Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2010

It has been way too long since I have posted anything on our blog. We had quite a summer, then even more so this fall, then the Holidays came and you know how all that time comes and goes. Anyway, thought I wrap up the last several months with some tidbits and pics to keep all up to date.

In spite of Decker's two hospitalizations with pneumonia, we had an awesome spring, summer, fall and now winter. This summer my brother's daughter Alex came home from Steven F. Austin to hang out with her family and to spend the summer helping our family with the boys and all the Party Off The Grid projects. Alex, the boys and I took a quick trip to San Francisco to visit Bruce's sister Abby and her family (husband Travis, 3 yr old son Parker and baby Avery born April 3rd). Our trip was sooooooo fabulous!!! I am hoping we can go again in 2010. The boys keep asking when we are going back - they want to go now. We all agree though, we believe it is time for Abby and her family to come to Dallas!!!

Here are some fun pics of our trip.

Beautiful Alex The boys - Baily, Parker & Decker

Gorgeous Baby Avery was so sweet and quiet our whole visit (so unlike busy loud boys) - there were times I forgot she was with us.


Bruce had converted our Power & Light Building into an incredible event space called Party Off The Grid. There have been weddings, birthday parties, art events, photo and film shoots, hair and modeling events, Steak Nite and all sorts of other exciting events at Party Off the Grid. There has been such a high demand for large event spaces that Bruce took it to another level and has added our current home as event space called "LoftySpaces"- of course people love it so now we need to move out into another place. With Bruce being busy with Strategy 7 Corp, Steak Nite, Party Off The Grid, and all the other projects he has yet had the full opportunity to build our new home in the Park Cities. We were originally going to rent a house in Park Cities till we could build our home there, but we have decided to move in a house Bruce is remodeling (one of his many creative projects) till another creative project comes about. The boys call that house "The House with the Red Door". We will be moving there soon.

I just went through a library full of photos and videos of the boys trying to decide which I should post for all to enjoy. Each picture had a funny story and each video was hilarious - but hey, I don't think I can post them all. I'll just post a few sweet ones for now.

Most of our days are filled with playing outside when the weather is great. We enjoy our courtyard for all sorts of fun - riding bikes & tractors, playing on slides & fort, digging in sand, dirt & mud, playing with rocks & bugs, picking flowers, leaves & sticks, blowing bubbles & chasing them, throwing balls for Roxann, giving her a bath with the hose, brushing her hair & giving her treats, watering the plants & spraying mommy, playing basketball, baseball & kickety kick ball, and so much more. Oh, and we do a lot of that in the house too.

We also go to parks, the zoo, world aquarium, arboretum, science place, and ride the trains. We all keep busy having lots of fun.




Some of the things we do


Before Decker got pneumonia the boys and I would play outside in the courtyard - doing fun things like playing in the water, making mud ball snowmen and puppy dogs, ride tractors and bikes, play with toys and explore for bugs, flowers, and yeckie things.  Sometimes we venture out to the park for awhile to play and meet other people.  I'll post some video clips below.
Here are some fun pictures.
This week we have been more focused on Decker's recovery from pneumonia and staying away from too many public places.  Monday we did go to Target and the grocery store - besides that we pretty much have stayed home.  Of course, Wednesday night we had Steak Nite - the boys and I went after 9 PM and helped Daddy clean up - until the mosquitoes began eating the boys.  Today we went to the doctors for Decker's follow-up - everything was great - then to the hardware store for more sand (the cats were in the boys' sandbox - GROSS - that is all I will say about that), after lunch we worked on cleaning the sandbox.  The boys were very helpful in scooping out the sand and dumping in the grassy area.  Baily was extremely helpful with the garden hose - never never never leave a garden hose unattended when there is a Galinet boy nearby.  I made the mistake of putting the garden hose down for a second while I retrieved Roxann's ball, which she kept placing in the mud and water, Baily picked up the hose and started spraying me.  Of course, I laughed, screamed and ran -  and of course he just continued to spray me where ever I went.  Little monster.  After that I turned the water off.  
Bruce wanted me to take the boys to the bank today too - so we did that after I dried off.  Very interesting taking two wild boys to a bank.  Two of their favorite things to do there is playing with the coin sorter machine (because we use to sort coins - I don't do that anymore with the boys) and the other is the retractable devise use to block entry ways and create pathways.  You know, the movable poles with a retractable band that you can pull out and attach it to another pole.  The boys love to take out the band, stretch it out as far as they can and let it go flying back.  Lovely.  The only thing nice about this behavior is the quick service we get.  Usually the boys get a fun toy when we go to the bank - they receive points for the monies they deposit and with these points they get a fun toy or something.  I told the boys they had to sit in the chairs and wait like good boys (behave) if they wanted to receive their toy.  If they were naughty we would just go home.  Decker told me no - now was that a no we are not going home or no I am not going to behave.  Well, at that time the bank teller came with some things for me so I turned by back to the boys to talk to the bank teller (all of about 10 seconds) then when I turned around there was Decker standing on the coffee table.  The boys sure can add some spice to the day and I'm sure the bank staff enjoyed all the excitement to their day.  
Aaaaah.  The boys are napping now and I am just being lazy typing up this and that.  Hope you enjoy the pics and videos.  





