Nikki's 6th Birthday

Yesterday was a very busy but exciting day for me and one little girl. It was Nicole's 6th birthday! We started out the day with baking cupcakes for her class at school. She and Garrett both helped me frost and decorate them. After Nikki got on the bus to school it was time for me to do some last minute gift shopping and getting balloons. By the time I got back home I just had enough time to change a diaper and head over to the school to take the cupcakes to Nikki's class. It was so fun for her. She was also excited to show her friends her younger brothers. When school was out we raced home to bake her cake and finish cleaning up, wrapping presents, and eating dinner (well, most of us...Garrett slept instead). About a half hour before party time we decorated her big heart shaped cake. Both of us did the frosting and then I let Nikki put on her own decorations and candles. By the time everyone arrived here we were just waiting for one more person.....Curtis to join us via web cam! It was so exciting for all of us when he was able to see everyone here and they could see him. It was nice to have him participate since he missed Nikki's birthday last year. We had most of my family there and my in laws. It was a great party. Happy birthday Nicole!

Christmas Eve slideshow

I finally got the last slideshow from Christmas time finished. Had to get it done before Nikki's birthday. Most of these were taken on Christmas Eve, the first few are from earlier that week. I spent Christmas Eve day at my in laws helping them get ready for Christmas and then went to my brother's house in the evening. We ate lots of yummy food, had white elephant gift exchanges (one for adults, one for kids), and helped the kids decorate cookies for Santa. It was a great day!

One Month After Surgery

Today it has been one month exactly since Garrett's surgery and as you can see he is all smiles and doing great! He'll get a check up with his cardiologist in a few weeks. It was difficult getting this guy to pose for me. He kept swinging his arms around, so you can tell he has plenty of energy. He is also now down to one medication, which is one "baby" Aspirin a day and luckily they are orange flavored and chewable so he doesn't mind taking it. We are so glad to have this surgery over with!

Our Early Christmas

Our next slide show is our early Christmas with Curtis. We had emailed a letter to Santa asking if he could come to our house early since Curtis wouldn't be here on the 25th. This year we celebrated our Christmas on the 16th and Santa was happy to oblige. It was just as fun and magical for them as if it really was Christmas day, even though we were the only ones celebrating that day. Nicole finally got her bow and arrow that she's been asking for all year. That was from Santa. She also got a Princess sleeping bag and an apron that I made her that is princesses on one side and Tinker Bell on the other. Garrett got some cool Buzz Lightyear wings from Santa. It even has buttons that he can push and it has recordings like on the movie "To infinity and beyond!", etc. He LOVES it! He also got a Toy Story sleeping bag and an apron that I made him that has "Cars" on both sides. Both of my kids like to help me cook sometimes so I thought they would enjoy having their own aprons. Nikki also gave Garrett a toy dinosaur and she gave Jack a ring stacker toy. Jack got a toy train from Santa and a walker from us. Curtis got a new VCR/DVD player (he bought it so we could use it before Christmas so it wasn't under the tree.) I had to help Nikki decide what the kids were going to get him so I decided since we didn't have the game "Uno" that it would be a good one. I know, I can't believe I've gone all these years without having "Uno" in our home. After all, I grew up with it as our family favorite. We would always play it. We also found "Hook" on dvd for him (really for all of us). Then I got a snowflake necklace from Nikki and a new cd player that I can hook my zune up to. I finally don't have to blare the speakers from the computer to be able to listen to music in the kitchen. Oh, and then I bought a cd for both of us, Taylor Swift "Fearless". I love her!
That same morning Curtis's parents came over and gave us a gift also. "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" on dvd and a bunch of goodies to eat while watching it! We didn't do much the rest of the day since my stomach just wasn't feeling right all day. We had even planned on going out to eat for Christmas dinner but I didn't want to chance getting sick at a restaurant so Curtis ordered Domino's pizza instead. And even though I thought I might regret it I ate the pizza too. Luckily nothing happened and I was fine the next day. So it was a very nice Christmas and great to be able to celebrate it with Curtis home this year.