Ringing In The New Year

The last day of 2011 was wonderful and relaxing. We enjoyed the morning together and all decided to take a nap this afternoon. Even Nicholas, who hasn't wanted to nap lately since he has been feeling so good, dozed for a couple hours. When we woke up, I started preparing to make spicy chicken enchiladas, Spanish rice, and black beans for dinner. It turned out delicious and even Ella enjoyed all of the spicy goodness. After dinner we all cuddled together and watched some of Nicholas's favorite cartoons and played with some of the kids' new toys. We are getting ready to tuck the munchkins into bed and then Jeff and I will stay up together until midnight to give each other our traditional new year smooch. In years past, Jeff & I would have spent this evening out with friends, dancing and drinking until the wee hours of the morning. But, honestly, this new years eve has been the most memorable and most wonderful of all that I can remember in recent years because I am with the people I love the most. Wishing all of our friends and loved ones a happy and healthy 2012!!!

The Day After Christmas

Today we had our own Christmas together as a family of four. Because yesterday was so busy with getting up early to attend mass and spending most of the day at my parents' house, we celebrated our Christmas today. The kids opened their stockings from Santa and loved their Santa gifts. Ella got a Giraffe rocker that plays music. She loves it! She also got a "new" wicker rocking chair that belonged to me when I was a little girl. My dad lovingly stored it in his workshop and brought it out yesterday for Ella to have. She loves to rock, rock all day long on her two new rockers. She also got some clothes, lots of hair ribbons and headbands, and socks. Nicholas got two new cars and a football that he loves along with a Pooh DVD, a magnetic Curious George game, and some bubbles. He really loves his cars, as that is all he asked Santa for this Christmas. We are so blessed to have healthy children and a home full of love. Happy birthday, Jesus. You are the reason for the season and we are grateful that you came to Earth to live and die for us so that we may have eternal life with you someday.

Christmas Day

Our Christmas was absolutely wonderful this year! We started off this day of holy celebration with mass. Our whole family was in attendance which made it very special for me. Nicholas and Ella were trying to sing along with the Christmas hymns that they likely know quite well by now considering how much they have heard them at home this past week. After mass we went over to my parent's house for brunch and to open gifts. After we stuffed ourselves full of eggs, bacon, hash browns, danish, and fruit the kids were very excited to open their gifts. Ella was most excited about her lotion and bath wash and carried them around with her everywhere she went. Nicholas loved his HUGE Curious George monkey that Eric & Tina bought for him. Now he has a small George and a big one and he thinks it is so awesome! We all went home in the afternoon so the kids could rest and went back over to my parents house later Christmas evening for dinner. We had ham, homemade macaroni and cheese, asparagus, and a fruit salad which was delicious. We ended the night playing Apples to Apples again which is a new family favorite. Our family was very spoiled this year with many things. Gifts and being surrounded by loved ones was wonderful but I think we would all agree that being home and having Nicholas feeling GREAT was the BEST part of Christmas by far.

Christmas Eve

We had a wonderful Christmas eve with our families. In the early afternoon Jeff's sister's family came over for a quick visit and gift exchange. Later in the evening my family came over and we had a yummy dinner together, talked and laughed, and ended the evening playing the board game Apples to Apples. Then we tucked the kids into bed and waited for Santa to arrive and bring our very good children their gifts.

Hello, Santa!

Tonight the kids got a very special visit at our home from Santa Claus! Nicholas was thrilled to see him again and enjoyed talking to him. He asked him all kinds of questions, "What is under your hat?" and "Where is your home?" and "Where are the elves?" (It took us awhile to figure elves out). He told Santa he wants a car for Christmas and liked sitting by him to get his picture taken. Santa brought a red light to light up the kids' noses like Rudolph and they each got a stuffed bear and a candy cane. Ella opened her candy cane in no time and enjoyed a bit of peppermint goodness before she dropped it on the floor. Ella was not into Santa at all as you can tell by the photos above. I can't say we were surprised though, I don't think too many kids her age are fond of him. It was a wonderful visit, thank you to Grandma Stephanie for coordinating it for us!!

Pixi Mask

Before Nicholas left the hospital on Friday, our DME brought us his new nebulizer and the awesome Pixi mask that he is wearing in the photos above. It is a super tiny mask that fits right over his nose and doesn't obstruct his vision whatsoever like his larger nasal mask does. He really, really likes it as he can watch his favorite DVDs and see them so much better than before. It seems to fit his face really well and doesn't have much of a leak so it's a keeper!

Decking the Halls

We had a wonderful weekend together as a family. We spent most of the weekend decorating for Christmas. Jeff got all of our Christmas boxes out of the attic on Saturday and today we went and got our tree. It is only a three-foot tree, but Jeff put it up on a crate so it looks taller. So far, Ella doesn't seem too interested in it. She just wants to make out with our Santa all the time! She is so funny...she goes over to the Santa that I placed on the fireplace hearth and she kisses his lips. It cracks us up. On Wednesday the kids are getting a visit from Santa and I wonder if she will want to kiss a real one as much as a fake one? Or maybe she will cry and run away? I think the latter is probably more accurate.

Nicholas has been his happy, silly, smiley self all weekend and I am so glad we asked to come home when we did. We all had enough of the hospital and my mother's tuition was spot on-being at home does wonders for a person's psyche and overall well being.

I was also able to get some more Christmas shopping this evening. I plan to go one last time tomorrow night with my mom after the kids go to bed and get everything checked off my list. I am heading to bed tonight with a heart full of Christmas joy.

Under One Roof

After sixteen days in the hospital, which beat Nicholas's last stay by one day, we are finally home! Nicholas was discharged Friday night and was thrilled to be home! I think for the first hour or so that we were home, he was kind of in shock (and super tired) because he kept looking around saying, "home" like he couldn't quite believe it. I know he was finally relived to be out of the hospital and sleep in his own bed, in his comfy pajamas, listening to his Coldplay lullaby CD.

Today was a wonderful day spent together as a family. Nicholas and Ella just wanted to play with their balloons all day and I jokingly told Jeff that we could have saved ourselves a good chunk of change on Christmas gifts if we had realized how much they both loved helium-filled balloons before we started shopping.

It was nice to do normal things together: eat breakfast, talk and laugh, decorate for Christmas...things I would have taken for granted before our long hospital stay. Now these moments feel like gifts-small treasures that I tuck away in my memory and enjoy immensely while they are happening. To be honest, we really thought that Nicholas may not survive this hospital stay. There were several times that we were on our knees pleading with God to allow us more time with our son. Seeing our child so fragile and so, so sick was extremely heart wrenching and it is nothing we hope to experience again anytime soon. Fortunately, Nicholas is the toughest little kid I have ever met and he continued to surprise and inspire us (and his doctors and nurses) time and time again. Obviously because Nicholas has SMA, his life will most likely be shorter than we would hope, but it puts life in perspective and makes us realize what is important, and for us that is only one thing: to show our love for each other as much as possible and to create as many wonderful memories as we can in the time we have together as a family.

I already got the ONLY thing I wanted this year for Christmas-to be home together as a family and to have our son feeling much more like his happy, joyful, sweet little self. God is good.