Austin's Growth Update

So today was one of Austin's endocrinology appointments. I thought I'd share his growth chart because it is somewhat interesting. He is currently 8 1/2 years old, 3 foot 4 inches, and 38 pounds. The red line is his "expected" growth rate.

(This chart opens larger so you can get a good look at it.) You'll have to think back to when you kids were babies to read it. Inches of height on the left of the graph, years of age on the bottom. The swerve of multiple lines is the normal growth rate. Here is a little run down.

The red line is just a guess, it's following the track that he's on right now, which is at a rate of 1.5 inches every 3 months. The black dots, well below the normal growth rate, are the points at which he has been plotted over the past 3 years, that line shows his actual growth pattern.

At said rate, they guess that he will be *on the growth chart of normal children* at about 13 years old he would be about 4 1/2 feet tall (but in the 3rd percentile - meaning that only about 3% of children are as small as would be at that point).

At about 16 years old and at 5 1/2 feet tall he would be in the 25th percentile (25% of normal children would be shorter than him).

To put all of this into perspective, he should be growing at a rate close to that of Payton. Currently Payton is 10 years old and is 4 foot 7 (right at the 50th percentile for girls her age). With his "projected" growth pattern, at age 10, Austin would be but 3 foot 8 inches, a full foot shorter than his peers.

There is some hope that he could grow longer than most children because his bone age is still at about half of his actual age, but there is really no way to tell how things will go or if the IGF1 will continue to work.

Morgan stayed over last night so before she left this morning I took a few photos of her and Payton. I thought they would be a nice keepsake for them both to remember after we move.

And here is one of my beautiful little Payton. She's growing up to be a fine young lady, she makes me proud.

Christmas Morning Pics

Christmas morning was unfussy. We got up around 8:30 AM and got down to business. This is a photo heavy post, so be warned.

This is the happiest I've ever seen Austin coming down the stairs. I'm pretty sure he had seen his new bike sitting beside the tree.

Every boy needs a new bike for Christmas, even if it's the same size as his last one, just a tad bit cooler.

I think this was Austin's favorite gift. Of course it was from his Papa. After each and just about every present he'd say, "just what I always wanted...". Hilarious!

He also got a guitar, which he is teaching himself to play. Hopefully I'll have videos of that to share soon.

Present unwrapping frenzy!

One of Payton's favorite gifts, of course, from her Papa. A cool little stereo dock for the I pod she doesn't have.

I guess even little Payton needed a new digital camera for Christmas.

Who can get theirs open first?

You know, the good little presents always come wrapped inside another wrapped box. At least this is my experience (also usually weighted down with some rocks - thanks dad).

It must be good for an expression like that!

The #1 item on her list, a new I pod, it's 120 gig and Gregg and I are both jealous.

Austin also got a new MP3 player for Christmas, though his a hand-me-down from Payton.

She took very good care of her first one, that is why the upgrade was warranted. She first got this one when she was 5.

Oh to be a kid in 2008!

Christmas Eve 2008

On Christmas Eve the kids always get to open one present, which we choose of course. This year they opened one of their presents from my dad, Nerf guns. They kept them busy until bed time thankfully.

The Christmas tree, mid destruction. Thankfully the house is back to normal now. But it seems empty without all of the decorations.

Austin playing with his new Nerf gun. His is smaller, therefore easier for him to use.

Payton's is a monster, and obviously, Gregg thought it was mighty fun.

Art Project And An Unauthorized Post.

We have tons of Christmas cards laying around from our friends and family and some of them will not stand on their own, so we had to come up with a way to display them properly, here is what we did...

We took a tree stand from the craft store, painted it, added a star and a Jolie cat, tiny little close pins and some red ball ornaments.

After, loaded with Christmas cards. I think Payton did a great job! And it's extremely useful.

I wish I was a cat, just for one day. What a rough life!

Earlier in the week the weather was quite nice, so the kids went outside and watched the cat eat grass. Now that's what I call fun.

