I Keep Telling Him

I keep telling him he's not a dog, but....

Undeserved Panic

I apologize for creating panic. I was in the process of fixing up the blog...making it more wintry looking...for the season. We don't have a new dog. We don't have any ice. All is still well around here. The picture was taken in 2002 during the ice storm that hit Oklahoma. The dog was our family dog from my childhood. He lived to be about 16 years old and sadly, passed a few years ago. For those of you completely unaware of what I'm talking about this...

is the picture. I had it as the header. I was working on updating the looks but was interrupted when Ryan's nap ended earlier than expected.

Ooops...I forgot.

Life has been so crazy around here, but things are starting to settle down a little. Ryan is taking a nap right now. I think he's "recovering" from all of the excitement of the last week. He's cutting teeth again...the canines.

With all the recent activities I forgot to explain this gift....

It's a pulse-ox monitor.

It "spot checks" oxygen saturation and heart rate. It works on kids and adults. I know that probably only a mommy of a heart baby and a preemie would ever find this to be an exciting Christmas gift. I think it's awesome!

More Christmas Pictures

Christmas (Part 4)

Christmas (Part 3)

These pictures sum up the Christmas celebrations at our house. I still have pictures from 2 more celebrations and one we haven't even attended yet! I guess you could say we were VERY blessed this Christmas...or at least very SPOILED!!!

He likes it!!

"Oooooo....wow!"

Uhh huh. I was just waiting for that to happen.

Look at our mess.

Christmas (Part 2)

Ryan really enjoyed opening presents...everyone's presents.

"Hey! Where's the good stuff?"

"Wow. Mom. Look at my new laptop."

Eddy's opinion

The night before Christmas. Santa's gifts are set up and ready to be played with. This year Santa brought Ryan a train table.

It was a big hit! He even bypassed his morning cup of milk to play with his new toys!

Christmas (Part 1)

Merry Christmas!

Family Christmas Fun

We had a great time this weekend at the home of my brother and his wife. It was the first of our Christmas celebrations. We visited, played dirty santa, and watched all the kids laugh and play. I just love being with family!


Blogging may be limited this week. We have family arriving tomorrow afternoon, and then its just fun...fun...fun. You may not hear much from me for a few days unless, of course, something very extraordinarily exciting happens around here.

"King Bosco"

"Prince Ryan"

The dogs got a new bed for Christmas. They've been sleeping on three separate small beds, taking turns who sleeps with who. I decided it was time to get one large bed for the three of them and get rid of all the extra clutter in my kitchen (that's where they sleep).

Today Ryan and I tried our hand at baking sugar cookies. He's still a bit too young, but he sure did enjoy playing in the dough. It was like one big giant bowl of sweet-tasting play-dough. It was fun.
Can you guess what's inside this cute little pouch? It's a Christmas gift that was given to us by my husband's boss and wife. It is by far one of the most creative (and coolest) presents.

I'll tell you later.....

RSV on the Rise

Ughhh....

I just got word that on the news last evening was a special report about RSV. The report said that RSV is on the rise. In Oklahoma there have been 50+ reported cases of RSV since November 1st. That's a little over 1 child a day being newly diagnosed with the dreaded virus.

It's Getting Closer

Mommy, can I open this present today?

Christmas is only a week away. Can you believe it? This weekend starts our Christmas gatherings. We will be going to my brother's house in Midwest City on Saturday. I'm sooo excited. It is going to be so much fun. Ryan will probably get to (legitimately) open some Christmas presents. He's been casually opening presents here and there. I just follow behind, picking up the pieces and re-wrapping the gifts. He's too young to care what's inside the package. He just likes to rip, tear, and eat the wrapping paper off. I'm sure that he will be excited about the contents once he can actually see and play with (chew on) the toys.

