Seeing Santas

My kids had 2 opportunities to see Santa this year. Their first time was at our ward Christmas party where we waited in line for over 30 minutes. It was worth it, Caleb and Gunner both loved seeing him. 

Bree kept saying "I see Santa, he nice!" But, once she actually sat on his lap, it was a different story. Even as we waited in line, I kept coaching her that he would give her candy and she could tell him what she wanted for Christmas. Once I handed her over to the big guy, though, she was quite certain I had totally lied to her:

Yes, I am that mean Mom that gets excited to see their kids with Santa only to find out that the white beard and white hair scare the crud out of my kids when they are 2. I had to get the picture! She'll thank me when she's older. 

The next opportunity with Santa was on Christmas Eve Eve. Santa actually came to my sister in law's house! All the Cook cousins came (we missed you Brown family!) and it was a really special event. The kids got lots of one on one time with St. Nick.

Before he came, Grandma Cook told all the kids a Christmas story and reminded them the true meaning of Christmas and why we give each other gifts. She's such a sweet Grandma!

After that, the Big Guy made his entrance and all the kids were enthralled! Well, all except for Miss Breezy. She was scared out of her mind. Santa came in ringing his sleigh bells and shouting "Ho Ho Ho" and that was enough for Bree to be instantly glued to my leg & screaming at the same time. As if I didn't scar her badly enough the first time, she would have to go through it again. Poor Girl. Why is her mother so mean? 

The kids got to see Santa youngest to oldest which meant Bree was one of the first to see him. She wouldn't sit on his lap so I sat with her. She did start to come around a bit when she realized she was getting a present AND a piece of candy out of the deal. But, still wasn't touching Santa!

Gunner was very excited to talk with Santa. He definitely had a few things to tell him. For instance, he had to tell him his age, where he went to school and what street we lived on, to make sure of course that Santa knew where we lived. 

He wasn't expecting a present so it was really great that Santa came so prepared!

Caleb was overly excited. While each of the other kids took their turns, he patiently waited until it was his time with Santa. This boy is so darn cute. He had lots of things to tell Santa too. She showed him the sign for "Santa" in his own Caleb sign language (similar to signing Grandpa) and was just super happy to just sit and visit with the Big Guy himself!

Natually, he LOVED his present. He's such a bookworm. :)

I think one of the best parts of the night was what happened next. My niece Annalise visits with Santa, receives her present and then also tells Santa that she has a loose tooth. She had been scared about pulling it out, but all of a sudden got brave and asked Santa to pull it out for her! 

Turns out that her tooth wouldn't budge but it was a great moment to see Santa trying to pull a tooth! Plus, I dont think Santa wanted her to think he would do anything to hurt her. :)

Before he left, he gave Grandpa Harvey a big hug. Grandpa seems to have the best connections!

Goodbye Santa, see ya next year! 

A few randoms

Below is a bunch of pictures that I just love but they don't really have anything to do with one another. Just fun. Enjoy. 

Gunner did a Thanksgiving program at school. He was so proud!

Breezy without pigtails. So in love with this girl! 

Caleb had a cookie decorating party at school. He was really happy to be back at school! He and his buddy Yueng Seoung playing their instruments.

We love Sonic sunglasses!

Gunner has been learning about the human body at school and proudly displays his full body picture of all our organs. 

The Larson girls came over for St. Lucia day. I snapped some pictures of them, the little beauties and after, they had lots of fun playing in the leaves. 

My niece Annalise...isn't she gorgeous?

My other niece Ava...future model for sure!

A beautiful sunrise in December. Love the firey red sky!

Gunner was so excited for Christmas, he could barely contain himself! Me too. It's so fun to put up the tree and decorations for Christmas. 

The end for now!

November

I know I know, I am the worst blogger lately. My sis in law told me I've disappeared from the blogging world so I'm trying to make some time to post a few pictures. Life has been busy, and when my internet is slow, I don't have the patience to wait for things to load to Blogger. :) 

Anyway, this month was a great one. At school the boys had crazy hair day so we combed their hair all funky (as funky as we could comb boys short hair) and they were excited to participate. I sadly didn't get any pictures of them :-(. Since Bree isn't so rushed in the morning, I did her hair as "crazy" as I could and she let me take a few pictures outside. She's so fun. I love it.

This was the best shot I could get because she kept running away from me. :)

I just love her smile!

This month Caleb had a field trip to Mother Nature's farm. My sis Kristin and her daughter joined us for the day. We had lots of fun going on hay rides, seeing the animals and choosing our pumpkins to take home. 

 This is Caleb's "Deep Thoughts" pose. Love this boy!

