Christmas 2012 At The Lake

I am feeling a little sad today that Christmas came and went.  This year, we had so much going on with Mack that the weeks leading up to the day flew by.  As I'm writing this I realize I haven't even sat down to add to the blog.  But as I look through our pictures, I realize how much fun we have been having as a family.

About seven years ago, my side of the family decided to celebrate one Christmas down at the lake-I have great memories from that time so we decided to do it this year.  Of course we were adding five more kids to the picture-things were different, but not any less fun.  My thought was how lucky my kids are to get to wake up with their cousins on Christmas morning!

We loaded everything in the car (that was a treat) and headed down the day before Christmas eve.  Our kids love the trip down there and get so excited about going to the lake house.  Mum and Papa were waiting for our arrival.  I have LOTS of pictures from our time and feel they tell a much better story.

Just looking at the lake

watching Polar Express

Last time we did Christmas at the lake we made ornaments.  I got this idea from a friend of mine to paint tissue paper on the ornaments with glue.  It was a fun thing for us to do together.

they turned out nice

Then the other part of our crew arrived and we headed to church

When we got back it was time for a seafood spread and gift exchange with the cousins

My mom got them matching PJ's and we tried hard to get them all together...

Mack is trying so hard-he is such a good big brother...sometimes:) Avery just isn't sure what to think:)

 

It was our first year to leave Santa some cookies.  Avery was learning about it from her big cousins

And then a crazy thing happened...Santa stopped by!

 

The adults were left with time alone to exchange gifts.

 Then the morning arrived and they woke up!!!

What lucky kids we have!  This time will always be treasured and we hope to instill in them how blessed they are...not only for the "things" they received, but for how much love and support they have around them.  They won't always be little and they won't always have this much time to give to each other, but for now we are happy to spend this special time as a family. 

As Avery would say, "Happy Birthday Baby Jesus!"  We are working on the true meaning of Christmas-our faith has helped us through a very hard time and we have so much to celebrate with the birth of Jesus Christ! Merry Christmas!

Trains! Trains! Trains!

My mom thought of the perfect place to go in St. Louis!
Mack is obsessing about trains...every where we go he's looking for Thomas. We do a lot of explaining about how busy Thomas tends to be.
Well, the botanical gardens host a beautiful display for Christmas and its all based around trains. Mack was in aww the entire time and Avery was searching for Percy.:)

Not only was it beautiful, it got them out of the house in a place that was "cleaner" than most.

I can't wait to get him on a real train soon! Avery might get to go after Christmas to a special place (Chicago) and pick out clothes for a special doll!!!!!! I might be more excited than her:)

Important update: Mack's appointment was great! He got to donate his toys from our giving tree and the doctors were so happy with his levels. We are weaning him off steroids and going up on the other medicine. She did make us aware his levels could go back up...but for now we celebrate for the holidays! He will be on the other medicine for a year and then we will wean him off that. Then we will know if this is a bigger deal.

The pictures are a bit blurry...they're from my iPad.

Everyday...Things Are Getting Better

Everyday, we get asked, "How is Mack?"  Those simple words mean so much to us!  It's that simple to show you still care about our baby. 

Yes, on an average day he looks and acts like a normal little 2 year old, but really he is still pretty sick.  How do you explain that to people who don't understand?

Right now we celebrate the daily things.  Like Mack not screaming over little things or actually getting some sleep.  We also celebrate the BIG things like his enzyme levels are drastically dropping!!!!  He is on five different medications at this point and we are hoping to take out his PICC line next week at our appointment. 

I haven't been posting much about his progress because we need to try and live a normal life.  We have had some great friends stop by and spend their weekend and weekday nights entertaining us:)  We even had a new babysitter come over on Friday night so we could get out for a few hours.  The kids are still talking about her 2 LB dog-I will post those pics later.

The hardest part of all of this is trying to explain what is going on.  We still don't have all the answers and we don't really know.  It's been nice to have people around us that do try to understand and have gone above and beyond comforting us.  Thank you!

 It's also hard as a mother to go from what was before...

 

To what is now.  It's still my baby, but the medications have made him put on an extreme about of weight.  He doesn't seem to mind and seems to be much happier these days.  I  just feel he looks so different.

