2008 Christmas Card

Randomness...

I'm waiting for Aaron to get out of the bath, so I thought I'd type up some of the things running through my head. lol
Jayme and I went to wal mart the other night, and out of curiosity I tried on a pair of size 16 jeans, and they fit like a glove! I was so excited I started jumping up and down right there! I wasn't sure if they would fit or not- my 18's are big, but I wasn't sure HOW big- but yeah! I didn't buy them yet, but as soon as I have the extra money- I have my eyes set on the jeans, and a really cute top I also spied.
We took the kids to the galleria today. It was supposed to be a big deal- they've been advertising on the radio all these special holiday things. Well apparently the biggest thing, the famous figure skaters, were only there on Saturdays and yesterday was the last day. We still had a good time walking around, but it was a bummer that we missed that. The highlight of the day was going to the American Girl store. The girls were in heaven- I have to admit I even enjoyed it considering I grew up reading the books too. Grace will be getting her Bitty Baby on her birthday. Sadie got hers when she turned 5 so we decided to do the same for Grace. She's been asking for one for about a year now, and we've told her she had to wait until she was 5. She hasn't forgotten either. lol While we were there we decided that on Sadie's birthday she'll get one of the "Just like Me" dolls.
Tonight I ran over to Jayme's to pick up some Butter Braids that I had ordered from a friend's child's fundraiser and forgot to get at the Christmas party last night. As I was walking back to the car, I slipped on some leaves and fell flat on my back hitting the back of my head on the sidewalk in the process. No blood, but boy am I in pain. :( I think I scared poor Jayme to death. She was asking about my back, but all I could think about was my head. I got home and Aaron gave me some meds and sent me to the tub- when I soaped up I realized I have several cuts and scrapes on my arms that I didn't know about. OW!
Anyway, the kids are all fast asleep, and I think we're going to relax with some hot chocolate and a movie.
Oh, one last thing- I got all the paperwork for Connor's GT testing filled out- and he will go through the tests after Christmas break. I think as long as he stays relaxed he's going to do fine. He tends to freeze up around new people, and this is one of the things his teacher and I have discussed, so the GT counselor has actually been meeting with him and getting to know him for a few weeks so he'll be comfortable with her by the time testing rolls around.

If I don't get another post in before then- I hope you all have a very blessed Christmas!

Need some advice...

I have one child that is revolting against the seat belt. Seat belts are a #1 safety issue when they are in the car, but this one child has done everything from leave it off, to sitting on the waist belt and only using the shoulder belt. I have tried doing the firm brake press (not with anyone behind me of course), firm talks, and pulling over to the side of the road until they get their seat belt on correctly. Nothing seems to be working. So I need advice- how in the world do I get them to leave their seat belt on the right way so they are safe, 100% of the time?

Precious Pictures

Matthew putting his ornaments on the tree. See the dirty face from our traditional oreo cookies and eggnog?
Aside from my baby's first Christmas ornaments this is one of my most cherished ornaments. I know someone out there will recognize it ;)

Pictures from Thanksgiving

Aunt Carly was so glad to see her kiddos!
His "tough" face
Matthew and the turky leg
You can see Connor's tooth in this picture if you look closely. Its a top tooth.
We celebrated our 9 year anniversary on Thanksgiving day!
YUM!

Chaos , Chaos everywhere!

So I'll try to make this as short as possible.
The Monday before Thanksgiving, Connor wasn't feeling well, he climbed into my bed around ten that morning and fell back asleep. I went about doing my housework, and went into my room around 12:30 looking for something. I noticed his breathing was funny. So I went to check on him, he was breathing very quickly, and would stop breathing every once and a while and then gasp. I got my phone so I could use the stopwatch to count how many breaths he took. He took 60 breaths in a minute, all while stopping every few seconds and gasping. I got on the phone with the nurse line for our insurance company and explained what was going on and she told me to call 911. So I called Jayme in a panic, not knowing what I would do with the other kids, she didn't have her car, but she ran down here to keep them. I called 911 and off we went. I could tell then how sick he was because he didn't think this was cool at all when the ambulance and fire truck pulled up in front of our house. We arrive at the hospital, and they are just amazing. They put me at ease, put him at ease. They do a breathing treatment within minutes and dosed him with motrin since he had spiked a fever. They did a chest X-ray which looked fine, so they wrote up scripts for steroids and albuterol for the nebulizer at home and sent us on our way. Aaron showed up just as I was signing discharge papers.
We left Wednesday night to head back to East Texas for Thanksgiving, he did ok all day Thursday, but Friday after his afternoon treatment he started coughing and throwing up blood- so back to the ER we go where they give him three back to back treatments, start an iv line for iv steroids and again, run another chest X-ray where this time- shows he's developed pneumonia. Saturday I did a photo shoot and we headed to Longview. By this time Aaron isn't feeling well at all, he goes to urgent care and learns he has strep throat. So Sunday it was just the girls and I at church. It was great to see everyone again.
We headed home Sunday evening and went back into our routine. Tuesday a tooth of Connor's started bothering him. What had happened was his top adult tooth started growing in before his baby tooth fell out and they were essentially fighting against each other. The adult tooth had pushed the baby one straight forward, while the baby one was pushing the adult tooth backwards. I spent all morning looking for a dentist to take him, and finally found one. I checked him out of school and headed to Arlington. The office was amazing. The dr and staff were efficient and just downright awesome. The girls go for cleanings next week. lol
Anyway, the dr looked at the tooth, and said it needed to come out asap, and it would have to be done surgically because it wasn't budging at all. They got us scheduled for the next day. Soooo, anyway, that all went well. He did great, with everything, the sedation etc. He had very minimal pain after it was all said and done, and is much more comfortable now than he was with a tooth sticking into his upper lip.
Last night we had some friends over for dinner, and the girls and I snuck out to go dancing for a couple hours. Tonight we have a Christmas party, and tomorrow we get to breathe---maybe? lol
Everyone is healthy right now- and hopefully it will stay that way through the rest of the holiday season.
So that wasn't as short as I wanted- but thats life lately. :) Hopefully my next update will be better.
I'm going to try to upload pictures soon- but blogger hasn't been cooperating.