Blog Interrupted

Hello to all of our family and friends. We first want to apologize for the long delay in getting an update. Unfortunately, our laptop crashed about three weeks ago (with 18 GB of pictures on the hard drive), and although we do have a desktop PC, it has been difficult to get a new post on the blog...especially since all of our pictures were on the laptop. We backed up all our pictures to DVD right after the girls were born, but have failed to do it again for the last ten months. That is what procrastinating gets you. Luckily, the problem with the laptop had nothing to do with the hard drive, so thanks to Karen's brother Andy (aka Spamdrew), he was able to get all of our pictures off and onto DVD for us. That was a huge relief and would have been such a loss to lose all those memories. So, the moral of the story.....BACK-UP your important stuff routinely!!

Well, now we have finally got our new laptop, and can keep you updated once again. Ok, where to start? Halloween was quite a fun time for the kids. Ryan went as Peter Pan and the girls were Tinkerbells. The Peter Pan outfit was hand made by Grandma Kathy, and Ryan never wanted to take it off. Grandma also made some wings to be attached to a current outfit we had for the girls, so it worked out perfectly. Joe's school had a trick or treat activity for the all the students kids, filled with fun activities and games. We went to that instead of going around the block knocking on doors, since the school activity was in the afternoon and the girls were in bed by the time the real trick or treating started. Ryan had a blast handing out candy to the neighborhood kids and after seeing his eyes light up with every doorbell ring, we knew we made the right decision to stay home. And it was great to get rid of the candy instead of going to get more!

Joe finished his first quarter on 11/9 and has been trying to enjoy the last couple weeks of vacation for him. He starts school again on Monday, for another 10 week quarter. This last week, Karen was sure happy that Joe was off school. We were hit with one of the worst weeks that we've ever experienced. The first Friday that Joe had off from school, Renee came down with a fever. The next day, the fever was still there, along with vomiting. We called the doctor and he gave us some instructions to get through the ordeal. On the third day, Renee was still REALLY lethargic, sleeping most of the day and still feverish. We then took her into the doctor where he diagnosed her with a urinary tract infection and started her on an antibiotic. That night proved to be the worst night ever. At 10:45 pm, Kaylee woke up and started vomiting. Just when we would think she was done, she would vomit more. Poor Kaylee vomited off and on every 10-30min for the next 8hrs!!! Meanwhile, at 2:45 am, Renee starts vomiting. Luckily she only vomited once, and then went back to sleep. At 5:15am, I bet you can guess it....that's right, Ryan started vomiting. Luckily, he felt much better afterwards saying "I feel better momma, I want waffles!" After we quickly reminded him it was 5:30 am, he went back to sleep. A night we will surely never forget. Because of the sickness, our plans to drive up to Grandma Smith's for the weekend got put on hold until Saturday. While at Grandma's we still have bouts of vomiting from Renee, but we attributed it to the antibiotic. Tuesday, was the first night without vomiting in over a week. We are praying this ordeal has finally passed us by. Joe did come down with a little bit of sickness early on in the week, while Karen caught the tail end of it. Hopefully we are all immune to it now. Despite all the sickness, we had a great time at Grandma Smith's house just being with family during the holiday. Ryan especially had fun riding the four wheelers and playing with cousin Kenzie! We stayed until Monday afternoon, then left for home since we were still recovering and wanted to get home and rest. We look forward to seeing everyone again in a few weeks for Christmas.

After that long week, I think Joe is looking forward to going back to school....where life is easier than that fiasco! With Thanksgiving coming around, we are excited to have most of Karen's family come visit this weekend. This weekend also marks another important chapter in our lives....Ryan turns 3!! We have a fun birthday party for him planned at Chuck E. Cheese, and he got to deliver all of his invitations by himself. He was so happy and excited to invite friends and family to HIS party. That is also happening this Saturday and we will post and update with some pictures after this occurs.

We hope that all of our friends and family will have a great Thanksgiving as we are so thankful this year for all that the Lord has provided for us.......we could have done without the puke week....but I guess we need those trials in life. :-) We hope everyone has a safe and memorable Thanksgiving and hopefully we can keep you updated more since we finally have our lap top again. Hope to hear from all of you, drop us a note sometime.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Trick or Treat! Thanks Grandma for the Peter Pan costume and Thank you Jan and Dave for the Girls Out fit that worked out great for Tinkerbell! :)

(Sorry for the poor quality of pic, we had to scan it in to the computer)

The pendulum effect works great!


Ryan blowing out his 3 candles as hard as he can.

The girls were both sick most of the time we were with Grandma Smith, but they had their moments of fun too!

Ryan: "Dad, are you gonna come ride?....Mommy keeps trying to shift an automatic!"

Ryan wasn't scared at all being on the four-wheeler. He kept saying "faster! faster!" and daddy said...."Ok"

A nice father/son moment.


The girls loved playing with their new cousin Drew....as long as they didn't touch. We didn't feel the need in spreading our sickness joy, although Kenzie ended up not feeling too hot after we left. :-(

For about 3-4 days, this was the constant look on Renee's face. She just felt awful.

Ryan loved the swing sets at Grandma's. I think he would have done a loop around the top bar if it were possible.

Ryan couldn't believe that anyone would throw a party for his birthday...he was a little shocked, as the video clearly depicts. Enjoy!