And random other pics because the blog site would not let me place them where they belong....sorry!



Nothing says "Merry Christmas" like being kissed by a rat!



 Our Christmas was fantastic.  We were fortunate enough to spend it with loved ones.  Hope yours was too!

Tree's Up, House is Tasty, Snow is Fun, Ears are Healing, Baby is sitting up...

....And that is the kind of title you get when you are playing catch up.... 

 It has been busy around here lately.  We finally got our tree up.  Nate hung a few ornaments but mostly directed Daddy to hang them "way up high".  So our tree is a little top heavy this year!

The Gingerbread house has been quite fascinating to Nate.  There have been several episodes, if you will, since the arrival of the gingerbread house to our house....

Night 1 - Nate threw a fit because his mean parents would not let him take it to bed with him. 

Day 2- Another fit was thrown when Daddy would not let him take it to school with him. 

Day 3- Nate began feeding it chicken strips and mashed potatoes through the front door. 

And Day 4- Nate began eating it! (I could not believe it)

As of now, it still sits on our dining room table- the chimney is a bit shorter and some of the roof "shingles" are missing....but it is still there.

This weekend we went to a local church and had a snow day.  For those of you not from this area, well, we don't get snow.  While there are some serious advantages to that - for instance, you never have to shovel heat - there are some things kiddos miss out on.  So in attempt to remedy that, a company came in and covered the area with shaved ice.  So imagine, if you will, playing on top of a giant sno-cone...now you get the idea.  But the kids did not care, they had a blast....and the parents had a few good laughs.

It was like watching Bambi learn to walk, seeing the kids slip and slide on the packed ice

Snowball fun!



Nate's first snowman~ he was very proud of all 4 levels!



Then we had a few of Nate's friends and families over for continued fun.  We went from "snow" play to 62 degree weather and had fun playing out on the swing set and in the back yard.

Later that evening we went on a train ride through another lights display.  Overall it was another fantastic Saturday.

'Rissa News

Ear infections continue.  The dreaded Augmentin did not work.  She got her first Rocephin shot on Friday and has two more coming.  Poor baby.  Otherwise she is good. She continues to charm us with her grins, is fascinated with her toes and is sitting up with good balance now. 

Overall we are thoroughly enjoying this Christmas season. It is a lot more fun with our precious kiddos, dear friends, and amazing family to share it with!

Gingerbread Houses and Festival of Lights

What a fun day we had today!  After the photo shoot (see post below) and a nap, we went over to Nate's friend's house to make gingerbread houses.  Payton is in the same class as him at daycare.  Little did we know her Mom teaches culinary classes at a local college.  So this experience was incredible.  She made the houses and even crushed up lifesavers and butter scotch pieces to make colored windows in the houses.  She even put a Christmas tree brownie in each home.  It was adorable.  Then she braved having toddlers, a TON of candy and frosting, and let the kids have at it.  It was a lot of fun!

Nate was very particular about lining up his candy (when he was not tasting it!)

He was so proud of his finished product!  We had to pry it away from him that evening because he was insisting it go to bed with him.  It now proudly sits as the center piece on our dining room table.

Here's another one of his daycare buddies, Travis, making his house

This is Payton.  She will be a big sister in April so she practiced holding a baby, until Marissa got too squirmy.

We went home for a quick dinner.  Although we ate so much yummy food at Payton's, that we were not too hungry.  Then we met up with the Oberts for the Festival of Lights.  This was our first time to go.  It was a bit chilly, but is really well done. 

Marissa watched it from the comfort of her car seat.

The most exciting thing for the kiddos were the benches to play on...

...and riding the school bus that shuttled us to and from the event. 

All in all, it was a fantastic day and many memories were made.  Thanks to everyone who made this possible!