Our Puppies

We have debated this for months and we have finally come to a decision. This weekend, we will be surrendering our dogs to the Humane Society of Columbus so that they may bring joy (and a bit of craziness) to someone else's life for a while. With us having moved so far away and needing to travel a bit more to catch up with friends and family, it is just not fair for the dogs to have to stay home by themselves for so long. We are very sad that we have to do this but know that in the long run it is going to be the best decision for them and for us. While it breaks my heart to give them up, I am very much looking forward to having a clean house (well, just not dog hair infested), company over (which always stressed me out with our crazy dogs), and a freedom to just pack up and leave when we want to. It will be good. There will be tears and heartache for a while. We have had both Lady and Roscoe for more than 2 years. I will miss Lady's sweetness and loyalty and ability to drag me on a 3 mile run. I will miss Roscoe's sweet face and lazy, snuggly personality. I will miss having them next to me in bed keeping me warm. Whoever adopts these dogs will be blessed with much laughter in their lives. It's hard but it's what has to be done.

In other news, nap bootcamp failed the first time. We had to employ a new strategy. For some reason, napping on Mom and Dad's bed is not as traumatic for Noah. So, this is where he is napping now. It's a win, win situation because Noah is getting a good nap and mommy is getting some time to do what she needs to get done. Don't get me wrong, he's eventually going to be napping in his crib, but for now, he is not napping in his swing or in his mother's arms so I consider that a victory. Night time is hit or miss. Some nights he sleeps for 8-10 hours straight and some nights he's up every 3-4 hours. I will say he is getting better though.

Last night, the Rogers had dinner with some new friends from our new church. We were very excited to get out of the house and have other people to talk to besides each other. Hooray for new friends!!!

Alright, that's all I have for now. Say a prayer for us as we give our dogs up this weekend. It's going to be hard.

6 Months Old

Last week, Noah turned 6 months old. To commemorate the occasion, Mom and Dad decided it was time to institute new sleeping rules. From now on, bedtime is at 7:00 pm and there is to be at least 2 naps a day in the crib. Well, bedtime is going well, naptime not so much. He tends to be a fighter when it comes to naptime but we're working on it. Mom is bound and determined she is going to win this battle. It's exhausting for both of us, but will pay off in the end. As I type this, he is screaming loudly from his crib in protest of naptime but I will not cave.

Yesterday was his 6 month checkup. He is weighing in at a whopping 15lbs. 8 oz. and is 25 inches long. He ranks around the 15th and 20th percentiles for both. Stuart and I both think it's hilarious that we produced a child that is below average on the weight side of things. Oh, God does have a sense of humor.

Noah is mostly sitting up on his own now and prefers to do everything that way. He has even fallen asleep sitting up a couple of times. It's pretty funny. Another fun thing that Noah gets to do now that he's 6 months old is eat food. So far we have tried bananas, avocados, and sweet potatoes. He seems to have enjoyed all of them. He is really coming into his personality and we've found that he likes things best when he thinks he's in control (thus the protesting of naptime). He eats the best when he gets to hold the spoon. Yesterday I finally gave him his own spoon and that seemed to work out pretty well.

In other news, Cameron continues to be enthusiastic about life in general. He is all signed up to play soccer in the spring (his idea, not ours). He said he would also like to give baseball a try.

The Rogers family has also found a church that we feel is the best fit for us right now. It had been recommended to us by several people from our old church in Franklin. We tried it out when we first moved here but decided to shop around a bit before we decided. Stuart and I discussed it over our Christmas vacation and we both agreed that Alum Creek Church of Christ was the place we had felt most comfortable. Hooray for that!!!

This weekend, Stuart has a Boy Scout Leader function to go to so it will just be me and the boys hanging out. We'll for sure be cheering on our Indianapolis Colts on Sunday as they are playing for a chance to go to the Super Bowl. Go Horse!!!

That's it from our end of the world. Have a great week!!!

Happy 2010

Long time no posting huh? I'll make up for it here and hopefully get some pics posted too. Our Christmas holiday was great and our New Year didn't quite get off to a great start but we are happy to report that we are now all back together again in good ol' Columbus, OH.

We left here on the afternoon of the 22nd and spent the night at Aunt Karen and Uncle Mike's house. It was a great time and Noah was spoiled by both of them while showing off his new rolling over skills. Noah even had an encounter with Santa who was happy to pose for a few pics.





