Christmas

The past couple weeks have been a whirlwind.

Lets start with the Sunday before Christmas:

We finally went to see Santa. I got everyone dressed in some pretty Christmas clothes. Lilly had on a very pretty smocked dress that MayMay got her. Everyone had naps and then we were off. Almost there and Lilly throws up all over her pretty dress. She had just had blueberries to eat so you can imagine the dress didn't fare so well. We decided to go ahead and continue to see santa, so that Julian could see him. We didn't know if we would be able to make it back before Christmas. She did pretty good, except their was no way the babies were going to sit with Santa. Chris and I attempted to put the babies down and they were not going to have it so we took a family picture with santa. Julian was the same way with Santa. I think the first time he sat on santa's lap, he was 3. That was something I never thought needed to be done if they didn't want to so I never pushed it with Julian, and I'm sure the babies will be the same way. I never understood why people would put their screaming kids on some strangers lap just for a photo opportunity.

Lilly only threw up twice between sunday and monday, so I didn't think much of that. Monday was a very busy day. The babies had speech in the morning, then they had their 18 month (at 21 months- I'm a little late) check up that afternoon.

Alex was 26 lbs. (50th percentile), height- 25th percentile, and head - 90th percentile (he has the stanford head)

Lilly 19 lbs 10 oz- not on the scale yet, height was in the 20th percentile, and head in the 5th.

Then Chris took the kids home and I was off to meet Stacy in NYC for her today show appearance. I was so looking forward to our night out. I drove to meet Stacy at her hotel and we had a drink then were off to sightsee. I made it to about the 3rd store and started to feel really bad. We went back to the hotel, and I made it to the bathroom before I got really sick. I figured out really quick that Lilly had a stomach bug and now mommy had it. I called Chris from the bathroom and he got me a hotel room of my own, because I couldn't risk stacy getting it. From there, I spent the rest of my stay in my hotel room feeling very sick. Chris told me the next morning that Alex also had it all night. Poor Chris was home for the first time with all 3 kids and he had a sick baby.

We finally got better in time for our company for christmas. I had my entire family come to my house for Christmas. We had a wonderful time together and we haven't been together for christmas in such a long time. We had 4 generations in the same house. Christmas was wonderful and the babies and Julian had a great christmas from santa.

Here are some pictures:

The kids got an inflatable bouncer for christmas. Julian and Lilly love it. alex isn't sure of it yet.

Lilly loves her new chair. She went right to it. Thinks she's a big girl now.

Alex loved opening the gifts.

Lilly and her new phone
Julian and daddy figuring out his new DS that santa brought.




Julian leaving Santa some hot chocolate and cookies for Santa. Aunt kelly gave us this kit for Julian and he loved it.


Everyone digging into my grandmother's birthday cake. The babies were reliving their first birthday.


MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Looking out the window as it starts to snow.

Christmas decorating

Christmas is one of my most favorite times of the year. I love everything about the holiday. I love the meaning of Christmas, I love being with my family, I love the decorations, I love the christmas music, I love seeing the joy of christmas in my children's faces, I love the happiness that christmas morning brings to my children. There isn't much I don't like, I even don't mind the mess that it brings after all the presents are opened.

Last weekend, we decided to put up our tree. I love doing it as a family and having everyone help. We put on the christmas music and all started digging in. It was really fun to see what the babies thought of everything. They were extremely curious, and thought the ornaments were balls. (We broke several in no time). The just bust into a million pieces when thrown in case you were curious.

(Just don't look too closely at us. We are unshowered and in pajama's. )
The finished product.
Julian just lost another tooth the night before. He loves to help decorate. I think he just likes climbing the latter.

Mommy's helper. She is such a little mommy already. No one else likes the "fluff" job. Trying to make our fake tree look real by fixing the branches after it's been a box all year.
Lilly's version of "cheese"
Notice Lilly is the only one I could get to smile and look at me.
Even duke was part of the action. Oh course he is usually where we are.

