Christmas with Jesus

I see countless Christmas tress around the world below,

with tiny lights, like heaven's stars, reflecting, in the snow.

The sightis so spectacular, please wipe away that tear,

for I am spending Christmas with Jesus Christ this

year. I hear the many Christmas songs that people

hold so dear, but the sound of music can't compare with the

Christmas choir up here. I have no words to tell you the

joy their vocies bring, for it is beyond description, to hear

the angels sing. I know I am spending Christmas with

Jesus Christ this year. So please let your heart be

joyful, and let your spirt sing, for I am spending

Christmas in heaven, and I'm walking with the King.

In Memory of

Bea Allen

My Grandmother

Crazy Times!!!

Crazy Times!!! I am so ready for life to slow down. Will that ever happen???? I have my doubts.

My Grandmother passed away on Thursday evening. She is celebrating Christmas with Jesus!!! I am ever so thankful that I got be with her for her last few moments. And very greatful that she got to see Quilon. That is what she wanted. I will miss her greatly.

I am in Michigan now. Got here on Monday...Wedding Time!!!! We hit the ground running and wont be stoping till who knows when. Reherseal was the evening we got in. Have done last minute wedding stuff yesterday and today. And more than likely tomorrow too.

Its Christmas Eve and we went to church....my dad's church had a nice service. My Aunt Carol came into town tonight and after the church service we all went home and just hung out.

Life is just been so crazy busy. And after my sisters wedding I am going back down to Alabama to help clean out my Grandmothers apartment. Then when I get back to Minnesota I have a wedding to attend. Then we will have Seth's family Christmas.

CRAZYNESS!!!!

G-MA Update

We laid our heads on our pillows at 1:30AM at 2:30am we got a call from the hospital saying that things were not good. My Grandmother's vitals had bottomed out and they put her on a ventilator. My Dad, Aunt Carol (who also came Wednesday from FL), and Sister went straight to the hospital. After arriving my Dad and Aunt knew that Grandmother did not want to be on a ventilator so they decided to put her back on the C-Pap like machine.

My mom and I stayed back with Quilon so that he could sleep. Or that was our intentions. We left about a half hour later to go up to the hospital. We felt we needed to be there for our family and in case she went HOME.

My dad and aunt decided to take the C-Pap like machine off and just put her on plain oxygen mask. They want to make her as comfortable as possible.

The Doc doesnt think that there is anything else that can be done. He moved us out of the ICU onto the main floor.

We are trying to keep her as comfortable as possible......

Oh and Quilon is a champ! He has been sooo great. Slept most of the flights yesterday. Sleeping at the hospital and bring many smiles to the families waiting in the ICU waiting room. I am so proud of that lil man!

Flights Out

My dad flew down to Alabama first thing in the morning on Tuesday to be with his mama. After many talks back and forth my Ma, Sister, and I all decided we need to go too. We wanted to be sure that we got to see her whether its her time to go HOME or if she got better.

It was such a hard descion to make but we weren't going to regret it either way!

So on Wednesday morning at about 10:30am I booked a flight out of LaCrosse that was to take off at 12:45pm. I scrambled my stuff together as fast as I could. Quilons too!

I decided that Quilon really needed to go with me. My Grandmother had never seen him and was so looking forward to the my sisters wedding to she her newest great grand baby. I wanted her to be able to see him. So it was a must for me!!!

We got to the airport at 12:00pm by the help of my great sister-in-law Noelle. Once I got us all checked in I find out my flight to Minneapolis was going to be delayed about a half hour. Which then made my time between my connecting flight to Memphis go from an hour to a half an hour.

Well as soon as I landed at the Minneapolis airport I had to book it to my connecting flight. And let me just tell you that was a work out and more than likely a sight to see! I had Quilon in the Baby Bjorn, a diaper bag, and camera bag haulin my fanny to the other side of the airport as fast as I could. Which isn't fast....I'm not speedy! I am sure people were scared that I was either going to trip and fall hurting my lil man or that I might just have a heart attack. And boy did I feel like my heart was going to come thru my chest.

