Family Photo Time

Well...it took me a while to get around to it, but I finally took photos of my kids and our little family.

These were taken in December...John was 4 1/2 months old, Danika was 2 weeks away from turning 3, and Doug and I are older than that. :)

Hope you enjoy them!










We love you all!
The Bierer Family

We laugh

This is another entry that is more for my kids than for you blog readers, so sorry. :)

Doug is just the most fantastic man...I know I say that a lot, but I mean it. :) I just couldn't be more grateful to be married to such a wonderful man. And he makes me laugh ALL THE TIME. I love that. If I were to think of the one overriding emotion that I have experienced since being married to him, it would be joy. Happiness, laughter, good stories, good friends, good kids, good church, good life...it all revolves around joy. Even in the midst of really bad yucky stuff, that man makes me laugh. And then it all seems manageable again.

About 3 1/2 years ago, we got cell phones with cameras for the first time. I was pregnant with Danika, and I received this text/picture message from my husband:

Subject: The father of your child
Sound clip: (Doug's voice, dripping with schmooze) "You are the LUCKIEST woman in the world!"
Photo:

I about fell off my chair at work laughing.
I love that man. :)

Here are a few more flattering and recent pictures of that fantastic father of my children. :)

Christmas Tradition

There is a little town about an hour from Erie called Franklin, PA...and we LOVE to go there. It is a beautiful little place and holds fantastic little festivals and events. Doug and I both like going there because we get the hour ride in the car to talk and catch up, and the events are "small-town" fun that we both enjoy. The events there are always creative and well-planned enough for my enjoyment, and yet small and un-crowded enough for Doug's enjoyment.

The year I was hugely pregnant with Danika and just WAITING for her to finally show up, we decided to attend the Christmas parade in Franklin for the very first time. We had so much fun that we decided to make it a yearly tradition. So, this year we invited my parents to come out and go with us.

What a FANTASTIC fun event that parade is! The unique thing about this parade is that it starts after dark. That is super fun because every float is decorated in tons of christmas lights and all lit up. The parade is long and well-attended, and all the entries are great. And when the parade ends, the parade route closes in on itself and everyone walks down to the town square next to the courthouse. All the people who were standing on the sidelines are now standing in the middle of the blocked off street in front of the "grand-stand." And then the grand finale for this event begins. They set off fireworks from the town square, and they are all set to Christmas music that is playing over the grand-stand speakers. There are ground fire works, low-level fireworks, and traditional full-blown fireworks way up in the sky...all exploding and sparkling in perfect timing with music. It is SO MUCH FUN!

It always seems like the Christmas season is ready to begin after this wonderful "kick-off."

Here are a few pictures from this year's parade. I can hardly wait until next year!

Berniss turns 8

Grandma Berniece Andrews, affectionately called "Gramma Berniss" in this house, turned 80 on Monday. Have I mentioned that she is absolutely amazing? She is.

So, Sunday we celebrated her birthday by going out to lunch and coming back to Dana's house for cake and ice cream. What a fun, wonderful day!

Happy Birthday, Grandma! I hope we get to celebrate at least 20 more!

Doug preached. :)

He did a great job this past weekend!


If you want to hear his sermon, it is titled [Re:] joice and can be found here.

Nana & Gramma Berniss Rock!

All joking aside...I owe a GREAT BIG Thank You to both my Mom (aka: Nana) and Grandma (aka: Gramma Berniss) for all the help they gave as I went back to work from maternity leave. I was a nervous wreck. But- Mom came for the first two weeks and watched John here at my house so I wouldn't have to take him to daycare at 8wks old. Then Grandma came every single morning for 2 more weeks and basically held and rocked John until after lunch so I could get a full morning of work in without interruption. Those four weeks made a HUGE difference in being ready to take my little guy to daycare. The truth is I have the BEST daycare in the WORLD...but it is still hard that it isn't me that gets to hold him every day.



Oh - and the help I get from this guy isn't half bad either. :)

THANK YOU!!!!!!!

Bad Mommy

Poor John. He is stuck with a clumsy mommy.

You see, I have zero coordination. This is not news to any of you who have spent time with me. But on Sunday, Nov 8th, it manifested in a very scary moment for both Mommy and son.

Doug was preaching all three services at the Edinboro campus for church, so we had decided that we would attend Saturday evening together, and then I would stay home with the kids Sunday morning. This would work out well because we were going to be celebrating Grandma Andrew's 80th birthday for lunch on Sunday, and if I stayed home with the kids, I could get everyone ready, fed, and packed for the babysitter.

In case we haven't mentioned it before...John is a barfer. He barfs on us all the time. The poor little man has acid reflux, and just in general he spits up non-stop. It is a given that you don't put any clothes on that you actually intend to wear out of the house until seconds before departure because otherwise John will ruin your clothes.

So...picture it....I'm home alone on Sunday morning trying to get both children fed and dressed and packed for the day...and then John hits me with a 1-2 punch. First he drowns his outfit in barf, then before I can even get him changed, he poops up his back and down his legs and in between his toes...well...it's ugly. As I attempt to change his diaper, it becomes clear that this is a mess that will require a bath. So I finish wiping him up and then I take the cute little naked man into the bathroom and lay him on the floor on a towel so that I can run the bath water in the tub.

I reach up to grab our shower head (which is the kind that is on a hose) in order to rinse out the tub before filling it, and I bobble it and it starts to fall. My immediate response is to grab it before it falls and hits John. As my arms shoot up above my head to catch it, my elbow hits a medium sized wooden shelf that hangs on the wall and knocks it off. As my arms are going UP, the shelf is now coming DOWN, along with all the jars and bottles that were displayed on it. My brain recognizes what is happening a split second too late as my eyes drop to see the shelf land on John's head and face and the large ceramic jar hit the floor a foot away from him and explode into a million pieces. I scream as I see it happen.

John lets out a blood-curdling scream. His eyebrow instantly starts to bleed and swell.

There are now tiny little ceramic shards covering the entire bathroom like a powder, and larger sharp chunks and slivers lying everywhere. The tub is filled with them. John is covered in what looks like powder there are so many on him. I can't wipe them off...they will cut him. I can't put him in the tub to rinse him off...it is filled with more. I am shaking...John is crying...and less than 2 seconds have passed since this all began.

I scoop him up and run into the kitchen. I pull the dishes out of the sink that I had begun washing and I put his chubby little naked body in there and begin rinsing him with plenty of warm water. In a few seconds I have established that his eye is okay and that he is only cut in a few tiny places. Other than that, he is mostly scared. Now Mommy is scared. I take a deep breath and try to figure out what to do next. What if he has a head injury? How do you know on a 3-month old baby?

I call our amazing pediatrician, Dr. Russo...she answers her on-call cell phone and I start to sob. I LOVE Dr. Russo...and she is so amazing. She calms me down and I walk her thru what happened and she walks me thru the different things she needs me to look for. She tells me that she thinks he is fine, but gives me a list of things to watch for as the day progresses. And then she says this, "I think baby is going to be okay, but I think this was harder on mommy than it was on him. You call me back if you have any questions...any questions at all...even if you just need to talk, okay?"

Seriously....how did I get such a wonderful pediatrician for my kids???? She is fantastic. And poor John...he survived just fine. After his sink-bath and some warm clothes, he was back to smiling and cooing. I took some pictures of the swollen eye.
Poor kid. First shiner at 3 months old...and he got it from his mom.

We managed to pull ourselves together and make it to Grandma's lunch on time. But I can do without that kind of excitement, just for the record. I prefer normal, boring mornings over that any day!