Decker got Pneumonia

It was an awful experience that I pray no one has to go through.  Decker caught a cold and a bad cough from one of the little boys at their sports class.  I believe this because of the cough sounded just like the awful cough this little boy had.  Anyway, I called the boys doctor's office and asked the nurse if I should bring him in - she said no and proceeded to tell me all I needed to do at home for Decker.  Check - no problem - I felt better that he just had a bad cold with a runny runny nose and an awful cough (though I wish he did not have any). 
Well, by late evening Decker's awful cough increased to not stop coughing which caused him to have breathing difficulties.  It first I thought maybe Decker was trying to get me to love on him so he would cough more for attention and all.  But when I tried laying down with him to get him to calm down, relax and rest everything just seemed worse and we were very concern that this was not good.  
Just after midnight Decker and I were in the emergency room and Bruce and Baily waited in the car so Baily could rest.  The whole ER process was very long and not good.  They took chest x-rays to see if Decker had pneumonia.  He did - but it took several hours to get diagnosed and treated.  At one time the first Doctor told me that it was just a viral respiratory infection and that he was going to send us home with a oral steroid and some other meds.  Moments later a new Doctor came in (shift change), she apologized for the long awful delay and told us that Decker had pneumonia and was going to have us transferred via ambulance to Children's Hospital. Poor Decker had suffered for quite some time, he was extremely tired (never slept), and very scared.  He cried for Baily and Daddy and wanting to go home.   
Decker was immediately given oral steroid, IV antibiotics, and breathing treatments.  Of course this was not a happy experience for Decker.  
While at Children's Hospital, Decker was on continual oxygen, had IV antibiotics, oral steroids, and continual breathing treatments.  Decker was responding very well to the breathing treatments and was being treated as asthmatic in addition to having pneumonia.  Of course, Decker did not enjoy any of these treatments, being at the hospital and not being able to see Baily and Daddy.  
Decker recovered very well, we were in the hospital for a few days.  Thank you for all your prayers.  It was an awful experience for us.  We appreciate your faithful prayers.  

Easter 2009

The boys had so much fun last year looking for Easter Eggs at GrandMa and PeePaw's house that we thought it would be great to do it again.  Of course, it would not be an Easter Egg Hunt without Auntie Debi hiding all the eggs.  Decker must have had Auntie Debi hide eggs ten plus times - he really enjoyed finding the eggs over and over again and again.  Baily enjoyed looking too, but he was more interested in the little tiny play turtles and dinosaurs that were hidden in some of the eggs.  
I'll have some pics later - here is a video

Sport Class

The boys really enjoy their sports classes and their coaches.  Here are a couple video clips of some of the fun and what they learn.

Fun Videos of Silly Boys

One day, on my mom's birthday, PeePaw was playing with the boys on one of the swings in front of PeePaw's house.  I caught some of the fun on video and know you would enjoy seeing it.  Click here to view.
One beautiful spring morning out in the courtyard while the boys were riding their tractors,  Bruce began to water the plants with the garden hose that has a hole in the middle of it.  Water seems to be a boy magnet.  They like to jump in the yeckiest of puddles, pour water from container to container, splash and splash as much of this wet stuff every where - if there is water near some how they always discover it and all the messy fun possibilities. Now back to the water spraying out of the garden hose - the water here is very cold, so it was quite funny when the boys discovered this.  I was laughing so hard watching them both play for what seemed like hours of fun.  I have lots of video of them playing - here are a couple of clips.  Clip One and Clip Two

3rd Birthday Party for Baily and Decker

The boys really like trains so we did a train themed birthday party at PartyOffTheGrid.  Having the party at PartyOffTheGrid was great for everyone to see what all had been done to the place and introduce people who were not familiar with the neighborhood to what all Bruce has being doing here.  Also, I did not want to clean house - yecky.  
The party was great and we really enjoyed everyone coming to celebrate the boys' third birthday.  The boys enjoyed the train and still talk about their birthday party.  Thank you for making this a special time for them.  
I'll have some more pictures posted later - here are a couple of videos click here for some trampoline fun and click here for a video of Big Blue Choo Choo.   

It's A Party!

Come Celebrate
Baily & Decker R Going 2 B 3

Saturday, April 4th
12:00 Noon
Dallas, TX 75215
Please RSVP

There will be lots of food from the one and only "Chef DC"
burgers, hotdogs, lots of yummy sides and of course Birthday Cake

The Big Blue Choo Choo will be there too!

We are so excited and look forward to you all coming to celebrate.

Hanging Out At Home

We had a lazy, relaxing, just hanging out at home kind of day.

Thought you would enjoy seeing some of the silliness and fun.






Baily's ER Visit

Wednesday night (Jan. 21st) Baily tripped over a box causing him to fall into a wooden chair, hitting his face and chin which gave him a nasty gash on his chin.  We had just finished eating dinner (PeiWei) and were about to clean up when this all happened - shortly before 9PM.  Bruce and I quickly grabbed a few things for what I thought would be a quick trip to ER.  I wish we took our time and grabbed more things because we were there for over four hours.  The whole experience was awful but the boys were really good the whole visit (especially for being late and not having any thing to play with) and Baily was a great patient - until the doctor worked on putting in the stitches.  I took a quick picture of Baily's chin while were waiting for the doctor to arrive.  Here is the before stitches picture.

 For all you who have not gone through this experience and would like to know what to prepare for when your young child has to have stitches (which I hope never happens to anyone) here is a brief account of what happened.  
After the whole waiting process in ER (always be prepared to be at the ER with lots of toys, food, drink, diapers, and more entertainment books, coloring materials, etc. to last for a few days - cause that's how long it seemed we waited).  Oh yes, now after the waiting process when the doctor and team arrive do not expect your child to quietly sit or lay still while they just look at the wound.  Baily said no and refused for some time to let them look at his gash.  Then after that the doctor graciously had a numbing agent put on Baily's chin which was done by putting the numbing solution on a cotton ball then taping it to Baily's chin.  Of course it sounds much easier than just putting on a band aid.  I had to pin Baily down (which was very difficult) while another put on the solution and all.  There was a lot of screaming and fighting from such a little one.  The doctor told me to talk to Baily and prepare him for what all the doctor and nurses were going to do next.  I found this to me more for my benefit than Baily's.  How was he to understand and agree to what was coming up next. HA

So now it seemed like a half hour had past when the doctor arrive with her assistant.  The doctor was a sweet young beautiful lady and her assist was an army practitioner who was quite muscular.  I think they brought him in to hold Baily down.  The army practitioner placed Baily on a board and strapped him down like in a cocoon.  I never realized how strong Baily was until he was strapped down like this.  He was screaming for his life and fighting to get out - at times I thought he would.  I did my best to reassure him, talking to him, holding his hands and all.  Just typing this is making me sick to my stomach - I really don't like talking about it - but I think it is important for you to know what all happened.  Baily was strapped in this cocoon for quite a long time as the doctor cleaned and cleaned the wound, injected some other solution in his chin and then the stitching came.  Baily screamed with pain and fear - those screams were awful - and when he could he would scream out in a long painful, fearful cry "Heeeeeelllllllllllllp Meeeeeeeeeeeee Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Neeeeeeeeeeeeeey".  IT WAS HORRIBLE   HORRIBLE   HORRIBLE.

Baily got two stitches and two band aid strips to close up the gash/wound.  It was after midnight when we left the hospital.  Bruce had taken Decker out and about in the hospital while Baily got stitched.  All four of us slept in snuggled in our bed when we got home.  

Not looking forward to this again.  

