Friday, January 3, 2014

Christmas Celebration Part 2 - Dad's side!

The Sunday before Christmas, we headed to my dad's house to celebrate!

Yummy breakfast, stockings and presents, and a tasty lunch were all a part of our time together.

The fireplace - Santa came!

Presents!
A Kellogg's blanket for Camryn
 And one for Taylor, too! We think this picture is funny - it looks like Tony is staring down Taylor :)

Jeff, Jen, and Tess - such a cute new little family!!



A fun new easel for the girls - modified and improved by Bapa

Custom Nano's (crossfit shoes) for me :)

Papa and Gaga on the ipad saying hi to Camryn - watching our Christmas through FaceTime because the ice storm prevented them from making the drive down!

The group

And after all the present fun, the girls snuck upstairs to my old bedroom, and this is how Ryan found them ;) - a little down time

Next up: Slagh Christmas!

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Christmas Celebrations Part 1!

Here goes nothing! There were many, many, many Christmas celebrations and gatherings this year. And I hardly ever had a camera (or phone with a camera) in my hand taking pictures. Our nice camera stayed tucked away in its case for almost all of the holiday season. Parenting fail.

So the pictures I have are either from Ryan's phone, the ipad, or other people's cameras!

Onto the first Christmas celebration with "Mem's" side of the family. Saturday before Christmas we had our celebration with Mem, G. Betty, Drake, Jeff, Jen and, of course, TESS! Our first Christmas with a cousin! So fun!

 Mem's tree :)
 Stockings for the little ones :)

This little girl stole a lot of the attention - but how could she not, she's completely adorable!!
 {Camryn liked playing on the baby mat, too :)}
Lots of playing
{Playdoh}
 {Visiting with Grandma Betty}

Presents, too!





My new favorite hat


A guinea pig calendar for Jeff - I get one for him every year :)

The girls will appreciate this gift one day!!

Evening brought some cozy down time
Scrabble game

Polar Express for the kids


Mem with some sleepy girls

And one last shot - Taylor doing one of her favorite things - playing with ornaments by the the Christmas tree

More Christmas coming up!

Monday, December 23, 2013

Cam's ears & surgery

I should be napping, most of my house is, but I can't seem to rest quite yet - listening intently to Camryn's room, waiting for any cries of discomfort or sickness.

Hopefully, as our doctor and nurses told us, by tomorrow she should be running around like normal, but as of yet, she is still not back to herself yet. Between signs that she is feeling uncomfortable, and not yet keeping down food or drink, Cam is still feeling yucky after surgery.

We had to check in at 7:15, and her surgery was scheduled for 8:30. That is a long time to wait when all she wanted to do was eat (and pull the thing off that they taped to her toe to monitor her heartrate - my nursing friends probably have a technical term for it :o)).

A little Baby Einsteins was in order (thank goodness for entertainment!!)

After a dose of Versed (which comes without the Tylenol combination this time, so apparently it tastes really bad), someone was feeling a little loopy and a little relaxed. :o)

Taylor and Camryn both got a little stuffed animal from the sweet nurse. Taylor was excited :) Camryn didn't know what was going on...


When they finally took her back to surgery, she cried when they carried her away. :o( Mama may have cried, too. :(

Taylor, Ryan and I went to the cafeteria to get breakfast after she went back for surgery, and within 40 minutes I was meeting with the doctor learning that everything went well! Apparently she had infections in both ears and fluid they were able to vacuum out - hoping she feels amazingly better after that! The adenoids were good to take out, too - I won't go into details. :)

Then it came time for recovery. Oh recovery. :(  After the surgery for her first set of tubes, she didn't really struggle coming out of anesthesia at all. She nursed right away and all was good with the world. This time, with the extra discomfort from being intubated and the IV, she was not a happy camper. There was blood on her favorite little lambie and on her little nose, face, and ears and I could not get her to calm down or stop screaming for what felt like hours.


Yeah, I cried again. The nurse was so sweet, and she completely validated my emotions instead of making me feel like a crazy person. :) Camryn would calm down, and then wake up screaming and pulling at the IV, then fall asleep again. My mommy heart ached for her. Once she was a bit more alert and less agitated, we still couldn't get her to take any fluids for over an hour. Finally they decided it would be okay to take her home, and we would just have to watch her fluid intake.



A moment of happiness with the bandaid

The whole drive home - totally cashed out

She finally agreed to eat some applesauce when we got home, but then threw it all up shortly after.

Oiy. So now she is napping, laundry is going, and I am hoping that after a good snooze in her crib, she will feel a bit better, we can give her more medicine, and she will feel like drinking and/or eating.

This all puts into perspective how THANKFUL and GRATEFUL and BLESSED I feel that we have two fairly healthy little girls without any major health issues. I know some STRONG mamas out there who have to deal with SO much more, and I praise them and pray for them even more mightily after a single morning like this.

Hoping for a happy, HEALTHY holiday for everyone we know, and for a happy, healthier little 20 month old!!

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Self timer trick....who knew! :)

One evening, the girls and I were playing around by the Christmas tree, and I was taking pictures of them, and I wondered if I could get any pictures with the self-timer. Turns out that little blinking red light on the front of the camera is pretty captivating to them (at least for a little while) and we got some great family shots, with no one else around to take them!


Silly daddy :o)



Photobomb! Cam-Cam taking off before the timer went off ;o)

Love these girls!!

My FAVORITE people