More stuff.

- Luke has an ear infection too. Andy took him to the doctor this afternoon.
- Wilson made us playdoh pizzas for dinner. As he was setting them on the table he said "That's just the way life is mom."
- I am a little upset to find out that my sister still has numbness from her C-section which occurred almost 4 years ago. Wow. And here I thought still have numbness after 12 weeks was weird! Live and learn.
- I haven't started my Christmas cards yet.
- We're thinking of getting cable since I passed National Boards and will be getting a raise. We haven't had it our whole married life - 8 years this month. Should we get it?! We're both so used to not having it now...once we get it there will probably be no going back!
- I'm losing my voice and have lots of gunk. Not feeling well. But I don't have any sick days! Used them all for Tyler. Hopefully I can make it through 8 more days.

Stuff

- Ty laughed tonight for the first time- Andy tickled him under his arms!!
- Wilson went back to the dr today, has a double ear infection. Poor thing. He just finished an antibiotic on Thursday.
- Luke smashed his finger in the door yesterday - pretty bad - has a cut on it and it swelled a lot. Not broken though!
- Andy and I are both not feeling well. It's that time of year...
- 9 more days of school before Winter Break
- The boys helped me wrap lots of presents tonight. They were so excited to wrap their teacher gifts!
- Luke cracks me up. He has been peeping in the potty a lot! He says I peeped in the potty mommy! It always brings a smile to my face!
- Have you had a C-section? Is it normal to still feel itchy around the incision from time to time- from the inside, like it's still healing? And it's still kind of numb in the incision area and I still have occasional pains etc. It's been 12 weeks. Is this normal?
- We did not hear from CCH Friday or Monday as they told us we would. Guess I'll have PAA call there again.

12 weeks!

I know it's a little blurry, but Silas loves Ty so much I had to share this picture!

Ty is doing great! The last 3-4 nights have been great- only waking up 1 time to feed Tyler around 2-3am. Then he sleeps until 5:30-6:30am before needing to eat again. On school days I am up by then so I only have to wake from sleep 1 time to feed him. That has been great - and much needed. I'm so tired still, all the time. Thursday night I couldn't even stay awake to watch Grey's, had to tape it because I was SO tired. By the way, what is the deal with Izzy and Denny? I sooo don't like that story line. HE's DEAD. Come on!

Ty is smiling lots and getting better head control. Still not quite ready for his new Bumbo seat he got from Mimi and Poppy and Chirstmas. He likes to try to watch tv if he can but we don't let him! Every now and then he'll sneak a peak while Wilson is holding him and watching a show. Today I have on a striped shirt and he has stared at the stripes a lot! He is doing great and is such a snuggle bug. We love holding and cuddling him. He had his first big brother induced injuries this week - both very minor but still! Wilson hit him with a fire hose off of one of his toy fire trucks (on purpose) and had to go to time out. Ty had a red mark on his forhead for a few minutes. Then the next day Luke kicked him when he was laying on the floor - not very hard, but still! Both times Ty cried a pitiful little cry. It was awful!

Thanksgiving Pictures

Yeah...so...I didn't take very many pictures! I'm used to Andy taking tons of pics on my camera. But now he has a new fancy shmancy camera of his own! So he doesn't use my little Canon Elph anymore. So here are the ones I have! We had fun at Nanny B.'s in WV. I was spoiled by getting to stop at Frost Top for Root Beer travelling to and from Nanny's! Yum! We had a delicious turkey dinner and lots of relaxing.

Updates

I'm feeling a little less stressed since my last post- it's Friday! I get to "sleep in" tomorrow! I've bought most of my secret santa gifts. This weekend I need to write my clues and get the gifts ready. Last night I did some online shopping for Christmas so that was a good feeling. Still have a few more gifts to go buy. I called our Dr.'s office on Thursday and had them call CCH to check on Ty's appointment. (Thanks for the advice, Tricia!) Cincy said they would call us this afternoon or Monday afternoon with an appt time. They are trying to schedule the appointments with the neurologist and opthamologist at a time when the ENT will be available if necessary. Why would we need an ENT? I wasn't sure, they hadn't mentioned that before. Anyway, they didn't call today so I'm hoping to hear from them on Monday.

