Photos

Ellie's first Thanksgiving!


Each year Ryan's aunt buys us a 'noisy' Christmas gift to use for holiday decorations. First year was a "Tommy the Talking Snowman" which is light sensitive. Even when we put him up - in a Rubbermaid container in the garage - after the holiday season, we could hear him talking everytime we opened the garage door!
The next year was this... boy & girl teddy bears holding hands. They sing "Winter Wonderland" - each taking their own turn - then in harmony as their cheeks light up bright red. Both Warren and Ellie are fascinated by it! Thought this was a cute photo.


Our Christmas tree this year... too bad the ornaments & decor are too small. hahaha!

Turkey Day

thanksgiving this year was really nice. we ended up dining with ryan's maternal side of the family. the food was delicious and the company entertaining. there is always one person in every family that is notorious for making people laugh. warren ate more sweets than we knew about and ellie was truly scared of ryan's uncle. :) all in all it was a fun day but i really missed my family. we will be going to my parents this evening so i'm looking forward to catching up with them and hearing how their thanksgiving in columbia went.

on wed. ryan, ellie and i had some errands to run and first went to our fave hardware store. we usually go once a month or more and since sept. i've been salivating over this 9.5 foot artificial pre-lit Christmas tree. i have had a 7 ft. tree since college - it's beautiful and close to my heart. ryan detests it. i mean curses each year we start to assemble it. we've always talked about getting a new tree but how can you justify that kind of expense? especially during the holiday (gift/property tax) season! once we bought our new house and Christmas rolled around my beautiful tree looked like charlie brown's in our gargantuan parlor. last year we tried to help matters and ended up putting the tree on a milk crate. ha! the tree is so old the colors have faded from the ends of the branches - needless to say it's a chore to put it together. lest i mention the hundreds of lights i think HAVE to be wrapped around the branches.
so on wed. we stood and looked at the tree... and looked at the tree... and looked at it some more. we did it. we are now proud owners of a new fake tree! some of you have big trees, i'm certain. but for me - this was a big deal. i couldn't wait to put it up last night after we came home and it's amazing! full, lush, tall and actually takes up most of the room! and yeah, i did add more lights :)



the funniest part about the entire story is we go all out on decorating for the holidays and never have company! no one sees our hard work - but at least we like it :)

hope everyone had a great holiday!

Warren's Life These Days...

Proofin' Yeast

no, i ain't talkin' about bread :)
last week ellie suffered from diaper rash which normally would not be cause for alarm in infants. sat. morning while she and i played i noticed white spots on her tongue. those of you who know me well, realize i automatically assumed she was dying :) ryan did his best to soothe my anxiety by stating it was 'simply milk on her tastebuds'... that worked for a few hours.
many of you have found that there is one thing that can be your best friend AND your worst enemy... the wonderful world wide web. specifically webmd.com. mind you, the site offers a great service to viewers... but it's too easy to diagnose yourself with a serious ailment with simple symptoms. at least that is how is in my world :) by 2pm i could no longer stand the panic and yes... went to webmd.com. sure enough my fears were confirmed... my baby had thrush!
warren never had thrush and i knew absolutely nothing about it. ended up phoning the local er (see how smart i am becoming?) for advice and the dr. said to give her lotrimin and a&d ointment and then make an appt. mon. for her dr. to look at her tongue.
we now have a lovely medication we must dispense inside her cheeks 4 times a day. she is in great spirits, but wants to eat constantly and nighttime is a constant up and down rollercoaster. thankfully she should heal within 2 weeks and be back to normal. so you can see how exciting things are at our house!
warren is semi-behaving himself at school. he is now learning the letter 'd' and recently had his photo taken for the year (we had ellie pose with him). let us all pray they both have their eyes open and tried to smile. warren has been asking lately to make cookies for his teachers at school. not sure where that came from, but it looks as if this weekend he and i are on kitchen duty.
just wanted to share the latest in our world. in case i don't hear from you before next week... happy thanksgiving!
jlc

Halloween

had an interesting halloween... i believe warren must have eaten a ton of candy at school during his party for he acted as if he were on speed all night! ellie was much more subdued - yet she didn't have to really do anything but look cute. warren was adamant about being 'spiderman' this year. after messing with that mask for 2 hours i swore no more masks for his costume. too much hassle plus you can't even tell who he is... but knowing my son he went to every house saying "i'm warren counts. i'm 4 years old!". ellie was not too cooperative with her outfit. as you can see one of her socks have dissappeared and she REFUSED to wear the headband - hence the quick snap and the result of a baby appearing stoned. :) i promise we did not drug her - although i wish we would have her brother. ha!