Christmas #3: With K, C, and J: 12-29-12

Since K, C, and J were with their dad on Christmas, we had "Christmas" a little late.  We had it on Saturday, the 29th and, with the exception of Santa not coming, we treated it just like any other Christmas day.

We began with our traditional Christmas Crepes.  We eat strawberry crepes with whipped topping on Christmas morning.  K loves the whipped topping.

 Then, it was off to upstairs to sort and open presents.

 And we are all ready to begin.....

 K was so fun to have around...she just got so excited with every gift.  I appreciate her being so grateful and kind.  It is a wonderful to give her things and to have watch her response.

 This series of pictures is so fun!  I was so excited about this gift...mostly for the packaging.  I took a bunch of fives and taped them together, then rolled them up, opened up a tissue box, and glued the box back together.  I had put a few tabs up through the top: "Pull here,"  "keep pulling", etc..

 It was such a fun way to give her money for Christmas.  She was counting as it came out, "Wow, there's $15 in here, $20...25...30....35...40...45..$50!!!!!!!

 This is how V spent some of the present opening time.  The noise helps her sleep, I think.

 And then there was the mess...... Oh, wait, one more present.....

J opened it for us...Ping pong paddles?  What?  K immediately asked if we got a net too.  When we said yes....and pointed to the "media room,"  they ran in there to see....

 Our new ping pong table.  :)  We all love it.

Then, we were going to have "Christmas" dinner with my sister and her family....paches and frijoles negros, and plantains, etc....but I cheat and buy the paches and we couldn't get them at the same place as usual.  We decided to use the gift cards my best friend had given us to CiCi's and go out instead.  Best. Decision. Ever. It was so relaxing.  The kids loved being there and no big prep or clean-up.  Just eating together.  I don't love the pizza really, but this time it was so worth it.  And the kids absolutely loved it.

I am so blessed.  Food. Family. Gifts. Fun.  What a great day!  Blessed indeed!

Christmas #2: Home (Mom, Dad, & V) 12/25/12

We got home on the 24th to a cold evening.  After unpacking, we built our first fire in our new home and enjoyed Christmas Eve, just the three of us.  A stinky part of divorce is not having your children with you on important family-time holidays.  I thought maybe it would be more difficult than it was.  I missed K, C, A, and J.  But, we had just seen A and K, C, and J were with their dad in a cabin and I knew they were having a great time.  This makes separation so much easier.  

 Christmas morning we helped V open two of her presents:

CK and I also opened our presents from each other.  And then....the snow began.  I am so grateful that CK was able to have a white Christmas.  My Idaho husband misses that a lot.  It wasn't a ton of snow, but a good couple inches--enough to blanket the earth in white and make it feel even more like Christmas.

 After our Christmas celebrations, we watched some football and prepared to celebrate CK's birthday....yes, he is a Christmas baby and loves it!

All-in-all, it was a very relaxing and laid-back day.  We loved spending the time together.  I am so grateful for CK.  His birthday is a good time to remember just how awesome he is.  He treats me like a queen.  He loves all his children with all his heart, something that he CHOSE to do.  Step-parents can be very special that way.  I am so grateful that he has taken my three kids and loves them so very much.  He is a great dad to all five of our children.  He plays with them, loves them, teaches them, and, when necessary, disciplines them.  He listens to me and always tries to better himself as a husband.  If there is anything he perceives could be better (even if I don't notice and/or say anything), he just does it.  I am amazed at his selfless character.  I am indeed blessed to kneel and pray together with him every night and morning.  He is the man of my dreams and the longer we are married, the more this is so.  I am so blessed.

Christmas #1- in Saint Louis (Dec 21 - Dec 24, 2012)

We had the wonderful opportunity to go to St. Louis and visit A just before Christmas.  It was wonderful.  I was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo nervous about taking V on the flights.  I have flown with babies before, but it has obviously been a while and it just seemed like it would be crazy.  

