Happy 2nd Birthday Mallory

It's been two years since we got out little darling! She came into our lives a little early and hasn't stopped going since!!! We are so lucky to have such a beautiful little one.

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Future Olympian

Luke has picked up a new sport to add to his repertoire, skiing. Maybe someday we'll be watching him during the winter Olympics. He needs some practice though. Aunt Diana took us today. They tell me it was a perfect skiing day. Getting bundled up.

Hittin' the slopes (or snow bank in Luke's case).

Taking a break for lunch.

Luke and mommy

Learning on the snow bank.

One big push from Aunt Diana and he's off.

Just fyi...he was able to pull it together and keep his balance.

Don't hate me because I'm....

Don't hate me because I'm a teacher. It is the greatest job in the world! It's fun, interesting, exciting, never the same, abnormal, etc. Plus there's June, July, and part of August, every holiday off, early releases because the roads may get icky, and the greatest invention ever...SNOW DAYS!!! (Don't be too jealous though, because snow days will be no more in a few years in Ohio) Anyway, TV cancelled school last Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Then we already had Friday scheduled off and Monday is President's day. So what is one to do with a free week? Here's our list: Get pony rides from daddy (By the way, Craig's school only cancelled on Wednesday...too bad, so sad!)
Build tents in the living room that create massive amounts of static.

Get my first manicure and pedicure. (Yes, this was the first time I ever painted Mallory's fingernails and toenails. I realized I have a lot of practicing to do!)

Play nicely with each other.

Go to cousin Mike's wrestling match. (He won!!!)

Eat a green sucker at cousin Mike's wrestling match and get a green tongue.

Travel to Independence to stay in a hotel to get Valentine's goodies.

Visit the Great Lakes Science Center and play in the ball pit. GERMS galore!!!! Oh well.

Play with anything we could get our hands on at the science center.

Put ear plugs in, then ear muffs over the ear plugs...for what you ask????

To watch MONSTER trucks!!!!!!!!!

Can you say redneck, but quite fun.

Luke and Mallory loved the monster trucks. Luke will sit still and watch anything. Mallory is the one we have to be concerned with, but she loved it!! She sat on our laps the whole time and just watched while shoving the occasional Cheerio in her mouth!

It was a great snow week.

NO!!!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Have a nice day. :)

PS- I'm bored...I'm working on my 3rd snow day in a row.

Winter Wonderland

Friday my school let out an hour and half early and there wasn't a flake of snow on the ground. They made a wise decision though, because when it started snowing, it didn't stop for about 24 hours. This is what we ended with. We had over a foot of snow at our house. I'm not exaggerating either!! Most places had drifted and it was even higher. Poor Rocky. He couldn't even squat to do his business. Craig started shoveling last evening about 4:30. When he came in at 6:00 he still wasn't done. It took about another hour to get everything finally dug out today. We are going to invest in a snow blower! (If anyone sees one at an auction let us know!!) Craig shoveling

While Craig was shoveling we had time to cook up a batch of Pilgrim Pies. Yum!!!!

Waiting...patiently!

Enjoying the fruits of our labor.

Ticker Check Up

Mallory had a heart check up Monday afternoon. This is the first time she has been back since August, the longest we have gone between check ups. Yeah Mallory!!!! In August, she was a holy terror. She screamed all through her blood pressure checks, hence no BP readings. Cried and squirmed through the EKG. Then had to be fed and entertained through her ultrasound. Needless to say, we weren't looking forward to Monday. Well, our little girl has changed. She sat on Daddy's lap to get her blood pressure checked. Even though she tensed up a little, there were no tears and the nurse got two good readings in her arm and one in her leg. They showed her BP to be a little high. Not high enough to be concerned, but just high for someone her age and for someone who takes BP medicine. So on to the EKG. She did great! The tears came when they had to pull all the little stickers off her chest. We were 2 for 2 at this point. During her ultrasound, she got to watch Dora. She laid perfectly still and I didn't have to feed her candy to keep her still or try to entertain her. They were able to get really good pictures, fairly quickly!!! So, the results. High blood pressure at this point means her aorta is a little small where they repaired it, most likely because of scar tissue around the repair site. However, the ultrasound showed it is growing. So, we are going to wait until June. They will measure her aorta again. If it's still on the small side and her BP is still high, they will most likely do a heart cath. This will stretch out her aorta at the repair site and allow more blood to get through which will hopefully equal lower blood pressure. This is supposed to be an overnight procedure if necessary. We are so happy with her progress!!! Waiting for the doctor in a cute gown!

She got a sucker after her ultrasound. That's never happened before.

Good job girl!!!