Merry Christmas!

Okay, so I am not doing that great of a job catching up! Here is Christmas:

Now that my parents live thousands of miles away from us kids, we had to come up with a new plan for Christmas this year. Robbie had since moved back to Little Rock, so we decided to do most of the festivities at his house. We were so blessed to get to spend Christmas with my parents, both brothers and their families, and Grandma and Grandpa Taylor! We all gathered on Christmas Eve in our "nice clothes" to go to the Children's Mass at the Cathedral.

Nana couldn't resist getting her grand babies matching outfits! They looked so cute!
Mass was beautiful and such a wonderful celebration of our Lord's birth. It truly reminded us all what Christmas is truly about!


After mass, we allowed the kids to open one gift, which was, of course, Christmas pajamas!
Then, it was time to spread our Reindeer food on Uncle Robbie's front lawn!
My dad continued my Pepa's tradition of reading, "Twas the Night Before Christmas" to the grand kids and they just loved it! He was rewarded with sweet kisses before the kids went to bed:)


Both kids put a lot of thought into what they wanted Santa to bring them this year. Santa did a great job of making it happen! Here are Madeline's gifts. We ask Santa not to wrap so that they can enjoy and play right away!

Here are Will's gifts. Everything was such a big hit and they had such a good time playing while Nathan and I made brunch for the rest of the family who was coming over to open family gifts.

We had our usual 7 up biscuits, hash brown casserole, egg and sausage casserole, and Lindsey made delicious cheese grits. Are we Southern or what! Robbie and Emma enjoyed it all:)

My family has always been very organized when it comes to opening gifts. We all have to wait until everyone is done eating and one person opens at a time, starting with the youngest. Sometimes its really hard to wait!

Finally, it started! This is the last year Will will be first:) He will have 2 baby cousins who will go next year:)
Here is a shot of the whole crew. It makes my heart fill with joy to be with all of the people I love on such a special day!!!

Later, after lots of playing and enjoying new toys, we moved over to John and Lindsey's house for a delicious Christmas dinner. This was the first year the meal was prepared by my brother's, Nathan, and I. I think we did a great job. We had pork roast with gravy, baked cinnamon apples, broccoli and cheese casserole, green bean bundles, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, rolls, and many desserts made by Lindsey, Grandma Taylor and I. It was a lot of food and it was sooooo good!!!

The kiddie table: We will forgive Emma for the Longhorn sign:) Us Razorbacks know where our loyalties lie:)
My dad took a picture of his plate:)

It was such a great holiday. I was so thankful that my nausea was starting to get better by this point. I was able to eat and only felt bad occasionally which was a great improvement! I can't wait for next year when John and Lindsey's baby and our new addition will add to the joy and excitement!

December fun!

This post is just a bunch of random, but important, events that happened in December:

Right after returning from our Thanksgiving trip, I had my first doctor's appointment for this pregnancy. I had contact with my doctor about the nausea but this was the first time I actually had an appointment. I was not supposed to have an ultrasound as I was only 10 weeks, but he had trouble finding the heartbeat on the Doppler. He felt that everything was fine, my placenta was just making it hard to hear the tiny heartbeat. To ease my worries, he did an ultrasound and it was such a joy to see our sweet baby moving around and that precious beating heart! My due date is July 1, but due to hospital policy, I will have to have a repeat c-section this time around. They usually schedule it 7 to 10 days before the due date, so we should have a June baby. I am not thrilled about having another c-section but am not willing to travel out of town to attempt a VBAC because I would have to travel very far to achieve that:(

By this point, the nausea was starting to get a little better. I had finally stopped losing weight and was down to taking only 1 to 2 Zofran per day.

