Little Gym

Reagan's Turn - More Surgery

Not to be left out of all the crazy medical procedures we have had going on in our house these past few months, last Monday Reagan had tubes put in her ears. She had tons of ear infections during her first year of life, but then just as we were about to prepare for tubes around her first birthday, they stopped. She only had a few over the last few years, until this year. She had several infections early in the year and then 4 in a row beginning in October. Her pediatrician and the ENT decided it was time for tubes. She and I were at the hospital bright and early Monday morning. She was in good spirits and not nervous at all. Addison had done a good job telling her all the steps to surgery and how everything would go.

One of the amazing things about the way Children's Hospital is set up, is that you are with your child until they are under anesthesia.  They put them under with a gas mask in a little presurgery room, just outside the OR. You sit with them and hold their hand until they are asleep. It is comforting for both parent and child, but also hard to watch. Reagan struggled against the meds and took a few minutes to fall asleep. She looked so sad and was squeezing my hand and trying to be brave. It nearly broke my heart watching. The surgery itself only took a few minutes and went great. Poor girl then had just as hard a time waking up as she did going under. She was disoriented, confused and she wanted to go home. Sometime during the anesthesia she also bit her tongue really bad, so she wasn't too happy about that.

Heading home with a balloon and a stuffed puppy, feeling a little better.

This is how we spent most of Monday. I had gotten my wisdom teeth taken out on Friday, so I wasn't in the greatest shape either. We had a restful day of snuggles and movie watching. Reagan woke up feeling back to normal the next day. Now, we are just saying many prayers that we are done with all the medical procedures. While we are thankful that they are minor and nothing serious, 4 surgeries for one family in 4 months in too many!

Snow Days

Christmas Morning

The girls woke from their slumber party at 4:30am wide awake and ready to go. They raced to our room, turned all the lights on and screamed It's Christmas!!! We told them it wasn't Christmas yet, it was the middle of the night and tucked them back in. As I tucked them in, I realized it was really just Addison awake and excited, the other two were basically just following her lead in a half-asleep state. They woke the second time at 6:45 and Christmas began. They ran downstairs to find a good-bye note from Trixie the Elf and Santa's empty cookie plate.

Santa left American Girl horses, Pappy gave the girls the stable and Miss Debra got all the dolls their riding clothes. They were all a big hit and we have played horses all week.

She's a happy little elf, passing out presents.

Forget all the American Girl stuff, this girl just really wanted that purple Ty bunny. She was so excited. She got the bunny and the unicorn and they have gone everywhere with us this week.

Reagan and her American Girl Cooper Dog from Aunt Tressia and Uncle Bryan.

All the girls in the house got these matching aprons from Miss Debra.

The girls got Daddy a boy Barbie, so he can play Barbies with them. He said he looked at Ken's 6 pack abs and ripped arms and suddenly understood the whole Barbie and self-image issue! :) Ken had him down on the floor doing some Christmas day push-ups.

Sweet

I don't even know what she was opening here, but she loved it and she raced over the give me this huge hug!

We opened lots of presents, cooked a big lunch and made Happy Birthday Jesus cookies. We skyped and talked to family in Texas, stayed in jammies and played all day. It was a perfect day.

Christmas Eve

Late Christmas Eve afternoon we headed to the family Christmas Eve concert and candlelight service at our church. I always look forward to this service every year. In my head I always have visions of sweet cuddles with my children, worship and prayer time and quiet moments focusing on the season's gifts. It never quite turns out just like it is in my head. I love it and I do get sweet cuddles, worship and prayer time and some focus, but there were also lots of loud whispers, a huge cup of hot chocolate spilled, Gracyn pointing things out with her middle finger, and the worries of three small children with fire! We managed through (barely) without catching any one's hair on fire. Despite the chaos, we love it and are thankful to have Christmas Eve service as part of our family tradition.

Another big tradition at our church here is to pass out donuts on Christmas Eve. The church provides thousands of boxes. They encourage you to take as many as you want and to go and bless someone with them. This year, each girl took a box and after dinner, we headed to the Children's Hospital near our house. We gave one box to the staff working that night and we passed several other boxes out to families in the waiting room. We pray they were a blessing to people who weren't home on Christmas Eve night. This is one of our favorite Christmas traditions in Cincinnati and something I think we will always continue, even if we move away from here.

We got home with an excited group of girls, ready to make preparations for Santa. They braved the cold to scatter reindeer food around the yard.



Trixie the Elf had used a bag of M&M's to write a Christmas countdown several days before. Trixie started at 2 Days, and the girls changed it for the few days after that. 

So excited!

Addison and Reagan worked really hard on letters for Trixie and Santa.

Gracyn skipped the letter writing and just ran around, super excited.

Do you think she is ready for Santa?

Reagan and Daddy having a little worship time.

The girls got everything ready for Santa and then we read the Christmas story in the bible and tucked them all in for a slumber party in Addison's room. The anticipation of the morning to come kept them up for quite a while, but they eventually gave up and fell asleep.

Blankets

Each year, at Christmas and really all year, we try to find opportunities as a family to serve others and help people who might be in need. This year, Addison really wanted to make blankets and take them downtown to help homeless people. We worked as a family to make 3 fleece blankets and then we filled 3 big Christmas bags with food, the blankets and a bible. We tried and tried to convince the girls that we should take them to a shelter downtown, but they (mostly Addison) weren't satisfied with that. She was determined that some people might not know where the shelter is or might not go there. She was adamant that she wanted to hand deliver the bags to people that could use them. So, we prayed that God would lead us to the right place, loaded in the car and headed downtown. It only took a few minutes of driving around, before we came across a group of 3 homeless men walking together. We handed them the bags, wished them a Merry Christmas and headed on our way. It actually turned out to be really easy and is something I am sure we will do again. I pray that those men were blessed by the hearts of my children and their desire to help. May we always realize how abundantly blessed we are and always keep our eyes and hearts open to others in need.

School Parties

The week before Christmas I got to attend parties at all 3 girls school. It made for a crazy week, but it was so much fun. Reagan's class was first. She is in the "Penguin" kindergarten, so we decorated cute little penguin picture frames. My friend, Carolyn, and I ran that station. Reagan has some super sweet little cuties in her class and she is always so thrilled to see me, so I always love spending time in there.

At another station they had snowman races. Each team raced to turn a teammate into a toilet paper snowman.

They ate penguin cupcakes. My little clown got a laugh from her friends when she decorated her face with icing, so of course, she loved doing it!



Addison's class was next. They played three games, did a craft and decorated cookies. It was pajama day for them and they were watching The Polar Express that afternoon.

Can you tell she loves a good game?

I wrapped up the week with a Happy Birthday Jesus party in Gracyn's class. My little cutie was the Christian Flag holder in chapel that day.

The class sang songs for us, we had birthday cake and we did a book exchange.

She was so excited. She was especially proud to give me the bag of gifts that she had made. She managed to keep all her gifts secret until it was time for me to open them.

I love experiencing the magic of the season through their eyes. Every little event and detail means so much to them and I am grateful that I get to take it all in with them.