Giving Thanks

For the first time in my married life we didn't travel for Thanksgiving. We usually go visit Ryan's family in Illinois and we certainly missed them this year. Christian actually cried when I told him we weren't going. Then he started missing all the things he missed. Very sad, but also precious that he loves our Illinois family so much. I am so thankful for the traditions and memories we have with that side of our family even though we don't see them too often.

So this year was low key and pretty relaxing. We headed over to my parent's house in the afternoon for dinner. My mom did ALL the work and set a beautiful table that included some lovely place cards made by Christian and some classic turkey place-mats created by McKenna. The meal was delicious (even if my kids did not agree) and it was fun to celebrate with Will sitting like a big boy at the table. It was so nice to be able to spend a Thanksgiving with my parents and I'll admit...it was so nice not to be driving for hours and hours!!!!

I went Black Friday shopping for the first time in my life and I was soooo successful and I LOVED it. I couldn't even believe how successful I was! There was one thing that I scored and it was a complete miracle. My friend even said "I think God wanted you to have that." Ha! I am all about sleep deprivation if it means a good deal!

Turkey Time with the girls

McKenna had some friends over to make some turkeys to get ready for Thanksgiving!

We sure are THANKFUL for sweet friends like Addie & Gwennie!

One of my favorite sights...

You'd better watch out....

Will is on the move!!!

That boy is FAST! He has a serious army crawl going on these days. And he loves doors. He's great at shutting a door and crawling up right on the other side of it, so you can't get in the room without banging into his head. I can't even tell you how many times I've had to squeeze McKenna thru a little crack in the door, so that she can go in and pull him away from the door so I can open it. It's fun!

I'm nervous, nervous, nervous about all the random things Will keeps putting in his mouth. He was chewing on a Dora bandaid the other day.  It's a whole different ball game when you have big kids and a baby. And we've never lived in this house before with a crawling baby, so I've got to think through some baby proofing strategies.

So the other day I pick up Will to change his diaper and he had blood all over himself. Smeared on his face, hands, arm, clothes and the rug. My heart started racing as I tried to figure out what was bleeding. I soon realized that he had a cut on his hand. He never cried and didn't even seem to notice. So I put a bandaid on his hand (which he promptly chewed off, next time we're going to try liquid band aid). Then I went back downstairs and started crawling around on the floor trying to figure out what he got into that cut his hand.

That's when I found this.....

A tiny bit of blood was smeared on the heat register. I guess that's where this incident started. Now how am I going to keep him away from those things?? They're all over our house.

The next few months are going to be quite an adventure with Will!

Christmas Parade!

 McKenna got to be in the Christmas parade with her dance group!

We were a little nervous about whether or not she would make it to the end, so Ryan was a good sport and walked with the entire way with her! She got to dress up like a Christmas present.

 We waited and waited for McKenna's group to come down the street. As soon as we saw them we spotted we saw quite a sight!

Let me zoom in a little..... McKenna's sweet little friend took a tumble & could not get back up. She wasn't hurt, so it was actually pretty hilarious! I didn't even realize I captured it on camera until I got home later that morning.

You can't see McKenna, but you can see Ryan. Ha! He just loved being front and center with the dance team! I thought he was just going to walk along the side to keep an eye on McKenna. I had no idea he was actually going to be IN THE PARADE!

It was a great way to kick off the holiday season!!!

Tree Lighting

 The Friday before Thanksgiving officially kicks off the holiday season for us with the annual tree lighting in our town. We meet all our local friends there and have fun eating popcorn and drinking hot chocolate until it's time to ring our bells as the tree lights come on!

 We love this tradition and the special friends we get to share it with.

McKenna wasn't thrilled to about hanging out in the cold waiting for some lights to come on....

but Will LOVED it!! His face was so dear as he watched the lights come on!

Once again...It would have been perfect if McKenna could have managed to crack a smile. Oh well. Hope you're having fun getting ready for Christmas!

