brecken's camera

One of the very first pictures he took the night he opened his camera:

The TV in our hotel room before we flew to Florda- TVs are important!:

Papa in the airport:

Grandma in the airport:

TV in front of his seat on the airplane:

The elephant in the living room of the house we stayed at in Marco Island:

We thought this Santa and flamingo-reindeer blow up was fun:

The boats in Marco Island:

The Christmas tree at Disney World:

Taking a picture of his mommy taking pictures of the middle school basketball team:

One of Daddy's games:

Daddy:

Grandma Lennie:

Papa Craig:


Regional Basketball:

Taking a picture of Papa taking a picture of Brecken:

Grandma Lou's kitchen:


Not bad for a two-year old with a Fisher-Price digital camera!

Brecken to his mommy tonight:

"I love my wife. I love my MOMMY wife."

I love that kid.

in the potty!

I asked Brecken this morning if he wanted to go sit on the big potty. He said yes, so off we went. This is a regular occurance in our house. He will sit on it for what seems like hours but nothing happens. This morning was a different story though! He went potty!! He actually missed the toilet because things were aimed different ways (it's rough to be a boy) and it went all over the stool in front of the toilet, but he DID it! For the first time ever!! I made a huge old party out of it and then he cried because his stool was wet. :)

We had a couple fever-free days, and it's back again this morning. Low fever 100.0- but still a fever. And a cough. Have I mentioned how much I can't stand this dang virus?!

oinkies

Preface: Oinkie= pig in Brecken's world.

Mommy: What does an Oinkie say?
Brecken: Little pig, little pig, let me come in!!

taco body

I do Dance Dance Revolution in my elementary music classes once or twice a month. It's a really fun way to work on steady beats, since the closer to being exactly on the beat means you get more points. I keep track of all the points and give awards to the high point winner from each class at the awards ceremony at the end of the year. The kids LOVE it.

Today was a DDR day. We did the song "Funkytown". We got to the "talk about it, talk about it, talk about it, talk about it" part. One of my 1st graders said, "Mrs. Sandlian, what is a taco body?"

I love it.

flying an airplane

On the way home from picking up Brecken from daycare today, we saw a big airplane at the airport. Brecken LOVES LOVES LOVES airplanes. He got all excited and said,

"I want to fly the airplane!"
Me: "You do? But I don't think you're big enough yet."
Brecken: "I'll bring my car seat!"

What a smart child to figure that out. :)

Brecken got sent home from daycare yesterday with a 103 fever. I'm so sick and tired of this virus he has. By the time I got home, his eyes were completely red and streaming water out them, and his nose was super runny too. He was totally and completely miserable. He had a fever at 1:00 this morning when he woke up, but then when he woke up at 6:45, the fever was gone! He made it through the whole day at Amy's house today. His eyes right now are a tiny bit watery, but NOTHING like yesterday. Hooray! I still hate this virus and I hope it turns to Spring soon so it will go away.

state basketball

Josh and I took Thursday and Friday off to enjoy one last weekend of basketball. Our first stop was in Casper to watch the Encampment boys and Saratoga boys play back to back games in the first round of State Basketball. Good games, but both teams came out on the losing end. Saratoga did go on to win 5th place though.

After the games, we went up to Worland so we could watch my cousin Cody play in the 3A West Regional Tournament. Josh's brother Jeffrey was also up there with his girls team from Lyman. We had a good time- my grandma lives there so we stayed with her, and my mom and dad came over too. Again, both of our teams came up on the losing end. :( Neither one made it to State, so we'll get to enjoy a weekend home this coming weekend. That will be nice! Brecken will be sad though- the boys lives for basketball and popcorn these days.

macey

For the first time ever tonight, we had a high schooler over to babysit Brecken for us. We've never had to do that before because 1) there is not a lot of places to go here in Saratoga, and 2) we've always had adult friends invite Brecken to their house when we go out on the very rare occasion. But tonight, two couple friends of ours invited us out to the Saratoga Resort to watch the Cowboys play on TV. So we asked one of Josh's players, Macey, to come babysit. She and her boyfriend had come over to watch the Superbowl at our house for a little while and B fell in love with Macey. He cuddled right up to her and brought her book after book to read. For him, that's strange. Great, but strange- he's NOT a stranger lover! She was awesome with him. And so was her boyfriend- I wouldn't mind both of them coming over to babysit, but Hayden left tonight for Casper for state basketball, as he is one of the stars on the team.

Anyway, Brecken was so excited to have Macey come play with him. She had barely gotten in the door when he grabbed her hand and dragged her downstairs where all his toys are. Josh and I were left in the dust looking like a couple of rejects. :) We went downstairs to tell her the pizza was on the counter and where to find our phone numbers and found Brecken taking anything he could find and saying, "Look at this, Macey!" It was quite hilarious. So we took the opportunity to sneak out.

