SURPRISE!!!

Christopher turned 30 on December 28th, one day after Maddie's birthday. For over a month I'd been planning a little surprise dinner party for him at the Fish Market. I wanted to make sure our closest friends were there so I coordinated with everyone and the restaurant...and he had NO IDEA!!

 Sorry for my weird laughing face. I'm trying to duck out of the way so Kyle can snap Chris's face.

The menus had his name on them.

Chris's sister surprised him from Lexington.

And our best friends from college and high school

The food was delicious! A lot of people got the steak and lobster tail - YUM!

Thank you so much for coming and celebrating with us!

I love my old man! 

THREE YEARS OLD!!

Sweet Maddie girl is three today! I can hardly believe it was three years ago that we were headed to the hospital, excited and fearful for what lie ahead. The last three years have been incredible.

Madeline has grown into an extremely bright toddler with a great sense of humor. She is an amazing big sister and has such a sweet, sensitive personality.

She's also stubborn and sassy and we love her so so so much!

Recovering from RSV

Sydney is basically stable with her RSV. Her lungs sounded the same the last two days so we're hoping they get better today. She's been sleeping in our room in the rock and play. . The first night she coughed and coughed and coughed. Last night was a little better. She's still not eating great, but overall, she's pretty happy. When she's awake. On Sunday she slept like 18 hours. The good thing is, she doesn't have a fever and she's not getting worse. 

Here she is awake, but very sad. See her watery eyes? :(

Surprisingly enough, Madeline seems to be the healthiest one in the house. Tia came home from Disney and brought her a new princess outfit!! Maddie thought it was pajamas at first so she wasn't super excited. When I told her it was Princess Jasmine's outfit and that Jasmine wears pants instead of a dress she was all about it!!

I had to work half day this morning but Maddie's day care was closed. She went over to my parents while I worked. 

Mom found this tent at a consignment sale and set it up in the living room. Tia made her a flag for the top. Supposedly Maddie got both my parents and sister in the tent with her. Because when a three year asks you to do something, you do it. No matter how ridiculous.

When I got off work I went to pick her up. I had to wait until she finished her call. Chocolate brownie was sick and she was calling his mom. And, while I'm pretty certain she didn't call his mom, she may have actually called someone. Maybe China. My parents will find out soon. 

Looking forward to a quiet Christmas Eve at home and then Christmas tomorrow!!

Happy girls...and then RSV.

Poor Sydney girl! She had a great first part of the week and then it went a little downhill. 

When we played dress up the other night, Maddie wore a princess dress. She made Sydney wear this.

Maddie always shares her friends with Sydney.

We put Sydney in her bumbo and she totally dug it!

Just kicked back!

 My sister is hilarious!

Wednesday night, Sydney woke up in the middle of the night pretty congested. I didn't think too much of it because Maddie was the same way as an infant in the winter. We put the humidifier in her room and sent her to school the next day. They said she was very very happy but pretty congested and snotty. It got worse Friday and even worse this morning. Still super happy, but I just had a feeling we needed to go to the ped.

And, I'm glad we did. Turns out, little sweet girl has RSV. She's past the point of immediate hospitalization (8 weeks) so we're very fortunate. But, she's still really young so we have to watch her really closely. RSV is a nasty cold and even nastier the littler you get it so we're praying sweet Sydney can get through it without having to go to the hospital.  We have certain key signs to look for; we had them when Mads had pneumonia so, unfortunately, I'm well versed. 

Here we are waiting for the RSV results. The test was supposed to take 15 minutes but the ped was back pretty quickly saying her "positive" result was almost instantaneous.

So, looks like we'll be hanging close to home this Christmas. We had a few holiday parties we had planned to go to, but I doubt we will get out too far. She is also out of daycare the whole week. We're just going to snuggle up with sweet girl and try to get that immune system back up to par! 

This is how Maddie feels about RSV. Me too.

Lots of snuggles for this little girl.

Flu shot and fun!

On Friday, I picked up Maddie and took her to the ped for her flu shot. I had gone back and forth on it but ultimately decided we needed to get her immunized. She did really well. I had packed a cupcake in my purse and she actually found it before the shot was given. I told her we had to get a "little pinch" and then she could have the cupcake. 

She gave me a big smile before the shot so I felt TERRIBLE. She didn't know what was coming.

She cried but only for a minute. And none of the silent crying...you know where the face turns purple and they shake but no noise comes out. That's the worst!! Sydney sat in her car seat the whole time so this trip out with both girls was pretty easy!

A few big tears...but nothing a cupcake won't fix!

We went to Pizza King and the train brought us lots of goodies!

I spread a mat out and Sydney played in the booth while we ate. 

Sunday we hooked up with Hudson for some Panera.

 Daddy multi-tasking.

Cinnamon rolls and Santa!

We were pretty much snowed in all last weekend so we had to forego our breakfast at Panera. Luckily, I had bought a can of cinnamon rolls and Madeline had her first one! YUM!

We made some Christmas cards.

AND! Last night we had a big surprise. Santa stopped by for a visit!!

I was certain Madeline would be petrified, but she wasn't at all. She was actually the first kid to get on his lap. Earlier in the day she told me she was going to ask for a baby doll and some wipes to blow her nose. Later, she told me she was going to ask for cars. But...when she finally got on his lap...she asked for another puppy!  In related news, we are NOT getting another dog. Sorry, Mads.

Then it was Hudson's turn. But he didn't dig it. 

 

We tried to get a picture of all of the kids which proved to be a bit difficult.

Partially because Madeline was mean-mugging the whole time.

We asked her why she was making such a face and she literally said, "I can't smile! I've had a long day!" 

 After Ben and Jacob and their families left, it was just us with Kyle and Danielle and Hudson. The kids disappeared for a few minutes and we heard them laughing hysterically.

They had jumped on the ottoman in our room. When we told them that wasn't a good idea they ran and jumped on the dog bed.

Which was very fun...until they bumped heads.  

But, they laughed it off!

We had a great week and are looking forward to a great weekend!