Miracle #2

January 9 is a day of miracles for my family! Remember last year on this day? My sister went into cardiac arrest and survived! We are so lucky and blessed that she is still here with us today, healthy as can be! I love you Kate, my sister, my best friend.


There's another amazing story about January 9th- last Sunday my Papaw (my mom's dad) drove himself to the hospital for some stomach pains. The doctors found that his gallbladder was infected and needed to be removed. When they prepped him for surgery they noticed something with his heart. They postponed the surgery so they could run some heart tests. The doctors found that the major artery to his heart was 99.9% blocked and his right coronary artery was 80% blocked and that he'd need a double bypass open heart surgery. Guess what day it was scheduled? January 9th!
They drained the infection from the gallbladder first (because they can't removed it until after they fix his heart) and once that was cleared he went into surgery. While operating they noticed 2 more artery's that were blocked making him have a quadruple bypass! They took a vein from his chest and 3 from his leg to graph (I think) around his heart. Many hours later the surgery was a HUGE success. His heart is PERFECT and he is now in recovery. Kate and I took a cute picture with him, but it's on my mom's camera so I'll have to post it later!
That gallbladder infection literally SAVED his LIFE. We love you Papaw!!!!

NYE Party Like a Rock Star

For New Years this year, we decided to host a party with a Rockband and Beer Tasting theme and it was pretty awesome! We had everyone come dressed like a rock star and had a beer tasting table set up with about 6 different beers to pair along with yummy cheeses. We had about 10 people come and it turned out to be a BLAST (I'm a little bias of course, but I did here good things about the party!) I was able to download a couple pictures from the party!

Our "beer tasting" table set up. Pretty impressive I thought (good job Eric!) My favorite beers of the night were Shiner Bock, and Carolina Strawberry Ale!

I figured out how to do this on photobucket.com. I was pretty excited about it!

We play rockband real seriously, no joking around while on tour! And yes, Eric is wearing eyeliner.

Christmas 2008

We had a wonderful time off this past week in a half, the boys and I. It felt so good to be able to stay home with them during the day. It was easier to get the house clean, run errands, go to to the gym, and it felt good to sleep in past 4:45 AM! I think I got a little spoiled because I have start back into my routine tomorrow. I am a little excited though. I like routine and I do miss my babies at work (I'm a daycare teacher). Eric has also been off a few days so he even got up with the boys a couple days. I thought it was funny the first morning Eric got up because Tyler says to him, "Daddy, why did you get up first today?" I wonder who usually gets up with the kids??? hmmm.. hehehehe.
Anyway, we had a wonderful Christmas here in Charlotte. The boys got up around 715AM and Tyler was soo excited to see what Santa brought him. When he opened his remote control car from Santa the first thing he said was "WOW! I saw this at Costco!" He's a smart cookie. Luckily he didn't ask any questions, because I'm not sure what I would have said except that maybe Santa can't make all the toys, he has to buy some of them (got that tip from a friend ;) ... The boys got lots of great toys: Transformers, games, art supplies, bath toys, etc.. (Thank you everyone!!) Another cool thing we enjoyed Christmas day was talking with my family on the web cam. We literally spent the whole day together. We just left the computer and camera on all day and talked to each other off an on. Eric and my brother also have XBOX, so we played some games LIVE together too which was cool. Even though we weren't together for Christmas, we were still "together." We agreed to go on it everyday, but now our computer is broken, so I'm using Eric's work computer which is pretty spiffy. (I also won't have pictures on the computer unless I download them to his computer).
My family came to Charlotte that Saturday after Christmas, along with my sister and Dustin from Alabama. When they came it's like Santa came to our house again. I think their were more gifts under the tree from them then what we had there Christmas morning! Craziness! My dad made a Carolina Panthers Cornhole game for us which turned out AWESOME!! We can't wait to play it the next time we tailgate! I'll be sure to post a picture of that when I can!
I feel like I'm rambling, so I'm just gonna finish this post with a final note. We had a wonderful Christmas and thank you everyone for the wonderful gifts, cards, yummy treats and warm wishes. We love you all. Merry Christmas!

Tyler standing next to his car from Santa (the one he saw at Costco!)

I got Eric Madden '09 for his Xbox, the same game he had gotten from John the day before (hence the "surprised" look on his face! LOL)

This is the cornhole game my dad made!!!

I was really excited about Katelen's gift this year! She had mentioned a while back that she wanted red high heels. SO for Christmas, I got her some from Victoria's Secret! She had NO idea what I was getting her. I even gave her a hint: Pickle. Yep, pickle. A couple days before Christmas she calls me and says, "Erin, I'm sorry, but I guessed what you got me from Christmas- Pickle= Picoltt (Jodi Picoltt- Author), "you got me another book by her!" heheheh... NOPE!! Pickle= Pickler= Kelly Pickler= Red High Heels!! lol! Once she opened the shoes and I told her "Pickler" she said Of course!!!! Yay we were so excited!