Our Growing Family: 2010

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Wordless Wednesday

[Me = brain dead. No writing today. Last final last night, done for semester. THANK GOD. Enjoy some pics from the past month - I've been a terrible blogger. But Knox is too precious not to share.]

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Kurt sent this picture last night while I was in the library writing a 25-page research paper. Think Knox has seen me reading and writing too much lately?

Sorry, little bud. I'm almost done with school, and we'll play all day long!

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Did someone say "free?"

THAT GUY will run for three things:

(1) Good food

(2) Good beer

(3) And free stuff!

So when I read about Shutterfly GIVING AWAY FREE CHRISTMAS GREETINGS? You better believe I told him about it right away.

The bonus is two-fold:

(1) I get to send out adorable greetings to friends and family we rarely get to see!

and

(2) I get MAJOR bonus points with the hubs for not spending lots of moolah!

Wife. Win.

SCORE.

Now, I have used Shutterfly for a lot of things over the years. They always have great customer service; their website is super easy to navigate; and their products are always of great quality.

The grandparents all received photobooks last year for Christmas...and guess what? For the rest of my life, I am obligated to get them one every single year. Seriously, it was the highlight of their lives...seriously.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

(not a very) Happy Birthday!

This year, I celebrated my 28th birthday very differently than I had planned. Let me explain...

Wednesday morning, we were out of Knox's usual breakfast items (bananas, waffles, yogurt, etc.). So, we (really I) decided to scramble up an egg and give that a try. I know that eggs are considered one of the higher risk foods as far as allergies are concerned, but since I used eggs in his birthday cake and other things, I assumed we were in the clear for that allergy.

BOY. WAS. I. WRONG.

He immediately had some redness in his little bottom lip and chin, but it didn't seem to be progressing. I laid him down for his morning nap at 10:00, and when I got him up at 12:00, he looked AWFUL. His entire face and body were covered in whelps, hives, rashes, and his left eye and right ear were completely swollen. The sweet little guy that he is didn't really seem to be bothered by all of this...that is until the doctor told me that I needed to give him the epi pen and take him to the ER right away. If any of you moms out there have ever had to use an epi pen on your baby, then you know how unbelievably difficult that was. I KNEW it was going to help him (even save his life), but I also knew that it was going to hurt him so bad. And his screams and tears definitely let me know.

Somehow, I made it to Children's Hospital. I'm not really sure how because I was sobbing uncontrollably and praying ceaselessly. Once we arrived, they took us back immediately - which told me that his situation was indeed very serious. My poor guy was stuck innumerable times with needles and IVs, and had countless nurses and doctors inspecting him all over. He was, needless to say, scared to death (I really wanted to curse right there...but I shall refrain), as were we. They finally seemed to get the swelling and rash under control, but because of the sheer amount of drugs they pumped into his little body, they required us to stay overnight at the hospital in the Special Care Unit.

Of course, by this point, my mom, my dad, and my sister (Jackie) had all arrived in Birmingham. Unfortunately, there wasn't much any of us could do because of their visitation policies, so I sent Kurt and my dad home to get some rest, while my mom and sister stayed up all night long with me in the waiting room. At midnight, my sister surprised me with my first birthday gift in hopes of cheering me up and lightening the mood.

Knox was able to get a few hours of sleep despite being hooked up to all sorts of IVs and monitors. I was thankful for that.

And the nurses and doctors were all so wonderful. They definitely made this frightening experience much more bearable.

We were finally discharged early in the afternoon on the day of my birthday. We all immediately came home and took naps. My dad and Jackie had to leave; but I convinced my mom to stay awhile. She and Kurt made me dinner that night, and we were all in bed before 9:00 pm. Sounds like one exciting birthday celebration, huh?? :) Oh and get this...just to top off the birthday week, I woke up at 1:30 am on Friday night/Saturday morning with a vicious stomach bug...I'm talkin' throwing up all night long. I spent all day Saturday asleep and all of today resting on the couch. Quite a happy birthday!

