A Brave Little Girl

Our brave little girl Emie had her tonsils and adenoids taken out during surgery on Friday @ St. Paul Childrens Hospital. Emie has had some swallowing and breathing issues and after seeing a specialist last fall - one of the main causes is that she had VERY large tonsils. She would aspirate and have trouble swallowing and choke and she was such a good sport about it - but we think this surgery will give her a huge improvement in eating, breathing and just being a normal little girl.



Everyone at St. Paul Childrens was so pleasant, helpful and caring - it was really a good experience. Emie and I (dad) got to spend the night there last night and other than being woken up every 3 hours for meds - it wasn't too bad a night. She hit the popsicles and ice cream pretty hard yesterday and this morning.

We got home around 10:00 AM this morning and she is doing well. She will be sore for a few days; and probably not see much school this week - but it won't be long and she will be back to 100% again.

We love our Emie :)

Goldy & Gill

The girls bought Pepper the makings of a goldfish tank for Christmas. One bought food, one bought colored rock and another a plant to go into the tank. I salvage an odd shaped beaker from the garbage at work and presto - a fish tank. Last Saturday morning, Pepper, Katie, Poppa Lind and I drove up to Wal-Mart and spent $.68 to get 2 little goldfish.

Pepper has called his Goldy - which happens to be the same name that Franklin (the turtle, from the book series) named his. Sam is to name the other one - but so far names have not been forthcoming - so I have named him Gill. We'll see if it sticks. We now have 3 cats and 2 fish as a start to our zoo.

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas. We ended up staying home for the holidays and just enjoyed time together and seeing Christmas through the eyes of our kids; which is one of the best ways to observe Christmas. Even thought it is New Years Day - today; we still have a few remnants of Christmas left; the tree will come down today and we had our Christmas with Poppa Lind last night, which was great fun. A few photos.

Whose Been Naughty and Who has Been Nice

The girls and I headed for Forest Lake Wal-Mart today to do some Christmas shopping. It is great fun to shop with them - they have so many great ideas about what to get their mom and brothers. We started in the toys - mostly looking for them - then moved on to the food stuff - where you can always find something good to wrap up; and then back into electronics and then off to toys again to wrap up. The whole thing takes a couple of hours - and then is always capped off with a trip to McDs to eat and play.

We had a good day. Katie started the day as a pirate.

Santa Day

One of our holiday traditions has been the annual Imation kids Christmas breakfast - they do a really nice job of serving a great breakfast - catered by the Lake Elmo Inn and have photos w/ Santa, caricatures, decorating ornaments and other fun stuff. Today was no exception - but for the first time - we only had 5 of the 7; Daniel and Andrew opted to stay overnight w/ their friend Zach - so missed the festivities. We had a great breakfast, saw where daddy worked and played in his office and also had our picture taken with Santa - after that - we shopped for 2 hours for shoes - and bought 3 pairs of boots and 3 pairs of new tennis shoes for 3 little girls.

What are you thankful for?

We made a spur of the moment decision - actually a few days ahead of time, but for us - 72 hours counts as spur of the moment. My brother and family were going to be at mom and dad's for Thanksgiving and we did not have any firm plans here, everyone was healthy and it was supposed to be Sept nice - so we decided to load everyone up and make a trip to IA for Thanksgiving. We had a great time - and we are so thankful for our family and all that we have been blessed with.

When we came home last night - Katie wanted to do some drawing - so she sketched what was on her mind. This is Nana, Poppa and Katie. Most days, Katie is a handful from sun up to sun down - but there is a sweetness about her and a recognition that she was thankful for her grandparents. Once in a while she talks about her Baba in Ukraine who would see her and give her bananas and crackers. I am so thankful that she and Emie are part of our family as well.

Pepper

Our son David asked us (about a month ago) to start calling him Pepper - instead of David. We are trying to get converted - and in fact today, we started a jar - if we call him David or Davey instead of Pepper - we owe him a nickel. He has picked up the habit of saying "Duh" - so we charge him a nickel what that word is spoken - (a little too much for a 4 year old to end his sentences with a "duh" - so that is how it goes.

Today he went out with Sam and Mom to the great land of Target and came home with some nice "Pepper-wear".

Enjoy the winter Pepper!!