Needless to say I got to my connecting flight as soon as it was boarding!

Once in Tenessee I meet up with my Ma and Sister. What a relief that was for me! and Quilon too!! It was so great to see them now if only our flight could take off.

How is it that they(Northwest) can book a flight even over book it but forget to have a crew!!!! A little over an hour later we got our crew and boarded the plane. Well once aboard they(Northwest) would not close the door for about 15 minutes after everybody was on board. Makes you feel safe!!

We all finally made it Huntsville, AL. How great it was to see my daddy. We then drove the hour to Guntersville, AL where my Grandmother lives.

Once we got to town it was about 12:00am and went straight to the hospital to see Grandmother!

Dad, Quilon and I went straight back. I was so nervous to see her but once I got in there that mostly went away. My Grandmother was on a breathing machine that was very similar to a C-Pap machine only larger scale. Her mouth and nose are covered with this mask to help her breath. As soon as she saw Quilon she reached her arms up to touch him and was trying to kiss him thru her mask. It was so sweet and precious. My Grandmother was SOOOO happy to see her newest great grand baby.

That there is why I need to go. To let her have that joy of my sweet baby Quilon!!!

Pray Please!!!!

On Friday my grandmother fell and broke her pelvis. She lives all alone down in Alabama so the docs decided to keep her there knowing that she really wanted to heal to be able to fly in about a week to go to my sisters wedding on Dec. 26th. Well it is a great thing that the docs decided to keep her because her breathing has become really hard and her blood pressure kept peaking then falling rather low. Her chest has been in great pain. Well it turns out that she has a blood clot in her lung. They can't get images of her lungs do to the fact that they could ruin her kidneys. And well those are pretty vital as well as her lungs. They are trying blood thinners hoping that will work but there are no guaranties right now. My Dad flew do to be with her today and he is telling us to hold off coming for the time being. We know that she is more than likely not going to make it to the wedding but we would like her to just live.

Pray that she will recover from this. Pray that we will get more time with her. Pray for my sister who is taking this the hardest.

Landlords Rock!!!

Seth had his surgery today. I guess he had a cyst that had to be removed in a pretty crappy area. Oh I just can't stop crackin' jokes about it. What a great wife I am. He loves me though! Anywho everything went really well. We got there about 7:45am and he didn't go in till like 10:15. Long wait before hand but we had great nurse's that helped the time pass. The procedure took about an hour. And after the recovery period and making sure he felt alright after the meds, we were leaving by 1:00pm. Seth is kind of sore but thanks to great pain meds he is doing pretty well! He also has a sore throat from having the anastasia. He is a tough cookie!

At first I thought I was going to have to sit alone the whole time. Its not that the surgery was major but it is still a surgery and I really wanted somebody to be there. That was my hubby in there! Well thanks to one of my ever so great land lords I wasn't alone. He came and sat with me right as Seth was going in. It was so nice having somebody there to keep me company. Thank you so muck Mark!!!
Once again a great benefit to communal living.

The kids are gone butt.....

Usually I am all about my kids staying somewhere other than home with me. Like when they get to go to Michigan to see my parents or when they are staying at the in-laws because Seth has something great planed for us. Well Seth sure has something great planed....a minor surgery to fix his broken butt. (oh how funny it sounds) It is an out patient procedure butt the fact that he will have to be laid up for a week or two we figured the kids being away for the first couple days would be best. Plus I am working all weekend at the hospital which means overnights for me. And I would like a few hours of sleep each day if possible. I am not super woman to were I can care for my two lil guys and a broken husband. Well after the surgery he will be fixed just REALLY sore. Poor guy!

