Can it really be 45?

Happy 45th Anniversary to you,

Mom and Pop!!
We are so grateful that you got together all those years ago. As the story goes (please correct me where I'm wrong), Pop was supposed to ask Mom out on behalf of one of his friends, but when he walked into that corner drugstore and saw the stunning beauty behind the counter he decided he wanted to ask her out for himself. She couldn't resist his charms and his older-guy, bad-boy allure.
The rest, as they say, is history!

Best Christmas Present Ever!!!

Christopher has been taking Tae Kwon Do lessons for close to 5 years. He has been attending 2 classes a week and practicing at home.

For the past month and a half, he has really been focused on learning 3 forms. Every day, without needing to be reminded, he has practiced them at least 3 times. This little boy gets himself in his uniform and makes sure we have his sparring equipment before leaving for practice. His dedication and perseverance have impressed both his parents and earned the praise of his instructor.

Last night, all his hard work paid off. He tested for and received his first degree Black Belt. I'm not sure who was more nervous during the testing, him or his parents. He claims that he was nervous, but watching him, you would never know. He was confident in his forms and broke his boards without hesitation. He was focused in sparring. He made us all so proud.

Congratulations Chris!

Santa Baby

mmm, mmm, good...

What u lookin' at???
Here I am all snugly and ready for school. I have gone 5 times now and am slowly adjusting to the routine. I am the youngest and am 1 of 3 girls. My other 5 classmates are boys.

Here I am eating some cereal. I have been eating a teaspoon once daily for a week now. Let me know if you think I like it. :)

8 years...

Hey Chris,

Happy 8th birthday!!! Uncle Dave, Evelyn and I hope you have a fun time at your church party today. Enjoy!!!

Love Ya...

3 months ...

Today I'm 3 months old. I have to say I am really happy to be home from the hospital. I enjoy sleeping in my own bed much more than the steel barred crib.
These days, I have been expressing myself through facial expressions. It's fun watching people watch me then laugh. I guess I'm a real character.
I continue to entertain myself quite well. I love playing on my activity mat, or in the playpen...and I can't forget about my swing. I also enjoy watching Daddy play video games. Watching the fan spin is a pretty cool pass time too. I'm almost big enough to play in the exersaucer and my jumpy jump. Maybe next month??
I love talking and sucking on my hands. Mommy's wondering if I'll ever find my thumb. (She sucked her thumb forever.) I'm getting stronger and stronger everyday. I don't need much help holding up my head and I love to stand and stretch my legs. I'm learning that I control the grabbing things at the ends of my arms. Sometimes I hold rattles and put them in my mouth.
My 3 month check up is this afternoon. I'm excited about going to the doctor and not having to get any shots. :)

Poor little Evelyn!

I heard from Dave this afternoon that Evelyn is in the hospital. She awoke with a fever during the wee hours of Saturday morning. Tylenol brought the fever down, but it kept coming back. The doctor recommended that she come to the hospital if the fever reached 102 degrees, so that's where they went on Saturday afternoon. They haven't determined the cause as yet - they're doing blood tests. Dave says that she seems to be feeling better. Poor little girl! My heart goes out to her AND her parents!

We had dinner with Gram tonight to celebrate her birthday. She received a potted miniature Christmas tree from Dave and Melissa, and a beautiful bouquet of roses and alstromeria from D.J. and Michele. Bob and Mary Ann sent her an assortment of fruit, cheese, truffles, cookies, nuts etc. She had phone calls today from Bob, Rob and Dawn. And Sue visited her this morning and brought a gift, so her 92nd birthday was well remembered.

Pop and I have been working on packing. Both of our suitcases weigh in at less than 50 pounds (41 and 34) so we're doing OK so far. We'll keep thinking of more things to bring between now and Wednesday.

Time for me to get ready for bed while Pop watches the Bear/Viking game. Love to you all, and say a little prayer for Evelyn and family.

