Phoebe update and it's STILL snowing..

Phoebe is taking her steroids and seems to be getting her appetite back. Hopefully she will gain some weight and get some energy back.

It snowed another 5 - ish inches today.. oh joy. It's supposed to snow again on Sunday and we only need 2.75 more inches to reach and all time high. The kids were much more interested in the snow today.. here are some pics of them playing, shoveling and throwing snow balls at grandma!







Action shot throwing a snow ball at gma






Here's a quick little video.

The prognosis isn't good... :(

We took phoebe in today... she is down to 57 lbs from 64 just a month ago. She won't even eat pork chops so we knew something was up.

She has lymphatic tumors. We chose not to biopsy them as it is obvious that she isn't right. We got a prescription for prednizone that will hopefully help bring her appetite back up. Basically we are watching her to keep her comfortable until we decide it is time to say good bye. It's heart breaking to watch. Her spirits are still decent though she definitely isn't that dog she used to be. She still comes to greet us when we come home, but w/ maybe 1/8 of the gusto she used to do it with. I don't remember the last doggy kiss I got... as you know she kisses a lot or used to. She mostly just lays around, but will still perk up over some things. The doc said she's probably not in pain, but that she could go down hill pretty quickly. We want to give her some more loves, but want her to have a humane exit so we won't let her suffer when it comes to that...

Here is a pic of her in her prime.. beautiful girl she is!

Christmas 2007

So it seems that the biggest hit in the toy department was the box to Tom's present. Tom got a new TV and the kids got a cardboard slide! :)



She's saying WEEE here:


More trash from Tom's present. I'm pretty sure they were using this as a potty chair. Notice the 'cup holder' they made:


A close runner up to the tv packaging was the bobble head gifts we got for Gma and Gpa:


Lily also enjoyed cleaning up:


Oh that's right.. we got some toys!




Jason testing the hammer out on his head.... oy!


We are having a merry christmas here in the midwest... well Tom, Jason and I are... Lily is upstairs screaming through her nap while Jason sleeps. Tom is working on his new TV and I am listening to my new iPod and music (to drown out the screams) while posting these pics... have to do something to distract myself from the screaming.. bah humbug! We are headed over to Chris, Marie and the girl's house to have early dinner and let the kids play. :) I'm sure Lily will be a joy to be around by that time of day! :(

Early Christmas...

The kids got into the gift from Gma Lynda and Gpa Larry and we were having a LOONNGG day so we just went ahead and enjoyed it today... and enjoy it we did!













They wanted to go night night in the tent


Thank you Gma and Gpa... sorry we couldn't wait until Xmas. There is one more 'building' maybe we'll set it up on Christmas!!

Jason got into the cheerios yesterday. I was in the living room changing Lily and he came running in w/ the empty box... I went into the kitchen just as he dumped the last of the cheerios on the floor. It was pretty funny.

Happy 18 months!

I can't believe it... they are 18 months...1.5 years. Wow. Here they are dressed in their holiday attire after going to see Santa... who they weren't real fond of.

I didn't think we would have any trouble w/ Santa b/c the kids seem to do so well with strangers. As soon as I got close to Santa Lily grabbed hold tight and started whining. As I was dropping her onto his lap w/o her pacifier I was thinking to myself... why do we do this to our kids? Anyway... we got a shot (which I'll scan and post later) that wasn't great, but I guess everyone has the "I hate Santa" shot. Here's a shot of Jason post Santa which sums up most of the days at the Mount household. :)



When we got home Lily decided she wanted to color and got set up on the little table... until Jason came over... then she decided she would rather color in peace on the floor. Poor thing - Jason always takes whatever she has.


Jason left to color on his own.

I love you, big night out and bed head

here's a video of Jason saying I llllove daddy etc. (sorry it's so dark) Can you hear it?


Lily eating her sandwich like a big girl:


Daddy is home and we all missed him very much!


We went to our annual 'get dressed' event - Tom's Xmas party.


And Jason now has enough hair to sport some pretty serious bed head. Guess it might be time to introduce him to the clippers... or take him to the barber. :)



It's snowing again today, but we are only supposed to get 2 inches or so so no biggie right? ha

Phoebe is sick.. :( She has elevated liver enzymes and is currently on medication - which I have to shove down her throat and she barely even protests. She's not eating and when she does she usually pukes it up. We have an appt. for more blood work on the 27th, but I'm going to have to call next week. She's losing weight pretty rapidly and we are kind of worried about her. We'll keep you posted on what's up. Hopefully it's not too bad.... ??????

Pimp my baby!

My friend Marie came over w/ her daughters Coco and Kate and Jason just HAD to put on Kate's VERY GIRLY jacket... here he his sporting the P-I-M-P look.. notice his girls and him getting his mack on w/ miss Coco. Too funny. They hadn't seen the girls in a while and both Jason and Lily were dishing out the hugs left and right.

