Christmas 2012 - Part 3

Christmas Eve was supposed to be a really special day.  We were planning on going to the Christmas Eve service at our church, as we do every year, and afterward, we had invited the family over to our house for finger foods and fun.  I was going to move the keyboard upstairs so my mom could play Christmas songs while Cora Leigh and my niece, Hayden, sang and danced along.  It was going to be a special time of making memories.  Instead, we missed the Christmas Eve service because Jeremy was discharged from the hospital at about that time, and we went home to disinfect everything, once again, and welcome home a weak and still recovering Jeremy.  Even if Jeremy had been well, my niece was recovering from strep and my nephew had RSV, so they weren't going to get to come anyway.  So it was a pretty quiet Christmas Eve at our house as it ended up.  Cora Leigh was super excited about Santa Claus coming!  She was sure to leave a cookie for Santa and left one for Mrs. Claus as well.

Christmas morning, Micah and I were the first ones up.  He had a great time playing with one of his sister's gifts while we waited for the others to wake up. 

Santa Claus came!!

"This isn't for me?"

We took a video of Cora Leigh when she got up on Christmas morning.  Unfortunately, the sound did not come out very well at all, but you can still see the excitement in her facial expressions and mannerisms.  Quite precious.  :)



Here are some pics from Christmas morning.

Cora Leigh's new power drill

This kid loves some bows

She loves her Leap Pad!!

We were supposed to have Christmas with my family the weekend after Christmas, but because of the RSV mentioned before, we were unable to all get together.  We still loaded up the kids and the dog and went to Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Grandpa and Cora Leigh riding the "train"

Snack food yumminess

My handsome boys!!

Me and my dad

Micah celebrated his 10-month birthday!  We were having a hard time getting him to sit still for a pic with his sign.

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Micah loved crawling under the glass of the end tables

Cora Leigh showing Big Papaw some artwork

Cora turned Grandma into a camel

The plan was to have our family Christmas dinner at Mom and Dad's, but we switched that up so that we could take dinner to Bryan and his family.  They only live 5 minutes from us, so Christmas dinner was moved to our house.  It was fun to "host" Christmas dinner, especially when I hardly cooked anything!  :)  And I got to use all my cute Christmas dishes and serving pieces.

Notice the cute plates paired with birthday napkins...it was also my birthday. :)

Yum.

Yum.

We did our gift exchange in an unconventional manner due to the illness plaguing the family.  We still wanted to open gifts together, so we used Skype.  It wasn't the easiest thing to do when you have a 3 year old on both ends, but we managed as best we could!

Skype visiting

Micah wanted to wish cousin Harrison well and a Merry Christmas!

Carrot cake birthday cake - DELICIOUS!

We had a fairly quiet New Years Eve in Jasper with my parents, sister, and grandfather.  We played Phase 10 for what seemed like hours, and we actually stayed awake until midnight!  Of course, we were celebrating on Eastern time despite being in the Central time zone.  :)

What?!?

Cora Leigh sporting Aunt Mandy's headband

Rowdy bunch getting ready for Phase 10

Me and Mom

 

Overall, it was an odd Christmas, but I am so thankful for our family and how blessed we are!!

Christmas Part 2

Now that it's almost February, I guess I should try and finish documenting our Christmas experience.  You could say that our Christmas was unusual this year...not something we would like to repeat.  We spent the weekend before Christmas in Birchwood, celebrating with Jeremy's extended family and his parents.  That Friday we had Christmas at Jeremy's Aunt Reba's house.  We were very sad to find out when we got there that Jeremy's cousin, Becky, (who we hadn't seen in ages) was sick, so she was leaving the house so that she wouldn't expose the kids to anything.  They thought she had food poisoning...  However, we ended up having a really fun evening.  Cora Leigh was in rare form, singing for everyone, playing, and acting crazy.  She acted like Uncle Billy was her best friend, and half the time she is so shy around him she won't even look at him.  I don't know who enjoyed it more!  Here are some pics of the evening:

The next day, we had Christmas with Jeremy's parents.  We had a very nice, relaxing day.  Cora enjoyed opening her gifts; Micah enjoyed the wrapping paper and bows.  :)

