Emma Grace is Home!!!

In my last update I mentioned that they were expecting her to be home on Sunday or Monday, but she had a setback on Sunday morning which extended her stay until Wednesday night. They took her off of the oxygen on Sunday morning and she was doing great until my sister heard her alarm go off. When she looked over to check it, she was expecting her oxygen level to be down, but it was her heart rate that was the problem. My sister said that within minutes she was surrounded by about eight doctors and nurses poking, sticking, and prodding her to try to figure out what was going on. Her heart rate was racing at 300 beats per minute…a normal newborn should be at about 140 beats per minute. They put ice around her to slow her heart rate back down, and this has not happened again. The doctor came in Wednesday morning and said that they have run every test that they could on her and everything has checked out fine. She is over her cold, breathing on her own, and has a normal heart rate, so they sent her home.


I met my dad with Thomas and Anna Claire Sunday afternoon and my little sister and her husband have been keeping them this week. They have been such a big help, I wonder if this experience will prolong them from having children of their own? Hahaha… Anyway, they have been such a big help and I know that my older sister and her husband really appreciate the help.

Monday morning I went up to the hospital before work, with my camera and one of my girl’s baptismal gowns that my Aunt Karen had made before they were baptized. Our parish priest came up to the hospital and baptized Emma Grace.

It was so sweet, and we know that we are blessed to have this little on in our family!

My mom is doing great and has learned that she needs to slow down for her recovery to move along safely and successfully.

Thank you to all that have kept them in your prayers!

Snow Days...

We had a big ice storm move through on Monday afternoon. We woke up Tuesday morning with all of the local schools and several businesses closed. I logged onto my computer from home and worked until we lost power for a couple of hours. I was able to log back on at around noon and work most of the afternoon, when the power went out AGAIN. We took advantage of the situation by turning on the fireplace and made a big bed on the living room floor and camped for the night. Thankfully the power came back on the next day. There are still several in the surrounding areas that are without power and hopefully will be back up and running by the end of this weekend!

Watching a movie on the Laptop...

Getting ready for bed...

Taylor getting Molly...

Wednesday afternoon I took the girls outside for a little bit of sledding. We have the perfect size slope for them to play on, on the side of our house.

Taylor

Molly

Molly

Taylor

Molly

I know that it's been a rough week due to the weather, but it's always fun playing in the snow!

Update on my Mom and Niece

My mom got home from the hospital this afternoon, and I’m sure is glad to be home. I know that she is having a hard time not being able to help out with my sister, but hopefully Emma will be home soon and they will have somewhat of a normal routine going.

The doctors are slowly trying to get Emma off of the oxygen. They want her to be at least at a 94% on her own and she is only able to manage about 80%. If she goes through the night without setting her alarm off too often they will probably be able to take her off the oxygen and see how she does tomorrow. They want to keep her for at least 12 hours after she is off the oxygen to make sure that she is able to get what she needs on her own. The good news is that she has not had a fever for the past three days.

I went up to the hospital today to let Kim get out for a couple of hours. She has not left the hospital since Tuesday night, so I know that she was ready to get some fresh air.

Thanks for your prayers…

Prayer Request

I drove down the mountain yesterday to be with my mom before she went into have her second knee replacement surgery. She had her right knee replaced a little less than a year ago, and she was ready and excited to have her left knee replaced. They checked her in at 6 a.m. and her surgery started around 8 a.m. The surgery lasted about three hours and the doctor came out and said that the surgery went great. She was in recovery for about an hour and then they moved her to a regular room. She was a little more coherent after the surgery this time around, but she said that she does not remember her knee hurting this bad the last time. She is going to be in the hospital until the end of the week. She is such a tough woman and I’m sure that she will recover quickly.

As much as I wanted to I did not take any pictures of her before or after the surgery…which I’m sure she appreciates.

My sister called me around 10 p.m. to let me know that she was up at the hospital with their two week old baby. She had a temperature of 100.4, a cough, and was vomiting. They tested her for RSV and thankfully it came back negative, they did a spinal tap, and took a blood and a urine sample. They are keeping her for 48 hours to make sure that these samples are not growing any bacteria. She is on oxygen because she was having trouble breathing. Emma is only 2 weeks old so there is reason to worry.

Emma Grace

Please add my mom Mary and my new niece Emma to your prayer list.

Poor Barbie...

