Christmas Day pictures

The kids had a great Christmas. Hannah got her dress up dress, her bad snake and her mermaid. I think she was very happy. Brandon got a Playstation game - not the one he wanted - with a note. The note told him that the game he wanted is too old and the elves don't make it anymore. It also said not to open the game until after he went to his Gram and Mumpie's house because Santa knew they got him something he wanted and he may want to exchange this game for something else.

Gram and Mumpie bought Brandon a DS so he decided to exhange the Playstation game for a DS game. He loves it. Today we are going to use his gift cards that Aunt Beth and Aunt Roz and Uncle Ty gave him for his birthday on another new game. The bonus of the DS is that his Gameboy games work in it too. He is very happy.

Brent used his gift card from my parents and some money from his parents to buy the GPS he has been wanting. We went geocaching yesterday afternoon. We didn't find the first one we went to look for but will attempt it again. The second one we found and the kids were thrilled! The first one was a log only so no "treasure" the second was a little box that they could exchange their treasure with something new. We picked up some stickers and erasers for our exchange and they both picked a toy lizard from the box. We are going to go to the party supply store after the toy store to get some better trinkets to leave at other geocaches. Looks like some of our weekends will be spent "treasure" hunting in the near future.

My tooth - still hurts but I got some painkillers that work great. I went to the endodontist the day after Christmas - kind of cut into my after-Christmas shopping but needed to be done. I really, really hate having anyone touch my teeth. This man was wonderful - he numbed my mouth so much, even using extra novicane so that my mouth wouldn't hurt at all - only to find that he couldn't do a root canal because my tooth is cracked all the way through. He claims I made it through the worst part - the needle with novicane - I still say the worst is the sound and hearing the drill. So, I am going to lose the tooth. I have an appointment on the 7th with an oral surgeon for a consult because the endodontist agrees that due to my anxiety it would be best if I am put under for this procedure. The surgeon won't do anything until he does a consult in that case. He gave me penicillian to take for a week and some strong painkiller to assist my wait. I love that man! :) I've been able to take half a tablet to keep the pain to a minimum during the day. I find if I take it in the morning I can manage with Ibuprophen the rest of the day if I take it every 4 hours or so. I take a full one at night so that I don't wake up in too much pain but it really knocks me out so I am anxious to not have to take it anymore. I tried only taking half the other evening and was up at 2 looking for something to take the pain away. I have to say though, it does feel better since he drilled into my tooth and relieved some of the pressure. Makes me realize just how much pain I was in before with no painkillers. The endodontist also agrees with my dentist that a night guard is the best thing for me since so many of my back teeth have little fractures in them. He said the crack could have started up to 2 years ago and the grinding and bacteria invasion just built up to cause issues now - who knew! I'm a little worried about the other teeth on that side - especially the one on the bottom below my problem tooth but so far it is okay. I'll deal with one tooth at a time at this point. Hopefully I'll be able to get an implant as the bone in my jaw is undamaged and in great shape still. Yeah, not looking forward to that procedure either. One at a time, one at a time.....

Christmas Eve pictures

In the afternoon we took some of the kids from the preschool to a program at another church. (I didn't include a picture for privacy reasons.) They had a lot of fun!

In the evening we went to church with my parents and sister since it is close. The first picture is of them in front of our tree after the service. I made a big dinner for Brent's parents, my parents and my sister and her family. I wish our house was bigger. It was a delicious meal - if I do say so myself! I love my crock pot for occasions like this where I'm really busy all day and just want to worry about the side dishes when I get home.

One of our family traditions is to open one present on Christmas Eve - always new jammies. I picked up some joke pajamas for Brent so Susie and Mom followed suit. Brent also got some warm lounge pants. Brent's have "HO HO HO" written on the back, Dad's say "Prince Charming" which is a joke from years ago when my mom babysat for a neighbor's little girls and they called him "Prince Charming Johnny". Ric's had a "Merry Chrismoose" on the back. They were all good sports and posed for me. Brandon and Hannah had matching jammies - just different colors. They have monkeys riding on bananas on them. Brandon's fit him perfectly, Hannah's were a bit large in the waist. Who knew that 3T's would be too big on my little peanut.

After everyone left for the night the kids were tracking Santa on the computer. Brandon was quite panicked as he moved into the United States and he still wasn't in bed. The next picture is getting treats out for Santa and the reindeer. I didn't have time to make Christmas cookies this year so we made chocolate chip and called it a day. Since chocolate chip cookies are my kids and my husbands favorite I couldn't go wrong. Santa enjoyed his evening snack. :) It was a fun evening.

