Canon update

Our little man is adjusting to being back home and sharing mommy. We went to his pediatrician yesterday morning and he has an ear infection on top of everything else now. Then we went to the allergist. It was me and the three kids and 3 hours later we left the allergist. Canon had a CT scan of his sinuses, allergy tests(not FUN at all!), and a breathing treatment. They decided that his sinuses were also infected, so he is going to be on an antibiotic for 3 weeks and a nose spray. The allergist seems to think that is causing his congestion which is making his lungs fill up with "junk" and then the wheezing starts. No allergies, no one saying asthma. He is much better though and we are glad to be making progress and getting him treated. We go to the ENT Tuesday and then I'm not sure he will tolerate any more doctors!

Christmas pictures....a little late

Our Christmas pictures were limited this year, but we made them up this morning...as much as the kiddos would let us.

Not sure what the tongue was all about. My 3rd smocked dress....for our princess.

Everyone has been asking to seeing Aidan close up with his new glasses......so handsome!

In the hospital....

So as you know from the Christmas stuff, Canon was sick! The morning after Christmas I called the doctor's office, they said take him to the ER. So Canon and I packed up and headed on our way. We stayed in the ER for about 4 hours and the ER doc admitted him. His oxygen levels were not where they should have been, so they put in an IV and put him on oxygen. It was a scary flash back from our week stay last year, but luckily this time we only stayed in the hospital for 2 days. We are home now. Canon is a little bit better. We have appointments with the allergist and ENT to try and figure out why he is so prone to croup/breathing problems. Pray for our sweet Canon!
On the second day he got up and went to their playroom, off oxygen and doing better!

When they told us we were going home he was so excited!

Merry Christmas!

Aidan swore he was up at 5:00am. He did so good, he read Harry Potter until we were all up and about around 7:00am. Here he is waiting patiently for us all.....
The first look.....

Quinn...I think she was looking at me.....almost like "mom you gotta see this!"

Poor Canon coughing......

and coughing....

and getting his temperature taken.........

Aidan's Nintendo DSI was on the couch, he didn't act disappointed when he didn't see it, but he was glad when he finally spotted it!

Is she full of expression or what?

She truly is all girl.....loves her babies, high heels, purses, and of course jewels!

We hope your Christmas was merry and bright. We ate a great dinner with Nina and Pots, Uncle E and Angel, and then sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and ate birthday cake.

Twas the night before Christmas....

It was a quiet night. We didn't go to church, Canon had fever and was a sick little boy. Todd came home from work and we changed into our new PJ's from Mymom and watched "Up". Aidan wrote Santa the sweetest note ever and we put cookies out for him and an apple for the reindeer.

It says....

Dear Santa,

Did you know this a candy cane looks like a shepherd boys cane and Jesus was the best shepherd the red stripes stand for his blood when he died on the crose the white stands for pureness because he was pure and if you turn it around it looks like a J for Jesus. From, Aidan

P.S. Sorry about the apple, it was all we had

Santa must have liked the note and cookies because he filled our stockings and put all of the kiddos wishes under the tree.

And Todd and I counted our blessings and snuck in and looked at each of our angels as they slept soundly.

boy toy...check; cookies...check; doctor?...check

Christmas Eve my Grandma Lynn always gave all the boys...i mean "men" a toy...i mean a special gift. Airplanes, paddle balls, helicopters, etc....It would always turn into some sort of competition and I remember them all so clearly. When Aidan was born and we had 2 boys in our family, I started giving "boy toys" on Christmas Eve and the tradition continues. This year was an air hog rocket launcher and although it was cold and windy, the boys went out in the morning and gave it a try before Todd headed to work.

Then Canon had a Dr.'s appointment later that morning. He wore his reindeer shirt and his Santa cheeks(poor thing). He was croupy and had fever and so we took him in and got an antibiotic. It was the start of a bad couple of days for him, although he was still cheery in the doctors office.

