Exciting news in the Garrett house

In a move that defies all logic and common sense we in the Garrett house have decided to add to our brood. Yes, it has definitely been an exciting year in the Garrett household. Both Brody and Brady are incredibly thrilled. So thrilled in fact that they spilled the beans at their schools really early. Brady insists that if it's a boy he wants to "send it back". I'm not quite sure he understands there's no chance of that happening! They also want to be in the delivery room-another event that isn't happening. Either way, both of the boys have been practicing good big brother skills and are shaping up to do a great job.




Now in addition to all of the other things that we have to be thankful for, we are praying for a healthy new child in 2010. This new kid is scheduled to arrive on June 5th or so, but we don't really count on those dates in our house.

We had a rocky start to this blessed event and therefore wanted to keep it under wraps as long as possible. We had several "threatened miscarriage" episodes early on. However, we have now had our second trimester (seventeen week & gender-determining) ultrasound and things look great! We have had a picture taken that specified gender, however, we aren't looking. We also have narrowed down names, but that information is top secret, too. I'm sure we'll still be having "heated discussions" regarding names until the folks from the social security office come to our room at the hospital...or until hospital security is called to break it up.

So, now you know the really big stuff that's been happening with us. Thanks for reading and we'll post here as soon as he or she arrives. We would love to have anyone come to visit...after August 1st. We need a few weeks to get ourselves situated.

Preparing our hearts for Christmas~

The best part of our recent snow day was that it gave us the time to find the perfect Christmas tree. Now we just have to be patient until Christmas gets here.

Our recent flood....

Yesterday morning Mommy, Brody and Brady walked out to the hallway and found a not-so-exciting-surprise: a flood in the hallway and spare bedroom.



Fortunately we had a limited amount of damage and with the help of our amazing insurance company we were able to get help quickly.

Daddy even got to come home early from work (proabably because they were sick of Mommy calling so he could tell her where the pertinent equipment was).

We even got to spend the night in a motel! The boys had a very long playdate with a friend and Mommy and Daddy did the best they could to put things back together. Really, we can't do anything until it's all dry...which will probably be Christmas Eve.

Snow Day!!!

We celebrated our first snow day in Washoe County in five years recently. I remember the last one vividly because it was supposed to be my first week back at work after Brody was born. It was a huge relief to have a little bit more time with my sweet baby. Brody taught Brady to make his first snow angel. Kyra helped.

This time, both boys were ready for action in the snow! Daddy got things ready for us by doing a little shoveling, but then we took the sleds out to our hill for some serious downhill action. He even made a jump at the bottom to add a little bit to the fun.

Daddy and Kyra also played some mean chase games. Our beloved malamute gets so excited when we have this much fun. She's just like a puppy!

Daddy shoveled everything off the patio and into one pile so we could have some extra fun.

The boys had to learn a thing or two from Dad about how to properly enjoy a pile of snow...they thought they were so lucky and that we must be the snowiest place ever...we had to explain to them that almost all of their cousins get a lot more snow that we do...they had a hard time imagining all the places we were last summer covered in snow.

Busy November

November always gives us more than enough reasons to be thankful-it starts with Brody's birthday and then we go to Aunt Betsy's, Kyra (our trusty malamute), Daddy and then Aunt Andrea. We are always hoppin'! This year Daddy didn't feel like being photographed, but we did get him an ice cream cake and tried our hand at personalizing it.

Thanksgiving Day was a little rough this year because after seven wonderful weeks of having Daddy at home every day, he had to go back to work. His first day back was Wednesday and he went to bed at 6:45...so we knew he was tired. Then he went back for more on Thanksgiving.

We made due by playing at the neighbor's house for several hours. We came home just in time to get our turkey started. The boys had so much fun playing that they never managed to take a nap. We played with the turkey guts and heart, made some mashed potatoes and set a timer so we would all remember to go and check on our turkey. Mommy even broke down and bought a new turkey baster so she could throw the one she inherited from her parents away.

Dinner was wonderful. We had all of our favorites: turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry relish, tortellini salad and sparkling cider. It was a great meal! It's so hard to be patient and wait for Daddy to get home when the house smells so good.

It's even harder to wait for Daddy when we get tired. Brady was so exhausted from all the fun we had in the morning that he didn't make it to see Daddy...or enjoy and of our feast. But as always we were just thankful to all be together!!