Thank God, our little boy is a-OK today. He had a day or two where he was a little out of it - not really hungry and very sleepy. But he seems to be doing MUCH better now. He finished another round of steroids, so hopefully they will work their magic, and we can get back to life without the fight of giving medicine each morning.

I'm feeling rather exhausted - emotionally and physically. I am anxious to meet with the allergist in December to get to the bottom of all of the food stuff. I don't want to live in fear of what I can and can't feed my kid. I used to think that kids with food allergies were just weak or weird...but man, was I wrong. I have no idea what has caused this; I have no idea if there is anything I could have done to prevent it; and I have no idea if there is a cure for any of it. But I will never again think of a kid or a family as having done something wrong to have developed a food allergy. I am actually ashamed to even admit that I had at one point thought that in the first place. All I know now is that I am boldly pleading with God to heal this for Knox. He works miracles. And I am absolutely choosing to believe that He can work a miracle in Knox's little body.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Family & Football

Those of you that know me well know that there really aren't two things in this life that I love more. (Well, except some really good bread, cheese and wine...) And this past weekend was chock-full of family and football - and it was great! My family from Philadelphia rented an RV and drove the long 14 hours to Nashville so we could all go to the Titans vs. Eagles game on Sunday. it was an adventure for them: three kiddos under the age of 3 and four adults all packed in to one vehicle for 14 hours on the way down and 14 hours on the way back. DANG!!

My cousin, Jarrett's oldest son, Ethan (7) loves all things sports-related. Right now, he is playing in a football league back home. On Wednesday, he won "The Pancake Award" because he made the best tackle in practice - he smashed someone like a pancake, ha! So, he brought his award to Nashville so Aunt Mimi (my mom) could make him her famous pancakes.

That evening, we watched the Vols and the Phillies while noshing on pizza. Unfortunately, both of our teams lost...so we didn't document our sadness with pictures ;)

And at 7:00 am Saturday morning, we were all up and at 'em to head down to the stadium for some tailgating fun.

And then headed to the game.

Our seats were literally at the second to last row alllllllll the way up. I think I burned 1000 calories walking up to our seats, but it was worth it. Especially watching Knox's face during the game - he loved it!

I was torn the whole game about who to root for...I've been an Eagles fan my whole life, but being from Nashville, I am obviously a Titans fan, too. I truly didn't care who won - I would have been happy either way. The Titans eventually prevailed; but I think the Philly fam enjoyed themselves just the same.

All in all, it was an exhausting weekend, but we had SO much fun and can't wait to see them again!!!!

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Knox's 1 Year Pics

Disclaimer: This post is written by an incredibly biased, absolutely in-love-with-her-precious-family momma :)

What do you get when you have one stunningly beautiful baby boy and a great friend who is also a great photographer??

FABULOUS PHOTOS!!!!!!!!!

Neither Kurt nor I love being in pictures ourselves, but it is always so worth it to have these lifelong treasures in pictures. I don't know about Kurt, but I for one feel unbelievably blessed to have such an amazing family; and seeing these pictures just reminds me of GOD'S ABUNDANT, OVERWHELMING LOVE for us. I'm floored by it!

Of course, the pictures I love most are the ones of just Kurt and Knox - seeing my sweet boys together makes my heart melt.

Especially this one...

OH HOW I LOVE THEM.

Then there are the ones of just me with my sweet little boy - ain't nothin' sweeter than a momma and her tough guy!

But, of course, our favorite ones are of just sweet little Woog all by himself. (Not sure if I've ever mentioned this before, but the nickname that has seemed to stick for Knox is "Woog"...started as "Booger Wooger," got shortened to "Wooger," then stayed as just good ole "Woog.") And out of the 308 pictures on the CD, these are just a few of our favorites...be prepared - there are still lots :)