December/Christmas

I decided to publish one huge post about the weeks leading up to Christmas, along with all of our Chrismtas pictures and videos. December was a whirlwind month and we tried to squeeze in as much as possible. The holidays are so much fun with kids!

Here's one of Zane's letters to Santa. He had so many ideas of what he wanted and he never asked him for the same thing twice.
We went as a family to TWO movies during the past few weeks! Once by ourselves, and once with my sisters and mom and Dave. This was the new Chipmunks movie, which they loved. Zane and Emmy are awesome sitting through movies and remembering to whisper. The only thing Emmy yelled out was, "Look! Brittany has blue eyes like me!!!" Smith slept the first half, ate for some of it, then just wanted to watch like his bro and sis. Later we went to the Muppets Movie with everyone and that was fun too.
We found a great tree this year and got a great deal on it since it was in our church's parking lot. Zane helped me with the lights and then we put up ornaments together. My aunt Judi gave me an ornament every year for my entire life and just recently stopped so we have a bunch of ornaments. My sisters also started giving my kids an ornament each year to keep the tradition. I think we only had 2 break this year while the kids helped put them up.
Some of our Christmas crafts - we also made a cool felt Christmas tree, a snowman and some other things...

We headed down to Colorado Springs to stay at my Mom's house for a few days surrounding Christmas and got there just in time for a big snow storm. So since Grandma was home to take care of Smith, the three of us got to go out sledding.




Smith is the sweetest guy! He is so happy and we love him more than we ever imagined we could.
Here's my little Smith lately...







About a week before Christmas, Smith came down with a cold and it got so much worse every single day and eventually he started wheezing and coughing a ton. He was having trouble breathing and we woke up Friday morning to blue toes and fingers. So of course I immediately took him to the doctor and it turned out that all the congestion had settled in his lungs and he had Bronchiolitis. We almost had to go to the hospital to put him on oxygen, but luckily the office had the equipment for us to test him there so we spent the whole day there to see how he did sleeping, awake, and eating with different levels of oxygen. Fortunately, we were able to take the oxygen home with us instead of spending Christmas in the hospital.

Here is was in the office getting a Nebulizer treatment
He completely lost his voice during his sickness - it was so sad (but cute too). He would be crying his hardest and no sound would come out so we had to keep him close while he slept so we could see him instead of going by sound.

Later that night, we went to my Dad's for our Christmas time with him and his family.
Here's uncle Ben with Smith and his new oxygen.

He really hasn't minded the oxygen on his face all that much.




The kids got some fun gifts. They both got new cameras which they love. Emerson also got some new jewelry and high heeled shoes. She was having trouble walking in them at first!


Grandma and Emmy baked homemade cinnamon rolls together. There were so many cute pics that I couldn't decide so put a bunch.





Silly boy
Can you find where Emmy is hiding? Her hair gives it away. :)
Good sleeper

My mom and Dave took the kids on a huge sledding hill when I was at the doctor all day with Smith. They had a big long toboggan that was super fast and all 4 of them could fit.




Zane could walk up the whole hill by himself!
Wrapping the rest of the presents on New Year's Eve
Zane wrapped his gift to Zack all by himself. It took him a whole hour and he took so much care with it.
On Christmas Eve Day, we visited Santa. Yes, we were those people who went during the busiest time and waited in a long line. Smith slept the whole time and the kids were good overall...just got impatient a few times. Luckily, my mom was there to help me since Zack had to work at our church services.



Emmy was wearing her new necklace and Sleeping Beauty costume in line.




Christmas Eve in their new PJ's!

CHRISTMAS MORNING!!!
Two excited little people...
Opening Stockings...













Zane was showing me his new tattoos that he got in his stocking

Playing with new toys and books...


Everyone helping Emerson find hidden pictures and compare differences in Princess pictures.

Smith and me

Zack and the kids talking with his sister Becca and her kids on his phone.
The kids got a new Smurfs Dancing Wii game -


We ate our big Christmas pancake breakfast

Then, opened more presents...





One of their favorites was this robot that was controlled by a remote and shot little discs. Zane played with it all day, shooting everyone and cracking up. I love their faces in these pictures...laughing so hard.





Later that day, we all at a big dinner together.
Since Smith was sick, he got lot's of extra cuddling and love.
Here is with Grandpa Dave, checking out the ceiling fan.
I love Grandma and Pappy's faces when Smith was starting to fuss.