Happy 2007!!

I am more than a little late with that...but it has been a little crazy around here So I thought since both the boys are actually napping at the same time for a few moments, that I might catch up with you all.

A little summary of our holiday:
We headed out of town Friday late afternoon (Dec. 22nd)...and drove up to my parents house (about 2.5 hrs) to spend the night. Then it was another drive (about 2.5 hours again) further north to Quincy, IL on Saturday late afternoon. We spent Saturday night and Christmas Eve at John's Aunt Joyce's house along with his dad and step-mom...celebrating with the extended Alexander Family (I think there was somewhere between 55-60 people there). It was great getting to see them all since we last saw them over the 4th of July weekend in 2005. Drew was really excited about all the kids there were - lol. Then it was the 2.5hr drive back to my parents house Christmas Eve night (got back there around 11:30pm). Christmas Day started off with opening present with my parents, brother and his wife...with the extended Stroud family coming over around 10am. That is always a very calm day since there aren't many of us (just 12). Christmas Day evening we drove to John's Grandma's (on his mom's side)...where we were able to spend time with her, John's mom and step-dad. It was nice then to spend Tuesday until Thursday afternoon at my parents' visiting with them Doug (my brother) & Becky (his wife) not having to drive anywhere!! Both the boys where pretty wore out and cranky by that time. Thursday afternoon brought another 2.5 hr drive after lunch...this one back home. When we got back in town, we stopped so John could order some furniture for his work and then ran to Lowe's to check out flooring and paint colors.

That brings us to how we spent the rest of the holiday...going around seeing all the decisions we will have to be making while fixing up the house. UGH! I have never been good at making up my mind and the project is expanding itself. Now we are not only putting hardwood floors in the living and hall, tile in the kitchen and upstairs 2 bathrooms, and painting the livingroom, kitchen, master bedroom, and 2 upstairs bathrooms.....but we are ALSO planning on replacing the kitchen sink & faucet (the later we have had sitting in our garage for well over a month ), the counter tops in the kitchen (to match whatever tile we put in there) and also the shower door in the master bathroom. This is going to be a HUGE project!! The guy who John is thinking about having do the work (except for the painting which we will do ourselves) is suppose to swing by Saturday morning to check-out what we are talking about doing and give us a rough estimate on what he would charge. Then it will be trying to make up our minds on colors and waiting for the dividend money from John's work. I am SO excited to get started on all this!!!

Oh we did have friends over from 4pm-9pm on New Year's Eve. Drew had lots of fun playing with their daughter, Peyton, who is 4 (the picture above is of a very sad Drew & Peyton - it was time for Peyton to go home)...and Zach got a kick out of Addison (their daughter who is exactly 3 weeks older than him). We ordered pizza - I made little smokies wrapped in bacon and sprinkled with brown sugar as well as a Jello cheesecake - Angela brought some YUMMY spicey cheese dip....and we just hung out chatting and playing with the Wii. It was a nice, relaxing evening. New Year's Day was spent with the 4 of us just hanging out in our PJs and bumming around the house all day.

Updated on the boys:
Drew is still dealing us a fit with his defiance and back-talking...and still having some hit or miss with the pottying.

Zach had his 4 month check-up yesterday. He weighed in at 18 pounds 10 ounces and measured 26 3/4 inches (only 3/4 inch longer, but just an ounce shy of 3 pounds heavier, than Drew at 4 months! lol). The doctor said she doesn't feel an upper GI would tell us anything about what is going on with his acid reflux...and since he is gaining weight and growing just fine (95% in length and off the chart in weight - my little chunk ) she really isn't too worried about it. I said that it seemed that the reflux was getting worse, and she said it usually does between 4 and 6 months....but after that you usually see a great improvement. She did have us switch formula until next Monday when I am suppose to call her and discuss how it is going and what we should do from there. She said that just as many people have allergies to Soy protein as they do to cow's milk protein....SO she put Zach on Nutramigen hypoallerginic formula. MAN does that stuff stink!!! And she said that we might have trouble getting Zach to drink it at first since it doesn't taste very good either (John read that it has a bitter taste). So far Zach has been eatting it just great though!! Only made a terrible face when he started drinking it the first time. We just started it at noon yesterday and he has polished off every bottle we have given him...even two 6 ounce bottles last night! AND he is going a little longer (more like 3-4 hours instead of 1.5-2 hours) between feedings!!! They say it isn't unusual to see improvement within 48 hours...so hopefully this will help with the reflux and fussiness and the not wanting to eat more than 4 ounces at a time. Although John isn't real happy about the fact that it costs double what normal formula cost...but we will both just be VERY happy if it helps Zach. As he said last night it is only money. The doctor said that if this formula seems to help him, we could try one otehr formula that is a little bit cheaper but only lacto-free to see if it is just the lactose or the protein that is cause him the problems. She said that the lacto-free wouldn't be as yucky tasting for him either. I am just hoping something can help him! Poor little guy. He has been resting VERY well today in his crib, but that could be from all the shots he had yesterday. Last time he was very sleepy the day of the shots.

So...that brings you up to speed I believe. John car is still not starting and is sitting in our garage so he is driving the van which means the boys and I are stranded at home. Not that we usually go out that much, but it just the fact of knowing you can't if ya wanted to, know what I mean We are going to have to have it towed to a repair shop it looks like. It tried to start...engine turns over and all (so it isn't the battery), just won't start. This coming Saturday I am going to get my hair chopped. Zach has gotten very good at wrapping his hands in my just-below-the-shoulder length hair...so time to shorten it again for awhile. Going to someone new...so we shall see how it turns out After that I need to come home and get the Christmas tree taken down. Then, next Saturday, I have us scheduled to go to JcPenney's to have the family pictures done which got postponed due to the stomach flu before Christmas. Should be interesting! Then the weekend after that John heads off to sunny San Diego for 4 days for a conference. Maybe we can get the work on the house started by the beginning of February.

Ok, the boys are both starting to stir so I better wrap this up. Besides I think I have rambled enough for now. Until next time....

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Oh forgot to update you on my Christmas present from John. I got spoiled again this year. Not only did I get two gift certficates for hour massages, but he also got me a year of the Blockbuster By Mail thingy where they mail you 3 movies at a time and you just mail them back when you are done with them and they send you more. SO cool!!! I had a trial of Netflix a few years back and have bugging him to get a subscription every since