Joey is 2!!

December 26th, 2006 Joseph (Joey) Christian Gregory was born at 10:40pm - I know this is a little late but I am not any good at blogging regularly so please forgive me.

I think this is one of my favorite pictures from when Joey was born. Kurtis looks so much like the proud older brother that he just became. Mom is so happy looking at her newest grandchild.

Most of you know the story of Joey's birth - he was in a hurry - to put it simply!! I was scheduled for a repeat c-section on Jan 3 (due date Jan 8) since my doctor was going to be out of town for the holiday. Christmas was simple and uneventful. Susan came over in the early afternoon on the 26th - still no labor pains. I planned a dinner I actually made (from scratch) so I began it at 6pm. We ate at 7pm. Susan stayed until about 8pm. After she left - I went to the restroom and had some spotting. Called the Ob office - they said, go to the hospital.

I called Aaron & Amanda. Aaron came to get Kurtis. By this time - it was 8:30pm. I had 2-3 contractions in those 30 minutes. Jeff & I got in the car to go to the hospital. Got there around 8:50pm. Contractions were up to about 5-7 mins apart. By the time I got into a room - they were every 2-3 minutes. Dr came in to check me around 9:30 and said - "We are going to go prep a room for you, NOW! He is coming really fast." They initially wanted to wait until around 1am when my stomach would be empty but Joey was not having any of that.

Anyway - they got me into the operating room & Joey was delivered without any problems.

Now here is my wonderful guy now:

Happy Birthday Little Man!

Well - The holiday is over - Time to share!!

Hope everyone had an enjoyable Christmas. Here are just a few images from our holiday - enjoy!!

Our Christmas Tree on Christmas morning - before kids!

Kurtis doing his best to be good as he waits for his turn to open a gift at Jeff's Dad's on Christmas Eve. This year, Lindsey stayed with us before Christmas so she opened her gifts before she left us. Santa was only going to be coming to her mom's house - since that is where she was Christmas morning. We did allow the boys to open gifts from Mom & Bob at the same time - just did not feel it was fair to have sissy open something and the boys not too.

Here is sissy. Can you believe that she is almost 16! She has her learning permit and her grandpa is teaching her to drive.

Here is Jeff's Dad with Lindsey & Kurtis on Christmas Eve. Maybe next year dad will be with us on Christmas morning!

Jeff surprised me with a pair of pearl earrings for Christmas! Now we just have to get my pearl necklace restrung and I can where out my pearls!!!!

Both boys were so good on Christmans morning - Kurtis actually let Joey open his gifts by himself. Joey had lots of fun once he figured out that there were toys in the there!!

Dad & Dominick at Aaron and Amanda's on Saturday.

Kurtis decided it was a good day to become an M&M (Kenny & Jacob's Halloween costume).

I guess it is time to update...

I know, it has been quite some time since I last talked about anything on my blog. Honestly, I really have not been excited about doing it since I lost my job. But that is for another time - hopefully soon I will have some good news to report on that front.

In the meantime, I thought I would share some pictures from Halloween and a special event Kurtis got to enjoy through school. So here we go.

HALLOWEEN

Hilliard decided to have Halloween on Thursday Oct 30th this year. I believe it was for several reasons...statistically, having Halloween on a Friday or Saturday night is more dangerous for the kids but also because the Hilliard Darby & Davidson High School Football teams were in the playoffs and they did not want to make people choose between going to the game and Trick or Treating.

Since I lost my job mid-September, Halloween costumes ended up being quick & easy "Homemade" costumes. Kurtis was "Ben 10". This is a cartoon character that he really likes. As you can see, I just used a permanent marker on a white t-shirt and printed off a logo from the computer to glue on the shirt - voila! Joey's was even easier - he was a football player! No work involved there.

We went up and down the street with a new neighbor. Their son is 5, so he and Kurtis play together as often as possible.

WALK-A-THON PIZZA PARTY

Every year, to raise money for the PTO, the school holds a Walk-a-thon. This helps in two ways, it raises the money for the PTO but also encourages the kids to get exercise. Early in October, the school had the walk-a-thon inside the school (due to the weather). Kurtis walked 19 laps around the inside of the school in the 30-40 minutes that they were walking. The kids also go to enjoy snow cones on that day.

Well, as an incentive to get the kids to raise money, there were several prizes for the top children. Jeff took the pledge sheet to the bowling alley several nights one week and Kurtis joined him on another night. Kurtis ended up raising $625 for the PTO. This made him the child who raised the most money for the school!

As a reward, Kurtis got his name mentioned on the morning announcements and earned a $100 gift card to Toys-R-Us (we are making him wait to use it until after Xmas so he can get things he does not get during the holiday).

Along with the recognition, the PTO took the top boy & girl from each grade (k-5) and a friend to a Pizza Party at Iacona's in Hilliard. To get to the party the kids (and the principal - Mr. Spicer) got to ride in this...

A HUMMER STRETCH LIMO!!!!!

This is Kurtis with his best school friend - Will.

Joey, Jeff and I meet Kurtis at the school and followed them to the restaurant. Here is a picture of Joey at the pizza place:

Everyone had a good time and they were all well behaved. This was Tuesday November 25.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Talk to you again soon.