March 13, 2009

Yesterday was Peanut's due date, it was truly a sad day knowing we should be holding a tiny healthy beautiful bundle of joy around now.


Our Dear Angel,


Mommy and Daddy miss you very much and love you with all our hearts. We think about you often and you are never far from our hearts. Thank you for watching over us and your big brother from heaven. Your short life left a big imprint on ours and held special meaning to us. We know you are whole and healthy and not in need of anything where you are. We will never forget you.


Loving & Missing You Always,
Mommy and Daddy

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all our family and friends! We hope you had a wonderful Christmas and New Years! We have been so busy we didn't have time to blog around Christmas so we are getting to it now.

Logan was more into Christmas this year than last, but still not full blown Christmas craziness, we think that will start next year once he is 3. We read him lots of books about Santa though and he really liked all the Christmas trees he saw, and he really noticed that the tree was gone when he got up the morning after Matt and I took it down. We look forward to seeing his Christmas reaction next year.

We made the usual rounds to all our family and Logan held up pretty well, opening gifts for the most part and not too many melt downs, which was great for a sleep deprived two year old. Matt and I went to the midnight candlelight service at our Church which was nice (We went to the earlier one last year with Logan and it didn't work with Mr. Logan). Christmas morning was fun, Logan would open a present and then want it out right away and then he wanted to play with it, so he only opened a few presents . I opened the rest for him and each one I would show him and he would say "WOW" and then go back to playing with the one he liked the best. Logan has enjoyed playing with his new toys and reading his new books and Matt and I have been having fun with our new Wii Fit!

We capped our holiday celebrations off with going to Holiday Magic and Brookfield zoo, something I have been doing forever, and Matt and I have been doing since we started dating. We went this year my Mom and Aunt Jackie so we had a big group of us and Logan enjoyed being with his cousins and aunt and uncles again. Logan made himself a little girlfriend while at the zoo watching the dolphins. First he went towards her and she backed away, then she came up to him and stole his binky, then Logan gave her a big hug, it was love at first sight. They watched the dolphins together and followed each other around a bit, but then it was time to go, it was the cutest thing ever! Holiday magic was a nice end to a wonderful holiday. We hope you all had as much fun as we did!

Logan hanging out with cousin Kyle.

The Pable side of the family (minus Grandma & Grandpa who stayed down in warm Arkansas)

Matt and Logan on Christmas Eve at the Blumes

Matt and I Christmas Eve
Matt reading Logan "The Night Before Christmas" a tradition since he was born, and he is using my book from when I was little.

Christmas morning at our house!

Logan getting right into it!

Me with the beautiful diamond journey necklace that my wonderful husband gave me.

Christmas morning at Mom's with our new Wii Fit!
The after Christmas toy explosion in our living room!

Having fun at Holiday Magic!

Matt and his wonderful mother-in-law

Logan trying to get Aunt Katie to take him outside.
Our little duck lover!

Logan and his girlfriend watching the dolphins together.

Happy Anniversary, Brandi

Ten years ago today, a very nerdy boy swung for the fences and asked out a girl that was pretty well out of his league. After she said yes, the (clueless) nerdy boy in question then proceeded to join his friends for lunch. Trust me, that was not the last time I (erm...I mean the nerdy boy) would do something stupid. I managed to not screw up too much, however, and have held on to her for the ten years since.

We've been through quite a bit for a couple of kids who are still about two years shy of their ten-year high school reunion (at least to me we have): ilness, getting married, having a child, losing a child, etc., etc.

We've both grown, but have been fortunate enough to have grown together, instead of growing apart as many couples are want to do today. We've also grown as people and are happy and still in love with other, despite any differences from when we were in our middle teens. Sure, we still have our share of fights, but they don't result in much, and are resolved quickly. And we still enjoy being around each other, even when one of us, most often me, is being a total pain in the ass.

I try to imagine what my life would be like now if we hadn't started dating ten years ago, or if we had broken up at some point (and trust me, there were a couple of times that I was on thin ice in the beginning), and it's never good. In the worst imaginings I'm an assistant manager at OfficeMax. *shudder* She really has pushed me to achieve the modest accomplishments that I've earned in my adult life.

