End of a decade

I entered the new decade and millennium in an ambulance ride along. It was very uneventful night in emergency services! Although that night was low key, the years to follow have been anything but. I thought I'd list my most memorable events over the last ten years. They are joyful, terrifying and heartbreaking. ( Not in chronological order)

1) Our marriage in 2002
2)Our honeymoon to England
3) Sept. 11
4)The death of baby Hope Toomey
5) Surviving a pulmonary embolism
6) Diagnosis of Antiphospholipid Antibody Syndrome
7) 3 miscarriages
8) The birth of Alex and Aaron
9)My crazy/scary pregnancy with Alex
10) Diagnosis of Cyclic Neutropenia
11)The ends and beginnings of many friendships
12) Our many vacations
13) The flood of 2009
14)The adoption and loss of several pets
15) Our first house

Tonight we aren't doing anything special to ring in the new year. I think we will watch a movie or play chess. We are having a fun kid friendly meal of pigs in a blanket and mac and cheese. Alex isn't a fan of mac and cheese, so I'll be making an adult version. I suspect the pigs in a blanket should be a big hit.

So, goodbye to a decade and 2009. May goodness and humanity find some way to prevail in this ever crazy and changing world!

'tis the season

I got a nice surprise on Thursday....Paul doesn't go back to work until after the first of the year!!! I knew he had the week after Christmas off, but I didn't realize he had this week off, too. It's kind of been a tradition that he takes off all the Fridays in Dec (this used to be a bigger deal when he didn't normally get off at 12 on Fridays) and the week after Christmas. It's always a lot of fun. Sometimes we rent movies or work on house projects. This year possibilities are endless. I could read my magazines that have piled up since Oct. 28th, crochet, embroider, organize my recipes...the list goes on and on.

We kicked off the "vacation" by taking Alex to McDonald's for lunch on Friday. This might not seem like much to most people but that was only the 2nd Happy Meal he has ever had. Plus we let him play in the playland * and the world collectively cringes*....I know...we are askin' for sick child.

Speaking of sickness, Alex never misses an opportunity to work his mojo on the ladies. Paul took him to get his H1N1 shot on Thursday night. I guess he really hammed it up. He didn't cry but announced, "I did it!" and continued to wave at the people and tell them he did it. :)

Here are some pics that I promised:

Festivities and Smiles

Wow, almost a month since my last post! Guess I better put down the bon-bon bucket and do something productive! :)

Where to start....well, Dec 6th was Aaron's baptism. It was a fun weekend. Grandpa Bede and Grandma Rose made the trip down and this was their first time meeting Aaron. Of course, Alex was psyched! Rose and I were in the kitchen most of Saturday trying to prepare for the next day, so Paul and Grandpa spent most of the time entertaining Alex. I wasn't planning an all afternoon/evening cook fest, but I had a little trouble with the cake. In fact, lately I seem to be having lots of trouble with many things. I feel like Aaron gets the short end of the stick...but I guess it's not on the things that really matter. For instance, Alex's cake was cut in the shape of a cross and decorated, and well,....take a peek ...I'm almost too embarrassed to post this. I had some issues with frosting the first cake, so I decided to let Alex take over. At 9:00 pm the last thing I wanted to do was go all out on cake decorating.

On Thursday night we went to Santa's Village. As we got to Santa my battery died in my camera, and I didn't have the back up battery! Ugh. So, one terrible picture of Alex with Santa later and NO picture of Aaron with Santa and we were on our way.

Friday we ventured out around Perham, MN to cut down our Christmas tree. This has been an annual event for 4 years now. I thought we'd try a different sort of tree...it looked full and beautiful. However, it hurts like you know what!!!! I refused to help with the lights last night because I kept getting poked . After a couple of pokes, I was having trouble controlling my mouth... I thought it was best I just took pictures. :) Alex had fun wandering through the trees. It took quite a while with him. He stopped to carry "trees" (branches) and then when he saw just a stump from an already chopped down tree he would bend over and yell "Tree fall over...are you alright tree?? Are you alright???" Then he started waving and saying "Hi Alex" to his shadow. It took me a little bit to figure out what in the world he was doing. I'm glad I bundled us both up because we would have been popsicles at the rate we were going.

Sunday was an exciting day. Aaron gave us his first non-gassy smiles. He's is such a little chunk. Alex has picked up on this and calls him our chunky baby....I prefer chunky monkey. :) He's in that old man looking stage....you know, where they lose their hair. I loved his dark hair, so I hope it comes back in just as dark. Alex and I made gingerbread cut outs. His favorite part was decorating

I seem to be bit behind with Christmas. We are still pulling out decorations. I have a few more gifts to get and my big holiday baking plans are extremely minimal this year. I figure I have a good excuse. Next year should be less hectic!

I'll try to post more pics soon.