Wordless Wednesday

{Happy Anniversary, Grandma and Grandpa!  We all miss you both so much.}

Stomach Bug and Grandma

Oh, what a weekend we've had.  Riley woke up Friday morning covered in puke.  We have no idea how long she laid in it, because she never woke up through the night.  Jarrod just went in to get her when she woke up for the day and found her.  We got her in the bath and started her laundry and she was acting totally fine.  I load the kids into the car to get Gavin to school and half way there she throws up again.  It was disgusting.  I realize I'm pretty lucky that I've been a mom for 4.5 years and I'm just now having my first experience with cleaning vomit from a car seat.  Yuck.  I hope I never have to do that again!

So we stayed home the rest of the day and she seemed to be doing ok.  Saturday was filled with nasty diapers, though.  Still...we didn't think much of it.  Then around 1am, I was awakened by Jarrod jumping out of bed.  He heard Gavin scream before I did and went rushing into him and found him covered in vomit.  Oh, joy!  We were up from 1-2:30 cleaning Gavin's room, giving him a bath, and comforting him while he was continuously threw up.  He was up again at 3:30 and then, thanks to the time change, Riley woke up at 5.  Fun times.  I am so thankful for a husband that heads out at 5am to get necessities and Pedialyte at 5 in the morning!

Both kids were back to sleep by 9 so we made ourselves some breakfast.  Jarrod had to go into work to get some last minute things done before his trip to Puerto Rico.  By the time he got home, I wasn't feeling well and got hit with the lovely stomach bug.  Sadly, Gavin had to miss his best buddy's birthday party, too.  :( Gavin was asleep for the night by 5, Riley was in bed at 7, and Jarrod and I both crawled into bed right after.  He definitely isn't as sick as the rest of us, but didn't exactly leave for Puerto Rico feeling great today. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed it doesn't hit him on the plane or once he's there.

So far, things look to be on the upswing.  Riley's diapers are still gross.  Gavin and I both ate some toast this morning and are so far keeping it down.  He's enjoying watching Cinderella for the second time since Daddy brought it home for him yesterday.  Jarrod always knows how to make him feel better!  Luckily, Riley's starting to enjoy Sesame Street, so we've watched a lot of Sesame Street On Demand. The kids are getting spoiled with tv, but as long as I get to lay down, I'm ok with that right now!

It's funny to me how certain things will spark a memory that seem so random.  All this sickness going through the house brings back so many memories of my grandma.  As I laid next to Gavin Saturday night rubbing his belly, I remembered how she used to do the same thing for me and it always made me feel so much better.  Memories of how she used to make me lay on my belly on top of a pillow with my knees pulled up came back to me and I had Gavin do the same thing.  Then I started remembering how she would make me toast with melted cheese on it...so random but I can recall how much I loved it.  And tea!  Grandma was a huge tea fanatic, and she would make me tea when I wasn't feeling well.  In fact, last night I randomly remembered the little microwavable tea pot I had so that I could make my own tea through the summer when my parents were at work without having to use the stove.  All these random memories that all came back to me thanks to this pest of a stomach bug.

 

More visitors!

A couple weeks ago, Jackie called us to let us know she found a great deal on plane tickets and was heading back down for another visit and bringing Jarrod's grandma with her to meet Riley.  It was a short visit, but Gavin always loves any time he gets to see family (read: gets spoiled!) and it was great for Riley to meet her great-grandma.  Here are some pics from their visit.

Final batch of vacation pics

I'm finally through the vacation pics.  Just a few last ones to share...

Gavin and Memaw playing Memory

Gavin with his Great-Grandma

 Checking out the rain at the Chicago airport as we killed time during our delay while heading home on Wednesday.

And, I just a couple things that made this vacation easier -

1. We borrowed this car seat cover from Amy for this trip and it was great!  So much easier for Jarrod to wear this on his back while pulling our other luggage since I'm officially in charge of Gavin while traveling and he handles most of the luggage. 

2. We went the first night and bought a potty ring at Target because we couldn't get Gavin to sit on the potty to poop (sorry...but that's what us moms talk about!)  He was so much more willing to sit on the potty ring than trying to balance his tiny little self on a big potty.  And, added bonus...we cleaned it off, wrapped it in a plastic back and hid it in the car seat cover so we could bring it home with us!  I think it will be traveling with us for a while.

3. These bed rails we bought for Gavin's new bed are amazing!

They are inflatable, and come with a carrying bag and a pump.  We fit them in Jarrod's backpack that he had for his carry-on, as well as the DVD player and DVDs...that's how little room they take up.  And it was nice to know Gavin wouldn't fall off the bed while we were at the hotel.  So easy to use!

