Births

The start of our year has been tumultuous at best. We have had two deaths and a birth, a visit to the doctor for Lilah, several health related issues with my employees, oh AND there's this little event for the preschool I put together every year coming up on Saturday night for about 250 people.  It's no wonder I could barely move my neck yesterday.  Stress much? 

The most stressful event by far though was that birth that I mentioned above.  Our "nephew" Parker was born on Monday, the 5th and I cannot adequately put into words how much of a hot mess I was waiting for his arrival.  I had no idea how severely births affected me until his. I mean I knew that I was always a wreck waiting to hear the results of a new born hearing screener for any baby born...I'm probably the only person who visits a new mom and immediately asks about the results of this screener.  However, I am clearly traumatized by my own experience with a difficult birth, more so than even I knew.

Mari went into labor Sunday night and I was texting back and forth with Bibber all evening.  Around midnight Mari started to push and just 10 minutes later I got a text that they were "taking a break."  PANIC.  I just knew something had to be wrong.  I started frantically texting Bibber and when I found out the baby's heart rate had dropped, I was ready to head to the hospital in my pajamas.  Crazy, right?  But apparently that's how deep the scars are.

As it turned out Parker was born around 2a.m. and is just fine.  He's beautiful.

 2015 will bring many births to our family and circle of friends.  Our best friends are due within the month and our we will find out the gender of our sweet niece or nephew "baby Sparky" next weekend.  He or she will make his or her arrival in June.  Another good friend is due in August.  I'm hoping to work on my birthing issues as this year unfolds.  I'm hoping, but I'm not hopeful!  We all have quirks, this is apparently one of mine ;) 

Christmas 2014

I came down with the flu the week before Christmas forcing Shawn to come home early from a business trip and me to fall into a funk of disappointment over all I was missing and worry over those I may have infected.  I cannot recall being so sick ever in my adult life.  I was wiped out beyond belief.  Some days I still don't feel like I'm all the way back to normal, but I would say by Christmas Eve I was mostly better.

My grumpiness over being sick clouded my memory of Christmas this year.  I didn't realize how beautiful the holiday really was until I looked back at the pictures and saw the sweet smiles on my kids' faces.

The Monday before Christmas I was determined to do something fun with the kids to mark the season.  I really didn't feel great, but I wasn't contagious, so we headed to the Christmas Lego display at the levee.  The kids really enjoyed it, Brian especially of course!  It is SO COOL to see all of those legos displayed in one place.  I could look for hours!

How Lilah spent much of the Lego show.

Christmas Eve brought the Christmas skit at St. Pats which I run (with some wonderful helpers!) each year.  This year I especially had to count on my helpers as I missed the first practice!  Brian wanted to read in the skit, but we had decided that since we had only a few older kiddos, we would have them do the narrating.  I didn't want him to be upset though and since he's come so far with his reading, I felt like he deserved it, so I did have him read an introduction.  He did SUCH a fantastic job and everyone in the church chuckled because he was so adorable.  LOVE!  He also got to play Joseph this year, which he was proud to do.  Miss Lilah was a red bird and was as cute as she could be.  The kids always enjoy being a part of this tradition.  After some pictures, we headed out to dinner with the family.  The kids enjoyed the views and the company at the restaurant and the food was excellent!  We were totally exhausted when we arrived home, but we made sure to put out cookies and milk for Santa, some carrots and apples for his reindeer and of course we sprinkled some reindeer food out front from Lilah's preschool.

Brian as Joseph.

The kids were super excited to see what Santa brought Christmas morning.  My favorite part was seeing Brian READ Santa's letter aloud!  It's ridiculous how excited I still am over his ability to read, I know, but I LOVE IT!  Lilah was incredibly overwhelmed by Christmas this year and asked to spend some time in the tub.  I love my little diva.  After Calgon took her away, we made our way over the Nana and Pappy's for more presents!  And later that evening we got to have Christmas dinner at Jon and Teri's.  This usually isn't the case, but since Mari got the flu, we had to skip our trip to Bibber's this year.  It worked out just fine and we were glad to get the extra time with my side of the family.

The doc is in!

We did manage to hit the Festival of Lights with Shawn's family the following Monday once everyone was feeling better.  The kids had a blast with their sweet cousins.

We rang in the new year with dinner out with my family and then watching Dolphin Tale 2 in the living room while munching on popcorn.  A perfect end to our year!

No New Year's pics, but a bonus pic instead.  Lilah has been learning how to make mom's cinnamon bread this year.  She will do just about anything for extra Nana time anyway, so this was a perfect way for them to be together!

Breakfast with Santa and The Reds

We were so blessed this Christmas season to get the opportunity to attend Breakfast with Santa and the Reds.  This was a new event at Redsfest and since my parents are season ticket holders, we got to go! 

The kids were BEYOND excited to see Santa!  Sadly though, as soon as the mascots came into the room, poor Santa was pretty much ignored.  The Redsfest staff gave us a great picture of the kids with Santa, so there were none on my camera, but I got some great pictures with the mascots!!  The food at this event was super yummy and it was somewhat exclusive, so there weren't very many kiddos there.  This meant that our kids got a lot of one of one time with the mascots!  Gapper colored with them, several mascots played "catch" and "hot potato" with them...so fun!

I'm A Little Turkey, My Name is Ted

One of our biggest events at the preschool is our Thanksgiving Dinner.  The teachers plan a program for the students and we have huge Thanksgiving meal in the hall downstairs after the program.  We usually feed about 250 people.  This year was no different, EXCEPT Lilah is a preschooler this year!

She was soooooo excited to sing her turkey song in front of everyone.  She's about the furthest thing from shy, so putting her in front of a crowd is right up her alley.  She made it VERY clear that any family member not in attendance would be in TROUBLE.

Not to anyone's surprise the little ham did a great job during the program.  Again, thanks to Teri for these photos.  Mama was too busy being in charge of the event to take any of her own!

U6 Soccer

This fall was Brian's last season for U6 soccer.  Technically, we should have moved him to U8, but we wanted to give him one more season in U6 to see if it clicked.  He has played since he was just 4 years old and while he enjoyed it, it didn't seem like he would ever have an aggressive enough personality to really "get it." 

Well much to our excitement, he finally got it this season!  He scored 4 goals (jn 6 games) and really seemed to understand the concept of defense by the end of the season.  It was awesome to see.  His first goal came after a bribe from Nana, but once he scored and got a taste of success, he was determined to do it again and again!  He's such a perfectionist that he insisted on scoring by dribbling right into the net, so he had the ball A LOT and only scored when the situation was perfect for him. If we can get him to take shots from further out, he could score many more goals going forward.  He'll have to adjust to U8 in the spring, of course, so we'll see how it goes!

It was so exciting to see him doing so well though.  The best part was his little celebration run back down the field after scoring.  He looked just like his Daddy when he played in high school.  Some things are just genetic!

So in the spring, we will move onto U8.  It won't be long though before we'll be back on the U6 field with Lilah next fall.  

Photo creds go to Aunt Teri.  Thanks, Teri!

Halloween 2014

Brrrrr!  It in the low 40s for Trick or Treat this year.  BUT it wasn't raining, so we bundled up and made our rounds.  I had both kids in their snow suits under their costumes (I wore my snow pants too!) so they looked a little bulky, but they were warm!!

Our kids aren't big candy crazies, but they love getting outside in their costumes and seeing their friends.  They were sooooo excited!  October is a long month anyway, so there's a lot of build up!

They have had NO candy at this point...

Brian and his buddy Joe.

Getting LIPSTICK for the big night!!