I LOVE my "in-laws"...Thanksgiving, continued...

The word "in-law" has a negative connotation with most people, but certainly not with me! I LOVE my in-laws like I was born into their family! This Thanksgiving was spent with tons of Axelson in-laws, not only for Turkey Day, but for Nanny and Da Axelson's 60th Anniversary celebration! We spent Thanksgiving morning baking and cooking at Heidi and Aarron's house (The men actually contributed GREATLY! Thanks hubbies!), before joining the whole crowd for a late Turkey Dinner at the Axelson homestead!

Alison, making her famous banana cream pies...YUM...

Heidi and Josh makin' the rolls...

I don't have any pics of the actual dinner, but we stayed in the local Hampton Inn that night and got ready the next morning to take family pictures...always a blast! I had made matching shirts for the girls and me, so we were the "maroon" part of the family...

Here's one of them getting ready! As you can see, Phoebe was pleased as punch to be held tightly around the neck by her big sis, but she sure looked cute with her miniature pig tails!!!

Pictures were made at Furman University. Such a beautiful campus and a lovely lake area!!! Abby looked so grown up posing for me!

And Sweet Phoebe is definitely a daddy's girl!

I took this one! It's obviously not the best, but I couldn't resist Will's pose (all the way to the right!)

This picture just cracks me up! I have no idea what Josh was laughing at, but I love Dad's expression, Mom's squinty smile and the tilt of Alison's head!!! So cute! Just such a happy picture!

I wanted to put one of the whole gang on, but I think the file is way too large! Maybe I'll try again when I'm patient enough to wait. Aren't families great?

And one of those pics became our Christmas card!!!! Merry Belated Christmas everyone!!! More to come...

Grove Park Inn Gingerbread Competition

Thanksgiving was so fantastic this year!!! We started out the fun with a trip to Asheville, where we visited the annual Gingerbread House Competition at the Grove Park Inn. Our nieces, Madilyn and Zoie, decided to enter a gingerbread house in the youth category this year and their theme was "Goldilocks and the Three Bears...Share Christmas". They were so creative and ended up getting in the Top Ten! Their house was also first on display in their category, and we laughed when we saw how every viewer of their house held up the long line trying to catch every little detail they put into it! It was so fun and the inn was BEAUTIFUL!

Award-Winning gingerbread house!!!



...The beautiful grounds

The whole gang

Old-fashioned phone "booths"

Abby LOVED the phones!

All tuckered out!

Sweet Phoebe

Cool tree bench!

It was a long, but very fun day in a gorgeous place!! Congrats, Madi and Zoie!

Just to compare...

Beautiful Fall?...Summer end?...Fall?...Whatever!

This past week and a half, we have had some absolutely beautiful weather in Flo-town! One day, it was just too beautiful to stay inside...I said to Abby, "Let's go outside and enjoy this weather!" She looked at me like, "Mom are you for real?", probably because my normal reaction to going outside is that I have too much to do and don't feel like it! (Sarcastically speaking, I am SUCH a good mom, huh?)

Here's our little monkey, swinging on the tree!

Abby's picture of me reading on a blanket with Phoebe attached at my hip...literally!

My view looking straight up...

And here's sweet sweet Phoebe Jane...

Sweet, cute girls...

We were outside for the better part of two hours! One step into the backyard for many moms...one LEAP for Erin! If we had more days like THAT, I'd be out there WAY more often!

Tutus, tutus everywhere!!!!

Josh's sister, Alison, has been busy making tutus for the little girls (hers and mine!) Phoebe got a pink one for her birthday, Abby got a Halloween one the same day and her daughter Emma has a few as well. I decided to make some for our nieces on the Harvey side for Christmas, so Abby was able to wear my first completed one at Nana and Poppy's Ward "Trick or Trunk" (Okay, trunk-or-treat--inside joke with the Axelsons...)

Then Abby wore her Halloween one to school on the 30th...It was technically "Favorite Sports Team" Day at her school...Halloween was never mentioned...but thankfully, Clemson colors and Halloween colors are the same--on her cheek is my weak attempt at a Clemson paw, so it wouln't technically be a "Halloween costume"...

