O Christmas Tree...

That's my name J-O-S-H-U-A!

After our 4 1/2 hour drive beck to Milton, we decided to pull out our Christmas tree to start decorating it. The boys were so excited to help. I was really surprised that Joshua remembered where we set up the tree last year because he moved his activity table as soon as I said Daddy was getting the tree.  Joshua enjoyed hanging all the ornaments on one branch while Noah enjoyed taking the ornaments off the tree and lining them up on the floor. We sang Christmas songs, watched Joshua's favorite Christmas movie - Elf, and talked about Christmas and Jesus' birth. Overall it was a great evening. Mommy, Daddy, Joshua, and Noah were full of Christmas cheer!

I think I found just the right spot...

Oh yea! That's perfect!

Shhh, don't tell brother...

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! We went to Birmingham for Thanksgiving as always. The car was very full on the way there and back as it contained Mommy, Daddy, Joshua, Noah, and our dogs Hardy and Ridley. We made our rounds and got to see everyone and eat lots of yummy food. Mommy made pumpkin bread and pumpkin pie. We stayed at Granddaddy's house and watched some of the Macy's Day parade. Joshua really enjoyed the music and the dancing. Then we went to Maw-Maw's house (Emily's grandma) in Oneonta for Thanksgiving lunch with mommy's side of the family. Next we went to Aunt Dana's house in Helena for Thanksgiving dinner. The boys enjoyed playing with their many cousins and getting extra loving from extended family. Mommy especially enjoyed dressing up my little turkeys in their Thanksgiving clothes which were gifts from Grandma & Grandpa.

Noah is looking at Joshua who is wearing Grandpa's Thanksgiving hat

That night, mommy went out to Best Buy and Old Navy for shop midnight Black Friday shopping with Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Chad. We had a blast hanging out together and joining in on the madness. And we were able to get everything we came for. Later on Friday we went back to Aunt Dana's house to celebrate Thanksgiving with Granddaddy. We had chili and pumpkin soup, the latter of which was Noah's favorite. Afterwards we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for a Thanksgiving dinner. Noah ate everything! I had told Joshua he had to put at least two things on his plate so he opted for ham and turkey and a roll - all of which he ate. It was a long, but fun Friday.

On Saturday we went to Uncle Jason's house to watch the Iron Bowl. Alabama beat Auburn 42 to 14. Roll Tide! The boys enjoyed wearing their Bama gear and visiting with their cousins. We started our trek home early on Sunday so we could arrive in time to start decorating our Christmas tree. I'll detail our decorating adventures in the next post. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and Roll Tide!

Noah and Gracie cheer for the Tide with their Mickeys

Joshua says "Touchdown!"

One last Thanksgiving note, when I went to pick up Joshua from school I saw in his folder where he was asked what he was thankful for and his response was: I am thankful for my Mommy and Daddy. What a sweet boy! We are sooo thankful for you too! And for your sweet brother!

Noah's trip to the Allergist

Daddy and his boys

Matt and I took Noah to see a pediatric allergist yesterday. The most interesting news was that we found out that he is allergic to both peanuts and cashews. The allergist did a scratch test to test him for various nuts and those came back positive. We talked with the allergist a lot about Noah's allergies and learned more about them. She confirmed that it is unlikely that he will outgrow his nut allergies and said that she was not concerned about his apple and strawberry allergies because he will likely outgrow those as a toddler. She gave us another prescription for epi-pens as well as instructions on how and when to use them. We will follow up in a year where he will be re-tested. Noah was really not happy about the scratch test. He cried and daddy held him while mommy tried to entertain. He was tested for peanuts, cashews, almonds, and pecans and as previously mentioned, only tested positive for the first two. Of course since most nuts are all handled/ processed in the same manufacturing facilities, we will be avoiding all nuts - except for family which we are looking forward to seeing over Thanksgiving.

Our 2011 Christmas Card

Photo Card

View the entire collection of cards.

We actually planned ahead and designed our Christmas Card early this year. Woo-hoo! Step 2 will be mailing them out...

Mommy and Daddy at work

I don't usually talk about work very much but for the sake of documenting our life in Pensacola I thought I'd update what we are up to. Above is a picture Matt took of me working at my desk. If anything the picture did motivate me to clean off my desk - well maybe not "clean" it but organize it better in color coded folders and refill my candy jar.