I remember when we used to celebrate each month, making a point to go out to dinner or a movie, or both. I would have roses for her and we'd meet in the mall after work or go out after school. While we're more apt to do something around our wedding anniversary, we're going to go out and have a nice dinner this evening.

So happy anniversary Brandi. I love you and am looking forward to many more years.

Cookies Cookies!

This year marked the first time I attempted to make Christmas cookies, and I have to say they turned out pretty darn good. I even used my awesome Kitchen Aid stand mixer for the first time, so that was fun as well. We are now a couple of weeks past Christmas and no one has had any adverse reactions to my cooking, so that speaks for its self I think (I'm just kidding of course).

When it came time to do the sugar cookie cut outs, Logan got to experience his first Christmas cookie baking. He had fun pushing the cookie cutters in, and also his hand... He even tried to roll some dough, and then when we were finished he helped me put on the sprinkles. We had fun, and of course Logan loved eating the cookies most of all.

Daddy showing Logan how it's done.

A Very Special Ornament

This very special ornament arrived the other day. We just wanted to share it with everyone.


To remember our little angel always.

Adjusting To Mother's Day Out

When I walked in the door to pick up Logan from Mother's Day Out this past Friday, one of his teachers let me know that Logan had a very good day! He still cries when I leave, but she said he stopped pretty soon after I left on Friday. He participated in circle time and sat nice during it (pretty good for a 2 year old!) He participated in the craft and he really enjoyed doing it (they made marble paintings) and he even ate some of his lunch which was a first! We are very excited that Logan is starting to transition to being in a preschool/daycare environment and that he is not totally miserable while there.

Logan has been doing better in all his therapies as well. He is speaking way more and using 2 word phrases more often now, unfortunately at 27 months which is next month he will be pushed a little more behind again since 3 word phases should be happening by then, but he is getting close. He is interacting with his therapists more and staying focused for longer periods of time with them (some of this is just him aging of course, he was pretty young when we started therapy to be focusing for a real long period) Logan is playing more imaginatively now and we are seeing A LOT less of him watching wheels of his cars/trains and for the most part playing with them functionally. He is also following directions a good amount of the time and beginning to take turns which is great! We are very happy with the progress he has made in the past month or so, and it is looking less and less like we will be making a return trip to the neurologist, as the neurologist said the money is in the therapies and that is what is working, since his delays are really very mild in the grand scheme. We of course will re-evaluate at the 6 month point, but he is coming along for sure. As his pediatrician says, "Sometimes boys just take a little longer getting there". He is growing and changing so much right now and he is such a joy to be around, we are very proud of our little man!

Here is the marble painting Logan made on Friday. They have this wooden box and then they put the tree cutout in the box dab paint in various spots and then put a marble in the box and the kids get to shake it around creating the picture, then add glitter and it's done! Logan had a lot of fun doing this his teacher said.

This is the ginger bread ornament Logan made last week, he watched the teachers do the cut outs and he helped put a little glitter on it. It smells yummy and looks wonderful on our tree!

Time To Trim The Tree!

This year marked the first time that Logan really helped us trim our tree, although he only did a few, and re-did his Buzz Lightyear ornament a few times, and later launched two of the glass balls across the room thinking they were in fact "balls", we think it went pretty well. We gave Logan his new ornament early this year so he could hang it on the tree, we went with the talking Buzz since he is such a big fan of Toy Story. After playing with Buzz for awhile we tried to get him to put it on the tree but he wasn't having any of it.

Checking out Buzz.

Trying very hard to get Buzz to come out.

After awhile of watching Mom and Dad hang stuff on the tree, Logan decided it was time to put Buzz up.

Finding the perfect spot

Logan let Mom and Dad finish the rest of the tree, but we made sure to come over and inspect ornament placement ever so often, and make sure Buzz was doing good.

Here is our tree all ready to go, minus the 2 casualty's that didn't survive the terrible two's.

Here are some of our special ornaments:

From our first family Christmas.

This one was given to us by Matt's parents while we were in the hospital after having Logan, so it is officially Logan's 1st ornament.

This one was given to us by Brandi's parents the Christmas after we got married.

This is the first ornament that Matt ever gave Brandi. He got it from Holiday Magic at Brookfield zoo the first time they went to Holiday Magic...hard to believe we have been together this January for 10 years!