In the airport, it was.  She was cranky and loud and I was so nervous for the flight there.  But, she ate a little and slept most of the rest of the time.  Such a blessing!

We got in super late Friday night (like going to bed at 2 am the next morning) and so we did not pick up A until Saturday.  We got to get her bright and early.  This is her first moment seeing V again.  She is so loving and such a great big sister.

 We took V's little gym with us.  I am so glad it folds up and fits in the suitcase.  She spent many hours while we were there playing with it.  She particularly likes the stars.  She loves to grab them.

 We always get a hotel with a kitchen area.  It is important for us to be able to cook together.  In this case, A and I made chocolate covered mint Oreos.  We had fun doing it and it really was very yummy!

 While we were cooking, Dad was playing with V.  They seemed to have a lot of fun together!

 V and A were wearing their Christmas outfits.  We actually brought two dresses for V and A loved them both...so we have pictures with each (and V drooled so much, outfit #1 was soaked).

 She even feel asleep on her mat.  It was cute.

 V was giggling with whatever A was telling her.  :)

 And...Christmas outfit #2!

After church, we opened Christmas presents.  One tradition that CK has that dates way back before me is to give A a Precious Moments statue each year.  It is always a tender moment.

 Each present that she received, she loved!  It was fun to be there and watch her open them.  The above is a shirt from Grandma K and the below is a gift from my sister's family.

All too quickly, it was time to go home.  The below picture is of V at the airport.  She was just resting on the chair next to me.  She was happy as can be.   

 J loves pictures of clouds, so we try to take some for him each time we fly.  He hasn't flown much in his life, so he live vicariously through us.  It was a cold, snowy day and once we rose above the clouds, it was so beautiful.  The picture does not do it justice.

 Here she is on the plane.  This time she slept the entire way.  She fell asleep on the jetway on the walk down and did not wake up until after we landed.  What a blessing.

I feel so blessed to be able to go see A so frequently.  CK goes every month and I used to get to go every month with him, but it is more difficult with the kiddos, including V.  We budget every month for these trips and I feel so very blessed that we can afford to go.  A is an important part of our family and I hope that she always knows this.  We are so blessed.  I am so excited already to go to St. Louis again in February and then to have A come HERE in March for Spring Break.  It is always a wonderful feeling to have all five of our children together in one place...it makes our family complete.  I am so blessed.  So very, very blessed!

Next Step for V: Blood Work

V had yet another doctor appointment today.  Only gained an ounce in the last 6 days.  We are continuing with the plan and doing blood work.  She is now at 8 pounds, 4 ounces, and will be four months old on Saturday.  Crazy.

CK took off work to go with us this morning.  After the weigh in, she had to give a urine sample...for a little one, that means a catheter.  No fun.  She didn't like that much.  Then, the doctor sent us out for blood work.  We are not impressed with her pediatrician   I think she is doing all that needs to be done, but I really feel like V is just stats for her, not a human..... if that makes sense.  She didn't even come and talk to us about the blood work, she just talked to the nurse and ordered tests.  

CK and I have been praying a lot about her and we did feel good about doing the blood work, so we went ahead and did that.  But, we will be switching doctors soon.

We had to take her to an outpatient satellite clinic of the local children's hospital.  It was clean.  The people were friendly.  We got right in.  And, the phlebotomist was very good.  V hardly cried at all.  She had blood drawn from her hand and her heal, since there wasn't enough in her hand.  

It looks like it did wear her out some, but she really did great.  She is one tough kid.  I am so glad we are on to the next step.  I am so grateful that whatever is or isn't wrong she is happy.  She loves to sit, talk, and be with her siblings.  She loves to have books read to her.  Her personality is starting to show through and it is so fun.  We are so blessed to have her in our lives!!!

This is her the day before the blood work:  This girl loves to sit!  She loves to be on our laps and she loves her little chair.  I haven't had one with my other kids, but, at least for her, it is great!

