Thanksgiving

Hello Everyone. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving.
Our Thanksgiving was spent at Justin's parents house. His entire family was there which always makes for a lot of excitement. It was a great time. We ate great food, had a heated Wii bowling tournament, decorated cookies, played games, went for a walk, ate more food, and ate even more food. The kids had a great time playing with their cousins.
Thanksgiving Day was fantastic but our drive home took a turn for the worst. I received a phone call that my Dad wasn't doing well.....let me back up
My Dad has gastric bypass surgery on the 25th of Nov. Post surgery he had problems with swelling, blood pressure dropping, etc... On Thanksgiving Day Dad went septic and was brought in for emergency surgery. The surgery came up "empty"... in other words they couldn't find the reasoning behind his organs starting to shut down. It was a very scary time for us. It's hard to believe something like this could suddenly happen especially when this was an elective surgery. As of today I'm happy to report Dad has come out of the ICU and is recovering slowly but surely in the St Cloud hospital. This scare made me even more thankful for family. We're so blessed to have each other.
On a lighter note... I had planned to do a collage of Thanksgiving pictures for this post. However, I have started saving my pics in the iPhoto instead of Picasa - mistake on my part as iphoto doesn't offer as options as Picasa. Anyway, I'll figure it out eventually. Until then I've included a picture of the 12 Douglas Grandkids.

Small Moments

I have many fond memories of my childhood. My fondest memories are of what I call the small moments. Moments like going grocery shopping with my mom, playing chess with my Dad, cruising with my oldest sister and playing barbies with Leah. Not to mention, reciting nursery rhymes before bed, making cookies, doing crafts, sewing, roasting marshmallows, walks around Lake George, lappy time, etc...I could go on and on. All these moments I shared with someone who loved me. Whether it was my Mom, Dad, sisters, brother, or Grandpa these times are near and dear to my heart. These memories may not be huge life changing events but they're the moments that make up my life and remind how loved I truly am.
That's why I snapped this picture...
My mom was visiting last weekend. She went through our magazine at least five times pointing out every single "pup pup" (translation: dog) she could find. Why?, because pictures of dogs made Nolan smile. Watching the two of them together warmed my heart. Nolan, and Carly, are loved by so many. The proof is in the small moments. These are the times they'll look back on, and smile, because they'll know they're loved.

Night in the ER

Last night I was spinning Carly through the air when I heard a "pop". Carly started crying and couldn't move her arm. After a 15 minute assessment we opted to take her into the ER. Turns out she had Nurse Maid's elbow. The Dr was able to snap it back into place and Carly is back to her old self. Thank God! Carly and I spent over three hours in the ER waiting room which was not our idea of a fun night. Seeing my baby girl in pain was the worst pain I could ever feel. I will say, however, having the opportunity to spend 1:1 time cuddling my baby girl made the long wait well worth it.
Carly is all better now and back to her old self. Swinging her around was a "bad idea!", as Carly and William would say. Needless to say we won't be doing that again.

"Color"

This week Carly has been given the responsibility of taking care of her cousin's turtle named "Color". We have had a great time watching over Color. Carly is very good about making sure Color is well fed. In fact, I went to check on Color last night to find his water filled with food pellets. Seems a little blond haired girl thought Color might be hungry again. When asked who fed the turtle Carly proudly stood up and said, "I did it Mom. He looked like his tummy was empty." Needless to say the food is now well hid so little hands can't get a hold of it.
Having Color here has really turned Carly into a little mother. She talks to him in a high pitched, sweet voice saying things like, "Oh aren't you cute?", "It's okay honey, I'm here for you." and "I love you, baby - you're so sweet, yes you are!" Nolan has even started "talking" to Color in the same high pitched voice.
We're going to be sad to see Color to back to my sister's house. Lucky for us we can visit him anytime.

Family

I am so thankful for my family. Last night my mom, who is babysitting my sister's three kids while she and her husband are on vacation, invited us over for dinner. Josie (my mom) made a fantastic meal but we expected nothing less from her. My other sister, Leah, was there with her husband and daughter, Alayna, as well. Seeing my children play with their cousins is heart warming. I am thankful they have each other.
This picture is of Nolan and Alayna. Alayna so wanted to hug Nolan but he wasn't havin' it. She finally got those little arms around him and she hung on tight. I don't blame her for wanting to snuggle his sweet pumpkin head.

First Blog

Am I really doing this? Am I really going to attempt to start a blog? The idea of keeping a journal of our (me, JD, Carly and Nolan) daily activities to share with friends and family ...it sounds great. But am I kidding myself? Do I really think I can keep up with this? I hope so. It's so easy to loose track of the funny things our kids do and say. I want to make sure I keep track of these times because a) the kids are at such a fun age b) the kids are growing so fast. Well here we go...let's see how this plays out. Wish me luck.