Here, obviously, Sticks = Swords

And lastly, here is that guy that posted a photo of me in my 80's outfit even though I obviously was intentional about not posting it earlier for a reason. No worries though, I now have a password that he won't crack, damn Intel guy.

My Dad

My Dad doesn't visit my blog, he's not very technologically inclined, but I wanted to post a few photos of him and I today since it's his birthday.

A Little Game of Christmas Tag

Mandy Garvie tagged me & it looks like a lot of fun, so here we go...

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? I hate egg nog, the name alone makes me cringe. I do like hot chocolate, but only drinking chocolate, not that nasty mix made with coco powder.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Santa doesn't visit our house anymore, the kids don't believe so he doesn't visit.

3. Colored lights on house/tree or white lights? White lights only. I cannot stand color lights.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Abso-freaking-lutely - I need all the kisses I can get!

5. When do you put your decorations up? Thanksgiving night or the weekend after.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Ham & cranberry sauce

7. Favorite holiday memory as a child? Going to my Grandma Jackies with all of the Berry side of my family, those people were a hoot.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I found my presents in a closet, didn't say anything to anyone, and then found them wrapped by "Santa" on Christmas morning.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Yes, but just the kids.

10. How do you decorate your tree? Is there more than one way to decorate a tree?

11. Snow! Love it or dread it? Love it, haven't seen it in a very long time. My fingers are crossed for snow here this year.

12. Can you ice skate? Yes, I'm a natural.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? It seems that every year I have a new favorite gift. One year it was a new wedding ring (since Gregg and I married so young, I bought both of our rings with what extra cash I had). This year I'd say my favorite is my new camera.

14. What is the most important thing about the holidays for you? Being together.

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? Pecan Pie

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? We usually drive the beach lights - where they put lights up over the boardwalk at Virginia Beach and you get to drive on the board walk, it's pretty neat. This year we are going to the Botanical Gardens Lights instead.

17. What tops your Christmas tree? A gold star.

18. Which do you prefer-giving or receiving? Both - duh!

19. What is your favorite Christmas song? All I Want For Christmas Is You - By Vince Vance & The Valiants

20. Candy Canes-yum or yuck? I love peppermint!

21. What do you want for Christmas? I have already received my Christmas present, my new Canon 40D.

22. Do you attend an annual Christmas party? Yes, when we are in town, it's at one of our friends house and it was packed this year!

23. Do you dress up on Christmas or wear PJs? We wear our PJs.

24. Do you own a Santa hat? Nope

25. Who do you normally spend Christmas with? This year we will be all alone, but usually it's either in Woodward at my dad's house, here with our little family, but there has been 3 years where Gregg was overseas for Christmas - that sucked.

I tag: Kristen, Britt and Annie

Something Is Going Around

It's been a hell of a week around here. The kids were out of school Wednesday, Thursday, & Friday with a nasty cold. Austin recovered just fine but Payton took a turn for the worse yesterday morning. I took her to the doctor and come to find out she has strep throat and an ear infection. She's on antibiotics now and slowly doing better. Hopefully she'll be well enough to make it to school tomorrow.

We have a full week ahead of us. With an English comp final today, shopping that needs to be done and the kids "holiday" parties on Friday, we're going to be super busy. School lets out on Friday until January fifth for them, so I've got to get it all done asap. 16 days for winter break seems excessive to me. Luckily I'll get a few more days "off" after that to recover before I have to go back.

I thought I'd leave you with a funny photo from back in 2005 if I remember correctly. Gregg and I went to a Halloween party that year and this photo is of him in his 70's costume. I'm too embarrassed of my 80's costume to post it, so just imagine it in your head. Don't feel too bad laughing, I cannot help it myself.

Flashback Friday Baby's First Christmas

I figured I'd flashback to each of the kids first Christmas. Random photos and the quality isn't so good since digital cameras were not very good when they first started coming out. But here they are anyway:

Austin and his grandma Teresa (Gregg's Mother), Christmas 2001.

This is a photo of my dad, myself holding Austin, and Payton on Christmas Morning, 2001. Austin was 17 months old and Payton was 3 years old.

And this is Payton's first Christmas back in 1999. She was 15 months old here.

Christmas Decorations

I have a lot of extra time on my hands now that the semester is over. I figured I'd post our holiday decorations inside the house. We do have lights up outside, but it's raining, so I'm not going out there to take pics. These photos should enlarge if you click on them.

Our family room mantle. I did not decorate the mantle in our bedroom, I do not have the Christmas cheer to decorate personal spaces I guess, although Payton does have a small tree in her room from years ago.

Our Christmas tree in the formal front room. I tried to have some sort of continuity with our ornament colors, but that went out the door once we had children. Now we have just about anything you can think of hanging from our tree, including a cute Santa made from a shotgun shell and a cat toy. And yes, we do have presents already under the tree!

This was taken the other night while Payton was practicing her violin. Andrè loves to sit in Payton's violin case while she plays. He's a very strange cat. I thought this was a neat photo with the blurred background.

Hope you all have a nice weekend. We have a neighborhood Christmas party to go to, for which I'm bringing rum cake. It should be a lot of fun, we have really great neighbors.

Christmas Lists 2008

This years Christmas lists from the kids were quite refreshing. Thinking back to when Payton was 5 and asking for a cell phone, MP3 player and a laptop computer for Christmas, anything short of that is delightful. We try to get them everything they ask for since they don't ask for much the rest of the year. The kids learned about Santa last year, so here is part of the lists WE got this year from them.

Payton's List:

1. Nerf Gun
2. Keyboard
3. Wii Games
4. IM Me Text Messengers
5. New Tree House
6. i-pod
7. CDs

Austin's List:

1. Wii Games
2. New Tree House
3. Toy Cars
4. Books
5. Race Track
6. Robots
7. IM Me Text Messengers

Austin has been pulling some serious stunts these past few weeks, both at school and at home, so his list is in serious jeopardy of not getting fulfilled this year at all. They are both home sick from school today with some cold that has been going around. Yuck!

The semester is over for me, aside from an English comp final Monday of next week. I have enrolled in my classes for next semester already. I'm taking psychology, managerial accounting, macroeconomics, literature, & a public speaking class. I have real anxiety about speaking in public, (insert sarcasm here) so that should be a lot of fun. I bet I'll be on anxiety medication before the semester ends.

Christmas cards have gone out and the house is decorated. Now I just have a lot of Christmas shopping to do and only... 14 days left to do it!

6 Random Things...

Mandy tagged me so I thought I would play along.

Here are the rules:

1) Link to the person who tagged you. Mandy
2) Post the rules on your blog (copy and paste 1-6).
3) Write 6 random things about yourself.
4) Tag 6 people at the end of your post and link to them. (I'm only tagging 3 so that there are enough people left to tag.)
5) Let each person know they have been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6) Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

1. I get so worked up over OU football games that I have nearly passed out (OU/TX this year). My hands and feet sweat and my heart races. I cannot control it. The only other thing I get this worked up about is Gymnastics. I look like some sort of addict while watching these two sports, I seriously cannot sit still.

2. I have finally stopped biting my fingernails. I had bitten them since I was a child and somehow this year I stopped all together. I have no idea how either.

3. I have had my Christmas decorations up since before Thanksgiving this year. I wasn't sure I'd find the time in finals week, so I put them up early. If you don't like it, Sue me.

4. I bought a box of dark chocolate covered cordial cherries on Thursday, you know the ones they only have out at Christmas time, and they are all but gone now. Saturday I picked up two more boxes; I doubt they will make it until Friday.

5. Like Mandy C. I am also a night owl. Before I had to start getting up with the kids to get them on the bus I would stay up until 3 or 4 AM, doing things that I would put off, like laundry and organizing, it was my alone time. Once morning would roll around, the kids would get onto the bus and I would go back to sleep until around 10AM. Now that I have classes everyday I'm in bed by midnight & I feel older because of it. I miss my alone time.

6. I love grocery shopping. It relaxes me like nothing else. All the different kinds of fruit and vegetables, the cheese and wine, oh the possibilities! I know, I'm strange.