My Elves

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Changes n' Cuteness

Quilon can roll over!!! He has been trying for some time now but on Monday he finally did it. The first couple of time it took him quit a long time to do it. He would get on his side then just lay there for a little bit (like 3 minutes) then he would roll the rest of the way over. It was a big work out for him and he needed to rest half way through. Now he is rolling with ease, at least from his belly to his back. Q can almost roll from his back onto his belly. I am guessing in the next couple of days now. He is also getting on all fours every now and then to. He will be taking off on me soon. Not only is Quilon on the move he is getting two teeth in. He will soon be able to protect himself from his brother and move away from him!

Ike is my little GQ man. I bought him this little sweater vest the other day at Target, on clearance of course. The next day I was going through Ike's hat and mittens and found all these matching things for winter. I had forgotten all about this matching set, scarf, hat and gloves. And it goes so perfectly with his new sweater vest!!

Cookies

Ike with the help of his great daddy got to make some cookies. Ike had a blast and made the biggest mess ever. After all his hard work that he put into his cookies he didn't even care to eat any! All he cared about was being able to use cookie cutters. He is just to funny and cute!

Didn't I learn from the 1st one!!!

For Thanksgiving we went to Seth's parents house to have dinner as a family. Gerry, Rosetta, Tim, Noelle, Lily, Seth, Ike, Quilon, and I were all there. With all of us around the table there was not really any room for Quilon to sit us (at home he does sit in a high chair so we can eat as a family). Gerry suggested that we just put Quilon in his car seat and set him on the bench next to the table. I said sure that might work, however he kicks lots now so he will more than likely fall off. Mind you the bench that he sat on also had a super thick cushion on it so Quilons car seat was not sitting stable in the first place. What was I thinking??? Did I forget what had happened to Ike when he was about the same age. (Ike was sitting in his bouncy seat on top of the kitchen table and kicked his way off the table.) Sure enough I look over and here Quilon is squirming his little way out of the seat and onto the floor. I freaked!! At least this time I was not frozen when I saw my child falling to the floor. But I was still not able to catch him and the poor little man hit his head/eye on the back of Gerry's chair. I felt so bad for the guy. Did I not learn anything from the first child I did this to. Hopefully if there ever is a third that I will NEVER put them anywhere high up to where they can fall off onto the floor!

Other than the excitement of Quilon falling we had a lovely Thanksgiving Dinner.

You can see his little markings above his right eye.....poor guy!

Decorations

Christmas has come to our house!!! We started to decorate last weekend and I am so excited about it. I know that it may seem a tad bit early for some of you, which it is even for me, however I forgot to decorate for fall so I am just skipping over to what comes next.....CHRISTMAS!!!

I think that I really love decorating for Christmas because it used to be a huge thing for my family. At that time I hated it. And that's because my dad would go crazy with the lights every where. My poor sister and I had to spend what seemed like hours putting out the huge colored bulbs all over our yard with my dads help. On the trees, on the bushes, the little fence, the house and even off the stinking flag pole. I mean come on! No wonder why people would cut our lights....we were over the top (and not in a good way either). After the outside was done up we would start on our tree. I am not really sure if we had a real one or a fake one but we had colored bubbling lights on it. Every year we decorated the tree as a family. It was always loaded with the homemade Christmas ornaments and then the silk ribbon balls. And Mr. and Mrs. Clause sat below our tree. Oh how pretty it was, at least when I didn't know better.

Now that I have my own family, decorating for Christmas is such a joy. And this year it has been really great. Ike is able to help out a lot more than he was last year, and he loves it. Ike thinks that he is making Christmas when he decorates. He even gets his very own tree put up in his room. He is very proud of that tree. He is so sweet and cute.....to bad its not all the time :)

Random babbles

So all this week Seth and I have had the opportunity to spend every evening together. That is very rare for us since Seth usually works till 8:00pm every night. It has been so great to have him there in the evening to help me cook dinner and to help me with the boys. We were even able to have friends over for dinner one night and it not be just me! It was sooo great. Ike has also loved having his daddy around in the evenings to play with him and put him to bed. Ike loves having his daddy read him some books then put him to bed and pat his back. Then mommy gets to come up and sing songs with him (daddy doesn't do well with that part!) We all can't wait for the time we can be home almost every night together as a family. Hopefully soon, or at least when his coworker retires and Seth gets those hours!