Our own personal rendition of the 12 Days of Christmas, now appropriately titled "The 12 Days 'Till Christmas", is going well. It's been fun. I was planning on sharing each day's recipe online, but I've had a few discouraging (hormonal, emotional, etc.) days this week. I may still share them online especially if I get a request. The soups have been great. I usually just stick to the familiars...taco soup, chili, beans, etc., but I have a recipe book of just soups I've been using. They have been great. What's even more exciting is that the book is a "Gifts in a Jar" book, so after we sample these 12 soups I may make up some ready-to-throw-in-the-pot soups for those days I just can't thing (don't want to think) about what to fix for dinner. Soups are great for winter anyway. I'm also thinking these might be a great house-warming gift for anyone, but especially for my sister who is looking for a place of her own now.

Creative Peeking

Now here's a creative way to peek without opening the gift.

Just stomp a hole in the box.

It only leaves a small hole.

On The First Day of Christmas My True Love Gave To Me

It's the Twelve Days of Christmas!

As per tradition Wade will be receiving 12 days worth of *something*. In years past he has received 12 different kinds of candy, 12 different kinds of cookies, 12 different places to find his goodies, etc. One year I even went along with the song and for the first day gave him a pear, for the second a box of turtle candies, for the third I cooked a hen (chicken), etc., etc., for the sixth I cooked a duck (six geese a laying), etc....

Yesterday was day ONE!

Cheesy Potato Soup

The Mix:

2 cups powdered coffee creamer
1/2 c. imitation bacon bits
2 pkgs Knorr Four Cheese Sauce Mix
2 T dried parsley flakes
1 tsp Mrs. Dash seasoning
1 tsp dried minced onion
1/2 tsp pepper
2 cups potato flakes

(I used one entire box of Four Cheese Potato Flakes in place of the Knorr sauce mix and 2 c potato flakes.)

Cooking Directions:
1 Jar Cheesy Potato Soup Mix 2 cans ham (optional)
Place the soup mix in a large soup pot. Add 8 cups boiling water. Mix well and let stand 5 minutes. Heat ham and stir in soup.

(Again...I used leftover ham from the other day that I warmed up with the soup.)

Do you have a 12-Days-Of-Christmas Tradition???

Christmas Pictures

FOTO Friday

Today's Theme: "Happy Faces"

I love it when my kids smile!

Pictures

I picked up Ryan's pictures yesterday. When I'm able I'll post pictures of them on the website. Hopefully that will be today.

Here is a picture of Ryan in his NEW pajamas. We've done away with the feety pajamas. *Sigh* I love feety pajamas, and feety pajamas on little kids...can't think of anything much cuter. Alas, Ryan has BIG FEET! His feet have outgrown his 18-month sized feety pajamas, but the 24-month size is much, much too big for him in the length. His feet don't even reach the feety part.

This was corn-on-the-cob from the other evening...

Grab a Blankie

Grab a blankie, some hot cocoa and settle down...all nice and cozy. I have some stories to tell. First I need to back up and catch up on some recent history. (Before I forget did you know that on Jeopardy today, in the category entitled something like "New Words", blankie was the answer to a clue regarding an object that children find soothing and comforting---aaah...trivia...that's all).

Last Saturday my mom and I took Ryan for his Christmas pictures. It was...well...interesting to say the least. I made the appointment for 9:40 a.m. since Ryan's best time of the day is in the morning before he gets tired and needs a nap. I also figured I needed to get the pictures taken as early as possible before a new bruise, scrape or scratch mysteriously appeared on his face (did you notice the Santa pictures...more about that in a minute). I also wanted to get him in before all the germ-infested coughers and sneezers made it out of bed and to the mall. We are trying to be as careful as possible so he doesn't get RSV since he has no extra protection for that this winter. We arrived at the studio at 9:30. They were already waaaay behind. They opened at 9. How could they already be way behind by 9:30 you ask? Yea...I wondered that too. Hmmmm.

Well, we waited and waited, and then it happened! A mouse! Yes. A mouse ran out from under a table startling my mom who gasped. The other customers asked her if she was okay. She said she saw a mouse. Alerted now, everyone grabbed their kids. The photographers asked if something was wrong. Someone mentioned a mouse. Out the mouse came. Across the floor the mouse ran. The photographer saw it, freaked out, dropped everything and ran out of the studio screaming and crying. Undoubtedly she has a true phobia of mice.

