Another busy week!

I am sure you have all been checking the mail daily wondering "Where is that Christmas card from The Dwinells???" Ha- just kidding! But just in case you have been anxiously awaiting- I took them to the post office this morning! Yea! Check that one off the list!

This week has been another busy one! Monday I worked at home getting a lot of "work" stuff done. Tuesday I had meetings in Dallas all day with my boss and my technology specialist. Fun times! Wednesday I took Addyson up to Chelsea's school. Chelsea teaches Kindergarten and OMG- her classroom is so cute and her kiddos are so lucky to have such an awesome teacher!
Addyson had the best time! She loved playing "Kindergarten" and pretending like she was in school. While we were there the class had centers, lunch and recess. Addyson played with all the kids and went to recess with them. They were all so funny playing with her. She was the fun new kid in the class for the day! Thanks Chelsea for letting us come up and play!

Later that afternoon Addyson and I played Santa for a little while and dropped off some presents to a family that we had adopted this Christmas. We adopted them with Chelsea and Nick and it feels really good to give to others and do something nice for a complete stranger who is in need. It absolutely breaks my heart when I think of kids who don't have toys, a home, clothes, etc.

Thursday Addyson and I had dentist appointments! Fun times! She loved it again (thankfully!) and was mad when her turn was up. She wanted to go again! That's about the best case scenario you could ask for! I love it that she is not afraid of doctors and new situations. This helps a lot!

Playing doctor...

Picture of Addyson at Vanessa's house! She loves this little snoopy!

Today is my catch up day. I need to catch up on a few work things, get my oil changed in my car (way overdue!!), wrap some presents, etc. Tonight Ryan and I are supposed to go to Del Frisco's for dinner. Yummy!! Love that place! Have a good Friday!

Crazy, busy, fun filled week!

Starting last Wednesday I had a full schedule!! Wednesday night I had neighborhood bunco. No pics of that, but it was fun! I won 2 prizes!! Thursday night we had a girls high school Christmas get-together. It was so fun to see these girls that I used to spend every day with! We had a fun time catching up!

Here is half of the table at Chuy's! Despite the noise, it was great! ;) JOKING!!

Other half! You can't see little Landry by Sara but she is there. So cute!!
Me and Katie

Kelsey and Jennifer (Kelsey came in from San Diego which prompted this get together. Thanks for organizing Kelsey!!)

Jennifer, Kim and Me at Kwanza night at the piano bar! We stayed for about 3 minutes then high tailed it outta there!! We then ventured over to BlackFinn, which wasn't much better! We did have a good time talking, people watching, etc! Fun times!!

Friday morning came and it was play date time!! We all met with our kiddos over at Abbey's Playtown in Grand Prairie. It was fun. My camera died after about 10 minutes so I don't have many pics! Addyson in the trampoline- and no I didn't tell her to pose like this!

The baby bin!! Ben, Colton and Ellington- all within a month or so of each other! Ben was the toy stealer....

Addy on the roller coaster! Wee!

Friday night I had a girls Kappa Christmas party- again, no camera, but super fun times! We met at Fireside Pies in Grapevine and had a gift exchange. It was good catching up with those girls!

Saturday was Holiday in the Park day. It was cold and very crowded but we had a great time!

MiMi and Addy Tate

Me and my baby girl! Nana watched Ben for the night!

So Ryan had been talking up roller coasters all week to Addyson and being the dare devil, not afraid of anything girl that she is, she was SUPER excited to ride all the big rides. The height requirement is 42 inches and this is the first year she met that. Shock Wave was first on the list or "the one with the loop-d-loops" as she called it! Here they are standing in line!

Me and LeeAnn were a bit nervous that our babies were riding the upside down roller coaster!

And the verdict is......FUN!!! Addyson loved it and couldn't wait to get back on! All smiles!

A quick stop to hug Frosty!

