2008 Year in Review

Thank goodness for blogs--how else would I ever remember all of the things that happened this in 2008?

Evan moved into a toddler bed. Many sleepless nights ensued.

Evan ate his first ice cream cone. He now knows the words "candy," "chocwat," and "something special" all too well.

I was pregnant. For many many weeks.

We all were very sick. For many many weeks.

Friends and family visited: the DiSciullos, the Rincons, the McDonalds, Grandparents (several of them).

Evan became potty trained. Remember "poo poo for suckers?"

Grant was born.... LATE! But since he was so stinkin cute, we forgave him.

NKOTB made a come back. Or at least attempted one.

We traveled to Florida, Hilton Head, DC, New York and Kentucky. (Please, stop drooling with envy.)

Evan enjoyed a "nakey" stint during summer pool hours.

The blog that you know and love--the very blog that you are now reading--was renamed "in the moment."

There was a period of several months where Evan ate, slept and dreamt "train table."

We had our house painted, replaced a garbage disposal, replaced our kitchen door, hung crown moulding, finished a bathroom, remodeled Evan's new room, bought a new couch, new TV, etc, etc, etc.

Evan and Grant became brothers.

As babies do, Grant grew and grew--new teeth, crawling, solid foods....

Grant became my little thumb sucker.

Evan had his first trick-or-treat experience.

We welcomed new cousin, Baby Sebastian, to the family.

In "Rock the Vote 2008," you decided that Grant looks more like his mommy.

Evan discovered his passion for dancing and became even more impassioned with singing and music.

Evan & Grant shared many moments under the train table.

Evan learned to bowl.

I rekindled my passion for crafts.

Bullit scared us all very much with a spinal injury, but thankfully, is recovering very well.

We all had a wonderful Christmas.

~ The End. ~

Santa came!

The calm before the storm. (see the boys' stockings to the far right? the tail end of my handmade Martha streak.)

Super Grant. He can't yet leap tall buildings, but he's learning.

One of the most favored Christmas gifts (from G&G Taylor) was a bongo drum.

Pre-Christmas fun

Santa's elves left new pajamas for everyone on Christmas Eve.

Who IS this boy? Is it just me, or does this picture look as if Grant has aged about 10 years?

Annual cookie decorating... at least one of us took the task seriously.

I take that back; Evan took the job of eating cookies very seriously.

Can you guess which cookies Evan decorated?

Christmas is...camo

We've lived in Georgia now for nearly 4 years. Just long enough for our son to turn into a true "Geow-ga" boy. (thanks Aunt Amanda for the new hand me downs!!)

Sweet anticipation

It's not even Christmas yet

And look at all of these gifts! We feel so blessed to have such thoughtful and caring* family members.




*Now of course, I don't know what is contained in these fine gifts, so if on Christmas morning Evan or Grant open something completely obnoxious, then I may need to retract the previous statement.

All Grant wants for Christmas...

...is his 2 front teeth. He has one; he's working on the second.

The Big Guy in Red

This wasn't Evan's first time meeting Santa, but I believe it is the first time that he will remember. He was a trooper, climbed right into Santa's lap and matter-of-factly told him that he wanted "presents" for Christmas. Simple enough, right? Grant was in awe of Santa's big-ness and red-ness, just as Evan was when he was Grant's age.

Friends stopping through

Our friends from Virginia, Mary and son Luis (husband Diego was in Dallas), stopped by our house on their way down to Florida for the Christmas holiday. The Terreri Kennel is watching their dog Ashley for a few days. Evan and Grant were more than happy to entertain Luis during his brief visit.

Peek-a-boo!

To the victor go the spoils

Bullit is recovering quite well. He's about 80% back to normal movement in his hind legs. We are continuing a steroid treatment, weaning it over the next few weeks. He will be on "cage rest" for one more week and then slowly getting back to a normal routine, albeit without stairs or jumping for quite a while.

If only...

If only a mother's love was measured by the volume of snot cleaned from her childrens' noses. I would be awesome.

"Yes, Jesus loves trees..."

