Now the other side

I posted Christmas photos from the Heubner side, so now I have to do justice to the Trunnell side.
If you didn't know, Amber is a horse nut. She has clothing with horses on it, likes to paint horses, make horse, anything horses. So she was very excited to get this horse barn with a couple of horses from Grandma Muffie and Grandpa Mark. I think that Grandma B gave her some horses. (She also got a couple of horses from her parents).

Ashley got a doll, similiar to the American girl. She had a bed and wardrobe with clothes in it. I don't think she has let go of her yet. :)

Addie got a Little People A to Z zoo. It has 26 animals that make their sounds as well as say what letter they start with.

Alex got the engine to his train. He had the zebra, so grandma gave him the giraffe engine with the elephant and monkey. If you push the right button it will move around the room. He was very excited by that.

Just a few presents..

Oh yeah, just a few! Ha! Ha! Well, every year Bill and I discuss that our kids have so much and that our family is so blessed, and yet every year they all get so much for Christmas presents. Now let me say, this year I think we did better than ever at not ending up with just silly stuff and each one received something that they really, really wanted and would actually use. But we still always look at everything and ask ourselves, do we really need all of this? So if any of you have some cool things that you do each year to help your kids with this idea, I would love to hear them. We do have the kids go through their stuff every year and we do give a lot of the nicely used things to goodwill or garage sale them.
Anyhow, these are a couple of things that the munchkins got.
Alex got a walker/rider from Grandma Kris and Grandpa Frank. We really didn't think that he would be able to do this very well since he has just started walking around the coffee table and walking up and down the side of the couch. But surprisingly he did very well, only one fall. And he loved it. Bill couldn't get a picture of his face because he kept turning, but he was grinning from ear to ear.

Addie waited all Christmas for this present: a watch. At our family Christmas, and the Trunnell Christmas she didn't get it, and when she was asked if she got everything she wanted, she would say, well, I really want a watch. Aunt Sara came through and gave her a cool watch that opens up, although today she hasn't worn it because she doesn't like it on her arm. :) Kinda funny!

Amber and Ashley received several neat things, but they also had a shared present for the two of them. Aunt Sara bought them Design World. This is a game that you hook up to your TV and you design your own world (imagine that!). They were both thrilled and Aunt Sara even thought about the batteries, so we were able to have it up and running that night. So far we haven't heard any disagreements about whose turn it is, or who got to do this last time.

Our Christmas

This was Alex's first Christmas. He really enjoyed opening up presents, especially tearing the wrapping paper. I don't think that he really cared about the present underneath the paper, he just liked the sound the paper made when he tore it.

Alex had his big surgery today (circumcision). He was at the hospital at 6:30 AM and we left about 10:00 AM. He was in surgery about 45 minutes and everything went well. He did not like coming out of the anestethia at all. He cried for about 25 minutes straight. The nurse said that most children are disoriented and confused and don't know why they feel weird. They gave him some morphine to help him calm down and he finally slept about 10 minutes until the doctor came to check on the stitches. We got him home and he ate another bottle and then I rocked him to sleep and he slept for about 3 1/2 hours. This afternoon and evening he has been crawling around and playing, pretty normal appetite and attitude. Just as long as nobody touches his bottom.

