Thanksgiving

We did our traditional Thanksgiving at my Aunt's house in Canton, Ohio. My mom's side of the family always gets together for this holiday. My 90 year old grandmother is still alive and lives in a home near my aunt. We have been fortunate enough to get her over to the house for every Thanksgiving despite her severe dementia.


So we enjoyed our family time. I soon realized that we now have 8 kids 3 years and under. Pretty busy! With the exception of the few things flying off of the wall (compliments of Owen and Kyle) and the puke on the couch and carpet(compliments of Kyle), the kids were excellent! Nights were rougher for some than others but days were fabulous!


Yes, Kyle has had the stomach virus. He threw up for over 24 hours, still thinking that he could eat in between! Just waiting to hear of the next victim.
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I continue to be so thankful for everything in my life!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!

Reading

Until a year ago I would have told you that the last book that I read was Charlotte's Web. This includes college days. Somehow I got through college on Cliff's Notes. In recent years I have enjoyed magazines, especially People. I would read them cover to cover. While reading People, I would read some of the non-fiction book reviews and finally, I saw something that interested me. So, Mike bought me my first book on Polygamy last Christmas. I could not put it down. Since then I have read several books. Several Polygamy books to start and now anything non-fiction. I guess I really like to read about others' life stories. Now I would rather read than watch TV. Actually, I would rather read than do most things.

Listed below are some of the great reads that I have enjoyed this past year. Since I don't link well, you will have to look them up yourself. I have not included the "bad reads".

~Shattered Dream by Irene Spencer (Polygamy)
~His Favorite Wife by Susan Ray Schmidt (Polygamy)
~Stolen Innocence by Elissa Wall (Polygamy)
~Escape by Caolyn Jessop (Polygamy)
~Miracles Happen by Brooke and Jean Ellison (A young girl becomes paralyzed from the neck down and goes on to attend Harvard)
~The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch (Amazing life lessons)
~Standing Tall by Vivian Stringer (Rutgers B-ball coach, amazing life lessons)
~Meant to Be by Walter Anderson (A boy who groups up in a horrible home and goes on to lead a high profile career while he finds out many secrets about his past)
~Schuyler's Monster by Robert Rummel-Hudson (A father's story of his wordless daughter)
~Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston (the mountain climber who cut his own hand off)
~Living at the Edge of the World by Tina S. and Jamie Pastor ( a story about a teenager living in the underground tunnels of Grand Central Station)

That's all! Pretty good huh? When did I find time for that?

Update

Life has been very busy (I know, like everyone) with work, volunteering and sick kids. It has been a while since I have put out an update so here goes:

Janie ~

She had her long leg cast taken off two weeks ago and a short leg cast put on. She has clearly mastered the crutches and can even run a bit on them. Of course, this is not without the occasional face plant! We go back next week to see the Dr. and hope that the x-ray looks a bit better this round than it did last time (still looked the same as the day she broke it). She will then hopefully move to a walking cast for 4-5 more weeks. Wow, 3 months total this time around.

Janie is having a great year in school and loves her teacher. We had conferences this past week and it appears that the only concerns are boys and a lot of socialization. Janie's teacher and I are completely on the same page and will continue to work on keeping her humble and a nice girl.

She started back at gymnastics this week and will go twice a week for two hours each time to just work on stretching and strength building. Maybe I should go too!

Owen~

Well we just completed five days of Hand-foot-mouth disease. This highly contagious virus is easily managed with the exception of no eating when you have a mouth full of soars. Thank you to my girlfriend Theresa for taking my sick kid for two days!

The separation thing at school with Owen and Kyle has proven to be a very positive thing for Owen. He has really come out of his shell and is less dependent on Kyle. He is now officially potty trained! It took a few more months than Kyle but we are so proud of him.

Owen is really hilarious to listen to as he has all kinds of great comments or saying. Ex: Manit! (I think that is in place of darnit) Mom, I am so frustrated!
He also calls me out on being incorrect often!

Kyle~

Kyle, Kyle, Kyle...my little entertainer! He found it necessary this past week to pull down his pants at school and shake it for the entire class. Yah, not sure what to even say about that!

Kyle is super sweet and caring and Mr. social however he gets into trouble ALL THE TIME! He is up to at least 8 time outs a day. He has however started saying "I'm gonna have a good day" every day he wakes up. At least his intentions are good;

Not much else to report. We had our annual fashion show for the NICU this past Thursday and it was a huge success again this year! I will post some pics as soon as I have them because I forgot to take any. We are going to the circus tomorrow with the kiddos and looking forward to that!

Our nanny Krissy had her baby last week. This is her second girl ans she named her Kenzie. All are doing well. I am however a bit sad that she is not here anymore so I will have to make a lot more effort to see this baby!


That's all for now!

Halloween 2008

The injured gymnast (Kerri Strug), the cowboy and the monkey seemed to have a good time at Halloween. Janie made it the entire way using her crutches! Kyle wasn't so sure he was going out until the last minutes before trick-o-treating. He is a bit scared of monsters:) They consumed plenty of candy and only one managed to throw up!

We did our traditional night of trick-o-treating with our friends, the Fishes. The men take the kids out and the ladies stay back and pass out candy and maybe consume a cocktail!