Camera number 2 - Broken

Not sure how many of you know that story about our point and shoot camera. So here it is.

After Dan and I were married we went to Aruba for our honeymoon, which was fabulous! Thanks Jan and Dave for the time share. So our big present to ourselves with some wedding money was a new digital camera, which we bought in Aruba. We loved it! However when we got home we realized that we over paid for the darn thing by about $100. So I came to hate this camera because of that.

Dan and I were still finishing up college and during homecoming weekend here in Stevens Point. Dan drops the camera, to no repair! So we got the same camera again. Then last night as we had friends over hanging out on our porch, Dan was taking pictures and drops the camera. And it is broken again! Now I am kicking my self because I was going to get a really nice SLR for Christmas from everyone but I said no lets wait, till Dan and I can afford a nicer one. Why did I say that!?! Now I have NO camera, and a little boy who is growing leaps and bounds, and I have nothing to capture the moments with!

One cute one to tell you about was he got his hands on a roll of paper towel today. Well that roll is not usable any more but was so funny watching him play with it. No pictures to share though. I will have some soon, to post, some family pictures for Christmas.

Through and Through

I love all sides of my little guy! I love his giggles and cries, I love his hair and eyes. I love him laughing and talking, and especially silent and napping! I love him through and through, today and tomorrow too!

Let it Snow

I am sure that most of you have experienced a Wisconsin winter if not, well here is what it is like.

Today we got our first really big snow storm of the year. I would have loved to have been at home playing all day with my little munchkin. But I had to trudge to work this morning and that is what I did! It isn't that far for me to walk to work, only about three blocks, small ones at that. In that three blocks though i was walking in snow up to my knees! People couldn't make it in to work because they were plowed in. Needless to say it was a pretty crazy day. Walking home the sidewalks were all cleared but, the snow banks are already almost up to my hips. I am 5' 6" so that isn't very short!

Now this is just the first storm of the year. We are going to get many more and it probably won't stop until April. On the up side we got to bundle up Darren to see how he likes the snow!

He really wasn't a fan of the snow yet. But he will be soon, or we are going to have a problem!

Updates

We had a great Thanksgiving, except that I got the flu on Friday morning! That was not fun. I am sad because I will probably never be able to eat my favorite turkey day foods again. And the left overs in the fridge I am not sure how long it will stay there because I can't even look in the fridge right now.

So far the travels didn't really get off to a good start! Friday I was sick, and we were supposed to leave on Saturday. We did still leave on Saturday, but while Dan was trying to get the electronics in order our iPod froze up our desktop. He was none to thrilled about that. Then while we were getting ready to leave on Saturday he realizes that he can't find his wallet! It looked like a tornado had gone through our house. It stayed that way because we didn't have time to clean it up before we left. The really sad part is that we still haven't found the wallet. So here we are on our trip and no wallet for Dan.

Next my father's cousin had passed away so our travel plans changed to Madison Indiana to see family there. Which in some ways is good because Darren barely handled this trip down here. But sad at the same time as we didn't get to see some family as long as we would have liked.

I have some cute pictures to share of Thanksgiving day. As soon as we have a desktop to put them on i will get them on here for you all to see.

GROSS, eww, ick, and yuck

If you have at all a weak stomach I advise you to stop reading now.

OK I gave you fair warning. Now you get to hear about my child's poop!

He has been having some runny ones lately, he is teething so it is totally normal. I got home from work tonight, and he seemed to be fine. No poop for me! I was kind of glad that Gigi got to clean them all today. I heard they were really nice and smelly. So we played for a while and then it was bath time and our normal bed time routine. Can you guess what happened?!? YES he pooped in the tub! Gross, eww, ick and yuck!

So I grabbed him and rinsed him off in the sink and gave him another small bath, and drained the tub. Darren got into bed, and the clean up began. Thankfully I didn't have many toys in the tub with him tonight, which means less to bleach. So I bleach the toys and scrub the tub with gloves on of course. But I hope this is something that most of you won't have to go through! As a mom I know I have put up with a lot. But this I think is a mom's ultimate fear, cleaning poop out of the bath tub.

GROSS!

Christmas here we come...

I don't know why but for some reason this year I am in the christmas mood very early. I am getting very excited for the amazing food, and the great times with family and friends.