Jeremy started feeling bad later that evening.  We headed home early enough so that Cora Leigh and I would have time to make sugar cookies for her Sunday school teachers and for Santa Claus too!  Jeremy wasn't feeling good, but he thought it might be something he ate not agreeing with him.  He pushed through it and took care of Micah while Cora and I baked and decorated.  We had a wonderful time!  She really loved rolling out the cookie dough and using the cookie cutters.  I hate I don't have any pictures, but when you're trying to keep a 3-year old from making a major mess, the camera is that last thing you're thinking about!  We were able to get enough cookies baked and decorated to have some ready for church the next morning. 

By the kids' bedtime, Jeremy had gone from not feeling good to sick.  I won't go into too much detail because it's gross.  I'll just say it was bad.  I volunteered to sleep on the couch to stay away from the germs, and then Jeremy would have easy access to the bathroom.  I don't think either of us slept because he kept getting sick, and while we were separated by some distance, I was very much aware of what was happening.  Around 1 or 2 am, Jeremy decided that he probably needed to go to the ER because he was so dehydrated.  It's at times like that when I am SO thankful that we live close to family.  I called Jeremy's parents and told them what was going on.  They got out of bed, dressed, and drove to our house so they could take Jeremy to the hospital.  It seems they got back to the house between 4 and 5.  They had given Jeremy fluids and anti-nausea meds in the ER and sent him home with a collection of prescriptions.  The next day, we did not make it to church.  The cookies went in the freezer, and then began the disinfecting.  I had Jeremy stay in our bedroom pretty much the entire day.  I was lysoling like crazy, washing my hands, doing everything I could to protect myself and the kids from this nasty virus.  I was also very sleep deprived from the night before, trying to take care of everyone.  It was a rough day.  Thankfully, Jeremy's nausea was much better....until it wasn't.  He woke up that afternoon and was not able to make it to the bathroom before he vomited.  As if that weren't nasty enough, it was black.  Now, I'm no medical expert, but I have sense enough to know that it is not normal for your vomit to be black.  I asked Jeremy to check his meds and make sure that couldn't be a side effect.  Nope.  So I did what anyone else who wants to get to the truth of the matter would do - I went to the internet.  :)  I was able to get some good information and found out that it is definitely not normal to have black vomit, and that it indicates bleeding.  Not good.  SO, I called Jeremy's parents again.  I know they were exhausted too, but they came back to get Jeremy and take him back to the ER.  Jeremy had asked me at this point to take the kids to my parents' house to try and get away from the germs.  We loaded up, on the eve of Christmas Eve, and made the trip to Jasper.  It was really nice to be able to have someone to help take care of the kids so I could get some rest.  I knew Jeremy was in good hands.  Sometime after I had gone to bed...which was early...Jeremy's mom called and told me that they were admitting him.  I was not surprised.  He was actually sent to the ICU, was given more fluids, potassium, and they put in an NG tube to check for the bleeding (tube up the nose, down the throat, into the stomach).  The tube was making Jeremy gag and vomit again.  Apparently it's about the worst thing he's ever experienced.  When they were able to take out the tube, Jeremy did much better.  Then began the waiting game for a endoscopy...  In the meantime, the kids were enjoying time at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  Cora Leigh and I went with Grandma to a nearby nursing home where Mom plays piano every month.  Cora LOVED hearing the Christmas music - she was singing along at the top of her lungs and even danced for the residents!  Everyone seemed to get a little extra cheer from watching and listening to her.  It was really fun and special.  In the meantime, it was not looking very promising that we were going to get to spend Christmas morning together as a family.  We were heading to the hospital to visit Jeremy, and I got a call from his dad out of the blue saying that he was going to be discharged!!  The endoscopy showed that Jeremy had an ulcer and the beginnings of another ulcer that may have been the source of some of the blood.  He also had a lot of irritation.  The GI doc said that he didn't see a tear in his esophagus, but based on Jeremy's blood count, he was pretty certain that is what had happened.  Bottom line, he didn't see anything so severe to keep Jeremy away from his family for Christmas.  :)

Jeremy's parents had stayed at our house between visiting hours on Christmas Eve.  I am so thankful that his mom had already cleaned and disinfected the house.  I still went in behind her with the lysol wipes on all the door handles, light switches, water faucets, toilet flushers, and remote controls.  Better safe than sorry!  But we were in much better shape than we could have been.  Jeremy got home and we settled in and got ready for Christmas!  Cora Leigh did leave some sugar cookies out - one for Santa and one for Mrs. Claus.  :) 

And Santa Claus came!!!

