Fall @ School

Today while Rylee was at Kindergarten I got a phone call from the office of her school. I was so nervous!! I thought, "What did she do? Not my "lil' angel" Rylee?!". They informed me that she got hurt and wanted to call me. Poor Rylee was playing and running around during recess when she was accidentally tripped by another classmate and went down hard. Her head took the full blow of the fall because her hands were in her jacket pockets. By the time I got to the school the right side of her forehead was the size of a golf ball sticking off her head. Unfortunately these pictures don't show just how ginormous this bump was. While in the nurses station she refused to ice it...just like her dad. "Too cold", she said. Like father, like daughter...wusses. I cuddled her and asked her if she wanted to stay or go home and she decided for home. We tried to get her to ice it but could only get her to hold it on for 1 minute, twice. Then Jon had the brilliant idea of going for a night bike ride. You may ask yourself "why is this a brilliant idea?" The answer is because it was FREEZING outside. We were out in the cold for a little over an hour riding and playing and by the time we got back to the house the bump had decreased in size by half. And by the next morning it was just about flat. Jon you are a genius!!

Tree Decorating

I wanted all the decorating done early this year so we could enjoy it as long as possible. This is my favorite holiday. I love all the beautiful and creative nativity scenes, the friendly cheer, and the CHRISTMAS CARDS!!! Our family loves opening christmas cards. Its like a present in the snail-mail every day of the month. Also I grew up with a real wood burning fireplace and in our old house we had the flick of a switch "insta-romance fire", which was a little disappointing to me. But now that we have moved, I can enjoy the smell of the wood's smoke on a cold day and watch the fire burn out slowly. Jon started a fire and put in christmas music while we decorated our $10 tree from Wise Buys. Thanks again for a great tree for cheap!!

Town Center Christmas Tree Lighting

Today we ventured over to the EDH Town Center to enjoy in the festivities, see Santa and watch the huge christmas tree light up. The disney radio was there entertaining the crowd with dancing and games, plus there was face painting and of course ice cream. One would think we would have gotten a hot chocolate to warm our freezing fingers, but no, we chose ICE CREAM to add to our cold hands!!! Santa arrived on the EDH fire engine escorted by the BC and ambulance in all blazing lights. It was fun to see friends and kick off this this wonderful Christmas holiday with a great big smile of face paint!

Happy Thanksgiving

This is such a wonderful holiday being able to spend time with family and reflect on the things we are grateful for. While the kids were at the Hunsakers (I was in the ER with Taylee's broken arm) they had the kids make a list of things they were thankful for:

Brody is grateful for...
- your home
- family
- animals
- food
- church
- turkeys
- eggs
- grandma & grandpa
- sister
- mom & dad
- baby
- myself
- Jesus
- birthday party
- friends
- scriptures
- dead fire fighters (*Actually the Hunsakers didn't know what he meant by the "dead fire fighters" so they didn't write it. Brody came home and was very sad about the list because they wouldn't write it. He then explained to me why he wanted to say "dead fire fighters" and I later added it to his list. Brody is so proud of Jon for climbing the Renaissance Tower to honor the fallen fire fighters from 9/11, and is very grateful for what the 343 did to try to save those in the twin towers back on 9/11/01.)

Rylee is grateful for...
- turkey
- family
- house
- toys
- Jesus
- Heavenly Father
- new baby
- big backyard
- pool
- Santa Claus
- birthdays
- cousins
- friends
- dress-up
- food
I am most thankful for our loving Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ for the Plan of Happiness. With such a plan we can be together forever focusing on what's most important. Some days are hard and long, but once I'm through them it seems like it happened a long time ago, and that it was actually a short trial in my life. It's weird how perspective of such events changes over time. I know that without the hard times in life, I wouldn't be able to recognize or appreciate the great times in my life. I love my little family with all my heart and look forward to more times to come together.Top Row: Lily Montes, Max Skubal, Jake Skubal
Middle Row: Brody Rudnicki, Taylee Rudnicki, Rylee Rudnicki
Bottom Row: Leah Bradley, Emily Bradley, Rebekah Bradley

Tide Pools @ Fitzgerald Marine Reserve

Today in the Bay Area we decided to find something fun that the kids have never done. Johnny suggested the tide pools on the coast just past Half Moon Bay. What a great idea it was! It was the Skubals, the Rudnickis and Uncle Tom. It was so cold, but we had such a great time exploring all the different creatures like crabs, star fish, sun star fish, many anemones and even tons of sea lions. The kids also found a sandy/dirt hill they would climb up and slide down on their bums. What a wonderful beautiful amazing world we live in!

