Thursday, December 25, 2008

Merry Christmas!

We want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. May your day be blessed and quiet.
Love,
Stephanie, Shannon and the boys!

The meaning of Christmas! (click on link)

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

ER Visit

On Monday night Connor decided to test the laws of gravity. He sat in the laundry basket and slid down the stairs and then he went a lot faster then he thought. He hit the wall which had the gate up against it. He hit pretty hard and started crying right away. In about 1 second he got this huge goose egg on his forehead. We decided to take him to the ER. They said he burst a blood vessel in his forehead and the blood was pooling there. We had them do a cat scan just in case. He is totally fine now. The knot is just about gone and it is bruising really nice now. He will look so nice in Christmas pictures! Here are a couple of pictures for your viewing pleasure. Beware it is pretty ugly.



Thursday, December 18, 2008

Snow, Snow, Snow!!

I can't believe how much snow we have gotten in the last 24+ hours. The news said 15". It is so bad all the schools are closed today. So Connor has been outside playing all day in the snow and is just now eating some lunch. He loves snow!! And as of right now it isn't slowing down!! It is crazy. If you don't have a 4X4 or chains you are going to get stuck. We went out in it and the roads are insane. I have to say there are a lot of crazy people out there. Here are some pictures so you can see all the snow.


Shannon and Connor helping the gal across the street.


Back yard.



Another back yard.

I guess we are going to have a white Christmas after all!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

It's begining to look a lot like.......

CHRISTMAS!! It is cold and snowy here. I believe the temp today will be a balmy 10 degrees. It is supposed to snow all day and thru the night. We are going to have a lot of snow!! Here are a few pics:



You can't really see it but trust me it is snowing pretty hard. Shhh, don't tell my mom but I parked in the garage till I have to pick up Connor from school so I don't have to clean off my car. :-)
Connor was so excited when he woke up to it snowing. He loves the snow. Knowing him he will want to go outside and make a snowman, even though it is only 10 degrees out. It is supposed to get colder as the week goes on. I believe 2 degrees on Thurday, brrrr! Don't get me wrong I love living in a state that sees 4 seasons and I love to have a white Christmas, but I do not like the very cold weather. I actually can't wait till it warms up some so we can take Ryan to play in the snow. He was a little baby last year so he has no idea what the white stuff outside is. I know he will love it as much as his brother does!

Monday, December 15, 2008

Decorating the tree.

9 days till Christmas and Connor is so excited! We put our tree up this weekend and it was fun. We decided to go the artifical route because Shannon pulled a muscle in his neck and we thought this would be easier on him. We ended up getting a 4ft pre-lit tree. It is very cute and little. We have it up on a table because it is so little. Connor loves to put the ornaments on the tree and Ryan had fun just playing and getting into stuff. He at one point was playing with my cell phone. He seemed to not even care what was going on. Very cute. Here are a few pics:

The boys in front of the tree.

Connor and his silly smile!

Ryan telling Connor where to put the ornament.

Sorry the pics are a little blurry, there was something on the lens. So as you can see the tree is little but the boys love it. Ryan has pretty much left it alone. Connor is the one I have to get after all the time. He is always messing with the candy canes I put on it. We will see if they stay on the tree till Christmas.
I want to give a little shout out to our friends Paul and Heather. Thank you so much for the very yummy dinner and the time we got to spend with you guys! It was a very relaxed fun evening. Connor can't stop talking about Hannah. We need to do it again and soon.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

End of week, Yeah!

What a week. Both boys have been sick with a virus. Connor was sick yesterday with a fever. He hung out all day on the sofa and was so quiet and calm. Today is a different story. Both boys are feeling much better and we are back to our normal busy, noisy selves. How sad is it that I wish Connor would be sick for a couple more days! If you know my oldest he is so very busy and noisy that there are days I just want to crawl into bed and pull the covers over my head and put ear plugs in my ears. Wow! Now hopefully no one else will get sick. I have a ton of stuff to do before Christmas. I still have shopping to do and of course I need to mail my cards. They are already to go just need stamps. So it is like 19 days till Christmas and I have only Connor done. Can we say procrastinator!
I have to share a couple of recipes I have made this week. They are so yummy! I have become a Food Network junkie and watch it as often as I can. I will try a recipe if I think my family will eat it. These two were a hit! The first is Beef and Butternut squash stew. Very yummy. Here is the recipe. I didn't add the sun-dried tomatoes because truthfully I don't really like tomatoes. The other is Baked Rigatoni with Bechamel Sauce. Very, very yummy! Here is the recipe. I have made this one a couple of times and it is always a hit. Be warned though that it can get expensive because the cheese is pricey. It is worth it though!
One more thing for you all. I thought I would add a funny thing that Ryan did yesterday. I was getting him ready for the day and sent him downstairs with his brother so I could finish getting ready. I had only put a shirt on him because I needed to find some jeans and socks for him. I was upstairs for like 5 min and saw him heading upstairs. I headed down with him next to me and when I got to the living room I saw his diaper and a little pile of poo. I did not notice that he had no diaper on when I saw him on the stairs. He had taken his diaper off and the poo had fallen out and he was wondering around with a yucky bottom and no diaper. Yucko!! It was very funny however. Now we have to make sure his has pants on. No repeats of the mess.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Much better today!

