We Wish You a Merry Christmas!

Christmas Day was wonderful this year.  We went to church where they put together a wonderful Christmas program that told the story of Christ's birth and filled our hearts with the spirit.  It was the perfect way to start the day.  After that we came home and opened presents.  We all made out like bandits.  The kids got new bikes.  Santa brought Kaia some new games (Princess Yatzee and Mouse Trap), some Littlest Pet Shop toys, and a bunch of new books.  He brought Gabriel the Cootie game, some books, crayons and a note pad.  Gatlin also got some books, crayons, a note pad, and Doug and Melissa lacing toys.  He gave all 3 of them an easel to draw and paint on.  I bought Matt a new razor, video games, and some blu-ray movies.  Matt bought me a new desk, new serving dishes for my kitchen, new soap dispensers for our bathroom, and a pink I-Pod shuffle!  Matt was on call that day.  He wasn't paged all day and then at 11:00 that night he got a page!  Apparently, someone was bored on Christmas Day and decided to come in and have their in-grown toe nail removed.  Really?  Oh well, it is nice to know that this is the last Christmas that he will ever have to work.  All in all, it was a very, merry day!

Cookies for Santa

This year on Christmas Eve we decided to decorate cookies for Santa.  The kiddos each had a different take on it.  Gatlin is a lot like his Mama and LOVES sugar.  He was all about the icing.  I kept telling him to put it on his cookie but he just kept scooping spoonfuls into his mouth.

 Kaia took it very seriously.  She put a lot of time and effort decorating her snowman cookie.  She was so excited when she woke up the next morning to see that Santa had eaten her cookie and left only crumbs!

 Gabriel is my "odd" child.  He does not like anything sugar unless it is gummy and is a fruit flavor.  I love these two bottom pictures.  It's as if he is saying, "Mommy, do I really have to eat this?" 

The finished product!  Santa left a note saying how yummy they tasted!

Gatlin Goes Under the Knife.

Gatlin had surgery on his eyes this past Thursday.  He has Strabismus.  It is a disorder in which the two eyes do not line up in the same direction and therefore do not look at the same object at the same time.  Gatlin hasn't been seeing about 2/3 of things.  If we didn't correct this then he would have eventually lost vision in his right eye.  He has enough challenges in his life that we decided the surgery would be best for him.  It was a minor surgery but still very scary for us.  Matt was able to take the day off to be with us.  We were able to leave the other two kiddos with some friends.  We made the long one hour drive to the surgical center where I kept trying to talk Matt into scrubbing in to watch/help with the surgery.  He politely told me that he didn't want to make Dr. Moody feel uncomfortable and that he would do a good job.  I guess he was right.  Anyway, we checked in and waited for about 40 minutes.  Oh, to have one child again! Gatlin was awesome.  He just cuddled with Blanket and watch the fish swim in this huge aquarium.  (All of these pics were taken with my phone which explains the poor quality.)

 They called us back and we stayed with him until it was his turn for surgery.  The surgical center was so nice.  It was a pediatric center so they were very patient and accommodating to all the little ones there.  About 10 minutes before they took him back, the nurse gave him some Valium to completely relax him to make it an easy transition for putting him under.  It was so funny.  (I probably should say that but it was!)  He was so mad because they had to give it to him through his nose.  Then, he started giggling and before long he was almost asleep.  I haven't seen him lay that still since he was a newborn.

(after the Valium kicked in)

 Then, they took him back.  I was proud of myself.  I didn't cry. I only shed just a few tears.  The surgery took about 45 minutes.  We went back to see him in recovery and he was sleeping very peacefully.

The nurse walked us through the post-op care for him and then he woke up.  He was upset and crying but Matt and I were able to calm him down in just a few minutes. Whew! This was the part that scared us the most.  We were both so nervous that him coming out of anesthesia and having blurry vision on top of that would be very scary and traumatic.  He did so good.  On the way home he vomited a little, but after that he was fine. 

(Dr. Moody gave him some pretty cool glasses to wear after the surgery)

He slept in our room that night.  We had to watch him close and make sure that he didn't rub his eyes.  Again, he did really well and only tried to rub them a few times.  I would just hold his arms and tell him not too.  He is such a good kid. He seems to see a lot better than before.  Two days after his surgery he kept running up to us and would just stare at our faces and smile.  I am sure if he could he would say, "I can see!"  He had his post-op appointment this past Wednesday and everything looks great.  He will not need glasses right now.  The doctor wants to see if his own reflexes will correct the little bit of turning that his eyes still does. He will have to visit the doctor again in 3 months. This is all good news and we are so grateful to have this problem taken care of and behind us.

*SIGH*

Here we are in the middle of December with Christmas only 10 days away and all I can do is sigh.  This month has been full of sickness for our little family.  It all started with Kaia.  She had strep throat and was down for about 3 days.  A week later, Gatlin got sick-real sick.  He was down for about a week and had a fever of 106 at one point.  (Lucky for us Dr. Dad was home that morning and knew what to do.  Mama (me) was freakin' out.)  Then Kaia kept getting a random fever every couple of days.  The WEIRDEST thing.  She would have a fever all day and was super lethargic.  The next day she was perfectly healthy.  Two days later she would get another fever.  This went on for about a week.  During this same week Gabriel had diarrhea.  This past weekend Matt had a fever.  Which only lasted two days.  (Thank goodness)  As for me, I am perfect healthy.  My sanity, on the other hand, is another story.  Anyway, despite all this ickiness we still managed to get ready for Christmas.  I was so excited to decorate our new house for this holiday.  

I finally have a fireplace to hang our stockings on! 

This is also the first year that our tree didn't have to be behind bars!  It looks so pretty in it's full, unconfined glory!

Our tiny Christmas village.  Matt and I have been adding pieces to it since our very first Christmas.  Kaia have really enjoyed playing with it. The boys sure love to re-arrange it.  We added the clubhouse and the bakery to it this year.

Here is Kaia chatting it up with Santa at our church Christmas party.  All she wanted was Jessie from Toy Story.  Her and I had a date night together for the party.  Matt stayed home with a very sick Gatlin.  We decided to have a girl's night out so Gabriel had to stay home too.

Dinner and a movie night!  We watched "Elf".  The kids loved it!

Gabriel's school party was today.  He was making a Christmas card. 

Gatlin's party was today too.  Here he is decorating his cookie.