Hanging in there!

Hello!
Just wanted to send everyone a quick update to let you know that we're still around and "Hanging in there" would be about the only way to describe it. The last month has been a rough one but we're getting by. As most of you know, my grandma Esta passed away at the age of 86 on December 18th in a tragic house fire. This made for an extremely rough holiday but Brady and Logan certainly helped to bring a smile when we needed it. Thanks so much for everyone's love and support during this difficult time. The outpouring of support from the community and our many friends and family has been tremendous. Although we are fortunate to have been able to have my grandma with us until the age of 86, the situation has been a very tough one. Even though you can somewhat prepare yourself for the possibility of losing her, you don't ever prepare yourself for something like this. So we're just taking it one day at a time and trying to get back into some sense of normalcy. I have pictures but don't have them with me right now, so I will try to post them soon. As for other things going on right now...there is a lot!! Brady is still fighting his ear infection which he has had since Thanksgiving. We have been through 5 rounds of antibiotics now. He is scheduled to get tubes put in on MLK Day, Jan. 19th, so we hope that will finally do the trick. Last year he was born on MLK Day, so that is kind of ironic, but his birthday is not until the 21st. We went to get tubes in on Dec. 31st, but his ears were still too infected and they opted to wait and try another round of antibiotics. His balance is really off so I know his ears are still full of stuff, he falls all the time it seems. Last week we had a little scare because his mouth started bleeding and wouldn't stop. The babysitter said that when he took a bottle it would bleed a little but then it would stop and she couldn't figure out where it was coming from. Then about 5:30 after I picked him up it started bleeding and didn't stop until 11:00 that night. We took him to urgent care and they couldn't find where it was coming from either. He had been on Ibuprofen on and off since Thanksgiving which they had prescribed for us at urgent care the first time. He had been running a low grade fever almost every day with this ear infection and would end up getting Ibuprofen every day or two. Apparently this had been acting as a blood thinner and was causing his blood not to clot like it should. Or at least that's what they think. We never did figure out where the blood was coming from in this mouth, but of course he wouldn't let us get a very good look either. We took him to his pediatrician the next day and she couldn't find anything either and also said that the Ibuprofen probably contributed to that. We had bloodwork done yesterday to make sure that everything is ok through his surgery. Of course through the whole thing, he was still just laughing and playing and getting blood everywhere! So we're praying that everything turns out ok with the bloodwork and that the tubes help to solve all of our problems! As for Jason and I....the winter weather has Jason putting in lots of long hours....he has worked 16 hour days the last two days. I am also putting in lots of long hours because my office associate took a new job the first of the year, so now I have no support staff and am having to man the office 3 days a week and URS Annual Report is due tomorrow so I've been trying to get that finished up. Well, I have to go meet someone to look at my heat pump which seems to be on the fritz in the middle of a cold spell so I'll keep my fingers crossed for a good (cheap) result on that!
Take care!

Christmas Pictures...Photogenic=Expensive!!

OK...so we had our Christmas Pictures as well as Brady's 9-month (now 10 1/2 month pictures done today. We kind of missed 9 month pictures and were planning to do 10 month pictures...but then Brady got sick and his eye was infected which didn't make for very good photo-ops! So end result is that we ended up with a combo of Christmas Pictures and an outfit change for what was supposed to be the 9 month pictures. Brady did great for the pictures! He has always done well with pictures, but we weren't sure what to expect with him now being mobile. I was a little afraid we would spend the whole session chasing him as he crawled or walked off to get into things. Well...the good news is that Brady continues to be pretty photogenic...or maybe just a ham, but every time the camera comes out he flashes his 3 and 1/2 teeth. Every time we would put him in a pose he would just stay there and wait for the camera to flash...although he did like playing with the rubber duckies!! Bad news is that photogenic = expensive!! Maybe we're just pushovers (which is probably true), but we had a hard time choosing between pictures...so now we own all of the pictures which we can now share with you. So just a head's up...you're probably all getting pictures of Brady for Christmas!! So here's a few pictures for you to enjoy and you can see all of the pictures in the slide show on the right side of our blog. Still waiting on the other pictures I need to post. I've somehow misplaced my camera this week and can't get to my most recent pictures right now. So hopefully it will show up soon...probably somewhere I least expect it. Well enjoy the pics and I hope everyone's holiday season is going well!

On the Naughty List

Alright....I know we're in trouble because we haven't posted anything in a while! I have plans to get our pictures from the OSU-Michigan game and Thanksgiving posted...but I haven't had time to do that lately. Brady has been sick since Thanksgiving with a double ear infection and pinkeye. We were in urgent care twice last week and saw the pediatrician once, resulting in 3 different doctors, 3 different medication changes and a total of 7 different prescriptions! Thank goodness for good insurance although the co-pays still aren't pretty! Anyway...we're on the mend now although Brady still hasn't quite kicked it yet! But to hold you all over...here's a picture I took on my phone a couple days ago! I found these reindeer antlers while Brady and I were doing a little Christmas shopping and I couldn't resist. Enjoy!

Brady's First Haircut

"Mommy's Little Monster" sleeping peacefully this past weekend

Welcome to our blog...I finally decided that it was well past time for us to get this started! We've talked about it for months as we are always checking out all of our friends' blogs...but tonight I finally decided to do it. So bear with me as I try to figure this thing out! Well...our little boy is growing up more every day! He got his first haircut today just one day shy of 10 months old. It was getting really long and was in his eyes and over his ears. You can see in his before shots that it was starting to get a little long and it was in his eyes if you didn't have it combed to the side just right! We finally conned his honorary "Aunt" Lisa into cutting his hair even though she kept insisting we had to wait until he was a year old. After we decided to do it, I had some of those mom thoughts of "oh my gosh...my little boy is growing up" and a was little panicked about it all day, but it turned out all right. Jason didn't understand that at all....he said it was just a haircut. Maybe it was the fact that he just started crawling about a month ago, has gotten his first 2 teeth since then, started taking his first steps 5 days ago and I'm afraid he's going to start bringing girls home next week at this rate! Well...ok...maybe that a little bit of an exaggeration...but it's a little scary! I did have to take advantage of his long locks a few days ago by giving him a faux hawk. It actually did turn out pretty cute, even dad had to admit it was cute as he rolled his eyes. So the haircut went well, and although he looks a little more like a little man, the look is kind of growing on me.

Brady hanging out with dad! Check out those chubby legs!!

Brady's Faux Hawk as Mom played with his long locks while she still could!!

Brady getting ready to go get his hair cut!

These picture were some of our favorites!

Brady blowing raspberries...one of his favorite things to do right now.
Mommy asks him what he thinks of the Wolverines and this is what he says
...of course Daddy asks him what he thinks of the Buckeyes and he says the same thing!
We're both working on trying to get him convinced at an early age!!

Getting ready for the big first cut! We couldn't have asked for a better baby while he was getting his hair cut. He sat so still!

Concentrating hard as Lisa cuts his hair!

What a handsome boy with his new do!
But he does look so grown up!!!