Happy Birthday Brady!

My sweet nephew turned one last weekend. We celebrated him with a pizza party at his house and gifted him with a Thomas the train tent. We love you Brady Boy!

 

Christmas Time Activities

We have a lot to keep us busy the last couple weeks leading up to Christmas. Here is a quick rundown of our activities starting with the most recent:

 

Storybook Land ~ We ventured out to Storybook Land for the first time with Uncle Trav/Katie/Brady, Uncle Tyler & Aunt Tara and the kids loved it. Loads to look at and the highlight was the electric train track with a Thomas the train.

 

Christmas Trees ~  Baron brought home the cutest Christmas tree from school recently and we decided to make them at home with all the kids. We bought sugar cones, green frosting and candy to decorate with and they turned out awesome.

Zoo Lights ~ We ventured to Zoo lights this year and it was.....well, a zoo ;) We went on a Saturday night with Uncle Trav/Katie/Brady, both sets of the Neuschwanders and what felt like a million other people. We had to park in the zoo overflow parking and be shuttled in on school buses. It was quite the experience since we were also hauling our double stroller. When we finally got in the zoo, it was COLD and very busy. We made it thru in pretty short order but the kids seemed to enjoy themselves so it made it worthwhile. Thankfully Sheri took some pictures because I didn't (herding small children in a sea of people and all).

Super Dad

Our kids have a super dad who loves them a ridiculous amount. It's an awesome thing to witness!

 

Banana Splits

 

Hello Mr. Santa Claus

We met Santa for the very first time ever this year and it was entertaining to say the least. Elliott gave us the classic freak out when she first saw him (remember she doesn't like "masks") and was clinging to me like she was glued on while Baron just hopped up on his lap and began telling him he wanted cars and trains. After seeing Baron laughing it up with Santa, Elliott decided she could do it as well so she ended up telling him she wanted Bitty Baby and a horsey. Mav is such an easy going dude that he really didn't care either way. He sat on Santa's lap but wouldn't say what he wanted. Elliott took over and told Santa that Maverick wanted a ball. What a helpful sister ;)

 

Baron is really getting the whole "Santa" concept this year. Yesterday he couldn't find his Lightening McQueen car and went on to say "It's ok mom, Santa will bring me a Lightening McQueen."

 

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas....Wait, what?

Last Friday there was snow on the ground when we woke up. And it just kept snowing...and snowing....and snowing until there was about 6+ inches on the ground. It is 6 days later and that snow is still on the ground. While it is beautiful, I am ready for the white stuff to melt. It has caused school closures this whole week and the roads are still a snowy/icy mess in our neighborhood. The kids played in it the first day for about 15-20 minutes. Loved it and then hated it when their hands got wet/cold. The second day Baron and Elliott ventured out again but only for about 10 minutes while Maverick stayed happy & warm inside the house. Since then we have stayed pretty close to home and are getting a little cabin feverish.

 

 

Potty Training

Elliott is about 90% potty trained. These are very exciting times at our house people!

November Recap

Yikes....where did November go? Or the beginning of December for that matter? I don't know about you but I am nowhere near being done with my Christmas shopping but surprisingly, I am not stressing about it. Well at least not too much.

 

November was not very kind to our family in the health department. The beginning of the month Elliott came down with a virus of some sort. She had a fever for about 4 days (which means sleepless nights for the both of us) but finally was able to bounce back. About the same time Maverick started coughing but that was all for him. I felt a little off but my guess was it was just lack of sleep and stress....I really don't like fevers! We finally were back to our healthy ways when the stomach flu hit us.....hard. Baron woke up throwing up in his bed on a Saturday night. There was late night washing of his bedding and, eventually, ours. He and I ended up spending the night on the couch where he finally got some sleep around 5 am (when the vomiting stopped). Elliott then came down with it on a Tuesday night and it was the same exact scenario but she only threw up 3x. Maverick woke up sick on Wednesday morning and by 10 Grant was home sick as well. Thankfully Elliott bounced back after 8-10 hours so I was able to focus on Mav. This is one of the times where I am extremely grateful for his feeding tube. Because of the RSS, Mav can't fast or it could potentially cause him to go hypoglycemic and we don't want that. I was able to set the pump extremely low and get pedialite & then his milk into him without making him sick. Needless to say, the washing machine was going non-stop for 4 days and almost every surface of the house had to be sanitized. I feel extremely lucky that I did not get the bug because I needed to be able to take care of my sick little family! 

Baron was a champ with the bowl but the twins hated it. Maybe they thought that is why they were throwing up?!

 



 

 

We were all healthy by the week of Thanksgiving. We hosted Thanksgiving at our house and had a wonderful dinner with Trav/Katie/Brady, Tara/Bailey, Dave/Nancy and Grandpa Bobby. No black Friday shopping for me and we had our second Thanksgiving at the Websters on Saturday. This included us with Dave/Nancy and Joel/Shannon, Grace, Ava, Finn and Hudson. Grace and I made a two volleyball blankets while we waited for dinner and all the cousins played. Another wonderful time spent as a family!

 



Baron also brought home some incredibly awesome school projects. I just can't seem to part with any of it. I need to buy a scrap book (or 3) to keep everything in :)