Kindergarten Christmas Party

Yes, I am still catching up, but at least I am less than a month behind!  The below picture I found while going through other photos.  In early-mid December, V found out that she could move those things called hands and she LOVES reaching the toys on this gym.  She loves it so much that we brought it with us when we went to St. Louis.  This is picture is of one of the first times that she actually grabbed the toys.  At that time, she really had to concentrate to get them.  Now, she mostly just reaches up and grabs them.

 I was so lucky that I got to help at J's Kindergarten Holiday Party.  I would have been there no matter what, but CK had taken the day off and V stayed home with him while I got to go help 5 and 6-year-olds.  It was great!  :)

 They made Christmas trees out of ice cream cones, which they absolutely loved, but it was very messy!

This is J's teacher, Ms. C..  He loves her.  She is a great teacher and he truly is lucky to have her.  I feel very blessed that he has such a wonderful, loving, God-fearing and faith-filled teacher.  She blesses our entire family.  Every week when I go eat lunch with J, she takes the time to stop and ask about how V is doing.  I appreciate that a lot.  She is spear-heading becoming a STEM school (a science and math specialized school) and she works so many hours at doing that.  J is blessed and our family is blessed too.

Flag Football

C played flag football again this year.  He loved it, but not as much as before.  This year was a tough year for his team.  They ended the season 0-9.  At the Y where C plays, the oldest team is 11 -12 year olds.  But, they only had enough kids for one team and so we joined with another Y that had three teams.  They had different rules all around, which made it hard.  In addition, they are divided into 12-13 year old teams.  A couple of the teams had all/almost all 13-year-olds.  This means C's team was very out-sized and out-talented.  They did better and better though and I am proud of them for continuing to go and work at it.

 I don't know if you can see him in the above picture, but off he goes!

He is ready to play tackle and he will next year.  I love football, but my Mom-Heart does hope that he is safe and not injured (at least too much!).  I am glad that he loves sports-and that he can spend time with CK enjoying sports together.

This is C's coach.  He is a good man with a huge heart and a love for the game and for the boys.  We were lucky to have him.

"In His Constant Care"

 

 This picture is art by Simon Dewey.  I am certain it is copyrighted and should not be printed.

But, this picture shows exactly what I am feeling.  V has to go in for blood work and then, depending upon the results, she will be sent to a specialist....probably either a nutritionist or a GI specialist, maybe a different specialist if her blood panel shows something more serious.  Since she is nearing four months old and only weighs 8 lbs-3 oz, it makes sense to try and figure out what is wrong.  We have spend the last 5-6 weeks making sure she has enough calories going in.  Now, we need to figure out where they are going if they are not helping her to grow.  It is still a little scary for this mama.  I have never experienced this before.  I have been blessed to have completely healthy and "normal" babies.  This scares me.  I don't want to poke her, draw her blood, or cause her discomfort.  She is so happy and has such a great personality and I don't want that to change.  I know it probably won't, but it still causes me some worry.

That is why I absolutely love this picture.  I have framed it and hung it above her bassinet...for her to look at and for me to look at also.  It gives me peace, knowing that my baby girl is in His hands.  Jesus Christ knows her, knows what is best for her, and knows she will be okay.  I am so grateful for my knowledge in His plan that gives me peace.  I am grateful to know that there is life beyond death, just-in-case there is something seriously wrong.  How blessed I am.  There is nothing like the peace the Savior brings.

List-Less

Today I am List-Less.  Nope my list is not lost....I am going without it.  I have done this before, but it has been over a year, I think.  Those of you that know me know my personality thrives on order, including a little piece of paper, affectionately known as "THE LIST."  I use one sheet of paper to plan my week.  It works well for me.  But...sometimes I just don't get other things done.  So, I am trying to go every Friday List-Less....this means not scheduling anything.  It does NOT mean NOT working....I wish it did.  But, it does mean that I do what I want when I think of it.  No cheating and looking at my list, just working around my home or whatever whenever.

