Pink Eye

Our baby girl has officially caught her first (and hopefully last) case of pink eye. We knew something was wrong when she woke up wailing at midnight. We couldn't get her to calm down and we couldn't get her to open her eyes. Her face was red and blotchy, and her left eye was red and swollen. She had worked herself up real good, so I decided to give her a bath. After putting her into the bathtub, she quieted down, but kept her eyes shut tight. Needless to say, it was all concerning and slightly scary. After an hour of us calling the advice nurse, bathing, and comforting Maddie, we all decided it was time to try to sleep, as it was going to be a long night. My in-laws so graciously stayed up with us to figure things out, as they were concerned too. Brant and I ended up having her sleep in between us, so we could attend to her immediately, if need be. I was glad to be able to have her close at hand because she did wake often the rest of the night. But both Brant and I did not sleep very well at all, for many obvious reasons.

This morning, we called our pediatrician (remember, we are still in Oregon), and got some advice on what to do. We were also exploring the idea of this being related to a potential ear infection. We did some research, finally located a doctor that would accept our insurance, and brought Maddie in. She was given a prescription for eye drops and has begun the doses. Brant asked me to document this momentous occasion with a picture. You can tell she is not herself. She has a fever and her left eye is a little pink. I hope we caught it soon enough that it won't be a big deal when we fly on Friday... Now all we have to remember to do is constantly wash our hands for the next 24 hours, as she is highly contagious. Poor baby! :(

Portland Zoo Lights

We made it to the zoo lights in Portland this year, and boy did we have fun! My family, which included Sarah, Justin, Ellie, Dad, Brant, Maddie and me, (mom had to work), headed off for the Zoo in two cars. The parking lot was a zoo (no pun intended), and we had to hunt for any parking whatsoever. My Dad decided to drop Brant, Maddie and I off to wait in line while he found a parking spot. We got out of the car, put on our hats, gloves and coats, and bundled Maddie into the stroller. A few minutes later, my sister and I touched base via phone to figure out where to meet. This is where the night got interesting.

Sarah was waiting in a separate line with Ellie, when she informed me of the following story. A few minutes prior, Justin had received a phone call from my Dad. He hung up the phone, turned to Sarah and said, "Your Dad has slid down a hill somewhere in the car and needs my help." What?!? Yeah, that's what we all said. So, Justin had taken off already (with Ellie's pacifier in hand - bummer!), when we finally caught up with Sarah. The three of us (plus the two babies) waited around for a few minutes, scratching our heads, slightly concerned at the present predicament we were in. It was cold, dark, we had purchased our tickets, but we had no idea where our Dad and Justin were. After trying a few times, my Dad finally answered my phone call. Without so much as a "hello," this is what I heard on the other line: "Hi Jack. Listen, I can't talk right now. I've slid halfway down a hill in the car. Gotta go." Click. What?!?

We decided we would venture in the general direction of the Washington Park Forest, where there are numerous hills and dark roads. As we were walking, we saw two AAA tow trucks drive by. Odd. There was no way these were trucks already coming to rescue my Dad. It was too soon. We followed the road up to where the trucks had gone. This proved to be successful. In the distance, we could see two headlights at an awkward, diagonal slant, obviously hanging down a hill. Brant ran ahead to check it out and called back to say that it was indeed our Dad. We scurried up the hill to find Dad in the driver seat of the Prius, and one of the AAA tow trucks hooking up to his car. There were a few onlookers around, as the commotion had blocked traffic for a few minutes.

Apparently, my Dad had parallel parked on the road, when his car began to slid down the hill in some thick mud. We were lucky that Brant, Maddie and I had already left the car, because if there had been anymore weight inside, surely the car would have gone further down the hill, into the trees, and more damage would have been done. Justin had arrived and had attached some chains to the back of Dad's car. With the help of some other guys who had been up in the woods smoking pot before my Dad interrupted them, they tried to pull Dad out. The only success they had was getting mud spewed all over their clothes. Justin saw the two trucks coming up the road just by chance, and ran in their direction to flag them down. Lucky for my Dad, who is a member, they were AAA tow trucks willing to help him out. His car was pulled out with no damage. The whole episode really only set us back about 40 minutes! It was pretty funny. We have some of it on video that we will have to post eventually.

