g is for greta

We always travel north to visit our families over the Thanksgiving holiday which means we don’t get the chance to prepare turkey very often. Tony has been itching to fry one for a LONG time. His parents came to town a few weekends ago and brought a friend’s fryer with them. Tony had stars in his eyes. He got a Thanksgiving-esque dinner all prepared.

He seasoned the bird first and posed with his prize bird. (He was proud of the arm protectors he created.)

Here goes nothin’!

We were so excited to eat the darn thing that we forgot an after picture. These will have to do:

It was the best turkey I’ve ever had. No offense, Mom! Got us in the mood for some more turkey. Good thing Thanksgiving is right around the corner!

-g.

One month ago today, Mason broke his leg. He has been a trooper through the whole thing. It has made me be a better mom. Lots more one-on-one time and patience. We have a new routine to our day. He spent alot of time at the beginning on his bum doing various things.

Then he got more mobile in his chair that Dr. Shelley gave us to use. We go for lots of walks. Sometimes he asks me to run so that he can feel like he is running, too. I’ve teared up more than once at that request. I’ll need to scrub the wheels before giving it back due to all the cherries stuck in the grooves.

Once he got more comfortable, there was no stopping him. He goes to preschool almost every day and participates in anything we are doing.

Just today he scooted all the way from the toy room in the back of the house, through the main hallway, and up the stairs to the loft where I was working on this post. I am so proud of him! This is the first time he has moved indepently!

Tomorrow morning he will get a new cast. His current cast is bent 90 degrees. The next one will be either straight or almost straight and will allow him to walk. I’ll need to find him a walker and retire the wheelchair. He is terrified. Keep your fingers crossed and send up a prayer tomorrow morning for my brave little boy!

-g.

I love fall and everything that comes with it! Even as a dental hygienist, I love trick or treat. I think it’s because the kids get to throw caution to the wind and just have fun.

The church always has a party for the family to enjoy. Corinne stayed true to being a cat this year for every party. She ran around the whole night with her friends so I didn’t get many pictures of her.

Ethan refused to change out of his Buckeye jersey into his costume so we just rolled with it.

Mason really wanted to be a ghost. However, as soon as the sheet moved and his eyes didn’t match up perfectly with the holes, he freaked out. His costume didn’t last very long.

Ethan loved the bowling game.

Mason’s favorite was eating a donut from a string without using your hands. He played more than once.

We carved pumpkins together for Family Home Evening. The kids didn’t want to do faces this year. They each picked out a design they liked and helped with the carving.

And the final unveiling…

For our neighborhood trick or treat night, we had good weather. The boys changed their costumes. Here we are before heading out…

…and Corinne afterwards:

Hope you had a Happy Halloween, too!

-g.

I love a good festival. My hometown has one every year, and I love to head back just to go. It’s different since the school building was torn down, but I still like to support it.

The kids played on the 4-wheelers all morning with the Sharpes. They drove from Pittsburg to meet us for a day of fun. I love this picture of Corinne in her farm boots working like a man!

Here’s Corinne waiting her turn for another ride. Ha!

Mom was working in the garden with a little help from her friends.

When the rides opened, we headed down to the festival. Mason went through this fun house so many times that I lost count. Kids are funny.

Corinne, Reagan, and Eli won a fish. They are still swimming around in my parents’ pond.

After hours of riding, we headed home for dinner and the parade.

Corinne and I were lucky enough to be in the parade. The sun was in an awkward spot so the pictures aren’t the best. Plus, we were in candy throwing mode.

It was a good time had by all! My favorite part…

-g.

It has made us nervous for quite some time watching the kids jump from higher and higher stairs. Yesterday, just as we were finishing up dinner, Mason jumped from the 4th stair up. I happened to look up and watch him land. You know those videos on YouTube that people post and say things like, “DON’T WATCH THIS MOVIE!” because it is so sickening? Yeah…it was like that. Made worse by the popping sound I heard. There was a small delay before the realization of pain set in but then the screams came on full force. I thought he had really messed up his ankle. Tony and I scooped him up and headed to Urgent Care while Steph and James stayed behind to feed/care for the other rugrats.

The parking lot at Urgent Care was PACKED! When I commented to Tony, he said the two words that quicken the pulse of any parent: swine flu. He was right. There were kids in mini surgical masks everywhere. Seats were a premium so I had him scope out the most secluded spot he could find to prevent cross contamination. I don’t think a single kid actually got their vomit into the container they were given but did see it hit the floor, chairs, clothes, etc. It will be a miracle if we don’t get it. Once we got to a room, I scoped out the antibacterial hand stuff and tried to bathe Mason in it. We’ll be keeping our fingers crossed. Anywho…

After waiting for about an hour, it was our turn. The mean x-ray tech lady made Mason scream in a way that I can only describe as primal. Poor boy. It was literally torture. Here’s what we found out:

Not his ankle at all. He broke his left tibia. He was lucky that it didn’t need to be reset. Now our boy is the lucky owner of a camo cast from his hip to his toes. They escorted us out a backdoor since Mason was only wearing his Wolverine undies and t-shirt. He’s still in alot of pain, but everyone says that is only for the first few days until the bone starts to heal. I sure hope so.