Apparently, these are the kinds of songs that Evan learns at his "morning out" school. Evan has requested creative license to change the lyrics.

Snapshots, not on Sunday

Not many pictures to share, but it has been crazy around here you know.

You know how they say kids always have more fun with boxes than toys? So true.


Grant, with his "happy but disheveled" look. He has had a fever and runny nose for the past 24 hours. Looks like we're headed for another doctor's office--yay!

Bullit at home, recuperating

After picking up Bullit from the emergency vet and making a stop at the regular vet, I brought him home today. Even in the few hours since I visited him yesterday afternoon, his walking had improved. He is still wobbly and walks a little drunk, but he's no longer knuckling his paws. The doctor said today that his injury is either related to a disc in his spine or it could be a spinal stroke. We can't know unless we get an MRI (to the tune of $1500!). So, he's being treated as if it's a disc injury (to be on the safe side), which means several weeks of very limited activity and some more steroid pills for now. For now, we are cautiously optimistic, as the saying goes, and hope that his recovery continues in the right direction.

I know it looks like he's in doggy jail in this picture, but really, he's enjoying quiet and comfortable rest, and lots of yummy food for sick dogs (Gerber chicken sticks, rice with cheese and lots of dog treats).

Hopeful for Bullit

I visited Bullit at the vet this afternoon and the outlook is better and we are hopeful for recovery. He has shown some improvement with the steroid treatment, can walk on his own and go to the bathroom. He still is very wobbly in the hind legs and pretty weak. He can't, for instance, maneuver his hind legs to get into a dog bed that sits about 2" off the ground. But he is walking around and that is a good sign. By best assessment, the vet believes he has a bulging disc. She said that 80% of dogs recover from that type of injury. We will be taking Bullit from the emergency vet's office tomorrow morning to stop in at our regular vet, and then most likely will take him home where he will need to recover for about 8 weeks--crated for most of the day, only very light activity, absolutely no jumping or steps or anything of the sort.

So, we're not completely out of the woods, but the outlook is hopeful. Hopefully Santa will be extra good to Bullit this year and bring him speedy recovery.

A little prayer, please

We had to take Bullit into the emergency vet around 4:30 a.m. this morning. We thought at first it might be a case of bloat, but it turns out that it's either a bulging or herniated disc in his lower spine. Early this morning, Bullit (out of the blue) started showing the early signs of what--if left untreated--could lead to paralysis in his lower half. He had limited ability to walk, little/no awareness of paws ("knuckling"), but he could feel deep pain sensation and has control of his bladder & bowel. The latter two are the most serious signs of nerve/spine damage. The vet is treating him round the clock with injections of steroids to hopefully reduce the inflammation and return complete function to his lower half. We were told this afternoon that he was showing some improvement and was able to walk without assistance. However, we won't know for 24-48 more hours how he will improve.

With that being said, please include Bullit in your thoughts, prayers and wishes over the next few days. We'll keep you posted on his progress.

A little game we play

In the morning, just after Evan wakes up, this is how it goes:

Me: Good morning Evan, how are you?

E: I'm great, how are you?

Me: I'm wonderful, how are you?

E: I'm fantastic, how are you?

Me: I'm just dandy, Evan, how are you?

E: I'm so happy Mommy.


Don't you wish you could wake up every morning in such a good mood?

Holiday Cookin': Chocolate Chip Cookies

Who doesn't love a good-ole-fashioned chocolate chip cookie? Well, this is--in my opinion--one of the best recipes! It's our new secret family recipe!

See the recipe here.

In my version of these cookies, I substituted half of the white flour for wheat. Tastes the same, slightly more healthy. I also didn't drop the cookies as large as the recipe calls for (they were huge).

Enjoy!



(photo credit: flipflops & applesauce)

Sunday Snapshots

My skinny-minny spiderman baby.

Grant's favorite spot.
Experimenting with a teething biscuit.

Teething biscuit conquered!

Evan pretending to share.

A little wine with that cheese?

Holiday Cookin': Green Bean Casserole

This may become a new series on my blog. Or it may not.

