A Blessed Christmas

We had a very blessed Christmas this year. My Mom & Dad visited us from Utah, which was the first Christmas they've had the chance to spend with my kids. We were doubly blessed by having a "White Christmas", the first one in Dallas in 80 years! Here are some pictures of our wonderful holiday.

Christmas Wishes

Christmas Preparations

White Christmas

Enjoying Christmas

Bear With Us

We enjoyed seeing Jake earn his Bear Rank in Cub Scouts at the December Pack Meeting. He has worked hard this year and has enjoyed his cub scout leaders. He also earned one gold and five silver arrow points.

Thankfulness

"For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends."

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

We are so richly blessed and enjoyed a fabulous Thanksgiving day and feast. Ryan's preschool teacher had them paint a "Thankerchief" which we passed around the table and shared what we are thankful for.

I am so thankful for my family (handsome hardworking husband, 3 amazing son, parents, siblings, cousins, grandparents), my home, the daily food on my table, and family & knowledge.

Here are some pictures of our Thanksgiving day! The day started out a bit rough with a cranberry boil-over, but ended well with pumpkin pie topped with vanilla coconut milk ice cream- yum!

“Not” Only In Australia

For those of you who know Jenny, and follow her awesome blog, you are familiar with her famous posts entitled "Only In Australia". Well, I just wanted to remind Jenny that when she leaves beautiful Australia and comes back to the states, that she can still feel at home, even in the middle of downtown Dallas. Here's proof:

Our two local zoo's here offer a wide variety of exotic animals...a few of the Aussie variety and a lot of the African variety....and even a few of the Ortler variety.

Now granted, we can't offer the ocean or beautiful sunsets. But what we lack here, we make up for in size….as you know everything is bigger in Texas. If you have any doubts, just take wind for example (see previous post entitled "Texas Twister"). We look forward to your return, and hope you'll soon have blog posts entitled "Only In Texas".

Ready or Not…

Time is passing so quickly. Does anyone else feel that way?

I am realizing how quickly my sons are growing up. When they were tiny and in diapers it felt like it would last forever, and now all of a sudden I find myself sitting on the bleachers at a skate park. Where did it go?

The seasons are passing quickly too. Fall is fleeting…the holidays are right around the corner! It's time to dust off my pumpkin pie recipe. To help prepare us for the season we've been making pumpkin waffles and enjoying pumpkin milkshakes made with coconut milk – YUM! Both recipes are listed here if your mouth is watering. (Just search for Recipes-Holiday). Both recipes listed are dairy & gluten free…however, I think they have links to their original non-allergen free versions!

Happy Fall Y'all!

Four & So Much More!

Ryan is four years old. It's so hard to believe, it seems like just yesterday he joined us.

We enjoy him so much and love having him as part of our family. He is very smart, loving and helpful and gets along well with everyone. He definitely keeps us smiling as well with his bright happy personality. He's growing up too fast, and when I ask him if he will stay small he tells me that he's sorry but he has to get big so that he can be a daddy someday!

We had a costume birthday party on Halloween with several of his friends. Everyone had fun decorating pumpkins, playing musical pumpkins & playing "trick or treat" games.

Ryan was definitely the cutest little 4-year old cowboy around!

On Halloween night, he enjoyed trick-or-treating with his G.I. Joe brothers.

Rain...Rain...Rain...Raingutter Regatta

We've had tons of rain in texas this month, and Jake got to participate in the Raingutter Regatta at Cub Scouts (no affiliation with the tons of rain ;).

We had a lot of fun making his boat after his favorite NFL football team, he affectionately named his boat "The Rammer".













Here's a picture of him racing his boat at the event. The boats are powered by a lot of man-made hot air.



















Here's Ryan kicking back during the award ceremony, apparently he has learned to kick back and enjoy life. A great skill to learn at such a young age.

4 Days To Guilt Free

I consider this past week very successful! It only took me 4 days to erase 4 years of guilt (you might say that now I'm not only gluten-free but guilt-free too!!). My youngest, Ryan, is turning 4 this month and I haven't completed his baby book yet (the truth of it is before last week I hadn't even started it). The older boys often pull out and look at their 1st year baby scrapbooks, and I felt bad that Ryan didn't have one. I also felt like the longer I let it go, the more those memories were fading.

