Holiday vacation

We have been enjoying our time here at home together.  Playing games, doing puzzles, building with Legos, playing with new toys, building snowmen... staying in our PJ's for most of the day :)

Aunt Beth and Eric were visiting from Thursday until today so my boys have had loads of special play time with their aunt and uncle. 

Saturday night we celebrated Christmas at my parent's house with Beth and Eric.

 

It's hard to believe 2013 is just around the corner.  It's been almost four years since I started this little ol' blog.  So many exciting things are already planned for 2013... weddings, babies, and maybe a trip to Disney World?!  

Christmas Time

We had such a nice Christmas.  It's hard to believe it's already over.  As a kid, I remember feeling so sad Christmas night because all the fun was over.  Thankfully we still have this weekend to look forward to when Aunt Beth and Eric come home and we celebrate Christmas with them.

On Sunday, Ella got to ditch her afternoon nap to come over and bake cookies with Owen, Aunt Beth, and I.  It was so much fun :)


Yesterday I had the privilege of helping deliver gifts to children in the area.  It is a program that our church runs every year.  All the children had mothers in jail and the gifts were delivered on behalf of the moms.  The last house we went to was actually a former student of mine.  It was a wonderful experience and I hope to make it a family tradition once the boys are a little bit older.

Mike made a gingerbread train with the boys before I left to deliver the gifts.


 
Christmas Eve we went to church at 4:30.  When we walked out of church it was a winter wonderland!  Snow!!!!  We had a white Christmas.  There aren't too many of those in a lifetime- they definitely are special.

Then it was over to Uncle James and Aunt Phran's house.  It was nice seeing everyone... especially Beatrice.

 

 

Mike is making a funny face because that's normally how he looks when I take his picture.

Owen checking out Bea's tiny hands.

When we got home the boys got everything ready for Santa, but not before they ran around outside in the SNOW. 

 

Carrots for the reindeer, cookies for Santa, and Owen even sprinkled special reindeer food out his window onto the roof. While the boys were sleeping, Mike went out onto the roof and walked around so when the boys woke up the next morning they would see "Santa's" footprints.  Sadly, the snow melted and washed away his footprints. 

Owen was up at 5:30, but I made him wait to go downstairs until 6:30am.  Sam, our elf, left the boys a note saying "good bye" and reminding them to be on their best behavior ALL year, not just at Christmas.  Santa's footprints were on the brick too!  Adam was very impressed and amazed that the cookies and carrots we left out were all gone.  Owen looked at the footprints and said, "Looks like sugar to me."  Stinker.

After opening gifts here at our house and eating Nana Way's delicious cinnamon rolls. we went over to Papa and Finney's for gifts and lunch.  The boys are so lucky to be so loved and spoiled by all their grandparents.  After a yummy lunch we came home for naps.  Well, 1/4 of us napped.  Owen was too excited to nap.

During nap time Mike went over to spend time with Papa Doc.  He gave him a haircut, then his nurse gave him a shower, they played Christmas music and he ate some leftovers from Finney's lunch.  He said he felt like royalty.  Mike was able to convince him to come over to our house for a little while.

Right before our guests arrived, Maddie, Below, Uncle Boo and Aunt Judy stopped over to share some super exciting news.  Maddie and Below got engaged this morning.  We are so excited for them!! I bet during their college years, Mike and Below never thought they would marry cousins and be (semi) related one day.  

I love having all the kids over to our house.  They are loud, sweaty, messy, excited, and we have to remind them to stop running a million times until we give up and just let them run all over the place.  I know in a few years they will just sit like lumps in the basement watching TV or playing video games so I'm sure to enjoy every minute of it now.

I forgot to wipe Adam's face...oops! 

Round 2 of desserts.  Candy apples :)

We had a dance party and Sam and Adam were the stars of the show.  I took some priceless video that I'll have to post separately.

It was pretty low key and planned last minute, but sometimes those are the best kind of get-togethers.

And tonight once everyone left Owen said he was really happy and "felt so alive".  Adam said he loved having everyone to our house.  And that to me is a successful Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

Not the best scan job, but it will do :)

Owenisms

It was just Owen and I in the car yesterday so we were able to have some deep conversations.  That boy is always thinking!  Here's some of the things he said...

"I'm starting to think there are more trees in this world than there are people.  What do you think mommy?"

"So, Santa delivers presents to every little boy and girl in the entire world?  How does he do that in one night?"  I brought of the whole time zone thing and he said, "I know about the time zones, but I just don't get how he goes to every single house in 24 hours."  This boy is a hair away from not believing and I'm doing everything I can to keep him hanging on :(

"Mommy, who was the first person that ever lived?"  I told him I wasn't exactly sure that there are a lot of different ideas.  He insists it was God.  Then he asked, "Is God the world?"  No lie.  He's so philosophical!