Healthy

We are all healthy at our house now, and that is something to be thankful for. Alex had a bout with the stomach flu and spent 4-5 days with horribly bad diapers. Up the back, out the sides, out the front - it was all bad! Other than the bottle, he wouldn't take anything. Which was really frustrating because we have been working really hard to have him gain weight and I know he has gained about 4-5 pounds since coming home. I was worried that in 5 days he would lose what took us months to put on. Bill says that I have issues with food, because when we were dating and he would come to my parents house my mother and grandmother would always want to know if he needed something to eat?...to drink?...anything? :) He says that I am a food pusher like my mother and grandmother. I don't think that is true at all. I mean, just because I give Alex food when he fusses, whimpers, moans, blinks, sniffs, and breathes, doesn't mean I am a food pusher!! :) Ha! Ha!
So now we are back to normal, or whatever it is that we are everyday. We are looking forward to a nice Christmas break. We get out of school next Thursday at 2:30 and we go back Jan. 3rd. We have a couple of projects that we want to get done, but I think we will have several days to just relax and hang out at home. This will probably drive Bill crazy, since he would rather be going and doing instead of sitting and relaxing.
Sunday we will be having our church Christmas program. Everyone is involved, Bill and I have to say part of the Christmas Story. Amber and Ashley have some parts in the little kid program and Addie has to say one line with Ty, her good buddy and partner in crime (he went to the old babysitter with us). I am sure that will be very interesting. If anyone would like to come it is at 6:30 pm. No obligations however. I am glad though that we are doing this before Christmas week. I don't know, but the older I get the more I am irritated when things interfere with family time during the holidays. I don't like the scheduled programs that require the family to choose, do we go to the program or stay home as a family and create a special tradition that way. I much prefer Christmas time with the family at home, enjoying each other's company. Sara, you would approve of this I am sure.
Well, we are off to a basketball game tonight. Alex has done very well at the last two games. He has lasted through both varsity girls and boys games. He rather enjoys the noise and activity and just sits and watches everything on mom and dad's lap.
Have a safe weekend!

I have updated my blog to the beta-blogger. I hope that this works, since I cannot see the changes I made today yet, I am a little worried. I guess that I will have to wait until tomorrow and then see if it worked.
Oh well!

I Know it has been a long time

There are so many days that I think about posting, but so many of them, I end up doing something a little more important. You know, work, laundry, feeding people...:)
I have a couple of fun picutres for you to look at. Ashley has recently lost her third tooth. It is her second top tooth. She told me that now she could sing "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth", for real. She now talks with a little lisp and when she starts a sentence, there is usually a little click, from her tongue hitting the empty space. It is very cute.


Both Amber and Ashley signed up at school to help the high school cheerleaders during a home basketball game. They were picked for last night's game. They arrived at 4:00 pm. at the gym and met the cheerleaders. They had their hair done, makeup done, and learned some of the new cheers. They got to practice using the big signs too. The cheerleaders gave them supper and then had powerade and popcorn for them during breaks. We went to the game last night to watch them and take pictures. It was great! They would come out on the court during time-outs and halftime and use the big signs and hold them up for the crowd. Ashley told me at one break that this cheerleading stuff is very neat, it's a lot of fun to do AND it gives you lots of great excersice. She thought those were two important things in an activity. I have a feeling that Ashley might be a cheerleader someday, to the dismay of her father. :) Although Amber had a great time too.


Alex is really growing. He is scooting all over the house. A couple of times I have seen him up on hands and knees and couple of days ago, he took a few steps with his hands and then went down on his belly. The other night we were doing laundry (Bill and I) and Alex decided to crawl over to us. He went under my legs and put his head right in the corner of the basket. He laid there and cried and cried. I am not sure if he thought he was stuck, or if he was mad that he couldn't move the basket with his head, but he wouldn't move back or turn around for the longest time. He just stayed there and cried. A minute or two later he turned himself around and crawled away. :) What a goofball!


Addie has decided that she is a big girl and the other day had to wear a real necklace. Not a children's bead necklace, or a necklace that would light up, but one of Ashley's "real" necklaces that has an A on it. She was very pleased and said, Mommy take a picture of me, so she posed. Addie is really becoming a big girl, but definitely still has moments of being a little girl.

I'm on a roll!

Well I have had this picture for a while, but I saw it and it made me laugh. Addie decided that when the leaves were falling that she needed to pick one for mommy and bring it home and "keep" it. So she put the leaf in her water bottle and set it on our table like the centerpiece. When she went back to the babysitters house the next day she brought home another leaf form mommy and added it to the water bottle. Every so often Addie would climb up on a chair and look at her leaves and talk about how they were doing. I finally had to tell her that the leaves had died and needed to go.

This is Ashley during her mayonnaise treatment. All we need now is some sandwich meat, pickles and bread!


This is Amber after being treated with special shampoo. She needs to wait 10 minutes and then we could rinse and starting combing out. What fun!