The older boys scrapbooks took me about 3-4 months to complete, working on them in my spare time. Well, I don't frankly have 3-4 months to spare, I hardly have 3-4 minutes of free time each day ;) So I opted to go with a photobook for him from Shutterfly.

In 4 days I completed his entire 1st year photo album, 26 pages!! I am hoping it will arrive in time for his birthday in a few weeks. I think I'm converted to digital photobooks....no more scrapbooking for me.

Make No Mistake....Vote For Jake!

Jake is running for class representative, and then if he wins he wants to run for one of the officers for Student Council. It seems so strange to me that they do this in Elementary School, I seem to remember only having this in High School.

So be sure and register to vote and remember VOTE FOR JAKE!

A Package Arrived

Two boxes arrived at my front door last week and when I opened them I was surprised to find the following...
....two little boys ~ just what I needed!

Okay, okay so I didn't really receive two boys in the mail, we already had those. But I did finally get a new desktop computer! Yay! My old computer was 8 years old, so I was long overdue. It's amazing how fast my new computer is, it makes me realize just how much time I've been wasting waiting for my old computer to do things! So now my efficiency should triple....right??

Tell Me What Happened Again...And Again

Remember those cute ultrasound pictures we all get when our babies are swimming blissfully in the womb? Well here's a current picture of Jake's skull. Now I'm sure you're next question is how did I come into the possesion of such a picture?

Well picture this....it's "Meet the Teacher" night at the Elementary School. I head off to the school, leaving John on boy watching duty. After the brief meeting at the school I call home to see if I can drop by the grocery store on my way home. I hears a distressed John on the line suggesting I come straight home instead.

I arrive home moments later to find Jake on the couch surrounded by his good friend and our neighbor while John is on the computer looking up symptoms to be concerned of in a head injury. It turns out that John, Jake & Dylan had gone out front skateboarding and the boys didn't put on their helmets (which they promised me they would never skateboard with them!). Dylan made a surprise move and Jake and Dylan collided. Jake went to the ground, head first. He must have passed out briefly, and when he got up could hardly walk and was very dizzy with a glazed look in his eyes. He couldn't remember the accident, nor could he remember anything about 2 hours prior to the accident. As he is laying on the couch he asks "Now tell me what happened again." His friend repeats the story, to which Jake seems to understand. Two minutes later, he's forgotten and pleads to hear what has happened to him again.

John and I decided a visit to the Emergency Room is in order and decide to take him to one of those stand-alone Emergency Rooms which have all the capabilities of the hospital ER's but without the excessive wait time. Jake and I headed off to the ER, and John stayed at home to put the other two boys to bed.

Jake seemed very distraught that he couldn't remember anything. It was obvious that his lack of memory made him feel very insecure. Jake and I said a prayer on our way to the ER, this seemed to help Jake calm down quite a bit. It was so strange to hear him ask to hear the story again and again. Especially since as I would tell him the story, it really seemed like he understood. When I would get to the part in the story that I would explain to him that he wasn't wearing a helmet when he got hurt. He would say, "What...I wasn't wearing a helmet...that was stupid!" Then two minutes later this conversation would be gone and he would ask to hear the story again.

After we got to the ER and were waiting to see the Dr., Jake said the funniest thing "I wish I could remember skateboarding tonight. Skateboarding is fun, but when you don't remember it it's not fun."

The doctor did a complete neurological evaluation on him, which he passed other than his short-term memory loss. They recommended a CT scan to check for a fracture or bleeding on the brain. Thankfully the CT scan came back clean and within a few minutes we were on our way back home with the diagnosis of a Moderate Concussion and a CD of his CT scan pictures. We were advised to wake him up several times through the night, but both the doctor and the nurse thought he should go to school the next day and just avoid P.E.......really?? This seemed a bit odd to me, but he woke up well throughout the night and the next morning seemed to be doing well. He wanted to go to school and since he had the same teacher the previous year, we decided she would know him well enough to know if anything wasn't right with him at school. We also called the school nurse to let him know about his injury and to call if we needed to come and get him.

Two hours later the school nurse called with a report that he was falling asleep in class and couldn't remember going to the bathroom with his class moments earlier. I picked him up and he rested comfortably at home the rest of the day & through the weekend.

