Ok, since Halloween...
Unfortunately, my sister had a miscarriage. She was around 8 weeks along. She handled it really well though. She has a strong faith in God and said they will keep trying. So, I keep praying that God will bless them with another baby (preferably a girl - she already has two very energetic boys).
Abigail's 3rd birthday party was a lot of fun. Her birthday is actually in October but it's so close to Halloween and we had so much going on that we ended up celebrating it the first weekend in November. It was so cute to see all the kids playing the games and running around. The kids all made their own party hats; we had tricycle relay races (everyone won little gold medals); we enjoyed bubble blowing and of course the big finale was everyone getting to take a whack at the pinata! They were all dying for the pinata to come out. Even more so than for the cake!
The next week we gave my mom a surprise birthday dinner for her 60th birthday. She said that she kinda figured something might be up Daddy's sleeve when she came home from work that day and suggested to Daddy that they go to a different restaurant than the one they'd already agreed on. Daddy said, "no, I really have my heart set on Provinos." Mom thought to herself, "it's MY birthday!" But, she quietly went along and SURPRISE! (the kids all LOVED shouting Surprise!) there we all were! I think she really enjoyed it! :)
That next weekend, Mom kept all three kids for us and let me and John go on a weekend camping trip - - - just... me... and.. John!! Wow - after the hand-wringing nervousness and guilt ridden feeling of "abandoning" my children finally wore off, I soooo enjoyed the peace and quiet and lack of someone always being attached to my leg or needing me to wipe their bottom! It was great! We hiked. We slept in our two-man tent. We enjoyed real conversation with complete sentences! I'm afraid the weekend proved to be a bit more tortuous for Mom since Rachel wouldn't nap. So she was juggling all three kids the entire time - which means constantly fussing at the older two to leave the baby alone for TWO seconds, stay out of her face, stop knocking her over, give back her toy, etc etc etc. I felt really bad for giving Mom such a tough weekend. Of course the kids loved have Nana up so they had a great time!
I have to include this small "event" that occurred the following week. The kids and I had a teddy bear picnic in the back yard. It was such a beautiful day so we spread out a blanket and invited a few guests to have lunch with us. I believe that "Regular Teddy" and "Big Teddy" (yes, we're really original with names in this house) had a good time. 
Thanksgiving was wonderful. Our craft this year was a Tree of Thanksgiving. I forget who I got the idea from (someone's blog or some other craft website?) so I'm afraid I can't offer proper credits but we had a great time filling it up with our leaves and reading everyone's answers. We had everything from drawings and thanks for grass, crayons and transformers to thanks for wonderful marriages, great kids, comfortable finances, good health and my grandad put "thankful just to be here!" We were too!!
Thanksgiving weekend, John and I took the kids to a nearby park to play. It was really cold so we bundled the kids in their coats, hats and gloves. As soon as they were released, the older two darted off for the playground while Daddy and I were still wrestling the baby into her coat and hat, etc. We were keeping a close eye out for the older two and once Rachel was set, we too headed for the playground. Unfortunately, in the midst of all the hub-bub, I forgot to hide my purse. So someone came along, busted out my window and stole it!! I'm thankful that it was just a 
smash-and-grab, no one was hurt and I had my most important items on me (keys, cell phone, main credit card and license). So all they really got was $20 in cash and a bunch of other useless stuff. As soon as we found the van had been smashed, we called the police and the banks. We cancelled everything and got new accounts set up. It was really just an annoyance more than anything. I was more irritated at me for leaving it in plain sight. I know not to do that and I always try to make sure nothing valuable is ever in plain sight but I just got busy and forgot this time. Well, approximately $350 later (new window, new purse, replaced several purse items), we were back in business. Oh but I had to share this photo. It's the sticker that used to be on my window which was now laying in the pile of glass in the parking lot. It says "This Vehicle Protected by Theft Deterrent System." Uh... apparently the thief forgot to read the little sticker and get scared before smashing it to smithereens! I am happy to say, however, that by a neat turn of events, we got a call about a month later (a few days after Christmas) from a gentleman who informed us that while on a walk down near the creek that runs through his property, he found a purse laying in the water! John met him the next morning and picked it up. It seems like it must have just been kids who had stolen it because all of my other credit cards were still there, my checks were still there, everything! Including a couple of gift cards! So, they really were only after cash! Well, they got $20. And I got a stinky, fishy smelling purse that had to be thrown out!!! Oh well. Ah, and of course I can't forget to mention the loooovely stomach bug that visited our house the next week. Oh how fun that was! Abigail started throwing up (in my van no doubt, THREE times! I guess she wanted to make sure it was well coated...) around 6pm. I started getting sick around 9:00pm. Jared joined us as 2:00am. John had a peachy time taking care of us all night (while trying to keep Rachel isolated away from us and our germs) until he decided to join the party around 9:00am the next morning. What a lovely bunch we were. Thank GOD it was only a 24 hour thing and also that it skipped Rachel! By the time John started getting sick I was able to at least stand upright enough to take over. Hopefully that was our complete dose of ICK for the year.