Mom

Chatty Evelyn

I love being naked. Press play and I'll tell you all about it.

a Happy Thanksgiving

We had a lovely time at Dave and Melissa's. Evelyn was adorable and stayed awake all the time except for the time we were eating, when she conveniently took a brief nap. Sadly, our picture at the table is missing Chris, Sami, Melissa and Pop, but they were all there. Chris and Sami were very busy trying to track down Chloe, who was smart enough to stay 2 steps ahead of them. Gram managed to stick it out for close to 4 hours, and I think Linda really enjoyed herself. Thanks, Melissa and Dave!

Our departure is less than 5 days away, and it turns out that I have to open the store at 5:00 every day until then because Karen's mother passed away today. So I can't really complain (can I?)

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Mother Goose

Chris and Sami outdid themselves on one of Gavin's presents. They gave Gavin a book of Mother Goose nursery rhymes AND a CD of them taking turns reading each one in the order of their appearance in the book. CLICK HERE to listen to the 23 tracks. *Note that if you click "Play" for Track 1, it will take a few seconds to load, then it will play all the tracks in order. As Michele wrote in their letter to Gavin, "Cautionary Note: Sami really got into her recital of 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' [Track 22], you may want to cover the dogs ears and yours too for the finale." THANK YOU for the neat present, you guys!!

Arrivals - early and late

We're home! We came home a day early. We had planned to take 2 days to get home from Pete's, but once we got on the road (around noon) we decided we wanted to sleep in our own beds tonight. Gavin's sleep schedule is all out of whack. Aren't babies/toddlers supposed to fall asleep on long car rides? Apparently the answer is the same as the answer to every other child-related question: it depends. He finally did fall asleep for the last hour of the 6-hour drive.

When we got home we were delighted to find the so-called "suspicious package" on our doorstep. Thank you so much to Michele, DJ, Chris and Sami for the great birthday presents! The personalized gifts and hand-decorated card are fantastic. We can't wait to listen to the CDs tomorrow! The wooden doggie pull toy is terrific. Hopefully it will inspire mister 'two-little-steps-and-I'm-done' to get the walking thing figured out once and for all. And of course, Gavin can always use more books and clothes. You guys are awesome!

Love and best wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!

Miscellany

We're working on getting ready to hit the road so I'll make this a quick one (I hope!). When Gavin gets up from his nap we're going to hop in the truck and head south. We're staying at Pat & Michelle's in Loa (near Capitol Reef) tonight, then heading further south to Pete's (near Zion) for the rest of the weekend. We'll come home Tuesday. The weather is supposed to be in the 60s and sunny at Pete's, so we're looking forward to hanging on to a mild fall before the real cold weather hits.

Gavin had a stomach virus and was sick for 5 days. On the 5th day (Wednesday) I took him to the doctor because I was worried about him getting dehydrated. He had diarrhea and wouldn't eat or drink much. Turns out it was a 5-day virus and by Wednesday night he was hungry again. It also turns out that some of his fussiness probably had to do with teething since as of this morning he's cutting one, maybe two bottom teeth. He's been toothless up to this point, so this is exciting news. He's also started "walking" a little. Only a couple of steps here and there for now but it won't be long before he's running circles around us.

After many phone calls back and forth with the Postal Service Inspector's offices in Chicago and St. Louis and my local post office, the package that Michele and family sent to Gavin for his birthday is still missing. I got a call 2 weeks ago from an Inspector asking me if I was expecting a package from Chicago. After a few minutes of questions and answers and a phone call to Michele it was determined that the "suspicious package" that was being held up in Chicago contained birthday presents for Gavin and was therefore not a threat to national security. Supposedly the Inspector released the package for shipping that same day, but since then nobody knows what happened to it. Bummer! I hope it wasn't a diamond-studded truck solid gold building blocks.

I'd better go and pack before Gavin wakes up. Love to you all!

