9 months

brody is 9 months old.

i know i've said it before, and i will say it a bazillion more times...i can't get enough of brody. well, this should be obvious because he is my one and only.

but he is so happy and so cute, i just can't stand it.

9 months old. i love it! he is so full of life, spunk and personality. in the past month he has perfected...giving kisses (which are not slobbery, thankfully), waving hello and goodbye, waking along the furniture, trying to climb up into the fridge and the dishwasher and hanging over the tub (we have a big claw foot tub, so it's deep, so when he stands up he just chills over the edge, silly bear).

we got him a little car that he can either ride or push around himself. as of right now he LOVES being pulled around. it's so cute and he just hangs onto the little handle bars of his car and we toodle around the house. it's great.

i love the stages that he is in right now. it's bittersweet to see how fast my baby is growing, but i love every new thing he gets to explore and experience. life is great.

can you stay 9 months forever? pretty please?

i love you my brody bear.

it's official. i'm29.

my first birthday as a mom was totally perfect. we spent the entire weekend hanging out and having a blast. friday night we went to dinner, to of course the 'cheesecake factory', we can never get enough of that place. yum! saturday a wonderful friend of mine took me to lunch at my favorite place in the Short North 'the northstar cafe'. and then we went and saw 'valentine's day' which we loved. always love a cheesy good 'rom-com'. and on sunday my "official bday', i had a great day at church and then spent the rest of my day with my boys just hanging out. tyson made his famous bbq hamburgers for my 'bday' dinner and of course we can't forget cake. hello my name is jen and i love cake. like a lot. like more than i probably should. but i do and i can't help it. just saying. anywhos... tyson got me a super yummy cake from my favorite giant big bird bakery. so good. and i felt very loved from all the emails/phone calls/texts from family and friends. i think it was a perfect day!

welcome 29. let's be friends.

good morning...

we decided to start off the day with a little photobooth momment.

good morning.

lovies...

can't get enough of this little guy. love love love him. so happy he's all mine.

this commercial makes me weepy...

it also makes me so grateful to be a mom. i hope for great things for my children, whatever they will be.

BLACK EYED PEAS !!!

my friend kendall was able to get us $15 tickets to see the Black Eyed Peas and we all jumped on that deal and went! and it was so much fun! they put on a really great show and what's not to love when you can dance to Fergie Ferg singing My Humps live! can't beat that! my friend jamie summed up our night perfectly! LUDACRIS was the opening act and it totally took my back to my college days of living in Nauvoo house and listening to "who's a hoe" with my roommate jana and lindsay. awe good times!



it was great to get out after seriously being in hibernation for the past two weeks! we started our night off at eating at CHAMPS. not that great of food but awesome company. then we headed over to the concert.



heading up to our seats to rock out to LUDACRIS...thanks to these girls for letting me be major picture happy and trying to snap a shot every 10 seconds!



group shot before we rocked the night away!



party like a rock star!



some hotties (jamie i cropped you out, just for you! :) )



the concert was great and we had a really great time.

and of course the end of the night didn't end with us just getting in the car and going home. oh no, we of course could not remember where we parked the car and seriously walked up and down the parking lots looking for the car in the freezing cold. hightlights of the car search were when jamie fell into a snow bank, lovely, and myself for wearing the worst shoes possible. everyone wore boots but me - i wore cute little shoes that matched my outfit. ha. jamie and kendall almost had to give me there socks to warm my feet...but just in time we found the car and of course we ended the night by singing...."TO NIGHTS THE NIGHT...WE FOUND THE CAR...TONIGHT GONNA BE A GOOD GOOD NIGHT!

good times ladies...good times! OHIOOOOOOO!