Ryan is doing so much better. (is that correct sentence structure?) Anyway, his fever is gone and he is back to his very busy, happy self. I am very glad for that. (My arm is about to fall off!!) Ryan had his 15 month well baby check and he is doing well. Growing like he is supposed to. He is a whopping 24 lbs. He had to get 3 shots and was not very happy at all about that. He did enjoy the sucker Nurse Carrie gave him though! Connor also saw the Dr. He is growing like a weed. He is 52 lbs and 4 ft tall. He is in the 75th percentile for his age. He is so tall and thin. Just like Dad, thankfully! Connor also got a shot, a chicken pox shot. Who would have guessed when I chose not to have him immunized for chicken pox that no one was hardly getting them anymore. What is up with that? Isn't it like a right of passage to have the chicken pox. I am proud to say I had them when I was little and proceeded to share them with my sister. (Mom told me it was polite to share! :-) So, we are on the road to recovery and maybe we can have a nice, healthy Christmas.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

My little sick RyRy

We made our first trip to the ER with Ryan yesterday. He was running a very high fever and had vomited on Monday night. We gave him some tylenol and finally got him back to sleep at midnight. He was doing better thru the night but when he woke up at 4am Tuesday he was running a high fever again so I decided he needed to go to the ER. Of course by the time we got there his fever was down and he was feeling much better. They looked him over and found his tonsils were very red and swollen. The Dr. thought maybe he had strep. He doesn't, so it is viral and needs to run its course. He is doing much better today and eating some food. I tried to feed him some yogurt (which he loves!) and he didn't want anything to do with it. I left it on the end table and went to do something and I came back and this is what I found:

He was a mess!! Yogurt everywhere. In his hair, all down the front of him, everywhere! I had to wash him off in the sink. He is too funny! He is feeling better, can you tell. I just put him down for a nap and am enjoying the quiet. I love and hate when my kids are sick. They want to be with me all the time, which I love. They want to be with me all the time, which can get old because nothing gets done. No dinner, nothing. Shannon picked up a couple of frozen pizzas, so good for us, Ha! Now don't get me wrong, I love the snuggle time and the loving I get to do, but really he would only be with me. No daddy, no nannie, no one but me. So now that he is napping, I should probably get yesterdays stuff done.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Can't believe it is December!

I can not believe it is December 1st. Wow, were has the year gone!? Of course, I have yet to do any shopping. Well, let me rephrase that. I have Connor finished and that is it. I wouldn't know what to do with myself it I finished before the 1st. I am a total procrastinator. I do however have my Christmas cards addressed and ready to go. I just need to get stamps and drop them in the mail. Yeah for me! It has been very gloomy and cold here. No sunshine for the last several days. We even got snow last Friday. Of course it is all gone now. I am hoping for a white Christmas again this year. I love it when it is white and snowing. It is beautiful.
Thanksgiving was a very nice day. Denise and her family came over and we had turkey and all the yummy fixings. We visited and played games. Very nice day. I am however glad that Connor is back to school for full days. I will be enjoying them until Christmas break on the 19th. He is a very busy boy and keeps me on my feet. I am usually really ready for him to go back to school after a vacation and weekend. How sad is that. Before I know it I will be wanting these days back. I am trying to focus more on the fact that it is going way to fast with both boys and I am trying to enjoy every precious moment I have with them.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Email from God

I saw this on the MOPS forum and had to share. If only I would remember to do this everyday my life would be less stressful!



This is God. Today I will be handling ALL of your problems for you. I do NOT need your help. So, have a nice day.

