December 2017

Here’s the recap of our December (minus the Christmas holidays). It was a whirlwind of sickness, packing, closing on our house, moving, unpacking, and spending time with family. It was basically a microcosm of the whole year in general—busy and crazy :)

Brooklyn and Savannah both had colds at the end of November/start of December. They seemed to feel okay other than just coughing and sneezing a lot.

I had the girls sit in the bathroom while I took a shower…it was a makeshift humidifier ;) Who knows if it helped their coughs, but it made me feel better at least!

On December 3rd, Abigail and I headed down to Trussville for a quick stay. Paw was scheduled for surgery the next morning. Earlier in the fall (October, I think?), he had an ultrasound because of some gallbladder pain he’d been having. From that, he found out that he had a mass growing on one of his kidneys that would need to be removed. I wanted to be there to sit with Mom at the hospital during the surgery, so Travis took Monday off to stay with Brooklyn and Savannah at home.

The surgery went well, and I was glad we were there to keep Mom company. It turned out to be renal cell carcinoma, but basically the surgery was the only treatment required. Abigail did great the whole day. I noticed that she had a dry cough that day, but assumed it was probably just reflux (she spits up a lot). She also didn’t have too much of an appetite, but I attributed that to all the distractions of being at the hospital.

Aunt Jenn got to the hospital a little while before we left to head home, so she got to meet Abigail for the first time. It was great to see her!

When we got home that evening, Travis and I noticed that Abigail was feeling a little warm and was running a fever. We found out the next day at the doctor’s office that she had RSV (no surprise, since the girls had just had colds). She was the most pitiful thing while she was sick. She had a terrible cough and couldn’t breathe through her nose, which made nursing really difficult. She didn’t eat much at all for several days, and I had to resort to pumping a few times just for comfort. She couldn’t even really cry because she was so hoarse; it was more like a pitiful squeak. She basically slept around the clock for most of the week, and I had to wake her up to feed her. At night, we had her sleep right next to our bed because I was afraid she was going to stop breathing she was so congested. Whew. It was a rough week for all of us. Did I mention it was the same week we closed on our house? Yep, what a week!

Savannnah always makes weird faces at the camera flash…haha!

The best we could do :)

Getting good at putting on her socks all by herself!

Boxes everywhere!

It was a tiring week for everyone. We closed on Friday, December 8th, but didn’t actually move out of our apartment until the next week on the 14th. The closing went smoothly–Mom stayed with Brooklyn and Savannah, and we took Abigail with us. We were excited that the house was officially ours, and we are hoping to not have to go through the home buying process again for a long, long time!

One of these days, I’m going to do a post full of just pictures of Brooklyn’s artwork. There’s no way we’ll be able to save all of it, but I’d like to at least take pictures of some of them so we can remember them in years to come. Here are a few she drew back in December—this one is “Beauty and the Beast” :)

People walking in the rain

I think this was supposed to be either Simba or Mufasa from the Lion King :)

And this one is a picture of Brooklyn and Savannah going trick-or-treating with Paw and Rae Rae!

We went to the playground at the apartment complex for the last time on December 11th.

Abigail hung out in the stroller while the big girls played :)

This activity mat has gotten a ton of use between all three girls. Abigail is never short on company or attention!

Savannah’s first ponytail – held in place with lots of clips! :)

The day before we moved out of the apartment, I made sure to take a picture of Abigail’s door. The girls had decorated it with lots of artwork over the last few months, and it always made me smile to see it :) She is very loved!

Ms. Marilyn is one of our favorite babysitters – she always brings fun crafts/activities over for the girls to do. I loved this one that they made while Abigail was still in the NICU :)

Abigail had her first hearing appointment on December 13th and took a quick nap in the waiting room before we got called back.

On Moving Day (December 14th), I took the girls over to the house to play in the upstairs playroom, and Travis stayed at the apartment while the movers were loading up the truck. We had already taken a couple of loads of boxes over to the house, so we had some toys there to keep the girls occupied. It was a great way to keep them out of the way and entertained that morning, and we were so happy with Changing Spaces, the moving company we used. They did a great job and made the whole process a lot easier on us.

