Thanksgiving 2010

I have been counting down the days to Thanksgiving this year. I have wanted all of the foods that you have for Thanksgiving since Halloween. We had so much fun with all of our friends. We got together with our child swap group, the same as last year, except this year, we hosted it. It was so much fun and Eric even found place holders on line that he wanted me to make. So this is our table that mostly fit everyone since all the kids didn't sit down at the same time.


This is what the little place holders looked like. I thought they would take WAY less time than they actually did. So I was still working on them when people started showing up. But it was ok, our friends are pretty lax. And they were fun anyway, but don't put them at the kids seats. They want to eat them first and we had a lot of fights and tears over having to eat turkey before they ate their "turkey". It is humorous to think about now. Anyway, I thought they turned out pretty good.


This was our buffet line. Everyone brought two or three things and it was great. Just to list off our food (there was a lot, the perfect THanksgiving feast) we had: tukey, stuffing from the bird, stuffing from a box, and cornbread stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, gravy, wonton salad, green bean casserole, candied yams, rolls, cheese and crackers, a veggie tray, and pickle-olive-cheese spears.

Then we come to the pie. Pumpkin pie (which no one really ate and I thought was funny), mini cherry pies, apple crumble pie, pumpkin cheesecake, coconut cream pie, a brownie peanut butter pie, and blueberry custard pie. THen of course I made the little pie cinnamon rolls with my left over pie dough, that was the kids favoites.

What a wonderful day it was of completely overeating. I think everyone snacked until bedtime. It was so fun. Eric had set up the basement like a "man cave" with a foos ball table, and the wii ready to go.

I think the funniest part of the night was finding Adie in the kitchen up on a chair picking all of the meringue off of the blueberry custard pie. The look on her face was hilarious and oh so guilty. So our left over pie had NO meringue, but that is ok, I am glad she liked it.

Adie's Birthday

I can't believe she is already two. It just blows my mind and makes me a little sad. She is getting so big and doing so much. Here are some things about her that show her little personality.

• She has an opinion about everything from cereal to how to layer her blankies to who can touch her and when.
• She loves both monkeys (and acts like one on a regular basis), and princesses (which I don't think she has ever acted like one)
• She has been potty trained for almost a month now and doing great
• She loves babies and almost always has one close by even if she is playing rocket ship with her brother.
• She absolutely adores her brother and will do almost anything that he says, which sometimes gets her into trouble.
• She loves to help cook even if all she can do is hold a spoon and taste test the end product.
• Her dada is her hero. She talks about him all day and is the only person that she will really snuggle with. She is more devestated when he leaves than she has ever been with me.

We sure love that little girl. She amazes us every day. If you have talked to her recently I am sure that she has mentioned to you about her monkey birthday. She has been so excited about it for months, not that she really knew what a birthday was. But let me tell you, her party was a lot of fun except for her crying. Here are some pictures of her family party and with her friends. It was a wild time.

Thanks to Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Stevenson for the tea party set and princess shoes.

This was her monkey cake. I have to say having cocoa krispies on a cake is one of the best ideas anyone ever came up with. It was SO delicious.

All her little buddies that she loves and talks about regularly minus one. There's Tyson, Brielle, and Valorie couldn't make it but we thought about her. Along with Kaleb, and baby Lexi. It was fun.

Then this is what I found them doing this morning, so of course I had to get out some snacks so they could have a REAL tea party.....well, they had water, pretzles, marshmellows, and ritz crackers, but it might as well have been a real tea party with the way they were acting.

Reflection

As many here in Buffalo already know. We recieved some very sad news Monday morning as we got up to get ready for the day. A wonderful friend of ours had passed away.

Megan came here to Buffalo (from Hawaii) so her husband could join our class in dental school. How much fun it was to spend time with them. This summer while giving birth to her first child, she was diagnosed with leukemia. It has been a long battle for her with many ups and downs, the pain, being away from her new born child, not being at home with her wonderful husband, etc. She is one of the strongest people that I know. I have always admired her attitude. She was always smiling, always making new friends. Everyone that knew her loved her. Even in the hospital she just smiled as best she could. We loved her dearly. Very earlly Monday morning, Megans poor body just couldn't fight anymore. She slipped away from this mortal life to enter into the open and loving arms of our Savior.

There are so many times I have asked "why? It's not fair, her baby needs her, her husband needs her! Why does it have to be her?" I have really had to dig into my testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to find peace. And when thinking about her beautiful daughter that will never know in this life the amazing mother that she has, I have been reminded that this is also of trial for her. But you can bet that the spirit in that little girl is just as amazing and strong as that of her mother. As I have had the opportunity over the last two days to reflect on life and death I have learned a lot of things.

