Journey

Happiness is a Journey, not a destination.


Namaste.

Monday, December 26, 2011

Christmas 2011

I got home around 3:40 am, took some pictures, and crawled into bed about 4.  When Cole woke me at 7:20, It felt like I had hardly slept.  I went straight for a shot of caffeine in Diet Pepsi form. 

We had told the boys not even to think about coming upstairs until after 7.  I'm lucky that Cole is an early riser.  He was up around 6, and heard the boys moving around, waking each other up, and trying to keep each other quiet in the basement.  After Talia had to get up and go potty, he herded the kids into the basement until he woke me...

The kids were pretty excited. 
From December 2011


Talia loved her artist's easel, and dug immediately into her stocking (we usually save those for last)
From December 2011


I love the expressions on her face...
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Alec
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Kyle
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It was a little hard for me this year to see Kyle with only a couple of things to open.  Mostly because he's older, and the days when toys were all he wanted are over...he's growing up. 

He was thrilled with his iPod Touch!
From December 2011


Alec's Beyblades were his big gift, and he loved them!
From December 2011


Lily decided to see what the fuss was about...
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Indy crawled right up behind Alec, giving him cat ears....
From December 2011


I love that my kids have always liked "little" things...guys, action figures and figurines.  Talia was excited to get a new Polly Pocket to be friends with her other one...
From December 2011


Indy explores the present Santa left the cats...
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Talia made us this magnet board at school....
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I got mostly clothes, but also some cool stackable cooling racks for when I bake, and a batter dispenser so that I don't make such a mess when I do cupcakes!
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Cole got some nice new clothes as well
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After we finished opening, we all got ready to meet at my mom's house for brunch.  I, on my 3 hours of sleep, had a lovely 20 oz Sugar Free Red Bull to keep my energy up...

Kyle, Parker, and Alec
From December 2011


The Fam...
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After brunch, we opened presents.  We had the cousins all draw names this year.  Our kids drew Hunter, Parker, and the new baby (Nikko). 

Heidi opens the present we got for Nikko
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Hunter thanking us for the "gun and bullets" (exactly what he asked for :))
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Talia was thrilled with her Leapster and Rapunzel game from Nana and Papa!
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We had the boys combine the boys' Christmas to get them a Wii and a game. 
From December 2011

Alec was beyond excited, and Kyle was happy too, although he's at that age when it's not cool to show it ;)
From December 2011


Snuggling with the baby...
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Alec had been dying to hold baby Nikko...
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Playing...
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I don't look nearly as tired as I feel....
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After hanging out with my family for awhile, we went home for a short break and then headed to Cole's parents for a yummy rib roast dinner.  Cole's family is a little weird about pictures, so I didn't take too many.  We enjoyed hanging out for the evening.  We brought the kids home about 7, and I was barely functional.  We pretty much let the kids run wild with their new stuff, I got all ready for bed, and we chilled in our jammies.  We went to bed at 9 pm, and I was OUT.  I slept for 12 hours straight. 

It was worth it, it was a really nice Christmas.  I am so thankful for all the blessings that my family has.

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Christmas Eve 2011

It was my year to work Christmas Eve this year.  We started out the day with the breakfast Cole makes for his family. Right before I went to work, we opened our traditional Christmas Eve gift...

Talia...
From December 2011


From December 2011

She was thrilled with her gingerbread girl nightgown!

Alec
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Kyle
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Cole
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Me
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Awwwww
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Cole took the kids to Christmas Eve at my parent's house...
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From December 2011


After a yummy dinner, they played "Spoons"
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And opened a gift that Santa left on the doorstep...
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And this is what my Christmas Eve in the NICU was like...

At about 5pm, we got word a possibly super critical infant was going to be c-sectioned.  Our staff immediately jumped into action...

Naomi getting ready to draw labs from the baby's placenta...
From December 2011

From December 2011

(yes, I wore the hat all night.  I believe in being festive.  I remember the year I spent both Christmas Eve and most of Christmas in the hospital.  Even though it was for a happy reason---Kyle's birth---It was still hard to be in the hospital during the holidays.  The nurses I had were so good to be festive and not grumpy about working the holidays.  I always strive for the same, to give my patients' and their families the best possible Christmas in the hospital experience). 

And this was our night...
From December 2011

From December 2011

Some of the best, most experienced people I have ever worked with all pulling together to take care of an extremely critical infant.  I am blessed to work with the VERY BEST doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, and CNA's. 

We Life-Flighted the infant, and then the rest of our night was pretty slow.  My family brought me the dinner I'd missed, and we had to get a picture of me and Talia with our twinner hats...
From December 2011


After work, I came home to find this...
From December 2011

From December 2011


It looks like Santa came!

Friday, December 23, 2011

Skiing!

Kyle was given the option of having a small birthday party with friends, or me taking him skiing for a day.  It didn't take him long to decide he was dying to get back up on the slopes, so we headed out early the morning of his birthday to Snowbasin...

From December 2011


Most the snow was man-made, but that didn't dampen our spirits...
From December 2011


Kyle's only been skiing a handful of times, so we started out slow, heading up Little Cat first so he could feel comfortable.  One run later, we were heading up the Becker Lift...

From December 2011

From December 2011


From December 2011


He was great on the easier runs, but wasn't anxious to try something any harder.  I love to eat at the Needles Lodge, all the way at the top, so I dragged him up the gondola for lunch. 
From December 2011

From December 2011


After lunch, he had to face his nervousness.  As I was watching him attempt to ski the harder stuff back down (mostly falling), I realized what he was doing wrong.  I was able to explain it to him and even help him.  We went up the gondola a couple more times, and he did  much better.

My Shadow
From December 2011


On the lift

From December 2011


We had a beautiful, sunny, amazing day together.