Christmas Morning

Will woke up bright and early Christmas morning. Patrick and I painfully pulled ourselves from bed. We had only had about 3 hours of sleep. One of these days we are going to stop waiting till the last minute. We told Will he could look through his stocking and what Santa had brought, but that he had to wait for everyone else to wake up first. Jack woke up next followed by Sam. Love getting to witness a child's excitement. Mom and Brett came over and visited with us for a little while that afternoon. It was a nice, easy-going, beautiful Christmas day.

Sam's new ride

Snuggling on Cooper's new bed

 POKEMON!! This kid is obssessed. I would have never imagined we would get such a great reaction from this book. 

 Our little scientist loves all things STEM. Magnetic building blocks for him.

 After first unwrapping the box, he said, " A BOX!!" 

 He got even more excited when he realized there was a Transformer Rescue Bot in there. He took the rest of the day opening his presents. He was so excited with just this one. It was cute after he had opened it, he found the rescue bots he already owns and played with them. I heard him saying, "We're best friends." Adorable.

Outer Space Book

Electric Scooters

Sam finally finished opening his presents around 5:30. We would ask him if he wanted to open another one and he would say, no. His big brothers couldn't take not knowing what was in those presents anymore and finally convinced him to open them up.

Tornados? In December?

We have had some crazy warm weather this December, but tornado warnings a few days before Christmas is just ludicrous. We had some strong storm fronts that moved through tonight and we grabbed the kids out of their beds and shoved them in the closet. Remarkably they slept, but we did hear the occasional elbow, leg, or head hit the wall. Kinda cracked us up. And thankfully it just rained really hard and that was it.

Christmas Magic

Gingerbread Houses with Jack

One of my favorite Kindergarten traditions is making Gingerbread Houses. I was able to do this with Will when he was in kindergarten and was so happy that I'd be able to do it with Jack too. He had his own ideas of how to decorate it, and went along with a few of my suggestions. One of my favorite additions he made was to build a fire pit out of fruit loops just outside the house.

I love getting to spend one on one time with my boys, and it happens way less than what I'd like. He convinced me (shock shock) to check him out and let him come home early after we were done. Love this little firecracker.

How Do You Spell Exhausted?

I guess he got tired (literally) of waiting for me to come and tuck him in...poor thing. 

Sunday Morning Struggle

Only 3 more Sundays of 1 o'clock church! Sam has been battling an ear infection, pink eye, and cough. After his cough medicine this morning, he went up to his room and stayed there. He had closed his door and fallen asleep right in font of it.

Baby Laurel

Sam and I were picking up a few things from the pharmacy one night when we walked by a few toys. Sam spotted this and insisted we get it for Baby Laurel. I asked him if he'd changed our mind and decided our baby was a girl now. He said, "Nope, that's Baby Luke." 

Dentist

Samuel had his first dentist appointment today. He did such a good job! He laid up there and let the hygienist clean his teeth like such a big boy.

Tie Blankets

Every Christmas I try and think of ways to remind and encourage our boys to think about others,  and especially about those who are struggling with either health or financial obstacles. This year I was so excited to learn of an opportunity to help some homeless children in our area that Will and Jack could physically be able to do something. A local charity hosted an event where kids could tie fleece blankets that would be distributed to homeless children. The boys learned a new skill and had fun playing and working with other kids in our community.

Basketball

Will has been playing basketball since October. He was so nervous and didn't want to do it. But good Ol' Mom to the rescue--I made him. :) Will is like me in a lot of ways and one of those is not trying things because of fear. I've learned to take more chances, but know I missed out on so many things because I let my fear get in the way. Anyway ever since his first practice, he's been hooked! He absolutely loves it! His team however isn't the best. But they play hard every game and don't give up.

During this game, Will scored his first goal!! So exciting to watch him! I feel so fortunate to get to see him learn and grow in different ways. Dad and Silvana came up and watched Will and made it an extra special game.

Thanksgiving

Wish Grandma could have been in the picture with us! Love these people.

Family Pictures

I had asked my dad to take our family pictures while he was visiting from CA. The best time to do that looked like it would be on Thanksgiving at Grandma and Papa's. Mandy and Bryce's family thought that was a good idea too.

Since we were shooting with a fallen sun and so many people who wanted their picture made, we had to move quick and there wasn't much time to take many of any one family. Luckily we got 2 good ones. Love this little family of mine!

Here is one I took of Bryce's beautiful family

And the ones I took of Dad and Silvana

How to Prepare a Turkey

According to Jack:

Phone Call

On the way to Grandma's funeral visitation, I got a call from my OBGYN. He told me that the results from my blood work had come in and the baby tested positive for something called Trisomy 13. He told me that he and Dr. Scott (my high-risk OB) both thought it was a false positive because the baby looked absolutely perfect (with the exception of the bright spot on the heart) and normally with babies that have trisomy 13 there are severe deformities seen on an ultrasound. He said they would like for me to do have an amniocentesis done and that Dr. Scott could see me tomorrow. I told him I wouldn't be able to meet with her until next week, because my grandmother had passed away.

At first I thought even if the baby has this why would I risk amniocentesis? I know it is considered a very safe procedure but still it made me nervous. I thought... well, I had about a million thoughts. I have never thought I could terminate a pregnancy, but if the baby was only to live and be in pain until it died, how could I be ok with that? That felt selfish to me. I sent an email to my family and a few friends asking for prayers of wisdom and clarity as we tried to make the decision for what we would do.

Today was my appointment. Dr. Scott met us in the ultrasound room. She said she had called the genetics people and asked what the probability was that this was a positive result. 13%. We talked about what might have caused it to come back as positive and a whole bunch of other stuff. She left Patrick and I to decide what we should do. I had gone into the appointment pretty certain that I would have it done and feeling good about that decision, but when we were told it was 13% correct we both felt like the procedure wasn't worth the small risk of miscarriage. We talked with the Dr. again and even saw the baby on the ultrasound and both she and the ultrasound tech commented on how perfect everything looked. We set up another appointment for a couple weeks out to have another ultrasound. Dr. Scott said if at any time I changed my mind we could always do the amniocentesis.

We feel good about the decision we made. I have a new understanding of women who have to make hard decisions regarding their babies. It isn't a complete understanding, just a new dimension.  Life is hard, and for some it seems impossible.

Today we are so thankful that all seems to be well with our little one. Life can change in an instant.