An Apple Daddy

We were rolling around on the floor having a family tickle fest this afternoon after church, and at one point we all ganged up on daddy. He is VERY tickleish and was laughing really hard. Ava leans over to look at him and says:

"An apple daddy, 'cause his face is so red!"

Its raining, its pouring, Ava isn't snoring, she went downstairs and bonked her head, and had to go to Dr. Yosts!

Ava was dancing around upstairs, chasing a balloon, getting in my way while I was trying to take down my Christmas decorations. So I told her to go do it downstairs. (Massive guilt here.) She did, and a few minutes later I hear her crying. Now Jason can't tell when its just a tattle cry, a mad cry, a sister took something away cry or a real "I hurt myself" cry. I can, and was just about to tell him that it was a real cry when he headed downstairs. He came thundering back up, holding a bleading Ava in his arms. She had been chasing her balloon downstairs and fell into a metal antique milk jug we have down there. Jason can not handle blood; he panics. I had to tell him to calm down several times. I took Ava from him, and one look at the deep gash told me it would need stitches. A quick call to Dr. Yost and Ava and I were off. Once there, we had to make the decision to take her to the emergency room and have a plastic surgeon fix it ($$$$$$$$$!!!!) or let Dr. Yost do it. It was an agonzing decision. We have insurance, but have an astronomical deductible, so we knew we would have a huge bill. On the other hand, this is my beautiful little girls face we are talking about. In the end, we prayed about it and felt good letting Dr. Yost do it. He did this once before on Michaela, with very good results. And having him do it we could stay in his office. I didn't want to traumitize Ava any more than necessary, and she is comfortable in his office. He also let me hold her arms and legs instead of restraining her( I convinced him I could do it; I did with Michaela) so she was spared that as well. He and his nurse/wife were very impressed with how calm Ava and I were. She was very brave; a very big girl.
It kills me to see her face like this; I hope it heals well. If not, when she is older we will take her to a plastic surgeon then. But I really think we made the right decision. Her emotional health is more important to me. After the sutures, which only took about 20 minutes, she was dancing around the office. I think the outcome would have been very different at the hospital.


If you see my beautiful girl, please refrain from making any comments to her or around her about how "bad" or "awful" it looks. I don't want her associating these words with herself. Feel free to ask how she got it, how many stitches she got (5), how brave she was or what she got for being brave(a chocolate shake). I don't want her having any concerns that she is any less gorgeous than she was before her accident, because she isn't. She will always be my pretty angel.



Here sisters were so sweet to her. They both gave her babies to have. Payden gave her a baby that she drew stitches on in the same place as Ava's, and Michaela gave her a bear she named Stitchy and made it a sweater. It was touching to see them take care of her.

I can't tell you how sick it makes me to think of how different this would be if she had fallen a couple of inches to the right or left. It also makes me so sad to see her face marred. But I know that you will probably hardly see it when it heals, and also that she is so beautiful people will probably look over it. But it still hurts my heart when I look at her. Michaela's scar has become a part of who she is; Ava's will be the same way.

Snow Baby

Corrine had her first sledding experience this week. We went up to my mom's house on New Years day to go sledding, and took her with us this time. Corrine was bundled up, and it wasn't awfully cold. She liked being outside! She didn't fuss at all and was looking at everything. I took her down the hill with me.

Then my mom pulled her around in a little sled. She looked so adorable, and she really enjoyed it.

What cute sisters!

Isn't she just a doll? I was so amazed the she liked it so much. I expected her to get fussy and need to go in. It is so much fun to watch your kids experience new things. And it doesn't hurt when the look this cute doing it!

Happy New Year!

For our New Years celebration, we had a fun family night. We all chipped in to create a fondue dinner. The girls wore their new aprons I made them for Christmas, they love to help me cook. We had three kinds of cheese sauces, and as you can see enough things to dip in them to feed a small army. I made soup out of all the leftovers today!

What makes me sad about this picture is the not so big height difference between Michaela and me. She is growing; all her pants are getting to short. Pretty soon, she will be taller than me!

We let Ava stay up until 10:00pm. The older ones stayed up until midnight with us. Before Ava went to bed, we did some of the poppers I had bought. Those things are loud! The girls had also spent part of the day making decorations and hats, sorry no pics of those.

We had a hard time catching just the right moment to take the pictures to catch the stuff coming out of the popper!

Jason looks like he thinks its gong to get him!

We spent the rest of the night playing wii and being goofy. At midnight, we toasted each other with fake champaign.

We had a good year and are looking forward to 2009. We have had many blessings and good things happen for us; we are truly grateful. The upcoming year promises good things for us, not the least of which will be Jason being done with school. YEAH!!!! A good night with many memorable moments.

A strange name for a man...

In Walmart after viewing a man stocking the shelves:

Michaela: Mom, either that guy is wearing someone else's name tag, or his name is Sara Lee...

Me: ( I didn't really say anything at first; after I finished laughing I explained to her that he worked for Sara Lee.)

Michaela only consented to let me put this on my blog if I didn't say much about it. Enough said!

American Idol in my basement!

Ok, this isn't American Idol, just cute. My dad got Ava a dance cam for Christmas. You hook it up to your tv, and they can see themselves dancing on tv. Ava thoroughly enjoyed it!

Here is the American Idol clips. They just might kill me for putting these on here, but what are sisters for, really, if not for antagonizing their brothers......

My talent may or may not run in the family. I'll let you be the judge.

A tractor ride in the snow

My dad came over with his tractor today to help us with the mounds of snow in our driveway. It is way to much for a shovel (or Jason!) to handle alone. Of course the girls wanted a ride, and Grandpa obliged. Thanks Dad!

Michaela got to drive (steer) by herself and she really liked that.


Payden reacted to the opportunity like she does everything else, with unguarded enthusiasm. It is always a joy to watch her experience life.

Ava thought it a bit cold, but liked the ride anyway. My dad was going to try to drive his tractor home. He had gotten it out of a storage shed close to our house, and driven it there. But his house is all the way across town. I couldn't help but giggle at the thought of my dad chugging along in his old tractor through town. I would never be brave enough to try that. But alas, the tractor was acting up and he didn't think it would make it, so back to the storage shed it went. We appreciated the help and the rides!