Monday, October 31, 2011

Happy Halloween

 Before my mom went home she helped me take the kids Halloween pictures.
I couldn't have done it without her.


 Sunday night we decorated our pumpkins.
I am not big on messes and kids with knives, so a glue gun and candy works best for me.
And they turn out pretty darn cute.

I wanted to do some fun stuff with kids on Halloween during the day..
which means I planned a bunch of stuff and ran around crazy all afternoon and nobody had any fun.
Whoops.

They did enjoy their pumpkin shaped sandwiches for lunch.

And after naps we made Candy Corn Pudding
 Which nobody ate.

So we made little monsters with the left over pudding...
 which nobody would eat either
.
In fact, here is Brooke telling me it smells yucky. 
Come on, what kids don't like pudding!!! 

The Jello Pumpkins were much better received.
 My kids have a strange obsession with Jello.

After our Pumpkin shaped pizzas and making a huge pudding mess, we headed out for Trick or Treating!
 I was "Nurse Mommy" according to Brooke.
Jack told me to take off my wig because I didn't look like his mommy anymore.
He seemed generally concerned.

Grandma Jane's was our first stop....
 She is a hoot.
Brooke LOVED that she was a princess too!

And she was nice enough to take a group shot of the whole fam.
Don't ask how much I had to pay Vince to wear that shirt for me.
What a man will do for his son, right?

Memorable Moments:

We went to 4 houses, and Jack and Brooke were convinced that we were done Trick or Treating, so we went home.  I wonder how many more years that will work?

I told the kids they couldn't eat all their candy or they would get sick.  Jack came up to me and said, "Mom, can I have more candy because I am not sick yet?"

I think my kids were more excited to hand out candy, then to actually Trick or Treat.

When I took Jack to Preschool in the morning, he told me to make the house spooky while he was gone.

I love Halloween.


Saturday, October 29, 2011

Ivy Jane

I'm a little late with this post.

Our little Ivy Jane is 3 months old!

 She is old enough to pose for Sunday groups shots now.
 And she is learning that we always end up with someone in tears.

She is filling out a little bit more in the face....
Here she is displaying just a few of her chins.

She LOVES to be naked.

She isn't self conscience of those chunkles at all.

She loves her Daddy.

Right around 3 Months old she discovered her hands....
and she hasn't let go of them since,

 She loves to snuggle her burpie.

I would love to claim that she can roll over....but she has only done it once for us, and she shows no signs of doing it again any time soon.

She is losing her hair, and has a fabulous comb over.

She has started sitting up, and supports her head really well.

And she is a smiler.
She will smile at anyone, anytime.

We sure love this little woman!


And she finally fits into her sparkly Toms! 
 They melt my heart.

For my records:

Weight: 15lbs

Eats 4-5oz every 3 hours

Sleeps from 11-6

She is the queen of cat naps.  About (7) 20 minute naps per day.

She is my least spitty baby. 

She is a wiggly worm.

She hates hats, and her car seat.

She loves being on her changing table, and being talked to.

She still will only take the binkie from the hospital.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Update

So, what do the Byrams do when mommy is a mess?

These two lucky ducks got to go to a Pumpkin Patch with their cousins!
 And pick their very own pumpkins!
Basically the best day of Jack's life.
Thanks BJ and Maria!


 My poor/wonderful/saint of a Mother hasn't had a hot meal in 1 week.
She has been busy kissing this little pooper!
Okay, she has been busy doing EVERYTHING! 
Thanks Mom!!!


Ivy has been tossed around from Grandma to Grandma and is thoroughly exhausted from all the kisses.

Cousin Grace has been entertaining the troops.
 And directed a spectacular production.

And me.
This picture says it all.
 Pain.
Discomfort.
And Glasses?
My blurred vision and dizziness aren't getting better.
My Dr. got worried we were dealing with a blood clot.
So off to the hospital for torture testing.
I had an ultrasound of the neck to check for a clot in my jugular vein, and then a CT Scan with contrast (an amazingly uncomfortable procedure, it nearly killed this big baby), to rule out one in the lungs. Both negative, so then I got to go to my second favorite place in the world...
THE EYE DOCTOR!