When we got home a couple hours later, he was still playing hard! Macey told us the great news- he never cried! We had expected him to freak when he realized we were gone, since this was the first time anyone's ever come to babysit him! But I guess they went upstairs to eat dinner and he said, "Where my mommy and daddy went?" and she told him we'd be back and he said OK and continued eating. YAY!!! I'm so glad. And when Macey got her shoes on so Josh could take her home, Brecken cried and said, "Macey no go home! No go home!!" I'm super glad he liked her. I told Josh we'll have to go out again next week. :)

The best part? She's a freshman. Three more years of fabulous babysitting! :)

"get the bike from the garbage."

It was SOOO nice outside today! It was the first day in months we've been able to go outside to play without being blown away or freezing to death. So, out we went. We only needed sweatshirts, even- that's how nice it was. On our way out, Brecken told me "Get the bike from the garbage." Garbage and Garage are easy words to get mixed up. :)

So, the boy with his bike was able to ride again.

in the pink

What a fun weekend we had with the Pink games! No official number yet, but we think somewhere between $4000 and $5000 was raised. Awesome! And to add to the awesome-ness, Josh's girls WON both games!! The one against Hanna was a nailbiter, but we pulled out the win- by ONE. Phew. Yesterday afternoon his girls beat Encampment by 11. We're on a two win streak going into Regionals this weekend! :)

The Hanna girls were wearing the same pink t-shirts that were handed out at the UW pink game last weekend. They wore them as their warm-ups and the coaches were wearing them with dress pants. The Hanna boys wore pink sweat bands around their arms. The Encampment girls wore pink hairbows in their hair and pink socks, too. The pink socks looked fabulous with the red shoes. :) The girls' coaches wore pink dress clothes. And ALL the players, boys AND girls, showed up in pink dress clothes- pink dresses, pink shirts and ties, etc. The Encampment crowd showed up in a lot of pink, too. How awesome.


Both nights had a 50/50 raffle, in which over $800 was raised. Friday night, one of Josh's girls won it. And she gave it back to be donated to the Susan G. Komen Foundation. What a good girl. Yesterday's winner did the same thing.

The head ref from yesterday donated his proceeds for reffing back to the Susan G. Komen Foundation. That was classy.


A ref that they've had throughout the season, but didn't ref this weekend, had bought 12 t-shirts for the ladies in his office. He also gave $50 to the 50/50 raffle but didn't want tickets. This past Wednesday, he came to practice and told the girls what they need to do to draw the fouls in their favor instead of against them. He told them they were ALMOST there and if they did these things the fouls would work for them. He was right- it worked this weekend. He did one other amazing thing this weekend, which I'll get to.

The woman who donated the jerseys got presented with a framed, signed one of her own. She was shocked and amazed. That was fun to watch.

They also had a framed, signed jersey to auction off yesterday. They did it yesterday because Encampment people have money and they love giving it away. (Encampment School has a cake auction each year and last year made a new record for total funds raised in an hour and a half of selling cakes- $14,200.) They figured the Encampment people would get in on the bidding, and sure enough, they did. The jersey was not auctioned off once, not twice, but THREE times. I was in awe. The ref I talked about earlier won it first. He donated it back to be auctioned off again. The second time, it was won by an Encampment couple. They also donated it back to be auctioned off again. The THIRD time, it was won by another Encampment couple, who then donated it to Saratoga High School to be hung. I had some serious goosebumps going on by the end of all this. :) I think the final total for the jersey was somewhere around $1400. Wow.


All in all, it was a great weekend. I'm excited for this to become an annual thing. The Encampment girls' coach said she's thinking of getting white jerseys with pink trim, so they can wear tem when they play Saratoga again this weekend next year. Fun!

Some more pictures of the fun:

"You called WHAT, ref?!" :

pink panthers

This weekend's basketball games will be a little different- the Saratoga Lady Panthers have teamed up with the Women's Basketball Coach's Association and are doing a "Think Pink" weekend.

The "Think Pink" weekend raises money for breast cancer research and all money raised this weekend will go to the Wyoming Chapter of the Susan G. Komen Foundation. A framed jersey will be auctioned off at the game on Saturday, and a 50/50 raffle will be done. A generous grant from the Gretchen Swanson Family Foundation made it possible for the team to buy pink uniforms for this weekend, which will be worn each year during the "Think Pink" weekend.

We're pretty excited about this- Josh has been working since last fall to make this happen. The school made t-shirts that say "Pink Panthers" on them and they have sold like hotcakes. Even Encampment is getting into this, since they come to play Saratoga on Saturday. The Lady Tigers are rumored to be showing up with pink socks and pink hairbows, and the Encampment crowd is planning on wearing pink to the game. The Saratoga boys are even getting in on the action, by wearing "Pink Panther" t-shirts as their warm-ups. I think that's fantastic!

no, my child is not dramatic.

OK, so maybe he is.