A skosh more progress

For those of you who, like me, always wondered how to spell "skosh", there you have it. I looked it up ;). Mom wanted to see pictures of the bathroom so here they are in all their splendor. As you can see Gavin feels the need to investigate every drawer in his path. And as you can see from the other picture, Brandon is fixin' to fix our toilet (or so we hope). It used to flush just once, then it graduated to twice, and now when you push down the handle it flushes a full three times. Not exactly a water-saver, unless you count the times that one person goes and flushes and then a second person goes and is done before the toilet is done flushing. Still - not ideal. So hopefully its the flushing mechanism and not the throne itself that's the problem. We spent a little time today buttoning up the patio area and the driveway. All the mulch and gravel and road base that got shoved around by the skiddy last weekend has been dealt with in one way or another. Now if we can just get the rest of the leaves raked before it snows....

EEEEEEEEEEK!

This is my third attempt, since my first 2 newsy posts have disappeared. I quit!

I just wasted an hour and now I'm out of time.

Happy birthday D.J.!

Love, from your frustrated Mom

Happy 38 years and 10 minutes

Mom - I found a draft of your post! Here it is :)


Let's see, I talked about D.J.'s birthday, The Palatine Woods, Gram and Pop:

Tonight we'll be meeting D.J. and family at Famous Dave's (again) for a celebratory dinner. I'm looking forward to seeing these four members of our family. Prior to that, we'll be shopping at Ace because it's a rare opportunity for Pop to get a 30% discount off regular prices. They do it every year before Christmas for employees. Anybody need anything? Let me know in the next 6 hours!

Pop will be getting a shot, or shots, in his back next Wednesday morning. We hope this will give him more relief from the sciatica than Dr. Fay has been able to do. Meanwhile, our weather has been cold, windy, wet and generally miserable. Pop is doing as much as he can in the yard under the circumstances. The gutters in back need cleaning, but the stuff is frozen in there. We need a warmer day - perhaps tomorrow, but it will be rainy. He also needs to shut down the pond operation before we leave - and that will be in 3 weeks from today.

Gram's abscessed tooth continues to plague her. The dentist last Friday started her on an antibiotic, and we went to the oral surgeon on Monday afternoon. He said he still couldn't treat it because the infection was still draining, so we go again on Thursday, when he will decide if it can be done on either Saturday or next Monday. On the day of the procedure she has to take 500 mg. of penicillin within one hour. There's another tooth that is suspect and I worry that will flair up. Wish I could talk the oral surgeon into doing them both at once

Happy 38!

2 months...

Today I'm 2 months old!!!

I love sleeping at night~ about 9 hours. I'm not into naps at the moment, but have learned to entertain myself which allows mom and dad time to get things done. I smile more and more everyday. I discovered my hands and enjoy putting them in my mouth. I love bath time! Sitting on mom's lap while she reads to me is also one of my favorite pass times.

I had such a fun weekend. I got lots of cool stuff at the party yesterday. The ladies passed me around like a candy dish. I loved the attention.

I go to the doctor on Thursday for my 2 month checkup. Mom wonders how much I weigh.

Hope everyone has a great week. Make sure to vote tomorrow. :)

Neighborly photo shoot

Our neighbor Buffy is a whiz with her sweet SLR digital camera, so I asked her to take some pictures of Gavin for us. She came over on Saturday afternoon and followed Gavin all over the yard. Judging from the filenames of the photos I think she took ~200 of them! She sifted them down to about a hundred and I've sifted them even further and put my favorites in a Picasa Web Album. There are so many great ones! I'm going to have some prints made to send out to family and friends, so if you have any requests please let me know. I might be a little biased, but I think this kid is pretty darn adorable :).

beautiful fall weekend

All of you wonderful blog-posters have shamed me into making a contribution...

This has been a lovely week for me, since I had a week's vacation to use up before my Jewel anniversary in November. I think I could adapt to not working at all, although I might have a tendency to vegetate too much. Pop and I went to the Arboretum twice for a couple of nice walks. On Thursday we also took a one hour tram ride (our "free" coupons expired in 2008) and we nearly froze. It was in the high 40's, but an hour traveling in the open air left us almost frozen. We thawed out over lunch and walked through the woods for awhile.

