Here is a picture of Jon McLaughlin and his beautiful wife, Amy.
Of course, this was his performance! What an awesome opportunity!
Monday, February 25, 2008
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Birthday Party Celebration
We actually celebrated Peyton's birthday this weekend with her Aunt Amy (her 30th bday!) and the rest of the Abels' family (including Aunt Orianna, Uncle Tom and cousin Ben who all drove about an hour and a half) along with "Aunt" Tami and our friend Gabby. Peyton had a blast and got more presents than any 3 yr old would need. I say next year we do a "no presents" party!
We started off the morning with chocolate chip pancakes. Peyton had 4 of them! Her favorite part?...picking out the chips! Ha Ha Ha
This was from Grammy Elda!
Her genuine excitement cracked me up every time!
Her cousin Abby helped her open all of her presents!
She has always loved getting cards as well! 
Yeah, Paint!
Gavin waisted no time when it came to the dessert!
Here are the 3 stooges!Thursday, February 21, 2008
Because I have no energy to post anything from myself today, I am passing on another Babycenter.com update on the new baby!
13 Weeks
Fingerprints have formed on your baby's tiny fingertips, her veins and organs are clearly visible through her still-thin skin, and her body is starting to catch up with her head — which makes up just a third of her body size now. If you're having a girl, she now has more than 2 million eggs in her ovaries. Your baby is almost 3 inches long (the size of a medium shrimp) and weighs nearly an ounce. As you start your second trimester, most of your baby's critical development will be completed and your odds of miscarriage drop considerably. Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Happy Birthday Peyton!
Well folks, my baby is 3 today! Although she isn't my youngest, she is still my baby and today is her birthday!
We started the celebration last night. Tonight is church and James had a busy day today, so to ensure that we weren't rushed we took her out for her own celebration last night. We took her to McDonald's, her restaraunt of choice. They ate, they played hard on the indoor playland, and then they enjoyed ice cream. She even made a couple of friends as she was climbing through the tunnels. (not surprising to most of you, I know!)
Here are some pictures from last night. (side note, Gavin actually went through the play land by himself for the very first time...and many times after that!)
Daddy went up with Gavin the first time, I think we were both a little nervous that Peyton would run off and leave him and he would get "lost" or something!
She sure got into her ice cream!
She did encredibly well, almost eating the entire thing without much assistance from mommy!
Gavin didn't do too bad himself!
She woke up this morning with James, Gavin and I singing Happy Birthday to her! Not a sound that I would have liked to hear first thing in the morning, but she loved it! She has also loved all of the phone calls she has already received today, most of them also singing to her! It was very funny when my mom and dad called because all four of them (Papa, Gee Gee, Aunt Hannah and Uncle Joshy) all sang together and it really excited her. She couldn't figure out how she could hear all of them all at once through my little phone! It was such a sight! She then proceeded to tell me that she was going to take her cupcakes to Papa's house and eat with him. I had to explain that 14 hours was a long way for today, but we could have cupcakes with them the next time we all got together.
Back to this morning...One of the first things that she said after we got done singing was, "Mommy to I get a cake with very hot candles on it for breakfast this morning?" I had to tell her no, that maybe we would do cupcakes this afternoon. This satisfied her, so that is what we are going to do. She even picked them out herself at Walmart! We also got some cookies and juice for Bible Study tonight at church to share with her friends.
She is more than excited today to have a day focused on her!
Her family party will be Saturday and it will be so much fun! I will post pictures of that one next week!
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Sorry...
It has been a rough couple of weeks.
James did not end up having pneumonia, just a really awful respiratory infection and a virus on top of that! He finally stopped running a fever after about 4 or 5 days and went back to work after a week. It is so unlike him to miss work unless he is really ill especially a week at a time! He went back to work last Tuesday and then on Thursday we were hit by another wave!
The stomach flu hit my house. It started with Gavin in the early evening of Valentine's Day. We were on the way to drop off flowers and a card to Gramma and he started throwing up in the car. He had a look of bewilderment on his face! He didn't know what to do, what was going on and knew that he DIDN'T like it. So we pulled over, cleaned him up and changed his clothes. Hoping this was just a one time thing, we kept going on our journey; after all, we were almost there! Well, so that I don't go into too many details for all of you I will give you the short and sweet version. We ended up trading Gramma the flowers for a Sierra Mist and oyster crackers and headed back home. After 2 more vomiting episodes (one actually happening as we were parking the car in our driveway), he was done! It was like he was saying well we are home now, I need to play so I guess I won't get sick anymore!
