It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...

- Buy presents for 25 people that everyone will love at a ridiculously good price and wrap them all by yourself

Check.

- Decorate the house with every last thing in my Christmas decor tub and not make it look too cluttered

Check.

- Plan for, shop for, coordinate an 8 year old birthday party in the middle of the hectic month

Check.

- Make a professional photography session appointment for Christmas card pictures for the first time in your family's history, soothe and clean up your daughter's swollen face after she fell out of a tree, cancel the said photo shoot, and work until 11pm on Walmart.com making a Christmas card out of your own photos

Check.

- Attend 4 Christmas parties before the week of Christmas

Check.

- Finally have everything checked off your list so that you can just enjoy the Christmas season now

Check.

December Musings

Yesterday Brennen told me that his brain is working really well.

He can just "think of so many things and remember stuff and make good choices."

He also said, "My brain didn't work so good when I was 3... but it's working better now that I am 5!" Where does he come up with this??

As of about a week ago Brennen stopped calling Olivia "Sissy." He only says Liv now.

I really, really don't like it. I keep encouraging him to still call her Sissy, since he is the only one on earth who can, but he is feeling really grown up this month and doesn't like how it sounds.

Olivia lost another tooth on top today and now she has rabbit teeth. Only her HUGE front teeth show when she smiles. Just in time for Christmas pictures.

I babysat Reagan for the first time this week. Actually, Reagan and Avery. It was wonderful and tiring and fun and busy. Reagan was a good girl and smiled at me all day long. She smells so good and I love when she talks. She cried a little in the car and I smiled the whole way.

It is still new. I don't ever want this appreciation to go away. It is thrilling to hear her little voice and it is still just a miracle. All day I kept asking myself, Is this real? Am I really alone with Reagan? I just didn't think it was going to happen while she was a baby.

What a gift for Auntie.

The Day After

Life is altogether different now.
Reagan's trach has been removed.
I cannot believe I can write that sentence!

What an absolute relief, such pressure mounting until this day.
I had hope that God would rescue her, but I wasn't sure it would be now.
The bawling that occurred when they told me the second cord was moving!
And then to know that the doctor took out the trach, a vote of confidence in our little munchkin.
I was so grateful and just enormously relieved.

It didn't end like a fairy tale, since the trach was then put back in because of her distress.
And it was a long, stressful day waiting to try again.
But try again they did and this time it worked!!!
I am still in a state of shock as I write these words. Can it be true?

Reagan is still in the hospital, struggling a little so they gave her steriods for her swelling.
Hopefully, tomorrow will be a new day for her, filled with lungs full of oxygen!

What can I say to God after all this? Thank you a million times over does not say it all.

Blessed be His name. He is my rock and fortress. He deserves the glory for this miracle in my family.

The Eve of the Most Momentous Day

The requests have been presented. The troops have rallied together. The consensus is that we are so happy that Reagan is ours and we love her madly, fiercely, completely no matter what the outcome is tomorrow. God has already given us our miracle.

Thank you Jesus for her life and may she know you well.

Two Wheeler

Brennen learned how to ride his bike without the training wheels today.

I wanted to upload a video to show you, but it won't work.

Oh well.

It took about 5 minutes to teach him, according to Daddy.

The kid has always had some mad balancing skills.

For Your Laughing Pleasure

For today's post, I am going to start something to make you laugh.

I will be posting videos that make me laugh.

Take this one for instance with Kristen Wiig.

I laugh until I cry. When she pops up from behind the couch and gives that overdramatic reaction, I just can't believe what I am seeing. Pure comedy.

Date Night

olivia and i went on a date tonight. We went to see megamind in 3D right after school and then went into sephora to try on make up together.

just the girls.

sometimes i still cant believe i have a daughter. who will finally do some girly things.

just like i cant believe my phones keypad isnt working properly right now.

i cant stand incompetent technology...

Five

Five more days.

What will He do?

How will it turn out?

What will my reaction be?

I hope with all my heart that I will have peace.
I hope that my heart does not rage within me.
I hope that He will be honored and not ashamed.

Most of all I hope that she is healed.

Busted

Well, so much for that. I already missed a day on day #2. How's that for consistency?

To be fair, I was with Miss Reagan all day, so I was a little distracted.

(I know she looks scared of me, but it was really just my headband that frightened her.)

A Post a Day...

November is National Blog Posting Month. How do I know this?

Bethany, the really great writer, told me.

So, I'm going to give it a whirl.

First order of business...

Halloween was a huge success and the kids looked really cute.
Olivia was a college graduate (HUGE subliminal message here) and Brennen was an astronaut.

In other news, Nate and I were complete dorks: