Not enough time!

I think I agree with Kim that there’s just not enough time in the day to update blogs anymore!!  I am keeping good on my “move every day in 2009″ so far so that’s taking up 30-60 min. of my day too so it’s hard to find time to exercise and update everything on this blog and upload pix (new pix on here now!) online too!!  And facebook of course!!

So tomorrow is work.  I’m not looking forward to it and I am.  I think it will be nice to get back into the swing of things but did appreciate the time that I had at home.

Well Gavin figured out how to ride on his ATV!  It’s hilarious!!  He pushes the button and off he goes until he crashes into something, and even then he holds down the button so the wheels keep spinning!!  Very funny - video on facebook too!  Now he calls everything Mama and is attached to me at the hip. Justin is “Mom” and I’m “Mama”.  He used to say Dad and Dadda but now that’s out the window and Mom is in!  He wails and clings to me whenever I hand him over to Justin!!  How sad!  I mean it’s nice in some ways but a Mom needs a break once in awhile too!

This weekend my aunt and uncle came over to visit with my dad and stepmom since they were in town for Christmas.  I made dinner so that was a sort of big undertaking.  I haven’t had that many people to dinner in a long time and it just reminds us of how small our kitchen and table are!  Oh well!  It turned out great and we had a good time.

Today my “family” went out to dinner.  It was nice and a ton of people kept commenting on Gavin and how cute he is!  We went to a sorta old people restaurant (we like those places!) and he was the only baby there.  One lady asked if he was for sale.  I was tempted to tell her he is at times… lol.. but didn’t.  A bunch of ladies rubbed his cheeks and I wanted to sanitize him!  But it was fun getting attention lavished on him.  You never know how many people are watching you until they all comment about your baby when they walk by!

I think Gavin is officially down to one nap per day now.  Yesterday he only napped once and then slept from 7 pm - 9:30 am!!  It was insane!!!  I’m afraid I’m going to have to wake him up tomorrow so I can feed him before work if he wants to continue at this rate!  As of tomorrow I am no longer going to pump at work so I will officially be down to two nursings per day.  I’m almost not ready after all I went through to make it this far!!  But I will enjoy the “freedom” of having a night away with my hubby sometime without having to be around to nurse.  I duno we’ll see.  It’s just bittersweet!!  Well it’s time for bed and a new day!

Merry New Year!!

Wow it’s been quite the party week and it’s not over yet!!  My dad and stepmom are coming in this weekend so it will be more entertaining again but will be good to see them!!

We were unable to host our OSU/Mich. party this year so we hosted New Year’s Eve!  We had 4 couples, 4 babies, and Mom!  It was a good-sized party that’s for sure.  I enticed Josh into playing the guitar since I don’t remember much and I busted out some tunes in my very off-tune voice.  We had so much fun.  Josh jokingly said that he didn’t know there was a New Year’s song (Auld Lang Syne) or that it had words.  I was like noo they just hum a song after the ball drops every year!! hehehe.  We had some fun laughing at a story that Lori told and played a fun drinking game.  I can’t say I’ve ever really played a drinking game but it was very funny and Mom kept getting shafted.  Good thing she spent the night!!!  The babies were cooperative for the most part and Gavin pooped out at like 7:30 cuz he had barely napped that day.  Amazingly he slept through everything!!  He can’t sleep through floor board squeaks but he can sleep through screaming babies and loud partiers??  Strange!!  I made veggie lasagna in the crockpot and fondue, and everyone else brought lots of goodies.  So that was a good time, good laughs, good food, great fun.

What are your New Year’s resolutions?  Normally I don’t do any but this year I’d like to set a goal to work out every day, whether it be 15 minutes or an hour or whatever, I just need to get off my butt and move!!  I did this insane Total Body Blast today and almost died but am feeling very good now.  I’m afraid I will be useless tomorrow but that’s the price we pay right?  Hope everyone had a great time ringing in the new year!

Play date!

Wahooo for Gavin being home all day today!!  I still ran a few errands after Justin got home but Gavin got to stay home all day!

