Morgan's Surgery

Morgan was born with her left eye slightly crossed. After a year of waiting to see if it would fix itself and going to specialist to monitor it, he advised us to have bilateral eye surgery.  He went in and nicked the muscles in each eye.  The prognosis is typically 70 percent because eye sight is very neurological.  Needless to say, we were nervous for her to go under the knife and so we prayed and asked family members to pray and fast also.  The surgery went exactly text book.  The results were even better.  The first day she was groggy and tired as expected. The second day, it was like she was twice the toddler.  Being 9 months pregenant and a BUSY toddler, I could not keep up with her.  Finally, she could see and it was like she had a whole new world. She was falling less, she was into everything, but the best party was looking into her beautiful eyes and knowing that she can see me.

Oh Christmas Tree... Bah Humbug!

Usually, I love putting up Christmas trees and for a few years I would put up ours and Grandma's tree. This year, within an hour of putting up our tree, Morgan grabbed it and pulled it down on herself.  It broke the tree stand and branches, ornaments, tinsel and lights were everywhere.  I went all over town, trying to find a stand that would be comparable.  I couldn't find one and so for a few weeks, the mess was still there.  After this ordeal, I didn't put up Grandma's tree and I don't want to put up a tree for a long time.
I was tempted to buy a new tree, but this tree has so much sentimental value.  We got this tree the first year we were married from my in-laws.  They didn't want it because it was too small.  The second year we were married, Eli was born right around our anniversary and Christmas.  We couldn't go out and celebrate our anniversary and so we stayed home, drank non-alcoholic bubbly and danced to music in the romantic glow of Christmas tree lights, until we heard the faint cry of a newborn.  It was my favorite anniversary because we didn't need anything fancy to celebrate it.  Here we are, ten years after we married and this time, I am pregnant with our fourth baby, a few sick kids and we can't go anywhere to celebrate.  We got take-out, watched a movie on Netflix and danced to music with the glow of Christmas lights, with non alcoholic bubbly.

Merry Christmas From the Koyle Family

I love to take Christmas photos of my kids and sometimes I will use those pictures to put in ornaments.  It is always hard to get them all smiling at the same time, so this one has Eli giving a beautiful face. Love these guys!

Morgan is a Funny Ham

When you are in a sad mood, Morgan is the one to have around.  One time, I was crying because I was pregnant and Morgan kept giving funny faces, jumping on me laughing and giggling at me.  Grandma Koyle asked me to take pictures of some of her funny faces.  Here are a couple of them.  She gives them to Grandpa Koyle too.

Are You Ready for Winter?

I am not, but my kids are!  On the first snowfall, it took an hour to get Eli to school.  The kids love the snow.  Riley wanted to help shovel snow and so she borrowed the neighbors shovel and started to help me shovel snow. Morgan is ready too, she loves the snow and it is pretty funny because she doesn't walk on it.  She doesn't know how and she always grabs my hand.  Too funny.

Riley got Glasses, But Not the Shoes!

Riley got new glasses.  A few months ago, Riley had pink eye and we took her to the optometrist for a check up.  He did an eye test and she couldn't read all the letters.  He told us to come back when she was five and we would fit her for glasses.  It turns out, she did need glasses and so we got her a pair.
While at Shopko, I went shoe shopping for Morgan and she tried on these shoes.  They are cute, but I am not ready for her to be in sexy heels.  I can't believe they would make them for a girl her size.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Riley is dressed as a Pilgrim and while at preschool, her teacher, Mrs. Jean cooked a Thanksgiving dinner for all the students.  They dressed as Pilgrims and Indians and they practiced their manners.

Here, on Thanksgiving, Riley is wearing olive fingers. I tell her that there are two clubs: the olive club and the the I don't like olive club. She and I are in the olive club.

Courtney brought a color table cloth and the kids loved it!

Here, Morgan is enjoying pie with Grandpa. They have a special relationship that started with food. For a while, she was scared of him, not unlike any other toddler and Grandpa relationship. He wanted her to warm up to him and so he bribed her with M&Ms. Grandma taught her to ask him for them by patting Grandpa's leg. He kept giving them to her and a relationship was born. She loves him now, with or without food.