Below is a picture of Matt at work - well actually it's Wilson, his stand in when he's out of the office. One day when Matt was out, his coworkers created Wilson to fill in for him. He started out as a water jug and paper head. Overtime he's gotten arms, a name tag, a coffee mug, and even a hat from time to time. While our friend Wade would shake his head and say "And this is how I know I pay way too much for my power..." I would argue that you have to have a little fun - even if it means making up friends.

These days we are working on an SCR (Selectrive Catalytic Reduction). Basically it's an environmental project that reduces the nitrous oxides (NOx) in the flue gas. This gets our power plant in compliance with various government regulations. In my role I am the Mechanical and I&C (Instruments and Controls) Lead. That means I am responsible for the installation of all piping systems, rotating equipment, and instruments. The critical path portion of my work will be the installation of 2 ID (Induced Draft) Fans during the Spring Outage. We'll demo the old fans and install new, bigger fans in their place - all in the span of a 10 week outage. That's not very much time!

Matt is the Controls Specialist for the project. He works on the Admin side of the project handling contracts, writing purchasing reqs, project controls, and various reports. He's a jack-of-all trades. Our offices are in different trailers but we still stop by to say hi and go to lunch most days. There is usually a ROOK game going on during lunch so one or both of us might play a game if we stay in for lunch. As a whole the project is going well and is much less stressful than our last project, the FGD (Flue Gas Desulfurization - which removes sulfuric oxides or SOx). Overall it's an interesting job and a great group of people to work with.

Oh Nuts!

Mommy and her Noey-Bear

Well the title of this blog is my weak attempt to lighten up about something serious. We found out on Monday that our sweet 14 month old Noah is allergic to peanuts. When I went to pick him up from daycare yesterday I noticed a few hives on his jawline. I didn't think much about it because his sensitive skin breaks out alot. In the time it took me to walk out to the car and get Joshua in his seat and strap Noah in his carseat Noah had hives all over! His torso, face, and his neck were covered - his neck was so swollen and broken out, it looked like he had a rope around his neck. I took the boys back into the daycare to find out what he had eaten and when. I found out that right before I picked him up, Noah was given a peanut butter cookie as a snack. This was the first time he'd ever had peanut butter. I gave him some Benedryl and we got in the car. I called Matt and we decided to stop by the pediatrician's office to have Noah checked out. Of course it was closing time and they weren't answering their phone but it was on the way so we were going to stop. It was a stressful drive as I heard Noah starting to have a wheezy cough. The doctor came out to meet us in the waiting room. He took a look at Noah and decided he wanted to check him out in an exam room. Dr. Hensley was great. He stayed and answered our questions, gave Noah a prescription for an epi pen and gave us a referral to a pediatric allergist. Overnight his hives disappeared and we took him back to daycare this morning.

While we are glad the reaction wasn't worse than it was, the disgnosis is scary and disappointing. This is just not something we wanted for our son. Most children do not grow out of a peanut allergy and have to learn to live with it. Also no one in either of our families has a nut allergy so this was a complete surprise. We have a lot of questions and a lot to learn. Right now my biggest concern is protecting Noah - especially now when he's at an age where he can't speak for himself to ask if something contains nuts. On a positive note, I was pleased that when we showed up at daycare today, the director had already seen a note I posted about this on facebook and made signs to post in the kitchen and classroom about Noah's allergies. I'll post more about this after we see the allergist.

My boys/ Beach pics part II

Why play with the toys when you can empty the toy box and play in it?

Pensacola Beach 2011

Joshua and Noah are growing up so fast. Here's a little bit about what they are up to. Noah is talking more now. For a long time the only word he said with regularity was "diaper" although you could occasionally coach out a "mama" and sometimes "dada." One of his favorite words to say these days is "Uh-oh!" He loves to drop things then say it, or say "uh-oh" and then drop something. He's a cutie pie! He also really likes waving and saying "bye-bye" though it sounds more like "ba-ba." He waves by extending his arm and twisting his wrist. Noah loves to eat! You can ask him "Are you hungry?" And he gets the biggest smile on his face and giggles. I swear he eats more than his brother, though he's a slim guy. He loves to dance. His teacher said all he has to do is hear some music - even if it's coming from another classroom - and he starts dancing. He is still the best child at going to sleep. We simply carry him to his room, say "Time to go night-night" and he leans out of our arms to get inside his crib. He immediately puts his head down, his booty in the air, and crosses his feet and he is out. No negotiating, crying, or extra snuggles. It's impressive - though sometimes mommy and daddy wish he would want the extra snuggles.