We actually only rode 4 rides- Shock Wave, Mine Train (which Addyson informed me was very boring and not very fast after riding Shock Wave), bobsled (loved that one!) and Judge Roy Scream (my personal fav!). The lines were so long that by the time we rode those, ate some dinner and played some games, it was time to go home! During the Judge Roy Scream Addyson was screaming out at the top of her lungs (while arms were in the air!), "MOM, I LOVE ROLLERCOASTERS!!!" It was pretty funny!

Ryan has conditioned Addyson that he will win her a prize if she wants one..... so of course, we couldn't stop by the games without daddy winning her a stuffed animal. Seriously, we have like 500 of these things! This one was pretty cute though- Rudolph!

Playing games!

Six Flags was a super big hit this year- lots of fun now that she can ride the big rides!

Seriously 2 minutes later....she was OUT!

Sunday our across the street neighbor had Santa come to his house and also his reindeer! Yes, the real Santa and 2 of his real reindeer!! How cool is that! We went over to visit Santa and see Comet and Vixen.

Family pic!

Santa and his reindeer. They were so cute!

Vixen!

Okay, looks like the pic of Ben and Santa did not upload. He was not happy Sunday- he was super snotty and cried the whole time! After Santa we went over to Nana and Pops house to celebrate Ryan's birthday!

Whew! Doesn't all of that make you tired just reading it! It was a busy 5 days but lots of fun. It was actually this same weekend last year (full of the same non-stop events) that put me into early labor with Bennie Boo! Good thing he decided to stay put- but that sure was scary. We are so blessed and thankful that all of that turned out okay! Merry Christmas to you and yours and hope you have lots of fun happenings going on as well!

Christmas Cards!

It's that time of year again! Where exactly does the time go? Each year I say I will be more on top of getting my Christmas cards out and here it is, December 9th and I still don't have mine out the door! I did go to the Shutterfly website to pick out a card and they have some super cute ones! They have so many designs to choose from- oh where to start!

We just had family pictures made Thanksgiving weekend and are just now getting those back.....we had a group of 26 people from Ryan's family do a group pic. It actually turned out really good considering we had 26 of us and 8 of those were kids! Fun times!! It turned out to be a beautiful day and everything went as well as could be expected! No one was sick, screaming or refusing to get their picture taken which is all we could ask for!

Now, on to the Shutterfly site! So many choices- I like cards with a lot of pictures! It was easy to filter down that I wanted a 5 X 7 card, 5 pictures, etc. Just fill in the info and wa-la- it was done! Now off to get them mailed!

If you want to do your card at Shutterfly, it was super easy! Just go to www.shutterfly.com and you can look through all of the different designs! Have fun!!

Happy Birthday Ryan!

Today is Ryan's 31st birthday! It was pretty uneventful..... he had a work appointment this morning (as did I) and then we met for lunch. He came home and got some work done and I went to another school to pass out Christmas goodies to some of my professors. Fun times!

Tonight we had crab legs for dinner- it was really yummy!

And cookies for dessert...........yum yum!! Ryan didn't want a cake, much to my dismay. :)


Ryan did, however, buy himself a little b-day present. He has been wanting a golf cart for a while now. He is going to put in an seat in the back that folds down into a utility bench and there are a few other things he wants to do to it. He has been taking Addyson on Christmas light cruises at night around the neighborhood!

Ryan with his babies! Happy Birthday Ryan- we love you!

And he's out!

The other night I was giving Ben his bottle and he was fading fast.....he took one last little drink and then his head just fell and he started snooring. It was so sweet!! He snuggled up and was fast asleep.... I love moments like this! He doesn't really do that very often and I snuggled with him for a while before I changed him into jammies and put him to night night. Love my sweet boy!

He had milk all over his sweet little face- so cute!

The Cocoa Sisters

Tonight me and Addyson had some hot chocolate and some of our Christmas cookies for dessert. PLEASE do not look too closely at me in these pics- I am looking a little rough! Ha! Oh well! Addyson looks cute! It was a sweet little mommy/Addy moment. When we were sitting there Addyson gave me a big hug and a kiss and said, "Mom, we're the Cocoa Sisters!". It was cute!

Yummy!

