Eeeeeek!! BREAKING NEWS!

I can FINALLY share some awesome news! I'm going to be an aunt in July 2013!! Kat & Lo, married in July, wasted no time, and are preggers!! We found out at Thanksgiving, but they finally shared their news with the rest of the world at Christmas.  I'm beyond excited and can't wait to spoil this little one.  Kat & Lo have been amazing with our boys (practically a second set of parents to them) and I can't wait to return the love.

And to think that I felt lost after all the wedding planning was over. Looks like I now have a baby shower to plan and to help get a nursery together.  All of which are my specialties!!  Congrats to them!!

It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas!

We ventured to visit Santa this past weekend. Both boys seemed excited to see Santa. Austin proceeded to give his entire wish list to Santa, but Chase screamed bloody murder as soon as I sat him on the jolly fella' lap.  Evidence of the joyous event........

When Jordan was home with me over the Thanksgiving break while I recovered from surgery, he had plenty of time to scale the roof and put lights up.  Christmas is my favorite time of year, and I get so excited every time I pull up to the house to see the twinkling lights!

And here's the mantle with a multitude of stockings. Yes, there's only four of us, but we make sure to have a stocking for anybody who is here with us on Christmas morning to celebrate. (Even the pups!)

(And yes, Jordan was watching Ferris Bueller's Day Off when I took this pic!)

December Blog-a-Day........EPIC FAIL!

Here it is, Dec. 14th, and I have only followed through on posting on ONE day this month. Ahhhh, I have completely failed this month, and there is no way I can catch up now.  

It has been a crazy few weeks since returning to work from my LOA for my surgery. The first week back was a little rough; the days back at work were exhausting and my neck ached. But the pathology results came back with no signs of cancer, so I'm all clear on that front. Yippee!!  Now, they're just trying to get my meds at the right level; already having adjusted them a couple times.  Besides trying to catch up on all my projects that I missed while out, things have been super-busy anyways and I've been working more than I would have liked. Needless to say, they've been making me earn my full paycheck; I sure do miss my part-time schedule, only a few months ago. :(  Couple that with a four-day trip to NJ this past week, I'm exhausted and am way behind on everything Christmas-related.

So yes, it is a week-and-a-half from Christmas and I have so much shopping to get done. I've over-committed myself to cookie swaps, Christmas parties, etc. and there just aren't enough hours in the day! I am DEFINITELY looking forward to my two weeks off from work coming up. Only a few more days!

Anyways, so we're trying to get into the holiday spirit around here. The boys are doing great; as rambunctious as usual! And in the midst of the Christmas chaos, I'm trying to plan Chase's 2nd birthday party in a few weeks. Eeeeeeek!!!!

Here's our Christmas card for this year!

We had to put the tree up in the office at the front of the house to keep Chase out of it!

Dori going for a joy ride one night

Me & Jordan at the KPMG Holiday Party

Day 1: Family

Okay first off, our Elf on the Shelf, arrived back from the North Pole today. We met her last year, and Austin named her Dori (you can tell that Nemo was a favorite movie at the time). So I've decided each day this month, we'll also follow her on this blog throughout the house on all of her shenanigans.  This morning, she arrived front and center in our mini tree, that way Austin would see her when he first got up.  (We'll get more creative with her location as the month progresses.) Austin got so excited and promptly went through his Christmas wish list, and then asked the rest of us to do the same. Chase could really care less about this little Elf!

Now, moving onto today's topic 'Family'. We had Jordan's Dad's side of the family's Christmas gathering.  I had reserved our Clubhouse here in the neighborhood, organized the evite, and coordinated the dishes. It was quite the success and we had nearly everybody in attendance (40 people)! It was definitely fun to see all of the kids running around together and catching up with those that we don't see too often.  I love this time of the year!

It's December Time!!!

Is it true, that tomorrow is the first day of December?! Ahhhhhh! I feel like I still need to catch up on November! Looks like I have lots of blogging to do; hope I can keep up! :)

Recovery Time

Greetings, from the comfort of my king-size bed. I'll give you the run down of the events the past couple days.....

