We Caught Santa

Carter's been questioning the reality of Santa this year, so we decided to hide a video camera and see if we could catch him when he stopped by our house....Now he knows that he is real!! He must not have liked our cookie that we left out for him though, 'cause he only took one bite and then left the rest. Oh well, Carter enjoyed it.

Leah's Surgery

Leah had her tonsils and adenoids removed on Tuesday. She was such a brave little girl. Not one tear was shed and she never questioned why she was there. She did get a little nervous when they wheeled her back to the triage area to wait for the doctor. That's where we met Jill who quickly became Leah's friend. Her job was to show the pediatric patients what they were going to see and what the doctors were going to be doing before they put her under. She had a doll that she put the anesthesia mask on to show Leah what they were going to do and then she let Leah play with her stethoscope and her big bag of fun toys while we waited. After that Leah was relaxed and when they took her back for surgery she was in really good spirits.

After the surgery she was really tired but still in good spirits. She was awake for a little while then she took about a three hour nap. She slept like a rock due to the combination of anesthesia and the fact that we had to wake up at three-thirty in the morning to get to the hospital on time.

When Leah was finally awake she ate some jello and drank some Gatorade. She was pretty much back to her old self, so we got to come home that same day, thank goodness. Though the hospital was really nice (for a hospital) there is nothing like sleeping in your own bed.

Thanks to both Grandma Nelson and Grandma Welker for loving and caring for our sick baby Mila at home. Also thanks to a great visiting teacher who gave Carter rides to and from school. It was nice to know that everything was OK at home, so we could be with Leah. THANK YOU!!

Early Christmas

My mom gave our kids a swing set for Christmas and Jason spent a day and a half putting the dang thing together. I knew it wasn't going to be the easiest thing to put together, especially by himself, but the instructions say it will take approximately 2 hours...Who are they kidding?? And Jason's good with tools...
They still haven't had a chance to even be able to play on it yet because of us going out of town and now the rain... Maybe they'll get to enjoy it by Christmas.

THANKS GRANDMA!!

Thanksgiving....and more

I'm having a hard time keeping up....can you tell?

We had a great Thanksgiving this year with Jason's family. I can't remember the last time that we got to spend Thanksgiving with his side of the family, so it was really nice to be able to go.

His sister made the THANKSGIVING FEAST... Her husband deep fried the turkey and Jason and I both thought that it was the best turkey that we've ever had!! Everything was so good!!

Our kids truly get spoiled when we go there. Here's Grandma Nelson & Mila.

We also got to visit with Santa for the first time this year. Here we are waiting in line.

Carter asked for a basketball (even though we have two) and Leah asked for a Barbie. Good thing Carter didn't ask for what he said he was...an extension ladder. He said he needed one so he can fix stuff. Go figure...

My kids are so easy when it comes to Christmas. Hopefully it will last when they get older...

The kids helped Aunt Cindy decorate her Christmas tree while we were there and that's all Leah talked about was going home to put up OUR Christmas tree. I'm not very good at letting them help with ours, so they loved to be able to help!!

Grandma decorated her yard while we were there too.

Here's Mila during our pit stop in Globe. She hates her car seat, and the minute she gets out she's as happy as can be.

We finally got our tree put up. We have a train that goes around it and Mila loves it. She gets so excited every time it comes around and cries for the remote if she sees someone else holding it. I'm so glad she's not mobile this year because she already tries to grab the tree or anything else she can get her hands on when she's near it.

Yesterday was Jason's first day of vacation and we were able to get all of our Christmas shopping done. I stayed up late and wrapped them all and when the kids came downstairs Leah begged and begged to open them. She is just like me when it comes to surprises and hates not knowing what's in them.

Handy Manny...eat your heart out.

Jason and Jeff finished my mom's built-in-barbecue grill. It turned out so nice and now I can't wait until Jason can do ours! It even has an outdoor oven..Can't wait to try it out....

Aren't they handy??

Jason is on vacation next week and now it's my turn for the honey do projects...YEA!!

Mila Sittin' Pretty

We officially have a sitter!! Mila just learned how to sit on her own this week. She's also starting to pull her legs up under her and then rocks back and forth. I'm not ready for her to be mobile yet!!

The Count is on

Tonight we made chains for the kids to countdown until Thanksgiving and Christmas. They are really excited to see their cousins for Thanksgiving and ask every morning how many more days...so I decided to give them a visual.

Our week...

This is what Carter purchased with some of his birthday money. Jason lectured him that when he falls off he doesn't want the hear him cry. So the couple of times he's fallen off he gets up and says "maybe I could be done ramping today" trying not to show that he's hurt. (Hopefully we don't end up at the hospital with his great purchase.)

SICK KIDS!!....I'm beginning to wonder if Leah and Mila are ever going to get well. It seems like just when they're starting to get better they start all over again.

I know this is gross, but I had to get a picture of this...She was eating ice cream and every time she would take a bite, her snot in both nostrils would blow up like balloons. I couldn't stop laughing. SOOOO GROSS!!!

Mila is teething AGAIN!! This time she's been running a fever and crying non stop unless she's being held. She also got a rash all over the upper half of her body and her eyes had bright red circles around them. I was going to take her to Urgent Care on Saturday night, but everyone thought that it was just how her body released her fever. Good thing I didn't go and spend $50 and expose us to the other sick people for the whole night, cause when she woke up on Sunday she looked much better and seems like she's starting to feel better.