Gram has had a terribly painful week - the hematoma in her hip seems to move around a bit, and there was a large lump right where she couldn't sit or lay down without it interfering. Linda has been really good about applying hot wet compresses to the area, and that seems to give her some relief. She's pretty reliant on the Darvocet to control the pain. When she ran out on Thursday night I offered to pick up the refill, since it wouldn't be delivered until late on Friday. She declined my offer, but I should have done it 'cause she had a really bad night.

My oven refused to turn on all last weekend, so on Monday we had a repairman replace the igniter, to the tune of almost $200. Pop watched carefully, so the next time he can do it himself - as if the same thing would happen again ;-)

Melissa and Dave, I'm delighted that Evelyn is sleeping all night for you. What a difference it makes when you're not feeling like a zombie all the time. We really appreciate all the pictures that you post - can't wait for her "2 month old" picture (tomorrow?) I hope that something happens to make Dave's job more tolerable.

Julie and Brandon, we wish we were at the birthday celebration (and not just for the yummy cake!) Thanks for making Gavin's first year so open to us - we feel like we're there.

How's everything in North Aurora? We enjoyed the Halloween festival at the Devonshire last Saturday, and loved seeing Sami in her ghost costume and Chris in his ninja costume. I expected to have more trick-or-treaters this year because of the wonderful weather, but we only had between 50 and 60. I should give some thought to returning the un-opened bags to the store so they don't tempt us.

Pop has been on an antibiotic for the past 9 days for a sinus infection, and he seems to be feeling pretty well (for an old guy...) Lots to do in the yard, but he has both sides of the garden tilled. We have only 4 1/2 weeks until our New Zealand cruise, so we should be busy getting ready. I really hope we can put together enough suitable clothes, and figure out what else we need to have and fit it all into 2 suitcases (Thanks to D.J. and Gram for loaning us theirs!)

I just found out that the Bears are losing 20-10 to Detroit. I had best go root for them to turn this tide...

Love to you all, Mom

One Wonderful Year!!!

Happy 1st Birthday Gavin!!!

It's amazing to see what you have learned and how you have grown during the first year of your life. (Thanks to your lovely parents for logging all your pics and videos on the blog.) Can't wait to see what's in store for year # 2.

We hope you have a stellar birthday and that you enjoy your homemade cake with yummy cream cheese frosting. Make sure your Mommy and Daddy post a few pics of you devouring it.

Lots of Love,
Aunt Melissa, Uncle Dave & Evelyn

Making progress

There seems to be no end to our home improvement project list. We're still not done painting the bathroom, there's a long list of yard work chores that need to be done before winter, and in a few weeks we'll be getting new vinyl siding on the 'old' part of the house (since our pennies seem to be worth less every day we figured we might as well spend them now!). Our most recently completed project is a little patio on the south side of the house where its nice and shady all day in the summer. I say it's completed, but actually it spawned yet another project, which is to landscape around it.

We spent the evening yesterday (Halloween) across the street with our neighbors, Phil & Barb. We ate white bean chicken chili for dinner and drank a few too many cocktails while greeting trick-or-treaters. Gavin wore a lion outfit he inherited from his cousin Rhiannon, and Brandon and I pulled out our piratewear.

Tomorrow we're going to celebrate Gavin's first birthday! Its hard to believe a whole year has passed since we checked into the hospital because my water had broken. We're going to have a small gathering - not quite a party - with cake and ice cream at 2 pm. You're all invited, of course! Brooke and her family and Dale are coming up from Ogden, and some of the neighbors might come over as well. I still haven't decided what kind of cake to make but I have a few baby-friendly recipes to choose from that have applesauce, bananas, pumpkin, and/or carrots in them. We've determined that cow's milk no longer upsets his tummy (hooray!), so the frosting will be made from cream cheese. Yum!

Trick or Treat

Happy Halloween!

Evelyn has been in the Halloween spirit all month long. :) We are reserving the trick or treating adventure for next year. Instead, we will be staying home to pass out candy. What a beautiful day-high near 70! We will be going on a walk soon to take advantage of it.