Busy November

This has got to be one of the busiest months we've had in a long time. It seems like we've had one big thing after the next with no down time.

After Lilly's endoscopy, I was exhausted and emotionally drained. That day reminded Chris and I of our days in the NICU watching the monitors and that feeling of helplessness takes over. Lilly took a couple days to get over her experience and then started to get back to her "normal". We did hear from the doctor with some results showing that there was an increased amt of eosinophils present in the biopsies they took. This just shows that there is inflammation present from either an allergy or as a result from the reflux. I still suspect the later, but still hard to get everyone else to jump on the band wagon. They gave us a new medicine to try to see if we have any change in her symptoms. If we don't I was told we will have to get more aggressive with her reflux meds which is another conversation in itself.

The following week was Alex's turn to draw our attention to. We had tubes put in his ears due to so many ear infections and hopefully it will help his speech. After Lilly's procedure, I wasn't expecting this procedure to go as planned. Thank god it did and Alex did great. Everyone told us how quick this surgery was, and they were right. I've never seen anything so quick in my life. Alex got a little versed while he was with us to make him a little drowsy and then they took him back, gave him a little gas, put the tubes in and then he was done. the doctor came out to tell us everything went great in about 15 minutes. He was up in the recovery room back to his normal hyper self in no time. Thank goodness there was no other people in there because he was running all around. I wonder how many kids suck down 2 apple juice bottles right after surgery and then is up running in the recovery room. Not much can keep my kids still.

Julian has his teacher-parent conference that same day, and he got a wonderful report. He is such a smart young boy and I am very proud of him. His grades were wonderful and she enjoys having him in his class. She said we do have to work on his eagerness to get heard and speak. I think that comes from at home having to compete with 2 younger siblings, but he does really good to share his time. Julian is learning to read and loves going to school to learn. He comes home and tells us interesting facts and he always is educating others about his love of animals and wealth of knowledge about them. This is truly a child that loves to learn and loves to talk to others. He knows no stranger and is so personable.

I was thankful that my mom came to help take care of Lilly and Julian during Alex's surgery incase we were presented with a day like we had with Lilly.

After a busy 2 weeks, then it was time to get ready for our trip to Atlanta for Thanksgiving.

We had a great trip to Atlanta. A early morning flight that was uneventful and the babies did great. We enjoyed seeing all of our family that we aren't able to see as much as we would like. I remember saying last year what I was thankful for after we had just had our beautiful twins. I was thankful that they were here and healthy and that God blessed me with the opportunity to become a mother again to 2 more beautiful children. We were so lucky to have Julian and we couldn't have asked for a more perfect child, but we were blessed with 2 more babies that have completed our family. I am still so thankful for my family. There truly is no greater love than for your family.

This was our last day together and we had a great time. We had jumped on the back of Philip's trailer and got a quick family picture.

Philip's new toy that Julian loved. This may be a future gift on his santa list. (For Chris or Julian).
Kelly, Stacy and I out for Kelly's 29th birthday party. Hard to believe the last time we went out for her birthday together was on her 21st birthday (stacy and I didn't fare too well that day, but good memories)




Loved this picture of Chris and Lilly walking. Daddy does love having his little girl.
At Julian's school. They had a thanksgiving feast. 1st graders were dressed up as pilgrims and the 2nd graders as indians.

