Flashback Friday

I was able to find a picture of Eli on his very first Christmas, he was three months old on Christmas Day and what a very long day it turned out to be. As you can tell by the picture we are both very tired and we were finally opening the gifts at our house on Christmas night after being everywhere else all day. He saying, "Mommy and Daddy please feed me and put me to bed!" We now stay at home all day so we can just relax and enjoy such a wondrous day.

Oh how the blogging posts fly by......

It hasn't been that long ago that I started my blog and I am loving every minute of it. There is nothing like letting it all out and feeling better in the process even if it is for something simple. I love to write and talk about what is going on and how the boys and our family is changing everyday. And there is nothing like meeting other moms via the Internet and reading about their lives as well. So thank you very much ladies, it sure has been a lot of fun and hope it continues to be. It is hard to believe that I have over 100 posts, well at least a few over by now, I am running behind on a few things. I was also tagged and I am getting to that project as well. I tell Doug all the time that there needs to be a Mommy Starbucks, just for moms and children (play area included), you know I would be there all the time. But, the Mommy Starbucks via the Internet will have to do for now. So, thank you for reading, that is if you are and if not then you are missing out. With that I better get back to finishing a few things. Happy 100 blog posts!

Decorating the Christmas Tree

On Monday night we decorated our Christmas Tree. We have shatterproof ornaments a very good deal when you have children, the boys picked out the colors they wanted very beautiful red and gold. Dad and the boys did all the decorating while I took pictures. There's not a lot of decorations but until the boys get older and do not grab them off the tree this is what we will be having. A lot of the decorations are around the bottom of the tree and what tree would be complete with Disney cars and NASCAR decorations on the bottom.

Needing help from Dad

Now my turn

Reach a little higher

Our beautiful tree

Eli and Nic smiling for the camera, the picture wouldn't be complete without Nic eating in it.

This time last year....

This was the lovely seen at our house this very day last year. Who doesn't like cold weather? Well then throw in quite a bit of ice and this is what you have. For those of you who remember this very day or the next know exactly what I am talking about. When we woke up this Sunday morning this was the our neighborhood and we were good until about 10:00 a.m. when our electricity went out, this stinks when your house is all electric. After about an hour and bundled up in the cold house we packed up everything (lots of clothes, diapers, wipes and lots of toys) and went to my mother and father-in-laws until our electricity came back on. Little did we know it wouldn't be for six days that our electricity would be working. All was good until Monday morning when the electricity at my in-laws went out, we then loaded up and went to a hotel for four days, man did that get old fast and very expensive. By late Thursday afternoon my in-laws electricity came back on and we stayed there for the night, ours came on late that night but we decided to stay where it was warm and loaded up the next morning to come home. During our stay in the hotel the boys and I came up to our house everyday to check on the dogs and believe it or not bring in all of the Christmas gifts I had ordered online the week before that were setting on our front porch. It was an unforgettable week and I hope everyone else made it through okay like we did and I can tell you this is something I never want to go through that again.

The scene in our neighborhood

Our neighbor's tree

Our front yard

The look from the end of our driveway

The view from our driveway

Celebrating the Sooners!

On Saturday evening we did what most Oklahoma fans did, we watched the game on T.V. Yes, I did cheer for OU, I am a fan except for when they play OSU, and our boys did too, although Eli is partial to OSU. He asked me the other night when I put on his OU jersey, "Where is my Cowboys jersey?" My response, "Don't worry son you will have one soon." Isn't it grand our family is split right down the middle, if the boys went to their respected colleges when they get older our family dinners could get real interesting in the future.