I made the kids pancakes for dinner for something bland on their bellies and off to bed they went about 8:00. Then James and I had our dinner. It was pan seared Salmon over a bed of steamed spinach on top of garlic mashed potatoes with a beurre blanc sauce on top! Killer meal, if I do say so myself! Dinner was great, James even wanted seconds and since it only takes 6 minutes to totally pan sear a salmon fillet, it was really easy!
We then started on the cherry pie. I am not a big pie fan at all and definitely not cherry, but I found this GREAT recipe for James a tart cherry pie. He loves sour things, so I was very excited about this. I have never made a pie before either, so this was very new territory, but the recipe seemed easy enough...right?! Anyway, they didn't have fresh tart cherries in Indiana in Feb, they didn't have canned tart cherries (or at least not in the pie section) and they didn't have frozen tart cherries either; so I settled for 2 cans of cherry pie filling, thinking I would just cut out some of the sugar from the recipe. I bought the almond extract, had all the rest of the ingredients at home including already made, roll out pie crusts. I was set...so I thought. I made this "tart" cherry pie according to the recipe and only put in 2/3 cup of sugar when it called for 1 1/4 cups. I thought I was doing great! Then I cut it to serve James a piece, all while telling him what I had done since they didn't have tart cherries. You pie connoisseurs out there already know what I did wrong and are doing now what he was doing as I explained all of it! I learned that night that cherry pie filling is just that...cherry pie filling. No need to add ANYTHING to it, just add to the crust, roll out the top crust and bake! Simple right?! Well, I did add it to the crust...after I had added the almond extract, sugar (that was supposed to be less than called for!), cornstarch, and lemon juice! So I made a cherry pie that was twice as sweet as normal and needless to say after we ate one slice each that evening, the rest of the pie has been sitting in my fridge ever since! OOOPPS! See, this is why I don't bake!
Anyway, back to the stomach flu. 4 o'clock in the morning comes and I wake up to James getting sick in the bathroom. This man has an iron stomach and has only thrown up twice in the last 6 1/2 years that we have been together! I am glad that Gavin started it all though, because I would have thought it was my cooking! Ha. James felt better when he got up Friday morning and headed to work. I was doing okay at the time, still hoping that it would pass Peyton and me up and find another place to go, but had no such luck. So, with 2 toddlers running around the house on Friday and James at work, I started and it hit me hard! The mixture of an already weak stomach from pregnancy and the flu was not a good combination for me! I laid around most of the day, only getting up to change a DVD or get my kids something to eat/drink. Surprisingly though, they were pretty mellow that day which allowed me to be a watchful eye from the couch instead of a participating mommy!
So, we are all well now, but it has seemed like an incredibly long 2 weeks! I rec'd phone calls from Kelly and Tangie wondering where I was and if I was alive since they hadn't seen us at church! Hahahaha It felt good that people missed us!Hopefully, I will be better at posting updates this week.
Peyton's birthday is tomorrow, so there will be a special one celebrating her, so make sure and come back!
James did not end up having pneumonia, just a really awful respiratory infection and a virus on top of that! He finally stopped running a fever after about 4 or 5 days and went back to work after a week. It is so unlike him to miss work unless he is really ill especially a week at a time! He went back to work last Tuesday and then on Thursday we were hit by another wave!
The stomach flu hit my house. It started with Gavin in the early evening of Valentine's Day. We were on the way to drop off flowers and a card to Gramma and he started throwing up in the car. He had a look of bewilderment on his face! He didn't know what to do, what was going on and knew that he DIDN'T like it. So we pulled over, cleaned him up and changed his clothes. Hoping this was just a one time thing, we kept going on our journey; after all, we were almost there! Well, so that I don't go into too many details for all of you I will give you the short and sweet version. We ended up trading Gramma the flowers for a Sierra Mist and oyster crackers and headed back home. After 2 more vomiting episodes (one actually happening as we were parking the car in our driveway), he was done! It was like he was saying well we are home now, I need to play so I guess I won't get sick anymore!
I made the kids pancakes for dinner for something bland on their bellies and off to bed they went about 8:00. Then James and I had our dinner. It was pan seared Salmon over a bed of steamed spinach on top of garlic mashed potatoes with a beurre blanc sauce on top! Killer meal, if I do say so myself! Dinner was great, James even wanted seconds and since it only takes 6 minutes to totally pan sear a salmon fillet, it was really easy!