I know that the plan of salvation is true. I know that this life is not the end. My faith in my Savior is not questioned by trials that come our way. Unfortunately for us here still on this earth we lose some of the best people first. I have known quite a few good, amazing people that have passed away all too young from this life. But I also know that there is a work for them to do on the other side, and since they have accomplished what they needed to on this earth, they are called home to do a greater work. I am so grateful for the beautiful temples that we have on this earth that dot the land to make it so that we can be with our families not just "til death do we part", but for all eternity. Her wonderful loving husband and beautiful daughter will see her again and will be with her forever. The peace of that knowledge is undenyable and unexplainable. I know that the Savior love us, and I know He has a plan for each of us with different trials, but if we turn to Him, he will guide us home.

We love you Megan, and will miss you dearly. And we love you Ryan, and Rylee.

What we believe

All things work together for good

Halloween and a few of my favorite things...updated

So it wasn't me, there is something wrong with my computer. So while my wonderful husband tries to fix it, I am using his to post the pictures.

Here was halloween. Their costumes aren't perfect due to the fact that 1)they are costumes, 2) I made them, and 3) I only got the idea a week before Halloween. But they are ok and everyone understood their costumes. I didn't get a pic of Eric and my costumes, which I kind of regret, which no one understood.

Porter was Mario from MarioKart (64 if you ask Eric) and he loved the hat and car the most. He even let me draw his mustache on several times, then he would lick it off. Makeup must tastes good.

Adie was Princess Peach, also from MarioKart and she loved her crown the most unless I stabbed her in the head. And she definitely did like being a princess, since that is what she thinks that she is.

I think that Eric did an absolutely awesome job on the cars. I was REALLY impressed by them.

SOME OF MY FAVORITE THINGS

My kids of course. We were just trying on coats to make sure they fit and they would not take them off all morning. They even put their boots on. They love them now, but come January/February they might think a little differently about them.

Adie absolutely loves her dollies. She is constantly telling me that her dollies love her. It is so cute and she really does try to take care of them, wrap them in blankets, feed them, etc. It is fun to watch.

I woke up to this the other morning. Dark clouds, bright sun on the horizon shining on golden trees.

Porter just being silly

Adie playing under the table

One weekend we were babysitting some friends kids so they could go on a date and we went apple picking with Eric's class. It was a lot of fun and the kids were definitely well behaved. But I definitely do not want 5 kids under the age of 4. That would be too hard. These are Porter and Adie's good friends so they had fun. The oldest ,Megan, was 4, then Katie and Porter are 2 months apart, then Adie is 2 years younger, then the youngest, Laura, is 9 months younger than Adie. We were busy, but it was definitely fun.

I hope Natalie doesn't hate me for putting this picture up, but it was one of the funnest nights that we have had recently. A whole bunch of friends over (I can't remember what for) and we played this cookie game where you start with the cookie on your forehead and without hands move it down your face into your mouth. Carl Fricke was the best at it by far. I have a video of it with all the finalists but for some reason they are not working. So you will just have to ask Carl about it if you want to know. But it was a blast. One of my favorite things to do.

Vacation

Well we had so much fun on vacation. Sorry it has taken me a month to update this. Needless to say I have been busy as we all are, and this just hasn't been a priority. So sorry for those who were really wanting to know, now you will.

We had so much fun just hanging out and of course gramma and poppa have way cooler toys than we do. He cooked in his little kitchen every morning, noon and night. There is also a fun carousel close to their house. The kids did not ever want to get off.


We also went camping the first weekend we were there. It was so much fun. This is what Adie looks like when she is having an absolute blast. She was eating and then fell right into the dirt. She is so silly, it didn't bother her at all.

We also went fishing. We didn't catch anything, but Porter liked it for about 10 minutes. Then he just went on hikes with grandma.

The next week was an adventure. We went to the Tillamook cheese factory one day which was a blast because I had never been there. You get to see how they make the cheese, sample all the different types of cheeses they have and then get some of the yummiest ice cream there is.

We played a lot with Uncle John (who is the new favorite uncle) and Aunt Sarah. They got to meat Ali and Andy for the first time and they are good friends. Porter still asks about her.

Right after the cheese factory we headed over to the coast. On the way there Adie threw up in the car. As soon as she did of course we pulled over but I tried to keep Porter in the car so that he wouldn't run in the road while we cleaned everything up. Bad idea, he started dry heaving so we got him out as soon as we could. Then I started dry heaving because of cleaning it up. Poor baby, I didn't bring any extra clothes for her on this outing so all I had was a sweatshirt for her. So that was all she had to wear. For those who are unaware, the Oregon Coast is not a place, even in the middle of the summer, where you go in a bathing suit, or even shorts for that matter. So we didn't stay all that long.

