Christmas day

Almost everyone in my family was able to make it to my grandmas house for Christmas dinner- not very often we ALL can get together!

Merry Christmas (Eve)

We asked Santa to come a day early because we were flying out to Idaho on Christmas morning. Jim was able to get the day off so it worked out really well. Best of all- I was able to put that elf away...until next year anyway!

Sloane is being festive

Cameron has the hang of unwrapping things this year!

children lost in a sea of wrapping paper and gifts

Happy Birthday Jim

This is what 38 looks like...

He had a pretty good birthday this year- he got an espresso machine and a backpack that holds water so he can use it when he is running. We went out for italian for dinner too- yum!

Ethan's Christmas party

This is Ethan's teacher, Mrs. Tomchesson For the 3rd grade christmas party this year they decorated stockings, made snowflakes and ate a bunch of food. They had alot of fun decorating!

Christmas decorating

The boys each got to decorate half of the gingerbread half- Here they are both showing off their own 'side'

Then we made sugar cookies- Cameron used gobs and gobs of icing to decorate his. He had fun but it sure didn't look appetizing!

Ethan added his own twist too- the bear and reindeer broke so he continued to decorate them but just added blood where the bears legs were cut off and the reindeer's head too. Merry Christmas, right? haha

8 months old

Showing off- she loves to stand up and can even do it unassisted for a little while!

She is finally eating some solid foods- she likes bananas and apples the best. She still isn't crawling but she is getting closer to it- mostly she just pushes herself backwards. She does love to pull up on furniture and walk around it though- but she is still pretty unsteady so I don't really think she will be walking too soon either. Not a bad thing if you ask me! The christmas tree stays intact unless I put her right in front of it because otherwise she has no idea how to get over there!

a visit to see Santa

We took the kids to see Santa today- nobody cried believe it or not! I thought Sloane might but I think it all happened so quick she didn't even know that some strange bearded man was holding her. Cameron asked for a Jeep, Ethan asked for yet another toy gun (as if he doesn't have enough already) and Sloane just sat pretty for her picture.

an annoying little elf

An elf named Fiddle has come to visit us this year. He watches over the kids and reports back to santa every night, then reappears the next morning in a new spot. If the kids touch him his magic will leave (meaning he won't be able to report back to Santa) so he has to stay up high because Cameron just can't control himself. I thought it was a great idea at first but usually I don't remember to move him until I am already in bed, so I then have to get up and then come up with a place to put the damn thing. I can't believe I have to keep this up until Christmas! Yikes! The kids are having a ton of fun trying to find him every morning though- so far he has been on our fridge, our christmas tree, hanging from a plant, on top of the kitchen cabinets, and a few other places. Today he in on our fireplace mantle.

a rough week

we have had a nasty bug at this house- Ethan had it during Thanksgiving break and it lasted about 4 days, but he didn't seem to have it too bad. Then Cam got it- and he started by throwing up on our new couch that was less than 24 hours old!! He definately had it worse than anyone- poor kid has been sick for a week now and still isn't completely better. To top it off, Cameron tried to grow a third eyeball the other day by slipping off his chair and smacking his head on the tile floor.

Happy Fall!

mri's, ultrasounds, and shots- oh my!

Well, nobody ever found out what was causing the numbness/loss of strength in my hand and arm, but during the mri they noticed something going on with my thyroid. Last week I had an ultrasound on my neck done to see more- they found multiple cysts on my thyroid. What a weird thing- who the heck gets cysts in their neck?! Apparently they don't go away on their own most times so they have to stick a needle in them to aspirate them, and there is also a chance that they are cancerous, so they will need to be biopsied. Always something to worry about huh! Hopefully the endocrinologist can get me in soon and get it all done so that I can find the next weird medical anomoly to focus on...
On a more positive note- I have had shoulder pain for the past 4 years and finally had it looked at- luckily it is tendonitis, not a tear but I do have some osteo arthritis in it too. I got a cortisone shot in my shoulder today so hopefully it will start feeling better!

Not enough Sloane to go around

Cameron is such a sweet brother to Sloane. He loves to make her laugh, and he says he even loves her sweet baby germs- which means it's okay if she slobbers on him- lol
The boys even fight about who gets to talk to her or play with her- what a lucky girl, has boys fighting over her already!

new tricks

Sloane has all sorts of new tricks. She LOVES to stand! She isn't content to just sit on my lap anymore- she wiggles until she gets down to the floor so she can stand up. She is also pulling up to stuff- I imagine that she will be cruising the furniture any time now. Also- she waves and says hi! Can you believe she is trying to talk already?!

food

Sloane had a promising start to baby food- then all the sudden one day she decided to reject anything and everything that came on a spoon. Apparently if she can grab the food and put in her mouth by herself, she will try it, otherwise we are out of luck. Kind of sucks because I have a TON of pureed fruits and veggies that I made for her in the freezer. So far she likes toast, crackers, apple slices, and she is kind of iffy about carrots and sweet potatoes.