Okay, so it's been a while..

since I posted. But I really have good intentions. There are several times in my day that I think to myself, "I should blog about this." But I am usually at work, and lately it has been very busy for me during school. Home is the same way, always things to do.
So let me tell you about our latest fun experience. We had LICE!!!! Oh yes, and it was so much fun! We came home from school at lunch time on Monday. First we got to clean everything in our house that was fabric or carpet. Bill vaccumed, I did the shampoo treatment to Ashley. After vaccuming all the carpet, Bill went on to vaccum the couches and chairs and the car interior. Next came pulling all the bed sheets, mattress pads, comforters, shams, pillowcases, pillows, blankets, etc. and washing and drying everything. Stuffed animals, coats, hats, mittens, scarves, the backpack...everything. You can't imagine the piles of things waiting to go through the dryer or washer. Now you might be tempted to feel sorry for poor Bill, who is steadfastly gather things into piles. But I, Katie was having the best time of all. What is that, you ask?? I got the exciting job of treating Ashley's head with special shampoo ($5 per bottle), scrubbing, rinsing, combing out with the large comb and then starting and finishing the task of searching for hatched lice and their eggs (nits). Can it get any better? Oh yes, it does.
While I am treating and combing and picking (with a fine tooth comb, provided with the shampoo) I get to pull out still moving lice, and squish them. Ashley of course is keeping count of how many hatched ones we find. This is better than any game would could have bought. (Of course I am lying) This part of our process takes about 2 1/2 hours. But we are not done yet, oh no, that wouldn't be enough fun. Now after we have picked everything out that was killed off by the shampoo, we have to smear her head with mayonnaise to kill anything else (supposedly it suffocates anything left). We wrap her head in plastic wrap and sit for 1 hour. Then we can rinse out, wash with dish soap, and then wash with regular shampoo. This helps take the grease out. This concludes a fun four hour afternoon. We stayed up washing and drying things until 10:30 pm. When Amber and Addie came home, they also got to have the fun shampoo treatment and comb out, but didn't have to have the mayonnaise because they didn't have any lice or eggs, but we treated just to be sure. :)
Let me tell you, I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy, and if I could I would've just shaved her head, but Ashley told us no to that idea. Hopefully this is the last we will ever see of them. And for all of you coming to Thanksgiving, we will be treating again on Monday next week, just to be sure we killed everything off. So rest easy, we should be bug free when we come. :) Or so you hope!

Moving About

Alex has discovered that he can get just about anywhere he wants to in the family room. And one place he ends up quite a bit is under the coffee table. Usually this doesn't bother him, and he can go under and come back out all on his own, but he hasn't been feeling well, (ear infection-still not cleared up, tooth coming in, 4 shots Tuesday night) so when he gets under there he gets a little irritated, and usually bangs his head. He has figured out how to open the drawer from underneath the table. It is quite funny to see.

3 wheeler

Addie and Grandma Muffie road together.


Amber rode again, this time with Len running along next to her. At one point Amber did try to flip him over the handle bars-I'm sure not on purpose. Right??


Amber and Len, after she failed at flipping him-he really got his excercise today.

Don't I feel old...

watching Amber ride on our old yellow three-wheeler! Amber decided to try the 3 wheeler while we were over for birthdays in Cedar Falls, but once on realized there were a lot of cars around and didn't want to continue. Grandma Muffie decided to give Addie a try and rode with her into the backyard away from the cars. Addie ended up driving the 3 wheeler all by herself, with grandma running along next to her. Grandpa put a governor sp?? on the 3 wheeler so it can't go that fast. At times it actually has to be pushed up the hills. So Amber decided to come back out and take a turn and ended up doing really well. Len ran along side her and she could brake and accelerate just fine. She did slam on the brakes once and just about had Len going over top of her, but he managed to not take her off the 3 wheeler. I have photos and I will post them when I get a chance. It was very entertaining. And very hard to believe that Jim and I were really small enough to both ride that thing at the same time!