I am not sure what is putting me in the mood so early this year, maybe because I am excited for Darren to open his presents. I know that he was around for Christmas last year but lets be honest with ourselves, he had no idea what was going on. Or maybe I am excited to spend some time with my parents at their amazing new house! Or maybe it is that when my alarm went off the other day I heard two Christmas songs in a row. Which there is this station in point that is playing all Christmas music out there already. How cool is that?!? Today at work too we were kind of slow so we decided to decorate for Christmas. We made 16 paper snow flakes, I felt like I was in kindergarten again.

I might be taking Darren to our Christmas parade here is Stevens Point. If so look for pictures as the parade is tomorrow already!

So Look out Christmas here come the Grabski's!

Are you a scrapbooker?

I got into a discussion with a co-worker today about pictures being in print verses just on a computer. I had said I don't get a lot of pictures printed. I only tend to get pictures printed that I want around the house, and of course those are usually updated once a month or so. Or maybe with a season change. So I have the pictures that I take out of the frames but come to think of it I don't really do anything with those. I guess I am just not a scrapbooker.

I have been thinking about this for the rest of the day. Is Darren going to be mad that I don't have all kinds of pictures printed of his childhood? I have a lot (and I mean A LOT) on our computer, with a external hard drive for back-up as well. I mean everything these days is all digital, plus photo albums just take up so much room.

Then tonight as I am checking the usual blogs for updates, I realize that this is my scrapbook. This is my journal for all of you to see. It may not be in print, but I hope that it will always be here for him to look at when he gets older. He will know how just about every holiday, birthday, and get together goes. And of course there will always be the cute embarrassing things he does. Cute now embarrassing when he's older.

So here's to all you blogger's out there! Who needs a scrapbook when you can blog!

Happy Monday...

Something Funny

And something not

So the other morning we noticed that Darren was awake a lot earlier then he normally is. We wondered what was going on, but didn't want him to make a habit of getting up that early. So we left him until he went back to sleep. Then he woke up around his normal time, when we went to get him up for the day this is what we find...

And we wondered why he woke up early? I can't imagine that was comfortable to sleep like that. I am still pondering how he did it. Needless to say he didn't stay in his Pj's for long that day.

Now for the something not funny...

We worked outside this afternoon, which it was perfect weather for yard work. Darren was having fun eating the dirt, I guess I think eating a little dirt never hurt anyone! So we were playing and working, when I went to do something on the front steps. Little did I know D was following me up the steps, Dan was trimming the evergreens. I thought he was watching Darren and he thought I was watching Darren. He went up a step and tumbled back down to the cement! Yes there was blood and screaming. I feel awful for letting him get hurt! So here are some of the battle wounds. The cement did win this one!

As you can see he has a nice scrap on his nose and a big ole goose egg on his forehead. I think that I have come to terms with he is a boy and will most likely get hurt a lot worse then this.

He was having a blast playing "help mommy fold cloths". When I say fold, he is so helpful to unfold them for me. He will also pull the burp cloths and sheets out of the draws of his crib. It is harmless not like he can hurt himself. It is cute and annoying all at the same time!

Poor kitty, Darren beats the crap out of that cat! She keeps getting in his way too, you think she would learn.

Trick-or-Treat (but mostly treats)

Darren got to go trick-or-treating for the first time this year! He was the cutest, bear or was it a mouse, or maybe a Monkey? Well he was supposed to be a monkey, but none the less he was cute no matter what people thought. The day leading up to trick-or-treating, was a beautiful day! So we took Darren for a wagon ride to a school that is near our house to play for a while. He loves riding in his wagon! He went down the slide, and swung on a swing with mom. It was a good day. When we went pumpkin picking it was our goal to find a pumpkin that was just about as big as Darren. Well it at least weighed just as much. He is also starting to walk. So things around the house are starting to get really crazy.

When we did go trick-or-treating we got to see Uncle Brandon and Aunt Traci! They gave mom and dad, I mean Darren lots of candy. He did have to munch on a gram cracker before we went.

We tried to make the tail visible but it didn't always work.

This was a cool house that we came across while out and about.

Uncle Randy came to visit while he was in town for a conference. So Darren and Uncle Randy had some good male bonding time.

Needing to pick...

From far away this picture doesn't look terrible. If you can look past the giant zits on my forehead. Darren isn't really sure what is going on, but he has a big stream of snot running down his lip. Plus I was trying to take a picture of us, and it never works out the way I plan it too.

Now for the cute ones of Darren in his Halloween costume. He is a Monkey, can you tell?

It is hard taking pictures of your own children. Getting them to look at you and smile at the same time is almost impossible. You just have to keep shooting and keep shooting and before you know it you have about 50 pictures taken for the one shot you really wanted. These are the best I could do, and I think I didn't do too bad. Happy fall! I will be putting up a new banner too, so keep looking for that!

