New Year's Tradition

 
We have a tradition to bowl on New Year's Eve with the kids and many of our friends with their kids.  The kids really look forward to this day.  What kid doesn't like bowling?  And then to add in beads and party hats?  Excitement for everyone!  This year "Auntie" Becky suggested we all dress the kids up in "crazy clothes" for some added fun.  Our kids (especially Hunter) don't particularly like dressing any way other than normal everyday clothing but they did agree to do crazy hair.  And Greyson is at the fun age where you can do anything to him and he's oblivious so he definitely played along (and was the hit of the bowling alley).  At one point in the night I put in our order for dinner at the counter and the lady working asked, "Which lane are you on?"  I said, "Ummm...I'm not sure...(looking around) it's that one with the mohawk baby."  She excitedly replied with a big smile, "Ooo!  We love the mohawk baby!"

The boys (all except Greyson) enjoyed their very first kiddie cocktail.  When I asked Tyler and Brody what they thought of it they both said, "It's good but a little spicy."  It was their first soda of any type so I'm sure they were referring to the carbonation.  I wish I had gottten their first sip on video because it was pretty funny!  But they kept going back for more so I guess it wasn't too spicy!

Unfortunately Hunter wasn't feeling his best so we didn't extend the festivities afterward at the Gunville household.  We ate a pizza dinner at the bowling alley and headed home for an early night.  I'm not so sure they would have lasted much longer anyway, especially our littlest little rock star.

Happy New Year everyone!

Christmas tradition

One of our favorite Christmas traditions is called "Holiday Lights Night."  On that night we all get in our pajamas and pile into the car with travel mugs of hot cocoa.  We drive around looking at all of the outdoor decorations that people have put up for the holidays and vote as a family on the best one.  We reward that lucky house with this certificate as well as some treat.  Several years in a row we gave away a jar of homemade raspberry jam (when we still had raspberry plants), one year we gave homemade canned salsa and this year we gave away a plate of homemade cookies.  This year Hunter's number one requirement was that the house had to be colorful.  Brody, however, fell in love with the light-up reindeer with moving heads and he couldn't get past it.  The house HAD to have those.  It made for a difficult search!  It's fun to see the reaction of the people in the winning house and the kids really look forward to this night.

Old man Brody

Last night Hunter went to bed without dinner because he had a very bad headache and was feeling very tired.  We've learned in the past that when he complains of any type of ailment that he needs to be in bed immediately.  He never complains about sickness until it's really bad.  So we tucked him in and put a garbage can next to his bed (just in case) and continued on with dinner without him.  The first thing I asked him this morning when I saw him was, "How are you feeling today?"  He replied with, "ok, but my head still hurts a little bit."  Shortly after Brody woke up and joined us in the living room.  Hunter asked him, "Is your head feeling okay?" and he said, "Not quite yet."  Then Hunter turned to me and asked, "Is he a teenager?" and we both had a good laugh!

Greyson's first birthday

Well, since it's almost 2013 it's probably about time I dedicate a post to Greyson's first birthday (which was in September).  Eeek!  I'm a bit behind in my blogging (as usual).  As many of you know I started up an official photography business this past fall.  This has kept me very busy since the official "launch" for which I am extremely grateful.  But what it hasn't left me with is much extra time for my blog.  Now that Christmas is behind us for another year and my photo shoots have mostly come to a halt with the cold weather, I have a little extra time to get caught up.

Let's talk Greyson...Being that this was our last "first" birthday to celebrate I wanted it to be extra special.  This commenced with the invitations, for which I needed perfect pictures.  So I dreamed up how he would enjoy his very first cake with an all out "cake smash" photo shoot in our backyard.  I went to great lengths for this perfect photo, from ordering his special handmade birthday "suit" to staging every aspect of the setting, and don't forget the homemade cake I spent four hours making.  Oh, yes!  This would be PERFECT! 

What we didn't account for was one tiny little thing.  It turned out that our precious little angel wanted NOTHING to do with that delicious and painstakingly-made confection.  We tried and tried to coax him to even just try it but he had absolutely no interest.  John finally just stuck his hand in it.  Take a look at that face and you can decide for yourself how that went!  I did manage to get him to play around with it a bit once I handed him a spoon. 