Mike and I call him a religious sponge.  The other night he was talking about Zachariah and Mike said, "I remember him from Sunday school... He was stuck in the tree."  Owen told him that he was wrong.  He said it was Zacchaeus that was stuck in the tree and Zachariah was made unable to talk because he said bad words.  Mike was sure HE was right so he looked it up Online and sure enough, Owen was correct. 

Heart ache

My heart aches so much for the families of the little ones and adults that died in Friday's school shooting. I just can't imagine.

I wanted to be at home with my boys all weekend.  They got an extra dose of hugs, kisses, and "I love yous".  I really struggled with whether or not to tell Owen about it.  We don't ever watch the news here at our house because we don't want the boys seeing/hearing all the awfulness that goes on in the world.  If he wasn't in Kindergarten I would not have said anything to him, but I'm afraid other kids might talk about it.  I didn't want him to hear about it from another student and feel scared about being at school.  So Mike and I talked to him about it very briefly. We told him something bad happened at a school really far away and people were hurt.  We told him someone that wasn't well in his head got into a school and did horrible things.  We also told him that his school is really safe and there's a police station right across the street so he has nothing to worry about.... I pray.  His response..."I would just run fast like a Ninja".  He thinks he has super powers and could take on the world right now. 

I went into school briefly today and it felt so eerie.  I'm sure I'll have a lot of questions and comments from my 2nd graders tomorrow.  It's such a shame.

Here's a picture of my two sweethearts before Sunday School today.  Adam was very excited to wear his reindeer sweater.

Proud

Adam was VERY proud of the Christmas tree ornament he made in Sunday School.  Mike went with him so I could go to church and he took this picture.  Adam loves "school".  As soon as we get to church he can hardly contain himself.  He tells everyone that passes that he's going to "school" and "I see my teacher".  He didn't even want to eat his donut because he was so excited to get to class.  He is really well-behaved too, which is a relief.  This little guy adds so much laughter to our family!

Breakfast with Santa

Our local police department has a breakfast with Santa every year.

 They offer breakfast, a gift for each child, they have a DJ, they had the balloon man this year, but most of all... the kids get to spend time with Santa!  It's completely free and many community members volunteer (like Aunt Judy:)

The boys were sooooo excited for this day!!  Adam couldn't WAIT to see Santa, but then got a little shy when it came time to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what he wanted for Christmas.  By the end he really warmed up to him.  Owen wants Ninjago guys and Adam wants a blue choo choo.  I think he's talking about the Little Blue Engine (that could), but I can't find it anywhere.

 
This is another holiday tradition that we look forward to each year!

Christmas Traditions

Every year Nana Way gives Owen and Adam their own advent calendar.  It's not your average advent calendar. It's wooden and every day the boys get to open a drawer. 

Inside each drawer she usually has a piece of chocolate, money, and on most days a tag with a sticker on it.  They have to match the sticker on the tag with a present in their wicker sleigh. 

This is probably their most favorite Christmas tradition.  They can't wait to get up each morning and open the next drawer. 

I decided this year to include a few things that we have to do for other people.  Owen and I talked a lot about how it's really fun to receive gifts, but it can feel just as good to give to other people.  If you type "Random Acts of Christmas Kindness" in Pinterest you'll find a ton of great ideas that kids (and families together) can do for other people during the Christmas season.  Yesterday Owen got his first "task" and it is to buy a gift for someone less fortunate.  Our church is always asking for volunteers to buy gifts for other kids.  My school also has a lot of needy families that need assistance over the holidays.  I love love love helping out kids in our school, especially in my classroom. 

 

Sam, our elf, is back again.  The first day back he wrote the boys a note and gave them a movie about Elf on the Shelf.  He hasn't done anything too mischievous... yet.

 This past week the boys made gingerbread houses at Linda's house.  They look forward to this each year. 
Adam dug right into his and if we hadn't stopped him, he would have eaten his entire house in one sitting.  Owen, on the otherhand, picked a few things off and was done.
 
Tomorrow is the much-anticipated Breakfast with Santa at the Sacred Heart Church.  Owen is excited that Santa will be in Cornwall and Adam seems excited too.  We'll see how it turns out.  Last year Adam was terrified!

Owen's Cough

*Update- everything went well today.  The hardest part was not allowing him to eat.  He was starving and miserable, but the procedure went quickly.  The doctor said his larynx looked "beefy" as opposed to light pink- meaning it is irritated, most likely from the reflux.  He prescribed Zantac.  It could take a few weeks to work.  The challenge is now getting Owen to take the Zantac.  It has an awful minty taste and it took us over an hour to get him to take it tonight.  Lots of tears.  Not the battle I want to fight every night.  Hopefully it gets easier and he gets used to it.  We should get his allergy test results back in a week.  I'm interested to see what it shows.  

