Our Bags Are Packed.....

And tonight Leah received a VERY SPECIAL phone call from Mickey, Minnie and Goofy!  Her mouth hit the floor when they started talking to her!

Leah is so excited for her little vacation she can hardly stand it!  She all but refused to close her eyes tonight.  I went in her room around 11:00 PM to tell her to close her eyes and go night night and she asked me if I was getting ready to go to Disneyland and asked if she could help me pack!  Bless her little heart!  She is in for one special treat!

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year celebrating with just the three of us here at home.  Per Leah's request, we stayed in our cozy jammies all day long and even ate dinner in our jammies!  For this very reason, you will find no family pictures of us from Thanksgiving 2010!  I'm sure I'll regret this later, but for now I must admit that it felt amazing to stay in my jammies all day!

I cheated a little on the food and had some of it catered from our beloved Selland's.....turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, cranberry sauce, rolls (Leah's favorite) and pumpkin pie.  I cooked sweet potato casserole (my Thanksgiving favorite), broccoli rice casserole (Luke's Thanksgiving request), carrot casserole, dressing (which turned out AMAZING I must admit) and a ham.  AND, of course, our meal wouldn't have been complete without some Bogle wine!

While all of the food was amazing, that's not really what today is all about.  Luke and I talked all day about all that we have to be thankful for this year.  We have been blessed beyond belief in so many ways, and we thank God for all that we have been given.  I am so thankful that we are all healthy, happy and extremely fortunate in so many ways.

My Sunshine

Perfect Pink Christmas Tree

I may have told this story before, but when my brother and I were little, we always got to have our own little Christmas trees in our rooms.  I LOVED this and plan on carrying this on with my own children. 

Last year Leah had a green tree with multi-colored lights and she LOVED it!  This year I was bound and determined to find her a pink Christmas tree!  I tried finding one last year for half-price after Christmas but had no luck.  Today, I was on a mission!  After an afternoon of shopping, online searching and miles and miles of driving, Leah now has a pink Christmas tree!  Thank you Wal-Mart.....my LEAST favorite place to shop in the whole wide world!  I love the things that I find there but have a hard time dealing with the people I encounter while shopping.  I don't know what it is but I seem to fear for my life and my well-being while shopping in Wal-Mart.  I WILL NOT go there by myself.  Sad, I know!  (I also scored some Sister Schubert rolls while in Wal-Mart that I can't seem to find anywhere else!  These are the best!  I definitely stocked up!)  I should be a little more clear.....this fear of Wal-Mart is only here locally.  I didn't feel this way in Lubbock (or anywhere in Texas).

I know it seems crazy to be talking about Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving but we have an extremely busy, fun-filled December ahead of us that includes a little vacation to "the happiest place on Earth"!  Leah is in for a month of treats!  All of our fun begins on Friday when Aunt Rachael comes for a visit so I'm trying to get all of my decorations out before then!  It was cold and rainy today so we stayed cozy in our jammies (except for when we were out tree hunting) and decorated Christmas trees!  And now for the perfect pink tree.....

My Little Indian

When I went to pick Leah up from Ms. Trish's today, I was greeted by an Indian!  The little Indian was also wearing a fun little necklace that she made today as well!

Of course, I had to bribe her to take her picture!  She chose the Starburst today!

My little Indian is thankful for her Mommy and Daddy but she's also very thankful for her pa pa!  Don't worry.....she ONLY gets it at home, and it's (all 80 of them) going bye bye very soon!

Tilly Turkey

I had to show off Leah's adorable little outfit that she wore today!  I had to bribe her with candy (Whoppers) just to get her to put her clothes BACK on and let me take a picture!  By the time I got home at 5:40 tonight, she had taken off her skirt and was chomping at the bit to get her jammies on!  This girl cannot relax around the house without her jammies on!  This little "problem" is only getting worse, not better.  As soon as we walk in the door she starts removing her clothes and runs to get her jammies!  She does NOT get this from her Mama!  I keep whatever I wore to work on until time for bed.  Her father, on the other hand, must change out of his work clothes IMMEDIATELY before he can do anything at home!  The apple doesn't fall far from the tree does it? 