Things are great here, except for Dave hating his job. He has a few more months to go then, hopefully, he'll be able to transfer out. I honestly don't know if he'll last that long. He's nearing his breaking point. :(

We have a fun-filled weekend ahead. Tonight, my friend is coming over for a visit. Tomorrow, my brother is stopping by. Tomorrow night, Grandma Kaye is babysitting for Evelyn so we can attend the baptism preparation class. Sunday is the "meet the baby" baby shower in my parents neighborhood. It should be lots of fun. :)

We enjoyed the tangy pork chops last weekend. Thanks for sharing the recipe. If anyone has any other good crock pot recipes, please email them to me. This is the time of year that I like to use the crock pot. Michele, would you mind emailing your chocolate chip banana muffin recipe to me? They're delicious. I found a recipe, but they were nowhere near as good as yours.

Are there any Halloween plans? What is Gavin dressing up as? I know Chris is a ninja and Sami is a spooky ghost.

Have a safe weekend.

A public service message

And now its time for another installment of, "Good Idea, Bad Idea".

Installing a safety grate on the upstairs window:





Good idea.


Leaving your herbal tea outside for several minutes before drinking it, then drinking the herbal-tea-bathing wasp into your mouth:










Bad idea.

Nice knowing you

Gavin and his pal Mr. Bones give their regards to our only garden pumpkin. Little does either of them know that in a just few days it'll be gutted and glowing through a permanent grin.

Family Get-Together

Hello, folks! Pop and I are trying to post the 3 pictures I managed to take on Saturday. I don't want to tell you how long we've been working on this, but things keep deleting themselves. Sorry I failed to take pictures of D.J., Michele, Chris, Sami, Rob, Lisa, Cecilia, Pop or Linda.

We've been busy with yard and garden work, as well as Ace and Jewel. Our planned dinner out with George and Linda fell through yesterday. Time ran out, since they were leaving town this morning and heading back to Truckee, CA.

We had kohlrabi slaw for dinner tonight, as well as Polish beets and beet greens, all harvested this afternoon. Went well with the leftover pulled pork!

Our apple trees produced heavily this year, but the fruit is virtually inedible due to the worms that permeate the fruit. I've picked up more bags than I could count over the past weeks and put them in the garbage. The cans are so heavy that I'm afraid that the garbage man is going to refuse to lift them. I'm throwing them away so the worms don't over-winter in the soil. They would be such wonderful apples if we could grow them worm-free!

One more time, Pop is going to attach the pictures....

Conquering The San Juan

Another year older

And a happy birthday to you, Julie! I trust that you don't work today (at USU, that is) so your chances for a fun day are increased. We'll be thinking of you here in Illinois, where I just turned on the furnace for the first time this season.

I'm expecting Rob and Lisa here tonight, so my day will be spent cooking and (surface) cleaning. Time to reacquaint myself with the duster and vacuum cleaner :)

Gram has suffered a setback since she started therapy a few weeks ago. She wanted to be able to walk again, but the hematoma flared up once again last weekend, causing swelling, severe pain and bruising. Pop took her to see Dr. Kurt yesterday, and he confirmed that she should stop the weight bearing on the right leg. Looks like the wheel chair will be permanent for her. At least this time she has Linda to care for her. Gram still wants to come over tomorrow for dinner.

Pop has been working on garden clean-up this week. There are lots of squashes, mostly acorn, that the Illinois Woods can take home with them on Saturday.

Time to get the ball rolling.

Mom

just cuz...

Here is Daddy with his girls. Chloe is actually upset because she wanted to sit in her Daddy's lap, but Evelyn was there first. She has a hard time sharing him.

As you can see, we found a binky that Evelyn likes. This makes for a quieter household and a happier baby.

Evelyn has slept in her crib the past 2 nights. Last night was great! She slept from 10pm to 6:30am!!! Her Daddy got a descent nights sleep. Her Mommy awoke several times just to check on her (and to pump).

Don't worry, Chicago sports fans....

...there is a cure for your pain....

...It's called, "Next Year".

Just cuz

I thought I'd post these pics just because I like them and I thought you would too :).

