Thanksgiving 2016

Happy belated Thanksgiving 2016! We survived hosting in our new house. We had 16 people here and everything went smoothly. The food was good, the company was great and our house was officially broken in. I forgot to mention that we also had three big dogs here. It was a full house!

I woke up the following day SO EXCITED for our traditional day-after-Thanksgiving family time. We picked up a Christmas tree the easy way this year (no tree farm), which diminished the experience a bit but gave us more time at home together. The boys have been bouncing off the walls, so excited that it's finally Christmas season.

We are constantly working on getting settled into our house, but we've been able to relax and enjoy it, too. I still ask Dan to pinch me at least once a day because I can't believe we have such a cozy perfect-for-us home. We have MUCH to be thankful for! It is crazy to think back to six or seven months ago and how much we've done and also how much has changed for us since then. Wow! We are so blessed and grateful for everything that has transpired.

Elijah gets a new behavioral aide who will be coming into our home starting tomorrow (she'll come one or two evenings/week after school). E is still loving chess and music class and Sammy is constantly creating art projects that are spread out alllllll over our house. :) The boys have a full week of school this week so we need to wrap up some dreaded homework this evening and prepare for the week ahead. Thanks for peeking in and I hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful!

Croup: Season 7, Episode 3 (Elijah)....and Christmas excitement!

Elijah had a mild case of croup last night at 10:00ish. After ten minutes in a steamy bathroom and ten minutes outside, he came to bed with me (no neb needed, yay!). I don't think Dan will ever understand my need for bringing him to bed, but it puts my mama mind at ease. The rest of the night was ok, with some coughing. Today was a little rough since sleep was not ideal last night. We gave him oral steroids during his episode (and again tonight before bed), which pretty much guarantees terrible sleep. I have been praying so hard that we can get him back to baseline during this two-week winter break, but things are not looking promising at this point. 

We have started re-introducing technology back into our lives. We are going to see how the week goes. I'm convinced Sammy is a college professor somewhere in his spare time, coaching people on manipulation and bargaining. He got us to agree to eating FOUR peas tonight (he despises vegetables) in order to get a few bites of dessert. After we agreed to the four peas, he looked at Dan and said, "Ok, four!" as he held up two fingers. Seriously!

Today Dan and I decided to each take a boy and have separate "date days" with our boys. It was a Sammy-Mama day and an Elijah-Daddy day. Sammy and I ran a few last-minute Christmas errands and then had lunch at his establishment of choice - Applebee's. During lunch, I learned that Sammy wants to be a "firefighter daddy" when he grows up. I explained that firefighters need to be strong and therefore eat their vegetables. Also that he will first need a wife if he wants to be a daddy. He told me that he wants to have FOUR boys and have a "pretty and nice" wife. :)

The boys are LOVING the Christmas season this year more than ever! It is so much fun. I got presents wrapped last night and they ooo-ed and aahhh-ed over the gifts that sat "under the tree" this morning. Ohhh dear...our tree. This year we got the prettiest, biggest, fullest tree we have ever had before. It is beautiful! About a week into having it as a part of our family, Dan and I started commenting on how much water this thing could drink! "I filled it up twice today!" "Me too!" A few days later our house had a unique scent. Our tree stand had a crack in the bottom, we found, and we had been pouring gallons and gallons of water straight into our carpet! GROSS! We got a new stand and all is well now for our pretty tree, minus the lingering wetness and smell. We have air fresheners, fans and towels all over our downstairs. So our presents aren't technically under our tree yet. 

We are super excited about the next few days! When we said our bedtime prayers tonight, I was so happy to hear Sammy say, "I'm so happy for Jesus!" We try very hard to keep that at the forefront amidst this totally crazy time of year. It seems impossible sometimes, doesn't it?

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas! Thank you so much for checking in!!

Sass-quatch and fun photos

The sassiness I mentioned last week escalated at the beginning of this week. Sammy showed me a caliber of sass that I have never seen before. He did not want to go to daycare on Monday morning, so I carried him inside kicking, punching and screaming. I set him down and turned around to watch him run back out of the gate and into the alley (where cars speed through occasionally). Again, I carried him kicking and flailing inside and I have bruises on my shins to prove it! Elijah has had a really rough week sleep-wise and that has carried into his days at school and life in general. 