We're glad you guys are back from CA.. sorry you had to return to the frozen tundra!

Critters?

This is weird and I'm not even sure why I'm posting about it....

Last night before I went to bed I put 2 cups of Almonds in water to soak over night so I could make almond milk in the a.m. When I do this I just leave it sit on my counter over night (probably not anymore though). I woke up this morning and all but about 4 almonds were GONE... VANISHED... never to be seen again. I stood staring at the bowl perplexed. The only thing I can figure is that a critter came in the dog door in the middle of the night and scarfed down all the almonds... one critter? 2 cups? Maybe two critters. I felt around the bowl and there was no water... but it was a bit grainy. Maybe some spillage that dried in the dry winter air over night? But they didn't touch the huge basket of fruit on the counter... squirrels?? Do they not eat fruit? Could this be? It's the only explanation I can come up w/. Maybe I need a critter cam like you see on AFV?

Any other theories out there?

kids in the snow

here's the pics.... we didn't last too long out there..though Jason did stay out and 'help' papa and mama shovel. :)

Snow, snow, snow

Uh, it's been snowing almost every other day since Tom left on Dec. 3rd. We've accumulated quite a bit and we are probably going to get 6 more inches total today! So let's see we got 12 inches the weekend Tom left, then a 3 inch snow and maybe 6 inches today so about 21 inches in a week... that's more snow than we typically get all season... and it's not even officially winter until the 21st of December. ha ha

My grounds crew:


Jason and Lily were so excited that Gma and Gpa came over ... until they went back outside to shovel.


The other day we were dying to get out of the house so we just went and spent the afternoon over to Gma and Gpa's house to play and have dinner.




I'll give another report as to our snow totals. We're getting ready to eat lunch then we are going out for some sled pulling. I'll post more pics soon.

It's a nana

Wait until the end of the video.. I swear he says 'it's a nana'.. do you hear it?

How it all fits together.

I've recently found some old friends on facebook and it really got me remembering past experiences and thinking about how we are all a product of those experiences and the people that were involved in them. I even feel that looking back and remembering them - both the experiences and the people - allows for additional lessons on life.

It's amazing to me how we are so formed by these experiences. I contacted someone that I left on not great terms because I was looking for a mutual friend. I was almost surprised when he messaged me back... and saying that he didn't feel our parting was as awful as I was remembering it. Regardless of the horribleness of our separating - whether it was 'that' bad or not - I started thinking back to the time I spent w/ this friend and the fun we had. I also started thinking about the characteristics of him that I enjoyed so much (Like letting me off the hook for being an ass) and remembering what fun I had when we were hanging out. It also made me think about what a moron I was for treating him so badly... allowed me to see myself almost from above or outside of myself... to see how much I have changed and grown... to challenge myself to continue to change and grow... to be thankful for him for being so kind and fun and for being a part of the building of my current self. To be thankful for all of the wonderful people who have helped to form me.. to shape my experiences and challenge me to grow. It also gives me pause to think about how I might touch other people that I could help them grow. It's such an intricate web. Even the smallest thing that we say to people can make such an impact. Amazing.

How cool is Facebook... or myspace. To be able to make these connections. So all of you that are reading this and not on Facebook or Myspace.. get with it! ;)


And to take it to the next level and think about how my kids are their own people and will have their own experiences that will shape who they become! Little things I'll probably never know about that will make them the people they are! Fun, scary and amazing all at once.

Ok.. that's about as deep as I get these days...

Keep on shoveling...

As it always seems to do it's been snowing since Tom left. Okay that's an exaggeration. It snowed Sat night and Tom and dad shoveled us out of some nasty heavy wet snow on Sunday and Tom left on Monday. It added another 5 inches or so last night for a total of 12.5 inches over the last couple of days... it's slated to snow another 3.5 inches tomorrow then snow again on Sat and Sun.. AWESOME! Here's a pic out the back door this a.m.



Monday morning the kids were making me crazy so I decided to go ahead and go to the gym - afterall Tom got out that morning and it's not like I've never driven in snow before. Well, the snow that came down on Sat was then covered by rain and froze over two nights so the snow at the end of our driveway wasn't like the stuff I normally just plow over it was more like a big ass glacier. The kids were piled in the back and plowed 'over' the glacier as I normally do and guess what... I got stuck on the glacier. How embarrassing. I was halfway in the road and halfway in the driveway. I was scared to leave the kids and go get a shovel, but I had no choice. I got both the snow shovel and the 'dig a hole' (whatever it's called) shovel and was shoveling away w/ no gloves. I called mom and dad to come over and bail me out. One neighbor came by as he was on his way out and said, "do you need some help?" I didn't want to outright ask.. ya know, play the damsel in distress so I said,"Well, I'm stuck, my kids are in the car and my husband is out of town, but I called my parents and they are on the way over." Neighbor: "how long will that be?" Me, "15 or 20 mins." Neighbor, "Well, I have some errands to run, but if you are still stuck when I get back I'll help you." Yeah and if my kids are Popsicles will you take them to the ER for me. Thanks! ha My two other neighbors from across the street came over wielding their shovels and did not ask if I needed help they just jumped in and helped. THANK YOU!!!! I felt like such and idiot. Poor Jason and Lily were okay, but cold and a bit shook up. The liked it when the neighbor drove the car and rocked back and forth. :)

Lily had her first hair cut today. I tried to trim it up myself again, but she tired of it before I could finish and I decided it was time to just take her in. She did so well. She was eating a muffin top while she got it cut so I think that helped. Here are some photos.