Note to self- do not eat another one of Brecken's chips without asking. Dinner tonight was a Mexican-type dish that tastes fantastic when scooped up with tortilla chips. I took one of Brecken's and ate it with gusto, because that usually makes him laugh and then take one himself and eat it. Anything to get the kid to EAT, right? Apparently it wasn't funny tonight. He BURST into tears. Huge ol' crocodile tears. "My chip! I want it!" he kept wailing. It got to the point where he had to go sit with Daddy in his chair and snuggle and calm down. "My chip! I want it!" Josh kept telling him, "Buddy, Mommy didn't know you wanted that one so she ate it. It's in her belly, so we can't get it back." Man, if looks could kill.... Brecken made me feel incredibly guilty!! TEN MINUTES of crying. It was quite something. We had a whole bag full of chips, I gave him some of mine, he had a million on his plate, but he wanted that ONE. The one that was in my belly.

Nope, not dramatic at all. :)

the name game

The newest development in Brecken-World: Full names. He will now tell you that his name is Brecken Sandlian. In fact, he just saw a picture of himself and said, "That's Brecken Sandlian!" And I am now "Mommy Kara" and Josh is now "Daddy Josh".

What a smart kid we have. :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

i'm sick of sickness

We had to take Brecken to Laramie today, to see a "real" pediatrician since we don't have any in Saratoga. He just hasn't been able to kick the illness that put him in the hospital, even though it's been almost a month. Last night, he was breathing SUPER fast (76 breaths a minute!) and could hardly catch his breath. And Amy said at her house yesterday, he was saying his chest hurt and she could feel his heart POUNDING. So Josh called the Laramie Children's Clinic as soon as they opened and got an appointment for this afternoon. We both went.

Dr. Horst, the pediatrician, is almost positive Brecken has the virus that is identical to RSV, called the Human something-something Virus, but there isn't a test for it yet. But he's almost positive that's what B has. He thinks he got it a while ago, before the hospital stay. With this virus, it hangs on for a long time, and magnifies all other small germs, which totally makes sense because I keep wondering why my kid has the worst colds ever!! He's never been 100% since the hospital stay. Dr. Horst also thinks, based on our reports about the hospital stay, that B might have had a bit of pneumonia, but since he wasn't there, he can't say for sure. Anyway, since B has had this human something-something Virus for a while, the only treatment he is going to do for it is continue the nebulizer treatments 2-3 times a day and as needed. After a few days, we can cut back to just as needed. And if he doesn't have a healthy day by the end of February, we can come back and we'll talk about a steroid inhaler. Brecken has a bit of a wheeze in his lungs, but Dr. Horst doesn't want to classify it as asthma yet. I asked how he knows WHEN to say it's asthma (because I've always wondered if B has it...) and he said after a 3rd round of nebulizer treatments, he is "safe" to call it asthma. This doesn't count as a "round" though, since it's treating the virus. We told him he's been on nebulizer treatments before, and he said then sometime down the line, asthma might be discussed.

Anyway, he sent us to the Lincare place with a prescription to buy our own nebulizer machine since we seem to need it so much and I anticipate needing it more in the future. :) Cost us $150, but we can submit it to insurance. Plus, it will pay off because we won't have to pay a rental fee each time we need it now! We borrowed Amy's that she owns, last night, but now we can send that back to her house and have albuterol in the diaper bag so if she needs to give B a treatment at her house (like if a heart thing happens again like what happened yesterday), she can.

About the heart thing- Dr. Horst said in this age of kids, chest pain is always breathing related and not cardiac related. That makes me feel better!

We really liked Dr. Horst. He spent a long time listening to the lungs and doing a VERY good history. Asked a ton of questions. He was awesome with Brecken while looking in his ears (he was looking for french fries!) and nose (he said, "I want to look at your boogers!") and stuff. We have decided that we can go to the clinic here for shots, but anything more than that, we will be taking B to Laramie. Bummer that it takes so long to get there, but worth it for the care. The clinic has not been impressive to us lately. Today if we had gone there, they would've spent 2 minutes with B and not done anything.

We think he gained a half a pound since the hospital stay. He wouldn't stand on the scale but we weighed me holding him, and then just me. It read 23 pounds. He was 22 lbs, 8 oz. in the hospital. Yay for a good weight gain! But 23 pounds for a 2 1/2 year old makes me giggle. :)

While waiting for Josh to check out, B was playing in the kid area. There was a little guy playing there too, and it turns out his name was Brecken, too! Crazy!

So there's the update. Maybe soon this thing will go away and my boy can be healthy again!

full of love

Brecken has this thing now where he'll say "I love you more", to which we reply, "No, I love YOU more!" and he says, "No, I love YOU more!" and so on and so forth. I think that's what he meant this afternoon when he looked at me and said,

"Mommy, I love you too much!"

I laughed so hard I cried. :)

some pictures

I went to send out my January pictures, but realized I only took a few of Brecken last month! I took lots of photos- for middle school basketball teams, homecoming, basketball, but I guess I didn't get much of my little guy. So I'll just post them on here.


Here is Brecken after he decided to ditch the spoon and eat the yogurt with his hands:

He really has gotten interested in my iPod lately. He has a playlist of his songs on there, and he listens to them over and over. He dances and sings along.

