Christmas Part III

On Christmas Eve we watched movies, munched on goodies and spent some great family time together. We didn't get a chance to make Santa our usual goodies so we shared our awesome Peppermint Shortbread tea cookies and a glass of milk. Lucas has been in charge of cookies for the past couple of years and he made sure they were in plain sight. We took one last photo of all the kids before they headed off to bed...cause Santa doesn't make his appearance until everyone is asleep...

On Christmas morning Scott was the first one up. He actually beat the kids out of bed! We took care of the puppies and then Scott made us some delicious eggnog french toast. The kids seem to think that we should do presents BEFORE breakfast because we eat too slow....but we always insist on breakfast first...oh the torture! You would think we were making them do something horrible! lol

Noah and Eli took turns being Santa this year...and Scott and I really enjoyed sitting back and watching their joy. It's always a lot of laughs on Christmas morning because sometimes we give/get silly gifts...such as when Scott called me a "dork" for getting him 90 pop tarts! :) Or how excited Lucas was to get a replacement hammer that he lifted it toward the ceiling and yelled, "YES!".

I actually didn't take that many pics during our Christmas morning so I must have really enjoyed myself. Santa brought everyone the big gift that they wanted and we now have some inspiring Skateboarders, scientists and engineers. On our Christmas day we packed up and headed to the hospital to surprise Grandma with her gifts. Lucas was our designated Santa and as soon as we walked into the hospital I heard a patient say, "Look, it's Santa Claus!". We headed down the hallway and found grandma in good spirits. We got her a new "hobo" hat (we lovingly call her our hobo because she is always wearing a stocking cap...and now Noah has joined that club with his own hobo hat.) We got her a matching scarf and a new winter coat plus some little things. We had a nice visit and thankfully she was feeling pretty good. We stayed for about an hour and left to go eat at our favorite Cinzetti's for our Christmas dinner.

Here is our little group with Grandma. Can you believe how BIG the kids are? Where did my babies go?

Lucas' favorite gift was a Chemistry set. He currently wants to be a scientist and asked for "Toxic Waste" for Christmas. He wanted chemicals and minerals so that he could mix them and cause explosions....but for now Daddy is going thru the experiments with him and he is learning a lot about Science....He Loves it! He also got a membership to a local Science Club for Christmas and is pretty excited about all the different things he is going to learn and make....molding....molding...molding...

We LOVELOVELOVE our extended time with the kids because it gives us an opportunity to relax, play, gel and grow as a family...and during our winter break we played scrabble, monopoly, scrabble, more scrabble, did science experiments, made crystals, rode scooters and skateboards, used Aslan as a sled/skateboard dog, cooked, baked, watched movies and did a photo shoot. It was a great week!!

I hope each one of you had a great Christmas break with your family and had a chance to unwind and bond. We loved our time together and made some great new memories. We believe that the time you spend with your kids means more than the STUFF you buy them. They won't remember the material things but will remember HOW you talk to them, how you make them FEEL, how much LOVE you show them and whether or not your love is UNCONDITIONAL. Merry Christmas!

Christmas Part II

I meant to get this up sooner but now I just want to post it so I have a record and can see the improvement next year when our walls are all painted! It was weird having our Christmas decorations up with unfinished walls everywhere but I know that we are slowly making progress...

Can you see the Santa bag by the fireplace? That was his new thing this year...he left his presents in it...it looked like he accidentally left his britches too...maybe they got caught on the fireplace? I can't quite figure Santa out... 

I got some new ornaments this year that I love! They say Peace, Love, Hope, Joy & Merry Christmas. Exactly what I want our family to focus on during the holiday's.  

We also have family photos on our tree and this one is my fav.
It is my mom and dad on their wedding day.

 This is what I am focusing on in 2011....but I'll save that for another post..

When the kids write their Santa letters we roll them up and put them in the Christmas tree.

We made Christmas trees again this year. Two of them are white, sparkly, glittery trees and one is a feather tree. Love them!

The sparkly trees look like they are covered in snow and the feather one is just so soft. I love turning Christmas into an excuse to make more artsy stuff and the kids really seem to love it too.

At the beginning of December we went to one of our favorite places to make Christmas ornaments and silly things. The Mo. Dep. of Conservation has a great discovery center near the Plaza and we try to get there for each of their workshops.

Here are more Christmas trees made out of natural KS/MO plants.

Noah had a friend over this weekend and they had a great time making ornaments.

Here are the final creations and ornaments from our little group. Lucas was home sick in bed but Noah's friend made sure to give him one of his creations which of course made Lucas feel better.

And for our final decorations here are those ornaments I mentioned on our Thanksgiving post. We spent hours making these little ball ornaments and then used them as a center piece instead of hanging them on the tree. Don't they look great? I am very proud of their hard work.

