New Fashion Statement

I think her pants may be a little too big, what about you?

'Tude

Enough said!

Thanksgiving Traditions

John and I have decided to start our own holiday traditions this year since Lorelei is old enough to start enjoying them, so I made our own family Thanksgiving dinner the weekend before Thanksgiving so that we could just be together as a family to celebrate and give our thanks!
Pumpkin Cookies, they are THE best!
Banana bread.
My apple pie that the crust didn't bake on the bottom, it was ok for my first attempt and yes, I did follow the directions :O)!
Our feast!
For Thanksgiving, John, Lorelei and I went to my Mom's house. It was a small party this year, just us, Mom, my Uncle Walt and his friend Kenton. I've know Kenton all my life and he makes THE best bread! Hopefully he will give me the recipe soon! Lorelei even kept her hairbow in her hair until dinner. I was very impressed!
Trying to eat Memaw's decorations!
Now, we are trying to throw them because they are "balls"!
Staring out the door to check on the dogs. My mom adopted a lab mix and she's an old lady, so her name is 'Old Girl'. She can't hear and moves slow but when we went for our annual after meal walk, she was the most excited I have ever seen her. Mom was also watching her friends dog, Molly. She is also a rescue and I am not sure what she is but think she is a mix. Lorelei had tremendous fun with the dogs!
My mom also has a fun Thanksgiving tradition that she has been doing ever since I can remember. She gives everyone that has come for dinner a little gift right before dinner. I don't know how it got started but I think it is to thank everyone for coming together. I love that tradition along with watching the parade to see Santa! I can't wait to have Thanksgiving at my house to continue that tradition! I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We are starting to decorate for Christmas. While Lo napped today we cleaned and put up the Christmas tree. When she woke up to the lights on the tree, her expression was priceless! She was so excited. If I don't get anything else for Christmas, that would be good enough for me! Oh the joy on children's faces at this time of year!

Busy, Busy

I know I promised pics of dinner I made and I will post them. I have just been really busy this week getting ready for Thanksgiving and all. I will get everything together this weekend and post, I promise! We are having a dinner with family tonight after I get off work at 7 and then this weekend we are putting up our tree so there will be plenty to write about! Just wanted to check in and let you know that I will be back soon! :O) Hope everyone had a safe holiday and if you went out shopping this morning, you were safe!

We saw Dr. Shuler today!

Went in for her 1 month check up. No ECHO. Dr. Shuler said she looked great. We got a "see you in 3 months." we were hoping for a "see you in 6 months" but we will take what we can get! So we go back in February and probably will have to have another ECHO. Now I just have to find out when Lorelei can go back to her pediatrician to get her 18 month shots and her seasonal flu and H1N1 shots.

Looking forward to this weekend when I am making the three of us Thanksgiving dinner. John and I went to the store and got what I needed today. I am so excited! I love Thanksgiving dinner! Pictures will be taken after everything is made!

Don't Laugh but...

I am done Christmas shopping. Of course, since there are several weeks left before Christmas, I am sure that I will find more things to buy people but for right now, I'm done! Now I just have to wrap the packages and send them on there merry way! This weekend is going to be a quiet one for us as Lo recovers from her walking pneumonia. John doesn't have to work this weekend so we will be watching football (Go Gamecocks! Go Irish!), eating pizza, laundry and cleaning! I am looking forward to next weekend though. John and I are making a Thanksgiving dinner just for us and Lorelei. It's something we do every year and we just make sure that we give thanks to each other before or after Thanksgiving when we are with other family. I am going to attempt to bake my first apple pie. I will take pictures! Don't worry. Then we will have the real Thanksgiving with my mom and family at my mom's house. Then it will be time to put up the Christmas tree!
Christmas is my absolute FAVORITE time of the year. I love the meaning of it all, the smells, the sweets and goodies and the family! We are hoping to be in NY next year for Christmas because by then Lo will REALLY understand what's going on and I think it would be fun for her to have Christmas with her cousin Jack! Hoping that everyone has a great weekend!

Twist Ties and Walking P

So last night when we got home from Urgent Care I took a peek at the x-rays (I didn't know what I was looking for just thought it would be cool to look at) and what I saw made me laugh. Lo has 4 "twist ties" around her sternum from where they closed her up. I thought it was so cool! You can feel them through her chest but to see them was interesting.

This morning we braved the rain and cold and went back to the Dr. She didn't hear any wheezing and she looked at the x-rays and didn't see anything significant (of course Urgent Care didn't send the report like they were supposed to so they are going to call me to let me know what the report said) so diagnosis is walking pneumonia/bronchitis. She said we don't need to continue with the breathing treatments unless she gets short of breath and gave Lo an antibiotic. So John is home today because of Veteran's Day and I go to work at 2. Whoo Hoo!

18 months and Sick

Today we went for Lo's 18 month well check up with Dr. B. I have noticed her nose being runny and she has a slight cough, just a normal cold, I thought because every kid at daycare has the snot! WRONG! Dr. B looked at her throat and said "That's a lot of puss in there!" and I said "Awesome!". So then when he listened to her chest he heard some wheezing. So he decided to do a strep test and a breathing treatment. C. came in a did the strep test and Lo started screaming and I was supposed to give her a breathing treatment. I am not sure how much of the treatment she got because she was NOT about it at all! Apparently we are having an adversion to doctors offices now. She cried everytime someone came in the room! So after the treatment was done Dr B came in and listened to her again. He said she sounded better but we needed to continue with the treatments over night and get a chest x-ray. The strep test came back negative (it always does). So now I have John meet me at Urgent Care for her chest x-ray. That was fun! They put her in this little device that kept her in 1 spot but it sort of looked like a torture device! All she kept screaming was "Maaamaaa, Maaamaaa!" with snot coming out of her nose. So at 7pm we give her her next treatment, hope she sleeps tonight and go back to the dr at 10:15am. I will post an update tomorrow with what is going on! She has had no fever so I totally didn't think anything of it. Am I a horrible mom? At least its not the flu! And hopefully it won't be pneumonia! The life of a mom, it never stops! :O)

Sleep and the lack of it

So this is like the umpteenth morning that I have had no sleep because Lo doesn't sleep through the night anymore. Since her surgery, she will go down at her normal time (8:30pm) but wakes up about 10:30pm each evening and then will wake up again between 2 and 3am. She used to be a great sleeper! I just don't know what to do. I don't want to let her cry because it breaks my heart. We get up to get ready at 5:30am and she will sleep then. Ugh! Enough about me...

I have a few people that need prayers this week. My friend Emily (The Mullen Momos) is having an amnio done Friday morning at 8:30am Denver time and if the girls' lungs are almost mature or mature they are going to do a c-section that afternoon at 1pm. Please pray for Emily as she goes through surgery and for the girls (Charli and Lili) that they will be born healthy. Also please pray for Stellan as he is going to Boston to have another ablation to help try to stop his SVT next week. If you want to follow his story look under the Blogs I read section on the right hand side of the blog and click on Stellan.

Halloween Part 2

My new sweater that Miss Brenda made me. I LOVE it!
This is how I put my crown on!
Hanging in my wagon going up and down the street!
Waiting to go trick or treating.
Getting ready to go to daycare in my costume.
This is what I came home to last week. She had her 'Lorelei' shirt on and I guess at daycare they didn't want to get it dirty so they put a bib on her. John tried to take it off when she got home but she wouldn't take it off. I guess right before I got home from work she put her tutu on and that's the outfit I came home to. She definitely knows what she wants. I might have a fashionista on my hands.