Down Time

This is the first weekend in a long time that we will have true down time. Bill is finally done with football, so that means that Saturday and Sunday he will be around. We do have our church's Mission's Conference this weekend, and Bill is in charge of that since he is the Mission Board President, but that really just means being there 15-30 minutes early. The girls have been done with soccer for a couple weeks now. That is not something that I miss. You know I really thought that when our kids got into school that I would want them to be involved...sad to say, but I would sometimes rather they didn't want to be involved. This year Amber really wanted to play soccer, and Ashley was okay with it, but after they got started, Ashley was very irritated with her mother. At one point in the season (which is only 6 weeks long) she says to me, "mommy, you never ASKED me if I wanted to play soccer!" I guess she thought this reasoning would allow her to quit. :) But now we are finally done with that, Bill is around and we actually will have some down time to be with family. Although, today that time may be in front of the TV watching college football. Well, at least we are all at home!

Our Princess

Our Vet

Our Tiger

Trick or Treating

I took the girls trick or treating last night. We had a wonderful time, despite the cold weather. Thankfully, the wind died down and this year there was no rain. Addie was very excited about this year. She really understood what was going on. I'm sure you can tell from her picture that she was very ready to go get some candy. Daddy and Alex stayed home and handed out candy. This year we didn't have as many kids come around, but this was the first year that I actually bought enough candy, so now we have a whole bowl just sitting on the counter. My bad timing I guess. Next year, I think that all four may be coming with mom. That will be fun. Dad will either hand out candy or be busy with football. We will see.

Carving Pumpkins

Well, tonight we did our annual "Mommy Carve the Pumpkins" night. This basically starts with everyone eager to dive in and try once again to clean out their own pumpkins. Even though each year before, after viewing the insides of the pumpkin and feeling the initial slimy guts, they chicken out. This year was really no different. Although Amber did make a valiant attempt at cleaning out the majority of slime and guts, and Ashley tried her best to get each seed out. But Ashley was adamant that she would not touch "that stuff" inside, and used her spoon to pick out seeds. Very funny to watch! I actually enjoy carving the pumpkins. It is something in our family that mommy does. I usually have the girls give me an idea of what they want it to look like. We draw the face with permanent marker beforehand and then try our best to make it happen. Each year we come up with something new. Last year we made the eyes look a little better by trying to keep the "eyeball" part in them. That is kinda hard to explain. Anyhow, we had a lot of fun tonight, and I thought I would let you see how they all turned out. In case you are wondering, I did Alex's for him. He hasn't gotten to telling me shapes, and facial features yet. Ha!
(Oh, by the way, we are doing well with the ear infection. Still very happy. Actually, I was really surprised that he had one, since he really isn't that crabby.)
Happy Halloween! (soon)

Yet another appointment!

This is Amber's picture from Homecoming. She was the crown bearer. She was very excited about the whole thing. Bill and I were gone in Guatemala so grandma Muffie filled in for mommy and fixed our hair and took us to the school for pictures and all that stuff. Don't you think she looks so grown up? 8 years going on 18 I think!
We had Alex's 1 year checkup today. It was the never-ending appointment. We actually went early and ran into Walmart beforehand to get a few things. When we checked in it was 9:55. When we walked into the exam room it was 11:00!! We sat in the waiting room for an hour. AAAHHH! Evidently they had an emergency-someone had collapsed at school. So we waited and waited and waited. Addie played with some toys and then we read some books. Then we looked at the fish tank (and she saw Nemo) and drew on the whiteboard for fun. After all of that we still weren't in and all of us, including me were a little antsy. So we get back into the exam room and our doctor comes in and checks everything out. We have the beginning of an ear infection in our left ear. I wondered about this last night when he was putting his finger INTO his ear. Usually Alex likes to play with his ears, but this time was different. So we didn't get our immunizations and the flu shot, we will wait until we go back for the ear recheck. That way we don't mask any symptoms.
Today is an early out at school. The girls get to come home at 2:30 but Bill has in-service so he must stay. We have AWANAs tonight. I have been trying to have the girls work on their verses a little bit every day so that it isn't such a panic on Wednesday. "Mom, we forgot to memorize verses!!" Ha! Ha! But, so far we have only gotten to looking at them on Monday and Tuesday night. But that is better than nothing. It is amazing to me how much they have to learn when they are Amber's age. Jennifer, you can relate to this with Cannon. It is quite a bit of information to remember. I am a little concerned that Ashley will get really frustrated. She finds that all a bit overwhelming.
Well, guess what?? I just heard from my brother that he got a job!!!! Yeah Tyler!!! He is going to be working at Younkers as a sales associate. I am so happy for him and proud of him that he found something. Now, we just need to have him pass that test. Come on Tyler!!!
Well, I need to get something done before the girls get home. I feel like I have been gone the whole day at the doctor's office and nothing has gotten done at home. Maybe I will do laundry, doesn't that sound like fun??

