Tan and Park playing hockey on the pond

Last week before Christmas (I know, Christmas will eventually get posted) it was really cold for quite some time. That means... POND HOCKEY!!! The boys love when it's cold enough they can take their skates and go skate on the pond. They had a great time and all their friends who were just trying to run on the ice were jealous that the boys had skates and were skating. It was cause for some serious brother-on-brother brawling, but they had a good time. Tanner didn't want to take his nice sticks so he just took one Chris' extra ones.

Parker chasing the puck.
Tanner is in gray and Parker is in the 33 jacket.

Nice little brotherly contest.

Parker on a mission...

At the end of the day, they can still stand side by side (the next picture I didn't post was Tanner pushing Parker out of the way... so much love :) Until next time....

Mason and TUBES!

So before you all are in shock that you haven't heard from me in a bit, I'm going to try to get you updated. Let me start with one of the more recent events... Mason getting tubes.
Mason has had over 8 ear infections and at least 4 ruptured eardrums all in less than year resulting in every drug given to the poor the kid from the easy "pink stuff" amoxocillin, to a shot with over a 90% rate of getting his ears cleared up called Rocefin?. Anway, for only being one, it seems like he's been sick as much as he's been well. So when he got his last ear infection, mean mommy came out and said, "I'M DONE!" (i really didn't, but doing tubes with Parker, I knew i wasn't going to do this any longer... and went proactive!) So I called the ENT, Dr. Park (not to be confused with my son, Park) and got him an appointment the next day. Sure enough, he agreed to tubes and a week later, we went for tubes.
This past Thursday, December 18th, we took our 14 month old for MINOR surgery. We had Evan sleepover a friends house (Thanks, Carlton's) and figured Tan and Park were big enough to get up and to the bus on their own. We had to be there by 6:30a.m. so we were out the door by 6. We got there, filled out the paper work and then went back to get ready. The following pictures are OUT OF ORDER, but i wasn't going to try to fix it (sorry).
Mason and I walking laps. He was all rigged up with what he needed, but is like his mom in that he doesn't want to just sit in one place to long...always has to be on the go! Plus you can tell it's an early morning as he's still in jammies and I'm sporting the glasses and hat.... before 6 is just too early!!!

I love this shot! We just kept lapping the nurses station and the poor kid had all these wires poking out everywhere that we were trying to hide them so they were "out of sight, out of mind." That is the true joy of a 14 month old. Easily distracted.

One of his favorite toys was the bell. They had a bell in there in case we would need a nurse for something, but he just loved it!!! He would concentrate so hard on getting his cute litte finger on just the littlest part...PRICELESS!

This is a pic where you can see a few of cords poking out and one he kept tripping on (that we had to hide). They also put his ID badge on his ankle so he wouldn't fidget with it.

Trying to keep him occupied and not bored while we wait.... and wait.... and wait!!!

More cords! He had 3 pads taped to his chest, a pulse monitor taped to his toe, and a blood pressure cuff on his arm by the time he left... too much confinment for a Condiff boy!!!

His pulse monitor taped to one of his toes. We put the sock on it to cover help keep it off his mind.

As you can see he did really good and the surgery was successful. He cried and cried when he was done, but after we took off the sheet, the two blankets, the BP cuff, the toe monitor and chest pads, he was happy to go to sleep, slept about 2 hours and been great ever since! We are so glad we have this over with now!!! We hope for a much easier winter and happy, happy baby!!!

Thanksgiving Weekend...a little late

I can't believe that Thanksgiving is over and Christmas will be here in 25 days?!! Where does the time go?!!! We had a great Thanksgiving weekend. As unusual as this might sound... I did not take ONE PICTURE :(. So I will just quickly recap the weekend in a summary.

The kids were out of school on Tuesday which allowed for a yep you guessed it.... sleepover. Tanner and Parker each had a friend spend the night (Josh and Nick) and then woke up to a pancake breakfast. Wednesday was just a lot of playing outside and enjoying the day "off".

Thursday was Thanksgiving and allowed us a moment to become grounded and really think of things we are grateful for and all the bounteous blessings we have. Our family was able to enjoy a meal that was warm, fresh, in a warm home, in clean clothes (mostly :) ) and with friends. What more could you ask for? (Don't answer that...those that know me are answering family, but I told you not to answer!)

We had some friends, Les and Kenny Wamsley come over for dinner. Their 2 oldest kids were in Michigan with family and so they brought their other 2 daughters, Nikki and Britney. Dinner was FABULOUS and then while the kids were all being good and entertained we were able to play Boxers and Briefs and just hangout and talk. We had some good laughs, were very full, and ate some yummy desserts!

Friday posed as Beck's annual "I don't know why I do this, but I love it!" day. Chris always makes fun of me staying up until 2am online shopping and then getting up at 4a.m. to hit the stores. His comment is "it's worth my extra $10 to sleep and I'll get it later". Well not this year! I tried to tell Tanner I would pay him to come be "cart boy". He was all over that, but Chris reminded me that then the surprises would be ruined. Although I could have gone with Lauri, or Brooke, or Holt, or anyone, HE volunteered to come! He said "I can get up early to duck hunt, what's the difference?" Well he learned the difference :) It was major chaos.... and I LOVED IT! I love bobbing and weaving in and out of people and most importantly I love to people watch. I like watching to see who's just really not going to have this be a positive experience no matter what. So Chris hit Walmart and Target with me and then he came back home for a quick nap and up with kids. I continued on.... Kohl's, Home Depot, Toys R us and made the mistake of hooking up with a friend to go to the mall..... WOW can this girl shop!!! It was the longest Black Friday in history, but only comes once a year and I loved it!

Even though I was gone, Chris took ALL the boys (even Mason) up to the ice rink to go ice skating. He had promised them and I was suppose to be back, but because I drove with a friend to the mall, I wasn't. Friday night was of course hockey and of course... another sleepover. However, this one ended in a ride back home around 11pm as Kyle took a hockey puck from Parker to the face. :( They were playing shinny's and using a real puck and Parker did a slap shot and nailed Kyle in the lip. Busted lip, loose tooth, sad kid. So he went home, but was fine and hooked back up with us on Saturday.

Saturday was sleeping in and the big boys going to a Blues hockey game. It was Chris, Tan, Park, Ev, and Tan and Park's hockey friend, Kyle Holt. They had a great time and got some souvenirs. Came home played some more and then Chris took all of them that night to the ice rink for a couple of hours to skate.

Sunday was just another Sunday.... church :). The best part was we did wake up to our first snowfall of the year. The grass was covered, but it wasn't cold enough to stick to the streets. My kids asked if church would be canceled (they have canceled church before because of snow) and yes, we had church. That was about it for our Thanksgiving weekend end. Thanks Chris, for all your time taking care of the boys and spending time with them. It was truly something to be thankful for!