Last night I worked the Switchboard of the hospital all by myself......AHHH! I was so nervous but I just prayed that God would help me thru it. And He sure did. It seemed that whenever I was getting sleepy He would send a person my way to chat with me so I would stay awake. I made sure to bring lots of different things to do; a book, magazines, Sudoku. It is rather quiet during the nights at the hospital. Or at least for me anyways, the ER is always loaded with drunks on the weekends. That does bring some entertainment at times.

I have been feeling kind of blah lately. I'm not really sure why. Maybe the weather maybe just because I have been thinking to much or maybe because I miss my best friend. Things have changed so much for us. I think that the biggest change for us is our friends or lack there of. We do have a few really true friends but the rest I can't say that about. It is ever so true that having kids will change EVERYTHING!! Understand I am ever so blessed to have my kids and would not change my situation for anything but things are hard at times. However lately I am feeling ignored and forgotten by those that claimed to be genuine friends. And yes I know that its not always fun to hang out with a family, but I am able (and need) to leave them at times for friendships. Maybe that isn't understood I dont' know. Then again maybe its not because we had kids that changed everything maybe there is something else going on that I am unaware of. Oh how I wish I knew. I am very thankful for the friends I do have, but I am greatly missing that close friend relationship I once had. Maybe I am just missing my sister, my best friend.

The Visitors and the COLD!

For Ike's birthday we had some visitors for the weekend. It was so great to have them all there. There was a total of 8 adults and 2 kids at our home that weekend. CRAZY!! My sister Melissa, her hubby to be Bobby, Jill and Adam all came from Michigan. They may not have enjoyed the cold that also joined us here in Minnesota for there stay but they all enjoyed my little family. However it did get cold fast here so I don't blame them for not liking it. I don't like the cold much either. Jill had the hardest time coping with the cold. Almost the whole time she was here, either out and about or in the house, she was wearing her coat. Little did she know that when she got back home to Michigan that it was going to be cold and snowy there. HA!

Here we all are surviving the cold on Garvin Heights for a picture
Me, Seth, Ike, Bobby, Mel, Quilon, Jill and Bobby

Two coats on and a baby in her lap.......Jill's way of trying to stay warm

Ike turned 3!!!

Can you believe that Ike is 3 years old now!!! WOW time flies by. Last night we had a birthday party. Auntie Mel, Uncle Bobby, Jill (Ike's girlfriend), and Adam (Jill's husband) all came from Michigan to celebrate with us. Lots of other friends came to the party too. It was really nice. Ike was so excited and had a good time. I still have a hard time believing that I am a mother of a 3 year old let alone a mother of two. I don't now what I would do if Ike weren't in our lives. He is such a blessing to us. He is so sweet and cute and makes us laugh so much. Oh the joys of my lil Ikers.

It was a Cars themed party
Ikes favorite movie

Blowing out the candles with a little help from Molly

Bryan, Ike's best bud, helping Ike open his many many gifts

Crazieness and Pictures

So Sorry it has been FOREVER since I have blogged life has just been crazy busy.
For those of you that responded to my last blog of the picture of the boys Quilon was on the top and Ike was on the bottom. Good guess to some of you!
I have been working/training like mad lately for my part time job at the hospital. This is my last week thank goodness. So hopefully things will calm down some. We had doctors visits this week and Quilon is above the 95th percentile for his age. Which is really not a big surprise to us. He is our little beast!
We also had Trick-or-Treating last week. Ike got way to much candy but both the boys had a good time. We always drive to all our different friends houses and show them off, which they all enjoy or so I hope that they do, but no more of that. With the two now it is way to much work. Next year we are just going around the block and calling it quits.
We are getting ready for Ike's 3rd birthday party on Friday. Can you beleive that I have a three year old already?!?!? I can't at times. Life is going by so fast and that is why I am ready for the crazieness to end! Maybe then things will slow down. I doubt it though.