Cupcakes...

last week i hosted a valentine cupcake exchange party...and it was so much fun! i had two tables set up for everyone to place there cupcakes on along with name tags for everyone to put next to there cupcakes, so we knew who's cupcakes were who's. i even had a big jar of valentine m&m's that the girls had to each take a guess at, as to how many candies were in the jar and who ever came the closet won the jar of m&m's to take home with them. i also had some light snacks placed in the kitchen for everyone to snack on. it was so much fun to get together with all these amazing girls, chat, snack on some food and 'oooh and aweee' over everyone's cupcakes.



some fun pictures. my friend elisa won the jar of m&m's...she did amazing at guessing the amount. she guessed 1105 and there were 1110. of course we were having so much fun, that by the end of the party i forgot to take a group shot of everyone who was there, so we are missing a few girls in the group shot - but none the less we got a picture to document our fun evening! love these girls!!



and hello! the highlight of the evening were all the yummy cupcakes! everyone was asked to bring 12 decorated cupcakes... talk about being creative and de-lish! there were some pretty creative ones...like ice cream cones and mash potatoes and gravy cucpakes and peas and carrots. too cute! and i can't forget all the chocolate yummyness! and my friend kelli's strawberry buttecream cupcakes...double yum! i made a chocolate fudge cupcake with mint buttercream and lots of mint chocolate/pink chocolate hearts.

we even had a little cupcake vote, where everyone voted for the "cutest cupcake", "most tempting", "best dressed cupcake" and "most creative". the four cupcakes that were choosen won a fun cupcake recipe book.

so at the end of the party everyone got to take a cupcake from each girl, so everyone ended up with 10 different cupcakes to take home. i love that everyone did such an amazing job on their cupcakes, it made it even more fun! the exchange was a huge success and i am pretty sure everyone had a lot of fun, i know i did!

i have two valentine's.

i've learned more about love in the past year than in all my years combined.

thanks to these two.

i thought i knew before.

but i had no idea.

i love love.

happy lovey dovey day.

A Tyson Update...

Tyson is home! Yay!! First off, seriously THANK YOU for all the thoughts and prayers!! we are definitely grateful for the power of prayer and it's ability to help heal.

This morning the doctors came in and looked at Tyson's knee again, they did a little ultra sound thingy on his leg to check for blood clots and he's he is clear of blood clots, which was great to hear. So, they have finally come to a solution that he has "Cellulitis". (*Ryan...you are amazing! you were able to know what he had just by what i described, seriously Amazing! you should be proud that you could tell what he had.) Our friend Ryan is a Med Student at Ohio State and he emailed me telling me what he thought Tyson might have, and he was right on. So "Cellulitis" is a bacterial infection of the skin. And the symptoms usually include redness, swelling, and warmth in the affected area...and when I say warmth, no joke, his knee could melt butter it was so hot. the only thing that we find strange is that his white blood cell count is normal and does not show him fighting off infection. is that strange? Ryan would you like to answer that for us? ha. So kinda weird if you ask me, but it only took a week to really conclude that, that is what he has. Tyson's doctor also thought because he's a bigger guy the antibiotics he was given, may not have been strong enough. so they've upped the antibiotics and that should help things start to clear up a lot faster. Amazingly enough you can totally tell that it's already looking so much better! not only has having lots of antibiotics pumped into his system helped, but i know for a fact it has been all the prayers for me him that have helped as well. again Thank YOU! it's still kinda sore and is swollen but tyson says it feels so much better!


the first picture was of tyson's leg on tuesday night...but by yesterday his leg was probably atleast 2 times the size it was on tuesday and today is looks so much better. you can tell the redness has gone down a lot.

the doctors did say he could stay in the CDU for a few more days and be monitored or he could come home and if things started to get worse or he didn't feel good, he could come back in. Tyson of course choose option 2 to come on home. Being in the hospital over night was a first for tyson. he said one night in a hosptial bed was enough. i am so happy that his knee is looking so much better and he feels really good! so let's hope those antibiotics work! he goes back to his sport medicine doctor next week for a follow up.



tyson wanted me to show you his tower of antibiotics he gets to take. and he would also like me to share with you possible side effects he could have while taking these little babies...loss of appetite, diarrhea, nausea or vomitting, but it gets better...he must contact his doctor immediately if he experiences...blistered, peeling, red or swollen skin, bloody or black tarry stool, chest pain, confusion, dark urine, decreased urination, depression, hallucinations fever, chill, or sore throat, irregular heartbeat joint or muscle pain, mental or mood changes, painful or stiff neck, purple patches under the skin, seizures, shortness of breath, stomach cramps/pain, unusual bruising or bleeding, unusual tiredness or weakness, pale skin, yellowing of the skin or eyes. And that's just to name a few. Not a big deal. ;) is it bad that we kinda laughed about this? I mean really the chances are slim of any of these things happening, and shoot we figure he's had some super funky bacteria spreading thoughout his leg all week, he will be ok.