Yes We Did

Words can not express what a happy and joyous day it is

Dinosaur World

We had a crazy saturday- Ethan had a soccer game an hour away, and afterward we went with one of the team members' family to lunch and then to Dinosaur world. It had a fossil dig and the kids got to keep their 3 favorite fossils. There was a nice pathway to walk on that had a bunch of lifesize dinosaurs on display- there were all fake ones but it was still really cool to see. Inside, they had a museum with real fossils- we got to see real TRex teeth and claws, as well as the horns from a triceratops. There are a bunch of dinosaur/fossil places out near where Jim works- they have dug quite a few dinosaur fossils out there, and in the river, you can see real dinosaur tracks when the water is low enough!

Halloween

This year Ethan was a Ninja, Cameron was a mummy, and Sloane was a buttlerfly
I had to talk Cam into being a mummy- I have always wanted Ethan to be one because I wanted to make the costume but he always said no- I was finally able to talk Cameron into it though!
Sloane did really well for her first Halloween. She didn't care much for the headpiece, but once we took that off she was just fine- even though it was super hot in her costume and not cool outside at all.

pumpkin carving

This year we let each of the boys have their own pumpkin. Ethan wanted to carve his by himself and we decided to clean them out with a beater attached to Jim's drill- a badass way to clean out a pumpkin! hehe

MRI results

Well, I had my mri last week and got the results yesterday- they found NO MS! Yeah! Unfortunately they didn't really find anything that would explain my arm issues, so I just have to hope that it gets better someday soon. They did find what looks like a goiter (ick!) so I need to see our family dr today and have them do some tests and bloodwork to check my thyroid.
Sloane had her first really bad cold this last week. She had a fever over 100 for 3 days! Nothing I did would make it go away. She looked miserable and a little bit scary! Finally today she is a bit less congested. I am just hoping she will start sleeping well again because these sleepless nights are killing me!

Sloane is 6 months old!

Sloane had her 6 month appt today- she was 17lb 7oz and 25 3/4in. He said she is sitting way better than he would expect at her age (but that makes up for the fact that she wont roll over from her tummy yet). She has some tremors in her hands still and he said to keep a journal of it- it is probably just immature muscles/nerves but it could be tiny seizures- so I just need to keep an eye on it. She was throwing up last night so she got out of getting her shots today since you are supposed to be healthy when you get them- I am so glad because she has had a pretty severe reaction to one of the shots the last 2 times- not only does she get a huge knot on her leg but she just cries for hours and hours. The dr said she is probably reacting to the Pertussis so when I bring her in next week to get shots he just wont give her that one- yeah!!!

Welcome to the family Sidonah Leigh Colvin!

I have been meaning to post this for some time but keep forgetting!Lynleigh had her baby girl on October 2 at 7:57am. She was 6lb14oz and 20in.
Just look at all that hair!!!!

More good news for Ethan!

Today was another great day for Ethan. We went to the orthodontist today and it was time to take the braces and palate expander off- yeah! We thought he was going to need a retainer but all they did is put a tiny piece of metal behind his 2 front teeth to hold them together while his side teeth finish coming down- that's it! There is nothing else in his mouth now! He sure did think it felt weird to be able to feel the roof of his mouth again- he has had that palate expander in there for a year now. Here he is holding his 'before' picture that the orthodontist took with his teeth all crazy and far apart.
Last year he got it all put in right before halloween so he kind of got screwed in the candy dept since anything chewy/sticky was off limits- I told him that when he got it all off we would go buy a ton of gum and have a gum party. He has been looking forward to that for a whole year and finally today he got his gum! He was thrilled! Then of course he wanted to learn how to blow a bubble- did you know it is very difficult to explain to someone how to blow a bubble?! Well, after about 100 tries, he finally started getting the hang of it!

School is great this year!

Ethan has been doing SO well in school this year. We just got report cards back and he had nearly all A's! There were only 2 that werent and they were still above 85%. Not only has he been getting good grades, he has also been getting some of his homework done before he comes home- they have to wait in the gym to be picked up and he uses the time to do his daily reading and summary- the great thing is that I didn't even ask him to do it, he just decided to all by himself. I couldn't be any prouder of him!
The school even rewards the kids with an A average after every grading period- this time they get to go on a field trip to the bowling alley on friday and they get to be gone from school all day long! what a nice and well deserved break!

growing up so fast!

Sloane's favorite thing is to drink from our cups- once she gets the water in her mouth she usually spits it out though- pretty funny!

cookie time!

She totally adores Bagel and watches what she is doing all the time. Bagel is oddly enough not bothered by the attention- she even lets Sloane pet her which she has never liked with any other baby!
sitting pretty