Ear Surgery

After having 8 ear infections this year, the doctors opted to get Olivia another set of ear tubes and remove her adenoids as well. Michael and I were pretty apprehensive about the procedure. Even though it is a minor surgery, the last time she had it done she was miserable. She cried (screamed) for at least an hour when she woke up from the anesthesia and then she was horribly fussy for 2 days straight. Plus, it is never fun to see your baby get put to sleep.

So we were prepared for the worst. But, we got the best! She did so much better and the hospital staff did a great job of taking care of her. They let her pick out a toy if she took her "happy" medicine and they joked and played with her. The surgery went great. The doctor said her adenoids were blocking 80% of her nasal passage and that her ears were so covered in fluid that she was hearing worse than if she were under water.

We already knew that she wasn't hearing well. For the last few weeks she has been yelling everything she said. We'd ask her a question and she say "what! "what did you say?" or "say it louder mommy." It was really sad but we had to laugh about it. We kept telling her she was a 90 year old woman.

But now she is talking at a normal tone and feeling great. Just a few hours after the surgery she was playing as if nothing ever happened. She never seemed to be in any pain and thankfully we didn't have to give her the Loritab they prescribed. Loritab?!! For a 3 year old? I couldn't believe it but thankfully we were able to avoid that.

Man, these kids are funny!

Eating his first oreo. Notice it is in his ear!

This was so sweet. Michael does not approve of this picture!

They are building a house next door and they have a prime view from the playroom window. Fascinating!


Olivia has to get a better look.

I never knew I could love something so much.

Halloween Fun

We had a great Halloween this year. Olivia was a cowgirl and Grayson was a cowboy. On Saturday we went to a fall festival in town and Olivia got to ride a pony for the first time. We came home and got them dressed and made our rounds to the grandparents then headed back to our neighborhood to go trick or treating. But oops, we wore the poor little one during the day that he fell asleep on the way home!! We put him in the stroller and took Olivia to a few houses then came home and everyone crashed. I didn't get very cute pictures because Grayson is so busy right now that we can't get him to sit still long enough to take a picture.

Last week was daylight savings. Grayson normally gets up at 6:30 but now his body clock is telling him to get up at 5:30. Let's just say this last week has been tiring! I will say getting up an hour earlier has made me have incredibly productive mornings.

On Sunday we put the Halloween decorations up and got the Christmas decor down out of the attic. We will be in Seattle for Thanksgiving so I wanted to start early so it was all decorated when we got home. One of my dreams has always been to have a Christmas tree in everyone room of the house and I'm getting close to it. Michael has offically transformed into Clark Griswald again and the house is lit up! I found a Christmas radio station that is blaring throughout the house most of day. I love this time of year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fall Festivities and Life Lessons

Last weekend we carved pumpkins and made halloween cookies. We let Olivia pick what she wanted her pumpkin to look like and she wanted an "O" so we decided to give Grayson a "G" on his. As we were making cookies, I gave her the sprinkles and let her have at it. I was distracted pulling another batch of cookies out of the oven and as you can see, she made sure every square inch of the cookie was covered.

Olivia got to learn a little bit of money management skills yesterday. Dado sent her a gift card to Target so I took her to let her spend on it on whatever she wanted. On they way there, I explained to her that she only had $10 to spend and she could buy whatever she wanted. She says "I want to eat at Target first." So we get there and get her a hotdog and icee combo. "now you only have $8 left on your card, so lets go look around" I told her. We found a few items at the dollar stop then looked at the movies. She found a movie she wanted and I told her she would have to put her other things back if she wanted the movie. "I don't want that movie anymore!" she said. Then we went to the toy section and it was very interesting to see her learn a lesson as we shopped and I explained to her that she could only have a toy that she could get with the money she had left. Finally, we settled on a Littliest Pet Shop puppy. She has been asking for a real puppy lately so I'm hoping this will satisfy her for now. It was a great experience to see her get a little taste of money management and realizing that you can't always have everything you want.

Grayson is just getting more comical everyday. He's saying a new word almost everyday. His latest game is to put a blanket on his head and walk around the house. He thinks it is so funny but he runs into everything! I got a quick video of it yesterday:

Boys will be boys!

Grayson was playing outside yesterday. He loves to walk around the back yard and explore. Michael was tending to some trees we had just planted and Grayson was crawling around in the dirt and mud. All of a sudden he picked up a huge clunk of mud and took a big bite! I had to take pictures.

I am so thankful for these precious moments!

Disney On Ice

Last Friday we took Olivia to see Disney on Ice at the state fair. She LOVED it! She fixed her eyes on the show and was in a trance the whole time. We went with other families in our life group from church so she enjoyed spending time with her friends as well. We went to her favorite restaurant "Chick Da Flay" beforehand. During the intermission, she said she was thirsty and Michael thought the popcorn was smelling good so I went to the concession stand and cringed as I paid $10 for a lemonade and $7 for a box of popcorn! We only get to go to Disney on ice once a year right? That's what I told myself! We somehow made it of there without a spinny light thing as she didn't even ask for one. As we were leaving it was way past her bedtime and she was getting tired. She saw the ferris wheel at the fairgrounds and cried all the way to the car and part of the way home because we wouldn't take her to the ride the ferris wheel! Now when anyone asks her how disney on ice was she says " I didn't get to ride the ferris wheel." 3 year olds, what can you do?!

Grayson got to spend the night with Grammy and Pappy and I think they enjoyed some one on one time with him as much as we enjoyed having Olivia just by herself.