On the 23rd, we got one of the best Christmas presents of all when Stuart received a clean bill of health from his orthopedic oncologist. He is one year post surgery and doing great. We were so thankful to receive that good news.

Then it was off to Aunt Stacey and Uncle Mohamed's for the Christmas celebration. Noah was spoiled as usual and we all had a wonderful time. We attended Christmas eve service together and then awoke on Christmas morning to wait for Cameron to arrive so we could open our gifts.






After all the gifts were opened, it was time to play. This year the highlights were Cameron's night vision goggles from Aunt Karen and Uncle Mike and Uncle Mohamed's new Cabela's Big Game Hunt Game for the Wii.






Christmas night it was off to Washington for the Smeltzer family Christmas and all the craziness that brings. With 6 kids ages 7 and under, it's always a chaotic good time. This year was extra special because Aunty Pam was here from New Zealand.






After that day, it was meant to be one more week of R&R and hanging with the family. It was just that until New Year's Eve. Noah decided he'd ring in the new year by contracting a case of RSV. I think that stands for respiratory synctial virus and is pretty common in babies. If an adult gets that virus, it appears as a common cold. However, when a baby gets it, it's way more dangerous. They sent us home from the ER with a nebulizer and lots of instructions. The next day, we were back in the ER as he was showing signs of getting worse. They kept us in the hospital for 2 days and then let us go. Since Noah was in no shape to make the journey back to Columbus, Stuart and Cameron came back while Noah and I stayed in Washington so he could recover a little more. While it was nice to have that extra time with my family, I'd have loved if it was under different circumstances. We are all back in Columbus together now and Noah is recovering nicely. He's still not back to 100% but at least he's smiley and happy. Needless to say, our plans to begin sleep bootcamp have been postponed until he's completely recovered. Because he was held and spoiled so much last week, he is sort of rebelling against his normal routine. Therefore, no one is getting much sleep around here. I'm sure it will improve as he continues to feel better.
Cam is back at school and is thrilled to be there. He had a great Christmas and was spoiled by all of our family. Some of his favorite gifts were his Lego Star Wars DS game and his Lego Indiana Jones game for the Wii. These games came just in time as we are all sort of housebound with all the snow we've had and how cold it's been.
We are sad the holiday season is over but are now looking forward to really settling here in Columbus. We have no plans to travel anytime soon and can now focus on establishing a better sleep routine for Noah as well as finding a church family. I hope you all had a great holiday season. Here's praying for a much healthier, happier, less stressful 2010.

Punked

Yep, we were successfully punked by my own Mother this weekend. That's right, my Mother. So, here is how it went:
All week my Mom had been telling me she was going to skype me on Saturday because all my nieces and nephews would be at her house decorating Christmas cookies. So, Saturday rolls around and I get two txt messages on my phone. The first was from my Aunty Pam asking if I was home so she could skype me, the second was from my Mom asking if I was home to skype. So, I text them both back and tell them that I have turned on the computer. My computer signals that someone is video calling me and I answer. It was my Aunty Pam. I thought it was kind of funny that she was up so early and I could have also sworn that when my computer signaled the call that it said Gill Smeltzer. So, the first words out of my mouth were "Why are you up so early?" Before she could even answer me I realized what was going on. The next words out of my mouth were "Why are you at my Mom's house?" Stuart, who was calmly working on his computer in the living room, dropped everything and ran to the computer. It was like we had all won the lottery. It was incredible!!! Mom and Dad had decided that Aunty Pam needed to be here with her family for Christmas and had decided to fly her over unbeknownst to everyone. They didn't tell a soul. Of course, with big surprises like that, comes a bit of stress when you live more than 5 hours away and need to rearrange Christmas plans. However, I don't mind that stress at all. We now have a plan to maximize our time in Washington so Aunty Pam will have plenty of time to snuggle and spoil Cam and Noah. This might be the best Christmas present I've ever gotten.

In other news, we leave today for our Christmas vacation and head west to Indy. We will be there for several days and then park ourselves in Washington for the remainder of the holidays. We feel so blessed that we have a large family to spend the Holiday season with. We can't wait!!!