Oma's House for the Holiday

Every time we are Oma's house Brody sadly says there are no "boy dress-ups". The majority of the grandkids are girls so there is mostly girl toys and girl dress-ups at her house. Tom was home from school so he helped Brody out by putting together a boy dress-up which takes me back to Tom as a kid. He was all boy with shooting, crazy outfits and sock bombs! Cracks me up!Here is Taylee giving the camera a "HI-YA"!This is Rylee's favorite dress-up at Oma's house. It is actually an old dance costume of one of my sisters. So much of our old stuff comes in handy with these little ones.

Good Job Brody!

I agree! You are a great listener!! This is from your gymnastics teacher!

Broken Arm #3

It was a slow Sunday evening after church around 4pm and Jon was at work. Taylee had learned how to climb up and down the bunk bed now and was proficient at it. Today I was in the bunk room with her hanging up the kids clothes in the closet with my back turned to her and just as I turned around, I caught a glimpse of the last part of the fall, the thud. I immediately picked her up and she started crying but soon calmed down. From the way she fell, it looked like it could have been a shoulder or a clavicle problem so I checked them out first. No problems there. Every now and again she would hold her forearm and say, "ouch". I put her down and she seem fine until she would try to climb on something and use her right hand. So I inspected her wrist bending it every which way and she cried. So I called Jon at work and told him of the situation and he decided to come home. I dropped the kids off at the Hunsakers and left for the ER. The kids were excited to see Jon pick them up because it had been 3 days since they last saw him and were not expecting him until tomorrow morning. While in the ER waiting, I reminisced with old co-workers until it was time for xray. Taylee did so good. Not one peep out of her since the fall. Since it didn't seem to phase her much, I thought it might not be broken. Luckily she was good in xray because I couldn't hold her as I am pregnant and a stranger had to do my job. Sure enough it was broken. A buckle fracture through the radius and the ulna. Luckily there was no need to push or pull on it, unlike Brody's broken arm. They splinted her up for the Ortho follow-up the next day and we headed home.

Aren't we lucky?! Every time one of our children get close to the age of 2 they break an arm. Just last week I was thinking about how we are getting closer and closer to age 2 and how our luck just runs out for a short time and someone breaks something. Look at that pretty pink cast!!! The next day on Monday we headed to ortho for the follow-up. Rylee and Brody picked the color...well, actually Brody said that he wanted her to have "a brown cast so it would look like poo". Funny enough they had a brown color to choose from, but I refused. Boys will be boys. I took the three out to lunch after her cast was placed. Lucky for me, kids are so resilient.

Brotherly Love

What more can I say that this picture doesn't. He always wants to hug and kiss Taylee, but she usually refuses because he ends up strangling her most of the time. She still is a little hesitant, but really does love her BIG BROTHER and wants to play cars with him all the time!

Brody Says...

This past week Brody and Taylee were playing outside and I asked Brody if Taylee pooped and in response he said, "Her butt smells like hamburgers". I laughed and had to call Jon at work and tell him!!!

Dive Trip!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JON!! WE LOVE AND MISS YOU!!!! Jon again went on the dive trip to the Channel Islands over his birthday and had a great time. Jon even rented a spear gun! BUT the main thing I'd like to remember was when Jon left for the dive trip he asked the kids what they wanted him to bring back and this was Brody's request, "Catch me a dolphin!". We laughed so hard and Brody stared at us like we were crazy because he was dead serious!!! Thank goodness for this one picture that was taken!