Christmas Pics Finally...

I admit to being a little slow.I have the best intentions but then my life gets in the way! We had a great Christmas. Our children were spoiled rotten by "Santa". Hannah got the electric scooter and boots she "wished for", Ben finally got a 360 (we found our that it has parental controls so you can set time limits. When the time is up the 360 shuts off automatically!)Sophie loooves her kitchen and it matches our family room. Santa also brought Sophie her very first Maclaren stroller. Auntie Tracy will be so proud. Santa brought me a fabu Sony Cybershot camera that I just Looooove! The necklace in the slide show was made by my talented hubs. It has the year of the dog Chinese stamp on one side for Sophie's birth year, and then the year of the Pig on the other for the year she joined our family! Chris got some nice new running clothes to keep him warm (the man will run in the sleet, rain ,snow doesn't matter the man will go for his morning run!)It was a nice relaxing day enjoyed by all!

Sad News.....

A man called our house the other day to let us know that he found Daisy, but it wasn't good news. Unfortunately I wasn't home and for some reason he felt it was ok to share the difficult and graphic news with Hannah. Needless to say she called my cell phone screaming and crying. After I got home I calmed Hannah down I called the man back.....to tell him" thank you" for taking the time to call but what the hell was he thinking telling my 10 year old such horrible news! It was horrible. Some might think that now at least we know, but to be honest I was happier thinking that someone just wanted her so badly that they kept her for themselves. I am thankful that Hannah has Jazzie to soothe her heart, it has been difficult for all of us, but especially Hannah.

Happy Birthday Hannah!

I love this picture of Hannah. She is in first grade in this picture. I think it is the only picture I have where she is smiling without her front teeth! Now our sweet Hannah is eleven years old today! She is a smart, strong and kind girl and we are so proud of her. We love you Hannah!

Merry Christmas

This is our Christmas card picture for the cards I ordered last night and will mail next week. Have a great holiday and I will post pictures of our spoiled children tomorrow after Santa leaves.

Meet Jazzie

This is Hannah's new baby girl Jazzie ( she chose the name, it was a toss up between Jazzie or Cassie). Hannah is our "dog girl" and has been very sad ever since Daisy ran away. I started looking this week for an older miniature schnauzer, a female around a year old. I emailed a couple a breeders and one contacted us that she had a 6 month old available. Hannah used her First Communion money to buy Jazzie....seriously Hannah has held on to $$ since second grade! She also chose not to have a birthday party and put that money towards Jazzie. Hannah was so happy she looked like she was going to burst! Jazzie is a sweet, calm little dog. Jazzie and Murphy are getting along great and she has figured our that our cat Sasha is to be avoided. All you girls out there will laugh when I write this but......this is Hannah's dog. She is responsible ( she did receive the responsibility award last month at school) for feeding the dog and taking care of little Jazzie. She is all signed up for puppy school at P*tsmart starting in January. My girl is very happy....that makes me happy.

Home Sweet Home

Sophie and I were "sprung" from the hospital yesterday. It was a rough couple a nights with little sleep. Sophie was a trooper and really did spend 3 days either on her tummy, side or back. I put my laptop in her crib so she could watch some of her DVD's, and that seemed to help a little. She is still a little wobbly but that is getting better each day and is only taking tylenol for pain. Any of us big kids would still be in the hospital with a morphine drip! It is just amazing how quickly children bounce back!
Of course things couldn't go smoothly back on the home front, although I am happy to report that no dogs were lost and there were no emergency room visits. Ben ( our weakest link of late) had been home sick last week with a fever that lasted 5 days, he headed back to school on Tuesday healthy and ready for Christmas break. Hannah on the other hand stayed home having puked all over my bed Monday night! It was the classic "daddy my tummy hurts......" So Chris found himself changing the bed, comforter and all at 2am and trying to help Hannah settle back in to bed after throwing up a few more times! Go ahead an laugh I did! Poor Hannah. When I spoke with Chris all he could say was " I can't wait for 2007 to be over!" Every one is healthy and on winter break, looking forward to Christmas, presents, some rest......and 2008!!