Tomorrow is Stuart's one year follow-up with his orthopedic oncologist. So, tomorrow morning he goes in for a CT scan of his chest and an MRI of his shoulder. Then later in the morning we get the results. So, just say a few prayers that everything is clear and we can take a deep breath and fully enjoy our Christmas vacation. It's hard to believe it's been almost a year since the discovery of "the lump." So much has changed in such a short time but we are so thankful to God for the blessings he pours out upon us.

Noah has decided lately that he is okay with this rolling over thing. However, he only does it when I leave the room. Imagine my shock last week when I left the room for about 5 minutes, heard Noah fussing a little bit, walked back in to find him on his belly. He was grinning from ear to ear and looked so proud of himself. I was bummed and have been keeping him under surveillance ever since thinking there was no way I was going to miss that again. Yesterday, he did it again. Where was I? I was in the kitchen of course. He thinks it's like the funniest thing in the world (and truth be told, I think he's pretty darn funny myself). So, at some point when he decides, I will finally get to see him roll over. He's sitting up pretty well on his own these days and LOVES his exersaucer. His sleep habits need a bit of improving, thus I've dubbed January "sleep boot camp" at the Rogers house. I'll keep you posted on how that goes.

Cameron is at his Mom's until Christmas day. We have not told him yet that Aunty Pam is here. I cannot wait to see his face when he walks into Grandma and Grandpa's house on Friday night, only to find that Santa has left him a great big present!!! He is going to be pumped. That kid has an intuition about things. I remember when Stuart and I were struggling to have a baby. We never said a word to Cam about it but for some reason he would pray every night that he would get a baby. So, last week, he was talking to Aunty Pam and very matter of factly asked "well aren't you coming for Christmas?" She asked him how in the world she could do that and he just said "get on a plane." Little did we know.

Here's wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We'll post again after Christmas.

Multi-tasking

Noah likes to multi-task. He is simultaneously taking a bath and getting a workout in. Who needs a recumbent bike when you have a gigantic inflatable duck in your bathtub?

Big Weekend

This weekend was the annual baking weekend at Aunt Stacey's house. We're not sure when this became a tradition but it probably happened at some point in the last 4 years. Last year I was not present due to the fact that the very thought of baking anything made me want to toss my cookies. This year was so much fun. The menu this year was: white chocolate chex mix, oreo truffles, peanut butter balls, toffee, and butterscotch rice krispie treats. As you can tell from the pictures below, Cameron was not so into it this year. I think when you turn 7, it's not cool anymore to bake with your Grandma and Aunt. Noah didn't really care either but he provided some good comic relief posing in Cameron's chef hat.

This weekend was also Stuart's 30th birthday. We celebrated with all of Stuart's favorite snacks and desserts and a few of our closest friends. Noah and Cameron gave him a new Big Bang Theory T-shirt for his birthday and he also got several Dave Ramsey books (which his wife hopes he doesn't make her read) from Aunt Stacey and myself. It was such a good weekend and we were sad to leave. We will be back in Indy for the Christmas holiday though. Hooray!!!

Let the baking begin!!!



The cutest chef I've ever met


When you're 7, watching TV is way more fun than helping bake goodies


Two tables full of goodies made for 15 gift buckets



Noah and Daddy relaxing after a big weekend

Happy Birthday Husband!!!

This weekend marks Stuart's 30th birthday. I've only known him for a little more than 1/6th of this time but I am so thankful for the time we've had. He's a great father and husband and never ceases to amaze me with his positive outlook on life. He inspires me to be a better wife and mother. I love you babe and I hope you have a great birthday.

I also need to wish my best friend Laura a happy birthday as well as my baby sister Alisha. Who knew so many people who would impact my life so much would all be born on the same day? Crazy!!!

This weekend is a crazy crazy weekend. We are leaving tonight for Aunt Stacey's house. Tomorrow morning I am co-hosting a baby shower for my friend Carrie. In the afternoon we are holding the annual Aunt Stacey baking party. Then tomorrow night we are celebrating Stuart's birthday with some of our nearest and dearest. What a day. I think that I will probably collapse from exhaustion on Sunday.

Stay tuned for pictures of the weekend. I'll get them posted next week. Nothing else new around here except Noah is working on his sitting up skill. He still hasn't mastered the rolling over thing but is apparently bored with that and wants to get straight to sitting up. He does pretty well but topples occasionally. Alright that's all I've got for now. We'll get some new pics posted next week.