But they had fun anyway.

They really enjoyed playing with gramma and poppa King.

This is the whole family (kind of) out to dinner after the beach one afternoon to the Harbor House Cafe, one of our favorite restaurants. Starting on the left, Great grandma and great grandpa Stevenson, gramma and poppa King, Auntie M and Uncle Rob with cousins Simone and Graham, Aunt Kelly and cousin Ashton, the Porter and Adie.

Right outside of the restaurant. They thought this was great.

Porters church that he built in California. He was so excited about it and didn't want anyone to take it down. Luckily the next day he didn't remember so when we put it away the night before, it wasn't that big of a deal.

Playing at the beach in Huntington. It was such a blast. Porter and Adie both wanted to dive right in and go out really far. We also saw a school of dolphins and of course lots of boats.

Porter holding cousin Robert Graham.

Adie holding Robert Graham. She did not want to give him up and just loved holding him and Simone. She is a cute little mommy already.

All the cousins in Cali.

Emotional Explosions

So as many of you know we have had a wonderful year full of surgeries, illness, and we are just waiting to see what happens next....the car break down? I don't know. Hopefully not, but if it does then I think that we will be safe from anything else going wrong for at least a year.

Life has been interesting lately for all of us. Eric, although he is doing way better now, has been basically a third child. It started getting really bad mother's day weekend where he couldn't stand up straight, lived in the bathroom, and could only walk the 10 steps from the toilet to the bed. By that night and about midnight, I was begging him to go to the hospital. At about 3, I had layed awake crying all night, expecting the worst (because we didn't know what it was at this point), and starting to plan out my life without Eric in it, he finally agreed to go to the hospital at 6am. So bright and early I called a wonderful friend to watch the kids so I could go to the hospital with him. Sometimes I don't like how calm all the drs and nurses are at the hospital, especially when I am in a panic and want to know right now what is wrong with my husband, and if he is going to live.

Luckily, it was something that they had definitely seen before, (a bacterial infection, or infestation, in his colon) and knew what to do for it. Not that Eric was going to get better any time soon, but at least they knew how to treat it. Needless to say, I was an emotional wreck the entire day having no sleep and still worried about Eric. We got the medicine we needed and things started looking up. He was getting better and I was so excited to have my husband back. Then once again, things took a turn for the worse. The problem that initially caused all the other problems was wreaking havoc again. And this time it was worse.

Eric ended up having two surgeries, one on a Thursday, and then again on Monday. Of course, to make matters worse, as soon as he got home on Monday, he was down again. The exact same bacterial infection came back with all its original fury and making life hard once again. I didn't know how to help him or even take care of him properly. I was doing my best to change his bandages (diapers basically). And worrying about his weight....he has lost about 30-35 lbs. We have absolutely amazing friends here that helped with the kids in the mornings so I could study for my recertification tests that I had that Saturday, and made meals for us. What a blessing. I don't think I could have made it without them. And let me tell you, even with all of the help, by Wednesday my nerves were shot, I was exhausted in all aspects of the word. Just that night when I didn't know what else to do, I get a knock on the door and the most wonderful person is standing there with these:

Thanks so much Fran. I then proceeded to use her as an emotional vomit bag, sorry about that. But I have to say that I felt so much better afterwards and felt like I could cope with life again. And of course, the next day we were back in the hospital because Eric was just dehydrated. However, once they got fluids in him, his body took a drastic turn for the better. Like he just needed the liquid that he couldn't keep in his body to help him heal. Thankfully that week is over, my test is done and I am just praying that I will be blessed to have passed it with everything that has happened.

Things are definitely not perfect yet, but definitely getting better. My poor kids went through the ringer too. Adie hates her carseat now because she doesn't want to be left anywhere. Even in nursery where she used to love. The sadest part is that they don't really want to spend time with dad anymore because he can't do much with them. Hopefully things will get back to normal for them soon. I just don't know how people that have spouses that are chronically ill, or single parents, or ones that their spouse just works all the time and is gone handle life. I really look up to you and yes I do know some of you. I aspire to be like you, but right now I guess I am just not that strong. With all of this happening and everything I am taking a vacation with the kids in July to see my parents and extended family. I am so excited I can't even tell you. There are even times that I find myself wanting to start packing and then I have to call myself back to reality.

