Merry Christmas!

 Merry Christmas to all!  I really love this time of year, because I feel my Heavenly Father's love so easily, in all the good around me.  I wish I could keep that feeling with me all year long.  I'm gonna try.

Anyway, despite big sickness, round 2, we've enjoyed some school programs:

Pre-school programs have got to be the best.  So cute.  Everett said his part loud and proud.  Of course, he didn't sing a word, but he said his part loud and proud.  :)

 I totally meant to crop these photos down, so you could actually see my kid, but oh well.  First grade in the top photo.  Maren is in a pink/red striped sweater.

 Third grade.  Ellie is in white with a big pink bandage on her finger.

Daisy caught my cold/flu/it-stunk-whatever-it-was:

 That is a sad, sick baby.  :(

I love to walk into a room and see this:

 Oh, and seeing Ellie's finger there reminds me to give you all an update.  She visited the surgeon and he unwrapped it, had a look (yucky) and then wrapped it back up.  We won't know for another couple weeks if the grafts actually took.  They attached the entire nail bed, so if it doesn't take, she'll be without a nail.  We are praying that blood supply gets to the end of that finger (as a side - isn't that awesome?  Your body can re-establish a blood supply?  Amazing!)

Gingerbread houses:

 Lainey surprises me with her patience with stuff like this.  I think she was the last one at the table, happily decorating.

And we visited with my parents and decorated some gingerbread cookies there.

 Grandpa giving Everett a hard time about eating the gingerbread boy's foot.

And today, some Christmas crafting:

I am looking forward to spending some quality time with these people in the next few weeks.  Merry Christmas, our friends!

Ode To St. Nick

So, I really like the big jolly man in the red suit, but this is not dedicated to him.  Ha Ha!  Fooled you!  :)  This is to my Nick, who is also a saint.

So far, December has been, um, kind of a crazy month for us...  Lots of good things, and we've been happy and all, but a lot of not so fun things too.  We've had at least two people sick at a time all throughout the month, first a tummy bug that ran (literally) through our family, and most recently a nasty cold that completely knocked me off my feet for a few days.  Amidst that fun, Ellie gets her finger amputated and has to go in for emergency reconstructive surgery.  Whoa.  Anyway, back to Nick.  Throughout all of this, my Nick has just been plain awesome.  He continues to prove to me that I married myself one amazing guy (as if I didn't know it then).

*He was there moments after Ellie's injury and handled the whole emergency so calmly.

*He cleans up puke.

*When kids are sick, they seek Dad for sympathy.  I'm the one screaming for them to run to the toilet, Nick is the one who holds their hair and rubs their back.

*He came home to a disaster of a house with a sick wife on the couch and sent me to take a bath and go to bed while he took care of kids and then cleaned.  I came downstairs in the morning to a whole new house!

*He attended all Christmas school performances (even the 10 minute one), even though it is not easy to rearrange his work schedule to make it happen.  I love it that it's important to him.

*He took Ellie to her follow-up appointment, once again arranging his work.

*He makes ice cream.  Which makes us happy.  :)

*He's been putting kids to bed and reading them stories all week while Mom's voice recovers.  Putting kids to bed?  That earns big time points, man.
*Plus, of course, all the ordinary other awesome things he does like making bread for our family, doing dishes, cleaning up dinner, taking kids to school, loving me, changing diapers, brushing baby teeth, etc, etc.

Nick.  You are my hero.  I love you.  Thanks for holding up well under pressure.  And now, I'm going to clean the house.  It's been awhile since you've come home to a clean house, hasn't it?  Here's to the rest of our December being calm and fairly uneventful.  Cheers!

Christmas Festivities

 Most Christmas events we had scheduled for this month happened to land on the same day, thankfully at different times so we could work it out, but Saturday was one big party from morning 'til night.

But first, two really cute photos: 

 Man, those eyes!  Even with peanut butter face, she's adorable!

And our poser:

Ok, on to the party.  First, our ward's Christmas breakfast (in jammies) complete with a North Pole visitor:

 On the naughty - nice scale from 0 to 10, Ellie, apparently, is an 8.5.  Not too bad!

 Lainey was not one bit nervous to climb up on Santa's lap.  She is such a fun, happy tagalong.

