End of Christmas Break, end of preparations

Hey everyone! Remember me? Ya, I'm still here. Despite my lack of blogging as of late, I am here to say that I'm alive and well (mostly).
Christmas this year was a wonderful combination of food, friends, and the biggie: RELAXING! We knew for a long time that Joe would need to be studying for his boards over Christmas break and would be spending that time here in Iowa. We made our peace with it long ago, so when the break finally came it was all about celebrating and appreciating the time we have to relax and play and sleeping in our own beds at the end of the day.
It has been a very happy break for us, but the big focus for Joe and I has been preparation for the future. I know this sounds very deep,but its really not that intense i promise. For Joe, obviously he has been studying during the day for his boards that he takes (in the morning actually). Everyday from 9-5 he is studying and preparing himself for this test. The preparation for me has been a little different. For the past 13 months I've been having tummy issues, and just before the break i finally saw a gastroenterologist who informed me that i may have celiacs disease. He told me that my symptoms and blood work indicated that diagnosis, and that he would perform an upper endoscopy to make sure on new years eve. Celiacs disease is basically an intolerance to gluten. In terms that normal people can understand its when you can't eat wheat (bread,pasta,pastries, basically anything made with flour). Knowing this going into the Christmas break, i ate all of those foods while i still could. Don't worry the Dr told me not to change my diet until he'd taken a look at my intestines to make sure. So that's what i did. I mentally prepared myself for the possibility of a gluten free lifestyle starting in 2010. but until that time i was going to gorge myself on lasagna, biscuits and gravy, gyozas, olive garden, Reece's puffs cereal, and anything else i could think of that i may have to go without in the future.
So now its the end of all of our preparations. Joe is taking his boards in the morning. I'm sure he'll do great on his test, and he'll come home either victorious or exhausted or both. For my part (i'm sure you may have guessed) the results of the endoscopy confirmed that i have celiacs. Fortunately, i saw it coming and my preparations have made me feel better about it. i don't have to feel robbed of those foods because i ate everything i wanted until the results came in. now i know whats been going on in my tummy and all i have to do is change my diet. no pills, no surgeries, no shots. just eat rice, meat, or potatoes instead of the pasta and i will no longer have to be on a 13 month long involuntary colon cleanse. its an adjustment for sure, but Joe is wonderful. He told me that we will all just live the gluten free lifestyle as a family. I figure that together we'll just one-up the breaded competition, and maybe shed a few pounds without having to exercise. Wish us luck.

Santa!!!!

here is Joe playing a few Christmas songs at the ward party. sorry these pics are out of order.

This saturday was our ward christmas party, and of course santa was there to take pictures with all the kiddos. Thanks Rachel for taking these since i didn't bring my camera. As you can see, the boys absolutely loved Santa. This poor guy didn't know what to do. it was way past bed time at this point and the boys are both a little sick. Needless to say, this santa didn't stand a chance. At this point in the night I wanted to lay on the floor and kick and cry and scream too. but joe was asked to play a few songs after santa left, so we stuck around, fits and all. oh how i hate the terrible twos.

Go Hawks!!

Here is a quick video that I made to show my love and support to the Hawkeyes.

Happy Friday the 13th!

Yes, I realize that was yesterday, but these pictures aren't. Here is noah eating some scrambled eggs for breakfast. He wouldn't let me get him dressed, so i just left them in their diapers while they ate. Yum!

And after breakfast, I let them play on the new bed. It's a TON taller than the previous bed so they can climb up into the window frame now.

This is Ethan cuddling up in his blanky. Thanks again Janette Lloyd for this super soft blanket. We don't have pacifiers here, but having their blanky makes them just as happy and it won't ruin their teeth.

And this is just for fun. When i saw this i started singing a revised version of the thong song. "Let me see your diaper thong! Diaper thong th-thong-thong-thong!"

gotta love it.

Is it too early to be thinking about Christmas?

answer?
only when you're thoughts of christmas=gifts.
Guilty as charged.
Joe and i already purchased our Christmas gift this year. A new mattress! We have always known that we needed to get one at some point, and when Joe and i started waking up with back, neck, and shoulder aches we decided that the time was now. Joe is usually the one to research, find, and purchase big things like this, but he was quite busy with school so i decided to pick up the slack. I found a going out of business sale here in coralville, found a mattress, got a deal (a total steal! I'm the queen of shopping in case you didn't know), and then brought Joe to the store to give me the thumbs up to make the purchase. We are supposed to have it by tomorrow, but its still going to count as our christmas gift this year. Some people consider this spoiling the gift, but i think of it as enjoying it sooner.

because i feel like it, thats why!

Just some pictures that i've been meaning to blog, but never actually got around to it.

This is Jackson Abarca. He decided to be a really good helpful boy, and clean up all the toys in the boys room. Obviously he doesn't know where they go so he piled them in Ethan's crib. Everything that was out went straight to the crib. He even went the extra mile and cleaned out the inside of a few drawers. It was very funny. We were all laughing and the poor guys couldn't tell whether or not he was in trouble.

This picture was from earlier this summer. The boys wanted SO BADLY to play in the water in the sink. So i indulged them, and they were very cute and very happy. So long as i was standing there to make sure the water wasn't too hot or too cold, it was perfect.

This is the "before" picture. My amazing aunt sheila promised on her blog that she would give out homemade gifts to the first 3 people that responded. So she sent me a cute handmade craft that allowed me to get rid of this horrendous key ring that i've long hated, but couldn't get rid of bc i'm too cheap to buy a replacement.

Here is the "after". MUCH better, don't you think? Thank you aunt sheila for (1) sending me this beautiful home decor, and (2) allowing me to take out my hatred for the other key ring by stomping on it before i threw it out.

She's so talented, and luckily i reap the benefits for it in this case.

Here are the boys in their cute costumes before we left to trick or treat. You may recognise the other two boys, Spencer as a frog and Jake as a Lion, who are the boys best buds. It was so fun to have all of us parents parading around our mostly oblivious kids around from house to house.

Noah checking out his loot at the end of the night. Boy oh boy did they ever pitch a fit when we had to take the candy away and put them to bed. Don't worry, we did give them a carmel and some other small candies first.

Here are the pumpkins we carved earlier this week. Can you guess which toothy-smiled pumpkin joe and i made? The scary skeleton belonges to our neighbors Jonathan and Kate.

This was earlier today. I made the boys pose with the pumkin, just for fun. I have some other fun random pictures that are a bit outdated, but i'm so frustrated trying to get these dang pictures in the right order that i'm going to give up for today and post the pictures later. bye bye for now. happy halloween!