Christmas Eve 2010

My mom sent the kids new Christmas PJ's in a package the boys were really excited about their new Iron Man jammies. Jaida looked super Cute in her new PJ's too,but by the time I got around to taking a picture she was fast asleep. Our Christmas Eve was pretty low-key this year. Our favorite event of the evening was doing our annual tradition of finding a needy family to door-bell ditch a turkey. This year we packed up an entire dinner complete with rolls, turkey, potatoes, green beans, butter, gravy and stuffing. The family we gave it too hasn't had a Christmas for 5 years. Really sad! We were happy to help make this one more memorable for the both of us! Trent, Pierce, and Brown Papa ran up to the door and rang the bell and ran. On the way out of the yard, Trent almost ran right into a tree. He ducked just in time but unfortunately he was carrying Pierce and a tree branch smacked and scratched his face pretty good. Pierce was a good sport even though it looked pretty bad! Trent said the whole time they were running away Pierce was laughing hysterically! We came home after and watched the Christmas Carol and made cookies for Santa. The boys were so excited this year. Brock is obsessed with Christmas time!

Their Iron Man Pose!

Makes a mom smile

* I have to write this down so I don't forget*
Today's Lunch conversation between Pierce and Brock, While I was being a fly on the wall I heard:
Brock: Will You be sad if I died?
Pierce: Sure
Brock: Will you cry if I go to heaven?
Pierce: I will miss you a lot, but I won't cry because I know that Heavenly Father will take good care of you.
Brock: You are my Best Buddy Pierce!
Pierce: I love you too Buddy!

Melted my little heart to hear them talking like that! They are too cute!

Last night at dinner Pierce busted out this that I don't want to forget:

Pierce: Mom&Dad, I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus are real! I also Know that when we say our prayers he blesses us!

Love my little Pierce, sometimes I forget that he is only 5! That kid is just so deep! I wish I could keep him like this forever. He is always telling Trent and I how much he loves us and how grateful he is that we are his parents.

This Ain't Nothin'

Sorry you missed it but yesterday I was having a pity party for myself. In fact I think that I have been having one all week long. It seems like nothing has been going right and I just can't put my finger on why I am being so pessimistic. On Monday Trent's car was broken into and ran-sacked. They stole his stereo that I bought him for Christmas last year. Gracie, our dog, has been sick with diarrhea.. Yup that means I get to clean it up! Brock had his tonsils and adenoids out and so he has needed extra mommy care. Jaida, my sweet angel baby that has slept through the night since being home from the hospital decided that she was not going to sleep at all for 2 nights. She was awake from midnight to 4 AM! Yay! Mikelle with no sleep is NOT GOOD! I think that yesterday was the kicker though. I went to Jaida's Pulmonary Dr. appt. and they had bad news! We had a sleep study on the night of my birthday and they had gotten the results and turns out that she actually did worse than her last study. Her oxygen levels actually dipped into the low 70's not good! They are referring me to a neurologist that specializes in genetics and hypotonia (low tone). We are adding a new machine at our home we will now have a pulse oximetry machine that will alarm anytime her levels dip below the 90's! What is another machine right? She had 5 apnea events per hour and mainly central apneas. They thought by now she would have out grown her central apneas, since they thought it was more related to prematurity. We don't know where things will go from here. We just hope that she continues to grow and develop and that we can someday get some answers.

Last night I was trying to be positive and think about all the good in my life to try and get refocused and energized. It is hard to have to be strong all the time. If I have melt downs then it effects everyone. I am only human and so I guess it is normal to have days of feeling less and discouraged. I am glad that I can rebound pretty fast! I started thinking about how grateful I am to be who I am with what I do have. I do have a lot of good things going for me and when I start to count my blessings it helps me to feel better. I know that there are so many people out there who have much harder trials and deal with them with such honor and strength. I began thinking about Our Friends Travis and Kim Bass. These two people are some of the most amazing people I know. Travis has been suffering with ALS for some time now and as Kim blogs about her updates she always find a way to thank God for what she has. She is truly a great example to me on how to face trials.

I was thinking that today I need to try and be better and I think that this will be my New Years Resolution. Show gratitude for what I have and endure better through my times of trial. It is a big feat, but I need to do it! As I was taking Pierce to school this morning this song by Craig Morgan came on the radio called This Ain't Nothin':

He was standing in the rubble of an old farmhouse out side Birmingham

When some on the scene reporter stuck a camera in the face of that old man

He said "tell the folks please mister, what are you gonna do now that this twister has taken all that's dear to you?"

The old man just smiled and said"boy let me tell you something, This ain't nothin'"

He said I lost my daddy, when I was 8 years old,

That cave-in at the Kincaid mine left a big old hole,

And I lost my baby brother, my best friend and my left hand

In a no win situation in a place called Vietnam

And last year I watched my loving wife, of fifty years wast away and die

And I held her hand til her heart of gold stopped pumping

So this ain't nothin'

He said I learned at an early age,

There's things that matter and there's things that don't

so if you're waiting here for me to cry

I hate to disappoint you boy, but I won't

Then he reached down in the rubble and picked up a photograph

Wiped the dirt off of it with the hand that he still had

He put it too his lips and said man she was something

But this ain't nothin'

He said i lost my daddy, when I was 8 years old

That cave-in at the Kincaid mine left a big old hole,

and I lost my baby brother, my best friend and my left hand

In a no win situation in a place called Vietnam

And last year I watched my loving wife, of fifty years waste away and die

We were holding hands when her heart of gold stopped pumping

So this ain't nothin'

This ain't nothin' time won't erase

and this ain't nothin' money can't replace

He said you sit and watch your loving wife of fifty years fighting for her life

Then you hold her hand til her heart of gold stops pumping

Yeah boy that's something

so this ain't nothin'

NO THIS AIN'T NOTHIN'

Totally made me think and realized that really the trials I have Ain't nothin' life could be way worse! So I am going to give it a try and be better! Think Happy thoughts!