Grayson has been in Mom's Day Out for over a month now and he is still having a hard time adjusting. We are going to give him a couple more week sand see if he adjusts a little better. If not, I think we'll pull him out and I'll continue to take him to work with me.

In other news, Michael's division of his company was sold this week. As of right now everyone in the Tulsa office is laid off unless they are hired by the new company. We should know in the next couple of months whether or not he gets an interview or if he will need to start applying for other jobs. He has updated his resume and has it ready to start sending out as soon as we hear something. We have truly been worry-free because we know that this situation is all in God's hands and we are seeing as a new opportunity rather than a setback. The hardest part is just the unknown and waiting to hear what our next move should be.

Halloween Shirts

Red cowboy boots

In her trance at the show

He thinks ringing this doorbell is the funniest thing ever!

Playing in the playhouse on a great fall day

Grayson's 1st birthday was yesterday. We had a great weekend and a great party.

They party was a ball theme. We dumped the ball pit balls all over the house as well as had several other round decorations. We had sausage balls, cheese balls and cake balls to snack on and also served frito chilli pie. Dado and Aunt Sissy came to town and Michael's entire family was at the party as well. It was a great time!

One of my favorite things of the party was his month by month picture montage. It was really cool to see how quickly and how much he's grown in his first year of life. Thanks Amy for the idea!

He wasn't much into opening the presents. After the first couple of presents he crawled away and laid on the floor while everyone laughed at him. Olivia and I ended up opening all of the presents without him. Olivia is having a hard time understanding that these are not all her new toys.

He loved his cake and wasted no time digging right in. He was a total mess!

I probably should have blogged about this a while ago but he started walking about a month ago. He also has some new words like Debbie, Up, Stop, That.

It was a great party and a great weekend with family. We are so blessed be to surrounded by so many that love us.

Grayson's First Birthday

Kiddie Park Pictures

Last weekend we declared it family day and took the kids to the kiddle park carnival in Bartlesville. Olivia had the best time and was so brave riding all of the rides. We rode rides, enjoyed popcorn and a snow cone and then stopped for a happy meal on the way home. What could be better?

More pictures

Riding the carousal at the kiddie park

He climbed out of his high chair onto the table.

Monkey see, monkey do!

Hanging out in the dishwasher

Good Summer...

Well, things have finally slowed down for us! Hopefully now I can be more consistent with the blogging. This summer our weekly schedule has gone something like this..


Monday- various activies such as me at a meeting or Michael giving hitting lessons
Tuesday- life group at our house
Wednesday-Dineer at Pops and Grrs and then me off to work on Little Tree (a blog about this to come later)
Thursday- Michael playing in the church softball league
Friday and Saturday- every single weekend this summer we have had birthday parties, graduation parties, get togethers, etc to go to.
Sunday- Church then family dinner at Michael's parents


Don't get me wrong it has been great, but I am excited for a slower pace (hopefully!) with fall coming.



For the fall I think all we have on tap is Dinner/Life Group on Wednesday and Olivia's dance class on Mondays. Both kids will also start Moms Day Out soon and they will be in "school" Tuesday and Thursday while I work. I'll still work Wednesdays and every other Monday as well.

I'm still loving my job at the PRC although some days absolutely wear me out emotionally. I am so thankful to have a job that I can help people every single day. I told Michael the other day that if he ever got transferred and we had to move away that I don't think I could work because it would be hard for me to find a job to top this one! Michael started grad school this week. He's taking 2 classes for his MBA which are online so hopefully it won't be as time consuming as it was when he was in school full time. He will still have to watch his lectures but at least he'll be home!



Now for the updates on the kids:



Olivia is still cracking us up constantly! She says some of the funniest things in the world and since I never take the time to write them down, I'm just going to try and remember them for this blog.



Last night we sat down to eat dinner and she interrupted Michael as he started to pray and said she wanted to pray. She folded her hands and closed her eyes and said "Dear Jesus..." She paused and looked up at Michael and said "what was the last part?" It was quite funny!



She has been telling everyone the last couple of days that "my daddy pulled my tooth out." We couldn't figure out where in the world she came up with this because she doesn't even have a loose tooth. We figured out yesterday that her best friend from church told her last week that her daddy pulled her tooth out so I guess she thought that was a cool story and wanted to tell everyone.

She is still the friendliest child. Every time we are standing in line at a store she turns to the person behind us and says "hi, I'm olivia!" It's kinda scary sometimes how friendly she is!



Ok, so I've always heard the saying "he's all boy" but now I understand the meaning of it! Grayson is absolutely wearing us out these days! He is constantly crawling into, on top of or over something. He plays so differently than Olivia did at this age. He wants to bang everything together and smoosh all of his food into a million pieces. When he's in the stroller he leans over and plays with the wheel. We can't unload the diswasher around him, nor can we have any lamp cords, blinds, curtains, etc in his reach. We got locks for all of the cabinets but he still pulls everything out of the drawers. He's learned how to turn on the water in the bathtub and can also climb (more like free fall) into the tub.

He will be one in just a couple of weeks. Dado and Aunt Sissy will be here for his birthday so I can't wait for it to get here! He says "mama, dada and bye bye" so far. He took his first steps last week and just got tooth #9 yesterday. He is eating only big person food (no baby food or formula) but we are still working on getting him off the bottle. He just hasn't quite got the sippy cup thing down yet. He sleeps through the night about 50% of the time.

That's all I have for now. We are still just realizing how quickly time flies and trying to enjoy every minute even through the chaos.

Romans 8:28 "We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

Pictures from our evening stroll to the nieghborhood park. Hopefully we will get to do a lot more of this now. Olivia calls this "carrying Luci"