We used Changing Spaces to move our furniture, but we moved the boxes ourselves that afternoon (with lots of help from Cheryl and the Gilstraps) to save money. Brooklyn wanted to help “organize” the pantry for me and informed me that I was putting things in all the wrong places…haha ;)

Brooklyn wanted to make a list of “good things to do”, and this is what she came up with. She has a hard time obeying with a good attitude sometimes, but she definitely has a good heart!

Ready to blow bubbles in our new backyard!

On December 16th, we finally set up our Christmas tree! :) Definitely the latest we’ve ever gotten it up, but we didn’t want to put it up at the apartment only to have to take it down and put it up again a few weeks later. We decided to put it in the dining room this year because we didn’t have any furniture in there yet, so it wasn’t in the way of the other boxes around the house :) First things first…before decorating, we had to drink some hot chocolate!

I didn’t get a lot of good pictures of the decorating this year. Abigail was crying off and on the whole time, and one of the other girls (Savannah, I think) got upset because we weren’t letting her hang the breakable ornaments. Real life :) Hopefully next year will go more smoothly, and we won’t be quite as stressed and exhausted!

All finished! I am really excited to have windows that look out to the street so that our Christmas tree can be visible to people driving by :)

Cici gave us a ornament craft kit with foam ornaments and glittery stickers, and the girls enjoyed making those and hanging them on the tree.

Savannah liked piling as many stickers as she could on top of each other–I guess her ornaments were 3D :)

Brooklyn had too much energy to sit still and work on the ornaments, so she would decorate a few standing up, run off and do something else, and then come back and decorate some more :)

We are also excited to have a fireplace and have put it to good use so far this winter!

I hate that this one turned out slightly blurry…it was a rare thing to catch them both smiling at the same time!

On December 21st, we drove to Cullman for David Hartsell’s visitation. He was the preacher at Northwood where Travis and I met, and he and his wife were so dear to us during our time in college. He was so well loved by so many people that we ended up standing in line for almost 2 hours just to talk to his family. We got there right at 5 PM when the visitation started, and there was already a super long line. Standing in line at a visitation with 3 small children for 2 hours when no one has eaten supper yet = probably a recipe for disaster…BUT the girls all did great. We got really lucky! We celebrated by eating at Zaxby’s before heading home…

We were big spenders and bought TWO kids meals, so Pookie got her own chocolate milk this time…haha :)

Yum! We even got some free brownies and cookies from a really nice employee because they were about to close and have to throw everything out.

Even Abigail did great!

I’m one thankful mommy!

Brooklyn has gotten good at making her bed, and she even arranges all of her stuffed animal friends on top :)

This is what happens when Brooklyn picks out her own clothes: hedgehog shirt, blue sweatpants, orange socks, black dress shoes, a bead necklace, and a red snowman hairbow :)

We watched the Polar Express on December 23rd. The girls enjoyed it and asked to watch the “train movie” several times even after Christmas. We may have to make it a yearly tradition!

Everyone watches TV with their sunglasses on, right?

Classic Savannah scowl – she makes this face ALL THE TIME :) We might have a little diva on our hands…

And, because we didn’t have enough going on in the month of December, we threw potty training in there too. Savannah was always excited to get a treat after going potty….she would run into the pantry and grab the marshmallows or M&Ms herself! No time to even put those pants back on ;)

Quotes and Notes from December: 

• 12/3/17 – Brooklyn is really growing up! She can get dressed all by herself (including socks and shoes). She is starting to brush her teeth by herself too. She can make her bed, refill Gabby’s water bowl, and scoop the litter box (with assistance). She enjoys helping!
• When you ask Savannah what her name is: “I’m Sanna Grant! or “I’m Pookie Grant!”
• “Apple to ME. Raisins to ME.” – when Savannah wants to get something that Brooklyn is getting  :)
• The girls are bad about tattling on each other lately. Tonight, Savannah reported: “Brooklyn is not obeying God and Jesus!”
• 12/21/17 – I was telling Travis after work: “Brooklyn was trying to feed a fly some raisins and milk this morning.” Daddy: Did the fly eat the raisins, Brooklyn?” Brooklyn: “No, and he didn’t drink the milk either. So we killed him instead.”
• Savannah says: “Mommy, I’m clean-upping!” One of my all-time favorite phrases….so cute!

Next up – Christmas 2017!