After the chaos subsided one of the other photographers (I referred to the above mentioned photographer as the "the" photographer for a reason...she's the best one) asked if we were ready. I reluctantly said yes. We gathered our stuff and began our session. Remember, they were already way behind. Now they were way, way behind because of a tiny little mouse. The atmosphere was hurry, hurry, hurry. Ryan was terrified of the photographer. He has never acted scared with "the" photographer and she has always been extra patient and kind with him.

To make a long story short. She snapped a few pictures. I could tell that none of them were what I was hoping to get. (I always go with an idea in mind of what type of pictures I hope we can capture, but hope I am pleasantly surprised to find even better ones to choose from.) I was just hoping that a few of them were worth purchasing. We did, in fact, get a few. The selection of worthy pictures was slim, but that only helped to make the selection process quick and relatively cheap. Now we have Christmas pictures. They will be here on Thursday. I'll share them then.

Now...on to other things.

My doctor's appointment went very well yesterday. The medications are working as planned this month (as opposed to last month). Now it is just a timing issue and a wait and see thing.

Last night's party was great. Ryan didn't really know what to think of Santa. He was *interested* in him, but leery of him too. He didn't cry for the pictures, but he wanted me to be within reach. I ducked out of the way for the pictures. Did you notice the bruise on the middle of his forehead. He did that on Sunday. He pulled my hair straightening iron off the cabinet and onto his head Sunday morning. At least it wasn't hot. Nothing like cutting it close for those Christmas pictures!

Today was a crazy day. The weather changed...drastically. The high today was about 42 with temperatures falling into the 20's by late afternoon. Snow. Cold. WINDY. Icey. The weather was in rare form today. Ryan was in rare form today.

First of all, Ryan thought he needed to carry around his stool to all parts of the house. This is his stool he uses to reach the bathroom sink to wash his hands.I don't have a problem with him carrying around his stool other than it makes him mad. It's almost as big as he is, and he gets very upset when it doesn't go where he wants it to go.

This is when he carried it into his room to use it as a ladder to get on top of the bed. I really thought he was going to use it to climb into and out of his crib. I think he thought about it today. Oh my!

Ryan wanted to play UNDER the Christmas tree which meant that he first had to take out all of the presents and scatter them around the living room.

(Here is our half-decorated tree)

At least he didn't try to open any of the presents. I just re-wrapped the present he opened the other day.Somebody IS going to have a present with a little extra slobber on it though.

We have a gate we use to block off the dogs' water and food. Ryan has watched to dogs scoot under the gate many times. Today I couldn't keep him on the "right" side of the gate. I think the boy thinks he's a dog! Oh...and yes...I have lowered the gate, but Zoe can't get under it when it's much lower. Besides, you should see how low it can go and Ryan still be able to slink under it. He would win playing the limbo any day.

After Ryan's nap the power went off! The power was off for over an hour. Ryan and I played in the dark (it really wasn't that dark). We dumped the toy box and sorted through toys, removing the "baby" toys. I was glad when the power came back on. It was getting a little too cool in the house for Ryan.

As the afternoon wore on and weather continued to get colder and more wintry we decided to do some cooking. I made cranberry jello salad. I always try to let Ryan help me in the kitchen as much as possible. He usually pulls up a chair or step stool and watches, helping me. I showed him the cranberries and explained that we needed to pull out the bad ones and wash the rest. He grabbed a handful and took off running.

Lesson learned...raw cranberries are VERY SOUR!Very sour things make for much drool. He spit them out, wiped all the pieces off his tongue, looked at them with disgust...and...proceeded to stick them back in his mouth. Goofy kid!

This evening he was a bit on the defiant side and managed to be banned to his room on a couple different occasions for a minute or two to "think about it". We did not "spare the rod" any tonight.

Bath time was a welcome break from the chaos. After his bath his daddy and I put clothes on him and let him run around for a while before it was time for bed. When I walked down the hall

...this is what I saw!

Santa Pictures