Caleb's class picture 

He had so much fun there. He is really in his element when it comes to seeing farm animals. He's loved them since he was a baby. Cute boy!

Gunner also had a Kindergarden program with a dessert feast afterwards. He did a cute program with songs. The video is still loading on my computer so I'll have to post it here when its done. 

This month we also had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We spent it with Justin's family this year and as always had so much fun together. It was great to reflect on how many blessings we have as a family. We've seen so many miracles occur over the past few years. 

My sweet sis in law Tiff took this picture of us to help me out with our Christmas card this year. I'll have to post the outtakes soon. The ones of the kids are pretty funny. :) 

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!  

Poor Caleb

On November 12th Caleb had his first hospital stay. Poor little guy had been sick for 2 weeks with a cough and fever when he stopped eating and drinking that we finally decided to take him into urgent care. The doctor at the Urgent Care took an X-ray of his chest, diagnosed him with pneumonia and told me that he was not getting enough oxygen so we needed to get him checked into the hospital right away.

Since we know a great Children's hospital (Cardon Children's Medical Center), we opted to go there. We were in the Emergency Room for a few hours while they prepared a bed for Caleb and went over medical history, etc.

The few hours we spent there were the toughest. Caleb was very combative and did not want anything to do with all the oxygen masks, cords and all the things that go along with measuring how his little body was doing (blood pressure, oxcimeter, etc). His oxygen levels were in the 80s when they should have been 98-100. He was dehydrated, extremely tired and very overwhelmed with so many people coming at him with different tests. Poor kid just didn't understand what was happening. :(

Once he was transferred to the Pediatric ICU, the doctor on call there told us that the best way to help him rest would be to sedate him so he wouldn't fight off the oxygen mask as well as the other tests (more x-rays, bloodwork, IVs) they needed to do. This proved to be great because Caleb settled right down instead of working so hard to get everything off of him. He ended up being sedated for 2 full days and slowly weaned off of it so he could do breathing treatments and begin to heal his little lungs.

Justin, being the great Dad and husband he is, decided to stay most of the nights with him. Isn't he the best?

Caleb did have lots of visitors, presents and treats....which he loved once he woke up :-) 

Uncle Tyson stopped by to help give him a blessing. Poor buddy looks so tired. 

The next day he woke up very slowly and was very mellow but still loved to watch his movies!

He wanted to cuddle a lot, which Mom always loves. :)

My parents.

After 3 days Caleb was finally able to get out of bed and go for a ride around the ICU. He was too weak to walk so we took him for a ride in the wagon. He loved getting out of the room! He was only permitted to go a little ways but he kept pointing in different directions to go for a longer walk. 

The next day he was allowed to go outside! Yea for fresh air! 

Craig & Crystal stopped by so Justin and I could spend time with the other kids at home for a night. Thanks guys! Crystal does respite and habilitation for Caleb. She's fabulous!

Miss Amanda (his former teacher of 2 years) heard that he was sick and she came by 2 nights to keep him company, cheer him up and even brought him a present. He adores her! 

After 4 days in the same place, it looks like this little boy is feeling better! We wish that were enough for him to come home. His oxygen levels were still too low to let him go just yet. But at least his personality was coming back!

Finally, after 7 days of being in the ICU Caleb was able to come home! They sent us home with breathing treatments every 6 hours as well as other antibiotics to help him fight off any further infections. Caleb was so excited to bust outta there! 

He was so happy to go home, sleep in his bed and be with his family again. We love you Caleb and are so happy you are healthy again! No more pneumonia! 

It was a kind-of a weird feeling to be back in the hospital again. I told this to a few people, but I remember walking into Caleb's room and almost feeling happy...knowing that we'd be leaving in a few days and not coming back...I knew that we'd be leaving without any diagnosis of cancer. And that was a comforting feeling to me. I know it might sound odd, but it was just a feeling that everything would be okay. We needed to get Caleb better then things would go back to normal. Or as "normal" as our crazy life is. :-) Anyway, this time with Caleb being so sick made me appreciate him and be truly thankful for this sweet little boy. 

We love you Caleb!

End of Soccer Season

Gunner finished his 2nd soccer season of the year on November 20th. He had a great season. His team, the Lightning Bolts, have so much fun playing together. They are all great little buddies.

This banner was made by Deacon's Dad which is super cool! Thanks Nate! P.S. In the picture below, Caleb is holding a fake gun. It's a BBgun which is obviously not loaded. We did get a few odd looks from other parents, but I reassured them, it was fake! He just liked holding it!

They had a quick award ceremony after their last game and Gunner was one of the most improved players. He did great on his defense and worked really hard to improve. Great job buddy! Can't wait for next season!