It looks like I'm going to have to post a Christmas Part 3.  :)

Christmas Part 1

We had a very busy and a little unusual Christmas season this year!  We kicked off the season right on December 1st with a visit to the Christmas tree farm.  This is the second year we visited McDowell's Big Fork Nursery on Suck Creek Mountain, and we have been very pleased both years.  This year, we opted to go with a Eastern White Pine tree.  The needles are much softer than the Norway Spruce that we got last year, and the needle retention was awesome!  Cutting down the tree was a different story.  For those who may not know Jeremy very well, patience is not his gift.  As he was sawing the tree, Cora, Micah, and I were standing back watching.  I asked him to let us know when it was about to fall, and Cora would yell "timber!"  Well, he said it was about to fall, and he sawed....and he sawed....and he continued to saw.... and then he ended up with a bloody hand and arm.  At that point, I managed to convince him to take a break and let me try.  Now, I will say that he had done the majority of the work, but I finished the job and got to cut down the tree!  It just fit in the back of our new minivan, and we made our way back down the mountain.  When we got our tree last year, Jeremy's parents had gone with us and his dad had brought along some equipment.  We got our Christmas tree home and realized that we didn't have a saw to cut off the bottom.  Oops.  Thankfully, Ace Hardware is just a couple of minutes down the road, so we now own a hand saw!  Hopefully we'll be a little more prepared next year.  Here are a couple of pics from our adventure.

Getting ready to cut down the tree

This was before he got angry at the tree.  :)

Lights on

Cora wanted to put the star on the tree :)

Cora helping decorate the tree

Micah eating the decoration boxes

I don't think I have to explain this one...  :)

Cora made her musical debut at church at the hanging of the greens service.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures, but I did get a video of her 3 year old group.



We did a couple of other special, fun things this year.  Cora Leigh, my mom, my sister, and I all went up to Nashville to see the Rockettes' Christmas Spectacular.  I was a little nervous about how Cora would do, but she was great!  We really enjoyed the show, but couldn't take any pics.  Here's one picture of us in front of Mandy's tree before the show.

Our little family of four (and a half) also took advantage of a groupon offer and went to see the Christmas lights at the Chattanooga Zoo.  Cora Leigh was SO excited to see Santa Claus.  It was all that she talked about on the way and when we arrived.  However, when we actually got to where Santa was, she did not want to talk to him or get close to him - just a peek from across the room was enough for her.  We did enjoy the lights and getting to see the animals.

We had our first family celebration in the middle of the month and celebrated Christmas with my Dad's family and Jeremy's birthday.  We missed my brother and his family at the celebration as they were out of town, but we really enjoyed getting to visit with extended family who we don't get to see very often.  AND we got to hang out with my cousin's baby girl - cute pics below. :)

Little Ainsley

Helping her mommy open the gift

Cora helping with Daddy's birthday gifts

And here are some other random pics from this month.  Hopefully I'll be able to post Christmas Part 2 soon!

Bath time is a lot of fun at our house these days!

I'm pretty sure this was Jeremy's favorite birthday gift.  ;)  A little encouragement for his workplace.