Addyson has been really attached to mommy lately. I'm not complaining- I love every minute with this sweet little girl! (Ahem, unless it's at the doctors office with 50 other things going on, but other than that I'm loving it!)

Cookie Exchange!

On Sunday I hosted a cookie exchange at my house. It was a lot of fun! There were about 15 of us and everyone brought 3 dozen Holiday cookies. We all traded cookies and everyone took home a few of everyones cookies. Yummy!! I had some appetizers and some Christmas tea (that Jennifer came over and made!) Thanks for your help Jen Jen!

Marcy, Cristie and Jennifer

The cookie table!
Tammy and Julie

LeeAnn and Tiffany

Vicki, Tracy, Addyson, my mom, Maida and Helen. Cheryl must have been upstair for this pic!

We had a good time and now I have lots of yummy cookies in my kitchen! We all brought the cookie recipe as well and gave everyone copies of those too.

Doctors appt. gone bad!

Ben had his 9 month well check today. I say well check, but it ended up being a sick visit! Vanessa called me this afternoon and said Ben was being very fussy. We suspected teething and so she gave him some Tylenol. I picked him and Addyson up at 3:30 and off we went to see Dr. Sampson for his 4:00 9 month check up. I asked Addyson if she wanted to come with us or stay at Vanessas and of course, she wanted to come with me. She actually likes to go to the Doctor (esp when it's not for her!). I had the talk with her (as I always do) that this appointment is for Ben and mommy needs to be able to talk to Dr. Sampson. If you are going to come with me I am going to need for you to sit in the chair like a big girl and sit quietly. She always agrees and it never exactly goes as planned. :)

We actually got right back, which was nice! We got Ben all undressed and weighed him, length, temp, etc. When she took his temp it was 101! Okay- Ben is now sick! He has been fussy and long story short he has his first little ear infection. Poor Bennie! So, no flu shot today (it was supposed to be his second one). We went over all of the milestones. Here is what little Ben is up to:

Weight- 20.8 lbs (50th %)- he dropped a lot here- was 90th last time
Height- 28.5 inches (75%)
Head- 50%
Playing Peek-a-Boo
Waving Bye Bye
Clapping
Saying Mama, Dada (he correctly says both of those most of the time- when I walk into the room he'll say Mama and same with Ryan- very cute!), BaBa, GaGa- still working on sissy! :)
Loves his sissy by the way! Thinks she is pretty funny!
Loves to play with his toys
Crawling all over the place
Pulls up, stands, crusies on furniture some and over Thanksgiving he apparently even crawled up on the couch at Nana's house. Little stinker!
Takes 28-32 oz of Soy Formula per day
Eats baby food 3 times a day- likes pretty much everything
Still takes 2 naps a day
Sleeps from about 7:15ish at night to 7:00 AM

So, this might not sound like that bad of an appointment but it got worse! Addyson decided that she needed something every 2 seconds while we were in there. Of course right when Dr. Sampson got in there and we were talking she all the sudden had a super emergency pee pee attack. She started whining- Mom- I have to go potty- NOW, potty is coming out! I said- Addyson can you hold it- NOOOOO, mom, pee pee is about to come out. Geez! Dr. Sampson asked if she could go by herself and one of the nurses took her down the hall- she went by herself and so that was good. As far as sitting on the chair quietly, that didn't exactly happen either. So I was in the chair holding Ben as he was getting looked over and Addyson comes and is climbing on my back, trying to scoot in behind me and see what is going on with Ben. I didn't want to get on to her like I wanted to ;) but I was trying to ignore her/still have a conversation with the Doctor and that's not always the easiest thing.

One other concern with Ben is his pooping. All of the sudden the boy goes like 4 times a day! It started happening the day after his flu shot. He has always been more on the constipated side and would go every couple of days. Day after flu shot he started having these big blow outs out of no where.......Dr. Sampson says she doesn't think it is related to the flu shot but it is a weird coincidence if you ask me! Anyways, she wonders if he might all of the sudden be intolerant/allergic to soy. She said to try him on Nutramagen. She gave me some samples to try and I tried tonight and he would not take it at all. He is VERY picky on new tastes. Remember how long it took to go from Breastmilk to formula? So, not sure what we'll do about that. Any suggestions? And I'm not sure I think that is the problem either. I don't know either way what to think!