Dinner tonight was GOOD! I tried two new recipes. First, Carol's pepperoni rolls. This was a big success for me! I have always avoided yeast dough recipes because they didn't turn out for me the couple times I had tried them. Well over Thanksgiving I sat and watched Carol make her dough- and took notes!! She was making cinnamon rolls but her basic dough recipe can be made into cinnamon rolls, pepperoni rolls or dinner rolls. I have always loved her breads- and this time it tasted right! On a 1-10 scale Andy gave them an 8 1/2, which I thought was pretty awesome! If anyone wants the recipe let me know and I"ll post it.

I made Cheddar Broccoli Potato Soup to go with the rolls. Yum! It was easy and delicious and Andy and I both really enjoyed it. Here is the recipe. Perfect for a cold night! If only we had a fireplace!

This Sunday night the boys will be in our church's Christmas program. Luke will be a sheep and Wilson a shepherd. I love watching them in the play! Afterwards the youth group host a Coffee House. It's a fun evening. Hopefully tomorrow I can post some pictures from Thanksgiving.

Feeling Stressed

Do you know how difficult it is to get any shopping done with three BOYS under 5? I'm sure it would be difficult with any children under 5 but you know. So I still have quite a bit of christmas shopping left to do. I've done some online and we finished shopping for Andy's family because we celebrated Christmas this past weekend at Thanksgiving. BUT I still have lots to do for my family, Andy and the boys. I realized yesterday that Secret Santa at school is NEXT week and I hadn't even started shopping. On Thanksgiving break the only store I was near was Dollar General and there wasn't anything I wanted to get for gifts there other than a few stocking stuffers. Tonight was somewhat successful- the boys have a new haircut and almost all of my secret santa shopping is done. Just need to buy the ornament. I guess having 3 small children, working full time at school which is non-stop every minute, and now adding the upcoming holiday my plate is feeling VERY full. Usually Andy and I are able to get the tree decorated in an evening. We've worked on it for 2 evenings so far. I keep moving ornaments that Wilson and Luke have hung because on some branches there are 2-3 ornaments! And then the rest of the time I'm saying "be careful!". Hopefully this coming weekend I'll be able to get a lot done.

* Tomorrow I am turning in all of my paper work for my National Board Certification! Think Rank change! Thing retroactive pay! Think raise!
* We have not heard from CCH about Ty's appointment yet. Still waiting.

Yummy Recipes

Last week I tried 2 new recipes. We had a bake sale at school to raise money for our Helping Hands account. I took that as a good way to try some new recipes I have in my huge stack of recipes I want to try! I made Cranberry Bread and Chocolate Chip Crumb Cake. I received compliments on both so I figured the recipes were good enough to share! Oh and my two contributions made $23 at the auction!! I did tell Andy that I won't be making the Crumb Cake again until I have a stand mixer. It requires a lot of mixing! I have linked the Crumb Cake above. Here is the Cranberry Bread recipe:

4 T unsalted butter, melted (plus more for pan)
2 cups flour (plus more for pan)
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
3/4 cup milk
1 12 0z bag cranberries, wash and throw out bad ones
1 T turbinado sugar for topping (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. Butter and flour a 9x5 inch loaf pan. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In a medium bowl combine butter, egg, and milk. Add wet mixture to dry and whisk to combine. Fold in cranberries. Pour batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle top with turbinado sugar if desired. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of loaf comes out clean, about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack; let bread cool 30 minutes. Invert onto rack and immediately turn right side up to cool completely.

*I didn't have any turbinado sugar so I left it out. I'm sure it would be tasty though!
*This is taken from Everyday Food Magazine.