William

Don't be fooled. He doesn't really like sleep. He's down to one nap a day and it's a short one. McKenna was like that, unfortunately it seems to be genetic. I never ever know what to expect when I head to bed. Sometimes he sleeps through the night. Sometimes he wakes up three times. It's maddening, but I don't even look at the clock anymore. He has a really, really rough time with sleep anytime he cuts a tooth. Right now he has 7 teeth, so the past month has been rough. My other big, big problem is that he leaks through his diaper in the middle of the night several times a week. This of course wakes him up and then he gets all fired up when you have to change his diaper and his entire outfit at 2am. I have tried EVERYTHING!! I buy the expensive Pampers & Huggies overnight diapers. They're better than regular diapers, but still don't do the trick every night. I had this problem with Christian. I think it's a boy thing. Anyone else have this problem with their boys???

Will is my first baby that doesn't have a pacifier or suck his thumb. Oh how I wish he would just take a binkie. I think we would all be much happier and we would sleep better. But it's not gonna happen.

Well, I'd better get to bed. Who knows what the night holds :)

Shoeboxes!!!!

We kicked off the holiday season by listening to Christmas music while we packed our Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes! We love this tradition and we so excited to learn that our church contributed 1388 boxes this year!! McKenna and Christian both worked hard decorating their boxes and Will was excited to watch and eat some puffs :)  We made homemade pizzas and watched our first Christmas movie of the season. It's hard to believe that Christmas is less than 40 days away!! WooHoo!!! We can't wait!

Building up his Best Behavior!

 

Christian came bounding off the bus the other day!!! He was so excited. He kept yelling "I got my name on the brick wall!!!!!!!!!!!! I got my name on the brick wall!!!!!"  Thankfully I actually did know what he was talking about. They have cards at school and you get a punch in your card every time you show outstanding character or exceptional behavior. Once you get 10 punches you get to put your name on the "brick wall" and your name is announced on the announcements the next morning.  The wall says "Building up our Best Behavior." Christian was the fourth student in his class to get his name on the wall. 

So we made a big fuss out of this event. It was the perfect opportunity to reinforce the fact that good character is what we value the most! To celebrate we ordered pizza and the next day McKenna, Will and I surprised Christian and went to school to eat lunch with him. He was sooooo surprised!!! McKenna loved taking her lunchbox to school!

One of Christian's little friends looked at Will and said, "Can I pet your baby??? He looks nice." Since I didn't want a bunch of kids "petting" Will and infecting him with all their germs, I told that little girl that Will really wasn't that nice. That he liked to bite people (which is true). You should have seen the look on her face. ha! She didn't "pet" him.

The End of the Soccer Season

Christian's soccer season was a mess this year. The first month was pretty much rained out. Then he was sick and then we went on vacation. So he missed a lot. But he loved it and overall it was a good experience. He got to be on the same team with his good friend Kate. McKenna and her BFF Gwennie were the #1 fans (although I don't think they actually watched any of the games)!

Christian loves soccer, so I am certain that there will be many soccer games in our future. He still can't decide what his favorite sport is. His dad is hoping and praying that he'll pick baseball, but we'll see.

Pinkalicious

McKenna has a new obsession...she loves the book Pinkalicious and Purplicious and Goldenlicious. So we made pink cupcakes, in pink wrappers with pink frosting!! So fun!!! McKenna and her friend Addie loved this project and it was tasty too!

Will: 8 Months

Look who's crawling!!!!

Will is on the move! It's fun and challenging all at the same time. So far the big kids have been pretty good about keeping their stuff out of his way...I've only caught Will eating a crayon once :)

Florida: The End

It was not my idea of a dream vacation. Three trips to urgent care, pneumonia, croup and bronchitis sort of ruined my idea of a good time, but thankfully that's not what my kids remember. They loved our vacation. And truthfully we all had fun (even me). Our main purpose for heading to Florida was to go to a wedding. Just the boys ended up going, which I felt bad about, but they certainly were handsome!

I hung out with the sick kiddos and I've decided that breathing treatments might be one of my least favorite things to do in this world.  McKenna is just all drama about it and Will actually shakes his head back and forth trying to get away from the nebulizer. It's rather funny.

The next morning we all said "goodbye" to the beach. I cried as I stood out on the balcony for the last time looking out a the ocean. I just felt sad that it wasn't all that I had hoped it would be. I had worked and planned and dreamed for months planning this trip. But that's just life.