He's doing great now, and all of his short-term memory has been restored to him :) And with any luck he's learned a lesson about helmets and will heed my nagging advice to "Always wear your helmet!"

Ryan's 1st Day of Preschool

Ryan started preschool for the first time this year. He will be 4 in October, so he has two more years until Kindergarten. He attends Tues/Thurs this year and will attend 3 days a week next year. Here he is on his first day of Preschool.

Given the severity of his food allergies, it's a bit scary sending him off to school. The school has been wonderful and is taking precautions like placing him & another peanut allergy boy in a completely peanut free classroom. They also have an epipen & Benadryl on hand in case of accidental exposure.

He is absolutely loving school and wakes up each morning asking if it is a school day. Melanie is enjoying her small break twice a week ;)

Mystery Solved

The day the boys started school this rash appeared on Ryan's arms (and a milder version on his face, trunk & legs).

Of course, we ran through all the logical possibilities fire ants, chicken pocks, etc., but it just wasn't fitting the bill. So the next day I took him to the local health food store to buy a cream to soothe the poor boy's itchy skin. The gentlemen working there didn't think it was fire ants and suggested poison ivy/oak ~ AHA that's it! He sold me two products to help with the itching and discomfort. Now the only remaining mystery was where did he get into these poisonous plants?

Well the next morning Jake marched out of the bathroom with a large grin on his face and plopped this box down in front of me and proudly announced that he now knew where Ryan got the poision ivy from. After I peeled myself off of the ground from collapsing with laughter I explained to Jake the the soap doesn't give someone a poison ivy rash it is intended to wash the poisonous residue off of the skin. It was truly a classic moment. Needless to say, we have solved the true mystery of where Ryan got into the poisonous plants.....our backyard. We have over 25 trees on our small property and there are always shoots coming up. After careful review we found a few of the poisonous variety ;( Two weeks later Ryan's skin is finally feeling baby smooth again.

One Yummy Breakfast

This face says it all....

The Bell Has Rung...Please Be Seated

As of August 24th, school is back in session! It sure didn't take long for the homework to start and the morning grumblings to begin.....aaaaaahhhhhhh school ;)

Jake is in the 4th grade and we are pleased that his teacher from 3rd grade moved up with his class, so we already know that she is wonderful.

Dylan is in 1st Grade this year, and also got a fabulous teacher, a woman who has been teaching for over 20 years.Here's what Ryan looked like as the boys headed off for the day. I know what you're thinking, he looks awfully happy for a little guy who's about to be abandoned by his big brothers. It's simply that he's no fool, he knows that he now gets the playroom to himself, doesn't have to have his snacks stolen, and can snuggle in with Mom for a book whenever his little heart desires. Oh the joy of being a preschooler!

"King Clown" -- Votes Needed!

We were blessed to receive a clown kit in the mail (thanks Grandma O.)! The boys had fun seeing who was the best clown. I know who I think fits the bill...but we need your votes to crown "King Clown" of the Ortler Home.

Contestant #1: Name - Ryan, Alias "Rookie". Loves to laugh, giggle, color, ride skooters, break whatever the boys are doing, eat, and watch Caillou, Bearenstein Bears & Handy Manny.

Contestant #2: Name - Dylan, Alias "McMillin". Especially good at art, building forts, projects, cooking and finding a way to escape jobs.

Contestant #3: Name - Jake, Alias "Snake". Excellent piano player, loves all things sports, learning to skateboard, plays Bakugan, good at jobs when privileges are attached.

Contestant #4: Name - Melanie, Alias "Queen". Just trying to find time to laugh while still holding it all together ;)

Ryan found another use for the clown nose....I know it's a bit early for this, but Ryan seems to have that uncanny ability to make anything cute any time of the year!

Summer is going, going....

....almost gone!

One last week of summer, and then it's back to getting up early, catching the bus, school, homework, routines, routines, routines, get to bed early. It exhausts me just thinking about it.

We have been making the most of our end of summer. We joined the Flower Mound Community Activity Center for a few weeks in July and visited the water park several times each week. The boys thought this was a blast.
We also enjoyed a BBQ last weekend at my sister's and the boys caught big air on the diving board! Ahhhh...summmer.