Up All Night

Dad said we could stay up all night and welcome in the New Year with him and Mom, so we did. We played our v-tech games, ate some cookies, and partied like it was the end of the year. We were watching for the delivery men, Dad ordered Chinese and mom ordered pizza and bread sticks.

This is normally our bedtime, but we're still going strong. Midnight here we come.

It's getting close, we might have to quit our game soon.


Dad said something about it being rough to stay up, so we were prepared for anything.

Are we there yet ??

Jenna tried to sneak in a little cat nap.

Okay dad, we're shutting off the game, it's t-minus 15 minutes, gotta brush the teeth and get ready.

Holy Honey-Do List

Wow, I couldn't believe my young eyes, the Honey-Do list got put up on the refrigerator today and it's a whopper (and I don't mean the sandwich from Burger King) There's alot to get done beofre our 5th birthday party in April. We started by going to Lowe's (we figured that we'd give the Home Depot a break from our family visits for awhile) We picked up a few things, and looked at a few things, but the funny thing is, everything we picked our means more work for dad, since none of it was on the Honey-Do list to begin with.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

Were Busy opening all the presents that Santa brought for us, so we'll update the blog later today or tomorrow.

Twas the night before Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas and the wireless router was dead
Just give me a minute, I'll fix it was what Dad said
He spent hours trying to make it work
He used bad words, and called someone a jerk

We visited Gramma at her apartment building then headed off to Aunt Marilyn's house (she's dad's aunt, but we still call he aunt) to see her and Uncle Mike. Michael and his girlfriend Chelsea drove up from Phoenix for the holidays too. Aunt Michaelann was there with Cassie and Caitie, Uncle Doug showed up right before we left cause he had to work. Aunt Kris was there with Taylor and Izzie, Uncle Russ came too but wasn't feeling the best so he headed home early. Grandma and Papa, Great Grandma and Marge rounded out the list.

We opened some presents, Jacob got a Thomas lego set that he wanted, and I got the Barbie Princess that I wanted. We played a lot and got real tired, we watched a movie int he van on the ride home and then got ready for bed.

Santa is coming, Santa is coming

Phase 1

The rush is on to get the Microhood installed before Christmas. Dad only has two days left. Today dad spent all day working on getting the cabinets cut to accept the venting and drilled to mount the mirocwave.

Dad had to run a new electical line from the existing outlet and added a new outlet.

Dad kept saying that nothing went easy, one thing turned into another.


When we went shopping for the upper cabinet, they didn't have any in stock the size we needed, and said it normally takes 3 weeks to special order, but with the upcoming holidays it would be more like 5 weeks. So dad purchased a inexpensive wood laminate base cabinet and turned it on it's side, reinforced the joints and mounted it. He hooked up the power to the outlet and got the mircowave mounting plate attached to the wall.


After a lot of pushing and shoving, and some words we're not aloud to repeat, Dad finally got the mircowave into place and it looked good. He said he was going to go ahead and mount the 2 side cabinets and he did.


Like a good assistant, I stayed outta the way for the heavy lifting, but got right in there once it was almost complete. Just in time to take the credit for the entire job


I'm checking to see if I've got any hair under my arm yet. (really, that's what I'm doing)


And here is the completed look at Phase 1. The next Phase starts in another week. Then we're going to tile the walls and counter tops around the stove.

Again ??

Today we were scheduled to have brunch with Santa at the Giant Eagle by Gramma's house. We found our assigned table and sat down waiting on the big guy to arrive (we mean the big guy in the red suit who hands out presents, not dad)

Jacob is still afraid of Santa, so he took cover when he arrived


Once Santa had taken his seat, Jacob came out from under the table and started on his donut.


Even when Mom tried to get Jacob to talk to Santa, he still wouldn't


Me on the other hand, I couldn't wait to tell santa what I wanted.



Mom had to stop over and see Gramma, we waited in the van with Dad, he thinks he cool with his sunglasses on, but he's wrong.


Jacob looks way cooler than Dad

4 Minute Eternity

Dad started yet another project around the house. This time it's the installation of a microhood, which is a combo microwave and oven hood. The kitchen is pretty small, and mom had wanted to preserve as much counter space as possible, so a couple weeks ago when they saw the microhood go one sale, they bought it. Today dad removed the old oven hood and the cabinet above the stove. Well, as with most of dad's project around "this old house" it turned into a much bigger project. He pulled down the brick board that was installed about a year and a half ago. It all came down pretty quick, and after dad consulted with mom, they decided to go ahead and start on the tile back splash around the stove.

So off to the Home Depot we went. We headed over to the tile aisle and dad started to pick out some tiles. I stayed next to mom, and Jacob, well this is where the trouble started. Dad turned around, looked around and didn't see Jacob, he looked at Mom and she looked puzzled too. Dad took off towards the back of the store and was looking down all the different aisles, mom looked down the ones at the front of the store and started screaming Jacob's name. One of the store employee's saw mom yelling for Jacob and went to the customer service desk, they made an announcement over the PA and a lot started happening. Dad commented that the Home Depot really has a great program when it comes to lost kids in the store. I didn't see it all, but here's what dad said happened:

• "Attention Store Associates - we have a Code Amber, I repeat, we have a Code Amber."