Then we had to get a finger prick. She pricked his finger, squeezed really hard and finally a little drop of blood came out. She got what she needed (everything was fine!) and put a bandaid on. Out the door I went- carrying Ben in his carrier (very heavy), 4 sample cans of formula, a prescription for antibiotic, my purse, Addyson's hand. You get the picture. I was overloaded! I scheduled 2 more appointments and headed to the car. Mind you I was also answering 50 questions from Addyson at the same time, telling her no more stickers, please don't talk until we are out of here, etc. I am sure all of you moms with more than one kid (or even one!) know what I'm talking about! I got to the car, pulled out of the spot and checked to make sure I had the prescription. No where to be found. I pulled back in, got out and went to the back seat to see if it was back there. I got to the backseat to find blood everywhere!!!! Ben's finger was gushing blood everywhere and it was all over his face, his car seat, his clothes, his pacie--everywhere! Ahhhh! Can't find the prescription- phone starts ringing- it's Dr. Sampson's office saying I left the prescription inside. I repark (luckily I was still in parking lot!), go inside, get tissues, bandaids and the prescription. Of course, meanwhile, Addyson is asking multiple millions of questions- Mom, what are we doing? Why is Ben bleeding? What are you looking for? Why did we repark? Where are you going? AHHHH! Chaos!

We finally got everything settled and I took the kids home, dropped them off and then went to Target all by MYSELF to get Ben's prescription filled. Did a little Christmas shopping and got home an hour later! Having 2 kids is very busy at times!!!!

I am so Thankful....

For these 2 precious little people! I love them so much words can't even describe! Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!

Boca Raton, 2010

A few weeks ago Ryan and I went on a trip to Boca Raton, FL. It was so much fun! Nice and relaxing and just the break we needed! It was Ryan's President's Club trip. They only took 4 people to PC this year (out of his division) and Ryan made it! I am so proud of him- he does really great at his job, always works hard and does his best. He is always honest, ethical and puts his customers first in his job and I think that goes a long way. Way to go Ryan!! I am very proud of you! And, of course, I love our yearly PC trip! :)

We were pretty busy during the trip- we had events planned every night and some stuff during the day. But I can't complain- my events during the day consisted of spa day, deep sea fishing and beach cabana day. Not too shabby! Here we are on our way out to sea!

Reeling in a big one! This was before I got sick! :)
Mahi!

Guess this pic is out of order....here is the big fish coming into the boat!

I ended up getting sick once- it was pretty rough out there. But after my little stint over the edge I actually felt better. It could have possibly been something to do with my 8:00 AM Miller Light too. Guess I was being tough guy and it came back to bite me! About half way through my beer I was thinking hmmmm, maybe that wasn't such a good idea!

Randy (Ryan's boss) with his big catch

Me and Ryan with a couple of our fish. Our deck hand said this was the smallest wahoo he has ever seen. Oh well! There were 5 of us on the boat and we caught 12 fish. Not bad!

One night we had the big awards night. It was nice!

The group we were running around with- fun people!

Ryan getting announced on stage for PC

Beach Cabana Day! Erik and Debby are from the Phoenix area. We had a fun time hanging out with them!

Ahh- beach day. My idea of relaxing! We had butler service with yummy drinks and food all day- fun times!

The last night we had a dinner cruise on this boat. It was nice! We went up and down the intercoastal waterway- got to see some SUPER nice houses on the water!We met some nice people from Canada- me and this girl, Holly, had so much in common. She has 2 kids the same age as us and we got to talking and had a lot more in common. We hung out with them more towards the end of the trip! She is still on maternity leave and her baby is 9 months old- in Canada they get 1 year (paid!) for maternity leave!

We were, of course, very glad to come home to our sweet babies! They stayed with my mom and Ryan's mom and we appreciate them soooooo much for taking over and keeping them while we were gone! Thank you mom and mama Cheryl! We love you!