Do You Hear What I Hear?

You might, but Noah didn't. 

Noah has had numerous ear infections over the past year plus lots of fluid in his ears pretty much all the time.  So, after meeting with and ENT we decided to have him get ear tubes.  Hopefully this will cure his problems or at least make any future infections easier to treat.  The only problem was that we are in a serious time crunch and the earliest appointment the ENT's scheduler offered me was the Friday before we moved.  I explained our situation to her and she promised to talk with the doctor.  Bless that man, because he agreed to switch time slots with another doctor and come into the surgery center when he wasn't scheduled to put in Noah's tubes for us.  So nice!  So, Noah got ear tubes on the 17th and seemed to do really well.  The next day he had some stomach trouble (I think from the drainage in his ears) and sadly missed out on an early Christmas celebration with my extended family.  He seems to be doing great now and I am so amazed at how many new words he has learned in the past week and a half! 

Charter Christmas 2010

We spent Christmas Eve at home with just us (and Pa & Grammy) and had a fun time preparing for Christmas Day.  We wrapped presents, made cookies, made reindeer food, watched Christmas movies, drank hot chocolate, ate lots of treats, opened new pj's, and of course read the Christmas story out of the Bible.  I don't think that Sydney took a normal step all day.  She bounced or danced her way all around for all of Christmas Eve.  I thought she might have a hard time sleeping but to my surprise she went right to sleep.  Logan, on the other hand, had a hard time settling down and just couldn't lay still enough to fall asleep.  He was just too excited!  In the morning we woke to see that Santa had found his way to our house.  Sydney was so excited, she was especially excited about getting a pillow pet!  Logan was just plain excited, he loved everything he saw, even Noah's stuff.  Noah, he was excited because the other two children were. 

Full Stockings:

Eaten cookies and drunk milk:

Must mean that Santa came!

Opening, Playing and Enjoying:

 

Noah got a box of Kleenex from Santa that we let him pull each tissue out of.  He loved it!

Christmas night we had lots of visitors!  All of my siblings and their children arrived and we ate, and talked, and ate, and open presents, and played, and then ate some more.  It was a great day and it made me a little sad to think that in a few short weeks we will be far away from all of our family.  I am so glad we were able to spend this Christmas here with some of our family before we move.

A Whole Hand

Sydney turned five today and as she will tell you that is a whole hand!  Being five is pretty much awesome mainly because it means that she is old enough to go to school this coming Fall. She can hardly wait!  Since we had already had a birthday party for her friends we just had cake and presents at home with our family.  It was a great way to end our Sunday!  Sydney we love you and are so grateful you are part of our little family!

Make a wish!

Opening presents...I love all of her faces and the hint of excitement in each.

  

Her present from Grammy.  Mommy animals each with their own baby.  She was in heaven!

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

Much to my children's joy we got a few inches of snow here in Virginia.  First thing in the morning we all bundled up and went outside to play.  This was Noah's first time in the snow and he was a little unsure about it.  He liked it at first but after a few minutes he just wanted me to hold him the whole time.  Logan like snow but not nearly as much as Sydney does.  She could and would stay outside all day if you let her.  It is nice to get a little snow in before we leave.  I doubt we will be getting too much in Louisiana.

Burger King Party

We had a joint birthday party for Logan and Sydney with their friends this year at Burger King.  We decided to have it two weeks after Logan's birthday and two weeks before Sydney's birthday.  It was a big success and I must say having it at Burger King was way easier and way cheaper than doing it pretty much anywhere else.  The play set was the entertainment and a kids meal with an added cupcake were the refreshments.  I didn't have to clean the house before or after the party, so that was awesome!  Lots of little friends showed up and the children were spoiled with plenty of fun gifts.  Here are the only pictures I managed to take.  Just one shot of each of my children.

We had a fun time and now we are ready for Christmas!

Far Far Away....

Not quite all the way to Judea's plains but all the way to Louisiana!!!! That is right we are moving...again. Heath was offered a job for the Government in Fort Polk, Louisiana and after much deliberation we have decided to take it. This means a cross country move for our little family into the HOT unknown. I am super sad and super excited all at the same time. We will be leaving somewhere around the 10th of January. I will keep everyone posted on the details as I get them!

Allergic Reaction

A few weeks ago I finally took Noah to the allergist.  He has broken out several times in response to what I thought was blueberries, peanuts, and possibly eggs.  I wasn't sure about any of them though and he would break out all the time.  I could just give him a dose of benedryl and within 15 minutes he would be back to normal.  Well after the allergy test it appears that Noah is going to be one of those kids.  You know the kind that can't be near your kids while they are eating.  The one who has to bring their own cupcake to the birthday party.  Yep, that will be Noah.  It turns out he is allergic to....eggs, milk, peanuts, almonds, cashews (these were all of the nuts they tested for and he is most likely allergic to all tree nuts), cats, and dogs.  They didn't even test for very many things!  They are hopeful that he will out grow the milk and the egg allergy but think that the nut allergy is most likely going to stick around.  They also didn't have a test for blueberries but I am pretty sure about that one. 

After the appointment I couldn't believe that my kid who has been drinking milk his whole life was allergic to it.  I felt terrible but all I had was a bottle of milk for him and he was starving so I gave it to him to drink while we went to the store and bought some soy and rice milk (turns out he likes the rice milk WAY better than soy).  I figured if it hadn't done too much damage yet then one more bottle couldn't hurt. 

So, my little man has become a little high maintenance and I don't have very many things that I feed him because virtually everything has one of those ingredients in it.  We'll adjust and hopefully he will outgrow the milk and egg allergy soon.

I'm "free!"

Logan just turned three (or "free" as he says)!!!  Can you believe it?  Man, all of my kids seem to be getting so big!  Logan has really started to grow lately.  He is still a little on the small side but he is finally wearing a few 3T things.  So far he has been my smallest child.  We will have to wait and see if that lasts.  We had a little family party this past weekend for him and my niece, Amelia.  She is one week older than Logan.  Then we had a little cake and presents just as our family on his actual birthday and in about two weeks Logan and Sydney are having a joint birthday party for their friends.  (3 parties is probably too many - I will have to remember that next year.)  I didn't take any pictures at our family party with my niece but here are a few of Logan and his cake on his actual birthday.

Football cupcake cake:

Pin the nose on the clown game:

Opening his present from Sydney:

Pre-birthday bath time fun:

Happy Birthday Logan!!!!  We love having you in our family!

Happy Halloween!!

I saw this cute idea online for an easy "Egg" costume and convinced Logan that it would be awesome to dress up like an egg for Halloween.  I also decided to try and make a bacon costume for Sydney.  She went for it because bacon is probably her favorite food.  I think that they turned out pretty darn cute!  Especially that bacon costume since I just made that one up. 

 

We kept to the food theme and Noah went as a Lobster.  (All 3 of my kids have used this costume.)

My kids won a lava lamp at the Trunk Or Treat for having the "Cutest" costumes.  Sweet!

Just Because....

He is so cute!