She looks THRILLED to be getting her picture made!

This "Tilly Turkey" outfit was the most practical thing I've ever purchased on Etsy!  She wore the skirt for Halloween too with a coordinating jack-o-lantern shirt!

I have a full night of on-line Christmas shopping ahead of me!  I've gotten a ton done but want to try to be completely finished pretty soon!  December is such a busy month so the more I get done early the better!  If you can't find me, I'm on Etsy!  :)

Happy Birthday Jake

We spent our afternoon celebrating with Jake at his 5th birthday party!  Leah had lots of fun getting to play with her friend Maddie since they don't go to daycare together anymore!

His Mom came up with the cutest idea!  She spread tons of butcher paper on the floor for the kids to color on while having a picnic with their pizza!  Such a great idea for little ones!

Leah enjoyed having her Daddy wrap her up like a mummy with toilet paper! 

We didn't even think Daddy would be there because he had to work this morning!  He surprised us about an hour into the party!

This little gadget, full of "fairy dust" as we tell her, has been a LIFESAVER for us!  On Thursday night we gave Leah two puffs of the inhaler and she did not cough ONE SINGLE TIME all night long.  (Definition of a puff:  We puff the inhaler into the tube thing and Leah has to breathe through the mask for three to four minutes then repeat with a second puff.)    Ms. Trish said that she didn't hear a peep of a cough all day on Friday either!  This is a miracle!  The only downside is that it dried her little nose out so much that when we went to wake her up on Friday morning we were greeted by the evidence of a bloody nose sometime during the night.  Because of this, we have decided to try just giving her one puff to see what that will do.  The only other time she has ever had a bloody nose was after I gave her Benadryl.  She must have some sensitive little sinuses!  We are so so happy to finally be seeing some progress with her cough that has been lingering for over two weeks!  She knows that the "fairy dust" helps her so she is such a trooper and doesn't fight it at all!

On a totally, non birthday related note, I have found a line of clothing that I am IN LOVE WITH for Leah.....Mis-Tee-V-Us!  It's all about the ruffle pants and super cute tops!  I bought two outfits in Lubbock when we were there in September and just can't get enough of them!  The quality is amazing!  I don't know where to find the line here locally so I'm about to go on an on-line shopping spree!

It's naptime in our house (for one of us anyway) and then we're off to our neighbors for some grilling and playing (poker for Daddy and toys for Leah)!

Happy Veteran's Day

Our day started very early this morning.....around 4:00 am to be exact!  My poor baby was coughing her little head off and I knew that I had to get her up immediately or she would end up throwing up.  I scooped her up and put her in bed with us so that I could make sure her head was elevated.  She fell back to sleep immediately and so did her Daddy.  The only person not sleeping with me.  Leah was snuggled up right against me (which I LOVED) and her Daddy was snuggled right up against her.  All three of us took up about 1/4 of the bed.  This left me on the very edge and wide awake!  Luke asked me later why I didn't move her over and the reason was simple.....there was a 215 pound man in the way!  Luke was very kind this morning, though, and let me get a little sleep after he and Leah woke up for good around 7:00.

I had a hair appointment this morning which meant I needed someone to watch the little miss.  I book my appointments every six weeks and wasn't thinking too well when I scheduled this one on Veteran's Day.  Both Leah's current daycare and her old one were both closed and sweet little Nora already had plans for her day out of school.  Daddy came to the rescue, though, and turned today into Daddy/Daughter Day!  They spent the morning at the Veteran's Day Parade!  From what I hear they had lots of fun, saw some friends of ours and made some new ones (who shared a cookie with Leah)!  I was able to sneak a little Christmas shopping in before I came home, too, which was nice (although everybody and their dog was spending their holiday at Toys "R" Us with me).  I was welcomed home by a flag in the yard that they brought home from the parade!

