Family Portraits

We had these taken at our Church. They were ridiculously over priced, but I really did like them, and wanted to be able to reprint them when I wanted - any size, color etc. (Costco has great bargains and options!). Enjoy

Christmas Celebrations

We had no way of wrapping the chairs for the kids so we just let them have this present early.

Last night Bobby & I had a "date night". (Derek had a basketball draft and Brooklyn was really grumpy so they stayed home while me and Bobby went out.) At our church (Calvary Chapel, Ramona), there was a Christmas play/musical. Over these last few weeks Bobby was singing the songs for the play, and I thought he was brave enough to go on stage and sing but he chickened out last second. It was still fun to go and support the kids, and have some one on one time with Bobby (which is rare).

I just really like these photos of Brooklyn, not much to report with her. We had that E-N-T appointment a few weeks ago, the doctor prescribed 2 weeks of antibiotics AND steroids. I declined to give both of these to her, and she seems to be doing ok. She still has wheezing and gurgle sounds in her breathing, but she doesnt have a green runny nose so I just think this is as healthy sounding as she will get. I have an emergency inhaler I give to her if she sounds REALLY bad, but I just hate pumping her full of all this stuff, it cant be good for her, she seems to be thriving and growing...and happy. I'm not worried. She takes a few steps, at most maybe she has done 10-12 in a row, but would rather crawl still. She is getting so many teeth right now, so her sleep SUCKS!!! But hopefully we are getting close to the end of the molars coming in. She is learning so much every day. We picked up a booster seat, and she sits in that now at the table with us instead of her high chair. She loves to SCREAM!!! ha ha ha

My little Christmas present - at his Christmas Program at his preschool.

What day is it?

Dang, this month is FLYING! ...at light speed! I cant believe its the 12th already! Seriously? What happened to the last 12 days?

We FINALLY got our Christmas Tree yesterday. I was on the fence at even bothering to get one at this point, but Derek pointed out that the kids wouldn't have a tree with presents under this year...how dare I even consider it! But honestly, those of us with small kids, it feels like its triple the work to have a tree in the house....Fence off this, hide that, move the ornaments up, "no dont touch, dont touch DONT TOUCH!!!!"...right? I know I'm about to jinx myself when I say this but, our kids haven't done much damage to our tree! They are more interested in shoving and yanking on each other - when you yank the tree there's no reply, yank on each other and you get some action! There are only a few ornaments on the tree (that we put up high), and a string of lights - but really, they have been pretty good about it...

It does feel much more like the season now that we have it, and makes the house smell delicious. So happy we got it.

Gobble Gobble

A most enjoyable, sorta relaxing Turkey day this year. My sweet husband decided to go spend some time with Robby Thanksgiving eve, and slept in until 1030am. He tried to get up at 730am but ya know, when you go to bed at 2 in the morning, you need more sleep than that, right? RIGHT! Ahh, anyways, we headed to my parents house where my (step) mom cooked a delicious turkey for us. Pigged out on the usual desserts... mmm pecan pie my favorite. The kids got real whiny around 6pm - sans naps, so we left around 630pm. I had a nice time! Hope you all enjoyed your holiday as much as we did. If our kids start behaving better, MAYBE St. Nick will come visit us this year!

A sneak peak at our holiday photos...I took 300 of them & in 299 of them, neither kid wanted to look in the right direction.

Is it just me, or am I the only one who is impatient waiting for the images to upload to blogger? anyway...

We saw our 3rd visit to the allergist for Brooklyn this week, and we have hit another referral, this time to an E.N.T. doctor now. Our allergist, who I love dearly, just didn't see the improvement she had hoped with Brooklyn and referred us to the new doc. As odd as it sounds, the allergist thought Brooklyn could benefit from acid reflux medicine because we have concluded that all of her upper airways are inflamed, resulting in all this excessive noise that sounds like she is sick all the time. (Acid reflux meds help reduce inflammation) Many people who are not around Brooklyn often assume that she is coming down with a cold, and I end up having to assure them that this is just how Brooklyn sounds healthy! To just remind you all, she is currently on 2 inhalers (Flovent & Pro Air/Albuterol & Nasonex), I was just going through some pictures I took for the holidays and in all of them I have to touch up her runny nose! At the last appointment we werent sure if this is just as healthy as Brooklyn is going to get (until she grows more), but we have to try another option just to see if we can bring her some relief - besides, who wants a runny nose every single day? I know I don't!

Happy Birthday Brooklyn.MOV

Birthday Celebration Again & Halloween

We celebrated with Derek's side of the family for Brooklyn's birthday and 4 other birthdays on that side of the family. Yes, FOUR OTHER ONES! As you all know Derek comes from a big family (he's the oldest of 8) and October has the most birthdays out of the year. I'll post video of singing "Happy Birthday" - its just too cute not to see.

Our pumpkins - those carvings took FOREVER!!!!!

Baby Fiona (Brooklyn), Skeleton, Woody & a pretty little lady bug...

Captain America!

The big ugly ogre - Shrek!

Randee & Her friend Taylor

Princess Fiona & her baby princess

Our pumpkins at night - it was really difficult to keep my hand still to get the picture - the setting to take pictures at night is very touchy touchy.

Hope everyone had a great Halloween....Up next - GOBBLE GOBBLE!!!