Everett, on the other hand would only get close enough (with Dad as a tether) to nab that candy cane.

Daisy took one look:

And was out of there!

 Why do we force this torture upon our children?  :)

We got all spiffed up for party #2.

And to Grandmother's house we went!

Ellie had a piano piece all ready to go, but she got out of that one this year!  Maren was a champ and sang Away in a Manger with her cousin.  Lu was excellent support.

I sang with my sister and brothers:

My nephew was overwhelmed with how awesome we sounded.  :)

And a round of pictionary.  You try to draw "In the Bleak Midwinter."  That can be today's challenge for you...

And, of course, the nativity:

 Maren was Mary.

The shepherds adoring baby Jesus.  I'm pretty sure the real thing looked pretty close to this:

And Ellie, a lovely angel once again:

I love being with my family!  Thanks, Mom!

And, party #3:  Mormon Tabernacle Choir Concert with the Sesame Street Muppets!

I was looking forward to it, of course, but I really surprised myself with just how touched I was by seeing some of my favorite childhood pals right there in front of me.  I was moved to tears when the choir and orchestra opened and out on stage walked Big Bird.  Our favorite was the Count doing the Twelve Days of Christmas with Richard Elliot at the organ.  So awesome.

Ellie loved it, was on the edge of her seat (we had awful seats) and wanted to understand all the jokes.  Maren, on the other hand, was wiggly and bored.

Here we are waiting outside in the LONG line to get into the conference center:

My lovely ladies.

Finally in our seats.

Big Bird just after he conducted the orchestra and choir.  He's giving the baton back to Mack Wilberg.  Big Bird was an impressive conductor!

And, at the very end when all the performers came on stage.  You can see the puppeteers in black holding the Muppets (if you look closely).

What a fabulous performance and a wonderful day!  

My kids are, of course, counting down the days 'til Christmas.  I was telling them how sad I was that Christmas was coming so soon because then it's over.  My favorite part of Christmas is all that leads up to it.  Here's to another 9 days of Christmas shenanigans.  :)

Perspective

Wow!  It's been crazy around here!  We had some trauma in our family yesterday, and I'll tell the story in a minute, but first, here's some real life:

Cinderella didn't quite make it to the Ball:

This last weekend, a stomach bug made our home their home.  They weren't really welcome guests, but they made themselves at home regardless.  It moved through all of us, so we've been washing lots of blankets, and sipping lots of liquids.  It hasn't been too fun.  Maren and Lu are tied for first place for "the best pukers."  They made it to the potty every time.  Here's Ellie enjoying some lego time on her sick day:

Daisy's version of peek-a-boo.  Sometimes she actually makes it up to cover her eyes:

And Everett comes to me with a pair of socks and says, "Can you put on my ear muffs?"  Ok...

Funny kid.

And now on to the really good stuff.  Yesterday I was dropping off kids at school and Ellie got her finger smashed in the car door.  As she was getting out of the back, she had reached her right hand around, meanwhile our carpool buddy didn't realize her hand was there and shut the front passenger door right on her hand.  Ellie started wimpering/crying/screaming and one look at her finger, I knew it wasn't good.  The tip of her right ring finger had been completely severed, and I could see bone.  Gross.  I called Nick, called a neighbor to keep the littles, put on clothes and rushed Ellie to the Emergency Room.  Thankfully, Nick was able to join me there shortly.  I really don't have the stomach for this kind of stuff.  And poor Ellie doesn't either.  She wouldn't look when her wound was uncovered.

Here she is, looking sad and in pain before her numbing shots:

This is after her numbing shots, so she was feeling better, although everyone looks entirely too happy in this photo.  If you are brave and want to zoom in, you can see her missing finger tip.  By the way, we did take photos, but for documenting only.  I hope I never see them again.  The memory is enough to give me nightmares.

