Whose team are you on?

Over Thanksgiving, Jennifer (Eric's sister), Jan (Eric's mother) and I went to see New Moon.  Jennifer is a big fan and has read all the books and watched the movie Twillight. Eric's mom had never read the books and wasn't sure she wanted to.  We decided to see the late show the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  Not the smartest idea we ever had, but it was fun.  On the way, Jennifer and I explained every detail of the first movie so Jan would be up to speed. 

After the movie, we started a riveting discussion on Team Edward versus Team Jacob.  Jennifer and I both agreed we were totally team Edward.  When we asked Jan, she said "hmmm... I think I'm team Charlie!" 

Love her!

fun with friends

Saturday night we headed over to visit our friends Corey and Shannon.  Their little girl Tatum is so sweet!  The boys had the best time playing with her.  We had a great time talking, eating and watching the kids play.

Eric and Corey have known each other since they were babies. It was fun for them to watch their kids play together like they use to when they were little!

We had a great time Corey and Shannan!  We sure wish we lived close to ya'll so we could hang out more!

Thanksgiving 2009

 We spent our Thanksgiving at Eric's parents' house eating yummy food, watching football, napping and spending time with family. Jennifer and her family spent the night too, so we all got to spend time together. It was so nice!  The boys had a blast playing together and would disappear for hours playing with their cousins.  Lauren loved all the attention she got from Emmy and Abby. We are so thankful to have such great families!

   Operation Reinsert Lauren's Earring was not successful. Poor little baby's earring fell out in her pack-n-play Thanksgiving day and we were not able to get it back in. Looks like we will be heading back to Claires this week to re-pierce it.

Our nights were spent roasting marshmallows, seeing New Moon, and scouring the ads for the best deals on Black Friday. 

Saturday morning we headed out at 7am to do some shopping.  I had braved Black Fridays before, but Jan and Jennifer never had. It was really fun and we got some amazing deals!  I'm almost done with my shopping now.  Woo hoo!  Jennifer and I are dorks and bought matching scarves and hats.

Happy Thanksgiving!

our girly girl

Today was Lauren's 9 month check up.  She weighed in at 17 pounds 7 ounces and is in the 75th - 90th percentile in height for now.  She was not too happy about her foot prick or two flu shots.  During the visit, I asked the doctor about getting her ears pierced.  He said I need to do it right away.  Like today. If we wait any longer, she will discover her ears and it may be a problem.  That's all I had to hear!  My mom and I ran home, picked up Tatum and my camera and headed to Claires. 

She was in ignorant bliss at first.

And then she wasn't.  She saw the lady put on her gloves and started crying instantly.  In the picture above, the poor lady was just marking her ears.

Poor little baby! 

Whoops, I'm not supposed to hold her yet, but I had to since she was so upset.

Pretty girl sporting her new studs

Can't wait to see what Daddy thinks of them!

9 months old

 

Lauren is 9 months old today!

She is getting so big!  She crawls everywhere and pulls up on everything.  Sometimes she gets stuck standing up and doesn't know how to get back down. She loves to explore the house and chew on the toys.

Her sweet little personality is starting to come out.  She loves to laugh at her brothers and give us mischievous looks if we tell her no. We have a feeling she is going to be loud so she can be heard over her brothers! She is a sweetie and we are enjoying every minute with her.

Lauren is a good little napper.  She takes a two hour nap at 9 and another one at 1.  She goes to bed at night around 6:30 and wakes up around 7. She sleeps through the night pretty well except when she is teething. She still only has two bottom teeth and a top one is about to pop through any day now.

We love you Lauren! Happy 9 months!

the big bad wolf

Austin's version of the big bad wolf

How bad is not too bad?

The surgery went really well.  I wasn't nervous before and tried to think of this as my "vacation filled with babysitters, lots of sleeping and good drugs".  Eric and I joked in the prep room that we should have gotten the doctor a gift wrapped box of Tide Washing Machine Cleaner as a gift to give him AFTER the surgery.  When he came in the room to see me before surgery, he said "So, you decided to go ahead and do the surgery?" with a slightly smug look on his face.  I followed with some major butt kissing since my life would be in his hands in the next 30 minutes. :)

Sans gallbladder

Several people told me that laparoscopic cholecystetomy "isn't too bad".  Well, how bad is too bad?  Some people told me a c-section wasn't too bad either, and I thought the recovery was truely terrible until the 5th day when I miraculously felt better.  Needless to say, I wasn't sure what to expect as far as recovery was concerned before the surgery.  My main concern was that I have my glasses as soon as I wake up since I am nearly blind without them.  My sweet nurse handed them to me immediately after surgery, and guess what? I still couldn't see.  The anesthesia apparently affects your vision until it wears off.  I was ok with it and just went to sleep.

So, for anyone who googled "recovery from gallbladder removal blog" and is about to go through the fun of having their gallbladder removed, here is my opinion on recovery...

• 
  
  Immediately following the surgery, the main things I will felt were the effects of the anesthesia. Dizziness when sitting up, lightheadedness, and maybe a little nausea.
  
• 
  
  My throat hurt worse than anything at first from having a tube stuck down it.
  
• 
  
  After the drugs wore off, I felt totally with it and remember everything. 
  
• 
  
  You can eat right after the surgery, but be sure to keep it light and bland. If you are anything like me, you will be starving and thristy from not eating or drinking in 24 hours!
  
• 
  
  Get the drugs on the way home!  The pain kicked in as I got home and I needed them!
  
