After All This We are going To Need Some Magic **Sad Update 8/20**

[anniebabymu]

I couldn't help but laugh at your tree situation! We did the same thing this year! When they're in a field full of trees, they really don't look that big! Derek and I had to adjust when we went to get it because originally we were going to go this weekend. But since we decided to go to ATL for the SEC Championship game we had to go last weekend. Problem with that? My mom and dad were out of town with their truck! So we figured that we could put our rack on the hitch and just put the tree on that. Well, we measured the back of the car and decided that we could get a tree that was 7 feet tall TOPS! Uh yeah... our tree was 8 feet! It was sticking out the sides of the car way too much, so we had to think quick. Yeah... we definitely shoved an 8 foot tree INSIDE of our Traverse. Ha ha! I'm sure it was a sight to see! Gotta love chopping down your own tree!

Love all of your holiday festivities!

 

[Dugette]

Wow, you have been BUSY!

Glad things are going well, overall, though. Best wishes for your mom's health - hope the physical therapy benefits her. Glad to hear the baby's doing well and congrats on (probably) another girl. Glad Charlotte was rooting for a sister. And I can't believe how big she is getting!

 

[Jackiemarie21]

I'm so glad to hear it. I know her "new" personality was really hard on you. I'm glad she's getting back to the momma you know

And yes, I'm thinking a tape measure is a must lol

Things are actually getting better every single day and it is awesome!

I couldn't help but laugh at your tree situation! We did the same thing this year! When they're in a field full of trees, they really don't look that big! Derek and I had to adjust when we went to get it because originally we were going to go this weekend. But since we decided to go to ATL for the SEC Championship game we had to go last weekend. Problem with that? My mom and dad were out of town with their truck! So we figured that we could put our rack on the hitch and just put the tree on that. Well, we measured the back of the car and decided that we could get a tree that was 7 feet tall TOPS! Uh yeah... our tree was 8 feet! It was sticking out the sides of the car way too much, so we had to think quick. Yeah... we definitely shoved an 8 foot tree INSIDE of our Traverse. Ha ha! I'm sure it was a sight to see! Gotta love chopping down your own tree!

Love all of your holiday festivities!

Oh my goodness out in the field next to other trees they don't look big at all! Then you get them home and they are huge! I guess that is part of the fun of cutting down your own tree right? You put an 8 footer INSIDE of your car? I thought we were crazy!

Wow, you have been BUSY!

Glad things are going well, overall, though. Best wishes for your mom's health - hope the physical therapy benefits her. Glad to hear the baby's doing well and congrats on (probably) another girl. Glad Charlotte was rooting for a sister. And I can't believe how big she is getting!

Thank you! The physical thereapy has done a lot!
Charlott is happy for a little sister although now she is saying she wants a brother after she has a sister... Not sure I can do this again!

 

[Jackiemarie21]

I'm Still Here!​

Well, it certinaly has been a while since I updated, but here I am!

I hope all you of you who celebrate Christmas, had a very Merry one! We did lots of fun stuff which is what has kept me away so long!

First of all, if you have read any of my previous PTR (the ones that went nowhere!) Our family spent the summer "cake hunting". St. Louis (our hometown) celebrated its 250th birthday in 2014, and in celebration 250+ fiberglass cakes were placed in various points of interest all around St. Louis and the surrounding communities. Bob and I thought it would be a fun family project to try and get a picture with Charlotte at all the cake locations. When my mom got sick we had to so slow down our cake hunt just a bit, but on Dec 14, we finally made it to the final cake! It was a big accomplishment for us. We had lots of fun as a family and saw things and learned things about our hometown I never knew! Anyway here is our final cake pic:


We also took a ride on the Polar Express, which was a really neat exprience! I loved the themeing! We really felt like we were a part of the movie. Every detail was just perfect.








Our arrival at the "North Pole"




We also made a Mickey gingerbread house!






We went to a very fun breakfast with Santa and Olaf, which Charlotte LOVED!






And we had our annual cookie baking day:



On Christmas Eve we went to Church and then to my Mother In Laws and she gave me a wonderful gift! A Hawethorne Collectiable, Wonderful World of Disney Christmas collectiable. Which is absoutly beautiful and all hand painted. It plays music, lights up and the princesses dance. AMAZING!




We left milk and cookies for Santa:


And then he left us a bunch of stuff:

Charlotte's big gift was a Doc McStuffins check up center! She loved it as she is obsessed with Doc!

Daddy got Charlotte an Olaf:





Which made Charlotte very very happy!

Our dog Daphne also got an Olaf:


And our other dog Sebastion got a Sven:


I just loved those Frozen dog toys! and so did the furbabies!

We stayed home all day and the that evening my parents came over for a very low key dinner. It was very nice. My mom is doing much better, she is the most active she has been since the begining of October! The phyiscal thearpist has helped my parents adapt there house to make it easier for her to be on her own. My dad even started going back to work one or two days a week! She is on a break from Chemo until after the first of the year so it was a great holiday with her.

Overall, we had a wonderful holiday!