tyson also wanted me to document his first hospital bracelet. i told him he had one when we had brody, but he said this was different becasue he was in the hospital for himself and this was a first. which is true. :) so there you have it. he's defintely happy to be home. now let's just not make this a habit! and the next time he gets a floor burn, it's going to be scrubbed and antibactrialized and covered with a bandage! i love you tyson!!!!

and one more THANK YOU for prayers! Tyson said it felt very comforting knowing so many people were saying a prayer for him! Let's hope he just keeps getting better and better!! We will let you know!

But really...THANK YOU!!

Please Pray for Tyson...

so here's the back ground to everything....two weeks ago when tyson was playing basketball, he fell and got a floor burn on his knee. it hadn't really healed all the way - and it was really itchy a little over a week ago, we now think there may have been some bacteria in his nails (maybe) that got into the wound when he itched it...and we believe now, this is what is causing the effects of what's taking place....

so on sunday evening tyson said his knee was hurting, and he was racking his brain to try and remember if he hit his knee on something earlier that day. he was rubbing it and trying to stretch his knee out, hoping it would feel better, but it started to swell and was red and really hot.

monday morning it was still really red, hot and hurt bad. he was able to go into the student health center and have it looked at. two different doctors came in and looked at it and they diagnosed him as having gout which is also known as "old drunk man" disease. the doctors asked him if he drank a lot of beer during the super bowl. Nope. seeing to the fact tyson has never had an taste of alcohol in his life it was kinda odd that, that's what they thought he had. so they gave him medicine and crutches and said to come back tomorrow so more doctors could check him out.

so he did just that...tuesday morning he went in and had it looked at again. it was still swollen, red and painful. they decided it was not "gout" and decided it was MRSA. that's not good at all. so the doctors took x-rays, blood test and drained tyson's knee. which he said hurt so bad and never wants to experience that ever again. poor guy. Luckily the fluid in his knee was clear, so no infection, his blood cells were fine. so they gave him some strong medicine and said take the meds and then they had an appointment set up for wednesday where he was going to see a sports specialist to check out his knee.

SO... on wednesday his knee was looking and feeling a little better, he went in and saw two sports specialist who decided it was not MRSA either. Thank heavens! now they were thinking it was just some sort of bacteria infection in his knee. they looked at his x-rays and it has nothing to do with his joints. he's all good there. so the doctors told him it was looking good, and to keep taking his medicine and he should be fine.

WELL...last night 'thursday' he was looking at his shin and he was like my shin is really hot and red, and i looked and yup it was...the red was spreading down into his shin.

So, this morning he called his sports specialist but he was booked and could not see him. so during a break between classes he stopped by the student health center again and got looked at by another doctor and she agreed that it's some sort of bacteria infection but didn't know what. so she recommended that it would better to be safe than sorry and go to the ER and get looked at and have more blood test ran. So the doctor has nurses call the ER to inform them tyson would be coming in. So after class, the b bear and i went and got tyson, we stopped and got some food and dropped him off at the ER. We didnt think it was a good idea to sit in the ER Waiting room with a bunch of other sick people and have the b bear get sick again, so brody and i went to the mall and shopped. after a few hours of waiting with a bazillion other people tyson got in to see a doctor. he was looked at by two doctors and hooked tyson up on an IV to treat him with MRSA, just in case, that's what it might be. they really aren't sure what is wrong with his leg, but the bacteria is definitely spreading down into his leg and now you can see that it's going back into his calf as well. he is in the hospital over night being monitored, and in the morning the doctors are coming back and they are going to check him for blood clots and do some sort of doppler x-ray on him. So that's all we know. Tyson feels great. It's just his knee that's bugging him. he can walk and put pressure on it - it's just very tender and red. It's all pretty weird. But he is doing ok. It's kinda rough after a week of seeing doctors and no one knows what's wrong with him. So hopefully in the morning and after tests are run we will know more and keep everyone updated. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE keep him in your thoughts and prayers!!!

here's what his knee looked like on tuesday night. the red circle is to show where the red "is", that way if it were to spread they would be able to see how far it would have moved. little did we know...it would spread!

his legs together. you can see the yellow on his leg, where he had his knee drained.

