And you think your in-laws are weird...

Many of you have seen my father-in-law. Some of you have not. For those of you who have not, brace yourselves. He would be the one on the left. If you've seen the show "Miami Ink" on TLC then you would know the one on right is Chris Garver. Never seen the show but apparently he's in it and Gary met him last weekend. Anyway, that's right, folks, my father-in-law has about 60% of his body tattooed and over 100 piercings in his face. I think there are more but I lost count after 100. I think he did too. And his newest thing, which we didn't even know he was doing, is that paint brush-looking stick thing in his nose. He had talked about this but had never done it so I figured it wasn't going to happen. I should have known better! I showed this picture to Owen and told him it was Paw-Paw and he said, "Ha ha. Paw-Paw. Ha ha. Funny." He just kept laughing every time he looked at it. It was too cute! So now this is his Funny Paw-Paw. We love you, Funny Paw-Paw!

Sisters

I remember when I was younger and my Auntie Gaye would call our house some nights as late as 11pm. It would be at least the 5th time that she and my mom had talked during that day and I would say, "Seriously! Have you guys not gotten it said in the last 4 times you talked today?!?!" I never understood how two people who lived so close to each other and saw each other constantly could have so much to say to each other in one day. Now I know--because they're sisters. God did not bless me biologically with a sister. My theory is that my mom and dad realized they couldn't risk another child after being blessed with such a perfect one in me. That's it, isn't it, Mom? haha. Anyway, I digress. God did, however, bless me with the next best thing--my cousin, Beth. We have always felt like sisters because we were raised so closely together. When I got married, she was the person I wanted standing next to me as my maid of honor and vice versa. And when I had Owen, she was the first person I thought of to be his Godmother. She's also the person I call when I need advice, when I need to vent, when I'm happy, when I'm sad....the list goes on. She's my sister--in every sense of the word.

Her husband Ryan called me a couple of nights ago to tell me that Beth was "grounded" from the phone. I laughed and said, "Why?" He replied, "Well, we have 700 shared minutes between us and not only did Beth use all 700 minutes herself, she went on to use 700 more." Knowing where most of the 700+ minutes went, I didn't bother to ask. :) He went on to tell us both that we didn't need to talk for the entire year because we had said it all in the first month. I thought back to my mom and Auntie Gaye and just wanted to tell him, "Ryan, it's sisters. You just have to have one to know." I'm glad I have one, and I'm glad I know. And even if I have to wait past 9pm to call her when her minutes are free, I'll make the sacrifice. Thank God for sisters!

The Mini-Monet

Owen has really started to enjoy coloring. I had tried to get him interested in it a couple of months ago but he didn't want to have much to do with it. Then Grandma Lynn bought him an Elmo doll with crayons for the bathtub for Christmas and now he loves it! He colors all over the bathtub every time he's in there. One night he was coloring and took the crayon away, looked at it and said, "Ernie!" Cody and I just died laughing. We're not sure if he thinks he was drawing Ernie or what but it was so adorable! Here are a few pictures of the artist that I took last night. (A note to the O'Brien ladies--the flowers in the pics are the ones you sent me 2 weeks ago! They're still alive! And so pretty!)

He had to study the box. Every time I got a new color out of it and gave it to him he'd say, "Wow!" with a whisper.

Notice the smile--you can tell that he is saying, "Cheese!" for the camera, which he started doing after we took 300 pictures at Christmas and kept telling everyone to say cheese.

Who knows, maybe someday we'll all be looking at an Owen Muhs Original in a museum somewhere?! Ok, at least there will always be one on my fridge. :)

Gooooo Bears!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, the Muhs household is brimming with excitement after the big Bears win today. Ok, Cody is beside himself and Owen and I are just along for the ride. After hours of searching for tickets on ebay, Cody actually scored a set and he and a friend from work were at Soldier Field to witness the big event. He called me numerous times throughout the game--many of them were just to yell at me about how exciting it was. When it was all over he called again, sounding like he had bronchitis, and said, "This was the 3rd best day of my life!!! I love you more than you could ever know!!!" Although I know that was many a beer and sheer elation talking, I guess I should at least be happy that he has his priorities in tact. :) He went on to say that he rushed the field and stood 10 feet away from Brian Urlacher. Really, I don't know what's so exciting about that, as for the last 3 weeks I have sat about 5 feet away from Urlacher, in my own living room! Yes, folks, this is what I came home to find on my living room wall when I got back from all my Christmas travels.

The second picture shows part of the entertainment center next to Mr. Urlacher, just to give you an idea of the size of this thing. It is, indeed, life size. Luckily for me, he's pretty easy on the eyes so I can deal with it for now. Once the Super Bowl is over, he will be going back to the basement where he belongs. A big thank you, by the way, to Cody's dad for purchasing this for him last year for Christmas. I really can't thank him enough. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to the day the basement is finished so he will have a permanent wall to stick to and there will be no threats of him running through our living room wall anymore.
I checked ebay tonight and Super Bowl tickets are already going for about $7,000 a pair, give or take a few thousand. So I think it's safe to say that Cody will be watching the game from a friend's house somewhere in Iowa...at least I hope that's the case.

ILL-INI

Well, I haven't been keeping up too much with the Fighting Illini this season as I've had other things on my mind lately and we don't always get the games on TV way out here in Iowa. But I think I've heard a few things that they aren't quite as good this year as they've been in the past couple of years. So I thought I better gear up my little Illini guy and get some cheering in for them. So here are a few pictures of him in his Illini jersey, courtesy of Cody's college friend Eddie. How can they not have a winning streak with a fan this cute cheering for them?! Go Illini go!!!

Everything I Know I Learned From Oprah

Cody says that I should write a book with this title because I am always spouting off things I learned on the Oprah Show. Hey, you can find out all about Julia Roberts' twins, get Jen and Vince's marriage rumors cleared up, hear whether Barack Obama will run for president, and see what shape your poop should be all from one show! Now that's a TV show I can get on board with! Well, today is no different than any other day in that I learned a little wisdom from my gal Oprah that seemed so fitting for me in the past few days and I'd like to pass it on. I was watching an episode yesterday that I recorded on my fancy new DVR that Cody got me for Christmas (really, people, this is truly how TV was meant to be watched) and people were asking her questions. Someone asked her what the greatest advice she'd ever received from Maya Angelou was. She said that Maya once told her that in the middle of a crisis she should stop and say thank you because no matter how bad it was at that moment, there was no doubt going to be something better on the other side of it to be thankful for. I started crying (I know, a little cliche but what the hell, I was moved) and had one of those moments that people go on the Oprah show and talk about. You know, someone goes on saying that they were laying on the couch one day feeling horrible and then something she said was like she was speaking to them and their whole outlook changed...I always thought, "Oh, that didn't really happen that way." Well, yesterday it did happen to me. I was on the couch feeling horrible and I heard what she said and I cried and stopped to pray and I thanked God. Because even though I felt horrible at that moment, I knew that things could only go up from there. This isn't to say that I still haven't felt bad since then but at least I now I have in my head that eventually there will be some good on the other side of all this bad. And that's something to look forward to. Thanks, Oprah!

Okay, and now on to some pictures, which I know many of you have been waiting for. In honor of the big Bears win yesterday I decided to post some Bears pictures. The first one is of my two boys in their Bears jerseys. This was over New Year's while we were at Cody's mom's house.

And then we went to a New Year's Eve party and you'll never guess who showed up....That's right, legendary Bears coach Mike Ditka!
Okay, so it's really just Billy O'Brien who shaved his beard specifically for this reason and then dressed up like Ditka. But you gotta admit he "bears" a striking resemblence. haha. Go Bears!!!!!

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You

Cody and I would like to send out a big thank you to everyone who has called, emailed, posted on here, sent us a card, sent flowers, or cookies. The outpouring of love and support we have received during this difficult time is so much more than we would have ever expected and it has helped us so much. We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family who care about us so much. Hearing your stories or just knowing that you care has made all of this a little easier on us and we are so thankful for that.

I am on the mend after the procedure yesterday. Everything went well. I felt some pain yesterday and mostly stayed in bed all day. I am feeling better today and am able to be up and move around a little more. I still have a little pain but the doctor says I should be back to normal by Monday. I can't pick my baby boy up which is just killing me so I can't wait til Monday for that!

I had to go in on Thursday before the procedure to have a pre-op thing done. When I saw the doctor then he told me he had a reason for why this happened. On Monday when I was there, before we found out we had lost the baby they took my blood for a 16-week check that they do. It checks for abnormalities. They went ahead and did the test even though the baby was gone in hopes that we might find some answers. As it turns out, the baby had something called Trisomy 18. We still don't understand it 100% but we know that it is a genetic abnormality that doesn't allow the baby to form and grow the way it should. He said that babies with this never survive a pregnancy. He also said that had we not lost the baby, he would have advised us to end the pregnancy. We were glad that it happened naturally and that we were not faced with that decision. It also gave us a sense of closure because we know there is absolutely nothing we could have done about it. Although we knew it was nothing we did or didn't do, that thought is always in the back of your head and something you always wonder about if you don't have an answer. So we are glad that we now have one. This is not something that Cody or I carries genetically or that we should be concerned about happening to another baby. It is something that can happen to anyone and isn't likely to happen to us again.

We will always hold our baby in our hearts, but each day is getting a little easier for us. Thank you again for all of your thoughts and prayers.

Sad News

I think it is safe to say that this is the hardest post I've ever had to do but it is something that we would like everyone to know. On Monday, I went to the doctor for my 16 week appointment and discovered that the baby didn't have a heartbeat. I was sent to Radiology to confirm it and the woman who did the ultrasound there said that the baby was only measuring at about 15 weeks, which means we lost it sometime in the last seven days. Obviously, this has been devastating to our entire family, be we are coping as best as we can. I hate that some of you are hearing it first-hand through the internet but it has just been too hard for us to make "that" call over and over again. On Friday, I will have a procedure done called a D&E to remove it. It is an outpatient surgery and I should only be there for a couple of hours. The doctor says it shouldn't be too physically painful. I am thankful that I will be put out during the whole thing and won't know what's going on. The doctor says he may know more about why this happened after Friday. My mom is on her way here today to help us take care of Owen during all of this, which will be so appreciated. Even though I'm a mom myself, it's times like these that make me want my own mama to be with me.

As I said before, we are handling it all as best as we know how. We are trying to tell ourselves that God took our angel before it's time for a reason. We are thankful that we have one healthy baby, who is making it all a little easier on us. It's hard to stay sad all the time when a cute little face crawls up next to you in bed, lays his head down beside you on the pillow and says with a smile, "Hi, Pooh!" We continue to pray everyday that he will one day get to be the wonderful big brother we know he can be. We will keep you updated on how everything goes and hopefully in time we'll be able to bring you much happier stories and pictures of the Muhs clan on here.

The Little Bears Fan in the Big Bears Shirt

Cody decided to get Owen pumped up for the game last night and put him in one of his Bears t-shirts. Then Owen decided to get Daddy's Bear Head and put that on. He ran around the house in it having a great time! Go Bears!

A Fun-Filled Christmas Adventure at Pella Corp....and some other stuff

On Saturday morning we went to a little Christmas thing at Pella Corporation that they do every year for the kids of the employees. There are a bunch of different things to do like making ornaments, coloring cards, ballon animals, cookie decorating, and of course seeing Santa. Owen was a little young for a lot of it, but still had a good time. Here are a few pictures of our day, along with some other pictures we took throughout the weekend:

Cookie decorating with Dad.

Sampling the cookie.

"Nummy!" as Owen would say. He loved eating the cookie. Later, we let him out of his stroller and he kept going back to the cookie table saying, "Nummy, nummy, nummy!" I guess he takes after his mama in that respect. I refrained from decorating my own as no other adults were doing so, but I did have to sample Owen's. You know, to make sure it was safe for him to eat. ;)

Here he is coloring a Christmas card.

And here it is...our long-awaited Christmas tree. Still doesn't have the skirt on it and the ornaments were kind of thrown on--I'm usually a little more picky about placement of ornaments. When I decorated our tree at my parents' house, I even had specific spots where the ornaments had to go EVERY year. But this year, there was no time for pickiness!

Here's Owen checking out the tree. He does like to take the ornaments off, but he's not quite as bad as I thought he'd be. He does listen when I tell him to stop. I showed him where one is that plays music so he likes to go up to that one and press the button all the time. Then he dances to the music. It's too cute!

This is just a cute photo that Cody took of him while I was out shopping on Saturday. They had a fun time together while Mom was out purchasing gifts all weekend.

This is his new hat and mitten set that I bought him while I was out on one of my many shopping trips.

And here he is trying to take his temperature after finding the thermometer in the diaper bag.

So that was the weekend at the Muhses. I forgot to scan his picture with Santa so I'll have to do that and then post it for you all to see. Hope you are all enjoying the holiday season!

The Pea in the Pod

I went to the doctor this morning for my 12 week appt. He had trouble hearing the heart beat with the doppler so I ended up getting a free peek at the baby because he had to find it via ultrasound. He said everything looked good and the heart rate is 152 BPM. I got to see little arms and hands flailing around! It was a wonderful, unexpected surpise. As we were looking, the dr. said, "It's already breech!" I said, "You're kidding! What is wrong with my children that they don't know the correct way to enter this world?" (Owen was also breech.) He said, "Maybe we need to shine a flashlight up there and tell them to follow the light!" When I got home, I called Beth to tell her the story and she said, "Well, maybe it's not the babies' fault, maybe you guys are putting them in there wrong!" So we decided that Cody must have "backwards" sperm. Haha. I'm sure he will love that I posted that on here! In any case, here is a slightly cloudy picture of our 2nd backwards, but healthy, baby.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

Ok, well not a lot, but at least it's a start! This morning I went to the doctor while Cody stayed home with Owen. I came home and Cody said, "Owen learned a new word this morning." I said, "Oh! What is it?" "Tree, " he says. I said, "Oh, did Barney teach him that?" Cody looks at me like I'm an idiot and says, "Uh, no, I did." I look to my right and the Christmas tree is in the room!!! Granted, it needs a lot of work, but he said he thought I would be happier if it was up so he decided to haul it up from the basement. How sweet of him! I know we still have to decorate it, which we plan to do tonight, and we will only enjoy for 2 weeks, but it is really nice to have it up and I do feel happier! So here are a couple of pictures of our not-so-pretty tree and the few decorations that Cody added himself.

I don't know if you can see it, but there is one ornament on it that Gary brought Owen at Thanksgiving. It was already sitting out so Cody put it on.

And here is his "skirt." Yes, that is one of Owen's bibs. He also put the star on top, which I didn't get in the picture. He said I should really appreciate that because it took a second trip to the basement to get it.

Check back and hopefully tomorrow we'll have much prettier pictures of our tree! I'm starting to feel the "scrooge" escaping me! :) And the best part is that so far Owen hasn't really bothered it too much. I'll get back to you on that after it's full of lights and ornaments!

Wheel Contestant in Training

As most of you know, Owen is a big fan of "Wheel of Fortune." We watch it every night, although some nights he's more into it than others. Tonight was definitely one of those nights. As soon as he heard the music, he jumped up and ran to the TV and started cheering and clapping. He has now also started to call out the letters after the contestants do. Tonight, when a woman found out she won a trip, she was ecstatic and put her hands over her mouth and jumped up and down. Owen got just as excited for her and put his hands over his mouth as he cheered! Now he just keeps walking around the house doing it. We were able to get it on camera:

Look out, Pat and Vanna, this boy is ready!

Procrastination, Mommy and Me Time, and the Bears Clinch the Division!

So here we are nearly 4 days into December and my tree is not up, nor have I bought one Christmas present. I don't know if it's the exhaustion that comes with pregnancy or what, but I just can't get into the spirit this year!! I had planned to get the tree up this weekend while Cody was away in Chicago at the Bears game. I got the area cleared out where the tree is to be placed, but I didn't have the energy to haul it and it's mountain of lights and ornaments that go with it up from the basement. Part of it is because I really do think I need Cody to help with the actual assembly of the tree. But I think the biggest part of it is knowing that I will have to spend the next 3 weeks keeping Owen from destroying it!!!! I feel like such a scrooge and just need to get with it and get it up!

On a happier note, as I said earlier Cody was gone Saturday and Sunday for the game which left me here by myself with my baby. We had planned to go with him but then the bad weather hit IL and he had to wait until Saturday morning to head out so we just decided that it was better if O and I stayed here. We had an awesome day together on Saturday. We played for a bit at home and then went out to lunch at Subway and did some shopping at Wal-Mart. Not anything special, but we just had a really good time together. Owen was so good the entire time. It was just one of those days that made me remember why I wanted to be a mom in the first place. And then the Bears won their game and are headed to the playoffs to boot! Now if I could just get those damn decorations up all would be well in the Muhs household!

Basket O' Fun

Who needs a bunch of expensive toys when you have a basket to play in? This basket sits by the back door with towels in it for when Murphy comes inside and he's wet. Owen's newest thing is to empty out all the towels and play in the basket. And I wonder why I'm not in the mood to put up Christmas decorations!!! :) This child plays with anything that isn't an actual toy. If the things he currently plays with are any indication of what he'd like for Christmas this year, I guess you might see on his list some coasters, a bunch of swim diapers, picture frames, and absolutely anything that he can place on his or my head and put out his hands and say, "Ta da!"

New Link

Well, I finally got to my best friend, Michelle, and she started a blog of her own. You can find her blog in the "Links" section if you'd like to see what's up with the Calvert Crew. Welcome aboard, Michelle!

Another Fun-Filled Thanksgiving

Cody's Mom, Dad, and Stepmom Linda came to visit again this year for Thanksgiving. We started the tradition of Thanksgiving at our house the first year we were married. I make the entire meal, bird and all, which I love doing. I was a little worried that nausea might keep me from doing it all myself this year, but I was able to make it through without any trouble. It seems to get easier and easier each year, although I am still exhausted by the time we finish eating! Then we just lay around watching TV and napping and eating leftovers for the rest of the weekend. No crazy day-after shopping, just nice relaxing family time. We love it! I never thought I would say this, but I don't miss the Black Friday shopping one bit!!! We didn't take a whole lot of pictures as I was just too worn out to do so, but here are a few that I did get of Owen and his grandparents.

Owen made Grandpa read this book about a hundred times this weekend. He loved it! And good 'ol Grandpa never complained. And for those of you wondering, no, Owen wasn't scared of Grandpa at all!!! They thought he might be but he went right to Grandpa as soon as he walked in the door and just said, "Hi!" It was too cute.

We discovered this weekend that Owen has a fondness for pie. He would just go around to whoever had some and share theirs. Whey they ran out, he'd move on to the next person. He especially loved sharing Grandma's pie with her. Here he is scraping her bowl clean.

I think this was after he was licking the spoon clean.

Not sure what he's doing here, but aren't they cute together?! :)

So, another Thanksgiving is over and now we are gearing up for Christmas. I've still got to put up the tree and decorations, although I've decided on just doing a few decs this year since I'm sure my little mischief maker will be getting into them. Then we have to get the picture with Santa and shop and get the cards sent out and on and on and on and on....It never ends but it's so much fun, isn't it?! Hope you all had a blessed Thanksgiving!

Owen's Big Announcement

Owen has been dying to share something with you all so without further ado, here it is:

Happy Birthday, Uncle Ryan...

from one Bears fan to another!!

I'm cheering the Bears on so you can have a win for your birthday!

Hope you have a great day! I love you soooo much! Go Bears!

The Old Bo Dog

I'm sorry to say that the Glodo family experienced a great loss while Owen and I were home visiting last month. On October 19th, my parents had to make the difficult decision to put our wonderful dog, Bo, to sleep. Bo was 14 years old and his health was really starting deteriorate this past year. He had bad hips, a tumor on one of his eyes that bled a lot, and a problem with his ears. He had a hard time getting around and had also lost his hearing. On the day that it happened, he was laying down on the living room floor and stayed there for 3 hours--not even getting up to relieve himself. Mom called the vet at about 8pm that night and he said he would meet them at his office. Dad had to carry Bo to the car. I, unfortunately, was out shopping with my cousin and was not able to be there but I was at least glad that I was in town. I think having Owen and Maddy there really helped my parents grieve a little easier and I was glad that I got to see Bo one last time.

Bo was really the 5th member of our family. My brother brought him home when he was just a pup when I was 15 years old. He said he was going to be a hunting dog. I think Bo went hunting maybe one time, and spent the rest of his time laying on the couch watching TV with my dad. Dad very quickly became Bo's favorite person in the family. Wherever he was, you'd find Bo right next to him. He was the quirkiest dog I've ever met and we all swear he understood every word we said. He was also the calmest dog I've ever met. Right up until the end, Owen would climb all over him and he never minded one bit. When we were on vacation this past summer, Owen started saying, "Bo!" Now, every dog he sees is, "Bo!"--even our own dog! It is the cutest thing and I rarely correct him because it makes me feel like a part of Bo is still with us that way.

I was going through some photos this week and came across some of Bo, which is why I decided to do this post in the first place. So here are some pictures of our dear old friend whom we greatly miss. Christmas won't be the same this year without seeing him dig his nose into a gift bag full of bones and tennis balls.

Here he is on GiGi's couch at Christmas. It is only because she loved Bo so much that GiGi would allow him to sit on her couch!

This is one of my favorite pictures of us. It's a little hazy because Cody was dry walling and sanding and got it all over the picture. But I still had to put it on here! Bo always loved to lay on a pillow.

Here are the two best buddies doing what they did best--relaxing on the couch.

Auntie Gaye emailed me this poem that Beth wrote about Bo when she was in high school. I think it pretty much sums up exactly what kind of dog he was and how much our entire family loved him.

“BO”

There is a dog that I know,
He is a black lab whose name is Bo.
He likes to play catch, sleep and eat,
Bo is a dog you would love to meet.
He loves to take walks, run and play,
A ride in the car makes his day.
He is as precious as a baby in our eyes,
When he is left alone, he mopes and cries.

His owners treat him like a child of their own,
He chews on a tennis ball instead of a bone.
When they go for a ride, he sits in the front,
He's very spoiled, he gets whatever he wants.

If you are a stranger who walks through the door,
He barks real loud, and runs across the floor.
If you are a face he is familiar with,
He doesn't move at all, not even a twitch.

He is a bodyguard, when his family is gone,
He sits at the window from dusk until dawn.
You can tell he cares by the look in his eye,
Bo is a great dog, and now you know why.