On the way home the girls stopped at the grocery store and I picked up some of those little bananas.. a pretty big bunch of them - maybe 12 bananas.. we got them home and broke them out and the kids ate them all RIGHT AWAY while screaming at Papa to HURRY UP AND GIVE ME ANOTHER ONE!!!!!!





I was so proud of myself for the 1,2,3 time out discipline I was using. It seems to be working fairly well on Mr. Man, but twice now Lily has seemed unphased. The first time she went willingly into the corner - I put her there. Then she stayed when I moved the chair (I put them in the corner then sit on a chair in front of them so they can't move) she stayed and pulled the chair back. Today I did 1,2,3 and then said, "okay, you get a time out." and she ran over to the corner and pulled the chair in front of herself and just sat there. Hmm.. maybe I'll have to take away her Pappi (pacifier) as her time out... ????

First big snow...

We had one dusting already that the kids went out in, but today was the first "big"/real snow for them. Mostly they just stood there. Tom and I are less than excited about the turn to cold and snow, but we will suffer through this winter to get to the time of year we enjoy... everything other then sucky winter! haha

Out of the mouths of babes

Today Jason said, "Butt crack itchy".. but itchy sounds more like aitchy.. like "I"-tchy instead of itchy - long I sound. Anyway - I need to carry my camera w/ me.

Tom taught him to say butt crack the other day b/c he (Jason not Tom) always has plumber's butt, and Jason had a dry patch on his back/hip. So tonight we were showing off Jason's sweet language skills for grandma and papa by having him say butt crack then I asked him if he was itchy so they could hear how he says it and he came up w/ butt crack itchy all by himself. We are PROUD parents!

The croups seem to have pretty much left the house. Jason is still a bit coughy, but he no longer sounds like a barking seal and his appetite is back so all is getting better. Now if those 4 molars (in both kids) would just finish their journey maybe the wee ones would be a bit less cranky! Mommy his trying really hard to keep it together. Jason and Lily are both whining A LOT and their nap schedule is all screwed up so I suspect they are rather tired. They had gone back to two naps while they were sick and are now trying to get back to one. They slept for a whopping ONE hour today. Calgon take me away!

We're happy to have Grandma and Papa back in the state and will be spending a lot of time getting reacquainted. :)

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving this week!

The Croup, brother of the year and super grandma

So Lily got croup... she's had a runny nose for a while and on Monday night she started w/ a bit of the barky cough that indicates croup... yesterday and today she was in full fledged seal bark mode.. and miserable. I think we hit the high (or rather low) point of it today and she is on her way to being better, but tomorrow should tell.

Jason so far seems healthy - hopefully he will be passed over. I think the last time that Lily got croup Jason had maybe one or two croupy coughs, but that was it. He was such a trooper yesterday and today. Usually when I spend a lot of time holding or paying attention to Lily he either cries and wants me to pay attention to him or he starts acting out and getting into things. This time he - for the most part - played by himself.. showing us his toys and the cool things he was doing. He even let his sister play w/ his coveted cups with out losing it like he usually does. I was/am so proud of him.

When Lily is sick she seems to like to have Jason around or in site. On two occasions we took her upstairs to sit in a steam room (the bathroom) to breath for a while and both times she got really upset and kept asking for Jason.

Grandma has been a godsend while she's been here. I'm not sure how I would have gotten anything done and kept it together if she hadn't been here. Unfortunately - or maybe fortunately - for her we've been really low key because of the 'illness'...

A trip to the zoo..

here are some pics and a video from the zoo. :)

We took a quick trip and had a pretty cool experience w/ the mama lion.





Snack??


This guy worked here for a while ... I guess the lion remembers him.


And daddy lion was keeping a close eye on everything...



We're having a good time... though Lily has croup and Jason was a pill last night. He was up around 3 or 4 hours whining and crying for no apparent reason. When we would go in he would perk right up and lay w/ me, but Lily would wake up and scream. At one point we brought them in our room (which never works anymore, but we wanted to try.. poor Lynda was in the next room)... well it turned into a base diving, free for all and no one was even thinking about sleeping. There was a lot of standing on pillows and jumping off followed by laughter. After we put them in their beds Jason continued to cry for hours after that.. ugh! They took a morning nap today and hopefully will take and afternoon nap too.... PLEASE!