Thankful

We had so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.  For starters, we were celebrating a non-diagnosis for my sister, Mandy.  She already has Crohn's disease and psoriasis, and they were thinking that she might also have Celiac disease.  However, praise God, the test came back negative!!  I am pretty sure all of the gluten-filled Thanksgiving dishes never tasted so good to her.  :)  We then started Thanksgiving morning with a family tradition - the Grateful Gobbler Walk - a walk they do in downtown Chattanooga every year to benefit the homeless coalition.  We enjoy starting a day of (most likely) overeating with a little exercise, and of course it's a great reminder of how fortunate we really are.  I hope this tradition will also instill a sense of gratefulness in our children by participating each year and talking about why we do it.  We had a wonderful time - Micah slept through most of it, and Cora Leigh enjoyed seeing the water and watching the other people and especially the canine participants!  We also got to enjoy the company of my parents, sister, and niece.

After the walk, we went home to do some cooking and (hopefully) get some rest before a yummy Thanksgiving dinner.  Something magical happened that afternoon - both kids were in their beds napping at the same time!  Jeremy and I were relaxing on the couch, watching television, and we both ended up falling asleep.  I woke up and saw that we had 15 minutes to get ready to leave for Thanksgiving dinner!  Both kids and Jeremy were still asleep.  We woke everyone, and needless to say, we were late, but it was worth it.  We then went to my grandmother's house to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family.  For the record, no one does Thanksgiving better than Mom's family - the turkey, the dressing (made with homemade corn bread and biscuits), the homemade noodles, the homemade yeast rolls - it is DELICIOUS!  And this year did not disappoint.  We were also blessed to be surrounded by dear family members who we love and cherish.

This Thanksgiving, we were so thankful to God for the plans He has for us that we don't always anticipate or understand.  A few weeks before Thanksgiving, we found out that we are going to have another baby!  To say we were surprised would be an understatement.  I was taking birth control AND I am still exclusively nursing Micah.  The odds of us getting pregnant with those two factors - not good at all.  However, those odds mean nothing when God has a plan for your life.  What a reminder that we are not in control of our lives, no matter how much we try to be!  While we are a little freaked out to have another baby when Micah is only 16 months old, we are so humbled that God would see us as being fit to parent another child.  We also are confident that God has a special plan for this child.  I liked what my doctor said when we went in to see him - an unexpected child does not mean an unwanted child.  Every child is a gift from God - we are truly blessed.  Due date - July 3.

Micah is 8-months and Halloween

Micah had his 8-month birthday on October 28, which was an extra special day because it was also the day we did his baby dedication at church.  It's always fun getting 2 kids ready for church on a Sunday morning, but we really did not need to be late that morning because I was working in the nursery during the Sunday school hour.  The morning ended up being extra memorable because Micah decided to try to crawl down our stairs.  I had left Micah with Jeremy in our bedroom to go brush Cora's teeth on the other side of the house.  Which we were finishing up brushing, I heard this awful sound.  I was afraid it may have been Micah falling down the stairs, so I went running.  In the meantime, I hear Jeremy saying, "Oh, no buddy, I'm so sorry" over and over again, and the screaming began.  It was terrifying.  He looked okay and calmed down fairly quickly.  He did have a knot come up on his head, but by the time we got to church, it had already gone back down.  I spent the car ride to church on the phone with the nurse from our pediatrician's office.  Our nerves were shot.  Thank goodness, Micah never showed any sign of a concussion.  He was just fine.  He was dedicated that morning alongside his baby cousin, Harrison, and big cousin, Hayden.  To make the day even better, my brother and his family also joined the church that day.  SO, bad start to the day - good ending.  :)

We also had a very enjoyable Halloween this year.  Cora Leigh decided that she wanted to be a bee, so I decided to try and make Micah a honey pot costume to go with hers.  We had a fun time celebrating Halloween with family the weekend before, and we went trick or treating with my sister and my brother's family. 

Our little bee in the apple bobbing tub

Hayden made a very cute Foofa

Bobbing for apples

Notice all the chunks missing from the apples.  I think they spent more time eating than bobbing. :)

Micah will be ready next year!

Halloween - she was ready to trick-or-treat! She got her new glasses the day before Halloween.

My little honey pot.  We ended up losing the honey...he wasn't a fan.  :)

Monster Harrison

Eager girls

Trick or treating

Harrison had as much fun as he could stand.  At least he was warm in that costume!

Cora decided she didn't want to trick-or-treat any more.  She just wanted to go home and eat her candy!