My girls are three years old and STILL put everything in their mouth and chew it up. I thought this stage was supposed to end by now. I decided that I really needed to clean and organize the playroom (because it was a disaster) and to make sure I get rid of any little choking hazard, when I found this…

Look at Barbies hands…

I hope that your week is better than hers!!!

No Binkis Equals Bowling...

I have mentioned in a previous posting about how I have allowed my 3 year old girls to continue to go down for nap’s and bed at night with binkis…well it is their resolution to kick the habit. Stuart forgot to send their binki’s and woobies to my parents house the other day, and I received an email from my mom saying that she told the girls that their binki’s have been passed onto little babies that need them. Other than a few tears here and there they have done great without them. I have to admit it has been a little hard on me seeing them lose this habit because it is just another reminder of how big they are getting.

To reward them for being such big girls we took them bowling on Sunday for the first time. Taylor did not want to wear the bowling shoes at first because they were, “boy shoes.” Once they got the shoes on they love them…I was afraid that they would pitch a fit about taking them off when we were finished. I asked them later that day if they had fun bowling and Molly said, “Yes, I like those heavy balls.” Taylor said that she liked the sliding shoes. Who knows, maybe they will be on a league someday!

Showing off those Bowling Shoes!!!

Merry New Year!!!

My mom and dad so kindly watched the girls for us on Wednesday, so that we could go to a couple of New Years Eve parties. We both had to work on New Years Eve day, so my mom watched them all day, and into the next afternoon…thank you mom! It sounds like they had a lot of fun with Mimi and Papa. My mom took them up to their church to water the flowers that day and called me afterwards to tell me about a little experience that they had with the holy water. They walked into the church and my mom showed them how to dip their hands into the holy water and make the sign of the cross…she said that they both dipped their little hands in the holy water and immediately stuck their hands in their mouth to suck off the water….gross! Maybe this is just a better way to bless yourself , but all I can think about are all the germs floating in that water. Hahaha

My mom and dad took Molly and Taylor to mass with them later that evening, they dressed them up in their Christmas dresses. They did not get to wear the dresses on Christmas because we decided to go to midnight mass, so that we could hear my youngest brother sing…have I mentioned that he has the most beautiful voice??? Anyway...three year olds and midnight mass do not mix well, so we let them sleep. I’m glad that they got to wear the adorable dresses…

Stuart and I went to a party that one of his friends from high school put together. This was the second time that I have met this couple, and they are so sweet. They have three little girls that were disappointed that we did not bring our two girls with us. I forgot to pull out my camera while we were at their house, and I’m so disappointed that I did…I wanted to get a few shots of their house…It is decorated so cute!

We ventured over to our good friend’s Kim and Casey’s house to ring in the New Year. We have spent New Years Eve with the same group of people since college. It is always a good time catching up with everyone over good food and drinks. Kim always does a great job hosting this party, and this year was not an exception. Our friend Randy brought quite the firecracker and lit it off shortly after midnight…you can view the pictures of the fire display on my friend Lindsey’s blog! I didn’t realize that these fireworks would be picture worthy, so I did not have my camera on me. I should have known that it would be over the top. Thanks for having us Kim and Casey!!!

Me and Stuart...

Scott, Stuart, and Grant...

Randy playing a game of golf on the Wii... Wayne and Casey...

Wayne and Mike...

Me and my friend Lindsey (she introduced me to the blogger world!)

Grant and Marissa (Holding their gag gift!)

The girls...Candace, Rebecca, Marissa, Lindsey, Kim, and me...

What a fun way to end 2008!!!

Christmas 2008

Well, I’m back to blogging after a few weeks off. It has been a nice break, and we had a great time visiting with friends and family over Christmas. Here is a rundown of what we did over Christmas this year...

Saturday Dec. 20

We went over to Janet’s house to celebrate an early Christmas. Janet watches the girls for us any chance that she can get. I used to work for her while I was in college and got really close to her and her husband. She is a big help to us and the girls love being doted on by her. Janet surprised the girls with a Tent that they love to hide out in!

Sunday Dec. 21

I think this was the 10th or the 11th year that we have made our way up to Big Cedar Lodge to spend a few days with my family the weekend before Christmas. It is such a great place to visit and we had a lot of fun despite the freezing temperatures. We got there on Sunday afternoon and we all piled into one of the cabins that my parents rented for dinner.