I'm 1 month old

Look at me...I'm a month old already! I continue to learn and grow daily. I've been happier the past few days too. Guess the medicine is working. :)

A delightful visit

We so enjoyed having Mom and Pop here. Between the rafting trip and Gavin's blessing, time really flew. Mom and Pop are fantastic babysitters and I know that Gavin will miss them as much as Brandon and I will.

The blessing was today and we thank DJ's family very much for the blessing bowl, which we used to pour water from the Blacksmith Fork River over Gavin's head. It was a small and a short ceremony. The attendees included Brandon's mom, his stepdad, his sister Brooke and her family, Mom and Pop, and of course Brandon and Gavin and I. Oh - and a rodent or two who munched the trail mix out of the favors when we weren't looking! The grandmothers each read a poem, Brandon and I read our 'parental vows' to Gavin, and each person gave Gavin a blessing of some kind. We lucked out and had perfect weather. Afterward we came back to the house and gorged ourselves on pulled pork sandwiches, baked beans, coleslaw, potato salad, and apple and pumpkin pie. My stomach still hurts! Mom was a great help in getting the food together and Pop was a great help in gathering fall foliage for the centerpieces. They were both valuable in keeping Gavin entertained and out from underfoot when Brandon and I busied ourselves with other stuff.












It will be with great sadness that we say goodbye to Mom and Pop tomorrow - but we will take heart in knowing that we'll see them and the rest of you in January for Evelyn's baptism. Hooray!

Down the River

WE DID IT! I have to admit that I was really apprehensive about our river trip, but it turned out great. We had our ups and downs... With all my concern about Gavin I didn't spend very much time making sure Pop and especially river-trip-virgin Mom had all the right stuff, but between their stuff and our stuff and everyone else's stuff we were pretty well covered. We had a crew of 15 including 2 babies and a 5-year-old, and our group came together from FIVE states (UT, CO, NE, IL, and AZ). We ate well, drank well, and floated well in 4 rafts, a ducky and a kayak. I wish I could say we slept well, but at least I CAN say that Gavin slept way better than I did! Mom slept in a tent for the second time in her whole life! On the second night we had a tremendous thunderstorm that cut "Super Hero Night" short and banished a few folks, including Mom, to their tents. It thundered and lightning-ed and pelted all our gear with fat raindrops for a couple of hours. Gavin and I spent much of that time cozy and dry in our tent while Brandon and a few other super heroes battened down the boats and cooked a yummy taco dinner under shelter of a rain/sun canopy. For the most part the weather was perfect and we really enjoyed ourselves. It was a long drive home but we're happily enjoying a restful evening, aside from the 8 loads of laundry that are underway...

Spit up girl...

Poor little Evelyn... she has been spitting up all along, but became much worse beginning Sunday night. (She projectile vomited all over her daddy. Must say-he took it quite well.) Dave and I both noticed her cry was different on Monday night, as though she was in pain??? It seemed like she spit up everything on Tuesday and was real clingy. I called the doctor on Weds. to explain the situation. She was pretty concerned it may be pyloric stenosis (when the pyloric sphincter is narrowed and food can't make it to the stomach which requires surgical correction), so she sent Evelyn to have an ultrasound of her abdomen. Thankfully it was normal. So, our little darling just has very bad reflux. She is now on a medication called Axid twice daily. Hopefully it will help because she seems so unhappy and starving all the time, not to mention she is extremely gassy. We tried mixing formula with breast milk per the Dr's recommendation and will continue to travel that road with 2 more types of formula since it's thicker and should keep her satisfied longer, pending she keeps it down.

We'll keep you posted.

Anyone have $ .50

I'd pay a heck of a lot more...

cutie pie pics

Hi all,

Thought you might like to see some new photos of our little girl. We continue to adjust-trying to figure out life every day. We are still fighting colds, all of us have relapsed. :( I think we all could use some more sleep. :)

Evelyn's lip has completely healed and her tongue looks better every day. Her follow up appt. is Weds.

Hope the Utah clan is feeling better. Have fun on the rafting trip.

Looks like Chris and Sami are having lots of fun in the kitchen. Watch out Paula Dean!!!