Christmas 2010

The Holiday Season continues to roll along! Kendra had her Christmas dance program at the dance studio, and she did very well in her ballet and tap dances that they performed for the parents and grandparents.  Very fun to see how much all the girls have improved in just a few short years! After the program, we headed to a local restaurant with two friends in her class and their families and had a great time hanging out with friends.

My parents arrived safely from North Carolina on December 18th.  They spent the first 5 days with our family, then headed out to spend time with my sisters. We are hoping to get them back here before they leave after the New Year!

We had a great Christmas Eve celebration with my family, and then were able to spend Christmas Day with Dan's family.  Dan's parents and Aunt Darlene arrived from Park Rapids on Christmas morning, and we had a wonderful visit with them at Dan's brother's house.  The kids were spoiled rotten once again, and we spent the next few days opening packages, assembling toys, and just playing! Here are a few photos from the present opening:

I also received a very special present from my parents:

An incredible handmade quilt that my mom made for us!  Dan's grandmother had made him a flag quilt when he went into the Navy but it was stolen from his foot locker. When we remodeled our bedroom, I found a flag quilt that I loved for our queen size bed. When we upgraded to a king, I couldn't find a quilt that I liked anywhere. My mom took a photo of our queen quilt and recreated it for us by hand for our king size bed!  It is absolutely gorgeous, and we will treasure it always!  There are a ton of peices on the quilt, and even more impressive that she was able to make it without a pattern!  Matter of fact, it was so impressive that a man in the quilt shop where she was quilting with the long arm sewing machine offered her $1000 on the spot to buy it from her!  We are very glad she politely turned down the offer!!  She also made two equally stunning quilts for my sisters, so she has been very busy sewing this year! Each of our quilts are very different, reflecting the differences in our tastes.  Amazing how well she knows each of us to be able to pick the perfect colors and patterns for each of us!

Looking forward to 2011!  Happy Holidays to all!

~ Ali



The Moments That Matter Most....

In our crazy lives, it is nice when life forces us to slow down.  This has happened a couple of times in the past week. First, the evening of Kaylie's Christmas dance.  She has worked hard at ballet and tap since September, and the hard work paid off when her class performed their Christmas ballet and tap dance for the parents and grandparents last week. I was overwhelmed by the thought of just how far Kaylie has come in the past 18 months since she joined our family:

"We Wish You a Merry Christmas":



Ballet:

"Home" Christmas 2010:

The second came later in the weekend when we got trounced by a huge Blizzard! It has been 19 years since our area has seen a snow storm of this size! What fun we had being "snowed-in" for the weekend!  We hunkered down, baked cookies, listened to Christmas Carols, and just enjoyed spending time together. The kids were so well behaved all weekend, and just a joy to be around. I wish we could have been snowed in for another couple of days!

It struck me as we were frosting our 100th cutout sugar cookie that these are the moments that really matter.  My parents provided us with so many wonderful family memories growing up, but the times around the table getting ready for the Holidays are the ones that truly stick out in my mind.  I was a bit overcome with emotion as I watched Kaylie participate in these activities this weekend.  I thought of her friend back at her "China House" and realized what the true meaning of family is. It is more than having a mom, dad, brother or sister, it is sharing the experiences like this past weekend. 

I found it so ironic that with all the experiences in our lives, both my sister Pam and I took a moment to remember a snow storm many, many years ago where we were able to jump off our second story deck into the snow below! This particular snow storm brought back that memory for both of us, at nearly the same instant, despite the 100s of experiences we have shared with one another. Funny how we both keyed in on the same memory from so long ago.  I truly believe that "home is where the heart is" and the simpliest of activities within a family are the moments that you treasure forever!  

Round 1 of 3 snowblowing the driveway:

The whipping wind kept our flags flying high!

Some serious icicles!!

Kaylie made it out in the yard for this picture, but I had to go rescue her for the way back!

~Ali

Many New Gray Hairs this week....

Sometimes a mom just has to wonder what her children are thinking!  You think you have done your best to childproof your home and teach them to make good decisions.  But we all know that there are some lessons that kids just have to learn on their own. My biggest challenge this particular week has been my "normally" level-headed Sam. In the past couple of days he:

1. Stuck his tongue to a metal pole at school  - and managed to liberate several of his taste buds in the process!

2. Decided it would be "fun" to slide off our snowbank onto the concrete driveway on his sled Saturday afternoon after a Friday night snow storm.

He did not fair as well in his second escapade, as he managed to land square on his nose on the concrete driveway.  Dad, being the OCD driveway-guy he is, had already snowblown and shoveled to get every last snowflake off the driveway - poor Sam didn't even have a single snowflake to cushion his fall!

I was alerted to the mayhem by a shriek from the driveway, and opened the front door to find Sam bent over with a large pool of blood gathering underneath him. Not a scene any mom wants to see!  I did what any mom who has an EMT background would do - yelled for dad!  Just kidding (sort of), I did take care of him and evaluated the situation.  It took a few minutes to recreate the "scene of the crime" and to determine that his injuries were likely a broken nose and some road rash on his poor nose that was already twice the size it should be!  He had a gusher bloody nose - both barrels - and once we managed to get that stopped, we were grateful to learn that he had not broken any teeth.  He is recovering well, and all seems to be well with his nose so far. Our pediatrician said that there isn't anything more to do until the swelling goes down and it begins to heal, then we will determine if he needs xrays or a visit to the ENT. Likely it will just heal on its own, and he will look even more like his mom and dad who both broke their noses when they were younger!

If that wasn't enough to get my heart pumping, we had another unexpected event earlier on Saturday morning. I was brushing Kaylie's hair and a big section of hair fell off in my hand. This is not a good sign for her metabolic status.  We contacted her nephrologist today, and she is determining next steps.  Likely we will do some additional tests with our pediatrician here, then head back to Mayo once those results are in. In the meantime, I did not let Kaylie know what happened, as she really wants to grow her hair out longer.  I know she would be upset to learn that two clumps have now broken loose.

Finally, today was Kendra's turn.  We headed back to the pediatrician to have her ears checked.  Her ear infection is back in the left ear, but the eardrum perforation has improved and is healing.  When he examined the right ear, there was a 95% wax blockage, so they did an irrigation procedure to remove it. This was not comfortable for Kendra, but she was a trooper and they were successful in removing the blockage that has been causing her pain. Once he could visualize the eardrum, he realized that her right ear is very infected as well.  She was put back on oral antibiotics and ear drops, and will be having some new hearing tests and another exam in 2 weeks. Likely she will be heading back for surgery for her 5th set of tubes.  They would then repair the left eardrum during that procedure.

As long as she was not running a fever, they decided to go ahead and give her her flu shot. She then had a blood draw for her immune deficiency, and an xray to check progress on her arm that she broke last June. Good news for her arm is that it is now 90% healed!  Great progress with her slow healing bones! She was certainly wore out by the end of that appointment. Kaylie happened to go with me to the doctor, so she was also lucky enough to get a flu shot as well.  Now I have two little girls that are none too pleased with me!

Hopefully tomorrow will be the start of a better week. After all 5 of us puked through Thanksgiving weekend, then had the drama in the house last weekend, we are ready for a non-eventful weekend!

And, I am off to get another hair coloring kit to keep all the gray hairs at bay for another 4 weeks!

~Ali