I tag Britt, Annie,and Hillary. Have fun girls!

Does anyone know who the #1 College football team in the Nation is?

That's right, it's our very own Oklahoma Sooners!!

I've been saying it all season long, now the BCS agrees!

Ode To Joy

I'm so proud of Payton and her progress, I cannot help but post this video. The violin music flowing through the house is just delightful. And I know you all aren't going to believe this, but we don't even have to remind her to practice. I think she truly enjoys it!

She has decided to skip ahead in her music book, to something a bit more interesting, Ode To Joy, from Beethoven's 9th Symphony. It is a beautiful song, I'm sure you all will recognize it. Enjoy!

Flashback Friday & Alarm Woes

The kids were allowed to wear their favorite PJ's to school today, so...

Happy Pajama Day!

Here's hoping for some snow this Christmas! This photo, of Gregg and Payton playing in the snow was taken in 2001, while living in Norman, OK.





Now a word to those of you with home alarm systems:

1. Always expect the batteries in the door and window sensors to go out at 3 AM.
2. Always expect the damn alarm to not stop beeping, even after you cut the power.
3. Always expect said batteries to all go out within minutes of each other, keeping you up by the beeping until the break of dawn.
4. Always expect the batteries to be hard to find locally and once you do find someone that carries them, they will be on back order.
5. Always expect that the beeping will have your children scared to death.
6. Always expect that you will not be able to find the instruction manual for the alarm system in such an emergency. And last but not least...
7. Always expect that while you are trying to figure out how to get the damn alarm to stop beeping, you will break it. But once it is broken, your headache will go away & you will sleep peacefully once again.

Wednesday night was a complete joy.

Violin Time

Payton wasn't too excited about me posting this video. She doesn't think she's doing very well, but I think she's coming right along. She has only been using the bow for around a week, so it's relatively new to her.

The Lighthouses of North Carolina

Today we got up early and made our way to the outer banks of North Carolina. It was a long drive and the weather was iffy, but it was fun.We saw two of the lighthouses we hadn't seen before and also took some family pics. As the day wore on, the weather got worse and our photo opportunities were slim to none. But here's what we got.

Gregg loves his truck, so I took a photo of it parked off the side of the road. It looks quite clean here, but believe me, it isn't.

First we visited Bodie Lighthouse. It is 165 feet tall and was completed in 1872.

We took a few pictures around this area. This was taken behind the Bodie Lighthouse info center.

It was SO windy, I thought we were going to blow away. This one was taken beside the Bodie Lighthouse info center. I like the natural look of this photo.

This was the only photo that I got where Payton was smiling. She wasn't loving the experience today.

And here is one of the family photos we took. We had trouble getting everyone to look good at the same time. This is the best we got out of something like 40 tries. I really don't like using the self timer, the pictures never come out as good in my opinion.

On our way further south, we saw this boat being moved. Gregg thought it was pretty neat and took a photo.

This is the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. It is 210 feet tall and was completed in 1870. It was raining pretty hard when we made it to this spot, so I took the photo from inside the truck.

After taking the photos in front of the lighthouse, we drove out onto the beach and took a few from there. The lighthouse was quite far off, so the photos didn't turn out real well, but you get the idea.

Pictures Of The Weirdos

After the kids got off the bus today, I dragged them outside to take a few photos. They were tired and somewhat ragged looking from a whole day at school. But here is what turned out. Not too bad for my first time I don't think.

Payton rather enjoys having her picture taken.

Austin is a different story. He complained through the whole 7 or so minutes we were out there and even cried at the end. You can see how unhappy about this whole situation he was in this photo.

Payton was coming up with her own poses the entire time, she's quite the ham.

This is the best photo I could get of Austin. This was right at the beginning in the front of the house. He thought we were finished when we went back inside. Little did he know that we were just transitioning to the back yard at that point.

I hope you all enjoyed the photos. I have a lot of reading to do about this new camera, hopefully my knowledge on the subject gets quite a bit better over time.