Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Christmas 2015

Slowly, but surely I am getting caught up on all of my holiday pictures! 

We had a very fun and full Christmas this year! 

Faith had an endoscopy and colonoscopy (which included a hospital stay) on December 22 and 23rd, so my Momma blessed us by staying the whole week to care for the other 3 kiddos while we were in the hospital with Miss Faith. It was so nice to have my Mom with us that week leading up to Christmas! 



Faith's procedure went pretty well. We knew from her records that when she was 11 months old, they found out she had a megacolon and removed some of her large intestine. It was unclear of how much intestine was removed, though. We found out that she only has 10 cm of her large intestine left! (The doctor informed me that a normal person has 9 feet of large intestine - so that is a huge portion that was removed!) We also found out later that she has an over growth of bacteria in her small intestine and is lactose intolerant. I am so relieved and glad to be more informed on her intestinal issues. She is now on an anti-biotic for her bowel and a lactose free diet.






On Christmas Eve, PopPop and the Stepanov's joined us. (Along with Frankie and Penny - the dogs.) We had a hot chocolate pj party and then tucked the kids into bed. 



Starting back in April, I worked on making stockings for the kids. Byron's mom had made him his stocking many years ago. One year I found her pattern and made my niece, nephews and myself one to match the ones she made. This year, I used the same pattern to make stockings for our kids. I also embroidered them with our names. I think they turned out beautifully!


On Christmas morning, the kids raced down stairs to see if Santa had come - and he did not disappoint!!


The kids opened their gifts from Santa, then we ate breakfast and opened our other gifts. Faith had so much fun this year! Last year she was still so timid and scared and just confused about what was going on. This felt so much more like her first Christmas. 


GiGi and PopPop are SO CUTE!


All the kids got personalized wallets from Aunt Barbie and loved finding the money (including a gold dollar) inside. 




Tali: 



This was Baylor's first Christmas! 


Loving on Daddy:


Adrik cracked us all up!! He got a whoopee cushion and fake poop and just laughed and laughed! He would say, "I got poop and toots for Christmas!"


Triplets!



Handsome guy!


Hands up!



Aunt Jackie got all my kids shoes (yay!!) which they loved!



Anything Star Wars is a hit with these boys!


Beautiful scarf - and photo bomber:


The babies of the family - can you believe he was only 8 months old here?





It was pretty enough to play outside, too! 


Which was perfect since Santa also brought a trampoline!! 


What a great, fun, family filled Christmas!! 


Monday, January 25, 2016

Birthday Parties!

Oh my goodness! I am so behind on blogging! I just realized I never shared pictures of our November babies' birthday parties! 

First up was Faith, who turned 4 on November 20th. Her birthday was on a Friday and I made cupcakes for her to share with her friends at our homeschool prepare and share day. There were enough left over for us to have some after dinner, too!




This is the face of pure enjoyment:


The next morning was Faith's party!! We originally planned for it to be outside at the park, but the weather did not cooperate. She loves Elmo so we had a Sesame Street party. PopPop made this amazing sign as a present and a decoration! 





We had Elmo's goldfish, Cookie Monster cookies, and Big Bird's gummy worms along with the cake and punch.



She had over 50 people come to wish her a very happy FIRST birthday party ever! 



I think she felt super special and loved!



Gabe's birthday was just 2 days later - on Monday, November 23, he turned 10!!!





We celebrated him on the following weekend. He took his two best buds to play laser tag - such a big kid party!! (I was NOT a good momma and forgot my camera, though.)

What fun to have 2 special birthdays so close together!