Much To Be Thankful For

We had a good Thanksgiving. We have so much to be grateful for. I am grateful for this free country, having enough to eat, having good health, being able to stay home with my kids, a loving husband, and so much more. The Lord has blessed me and my family.

On a lighter note, I am thankful for a good pumpkin pie which we did not have on Thanksgiving. I was so excited that when I pulled the pie out of the oven it was perfectly golden. The crust was perfect, there were no splits in the top, and the knife came out clean as a whistle. I was so excited that the appearance of my pie was so lovely. Unfortunately, my recipe following abilities aren't as wonderful. I forgot the sugar.

I participated in Black Friday which I enjoy doing every year, mostly because my thirfty side comes out and I am always pleased with the amount of money I save. Later that day we set up the Christmas tree and put out our Christmas decorations. I love this time of year. It makes it so much fun to have kids to get excited with.

Paul's staples came out just fine and it's healing well. The picture of Paul was done while I was doing the dishes. I could hear him wrestling around and I knew he had found the dum dums, but I was surprised at how many he was able to get open in such a short amount of time.

A little Health Update

Paul gets his staples out tomorrow (wed 19th). That should be a pleasant experience. Paul seems to be having really poor balance since the head incident. He fell off the dining room chair again on Sunday and re-opened the wound, so I pushed the day back to get the staples out.

The doctor hears clicking in Caleb's hips, so we go in for an ultrasound next week. Hopefully this will turn out to be nothing that will need treatment. Cross your fingers for us.

I have healed up completely and have started to exercise again! This is a big thing for me. During my pregnancy I wasn't able to excerise because of cramping and ligament pain, so it's been a while. I really enjoy excerise and Paul enjoys getting out of the house. I sure hope it doesn't take as long for the pounds to come off as it did last time, but I've found it's less depressing to just have low expectations.

Here are some recent pictures:


I think there's a trend.

My three boys!

Paul still wants to be the baby too.

Catastrophe Strikes Again

I wonder if my son is going to survive his childhood. This poor little kid sure does know how to bite the dust. When he gets hurt it's disastrous.

This evening Paul was running around the house with a cell phone charger around his waist pretending he had a tail. He thought it was so funny that the cord followed him. He kept saying, "monkey tail monkey tail, oh oh ah ah." It was really cute until he tripped and smacked his head against the wall. When he got up a little bit I noticed blood on the wall. He had somehow split the back of his head open on the flat surface of the wall. He was close to the corner, but it didn't look like he hit the corner. Pat and I rushed him to the bathroom where we tried to examine the damage. It was bleeding so much that it was hard to see anything through his hair. I have not seen so much blood in my life. We were able to temporarily stop the bleeding by convincing Paul that the ace bandage head wrap was a hat. I was so thankful Pat happened to come home in between work meetings. We rushed him to the ER where he got three staples to the back of his head. It was a little tramatic for him, but I think he'll survive. Here is a picture of him after the ordeal. He was in pain, and no longer happy about the hat the hospital put back on him.

I Love You Mom

My mom stayed with us for three weeks after Caleb was born. She was a tremendous help and comfort to me. She has always been good at serving others and is continually sacrificing for her family. I loved having her around, and I wish we lived closer. Some people enjoy their space from family and move a little distance away, but I can't get enough of family. Thank you Dad for giving Mom to me for such an extended amount of time, and thank you Mom a million times over for coming! I love you.

Picture Tag

I was tagged by my friend Leslie, and since she put a comment about it I'll go ahead and participate. It is a picture tag where you post the fourth picture of your fourth folder and the sixth of your sixth. I am sure you can tell, but these are pictures when Paul was a baby.

Happy Halloween

Yeah for candy!
Here is an added picture of Paul in his costume, by request. I didn't originally put one because I didn't have any good pictures of him in his costume. This picture has been cropped so if the resolution isn't too good you know why. Paul was a monkey again this year. The poor kid hasn't grown much so it still fit.