Update

Just a quick update on Sophie. Her surgery went well and the doctor was pleased with everything. She has to stay on her back, tummy or side for the next 2 days.....that should be interesting. She tried to stand up in her crib while she was having a fit and the resident came in...I got in trouble for picking her up! (in an effort to get her to lie back down) So they are VERY serious about her on her being on her back. The pain meds are working better this evening and she seems to be more comfortable than she was earlier. It is hard to see her in pain and not be able to hold her to comfort her, but I know she/we will be ready to go home for Christmas and anxious to put all this surgery stuff behind us!

I'm Going Where????

Off to the hospital early Monday morning....lets hope this is the last time Sophie has to go to the hospital. We are off to Duke bright and early. Sophie is scheduled for surgery at 7:00am so we have to be there at 6:00am. We should only be in the hospital until Wednesday, and I will try to post quick updates when I can......without Krista this time it could be tricky!

Friday we are having the "G" part of the TBG family over for Christmas. It is planned to be a pretty casual affair and if we get stuck in the hospital longer than we expect we will move the partay over to grandma's house. I have all my gifts purchased but not wrapped, guess I can do that when we get home.

Have a good week and I will try to post updates on Sophie as soon as I can.

Early Christmas Presents...

Sophie is playing with one of her Christmas presents from Santa. Santa??!! He hasn't come yet! Well you would be correct but Sophie just HAD to have her laptop a little early so she could get blogging! It is impossible to work on a computer in our house without Sophie begging to get on our lap to bang on the keys. The other day in Target I came across this cute little laptop for Sophie. Chris was trying to do some work this morning and Sophie just wanted to get her little hands on his computer. Not one to get in the way of my husband making money, I ran to the guest room to get Sophie her own computer! Worked like a charm...of course. She loves that thing and has been carrying it around with her all day.

The Busy Blogger's Bullet Post

• I survived my first week back to work. It wasn’t too bad and it was nice to see my students again.
• Sophie did ok with daycare. Now that she knows that Chris is going to leave she holds on tight to his neck….poor guy. I have spoken with her teacher each morning and she has been crying for about 5 to 10 minutes each day after Chris leaves. Friday she cried for 5 seconds after he left and then quickly got down to playing!
• Hannah was in a parade on Friday night for school. She had a great time with her friends.
• Sophie seems to have caught a little stomach bug that has been going around. She puked in the car after we dropped Hannah off.
• Carseats are a pain in the a*& to clean
• Middle school attitudes suck. I love my Ben dearly but if he wants to make it to high school he going to need to change his approach.
• Payback is b*&ch ( well that’s at least what are parents are saying)
• Sophie second and LAST surgery is scheduled for December 17th at Duke.
• I love being able to shop online at 11:00 at night.
• G00ggle the site you are shopping on plus the words “promotional codes” and you will get the number to put in the little box at checkout and be able to save some $$ on your purchase or shipping. It really works I saved $20 at T#rget online and got free shipping!
• I need to take some pics of the kiddos.
• I have already received 3 Christmas cards.
• I have been known to send Christmas cards in January.
• Feeling quite Christmasy today…maybe I will go to the mall.
• Need a gift idea for my inlaws….do you have any suggestions???

This is the End....

Well this ends my SAHM gig anyway. Today was Sophie's first day at daycare and my first day back to work. We both survived. I have 2 meetings tomorrow and picked up 2 more kids to provide special education services.....nothing like jumping right back to work! Sophie did well at daycare Chris dropped her off. We all know that there was no waaay I would have been able to do that without both Sophie and I getting upset. I called and she was doing ok until another little girl bumped in to her and then she started to cry. She went outside to play and was laughing and talking, which is a very good thing! Chris picked her up after nap and brought her back to work. When I came to pick her up from Chris's office she was standing in the door and when she saw me she started jumping up down. Ok...I was running to the door but still, she missed me too! Chris opened the door and my little munchkin came running into my arms. Made me forget about the rest of my day......