Aren't you impressed...

that I am still blogging? Well, so far I have remembered, but I sure that I will forget sometime. Today was pretty normal. Alex, Addie and I went to the babysitters house. We are trying to get Alex used to going to her house since Monday will be my first day back to school. We have been going over for about 2 weeks now. He is doing really well, and yesterday and today I left him there for a little while with Addie and the other kids that are there. It was probably about an hour and 15 minutes today and he did really well. He ate pudding today, a whole cup of vanilla, and no fussing for Cheryl (the sitter). We consider that pretty good, since in the beginning he really wanted nothing to do with her. I think that he will do really well with her.
Bill's football season is winding down. For those who don't know, Bill is no longer coaching at Hubbard-Radcliffe. This year the school decided to whole-grade share the football team with Eldora-New Providence, since next school year we will whole-grade share our 6-12 academic programs. So Bill was left with being an assistant to the head coach at Eldora-New Providence, and that really didn't sit well. He has been a head football coach for so long, that it was going to be difficult to go back to being someone's assistant, especially with his own football players. This past spring he had an offer from Ellsworth Community College up in Iowa Falls, to come coach with them. He jumped at the chance just to see what college was like and if this is something that we would like to pursue. Their season hasn't been stellar, but they have won several games. Their last regular game is this Saturday against NIACC I think. If they win they will play in the playoffs, with a record of 5-5 (I think). If they lose, then they are just done for the year. It has definitely been a learning experience for our family and Bill, one that I am glad that we got to have-especially without moving.
Here are a couple of pictures of the girls with Alex. They love doting on him-sometimes to the point of driving him crazy, especially Addie. But most of the time he loves the attention.

It's a Miracle...

I am posting for a second time. Now, what some of you will find funny is that I haven't told any of my family about my blog. I am actually blogging in secret, as we speak. Why, you ask? Because I really don't want to start something like this and let everyone know and then fail miserably a day or two later. Hence, the secrecy. So I guess by the time my family actually reads this, it will be old news, but new to them.
Life is pretty slow today for a Sunday. Although I do have a paper to write due tomorrow that I am procrastinating on. For those of you that don't know, I am currently working on my master's degree in teaching, soon to be done in May 2007. This is my second to last semester and I am very excited about being done soon. At this point, my class is sometimes just another thing to do on my very long list. It is just another reason to think wishfully of summer vacation. My class will be done, the school year over, and we will have lots of free days and family time.
Well, the kids are all somewhat occupied, so I really should go and work on my paper. So long, farewell. (think "The sound of music")
Katie

So I finally broke down...

and I have decided to try to blog for my family. I am however putting a disclaimer on this blog- I am horrible at keeping on top of these kind of things and so I cannot guarantee the frequency of my posts.
So what has been going on in our lives...
We have been very busy. We just got back a couple of weeks ago from Guatemala- we adopted a little boy (Alex) and have been home for about 2 1/2 weeks now. Alex is adjusting well and very attached to mommy. I have to return to work in another week and a half, so we are transitioning to the babysitter, who lives just down the street from us.
I am really looking forward to Thanksgiving...hoping to see a lot of family, go to a good movie, and have fun just hanging out and talking.
Well, I will stop now. I am quite a rambler, and I don't think I want to start that now.
Oh, but before I go, I will tell you that these are a couple pictures of Alex-he is really a very happy kid.