Christmas Part I

Christmas seemed like it took forever to get here this year and it kind of got off to a rough start. We took the boys to school on Monday the 21st and ended up taking Grandma to the hospital later that day. She had gained a lot of fluid over our long weekend and her CHF symptoms had returned. Her home health nurse came by while I was at work (12-5) and after a few texts back and forth we decided to take her to ER. I drove her back to our fav. hospital and we were there for a few hours while they ran tests, did xrays and took blood. They admitted her and started the extra lasiks to pull out the excess fluid. I stayed for a few hours and left to let her sleep.

I got a phone call at 2:30 in the morning (Tues) letting me know that they were moving mom to ICU. She was septic and they were worried about her heart. They wanted her to have more attention during the night but said I didn't need to come back...and then mom's PCP called at 7:30 that morning to say that mom was now stable and doing better. I wasn't told that she was in critical condition but it wouldn't have done any good to get mad after the fact...they diuretics they gave to her really affected her kidneys and her bnp went up and her creatin(sp) too. They realized she was septic and hit her hard with 3 different antibiotics. The Vancomyacin hurt her kidneys too and they stopped that after one day. On Wed. they did a sonogram and saw a dark spot on her heart. That led them to schedule at TEE for Thursday morning. The TEE is a scope that goes down the esophagus that allows them to get a better look at the heart. They had two concerns. 1) That the blood infection had affected the heart and had damaged a valve or 2) that the infection had started in her heart. Either one of those scenarios was bad.

My brother and I both spent Wed. night at the hospital and then were back at the hospital Thur. morning by 8. They weren't sure when they would do the TEE and like the cable company...they said anytime in between 8 and 12....and turns out it was about 11:45 by the time she was prepped and they were ready. The TEE showed NO damage to the heart and that was great news. They think the spot they saw on the sonogram was just a suture....so we were very thankful for that news. They also decided that she had pneumonia even though she didn't really have any signs of it and nothing every grew in the petri dish. Mom stayed in ICU until Christmas Eve when she was moved to a heart room.

So, it was a rough start to the celebrating and our house was really quiet. We really miss the kids when they aren't home and having Grandma back in the hospital was a little depressing. We went out to dinner and a movie on Christmas Eve Eve after we visited mom but didn't really cook at home on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Our under neighbors sent up dinner and dessert on both days and that made it a little easier at home. On Christmas Eve I visited mom and decorated her hospital room. I hung up garland, ornaments, a tiny stocking and set out some Christmas cards and a decoration I had made. I brought Peppermint shortbread tea cookies and some Gingerbread herbal tea and we had a nice little Santa snack. We hung up candy canes and she gave them away to the nurses who were unlucky enough to have to work Christmas Eve.

It was sad having mom back in the hospital for the holidays but we had high hopes that she would make it home for our Christmas celebration on the 29th...but that didn't happen either. She is still in the hospital and the news isn't very good. Her kidneys are not functioning very well and they are having problems pulling out all the fluid that built up during her infection. She is still suffering with the post-neuralgic shingle pain and it is debilitating.  She spends most of her time in bed and now that she is in the hospital they are experimenting with narcotics. If you went thru the hear saga with us and followed along, you know that mom does not tolerate narcotics very well at all. So, the increase in pain meds has made her sleepier and a little goofy. It is not how she wants to live her life and it is painful to watch. She needs to have her gallbladder out but she is not a good surgery candidate. If I am understanding her PCP correctly, this could change in the future. Mom might also need to have surgery on her pancreas to remove the gallstones but that again is dangerous. They have to balance the thinness/thickness of her blood so the valves are not damaged but not let bleed to death during the surgeries. Now that her kidneys are struggling they are not sure if they will ever be able to do the gallbladder surgery. This of course creates other problems because you can't just NOT fix a gallbladder problem either. It seems they are just trying to ease her pain now and drug her while they hope her body balances out again.

She has been at OMC for the past two weeks and I am really missing her here at home. I am just so disappointed in the outcome of her surgeries and how the shingles have taken her down. She survives two heart surgeries only to be taken out of life by shingles. What the hell! I hate the pain she is in and don't see how she can ever get back home...I hate that I have watched her deteriorate and that she looks and acts 20 years older than she is. I hate that she is only 69 but is bedridden. I hate that I don't quite know where to go from here.

My sweet Mom on Christmas Eve...always with a smile on her face...even thru the pain.

Can you see the Christmas cheer that I brought? :)

Here is the final look...

Once the kids came home on the 27th, our Christmas really started and we had a great time with everyone home. I have a lot to share/record about our 2010 Christmas but I wanted to get this hospital stuff off of my chest first. It still weighs heavy on my heart and I tried my best to bring Christmas to Grandma too so I will share that later.

Merry Christmas!

Luke 2:9-14

And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. 

 We wish you a MERRY CHRISTMAS full of Love, Grace & Mercy!