8 years ago today...

at 12:42 a.m. my baby was born and we are so very thankful for him!

toothache

I have a horrible toothache. I went to the dentist the other day and I found out I grind my teeth. Brent says "oh yeah, I knew that, you are loud too." Wish I had known. No wonder I always feel tension in my jaw. The problem is that I have little fractures in my back teeth because of the grinding. One of those teeth has a filling but the filling has shifted due to the grinding and fractures so there is now a cavity under the filling. They will have to put a crown on it. Have I mentioned I get horrible anxiety attacks from the dentist? On my way over to the dentist I started crying. It took everything in me not to cry when they were having me fill out papers, taking x-rays and looking in my mouth. Another problem - they can't get me in to do the procedure until the 14th. I'm taking ibuprofen and tylenol (alternating) to keep the pain down. Discomfort seems to always be there. They were telling me about a "night guard" that I'm definitely looking into. I don't like going to the dentist but I hate toothaches even more.

100th Post!

What better was to commemorate my 100th post than with pictures of my babies:


I never "really" noticed how much they look alike. I mean, I do know but in my mind Brandon is changing so much and really looks like Brent to me. But Hannah looks just like I did when I was a little girl. Then I see these pictures and boy the two of them are like peas in a pod! One of the girls at work said if I cover Hannah's hair they have almost the exact same face. They really are beautiful children - God, Brent and I did good - don't you think?

Blue sky? Can it be?

We have had rain, gray sky and clouds since Sunday, we woke up to amazing fog this morning and this afternoon? BLUE SKY! The mountains are amazing - covered in snow on the back range and boy is it cold! At the preschool we haven't taken the kids out since last week - even earlier that week it was damp and cold and since most of the kids have runny noses and coughs we opted to keep them in. But this week since we had to keep them in due to the weather we have been itching to take them out! Keeping 2-5 year olds entertained for 8-9 hours in one/two rooms - the 2 year olds can't go into the other building due to diapers - the teachers have been going nuts. This afternoon after the sun and not so wet air dried off our slide and some of the play equipment one of the teachers ventured out with the last few of them before I left for the day. The yelling and the running sounded great! I hope tomorrow is like this in the morning so I can enjoy the change in the schedule!

Dear Santa,

Brandon and Hannah went to visit Santa a few weeks ago. Hannah wrote a "letter" to Santa that said she wants a dress up dress, a mermaid (Little Mermaid) and a "bad snake". We aren't sure where the last one came from. I hope she will be happy with what Santa interprets.
Brent and I were laughing and remembering Brandon at this age asking Santa for a rock. The Santa looked over at me when he said that, I just smiled and shrugged. He got a truck and a rock for Christmas that year. The rock is packed away in one of our many boxes. When we were moving I found it in one of the toy boxes. It will never be thrown away!
I'll try to post pictures of the kids with Santa later.

Christmas wishes...

My sister took this picture of the kids last night to send to their (well, Brandon and Katie's) hockey players. They love to go to the games here and cheer for them. Brandon's favorite keeps giving him sticks and pucks - when we have a place to put them I'm going to hang them on his wall. He wishes he could take lessons but there is no place to do it here. Their jerseys have the name of the team but I made it so you can't tell where we live.

I wanted to get the boxes of Christmas decor out today but it is hailing and cold and Brent won't do it for me. :) I asked - jokingly - in the middle of a particularly bad hail storm and he just looked at me. I'm feeling very unprepared this year - usually we have at least decorations up and I have cards out. They will probably be New Year's greetings this year. Oh well!

It's beginning to look a little like Christmas...

We haven't even started to decorate the house for Christmas. We were going to get the tree yesterday with Brent's family but things just didn't work out that the four of us could be together to do it. That will probably happen next weekend. So, while Daddy and Uncle Ty went spelunking the kids and I got down to business.


Brandon loves to make gingerbread houses every year for Christmas. Last year Hannah helped a little - this year she is much more able to participate.First, sort the candy - and eat a few pieces.


Mommy puts the house together...


Brandon got to decorate one side of the roof, Hannah the other - notice how she is using the same color.


A final shot of Hannah's side - she likes patterns. :)


Brandon's side - he goes for the random look. :)


The finished product - they each got to decorate a tree in the front of the house.

Pictures for my sister

I do not care for rats. However, these babies are cute. Hannah loved holding this little guy because he fell asleep in her hands.
Kate brought out a baby doll bassinet out to put the babies in. The kids all gathered around on the floor while the rats snuggled. It was pretty cute.

Cut off....

December 14 - we officially have a month of log ins ahead of ours. Of course that could mean 4 more months until we see our referral.