Thanks to all of you who helped us during this time. We appreciate your prayers, thoughts, and help; from meals, to babysitting, to just listening when I needed it. Thank you SO much. You are amazing and I know that you will be blessed for it. I would list off names but I know I would forget someone, and you know who you are that helped us. Hopefully this will be the end of our issues and I will at least stop being a basket case.

Again with the long posts....

Really if I was on top of things, a little more organized....blah, blah, blah. Yeah, I am sure you all know that I am just a slacker lately and have put other things before this. Which really isn't bad or anything, just means I am behind on this. So here is another long post of pictures to show what we have been doing.






Adie

Adie is our little ball of energy and acrobat. I actually walked into the kitchen today to see her literally swinging from the silverware drawer. What a kid. She is almost always a good eater and is hilarious to watch. When she gets nervous or is in trouble she puts her hands behind her head (no matter what she has on them) and plays with her hair. Means a lot of hair washing due to really dirty hands.



This was a night we had lasagna for dinner. Wow, I didn't know she loved it so much. She ate like at least one, maybe one and a half adult sized pieces for dinner. As you can tell it was all over her face and not surprizingly on the back of her head.

Adie loves to help me cook. Especially cookies or bread or pie. And if I leave flour on the counter for a little bit. This is what she does to help clean up. What a good girl to clean up after her mama. Grandma, I just don't know how you handled us playing the flour. What a mess. But she even liked the taste of it oddly enough.

She also obviously likes butter right off the stick. This was so funny when I caught her. She just smiled and said "nummy". Whatever floats your boat sweetheart, but lets watch those LDLs.

This is what she does in her spare time. Actually I walked in to the playroom one day and found her like this in the corner. And she actually was talking into the phone. I don't know who to, but she was having a great conversation and then got shy when she saw me. But I did get her to do it again so I could take a picture. What an obedient girl.

Adie doesn't like pigtails nearly as much as I do. But I think she looks so cute in them and her hair is really long enough to do it now.

This is a really funny story. I was upstairs working on a project, or changing sheets or something while the kids were downstairs. It got really quiet, but I remember thinking, I'm almost done then I will go check on them. Well, when I got downstairs, the house was a mess. The kids had somehow survived a tornado that came through. So when I asked Porter what happened he handed me the camera. He had gotten out the camera and followed Adie around the house while she reaked havoc and took pictures of her doing it. This is just one of them with her taking the kleenex's out of the box one at a time. Boy was it a mess, but when I saw the documentary that he made, I just had to laugh. It was so funny.

Porter

Porter is a ball of fun and loves to make people laugh, just like his dada. I love having him in our family and although he is shy sometimes, he loves to make new friends.

Porter has finally reached the age of fascination with bandaids. They make everything better now. So he crashed his firetruck into Adie's feet the other day and came and asked me for a bandaid. As I have been trying to teach him that we only use bandaids when we are bleeding, I asked him what it was for and was there any blood. He looked at me for a minute and told me that his truck was sad and needed a bandaid. I asked if his truck was bleeding and he told me yes. I was on the phone with my mom and she said that I should give him a bandaid. So being the obedient daughter that I am, this was his fire truck with an owie made all better with a bandaid. Then of course Adie had to have one as well.

Sometimes I just lay out clothes for Porter and he is really good at getting dressed all by himself. Except when there are two shirts. He was really proud of himself as he should be. I was proud of him too, took this picture because I thought it was funny, and then helped him change it.

He also just liked being silly.

And this is what he usually does with his trucks. If they are not in straight lines (or he doesn't have enough space) he stacks them. And really quite well. I was incredibly impressed with his ability to stack irregular objects. What a boy.

Both Kiddos

The blessing of two kids is that they always have a friend. And they really do love each other and will give each other hugs and kisses all the time. They are also really good at sharing most of the time. So here are some of the fun things they do together.

They both refused to take a nap one day and I had to leave to do something. So Eric put on a movie and within minutes, this is what they looked like. Not tired huh?

This is what the kids to with dad lately when he gets home from school. It is really the only thing they can do with him right now. So at least they get that.

My homies in the hood. They love playing ball together no matter the type of ball. Adie is definitely going to be the annoying little sister as she has to do everything that Porter does. If he puts on a hat, she has to. If he is carrying a ball around, she has to.


The Parents

We celebrated our 4th anniversary in April. We didn't get to do much that day because it was in the middle of finals, but I did make a yummy dinner and this luscious cake. It was so nummy but way bigger than we thought so we split the leftovers into threes and ding dong ditched some of our friends. I think that just made our night. It was a blast.

Our wonderful selves taking a sad photo of us. Sorry Eric's head.

Eric got me these for our anniversary and mothers day combined (so it actually came in the middle of the two). They were beautiful and I really appreciated them.