Thanksgiving Highlights

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We had a fun but busy Thanksgiving. I'm pretty sure I gained at least 5 pounds and continue to eat turkey leftovers because cold turkey sandwhiches rock the house! Actually I didn't eat any turkey on Thanksgiving because I knew that I would be eating leftover turkey :) We went to my dad & Carla's Thanksgiving morning. It was good to see Jim & Jeri and Jim Morris, whom we don't get to see that often. The food was fabulous too! Unfortunately Mikey was sick with the flu or something and couldn't make it-we missed him. Then we went to Ft. Wayne to celebrate with Todd's family. His extended family from the Goshen area came down. His cousins, Tasha & Danny have 4 kids (Madison 14, Aiden 9, Andrew 7 and Lauren 4) and Taylor loves to play with them. Andrew and Taylor had so much fun playing together. Taylor says that was his favorite part of Thanksgiving was playing with Andrew :) All of the Frantz cousins were home from college. Stephen is in Med school at IUPUI, Sara is playing volleyball for St. Joseph's and Rachel is in her first year at IU. It was also good to see Ann, Todd's Aunt, in such good spirits and looking so good! She just finished with chemotherapy for breast cancer and is expected to have surgery to remove it all on December 7th. We are praying for the best possible outcome. We did a little shopping on Friday-just hit a few stores but not until after the morning madness. The only bad part was not being able to see my mom and Derrick; well we did see them on Sunday, but to not celebrate Thanksgiving with them. Mom went to South Carolina this year to see her Aunt Jo who is on her deathbed and Derrick was at the lake. I am very thankful for my wonderful family and amazing friends who all make me who I am and help me through everything. I am always thankful for these things but it is nice to stop and remember just how much they mean to me.

The Manns (I'm a stickler about getting family photos)

Connor eating lunch at the counter with his hat

Andrew and Taylor

Andrew, Taylor & Aiden

Taylor reading his First Thanksgiving book to Aunt Jeri

Uncle Scotty & Claire

Taylor & Connor making their turkey pictures from tracing their handprints.

My super cute Pilgrim and Native American in hats that Taylor made at school.

Poor Claire

Poor Claire STILL has an ear infection. We just finished round two (day 20) of antibiotics and are now about to start round 3 (only 5 days this time) because she still has an infected ear. Her reflux has gotten worse and the doctor thinks that is attributing to why her ears are staying funk because of all the fluid coming up with the reflux. So she switched her reflux medicine from Zantac to Prilosec and she is now on Zythromax since Amoxicillan and Omnicef didn't work. Poor kid is going to be immune to antibiotics. We went back to the doc because she has been a fussy mess. With her ear infections, reflux and gas/colic (that is what they are calling it) she is just miserable all the time. I feel so bad for her and want it to be fixed soon. Hopefully these drugs will do the trick. I hate that she even has to be on drugs before she is 2 months old. Anyway, here are some new cute pics of her anyway.

She really isn't a fan of bath time yet, especially when mommy messes w/ her hair.

We bathed all 3 kiddos at the same time-Taylor & Connor in the bath and Claire in the sink.

We had the paci going because in the evening is her especially fussy time.

Hey, girl, what's up? Put your hands in the air.......

PRECIOUS BABY GIRL

Play date with the Hutchersons

We finally got to hang out with the Hutcherson crew for the first time since their hospital stay with Aidan. Taylor and Aidan were very excited to see each other. I even have a video of them hugging (and then falling to the floor) and saying how much they missed each other. VERY CUTE! Taylor wrote Aidan a letter that said "I am sorry you got to go to the hospital. Love, Tayor. he drew a picture on the back of them playing and said something about them going tot he park to play. It was very cute and he did it all on his own! This was also the first time we actually saw Izzy and Connor PLAY together. At first they would play side by side but not together and then they would fight over things but today they actually played. Of course it was baby dolls and princess heels, but Connor loved it :)

Miss Claire working up a smile for Emily

Izzy and Connor in their princess heels.
The boys dancing to music from Ice Age 3.

Izzy holding Claire-she was so cute with her!

Taylor's first IU football game

Thanks to Becca's mom, Todd & Taylor got to go to the IU/PU football game in Bloomington on Saturday. Unfortunately, IU lost, but what else is new during an Oaken Bucket football game? Taylor has been really into football this year and loves to go to Colts games, so we thought he would enjoy this, not to mention I knew Todd would enjoy it! They had a great time; I only wish I had been able to go too. Oh, and they came home with souvenier IU footballs for both Taylor and Connor. Connor wanted to go too, but he understood and was okay with the explanation that he can go "when he gets a little bigger".