The next day, she wore her actual costume, which of course consisted of a tutu of sorts...

Phoebe had hers too...

And just a treat for you all...a pic of Baby Emma in all her tutu glory...

On to a more positive post...

Just thinking today about how blessed I am to be a mom to 2 beautiful little girls! I get so frustrated sometimes, when Abby talks back hatefully or when Phoebe slaps the spoon full of smashed green "booger peas" out of my hand. (My sister-in-law, Amber, uses that phrase regularly and I laugh to the point of crying when she actually says it in normal conversation...Anyway---I digress!) I get down on myself a lot, worrying about the future and wondering if my girls are going to turn out to be completely disrespectful and moody. And asking myself why I have two of the most STUBBORN children on this earth! But recently I've been thinking about the time that we live in, where there is so much around us that could lead us away from the things that are right--those things that can make us truly happy. And I've realized that ALL the children coming to this earth right now HAVE to be stubborn---if they aren't, they can't stand up for themselves and what is right--OUR privilege, as parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, teachers and leaders is to guide that stubborness and strength in the right direction, so our kids can be strong forces for GOOD, instead of going the other way! And especially in Phoebe's case, she's gonna NEED that stubborn attitude to get through the physical limitations that she will have for awhile!

So bring on the strong-willed kids! I can take it if it means they will be good, honest, hard-working members of a society that they will actually contribute to...I can take it if they will have the guts to stand up for themselves and what is right...I can take it if it means they will live happy lives because they know how to push through tribulation and be successful...HEY! I guess that means I'm stubborn enough to get through these tough and joyous times raising children! Go figure! You learn something new everyday...

What gives?!!

I am SOOO annoyed right now! Abby just brought me her school picture order form and instead of an awesome, full color picture on real photo paper with the word "PROOF" across the bottom in big white letters--a photo that I can fully steal and scan into the computer and make perfectly good, beautiful copies of for FREE, I get this grainy thing printed straight onto the order form-- something almost completely unusable!!! (How dare they? You'd think they actually wanted me to BUY a package so they could actually MAKE MONEY? (What do you think?)

It's okay, though, because in true 4-yr-old fashion, instead of this smile...

...or even THIS smile....

...Abby gave THIS smile...

Seriously, Josh will not even know it's a school picture without the "PROOF"!!!;0(

Our little "ray of sunshine" turns 1!

Here's Phoebe the morning of her birthday! She went with me that morning to my weight loss group--TOPS (Taking Off Pounds Sensibly). I actually joined the group in Oct 2007 so I could lose the ten lbs required by my doctor to be able to start treatments to get pregnant again. I lost the weight in 10 weeks, started the medication and found out I was pregnant with Phoebe in February 2008. She was born 1 year and two days after I joined TOPS, so I would definitely say that she is our TOPS club mascot! Okay, I digress! Back to her birthday! She came to TOPS with me and all the ladies fawned over her and even sang Happy Birthday, quietly of course, because every time she comes to TOPS, she screams because we are too loud! So she looked cute, huh?

We had her birthday party the next day and I decided the oh-so-clever theme of "You Are My Sunshine"! Got some ideas off of the internet, thought up some of my own and VOILA! Here you go! Sunshine cake (orange supreme cake mix with yummy orange frosting)...

...orange yellow and red homemade deco...

...and of course, all our favorite yellow and orange finger foods...cheese and crackers, peppers and carrots with ranch, fruit salad with pineapple, oranges and apples, reeses pieces, orange slices and Velveeta cheese dip with tortilla chips!

Happy with Dad!

Blowing out the candles...well, I guess I did that!

She liked the cones better than the cake!!!

But she loved the cake too!

She loves to sit in her little rocking chair!

Me and my girls!

The next day, we headed to Greenville to see the Axelson side ;0) and to attend Cousin Ben's baptism...we had to take a family picture...

She was not a happy camper that day, but we were exctied to see her gift from Nana and Poppy...a beautiful quilt, handmade by Nana and Aunt Sue (Thank you!!!)...

