Thanksgiving 2009

This photo was just before Thanksgiving. Maddie has seen Ben play with Play-doh numerous times so I thought I'd let her try. She did lots of watching Ben and trying to copy everything he did. However, when it started going into her mouth, we had to put a stop to it. We spent Thanksgiving in Kansas at my parents this year. We were able to go down on wednesday night and stay until Sunday. It was nice to not have to rush back. I didn't take a lot of pictures this time. Basically just this one on my mom reading to Madalyn. We also went to my grandma's for our traditional noodles. They were wonderful. Then another evening we went over to my Uncle Steve and Aunt Caroline's to see all my cousins. My aunt hadn't seen Madalyn yet so it was a treat for her. Jay Dee got pretty involved in a game of Apples to Apples with my cousins and their husbands and girlfriend. I think a great time was had by all.

Then on Sunday we made plans to stop at some of our friends house in Bennington on our way home. These were college friends that we've kept in contact with. We actually haven't seen them in almost 2 years. They just purchased a new house, and they have a new little girl we haven't seen yet! And they haven't seen Madalyn yet either! The last time we saw Jay, Angie, and Connor, I was about 6 months pregnant with Maddie and Angie had just found out she was pregnant with Olivia. So we had a wonderful time of seeing each other new little girls and visiting. We stayed and ate supper and after about 2 1/2 hours we were on the road again. It was a wonderful break in our trip, basically the half-way point. We might have to make that more of an occurrance.

Angie and her daughter, Olivia.

This is Connor, he'll be 7 in January, and Ben. They had a great time together.

Thanks again for supper Alexander's! Hope to see you again soon! You're welcome to head North at any time. We'd love to have ya!

What we've been up to

Well since I last wrote, Ben was sick with a cold/strep throat.

Then the mom, ME, who is NEVER to get sick...well I did. And it was a big one. For 8 days, I was down and out. This eight day timeframe included two trips to the hospitial for I.V.'s/fluids, anti-nausia meds, morphine for pain, and then some other med for pain. All my bloodwork was normal, but I was one sick mommy. (And no I'm not pregnant...for all those who are skeptic.) Jay Dee said he'd never seen me so sick and he didn't ever want me to be that way again. After further thinking and talking with friends, I think I've come up with a diagnosis....E. Coli. Or some form of food poisoning. It was nasty and I hope I never have it again. And here's the sad thing, I think I figured out where I got it. From sauerkraut. It is the one thing that I love that the rest of the family, especially Jay Dee, can't stand. So during harvest I always make sure I have some. Well it was the last day of harvest (the thursday before I got sick on friday), and I remembered that I had had my dose of sauerkraut yet. So I pulled out a can for lunch along with a hotdog. I thought it tasted different, but figured it was the hotdogs because we had changed brands. Well it wasn't now that I think back. I KNOW it was the sauerkraut. And that's a big bummer for me. Not sure I'll ever be able to eat it again.

And now, both the kids are sick. They both have coughs and fevers. We're headed to the clinic today to try and figure out what's going on. I think its just the good ol' winter cold, but we'll see.