That is how old my Granny turned yesterday...97, a truly incredible feat!!  Two of my cousins and I planned her birthday party that was held yesterday, and I think it went over pretty well!  She told me she had a happy, happy birthday which was the goal of the whole evening.  She is truly an amazing woman...she gave birth to 13 children including 10 boys in a row (she has the patience of a saint!!), has been a widow since the 1960's, and has a tremendous love for her family and for her God.  She is soft-spoken and gentle, but she is razor sharp with her wit.  I would say we probably had about 80-90 people that came to her party which shows how much she is loved by all.  Her health has been declining for a few years, and even more quickly during the last few months.   That is totally to be expected for a lady of her age, but when you are used to seeing your Granny whip around town driving her own car into her 90's, rapid changes like we have seen lately are hard to take.  She is still living at home, which is a total blessing considering someone needs to be with her 24-7 and the family has really stepped up to the plate by taking on that huge responsibility.  But, we are hoping for the best and are looking forward to several more holidays with this very special lady.  Happy birthday, Granny!

Our branch of the family tree

My cousins Marti and Amanda and me with Granny

I have officially decided that potty training is not fun.  Especially with a non-willing participant named Harry.  I'm not sure what the deal is.  I think he conceptually gets the idea of what he should be doing, he doesn't like having a dirty diaper or the sensation of having wet clothes, and he knows that he will be rewarded if and when he goes in the potty (because he talks about it all. the. time!).  It also doesn't help that I am not a very patient person and I think--all right, I KNOW my expectations of him tend to run on the high side.  It's just that when the frequent trips to the potty end up with screaming and fights and tears, I'm sure it makes us both want to give up.  We are on the second day of trying to go with just undies except at naptime and bedtime (he calls them Wendy's!  ha ha!) to see if that will speed the process up a bit.  The first evening didn't go well considering we had about 4 accidents in roughly 2 hours, but I am not going to give up on him just yet.  I refuse to believe that he is not ready...he is almost 3!!  Unfortunately, he is every bit as stubborn (or strong-willed as they are calling it these days!) as I am so I'm anticipating a long stand off!!

You don't REALLY believe my Mommy, do you??? 

The stomach flu thankfully exited our home last week, but not without claiming another victim first...me.  It was awful.  Last Thursday was one of the worst I have had as a parentn.  The kids were totally healed which I was grateful for, but that also meant they were at full speed while I was crashing and burning.  I was alone with them from 8 am until 7 pm not able to keep anything down and barely able to be upright.  A couple of times throughout the day I had to take them to the playroom and I sprawled out across the doorway so I could rest and also so I could tell if they got out of the room.  It was utterly pathetic.  Travis's car was in the shop that day getting new brakes and tires, so he didn't have a way to come home and help and I was so weak I was afraid to drive them to Katrina's.  The second Travis got home, he got the kids and I went to bed.  He took them to Katrina's on Friday so I could try to recooperate.  All of this adds up to the World's Most Lame Valentine's Day ever!!  We had already planned on having some friends over before I got sick, and poor Travis got stuck with doing most of the cleaning and cooking for that night, and I definitely wasn't a very good hostess.  I think everyone still had a good time, and I eventually started to feel better by Monday, just in time to pull off a 12 hr shift at work on Tuesday!

Not to leave little Ellie out, but the little guy is just so darn easy!  Other than the few frustrations of him being my constant little shadow, he is still our sweet, cuddly little fella.  We are starting to plan his first birthday party here in a few weeks which is freaking me out a little.  One year old??  Seriously??!!  It hardly seems possible.  Here are the list of words he is saying so far:  Dada, dog, clap, tickle, and Oscar (said Oker).  Yes, that is right.  My child who I love more than anything said our dog's name before he could squeak out a Mama!  I am his favorite person in the world and look at the treatment I get!  Everytime I try to get him to say it, he says baba.  Sigh.  I still love you, sweet boy!

Since I have been seriously slacking in the picture department, here are some peace offerings!

Don't let your brother see you with his letters!!

Sharing (for once!) a Cheerio snack

How on Earth do his eyes stay so blue??

Still totally in love with numbers and letters...I hope that never changes!!

The stomach bug that has been floating around in our circles since Christmas has steered clear of us...until now!!  Harry started it off last Thursday afternoon with what possibly was the WORST diaper change I have ever experienced.  I won't explain further, you can get the mental picture.  The nastiness continued through Friday, and the fun times got better when he vomited the chocolate milk that I reluctantly gave him.  "Oh, I spilled it!" he said.  Only Harry could make the grossness of vomit funny!  Elliot started acting funny Saturday afternoon.  He was starting to get really whiny and felt warm to the touch.  We sat down for dinner (Harry was still staging a hunger strike at this point--I think he ate 2 crackers for dinner) and throughout the meal, Elliot was going down hill fast and crash landed with projectile vomit.  Everywhere, including on me who was in the line of fire.  Good times!  Nothing says fun like scrubbing down your kitchen on a Saturday night!  Sunday had a rough start with the boys trading off gross diapers, but improved greatly at dinner time with both boys eating decently and in good moods.  We even sent them to daycare and both got good reports.  I even had the notion of heading to house church since they both seemed fine.  Then Elliot started acting funny after dinner like he was about to get sick again.  As I picked him up I realized that his belly was a ton bigger than usual and hard as a rock.  I called my dear friend Kelly to tell her that I had changed my mind about going to house church since Elliot was acting so strange and she suggested I call the doctor (she is a nurse, and much smarter about this child rearing thing than I am).  So I did, and to make this excrutiatingly long story shorter we ended up in the ER.  Sigh.  They took some x-rays, checked for infective diarrhea, gave him some Pedialyte (which he promptly upchucked all over me), and sent us home after the x-rays came back and showed no bowel obstructions or anything like that.  Not how I expected to spend a Monday night, but that is okay.  I suppose it comes with the territory.  I'm just glad everything checked out okay, and he so far seems much improved today.  We'll see after dinnertime since that seems to be his downfall!

The disaster that was this weekend got us thinking about one thing....vacation!!  Travis got busy Sunday and planned us what I think will be an awesome time away.  The only bad thing is, we have to wait until November!  We decided to go the week before and of Thanksgiving which will drastically reduce the days he will have to take off work since the office will be either closed on some of the days or very slow.  We are going to drive to Florida, first heading to (gulp!) Disney World for 3 days then heading to Captiva Island for a week.  Since we will have almost 2 weeks we can take our time travelling back and forth and hopefully have a relaxing time.  That is, we can relax after Disney World!  Since Harry will be a little older when we get there, I think he will be so stoked to meet all of the characters.  The house that Travis found on Captiva looks awesome, is the perfect size for us, and is close to the beach.  We might be having seafood for Thanksgiving dinner, but that is totally cool with me!!