Christmas, Snow, New Years

Here are the Sommers' girls right before leaving for the Nutcracker. Aren't my girls gorgeous?

Jilly asked for one thing........a Dora Bike - and she got it!

The girls opening presents.

This is the Christmas plate that Jilly made me at pre-school. She drew a picture of herself on the plate. I asked her what the dangling red thing was between her legs and she said her pants fell down. She cracks me up!

We spent 3 days at our cabin and there was lots of snow.

The girls had a great time sledding.

And Jilly enjoyed making snow angels.

I am feeling better but my stomach virus held on for several days. We did make it to Great Grandma Lucy's and Papa Jerry's/Grandma Lori's on Christmas. Grandma Lori and Papa Jerry bought Jillian a HUGE play kitchen. I have finally found room for it in my house and she's been "cooking" for her dolls ever since.  We had a great time at our cabin, relaxing and hanging out. Came back early so we'll be spending a quiet New Years at home. 

I hope everyone has a safe but fun New Year's Eve.

Hoping Santa brings health to me

I'm up making sure I put out Santa's gifts and stuff stockings then back to bed I go. I have had the stomach flu since 4 am this morning and have been in bed all day - when not in the bathroom. I still feel horrible. We didn't get to go to great grandma Lucy's or Papa Jerry's and Grandma Lori's - the place where all the good presents are. My family was very good to me though - even though the girls were dissapointed to have to stay home. 

Hopefully Santa drops off something so that tomorrow morning I wake up feeling better and we can go to the families houses that we need to go to. 

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas.

Christmas Things

Our Christmas break has officially started. Yippee. And we are off doing our holiday tradition type sort of things. So here's some pics. This first pic is not really a tradition but it may become one. Frosty stopped by for a tea party and as you can see from the wiping of the brow - entertaining is hard work ......

We then moved on to perfecting our rock star status with Jilly getting a lesson on how to be the ultimate rock star - again not a tradition but a cute picture....

And then came the making of the Christmas cookies. A kitchen full of cooks made for a mess but a fun time. This is how I get any lovin' from Haley - I have to steal it when she's not expecting it..
Jilly was hard at work making sugar cookies - so much so she needed to climb up on the counters.
Here's a kitchen full of women - the extra one is Mikayla's best friend, Jenna. 

And of course a cook has to show the effort of her labor....

And I snuck another kiss....

I took the girls to the Nutcracker yesterday. I started taking each girl when they turned 4. So this year was Jillian's first year. We have gone about every other year since Mikayla turned 4. She was so excited to go but once we got there she started asking about 30 minutes into the ballet if they were done dancing yet. Our favorite part is always Mother Ginger. Jilly's been talking about the Nutcracker all day today.

I will post the picture of the 4 of us girls all dressed up on our way to the Nutcracker later after it gets downloaded........

Next tradition..........marathon of watching Christmas movies over the next several days - all time favorites....Miracle on 34th street and the Christmas Story. And for my entertainment we must watch Elf. 

Pictures

Nice weekend around the Sommer household. Went to Russ' football game on Saturday. The sun decided to stay out so it wasn't too cold. Jilly slept on my lap almost the entire football game with cowbells and screaming all around her. Unfortunately his team lost.

Sunday I sat through Mikayla's soccer game in 40 degree weather with a freezing rain. The things I do for these kids! I even gave her my gloves halfway through the game!

After we warmed up all of us baked cookies and made fudge and poppy seed bread and other goodies. I'll post pics from that later.

I then told the girls we needed to take a quick photo for our Christmas cards. It used to be so easy when the older girls were little. Wipe their face, comb their hair then plop them where I want them. Not so with two teenagers. They had to blow dry their hair, then straighten it, then make-up, then a presentable outfit. What was supposed to take a few minutes turned in to about 45 minutes.

So this is the picture I wanted to use on our Christmas cards but I was vetoed!


I though it was pretty cute and clever but I was held hostage by my 15 year old and had to negotiate my way out by promising not to use it.

So I used a picture similar to this one

Maybe I will make some Christmas cards with the other one and send them to people without Mikayla knowing:)

Updates

Hey, I was doing good there for awhile, with the updating thing. But this week got away from me. Can't really blame it on busy because things are actually calm around here.

Haley is done with soccer for the moment. Mikayla was sick all week. So I have been lazy, lying around at home during the evenings instead of driving around like a mad lady taking my kids here and there. But I do need to get off my butt and do some Christmas shopping and take the picture of the kids for my holiday card. I was all set to be all organized this year, but I failed again.

Jilly is doing well. She did have some diarrea the week before last. With her Fontan circulation one of the side effects that we are always warned about is the PLE. One of the symptoms of that is diarrea - so of course instead of just thinking that she has a stomach upset I start wondering if this is the dreaded PLE - is this when the other shoe drops? Could be that I just worry and fret - that's who I am.

But her new development this week is extreme constipation. Poor little thing. 

Other than that she is doing great. Excited about Christmas. 

Today I get to sit out in the cold again at UOP to watch my husband's football team play for the Section Championships. They won the city championships last week. Yeah for Russ and his team!

I am adding a link to Steve's blog. He is a great advocate for adults living with CHD. And his site is full of great information. 

Flappers

Jilly had her 6 month check up with her cardiologist. Echo, EKG, blood pressure etc. Her 02 saturations are still around 97. Everything else looks great. The only bit of information that came as a bit of a surprise was a flapper that Dr. H saw on the echo. 

What's a flapper you ask? Let me tell you. With the three staged surgery her pulmonary vein has been detached from her heart with the superior vena cava and the inferior vena cava attached to the pulmonary artery. So there is no direct blood flow from the heart and lungs like in a normal heart. When the pulmonary vein is detached from the heart the surgeon will tie up the end of the pulmonary vein since it is not going anywhere. Dr. H said surgeons generally tie it up nice and tight. Jilly's wasn't tied up as tight. Not a big deal and her repair isn't compromised because of it. It just means the end of that pulmonary vein has a little flap flapping around. Because of that Dr. H said there is a slightly higher risk of blood clots. So she said we have to always remember to give Jilly her aspirin and if she gets sick with vomiting or diarreah we have to keep her hydrated. Things she would recommend we do anyway, but just that concern about blood clots is hightened. 

Overall a good check up as always. We'll see her again in 6 months. 

Now off to go sit in the cold and watch Russ coach his team to a City Championship.

Another Milestone

I'm tired. Russ is tired.

Why?

I woke Russ up at 3:45 this morning to go to the elementary school and get in line to register Jillian for kindergarden. He was not the first one there.

I couldn't go back to sleep because these kind of things stress me out. So I showed up at 5:30 and relieved him so he could go get himself and the girls ready for school. By that time there was a line around the building of eager parents, braving the cold to stand in line to get one of the 40 slots. I was 2nd in line.

Jilly gets to go to the school that I wanted her to go to. The one the older girls went to. The one where I know most of the teachers and they are all great. And the one that is around the corner from the preschool she goes to now and where she can go after school when she starts kindergarden. The place she loves to go to and where her teachers love her and she loves them. The school that is right down the road and around the corner from her daddy and 5 minutes away from mom.

What a relief!

But I'm tired. And I am taking the older girls and their friends to Jingle Ball tonight - watch out David Archeleta here we come!

It's going to be a long day.

Another milestone come and gone. Just wait until the first day of kindergarden. They probably won't have enough kleenex for this mom.