We will know more next week-or we may not, but thank you to everyone for asking that simple thing.  He continues to be on MANY prayer lists and we ask for more.  We are getting better everyday, but we certainly aren't finished with this chapter of our lives and need all the support we can get.

Little Christmas Trees

Here is an easy craft for two and three year olds! We always have toilet paper rolls in the craft area and paper...plus extra "things"! They had fun and loved gluing things on their trees.

All you need to do is cut a half circle out of green paper and roll it into a cone. Then staple it together and staple it to the trunk. After that, I laid everything out for them and they decorated the trees.

Stocking Ladder

One of the MANY things I love about the hubs, is he can make anything. If I pull something up online he says, "That's easy-I can make that!"

A few years ago (as our family was growing) my mom used an old ladder to hang our stockings on. I loved this idea. Especially because we don't have a fire place!

This year I was bound and determined to do it. They're getting older and we need some things to be traditions around our house. My husband had all the materials and finished it from the time we went to the park until we came back.

 I love this and it's perfect to be able and fill those suckers full!!!! I found the letter stockings last week, but wasn't sure what to do since Mack and Mark are both M's-so I'm going back this week to get us all matching stockings since our family of five is complete! For now we have included the once from the past:)

I think it turned out great...who knows we might be having these appear on Christmas Eve at someones house...

HE IS NINE MONTHS???

Yep my youngest little nugget is nine months old.  It's true!

 

I will still say that this little guy is the happiest baby you will ever meet. 

 

He crawls

 

Not just crawling to his toys

Crawling to room to room in a matter of seconds

Crawling so fast to the stairs it takes a split second

Crawling and dumping out all the dog food and water in the dog bowl before you can say, "Where is Lincoln?"

 

 

He is not only fast but HUGE!  He weighs in at 19 lbs and 8 Oz...

But (again) because he is 28 1/2 inches long he is actually under weight.

 

He doesn't look big-probably because he is so active.

 

Now he wants to walk, so you will find him in the pike position trying to stand up.  Or standing at the table only to let go and walk and hit his head on something.  That's the thing...he will hit his head, cry for a few seconds and be fine!

 

When I was at the doctor for his nine month check up-he ripped both my earrings out and destroyed the room trying to get to everything. 

 

 But when he is held and in my arms-it feels so good to have such a sweet baby.  That is all he wants.  I just wish he would stay at this age right now...he has fun and wants to be held.  I am pretty sure in the next couple of months he will be walking and wanting nothing to do with me!

 

Overall:

 He sleeps from 7:15 until about 7:30 (sometimes later) in the morning.

He eats everything we eat that I put in our baby food blender-loved the lasagna Aunt Meagan made.

Hasn't been specific with what he wants to play with-pretty much anything his siblings play with.

LOVES anyone who smiles at him and flirts with EVERYONE!

 

Happy nine months you sweet little man of mine!!!!!!  

Umm..Define Fun?

Define Fun:

1. a source of enjoyment, amusement, diversion, etc

2. pleasure, gaiety, or merriment

3. jest or sport (esp in the phrases in or for fun )

4. facetious , ironic fun and games amusement; frivolous activity

5. informal like fun a. ( adverb ) quickly; vigorously b. ( interjection ) not at all! certainly not!

I defiantly don’t define fun as getting ready on a Saturday morning only to hear screaming children as we load them into “the beast” (as we call our suburban)! Ugg.

I asked Mark, “Why the _____ are we even doing this…this is not fun! They don’t even know what’s happening!” And I'm pretty sure our forms of Christmas music weren't the "good" versions.

But as the car ride progressed, and the Christmas music was screeching in the background, all our moods began to change. The little people that were causing me to not be having fun, suddenly realized what was happening and changed my thought process…

What is more fun than taking a tractor ride and running through a field of TREES!!!!!!!

They began to show US how to have fun!

It wasn't exactly like the sparkling light coming from the sky, but Avery did notice this tree to be OUR tree.  She was happy to stand in front of the tree-Mack...not so much.

Lincoln was happy to be with them and share their excitement!

I love this picture of them all watching Mark.

We do have so much fun -this gang is going to be a hoot and we are going to keep sharing these traditions with them!  Our family of five is defiantly one of a kind!