A Laid Back Christmas

We spent Christmas just the 3 of us again this year- it was a nice, quiet, relaxing holiday. None of us ever even made it out of our PJs today!! Our holiday celebration kicked off last night with Brayden's debut in the performing arts- playing the lamb in the Christmas pageant during the early mass at our church. We came home and had lasagna and italian salad (at Brayden's request), watched Christmas movies, and opened a few gifts.

Today began bright- or make that still dark, and early!! It was about 6:30 a.m. when we felt a little person crawl into bed, and heard a little voice say "Momma, I don't think Santa came". He had actually followed directions and come right to our room, rather than looking under the tree!! I assured him that Santa had come. He was very excited to find that he had gotten everything on his list- and more, this year. After presents, Jason continued our family tradition of HIM making french toast and sausage. The rest of the day was spent playing with new toys... and watching both Ghostbusters movies (1 & 2) twice each.

Thanks to Daddy's lapse in judgement on what he allowed Brayden to watch, Brayden is very into Ghostbusters, and toys from the movie were the #1 order on his list. Thank goodness for Santa knowing about eBay since none of the toys have been made in two decades. Granted, I can assure you that the Big Guy spent a premium to locate 20 year old, used toys! But I guess that it is all about seeing the smile on a child's face come Christmas morning- which we definitely got to see lots of today. Brayden didn't take off his Ghostbuster's coveralls all day, he even slept in them. (Pictures of the day can be viewed by following our family photo album link on the right, or the link listed in the post before this one.)

We hope that everyone else had as wonderful of a Christmas as we did. We certainly miss seeing family and friends, but we also enjoy our own little celebration at home.

Early Christmas

Last weekend we went to see Jason's family, in Marion, IL. It was our nephew, Dylan's, first birthday, and a chance to celebrate early Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa. Brayden got lots of presents and has kept very busy playing with them since getting home- while Jason and I have kept busy trying to come up with new storage ideas to accomodate them!! More pictures of the weekend can be seen on our family photo page which can be linked to on the right side of this blog. (Or to link directly to Brayden's three year old album please go to: http://new.photos.yahoo.com/kyatksn/album/576460762322348944)

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season!!

Kids say the darndest things....

There have been so many times that I wished that I had written down something that came out of Brayden's mouth. He just cracks us up sometimes!! So, I have decided that would be one of the things I use this blog for- Kind of a "quote of the day" for what makes us smile around here. Just a couple of examples this week:

On Monday, we went to my OB for a follow up appointment. He of course waited until I was completely disrobed, with a sheet over my lap, just sure that the doctor would be making his appearance any second, to say "I going potty". I hurridly wrapped myself up and started making my way toward my clothing when, without fail, the doctor walked in the room. Brayden then said again, "I hafta go potty momma". My wonderful doctor offerred to take him. They came back a few minutes later, and Brayden said "Thank you doctor". I asked "are you thanking him for taking you potty?". Brayden very frankly replied: "No, I am thanking him for getting me out of your tummy- It was too dark in there!".

Then yesterday we were going to meet some friends for a lunch time play group at McDonald's. I had, of course, used it as a bribe for good behavior since the day before. (Ah, the age where bribery works!! I tend to use that technique a lot, as well as giving him "choices".)Upon turning into the parking lot, Brayden says "Mommy, I am so proud of you". I asked why. His response was "I am proud of you for making good choices today and taking me to McDonald's. That makes me very proud of you when you make good choices. It makes me really happy when you are a good girl".

Gimme a Beat!

Today was our first ultrasound. Since I am early in the pregnancy, there wasn't much to see- kind of looked like a tadpole or a peanut. But we saw what we were after, ONE good, strong heartbeat. (No twins!! There was a good chance of them because of the fertility treatments.) The doctor said that everything looks very healthy and viable. They look for a heart rate of 100 beats a minute, and we were at 117! I will be adding ultrasound pictures, as we get them, as soon as we have a scanner that is compatible with this new computer.

In true "Kylla fashion" nothing can just be easy or normal in my life. In addition to the baby, they also found yet another cyst enveloping what is left of my only ovary. The cyst is about 7 cm in diameter- about the size of a tennis ball (About double the size of the one they removed last December). As of right now I am restricted to no lifting, bending, twisting, etc. I have another ultrasound on Wednesday, December 20th, to follow up. Hopefully it will start to diminish on it's own- if not, I will probably be looking at surgery during the pregnancy.

Other than that one minor shock today, we couldn't be happier or more excited. What a wonderful early Christmas gift!

My entrance to the subculture of blogging.......

Well, after much contemplation about jumping on the bandwagon of people "blogging" these days, I have decided that my time has come! I thought that this would make a great way to keep in touch with family and friends about the day to day happennings in our family's world- especially now that our world is about to embark on such a huge journey of transition. (And now that I have been put on drugs that allow me to look at the computer screen for any duration without running to the bathroom!)

For those of you that aren't aware, the newest Atkisson is scheduled to make his/her appearance into the world this coming July!! We were thrilled to find out 3 weeks ago that after quite a time of trying, and then going through fertilty shots, that we had gotten pregnant! It was wonderful timing, as we were able to give the news to my side of the family at Thanksgiving dinner.

I will try (notice I said try, no promises here) to keep up with this on a regular basis, and will still be posting pictures on our yahoo page as well. Please feel free to drop by as often as you would like!