Then we came home and decorated cookies. Kind of. Canon was not feeling well at all and had high fever by then, so Aidan decorated some and then Quinn got a hold of the decorated cookies. We call her cookie monster!

Santa visit....check

I find it weird every year...we dress our kids up and make them sit on a strangers lap, but still we do it. I finished Quinn's dress last week(procrastination....), Aidan got new glasses, and we were ready to go see the big guy. He was a jolly old soul and we barely made it before his break..whew! Quinn cried at first but we were able to get her to stop quickly and got a pretty good picture of the 3 of them. What did they ask for? Canon asked for Hungry, Hungry, Hippos, it's all he wants and has for weeks! Aidan asked for a Nintendo DSI, and Quinn, well we were lucky she sat there without screaming. It was a success......

Star of the show

Monday night we got dressed up and went to Canon and Quinn's Christmas program. We just got our FLIP so I admit the video is horrible (plus I was laughing so hard I couldn't keep it still) We bought the school's video so hopefully it will turn out better and I will share that too.

So the classes come out and Canon is on the left of the stage the second boy in on the front row (in stripes). When they practiced there was no microphone, but the night of the concert there was. Canon got about halfway through the first song and thought he would bless the audience with a solo. The entire place was laughing and Todd and I were crying we were laughing so hard. We're not sure where he gets his outgoing personality, but he is afraid of nothing! He kept singing into the microphone, until his beloved teacher Miss Charlene told him not to. After that he kept eyeing it, he really wanted to, but knew he wasn't supposed to. He cracked us up.

Hopefully the other video shows it better but for now enjoy!

St. Jude Marathon

First of all big THANK YOUS to everyone who donated to Team Caroline. St. Jude raised over 1.5 million dollars and you guys helped get to that goal! Lots of kiddos and their families benefit from that money, you are the real HEROES!

Second, huge THANK YOU to Todd! He is so good to let me be a crazy woman and run for hours on end during all the training and then to load up 3 kiddos at 5:30 am to get me downtown so I don't have to park. Then he got to travel around downtown and try to see me a couple of times all while hauling 3 cold kiddos around. You are the BEST!

I had a really fun race, although it was COLD, it was a blast. I ran with Ed Newton. We have taken his family's pictures for the past 3 years and it was great to run with him. If you look at his website, you'll see Todd's handy work! I ran a 3:24:38, my best time and was the 24th woman to finish. It was fun and now I am looking forward to fattening up for the holidays :-)

My Aidan waiting for his mommy...his sign said "GO TARA!"

My date with the kiddos.....

Todd works so hard. Too hard sometimes! We appreciate all he does, and we miss him when he's busy. The other night he got off work and went home to have a meeting with a bride. I had to go downtown to pick up my marathon packet and so the kids and I decided to have a date night. We went to the expo and walked around, then we went to the Pink Palace and saw Santa vs. The Snowman in the Imax theater. I was really expecting Quinn to not last, she is not a tv kid, but she sat through the whole movie and did fantastic. We still had a little time to waste so we went to Chik-fil-A and had dinner and of course ice cream! Quinn was extra excited about the ice cream part and started making the funniest face. She was HAPP-Y! (and yes at the end of the video if you listen carefully you hear Aidan say, "putting it on the blog?" TOO FUNNY!)

Donuts

3 kids and grocery shopping just don't always go together. Sometimes there is bribery involved. Ok, there is ALWAYS bribery involved. This time I got a pack of donuts and told them if they were good in the store they could have one in the car. I turned my back to order some turkey at the deli and turned back around to this....

Yes, she has a WHOLE donut in her mouth!

Downtown

Another adventure while the family was all here. We loaded up and went downtown to walk around. We went into an old train station and got to set up the camera to take a few family pictures. Then Canon and Grace and Todd rode the trolley while we went home to watch some football. We love and miss you guys! Thanks for visiting us!