Christmas video

Here's Brayden's reaction to the Elmo Live (Thanks Becky!)

Can't get the brayden jam video to download... try again later!

Handmade cards by Leslie & "D-gals"

Couldn't resist... Here are some Christmas thank you cards that I made for a coworker of Derek's. MY FIRST ORDER!! :)

If you're interested in christmas thank you's -or any type of card for that matter- let me know! Depending on the amount, I can usually get them done in 1-2 days and mailed to you shortly after! :)

Happy Holidays!

Hello All!

Our holidays were a blast! It started off alittle rocky, but ended up fantastic!!

First off, our apartment heating system crashed 2 days before christmas (brrr...).

Then the roof leak in our bedroom at 4:00Am Christmas eve day. No one was in the office of course to take our call... so after a few calls, a roofer would be able to come by the day after christmas...... Although we were in Lancaster, someone apparently watched the bucket and towels. Grrrrrr!

We had a wonderful xmas eve service with my fam and holiday party at Uncle Craigs. Thanks for the yummy pointsettas- (champagne & cranberry juice!)

Christmas day was spent at the Millers. Cole came home from Fort Leonardwood in Missori, Todd & Natalie and grandparents Cobaugh's came too! Mom prepared the BEST ever dinner spread! Here are a few pics:

I swear, this was not planned, but here are the "green gals" on christmas day:

Derek's favorite christmas gift: (live strong running jacket)


One of Brayden's favorites: (elmo bath accessories & bristle blocks)

Great Grandparents Cobaugh & Brayden:



Chuck and Denise came to visit on Friday, bringing lots of gifts for Brayden!! Here is a pic of one of his new favorite toys -ELMO LIVE- (thanks Becky! don't worry, a video is coming shortly!!!):

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE GEARHARTS!

o.k. it's been way too long since my last post!! I've been catering a lot lately with all the holiday parties, so hopefully I'll be able to keep up with posts after the holidays!!

To catch up: The secret pal party is an event every year celebrated by the Miller women on the first Sunday of December. We exchange names and have a $25 limit, but eatting and BINGO are the most fun part of the party!! This year it was hosted by Natalie, my mom and Laura. Great job guys!! Here are a few pics of me with my favorite 2 Miller women:

The following week we had another emergency with Brayden and ended up spending the night at Grand View Hospital... VERY long story short- He woke up one morning and was extremely lethargic. He drank his milk in the morning, but after that, he couldn't keep his eyes open and was a rag doll. After extensive testing -including a lumbar puncture- the doctors really couldn't tell us much other than that he may have had a touch of pnuemonia (although he had no runny nose, cough, fever,etc. AND the blood work didn't show any signs of infection) and low blood glucose.... (no picture of the hospital gown this time, WAY too traumatic for all of us!) Brayden is much better now and just about done with the antibiotic for the possible pnuemo. We'll have to do a follow up chest xray after the holidays to check on the questionable spot in his lungs, but for now we're doin alright.

After we knew we were in the clear, we took Brayden to the mall to see Santa for the first time. As with many young kids, it didn't go as well as expected! hehe, after the long wait in line with Brayden attempting to escape every other minute, we sat him down on Santa's lap only for him to look at us with pleading eyes to take him back! You gotta have that first Santa memory though, so it was worth it! ;-)

Mimi and Pop-pop babysat Brayden last Friday night so that Derek and I could go to his office Christmas party! That was a blast, lots of food, beverages and catching up... And of COURSE Mimi and Pop-pop got the better end of the deal- playing with Brayden! :)

Yesterday was the Miller Christmas get-together at Grandma & Pop-pop's! It was quite a party with the 2 "babies." (Brayden being almost 14mo and Harley who is 18mo) They got the new Hess truck, so they were ready to make a mess!! Pictures to come- mommy didn't have the camera ready, so we gotta wait for others to share!

Here is how I found Brayden this AM watching Elmo while I was cleaning up the kitchen... Hehe, looks like he could use a chair or a lap! Luckily it's clean laundry!

*Special thanks to Aunt Connie for taking the xmas photo of Brayden at the top! For those of you who didn't get cards from me this year, there is a photo coming to you soon!!!

As some of you may know, my best friend Ashley, was diagnosed with Thyroid cancer this past September. She under went somewhat unexpected, extensive surgery last week to remove the thyroid and effected lymph nodes. Through this holiday season, please keep her and her family in your thoughts and prayers as she recovers from this tough surgery and under goes radiation treatment in the new year... LOVE YOU GIRLFRIEND!

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Birthday (again!)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, hope you had a nice one! We have a lot to be thankful this year, especially our wonderful family.

Here are a few pics from Brayden's other birthday party:

Great Grandpa & Brayden

Yummy birthday cake! (A BIG thank you to Ashley Gearhart who made the delicious cake!)

The great-grandkids: Brendan, Chandler, Emily, Charlee & Brayden, Erik & Evan

Brayden LOVES balloons!

Thanks again for the thoughful gifts, we'll busy for YEARS to come!

We got the word today: Brayden is officially allergic to dairy, peanuts, egg yolks & whites. We have to follow up with the pediatrician in this upcoming week to discuss where we go from here, so we'll keep you all posted! For now, it's back to the elimination diet for Brayden! I'm (finally) finished nursing, so I'm back to enjoying peanut butter and yogurt!! YAY!! :)

Lots to talk about...

First of all, I wanted to say CONGRATULATIONS to the Bucklen family! Their son Liam was born yesterday (the 23rd) just 4 days shy of Kelly's due date! :) YAY, Brayden's got another best bud!


I realized that i never posted a picture of Brayden in his Halloween costume, so I had to find a good one. We visited daddy's office in the afternoon, then went to Derek's co-worker's for dinner and trick or treating that evening. (We just helped to hand out candy since it was pretty cold that night, not to mention that Brayden can't even have candy!) BTW, Brayden is a doggie!! NOT a cow with no udders, NOT a bear, etc.







last week (or was it 2 weeks ago now?) we had some warmer weather, so we went outside to play a little. Brayden sat in the first puddle he came to and was soaked from head to toe (and loving it) by the time we finally got him inside!







For the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, we are headed to western PA to be with Derek's family. Although it's before Thanksgiving (and considered sacrelig in my family) I have already decorated for Christmas and have had the christmas radio station blaring in the house! Can you really blame me? This is the first christmas in 3 years that we're not moving, so I was THRILLED to be able to put up a tree and have decorations out!!! :) You'll have to visit to get the full effect, but here's a pic of our first Christmas tree as The Gearharts! Brayden loves crawling under the tree after the cat, and eatting the glitter off the christmas ornaments, but hey, it's worth it!

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY, BRAYDEN!!

Look at all those TEETH!! (5 and counting!)

Oh my! What a great weekend! We had such a great time visiting with family and celebrating Brayden's first birthday!! Time certainly flies!!

We had an ELMO themed birthday party held at Derek's office -if you don't recognize the setting- and it was perfect! We had bunches of yellow and red balloons on the floor for him to play with and he was quite amused until we opened presents!! Here is a clip of him getting his first taste of cake!

To top things off, COLE FLEW HOME for the occassion from Missori!! A fantastic surprise!!

A HUGE thanks to all who came and helped and for all the gifts and cards! More photos to come soon, just have to gather them from family members and figure out how to download them onto the laptop!! :)

Some pics courtesy of Sam, Denise and Mimi (so far):

New tonka truck from aunt Natalie:

Playing in all the balloons with his Elmo birthday cap!

The Fam:

Uncle Dane trying to steal a piece of cake from Brayden!!