Today Kelly, Lori, and Gavin’s girlfriend Kaitlyn came over to visit!  The kids are so cute together now that they’re both walking and are into everything!!  Kaitlyn is quite the climber and climbed onto and off of all of Gavin’s toys, and he pushed her on his truck!!  It was hilarious!

Then we dressed the kids up in their matching Christmas outfits!  My mom and one of Kaitlyn’s relatives gave the kids the SAME outfit on different days in the SAME size!!  So we dressed up the kids and had a photo shoot in Gavin’s wagon.  The pix are SOOO cute and they even left their hats on because they were so distracted!

Well we need to have Kaitlyn over EVERY day because Gavin slept for almost 3 hours after they left…. and I had to wake him up so he wouldn’t sleep till 9 pm!!  Insanity!  It was a bear getting him to sleep for the night but at least he was rested!!  He kept saying Mama and pointing to the living room cuz he wanted to play!  Check out the tons of pix!

Christmas time!

It’s been a very busy few days and it is not quite over yet!  Christmas Eve we packed up Gavin and met my Mom at Christmas Wonderland!  Gavin took awhile to soak everything in but once he got into it he enjoyed himself.  He walked around a bit and enjoyed the train with the kids in it riding by.  I handed him over to Santa and Mrs. Claus and he clutched onto me but he did ok on their laps.. but the pic turned out horrible so that was sad!  Then he discovered how to push his own stroller and that became his excitement!  He was buried underneath our coats and pushing it blindly in circles!! It was hilarious because you could only see his little legs sticking out!!  I videotaped it and everyone else who saw him thought it was hilarious too.  Quite the little entertainer.

Then we rushed back to Mom’s to try to get a quick nap in for him (very quick!) before church.  Church was at 4 pm.  I think I was in there for maybe 5 minutes of it.  First I had to change his diaper in the nursery, then we came back and he was pretty loud and restless.  He picked the Bibles and hymnals out of the pew by ONE hand and lifted them up and out and gave them to me!  How strong is this kid???  Anyway then he had a poopy diaper and I swear everyone in the church could prob smell it so out we went again.  I just decided to stay in the nursery with him for the rest of the service.  Met some nice people from St. Paul’s in there too.  It was funny because there were a bunch of dads in suits in there playing with their kids!  So we had fun playing.  Usually there’s a nursery person in there but not this time for some reason.

After church we came home so that the sewer guy could come clear out our drain again!  I’m glad he came since everything is melting now!  He said a root fell off so that prob. backed everything up when he cleaned it out last time.  We ate taco soup and sang a few carols and then it was time for Santa to come!

Gavin’s loot included a huge CAT truck, a ball popper, a Clipo table, a Racin Ramps garage and a bunch of other things.  Mommy got a Garmin GPS and a guitar and a crockpot!  Daddy got a subscription to WOW and some clothes and an OSU toothbrush.

We headed over to my Grandma and Grandpa’s for the annual Christmas brunch and then we spent the rest of the day visiting Justin’s families.  It was a lot of running around but we got to be with all of our family members which was a special treat.

Today we went to Mom’s again for dinner with some friends who are headed to Japan indefinitely, and then tomorrow we’re back again for our family gift exchange, and then Sunday back again for church and then off to Justin’s family gift exchange.  So it’s been/going to be busy!!  Poor Gavin’s been going to sleep for the night in the car almost every night!  Doh!  But he’s a trooper and entertains everyone wherever we go.

I uploaded all my Christmas pix today so check them out!  I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!!

Wow I’m doing great with my blog updates lately.. almost every day!!  I don’t know that anyone’s reading it though so you’ll all have to catch up when you get a spare moment!!!

Here’s what we’re up to today.  When Gavin gets up and has a snack we’re going to Children’s Wonderland!!  What a fun time to go.  I’m hoping Santa will be there and we can get pictures!  That should be fun.

Then we’re off to Mom’s where he’ll hopefully take a nap, then 4 pm church.  Then back to our house with Mom when the sewer guy is going to come back and keep drilling (he may not have gone far enough in our line so that’s why it’s still backing up).  The city guy came out last night and the city lines are clear.  He said they check the lines every Friday because this is a problem area!!  Oh joy!!!  But that’s good that they’re so responsive and on top of things (we called in an emergency last night cuz we were afraid it would keep backing up!!)  Poor sewer dude has to work on Christmas Eve but at least he cares enough to do a good job!!