As yucky as she was feeling, she was still smiling for everyone.

My mom is now moving into her house so we've spend every night there unpacking boxes and putting things away. We're starting to finally see some progress. Jason and Jeff have been building her a built in barbecue grill and it's looking really good. They should be done this week. We'll see...

This is a picture of Jason keeping all of the kids entertained. He found some vinyl gloves and thought it would be a good idea to put one on Carter's head. Carter didn't go for it, so Jason put it on his.

Then he was blowing them up like balloons.

Carter has been wanting to grow his hair out again and I'm having a hard time with this. It's starting to just look negelected, and I can't stand to look at it. We'll see who wins...

This is how he came out of the bathroom yesterday. He says "do you like my hair?"

Jason said these are his mug shot pictures...

Coco & Toast Memories

This morning we woke up to a freezing house, so I decided to make the kids hot chocolate and toast. This was an all time favorite at our house when I was growing up, so I don't know why I haven't given it to my kids until now. Leah LOVED it!! She pretended that we were having a tea party with the grown-up mugs and she said it warmed up her heart.

YUM!!

Mila has discovered her feet. If she has socks on she'll pull them off just so she can suck on her toes. Too Cute!!

We've been robbed...

Well not really...My mom took her 70 inch TV and her Wii to her new house this past weekend and I'm starting to realize how much we enjoyed having them here. I MISS 'EM!!

Pebbles...Cave Man...Jaguar??

This morning I asked Jason if he would get Mila bathed and dressed for church while I did Leah's hair. I told him her clothes are laid out on her changing table. So Jason goes in there to dress her and I heard him asking her, "What is this, your cave man outfit?" And then we get to church and sit down and Carter looks over at Mila and whispers to me "Mila's dress looks like a Jaguar." I didn't know it was going to be such a big deal. I thought her dress was really cute; I got it as a hand-me-down from Stacey.

Doesn't she look cute??...

Schnepf Farms Field Trip

On Friday Carter had a field trip to Schnepf Farms with his kindergarten class. I was able to go with him, which he loved because he was a little bit nervous. The highlight of this field trip was the bus ride to and from the farm. This was the first time that Carter had been on a bus and he loved it! Their day consisted of playing on their big playground, a petting zoo, a hay ride, and a walk through the huge garden.

There were 3 classes that went at the same time, so to start with they had playground time. This is a picture of the off road tricycles that they ride through a maze. Their tricycles were well used, so if you got one that actually worked and had a seat you were pretty lucky.

Here is a picture of the 1,000 pound bull that they have in the petting zoo. This picture really doesn't do it justice. It was HUGE!!

They had a goat there that was hilarious! (My video didn't come out very well on my camera.) Every time the kids would get close to the fence to pet him he would turn really fast and spit at them. (You probably had to be there to know just how funny it was.)

On the hay ride they took us around the whole farm. We live just down the street from this place and I would have never guessed that it was that big! They have a large peach orchard and in the section where the peach trees have died they put deer. Who would have thought that deer can live in our Arizona heat?

Here are some pictures of Carter with his goods from the garden. They let each of the kids fill up a bag full of radishes to take home. (Too bad we don't like radishes...)

Their garden made me want one of my own. Maybe someday.

This was a really fun day to spend with Carter and his class even though it was really hot.

Mila is 6 months old!

Mila had her 6 month Doctors Appointment the other day and she weighed in at 16 pounds 11 ounces and was 26 & 1/2 inches long. She had to get 4 shots, but she did pretty well. Here's what she's been up to lately:

• She's starting to learn how to sit up and can roll wherever she wants to go.
• She loves to play with the kids. They can really get her to giggle.
• She's not interested in baby food whatsoever. She loves cereal but doesn't like anything with flavor.
• She's about to get her two top teeth, so she's been a drooly mess lately.
• She grabs everything that is within her reach, and if she sees it and wants it, she can eventually get to it.
• These past couple of weeks she has really discovered that she has a voice.

She is so fun and we're so grateful that she is a part of our family!! WE LOVE HER!!

HaLLoWeeN

This year was a very cheap Halloween for us. Carter wanted to be the cop that he was last year, Leah wanted to be a princess with one of her dress up dresses, and Mila was a ballerina with a tutu my neighbor gave me. Gotta love it!!

Please ignore Carter's teeth...his front baby tooth just won't let go, so he looks so funny. Plus notice his Safford Police Dept. arm patches...thanks to Officer Brad Reynolds; they really made Carter's costume.

We went to my sisters house and had a potluck with some of their neighbors, and then went out trick or treating. Leah didn't last very long, which was OK with me cause we didn't need anymore candy in our house.

Close to the end of the night Leah was going up to people and telling them "trick or treat" then she would give them a piece of candy from her own bucket. She didn't have much candy left.

Halloween is my dad's birthday. (He would have been only 55.) Stacey bought an ice cream cake and put 15 candles on it, one for each grandkid. They sang Happy Birthday to Grandpa and then blew the candles out. Grandpa loved ice cream, so I thought it was so fitting. Hopefully this will become a Halloween tradition with the grandkids, he loved them so much! Thank you Stacey for being so thoughtful. It meant a lot to everyone to be able to honor him after such a fun night. We miss him everyday, but we know we'll see him again.