It looks like he is in pain on here, but he isn't. He is totally digging the song "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes", and is doing the "head" part in this picture. He gets into his songs. :)

a boy and his buddy

It sure is fun to watch my child grow into a boy. Makes me sad because the baby stuff is gone, but at the same time, this stage is a blast. Amy (our daycare lady) has a little boy about 5 months older than Brecken and they get along fabulously. Dylan told Brecken when we left the other day, "Bye, Brecken! I love you!" Today she told me that Cooper, her 1-year-old, was trying to get Brecken's milk today and Dylan told his little brother, "NO, Cooper! That's my best friend!" Awww....

We had a good weekend. Saturday morning, I did photos for the middle school basketball team and then B and I stayed home while Josh's team went to Hanna to play. They lost by one, and should've won pretty easily, so it wasn't a good day for them. Sunday, we had some people over to watch the Superbowl and had a good time. Brecken is very much into piggyback rides, which he calls "Tigger-back" rides. It's quite cute. He can't get enough Tiggerback rides.

finally! a win!

Josh's team finally got a win last night! First one of the season. It was a big win, too- it was against Encampment, in Encampment, at Encampment's homecoming! It was very exciting. They won by 4. Phew! His JV was close- they lost by 1. Encampment boys won by 1.

They are in Hanna today. Brecken and I didn't go. Hopefully Josh's team will come home with another win!

my friend

Totally out of the blue tonight, Brecken gave me a HUGE squeeze around my neck, and said, "Best Friend."

I swear, I didn't know my heart had anything else to melt!

oh, no.

Here's what started last night:

"Why, Mommy?"

I was dreading this stage. And here it is.

Wish us luck.

:)

welcome home

I beat Josh and Brecken home today. I was standing in the dining room when the door opened, and in comes Brecken, shouting, "MOMMY! MISSED YOU!!!!" before he even saw me. What a nice way to be welcomed home. :)

what an historic day

I'm here in Casper for the All-State Conference. I have been since Sunday, but we get to go home today! I'm glad, because I miss my two boys at home.

I was afraid I was going to miss one of the biggest days in history, because we were in clinics and the kids were in rehearsals, all day long. But the guest choir conductor, from the University of New Hamshire, had a great idea. He stopped rehearsals for his choir at about 9:30 yesterday morning and had the inauguration projected on a HUGE screen in the auditorium so the kids could witness the event. So I skipped one of the clinics and joined them. I wasn't the only teacher with that idea- there were several rows of us in the back of the auditorium. :) And WOW. What an amazing event. Not only did they have one of the most beautiful arrangements of "Simple Gifts" that I've ever heard... (Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Pearlman, and two of their friends, playing the arrangement done by John Williams!!!!!!!!! Could it get any better?!?! It brought tears to my eyes!) but just the historical significance of swearing in Barack Obama was incredible. No matter who you wanted to win the election, you have to admit- this is a HUGE day in history. One that will be written down in our history books. And a day that shows that we as Americans, have moved in a direction that shows that everybody is EQUAL. And that's a wonderful direction to be going.

a visit to the rawlins hospital

I finally got to ride in a wheelchair with my baby- I never got to when he was born since he left in an airplane- but I got to on Tuesday morning!

Brecken has had a fever since Friday. We thought it was another molar coming in- he had a fever over Christmas and when it went away, we found a molar. So we kept alternating Tylenol and Ibuprofen and trying to keep the fever down. Monday we decided we better get him to the clinic to get checked out, so I stayed home with him. Dr. Jake thought his ears were pretty red, but not infected, and that his throat looked terrible. Brecken had a good cough too, so Jake thought it was the same crud that has been going around. He prescribed us antibiotics and we went home. Brecken had some energy back that evening and we went to bed as normal.

At midnight, I heard him wimpering in his sleep. So I went in his room and felt his head and almost burned my hand off. Brecken was BURNING. I got out the temporal thermometer and totally freaked out when it said 106. I tried several more times and got readings between 104 and 105. Josh tried the under-arm thermometer and go 102.9. He called the doctor on call, who thought we could probably give Brecken a half dose of ibuprofen since it wasn't time for a full dose yet. After Josh hung up, Brecken threw up all over me. That's when we decided it was time to head to the ER in Rawlins.

When we got admitted to the ER, they took his temp rectally, and got 105.1. It's so much more scary to get a reading like that from professionals. I was terrified. My first thought was "Oh my God, he's got meningitis." His heart rate was over 200, and his oxygen level was only about 72%. They started him on an IV, which was TERRIBLE. They only had to stick him once, thank goodness, but the look of terror on his little face is something I'll likely never forget. They drew blood, did a nasal wash to check for RSV (negative), and then we had to do two chest x-rays. Let me tell you how fun that was. It wasn't. He had to sit on a stool by himself. Josh held his head and I held his hips. At 3:10 am, when you are two years old and not feeling good AT ALL, it was a miserable experience. They said his upper right lung looked a little off. They asked if Brecken had ever had problems with his lungs that had hospitalized him before. Why, yes, he has! (click on "why yes he has" if you don't know the story!) By this time, Brecken had had a bag of antibiotics through his IV and was started on his second bag of fluids. They decided we better be admitted into the hospital. FINALLY at 5:30 am, we were given a room. (this is when I got to hold him and be wheeled up to our room!) Then they poked and prodded him and we got no sleep. (I forgot to mention that the hospital is under reconstruction, and at the dot of 7:00, the construction started. RIGHT OUTSIDE OUR ROOM, IN THE HALLWAY.)

