2nd Snow of 2012

Today we got a good 5 inches of snow and it's still snowing! And since the temp was in the 30's we thought Ben may enjoy it a bit more than 2 weeks ago and boy were we right! Ben had a blast today...snowball fights, eating snow, sledding, snow angels, snowman building, shoveling and playing on the play set! He cried when we finally said we had to come back inside.

Grand Lake

The Katzer Family rented a huge house down at Grand Lake for a little holiday mini-vacation and we were lucky enough to get invited! It was a great weekend full of family and fun! The house was amazing with amazing views and we all got our own bedroom and bathroom! Friday we had a great dinner of tacos and sat around the fire listening to Vince, Angela & Mark play guitar. Saturday we just hung out and relaxed. Vince, Ben and I all took a nice long nap-it was great! Saturday night we had a yummy steak and crab leg dinner and then played games! It was such a fun weekend watching all the cousins play and grown-ups catch up with each other!

!

Sunday we had to leave pretty early so we could be back in the city to pick up Miles from the kennel. Unfortunately when we go there we found out that during playtime another dog bit his ear and it wouldn't stop bleeding. So they took him to Mission Med Vet and turns out he needed a few stitches and some antibiotics. Poor Miles now has to wear a cone for the next 10-14 days until his stitches come out.

Merrry Christmas 2012

Before bed on Christmas Eve we got Ben's special plate out that he made for Santa cookies and grabbed a few cookies. Then we put them on the plate and told Ben that they were a snack for Ho Ho (aka Santa) when he comes to our house tonight. He then picked one up and started to eat it-when we reminded him they were for Ho Ho and he lost it. Poor guy was sick and here we were telling him he couldn't eat a cookie because it was for Ho Ho the man that he was scared to death of. Fail.

Christmas morning started with a quick breathing treatment and then it was off to see if Ho Ho came to our house. And boy he sure did! Santa brought Ben a trike! He was so excited! This year was the first year that when he opened his presents he would have a expression on his face-like when he opened his set of Cars 2 cars he had the best look on his face...pure joy! It was so much fun! But he didn't quite grasp the concept that everyone has presents not just him so he "helped" us open our presents too!

After we wrapped up Christmas morning at our house we went to my parents for the second Christmas morning! Again Ben helped everyone open their gifts and would then try to steal them! And he was spoiled rotten with all his gifts! A little over an hour into opening gifts you could tell Ben wasn't feeling very well and he was getting pretty cranky so we left to go home and take a snoozer.

After nap time Grandma Carol and Grandpa Jimmy stopped by to see Ben and exchange gifts. Ben loves his new waffle blocks! He keeps building houses!

Then PaPa "White Truck" and Grandma Marq stopped by with more presents! He got a gift card to Barnes & Noble and he is going to be so so excited to go pick out some new books!

Up next was Christmas dinner at our house. My parents and brothers came over to eat lasagna and meatballs and see all Ben's new toys! It was a perfect day minus Ben not feeling the best.

This year I guess I slacked pretty bad on taking pictures. I failed at getting any good pic's of Ben with his 3 sets of grandparents or anyone for that matter. I won't let that happen again next year-I promise!

Season of Sickness. Bah Humbug.

This year we missed out on a lot of Christmas festivities. First we had to miss the annual McCormack/Thornhill dinner. I have never ever missed this dinner (even when we lived back east). But this year I was on day 2 of a nasty stomach bug so we didn't get to go. I was so so so bummed.

Christmas Eve certainly did not go as planned at our house either. We had planned on a relaxing morning then church followed by a nap and then the traditional Christmas Eve with the Rupp's. But we didn't get to do any of the above. Ben started showing signs of a cold a few days before but we thought it was just a typical cold. But on Monday his fever was still climbing and he was starting to get a cough. Ben's doctor was closed for the holiday but luckily Vince's sister Angela who is a nurse practitioner was working so she told me to bring him down to her practice. She even snuck us in the back door so we wouldn't have to wait in the over flowing waiting room. I figured she would look in his ears and listen to his lungs and would say...yep just a cold. But that's not what she said. First off he had a ear infection in his right ear (this was his first ever ear infection). Then she said we needed to check him in because he needed a breathing treatment asap followed by a chest x-ray. Holy Shit. He did great with the breathing treatment but the x-ray was horrible. He was hysterical. It was awful. But thankfully it only takes a minute. When the x-rays came back she told me it was pneumonia. Again-Holy Shit. I am so thankful that I listened to that "mommy gut feeling" and took him to see Angela or we could have spent Christmas Eve or Day at Children's Mercy. Thankfully Vince got to the pharmacy before they closed to get all his medicine. Thankfully once we started to get the medicine in him and stated the breathing treatments every 4-6 hours it seemed he was starting to feel better.

1st Snow Of The Season

We had our first official snow fall on the 20th! It wasn't more than an inch or so but Ben seemed excited to go out and play in it so we got all bundled up and went outside (I should add that it was bitterly cold and very windy and that Ben wouldn't wear his mittens). We lasted a whopping 2 minutes and that may be a stretch. Ben wanted no part of the snow. He screamed bloody murder. So the first snow of the 2012/2013 winter was a huge failure.

Holiday Baking 2012

Another holiday tradition in our family is of course baking! Ben wanted to be involved in every step this year and while at times it was a huge mess it was worth the extra kitchen clean up time to see him having so much fun!
Peppermint Bark and Peanut Clusters are two of my favorites! So they were first on our baking list. Ben had no problem being my test taster! That kid loves chocolate!

Up next was sugar cookies. I tried to cheat and buy the mix in a bag but somehow I managed to screw the directions up so we scrapped that dough and made another batch from scratch. And of course we burnt the first batch in the oven. This was just not our day when it came to baking. After nap it was time to frost-again I cheated and used store bought icing. Yet another mistake-they just don't taste as good without homemade icing. Ben was more interested in the eating of the frosting and cookies than he was decorating which I fully expected! He had quite the sugar high that afternoon!