Here are some newer pictures........

My Lil Stinkers

My Bright Blue Eyed Man

Shaving w/daddy

Enjoying the last few beautiful days outside


Ike got a little confussed as to what the sled is really for.


Playing in the leaves together


Flying Baby

Who is Who????

Which baby is Ike and which is Quilon??? Lately I think that the two of them are looking so much alike. They are brothers that is for sure. Can you tell them apart?

They Just Keep Growing

So it has been about a month now that I have been staying home with my boys. I can't believe how fast the time has gone. It was one of the best decision that I think I have ever made was to stay home with my kids. I am loving it so much! I was really hoping that once I started staying home with my little guys that they would seem like they were not growing up so fast. Boy was that a stupid thought. They are not slowing down at all! But my thought was I see them more I won't think they are changing that fast as when I only got to see them a few hours a day. I think maybe they are changing much faster now.

Ike is starting to have chores and having to help me out a lot more while I am doing other things around the house. Every time I unload the dishwasher he is in charge of putting away the silverware. He also does many other things around the house too.....

He helps feed Quilon sometimes when I am making dinner,
that is sometimes really interesting.

Ike also gets to make his own sandwiches!
Peanut butter, Nutela, and Cheese. Yummy!

Ike's new favorite thing to do is play Guitar Hero
with the Twins.

Quilon is growing like crazy these days. He is just shy of four months old by like a week. We think that he weighs close to 18lbs already!! What a beast he is. He is laughing all the time these days. It is so great to hear. He loves it when Ike "plays" with him too. It is so sweet. Quilon is soooo close to rolling over. He will soon I am sure.

Laughing and drooling away!

Quilon ate cereal for the first time last night and he loved it!

I Want My Family

I am really missing my family these days. I hate that we live so far apart from each other. It sucks like no tomorrow. It has been over four years that I have lived close to my family and I thought that I would be able to handle seeing them only on holidays. Well the holidays don't come close enough and the drive with two little kids isn't what I would call fun. Phone calls to my family are really treasured these days but I just can't see them through the phone. I know that someday I will live closer to them. But I just want it NOW! Waiting is so hard.

Orientation

Today was my first paid day at my new job! To bad it was boring orientation. As boring as it was I did survive it and it did only last for three hours. So I guess that isn't to bad. The bad part is that I have to take 15 online courses/test by Wednesday! Do they not know that I am a mom of two crazy boys that take all my time and attention!!! Obviously not. I mean I do get some time in the evenings or whenever Seth is home. I know I will get it done and what not but I was like WHOA!

I officially start on Wednesday. My supervisor is really great for letting me be very picky about when I can work. I am only able to go in whenever Seth will be home with the boys. We were going to send the kids to our old day care moms house, however she is pregnant and has been really sick. So she can't take my kids. But thankfully my boss is really flexible.

I hope that I will like my new very part time job. We will see come Wednesday!

The Great Pumpkin Patch

On Sunday the whole family went to The Great Pumpkin Patch. By the whole family I mean Seth, his parents, his sister and her hubby and little girl, I ke , Quilon, and I. So really the whole family. Ike had such a blast. He got to feed goats, play on tractors , and go out in the pumpkin fields. We also tortured Quilon by trying to do different poses with him. They didn't really work out as you can see by the pictures below, but we all had fun!

Daddy and Ike feeding goats.

Just chillin in the pumpkin patch

Hiding in the pumpkins or at least trying

The Begining of the torture

More torture for poor Quilon

Weekend Away

This weekend Seth and I drove out to Michigan to get our boys from my parents. It was so good to spend time with my family! But every time that we go out there we cram so many things into a short time. This time we went to a real high school football game, had a wedding shower for my sister, went to a movie, had Quilon dedicated, had people over and shopped of course.

