Sunday, December 28, 2008

Christmas Part 1

Since Alan had to work on Christmas Day, the kids and I went to the fire station for lunch. It is always nice to spend time with his co-workers. That is the extent of what we did on Christmas though, since we were waiting for my parents to come to open gifts and things.

So on Friday, my parents got here and we did our traditional Christmas Eve things. We ate Vietnamese (the tradition is Chinese, but we really like a Vietnamese restaurant in town so we did that) Read the Christmas story and open pajamas. We put out cookies and milk also, when Preston woke up the first words out of his mouth was "Did Santa come and eat the cookies!"

I am such a big kid, I could barely sleep! I couldn't wait to see Preston and Gracie's reactions to things. Grace was pretty overwhelmed and Preston loved it, although toward the end he didn't want to open any more gifts.

My parents got me a video camera, so I am obligated to post tons of videos of the kids! We didn't really take many pics but here are some videos from yesterday. I will post the pics later.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Santa Baby

Preston has found a favorite Christmas song, Santa Baby. He loves it and even sings some of the words. I tried to get a video of it this morning but he got distracted.

Gracie is doing well, she says Hi and mama mostly, she does babble allot. She is doing really well with the walking, I think she enjoys the freedom and the ability to get away from her brother. Her hair is getting longer and I enjoy doing it in the morning, although Alan says she looks silly! When I take it out and even after washing it, it sometimes becomes a Mohawk.

We are getting excited for Christmas, we are actually waiting to celebrate until Saturday morning when my parents will be here. I think Preston will really get it this year. He and his sister have already gotten into some of the presents, the even fully unwrapped one the other day when my back was turned!









Saturday, December 13, 2008

Walking

I think it is safe to say Gracie is officially walking. She goes for long stretches before she falls, she almost always gets right back up.




(No Mom, she isn't signing anything! She was messing with her bow. )

Sunday, December 7, 2008

The Tree is up

Alan had a rare day off yesterday, so we bundled up the still sick kids and went to Home Depot to pick out the tree. I am happy with what we got, it is not to big or small, it may not be full and fluffed like a fake tree or as stick straight but it is good!

We put the tee up when we got home and I now understand the frustrations of my dad from my childhood! We finally resorted to wood blocks to help keep it straight.

It is amazing how uninterested the kids were in the plain tree before they went down for naps, when they woke up it is all the can do not to touch it. Preston even reminded himself out loud while looking at it, "I do not want to go to timeout"



Gracie has sort of graduated to sippy cups, she will drink some of her milk out of them



Friday, December 5, 2008

Random Updates

Preston is still cracking me up all the time. A few days ago we were on our way to get some dinner for Alan,Preston saw Sonic and said: "Look mom it is the french fries house"

He also has started saying prayers at night on his own, sometimes we can not help but laugh at the things he blesses!








In other news, Gracie is semi-waking. She can take 6-7 steps before she quits.

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Being Sick is no Fun!

This is my I am a crappy parent post!

The day we left for FL Preston developed a cough/cold. We watched him gave him medicine and it seemed to get better. When we got back, it seemed to come back and I just watched him. Yesterday it got really bad, so bad in fact that at dinner he coughed so much it made him throw up 4 times in a row. Of course always is the case when our children throw up, Alan was at work! I put Preston in a bath, cleaned up and put him to bed. He continued to cough so when Alan got home (he was just doing a 12 hour cover) We talked about what to do and decided Alan would take him to the ER (I figured since I had cleaned up puke he could take him in) It was 8:30 by then.

They went in, were put in a room right away and decided a chest x-ray and breathing treatment were needed. Iam so glad I wasn't there, Alan said the put him in this contraption that made Alan hold his arms up and Plexiglass wrapped around his chest. He was hysterical apparently. After the x-rays came back they showed a lung infection so they needed blood, again I am glad I wasn't there. They held him down and weren't able to after trying for 5 min, get any blood out of his arm, Preston says ouch every time he moves it this morning. So the had to milk his finger, Alan thought Preston was going to pass out he was crying so hard, he even saw his eyes start to roll back.

Finally they diagnosed him with Walking Pneumonia. Ugh, I should have taken him in much earlier.

He slept ok last night but he is going to have at least 2 naps today, hopefully he will feel better soon!

Friday, November 28, 2008

It's begining to look a lot like Christmas

We woke up this morning to about two inches of snow, Preston loved it





Gracie wasn't so sure about the snowman I made

More Pictures from Florida

I finally got around to uploading the last of my pictures from FL. Our nephew Jacob, Alan's brother Buzz and his girlfriend Amanda came over for our Mock thanksgiving and to celebrate Jacob's 3rd birthday.

























This is the formal night on the cruise

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

The Daily Preston

I am going to try and post new funny things he says often.

When we were on the cruise, my parents graciously volunteered to watch all three kids for the last night. Apparently, while trying to put Preston to sleep my mom was asked by him to scratch his back. After agreeing to do this Preston started to sing her a song, it goes like this (to the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat)

Scratch, Scratch, Scratch My Back

Scratchy, Scratchy, Scratch

Scratchy, Scratchy, Scratchy, Scratch

Scratchy, Scratch My Back

He made this up all by himself. This kid amazes me sometimes.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

We are home

We got home from Florida late last night, well actually about 3 am this morning. It was nice to sleep in my own bed. We had a lot of fun in Florida, thanks Mom and Dad for the cruise.

We went to Sea world and Busch Gardens last weekend and here are some pictures. There are a lot!





Waiting for the Dolphin show to start





Alan is taking the pic since he is extremely allergic to horses!















This is the Pirate Hat! Everyone wore it at some point in the day.


She was so tired!





Friday, November 21, 2008

The Cruise

We are still in Florida on vacation, but we got back from our cruise yesterday. We had a lot of fun, although the weather was rough and unexpected we still enjoyed it. Let me tell you it is hard being back to real life, where my bed is unmade and I have to cook and serve myself meals. The cruise was worth it just for the food!

Here are some pics, I will post more later off of my mom and sisters cams.



Grace in our state room



One of our towel animals, we had an elephant, chicken, swan, rabbit, and I can't remember the other one.



Preston in his tux for the formal night



Off my parents balcony in Grand Cayman





Cozumel in the background



Playing in the pool on board





Getting geared up for our excursion in Mexico, we went rock climbing and on a zip line, we were supposed to snorkel but because of the rough weather it was canceled:(







It was fun, and a workout, my arms and legs were killing me the next day.

After that we took some pics on the beach near the climbing towers, you can see the water was a little rough!















The shopping was good also, although we didn't buy much



Here is our ship







Getting ready to go to dinner









The waiters were dancing and being silly, the kids loved it!



This is what we found on our bed the morning of our last full day, it scared the crap out of me to open our door and see "someone" on our bed.



And this was our last night and our towel swan.

We had such a great time.