We drove straight home. It was a good trip, despite the 17 hours it took. I would have been nice if McKenna would have watched a movie, but we didn't watch one movie the entire ride home. I know, insane. Around 2am everyone woke up. So we stopped and took a potty break and got everyone a doughnut and started watching out the window for snow. It was actually really fun to have all of us awake in the middle of the night knowing we were almost home and it was so fun (and totally bizarre) to come home to snow.

I just love this cute little face! He was so handsome heading to the wedding. Right before he left I told him not to let any girls dance with him and he rolled his eyes and then gave me this panicked look!

We've already decided that Florida is in our future. Not sure when, but we'll be back and this time there will be no pneumonia!

Florida: My Favorite Videos!

I love the first video because it was "my view" while we were at the beach! Watching my three sweet kiddos each have their own fun on the beach! When you watch the last video you'll totally understand why it's one of my favorites!! McKenna just loved the ocean!

Siblings

Just look at how much Will loves McKenna. He looks like this all the time when he looks at her. She calls him "William." Like every single time she says his name, it's "William." And she always walks up to him and starts banging on him. I guess that's her way of showing love. Drives me crazy, but he loves it. And he loves her so much!!!!!!!!!!

Wordless Wednesday

Florida: Day 5

Ryan and Christian had a great time on the beach jumping waves, building sand castles and boogie boarding. They even tried skim boarding, but Christian thought that was a little tricky! I was hanging out with a sick McKenna all day. Thankfully she never really acted too sick. No fever, she just couldn't breath that great. Same with Will. He was happy the entire time, he just sounded awful! It could have been worse.

That evening I took Will and Christian on a walk on the beach to look for shells. It was probably my most favorite part of our vacation. When you get Christian by himself, he just talks and talks and I feel like I really get to connect with his heart.

The beach was totally empty with the exception of just us. That was fun and we found some really great shells. Christian was so cute...he kept finding purple shells or pinkish shells for McKenna.

Florida: Day 4.....the saga

 I'm not sure who loved the waves more...McKenna or Ryan! I could actually hear them laughing all the way from the balcony of our condo. McKenna loved going out in the "big Kahuna" with her daddy.

 Christian loved it too! He kept telling me over and over again..."the waves were even over daddy's head. He had to jump or we would have gone under." This was very impressive to him.

 I love this picture!

This guy LOVED his boogie board. And when he wasn't down on the beach catching a wave, he would sit on the balcony and scope out good spots to boogie board. He is obsessed with boogie boarding. If you want to hear about it, just stop by sometime. He'll be sure to tell you ALL ABOUT IT!!

Day four was my first visit to the lovely Urgent Care center of New Smyrna Beach. Will got some steroids to help with his croup. On the evening of day four McKenna was having massive coughing fits and Ryan looked at me and said "I think you took the wrong kid to Urgent Care." So the next day (day 5) I took McKenna. She was diagnosed with pneumonia. The doctor looked at me and said "Are you guys on vacation?" When I replied "yes" he said..."Well, I'm going to give her everything I can to try to keep her out of the hospital, but if she doesn't stop wheezing in 24 hours you need to take her to the ER."  Her oxygen stats weren't great, so it was concerning. So McKenna got a shot of Rocephin (which she later had a reaction too! very scary. She was screaming about her throat hurting and being tight.) She was put on an oral antibiotic and an oral steroid. And she had two different breathing treatments to do. Oh my word I was SO STRESSED OUT! McKenna is not great with taking medicine...we've been doing a lot of bribing. And she wears her swimming goggles when she gets breathing treatments because she can't stand it when the "steam" goes in her eyes...which it wouldn't if she would just do it right...but you know....
Unfortunately, that was not our last visit to Urgent Care....
to be continued...
this sounds like the worst vacay ever doesn't it???

Florida: Day 3

Day Three was the beginning of the downwards spiral of our vacation. Will had croup. So the two of us stayed up in the condo and watched the rest of the gang play on the beach from the balcony. By the afternoon he was feeling a little better, so we headed down to hang out with the big kids by the pool. McKenna practiced some ballet and Christian tried to climb a palm tree :)