Tuesday is his first appointment with a pediatric orthopedic surgeon. He’ll be monitoring his healing. I feel lucky that the doctor is actually a friend from church. I’m hoping that will help Mason relax some.

Pray for my boy. He’s sad.

-g.

I am a cookie snob. I want them thick with a crunchy exterior and soft interior. We are foodies in this household. During one of our countless times watching Food Network, we watched a Bobby Flay throwdown centering on chocolate chip cookies. While Bobby’s didn’t do it for me, his competitors’ cookies made my mouth water! I’ve searched the internet and found a new favorite recipe. I’m only going to give the link because it explains how to make them perfectly on the website. Here’s some incentive to check it out:

I piled the dough high like haystacks. I figured that might help with the thickness. I also refrigerated the dough for about 20 minutes before baking just to harden it up some.

I could barely wait for them to bake. I did eat some dough to help hold me over until they were finished.

Sweet darling…

It makes me happy just LOOKING at the picture of that delicious morsel. Make some when you need to feel loved. (Which should be NOW!) Yum.

-g.

Tony’s dad offered us 4 tickets to an Indians game while his mom bought all the munchkins Tribe shirts. We thought the kids would really like it so we headed north. Ethan stayed behind for an evening of being spoiled by Abueltia and Papa Tom. Tony and I headed to the rapids with the kids. Who can resist a ride on a train? This may have been Mason’s favorite part.

The game was a big lackluster. There weren’t many hits. The kids were distracted by the vendors selling food so we ended up eating more than watching the game.

Shortly after this picture, we figured it was time to visit the kid zone. The kids played on the toys and played the claw game. Tony won a hat for Mason. He was much happier for this picture with Slider:

I’m glad we went. Family time is the best time!

-g.

So…long ago I posted about a contest to win a free ice cream party from Edy’s. I’ll cut straight to the chase…I won. My normal followers are already aware of this. Well, I wondered how it would all pan out. One word: FANTASTIC!!! Edy’s really thought of every little thing you would need for the party to be a success.

FedEx delivered this:

It felt like Christmas! There were even gloves on top to handle the dry ice inside.

Ah. Behold the deliciousness.

We transferred the ice cream to the stand up freezer in the garage then played with the dry ice. The backyard blow-up pool was instantly transformed into an eerie oasis.

The kids decorated the driveway.

I think we had ice cream for lunch that day. Can’t think of anything yummier to have!

The weather was colder than normal and there was a sprinkling of rain at the end. All in all, it turned out to be a fun afternoon.

Thanks, Edy’s!

-g.

Corinne and Mason have shared a room since Ethan was born. They had their own little schedule and nighttime rituals. It was sad to have it come to an end. We decided that Corinne needed to switch to her own room and put the boys together in the larger bedroom. It was an interesting day.

The kids loved “helping” us take the crib and changing table apart.

All the pieces are now in the basement collecting dust. Sad to think that no other babies are in the house.

Corinne is really into pretending, and Mason is just catching on. She had him lay on the crib mattress and pretend to be sick. It was funny to hear what her advice was on getting better. Note the cup of water underneath the lamp. Corinne would fill it with cold tap water then put it there to warm up. I asked her why she didn’t just get warm water in the first place. She looked at me like I was dense.

That night, Corinne was sad to sleep alone so we gave them one last night together. They thought having a sleepover was fun! We’ll probably do it again in the future.

Everyone is all settled in now. Strange enough, things are much calmer at bedtime. We told Mason is was his job to keep Ethan in his bed. He takes the responsibility very seriously. Corinne likely feels left out. She occasionally opens her door to report something of little significance just to feel less lonely.

Now if Ethan could just figure out how to get out of his room in the morning and into our bed without waking anyone else up…

-g.

I have honestly had more people than I can count ask me if Ethan is adopted. I assuming they ask because he doesn’t look like the rest of us. I, however, wonder sometimes if he got switched because of how CRAZY the kid is. He has raised the level of chaos in our house exponentially since he was born.

For example, he is the first of the kids to get stitches. He fell in the back and hit his chin on our cement stairs. I always wondered how you would know if your kid needed stitches or not. Tony always said it would be obvious. He was right! A trip to Children’s Urgent Care and 6 stitches later…

Note in the picture that there are only 5 surviving. Somehow he ripped one out. Ouch! That was around the end of June. He looks more like this nowdays:

Anytime he hears the word booboo, he still points at his chin. Then there are his playing habits. Toys are alright for awhile, but he prefers to find something more interesting. Like shredders…

I wondered why he was quiet for so long. Good think we keep it unplugged. Mason saved the day with his need to clean. I’ll think he’ll be OCD like me.

This is the look he gave Aunt Steph to show how sad he was about his bad choice.

Little ham. He also has a personal sense of style. He MUST pick out his own clothes everyday and often tries to pick out mine as well. I documented one of my favorite outfits.

Don’t worry. We weren’t going anywhere that day.

So many reasons to love my little guy!

-g.