Traveling Choir Concert

Not too long ago, Eli's Chorus group had a field trip to Crown Center. Scott took the day off of school to spend it with his most favorite red head...and they had a great time. The got to eat lunch at C.C., walk around, visit the shops, buy some candy and then perform for the lunch crowd. I worked that morning and got there in time to visit the candy store and watch their performance. They did a great job and performed all of the songs they sang at their concert a few days before. They had a really good crowed with lots of loving parents, business people and shoppers...and they had a blast. Great job Eli!

Christmas On The River

Autumn and I saw a holiday banner in one of our favorite towns and decided we needed to check out their Christmas On The River celebration. They were going to have booths, food, Christmas music, KUDL and MORE fireworks! You know me....I couldn't pass up fireworks! :) Scott introduced me to this little town many, many years ago and we love to stop in every once in a while so we thought it would be a good addition to our holiday traditions.

Here is our group...ready for fun and food...although Lucas looks scared! lol

Us girls have to stick together! We are OUT NUMBERED!

Handsome hubby... 

We ate dinner at this little restaurant. I think it was new and although our first impression wasn't great...the food turned out to be delicious and the kids loved eating in the caboose!

We fit around one table in the back of the caboose. It was awesome.

Now you may start to notice that the rest of my photos...are a little strange...

And that no one seems to be able to keep their eyes open...

Which happened thanks to Scott...who loves, "My Name Is Earl"...and shared with the kids...

...the fact that Earl takes every photo with his eyes SHUT...and thus...

...the rest of my photos are Sans eyeballs....which became quite comical actually....
Look at that sandwich....the food was delicious!

By the time we finished dinner, the singing/dancing/ballet shows were almost over and it was time for...

...FIREWORKS! And we were so close that it was probably the best show of the three we have seen since Thanksgiving.

After the awesome light display we stopped at a new coffeehouse for some hot chocolate and lattes.
The store had a great design and pretty good coffee.

We really enjoyed the Christmas on the River celebration and will probably be back next year. You can't beat the fun atmosphere, good food and fireworks! 

Musical Talent

Eli and Noah had a combined music program a few weeks ago. Eli plays the bells in the band and sings in the choir. Noah is playing the clarinet for the second year and is really doing a great job. Noah is a part of the Honor band and practices every Monday after school. He has some extra performances at a local HS coming up and he can't wait. Eli gets up early two days a week to get to Choir practice before school and we are proud of his commitment and stick-to-it-ness.

This is the 5th & 6th grade band. Eli is back row, bright green shirt, on the left.
Noah is front row, second from the right in a white shirt.

Here's Noah working his magic...

Eli was sooo nervous...but did a great job!

After the band played, the choir sang their songs. My favorite was titled, "A Partridge in a Pear Tree", but was not the normal arrangement. It was funny! Can you see Eli?

"And a partridge in a pear tree........."

Proud daddy...

Proud daddy...can't believe Noah is a 6th grader....and only a few months away from Middle School enrollment!

And I couldn't make a post without including Little Man and his proud daddy...

Christmas Cheer

For us, the day after Thanksgiving is the day we welcome Christmas...and we do it in style. We turn on some Christmas music, pull out the decorations, make some hot chocolate and start the madness. As the kids get older, my job gets easier and easier! They organized the tree limbs into sizes and got the tree together in about 20 minutes. We added lights, ornaments, ribbon and garland and viola...the tree is done. We hung wreaths, greenery, stockings and even added snow to our bookshelves. The kids love finding their stockings and getting them in just the right order every year. We hung our family photo ornaments on garland in the living room and put their hand made ornaments on their own little trees in their rooms. Eli and Autumn are sharing a tree while Lucas and Noah each have their own. They spent a lot of time decorating their trees just right and getting their rooms ready for the holiday. We had a great time decorating, singing and drinking hot chocolate and I love it that it is one of our family traditions that the kids look forward to every year. (I'll be sure to post their final tree pics later.)

One of our holiday traditions incorporates art, creativity and thriftiness...last year we made Christmas trees out of hangers so this year I decided to keep the tree theme going and make some more. I made 3 new mini trees; one is covered in white feathers and the other two are white with sparkles. I glued a layer of white glitter onto the cardboard tube, spray painted a layer of white, followed by more glitter, more spray paint, more glitter and so on until I had a fuzzy, white, sparkly Christmas tree. (I'll post those pics later.)

Our other decoration project this year, was to make our own tree ornaments. We had 18 Styrofoam balls that we covered with beaded pins and sequins. This turned out to be quite the labor of love! We all sat around the dining room table pushing in hundreds of little pins, trying to design the best ornament. I am very proud that all of the kids finished what they started and made it a fun family event. Noah, once again, surprised me by making several ornaments. The last time he helped me with a time consuming project, he worked for hours sewing hearts on to our family tree for Valentine's day. He seems to like challenging projects that require an extreme amount of focus. He really gets into the details and does a great job. We made a ton of ornaments and made a great table centerpiece with them. And of course, I'll post those final pics later too. :)

We are officially ready for Christmas and whatever surprises may be in store. Personally, I'm hoping that Santa brings me a job.......