Christmas happenings

(first picture)
Marty and the girls

(second picture)
Babushka and Giampa (Dean's folks) were here for Christmas...it was so fun to see them and Addy learned to say "Babu"- our nick name for Dean's mom.

(Third Picture)
Maya and Addy playing with their new Little People Farm set. I cannot believe they are playing together!(I actually caught Addy in this picture signing "thank you")

Our Christmas though wonderful, did not start off on the right foot. The day before Dean's birthday (12/17) Dean had an emergency appendectomy. Later that week our truck got a flat tire, Addy's bedroom door fell off its hinges, and our dishwasher broke. Not to mention our plans to go to Portland had to be cancelled, which meant we also did not have night nurses for 5 nights. The wonderful part is that Dean is doing great, he is now back at work 2 weeks post surgery, driving, and though he is not allowed to lift the girls for 2 more weeks he is up off the couch and able to help me around the house (which I am VERY grateful for). My family rearranged their Christmas to see us for the weekend befor Christmas to celebrate AND to help me out with the girls. (thanks mom and Holly for all your extra efforts) Dean's family was a huge help as well. Dean's brother stayed with Dean the night of surgery, and helped the following night when Dean got home and Maya got sick...thank you Kurt! And then Dean's family was here for Christmas through New Years so I had a lot of help from his parents around the house and helping with the girls. We also had a wonderful visit with them as well. Dean and I are very blessed to have such wonderful supportive parents AND siblings.

As for the girls Addy has started her career as a singer and will sing babble songs over and over for long periods of time with the sweetest little voice you ever heard. She has also become AS obsessed as Maya is with the Singing Time videos. She does her best to mimic ALL the signs, and many of them she is getting quite proficient at. She is also gaining some pretty impressive vocabulary words for a 15 month old, like "flower", Bless you,""thank you" and many other cute words like "Ni-Ni, for night, night" and noises to describe animals "neigh", "moo", buff(for dog). We are amazed at normal speech developement.

Maya is doing well too. She has remained extremely healthy aside from her Christmas bug, that was very minor. She has only missed 2 school days due to illness (just before Christmas) this entire year. She is trying to transition back to the school routine which has proved to be quite challenging for her...hopefully it will get better. Her secretions have suddenly decreased, and despite the change we still plan to go ahead with her procedure next Friday to scope her airway and possibly inject some BoTox to help manage the secretions. Maya is LOVING a number of new toys from Christmas: Her new springy rocking horse, the Little People animals and vehicles, new play dough, her new light Bright (which is a chellenge, but she is very determined to figure it out), and a number of new books. After next Friday, Maya will begin to train on wearing a nasal canula at night for Oxygen, which she needs to adapt to for her trach to come out, as they believe she will still need the oxygen at night. We fear this may be a bit of a battle, but a neccisary one at that.

I think most of you all know that I am now about 15 and 1/2 weeks pregnant and feeling pretty good. My tummy is starting show and pants are getting tighter. I am still tired a lot (but with two kids to chase around all day what can you expect). I will have a high level ultrasound on February 8th that hopefully will help us dicover the gender of this baby and the over health too. My C-section date is currently set for June 17th, so the baby will be here by that day if not sooner...though at this point the 17th seems soon enough!!!

I hope the New Year is treating you all well.
Many Blessing to you all!