So we got to hang out in the hospital bed all day yesterday. Couldn't go anywhere since Brecken was hooked up to the IV, and we had to keep an oxygen tube near him at all times to keep his oxygen up. Plus, Brecken didn't feel like going anywhere- he felt pretty terrible. He would cry every time a nurse would come in because he knew they were either going to mess with his IV in his hand, put a "sticker" on his foot or finger to check oxygen levels, take his temp, make him do a nebulizer treatment, or something else he wasn't interested in doing. Poor kid.

Early this morning, around 3:00 am, his fever broke. And you could tell- he was up and hyper! He was pushing the buttons on the bed I was sharing with him (Josh slept in the other bed in the room), making it go up and down and up and down. He channel surfed on the TV, watched movies on his DVD player, we walked the hallways, he put a million stickers that the nurse had given him on to his hospital mug, and the best thing- he asked for food! He hadn't had an appetite in 4 days so that was a wonderful sign! Finally, he went back to sleep about 6:00 this morning. Just in time for construction to start at 7:00. :) The doctor came in around 8:15 and said we could go home. Hooray! His final conclusion was that he thought Brecken had an upper respiratory infection, even though his white blood cell counts were in the normal range when we came into the ER. And he didn't know why exactly Brecken's temp was as high as it was. But he sent us home with a decongestant, the nebulizer machine, antibiotics, and tylenol.

So, we got home around 11:00 and after lunch, Brecken and I took LONG naps. :) Now we're hanging out and taking it easy. It's so nice to be home! I have to go to work tomorrow morning to work with my all-state kids before we leave on Sunday, so I will go and Josh will stay home with Brecken. Then we'll switch at lunch and I'll come home and Josh will go to work for the afternoon, since he has a home game that starts at 3:00. Josh doesn't have school on Friday so he can stay home with Brecken. Next week we'll get back to normal!

Thanks for everyone that threw prayers our way- they worked and Brecken's on the mend! I can't believe how brave our little boy was. We are very grateful that we have such an awesome kid. Throughout this whole thing, HE was kissing OUR owies. What a trooper.

chicken and nanny

Every single day since August, when Brecken started daycare, we ask him what we have for lunch.  And every single day since August, the answer has always been "chicken and nanny!"  (nanny means candy.)  Every day.  I KNOW that's not the answer because Amy always tells us what he has for lunch.  And it's never chicken and nanny. :)

I thought after 2 weeks off at Christmas, he might forget about that answer.  But Jan. 5, first day back, I asked what he had for lunch.  "Chicken and nanny!" was his answer.  Nope, he didn't forget!

You should hear him say "candy cane".  It's so funny.  "Mommy, I want a nanny cane!"  :)

he wants to go!

Josh and I were talking with each other tonight about how much we loved Marco Island and we wanted to go back.  The word Florida was mentioned and all of a sudden Brecken exclaimed, "SEE MICKEY MOUSE FLORIDA!" 

How in the world does he know Mickey lives in Florida???

He kept telling us he wanted to go see Mickey in Florida though!  Our arms might be able to be twisted.... :)

i love the age of two.

It's interesting, that's for sure.  B thought I was his slave today.  Everything was "Mommy get it." and if that didn't work, he'd shout it at me.  It was a long morning.  For both of us- for myself because I was being yelled at and for him because nothing he ordered me to do got done!  :)  The classic was when he tossed something off the couch and then said, 

"Mommy get it!!!"  

Me: "YOU get it.  You're the one who threw it and you have two legs."

B (in a snotty tone, I might add...): "Where?" 

Oh, my child.  Thank you for keeping me on my toes.

The afternoon was much better and by the time Josh got home from his poker run, B was hysterical.  He's really into pretending he is a horse right now.  He gets on his hands and knees and rares up saying, "Neigh, neigh!"  Tonight he found his stuffed toy horse and was "riding" it, neighing.  Yesterday while doing this, I said, "Daddy, we have a horse in the house!"  B goes, "WHERE???" (again, his favorite question.)  I said, "Right there!" and pointed to him.  He looks over his shoulder and exclaims again, "Where????"  Poor kid probably got very excited thinking we really had a horse in the house. :)

year in review

Most of you won't find this post interesting, but I eventually want to find somewhere where I can get my blog printed in book format, one for each year.  And since today is the last day of 2008, I felt some "closure" was needed so when it's printed as a book, it doesn't end with a random post.  So this is our Christmas letter that was sent in our cards, which I think reviews our year nicely.  I think this will be a good last entry in the future book.  We had a fabulous 2008 and are looking forward to what 2009 has to bring us.  Happy New Year, everyone!

Happy Holidays from the Sandlians!

