Christmas 2009

Christmas was so much fun.  Mark and I got way too many gifts for the girls, but it was so fun to watch and listen to excitement pouring out of Lauren Christmas morning.  Here are just a few of the MANY pictures I took of the girls. 

Addison in Omaha the weekend before.  I never got a chance to get these pictures uploaded.  She had a lot of fun playing with her cousin Eve who is about 6 months older than her. 

Lauren and Emma.  Emma is by far Lauren's favorite cousin. 

All of the princesses you could ever imagine.  Lauren loves her Disney princesses. 

Lauren giving Addison a hug after she opened the gift that Addison got her, a barbie CD player.  I love it!  She also got a Taylor Swift CD, a Hannah Montana CD, and I got a Carrie Underwood CD. 

Addison loved all of her new toys.  There were so many toys in the living room that Addison kept tripping over things as she was walking all over the place.  Now that she has figured out how to walk that is all she wants to do...so exhausting for Mark and I! 

Lauren, Addison and Claire.  The three grandkids at my parents house Christmas night. 

Lauren loves Tinkerbell and she got the second movie. 

My Dad made all the girls these baby cradles.  Pretty amazing huh?  He had been working on them since May.

I got Mark a bearcat national chamionship sweatshirt for Christmas and my Mom got my Dad a long sleeve t-shirt.  This picuture was taking right after they did a chest bump.  Men???

If you look really close you can see all the chapstick Lauren has on.  It looks like it could be lip stick but it is just chapstick...

Zoe loved the snow as much as Lauren did! 

Sunday evening we finally got out in the snow to play and Lauren loved it!  She made several snow angels. 

To top off the weekend our power went out Sunday night for about 2 1/2 hours. I had soup in the crock pot so we ate by candlelight and a flashlight. We ended up going over to my sister's house after about 1 1/2 hours of no power as it was starting to get very cold and very hard to entertain the girls in the dark!

Christmas Eve

I love Christmas Eve and I love starting traditions with my girls on Christmas Eve. The past few years Lauren and I have made cookies for Santa, which we did today. This year we started a new tradition that Christmas Eve will be jammie day. We started this for a few reasons. Today at school was jammie day and Lauren was very sad that she was missing it, so we had jammie day at home. It was also jammie day because Lauren has been sick the last few days and did not want to get dressed today anyway. I was a little worried this morning that she was going to be sick again today when she fell asleep on the couch at 8:30 this morning, but that passed and she seems to be feeling better!

All dressed up for church. I can't even believe we got out in this mess, but you can't miss church on Christmas Eve right?

After church we always go to my Grandma's house. It was on the way home so we stopped by and dinner. It was a quick visit since you could hear the sleet hitting the house like crazy. Lauren and Addison got to open one present, new jammies. Another tradition that I started this year...New jammies on Christmas Eve.

Lauren wrote Santa a letter to tell him she wanted a water snake. That is the only thing she really wants for Christmas (so we bought 6.)

All the girls loot! I can't wait for morning!

I had to stare at this package all day today when Mark was at work. Lauren told me she picked it out and it was pretty jewels. She said "you can't open it till Christmas Mommy." I can't wait till morning!!!!

I love this picture!

I really need to head to bed. The girls are asleep, and Mark is too. I am just so excited for the morning and the white Christmas. Sure do hope we can make it to my parents later in the day. Merry Christmas everyone.

Christmas in Omaha

This past weekend we spent in Omaha with Mark's family. I took tons of pictures of course but I have not had any time to upload them and post them. We got back late Sunday and I was back at work Monday morning, up late putting together Christmas presents and really should be wrapping Christmas presents now.

So I will make this brief. Lauren loves her cousins and had a blast playing with them. I wish she could have had more time with them but it just did not work out. The girls did pretty well in the car, but neither of them really take very good naps in the car so you can imagine entertaining 2 girls for 3 hours...exhausting. I am glad the weather cooperated, that made the drive nice.

Lauren got some new toys from Grandma and her cousins, but nothing that she really asked for--except for the Snow White movie. I am looking forward to giving her all of the things Santa has gotten her (mainly the art easel, she loves coloring and drawing.) Addison enjoyed playing with the paper, and rolling around on the sleeping bag that Lauren got.