The day after Christmas I had another baby Dr appointment and we were assured this new baby is in fact a girl. So we are very excited about that news!

The last few weeks the holdiays have taken precident over trip planning, but we did make one decsion. We are going to make ECPOT our second park. I would really like to check out the food and wine festival and Bob loves that park. I am sure after things settle down we will dive more into this trip!

 

[AprilRenee]

Yay!! Sounds like a wonderful Christmas season! Where was the breakfast with Olaf?

Charlotte is always so cute in her fancy dresses with her giant hair bows. I just love it! If I have a girl I'm going to dress her like Charlotte! Lol

So so happy to hear things are getting better every day with your mom! It's just wonderful!!

That Disney Christmas decoration is beautiful. I saw a pic of it on fb but couldn't tell what it was. However I did think to myself "I bet her house is beautiful over the holidays! She probably does an awesome job decorating!" Just seemed like you would be really good at it.

 

[Dugette]

Great to hear things have been going well for your family.

I love that cake-finding mission. Very cool family activity. And I'm impressed that you got to all 250 of them!

Polar Express looks fun - we did a similar one here and had a good time.

We have that same Mickey gingerbread house. Only ours just has the frame up and is not yet decorated. I did that work several days ago, intending to decorate it with Izzy and we've been so busy it just hasn't happened yet. Oh, well - soon.

That breakfast with Olaf looks fun!

Glad she and the doggies enjoyed their gifts!

 

[anniebabymu]

Oh my goodness out in the field next to other trees they don't look big at all! Then you get them home and they are huge! I guess that is part of the fun of cutting down your own tree right? You put an 8 footer INSIDE of your car? I thought we were crazy!

They totally don't look that big out in the field! And yes... we are absolutely crazy!! At least my car smelled good for awhile after our tree cutting expedition! Ha ha!

LOVE all the Christmas pics!!! Looks like you had a fantastic holiday! And YAY for knowing for sure that baby girl #2 is on her way!! Do you deliver at Mercy?? I can't remember... I'm sure we've talked about it before! If so, who is your doc? Just curious!

 

[AprilRenee]

Andrea, when I have my next baby can I request you as my nurse??? Is that even a thing? Do people request nurses??
That would be so cool!! Lol

 

[anniebabymu]

Andrea, when I have my next baby can I request you as my nurse??? Is that even a thing? Do people request nurses??
That would be so cool!! Lol

Ummm... of course you could! You'd just have to ask your day nurse if I was working and they could get it all switched so I followed them! You know I gotta get up close and personal, right?? Ha ha! That would be fun! We used to be able to come in on our days off and clock in for family and friends, but now they only let us clock in for an hour to take care of the baby during delivery. Kinda stinks!

 

[AprilRenee]

Ummm... of course you could! You'd just have to ask your day nurse if I was working and they could get it all switched so I followed them! You know I gotta get up close and personal, right?? Ha ha! That would be fun! We used to be able to come in on our days off and clock in for family and friends, but now they only let us clock in for an hour to take care of the baby during delivery. Kinda stinks!

That's awesome!!!

Yeah I wouldn't request you til day 2 or so. After all the gross stuff was done.

I will have a section next time so no ice down there etc. from what I recall in my half drugged state the nurses later in my stay just brought me meds and checked my incision occasionally. I think.

If it's gonna get more personal than that maybe we'll stick with stranger nurses and you can just come say hi and meet the new baby. Haha

 

[Jackiemarie21]

Yay!! Sounds like a wonderful Christmas season! Where was the breakfast with Olaf?

Charlotte is always so cute in her fancy dresses with her giant hair bows. I just love it! If I have a girl I'm going to dress her like Charlotte! Lol

So so happy to hear things are getting better every day with your mom! It's just wonderful!!

That Disney Christmas decoration is beautiful. I saw a pic of it on fb but couldn't tell what it was. However I did think to myself "I bet her house is beautiful over the holidays! She probably does an awesome job decorating!" Just seemed like you would be really good at it.

Awe thank you!
Breakfast with Santa and Olaf was the Falls reception Hall in Columbia IL, just across the bridge from my house. It was really fun and well worth the cost! If they do it again next year, I highly recomend it!

I really love dressing Charlotte and can't wait to do it again with the next one! I am really dreading the day when she doesn't like my style anymore. Thank you!

Thank you so much! I do love decorating for the holidays. Although, my tree this year was a disaster! It was too big and a certian little girl kept playing with the ornaments, all those toys and she plays with the ornements...kids

Great to hear things have been going well for your family.

I love that cake-finding mission. Very cool family activity. And I'm impressed that you got to all 250 of them!

Polar Express looks fun - we did a similar one here and had a good time.

We have that same Mickey gingerbread house. Only ours just has the frame up and is not yet decorated. I did that work several days ago, intending to decorate it with Izzy and we've been so busy it just hasn't happened yet. Oh, well - soon.

That breakfast with Olaf looks fun!

Glad she and the doggies enjoyed their gifts!