Soccer Practice

Alex was here during the holidays and helped out a lot with the boys.
She even took some video of the boys at soccer practice.

Click Here for Video One.

Click Here for Video Two.

Playing in the Leaves


I though you might enjoy these pics and video.  Maybe because I have such fun memories of playing in the leaves.  Click Here for Video.

Christmas Pics

Finally I'm posting a few pictures from Christmas.  We all had a wonderful Christmas Holiday.  GrandMa Galinet (who the boys call Grammy) and GrandPa Galinet (who the boys call PaPaw) stayed with us for a couple of weeks - that was GREAT.  We went to see the Trains at NorthPark it seemed just about every other day.  Bruce had his company Christmas Party at ourPowerStation - which Bruce had converted into a great event place.  We went to JT and Bruce Osgood's Christmas Eve and to GrandMa and PeePaw Osgood's Christmas Day.  The holidays went by fast.  The boys were a bit sad when the Christmas Tree was put away (but they had a blast pulling off the decorations) and they still miss the Gingerbread House (which I had to throw away while they were sleeping - not much left to it, one of the cats was sneaking candies off of it).  
I do hope everyone had a Very Merry Christmas.  Here are a few pics from Christmas Morning and a video Click Here to See Video Clip.

Uncle Jim Playing the Guitar

One evening, while Chris and Jim were visiting us, the boys were performing their dancing and instrument playing for everyone.  Baily, who loves the guitar, was having a great time playing his toy electric guitar for everyone, so we convinced Jim to play one of Bruce's guitars for Baily.  Baily was thrilled that Jim was going to play the guitar for him - it was during this time that Baily realized that his guitar was just a toy and Jim had something cool.  Here is a little video of Jim playing the guitar.  

Dancing with Grammy and Her Friends

One evening while visiting GrandMa and GrandPa Galinet in Florida,
GrandMa took the boys and I to see some of her friends at line dancing
class.

It was real sweet when we arrived. The instructor stop the class so
everyone could say hi to the boys, after that they all went back to
their dancing. Baily and Decker of course did not want to sit and
watch, they wanted to participate. I quickly grabbed the camera to
take a pic - here is a little video.

The First Gingerbread House

We have a dear friend and family who has a tradition every Christmas holiday (I believe it is on Christmas Day) where they gather at their parents' home and everyone spends the day creating their own and best GingerBread House. I remember when they first told me of their tradition and thought I would love for our family to do the same. That was several years ago and since then things have changed for this family. The greatest was the passing of their dear precious mother who courageously battled ovarian cancer. I have awesome memories of her and her family and look forward to sharing her family tradition with mine. As the boys grow older I will share with them of this special family who inspired our new family tradition.
The other day I asked the boys if they wanted to make a gingerbread house and gingerbread men and cookies - they sang with glee "I do." So off to the store we went to get all the goodies. Once all was purchased we hurried home to began our fun adventure. Now it has been a long time since I've prepared anything besides cheese sandwiches and pasta, so the boys were quite intrigued by the gadgets and machinery I was getting out. Their eyes lit up when they saw the huge mixer whipping up the frosting. "Cool" and "Wow" were their words as the watch with joy the big blade whipping around in the massive metal bowl. Boys love equipment. I had to keep adding water to the frosting so it would not dry out just so the boys could continue watching the mixer.
When it came time to put the gingerbread house together I believe we were all too excited to follow the complete instructions by allowing the frosting to dry when the house was put together before decorating that we went ahead and began decorating the gingerbread house. It was hilarious. The roof began sliding off as we were putting on the candies - I ended up holding the house together while the boys continued to decorate. Then all of the sudden Decker thought "Wow, some of these bright colorful candies are fun little balls. I believe I should run around the house and start throwing these pretty little balls everywhere." Lovely, here I am covered with frosting, holding the roof on the gingerbread house so Baily could continue decorating it and Decker is running wild around the house, laughing, and throwing candied balls everywhere. I believe I spent more time cleaning up the frosting and candies, which seemed to be in about every part of the house, than I did preparing and making the gingerbread house. It sure was fun and hilarious. And you know, . . . no matter how messy the gingerbread house is it still looks quite pretty, cute and yummy with all the white frosting and all the bright colored candies.
Thank you Hicks Family to the beginning of a lot of fun special memories.
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