Ok - enough about our vacation...we're back to life in Arkansas, so I'll get back to our normal posts now.  :)

Family Pics

Thank you, Jackie, for requesting that I take some family shots while we are in St. Louis.  This is something that I always have good intentions of doing and 9 times out of 10 I forget.  So, Saturday night, before Gavin's bath, we snapped some shots.  He was surprisingly into it for the first shot with his grandparents....and then slowly lost interest.  You'll see....

These crack me up - I got like 6 of him with his grandparents...but someone was taking pics with my parents' camera,too.  So, not one of the shots I took has all 4 looking at the same camea.  Oh well! 

Gavin with Mimi, Beepa, and Memaw

Gavin with his great aunts - Sandy and Rosi

Gavin with Aunt Briana and Uncle Tyler

Gavin with Daddy and Gigi Garner

Happy Birthday, Gigi!

Happy Birthday! We all miss you so much. It's not the same without hearing all your silly phrases. I think about you all the time. Love you!

Brings back memories

Most of you know that my grandparents lived next door to us pretty much my whole life. Obviously, I have tons of wonderful memories of them. This weekend, I did something with Gavin that brought back memories of them. We fed the birds! :) Grandma and Grandpa used to have this random block of concrete in their backyard. Sometimes we'd feed the bird there; other times we'd just feed them right out the front or back door. We used to take the end pieces of bread or stale bread and break it up and watch the birds come eat. Something so simple, but has so many great memories related to it. So, since all the snow finally melted off our patio and we heard bird chirping, I decided to feed the birds with Gavin.

He had a great time, and I got cute pictures, but there weren't a lot of birds. Only two or three birds came. And the bread actually lasted until the next day when more birds finally came to eat! But he loved watching them pick up the bread and fly up in the tree next to the patio. They kept going under my car, too, which he thought was pretty funny. I bet Grandma and Grandpa were watching!

Shirley was VERY interested, too! She kept barking though and I think that scared some birds away.

I love how he laughs and holds his hand to his mouth now. Makes him look so grown up!

A week ago today...

....was Thanksgiving! So, I'm finally getting around to uploading the pictures and wanted to share with you all what we did.

The day started out a bit rough for me. I'd made the pea salad the night before, knowing I'd have to make Grandma's cole slaw on Thanksgiving morning. Well, I guess because I went to bed with it on my mind, it made me dream about grandma. She was here helping me make the cole slaw. :) It was great to see her in my dreams, but it made me wake up sad, knowing it was our first Thanksgiving without her. Luckily, I had lots of hugs from Jarrod and Gavin to make me feel better.

We made some coffee, enjoyed the parade with Gavin (you should have seen how excited he was to see the Sesame Street and Yo Gabba Gabba floats!), and then got started on the cooking. I made the cole slaw (yummy!) and Jarrod made a new mac and cheese recipe. (Yes...it's really mac and cheese....with lots of bacon and onions on top!)

Then, we headed to John and Erin's. The weather was surprisingly nice! John, Jarrod and another manager, Dan, spent much of the afternoon hanging outside, while Gavin and I played inside with Erin. Gavin was lots of help...he took all their bowls out of the cupboards!

Here you go, Mama!John fried a turkey outside. It was really good! Of course, the beautiful weather turned to rain just as the turkey was finishing up. Oh well....it could have been worse :)

We got the table set, and Gavin kept himself busy playing the drums with the silverware and dishes. He was having a ball! I took a ton of pictures, but most of them turned out blurry.
And, here's the gang around the table. They look thrilled, huh? John's hiding in his hoodie; Jarrod isn't even looking... Boys....

And lastly, just a couple cute pictures ~ a family shot, and one of Gavin and his mama. :)

We ate entirely too much. Gavin, of course, didn't eat much of anything. Oh well...his time will come when he'll realize how much his family loves food! We were exhausted when we got home. I got both my boys in bed by 7:45 (that's what happens when you have to be up at 2am for Black Friday sales at Sam's!) and I spent the evening watching the Thanksgiving episodes of Friends on the couch. A great ending to a great Thanksgiving!

Santa Sighting!

Yay! My favorite time of the year :) I love when we get to put our Christmas decorations up, especially the tree. Jarrod and I set the tree up while Gavin was napping, and you should have seen his face when we brought him out of his room. He was so confused. He immediately grabbed the silver candy cane ornaments and started putting them on. Then, he'd grab anything around and put it on the tree, but it would just tumble down. Jarrod said it was like he was playing Plinko! :) I was so excited to put him in this outfit for our tree-decorating day. My grandma bought this for him while I was still pregnant. It's been in storage for a while, but when I switched out his clothes, I put this in his drawer, hoping it would fit for this Christmas. I had to roll up the sleeves and his pants are folded down a few times, but it fit! It was really special to decorate the tree with Gigi's Santa outfit for Gav. So far, he's done pretty well with the ornaments. He's broken a few of those silver candy canes, and there's a Shirley ornament at his eye level that he likes to bark at. But, he's done better than I thought. We'll see what happens once the presents get under it!