The Ending of 2010

Tomorrow morning I'm having surgery on my neck to clean out some bone spurs, take out some bad discs and "unpinch" some nerves.  In the process 3 of my vertebrae will be fused together.  I should only be in the hospital overnight then I plan to stay with my mother for 3 additional nights because it's hard to explain to a two year old that they can't jump on you, pull on you, ram into you, hang on you and wouldn't be picked up.

Even though it's fairly routine surgery, just the thought of "going under the knife" is enough to make me consider my mortality.  I know it's my nerves getting to me, but I love my family so, so much.  I sure hope to be around for many years to support and bug, I mean hug, them all!

Merry Christmas 2010

 

Carley's New Hairdo

I took Carley to an African American hairdresser today to get her hair done for Christmas. I was thinking something along the lines of braids or rows with beads. I ended up getting hair extensions put in because it would last a month and the other styles only a couple of weeks. I'm having surgery on my neck in early January to fuse 3 vertebrae together and I'm stressed about not being able to take care of the kids on my own for 6 weeks without someone else being around.

When the hairdresser said there would be no maintenance needed for her hair with the extensions for a month I jumped on it. I just didn't realize how much I liked her natural hair. Both Blain and I are having a hard time getting used to the look and feel of her new "hair". She's beautiful no matter what and the new hairdo is cute, but I do miss my baby's hair.

Lindsey's Family Day and the Christmas Village

Today is Lindsey's family day.  Five years ago in Nanning, China on December 19th we became new parents to a beautiful little girl we named Lindsey.  She is such a beautiful spirit, wonderful daughter and amazing big sister to Sammy and Carley.   She wanted Rudolph the red nosed reindeer more than anything else as a present for her family day, but she made sure that Sam and Carley got presents as well (the Abominable Snowman and Clarice respectively).

We celebrated last night with Oma and friends.  We went out to eat then walked down the block to see the Christmas Village in the town square.  It was magical with all the Christmas lights reflecting on new fallen snow and the cute little gingerbread houses. 

There was a Christmas "train" that drove around the block and thanks to Oma's over assertive ways, we got to ride in the car with Santa and Mrs. Claus.  Since we were pretty packed in, Lindsey even got to ride on Santa's lap.  Carley spent the entire ride repeating everything Santa said including lots of ho ho hos and Merry Christmases and waving to the crowds like a true ambassador of Christmas.

After the train ride, we walked to our friends condo a block away for home made hot chocolate and hot cider and gift exchange.  It was such a fun night full of Christmas cheer!

Christmas Show No. 2

Lindsey's daycare put on their Christmas show tonight.  Lindsey's class started out the concert with 3 songs - He'll Be Driving Eight Brown Reindeer, Where is Santa and the Twelve Days of Christmas.  The Twelve Days of Christmas was a special kids version, very cute.  Instead of a partridge in a pear tree they sang, "a Barbie on top of the tree" and "five Power Rangers" instead of five golden rings.  At the end all the kids got on the stage together and sang Frosty the Snowman and We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

Gingerbread House 2010

We decorated our gingerbread house this weekend.  This has been a Christmas tradition for us for the last 3 years.  It's the premade, packaged kind but it's still fun to decorate the house, tree and cookies from the package with icing and candy.  Our tradition is to try and not nibble on it until Christmas day.  Something we've only been semi-successful with.  Maybe this year we'll do better.

Elmo's Green Thumb

What could be more fun than a fun family night out seeing the Sesame Street show "Elmo's Green Thumb".

http://sesamestreetlive.com/shows/elmos-green-thumb

Carley and Sam's Checkups

One of the advantages of having back to back birthdays is we can have back to back appointments with our pediatrician for their annual checkups.  We usually have to wait (and wait and wait) for our doctor because he's a very sought after doctor plus he takes his time.  Anyway, that's one hour saved out of our lives since we only have the one wait instead of two.

Quick stats:  Carley weighed 27 lbs 12 oz and was 33 3/4 inches tall.  She was at the 50th percentile for height, about 65th for weight and 95th for head circumference (I'm sure it's the size of her brain).  She's perfectly normal and perfectly healthy.

For Sam, he weighed 32 lbs and was 42 inches tall.  He's at about the 40th percentile for height and he's below the one percentile line for weight.  The doctor wasn't concerned though because he's been consistently following the curve of growth just fine and the charts are for Americans.  His vision tested at 20/40 in both eyes so they recommended a followup vision check with an eye doctor.  We might end up with two children with glasses.

Then it was time for shots.  Everyone got at least one, even Lindsey (flu shot).  Poor Sam had four.  You would have thought they were being killed from all the screaming.  After the kids' torture, then it was time for the parents' torture.  We went to Chuck E Cheese as a birthday present, another reason why it's good to have 2 of our kids birthdays so close.  That way Blain and I only have to suffer through this twice a year rather than 3 times.

Oh, Christmas Tree

After the last couple of years of wading knee deep through needles, we broke down and bought an artificial Christmas tree this weekend.  It came in 3 easy pieces that took 10 minutes to put together.  I think it turned out pretty good.  And our friend, Dave, gave the kids a toy train to put around the tree.  All three kids loved the train, but Sam, being the train lover he is, could NOT get enough of it.

Who's really five?

And now it's Carley's Birthday!

It's fun to have 2 birthdays in a row except for poor Lindsey who thinks it's terribly unfair that she has to wait until March for her birthday.  Now both Lindsey and Sam are 5 and if you ask Carley how old she is she'll say she's 5 too. 

I can't believe we've had this wonderful little girl in our lives two years now.  Happy 2nd Birthday, Sweet Carley!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Sam and Carley's Birthday Pictures

I took Sam and Carley today to get their birthday pictures taken.  Sam turned 5 yesterday and Carley will turn 2 tomorrow.  They're both getting so big.  I miss the babies they were but am really enjoying the people they are becoming.

Sam's Birthday

Sam is now officially a five year old.  We had a small family party for him with his now traditional birthday cherry pie instead of cake.  We measured his height today and he grew almost 3 inches over the last year.  He's becoming such a big boy!

Thanksgiving in Vegas and Black Canyon Raft Trip

We spent Thanksgiving weekend in Las Vegas, driving down right before a blizzard hit Utah.  Cindy and Brian drove down after the blizzard arriving Thanksgiving afternoon.  Our dinner was of course a Vegas buffet but there were all the Thanksgiving day trimmings. 

Some of the highlights of the trip were playing games, rides and watching circus acts at Circus Circus, seeing Penn and Teller, and best of all for me and Lindsey was going on a raft ride on the Colorado River with Cindy and Brian.  The raft ride started at Hoover Dam and went through the Black Canyon.  We even saw some desert bighorn sheep.

On the drive home Sunday we got caught in a snow storm and ended up spending the night in Fillmore.  It's no fun driving on snowpacked roads at 20 to 30 mph especially after dark.  The next morning the roads were clear and it was smooth sailing the rest of the way home.