Last Christmas Post

One Last Christmas Post....Patch gave Madgie a Wii for Christmas (Madgie was very interested in using Wii Fit.)

Needless to say Ben loved the Wii..

What was surprising was how much Ben's Great Grandparents loved the Wii. They want to get their own now.

More Christmas Pictures

Abbey loved hanging out with her Nana.

Everyone looked so cute in their Christmas outfits.

After Church we had to put out cookies and milk for Santa and a carrot for the reindeer.

Ben loved all his presents, but he really liked his lightning mcqueen slippers. He would make engine noises whenever he walked in them.

All of Patch's cars

Of course while we were in Jacksonville we had to play with all of patch's cars.....He does a lot of restoration work on these cars as a hobby.

Cute girl in a hot car.

Just keep it under 88 mph Uncle Chris.

Going for a ride with Daddy. (A very slow ride just in the nieghborhood.)

Christmas 2008--part 1

Ben and Abbey got to fly with us down to Jacksonville. Due to the ice trucks not working well in the cold....(Ironic I know)...we turned our two hour flight into a four!...The kids were great the whole time though.


When we got to Jacksonville, we headed right out into the hot tub.



We had some time to make some cookies for Santa.


In the mornings we spent some great time reading the paper.


Patch has a really cool train to play with.


Abbey even got to open one of her presents early so she could play in it.

Oh Croup.....

Well we made it to Jacksonville safe and sound yesterday.....after waiting on the frozen tarmac of O'hare for our plane to be de-iced for over 2 hours......It was a delicious irony that the de-icing trucks were having trouble working in the cold weather.

Yesterday, we had lots of fun playing with Great-Patch, Nana, Patch, and Madgie. Unfortunately, at 2 AM, Ben woke up barely able to breath. KatrinaRun and I were pretty scared but Doctor Patch dusted off the old doctor bag, listened to his chest and said it wouldn't be a bad idea to take him to the hospital but we were probably ok to not call an ambulance.

We went down to Wolfson Children's Hosptial and there they had Ben diagnosed in 20 seconds. Croup....after a quick treatment with a nebulizer and another oral medicine we were sent home after an hour's worth of observation. We were unfamiliar with croup but I think we will be better able to handle it the next time.

Ben was great the whole time. He even got a new hot wheels car out of it from the great nurse we saw.

Everyone is doing great now, back to our regularly scheduled Christmas.

Santa...I know him!!

Today we ventured out to meet Santa and tell him what we want for Christmas. We waited in a very long line and both kids were very well behaved and dressed nicely for the picture. Unfortunately, as we stepped up to be next in line (finally), Abbey chose that exact moment to have a huge blow-out - impeccable timing! Luckily, the nice lady working the line saw what happened and let us step to the side to wait while Daddy went to clean Abbey up and change her outfit. When they got back, we got to be the very next people to see Santa. Ben was amazing throughout the whole thing and didn't seem to mind waiting for Abbey to get cleaned up. What a great brother! When we did get to meet Santa, Ben told him that he wanted the Cars movie. Santa was very polite and asked us whether it would be ok with us if he brought that to Ben. I guess he didn't want to disappoint Ben by not bringing the movie if we didn't approve. We'll see if he gets it - stay tuned!!

Early Christmas with Friends

We got to go see our great friends Mr. Phil and Ms. Sandy this weekend and their twin boys Joey and Josh. The twins were born 4 days before Abbey, but were 9 weeks premature and Josh had to stay in the NICU until pretty recently. Thankfully he finally was able to come home in November and we got to meet him for the first time this weekend! We had already met Joey, so he and Abbey go way back. Here they are catching up. Joey liked to give Abbey's arm lots of kisses...either that or he was trying to eat her arm - we weren't sure!

Thankfully they decided that holding hands would be more fun than eating them...aren't they a cute couple?

Then Abbey got to play with both boys!

Here is the leaning tower of babies! Luckily, Ben was there to provide some support!

Abbey's 5 Months!

Well, we took Abbey to her 5 month appointment (I can't believe she is that old already!). She is doing great and weighed in at 13 pounds, 5 ounces and 24 3/4 inches. She gained 2 pounds and grew an inch in just a month! Now she is up in the 25th percentile (from the 5th percentile a month ago), so we are very happy with her progress. She still seems so little to us, but is finally fitting in her 3-6 month clothes. I guess we can't expect her to be too big...as a doctor told my mom 29 years ago after taking a look at her (she is 5'2), "You don't take a chihuahua and get a great dane!"

Since she has grown so well over the past month, we got the ok to start some solid foods. So, we immediately started her on rice cereal...

You can tell she did not like it too much...

All that growing and trying new food must have been exhausting - Abbey fell asleep while playing with her toy! She didn't even let go!

Sleep tight sweet baby!

This must explain why it seems I am never able to get my paper...

Story here.

Or more likely me never getting my paper must explain this! Who gets a paper now anyway....old people.....like me.

Hmmmm....perhaps I should turn the heat up

Ben was cold so he wanted to wear his hat to bed....I am beginning to wonder if maybe I am a little too thrifty on my thermostat settings.

Christmas Decorating

With Thanksgiving over, now we can start to look towards Christmas (my favorite!). So, I was pretty excited to start decorating and listening to Christmas music. We were able to get our tree decorated thanks to the help of Ben and Abbey!




Abbey was great at holding onto the ornaments, but not so good at getting them on the tree - she wouldn't let go!

Ben was great at decorating...

except that he wanted to put all his ornaments on the same branch...

Ben did help Daddy put the angel on top- beautiful!

Looks like we are prepared for Santa to come!

Thanksgiving over...

After Thanksgiving we spent some time at Aunt Domi's house where Ben and Caroline had their own tea party...
Ben and Aunt Teesa fell asleep in Caroline's bed - must have been all the turkey...

A picture of the Turkey Friers on Thanksgiving day - yum!

Ben and Caroline playing on their "sailboat"

Thanksgiving - more family time!

Abbey really enjoyed all the family time, so we gave her some more!
We went to Aunt Domi's house and Caroline let Abbey sit in her chair (that she matched)...

More time with Aunt Teesa...

Cousin Andrew made her smile...

Mama Kay and Papa with two of their granddaughters...

Thanksgiving - quality family time!

Thanksgiving is all about spending time with family. So, since this was Abbey's first Thanksgiving, we made sure she spent lots of time with family. Here she is with Cousin Caroline...
With Mommy and Ben...

With Cousin Tim and Aunt Godmother Domi...

With Aunt Teesa...

And with Mommy...