Joshua has so much personality. He's very imaginative and talkative. He spends a lot of time in the car talking. One of his favorite topics is super heroes. He loves talking about super heroes and what their super powers are and which one he is that day. He also has several costumes which he likes to dress up in. He even knows how to strike a super hero pose with his hands on his hips. My favorite is when he says "I am Batman!" His other favorite topics to talk about is the moon/space, the scary tree (Grandma and Grandpa used to have a "scary tree" with a face at their house, though they have made it a friendly tree by getting rid of the face), and Cubbies (his class in AWANAS). Joshua loves going to Cubbies on Wed nights. He's really good at memorizing his Bible verses and talking about how "God loves us." Of course sometimes his theology is a bit off. Recently in the car he told me "God loves us. He made mommy, and Joshua, and Noah, and the sun and the water, but not the stars." "Why not?" "Oh the stars? They've been bad." Joshua is very good in school and almost always comes home with a green light. He likes to report on who got a yellow light and if anyone got the dreaded red light. One of Joshua's favorite stores to go to is Sam's Club - which he calls "the diamond store" because of their logo. I have to admit it does sound more exciting when he says we shop at the "diamond store."

Last story: Matt made an unexpected purchase at the grocery store recently. Apparently Joshua got ahold of an apple and took a bite out of it. Matt took it away from him and explained we have to pay for it and then when Matt turned his back it happened again. I guess that's what you get with a free range child (he prefers to walk instead of ride "like a baby"). I'll try to look for the silver lining and be glad he went for something healthy.

One more note: We took the boys to beach to take more pictures for our Christmas card. I think we have some winners between the two shoots. Enjoy!

Happy Halloween/ Happy Birthday Daddy!

Halloween 2011

Happy Halloween! Happy Birthday Daddy! This is always an exciting time of year because two things happen - first, it's Halloween which brings all the fun and cuteness of dressing up and handing out candy, secondly, it's Daddy's birthday which marks the start of the 20 days in which he is 2 years older than me and I get to call him an 'old man'! Happy Birthday bebe!

We had a great time for Halloween this year. First of all I must take a moment to brag that I made the Woody (Matt) and Jessie (Emily) costumes using glue and safety pins. Not bad, eh? I was super happy with the way they turned out. Joshua had been saying for weeks that Daddy was going to be Woody and Mommy was going to be Jessie, and Joshua was going to be Buzz Lightyear, and Noah would be Slinky Dog. Well he almost had it right, except Noah was actually a pumpkin, which is an adorable costume that Grandottie made for Joshua for his first Halloween. Joshua was so excited to be Buzz Lightyear. We surprised him and gave him "rocket shoes" before we left - they are actually Buzz Lightyear slippers. I think this made up for him not having a "bubble helmet." When I was dressing Joshua I left his hood off because it was pretty hot and I knew he'd be sweaty if he wore it for a long time. I told him before we left the house I'd put on his hood on so he wouldn't get hot. He spent the rest of the time following me around the house saying "I'm not hot. I'm so cold mommy. Look how cold I am. I need my Buzz hood. Brrr!" What an actor!

Fun at the festival

This year we went to a festival at a neighboring church. Joshua was fearless and loved playing on an inflatable slide and jumping in a bounce house. I was particularly proud of him because just a week ago he was afraid to do this. We had a great time and even Noah got into playing some games. Joshua's theme for the night was orange - he had to have an orange balloon sword, an orange sucker, and orange balloon, etc. Afterwards we went to the house and Matt and I took turns taking the boys trick-or-treating while the other handed out candy. Noah seemed to really like the costumes. In fact he plopped himself down on the threshold of the front door so he could watch everything and I handed out candy over his head. It was the best seat in the house. Joshua would hold our hands but run to the houses and say "Twrick or Twreat!" then comment "Oh I like candy! Thank you!" He was cute at the end of the night and turned to me and said "I think I have enough candy. Let's go home so we can eat some before bed." It was a memorable and fun evening. I'm already looking forward to next year!

Whee!!

You can't make me wear that hat!

Buzz and Woody: Best Friends