Christmas & the E.R.

Christmas feels so good when you see how excited your kid gets when "Santa" came through for them. Emily was totally aware of the whole Christmas thing. For a month and a half before December she kept telling us that she was going to ask Santa for a bicycle, really it is a tricycle but she calls it a bicycle, and ask for something red for Mordecai. Well the very first FHE in December we wrote a letter to Santa and mailed it. Then she kept asking us if she was still on the "good list" whenever she got in trouble because one day Mike told her not to do something and she ignored him so he had to call Santa and have him put her on the "naughty list". Mike called Santa back and put her on the "good list" because she came and told on him to me, and asked if I would go talk to him. We also watched the movie "Polar Express" all month long. If we let her she would watch it all day long. She was very aware of Christmas lights, and when our tree lights turned on. She knows all the words to the songs and parts on the movie. On Christmas Eve we put peanut M&Ms out for Santa, and then she checked NORAD's website to find out where he was. She knew/knows all the Christmas songs, but her favorite is "Santa Claus is Coming to Town." When we woke her up on Christmas morning, this is the good age cause they aren't excited a ton so they still go to sleep, we told her Santa had visited and she immediately sat up and asked if he ate her M&M's. We told her yes, and that she should go see what he brought. She walked to the top of the stairs and said, "huh, the Christmas lights camed on." Mike asked her what she saw and she said, "huh, the Chris...my BICYCLE!!! Santa brought me my bicycle!!!!" she started for the stairs and I told her she needed to go get Aunt Felicia and Grandma first. She ran to their end of the hall and yelled, "Get up sleepy heads, Santa brought my Bicycle." We went downstairs and she hopped on and took off. We finally got her to open the other presents, and she did, but the bicycle was the best of all. Mordecai could care less of course, but he did well opening presents, and especially loved the duck toy Felicia gave him.

Now for our drama. On Christmas Eve Mike and I were delivering gifts and Mike slipped on some ice and fell pretty hard on his left hand and knee. When we got home I cleaned up his knee, but then he started getting real shaky. He sat down twice withing a couple of minutes so he wouldn't faint and I got worried so we went to the emergency room. They x-rayed his arm and said we were lucky that he didn't break it, but that it is a pretty bad sprain. They sent us home with a splint so he wont move it. He is pretty swollen and the bruise is starting to form. Guess this year wasn't meant for us. Our motto for next year is "2009 saving our dime."

Mom and Dad left this afternoon, so they could beat the storm that is coming in, so Mike and I cleaned up a bit. Emily has been riding her bike around the house in circles *videos*, and Mordecai has been sleeping a lot today, I think he might be growing. Anyway, thanks everyone for a great Christmas.

The "Monster" of a day

So today was a big event. We cleaned the house from top to bottom, and that included steam cleaning the carpets. Afterwards we went grocery shopping for the week. After that I had to take Emily to the doctors because she hasn't had a BM since the 13th of this month. Mike and I tried glycerin suppositories on Friday and Saturday and she was supposed to have a BM within 15 min. to an hour. Well nothing. In addition to that we also gave her some Pedi-Lax laxatives and that didn't produce anything either. So the doctors told us that 9 days is a long time so he told us to give her adult strength Mira-Lax and if that didn't work within a couple of day that we needed to bring her in for an x-ray to see if she has an impacted bowel. Well we gave her some tonight and within 20-30 minutes she produced a "monster". We were having dinner with the missionaries and Emily said she needed to go so Mike took her, and she did a huge BM. Mike comes out of the bathroom and says that Emily goes, "look at the huge monster I did Dad." Mom and Dad just got here, and the kids are going to bed, and I think I am going to follow since I am tired too.

December

I can't believe that it is already Christmas time...boy how this year has gone by fast! The beginning of this month our ward had a Christmas party and Emily has and is very aware of things, so she noticed at the party that there was table cloths on the table, she kept playing with it and it was starting to get very annoying. She left it a lone finally and we thought that she was done with her fascination with them, well the next day was Sunday and while I was getting ready for Church Emily was playing with Mordecai. I peaked in on them and noticed that Emily had brought this carrot stool that we received for a wedding gift upstairs. She then covered the stool with her "soft blanket" and told me she was having a party with Mordecai on her table that had a tablecloth on it. I laughed and went back to doing my hair. The next time I turned around Emily had gone downstairs and gotten her bowl of cream of wheat for her party. I caught her and asked what she was doing, she replied with, "you can't have a party if there is no food." We usually don't allow food around the house, but since she was being a good girl and was playing with Mordecai I let her have a snack bag of mini oreos for her party. The next day was the same old thing.

Emily has also been potty training. She hasn't had an accident since last Saturday night, so today we went with Hannah, Lexy, Seth and Felicia to "Old McDonalds" to play. After there everyone came back to our house and we played the wii and rage. Emily has been also pretty goofy with her words and it always amazes us how well she understands things. Like today Mike asked her a question and she said, "sure I will daddy." She says "sure I will, sure you know I can/will, sure thing." Basically anything with the word sure in it. Also today while we were doing some shopping for Grandpa Emily found toy to play with. Mike asked her to put it away and she said no, so Mike said that he would come and get it to put it away. All of a sudden Emily blurts out "if you put it away it will make me frustrated." We all had a good laugh.

This last Monday we had our traditional FHE of making gingerbread houses, except we did it with some friends from our ward. It was so much fun, and we had a ton of extra candy from the kits that Emily and Hannah looked like they were playing "Hungry Hungry Hippos" when they were trying to get the candy that was rolling around on the table. Now if only the Ludwigs could live as close as our gingerbread houses do.

Above:Our House The Ludwigs House

If only we were real neighbors

Surgery

I have a lot to fill in because I have just been so lazy, and behind on things. So my surgery went well. We got there about 9:15 and waited around for about an hour until they took be back to the pre-op room. Once I was finally back there things went real quick. They gave ma my I.V. and took my weight, 140, whoohoo!!!. Then they took me to have an x-ray so they would be able to find exactly where the stone was. They took me back to my pre-op room and explained that my stone started out at the top of my kidney, but within a week and a half it had moved and was sitting right on top of mu ureter, which would of been bad if it had entered the ureter cause then I would of had problems like I did when I was pregnant with Mordecai. After that I went and had the surgery done. I woke up and was feeling great. They removed my stent so I didn't have the urge to "void" all the time, I am going to use that word now since thats what the docs used. I was told that once I could sit up and "void" I could go home. I was out of there within a half hour, which the nurses said was fast. I credit it to the anesthesiologist for not giving me to much like I had last time. Mike and I came home, and he went to find a car battery for his car, and then later that night Lexy came over while Mike and Seth went to the Nuggets basketball game. Since then I have been told I will have blood, bruising and intermittent pain, and I haven't had any of it. Oh-yeah the nurses I had were the same nurses that worked on Emily and they remembered us, so it was good to show them updated pics.

Late Pictures

So I have some random pictures and videos that I took of mostly Emily and Mordecai. They were all taken the week of Thanksgiving. so here they are...

This is a picture of Emily and Hannah. They got into to the doughnuts that Grandma and Grandpa bought and their soda while we were exercising.

These are some "Hammy" photos of Mordecai. We think his smile is so cheesy but we love it. He lifts his upper lip to smile instead of his lower lip like most people do. You will see it in the videos that I will try to post later.

This is Emily giving Grandpa a 'wet willy' while he is sleeping. Aunt Felicia taught her that while she was here. Thanks Felicia ;-)

This is our happy picture of Mordecai eating a mint oreo that he loved. Grandpa gave it to him, and boy was he a mess.

Emily borrowed these sunglasses from Hannah, and she loved to wear them in the morning while she was watching 'The Polar Express', which we had to buy because it is her favorite movie since she saw it on t.v. with Grandma and Grandpa.

These videos are of Mordecai and Grandma Bainbridge playing pat-a-cake. He can do it by himself, he is so cute!!!


This is of Emily and Hannah dancing with the music from the fridge toys we have. Sorry there is no audio, thats what we need is a camera with audio.