When it rains, it pours sometimes! The day before Madeline was scheduled to have her tonsils removed, we had a call from her school nurse informing us that she had failed her vision test. We had to wait until she was fully recovered, but then took her to our eye doctor, who found that she is nearsighted in both eyes, just like her Daddy. We took her to Walmart to pick out some frames. She was excited but a little nervous about getting used to wearing them. I think she looks so cute and studious! She has been so excited about how much better she can see now. I don't think she realized just how bad her vision was until she got her glasses, bless her heart!
We live in a small town that has a wonderful Arts Center. In November, we were informed that they had decided to bring in the Shreveport Ballet Company to perform the Nutcracker with our amazing South Arkansas Symphony in December. The Ballet invited all young dancers in our area to audition for several parts. Madeline was so excited! She tried out to be a mouse and was accepted! They had a few rehearsals and the performance was amazing. The girls did such a great job and the Symphony's music was just beautiful. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures during the performance, but here is a snapshot of the little mice just before. Madeline was so cute! She was the smallest and youngest mouse, so she was easy to pick out on the stage:)
I am so glad that she has now had this exposure to the Arts and am thankful that our community feels it is important to find opportunities for our children to experience in this area!
Right before Christmas, our tradition is to take both children to chose an angel from our local Angel Tree. They both chose a child their same age and gender and had such a good time choosing just the perfect gifts for them! I love that they have such giving hearts and get so excited to help other children. Here is Will helping me deliver everything to the Salvation Army. He was such a big help!

Next on the big catch up. . . Christmas!

Thanksgiving

Right after all of the craziness with a newborn foster baby, Madeline's surgery, and my pregnancy nausea, we took a road trip down to see my grandparents in Georgetown, TX. My mom and dad also flew in from Spokane, so the kids had the added bonus of seeing their grandparents and great grandparents!
We stayed for 3 days and had the best time being with everyone. I even felt less nauseous and was able to eat all of my Grandma Taylor's good cooking! Here we are getting ready to eat our wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. Grandma, Nana, and Nathan outdid themselves preparing such amazing food.

The weather was just beautiful and we took advantage of it by taking lots of family pictures, playing in the backyard, and taking the kids to a fun local park.


Aren't my grandparent amazing? They are 87 and 86 but don't act a day older than 60:) They are such amazing role models to Nathan and I in their long marriage and living a simple lifestyle! We aspire to be just like them!


4 generations of ladies in our family!




We felt so blessed to be able to spend this time with our family. I think it was just what we needed after such a hectic and tough fall for our family! We have so much to be thankful for!

Some special visitors and visits

Here is the first of many updates in an attempt to catch up my blog. . .

The day after Halloween, we found out we were finally opened for foster care again. That same day we got a call for a newborn baby boy. He stayed for 3 weeks and then went to be with some members of his family. He was such a sweet baby and Madeline and Will liked having a new baby around. Unfortunately, this happened right when the terrible pregnancy nausea hit really hard. I was so sick I had to take Zofran 4 times a days just to be able to eat and drink anything! Nathan was amazing about helping with the baby during this time. I am so blessed to be his wife!
Not long after, Madeline had her first visit from the tooth fairy! She was so excited as most of her friends had lost many teeth and this was her first at the age of 7:)

Now, in many old posts, there are mentions of Madeline being sick off and on. It turns out she was having reoccurring strep that was not a common version so it was not showing up on the throat cultures in the doctor's office. They finally decided (after having it 6 times in 6 months) that she needed to visit the hospital to remove her tonsils. Here she is waiting to go back. She handled everything so well and the surgery went very well for her!

The recovery was a little harder as she got tired of eating ice cream and Popsicles after the first day:) Who would have thought that would ever happen! It was helped by the many care packages she received from family and friends:) Here she is with the pink poodle from Nana. She had to stay inactive for 10 days which was hard on this girl. I did the best I could to keep her occupied, take care of a newborn, and deal with feeling so sick myself:( So far, she has not been sick again! Praise God!

It's funny how this time in my life is such a blur. I would never wish such bad "morning sickness" on anyone. It was very hard not to be able to take care of everyone in the way I wanted too, but God got us through the hard times as He always does:)
After this foster baby left, Nathan and I had to sit down and discuss our options. We finally decided that foster parenting is just not right for us right now, with the impending arrival of another baby this summer. We will miss it, but feel confident that this is the best decision for our family at this time.

Get ready for a lot of catching up!

I think this may be the longest I have gone since updating this blog. I hope you all who read haven't completely given up on me:)

Not long before my last post, we had a nice surprise! It was followed by a very difficult and sick 1st trimester where I honestly was not myself at all. I was basically on bed rest and fighting to stay hydrated enough to keep the baby and I healthy:(



We are so thrilled to be expecting a new baby and feel very blessed by this unexpected gift from God.

I did manage to take some pictures during that time and hope to get this blog caught up soon and hope to get back to weekly posting. I love recording the events in our lives for my family and children and still love looking back, so it is very important for me to keep up:)
So get ready! Many more posts to come:)