We then started on the cherry pie. I am not a big pie fan at all and definitely not cherry, but I found this GREAT recipe for James a tart cherry pie. He loves sour things, so I was very excited about this. I have never made a pie before either, so this was very new territory, but the recipe seemed easy enough...right?! Anyway, they didn't have fresh tart cherries in Indiana in Feb, they didn't have canned tart cherries (or at least not in the pie section) and they didn't have frozen tart cherries either; so I settled for 2 cans of cherry pie filling, thinking I would just cut out some of the sugar from the recipe. I bought the almond extract, had all the rest of the ingredients at home including already made, roll out pie crusts. I was set...so I thought. I made this "tart" cherry pie according to the recipe and only put in 2/3 cup of sugar when it called for 1 1/4 cups. I thought I was doing great! Then I cut it to serve James a piece, all while telling him what I had done since they didn't have tart cherries. You pie connoisseurs out there already know what I did wrong and are doing now what he was doing as I explained all of it! I learned that night that cherry pie filling is just that...cherry pie filling. No need to add ANYTHING to it, just add to the crust, roll out the top crust and bake! Simple right?! Well, I did add it to the crust...after I had added the almond extract, sugar (that was supposed to be less than called for!), cornstarch, and lemon juice! So I made a cherry pie that was twice as sweet as normal and needless to say after we ate one slice each that evening, the rest of the pie has been sitting in my fridge ever since! OOOPPS! See, this is why I don't bake!
Anyway, back to the stomach flu. 4 o'clock in the morning comes and I wake up to James getting sick in the bathroom. This man has an iron stomach and has only thrown up twice in the last 6 1/2 years that we have been together! I am glad that Gavin started it all though, because I would have thought it was my cooking! Ha. James felt better when he got up Friday morning and headed to work. I was doing okay at the time, still hoping that it would pass Peyton and me up and find another place to go, but had no such luck. So, with 2 toddlers running around the house on Friday and James at work, I started and it hit me hard! The mixture of an already weak stomach from pregnancy and the flu was not a good combination for me! I laid around most of the day, only getting up to change a DVD or get my kids something to eat/drink. Surprisingly though, they were pretty mellow that day which allowed me to be a watchful eye from the couch instead of a participating mommy!
So, we are all well now, but it has seemed like an incredibly long 2 weeks! I rec'd phone calls from Kelly and Tangie wondering where I was and if I was alive since they hadn't seen us at church! Hahahaha It felt good that people missed us!Hopefully, I will be better at posting updates this week.
Peyton's birthday is tomorrow, so there will be a special one celebrating her, so make sure and come back!
Friday, February 8, 2008
It's been a while!
So, I know that it has been a while since my last post.
We had a great time in Louisville. We didn't get a chance to celebrate an early Valentine's Day, but we did get some great encouragement, adult time and we ate incredibly well! The kids really enjoyed their time with their Nana and Papa and continued to talk about it days after we got home. Friday night, they took the kids to McDonalds for ice cream and to wear them out in the playland. They played for about an hour and a half, which in fact wore them out as planned. When I passed a McDonald's on Monday, Peyton asked if we were going to stop their for ice cream! Thanks guy! Just kidding.
This week has been a long one, as James has been very sick. He has ran a fever since Tuesday, had an awful cough along with tons of sinus congestion. He finally decided to go to the dr yesterday, was given some drugs which are working well, but the dr also sent him for x rays and blood work because he thinks James may have pneumonia. Please be praying for him and also for our family so that he gets well and we all stay that way! I really can't afford to be sick, since I can't take the hard meds right now and he can't afford time miss any more work! ;)
That's all for now, hopefully we will have something excited to post next week. No trips to New York or anything, but maybe something better than this week!
Have a great weekend!
We had a great time in Louisville. We didn't get a chance to celebrate an early Valentine's Day, but we did get some great encouragement, adult time and we ate incredibly well! The kids really enjoyed their time with their Nana and Papa and continued to talk about it days after we got home. Friday night, they took the kids to McDonalds for ice cream and to wear them out in the playland. They played for about an hour and a half, which in fact wore them out as planned. When I passed a McDonald's on Monday, Peyton asked if we were going to stop their for ice cream! Thanks guy! Just kidding.
This week has been a long one, as James has been very sick. He has ran a fever since Tuesday, had an awful cough along with tons of sinus congestion. He finally decided to go to the dr yesterday, was given some drugs which are working well, but the dr also sent him for x rays and blood work because he thinks James may have pneumonia. Please be praying for him and also for our family so that he gets well and we all stay that way! I really can't afford to be sick, since I can't take the hard meds right now and he can't afford time miss any more work! ;)
That's all for now, hopefully we will have something excited to post next week. No trips to New York or anything, but maybe something better than this week!
Have a great weekend!
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