I have taco soup going in the crockpot.  Yes that sounds very strange but heck why not.  Sounds good to me.  So that’s for dinner tonight.  Then we’ll have wassail and cookies and sing carols with just our small fam. gathering.  I think we wrecked our larger gathering because they have it after 7 pm church and there is no way that we could attend that so late with Gavin, so we were either gonna split up and Justin and Gavin would come home or not go or do it before church.  So long story short we’re not doing the big one and it will just be us.  Might be nice for a change.

Christmas day - since Mom is spending the night we’ll open presents with her tomorrow here (we used to always go to her house but now it’s our tradition to have Christmas at our house with baby!)  Justin is convinced that he has no presents under the tree right now.  I hope Santa brings him something because his wife had no ideas on what to get him!  I did a crappy job of shopping this year too for some reason.  No motivation I guess!   I duno.  With the birthday and all I did most of the preparation for that and not Christmas!!  I did get my cards out though and thank you notes so that’s pretty good!!

After presents it’s back to Grandma’s house for the annual Christmas brunch with the larger immediate fam.  No gift exchanges until this coming weekend when we have both of our family’s gift exchanges.  What a busy time of year!!

I want to wish all of my good friends a very Merry Christmas!!!!  Please be reminded of the true reason for the season and celebrate in His birth!!

Lord, thank you sooo much for the gift of your Son!  Through his birth and sacrifice we are saved and can live with You eternally!!  Now that I have a son I cannot even fathom making such a sacrifice and yet You did because of Your love for us.  Thank you thank you thank you!!!  We love you.

A few funny stories..

Well Gavin’s just been making us laugh so much these past few days.  Yesterday we figured out that he loves hummus and pita bread.  He was done with dinner but Justin was eating it at the kitchen table.  He would walk into the kitchen with his mouth open wide, Justin would pop in the hummus, and Gavin would walk out into the living room with a little giggle and play.  As soon as he swallowed he’d be back for more, with his mouth open wide like a birdie before he even got to the table!!  At one point he got tangled up with a balloon and was walking around with this balloon attached to him and getting more and more tangled up.  He’d fall down, laugh, and get up and do the whole thing again.  It was very funny!!

Today he threw a ball back and forth with Justin like 5 times in a row.  Like a big ball.. maybe 8 inches across.  He’s such a big boy!!  Then we discovered that when we push the button on this one toy that sings and dances (Christmas toy) he comes to me because I always dance to the music with him and the toy.  So when the button is pressed he wants Mommy to dance with him!  I was like what the crap??  And then I realized what he was doing!!  Quite the smarty pants.  I also asked him to bring me a book and he went and got one out of his bin for me today.  It’s amazing being able to communicate with him about these things!!

Doctor update - today we went back to see if he indeed has a heart murmur since he doesn’t have a fever anymore.  He does.  Most murmurs are fine but like 3% are something bad so now we have to get an ultrasound of his heart!  He also has to fast for 4 hours beforehand so he’s not going to be able to wake up and nurse and have breakfast like he normally does!  I can’t even imagine!  They may need to sedate him if he’s too wiggly so that’s why they say no fluids and no food.  I just hope he’s not wiggly and then it won’t be a sad situation!!  Please pray that it’s no biggie either!!

We’re dealing with more sewer issues today too.  The sewer is not overflowing yet but it’s coming into the drain with a big STINK.  Justin almost puked trying to figure out what’s up.  We think it’s the city sewer because we just had tree roots cleaned out of our system.  So yeah not fun!  We hope we won’t wake up to water in the drain tomorrow!!  Merry Christmas!! hehe

What we’ve been up to..

Well since we didn’t go to TN we’ve had some extra time on our hands.  We did manage to get the tree up thanks to a late night by Justin.  It was already assembled in the basement but it just needed to be brought up!  We decorated it in all of our Christmas cards so that’s been a nice thing to do and is non-breakable!!  I’ve been spending my evenings wrapping presents and getting behind on housework as usual.  The bed’s still not made and we still have the giant box from the power wheels in our living room.  Alas I just lack extra motivation sometimes!!  And Gavin loves playing in the box!