After the boys where in bed, Doug and I started talking about how much fun we had eight years ago at the Big 12 Championship game. Exactly four weeks before our wedding, where were we? Not at home getting any last minute wedding plans in order, we were on the road to Kansas City to see OU play Kansas State. It was the first OU game I had been to with Doug and it was a ball. It was also very cold and we were bundled up like there was no tomorrow, I am not quite sure how many layers we had on or how much hot chocolate I drank during the game. But I can tell you this, we could see everything around us. What am I talking about? Well, we kind of got our seats at the last minute and they were at the highest point in the stadium you could go, but as I said we could see everything. We always joke about being closer to the clouds than we were to the field. If you have every been to Arrowhead Stadium you know what I am talking about, we were way up there. That was the longest walk from our car to our seats in the stadium and I will never forget it. I told Doug last night if they play like they did eight years ago OU will win the National Championship next month. So, I am willing to cheer for the Sooners because they did so great the year we got married. You better believe I will be cheering for my Cowboys when they go to the Holiday Bowl to play Oregon and of course the game is on our Anniversary. Big decision, go out with my husband or do we stay home and watch the football game (of course I am only joking we go out, I love our dinner at the Polo Grill on our Anniversary). But first we need to get a babysitter. Anyone offering?

Striking a pose in their OU apparel

The boys deciding to show their OU Christmas spirit

Flashback Friday

I could only find one of me of when I was little, guess I better try to get some from my mom and I will definitely need to get some from Doug's mom. In this picture I was three and who knows what I am holding up but I obiviously thought it was great. Oh the joy of being three.

My Poor Little Man

As you know Eli has been down and out lately, on the upside it appears he is starting to feel better. No fever since last night, yeah!! Nic is responding to the antibiotic just fine, Eli was not. After not being able to get his temp down from 102, we went to the doctor on Wednesday afternoon. As the doctor put it, his ears were still bad but starting to respond to the medicine and his upper respiratory infection wasn't going anywhere. That's when he brought out the dreaded word any child does not want to hear, a shot. The verdict was to get a penicillin shot in the rear end hoping this would help and to speed up the process. Did it work? Not at first, he was still not wanting to eat or drink and his temp would not go down for anything. He was wearing t-shirts and shorts and cold wash clothes on his forehead at bed, a resistant little virus was hurting my poor baby. Yesterday morning we still had a fever and he still would not eat or drink anything and starting telling me his teeth and tongue hurt, he was getting dehydrating and to top it off the antibiotic's side effects on children, going to the bathroom all the time. I call the doctor and talk to the nurse she tells me she will call me back and let me know what to do but be prepared in case I need to take him to the hospital. The doctor, not the nurse, calls back and tells me to force him to drink Gatorade or pedialyte (he threw it up) every twenty minutes or we will be going to the hospital for blood work and an iv. I get him to drink a little bottle of lemon lime Gatorade throughout the day, two teaspoons every twenty minutes. I know he was hating me and gagging sometimes, but who wants to see their child in the hospital, been there done that too many times for about six months before and after he turned one. By yesterday afternoon his fever had gone down and he didn't have one by the time he went to bed and right now it is only 99.5, yeah. He is starting to get his appetite back and even drinking lots of water. By getting that penicillin shot, I am thinking this got him over the hump, but know I need to fatten this boy up, he has lost two pounds this past week, not a lot for some kids but a lot when he was only 28 pounds to begin with. He asked me this morning why his pajamas weren't staying up and I told him because he wasn't eating from being sick. He responds, "I just need to eat so I can get bigger." He knows he missed two days of school and hates it, they are preparing for a Christmas program in a few weeks and he wanted to be there so bad. Now that he is getting better he can go back to school on Tuesday. Thank goodness because getting out of bed twenty times at night really puts a damper on getting sleep. Finally I just decided to put those little children's character couches together (you can get at Wal-Mart or Target) and sleep in his room that way I wasn't getting up multiple times and so that Doug could get some sleep. Oh what a parent will do to comfort their child and still try to get a little sleep for themselves. I am hoping we are on top of this lovely little battle that has taken over my boys for the last week and a half.

Tasty Tuesday

With Thanksgiving over and Christmas right around the corner I figured I would share a recipe for a wonderful meatloaf. If you are tired of leftovers, which I am, then this is a good change of pace and I hope you bring your appetite because it is a whopper, enough to feed a big family or have plenty for leftovers.

Easy Pleasing Meatloaf

Prep: 10 min. Cook: 1 hour

2 eggs, beaten
2 lbs. lean ground beef
1 pkg. (6 oz.) Stove Top Stuffing Mix for chicken
1 cup water
1/2 cup Kraft Original Barbecue Sauce, divided

1. Preheat oven to 375. In a small bowl, beat eggs lightly with a fork. This makes it easy to incorporate them into the meat mixture, so you won't have to over mix.