College Friends get together

We got the best group picture below of all of us at our "college friends" dinner/get together. We try to get together once a month either just us girls for dinner or our families. We have done a pretty good job, especially w/ all the babies that are being born recently. Even Jaylee was able to make this one. Ben's face is awesome-what a ham! And no, Taylor is not holding a doll (although Connor is), that is Claire :) This pic sure is missing the Mitchens though! We miss you Jiffy, Craig and Ellie! Taylor playing dolls with Olivia


Connor & Kyla trying to strap their dolls into Claire and Emma's carseats.

Yes, Todd put Claire in the baby stroller; and she is NOT happy. And I wonder why my kids do some of the things they do :)

Taylor's 6 year professional pics

My sweet baby boy will be 6 in a little over 2 weeks! I know I say this all the time and will say it many more times, but how fast time has gone. I am so blessed to be a mommy to this wonderful little boy and look forward to seeing him grow, even though it is also sad to see him get big so fast. Only because I know in the near future he will stop calling me mommy and I will just be mom, he will stop wanting to spend so much time with me, he won't want to snuggle and cuddle in bed with me in the morning and I won't get the spontaneous kisses and hugs and "I love you's" that are so frequent now. BUT, the one thing I do know is that he will always be my baby boy. I LOVE YOU TAYLOR ALEXANDER!!!! XOXO

Claire update

We went back to the doctor on Monday and Claire's ear infection was worse. She now has a double ear infection. Hopefully she will not go down the same road as her brothers with a slew of ear infections and then finally tubes. Her stool also tested negative for blood so they are concluding that she has a milk allergy and I cannot eay dairy products (fun!). I am glad though that it was only that-she could have also been allergic to soy. The doctor said I didn't even have to stay away from whey, just actual milk products like milk, cheese, yogurt, ice cream, etc. I think I can do that. Claire also still has reflux and we got a prescription for something to help with abdominal pain. We only use it when needed, but it is supposed to help relax their digestive system so they won't be in so much pain. We will see how it works, but yesterday was a great day! No long periods of fussy time, just short periods here and there. And I don't blame her w/ her ears and reflux alone would make her fussy. Anyway, here are a few pics of her this week. I know the bow is way too big, but we got it in the mail last week from family friends of Todd's and I just thought it was too cute not to try on.

Trip to the Firestation

Ever since Halloween when Connor got to try on Brad's (Emily's brother) firefighter gear, Connor has been asking to go to the firestation to see a firetruck. My friend Cheryl's husband, Jim, is a fire fighter and we got to visit his house recently! (thanks Jim and fellow firefighters) When we first got there they were on a run so the ambulance driver let us play around in his ambulance. Then the kids got to go on a short ride around the block on the fire truck (me too!) Of course Taylor had to have his turn taking pictures so he got a shot of Cheryl and I posing by the truck. Poor Cheryl has to bend down to get in photos with me because I am so short! The kids had fun and even though Connor was the one begging to go, I think Taylor enjoyed it more than him! They got to honk the horn on the truck and got a kick out of that. On the way home Taylor said he wanted to be a fireman but he hoped the "manager" made him in charge of the hose because he didn't want to go in the fire :)

Visit to Ft. Wayne

This past weekend we went to visit Todd's parents, brother & sister in Ft. Wayne. We had a good time! We went to the park to walk on a trail, explore and roll down the hill. Some of us (not me) played a little football and the kids (Taylor, Connor and cousins Dylan & Quinn) ran around the house and played. It was a beautiful weekend for the outdoors!

Unfortunately Connor closed his eyes; it was sunny, I don't blame him!

Walking the trail with Grandma & Grandpa & the dogs.
Walking back up the bank after exploring around the water. Todd almost fell in the water :)

Attempt at a family photo; Connor did NOT want to be a part of it!

I highly recommend rolling down the hill with your kids-it really brought back memories from my childhood-it was great!

Todd, Troy, Erika, Taylor & Dylan playing football in the front yard.

Picture of the cousins: Taylor, Claire, Dylan, Quinn, Connor

Visitors, Visitors Everywhere!

I have been blessed with great friends and I am lucky enough to have had lots of visitors in the past couple of days. Becca, Kim & Emma Grace visited Tuesday afternoon, Jeni visited Tues. evening and Cheryl, Jacob & Joey came over to play Wednesday morning. Emily, Izzy and Ethan were also supposed to come over but they are sick :(

Emma & Claire-synchronized babying-hands up!

Now roll to the side
Hands to our face and scrunch up our legs

Ah, all done, roll to the back and hands out!

Mommas w/ their babes!

Becca & Claire

Kim practicing for those sweet twins that will be here soon!

Jeni & Claire

Jacob hugging baby Claire

Connor & Jacob watching Thomas the Train