I’ve been cooking lots of meals in the crockpot again (check out crockpot365.blogspot.com) and made a super yummy Shepherd’s Pie with ground turkey and instant mashed potatoes for my in-laws when they came to visit Saturday night.  Today I’m making an enchilada casserole that smells spicy but is more for Justin than anything.  Oh and it has cornbread on top which he loves!!

Sunday we went to church and ate lunch and visited at Mom’s for awhile.  Gavin is impressing everyone with his new tricks.  He has this book with a comb in it and he combs the little animal’s fur and then combs his own hair.  Very cute.  It is amazing to realize how much he really understands too.  When my in-laws were over he was really tired so he started walking back to the bathroom to brush his teeth which he knows precedes bed!  Very smart!  I usually try to remember cute things he does and when I get on here to write I forget!!

Last night I went to bed sorta late and then Gavin was up before I was even asleep for some reason.  He hasn’t done that in a long time.  I think he’s going through a bit of an attachment phase.. wants to be held for naps and stuff.  Perhaps since we’re starting the weaning process he misses the cuddles??  Well I brought him into our bed which was a dumb idea but I really wanted to cuddle him!  We did shadows on the ceiling and he enjoyed that, and he kept doing “donk” putting our foreheads together and snuggling.  So cute.  Then he donked me and laid across my belly and put his head down like he was going to sleep!  It didn’t work but it was super cute!!!  Then I took him into his bedroom and he went down for his nap.  Awww.  Anyway speaking of which this nap is not going well so I need to go help get him down!  I think he may be trying to go to just one nap a day too here very soon.

What a day..

Or what a couple of days!!  Yesterday Justin had his top two wisdom teeth removed.  He woke up quickly and recovered pretty well very fast, but then the pain set in later.  He’s doing really well though and besides dropping our Frosties 10 million times and forgetting what he’s doing he is doing very well.

Today we had the carpet cleaners over, so all of our posessions are in our bedroom, guest room, and the kitchen.  They cleaned the living room, some rugs and Gavin’s bedroom.  Say goodbye to baby spitup!  For now!  So that’s been a challenge living with wet carpets and a baby who wants to walk everywhere.  I put shoes on him so he could still walk around for a bit.

Then the other piece of news was that he woke up warm to the touch and I knew he was not feeling well.  Gave him Ibuprofen and he’d improve but then the fever would spike and he’d be really sad.  I used to get fevers easily and so I guess I gave that trait to him.  After his morning nap his nose was runny and he was raspy.  We had his well-check on Monday so I wonder if he picked it up at the doctor’s office?  I guess we need to wash his hands more often!  So we made a doc appt. because we were supposed to go to TN tomorrow and I wanted to be sure that it wasn’t anything major.  He was acting relatively ok so we hemmed and hawed about whether or not to go.  Well after his afternoon nap he woke up miserable and his temp was 103.3 so I’m glad we kept the appointment.

Got to the doc’s and he noticed a heart murmur when he listened to Gavin’s chest.  He was concerned about the grunting that Gavin does when he has a fever and asked if he always did that.  I think he just does it cuz he doesn’t feel good but he was wondering about asthma, breathing treatments, etc.  So he then suprised us by ordering a chest xray for him - STAT!!  He said he would let us know the results and that he wanted them that afternoon.  I was like what the crap??  I didn’t know what he meant or why he needed it but he was concerned and that’s fine.  He said that sometimes a fever can cause a murmur and sometimes a fever can make a murmur more pronounced.  I think the other docs didn’t hear it before because I always talk when they listen to his lungs and ask them millions of questions so no wonder they can’t hear!

So off we went to the chest xray place!  I didn’t know what to expect.  Well they had a contraption for Gavin so he wouldn’t move.  He was NOT happy about it.  They put his legs in something so he would sit and then wrapped his body in a plastic tube with his arms sticking straight up!!  It was awful!!  We could hold his hands but that was it and he was crying Mama the whole time :(  UGH!!