After some good laughs and sighs of relief, we ventured into the zoo to enjoy the lights. They were beautiful! We had such a fun time! I think the pictures will speak for themselves.

I didn't get my camera out until the car had been pulled up, but it still gives you proof!


Two cold cousins, waiting for their Grandpa to quit playing in the mud!
Pretty lights!

Sarah and me. I love my sister!

Dad and his daughters, happy to be together again.
Maddie and Ellie enjoying the lights...
Brant and me with the pretty lights. What fun!
Grandpa and his grand-daughters.
Sarah and Ellie.
Dad staying warm and waiting for his elephant ear. Mmm!
Sarah and Justin.
Sisters and our girls. Some day we'll bring them back when they can really enjoy themselves! :)
It sure was a lot of fun, and a great way to really kick off all of the holiday festivities in Portland! Stay tuned for more posts of our wonderful time in Oregon.

We're Home For Christmas!

We made it to Oregon!...just barely!

Maddie and I flew out of Philadelphia last Thursday. I was pretty anxious about the flight, not knowing how she was going to react to the cabin pressure, to the long flight, just about everything. I was also not looking forward to going through all of this by myself. We had three legs of our trip to get through: a 2 1/2 hour flight to Chicago; a lay-over for 1 1/2 hours; a 4 1/2 hour flight to Portland.

Our first flight was a dream. The length of the trip was just long enough for both of us. We had an aisle seat and sat around some very nice people. The sun was shining. There was zero turbulence. Maddie did not react to the change in altitude at all. She didn't make a sound the entire flight! The flight attendants could not get enough of her. They would walk by and stop just to make googly eyes at her. :) When we exited the plane, I had several people stop to tell me what an "angel" she was, and what a natural flyer/traveler she is. I suppose all of the traveling we put her through at a young age really paid off, huh?

It was nice to get out of the plane in Chicago and stretch my legs. The first bummer of the trip happened when I was unfolding the stroller. I had it checked underneath the plane and brought back out as we were exiting the plane. I unfolded the stroller and one of the handles fell off into my hand. Somehow, the handle was slammed against something in flight and snapped. Luckily, we have a 1-year warranty and can hopefully get that taken care of without too much hassle! So with my two bags in tow, my baby in the stroller, and the handle carefully resting in place, we walked through the airport to our next plane.

The flight to Portland was overbooked. It was tempting (for 1/2 a second) to give up my seat for a flight leaving a few hours later. The "prize" I would have received would have been a free round-trip ticket to anywhere in the continental US. Considering we live so far away, this became appealing in more ways than one. But I decided it was too much to wait around an airport with a 6-month old, by myself. It was a good decision to stick with the original plan.

We sat in the aisle again for this flight, next to a brother/sister duo, ages 9 and 11. They were SUPER excited the entire flight to be going home for Christmas. They were flying by themselves, so this made for some interesting moments, when parental control would have been appreciated by fellow passengers. Maddie didn't seem to care when the boy was tickling his sister and his arm nudged her sleeping head. Yes, tickling. Tickling, wrestling, laughing, poking, pinching, you name it; these two kids were going at it! It was alright with me, though. I was on my way home, and I decided not to care. :)

Once again, Maddie was a dream. She slept for about 1/2 of the flight, and the rest of the time, was awake, looking up at me, grabbing my face, talking, laughing, etc. I think she really doesn't mind flying, at least at this point. It was difficult sitting for that long period of time, always holding her and not getting a break. I was missing Brant for many reasons at this point! One of the flight attendants came up to us near the end of the flight and gave Maddie "wings" (the plastic pin that children wear), because she was such a good little traveler. :) The only drama I experienced on this flight was my Sprite spilling all over my lap (while Maddie was sleeping on me), being spat-up on a few times, and pouring milk into a bottle while going through turbulence...you figure that ending out! Needless to say, I felt pretty grimy when the day was through!

We arrived at the Portland Airport to be greeted by my mom and Brant's parents. They were holding balloons that said "Welcome Home!", and were full of smiles and even some teary eyes (including me!). It was such a wonderful thing to see all of them there, excitedly waiting for our arrival.

