Christmas Eve at CiCi & PopPop's House

Since Nick didn't get out of the hospital until Monday evening, we weren't going to go to my mom & dad's for our annual Christmas Eve celebration. But I was kind of sad about it. It would have been my first time EVER to not be there. So Nick & I talked about it & we decided that the kids & I would go. I was really worried about leaving Nick alone (and called him over & over to check on him) but I'm glad we went because we had a wonderful time, as ususal!

Here's a few pictures of everyone opening their gifts.

Dad got a guitar & a harmonica for Christmas & 

Alex was very interested in both!

And here are some pictures of my fabulous family!

Mom & Dad

Michael, Clark, Molly & Hannah

Emery, Brooke, Boone, Jared & Charlie

Addy, me & Alex

Chloe & Kelci

Mom & Dad with all their girls

Mom & Dad with all their grandkids

I sure do love these guys!

And again, we had such a great time! (I just wish Nick & Jeff could have been there.)

Polar Express Day & Addy's Christmas Party

Thursday, December 19th, Addy had Polar Express Day at school.
(What that means is that the kids wear their pajamas to school, they drink hot chocolate, have a cookie & some popcorn & they watch The Polar Express. It makes for a super fun day!)

Since I'm the room mom for Addy's class, I was there to help prepare & serve the hot chocolate. Addy was first in line & as you can see, so excited to get her hot chocolate (even though she didn't drink a drop of it!)

Here's her sweet class with their hot chocolate.

The next day, Friday the 20th was Addy's class Christmas party.

The party started off with the whole class (and Alex) making an ornament.

The ornament was a cute little felt mouse with a candy cane to hang it on the tree.

This little girl loved it!

When the ornaments were done, I (as room mom) divided the kids up into 3 groups & they rotated through a couple of stations. The first station for Addy was a snowball race game. The kids held a styrofoam ball in a ladle & had to run to the end of the rug & back. Addy loved this game! (It's just like an egg in the spoon game which Addy always wants to play at home using real eggs!)

After the snowball race, Addy & her group decorated cookies.

And then they played Christmas bingo.

The party was great & all the kids seemed like they had a lot of fun! 

(Which I'm glad about because as room mom I'm basically in charge of everything.)

Alex's Christmas Party & Program

Alex's MDO class had their Christmas pajama party on Wednesday, December 18th. My boy was super excited that he got to wear his ninja turtle pajamas to school!

They started off the party with a book exchange. Alex got a copy of the Golden Book's Christmas Story. It's a really cute book.

After the book exchange, the kiddos had Chick fil A for lunch.


And cookies for dessert!


On Friday, December 20th, Alex's school held their annual Christmas program. His class, the Mustangs, performed a poem & three songs during the program.


They started off with the poem Santa, Santa, What Do You See. Alex held the stocking poster.

 Then they sang S-A-N-T-A

Away In A Manger

And ended with Feliz Navidad.

Heres' Alex and his 2 awesome teachers, Ms. Sandy (on the left) & Ms. Linda (on the right.)

After his program, we went by his class to get his stuff and he showed me his snowflake ornament & the awesome Christmas tree he made.

The school put on a wonderful program & the fact that my 'shy' boy got up on stage & participated (kind of anyway) just shows how good school is for him! He really loves school & I could not be happier with St. Catherine's MDO!

Nick

I'm sorry everyone that I am so behind on my blog. I have just had so much going on lately that I don't have time to sit down, let alone sit down & write! Once the holidays are over, my goal is to get back on track with updating my blog, hopefully at least once a week.

But for now, I just wanted to give everyone a quick update on Nick while I'm here at the hospital with him...

Nick started feeling really nauseous last night. He assumed that something that he had eaten was not agreeing with him. So he called it a night & went to bed around 8:30 pm. But he didn't get much sleep because he couldn't get comfortable. He had a meeting in Clear Lake at 10:00 am so I woke him up at 8 after I brought Addy to school. (He never sleeps that late.) He got up & took a shower & told me that there was no way that he could go to work today. So he got back in bed & called in sick.

Alex had his Christmas program at school this morning at 10:30. So I went to that & when it was over, I called Nick to see how he was feeling. He told me that he was still nauseous &  that his stomach felt like what he imagines a woman feels like when she gets cramps. He had googled his symptoms & all signs pointed to appendicitis but he didn't really believe that's what it was. But since it was Friday & the kids & I were planning to leave town on Sunday, he decided that he would go to the clinic in HEB, just in case.

