Alaska Bound

On Sunday, my brother and his family continued on their trek to Alaska. Saying good-bye is always hard, but at least we got some cute pictures before they left. Although they are as prepared as they can be for such a winter-y trek, please keep them in your prayers.

It was not easy carrying 33 pounds in one arm and 16 pounds in the other!

Kailey hates hats, but she did not mind wearing this Buzz Lightyear cap all morning.

And this last one was taken somewhere in between..... Nicholas snacking....

Merry Christmas

Today was loads of fun. It was nice seeing all the kids opening presents together and sharing their happiness and toys with each other. :)

Charlie pretending to be asleep in order to avoid playing Santa and setting up the presents.

Roy and Vicky after we set up the presents.

The kids awake and wondering if they should go open their presents or not.

Connor waiting for Uncle Roy to pass out the gifts.

Round 2 when more presents arrive.

We had cupcakes to celebrate the birthday of Baby Jesus.

Christmas Guests

My brother Roy and his family are here to visit for Christmas. They are on their way up to Alaska from Georgia. He is in the Army and he is being stationed in Fairbanks for the next four years. Nicholas and Connor have been enjoying having their cousins here to play. Dagan is four years old (5 weeks older than Connor) and Kailey is 16 months old. We have learned that Nicholas is not fond of Mommy carrying another baby.

Cookies

So I have never had gingerbread cookies and I decided that this year I would make some with the kids. I was a bit afraid I would not like them, so I also made sugar cookies. It was fun and not too messy. ;)
When we got to the decorating part, Nicholas decided he would eat the candy instead of decorate. Connor diligently decorated, then asked if he could eat the leftovers. In the end, the cookies were quite tasty. :)

Quotes

This week Connor has said many memorable things and we thought we'd share. I really don't know where he gets half of the things he says.

The other day as Charlie was leaving for work, Connor yelled out, "Daddy! Don't you walk out on me!"
One morning as he woke up enough to realize everyone else was awake, he said, "Aw, Mom.... five more minutes." Then he rolled over and went back to sleep.
When he was talking to his Uncle Robert (He's 20 years old) on the phone, he said, "Yeah you better behave or Santa is not going to bring you anything."
The other day he was asking about Jesus and when he would see him again, so I told him that he would see Jesus in heaven; he responded by saying, "You mean I'm going to have to go back to heaven?"
He's also said, "Mom, do you feel ok? You look pretty dizzy, maybe you should come sit down with me." Mind you, all of this was just to get me to come sit down with him.
Today he said, "I think I'm having a bad hair day. What do you think?"
Also today, he said, "Does Santa buy DVDs at Best Buy?"


A memorable quote from Nicholas was from last week actually. He kept taking out dishes as I was loading them into the dishwasher and I kept telling him not to touch. He kept on and I kept moving him away from there. He finally came back and blurted out as loud as he could, "But I'm Batman!" I told him that I didn't care that he was Batman, he still couldn't take the stuff out.

Update and Trucks

Well I finally emailed the Doctor since I could not wait to hear any longer. He called me this morning. He said that Connor's platelets looked good, white blood count was good, no sign of anemia or cancer. I was relieved at that, but he continued. He said that the TT (Thrombin Time) test results were four points higher than normal so he was consulting a specialist to see if he thought Connor needed further testing. The TT test is used to measure the time needed for plasma to clot. Connor's blood took a little longer than normal to clot. So please continue to keep us in your prayers. Hopefully, it all turns out to be worry over nothing.

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Given all of the leaves covering our street recently, it should not have surprised me as much as it did when big trucks and tractors came to clean it up. Nicholas was thrilled to see the trucks and tractors at work. He was so excited and desperately wanted to go outside to see them. Connor was not so excited and didn't see why Nicholas was making such a fuss over the trucks.

Nicholas with his robot kitty.

Upside down Connor

Playing Peek-a-boo in the play kitchen.

