New Years Eve 2012

We went to the Miller's house for dinner. Zak and Marcy have a projector in their basement. The kids got to watch a movie on the big screen while the adults played games upstairs.

Sicaly and Wyatt were glued at the hip all night. They were so cute.

After the movie was over the kids had an ultimate dance party. Brad was a bit too cool to dance. After a few songs he warmed up and couldn't help dancing.

At 10:00PM (Midnight in kid time) we rang in the new year. Then we were boring and lame and went home early to get to bed.

Welcome 2012!!!!

All Smiles

Right after Christmas Harrison started socially smiling. It makes all the late night feedings, crying, and poopy diapers worth it.

Christmas Dinner

I hosted Christmas Dinner. My parents and my sister Julie joined us.

After dinner we played, visited and lounged.

Grandpa Moose thought Harrison had the right idea.

My parents spent the night and we ate, played and visited all over again. It was so nice to have them over.

Christmas Morning at HOME

Luckily we didn't miss Santa. He was so good to us this year.

Before we opened any presents we wrote down a gift we wanted to give to the Savoir and put it in a tin, then placed them under our tree. We got to read our gifts from last year and it was fun to reflect on the things we worked on.

Santa brought Claire her very own computer. Now she can use her own instead of changing all the settings on mom and dad's computer.

Brad got an MP3 player. Now he can stop stealing mom's music player.

Claire needed to show Harrison all her presents. He was very interested.

Claire got a new cowgirl outfit from Nanny to match Clarabell her cowgirl doll.

It was nice to be home on Christmas morning with no agenda. We got to spend time playing with the kids all morning.

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve night with Randy's family. The Fischers go bowling and the kids look forward to it every year.


Since Kamie and I had new babies we stayed at the house and did the last minute touches on dinner.
The babies chilled on the couch and enjoyed each others company.

Once the crowd came home we had a very traditional German dinner then hurried and cleaned up so we could open presents.


Claire was preoccupied with Rudy. She was bossing him around since no one else would listen to her.

This was the year of the hats. The grandkids some really cute ones. I love this picture. Matt and Tori found these at Old Navy.

Harrison got this from Lance and Kendra...It gives me camping fever.

Baby Reagan's piggy hat




One of Brad's gifts was money. He was so excited. He just recently opened a bank account and loves to save money.

Nanny made the kids cute PJ's.

After a fun several days we packed up and headed back to Richmond. The kids were worried we would miss Santa. The fell fast asleep in the car on the way home.

Christmas Eve Breakfast

We spent Christmas Eve morning with my parents.

We went to Belgian Waffle Inn for Breakfast.

Julie and Tammy
Aunt Lisa and Claire
Corbin


Brad ordered waffles with Vanilla Ice cream. He ate ALL of it.

Silly boys.
After breakfast we went to Grandma Moose's house and made cookies for Santa Clause.

Shrinky Dinks

Nanny bought some Shrinky Dink ornimants for the kids to make.

Watching them shrink


Admiring their work.

Surgery

I had my hysterectomy surgery on the 5th of December. There was a mix of emotions that day. I was heartbroken that I would no longer be able to have children but relieved that my health would be better. It was a hard decision but the right one.

After the surgery I had a really hard time recovering. I was still in a lot of pain from the previous c-section surgery and I still had the blood clots. The week before Christmas I had a fever again with severe abdominal pain. I called my OB who told me to go straight to the hospital. I was admitted again with an infection. I had a blot clot that was attached to my bladder that was infected. Since I would be in the hospital for several days we sent the kids to Salt Lake so family could help us. Brad and Claire went to nanny and papa's house and Harrison went to Grandma and Grandpa Moose's house.

Being in the hospital right before Christmas was so difficult. The nurses and aids would come into the room and ask if I missed my kids. I would burst into tears EVERY time. Then stop crying just in time for someone to ask again. At one point I walked down the hall and hid by the window for a while to avoid the question. They put me on several IV antibiotics. The decision was finally made to drain the abscess. They don't like to surgically go in and remove them because it can cause the infection to spread to other places. The decided to aspirate it with a needle through CAT scan guidance. I am not going to lie... I was WAY nervous. Thank goodness they sedated me once I got to radiology. Then I didn't care about anything. After 4 days in the hospital the pain had subsided and the fevers were gone.

The kids on the other hand had a hay-day. It was a week of Party. Brad got to go ice fishing with Papa and Matt and Claire got to bake and be with Nanny.

After I was released from the hospital we headed to Salt Lake to spend Christmas our family.

Little Dancer

Claire had her first dance recital in December. She did such a good job. She was such a ham on stage. There was a solo part and she did a funny break dance across the stage. Then looked around to see if anyone saw her do it. Her dad gave her flowers at the end. I don't know what she liked best...the actual dancing or wearing bright red lipstick and mascara.

Updates...

I sat down tonight and did a MAJOR update. I wish I was more consistent....but it is what it is. I do what I can.

We are slowly trying to catch up on sleep and adjust to a new person in our family. I think we are catching on. The kids have been so helpful and loving to their new brother.

We have been battling so much illness in our family. Claire had pneumonia last week and Brad and Randy are starting with the coughing. Luckily Harrison has dodged it...knock on wood. It kills Brad and Claire to not hold or get too close to their brother. Harrison is getting the Synagis shots (to prevent RSV). His lungs are still so fragile from being premature and having Respiratory Distress Syndrome. We have tried so hard to keep him away from crowds and germs. It is going to be a long RSV season.

I am slowly getting better. When I delivered my platelets were low (a side effect of pre-eclampsia) so my incision bled more than normal. I developed several hematomas (blood clots) the size of golf balls and one the size of a baseball around my incision. My muscle couldn't heal. Then the hematomas became abscessed. I have no idea how?? I was put on antibiotics and it seemed to clear up. I had several days of feeling great. Then the day before Thanksgiving and after being off antibiotics for 3 days it hit me again. This time it was like a ton of bricks. I had a fever of 103 and I could barely get out of bed. My incision burned like fire and every inch of my body ached. My white blood cells were elevated. My doctor was back and forth about admitting me to the hospital then decided to try one more time with oral antibiotic. I was put on 2 very strong antibiotics. Thank goodness I woke up the next morning feeling better. The last thing I wanted to do was spend Thanksgiving in a hospital!!! I am scheduled for surgery on Monday the 5th to have a hysterectomy. I can't wait to have it over with so I can start a new healthy chapter in my life. It has been a hard 2 years struggling with my health. I want my body back!!!

There are several new posts. Maybe next time I wont wait a whole month to post updates.