Her cute little hat she's wearing was a surprise from her Daddy when he spent the night in San Francisco for the World Series game a couple weeks ago!  He's always thinking about his girls!

Tonight just before dinner Leah played dress up!

I also was able to pick up Leah's inhaler this afternoon while I was out and about.  We did a little treatment tonight just before bedtime.  We're supposed to do it every 4 hours as needed so I have a feeling we might be doing it again in the wee hours of the morning.  I just pray that her little body can get some relief soon!

Sick Day and a Pizza Party

My sweet baby girl was home sick today!  Here's how it all started.....

• She's been coughing for a little over two weeks now.  Before these last couple of days she had no other symptoms.....just a pesky little cough that wouldn't go away (just like she gets this time every single year)!  We weren't too concerned about the cough and knew to just let it runs its course for awhile before proceeding to the doctor.  I am NOT a Mommy who rushes to the doctor for every little thing.  It's not a bad thing if you are, I'm just not one to do that!
• Sunday night she didn't sleep very well.  Her coughing was getting in the way of her beauty sleep.  Around midnight Mommy and Daddy took turns rocking her back to sleep.  She kept saying "my nose hurts" which we finally figured out meant that she couldn't breathe!  Her little Daddy nose was plugged up!
• Monday I was home with her just as usual.  She was coughing and sneezing up boogies all day but nothing green and she never ever ran a fever.  She was still her happy, energetic little self all day so I had no worries sending her to school on Tuesday.
• When Luke picked her up from Ms. Trish's on Tuesday afternoon, we found out she had a rough day.  She threw up twice from coughing so much, was gagging all day, coughing, sneezing, you name it!  Ms. Trish said she kept her isolated quite a bit and suggested that we keep her home until she was all better!  We had no idea any of this was going on until her Daddy picked her up at 5!
• She seemed to sleep okay last night, minus the coughing, but was wide awake before 6 this morning saying "Mommy I throwed up" over the monitor.  Her "throw up" was just a little spit more or less that she had coughed up.  I tried bringing her in bed with us but she was awake for the day!  She did tell me that her ear hurt but I didn't think anything of it since she has only had one teeny tiny little ear infection in her whole life.  We've been very lucky in this department!
• I decided to take her to the doctor today.  If for nothing else, to assure daycare that her cough wasn't contagious!  I didn't even mention her ear to the doctor since she's never had trouble with these!  Come to find out she has a MAJOR ear infection!  Poor little thing!  We've got ten days worth of antibiotics to fix her all up though!  As for her cough, he said she's wheezing just a little bit so we're going to try an inhaler.  Last year he gave us a steroid and it did the trick.  He doesn't want to do that just yet this time because he said it's such a strong, powerful drug.  She hasn't "offically" been labeled with asthma just yet but it's just a matter of time!  I know they try to prolong this label for as long as possible.  The inhaler will be for an "as needed" basis.  We don't have it yet but will get it tomorrow afternoon.  Gotta love Walgreens!  I'm praying that this helps her little (BIG) cough!
• Dr. Sherman did confirm my suspicions that she isn't the least bit contagious and can return to daycare at any time!  She'll be home for Mommy/Leah day tomorrow and then will get to go see her friends on Friday!  If anybody gets sick, it's not from Leah!

Now onto the fun stuff!  Tonight for dinner we made pizzas!  We do this quite a bit but hadn't since last spring.  Tonight the whole family got involved!  Daddy rolled the dough, Mommy spread the sauce and Leah put on the cheese and pepperoni!  She was the most organized little pepperoni putter-onner!  She would lay them down one-by-one, would push it down so that it didn't try to go anywhere and didn't let any two pepperonis touch!  I was impressed!  I think she may be an organized little neat freak like her Mama!  This would thrill me just a bit!

Ours pizzas were yummy!  We all ate way too much!  I'm just hoping Leah doesn't cough hers up later!  Sorry for the yucky details but that's been my reality lately!  Welcome to my world!

**UPDATE:  Pizza did make a re-appearance right before bedtime just as I thought it might!**