My mom gave the grand kids an early Christmas present…Pink and Green stripped pajamas for the girls and blue and Green stripped pajamas for the boys…so cute! My mom has been doing the matching pajama thing since the oldest grandson Braden was a baby, and this was the first year that he decided that he was just too old to be in uniform with his younger cousins. He did tell me that if they were black and white stripe that he would wear them (scary). I don’t think that it helped that my brother Mark told him that he looked like a “pink nightmare” in the pajamas.

Braden, Taylor, Thomas, Anna Claire, Jonah, Seth, and Molly...

I love this picture of Jonah...

We always do a white elephant gift exchange and I didn’t have my camera out for this. We ended up with some Nut Cracker ornaments that kept the girls entertained for the rest of the night.

My sister Kristin and SIL Karena with my Dad...

My Brother Mark and my mom...

Monday Dec. 22

The next day we went down to check out the main area of Big Cedar. We had lunch and then headed back to the cabin to get out of the cold and put the little one’s down for a nap.

Taylor, Me, Molly, and Stuart...

Santa Mark and the kids...Braden, Seth, Jonah, Molly, and Taylor…

Karena and her boys (Bryan had to head back early to get back to work)...

Stuart was so nice to stay and watch the girls in our cabin and my mom and dad watched my nephews in their cabin so that my Sister-in-Law and I could make our way into town for a quick trip to the outlet mall for a little shopping.

We went to dinner at the Buzzard Bar when we got back to Big Cedar and then split the kids up. Karena took Braden and Seth swimming…I’m so glad I got out of having to put on a swimsuit Thomas and Anna Claire went to bed, and Molly, Taylor, and my nephew Jonah joined us in our cabin to decorate Christmas cookies. This was probably not the best thing to do right before bed, but they had a great time eating and decorating.

Taylor and Molly...

Jonah loved that frosting...

I think my mom had a better time with decorating the cookies then the kids did...

After decorating cookies I put all three of these little ones in the tub…remember these bathtub pictures that you may have with brothers and sisters or cousins. How embarrassing these pictures seem when you are a teenager. I’m going to post them anyway because that’s what parents do…right???

Jonah, Taylor and Molly...

Thanks mom and dad for treating us to this fun trip every year.

We had a wonderful time!!!

Tuesday Dec. 23

We took the girls into town the next morning to see Santa one last time before Christmas. Taylor did great and Molly was terrified for some reason and would not go near him. We headed home after we had lunch and took a nap to rest up before we headed over to Stuart’s dad’s house to have and early Christmas with them. I forgot my camera, so I don’t have any pictures from this evening. Clark and Pam gave Molly and Taylor little Razorback cheerleading uniforms that I can’t wait to see them in.

Wednesday Dec. 24

Molly and Taylor woke up Christmas Even morning and opened Christmas presents from Santa. He came to our house a day early because we were not going to be home on Christmas morning and we did not want to haul everything to my parent’s house. They got princess dresses, just what they asked Santa for.

We had Stuart’s mom and Grandparent’s over for brunch and opened some more presents. We had such a nice visit with them and got some good pictures. His grandparents live in Texas, so we don’t get to see them as often as we would like. It has been quite the year for the two of them, as his grandmother has been battling breast cancer. We were glad to hear that her doctor said that she can now say that she is a cancer survivor…we are so happy for them and continue to keep them in our thoughts and prayers. She is in a few of these pictures and looks just wonderful.

Stuart and his grandparents…

Molly and Taylor with Grandma Kelley...

Granddaddy with Molly and Taylor...

Stuart sitting with his Grandmother...or I guess on his Grandmother (Silly Stuart!)

We headed down to my parent’s house on Christmas Eve night. We got there just in time for snacks and the rundown of Christmas movies. Stuart and I went to midnight mass with my parents and two of my brothers. My youngest brother Patrick sang a few songs which always brings a tear to my eye. He has such an amazing voice!

Thursday Dec. 25

Christmas morning we woke up and had a traditional breakfast that my mom makes…breakfast casserole and monkey bread. We sang happy birthday to baby Jesus, a tradition in the Charlton household, my mom cried while we sang (another tradition), and then we opened presents. We had a wonderful day with the family and then sat down to a great dinner prepared by my mom and dad. Prime Rib, twice bake potato casserole and lots of other goodies….

The Kids Singing Happy Birthday to Baby Jesus...

I just love Anna Claire's little teeth...

My mom and dad on Christmas day...

Taylor and Molly Christmas night in their new night gowns from Aunt Karen and Uncle Bill...

I hope that everyone had a great Christmas! It sure sounds like most of you did from your Christmas posts!!!