We enjoyed spending time with my brother Brian’s family who visited us from December 27-31. We spent many hours walking around Sea World, San Marcos Outlet Malls and Downtown San Antonio visiting the Riverwalk, Alamo and historic King William District full of 100+ year old homes. Some of us were even lucky enough to get to see “The Lion King” at the beautiful Majestic Theatre for my Mom’s birthday on the 30th. We hope they had enough fun to want to come back again soon. We sure had a wonderful time while they were here!!! They were a little disappointed however to miss out on our normal weather of 60’s and 70’s. Instead it was in the 40’s and 50’s. Oh, well. We still had a great time! At least they aren't here this week since it's dipping down into the teens and twenties.....Brrrrr!!!
My mom came on December 24th and will still be with us until January 10th. It was fun having her here for Christmas. It had been 5 years since we spent the holidays with any of my family. We were especially surprised when she gave us a Wii for Christmas. Needless to say we’ve been playing a lot of games while she’s here. She has kept busy helping me with my gaggle of boys also. Jackson is her favorite however, as he loves to snuggle with Grandma and receive her hundreds of kisses. We have been having a great time and have kept busy, most recently making a quilt for Carson’s bed to match Jackson’s crib set. I also gave my first at-home permanent to my Mom. I was able to get back at her for all the hours of torture she put me through as a young girl getting perms at least twice a year. It’s no wonder I love having straight hair now as a grown woman.
Here are the boys pics in their Christmas PJ's.
Rhett is AGAIN searching for a new job. His contract with AT&T ends later this month. We’re just hoping that he can find a job soon that has health insurance benefits and paid vacation, etc. For 2 years now Rhett has been the only one with insurance (other than me during my pregnancy), and any time he takes off is unpaid. It would be nice to have a “regular” job again with all those nice things. Rhett is getting ready to celebrate his 37th birthday on the 24th of this month. He may be getting older, but his ability to win things on the radio is still going strong. In the last month he has won tickets to a Spurs game, and most recently 4 tickets to “Monster Jam” (a monster truck rally).
In mid-December Jackson was recuperating from an ear infection, when he started getting an odd-looking rash. The Pediatrician told me what to give him and sent us on our way. That was on Friday, so when things took a turn for the worse on Saturday I ended up taking Jackson in to the E.R. We were whisked into a treatment room immediately where 5 nurses and a doctor busily began putting in an IV, giving him meds, and checking his vitals. They wanted to admit him to the Pediatric ICU overnight to monitor his respirations, but we ended up coming home instead. Problems with breathing are usually the first signs, and here we were 48 hours later with just a rash. It turned out to be an allergic reaction to the Amoxicillin he was taking, and with the help of an epinephrine shot, some Zyrtec and a steroid for a few days, he was looking/feeling back to normal soon.
Here are some pics of him as his rash started, got horribly worse, then him in the ER after his Epi shot...looking better already!
Jackson turned 1 on January 2nd, and we celebrated at home with a cupcake cake and some presents. He started officially walking on Christmas Eve. Grandma told him he needed to wait for her…and he obeyed. He had been taking a few steps here and there, but that day he just decided to take off, and hasn’t stopped since. Now I’m trying to work on weaning Jackson from nursing, so that I can get him out of our room and up into his own. He is our first child to decide he doesn’t like binkies and so he has nothing other than Mom to calm him & get him back to sleep at night. I wish he slept through the night, but no luck yet. Last Sunday Grandma stayed home from church with Jackson because he hadn’t been feeling well (fever, diarrhea, etc.). When we got home, Grandma informed us of the reason for his illness. He had 2 brand new teeth!!! That makes a total of 8 now. What will he surprise us with next???
My Christmas present this year consisted of a new bedding set, curtains, new shower curtain, rugs & bath towels for our room & bath. I can’t wait to paint in there and our room will finally feel like the Master Suite I’ve imagined us having someday. Now we just need a King sized bed to complete it…(I purposely bought the bedding set in King size). Rhett got one surprise this Christmas. I got him a cell phone. He has never wanted one, but he has one now thanks to me! We got a deal by adding him to his parents “friends & family” plan, so there’s nothing he can say about it!!! Call him at 720-256-1031 so his phone gets some use.
Austin was chosen once again to participate in his school Spelling Bee on January 20th. I guess he was the only one who got all the spelling words correct in his class, so here we go again. We’ve actually been practicing a bit this time though! Austin is officially obsessed with basketball. He is constantly doing air jump shots, and especially loves the Nerf basketball & hoop we gave him for Christmas...so he can actually play basketball in the house.
Logan is slowly learning to read, but he is excelling in other areas at school…including not getting so many folder marks for bad behavior. That in and of itself is a major feat! He enjoys bossing Carson around, and always wants to be in charge. Sometimes he is successful…other times not so much. Logan & Carson are only about 3 lbs. and 2 inches different now, so I get a lot of people asking if they are twins. Thank goodness NO!!!!
Carson is quickly becoming a pro at the Wii, especially bowling. He does a sort of dance half the time and the other half he’s laying on the coffee table or kitchen counter, but somehow seems to get quite a few strikes out of it. It’s fun to watch him learning and enjoying it.
Well, I guess that’s all the news I can squeeze out this month. We look forward to another eventful year in 2010.
Love – Rhett, Maren, Austin, Logan, Carson & Jackson