Well, more to come after Christmas.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

What a Weekend

Warning: Tons of pictures ahead. I took almost 200 this weekend!

This weekend was so busy but so much fun. Saturday morning we started out at the CMH holiday party at the Hyatt downtown. There was tons of activities for the kids including arts and crafts, a magic show, face painting, caricatures, and a visit with Santa if you wanted. Of course, both of my girls skipped Santa this year. Lauren's favorite thing was the magic show. The girls also enjoyed the face painting. Addison got a Christmas tree and Lauren a snowman.

Then if was off to Killian's birthday party at Tunnel Voyage. Killian is Lauren's best friend. They go to school together. She could have been the only one at the party and he would have been completely happy, but there were several little boys from the class and they all had a lot of fun. Addison enjoyed playing in the little baby area, while Lauren took on the big tunnels. A first. Of course, if Killian will do it, then Lauren will follow along. Those two are the best together!

Then it was off to Aiden's party at Gymboree in Mission. We were all over this town on Saturday. Both girls fell asleep on the way to Aiden's party...thank goodness. Lauren only slept about 10 minutes, but when I woke her up she was so excited to be at Aiden's party. Mark and Addison joined us after about a 45 minute nap! Yea for Addison.

Sunday afternoon was Lauren's dance performance. She started dance class in September and she absolutely loves it! They have been practicing for this performance for about a month now and Lauren did awesome. I was not sure how she would do getting up on stage in front of close to 500 people but she was awesome and Mark and I were SO proud of her. It was very sweet watching her dance up on stage and be so proud. The first picture is Lauren's friend Camryn, one of my girl friends from high school's daughter. They are really good friends at dance class.

So here it is Sunday evening and I am exhausted. This weekend was a blast and I would not have it any other way. After the dance performance we had to go buy a few more Christmas presents for school and then we had to make fudge. Wow...what a weekend. I think I might be ready to go back to work to relax!!

Addison's Surgery

Yesterday morning on a very cold and snowy morning we got out of bed very early to be at Children's Mercy South for Addison's surgery to get tubes put in her ears. She has had 7 ear infections since January and so our PCP said it was time to see the ENT Dr. and he said she needed tubes. I knew she would do great and it was pretty amazing how well she did. Being a nurse myself I knew her risks for surgery were minimal and her risk for anesthesia was almost none. So I felt very calm when she was handed over to the RN's to be taken back to surgery. I just knew she was going to do just great and she did. I knew the anesthesiologist doing the case and of course the surgeon placing the tubes was also a Dr. I have worked with at the hospital so I knew Addison was in good hands. The RN's in the pre-op area and recovery were great and explained things to Mark and I very well. They did not know I was a RN at CMH and I did not want them to know. I wanted to be treated like a normal Mom whose kid was in to have surgery. They answered all of our questions and prepared us very well for what to expect. The volunteer who came to get us and let us know that Addison was done with surgery was Jim. I have worked with Jim for about 7 years now. He was a volunteer on the floor I worked on prior to being in the clinic. He would hold crying babies for hours and always manage to calm then down. Soon I would check on them and both Jim and the baby would be sleeping. Such a dedicated volunteer. So when he called us back and said Addison was awake and ready for us it was wonderful!

Here she is waiting to be called back to the pre-op area. Nice and warm in her jammies.

When we first arrived I got her changed into the hospital gown. They got her vital signs and her weight and started explaining everything to us.

Just hanging out waiting for surgery to start. We had to wait to talk to Dr. Eyen and the anesthesiologist prior to the surgery. There were lots of toys to keep the kids entertained. Addison was not able to eat or drink that morning but she did not seem to care. I figured she would be cranky and hungry, but she was not. She was perfectly fine! That is our Addison though, always fine...

She pushed the car round and round for a very long time. If you look closely you can see the big smile on her face. I just love it!

I just love her little bottom! The hospital gown was too big for her to I tied it up so she could get around.

The only problem Addison had was after she woke up. She was a little cranky, which is normal. As a baby there is no way to verbalize that "funny" feeling from the anesthesia so baby's just cry and are sometimes hard to console. I knew this and knew it was normal. It looks like I am sleeping in that picture but I am just looking down at her trying to keep her calm.

