He's still big!

Jacob had his 15 month check up today (a little late b/c they both needed to have their ears checked after their infections). He's still officially big! :)
He weighs 29 1/2 lbs., which is the 96th percentile
He's 32 3/4" long, which is the 88th percentile
And his noggin is 19 1/2" which is the 97th percentile!
He's been consistent since birth--highest in head and weight. He's such a stinker. The doctor said developmentally, he's about a month ahead of the game. So Aaron was reassured that there's nothing wrong with him (since he still rarely walks and says about 4 words!) Other than our names, he says Dora (ha!) and up. But he's only said up to Binga--he won't say it to anybody else! He's super stubborn. I KNOW he could say more and walk a LOT more, but he just doesn't want to--and yes, Dad, I don't make him. ;) haha

Still loves wheels. He rarely pushes a toy around. Almost always, he flips it over and spins the wheels.

Anna took this picture. He's always missing a sock these days. He kicks his shoes off, and loses at least one of his socks many times a day! I need to find something that he can't get off!!! I'm also really lucky, b/c I have a guarenteed 15 min. (usually 30 min.) of shower/get ready/whatever time if I turn on Dora. The kid will sit in the exact same spot and watch the whole show. But only Dora. Let me just say that I'm so glad we have DVR! It allows me a shower every morning!!! :)

Anna only weighs 3lbs. more than Jacob! The nurse told her she better start growing faster or Jacob will catch her. I don't think Anna can grow fast enough! I'm sure by his 2nd birthday he'll be bigger than her.

She is such a hoot. Strangely enough, she's always asking to go swimming (nevermind the snow that was on the ground most of the day today!). I think now that it's really cold, she understands that she can't go swimming. Maybe she decided to pretend to go to the beach this evening?? She's weird, that's for sure! I love watching her imagination at work :)

Mom

Mom had another biopsy done earlier this month because the swelling was coming back and the chemo wasn't helping. They put her on steroids to bring the swelling down and did a biopsy, which showed nothing abnormal (again). So she has an appointment at Mayo again on the 29th. Please pray that God will give the doctors divine wisdom so they can figure this out and she can get better already! The nausea isn't as frequent, but still trouble with that once in a while. She gets achy a lot. And on top of all that, it's the season for germs and all manner of sickness, so pray that she can stay healthy from that stuff.

Surprise Trip to Iowa :)

So we took a surprise trip to Iowa this weekend. Dad always puts up all sorts of lights up outside and Mom does the same on the inside. Life got busy and they hadn't had the time or the energy to get it done. Well, when Dad said "They're just not going to get put up this year" I said NO WAY ;) So we decided to go surprise them and help with getting decorations up! They didn't have a CLUE we were coming! It was great. I even called Mom a couple times on the way up, pretending that we were going to town to go Christmas shopping, asking questions about what she'd gotten people or what she thought I should get someone. Anyway, we got there about 8:30 I think Friday night. I sent Anna up to ring the doorbell while I hid behind the porch railing. When he opened the door, she said "suhpiiiize!!!" :) I forgot that the door opens the wrong way to get a good picture, but I could see Dad walk up to the door and he didn't have a clue who was there. He said he thought it was Girl Scouts selling cookies! haha

I think it took several seconds for Dad to realize it was Anna!

We left right after lunch, so Aaron had to make a delivery on the way. The door barely fit and the way we had to angle it, Anna couldn't see the TV screen (heaven forbid!!). So Jacob watched Dora on the TV (I actually don't think he ever even noticed the door!) and Anna watched The Tangerine Bear on my laptop! HA It was only an hour from home to where we dropped the door off. They are spoiled!

There was a leak that Anna & I discovered in the bathroom, so she helped Papa fix it! When I found the water, I told her to go tell Papa that there was water all over the floor. She RUNS out the door, frantically hollering "Papa! Papa! Dhere's watah all ober the bafroom!!!!!!" It was cute. I walked by the first time w/out my camera and Anna even had a little plumber's crack goin' on! ha

A complete switch from last year, Anna LOVES playing in the snow now! She begged and begged to go play in the snow. So we bundled her up and she went out and played around while Dad & Aaron got all the lights down and ready to go. Did I mention that it didn't get above 20 degrees all weekend? And that doesn't factor in the wind chill! Poor guys nearly froze to death! But they got all the lights on the garage and roof up (about 1/3 of what usually goes up!).

When she got too cold (or too bored from not having anyone play with her!), she came in and helped decorate the tree. She did a great job. She had the most fun getting ornaments, climbing up the step ladder, and handing them to me:)

My camera is not very good with night scenes :( Mom & Dad got a bunch of LED lights this year to add. They are so pretty and brilliantly bright! The gold ones on the tree are the new ones. The purple ones are regular lights.


In case you couldn't tell, Mom's color theme for the living room is purple and gold :)

And then Saturday evening after a DELICIOUS supper of Famous Dave's, Aaron & I went Christmas shopping while Papa & Binga babysat! We got it ALL done!!!!!

For unforeseen reasons, we ended up leaving quite late. Anticipating a horrendous trip the last 3 hrs., I let them open a Christmas present early...
A new Veggie Tales movie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)
I have to say, they did amazing on the trip home. We didn't get home until 11pm, Anna never slept, Jacob only slept for 30 min, and we only stopped once! It's a 7 hr. drive with stopping once for 30 min. And of course when we got home, they caught a 2nd wind and were up for another hour! At least they were happy, and they went to bed very easily and slept pretty late. Whew!