(I'm writing this more for myself so I have everything written down in one place- it may be boring to most people.  So many times I've gone back to my blog to find answers to things dealing with my kids and important dates.  It's very convenient:)

Owen started a seasonal cough in 2010.  It came on, lasted a few months, and then suddenly disappeared.  I'm not sure what we tried that year to cure it, but I do know that nothing worked and I was just relieved when it finally went away.

It came back again in 2011 around the same time- late October.  It lasted another couple months (I think until January-ish).  Our pediatrician thought it was an allergy of some sort since it came on every year at the same time and fall allergies are really common.  Here are the things we tried... removing all stuffed animals (very allergenic), mold test in Owen's room and basement, Nebulizer, inhaler (Pulmacort), Claratin, chest x-ray, Allegra, Zertec.  By the time we tried everything it had disappeared.

Here we are in 2012 and the cough came back October 24th.  It was Owen's last soccer game and I heard that all-too-familiar sound... clearing his throat and dry hacking cough.  Ugh.  I knew what we were in for.  It has been REALLY bad.  We called the doctor after a few weeks and he told us to try Claratin again.  That didn't work.  Right before our trip to St. John I called to say we were concerned and thought Dr. S should listen and make sure he wasn't wheezing before going on our trip.  He told us he wanted us to get a chest x-ray.  It came back clear and Dr. S could only hear one little wheeze when he listened to his breathing.  He told us to try the Pulmacort inhaler and take it with us to St. John.  He also said we could try Singulair, but he wanted to wait to see if it went away while in St. John.  Since we all thought it was some sort of allergy we were SURE it would disappear while in St. John since he was in a completely different environment.  We were shocked when his cough didn't go away.  We would have bet a lot of $$ that it would have gone away.  I'll never forget when we took the boys for icecream while on our trip and Owen was coughing like crazy and the guy working behind the counter politely told him that he's going to have to cover his mouth and handed him a pile of napkins.  We feel badly taking him to Sunday School, parties, and places where there's other people because we're afraid they are going to be upset that we brought our "sick", coughing kid.

 The fact that it didn't go away in St. John led Mike and I to believe that it was not allergy related, but then were left with the question as to what it was and why it occurred at the same time every year.  Dr. S told us to try Singulair (asthma medicine) which we weren't all that thrilled about since we didn't think it was an allergy or asthma.  We were also to continue the inhaler.  The inhaler wasn't working.  All it did was make him hyper.  I was nervous about the Singulair too because of some scary side effects.  We did one dose of Singulair and after that he got a stomach ache and didn't eat much for two days.  I didn't want to give him his second dose because he wasn't eating.

This past week was especially bad.  Bedtime has been a nightmare.  Owen ends up crying himself to sleep because he is so frustrated that he can't stop coughing.  He starts to panic.  We tried so many different things.  Mike and I feel so helpless and desperate. It's tortuous to listen to... I can't imagine how Owen must be feeling.

Tuesday we got a 2nd opinion.  I sent Mike with a long list to show the ENT doctor.  I had done a lot of research and thought it could be laryngopharyngeal reflux.  When the dr. read that he said that is exactly what he thinks it is.  He doesn't want to treat it until he is sure though.  The one thing we have found to cure his cough for at least a few minutes is a cough drop so we were giving him a lot of them.  We found out that they are really bad for people with reflux and it only makes the reflux worse.  We are also changing his diet and avoiding foods that cause reflux.

So tomorrow Owen will be put to sleep and they will put a camera up his nose and down his throat to see what's going on and if any damage has been done from reflux.  They are also going to do allergy testing.  We are happy to be heading in the right direction, but nervous about Owen being put to sleep and scared they may find something else more serious wrong with him.  I'm sure they won't, but that thought has crossed our minds.

My next post will be about the fun Christmasy things we've been doing around here, but I wanted to write this down.

The Most Wonderful Time

We are starting to get back into the swing of things after our trip over Thanksgiving.  The boys still talk about it every day.  Owen told another dad from daycare that he had the time of his life.  Adam asks every day if we can please go to Aunt Beth's wedding. 

Tonight we finished up our decorating.  I let the boys put the ornaments on the tree again this year and it cracks me up.  There are about 75 ornaments all in one clump on the tree.  It's not easy for this OCD girl to watch, but I figured I can fix it later. 

They had such a good time decorating the tree.  I just sat back and watched and took it all in while handing them ornaments ready to hang.

 After that we put on our jammies and headed to the basement to watch The Polar Express.  Mike and I dozed on and off, but the boys watched the entire movie.  I think that's the first real movie Adam sat through.  He LOVED the train.

And now I have to get ready for the debut of a much anticipated special little elf :)