Friday night we went to a real High School Football game. We don't have those here in Winona. The band actually preforms every week and are always dressed to preform every week, not just for homecoming. This isn't the best picture but I am sure you get it. The school also had cheerleaders. And they cheered!

This is my sister Melissa and her hubby to be Bobby. They are getting married December 26th and I am so excited for them. Saturday was the wedding shower for them. They got so much stuff it was crazy. But it was such a pretty shower. I was so happy that I was able to be there. I got to see some family and friends that I haven't seen in so long.


Sunday was the baby dedication for Quilon. Ike wanted to make sure that he looked extra cute so he decided to do his hair all by himself. He was given some assistance after he got upset that it wasn't standing. It was so great to see my boys after that long week with out them. I missed them so much. I am glad that we are all home together now.

Fireproof

Saturday night my sister Melissa, her soon to be hubby Bobby, Seth and I all went to see the movie Fireproof. It was so good. I was kind of shocked at how good it was. It was put out by the same people that did the movie Facing the Giants. It is a christian based movie about marriage and the struggles that happen with it. The movie did a great job at portraying the message clearly. It was funny at times and emotionally engaging. If you have seen Facing the Giants, you know that it was somewhat cheesy with a good message. Well, Fireproof is not nearly as cheesy and very entertaining. I strongly recommend the movie! Go see it if you can and support the good things that they are doing!!

Friends!

Last night was a great time with FRIENDS! Abby had some girls over and we cooked dinner and laughed with each other and just had a great time. I feel like fellowshiping like that comes very rarely any more so I enjoyed it greatly. We are all just so busy with life that we forget to take a break with each other and truly find out how one another are doing. I know for me that those times together are really treasured times anymore. I need times like that to just relax and not be worried with all the things going on around me. Girls nights are great!!! Can't wait for the next one.

My Beautiful Boys!

About a month ago these two lovely girls took some pictures of my boys. And the pictures turned out so good. Sarah and Tessa had a fun time taking the boys pictures and did many fun things with them to get such great shots.

There were so many good ones that it was hard to choose which to share with you all. Here are some of my favorites. The rest can be viewed here.

Look at those bright blue eyes!!


This is on of my favorites. Sweet little toes.


Mama and Quilon


Ike not getting his way so he went of pouting.....the story of his life.


Sweet little Q

The Weekend

The Winhawks won yet again on Friday night! We had good fun at the game. It is nice to see that the High School football team is doing so well this season. I mean it is the first time in many many years that they have won so many games. After the game a group of us went to our friends Andy and Abby's house. They are good people who love to entertain. Well at least Abby does. We were out to late for all the work that still needed to be done to take the kids to my parents.

Saturday my friend Andrea and I drove to Shaunberg, IL to meet up with my parents. My mom and dad are taking the boys for the whole week so Seth and I can have some time alone finally. I really enjoyed my trip with Andrea. She has just recently moved to Winona after she got married. It was great getting to know her more. And I hope to have many more times with her. She is a great girl!
Ike got to go to an apple orchard today with his Auntie Mel and Uncle Bobby. He got to pick a pumpkin and go on a hay ride. I am sure he had lots of fun today. Oh how I miss him! Thank goodness for picture phones so I can still see my boys!!!

Following the Crowd

So yes I am following the crowd and starting by very own blog. I am really hoping that I will be able to use this tool to update my family and friends of the daily happenings in the Erdmanczyk Household. And hopefully share pictures more often this way as well. We will see how it goes! I am hoping that I can do this on a regular basis. Now that I am a stay at home mom I now have a little more time and access to a computer.

Thanks to my lovely parents I will be able to spend almost all of next week with just my hubby! Which is really needed. My parents are going to take both the boys on Saturday. We are going to meet just outside of Chicago. I must say I am really excited yet very scared as well. I have never let Quilon go for that many days, he is only 3 months old. But I know that this time alone with Seth will be really good for us. So if anybody wants to ride out to Chicago on Saturday with me that would be really great!!!