...and her tutu and bedazzled t-shirts, handmade by Aunt Ali...

I know she was really happy inside!

Aunt Heidi got her a beautiful pink corduroy dress with embroidered flowers, which she wore to church the next day (I didn't get a pic!) The Johansen kids were in their Primary program and they did beautifully! It was Madi's last year in the Primary program and she had a solo! She was so excited and her solo was LOVELY!

We begrudgingly went home that evening, excited for another Greenville trip 4 days later, but that's another post!!! Here's Phoebe with her new blanket! She wouldn't let us take it off anf has slept every night since then, surrounded by its warmth!

So she's now a one-year-old! Weird! And she's got her two top front teeth about to bust through to prove it (and to explain her grumpiness!!!)

More to come later...

Phoebe's MRI

On September 22, we took Phoebe to Columbia to have an MRI of her brain and spine as previously discussed a few posts ago. We actually had to check her in to the Children's Hospital, so she could have general anesthesia for the procedure. Here she is when we first got there in various states of dress (or undress;0)...

As you can see, she was pretty happy and unaware of what was about to happen...And I was okay too, even when all the nurses had to wear face masks because of the stupid swine flu...(I don't mean to make light of it--I know a lot of people have died, but frankly I'm SICK of hearing about it!) I wasn't even really perturbed when the nurses reminded me that the medication they would be giving her was the same as the one that Michael Jackson died from (WHY would you say that to the mother of an 11-month-old baby that was about to be "put out"? Was I not nervous enough?) Then came the kicker...the dreaded IV...Two nurses came in the room once we had put that tiny gown on her and said, "It's usually better if the parents step out while we do this." I thought, 'Okay. They don't want us to feel bad that our child is SCREAMING bloody murder and we are completely unable to help comfort her.' So we stepped just outside the door and as we closed it, they asked, "Is there any song that she likes?" I told tham that she generally responds positively when I sing "You Are My Sunshine." So for the next 15 minutes, all we heard was screaming that got progressively louder and nurses singing "You Are My Sunshine", which got progressively more frustrated. One even tried changing the song to the ABC's and was brutally rebuffed with a loud "AGGHH!" from Phoebe. I think they really just wanted us to "step out" so we wouldn't see what they were about to have to do to our child to get her still enough for that IV to go in....A third nurse finally had to go in and help and we heard them say, after 20 minutes of all that screaming,"I've only stuck her ONCE!" Yikes! Apparently, her veins roll like mine, so she ended up being stuck in her foot and arm, before they finally go it in her hand!

Poor Phoebe! Josh had to carry her around until it was time to take her back! I'd be tired too after all that fuss!!!That look just breaks my heart!

So, we took her back and talked to the anesthesiologist. Then the moment of truth...the administering of the medication. Seriously, one second, they pushed it into the IV, the next second, her head drooped and the next second, she was OUT!!! Kind of scary how strong that medicine must be to do that so quickly! We left the room and waited just over an hour and she came back, sleeping so peacefully!! 30 minutes later, she was up eating a bottle and 30 minutes after that, we were on our way home!!!

What a day it was!

Oh and just so you know, the next week, we took her back to the neurologist and guess what the MRI showed?! NOTHING WRONG!!! No perinatal stroke...no nerve damage in the brain or on the spine...that's a good thing, but the doctor used the word "perplexed" several times! So we are now just going to focus on therapy and doing all we can to help her use her arm to its best capacity and call it a day!!! NO MORE TESTS!

And as for her foot, we went back to Shriner's last Friday--she was wiggling out of her special braced shoes--and she is now back in a hot pink cast. Her tendon was still too tight. It needed more stretching, and it's possible she may have to have surgery on it again. We'll see.....

Up to that point she was pulling herself up on everything, in spite of not having a full range of motion with her arm, and she was even letting go and balancing on both her feet before plopping down on her bottom. So now that she has the cast, guess what has happened? She's STILL doing those things like that darn cast is not even there!!! Amazing to me!

We'll keep y'all up-to-date and if nobody's reading this, at least I'LL be able to remember!