The biggest adventure, as many of you are aware, was getting Brant home. He was scheduled to take a flight out on Saturday evening. On Friday, he informed me of the weather forecast and both of us just held our breath, hoping it wouldn't come true. A blizzard was to hit the NE coast, slamming Philadelphia and New York. Princeton is located smack in between those cities, and the airport is just outside of NYC. Perfect. Well, the snow came as predicted; fast and furious. Brant was keeping me posted throughout the day, and we were crossing our fingers for the best. He was going to have to take a 1 hour train ride to the airport as well, which was also a bit of a scare, not knowing if the trains would be running through the storm.

We decided he better take an earlier train, just to be sure he made it to the airport in the first place. He had his bags all packed and his ride was ready to take him to the station. As Brant was online getting ready to check-in for his flight, he was denied access because his flight had just been cancelled. LAME!!

Instead of making a tremendously long story even longer, I will spare you every single detail and get to the point! Brant was told by the airline that he would not be getting on a flight before Christmas. He told them this was not an option and he would do anything he had to do to get home. (Good man!) Thanks to the help of Brant's loving parents, who also really wanted to get him home for Christmas, he was able to get the only ticket available for a flight scheduled to leave Sunday morning, weather permitting. Bonus? The ticket was in first class!

Brant hunkered down in the Newark Airport for 12 hours, watching the snow swirl around outside, planes shutting down, people boarding planes, eventually coming back off because the flight was not going to happen, and the departure reader board filling up with cancellations right and left. He slept for about 30 minutes that night, not able to get comfortable, and filled with anxiety and anticipation of making it onto his flight. I did not sleep well that night either, finally calling him at 3:00am Pacific Time, to see if things were looking hopeful. His plane had been worked on all through the night, as they were wanting to keep it from freezing over, and he told me they were preparing to board very soon.

In case you didn't guess it before, he made it home! His flight made it to PDX at 11:15am, without more than a 1 hour delay. Whew!

Quite the adventure, just to make it home for Christmas. But it is all so very worth it. We love being home and are having a marvelous time. We are soaking in every moment with friends and family and having a blast! I will post again soon, with pictures and even more recent adventures we've been having. :)

6 Month Old Stats

Maddie Mae celebrated her 6 month, 1/2 birthday last Saturday! Due to the craziness of traveling 3,000 miles across the country, I am a bit delayed in posting these statistics and do not have an accurate 6 month picture to post here. But I have a lot of blogging to take care of, so you will see pictures soon enough. Meanwhile, our little girl continues to grow!

Height: 26 1/2 inches (80%)

Weight: 15.4 pounds (40%)

Head circumference: 41.5 cm (25%)

Our Night Out

We had a wonderful, special 5 year anniversary celebration. We were not really sure what we were going to do to celebrate. We really did not have money to spend on much at all, and it was looking like we might just have a quiet evening at home. I would make a dinner. We would put the baby to bed. We might watch a short movie. Brant would study. You know, the usual, right? :)

On Wednesday night, there was a knock on our door. Our friends and neighbors dropped by to give us an early anniversary gift. First of all, to receive an anniversary gift from someone other than your spouse (or close family member) is rare. Secondly, to receive a gift for our anniversary from friends we have only known for 3 months is almost unheard of. They handed us a gift certificate to a fancy restaurant in downtown Princeton, called Mediterra. They told us we deserved a night out, just the two of us. They continued to inform us that they would take care of Maddie while we went on our date. If you can picture me at all, you know that my eyes welled up immediately. I could not believe this was happening. The generosity, the thoughtfulness, the selfless act of love they showed us was overwhelming.

We made reservations for a 7:15 dinner, allowing us to drop Maddie off at their house shortly before her bedtime. We have never left Maddie with anyone before and we were typical first-time parents: nervous, excited and apprehensive. She seemed to be just fine as we left for the evening. Apparently, five minutes later, she was in hysterics, crying and frantically searching for either of us to appear. Luckily, we were on our date and were none the wiser. :) She was like this for about 45 minutes, in and out of crying and quieting down. I guess another neighbor in the building knocked on their door to see if everything was okay. Gee whiz - she was really doing a number!

Our dinner was fabulous. We were really at an upscale place. For a Thursday night, it was hopping! It was so wonderful to be alone together, enjoying a delicious meal. When we were about done with our meal, I looked at my phone to check if anyone had called. I come to find out that my phone (and Brant's) had no service!! Oh great. When we got outside, my phone beeped telling me I had a voicemail. My heart skipped a little, fearing that I had missed a call from our neighbors. Thankfully, it was my dear friend Lori calling to give us happy wishes on our special day. (Thanks, Lori!)

We briefly wandered through Palmer Square to look at all the Christmas lights. I say "briefly" because, with wind chill, the temperature was in the teens, and it was painful for both of us! We snapped a few pictures and ended up running back to the car a few blocks away. After we returned home and put the baby to bed, we watched "A Charlie Brown Christmas" to end our wonderful night.

The restaurant in Palmer Square (upscale part of Princeton, across the street from the University).
Palmer Square shops lit up. The picture doesn't do it justice, at all!
Palmer Square's large Christmas Tree.
Can you tell how cold we were? Our faces are red, and if you look closely, Brant's eyes are watering. It was really windy, too. Brr!

5 Years Ago Today

5 years ago today, it all began.
5 years ago today, I was putting the finishing touches on the reception table centerpieces.
5 years ago today, I was getting an up-do for my hair.
5 years ago today, my sister was putting eye-liner on me.
5 years ago today, I put on my fairytale wedding gown.
5 years ago today, photographers were taking pictures of me.
5 years ago today, candles were lit.
5 years ago today, I held a stunning bouquet of red roses.
5 years ago today, I had excited butterflies in my stomach.
5 years ago today, the Oregon weather was stormy and cold.
5 years ago today, family and friends gathered from near and far.
5 years ago today, 5 large Christmas trees stood at the front of a beautiful sanctuary.
5 years ago today, a soloist guitar was playing Christmas music.
5 years ago today, a brass quintet was setting the regal scene.
5 years ago today, 5 of my closest friends put on pretty red bridesmaid dresses.
5 years ago today, my dad walked me down the aisle.
5 years ago today, my parents gained a son-in-law.
5 years ago today, I became a daughter-in-law.
5 years ago today, I made vows I will never break.
5 years ago today, I intentionally kissed a boy in front of hundreds of people.
5 years ago today, my last name changed.
5 years ago today, a fancy white tent held a big party.
5 years ago today, a jazz trio played amazing music at an awesome reception.
5 years ago today, I danced to the song "At Last," fulfilling a dream of mine.
5 years ago today, was the best day of my life.
5 years ago today, I married my best friend.
Happy Anniversary, Brant!! I cannot believe that 5 years have now passed. I have cherished every moment and eagerly anticipate the next 50! Thank you for choosing me. Thank you for loving me. Thank you for living life with me and really showing me what that means. You are my favorite. :) I love you!

Maddie's First Snowfall!

What a day we had in Princeton, yesterday! To cut right to the chase, and to fill you in on my post title, it snowed! The day started cold, very wet and rainy. The weatherman was predicting the snow and it certainly came. It was early afternoon when the rain switched over to big, wet snowflakes. Brant was desperately trying to focus on writing a paper, as I brought Maddie out in her little reindeer suit, camera in hand. I quietly put my hat and scarf on, secretly hoping he would take notice, but fully intending on going out on my own if I had to. He sighed with a smile, as he looked outside and put the puzzle pieces together to what we were up to. He proceeded to ask, "Whatcha doing?" I said, "It's Maddie's first snowfall, and I'm going to get pictures of her in it, no matter what it takes." He seemed to take note that it would be pretty difficult for me to get pictures of her outside without someones help. He also realized he would feel like a chump of a dad if he didn't partake in her first-snow-picture-taking-event. :) Success. He put on his shoes and hat and we headed outside. It was very, very wet snow, but it was still worth it to see the look on Maddie's face. She has been outside so many times, obviously, but this was the first time I actually watched her take a real interest in what was going on. Her face lit up as she watched the fat flakes come down around her. It was priceless. The pictures we took do not show the snow too well, as it was in its first stages. I wanted to get outside ASAP, just in case it stopped real soon. It ended up lasting for a good 3 hours, but didn't stick to the roads. It covered the grass and cars, and this morning, there is still a great deal around. Here are the pictures from yesterday.
Last night, we had four of our friends come over for a traditional party I like to host each year. I had made my Aunt Marcia's amazingly-awesome sugar cookies, frosted them with green, red and white frosting, made "Christmas Tree Bark" candy, and had homemade hot chocolate that had been on the stove for 6 hours. All of these goodies were to accompany the main event: we watched "A Christmas Story" (my favorite!), and had a great time. Our tree was lit, the lights in the window on, the candles glowing throughout the house, yummy treats, good friends, great laughs...yeah. It really was a special time. There are so many wonderful blessings in our life. We are celebrating the birth of our Savior throughout this glorious season; we have a beautiful daughter who we fall deeper in love with each day; we are making good friends out here, who we look forward to hanging out with; we have a beautiful home, full of Christmas goodness; we are going home to Oregon in less than 2 weeks...so many things. So, keep on enjoying the season - don't let a moment pass you by, even if you have papers to write, books to read, Christmas letters to send, gifts to buy, phone calls to make. There is way too much goodness going on this season not to stop and enjoy it.

It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year!

And this is why...


We hope you are having a bright and cheery holiday season, and remembering to have as much fun as Miss Maddie Mae!!

Thanksgiving, Big City Style

We did it. We actually did it! We created our very own Thanksgiving Day memories with brand new traditions this year. Everything we experienced yesterday were firsts for both of us. Never will we look back on Thanksgiving 2009 as a holiday that we did not spend with family back home. In fact, we will fondly look back on Thanksgiving 2009 as a day where we broke the mold and stepped out to experience things so contrary to what we've always done. So hang on; you're in for a real treat to the visual senses. I will do my best to cut down on how many pictures I post. I took 118 pictures yesterday, and it is going to be hard for me to narrow down to only a few favorites!

The day started at 4:45am, with yawning, showers, yawning, breakfast, yawning, primping (I mean, c'mon. You didn't expect me to go NYC without doing my hair, now did you??), and finally loading the car at promptly 6:15, with a few more yawns in between. I tell you what; when you already get up a few times in the middle of the night to be with the baby, and then by choice, wake up at 4:45, you are tired!! But the adrenaline was definitely present and helped fuel us along.

We made it to the train station and caught the 6:44 train, heading for Penn Station, New York City. Our friends and neighbors here, joined us for the big day. It was so much fun (and so less stressful) going with another family, particularly one that has been to the parade two times before. They are also from Oregon and have 2 kids, a 7-year old and a 2-year old. We were all bundled up with layers, hats, gloves, anything to assure that we would not be cold at the parade. Much to our surprise, the weather cleared to sunny skies, and 57 degrees. Perfect!

I have never been on a subway before. As I said at the beginning, this was to be a day full of new memories! We were waiting for the subway among a mass amount of people. Penn Station is located directly below Herald Square, which is the main hub for the parade and the place where they broadcast all of the acts for the TV audience. Needless to say, the amount of people down there at 7:45am was insane. Our train came and we proceeded to board. There was a lot of pushing, shoving, shouting and frantic-ness surrounding us. Brant was the last one of our group to board, among several other individuals. We were slammed in that train like a bunch of sardines. Brant was holding the folded-up stroller and our backpack. I had Maddie in my arms and was in the center of a crowd of people, about 4 people away from Brant. The train announcer was on the loud speaker saying that the train was about to depart. Brant was still not on board and people were shouting at him that there was no more room. Truth be told, there really was no more room. We had reached capacity probably 50 people earlier, but there was no way my husband was not going to get on the same train as me. I started reaching for him as he was fiercely pushing his way on board, saying, "My wife and child are on this train. I have to get on." Now that you've broken into a cold sweat with fear that he didn't make it, let me assure you, he made it on and we all were successfully in one piece. Maddie was in tears, but it is not like anyone noticed because there was so much noise on board! The train would start and stop and the whole mass of people would sway to one side or the other all together. After our little drama of Brant almost missing the train, it was quite humorous and fun to be on a stereotypical "NYC subway ride". :)

We found a spot to watch the parade on 53rd and 7th. This means nothing to a lot of you, but to give you some perspective, we were a street away from The Ed Sullivan Theater, and across the street from the Sheraton New York Hotel. If you looked to the left on 7th, a few blocks up was Central Park. To the right, several blocks down, was Times Square. We had roughly 20 rows of people in front of us and another 30+ behind. Pictured here: Andrew, Kristina, Brant, and the kids - Maddie, Evan and Anna.We are so excited to be here!
Maddie is ready for her morning nap!
Kristina and her daughter, Anna.
There is a marching band out there, telling us the parade is about to begin. Look at all the people!
Here we go...
It was amazing how much of the parade we didn't see - we were lucky if we heard a band playing, but we couldn't see them at all. The balloons were by far the coolest thing ever. They are MUCH bigger in person than the TV ever makes them appear. We saw floats with famous people on them...but none of us really knew who the famous people were. At one point, there was a group of guys on a float and you could hear girls screaming all over the street. I casually said, quite loudly, "Does anyone know who these guys are?" (silence.) "Are there any teenage girls nearby? Surely they would know." That got a few laughs. :)

Here are some of my favorite big balloon shots...
Spiderman was enormous!
Kermit the Frog
Shrek
Ronald McDonald
Yay, Mickey!!
Evan, with Sponge Bob Squarepants
Snoopy
Horton
Buzz Lightyear
Brant and Maddie, with Buzz flying away
Smurf
Pillsbury Doughboy
Me, Maddie and Hello Kitty
Cute little family, and a big candy cane
The elves are here. Santa Clause must be coming!
He's here! He's here! Look at how excited the crowd gets - the cameras are going wild! I'll admit...I was pretty excited, too!
Doesn't she just look thrilled?! :)
After the parade, we walked out onto 7th; it was closed and you could look straight down into Times Square, where the parade was still going. It was pretty cool!
We walked a few blocks to Central Park. On the way, we passed Carnegie Hall.
Central Park, in all its pre-winter, post-parade glory! Only in NYC would there be a line at the park to go up the slide and swing on the swings...

After we walked through a few blocks of the park, we went to Ollie's Chinese Restaurant for lunch. Talk about breaking out of the traditional Thanksgiving Day mold, huh? It was really good food, especially after not eating anything for 7 1/2 hours! After lunch, we hopped on the subway (because we were pros by this point :) ), and headed to Times Square.
It was amazing to be walking along the crowded streets, reminding yourself that today was Thanksgiving Day, and all of these people were not sitting around a table with family, but out and about in the grand city!
Baby sleeping in the middle of a typically busy street...too funny!
Hard Rock Cafe
I do love my chocolate...
The New Year's Eve Ball, in all its glory!
We're in New York City!
We also went in to the Toys R Us. It is 3 story's high and get this...it has a ferris wheel inside. What?! Seriously, here is the proof.
To end our day in the Big City, we made it to Rockefeller Center, home to NBC studios and of course, The Today Show! If you know me at all, you know that I love the Today Show and that I have high hopes (well, high expectations, really), of making it to the plaza sometime during a show this year. I was really excited when we came up to the studio!! I looked inside the window and could visualize all of my favorite TV news personalities sitting at their chairs. My heart was very happy! The plaza is significantly smaller than I imagined, too. Across the street, we saw the big Christmas Tree that will be lit next week. They actually have security guards standing by! There were several people out ice skating, too. What fun!
We made it back on the subway to Penn Station, where we caught the 3:45 train back to Princeton. We walked in the door about 5:15pm. Whew! What an exciting day, to say the least! We made our special dinner, of individual beef wellingtons, strawberry spinach salad with glazed walnuts and raspberry vinaigrette, creamy white potatoes, and cherry pie (completely made by Brant) for dessert. Maddie went to bed just in time for us to eat dinner by candlelight, with Christmas music playing in the background. We ended the evening putting up our Christmas tree and watching, It's A Wonderful Life. And it truly is a wonderful life. We had such a special, memorable day yesterday and are more grateful for our love and our life than ever before.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!!