I made this card for all the families of the team. These boys have been playing together for 3 or 4 straight seasons and we hope they keep it up til they're in high school (at least that's what the Mom's want. hehehehe)

Halloween Pics

For Halloween, Gunner was Buzz Lightyear, Caleb was (supposed to be) a Knight, Justin was a Sun"Devil" and I was the angel by his side. This is about as dressed up as Justin will get. :) Unfortunately for me, I bought Caleb's costume without having him try it on and he ended up hating the thing altogether so he wore it for about 5 minutes just to get a picture. Oh well, good thing I have more boys to use up the extra costumes! I am about 25 weeks prego in this picture. :) 

Sweet Breezy was Belle from Beauty & the Beast. Really, she just wanted an excuse to wear her princess dress. She had a Halloween party at preschool the week before Halloween and she loved getting all dolled up. Of course, she wouldn't wear the matching crown with her dress but she still looks pretty cute! 

Happy (late) Halloween!

Catch up for October

My months are getting away from me. Where does the time go? It's already November. The years are flying by. My kids are getting older, I am getting older. My husband is getting older, only, it looks good on him! :) This is just not fair. I guess that's why we have to be grateful for each moment we have with our families. Especially our children when they are young. It's always easier to say that once my little ones are tucked in their beds and sleeping away. The day may bring chaos and craziness, but it's those days (like today) that I really am grateful for these little people in my life and the lessons they teach me. Today it was patience, love and to just stop and enjoy the sweet moments.

Tonight I laid down with my boys and we swapped stories, sang songs and cuddled. I feel like I don't do that enough and I need to be better. Gunner told me I was his best mom. :) He still wants to cuddle with me. Still wants a goodnight kiss. Still wants to hold my hand. How I love that. I asked him if he would still love me when he was all grown up and his answer was "Don't worry Mom, when I grow up and you get old, I'll turn back into a little boy and take care of you." Oh, he has no idea how I wish that could happen. I guess that's why I love taking pictures of my kids at this stage. It's a great way to freeze time.

Anyhow, on to October. I spent 3 out of the 4 weeks this month sick so I was excited to finally get out and do something! I guess you could say it was good timing because it was so hot here in the Valley that by the end of the month it finally started to cool down. And we took advantage of the beautiful weather. As of now, it's getting hot again. In November. Oh well, here's hoping the holidays bring cold! Anyway, we visited Schnepf's farm, attended the Down syndrome Buddy Walk and of course celebrated all the Halloween festivities...all in the last week of October! I also managed to paint Breezy's room but I'll have to put that in a separate post because I still haven't decided what to put on her walls. Let's just say, when it comes to this girl's room, think pink! 

Since I took so many pictures at Schnepf's, I put it in a collage. My mom came with us and brought my niece Corinne to join us. They all had so much fun together. We visited the petting zoo, which was definitely Caleb's favorite part. He adores farm animals and would live with the animals if he could. We also saw the pig races and then headed over to all the rides. 

I love this picture of Caleb with the cow. He's trying give him or her a kiss. Love this kid.

And this one with the girls holding hands...one to blow up for the grandparents. :)

We enjoyed the hot dogs and the live band while we ate and the kids got to dance their hearts out. We also went for a little train ride around the farm which turned out to be pretty scary for the little girls. I guess Schnepf's brings out the zombies and scary dead people when it gets dark and they nearly made Breezy & Corinne faint. My boys on the other hand, loved it. We all had fun and I'm glad we went. The kids were all caked with dirt by the end of the night I could barely recognize them. 

The next night was our ward trunk or treat. I'll do a separate post for that one because, again, I took too many pictures! 

A few days later we attended the Sharing Down syndrome AZ Buddy Walk. This is a very rigorous 1 mile walk and then celebration afterwards. It's right up there with a marathon. Catch my sarcasm? I think it's barely 1 mile. But it definitely is a celebration for those with Down syndrome. The organization raises funds every year for parent support meetings, inclusion efforts, & advocates for those with DS. 

We have been going to this since Caleb was 2 months old. We have missed the last 2 years due to vacation & Breezy being sick. This year we were excited to go. Caleb loves this party every year. He loves it mostly because he likes to dance to the loud music blasting, jumping in the bouncy houses and of course to celebrate him! 

Highlights of the party...

Caleb was on the stage with DJ Ron for a good majority of the time there. He loved dancing with his cousins & just being a part of the action. We love you Caleb! 

This was the best we could do for a family picture. Breezy was not in the mood for pictures because I took her away from Grandma (GaGa). How dare I do that for a picture!

Until next time...