And tonight. He he was very happy to see us!

the brody bear was THRILLED to see his papa!!

sharing drinks and watching the Olympics Opening Ceremonies.

playing together. awe good times at the hospital.

and of course a family shot.

has anyone ever heard of this happening to someone you know or know of someone who knows someone??? if you do, please share!

we are keeping our thoughts positive and of course we are hoping for the best! we hope that the medicine they have given tyson will do the trick and help kill off whatever bacteria is in his knee and shin. When we know more, i will definitely update! But again... PLEASE Keep him in your prayers! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! WE LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU!

weekend.

this is the view from one our bedroom windows friday afternoon. it snowed and snowed and snowed. and we stayed bundled up inside. the brody bear was sick all weekend. and we slept the weekend away. it was kinda too bad that brody was sick, the snow was without a doubt the best snow to make a snowman. but alas we opted for the warm indoors, we caught up on season 5 of LOST, drank a lot of liquids and cuddled in bed. but there is a light at the end of the tunnel and brody is so much better. and of course we watched the super bowl, well let me re-phrase that, i saw the last minute of the game, tyson watched most of it and brody slept. not gonna lie, i am kinda happy the saints won. and at least now we hopefully wont have to hear all about peyton manning and how amazing he is blah blah blah. just had to put that one out there.

anywho's that was our weekend. i sure hope that everyone had a more exciting weekend than we did.

a beautiful blur...

i seriously can't believe that it's February 1st! where did January go?

if i had of been blogging the past few weeks i probably would have told you about...

staying snuggled up inside while it's snowed off and on the entire month and that it's been way to cold to even go play in the snow.

and that tyson started his winter quarter and it's midterms already, and he loves his classes and he's doing amazing and loves what he does.

or that we had to lower brody's crib down to the lowest setting because he stands up and that one morning i went in to get him and he was grinning ear to ear with lovely white paint chips all over his face and inside his mouth. he sure loved nibbling on his bars, but we got bar covers so he can no longer enjoy the tasty white paint.

or that tyson started playing intramural basketball on a graduate league with his fellow statistics classmates and so far they won all there games!

or that i've crafted every saturday for the past three weeks and it's been so fun.

or that i finally started training for my half marathon that i signed up for way back in October and now it's only 3 months away.

or that my goal was to start calling friends ONCE...yes just ONCE a month and i failed in the month of january, so now i will do it TWICE in february.

or that brody and i take turns chasing each other around the house and he totally gets the concept. he's so funny.

or that brody and i have gone at least twice a week, every week, to go see tyson in his office and we walk over to the RPAC (one of the gyms on campus) to go get a fruit smoothie and we share with brody and he loves it. it's most adorable when he sucks the smoothie from the straw. (so we think.)

or that we went to dinner with friends and then bowling and it was a blast.

or that brody made the less than 3 hour drive to Kentucky to see our friends and he slept more than half the way there and back. and he only had one tiny melt down there and one on the way back and both times was when we were almost to our destination. he did awesome. triumph i tell you! (he's not a fan of his car seat).

or that brody hates his johnny jumper and jumper-roo ever since we've been back from christmas. (i would like someone to tell me why?)

or that i have bruises on my knee caps from crawling around with brody so much. they are "love" battle wounds and i wouldn't have it any other way.

or that my friend kally came down to visit me last week with her little guy brody and they stayed the night and our boys played and we got to hangout. it was so much fun.

or that brody and i went for a walk last week in 25 degree weather and went and shared pear sherbet at jeni's ice cream and then came home and snuggled up and took a nap.

or that tyson and i have been staying up way too late watching LOST season 5 together.

OR OR OR... that tyson already got our taxes done and that is AWESOME.

and i could go on and on....but for now january is now a beautiful blur of all these wonderful things. i can't believe how fast the month flew by. but for now my foucs is enjoying every little chubby cheek cuteness of brody, enjoying every laugh, cuddle, treats, little whines, story time, play dates, baby giggles, teaching moments, watching tyson succeed in classes and hello basketball ;), spending time together as a family, running, and activities and everything in between.