turkey lurkey yummy nummy...

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving holiday! Oh...wouldn't it be nice to just retire now and just have family cozy time everyday! We kept busy this week and actually don't have many pictures other than Jeff carving the turkey...which he was lucky enough to do twice.

We spent Thanksgiving with Jeff's family at his sister's here in Grand Rapids. We brought the bird, prepped using the recipe for Alton Brown's (Food Network) turkey brine. We've done this before and it's finger-lickin' good.

After some shopping on Friday morning, I had a photoshoot (check it out) with a great family. We spent the rest of the weekend either laying around or playing Wii Fit (I got it Friday and nobody wanted to wait until Christmas to take it out of the box). We did have turkey din din again on Saturday with my folks who drove up from North Carolina (they volunteer at JAARS).

It's looking pretty chilly outside today (yikes), so I guess we'll just lay around some more and eat some leftover turkey. Life is good.

she's got beautiful eyes, but the ears aren't good...

If you've known our family for awhile, you likely know that we've struggled with properly functioning ears in both Lauren and Sarah. Prone to one ear infection after the other...they both had "tubes" placed a little more than 4 years ago (Sarah was 4 months old and had her first infection at 2 weeks old).

Well, we thought we escaped ear issues with Julia...thinking lungs would be her biggest problem (she spent a week in the hospital at the first of the year with RSV and pneumonia to catch some of you up). She's had two ear infections to date (which is fantastic in our book).

Lately, she's been talking a lot, but no real words were coming out...in fact, her speech was going backwards. I also suspected another ear infection. So...we decided to skip past the pediatrician and go straight to our trusty ear doctor.

In this part of the story, take a moment to shove your fingers as far into your ears as you can, or if you're like my mom, grab your earplugs and plug 'em in. You can still read, but I take it you're not hearing very well. Yup, you guessed it...that's how Julia is hearing the world around her...and has been for awhile. Somehow, it's escaped her regular doctor that fluid has been piling up and now is mimicking the look of her ear drum...thus making hearing a challenge.

It seems fixable...which is good, of course. But it's a little sad to know she can't hear us all that well...not to mention that apparently she just likes the look of the Wiggles and not how they sing (which is my favorite part).

So, we'll start with an antibiotic (heavy duty) to try to clear it out of there and also heal the infection she does have now too. After that, we'll test the hearing again...but we're likely looking at tubes again, which I'm all for. Whatever it takes to get the gunk out so she can hear my off-key rendition of You are My Sunshine again!

Thanks to you all for reading through a cathartic blog post! (you can take your fingers out of your ears now).

happy happy joy joy (let it snow)....

Nothing makes Lauren happier than a yard full of snow. Frost bite could be setting in and she'd still be rolling around in the stuff. It takes her less than a minute to build a snowman.

But, there's not much that makes her angrier than a little sister who finds delight in knocking over snowmen.

So...she gets to build one again.
And that makes her happy.
It's a never-ending circle of fun when you're ankle deep in snow. The older girls were out until after dark sliding around. It always makes me smile when all the other lawns on the street are pristine with untouched snow and ours looks like mangled chaos. I love it.

sweetness captured...

I took some photos of my little nephew, Brandt, and his proud parents, Lisa and Tim, over the weekend. They're a great little family. Check 'em out over on the photoblog.

fin de la cumpleanos...

Yesterday marked 35 years in the life of a pretty great guy...none other than mein mann, Jeff. The third birthday in the family in under two weeks was marked with a potpourri of appetizers, and a plate of pastry (who wants cake after overdosing earlier in the month?).


His parents and his sister, Lisa, and family (baby Brandt below) came over for the festivities. Nothing makes a grandpa happier than reading a book to a lap full of babies.

Jeff and I capped off the day in a healthy, but heated competition shooting stuff and playing tennis on the Wii. Let's just say that I'm a good shot, but my backhand still stinks. Or I could say that I let him win on his birthday. But lying is not cool.

the one bad thing about fall...

...it has to end sometime. The air is starting to bite and from the looks of our backyard today, the leaves have stopped hangin' on to the trees.

Raking the leaves...the last hurrah of autumn...is very muched loved around here (although I'm never the one with a rake...so I won't speak for Jeff). Lauren is especially fond of a giant pile of leaves and Sarah seems to have grown into it this year as well (she's cried about it most other years). And Julia was just a trooper as usual.

No, she did not break any bones on this jump. In fact...this was not the highest she got. Our little daredevil. I just thought of this...do you think they have leaf-raking as a Wii sport? That would be sweet.

put a gift certificate in someone's stocking (or get one in yours)...

Thought I'd let you all know about something going on with the biz. I am now offering Bellflower Design Gift Certificates!!! These are handmade and include a coordinating envelope. You may purchase them in any amount at all. What a great Christmas gift! So tell everyone you know about this (even if it's just because you want them to get one for you!). Contact me for details on how to order.


You'll see the same message over at the photoblog...if you're someone who travels over there too.