Santa Take 2

Well, the first pictures we took with Santa came out pretty dark. Charlie tried to fix them but we were still unhappy with them. So we went back and they agreed the pictures were very dark and we did a re-shoot. A different Santa was there, but the kids didn't notice. As soon as we got there, Nicholas said, "Candy." I told him that he could have it after the pictures. Connor, having been having trouble with behaving exactly perfectly, inquired to Santa if he was still planning on bringing him his movies or not. He promised he would see what he could do and Connor promised he would try to be super good. After a few shots, the photographer paused for a moment to adjust something. Nicholas took this as a sign that it was over and he leapt off of Santa's lap and headed straight for the basket of candy canes. He was nice enough to grab one for Connor too. :)

Dinner

So tonight our friend, Dave, decided to treat us to dinner. We went to KFC and then Dave began to regret having offered to buy us dinner. :)
It turns out that instead of charging him $21, the cashier had charged him $210. It took a little while, but they finally refunded his money and then charged him the correct amount. Still, it was clearly the most expensive KFC dinner I've ever eaten.

Santa

So last night Connor went out to run errands with me. While we were out he saw a movie he wants and asked me if we could get it. I said no and that he should ask Santa to get it for him. So Connor asked me how the whole Santa thing worked. I explained to him that Santa will bring him his toys and movies if he behaves. I further added, "That's why it is very important for you to be good." He pondered this and replied, "No, its not important." Before I could protest this response, he added, "Its only important if you are naughty." I laughed and couldn't disagree with him.

Today we went to see Santa. We were disappointed that the Santa we were used to taking our pictures with was not available, but we made do. We were not sure how it was going to go because last year Nicholas wanted nothing to do with Santa and refused to sit in his lap. When we visited the Easter Bunny we had to bribe Nicholas to take the picture. Thankfully, Nicholas was willing to cooperate this year and he didn't cry. Towards the end he decided enough was enough and hopped off of Santa's lap, but at least we got a few shots off before he called it quits.
Connor on the other hand was thrilled we were going to talk to Santa. He was fully prepared to ask him to bring him the Wall-E movie and the Tinkerbell movie, and ask he did. When we got there and it was our turn, Santa was all business. Santa asked them to sit on his lap, and Connor told him, "Umm.... wait, I need to ask you something first." Santa nodded and told him to go ahead. The Elf helper was standing by eagerly listening too, but Connor looked at her and she took a hint and walked away so Connor could make his request. When he finally had a 'private' moment, he asked Santa if he could please bring him his movies and Santa agreed that he would. Connor was satisfied and proceeded to sit. :) Later as we were leaving the mall, we passed by Santa's again. As we passed, Connor yelled out, "Bye Santa! I promise I will behave!"



This last picture was a surprise to me, although it probably shouldn't have been such a surprise. A while ago we bought the boys a lot of Toy Story toys. It included a few Jessie the Cowgirl dolls. I have seen the boys play with her, along with all the other toys, but never quite like this. Today they decided she ought to be hung by her boots upside down on Lainie's dog crate. Boys will be boys!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a wonderful feast today! We had a very delicious meal at home, although the boys were not into the Thanksgiving food. :s Oh well!
We wanted to thank you for all of your prayers; We have not heard from Connor's doctor yet. The way Kaiser works is that if it is bad news, the doctor calls you. If it is good news, they just send you a letter saying everything is good. Given that we have not heard from him and the fact that he is always very on top of things, we are assuming we are just waiting for the letter of all clear.
Nicholas' toe is doing better. I included a picture, even though Charlie says we shouldn't share such gruesome pics. :P

These footed sleepers are basically all Nicholas has worn this past week.
It was the only way to keep him from messing with his toe.

Amazingly enough, these next two pictures of me were taken by Nicholas.
He got a hold of the camera while I was getting his clothes together after his shower.
He got a few pictures off before I took the camera away. Pretty good shots. :)