On most mornings, I get him out of bed in the morning and see two very tired eyes looking back at me. It makes me sad to see him so exhausted right away in the morning and to place expectations on him to behave appropriately for an ENTIRE day. We obviously have expectations, but I also know how he feels! When I have reached my limit, I am not nice! I understand his lack of control, but at the same time we can't let him get away with physically lashing out at his classmates, etc. Life is tricky for our precious E! We continue to learn and do everything we can to understand certain behaviors. He has been seeking physical closeness a lot lately. He constantly says, "Mommy, I need SNUGGLES!" as he plops his 6o-pound cuteness in my lap and insists that I cradle him like a baby. He needs love! And sleep! And a much less tired brain.

On Monday after Sammy's rough morning and after dealing with some rough behavior from Elijah, Dan and I decided to pull the plug on technology until things turn around. Neither boy has had phone, iPad, computer or tv privileges all week. They have both asked, but haven't put up much of a fight about it. We will keep it this way until things calm down (minus our Friday night pizza-movie nights which is very cherished family time).

Another crazy week is done! I am still working in Cannon Falls, which is great ($) but also not great (sanity/sleep). Once Christmas is done, I think you all may hear my huge sigh of relief echo around the globe. Isn't it crazy that this time of year is sooo stressful?! It should be just the opposite, but it's just not.

Dan starts a new job on Monday! He was hired by a nearby high school to be a paraprofessional. I am SO EXCITED and happy for him! He will be back in a school setting and it is such a great opportunity. Ok...I'm tired, so here are a few photos from the past few weeks.. 

Sam refused to be in the picture (of course), so I had to sneak him in. :)

Our tree this year is the BEST! It is huge! And so pretty. We love it and comment on its awesomeness approximately 25 times/day. I don't think we will ever have a better tree than this one.

This next photo is titled We Are the Griswolds!

Our very good friends Kendis and Chris stopped by for a visit over Thanksgiving weekend. It was SO good to see them! The boys were all over them. :)

The boys are great at dough rolling, I have discovered! Good thing, because I do not like rolling dough.

Sammy was super excited to put the star on the tree this year.

Our Sammy.. he is so thorough and completes projects with pride. He took tree decorating seriously and didn't stop until every ornament was on our tree.

Elijah helped, too! In his way-too-small jammies. :)

Every December, we build a gingerbread house as a family. This year the boys were SO EXCITED about doing this.

We all contributed to the cute sugary home and it was a fun family activity. And...as always, the boys did everything they could to talk us into allowing them to eat as much of the home as possible.

I hope you are all having a nice December so far! Wishing for peace and happiness for all of you! Thank you for peeking in.

Happy birthday, JESUS!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

We try so hard to instill generosity into our boys this time of year. It gets to be so much, doesn't it? The gifts and hosting and baking and cooking and everything, heaped onto everything else?! It can be so hard to manage it all. This year we gave our boys one "big" gift to share (which they LOVED) and two individual gifts. (I have dreams of lessening next year's gifts even more.)

Yesterday, on Christmas Eve, Dan and I took the boys out to buy a plentiful amount of toys and books for "the kids at the hospital." We picked out all kinds of things and had so much fun with it! Then we drove to Children's Hospital and delivered our goodies to "the kids." This will be a tradition we will carry on forever as a family. This time of year does not have to be all about receiving. There will always be families and children who will have to spend time in the hospital during the holidays, and they will always need extra love.

Elijah and Sammy before our Christmas Eve service yesterday..

We had an incredible Christmas celebration with family and this morning we declared JAMMIES ALL DAY! :)

The boys were happy with their gifts and we spent the entire day enjoying each other and playing games and cuddling and watching movies. We began the day by singing happy birthday to Jesus!

This police/fire-station was our "big" gift to the boys and they loved it so much!

Sammy is so much more hesitant to enjoy gifts. "Really, Mom?! This is for ME? Do I deserve this?"

Whoa! Look at all the Santa and Mommy/Daddy gifts!

Bible reading with Grandpa on Christmas Eve!

One of my favorite Sammy faces. :)

Legos is the ONLY thing Elijah asked for from Santa. He was happy to see a box in his stocking!