After lots of eye drops and poking around in my eyes, he thinks my eyes have suffered some internal trauma due to the surgery. He says that time, and some snazzy glasses will help.


The glasses only help about 10%, but they are somewhat exciting, and have provided some much needed comic relief.

What else is exciting......

MY STITCHES COME OUT TOMORROW MORNING!!!!!!

To be continued.....

Sunday, October 16, 2011

I Survived

Barely.

I have included pictures of myself, because apparently I have no dignity left.

We got the hospital about 7:30 Thursday morning, and I was very nervous.
Even more nervous than 2 years ago.
It must be because I knew how awful my life was going to be when the surgery was done.
They made me wear this really weired paper gown thing that seriously weighed like 30lbs.
After 3 attempts at getting the IV in and my hand swelling up 3x it's size, and some tears on my part, it was time.

The surgery was about 4.5 hours this time.  They didn't fix my eyes though due to some scheduling problems.  They removed the lump they found in the ultrasound and then two more lymph node clusters in my neck.
They were so small that they couldn't test them for the cancer while I was out, so we don't know the results yet, hopefully Monday.

Good Morning
This was right after I came out of surgery. Just call me Miss Piggy.

I couldn't get out of bed without almost passing out.  Apparently the surgery has caused some inner ear issues and now I am always dizzy. We are hoping to correct the problem when I go in to get my stitches out next Friday.

This picture was taken after a very traumatic/wonderful moment. 
My drain tube accidentally got ripped out.
It was traumatic.  It hurt.  But I LOVE having that thing out!


I got to come home on Saturday.  And I even got a little bit of sleep last night.
Brooke comes in every few minutes and asks if I am better.
Jack seems very unphased by this.  He is used to it.


And Ivy....
Oh how badly I want to squeeze this little chunker. 
She sits on my lap, but that is about it.  Her hands are a little too wild for snuggling.

This time around I am in a lot more pain.  I am also SUPER swollen.  I look like the Marshmallow Man.
Nothing like finally getting rid of my fat pregnancy face, and then getting it back!

So, for now I am just laying in bed trying to get the room to stop spinning.  Whilst 2 toddlers, my baby girl, and my main squeeze play on the bed around me. 

Good times.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Brookie is 3!!!

We have the flu at our house.
Jack is terribly sick.
And I am just waiting for the rest of us to come down with it.
We had a party planned for Brooke at Grandma Jane's with the whole family, but had to cancel due to our sicklies.
We still had a great party, just the five of us.
I wasn't upset about the cancelled party until I noticed 24 Minnie Mouse cupcakes, that were supposed to be devoured by the cousins, taunting me in my kitchen.
Ahhhhhhhhh!

Never mind Brooke's band aids.  She has sores that I don't want her scratching and spreading. 
We get asked about them at least 4x a day by strangers.

I made her a fabric tutu, but sadly it wasn't as cute as I had imagined.
She LOVED all the Dolls and Barbie furniture she got!
She got the complete collection of Snap & Style dolls and I decided to transform her bookcase in her room into a dollhouse for them. It was tricky finding furniture that would fit those odd sized dolls.
 So I made some furniture.

Check out that Van.  That was my Barbie van from when I was little, and luckily her dolls fit great it in.
She has all the babies piled in the back.

 Grandma Jane went Kitty Crazy this year.
Brooke doesn't like Hello Kitty at all ;)
I had to pry that backpack off of her.

When will I ever learn that balloons are always a disaster.

I threw a game together at the last minute to make her cancelled party less traumatic.
It worked.

Memorable Moments:

We woke her up by singing Happy Birthday to her in her bed. We thought she was scared and hated it, until a few hours later when she came up to me and Vince and said, "Thank you for singing my birthday song to me in my room last night." And then she repeatedly thanked us for it every hour for the rest of the day.

We lit the candles on her cake and sang happy birthday to her about 3 minutes after she woke up because she couldn't wait to have her "Fire Cake" one more minute. 

She didn't want to eat dinner because she knows dinner means the day is almost over, and she told me, "I don't want my Birthday to be done yet, Mom." I totally remember that feeling, oh to be a kid again.