Thanksgiving: before & after

Wow, how time flies when the holidays arrive!

First of all, let's start with the fact that we made a late night run, in pajamas, to the market to buy some Hostess treats the day they announced they were done making treats.  We wanted to make sure Emily knew what twinkies, ho-hos, and cupcakes were like...

It's okay that they are no longer on the grocery shelves, she didn't like them.  And notice the red mark above her lip?  That's from a wipe out at preschool.


For Thanksgiving, it was just the three of us.  Emily was quite the helper in the kitchen, like always, and is getting quite skilled at using the peeler.  How thankful am I for this little miracle girl!

 Notice how she is dressed in her Sunday Best?  She told me she was dressed as a candy cane so that Santa would hurry up and get here.

And her Thanksgiving crafts done at preschool: 

A drum, the traditional feather headband, a paper plate turkey,
her pet rock, and a turkey drumstick

On the days following Thanksgiving, her big girl bed was assembled and Aaron was evicted from his living room sleeping station.  Most of the holiday weekend was spent moving furniture around and putting up Christmas decor.  Emily is very excited for Christmas this year!  She went to see Santa a couple weeks ago for the first time, and even took along her camera to take pictures of him.  But once there, wanted nothing to do with him, let alone sit on his lap!  At the town's tree lighting, she avoided Santa, but hugged his reindeer twice.  She knows what she wants from him, a pair of Stompeez (think "as seen on TV slippers with the eyes that pop up while you walk").  Next weekend is the NICU's holiday party, maybe the third attempt at Santa she will be able to express her wish!  

Busy Girl

Emily's favorite mode of transportation around the house these days is her scoot bike.  She's getting quite quick and daring!

Or, she'll ask you for princess, which means that she wants to put on her Minnie Mouse dress and rock to the Disney music channel.  Meanwhile, a little by little, I'm making progress on her big girl room.

The E is a gift from her great grandma and great uncle...

There's the headboard and her bedding... her bed will be assembled when Dad is done using the twin bed downstairs during his recovery.  

Potty training continues.  We've gone to a sticker chart to try and motivate her.  Spent an hour talking with her pediatrician about the whole ordeal, and she convinced me to not panic, yet.

Emily loves to help out in the kitchen.  She loves to mix and add things... and make pizzas.

Not to mention she still loves playing around with the camera.  Here we are driving down the road as she takes pictures on a sunny fall day.

Boo!

Happy Halloween!

This year she was a witch. 

And like the years before, we met pals in town for Hailey's Halloween Hoopla.

The girls had a good time walking around to all the businesses for trick or treating!

Gia, Grace, Emily, Isabella

Seneca, Emi, Grace

Festivities

Last Saturday there was a line up of three parties.  One at 3, then at 4:30, and then the last one at 6.  Emily was more excited this year to put on the costume, and had the idea that trick + treat = candy.  What she didn't expect is that everyone else would be in costume, too!  But in the end she had fun at all three places.

"bobbing" for doughnuts

decorating a pumpkin with pal Patrick

the kid craft table with pal Isabella

Life Marches On...

Misery isn't a hip replacement.  Misery isn't the flu.  Misery IS when one person has the flu (twice in one weekend) while the other is recovering from a hip replacement... while there is a three year old feeling perfectly fine that wants needs to be entertained.

But, we all survived.  Aaron got a great report from the doctor this past Monday, is using his crutches more and more, and even started driving today.  The flu bug seems to be leaving me alone for the time being.  And Emily hasn't been totally bored.

Her room is still a work in progress... The red butterflies and dragonflies became purple while flowers sprouted out of the green.  A few pictures were hung in their spots...

Meanwhile, Emily has been doing a lot of painting on her own.  Lots of pumpkin crafts to be completed!

And a pumpkin to carve.  Like last year, it wasn't her favorite activity.  

So, we settled on painting two and just carving the one.  

Party in the Park

As the paint was drying on her walls, we headed over to the park.  It was a great fall day to attend a birthday party!

First the group painted pumpkins that they could take home with them.  Emily painted two.  And of course there was time to play with friends.

Then it was time for pizza.  But then the kids bobbed for apples.  

The girls thought the boys were quite silly, especially when the birthday boy fell in!

There were ladybugs to explore and set free.  

And a pinata to break open!

What a great afternoon!  

New Arrangements

Aaron was home on Thursday, and took up residence on the new twin bed that is in the living room.  Eventually this twin bed will be Emily's big girl bed once Aaron is able to manage the stairs to the second story.

So, since it was time to get ready for the bed, and there's an extra set of hands around with the house, it was the perfect time to paint Emily's room.  So this afternoon we moved her toddler bed into the master bedroom, and shifted the rest of the furniture into the center of her room.  The red/black/cream/sage baby room is in transition to a purple/green/pink/yellow room.

The first coat is on, and she's so excited to have purple walls.  The bugs have already metamorphosed from red to purple, but flowers still need to be added.  A work in progress.

Grandma to the Rescue...again

Look who came to town to help us out once more.

Grandma came to town to hold down the fort while Aaron is hospitalized in Boise for a hip replacement.

Check out this kid's bedhead!

But Emily is pretty excited to have Grandma around.  She had the idea that she was going to bring Santa Claus on the plane with her, but it turned out okay that he didn't arrive when she did.  Emily has been keeping Grandma busy.  They painted a pumpkin first thing in the morning that turned out like this:

And have been running laps around the house and hiding from monsters under the table:

And it is reported that Emily survived her first night away from Mom AND Dad (well, first night that she can remember, the NICU days don't really count here).  A little birdie told me that she fell asleep with my kindle and hugged it tightly.

Surgery seems to be taking a little longer than expected.  We arrived at the hospital at nine.  It was 11 o'clock before he got to go to pre op.  I got the report at 3 that the surgery had started.  It was supposed to take an hour to an hour and a half.  At 5 o'clock I was told not to worry, "it was just a tough hip" and that they are almost done.  Looks like Emily will have to survive two nights without us.

Hopefully Grandma doesn't mind holding down the fort for another night.  She was armed with toys in case of meltdowns!  They have already played with a doctor's kit and a bowling game.  Hopefully there's enough to last!

SURGERY UPDATE:  Just talked to the surgeon around 5:30.  He was pleased with the outcome of the replacement.  Thinks that Aaron will get a half inch back in length and that he was able to get it rotated to a more natural, and comfortable, position.  Aaron is still in recovery and hasn't been sent to a room on the floor yet.

Farmstead Pumpkin Patch

We've gone to the same pumpkin patch in Boise for the past two years.  In a week, Aaron is going to have a hip replacement done, but we didn't want to miss out on going to Farmstead this year, so we went yesterday.  It was nice going early in the season, there weren't a lot of kids there, and the pumpkins weren't already picked over!

First thing she got to do was ride a pony named Snowball.  And then she wanted to pet the goats.

Then she spent some time on the big jumping pillow.

We also took some time for some photo opportunities and the kids' playground.

 And Aaron and Emily went through the inflatable iguana, which was a dark maze on the inside.

 We went for the cow train, a bumpy ride, but lots of fun.

Before we got to the business of picking out pumpkins (and eating a carmel apple).

2010

2011

Happy Fall!