 

We hope this letter finds everyone in the Christmas spirit, celebrating all that happened in 2008 and looking forward to 2009!  Our year was busy as usual but we wouldn’t want it any other way.

Our family had two graduations this year, and both were on the same day.  Unfortunately, Josh’s was in Montana and my sister’s was in Laramie, so Josh wasn’t able to attend his ceremony.  But yes, Josh graduated in May with his master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction and is now a full-fledged teacher!  My sister finished college and graduated with her nursing degree.  We had a great weekend celebrating those two accomplishments.

At the end of June, we, along with my mom, dad, sister, brother-in-law, and nephew, spent some time in Disney World.  It was a great time.  Both Ryan and Brecken thought their first trip there was a blast.  Brecken enjoyed the rides and shows, and had a great time on the trip.  He wasn’t sure he wanted the characters to touch him, but had a good time looking at them from afar.  J  Josh and I had to come home on July 3^rd so we could attend the wedding of Josh’s brother, Jeff, to our new sister-in-law, Beth.  We were very excited to welcome Beth into the Sandlian family!  And what a fun wedding it was!  We had a lot of family at the wedding and it was fun to catch up with everyone. 

Also in July, we moved!  We grew out of our old house and were in need of a bigger one.  We found the perfect one and were able to move after we got back from the wedding.  We sure love the room we have- it is twice as big as our old house and has a ton of storage, which was DESPERATELY needed!  It also has a two car garage, and now that we don’t need the garage for storage, Josh and I can both park in there.  We sure love that, especially right now when we don’t have to scrape windows before we can leave for work!  It also has a built in kennel in the garage that goes to a fenced one outside for our two dogs.  Perfect!  We have a gorgeous view of the mountains out our picture window in the living room.  We also have a lot of bedrooms so if you’re in the neighborhood, stop by and visit!

We welcomed a new niece into our family on July 29, named Brooklyn Paige Winegar.  This is my sister’s 2^nd child and we’re loving watching her grow!  Brecken even named his baby doll “Brooke”.   He loves babies and pays her a lot of attention!

This fall was a bit rough on us.  Football season started and not too soon afterwards, one of my students, who was also one of Josh’s favorite football players, was killed in a car accident 4 days before his 18^th birthday. It was horrible.  Neither of us had ever dealt with the death of a student.  It hurt so bad to watch my other students be in so much pain.  The team struggled, too.  They never really got their momentum back and ended the season not making the playoffs.  If you text on your phone while driving, STOP.  If you don’t wear your seatbelt, START.  Got it?

Brecken turned two years old in September.  Not sure how he grew up so fast!  The age of two certainly is a lot different than the age of one… lots more challenges but a lot more fun, too!  He is a talker and can mimic anything you say.  He is very good at bossing the dogs and cats around, and is the most hilarious two year old I’ve ever met.  His favorite game right now is hiding body parts.  He’ll sit on his hands and say, “Mommy, where hands go?”  Then pull them out and shout, “There they are!”  He started at a new daycare this fall; the lady that owns it is the head coach for Josh’s basketball team.  She is FABULOUS and Brecken loves going there to play!  He also started pre-school this fall, Fridays for an hour and a half.  He is learning things at an alarming rate and brings home the best paintings and crafts.  I have a very smart child.  J

Another new niece was born in September, Josh’s brother and sister-in-law had their 3 ^rd child, Hailey Jo.  Brecken’s other baby doll is now named “Hailey”.  I told you the kid loves babies!

Brecken got to go trick-or treating for the first time this October.  He was dressed as a monkey and caught on to saying, “Trit-er-reet!” very quickly after he realized there was candy involved!  I’m pretty sure that was the best night of his whole life.  The kid is a candy monster. J

Josh is still teaching high school science, coaching high school football, and coaching high school girls basketball.  Basketball has started and Brecken gets to go to practice sometimes.  He loves practice.  He cried when football season was over because he couldn’t go to practice anymore.  He thinks basketball practice a good substitute for football though. J  Josh is also still running on the ambulance as an EMT-AI (Advanced Intermediate) and that keeps him very busy in his “free time” from school and practice.  He’s also still on the fire department but luckily they don’t get too many calls.

I am still teaching K-12 music in Encampment and loving it.  I love the diversity it gives me- I don’t have time to get tired of any one age group!  My free time is spent at home playing with Brecken!  We have a ball together.

We are leaving soon for a trip to Florida, to attend my cousin’s wedding in Marco Island.  I know, I know, visiting Florida in the winter while we have snow on the ground is a rough job, but someone has to do it!  J  We are going with my mom and dad, and after a very quick two days in Disney World following the wedding, we will fly home on Christmas Eve.   It will be a nice vacation. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love,
Josh, Kara and Brecken

(along with Birdie, Hogan, Charlie and Ditka!)

where?

That's B's favorite question right now.  Converstions in our house take a while now.

Josh: I'm going to go see if the dump is open.

B: Where?
Josh: Out of town.

B: Oh.

B: Where daddy went?

Me: To the dump.

B: Where?

Me: Out of town.

B: Where?

