Christmas on the Bley Side

Thanksgiving

We had Thanksgiving with Mike's parents for lunch, then came home in the afternoon. It was a fun day.

Collin decided to give the lizard a swim in Kendra's cereal bowl after breakfast. :)

He had a new coat, and I put it on him to see if it fit. He was ready to go out the door as soon as I put it on him!

Kendra helping Papa Ron with the turkey.

Collin stuffing in a roll.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today I am thankful for:

Being able to sleep in

Being able to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade with my kids

The yummy turkey dinner we will have in a little while

The fingerprints on my front door :)

My family

My friends

My home

My health

The brave Pilgrims who came here in the first place so that we can freely worship the Lord

So, so many other blessings!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Sleeping Peacefully

Collin is such a goof when he sleeps. His pajamas always look something like this. They are stretched about as far as they stretch I think.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

It was so fun to wake up this morning to see SNOW! Mike got called in early, so I actually knew before I got up, but it was fun to see what the kids thought of it. Collin was in awe, he couldn't quite figure it out when he touched it! :) I snapped this picture quick before I headed out the door to work. We have Christmas with Mike's family on Friday, so it puts me more in the mood!

Our Weekend In Wichita

We went to Wichita for the weekend, since we had a long one to see some close friends (Angie and Amy) we had not had a chance to see in a long time. (Marty and Renee also went.) It was a really great time for us to catch up, and just have fun together, and for the guys and kids to all get to know each other. As we were leaving Kendra said "Mom, we HAVE to do this again...it was fun!", and I agree! :)

Our Weekend In Wichita

Collin's Surgery

Well, we took Collin in for surgery at 7:00 our time this morning. It only took about 15 minutes, and we were able to go and hold him right away. He did really good, they said that they don't see too many go as smoothly as his! He didn't fight the anesthesia at all, and only cried a little bit after waking up. He did have a lot of fluid on his right ear, and they said this should definitely help. He act almost like he normally does, just wants held a little more than usual, but he's been running around playing since we got home. Thank you for all of your prayers!

Good Advice

I received some good advice from both my mom and my mother in law about Collin's plugs. They said that he may do better if Kendra had plugs. Sure enough, we had a much happier bath time tonight! Yea! We had quite a time getting them in, but once he was in the tub it went pretty smooth! Thank you for the good advice, and thank you all for your prayers!

Collin's Ears...Update

Collin got his ear plugs made that he will have to wear any time he is in the water after surgery. They told us to start having him wear them in the bath now, so he is used to them when he has to wear them. Lets just say I was crying after bath time last night...I sure hope it gets easier. He did not like them at all, and it was a fight the whole time. I think the part that bothers me the most is that he LOVES bath time, and so do I. It's like the time of day we both look forward to most, and now I am afraid he will start to not like it anymore. Here he is this morning trying them out. :)

Collin's Ears

As many of you know, Collin has had lots of ear infections in his short little life so far. Kendra is now pretending to be an "Ear, Nose Throat Specialist"! He runs around the house checking his own ears a lot too.

He will be having surgery next Tuesday morning bright and early to have tubes put in.

Pomegranates

Maybe we are just sheltered, but Mike and I had never had a pomegranate before, really didn't know much about them. So, we were in the store the other day, and there they were, with the instructions on how to eat them. We bought one out of sheer curiosity. They actually aren't too bad!

New Home For Toys

Collin spends hours entertaining himself this way. He empties the toy boxes and stuffs them all behind my room divider/screen. Big goof!

Birthdays

We had 2 birthday parties yesterday. Papa Ron had a party in the afternoon, and Ashton had one in the evening. It was fun! Please excuse all of the red eye, not sure what was going on with that!

Ashton opening presents, with a little help!

Enjoying the yummy cake!

Playing football in the yard with Papa Ron and Grandma Joyce

Papa got a "puppy" for his birthday, and Collin liked it

Watching Papa open presents

Halloween Night

My beautiful Cinderella...thank you Aunt Becky for the dress!
My cute little Pooh Bear...notice he had to have snacks to hold still for a picture! He loved getting candy, but then he would take it and put it in everyone else's bags..he likes to share.

Cinderella and her "prince charming"...she said Collin was her prince

The group ready to go

We even got to see miniature donkeys...Collin LOVED that, although we need to work on animal sounds a little more. He kept saying "moo"! Him and Kyle are buddies, so I thought it was cool that they were together for this picture.

Then we went to Wesley and Marjorie's and roasted hot dogs. It was a fun evening!

Halloween Day

We had Maycee over and made turkeys yesterday. Yes, that is right, turkeys on Halloween! :) Kendra had been wanting to do this for awhile, and it was my day off, so that is what we did. The girls had fun, and I think they turned out pretty cute for a 4 year old craft!

Having fun painting

The finished turkey...they are crayon/marker holders


They had just as much fun slopping the paint around on the plate!