Christmas festivities

We had a wonderful Christmas this year with lots to celebrate!  Payton is convinced that Santa came to his house and had lots of questions about him and how he makes his deliveries.  He was very concerned that the presents might get wet when it rained or snowed.  He was also worried for houses without Christmas lights, because he thinks that the only way that Santa can find your house is if you have lights.  His little mind just never stops!   We started out the fun the weekend before Christmas by spending the entire day baking cookies and Christmas goodies.  Then, Justin was lucky enough to have that Sunday off of work, so we went to Union Station and saw the Holiday Express train and lots of model trains.  It was a big hit!  And Santa was even there!  We even drove around that weekend and looked at lots of Christmas lights.  On Christmas Eve it started snowing like crazy (and didn't stop for 3 days), so the boys and I hung out at home.  After dinner they got into their Christmas PJs and picked out cookies for Santa.  Payton went to bed better then he ever has!  He woke up at 2am, yes, 2am and asked if we could open presents!!  I said no, now go back to sleep!  Around 6:30 we woke up for good and saw all of the presents that Santa brought.  The boys had a faboulous time!  Easton even seemed to enjoy everything.  Payton was so appreciative, it was very sweet.  He helped Easton open all of his presents and showed him how everything worked!  Then Justin and Payton went out to shovel a  bunch of snow.  (One of the things that Santa brought was a sled and a little shovel!)  I think justin wanted to rest, but Payton really wanted to go and shovel snow!  So out they went.  We didn't plan on seeing my family for Christmas until next weekend because my sister had planned to go to Iowa.  But, with the near blizzard conditions, she made the wise decision to stay in KC.  So, we decided that why not, we could get together that night!  Moms house is about 6-10 blocks away and we almost didn't make it!  The snow removal around here is pretty pathetic!  After a wonderful evening there we went home and crashed!  I spent the next two days with the boys just playing and hanging out all weekend!  It continued to snow all day Saturday, so they went out Saturday night and shoveled some more snow.  When they were done, Payton wanted to keep shoveling, so they decided to head over to my moms and do her driveway as well, (and I think Justin wanted left overs!!)  I feel like I am in Iowa with all of the snow we are getting.  We have lived here 9 years, and don't ever remember seeing this much.  And it looks like it is going to stay for a while, so it is a good thing we have lots of new toys to play with, because I think we will be staying home a lot!!

We are now looking forward to a very low key New Years.  Payton is learning about it and resolutions at school and he just informed me today that he learned at midnight on the last day of December you have to celebrate the new year.  So now I have an odd feeling that he will want to stay up??! 

The week of extremes: Birthdays to heart surgery

The past seven days has had the ultimate in extremes.   I don't really even know where to start, so I am going to just go in order.  Last Thursday, my sweet adorable Payton turned 5 years old!  I can not believe it!  How can he already be 5!!  He wanted a spongebob theme, so we made cupcakes for him to take to school.  Then after school some family came over and we celebrated his birthday with an ice cream cake!  He is VERY excited to be 5!  He will tell you all of the things he can do (or thinks he can do) now that he is 5!  He seems so grownup now.   Five is one of those big birthdays! This was the first year he had a 'friend' party.  His party was scheduled for Sunday (it was scheduled before we knew when Eastons surgery was).  So we spent a lot of time on Saturday preparing fo the party and getting all of the favors and such together.  His party with his friends was at a rec center and it was a lot of fun.  I think the kids really enjoyed themselves.  They got to color spongebob pictures, have cake, ice cream and juice boxes then go in the gym and run obstacle courses and just have lots of fun!  He had a great time turning 5 and thank you to so many people who made it so special. 

On Monday was the dreaded surgery for Easton.  In case you don't know, I will give a quick run down of the back story.  A little over a month and a half ago, I took him in to the doctor over the weekend for a minor ear infection.  They detected a heart murmer.  Which usually doesn't mean much and they are actually pretty common and most of the time means nothing.  We followed up with our pediatrician and he confirmed the murmer and also said that usually they are 'innocent' murmers that lots of people have.  He said though that we woudn't know unless we followed up with a pediatric cardiologist.  So, we did that and right away he knew that this was not nothing.  After a few hours and lots of tests later, it was confirmed that Easton had a congential heart defect called patent ductus arterious or PDA.  Basically there is an opening that is supposed to be open in a babys heart while they are in utero, and it is supposed to close after birth.  For some reason his did not.  It causes too much blood to flow through certain parts of the heart and causes extra stress on the heart and lungs.  His left side of his heart was already slightly enlarged and would continue to get larger without getting fixed.  If left untreated, he could have heart and lung failure.  So it had to get fixed sooner rather then later.  They scheduled the appt and we had to wait a month for the surgery.  It was a very long month and I am glad that i had Paytons birthday to focus on.  We had to keep Easton isolated from everyone for 4-5 days before surgery to make sure that he didn't get exposed to any germs or illinesses before surgery.  So he didn't get to leave the house or even go to Paytons party.  :-(

Monday was the surgery and it lasted a few hours.  He did great and the doctor was able to fix the defect via a catheter put in through the vein in his groin.  It was a long and stressful day, but we are very glad it is over.  They wanted to monitor him overnight and do some tests in the morning to make sure that the device they put in his heart stayed in place.  We were able to come home early Tuesday afternoon.  So now Easton and I are just hanging out at home the rest of the week.  I am so grateful that we have such a wonderfull Childrens Hospital here in KC.  They were truly wonderful.  And thank you to everyone who has been thinking of us over the past month or so.  I am overwhelved by the amount of calls, emails, cards, text messages, etc.  We are so lucky to have so many caring people in our lives. 

 

We are now looking forward to Christmas.  I haven't had a chance to think much about it yet, so I better hurry up and get on that!  Payton is very excited for Santa to come and thanks to a website I found, he received a personalized letter in the mail from Santa Claus!  He loves christmas lights and gets very excited to drive around and see them.  This will be an extra special Christmas this year now that Easton is here as well! 

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year!