We arrived at the hospital at 7am on Wednesday to get checked in for my thyroidectomy.  After getting changed into my beautiful hospital gown, I was shown to my bed. Then my friendly nurse gave me an IV and did an EKG (for my heart murmur). Then, as we waited, there was a slight panic because they forgot to give me a pregnancy test. Seriously?! Wouldn't that have been the surprise of the century, to find out that we were preggers. Luckily, Dr. Sudela's tubal ligation is still holding strong and I am without child. :) Finally, the surgeon and anesthesiologist visited with me for a bit. After I said my goodbye to Jordan and got a quick kiss, I was wheeled down the hallway. And that's the last thing I remembered, because I was asleep before we even made it to the OR.

They said the surgery was supposed to take two hours, but it took three instead. I can only imagine Jordan's nerves, as he waited for the surgeon to come to him with news. I vaguely remember voices throughout the day as I woke for a few minutes at a time in recovery. I just remember being in a lot of pain, not being able to speak, and some creepy guy (aka Jordan) constantly staring at me from my bedside. I slept most of the day and used a notepad to convey most messages. They treated me with some awesome morphine for most of the day, but switched to Vicodin later in the evening.  But since I hadn't eaten anything, it made me pretty nauseous. Thankfully, after feeling like I was going to puke for awhile and getting some Zofran to battle the nausea, I was all good again.  We stayed overnight, and Jordan even got his own hospital bed to sleep in. Later the next afternoon, another surgeon finally came in to check on me. It was then time to remove the nasty drain from my neck. I thought Jordan was going to pass out while he watched them do it. Don't get me wrong; it felt weird having it pulled out of me, but I'm sure watching was even worse. Then we were sent on our way, with a prescription for some Vicodin and a follow-up appt. on the 26th.

Jordan then got me home and settled. I swear, he's been the best little nurse ever. Between fixing me food, getting my meds, taking care of the boys, and helping me wash all the dried blood out of my hair, he's been awesome. It's just hard to get comfortable. There's definitely more pain than I was expecting. It feels like I have the worse case of strep throat, whiplash from being in a wreck and unable to move my neck, and my voice is still very hoarse (nerves are bruised and may take a while for my voice to recover). I haven't had a good look at my incision yet; there are steri-strips covering it until my appt.on the 26th. But it's a two-inch incision dead center on my throat. There's going to be no hiding that thing. :(  I spent most of today laying around in the bed, taking little naps. But I did get a special delivery of some chocolate covered strawberries and the cutest Get Well cake pops today!

Recovery is slow, but I'm making it. The kids don't quite understand that Mommy can't pick them up and they need to be gentle with me. Big thanks for Uncle LoLo for keeping the boys while we were at the hospital! He's definitely a pro at handling those two little rascals by now. :)

The surgeon said the pathology results should be back by Monday, so hopefully I'll know about those then. Definitely saying prayers that we get good news on that front. But it looks like I have another week or so of lying around, trying not to get bored.  Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers!

HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY TO AUSTIN!!

Is it really true, that we have a FOUR year old?!?! Sometimes it seems like it was just the other day that we brought this chunky monkey home from the hospital.  (Look at how big that noggin is!! Certainly glad I had a c-section!)

But here we are four years later, and this kid seriously acts like he's 10 years old or something. But then when he wants me to hold him and give him kisses, I know he'll always be my baby; a momma's boy for sure. :)  This past year he has changed so much. He's independent, hard-headed, stubborn, funny, and sweet, all at the same time. And he has for sure turned into one of the best big brothers ever.

Today, we treated Austin to a full day of fun for his birthday (well, minus the shots he got at the Dr. this morning!). We started out with pancakes at McDonald's, which is his absolute favorite.  He weighed in at the doc's office at 34.9lbs. (75%) and was 39" tall (25%); no surprise here. :)  After getting poked at the pediatrician's office a few times, we headed over to Shennaniganz for some bowling and games.  Then we ventured over to the movies.  He chose to see Hotel Transylvania, and it was pretty cute. Of course he insisted on popcorn, an Icee, and gummy bears. :)  Then we all gathered with the fam for a Mexican dinner and then to Chuck E. Cheese for more games. Geez! What an exhausting, but fun day!

I love this kid to pieces and can't remember life without him in it. Although I don't have favorites, I still think that he and I share a special bond. We waited what seemed like forever before getting pregnant with him, and he was the first to make me a mother.

Driving race cars with Daddy!

Waiting at the Dr.'s office for shots! :(

Our super-bowler!

We had his birthday party this past weekend and it was a blast. I'll blog about that in a few days. But I've got a big day tomorrow, with my surgery, so I need to get some sleep!