Me: You can't see it from here.

B: Where?

Me: You have to drive on a road.

B: Where?

Me: Out of town!!

I can't wait until the "why" questions start!!!

only in florida would you see this...

who wouldn't love this wedding

with a wedding party that looks like this...
with a bride and groom as awesome as they are...

with the coolest little tropical boy in the whole entire world...
on a beach that looks like this...
and a band like this...
after waking up to this sunrise...
this one says it all.

stay tuned

We are leaving right after school tomorrow for our Christmas vacation.  Don't know when I'll be back on the computer, so until then, MERRY CHRISTMAS and we'll talk to you when we get back!!!

our little reindeer

Christmas 2007- B was not happy about the antlers.

Christmas 2008: Much better!

when a 2 year old helps wrap christmas presents...

... this is what you get. Not exactly Christmas-y, but he was very proud of it. :)

balls in the sky

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Josh and Amy have practice that starts at 4:00. So Amy brings B to practice and I pick him up at school when I get to town. This afternoon, he and I came out of the school and he noticed the moon in the sky. He got very excited and said, "Mommy! Ball up there!" We were walking past trees, and the trees would block the moon. In between trees, he'd say, "Mommy! ANOTHER ONE!" And then again. "Another one!" It was quite funny to see balls in the sky through the eyes of a 2 year old. :)

game one of the tournament

Josh's team played Encampment at the tournament last night and lost. Saratoga was ahead by 10 at halftime, and then Encampment had 15 unanswered points right at the start of 3rd quarter and Saratoga couldn't keep up. They lost by 5. Bummer. Saratoga only had 8 girls last night because one isn't eligible to play varsity because she's moved too many times (New WHSAA rule), one has a broken wrist, and one didn't have enough practices. They only have 11 girls out this year. Two of Saratoga's stars got into foul trouble pretty fast and had fouled out during the 3rd quarter. Oops.

Two games today, against Cokeville and Baggs. B and I will go up later- their first game is at 10:40. Then again at 2:30. Then tonight we will all go to the Christmas Parade and to the community center to see if B wants to see Santa. If not (and I'm betting not), we'll still have hot chocolate and cookies. :)

We got to ride the bus up to Enc. last night. B thought that was incredibly exciting. He sat down on his seat and said, "let's go!!" During the game, every time there was a time out, he'd go, "Over, mommy!" I had to tell him they were just taking a break. :) Then once it really WAS over, he goes, "Over! BUS!" and starts throwing things into the diaper bag so we could go get back on that bus. :) He didn't enjoy it as much on the way home though, because he fell asleep. It was late- we didn't get back to Saratoga until 10:30.

ice teem

Brecken fell in love with peppermint ice cream this weekend. He can't get enough of it. He makes sure every last drop is gone!

eat it

We had a great weekend!  My mom and dad came down after work on Wednesday and were here by B's bedtime.  Thursday we got up and got cooking!  We had a great spread- turkey, mashed potatoes, the most delicious gravy, rolls, jello salad, the works.  

Friday morning, we went up to get a Christmas tree from the mountains.  B was decked out in his snow pants and snowboots and had fun walking in the snow.  He called it "sticky messy".  Hadn't thought of describing snow as sticky....

That afternoon, my sister and her family came over.  Ryan and Brecken had a fantastic time playing together.  They played HARD and very well together!  Josh and I got to go out on a date that night and celebrate my birthday since we had a lot of babysitters.  I had a delicious dinner of steak and crab legs and Josh had a plain ol' hamburger. :) 

Today we spent the morning baking Christmas cookies.  It was Ryan and Brecken's first time doing so and they thought it was great fun to pound out the dough and roll it out, then cut it out and decorate them with sprinkles and colored sugar.  Some of our cookies are covered in lots of sugar!  After a while, Brecken figured out the dough tasted pretty good and spent the rest of the time saying, "eat it."  As you can see, he gave up making cookies and just ate the dough.

Tonight, Jeff and Beth stopped by on their way home from their travels, for a quick stretch and some free dinner.  It was good to see them again.

Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!

bastetball, mommy!

We headed up to my school today so I could do pictures for the middle school boy's basketball team. This team is 12 players strong, made up of 5th-8th graders. B LOVES basketball. (I need to bring my camera to one of Josh's practices some night, because B does the stretches and pushups with the girls. It's hysterical.) He watched as the boys lined up for their pictures and then got in line and got his picture taken, too. Could I love my little boy any more?!

gobble gobble

Look what B made at preschool today!  He's very proud of it.  He painted the feathers himself.  If I do say so, he did a great job!  But when I asked if he'd put it on and let me take his picture, he said, "No pictures, mama."  Because he is 2 years old and it wasn't his idea. :)  

mmm...mmm...mmm!!!!!