• 
  
  As for pain, it feels like everything in my midsection is very, very sore. To cough really hurts. I learned from this and my c-section that I apparently have a low pain tolerance. There is also a bundle of nerves somewhere in my abdomen that the surgeon had to do something with for some reason, it shows up as shoulder pain.  (Love my technical knowledge?) Keeping still seems to help the pain.
  
• 
  
  So, relax, take your drugs and rest.
  

 "It's not too bad!"

It's already begun

Ethan drew this picture yesterday.

It's a picture of Lauren.  See the L on her body?
Did you also notice the big circle with a line through it?
He hung this sign on his bedroom door so Lauren wouldn't mess up his room. Um, excuse me son, but you and your brother are the ones that make your room look like Toys R Us was hit by a tornado, not sweet little Lauren!

When I told him the sign might hurt Lauren's feelings, he said "Actually mom, the sign says no bad guys can come in my room".
Now that's more like it.

Standing up!

Yesterday I did a post on Lauren pulling up to her knees, and today our little sweetie stood all the way up.  Eric snapped these pictures of her...

After this one, she fell and bumped her head.  You can tell Eric isn't our family blogger or he would have snapped a picture of that too and made a cute little chronological collage. ;)

gallbladder woes

Hello, my name is Lisa and I have a gallbladder problem.

  Since Lauren has been born, I have had three gallbladder attacks. It is called an attack for a reason.  It's violent and painful. Moan, cry and writhe in pain painful and it lasts for hours.

Apparently once you have a symptomatic gallbladder, there is a 100% chance you will have another attack.  It's crazy that one little gallstone can cause so much pain. My family doctor recommended I have surgery, so I met with a surgeon last week.  It went a little something like this...

Eric - "I've read online that there are liver and gallbladder cleanses you can do to get rid of gallstones. What do you think of those versus having surgery?"

Surgeon - "The liver is the body's cleanser. Doing a liver cleanse is like cleaning the washing machine! It's ridiculous!"

Since I've already met my deductible by having Lauren and surgery is inevitable, we decided to go ahead and schedule the surgery.  Wednesday I will have my gallbladder removed laproscopically.    

Please don't tell my surgeon about this until AFTER the surgery.  Wouldn't want to tick him off even more before he cuts into me!

pulling up!

Little Lauren is pulling up now! She loves to crawl around the house and pull up to her knees on anything and everything. Eric had to lower the crib today so she won't try to climb out.  She is getting so big and we are having so much fun with her! 

Morgan and Mollly's sneak peak

Thursday I took some photos of Rebecca's girls for their Christmas cards.  Morgan is quite the little model and it was so easy to take great of pictures of her.  I wish she would teach my boys how to look at the camera and smile!

Becca, I hope you like the pictures and I'm so glad we got to spend some time together while you were in town! Your girls are precious!

Amanda's sneak peek

Last night I met up with this adorable family to take some photographs.  They were so sweet and easy going! 

 

Enjoy your sneak peek!  Thanks for letting me spend some time with your sweet family!  I hope you love the pictures!

photos of the day

Since I just happened to have my kids with me today at my favorite photo taking spot, and they just happened to be in coordinating outfits, how could I not resist snapping a couple pictures of them too?

One photo shoot down, one to go!  I'll post pictures soon!

photographers dream spot

Friday I have my very first photo shoot.
Ever.
A photo shoot where I take pictures of other people besides my own children and actually get paid for it.
For the first time.
Ever.
I'm a little nervous and very excited! I wanted the perfect setting for the sweet family and was so excited when Becky told me about a cool spot where one of her friends had some pictures taken.  Today I loaded up the kids, and went to check it out.  It is an AMAZING spot and I'm so happy!  Since I had to test out the light, I just happened to have some models waiting in the car... with props.

I found this old doll cradle at Wimberley this weekend for a steal.  I painted it butter yellow and recovered a new mattress for it.  I'm going to make a tiny baby quilt and pillow that match the quilt I made for Lauren's big girl bed.   I love that someday she will put her dolls in it and look back at pictures of herself sitting in it when she was a baby.


Sweet brothers loving their little sister

Love the light, love the barn, love the trees, love the old truck and love the tractor. LOVE! 

Thanks Becky!

cousins!

Gege, Aunt Jenny, Emmy, Abby and Jake came in town to visit this weekend.  The kids had so much fun playing and it was nice to get together.  We can't wait to see them again at Thanksgiving!

twinkies

Sometimes when I look at Lauren, all I can see is our sweet niece Abby.  They look so much alike to me!  I can only hope Lauren grows up to be as beautiful on the inside and outside as Abby!

candy, candy, candy

We have two children in this house of candy eating age. One simply enjoys eating candy and one is completely obsessed by it. Can you guess which one asks for candy at least 100 times a day?

How is a mom to cope with the candy obsession?  Hide the candy! Out of sight, out of mind, right?  Not with Austin. He doesn't forget about the jack-o-lantern stored away in the pantry on a shelf he can't reach.

When we don't let him have candy, sometimes he will ask if he can "check on it".  He just wants to see it and make sure it's doing ok.  What a funny kid!

Craft Hope

Erica came across this wonderful blog called Craft Hope a while back and we knew instantly it was something we wanted to get involved with.  The latest project will give over 200 homeless children in Michigan handmade quilts.

When we decided to start the project, we all gathered our fabric and decided to make a patchwork quilt for a boy and a girl.  We had just the right amount to make these super cute quilts.  I LOVE that we each contributed fabric and or time to make something so special for two very special little children.

The girly quilt

The boy quilt

Jennifer, Ellen, Kristy, Sammy, Mindy all contributed to the making of these sweet quilts and Erica and I sewed them up. We are looking forward to seeing what the next Craft Hope project will be!