Pierce's Preschool Christmas Program

Pierce could hardly wait for this day to happen. Friday December 17, 2010 was his Preschool Program. They had been practicing the songs and the nativity all month long. Pierce was dead set on being one of the kings (wise men)! Everyday he would come home and tell me that he hoped he got to be one of the Kings. Pierce is a singing machine, so this was right up his alley. He was singing so loud and proud. It was really cute to see him.

They sang a lot of Christmas songs. His favorites included: Must be Santa, Rudolph, O Christmas Tree, Away in a Manger and Silent Night. I think he was most excited that his dad took the time off from work to come and see him! Plus an added bonus was that Brown Papa and Gramsie were able to come too!

His wish came true and he got to be one of the Kings. He was so excited and had to point out that he was the one with the golden crown! The lighting was really bad in the room we were in so I was really sad that these pictures aren't the best. He was Mr. Serious when it came to the nativity. He was coaching all the other wise men on where to stand and when it was their time to go! He was all business!

Not sure why but he had his hand on his hip a lot! Cute kid! His teacher told them to try and keep what they were doing for the program a secret. Pierce has a really hard time keeping secrets, I guess he got that from me! So everyday when I would ask them what he did at school he would get this big grin on his face and say,"I can't tell you mom!" He would let little bits out, but for the most part he was able to keep it a secret!

Pierce after his big debut! He was all smiles! We love you Pierce! We are so proud of you!

No Snow, Snowman

This one cracked me up. One day when I was upstairs getting ready, the boys ran up and told me to come downstairs to see what they had made. Pierce was so excited. When we got down stairs he said,"look mom it is a snowman sitting on the beach reading a magazine!" Hahaha! I had to laugh. I had left a pile of my laundry out on the couch that I needed to fold and they used it and some other things around the house to make this snowman.

We haven't really had any big storms this year, I am okay with that since we had such a rough one last year! Pierce and Brock on the other hand really want it to snow so they can build a real snowman!

Jaida Is 9 months

Jaida is nine months old now. She is growing up too fast. At her doctors check up she weighed 17lbs. 6 oz. (25th percentile) was 29 inches long (95th percentile) and her head was in the 95th percentile as well. Jaida has made some awesome accomplishments in the last few months. She has been working out pretty hard at physical therapy and is now bearing weight really well on her legs. She is learning to bear weight on her arms, not quite there yet. Her neck is almost straight, she was born with torticoulous. She is sitting up with no help now too! She waves now and has even said, "DADADADA" a few times. It is so fun to see her grow and learn new things. I am enjoying every moment of having a girl. She also is one of the best huggers and cuddlers lately. She is still on oxygen, we hope sometime soon she will be off!

NYC(day 2)

Our Family in front of the Plaza Hotel. December 3,2010
After day one we were really tired! We decided to take day 2 a little bit easier. We woke up to a wonderful breakfast that Laura made for us and then all got ready for another day in the city. We opted to bring some strollers this time because I don't think our backs could take another day of carrying kids! The only bad thing about day two was the weather. Man, was it cold. It was a whoppin' 26 degrees and the WIND was the worst part! It was Freezing. We started out about lunch time. Our friends took us to a really tasty place to eat called The Shake Shack! The burgers were fresh and had the homemade touch, fries were delicious, and to top it off the shakes were irresistible. The restaurant isn't very large so with a party of our size we had to do some serious maneuvering to get a table. It was worth it. After enjoying every second of our lunch, we set out on foot over to Central Park. We tried not to make too many stops along the way because quite frankly if you stopped at all you would immediately get cold. The kids were in pretty good spirits despite the frigid temps.

We went to the Central Park Zoo. They had advertised that they were going to have some special events for Christmas time. It said that they would have thousands of lights and presents for the animals. Well, the lights were a disappointment. I think that they maybe had a thousand lights total! But the present that they gave to the snow leopard and polar bears were pretty cool to watch. The snow leopard ripped into his box just like a little kid does on Christmas. It was bouncing and pouncing all over the place! The polar bears were neat to watch, but didn't have quite the enthusiasm as the snow leopard. The kids loved it! We enjoyed the indoor exhibits too, and liked getting warm inside of them too. They also had a fire pit and you could buy marshmallows to roast and hot chocolate. It was a really fun time.

I absolutely adore these two boys.

Another one of my new favorite pictures of Brock! It is hard to catch him with a smile so when you do it is awesome! We saw a lot of smiles this trip! After the zoo we enjoyed walking over by the Plaza hotel again to get a family picture. The walk back to our car seemed endless. The wind was picking up and the temperature was dropping fast. This trip was one of the best we have ever had. Once getting back to our car, we said goodbye to our friends and began our drive back home. While we were driving the boys kept making comments about our trip. Pierce said," Thanks for taking us on this vacation, Daddy we are eternally grateful!" Brock said, " Dad, this trip was Sweet!" Trent and I couldn't wipe the smiles off our faces. It was so rewarding to hear! We can't wait to go back again!

Central Park, West

Until next Time NYC... We heart NYC!