After a few minutes she starting drinking water and eating teddy grahams. We got her dressed and off we went. It was pretty amazing how quickly the whole thing was. Mark and I were in the waiting room for ~ 15 minutes after handing her off to the RN's to go to surgery. Then Dr. Eyen came in and said she did great, everything looked great and that she was in recovery and starting to wake up already.

She fell asleep on the way home. I hated to wake her up, but it was so cold in the garage that I had to wake her up and take her inside. She was fine of course, so I got her some breakfast and we began her day.

By the afternoon you would have never known she was in surgery that morning. She was up and playing and doing great. I am very thankful for how great she did and that everything went so well. I look forward to no longer needing to give her antibiotics with each and every cold she gets (as the runny nose and cough always led to an ear infection.)

Yea for Addison!!!!!!!

Thanks for checking in on her and thank you to everyone who called that day to see how she was doing. That was very kind of you.

14 Months Old and She Loves my Chili!

Have you ever know a baby to like chili? Well Addison loves mine! She eats the beans, tomatoes and meat each time I make it. The first time I made it for her I thought it might be a little too spicy and hard on her stomach, but she does not seem to mind and as you can see here she loves it. Oh and she refuses to keep her bib on for very long these days, so chili ended up all over her clothes...nice huh?

Man she is cute! Keep her in your thoughts at she goes to Children's Mercy on Wednesday to get her ear tubes placed.  No big deal in the whole scheme of things, but still my baby going under anesthesia for a brief amount of time. I know she will wake up fine, hopefully not too cranky, and will no longer need antibiotics for all these ear infections...I will keep you updated.

Go Big Red

So Mark and Steve headed out to Dallas this afternoon to watch the Big 12 championship game at the new Cowboy stadium. Mark has been talking about it for weeks now. If NE would get the chance to play in the game he wanted to go so he could check out the multi million dollar facility. I never really thought NE would make it to the championship game with the way the season started out...but they are there and Mark and Steve are too and they are so excited.

So it is a girls weekend here at home and I am very excited. We have a busy day planned tomorrow with a Lee's Summit Parents as Teachers event in the morning and probably Bass Pro Shop in the afternoon. I picked up a pizza this evening for the girls...it will last them all weekend....and I will just find some things around the house for myself to munch on...

I have sent Mark a few pictures of me and the girls this evening as we were just hanging out around the house playing. I know he will have fun but he will miss his girls so much...Can't wait till he gets back home!

The Rest of the Weekend

The rest of the weekend was a lot of fun. Friday morning we woke up and started decorating the house for Christmas. When Addison went down for her morning nap we put up the tree and fluffed it all up. When she woke up we put all the ornaments on. Lauren and Mark did a great job decorating the tree as Addison and I got all the ornaments ready.

This was the look on Addison's face when she woke up from her nap and saw the tree all lit up. She just looked around the house and went "OHHHH." It was so sweet to watch her look at all the new things in the house.

Here Mommy. I can help you put up all the decorations. Shortly after this happened Mark took the girls downstairs and I got the rest of the living room decorated.

My favorite way of decorating the mantel yet. Each year I can never remember what I put where the year before, so I took a picture this year so maybe I will remember next Christmas!

Saturday Morning at the Mall

Saturday morning we headed out to the mall to see Santa and buy the girls their Christmas ornaments for the year. Lauren said she did not want to sit on Santa's lap but she would talk to him and tell him what she wanted. Well, she ended up being shy and burying her head into my shoulder as Addison screamed when I tried to sit her on Santa's lap. So no Santa pictures this year. Instead we got our ornaments, another Aerial for Lauren and a teddy bear for Addison. Then the girls hit the play area to burn off some energy. They played in the bus for the longest time.

Sunday Afternoon

It was time to make the gingerbread house. More of a project for Lauren and I, but Addison insisted on being a part of the fun. Mark tried to entertain her for a while, but she really wanted to get down and messy with us. This was our second year of making the gingerbread house, and it turned out better than last year. They are harder to do then it looks, but Lauren and I had a lot of fun.