Our turkey day craft

Maybe we should alternately title this, "Jamie's attempt at being a crafty mom!" 

Here's what happened:  We got about seven inches of snow on Friday afternoon/overnight into Saturday morning.  Jenna and Brody's basketball games got cancelled and Jenna  begged me to do a "project."  I thought we could make something for the Thanksgiving table at Grandpa and Grandma Burdorfs.  I quickly consulted pinterest trying to come up with an idea (what did we do before pinterest?!).

I liked these cute little turkey name place cards.  We improvised a bit on how to do them and what supplies we used, but I think they turned out pretty well.

First off, Jenna painted some wine corks brown.  "Conveniently" I had a bunch stashed in a drawer. ;)   

 

 Then,  Brody and I shaped the pipe cleaners, while Jenna cut out the beaks and whatever that red thing on a turkey is called.  I did the hot-gluing of the eyes, beak and feathers. 

Next, I found some wooden grilling skewers stashed away in my pantry, so I cut those in half and stuck it into the top and then just hot-glued the construction paper onto the top of the skewer.  Wa-la!

 It was a little time-consuming, but we think the finished product is pretty cute and will look great on the Thanksgiving table!

 

Here's what you need:

1. Wine Corks

2. Brown Paint

3. Googly eyes

4. Pipe Cleaners

5. Foam sheets (for beak)

6. Wooden Skewers

7. Construction paper

 

On a side note, I have to ask for some prayers and happy thoughts for Blake.  His tacro and creatinine were just slightly higher than normal, so we have to redo labs Monday morning.  Please pray for a smooth draw since last Wednesday was a nightmare and pray for those numbers to where they have been.  Thanks friends!

Blake's MRI

I had posted on Facebook a couple of week's ago that Blake had to have an MRI on his heart.  On one of his yearly ECHO's they saw some bright spots that they weren't sure about and wanted to "cover all their bases," by doing an MRI. 

On November 6th, Blake had his MRI.  He had to have anesthesia because there was no way he would sit still for that amount of time.  Getting him to sleep was harder than I thought it would be.  I told Aaron my "mom moxie" that I had built up from all those crappy months in the hospital had faded away.

They started by giving him something through his G-tube that would make him sleepy.  The next thing I knew they moved the chair over that we were sitting in and told me to put him in a bear hug and they held the mask on his face until he was completely out.  Despite the fact that he was sleepy, he fought them and I just hated it.  I left the room with tears in my eyes, because who wants to go through that as the mom for their child?  Poor Blake.

The test went fine and when I saw him in recovery he was not a happy camper.  They had put two iv's in his hand and he didn't like that so much.  Anyway, after about two hours in recovery we were able to head home.

After a very long wait, we got results via My Chart and read through them.  Nobody ever called us, but it looked like, reading between the lines with all the doctor speak, that his heart function is just fine and they will continue to monitor him on a yearly basis. 

That was great news!!  Blake acted fine, but there's always that part of you that is nervous because it's his heart.  Exhale of relief!

Happy (belated) Halloween!

A very belated Happy Halloween to you all!  Halloween this year was different.  We had my Grandma June's funeral on Saturday morning in Hastings.  After the funeral and luncheon, we headed back to Mankato for trick-or-treating.  Maddox's birthday was supposed to be on Saturday, but we had to push it back until Sunday. 

Anyway, I tried my hardest to get a theme out of my four just one more year.  No dice.  I thought I was close in getting them to be Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but they all copped out on me the week before Halloween.  I was picking my battles and just going with it.  Without further ado, here are the Burdorf family's costumes for this year...

Brody - FBI Agent

 Bowen - Spiderman (same exact costume Brody wore last year)

 Jenna - Farmer

 Blake - Buzz Lightyear

 My four.  Typical chaos.

 Jess, Mitch, Carter and Baby Carson.

We sort of didn't realize that the adults were also supposed to dress up, so we made do.  Jess and I ran to Target and literally grabbed the last costumes they had - flapper costumes.  Justin and Mandy had these gorilla costumes laying around, so that worked for Aaron and Justin.

 Jess, Mandy the Maleficent and me.

 This is what happens when we try to get a group kid photo - the gorillas, aka dads, causing a ruckus.

 Justin, Mandy, Maddox and McCoy

 McCoy was the custest monkey ever.  Seriously ever.

While it wasn't a traditional Halloween, we all agreed this would probably by the Halloween our kids would be most likely to remember because they all go to be together.  It wasn't the most ideal of circumstances, but I think the kids had a blast and I'm thankful they could make those memories.