But the good news is that all is clear.  The bad news is that he was a hot mess afterwards.  We went to my mom’s since our carpet was sopping wet and he was sweating and horribly feverish and screaming by the time we got there.  Not good.  We got permission to give him meds every 3 hours to keep his fever down and that helped a lot and he did well over there.  So yeah.. a traumatic day for him but at least his chest is ok!  We go back Tuesday to see if the murmur is “real” or not!  In a way this is easier so we don’t have to move all the furniture back, pack, drive to TN for a quick trip, etc., but I really don’t want him to be sick and I’d like to see my fam in TN sometime soon too!  Sigh.. nothing works out perfectly right?

And so it begins..

The busy insanity of the holidays!!  As if I’ve not been dealing with it already between trying to keep up with thank you notes from a bday party in the midst of doing Christmas cards!!  But alas that’s just what happens this time of year!!

Here is our schedule thus far:
Today - We’re both at work and two plumbers have come thus far because we have slight sewage backup again in our basement!  Fun!
Tomorrow - Taking Justin/Gavin to my mom’s while I go to a work function, then taking Justin to get his face drilled and wisdom teeth removed, picking up Gavin, going home and taking care of both boys.
Friday - Carpet cleaner coming.. must move all furniture out of rooms before Justin gets unconscious from pain meds/surgery so the carpet cleaner can come (still no Christmas tree up because of this too!)
Saturday - Leave for Tennessee with Dad for a few days!  When to pack?  Who knows!
Tuesday - Come home from TN.  Hope Gavin will survive the quick trip and not get ticked at us for confining him to the car seat.  Perhaps we need a DVD player for the car.
Wednesday - Christmas Eve!!!
Thursday - Christmas and family gatherings.
Friday - Visiting with friends.
Saturday/Sunday - Dual gift exchanges.

So yeah if I’m not on here very much just check this calendar and you’ll know where I am!!  You’ll be shocked to know I did get most of my cards out yesterday (stayed up till 11:30!!) and am in the process of writing thank you notes and uploaded new pictures on here again.  Phew!!  Now if I can just go to bed early sometime like Justin does!!!  That would be the day!!

Birthday Party!

I think the party was a success! Mom came over to help watch Gavin while Justin and I finished getting ready. Gavin slept until like 3:45 so he was good to go for the party too. Unfortunately I just don’t think he’s a party baby and he wasn’t his normal chipper self that day. But I think everyone understood and it made him mellow and able to just sit there and watch everything which was good in a way! Oh we had tried to put gel in his hair earlier that day to see how it would look and I suggested Vaseline because of someone else’s recommendation and after 2 washes it was still in his hair! Doh!

Anyway on the menu we had YUMMY pulled pork (Jen sent me a recipe and it was GREAT), baked beans, chips, Betty’s salad, fruit salad, and cake/ice cream. I forgot I had coleslaw in the fridge.. and I had punch so not many people drank pop or beer so I guess we need to have another party to get rid of some of the alcohol!

So Gavin was pretty distracted most of the time.. didn’t really eat dinner and was just overwhelmed in general. He did get to visit with everyone though and play with his friends. I am uploading pictures from Lori (thank you!) and will eventually get to mine too! Thanks to everyone who came and for the awesome presents. He loves them all! It’s funny because I’ve always wanted a Power Wheels (well when I was little I did..) and for his bday Gavin got an 18 month rider toy and a FULL size Power Wheels for ages 3 and up! It’s a NASCAR one with Jeff Gordon’s numbers. He is one lucky boy! Justin’s parents got it for him and the box took up the whole living room!! It was insane!! But I’m sure he will enjoy it.. he already loves sitting in it right now! He also learned how to make himself go on the 18 month rider toy and now he’s freaked by it. He’ll come around

Oh yeah did I mention I washed a disposable diaper today because someone put their sposie in my cloth diaper bin? No biggie I was just like hmm I wonder if there was poop in that diaper? Cuz three wipes got washed along with it! LOL. I guess that tells you how durable sposies are and why they last so long in the landfills!! Yikes! Actually it was washed TWICE cuz I run the cloth through two times! Wowzas. Anyway next time I think I’ll label my bins or leave the cloth one outta there Oh well!