• Immediately all, and dad said ALL employee's started running to different exit's to make sure no one left with any child.


• The lady at the customer service desk got a description of what Jacob was wearing and announced that over they PA.


• An employee went to the restrooms and checked those


• The undercover store security guy was dashing down the aisles looking for Jacob


• Another employee went over and blocked the Garden Center doors.


• Dad was towards the rear of the store, he said even the employee's from the break room came out and were looking.


• Mom got on the PA and called for Jacob, even I got on there and yelled for my brother.


• Mom was looking around the aisle where Jacob was first missing from and finally heard him call her.


• They made the announcement that the child had been found, and everyone tried to go back to what they were doing before the Code Amber was announced.

Right after we got to the tile aisle, Jacob spotted a hiding spot behind some of the tile saw boxes on the bottom of the rack, and that's where he hid. He thought it was funny to hide from Mom, dad, and me. After mom found him, he said that he called to her before, but with all the stuff happening she didn't hear him. Both mom and Dad were very relieved to find Jacob, but they also looked really mad. I think Jacob will be riding in the cart for awhile. I was sad because I thought something bad had happened to my little brother.

Picture Time

Today mom got some of our pictures back. She was glad cause dad's Christmas Party was today, and she could show the pictures of me and Jenna around. The pictures really look good, but we don't have a scanner, so we had to take a picture of the pictures and then try to touch 'em up a bit.

Momma Called the Doctor and the Doctor said........

No Von Willebrand Disease for Jacob.

When we got home Dad noticed a message on the voice mail. he checked it and there was a message from Dr. Yap at the Cleveland Clinic. Mom took the number and call the doctor.
I think mom was happy to hear the news that Jacob's results had come back negative for VWD. Was she trying to give Dad a high 5 maybe ???

I think Jacob was pretty happy to hear the news too, he gave Dad 2 thumbs up.

Me, I'm cool with it, I've been to the doctors office a couple times already, and know that I have to go back a bunch more times, but as long as Mom, Dad, and Jacob are with me it'll all be good.

Yes or No, we shall soon Know

Today was Jacob's turn at the big city doctors office. We arrived about 20 minutes early so both Jacob and I could play with some toys in the waiting room. The nurse gave Jacob a hand kitted Christmas stocking with a Jimmy Neutron coloring book and a Dale Jr mini remote control racers, how cool was that. Once she noticed me, she brought out another stocking with a Elmo coloring book and a Santa teddy bear. The doctors and nurses at the Cleveland Clinic really go above and beyond to make us feel good about visiting the Children's Hospital. Jacob kept saying that he didn't want a shot, and both mom and dad kept telling him it would be a quick pinch and then it would be over. Our regular doctor, Dr. Kate, was at a blood conference in Orlando (I think she is really at Disneyland) We met with Dr Jennings and then Dr Yap. They both examined Jacob and talked to mom and dad some more about Von Willebrand Disease. When It came time for the nurse to draw blood, Jacob got really scared. A total of 3 nurses and mom and dad had to hold Jacob still while the drew the blood. There aren't any pictures of the office visit this time because everyone had their hands full. Jacob was really really scared, and held onto dad pretty tight after it was over. He's not looking forward to coming back here. The doctor said she'd call in a few days with the initial results.


This was Jacob on the way back to the packing garage. We both really like this cool tunnel under the road. The lights change colors.

We had to park on the top level of the garage. The view was pretty cool, we got to see all the work their doing on the Clinic.

Over the Bridge...

Over the Bridge and through the woods to Grandma's (& papa's) house we go.
As we normally do on Sunday's, we loaded into the mini-van and headed over to Grandma & Papa's house for dinner. Dad said you can't beat a free meal. Not sure what he means cause all of Jenna's and my meals are free.

That's me and my cousin Taylor. We're sneaking some of Grandma's chocolate candy from the table, but don't tell anyone.


Jenna wouldn't finish her dinner, so she had to sit at the table for awhile longer.


This is our cousin Bella, she's Taylor's little sister.


Wahoo, since we all finshed our dinners, we got popcicles as dessert.


This is one of my favorite Christmas toys at Grandma's house.


Come On everyone, we need to go home, I have trains to play with.


Once we got home, Jenna wanted to play dress-up and watch her cheerleading movie.

Santa's Workshop

Today we went to Santa's Workshop to help him build some toys. We'd been there before, so we knew what to expect. Jacob wasn't as sure about this Santa, so he hung back and let mommy get his wooden train. Me, well I jumped right up and helped Santa make the train and then sat down for a story.

Dad found some new photo sharing website and is playing around with some different ways of showing all of our pictures. let us know how you like it.

Snow, Wonderful Snow

When we woke up this morning it had snowed again. Mom had picked us up from Gramma's house and when we got home, it had snowed a bunch more on our side of town. They call the part of town where we live the "Snow Belt" since we get 2 to 3 times the amount of snow as Cleveland, which is just about 15 miles (as the crow flies) away. There's a winter weather advisory now until Friday morning at 6 am. Cleveland could get 3-5 inches of snow and for those of us in the snow belt, it could be 10-15 inches of the white stuff. Dad was headed off to the Browns Game in Pittsburgh PA after work. It's a long drive, and it's supposed to snow a lot, so hopefully he'll drive safely. Mom took us outside to play after lunch.