He got to the clinic around noon. He told the nurse practitioner his symptoms & she immediately sent him over to Sphier, the new freestanding ER in Sienna. The doctor at the ER also suspected appendicitis so they did blood work & an MRI. (While all of this was happening, Alex & I were at Addy's class Christmas party.) On the way home from Addy's school,(around 3:30) he text me that it was confirmed, that he had appendicitis & that he was headed to the hospital in an ambulance!

And that is how Nick ended up in St. Luke's Hospital tonight.

I got to the hospital around 7 & he had just gotten into his room. He was in a lot of pain & still nauseous so I went & talked to his nurse. She said it was because he had only been in recovery for about 10 minutes & so he didn't get any pain meds while in there. So she came in & gave him some morphine & a dose of zofran to help with his nausea. The morphine made a huge difference in his pain level & he was able to settle down & fall asleep. 

He's been asleep for about 3 hours now, hopefully he'll be able to sleep all night. The nurse said that he should feel a lot better tomorrow & his doctor (who's name is Ponce de Leon by the way!) should release him to go home. 

I'm so thankful that Nick trusted his intuition that something was wrong & actually went to the doctor. This could have been a lot worse if he would have waited & his appendix would have burst.

Thank you to everyone for all the texts & emails showing your love & support. And a huge thank you to my sister Molly for coming over & taking care of our kids so that I could come stay with Nick at the hospital tonight.

Happy Halloween (It's Only A Month Late!!)

Here's what our Halloween looked like...

We carved a few pumpkins.

We booed our friends.

(The kids had a blast doing this!)

We went to Zoo Boo.

Alex had a Halloween party at school. 

They had a costume parade around the parking lot & then trunk or treated. After the trunk or treating, they went inside & had Halloween snacks & goodies.

And of course we went trick or treating!

During his school party, Alex ripped his Woody costume. So we looked through all his dress up clothes in his closet & he decided to go trick or treating as a veterinarian. 

(While trick or treating, he made sure that everyone knew that he was a vet, not a doctor. And then people would say "I'm going to call you when my dog is sick" and Alex would say "Well, I'm not a real veterinarian, it's just a costume!" Lol!)

And Addy went as a princess that was riding a unicorn.

(Or according to Alex, she was a princess riding an alicorn, which apparently is what you call a unicorn that has wings.)

My kids were great trick or treaters! 

They would race to the door, ring the doorbell one million times & then say "trick or treat' in unison! (And they should be great at it because they made me practice in the car with them over & over again!)

They had lots of fun and made out like bandits!

Lately....

Here's what we've been doing lately....

The kids have been busy doing schoolwork


and homework.


Alex's teacher had a birthday & he made her this necklace. All by himself!

Addy lost another tooth. That makes 4 total.

The kids have been going to karate class every week. They're both doing great & learning lots of new skills.

We've been to lots of birthday parties lately...

a swimming party

a party at the playground 

one at painting with a twist

and one at an indoor playground.

Nick & I continue to do crossfit in the mornings. 

Alex often goes with us & enjoys working out too.

I spend a lot of my free time volunteering at both Addy & Alex's schools. So much so that I was VIPS (Volunteers in Public Schools) of the month for August! 

Addy had her overnight sleep study last week. The nurse was able to get all 6 required hours of monitoring, even though Addy was not asleep the whole time. We should have the results next week or the week after. We're hoping that the doctor is able to find what is waking Addy up in the middle of the night & that he does not require her to do another one. (It wasn't the most pleasant experience.)

We've been busy with several Girl Scout events. 

We had another meeting.

We went letterboxing at Camp Sienna.

And on a field trip to Brazos Bend State Park.

Since the weather's been cooler, the kids have been able to play outside a little more. 

Alex has been riding around in his car

and we've been going to the playground

where Addy makes awesome shadow puppets.

Oh & Addy is teaching herself to play the piano. So far she can play Mary Had a Little Lamb & Old McDonald Had a Farm. It's pretty impressive!

We've also been getting ready for Halloween by going to zoo boo, booing our friends, going to the pumpkin patch & a Halloween party & more... Look for a post on all that fun stuff soon.