Fresno Visit

The end of December brought us to Fresno for Joshua's planned hypospadias surgery. He was to have an MRI Tuesday (to follow his liver hemangiomas) with surgery Thursday. Tuesday, the MRI happened, no apparent issues. By Tuesday night, we were rushing to the ER b/c he couldn't breathe. It was the scariest parenting moment we have ever had. The MRI had to be done under sedation, anesthesia. No big, we've done that twice before. When we picked him up from recovery, I noticed he sounded a little croup-y. I asked the nurse about it and she said, oh, it's just because they intubated him. (They had to intubate in order to simulate breath holds so they could get the best images possible) Ok, fine. We go back to Mike's mom's and he acts pretty normal, still sounded a bit croupish, but not crazy. I put him to bed as usual and he woke up about 1 hour later and could barely breathe. We did the regular steamy shower, stand out in the cold, etc. for croup to no avail. It was just getting worse. So, to the ER we went. Bottom line, we were there all night, he got 2 breathing treatments and a powerful steroid. He also got an x-ray that showed swelling in his trachea... duh. We could hear it. They tried to get us to stay for longer, but I threw a fit and told the docs we were leaving. He sounded fine at that point, we were 8 minutes from the hospital if something should go wrong, we'd come back. It all ended well, aside from the surgery getting cancelled. Oh, and finding out that the "post intubation croup" had been caused by the dumb anesthesiologist using the wrong size tube to intubate him.

After he was all recovered, we had friends come visit... Cousin Kaycee and Kramer.... And we met Mike's grandparents for lunch on our way out of town...

Grandpa and Grandma Engvall

Mike's little brother Stanton and Addie Ray

It ended up a good visit, we got to enjoy "Christmas" with Mike's mom and fam and saw some friends. We ended our December hibernation from germs and decided that we were going to get out and have a life again. Surgery got rescheduled for Jan 17. We lived our life and just prayed to stay healthy.

OH! And the MRI showed his hemangiomas are SHRINKING! Thank you Lord!!!

Adorable craft!

I know I promised this to all of you months ago... welp. I finally am posting it. Maybe a Mother's Day idea? Or next year Christmas gift ideas?? We made one for both of our mom's and they absolutely loved them!

Christmas Morning!

We were lucky enough to have my fam there for Christmas morning. Loved it. It was absolutely perfect. I love having my family here. Santa was good to the girls... Kailee got her DS

And Addie got a Leapster.

Camp out

For a couple nights before Christmas, we let the kids (and Mike) camp out by the Christmas tree. I loved that this year the girls were remembering all the traditions we have. Mom when are we going to _____. I love it. I love Christmas. All parts of it. How my kids sing Happy Birthday to Jesus all month and remind me, "You know mom, it's not just Christmas for Santa. It's JESUS' Birthday!!"

More fun December pics

When my parents came to town for the Christmas festivities, we were karaoking (of course, no pics) and amidst it all, Josh fell asleep. Adorable...

One of Josh's favorite hand positions is his "praying hands". It's like his comfort position. The therapist says it stabilizes him. I say he's praying!

And sometimes the girls get in on the action!

One day Addie and I got dolled up and played with the camera. Josh was napping and Kailee was at a friend's house.

For part of Mike's Christmas present, I needed professional-ish pics to put up with some actual professional pics of the girls. I did the best I could... but it's a good think I had an ADORABLE subject!!

December Fun and Games

I really don't know where December went... I know I tried to document it all, but I have learned that juggling the three muskateers sometimes means memories are just in our minds:) Since we were laying super low in December (Like crazy hibernation trying to stay away from germs in order to keep Josh healthy for the 12/30 surgery date) we had lots of activities for the girls.

We made sugar cookies....
And drank caramel apple cider while the cookies baked...And then decorated until we ran out of sprinkles! I think I am still finding them on my floor!!Finished products...Next up was popcorn balls! We haven't made these before, so it was kind of an experiment. The kids had fun getting all sticky and I had fun... well, let's just say a mother's joy is sometimes found through the giggles of her children... not the messes made in the process:)

My decorating counterpart was in charge of the outside, as usual. It just gets better and better every year. This year, hands down, best ever!

Finally, we decorated gingerbread houses. We have done this every year and the girls normally need (let) me help them. This year they were little miss independent. It was fun to see them get into it! They turned out great! Final products were another picture that never was taken:(