So, I had a few people ask if I was able to recover the tip of her finger, and I said no, I didn't think of it at the time, but the car was there, and there was a chance it could be in the latch of the door.  At this time, the doctor was poking around on her finger which was grossing me out, so I walked out to the car, kind of hoping, and definitely expecting nothing would be there, but I had to check all the same.  I was surprised to open the door and see fingernail and flesh hanging right on the door latch.  It was truly a miracle it was still there, especially because the door had been closed and opened again.  And now, you can have nightmares too.  I put on a glove, quickly slipped it into a baggy and gave it to the hospital staff.  Ellie didn't even want to see it, and I don't blame her.  They weren't sure if it would be helpful or not, but they put it in some saline to freshen it up.  Gross.  Body parts are supposed to be on bodies.

Meanwhile, I had babies at home and my neighbor had to leave, so after making sure Ellie didn't need me there, I left Nick in charge of the stomach-turning stuff and headed home.  I did fine, getting updates occassionally, until a bit later, when I really wanted to be with Ellie.  My dear sister-in-law came over to be with the kids so I could be there for the last couple hours.

Ok, back to Ellie.  The ER doc looked at her finger and knew it was above his realm, so he passed her on to a hand surgeon.  She got x-rays, where we learned that the tip of her bone had also been cut off.  They tried to do an IV, was unsuccessful and had to give her laughing gas to get her to calm down so they could do one in her hand.  And then, they put her under anesthesia to reconstruct her finger.  It turned out they were able to use what I had recovered from the car latch.  They rebuilt the flesh around the bone and reattached the fingernail (apparently this helps the nail bed in it's quest to grow).  Her finger will certainly never be the same.  I imagine it'll have a serious scar and may never grow.  They say she should have a fingernail, so that's a good thing.  The surgery was successful, and went as they had hoped and expected.

Here she is in the recovery room, smiling again:

And now, she's home recovering.  She's on pain meds, antibiotics, and has to have her hand elevated and on ice until tomorrow.  She has moments where she's feeling awesome, and moments where she's not.  She's a trooper, though. 

This is one of those experiences you never want to go through, that you try to protect your kids from, but which brings you right back to what is truly important.  At the end of the day, Ellie was saying our family prayers and she was grateful for this "good day".  After, I asked her, "Was it really a good day?"  And she had to agree that it was, mostly, a good day.  We felt so blessed through all of it.  So grateful it wasn't worse than what it was.  So grateful for friends and family who stepped up to help and comfort.  So grateful for wonderful hospital staff who took good care of our baby.  So grateful for the Comforter, who was constantly with us.  And, we definitely could not deny the tender mercies sent from a loving Heavenly Father.  Hopefully our future lessons on perspective aren't quite so traumatic.

The Most Wonderful Time

Our Thanksgiving break started out with a trip to Hogle Zoo.  I haven't been there in years, and it was like going to a whole new zoo!  I was impressed with all the new exhibits.  I was also impressed with myself for braving a day out with five crazy kids on my own.  ;)  I didn't lose a single one.  It was a free day, which means there were a LOT of people there, but we still got to see all we wanted to see and had a great time.

My monkeys:

Later that afternoon, Nick and I took the fam to see Big Hero 6, which was a really great movie.  I do believe that will be the last time I take little children to a movie, though.  New rule:  must be 4 years old to go to a theater for the sake of mom's sanity.  The one time the babes were sitting still:

Thanksgiving morning:

We had a wonderful time with Nick's family Thanksgiving afternoon (thanks, Ryan and Jess!).

And now, we have Christmas: 

We let the kids pick out a new ornament, and it was so fun to watch them deliberate and pick something just right.

Lu's:

Maren's:

Everett's:

Ellie's:

I have two brothers and a sister that live in close proximity and we get together once a month with our parents for a combined family home evening.  It is great fun.  Yesterday was our turn to host.  Nick has been wanting to make his own nativity for awhile, and we decided it would be a fun activity.  So we cut out pieces for all and made this up:

 We like how they turned out.

Here it is in process (notice my Dad - painting - wonders never cease):

We let the kids do their own.  See:

 Maren insisted she give them faces.  :)  I kind of like their clownish addition.  And I adore the little Holstein sheep.

I love this time of year.  I love the twinkling lights.  I love peppermint flavored goodies.  I love the stockings hanging on our mantle.  I love snuggling up in our warm home with those I love the most.  And, I especially love the Spirit of Christ it brings into our home. 

 Wishing you all a happy and warm Christmas season!