So far (today only) it is great.  You see, I don't like Fridays.  I know.  I am weird.  But, Fridays mean two things for me:  A) I get to see just how much I have NOT accomplished in the week and B) my kiddos go with their daddy.  I miss them.  On the other hand, Fridays also mean that I get the weekend with CK and that is always good.  :)

So, so far today I have thoroughly cleaned the kitchen, done a batch of towels, took a shower, working on making more burp rags for V, and now I am blogging.  I also get to spend approximately an hour of each 2.5 hours feeding V....we are still trying to get her to grow and feeding gets to be extensive.  But, I enjoy being a mom and I love her.  So, in addition to the above, we had a feeding hour, got three kids fed and off to school, and had family scriptures and prayer. 

Now, the question will be if I love List-Less day every week this much or is it more because CK and I went to bed early last night since we have both been so exhausted.  Hmmmm.......

P.S.  V weighed 8 lbs, 3 oz yesterday.  For being almost four months old, that is still so tiny, smaller than C was at birth.  She continues to be happy, though.  She loves to talk and play with her toys.  She rolled over this week, many times in one day.  She loves to sit on our laps and she enjoys books being read to her (YES!).  I am so grateful that she feels good.  No matter what is going on, she feels good.  It is just time to get to the bottom of the issue and figure out what we need to do, if anything, to help her.

Thankful Wall--November 2012

We continued this year with the Thankful Wall tradition.  We had a wall in our piano room that was perfect.  It was great to have that reminder every day before we left the house.  I was actually going to list all that we documented being thankful for this year, but I think they are all visible in the pictures.  I blocked out names before taking this picture--there aren't usually sticky notes on here.

It is such a wonderful experience.  It really helped us focus, both individually and as a family on the multitude of blessings that we enjoy.  Truly, we are so blessed!

Piano Recital- 12/03/12

My kids have been taking piano for 2 1/2 years since I bought our piano.  They both love it and they are both very talented.  C has gotten very busy with football and trumpet and theater and, for a while, he will not be taking piano lessons.  This is a bummer because he loves piano, but he cannot do it all (neither can we).  He is very talented with the piano and I know he will not stay away from it long.

K is also quite talented.  She loves the piano as well and performed superbly in the recital.  As they have taken piano for the last couple of years, we have watched them be later and later in the recital.  For the most part, their teacher begins the recital with those just learning, up to her most advanced students.  For this recital, C and K were the last ones, except for her daughter who is absolutely amazing and has actually started taking lessons not with mom....she has become quite advanced.

K loved this picture....they were matching.  I am glad she had me take it.  I like it too.  :)

And the boys, of course....  :)

This just represents more of my blessings.  I am so blessed....good kids, great husband, music in my home.  How blessed I am.  :)

Ward Christmas Party - 12/01/12

WAYYYYYYY back on December 1, we had a special visit.  XDH's parents were in town to visit him.  Of course, since we still love each other very much, they came and visited me for a few minutes.  They hadn't seen our new home, so they got the grand tour and we visited for a bit.  They paid me a major compliment by saying that they could feel the Spirit in my home.  That really meant a lot to me.  They mean a lot to me.  Among the devastations of the divorce would have been losing them.  Thankfully, I did not lose them.  I am so blessed.

After our visit, we hurried over to the church for our ward (local church congregation) Christmas party.  I was happy to have it be so early in the month, as life just gets so busy this time of year.

Here is the "gingerbread" house that J made:

They also let the children decorate "placemats" to take to a homeless shelter for Christmas dinner.  I thought that was a great idea.  J loved his picture...particularly because it had penguins (his favorite!) and he really wanted to keep it, but he was willing to give it up to help others have a good Christmas.

Our two older kids were too old to sit with Santa, but we stood in line with the two littles.  J is very serious and V is just very cute!  I love this first picture with Santa.  :)

I feel so blessed as demonstrated by this post:  I have great in-laws (both sets!), I have wonderful children, and I enjoy associations with wonderful people in my ward.  I am truly blessed.  :)