It's a Draw!

Our good friends Joel & Lauren visited over Christmas and they brought Ehren the cutest elephant that Lauren had sewed for him. We promised a photo because they had left their camera in Colorado. I asked Joshua to get a picture for them and this is what he took.

I think he missed the concept of the photo since I'm sure she wanted more of the elephant. However, he did capture how much Ehren likes to play with it.

There was a small wager made by the adults about what he would pull off first because it has ears sticking out, a tail, eyes, etc. You'll be glad to know everything is still holding on. He has pulled off half an ear and the tail is torn a bit but it is still snugly attached to the elephant's bottom.

Thanks so much for the great gift and the visit Joel and Lauren! Sorry we are about 2 months late on the photo!

Nashville Blizzard 2011

We ended up with 2 inches so the title "blizzard" seems a little extreme, however, in Nashville's defense the snow did come in about an hour's time. It was absolute mayhem on Wednesday night. I had friends that left work at 4:30 only to get home around 8pm. Other friends picked their kids up from daycare and ended up with a screaming child in their backseat for 2 hours. Two hours of traffic AND a screaming baby! How in the world do you not kill yourself?

Luckily for us the commute up the stairs took no longer than normal. I refrained from tweeting or facebooking about our commute for fear of that mother spending the extra 2 hours to drive that screaming child over here to kill me. Even with the easy commute we did have a small scare.

One of our neighbors whom we love dearly had a triple bypass a few weeks ago and he was at the hospital for rehab when it hit and then he had to make his way home. We kept checking in on his wife as we noticed it was 8pm and still no Joe. 9pm and still no Joe. I don't know what we were going to do but she finally called and said she had talked to him on his cell phone and he was 2 streets away at about 9:30pm.

This morning still no car. I guess he had to abandon it and walk home. Hopefully walking home in the snow after sitting in a car for 5 hours was an acceptable rehab activity for a guy who just had a triple bypass. I would guess that'll set him back in his recovery but we are just so glad he is home.

We ARE going to learn from yesterday and we're gonna add a blanket and water and baby food to the supplies in our now bigger car.

Oh, did we mention we got a new car? We are now the proud owners of a VW Jetta Sportwagon. I am super sad to be selling the Scion but realizing we couldn't pick my parents up from the airport with the car we owned made us get serious about a new car. After much effort Joshua found one that gets better gas mileage than the Scion and we still have more room so it's a bittersweet win/win. We're selling our 30 mpg car for a 40 mpg wagon that will now have a gallon of water, a blanket and baby food in the back each winter.

Where is everyone?

I think 2011 must be very busy for everyone I know. All the blogs I check haven't updated in quite some time. It feels good to look around and realize it isn't just me.

While we are adjusting to being parents we still don't have the concept of "don't make any plans until you have a babysitter" down. Last night we looked at each other and realized we hadn't gotten a babysitter for community group-that night. Luckily it snowed and we canceled group but we have got to get it together. It takes a lot more effort to plan something to do and when you're exhausted from juggling Ehren and work all day you just don't have the brain capacity to think about next weekend and what you want to do so you can get a babysitter in time. However, we are working on that and we'll be spending this Saturday night in a suite at the Predators game in our efforts to return to a life outside our house.

All that being said, we sure are enjoying the new member of Team Fykes. Sickness is no fun. Teething is no fun. Everything else we're good with.

The Shed

This project has been done for a while, but we're just now getting around to putting it up on the blog. Since moving into our house three years ago, one entire car bay of our garage and all of the extra storage space has been packed, meaning one vehicle got the boot and had to sleep outside. So in the fall we finally got around to building a suitable home for all the "man" toys. And the truck gets to sleep inside.

If you want to read more about the specifics you can go HERE.

Snow Days!

We couldn't resist getting out in the snow just long enough to document Ehren's first winter and the best snow since we've lived in Nashville. Plus he is about to outgrow those pajamas and I think they're the cutest ones he has.

Ehren Update

You know a good time to post cute pictures of your kid? Halfway through a day when he is getting sick and has soaked both parents in cantalope/yogurt vomit. Twice.

Ahhh the good times when he kept food down.

Our holidays this year were spent introducing all the grandparents to Ehren. We even had Christmas Eve with some great friends so I would say we celebrated well. Now it looks like we're starting the year off with a new challenge. If you can handle a sick baby you can handle anything, right?

Really Dad?

Something tells me "it's like scrabble" wasn't a sufficient explanation.