2. Place lean ground beef, stuffing mix, water, beaten eggs and 1/4 cup barbecue sauce in large bowl.

3. Mix all ingredients with spoon just until blended.

4. Shape meat mixture into an oval loaf in a 13x9 inch baking pan.

5. Top meatloaf with remaining 1/4 cup barbecue sauce.

6. Bake 1 hour or until cooked through when center has reach 160 degrees.

It is supposed to make eight servings but I feel like it makes more than that or maybe I don't cut the pieces very big. My boys love it and they are very picky eaters, hope you enjoy.

Happenings around here

As you know this holiday weekend has been filled with an ER run with fever and now not one but both boys are down with this fever that won't go away. After much debating and a very sleepless Saturday night, I knew going to church was out of the question, I decided to take the boys to urgent care to find out what was going wrong. I call Doug, who is in Arkansas, and tell him the urgent care is packed and they had just opened, now what. He calls the new pediatrician and gets the answering service, before he gets off the phone to call me back the pediatrician was calling me. I tell him everything that has been going on for the last week and he tells me to come into the office that afternoon, that's right on a Sunday afternoon, they see children on the weekend. Boy did we ever make the right decision to switch pediatricians. The boys and I make our way home for a couple of hours and then off to see the doctor. We get there and find out Eli has had a two inch growth spurt on top of being sick and so has Nic, go figure. The diagnosis, Eli has a double ear infection and an upper respiratory infection. And Nic, a right ear infection with a very horrible looking left ear to boot. Solution, both receive antibiotics and Eli is getting a referral to a ENT specialist to get tubes in his ears. With Nic it is a wait and see game because the doctor wants to see him a few times, especially with the whole having to do breathing treatments every time he gets a cold/pneumonia. We are not saying it is asthma but lets wait and see what happens and until he gets a little older and go from there. Needless to say I am much more impressed with our decision to switch pediatricians, our gut feeling turned out to be correct and not only that there are two other doctors in the practice and they rotate weekends for appointments (such a blessing). If only we could get rid of Eli's fever now but hopefully once the antibiotics start doing their mojo we will all be better.

On a lighter note. What happens when Daddy brings the boys home a snow globe and they can't decide who is going to hold it or drop it instead? See for yourself.

The mess.

Fun to vacuum up by the way, blowing all

over the place and sticking to everything.

This is what caused the mess.

This is what one might look like unharmed.

Christmas Cookie Swap

I am participating in the Christmas Cookie Swap being held by Melinda at "Bloggin' it From the 'Burbs". I have a lot of favorite cookie recipes and many I haven't even tried yet, I should get on that with three taste testers in the house. Anyway, this is the cookie recipe I have chosen for the great swap. Hope you enjoy!

Cardamom White Caps

Makes: 4 1/2 dozen Prep: 15 minutes Chill: 2 hours Bake: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

3 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup light-brown sugar
3 eggs
1 & 1/4 tsp vanilla extract or pure vanilla (whichever you chose)
6 squares (1 oz. each) white chocolate
1 & 3/4 cup walnuts, chopped
2 cups of confectioner's sugar
7 teaspoons milk

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, cardamom and salt. Set aside

2. In another large bowl, beat butter for 1 minute. Add sugar and beat until smooth, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beat in vanilla. Melt chocolate in microwave-safe bowl on high for 1 minute. Stir until smooth. Cool, then beat into sugar mixture.

3. Beat sugar and flour mixture on low speed until combined. Fold in chopped nuts. Cover dough; refrigerate for 2 hours.

4. Heat oven to 350. Drop dough in heaping teaspoons onto 2 ungreased baking sheets, about 12 to a sheet. Bake for 15 minutes or until set and lightly golden around edges. Cool a few minutes on the baking sheets on wire rack. Remove from pan to wire rack to cool completely. Repeat baking with remaining dough.

5. Mix confectioner's sugar and milk until smooth and consistency of honey. Drizzle over cookies when cool. Enjoy the deliciousness.