Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving at the DeBeikes house in Thousand Oaks, and it was a full house! We had almost all of the family (including two dogs) staying under one roof, making it chaotic but loads of fun! Poor James had croup the entire time and was coughing like crazy and kept getting fevers, but he was distracted and had a blast playing with everyone.


We went to see Breaking Dawn, where I had to keep my eyes closed during the birth scene. Other than that, I liked it. We also built gingerbread houses, visited the Grove, and kept James from destroying their entire house. Thank goodness for baby gates! We had a delicious Thanksgiving feast and then an amazing breakfast the next morning with Margie's dad, Jim. I'm still full!




We had a great holiday!

Exciting News!

Yesterday, James and I went to my 20-week check-up and ultrasound. The ultrasound tech was actually a parent of one of my favorite students when I taught! It was super fun catching up with her, because that school year I had her daughter we talked all of the time!

Baby is looking very healthy and measuring right on target, which was definitely great to hear. The other exciting news is that we are having a girl!! I had seriously thought it was a girl, but was afraid to say anything because I didn't want to jinx it! We are extremely excited, and look forward to having a cute, calm, easy-going, calm, adorable, CALM girl! Heavenly Father wouldn't give me two very high-spirited children in a row....would he?

Eye Update

Last week we had to go in for another exam under anesthesia to get a good look at James's eye. This is because he will NOT hold still while awake, and the doc can't get a decent reading on his progress. After being there for over 4 hours for just a 15 minute procedure, we learned that his eye is healing wonderfully from the cataract surgery, with minimal scar tissue. Dr. Dries said that he rarely sees progress like this! We also learned that his astigmatism is now worse by double, which means back to get his glasses prescription changed. He still has to patch his other eye for 2 hours a day to help the "laziness" of the bad eye. Patching and glasses wear is getting more and more challenging. James is on to all of my little tricks, and screams bloody murder while I try to patch his eye. He still has to wear the arm restraints or he pulls everything off, but the restraints just make him more miserable. I basically detest the first 2 hours of my day because of this ordeal! At least his eye is healing well, and hopefully soon he'll be adjusted to wearing his glasses all day. Hopefully he won't have to go under anesthesia again for awhile because I am getting extremely annoyed with the whole process. They always run at least an hour late, and coping with a miserable, starving toddler during that time is no fun!

On a separate note, we went to a check-up for his hearing and tubes placement, and he is now hearing every sound perfectly, with no muffling! The tubes are doing their job and look fantastic! James is already trying to say more things, and it's been so cute! Yay for good news!

Halloween Festivities

We have had an eventful couple of weeks! We have been thoroughly enjoying ourselves this Halloween season, and it's been more fun this year than ever now that James is a little older. We celebrated by going to Cornbelly's and going through the maze, eating cotton candy and kettle corn, going on the hay ride, and letting James just run around. We even got a wagon to pull James around in, although he was hellbent on throwing himself out of it when we were going full speed through the fields.



The following day we got together with Elaina and Daniel again. We spent the night eating Jack-O-Lantern pizza, making caramel apples, carving pumpkins, roasting pumpkin seeds,and watching Harry Potter 3. It was such a fun night! Are we terrible parents though for doing this after we put our kids to bed? :)




Last week James and I went to Chris's Halloween work party. They had lots of fun games and rooms for kids to play in, even though James is still pretty young for them. It was fun to see where Chris works and to meet some of his coworkers.

Then just last night was actual Halloween night! We celebrated by eating Beanie Weenies, watching Hocus Pocus, and going Trunk-or-Treating with Elaina and Daniel! I was a gypsy (for the 3rd or 4th year in a row), James was a hobo, and Chris was Wolverine. He even grew his hair out for the occasion and was quite proud of it! Someone even wanted a picture of him last night because they thought he looked so cool.




We had a fantastic Halloween season and woke up this morning to perfect fall weather, great for welcoming in Thanksgiving!

Tubes

In early October, James went in and finally got tubes in his ears! It was the easiest surgery we have had - it only lasted 15 minutes! The hardest thing by far was waiting the extra hour they delayed us with a starving child. It is really hard to keep him contained, and we were at our wits end by the end of the morning! Besides that and his fussiness after waking up from surgery, it was an easy day! There was literally zero recovery, he just needed Tylenol once that day and has been fine since. In the last month, I've noticed his hearing has improved and he is slowly starting to say more words, although still somewhat unrecognizable. I have hope though! If nothing else, I am just so glad he won't have as many ear infections as we are getting into the winter season.

In the waiting room watching Hercules.

Playing before his surgery. He was very upset and kept trying to steal the other kids' toys!



After surgery, he was extremely fussy from his hunger and finally calmed down with two glasses of apple juice and a cherry slushee. That and Disney Junior was on the TV....so a good combination.


We go in this week to have his hearing and ears tested again! Hope it's good news!

Overdue Wedding Pics

Well, it's been 7 years and Chris and I have finally put up wedding pictures in our house. Is there a word that means MORE than pathetic? That would be us. I found our favorite pics from our wedding day and scanned them onto my computer to then print off. It was really fun going through the pictures from our special day, and Chris and I really enjoyed looking at how different we are now! 7 years and 1 (and a half...) kid later! Here are our favorites: