Beware the Jicama....

We hope everyone had a happy Christmas. Ours was exciting to say the least. We had the family over for Christmas Eve festivities. Lots of fun, food and gifts... Meagan enjoyed all of it, including the jicama and dip. She liked it so much, she packed some away in the side cheek pockets of her mouth, I'm guessing so she could enjoy it later?? We didn't realize she had 'chipmunked' it and set her down to play. A few minutes later she started choking and gagging on it. She swallowed it, we thought, and went on about her monkey business. Later that night she started wheezing and coughing, but was still playful and her usual self. We kept an eye on her overnight and thru the next day (Christmas day) and she was the same- wheezing but normal. We called her doctor, who was out of the office until the 2nd., and urgent care who told us to take her to the ER and have her checked out. There we were told the good news was she would be taken care of, the bad news was she needed to go to UC Davis Children's hospital to have her lungs scoped because nothing was showing up on the xrays and there is no one north of Sacramento capable of performing this procedure on a child this small. So Meagan and I were airlifted to UC Davis and Tom drove down to meet us. She underwent her surgery (scope) and had a small piece of jicama removed from her airway. It was lodged at the top of her right lung, right after where the airway branches into the lungs, blocking about 80% of her airway on the right side. She spent the night in the PICU and was released the next morning. She's doing fine now, still a little sleepy from the anesthesia, but otherwise back to her usual self. The doctors said we caught it before any infection started and there was no sign on pneumonia, so we got lucky all the way around. They sent us home with these fun pictures of her lungs....the jicama is the white blob on the right

Sugar Shock

Now that I have sufficiently come down from my sugar overload, I can finally get to posting these picutres from our Baking Weekend last weekend....

Every year the girls in our family get together and bake up lots of yummy Christmas goodies. When the weather cooperates, like it did this year, we head up to my Mom's house and make it a full weekend of baking. This year's extravaganza included 7 types of cookies, 2 shortbreads, 5 types of chocolate candies, and a peanut brittle. Yum!

More Gingerbread Fun

My mom and I found these gingerbread kits at Costco- the house is prebaked and it comes with all the frosting and candies- all you have to do is put it together. My kind of gingerbread house!! Saturday afternoon she and Tony put this one together. Tony is very proud of it. He got really concerned when Tom mentioned that it looked so good that Santa might not be able to resist and eat a little bit of it when he came to visit on Christmas Eve. Tony whipped up this little note for Santa:

He asked us to spell the words for him, and he wrote it out all by himself. Not bad for a 4 year old....

Gingerbread boys

Tony really wanted to make gingerbread boys for his class, so yesterday we baked up a bunch. Then after dinner, we decorated them with Nana (who's been staying with us for the week), Robin & Richard. Lots of fun....

While Tony & I were baking the cookies Nana wanted to see how well Meagan can feed herself- and this is how she does....

More Christmas stuff...

For those of you quilting and fabric junkies, my Mom has been on overdrive and has made these amazing stockings for us all. She made Tony's and mine last year, and finished Meagan and Tom's (and my Dad's but I don't have pictures of that one yet) this year. Each one had a variety of quilting, applique, ribbon embroidery, and beading on it. Very fun! Enjoy!

Christmas Quilting

I am slowly getting into the holiday spirit and have finally finished a bunch of Christmas crafts and projects....

Meagan's 1 Year Pictures

Here are some of Meagan's 1 year pictures. She was terrified of the photographer, so these didn't turn out so bad considering she screamed and cried for the first 15 minutes. Enjoy!

Helping Hands

Meagan is not quite walking yet, so Tony likes to help her out. That is, until they get distracted by something else -in this case the TV.....here's a short video of the two of them:

Happy Birthday Meagan!!

Meagan is 1!! Happy Birthday!!

Ok, so the big day was actually on the 30th, and her party was on the 3rd- I'm a little behind....

We had a great day with friends and family, a BBQ and of course cake! Meagan wasn't so sure about the whole cake thing. The frosting was about the only thing she got really excited about.

Halloween Fun

Happy Halloween!! Here are pictures from our adventures as Tony the Tank Engine and Winnie-the-Pooh.

We had lots of fun. The day started with a parade at Tony's school. The Pre-K, Kindergarten and 1st grades all got to come to school in their costumes and they put on a parade for the rest of the school. Tony led the way with his train costume that Tom and I came up with over the weekend and spent most of Tuesday night madly painting and hot-gluing together. Amazing what you can come up with out of a few boxes, a 5 gallon bucket, empty formula cans, a sawzall, spray paint and a hot glue gun. We met the Price's for burritos and hit the Halloween Carnival at a local church. After Tony & Mikayla had their fill of games and the bounce house it was off to a nearby neighborhood to fill up on good old-fashioned trick or treating. Nathan and Meagan didn't get much out of either the trick-or-treating or the carnival, but Tony & Mikayla had a successful evening.



Thomas on the other hand, had a bit of a rough evening. Tony missed a curb as he was heading off to trick-or-treat and took a small tumble. The fall knocked Thomas's face off, which Tom and Chad taped back on and sent him on his way. It didn't even faze Tony and we didn't realize the "extent" of the damage until we got home. He has a small cut on his right eyelid, the costume is a little worse for wear. I think we're missing a wheel or two, too.

Things to come??

Tony found these really OLD pair of Toms's glasses in a box in the garage and has been wearing them nonstop ever since. (Tom took the lenses out for him.) He "needs" them to do his "paperwork" and for reading he told us.

Happy Halloween

Ok, so earlier predictions of a fun-filled evening came true. After a yummy dinner at our favorite restaurant- Red Robin's, we came home to carve our newly acquired pumpkins. A little bit spooky, a little bit silly, and all cute in their own way....

Time for the Pumpkin Patch!!

Happy Halloween!!

Here's some pictures from today's adventures. Papa was here for the day, so we took advantage of it and packed in as much fun as possible. We started with breakfast at Grandmama's, then off to the Pumpkin Patch to pick out the perfect pumpkins. No trip to the patch would be complete without a run through the Hay Maze and jump in the bounce house. From the pumpkin patch we headed over to the Train Depot's open house to watch the Redding Model Railroader's run their miniature trains on their giant track layout. Lots of fun and the day is still young so there's more to come I'm sure.

Ears afire!

Little did our dinner guests know they would be getting dinner and a show!

We had the family over for BBQ hamburgers and apple pie last night. As the night drew to a close, I had Robin set my ears on fire...no, not really on fire, but that's what Tony thought as he came into the living room. We were ear candling- a hollow candle made from bee's wax that is set inside your ear. The end is lit and the heat causes a suction, pulling out wax and debris from deep inside the ear. Its quite an experience, and amazing how much stuff is actually inside your ears- even if you think they are clean!

It's Finished!!

Tony's quilt is back from the quilter. It looks great- Thanks Dar!

Good to know...

Here's a little tip for you, straight from the laundry room: DO NOT WASH clothes soaked in gasoline in the washing machine. Yup, Tom had a little accident at work while filling up the tractor. Home he came, showered, threw the clothes in the machine for a quick wash and headed back out into the field. Two days and about 20 wash loads later, we have finally gotten rid of the stink of gasoline from the washroom. So, now you know. Save yourself lots of time and laundry detergent, oxyclean, vinegar, baking soda, and orange oil cleaners and toss the gas soaked clothes.

Back to Beer Making

A man and his brew- its a beautiful thing.....

Tom is back at the beermaking!! Its been a couple of years now, but Tom pulled all his equipment out and whipped up a batch of English bitter over the weekend. It's fermenting away in the garage- that garage has never smelled so good!

I foresee a beer garden in our future....

Tony's Quilt

I finally got Tony's quilt top finished. It's off to the quilter this week (I hope!!)

Hammin' it up...

Things have been relatively quiet around here for the last couple weeks. It is a welcome change to the on-the-go way its been for the past few months. Here are some moments of sillyness...

Turn Tony loose with the camera and this is what you get....

Mobile Meagan

Our 10 month old little girl is very mobile these days- into everything and going everywhere. She's not walking yet, but loves to crawl and cruise. Here's a little video of her on the go....

We're Back!!

Hi! We're back from our trek thru middle California. We started out with a visit to Fairytale Town in Sacramento, this funky little park built to a child's scale with buildings and structures out of various fairy tales. Think of a slide built into a giant bean stalk (Jack and the Beanstalk) or into a hillside a la Alice in Wonderland. From there it was onto gold rush country in the foothills at Colombia and Sonora, where we panned for gold and watched the stage coach roll thru town. We checked out Railtown, railroad backdrop to such films as Back to the Future III and Unforgiven. Rode the steam engine out to the quarry and back, then as we were on the last train of the day we got to watch them turn the engine on the turn table and put it into the roundhouse for the night. Very exciting.

Then it was onto to camping at Yosemite and June Lake. Did the usual sightseeing- Half Dome, Glacier Point, the valley floor, the Awahnee Hotel. Lots of fun, can't wait to go back. On the last day we drove out thru Tioga pass and camped at June Lake for the night. Very pretty area.

From June lake it was up Highway 395 past Mono Lake, to Carson City and the train museum and then into Reno for the night where Papa joined us. As luck would have it, the Reno balloon races were going on at the same time, so we got up before sunrise and headed out to watch 100 balloons head out. The object of the day's race was to chase the bumble bee balloons (there were 2) and land as closely to the spot where the bee landed before heading back up to the next bee landing. An incredible morning! I highly recommend making the trip to Reno to see this!! Oh, and for an idea of the size of these balloons- the Energizer bunny balloon is taller than the Statue of Liberty, and its ears are as big as the faces on Mt. Rushmore. BIG!!

After the balloon races it was onto Virginia City to ride yet another train (!) and check out the silver mining town. Virginia City was the town in the TV show Bonanza, among many other westerns. From there is was back to the road to Nana & Papa's house for a couple of days and then home to rest!

A weekend of Birthdays!

This weekend was jam-packed with fun birthdays. First we celebrated Grandpapa's birthday with BBQ and rhubarb pie- yum!! Then it was off to Moraga for a quick trip down memory lane for Tom as we visited his old elementary school, house and community pool where Marina (Tom's niece) had her 8th Birthday party.