Jared's school Christmas program was absolutely adorable!! Our son was the little boy on stage shouting the lyrics at the top of his lungs. There's always one in every performance and he was it this time. He was so cute. He did a great job. We were so proud of him!
Somewhere in December we went for about about two weeks without a microwave. Ours died and I never realized just how much I rely on that wonderful invention until it was no more!! It's amazing how much I use it for everything from re-heating my coffee, to heating the baby's food, to cooking Jared's hot dogs, to defrosting meat for dinner and then cooking that same meat in the micro. I'm too lazy to prepare dinner more than an hour ahead of time so I rely on the micro to nuke it fast! We got it fixed and our now back in business with a new appreciation for this wonderful invention!
My grandad and dad both had surgeries in mid-December. Thanks be to God that they were both successful and both gentlemen are healing nicely. My Pop had a roto-rooter procedure done on his main artery in his neck. His doctor found that he had a very large amount of blockage in that artery so they went in and basically performed a roto-rooter cleaning and scooped out all the 
goop. Lovely image, I know, but I thought it sounded rather odd - never heard of that one before. Thankfully, he did beautifully and was home the very next day! Daddy had his surgery two days later to remove all of the hardware that the doctors put his ankle back together with last year after it was crushed by a bob-cat (tractor). His body had been fighting having all that metal in him all year so they decided to take it back out. Here's an x-ray of what his ankle looked like before the extraction. After the surgery, the doctors handed Daddy a little container with the plate and all of his screws rattling around in it. I thought it was funny because it looked just like what you'd go to the local hardware store for. Nothing fancy - just average Ace Hardware type screws. Personally, I think Daddy's having fun carrying his hardware around and showing everyone. ;)
goop. Lovely image, I know, but I thought it sounded rather odd - never heard of that one before. Thankfully, he did beautifully and was home the very next day! Daddy had his surgery two days later to remove all of the hardware that the doctors put his ankle back together with last year after it was crushed by a bob-cat (tractor). His body had been fighting having all that metal in him all year so they decided to take it back out. Here's an x-ray of what his ankle looked like before the extraction. After the surgery, the doctors handed Daddy a little container with the plate and all of his screws rattling around in it. I thought it was funny because it looked just like what you'd go to the local hardware store for. Nothing fancy - just average Ace Hardware type screws. Personally, I think Daddy's having fun carrying his hardware around and showing everyone. ;)
Just a few days before Christmas we went on a family hike in the mountains. I carried Rachel in the backpack and put John on chasing duty.
I'm a horrible aunt to forget the birthday so soon, but somewhere in November my sister-in-law had her baby. A healthy, bouncing baby boy named Connor. Two days after Christmas, my cousin had her baby. A healthy, sweet baby girl named Mattie. Congratulations to both Mommies and Daddies!
Finally, New Year's weekend, (yes, I know the date on this post is pre-Christmas but that's when I started my draft. I'm actually finishing and posting on 1/8/08... or actually 1/9/08 since it's the middle of the night by now!!) my mother-in-law kept Rachel and let John and I take Jared and Abigail on a weekend vacation to Rock City, TN. We thoroughly enjoyed Rock City in the daylight and then went back after dark to see their lights display. Our accommodations that night were our new 8-man, mack-daddy, Ritz hotel of a tent. John and I felt so swank! Quite an upgrade from the small 2-3 man tents that we use when hiking the Appalachian trail. For those occasions, the smaller the better. But we had elbow-room on top of elbow-room here! The kids had a blast using their little lanterns and head-lights (flash lights that you wear like a coal-miner on your forehead). They loved camping and then exploring the next day while we broke camp. On Sunday, we rode the Incline Railway and played on top of the mountain before heading back home. We had a great time!
Finally, New Year's weekend, (yes, I know the date on this post is pre-Christmas but that's when I started my draft. I'm actually finishing and posting on 1/8/08... or actually 1/9/08 since it's the middle of the night by now!!) my mother-in-law kept Rachel and let John and I take Jared and Abigail on a weekend vacation to Rock City, TN. We thoroughly enjoyed Rock City in the daylight and then went back after dark to see their lights display. Our accommodations that night were our new 8-man, mack-daddy, Ritz hotel of a tent. John and I felt so swank! Quite an upgrade from the small 2-3 man tents that we use when hiking the Appalachian trail. For those occasions, the smaller the better. But we had elbow-room on top of elbow-room here! The kids had a blast using their little lanterns and head-lights (flash lights that you wear like a coal-miner on your forehead). They loved camping and then exploring the next day while we broke camp. On Sunday, we rode the Incline Railway and played on top of the mountain before heading back home. We had a great time!
And that pretty much catches us up to date. I hope I didn't bore you to tears! I will try not to go so long between posts again. And I hope you'll come back real soon now, ya hear?
2 comments:
Great job on the update Becky, thanks!
Fun update! Don't feel *too* bad about not posting because of sticking to your resolution. I haven't posted since before Thanksgiving b/c I promised myself that I'd finish writing baby shower Thank-you's first. (It may be a while before I post again!) Fortunately Gabe's started posting so y'all still get to see pics of Mattie :)
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