Hunter even had a go of trying to convince him that it was really good!  He was talking it up like you wouldn't believe.  God love him!  Well, even if he didn't get to enjoy his first cake, he certainly was adorable during the attempt.  And the rest of the family got a really great (and beautiful if I may say so myself) dessert that night after dinner and we all appreciated that!


Onto the actual birthday.  We invited some close friends and family over to celebrate this big milestone.  It was pretty low-key this time around (no theme) but we did rent a cotton candy machine for some added fun.  It turned out to be the hit of the party.  The kids all loved the treat and the adults had a great time making it.  I overheard one kid say, "This is the best birthday party EVER!"  That (of course) made my night.  We tried to get Greyson to eat store-bought cake but he wanted no part of it.  He was fond of our singing though so I guess we can't ask for more!  Instead we gave him some ice cream, which he loves.  Happy (very belated) birthday to our little peanut!

More firsts!

Many firsts for Greyson today (Saturday, the 15th).  First haircut, first lollipop and first good official teeth brushing!  He was such a trooper at the haircut place.  As his hairstylist said, "He's just chillin'!"  At one point she even said, "I love you right now!"  I think she has had MUCH worse...(was she the twins' stylist about two years ago?)  I should have held out on the lollipop for all of my kids for this milestone.  His three older brothers screamed bloody murder when they all got their first haircuts.  I didn't intentionally hold out on this treat for Greyson for this specific occasion but it worked out famously!  He just sat there, in a sugar-induced state unaware of anyone around him doing anything out of the ordinary.  It was AWESOME!  That is, until I had to put his sticky self into the car for the ride home.  ICK!  Immediate bath upon entering our home.  He looks like such a big boy with his cute little haircut.

Biko

Tonight at bedtime Ty told John with a very sad tone, "Daddy...I went to the hospital and I lost my biko."  And John said, "I know honey.  We'll just have to take you to the store and get you a new one."  He perked up and excitedly said, "To the biko store?  Where's the biko store?"  So John told him, "Yes, Mommy will know where the biko store is."

Falling apart

It started about a month ago when Hunter brought home some nasty bug.  It infected all the kids and they all got ear infections as a result of being sick for so long.  Hunter was the worst.  He had a double ear infection that had pus.  Gross!  The incredible thing is that he never even complained about any pain.  I had gone into see the doctor in the first place the day before because Tyler woke up from his nap in the afternoon screaming in pain.  He had a fever and complained of ear pain.  The next day the same thing occurred to Brody.  On our way to the doctor's office Hunter said he felt dizzy so when we saw the doc I asked her to check Hunter's ears as well as Greyson's.  She said Hunter had it the worst.  So they all got antibiotics.  We've been through the first round of them and they're all still sick.  We're on a second round now (all except Greyson, whose right ear is still infected but we're waiting it out a week or two since he isn't acting much different from normal.  I asked the doctor what the risk would be if we didn't give antibiotics.  Would they lose hearing with an infection?  She said that most would clear up on their own and she's never seen a case where a patient had lost hearing from an infection.  So since I still haven't brought Grey in for his 1 year well-baby check-up.  I asked if we could hold off on antibiotics and see if it cleared up on its own and re-check at that visit.  She agreed that it would be fine.  But she did push for Hunter to take a second round since he has it pretty bad and it doesn't seem to be clearing up on its own.  His cough is horrible and his ears look bad (so she says).

Then about a week ago Tyler had a run-in with the bathtub faucet and needed to get four stitches to patch up the gash on his cheek below his left eye.  Poor little guy.  He was such a trooper.  He cried when it happened for about five solid minutes pretty hard.  But when they stitched him up he didn't cry at all.  They gave him a topical numbing ointment that I had to hold on for about 15 minutes (on a cotton ball) and they put him in the straight-jacket-type board with velcro straps that tightly bound his arms to his sides.  They called it a papoose.  He didn't like that very much but he didn't complain or cry.  He just kept watching Wall-E on the t.v.  To add insult to injury he lost his "biko" (blankie) somewhere between the hospital and home and despite a trip back to look for it that night as well as several calls the following days we haven't been able to locate it.  He's pretty sad about that loss.

They're all on the mend now and I pray that I do not have to return to the ER or doctor's office for at least another week.  I've been six times in the last two weeks between the ear infections and the stitches/removal.