The cake finding mission, became quite the adventure, but I am kind of crazy and when I commit to something, I usually follow through. My DH was like I never had any doubt we would finish

AprilRenee acutally told me about the cute Mickey gingerbread house, we had a blast doing it! I hope you put a pic up when you get yours done!

They totally don't look that big out in the field! And yes... we are absolutely crazy!! At least my car smelled good for awhile after our tree cutting expedition! Ha ha!

LOVE all the Christmas pics!!! Looks like you had a fantastic holiday! And YAY for knowing for sure that baby girl #2 is on her way!! Do you deliver at Mercy?? I can't remember... I'm sure we've talked about it before! If so, who is your doc? Just curious!

Haha! Yes the pine smell is a great one!

I had Charlotte at St. Clare. My doc is Dr. Stacey Clancey and she delivers where ever you want, but mostly at St. Anthony's or St. Clare. Last time I had a scheduled C-section and she already had another one that day at St. Clare so she asked me to go there. I had a pretty good exprience and its not too far from me so I'm just going back there! But my husbands cousin just had a baby at Mercy two days ago. She was supposed to be induced but the told her to wait until after 8 pm becasuse there was so many paitents there and she ended up having her water break in a mexican resturant while she was waiting to go in and get induced! Talk about an interesting labor story!

 

[Dugette]

AprilRenee acutally told me about the cute Mickey gingerbread house, we had a blast doing it! I hope you put a pic up when you get yours done!

Okay, well, if you insist! We actually just finished it tonight! I let Izzy do a lot of the decorating work:

 

[AprilRenee]

Okay, well, if you insist! We actually just finished it tonight! I let Izzy do a lot of the decorating work: http://s1188.photobucket.com/user/L.../2013 Off Topic/IMG_3268_zpsf32e7155.jpg.html http://s1188.photobucket.com/user/L.../2013 Off Topic/IMG_3275_zpsc2958651.jpg.html

Izzy did much better than Caden. Maybe gingerbread decorating is more of a girly skill. Lol

(Or maybe Caden's mom should stick to shoes and t shirts and leave the gingerbread houses to the experts...cause let's be honest here. He was only sticking those things where I told him to/put icing. Lol)

 

[Dugette]

Izzy did much better than Caden. Maybe gingerbread decorating is more of a girly skill. Lol

(Or maybe Caden's mom should stick to shoes and t shirts and leave the gingerbread houses to the experts...cause let's be honest here. He was only sticking those things where I told him to/put icing. Lol)

Oh, I don't know about that. I just tried to copy the picture on the box with frosting (and with Izzy trying to "help") - then she randomly stuck candy to it (as did I). The sides of the house are completely blank.

 

[Jackiemarie21]

I like how yours turned out! Looks great! It's interesting to see the kiddo's take on decorating the gingerbread house. They really have their own ideas at this stage don't they!

 

[anniebabymu]

That's awesome!!!

Yeah I wouldn't request you til day 2 or so. After all the gross stuff was done.

I will have a section next time so no ice down there etc. from what I recall in my half drugged state the nurses later in my stay just brought me meds and checked my incision occasionally. I think.

If it's gonna get more personal than that maybe we'll stick with stranger nurses and you can just come say hi and meet the new baby. Haha

So, I'm only over in L&D so wouldn't be able to take care of you over there! If I'm there I could hop in and take care of baby though! That's the fun part anyways! Ha ha!

 

[anniebabymu]

I had Charlotte at St. Clare. My doc is Dr. Stacey Clancey and she delivers where ever you want, but mostly at St. Anthony's or St. Clare. Last time I had a scheduled C-section and she already had another one that day at St. Clare so she asked me to go there. I had a pretty good exprience and its not too far from me so I'm just going back there! But my husbands cousin just had a baby at Mercy two days ago. She was supposed to be induced but the told her to wait until after 8 pm becasuse there was so many paitents there and she ended up having her water break in a mexican resturant while she was waiting to go in and get induced! Talk about an interesting labor story!

We've been absolutely NUTS the last few weeks. Short-staffed and crazy... not a good combo! What's your hubby's cousin's last name?? This story sounds familiar, I wonder if I took care of her!

 

[AprilRenee]

So, I'm only over in L&D so wouldn't be able to take care of you over there! If I'm there I could hop in and take care of baby though! That's the fun part anyways! Ha ha!

Aha...I see! Well I'll have a scheduled csection, that's no fun! We'll skip you seeing my innards lol

But yes, you should just come take care of the new baby!! That's way more fun! And then I'll know for sure they'll be in good hands

 

[Jackiemarie21]

We've been absolutely NUTS the last few weeks. Short-staffed and crazy... not a good combo! What's your hubby's cousin's last name?? This story sounds familiar, I wonder if I took care of her!

It is Bryson. She had a baby girl. It was crazy!

 

[ksl5f123]

Love everyone's cute Mickey gingerbread houses. I will have to look for those next year.

We also have a kid who was born on our anniversary. DH calls it our "diaper anniversary". I love your idea of celebrating on a different date important to you as a couple.