I love you.

P.S. And, remember . . .
If life happens to deliver a situation to you that you cannot handle, do NOT attempt to resolve it yourself! Kindly put it in the SFGTD (something for God to do) box. I will get to it in MY TIME. All situations will be resolved, but in My time, not yours.

Once the matter is placed into the box, do not hold onto it by worrying about it. Instead, focus on all the wonderful things that are present in your life now.


Now, you have a nice day.

God

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Way to much time on my hands!





I have spent the better part of Ryan's nap trying to make my blog pretty. What am I thinking! I obviously have waaay to much time on my hands. No really, why do I care what my blog looks like? I guess I want it to be pretty for all you who are reading. Is anyone reading this? I don't know. Maybe!
If so, It has been a while since I wrote. Halloween was fun. Connor dressed as Opimus Prime and Ryan was a monkey. Too, cute! We went trick or treating with friends and Connor got way to much candy. I am pretty sure most of it was shared with the neighbor kids. That is a good thing! Connor said the funniest thing. We were talking about school and what happend that day. They had career day at school. Lead into the converstation....... we were driving and Shannon was complaning about a road and Connor voiced his opinion also. I told them they should both be on the city council and they could have the road fixed. Connor said he was going to be a construction guy so he could build roads. I said wait, I thought you were going to be a firefighter. He said my 1st job is going to be construction, my 2nd is going to be a firefigher, 3rd, police officer, 4th an ambulance driver, 5th and so on. When he got to the 9th job I asked him when he was going to find time to get married and have children. In his oh so very wise 6 year old mind he thought about it and then said" I will take a day off and go to my wedding and then the next day I will go to the hospital and pick up my baby." I asked how many babies and he thought and said 9 no 10! I asked if he was going to have 5 boys and 5 girls and he said yes. They were going to be in a pattern, boy, girl, boy, girl, Etc. I was laughing so hard. I love how in his mind that is how it all works. I love it!

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Thoughts I had



I am sitting here while Ryan eats his lunch. He will eat pretty much anything I put in front of him. He loves all food. He can have just finished eating lunch or dinner and if you start to eat anything he will come begging for some. He is so funny. Shannon asked me why it is we never get tired of looking at the boys cute faces. I said I don't know. I wonder if we as parents will ever get tired of it. I don't think so. When I look at them I am amazed that God let me have them to raise. What was he thinking. :-) No really, I adore both of my boys and am so thankful everyday for the blessing of these very precious boys. They have brought so much to my life. They filled something that was missing. I can't even begin to imagine my life with out them.

Today has me thinking alot of the things and people God puts into our lives. Why would he put someone in my life that will not let me be a part of that life. They always have to be right and will not take responsibility for anything that they may have said or done. They will not apologize for hurtful things they have accused me of. I don't understand. I have been trying to make this relationship work for so many years and I know God has wanted me to. But I have to ask, "how long and how much does God expect me to have to put up with. It brings to mind the scripture in Matthew chapter 18 vs 21-22. Peter asks Jesus, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" Jesus answered, " I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times."
So now what, I have done that. Am I to just move on and let them know I will be there if they need me? I have been asking God to give me peace with the right answer. I think I am not to engage with anymore back and forth with this person but to let them know I will be here and I love them. What more can I do?
So that brings me to the end of my rambling thoughts. I am doing laundry so I can get ready for my MOPS steering retreat in Leavenworth. I am looking forward to it. I am excited to see what God has in store for me this weekend. The new friendships I will make and the ones he will strengthen. Now lets hope Shannon can handle both boys by himself!

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Pumpkin Patch






So the other day we made our annual trip out to Green Bluff to the pumpkin Patch. We had so much fun and the weather was warn and sunny. Connor has fun in the hay maze and the bouncy toys. He loves that kind of stuff. We went on a hay ride and had fun. I was wondering if anyone had ever fallen off the wagon before! Then we went to the pumkins! What fun the boys had. Ryan crawled and climbed over the pumpkins. Connor has fun picking out his perfect pumpkin. What a decision. There were so many to choose from. He finally found the perfect one. On the way home Ryan fell fast asleep about 2 minutes after we got into the car to head home. It was so much fun to just sit back and watch both boys explore and have fun. I truly enjoy these precious times!

Monday, October 20, 2008

My first post

So I thought since my boys are getting busier and growing up way to fast I would start a blog so my family can keep up with all the changes.