That's what B said when he tried the pumpkin muffins he helped me make. And I agreed! You must make them- they are DELICIOUS. Josh ate his with whipped cream- kinda defeated the "healthy" part, but even more delicious, none-the-less. :)

thoroughly enjoyable

Not. This nebulizer thing is pretty terrible.  Brecken hates every minute of it. But he didn't cough all night long last night, so I know it is working!  We had to do the nebulizer last year when he had RSV, and I don't remember him hating it so much back then!  We still have the mask and tubing from last year, so we let B put that on Elmo's face to give him his "medicine" while we do the mask on B's face.  He cries and cries, though- he's terrified of the noise and the mask and the stuff coming out of it.  Hopefully the cough will go away soon and we'll be done with it!  His cough today was super loose, so I hope that means the junk is loose and will come out soon.

If you didn't take the time to thank a veteran today, make sure you do it tomorrow.  What sacrifice they made for us.  If you are a vet and are reading this, THANK YOU.

home sick

Brecken has had a terrible cough for the past couple weeks that got suddenly worse this weekend. He can't sleep because of it. It's a nasty sounding cough. Josh called Dr. Jake yesterday while we were in Lyman and Jake thought it sounded like the strep throat that has been going around lately. So, I stayed home with him today and got him into the clinic.

No strep, thank goodness. His throat is red and irritated but not yucky like strep. No fever, either. Just a lot of junk in his lungs. So we got sent home with a nebulizer machine to give him nebulizer treatments for the next week or so. Hopefully that will get the junk loosened so it will come out and his cough will go away.

We pulled up to the clinic and B goes, "Sucker medicine!!" He knows what you get there, apparently! The whole exam, he kept asking Jake for a sucker. He got one at the end, and had it gone by the time we left. :)

The GREAT news is, he gained a ton of weight in the past 2 months! He was at 22 lbs 10 oz today! He had his jammies on still, but they are lightweight cotton and his diaper was brand new so that didn't weigh anything. That's almost a pound and a half in 2 months- I'll say a little over a pound if you take away the clothes. YAY! That's the most he's gained in that period of time!

my heart has melted

I was sitting on the floor in the living room tonight.  Brecken walked over to me and said, "I love you!" and gave me a huge hug.  That is the first time he has ever said that.  My heart melted into a huge puddle.

Man, I love that little boy!

daddy games

 

thankful

We are currently watching the Noggin channel on TV. Moose A. Moose (for those of you who know what I'm talking about) asked, "What are you thankful for?" I asked Brecken the same question. His answer?


"Eating chicken!"

pumpkins

We carved our pumpkin tonight. Brecken thought that was pretty neat and liked to see it, but didn't want to touch it. :) And when I tried to get a picture of him with it, he grabbed my other camera and tried taking pictures of me. Good thing we're asking Santa for a camera just for Brecken....


He is saying, "Hi, Grandma!"

trit-ereet!

We went trick-or-treating downtown today. B had a really good time! He did very good asking people, "trit-ereet!" He then would pick one piece of candy (I was glad he didn't throw fits because he wanted more than one- he somehow knew to pick the best looking ONE and move on!) and afterwards would tell them "tate-oo!" (thank you) It is WARM today- in the mid 60's, and that is weird because it always snows on Halloween, it seems!

For the first six or so stores, B would take the candy out of his bucket and say, "Here, Daddy!" I never got any. Only daddy. And the high school girl he is love with- he gave her a box of Nerds when he saw her. Shows where I rank. :)

At our realtor's office, they handed out candy, a cookie, and some punch. He told our realtor no when she asked if he wanted candy, because he was so thirsty by that point that he only wanted juice! Coming from my candy monster, this was funny!

Here are a few snapshots of the afternoon:

He said, "Dita, my sucker!"

And this is what we got when we said no more candy because we needed to eat dinner:

hot hot hot

Brecken fell asleep at 6:55 last night!  I was thinking it was great- a whole night to watch TV uninterrupted.... :) Until, that is, he woke up and when Josh went to get him, he was burning up with a fever.  The poor baby.  We brought him downstairs where it's cool, gave him some Tylenol, and cuddled for a while.  I brought him to bed with me at 9:00, and asked if he hurted.  He nodded and pointed to his belly.  He later pointed to his ear too, but then when I asked him a minute later if his ear hurt, he said no.  So I'm not sure if his belly really did hurt or not!  Sometime in the night, his fever broke, so I don't know if he was sick, or if he's getting molars, or what the deal is.  We're going to try daycare today and if he doesn't feel good, Amy can call one of us to come get him.

Trick-or-treat downtown is today.  Brecken has been practicing ("trit-ereet! Nandy!") and loves his monkey costume, so hopefully he feels well enough to go do that this afternoon!  Josh gets to come with us this year, because he doesn't have football practice.  That's one nice thing about not making the playoffs- 3 weeks of him coming home after school before basketball practice starts!!

Speaking of basketball, Josh and Amy had a basketball meeting after school yesterday.  Amy just brought B with her to the meeting so Josh could bring him home with him.  (I got 40 minutes to myself after school!  Yay!) When they came home, B came walking into the house, then saw me and ran to me and goes, "Mommy! Practice!"  He was so excited to have been at basketball "practice".  :)  He loves doing those things- he cried Tuesday when he couldn't go to football practice- he didn't understand that it's all over!!