Most everyone likes the traditional green bean casserole-- you know, the gloopy, gloppy, creamy, crunchy grean bean dish that at least someone in the family is known for making on the holidays? Well, this year, I decided to search for something a little different. Same idea, different ingredients. Dare I say it, fresh ingredients. What? No canned grean beans, no congealed cream of mushroom soup? Nope. And guess what, it was AWESOME. And really, it didn't take too much longer to make than the quickie stuff.

If you're feeling adventurous this Christmas, give it a try. Here is the link.

(photo credit: A Veggie Venture)

It's beginning to look a lot like....

Christmas! While there's no sign of the white stuff, there are plenty of signs around here to tell you that Christmas is coming.

1. My hand-sewn, vintage button advent calendar (see tutorial here) is finished! At around 11pm on Nov. 30, I stuffed the last pocket and hung it on the mantle with care. Evan luh-uh-ves it. Chocolate every night before bed? How could he not?


2. We bought our Christmas tree! Per the Dec. 1 tradition, we drug our two children out--one who was blowing snot and one who was at least an hour past his bedtime--and bought a tree.

3. Found a 4 inch piece of aforementioned tree branch protruding from the mouth of my crawling babe.

4. Christmas music. I thought it would be fun to introduce Evan to one of our Christmas CDs. Now it's: "Play Christmas, Mommy?" "Play Christmas, Mommy?" "Play Christmas, Mommy?" Curses for "fun" ideas!

From the trenches

Day 3 of sick child (Evan) at home with mom. Can't go outside--too cold. Can't send him to daycare/morning out--too much snot. Running out of indoor activities. Running out of patience. Am going a little crazy.

9, 11, 3, 5 & 6

Lottery numbers? Maybe. Or maybe it was the times at which Grant decided to wake up over the course of last night. Final waking time was 7:30. Such a doll.

A child after my own heart

This Thanksgiving, I discovered that Evan loves noodles. And not just any kind of noodles. These are the traditional Midwest "chicken & noodles" that everyone in my family serves during the holidays--they're thick and sit like a brick [in your stomach]. And seeing as how we have nearly 2 lbs of leftover noodles in our refrigerator (apparently, everyone else doesn't like them as much as Evan & I), he'll get his fill for the next week. Starch is one of the major food groups, right?

Sunday Snapshots

Somewhere in the midst of preparing Thanksgiving dinner for our friends, we neglected to keep an eye on the boys. When I did check up on them, this is what I found:
I would have loved to have seen exactly how this went down-- who crawled under first, what Evan said to Grant, etc.

And a view from the other side:


Grant, after we explained where "turkey dinner" really comes from.


Bullit, the guardian.


Grant putting his two new teeth to use on his first taste of finger food--he loved it!

Thankful Thanksgiving Thursday

It is Thanksgiving and I have reason to give lots of thanks. Among the many things are...

Two boys who are learning to love each other, despite squabbles over toys.


A healthy and no longer "semi" mobile baby, which means he ends up in situations like this:

Sunday Snapshots

A little belated, but nonetheless, here they are.


The boys. In their playroom. On their new brightly colored play mat. So bright that it almost replaces my need for coffee in the morning. I said almost.

Whenever I bring out the camera these days, Evan says "take my picture!" Here he is sliding into the frame at the last moment.

This is becoming an all-too-common scene: Grant reaching for toys and Evan saying "Nooooo!"

And here we have a semi-mobile baby. HELP ME!

Fun things to do when it's 16 degrees outside: build a cardboard playhouse.

Snuggle baby after his bath. Is it weird that Grant only takes a bath a couple of times a week (sometimes only once)? I can't figure out if it's because I forget to do it or if it's because I've decided that he doesn't get that dirty. Anyway, if you look closely in this pic, you can see his TWO bottom teeth!

Sunday Snapshots

What we did this weekend:

Took Evan to his first bowling experience. Not sure which he liked more: bowling or dancing under the cosmic bowling lights. Doesn't this look like Footloose II in the making?

Bowling was just too much for Grant.

Leaf blowing/raking/mowing.

Evan's strategy: load the leaves into his dump truck, one at a time.

And lastly, a couple of shots from the week: