Causing Trouble at Grandma's House!

Jackson had fun playing with Grandma on Sunday! It appears he has permanantly broken her lampshade! But they had fun anyway!

Fun Weekend at the 'Ville!

My family is very very VERY into playing cards... We play at game called "High 9" but no one outside of my family (that I know of) has ever even heard of it! But we had to break in my brother's girlfriend Katie since it's looking like she may be a permanent fixture in our family tree! Ryan, of course, did not have a shortage of laughs due to his constantly evolving sense of humor! I've learned after 8 years together to never leave home w/o my camera cuz Ryan will do something funny that has to be captured!! We went to the Razorback game yesterday to watch the Hogs destroy some team I've never heard of.... I'm loving our players this year - They definitely have a lot of potential! It should be a fun season!

Christmas w/ Mimi and Poppie

On Friday night, we had Christmas w/ my parents....Between mine and Ryan's family - Jackson scored this Christmas!!! We are VERY VERY blessed and thankful!

Christmas at Uncle Dave and Aunt Carla's....

On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, we were over at Ryan's brother's house for Christmas. Dave got this KICKIN BUTT camera and took tons of pictures of Baby J.... But I don't have those to share yet.... So these are with my camera which isn't nearly as cool - but oh well!

Jackson and Aunt Carla -

What a masterpiece... Ryan and his momma!

Dave and his cool camera...

Video for Daddy!

Ryan,

I'm sorry you're not here to see your little angel scootin around - but let me tell you sweets -

we now officially have our hands full!

Love you!

Keisha

(This video is 3 minutes long so I don't expect anyone else to watch it -but Ryan wanted to see what his little baby was doing... feel free to watch and scoot along w/ J! haha...)

So close to crawling!

Baby J is ready to crawl! He gets up on all 4's and rocks back and forth.... He even pushes himself forward but hasn't quite lifted his hands up off the ground yet.... but it won't be long now!

Surprise!

Saturday night we had a surprise 60th birthday party for my Uncle Jimmy... We wheeled him in on a wheelchair and when he came in, we were all there to greet him! We took some family pictures while we were all together... Here are the highlights...

Our family.... Ryan, me, Mom, J, Dad and Ray

This is SOOOO funny! We took a picture w/ all the great-grandkids w/ my grandma... Well, Jackson is enjoying this "pulling hair" phase that he's in.... so Ryan captured the picture perfectly! My Aunt Becky is trying to save the day.... while Jackson slyly sticks his tongue out!

Yeah! A Family Pic... (too bad I still have 25 pounds to lose!)

Jackson w/ his cuz luv....

Jackson and Pappie...

Jackson and Mimi...

We don't have pics taken just the 2 of us too often... I liked this one.

Jackson was zonked on the way home! It was way past his bedtime!

Jackson's First Christmas of 2008!

Jackson had his first Christmas experience tonight with his Papa and Nana. There were many presents opened! We are very appreciative of all our gifts and the lovely dinner. I wanted to share a few pictures from our fun night... While we were there, he opened a present from his Great Grandparents in Milwaukee!

Jackson got all kinds of fun toys! Here are a just a few.... (we didn't get pictures of all of them! - let's just say Baby J is a bit spoiled already!)

Jackson loves to tear open the wrap!

Jackson got a new monogrammed suitcase! Funny story - I was actually going to buy Jackson one and have it monogrammed or use one that I already have so he has his very own... but Nana beat me to it!

Baby Crocs!

YEAH! Papa got Jackson his own truck!

Papa was sick and not feeling well - so Nana held Jackson most of the time! Jackson really loves that paper!!!

Eat your heart out, PF Changs!

Alltel closed today due to the ice, so today has been a fun day with Daddy! Ryan made some fancy lettuce wraps that would put PF Changs' lettuce wraps to SHAME!

OK - Here goes the update. :)

I've had a couple comments about how I haven't posted in a few days.... I decided that I'd just post the dealio on here cuz - let's just face it - I'm not that private of a person! :)
In Nov, I went in to the doc to have some blood work taken to find out my cholesterol levels, and to make sure everything looked ok, etc...Well, they called me back and the nurse lady was freaking cuz apparently, my thyroid levels were off the chart and my cholosterol was out of control high... Soooooo.... she told me to get into a PCP right away. So I did. He said I'm hypothyroid and he wanted to take an ultrasound of my thyroid. He put me on some meds which is supposed to make me feel better. Well, he called last week and freaked me out cuz he said he got the results from my ultrasound and suspects it's hoshimoto disease (fancy name for a common form of hypothyroid) and basically, he wants me into a specialist. So I had my appt yesterday w/ the endocrinologist. I was nervous cuz I really didn't have any information about her so I went into this appt very skeptical and thinking she would not have a clue what to do w/ me... BUT - she was actually pretty great!!! She took some blood work and ran a bunch of tests - she said that she wants to be sure she knows exactly what all is going on but she increased my dosage on the medication that I've been on for 4 weeks. I told her that I haven't really felt any different w/ the medication. She said it can take 6-8 wks to start feeling better, but she suspects I'll feel tons better w/in 2 weeks from now w/ the increase in the dosage. She said w/ levels this high, most people don't want to get out of bed! She said normal levels should be 4.5 or below... My levels were at a 90. So..... all this must explain why I haven't felt like myself since I had Jackson! Turns out - what I have is called post partum thyroidism. She said she believes it was probably triggered on from my labor and all the fun times we had after.... (haha). She said that is 100% why I've not been able to kick these baby blues or baby weight or why I have no energy and dry skin and on and on.... SO! Good news is that she suspects my levels should decrease a LOT very soon and once this is normalized, I will be back to OLD KEISHA!!! WOOOOHOOOOO! I cannot wait for that! I think my husband would agree that this has gone on too long! I just thought this was all due to my horomone levels still being funky from having Jackson and I couldn't explain my tiredness - I just feel so hopeful!! I appreciate all of you asking about me.... I should have the results of my blood work in a few days and she said she suspects that the levels will have already dropped a little (so that's really good) and she wants to re-check my levels in 6 wks and she thinks they will have dropped a lot by then... maybe even completely normal. YEAH!
Here's a couple pic from the doctor's office yesterday! Jackson was SOOOOO cute! Turns out, he is 26 and 1/2 inches tall and when I was checking out, Ryan took him out first and he wanted to drive again....

Jackson said Momma!!!! :)

Jackson OFFICIALLY - finally - said his first word!!! Ryan and I have heard him say "something like Momma" in a fit of rage several times, but this time, he was not in a rage... although he was a bit aggrevated - but not in a rage! He said it twice cuz I thought maybe the first time was a fluke again.... but nope - he immediately said it the second time!!! MUSIC to my ears!! I know people say I'll get sick of hearing that after a couple years but for now, it's the best sound ever! Of course, I immediately scooped him up and loved all over him!

Apples and Blueberries!

Jackson has now had both - with our new special little toy that allows him to get the juice from it.... And boy - he LOVES that!!! It's such a mess to clean up though!

UH-OH...

Something else Jackson got from Daddy....

Jackson is a speed machine!

We had to move all the furniture around in our living room so Baby J can cruise! He practically runs now! Ryan and I can't get enough!

Birthday Party Time!

Ryan celebrated his birthday with little Nicholas Mitchell - who turned 4. Nick is Ryan's dad and Debbie's grandson and we have become very close to their family too! Nick has 2 brothers - one of whom is exactly one year to the day older than Jackson! Needless to say, we expect they will be very big buddies when they get older! Thanks Amy and Ted for inviting us to Nick's birthday party! We had a good time!

3 Generation of Stearle's!

The Story of Ryan Stearle....

Today is my gorgeous, sweet, loving husband Ryan's birthday!! This is his last year in his 20's and while we're all very sad about that... I thought it would be great to look back at some of Ryan's finest moments! I had intended for this to be in chronological order, but after several hours of trying to blog this and having to re-do it - I decided that the order is not that important... I hope you enjoy these pictures - each have a special funny story to go along with them... I hope you can see why I am so madly in love with this wonderful wonderful OLD man! :) Love you honey!!!
Ryan is 3 mos in this picture....

6 months old... (Jackson's age now!)

1 year old....

I guess you may know who that rascal is w/ him (David!)

This is from Ryan's first trip to Europe in high school...

Ryan's 2nd trip to Europe...

2000 (The year before Ryan and I started dating)

This was the day Ryan proposed to me!

Now, for no particular order..... ENJOY!

This was from a paintballing accident that Ryan had a few months before we got married! Good thing it cleared up before the wedding or he would have been in big trouble! :)

College Graduation

Our Wedding.... The best day of my life!

MBA Graduation!

The birth of our most prized creation!

Happy Birthday My Love! Next Year, Let's PPPPAAARRRRTTTTYYYY!!!!!