Any time there's a dishwasher open, this boy high-tails it over and climbs aboard! He is just completely fascinated with the wheels and seeing how the racks go in and out. Isn't he just so cute?? :D

I found it!

The camera, not my mind! ha Mom, you were right--it was under the couch!! I'd looked under the front of the couch, but not the ends.

So the other day we put up the tree. Anna was very excited. She handed me all the branches (yes, we have a fake tree) and then brought me all the lights. Finally she got to put the decorations on! She actually did a really good job. I told her to spread them out and put them on different branches. I skipped all the glass bulb ornaments this year and put the pretty, breakable ones up top. After we finished (and that had to be in the dark b/c she wanted to see the lights!), Anna went up to the tree, 'hugged' it and said "Tree, I love you.......lights, I love you too" It was so precious. And then...

She pulled her rocking chair out, sat down in front of the tree and just rocked. The lights are quite mesmerizing! We had to wait a day to get a new star for the top...our old one wasn't working and I wasn't about to try and figure out which bulb inside it was burnt out!

Surprisingly, Jacob has done really good with the tree! I put a couple bells on the bottom branches and he'll just play with those. He gets a little rough, but he really doesn't touch anything else (I hope I'm not jinxing myself!!!!!). I am honestly completely shocked. I was invisioning great destruction!

On to Thanksgiving, round 2, in Kansas :)
For Mom's side, we went to Aunt Cara & Uncle Terry's new house for a soup supper! It was really fun and Cara just loved being the hostess (I think she sat for 15 min. the entire evening!!) :)

Daddy gave Hudson (my nephew) a cool 'do :) He's such a cute baby and almost always smiles at you (even in the middle of a cry sometimes!).

My cousins, Raylinn and Heather, gladly entertained Anna for the night. It really doesn't seem that long ago that I was doing the same with them as itty bitty girls!

Aunt Cara loves irises and wanted an iris picture to hang in her front room. Mom searched high & low to find one with no luck. I kept telling her to just paint one for Cara. She finally did and MAN! She did an awesome job!!! I am just so in awe of her ability to paint such beautiful pictures. It's incredible. This is how good she is--nobody knew she'd painted it until we told them to look at the signature! Cara was so surprised and so happy. Of course, we were all so focused on keeping her distracted enough (wasn't hard, we just asked her about her new house;)), that we forgot to get our cameras out and ready for the initial reaction!! There were a few tears!


For Dad's side, we had a big, huge meal with a whole bunch of people (anybody know the final count?) at Uncle Alan & Aunt Donna's house. It was fun, except my kids were sick, tired, and CRANKY! My aunt Carolyn brought her little puppies and let's just say they were a HIT with my kids!

Jacob was so funny! He was delighted and let us know with his priceless face and squeal of delight! :)

Anna was in love from the second she saw them.

She was SO EXCITED to ride up to "the hill" to get the big truck with Papa!!

Even though it was FREEZING (and the first snow!!!), she was ready to go and believe you me, if anyone even whispered the words "the hill" she heard and was going with you!

So there you have it. Our 2nd round of Thanksgiving. Anna's neck is finally back to normal I think, but nobody is sleeping very good yet :( I'm praying tonight is a better night. I don't know what time Aaron came out and woke me up last night--I was asleep sitting on the floor leaning against the couch (with my mouth hanging open, I do believe!). Evidently at some point Anna left and got in our bed! Good grief, we are so sleep deprived it's not EVEN funny!

I'm losing my mind!

Stop laughing Dad! I cannot find my camera. ANYWHERE. I just had it this evening. I'm positive that I put it on the couch after I took an adorable picture of Anna sitting in her rocking chair looking at the Christmas tree. And now, it's gone. Which really chaps my hide b/c I missed taking a bunch more pictures of her & I putting up the rest of the decorations and her playing with her little nativity set Binga painted years ago. DUDE! Where in the world is it?!? So if I ever find it, I'll take more pictures of her and the decorations (she loves them all by the way) etc. etc. and download them and share them! Grrrr. I can't believe I can't find it.
On another note, we still don't seem to be completely on the mend. Neither one has slept much the last 2 nights. Jacob is finally starting to eat a little more, but not back to normal there yet. Anna's neck still hurts. I finally got her to put a little rice bag thing on it tonight (it's a bag made of fleece with raw rice in it--you heat it up in the microwave and it's like a little heating pad w/out the cord). For days now we've been trying to convince her to put a little something warm on it to help (her lymph nodes are so swollen behind one ear from her ear infections that it hurts to turn her head to one side). She kept refusing and screaming like we were cutting an arm off when we tried. Here's how the argument went tonight...
Me: Anna, just put the rice bag on it and it will help it feel better! Then it won't hurt anymore.

Anna: No. I don't want it. I want to hurt.

Me: Fine! Then I'm not getting up to comfort you tonight when you start screaming that your neck hurts!!!

But then tonight as she's laying in bed, she says "If I put the rice bag on my neck, it will make it feel better. I'll put the rice bag on my neck." Well alrighty then! I just hope it gets better soon. Another week of antibiotics...I hope to start seeing a major turn-around very soon!!! I also better find my camera soon. Good grief. Whose daughter am I???? :D

Whoops

My parents pointed out some wording in my Thanksgiving post---at the end when I said "It will be more fun" I meant fun again...yet again, more fun to be had. NOT that it would be more fun than Colorado!!!!! Whoops. I guess I didn't catch that when I was re-reading it!

A New Baby

Congratulations to my cousin and his wife on the birth of their precious son! They live in Peru, so we're having to satisfy ourselves with pictures for now :) He is a sweetie!!!