Apple Pie

For Thanksgiving I made an apple cranberry crisp, and I had almost a full bag of apples leftover. So I decided to try my hand at making an apple pie. I hadn't made one by myself since high school...so this was going to be interesting! And I was inspired by my neighbor who had made pumpkin pies from scratch and shared a piece with us, and then later a whole pie. Well, after I got it in the oven I was pretty darn proud of myself because it looked pretty good. Then after a minute or so when I was trying to put together a mini pie for Aiden since I had a little dough and apples leftover, I realized I had forgotten to put some butter on top of the apples before the top crust! I was so frustrated and praying it was going to at least be edible now. Well, it came out and looked pretty good. Of course Micah's pager went off and he had to go to the hospital as I put it back in the oven for another few minutes, and was in the middle of making dinner for the night. Oh well, it should be here when he comes home.
So I let the pie cool a bit and then cut into it so I could send a piece over to my neighbor as a Thank You for her pie. But of course I had to try a bite or two and make sure it was edible enough to share. The Devinator was right there with me begging for a taste too. He really enjoyed it and was really mad when I wasn't giving him more. We still had to eat dinner! I ran the pie over and Carol seemed to like it-hopefully she didn't gag after I left ;) Just kidding...it's actually pretty good! I was getting dinner out of the oven, and looked over and saw this:

Of course I grabbed him off immediately, but had to snatch up my camera because I thought it was hilarious. He has just started really climbing on our furniture, so I know he was probably pretty proud of himself for getting up there. So I did let him get up one more time to get the pic and then scolded him gently ;)

He was of course inconsolable, and had been for the past half hour since his first initial bites, and I gave in and fed him a few more bites before dinner.

And here is Aiden with his pie. I haven't tried that one yet, but I'm sure it's good-he seemed to enjoy it enough ;)

Poor sick Devin

Earlier this week Devin developed croup. He had his 15 month check up Monday morning, and had woken up with a bit of a cough that I only heard until after breakfast. The doctor gave him a decongestant and said he was doing great, 90% for weight and 75% for height. Then he woke up from his nap and sounded so awful, and Tuesday didn't get much better. I had called the doctor to tell him I think he had croup, and he prescribed him an antibiotic over the phone. Then on Wednesday when Kiki and Grammy came into town for Aiden's Feast Day at preschool, they expressed their concern and thought he really should be seen. I waited for Micah to get home to listen to him before calling the doctor again. Sure enough after Micah called them they asked us to come on in. The doctor ordered a chest X-ray to be sure it wasn't developing into pneumonia, and prescribed him a steroid, a different antibiotic, and some breathing treatments.
So, as you can imagine, for all you parents out there who have had to go through the torture of breathing treatments, they don't go over well! Neither did taking the x-ray...but we haven't heard anything about that, so I think we're in the clear. Anyway, as he's gotten used to the routine, he's usually good for about 5 minutes, and then he's done. So we have to physically hold him down so we can finish. Well, tonight the poor guy was all tuckered out, and after only a minute or two of fighting me, he went really calm and just zoned in watching the Wonder Pets. Then he started nodding off! It was the best breathing treatment ever ;) I know the instructions say not to use while sleeping, but I think it was ok.

The treatments and the meds are working, you can't hear him breathe any more, and he is getting better every day. I hate it when they aren't feeling well, but I sure love the cuddling :)

Family Pictures

We celebrated Thanksgiving a little early with Micah's family since we were needing to stay home for the holiday because Micah was working a few hockey games. Since we were going to be in town, Sandy took the opportunity to get some family pictures done...something we have all been needing to do for the past year. It worked out well because Devin is a little older now and was easy to entertain-to an extent. But he's also independent and mobile, so that was an obstacle we had to work with. Overall the shoot itself went well, and quick. The entire process on the other hand...not so much. But in the end we got some great pictures, and I'm so glad we finally did it. We have some of them in frames, so I have them sitting against the walls where I want them hung-and I have found Devin on several occasions just laying down and staring at them :) It is so cute to see him just stare at everyone, not just himself, and be so content. I snapped a few pictures quick, but he also has been seen with his head on his hands-which I did not capture. But you get the idea ;)

Early Thanksgiving

We went home to have an early Thanksgiving with Micah's parents this past weekend. It was good to spend some quality time with family and not do much work...on Micah's part at least! Here are a few pictures that Sandy took of our time together.

Sandy and Larry

Getting ready to stuff our faces!

I love that they had their own "turkeys" :)

Digging in!

And then after dinner...

Later that night we went to see Adam's new house he just bought-it is so cute!!

Just hanging out in his new pad :)
It was a fun weekend-I love the holidays!

Dear Santa

It's getting to be that time! And of course everywhere we go Aiden is seeing the Christmas decorations and is asking if it is Christmas yet...so we have to tell him that it's not until December and it is still November. And with all the toys out now he is asking to pick something out. Not that he needs more toys out in the open for him to want to pick something out, but it sure isn't helping! ;) But now we can say that we should save our money (because if he wants something now I tell him we have to use his money and then he won't have any...) and put it on our list for Santa. And if Santa thinks he's been good, and he's setting good examples like Jesus wants him to, then maybe he'll get it for Christmas. We try to do a good job with talking about Jesus and how we should act through the whole year, but especially now with His birthday coming up. So we don't talk about Santa without mentioning Jesus too.
So anyway, we made our list for Santa and took the kids to put it in the Santa Mail at Macy's. They were so excited to get their letters in the box, and we were excited for them. I took a few pictures, but it was my smaller camera and the lighting was bad...so they're not that good. But still it's a fun memory to have ;)

We went with James and Ally, and Baby Grace-but she's not in the picture. She did get a letter in there too though.

Aiden's letter says: Dear Santa, I've been a good boy. Please, I want a Rocky the Robot Truck, a guitar, a Wall-E, an Imaginext Fantasy Castle, and some Cars stuff. Thank you! Love, Aiden-and he really wrote his name :)

Devin's letter says: Dear Santa, Mommy says I've been a good boy this year. I want some CAT big Movin Rumblers, a guitar like my big brother, Elmo Live, and anything else like Aiden. Because I like to play with the same things. Thank you! Love, Devin-and he helped write his name too ;)

Here it goes!

Did it go in?

Ok, let's see if Santa brings me some cool stuff!

We are Elves!

Be sure to check out our elf dancing at the bottom of the blog. We practiced a lot and worked really hard to choreograph it just right :) haha...just getting in the Christmas Spirit!

My little plumbers

This was the winner! Thank you everyone who voted and helped make this an easier decision. We appreciated all the input, and I think this was a great choice :) The editors will have to photoshop Devin's little crack out-they can show his cheek but not the crack. But I'm excited to see what they do with it and how the final ad turns out.

This was the original picture used for the ad-Aiden when he was about 8 months.

And here he is all grown up...*sigh*...

This was our personal favorite. However it has the crack...so they chose not to use this one in the ad, but this is the one hanging in the office.

Now we can add this one next to it! Can you tell they are brothers or what??

I hear there is a toilet that needs some fixing!

Let's see what I can do.

I see what the problem is.

Just a little tweak here, and a turn there...got it!

Oh-another job? I'm on it!