Yet another ear infection!

We made it a full year before Darren got sick for the first time. It was a cold, but along with that there was an ear infection. Now a little over a month later there is another ear infection. I felt so bad for him, he had to get his 12 month shots today and he isn't feeling good. My poor little boy. He is growing fast and starting to walk. At the doctor today he weight in at 19.2lbs between 5th-10th%, and was 29" long 25th%, I can't remember what his head measured at but that was on the charts as well. So I am pretty excited that he is on the charts for where a normal 12month old should be. Even though he will be 13 months next week, but who's counting.

The New Mr. and Mrs.

The Bride was beautiful, the Groom was dashing, and the wedding it self was amazing. We had so much fun. I will let the picture tell you just how awesome the day really was.

I did take most of the pictures, except for the group pictures(because I am in that one). Wasn't it all just beautiful?

The Weekend Ahead

We are so excited that B and T's wedding is this weekend. It will be such a nice weekend, with a ton of family, friends, and great times. I am really excited not only for the wedding, but I was asked to snap some shots of the day, you know the cute behind the scenes photos that the photographer might miss or ones that I just think are cute. So I am super excited to just get creative. Traci and I worked together to design the programs for the wedding, and here is how the first page turned out.

Advice for the soon to be newlyweds.

Brandon - Listen when she talks. Don't take after Dan! Always tell her you love her no matter how intense the games get! And remember the 1st year is always the hardest.

Traci - I am just glad you are still around! We are so excited you are joining the family. You make such a perfect couple. And don't let B win at games too much!

I hope to have tons of awesome pictures to share with you all after the weekend.

What is a birthday?

This past weekend, we had Darren's first birthday party. Although we didn't do much other than have family and friends over for lunch and cake. But it was amazing to see all the family and friends that love us, more so I am sure love Darren. He is the best of Dan and I put together.

It was tough planning a first birthday party, he is only one. To me it is a big deal! I got the occasional comments about how he isn't going to remember it, but who are they to judge. They haven't been through what I have in the last year. They have no idea what Darren has over come to still be here today!

So to me a birthday is family celebrating there first son, grandson, nephew and godson turning one. It doesn't matter that he won't remember that his little play mates played pin the tale on the donkey. Or that Buckeye helped himself to the cake before the party started (I almost cried!) Or that he got this toy from that person or that toy from this person. But we will be able to some day tell him about it, and the funny things that happened. Plus not to mention that a picture is worth a million words!

Happy First Birthday Darren! Mommy and Daddy love you so much...

Family

We just had some pictures taken, by a friend of mine here is town. She did a great job and wanted to share a few of my fav's here with you! So enjoy!

Sorry... It's been a while

Where to start with this post.

I feel like a new person, after having spent some quality time with my family. This chapter in my life comes to a close, and I hope that no one will ever have to go through what Dan and I did. Most of you will never know how hard it was on our marriage. It was the hardest thing we will ever have to go through, and we made it! So I know that we can make it through anything. Not that we have had a easy first two years of marriage by any means. Let me tell you how our first two years went.

We start off in May for our wedding day, and amazing honey moon in Aruba. With a great first summer as newly weds I am thinking that married life is going to be great. Then comes the back pain which starts in about October, and then goes as far as back surgery in January. Also in January, we have a miscarriage and I feel like this is as bad as it can get. We soon get pregnant again, and Dan recovers from his surgery. This pregnancy has many complications, a rough summer which ends in a baby being born 3 months early! Darren thrives in the NICU, and comes home a month early. We have a rocky Christmas trying to travel with a preemie baby. Then my husband tells me that he is going to be working out of town during the weeks and won't be home but only on the weekends. I am stuck at home all winter with a preemie baby that can't really go anywhere. I start to go stir crazy. But soon the summer comes, and I can get outside but am still depressed that I have a "weekend husband". Which brings us to mid July of 2008, and we can be a family again. So needless to say we have not had a perfect marriage by any means. We have gone through a lot, and now I know we can get through anything.

We did some really fun things together as a family. Well OK we just made a trip down to the Milwaukee Zoo. To me this is what being a family is all about! It was a really hot day so the animals were not really active.

Darren was a tired little man at the end of our trip!

Our other big news, is Darren has his first tooth! And it took me forever to get a picture of it! Its really blurry, but it is in there! See...

I cannot believe how fast time goes. My little man will soon be the big 1, which means one hell of a party. Yes because he is one and that in itself is a big deal, but mainly because we survived this first year, all three of us.