My little fighter

Today was Lilly's endoscopy. I always have a pit in my stomach on the days when my kids are going to be put through something that they shouldn't have to endure. The day started off pretty good. Julian got off to school, and then our sitter came to watch Alex for us, so Chris and I could be there with just Lilly. Lilly did good this morning and didn't mind (of course) not eating breakfast. We got to the hospital and checked in to the children's hospital day surgery and they took us right back to our room. The hospital was really nice and the people seemed really good with Lilly. They made every effort to put her at ease, bringing in bubbles, books, movies and toys to keep her occupied. They were running on time and even got us in a little early. The nurse did great starting her IV, although Lilly wasn't too pleased. Then it was our turn and they let Chris and I walk Lilly to the procedure room. I sat on the bed with her until she was asleep and then laid her down and we went back to our room to wait. Up to this point it was going great. This was suppose to be about 15 minutes long, and the doctor came out about 45 minutes later saying that they had to intubate Lilly because she was coughing and needed to protect her airway for the procedure. (usually this doesn't happen). She said they would be waking her up and bringing her out. She was suppose to come right out and wake up with me like she had never left. I should know by now that things never go as they should with me. About 10 minutes later, I heard Lilly crying from the procedure room. They said she was having problems with congestion and they were suctioning her and having problems with her O2 sats and keeping O2 on her. I wait just a little bit longer and then get really upset. So, Mamma bear enters the room, and tells them to let me calm her down. ( I don't know if they really appreciated that but that is my baby). They bring her out and I hold her and rock with her and it takes a good while to get her calmed down. To say the least, she was extremely pissed off. Who can blame her. She wakes up with an extra tube down her throat which is uncomfortable, and is having trouble breathing because of all the mucous, and is in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar people. Every time the nurse attempted to do anything to her she just got more mad. The nurse said she should have been a red head. I said she definitely is my little fighter. She has more fight, determination, strength and resilience than a little girl should have, but it is who she is and why she is here. We were concerned that they may have to keep her overnight to watch her if her O2 sats didn't improve. Who goes in for a little bitty outpatient test and possibly gets admitted? Us!

She finally settled down and was able to get some sleep and wake up the right way- with mommy and daddy with her. The O2 sats stayed above 90% without the oxygen and they finally let us go home. We wanted to thank everyone for the calls and texts checking on Lilly. Thank you also to everyone that offered to help do anything we needed them to do. I know several of you were ready to come down at a minutes notice to help and we greatly appreciate it.

I have mixed emotions on days like this. I hate putting my children through things like this today, but we were hoping that we would receive some answers as to why Lilly doesn't eat much and have no desire to eat. She still has significant reflux and gets pretty uncomfortable with it, and food moves pretty slowly through her stomach. We didn't see any obvious reason today for this, which is good and bad. Sometimes, I wonder why God makes us endure things. I know everything is suppose to make us stronger, and he doesn't give us more than we can handle, but sometimes I feel like my plate is full. I feel guilty saying that because I know there are so many people out there with so much worse to deal with. I feel so blessed to have my 3 beautiful children and I will take whatever gets dished out to me, but its so hard being the mom watching your kids hurt, be scared, or sick and there's nothing you can do to help. When they said that being a mom is the toughest job in the world, it truly is.

I do thank god every day for having the opportunity to be Lilly's (and Julian and Alex's) mom. There is a reason why she is here. She has had to be the underdog since conception and has already molded her into the person she is to become. I pray that she continues to have her fighting spirit and look forward to what she is going to become.

Catch up

The babies go every week to our play day at the little gym, and they have a blast. I loved doing this with Julian and am braving it with the twins. It is well worth the trouble getting there because they have soooo much fun.


This is one of our outings to a small zoo near us. I took all the kids with another mom on a day where they didn't have school. All my kids are turning into animal lovers.



Julian was our navigator with the map.
Lilly loves to get into weird spots, this was the kitchen drawer.
They love sitting at the island with Julian. Makes them look like big kids.

Halloween:


The best I did taking a picture of the babies. Lilly was not a happy camper that night.

Pumpkin carving (Chris's least favorite part of halloween)

Julian designed the pumpkin face
May May watching the kids play in the sand box

A new toy for the bath: washable crayons.

Julian's last football game for the season




DeeDee and PaPa made it for his last game.

So many pictures to post: This is Julian's last flag football game. DeeDee and PaPa came to watch him and he was so excited to have them.