Merry Christmas, everyone! We wish you all an amazing Christmas. Please remember Jesus' birth during this crazy season!

Giving thanks and picking out a tree!

 

Happy belated Thanksgiving! After a very busy couple of weeks, we had a nice and relaxing day yesterday. Well, aside from the 5K that I ran in the morning and aside from the cooking and baking we had to get done before dinner. Aside from all of that, it was relaxing! Ha!

The day after Thanksgiving is the day every year when we go to pick out a Christmas tree. We spend the day putting it up and decorating it....and resting. TRULY resting. No exercising, no cooking, no working, no nothing except enjoying each other. Just the four of us. I remember last year being snowy, windy and COLD, so it felt balmy this year at 20-something degrees. We picked out our tree pretty quickly and the boys got to meet a few of Santa's reindeer.

Giving each other the eye.

Sammy wanted NOTHING to do with Santa this year. Elijah was eager to get onto the sleigh and chat with him. He told Santa he'd like some Legos. We always try to downplay Santa, so I was glad he asked for a relatively little thing.

Loaded up and ready to get our tree back home! The boys were very concerned that the tree would fly off the back of the car.

The majority of Elijah's days in school lately involve some struggling. It is really really difficult to hear about the things he says and does and not know what to do to help him. I feel like we are doing absolutely everything we possibly can as his parents, and I try to be content with that.

I don't remember who I was saying this to the other day, but Elijah needs not only super strict rules but he needs about 10 amendments and 5 sub-amendments to each rule. It feels so complicated and overwhelming sometimes. There are a bunch of "little" things that we are constantly working on with him, but they all add up and they end up complicating one another (if that makes sense).

We continue to do light therapy and we have tried to put him to bed no earlier than 7:00 every night, even though some nights he is ready for bed at 5:00. For about five days last week he was waking up between 5:00-6:00, which was GREAT! Then he had four days in a row of 3:00-3:30 wake-up times. I have a gut feeling this was a result of the antibiotics he was taking for his strep. This morning he slept till 6:00! On the mornings when he is awake at 3:00, we give him a tiny dose of melatonin, although it doesn't seem to help much.

He tends to get into moods where he literally seems to want to upset/annoy everyone around him. It's really tough trying to stay positive while managing this behavior. We enforce the no "icky" words rule, so he resorts to making horrible noises and using icky tones with regular words. This is where the sub-amendments come into play. Suddenly an innocent word like "baby" becomes just as bad as an actual bad word. When we enforce no bad tones, he finds other ways to get under our skin. I so often wonder what is going through his smart little brain. Is there something he needs that I'm not giving him? He's such a complex little guy. He always has been, and we love him for it. I was just thinking tonight about what a relatively easy kid Sammy has been. I was thinking about what life would be like if we would have had two Sammys and I thought, Wait a second! If we had two kids like Sammy, Dan and I would have missed out on so much! In all honestly, it can be tough sometimes, but I wouldn't trade any of it. Elijah is EXACTLY who he was meant to be and we accept him 100% and love him TO PIECES. If you know us personally, you KNOW I mean that.

Here are some GOOD tidbits for you because we do have a mostly happy home and happy family!

Whenever all four of us are at home in the morning, we all crawl into Dan's and my bed. The boys LOVE our "fluffy blankets and pillows" (I do have a mild obsession with pillows) and snuggle and watch cartoons and hold hands and say "I love you" to each other every couple of minutes.

I have been extra smitten with Elijah and Sammy lately. I think it's because I've been working so much away from home. My heart will literally ache in the middle of the day when I think of how soft Sammy's cheeks are or how Elijah's arms feel around my neck when he hugs me or how he will not allow me to leave home without "a hug and a kiss!" I love my boys so much!

Here is a funny conversation that took place last night:
Me: Hey Sammy, what's up?
S: Ohhh, just pickin' my nose. Trying to find a booger.
Me: Icky! Do you need a tissue?
S: No, I didn't find any.

We have another couple of busy weeks ahead, but two weeks from today we leave for Elijah's Make-a-Wish trip! We cannot wait! The boys are sooo excited!

We pray that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that you have a peaceful rest of your long weekend! Thank you for checking in!