Darn It!

The past few months, I have had some weird "tummy" symptoms and some random, sharp shooting pains in my right side. Back in November, I finally went to see my doctor. She sent me for an ultrasound of my gallbladder and then followed up with a scan to measure how well my gallbladder functions.... Come to find out, I have "chronic cholecystitis" (a gallbladder that was functioning at 19%) and was scheduled to have my gallbladder removed! Well, thanks to dear, little Lucy, I had long ago met my medical deductible for the year (as well as used all my sick days for the year) so I hurried to find a surgeon who could get this taken care of before the end of the year. That way, I would be off work for a few weeks to recover and have help from family who would also be off work.... Thank goodness for favors and great connections, because I was lucky enough to get scheduled with a super surgeon here in Kenosha on December 21. Surgery was scheduled for 7:30. Dan and I checked in to the hospital at 5:30 am, surgery took about 25 minutes, and I was back home sleeping in my own bed by 9:30 that morning! Lifting the kiddos has been a little hard, and our house was not quite as clean as I would have liked for the past few days, but all in all, I feel pretty good! Not quite the way I planned to spend my holiday break, but I am thankful to have this taken care of while I had the time off, and will be able to return to work in January feeling great!

In case you were curious.....

Lucy

On December 4, Lucy Elizabeth turned 6 months old.... Wow! Her 6 month appointment is not scheduled until the end of the month- we can't wait to see how much she has grown!

She is too cute all snuggled in her winter coat!

Lucy LOVES bath time!

She helped string the Christmas lights this year....

(who knew something so simple would keep a baby busy for SOOOOO long?)

Disney Live!

Back in early December, Gramma and Papa took Maggie for a special day in Milwaukee to see Disney Live! Maggie had an AWESOME time... she got to see all her favorites from the Disney channel live on stage... Handy Manny and his tools, Imagination Movers, Little Einsteins, and of course, Mickey, Minnie and all their friends! It was a great day!

Here comes Santa!

The Kenosha Public Museum was offering photos with Santa. We thought this would be a great opportunity to get a nice picture of the girls - and not just a quick, cheap, yucky photo from the mall when the girls were tired, hungry, and sick of waiting in line for hours. So we dressed them all up, got the museum nice and early....and watched as Maggie absolutely freaked out and refused to go near the guy in the red suit! Thank God for an understanding Santa and an even more patient photographer (Tom from Keylight- the same guy who did our wedding photos six years ago- we think he got a lot of practice dealing with difficult toddlers working with Unky Dougie in our wedding party....) but we finally got our picture. Not quite what we were hoping for, but what the heck. (Look closely and you can see mom holding Maggie on her knee and ducking behind Santa's head!)

Just for fun, here are our "Santa" pictures from the past 2 years....Maybe last year's should have offered us a little insight to how Maggie would react this year....

LIghten' Up Kenosha!

The Friday evening following THanksgiving, there was a great event in downtown Kenosha called "Lighten' Up Kenosha." Since cousins Grace and Paige were in town, we decided to head down to check it out with Gramma, Papa, Ant Jood, and Gary. Stores were open late, and each one had a fun (free!) activity/snack/craft for kids to work on and take home. We had a blast!

The definite highlight of the night was meeting Santa on the trolley!

Oh, so romantic with the Chicago dog sign in the background!


Ant Jood and Gary

Grace and Paige write letters to Santa

A night in downtown Kenosha wouldn't be complete without dinner at Trolley Dogs!

Maggie decorated a popcorn ball

Maggie writes her "letter" to Santa

Grace's snowman cookie

Paige's snowman cookie

Unlce Dan helps Grace and Paige decorate cookies at Frank's Diner

Maggie and Mama

Lucy did not find the evening quite as entertaining as the rest of us....

Decorating ornaments

What a fun night!

Just Chillin'

As the weather gets colder and colder, we are spending more and more time bundling up and cuddling inside! Here are just a few cute pictures of us "hanging out!"

Lucy SOOOOO wants to just get up and go!

Reading a book with Papa!

Drooly Lucy!

Sisters!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was so much fun this year! It was our "big" holiday here in Kenosha, and we celebrated at Gramma and Papa's house with all our cousins, aunts and uncles. Gramma made an AWESOME supper and managed to find room to seat 27 (ish?) people all around the dinner table. We have so much to be thankful for this year- the addition of Lucy Elizabeth, lots of new cousins to play with, jobs, good health, great family..... We hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving as much as we did and found a few peaceful moments to reflect on what you are thankful for this year!

Sharing a good book with Unky Dougie.

Maggie was a little excited to play with all of her cousins....

Nothing says Thanksgiving like a rousing game of Ring Around the Rosie

Beth and Camden

Gramma and Auntie Amy

Us.