The Christmas Spirit

I have to say that it is a little hard to get into the Christmas spirit this year. I am surprised that I have almost completed my Christmas shopping. I thought I would be out at the last minute trying to get it done, but I have been able to do a lot over the last week. Plus I had several gifts already purchased. I wish we would have been in our new house this year, but God had other plans and it doesn't look like we will close this week as we expected. Hopefully the week of Decemeber 5th. Please do a lot of praying because we are ready to get started on painting and putting the floor down so we can be in very soon after Christmas. I am very anxious to get in! We took advantage of the black Friday sales and bought our refrigerator, washer and dryer. Those were the only appliances it didn't come with and I am glad we have that out of the way.

Tonight we did put up the Christmas tree. Paul's mom told us we could put up the Christmas tree if we wanted too. I am so glad she did because Kristen really enjoyed it. Lauren kept bringing the ornaments back to me saying "It's not working" and getting another one. She put a few on, but was over it pretty quickly. Kristen did a good job at actually spreading the ornaments out and really took time picking out the place she wanted them to go. She was very excited when Paul's mom brought out presents to put under the tree. Of course she wanted to open them today and keeps asking how many days until Christmas. It is going to be a very long 28 days. Here are some pictures from tonight. Next year I might ask Santa for a new camera that takes better, clearer pictures.

Diva Degas

Poor Degas. He just doesn't stand a chance.

Button GONE

(This is my bandage job...I AM NOT AN EXPERT as you can see, but at least it did stay on all night long. Kristen was impressed because she said it looked like a cross.)

Yesterday I took Lauren to her appointment to get her button taken out. I wasn't 100% sure they were taking it out. It just depended on how it looked and if the hole was small enough. She was in the smallest Mic-KEY button they have, so I was very optimistic. The doctor she saw was the doctor everyone recommended at the feeding clinic at Children's Hospital, but had left when we started going there. She was very nice and I really liked her. She was very personable and came in to actually talk to us and have Lauren warm up to her a little bit before actually taking the button out. Lauren did so good and barely cried at all. Of course it wasn't an overly painful experience, but at least she felt comfortable enough with the situation to not be upset. She has to take prevacid for a month to cut down on stomach acid and I have to change the bandage twice a day. Right now she has to eat small meals and not drink too much. She can have smaller more frequent meals so the food passes by the hole in her stomach so it can heal. She is doing good and I have asked her several times if it hurts and she says no. She is allowed to have baths, but I don't think I am going to immerse her in the water because just thinking about soapy dirty bath water getting into that hole gives me the heebie jeebies. So the button removal was a success, although she did wake up this morning stuttering.

It's Ours

Well, almost. We heard back today that the bank accepted our offer. This isn't the original house we put an offer on. I had my eye on this property, but it was out of our price range. I went in to check the listings again to see if there were any new listings in our price range and was surprised to see that this house had dropped and we could now go and look at it. I prayed that I would not be disappointed and we would like this house. This was the first house I was actually excited about going and seeing. Well, I did fall in love with it. I could see my stuff in it and my kids playing there. I could see myself making dinner in the kitchen and doing laundry in the laundry room. It was our house, I just had to convince Paul because he was still attached to the other house. After I threatened divorce he finally came around...just kidding. He saw the positives and the fact that this house is better for our family. It is bigger, has an extra office that we will use as a play room, is a split rancher, has a big kitchen with lots of counter and cabinet space, has a pantry, has an actual laundry room, has a wood stove and is on 2 acres. We withdrew our offer on the other house and put in an offer on this house last Wednesday and found out today that we got it. I am so happy. Our closing is set for November 28th and our loan person is going to try to get it closed by that date, if not then pretty soon after. We have some things we want to do before moving in, so we hope to be in by Christmas. Throughout this process God really taught me a lesson about patience. There were times I thought I would literally go insane if we didn't find a house and close fast. I realized that country song is true. Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers. He knew which house we needed and knew we needed to wait to save some money so we could do the things we wanted to before moving in. I serve an Awesome God!

Trick Or Treat

What a horrible night for Trick or Treating! It didn't rain all day long, but as soon as we go to walk out the door it started pouring down rain. I think the girls both liked trick or treating, but it definitely would have been more fun without the rain and juggling umbrellas. Thanks to Aunt Kelly, Meme and Aunt Lou the girls really got some candy. I think overall we might have went to about 10 houses, that was all.

Kristen woke up so excited about Halloween. She wanted to get her costume on first thing that morning. She asked all day long when she could go trick or treating and even practiced all on her own saying "Trick or Treat" and "Thank you." This year both girls got to pick out their costume. It's funny because what I was SURE they would want to go as, they didn't. Originally Kristen said she wanted to go as Minnie Mouse. This really surprised me because she doesn't really like Minnie Mouse or Micky Mouse. When we got to the store she saw this catarina costume that she wanted but it was in, what I thought, to be a size too big. It was a girls small 4-6. She is in the weird 5T stage where she isn't really a toddler, but not in the girls either. Well, she decided on Minnie Mouse but all I could find it in was a 4T. We got it and when we got home I tried it on her. Well, it was too small. She didn't like it either, so we took it back and she was able to get the catarina costume in the girls small, which was basically a black ballerina cat. She was happy. From the minute we went to look at costumes Lauren picked up a cowgirl costume and that was all she wanted. They both looked cute. Here are some picture before going out.