Some Happenings

I think I'll just combine several posts into one.
First things first. We went to the Phoenixville Christmas parade last night. It was enjoyable, incredibly cold and shorter than expected. Now anyone from Phoenixville, please don't take offense. I'm from a small town. I love small towns. Shelton has a Christmas parade, too. It has always been a little disappointing, but enjoyable..just like last night. At the end of the Shelton Christmas parade it's always a little bit of a let down and everyone kind of looks at each other like, "Was that it? Was that the grand finale?" Last night was no exception....except I have to say, Shelton gets to take first prize on this one....as in Shelton's Christmas parade is actually better. Shelton Christmas parade is short, but this was shorter, like a lot shorter. The Phoenixville High School Marching band came by in about 2 seconds and that was that. There were lots of firetrucks very nicely decorated, but not a single 4-H club. No horses, no church manger scenes (except for one on a fire truck I think). Enough with the comparing. Honestly I loved it. It was so just like home and laughable. The kids absolutely loved it and woke up talking about it. It was fun and wintery, and made my first weekend in December feel just like every first December weekend that I can remember. The only thing missing was the private balcony view that we usually had down at the good old "fun home". (That's my dad's funeral home for those who don't know what I'm talking about when I say "fun-home". It sat right on the corner of 7th and Railroad...right where the Christmas parade started.)
Here's some pictures of the night:


could these two be brothers?

In other news, we have been doing a lot of post-hospital-stay therapy. :) Not real therapy, (well actually it is real) but I have been quietly observing the kiddos, especially Brendan process the whole hospital thing. They have been playing doctor, wearing rubber gloves, taking blood pressures (squeezing the heck out of their victims arm) and giving lots of shots. We recently had well-check appointments for both kids and let me tell you, Brendan absolutely freaked out when I said he was going to have to get a shot (actually 3, but I didn't say that). I seriously have never seen him act like he did. It was totally irrational and he was completely hysterical. I'm thinking there is still a little "therapy" needing to be done and we continue to talk through how it will be and how he can act different in the future when he inevitably has to have another shot.
Here's a little "therapy":

They are giving shots to their dinosaurs as we speak......in the FACE!


This is a picture Bren drew shortly after coming home. It's a hospital (obviously) and there is a little head in one of the top windows. He said it was Brendan, he was awake and all the other children were sleeping.



This is a picture of Brendan at home, swinging on the swing with his hospital balloon. I am swinging in the other swing with him and he wrote "God is with you" across the top all by himself! I love this one! I think this picture tells so much!

Speaking of Brendan's leg, it is doing pretty good. The other day Wyatt nailed him in the side of the knee with his head and that kind of ruined him for a couple days....but a little rest and a bunch of Motrin took care of it pretty quickly. We will see the Orthopedic doc on the 12th.


We got our Christmas tree up and I love it. It looks so much healthier than our Arizona tree from last year that literally cost us a fortune. It's a little sparse on the decorations, and the decorations are pretty shabby having barely lived through 3 Christmas's and several major moves. We've been making snowflakes and homemade decorations and listening to ridiculous amounts of Christmas music. 'Tis the season!




got the idea for this huge 3-d snowflake here.