All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth

Ryan has had one front tooth that broke through the gums a while back, but that other front tooth was being very elusive! We've seen it just under the gums going on a few weeks now and that little sucker decide to pop through right in time for Christmas Eve! I can't help but sing the song, "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth" to myself whenever I see that little tooth poking through. Merry Christmas Eve to Ryan! 

By the way, everyone here is feeling way better and they're pretty much totally over walking pneumonia. I'm so glad that's cleared up before Christmas!

2014 Christmas Card

Merry Christmas from our family to yours! May your holidays be filled with joy and love.

Front of card

Back of card

Close-up of back

Grandpa Stokes

My dad moved to Jacksonville, FL several months ago and we had not seen him since he moved. He called on Saturday and told us that he had taken a last minute trip up to Charlotte and was going to be driving back through Greenville and asked if he could come by. We jumped at the opportunity to visit with him. I love that about the holidays....lots of family time!

We had potato soup for lunch and just hung out at our house. While the boys were napping, I let Shanghai, my dad's youngest daughter and my 1/2 sister, pick out a movie for us to watch. I thought she might go for a Christmas movie, but in true 7 year old fashion, we ended up watching Disney's Tangled and snacked on popcorn and M&Ms. Good times!

The boys and their granddad (Stokes' namesake)

Helping William stand and take a few steps

Deep convo with Ryan

We made Shanghai get in for a pic and hold Stokes

I joined in

Shanghai with the boys

So typical! Stokes and William both try to crawl away

Staying on the good list

The boys have been adamant about wanting to be on Santa's "good list" this year. They keep asking me if I think they made it. They've recently been caught trying to implicate each other for any wrongdoings. They've even gone so far as to have t-shirts made to help their chances to land on that all-important good list. They failed to realized that this message is actually kind of confusing. It's just a circle of blame, everyone!

Out of 20-ish pictures, these are the 3 best. Yep. That's right. These were the best. That's what we're working with, folks.

In case you need an up-close look at their t-shirts:

DEAR SANTA, MY BROTHER DID IT

*Side note: the boys have DEFINITELY made it on Santa's "good list" this year and I didn't want to burst their bubbles but the shirts weren't even needed. They've been on the good list since January 1. ;)

Walking...but not the way you think

We're walking over here...walking pneumonia, that is! I took Ryan in to the doctor this morning and after his appointment and diagnosis and while I was there, went ahead and made an appointment for Stokes for the afternoon. Poor little fellas! I guess I underestimated how poorly they felt when I diagnosed them with just a cold. Stokes got not one, but two antibiotics. One is for his walking pneumonia and another for his suspected ear infection. And a side of albuterol (breathing treatment) to top it all off. The nurse practitioner we saw even mentioned possible RSV. I was really quite surprised that he is as sick as he is because despite all the nose running and coughing, he is still spunky and happy for the most part. I need to keep a close eye on Ryan. Children with delays have a higher chance of getting really sick and requiring a hospital stay. I think his medicine will do the trick though.

I can tell that William's antibiotics are starting to kick in and he's feeling better and I hope that my sweet Ryan and little Stokie get to feeling better tomorrow, too!

William at the doctor on Tuesday:

Feeling yucky

Can you see his eyelid in this picture? PLG (poor little guy)!

Stokes at the doctor this afternoon:

Wild man...like usual

Not feeling 100% today

Sippy cup time!

Snuggling with Ryan and Stokes before bedtime tonight:

Best part of the day

I love it when they will put their head on my shoulder

Catch up and sickies

Last week I was in Buffalo, NY for my first week of work. I was a bit worried to leave the boys for almost a whole week. Layla had only been working with us for one week and although she caught on very quickly and was doing a good job, I was wondering how she would do on her own. Luckily, MaSha was willing to help out. She came by several times a day each day to check in on Layla and the boys and make sure everything was OK. She also stayed through the evenings to help Thomas with dinner, bath and bedtime and spent the night at our house. We were all glad that she will willing and able to help out!

When I got back and asked Layla how she did on her own for the week, the one word she gave me was "exhausted"! Giiiirrrrlllll, I know!

As far as Buffalo goes, I was, of course, on the lookout for CJ & Sammy, but didn't see them. Bummer. I was also surprised that when the plane landed, I didn't see any snow on the ground. I mean, doesn't Buffalo have a ton of snow throughout the whole winter?!?!? I was scared to head up there considering there was a huge storm that dumped about 8' of snow about 2 weeks before my trip, and I am completely unequipped for those types of conditions. Carolina girls typically don't have snow boots and heavy coats! So I was surprised not to have any snow when we got there...and dare I say it....I was actually a little disappointed. What?!?! Anyway, I attended a new employee orientation, met a bunch of my new co-workers, sat through some meetings and enjoyed my time there in the office. The last night I was there, we had a small Christmas party with our group from the office. Lo and behold, it started snowing that night. And it didn't stop. The next morning, there was quite a bit of snow on the ground. It was so pretty! I was glad to get to see some snow, especially when it had recently fallen and was all white and powdery and hadn't gotten all dirty and yucky, and especially when I know that I'm leaving town to go somewhere warmer! We got out of town just fine with no weather delays. All was good. I was so excited to get home and see FOUR of my boys!

View from my hotel room in the morning of the day I was leaving

Snow on the rental car

Goofy boys! They had so much fun playing with this clown glasses.

Stokes

Ryan

William

So anyway, I've been home for almost a week and have enjoyed spending some time at home! The bad news is that we have some sickies on our hands. All three of the poor little guys have some sort of cold or virus. They have runny noses (and it's a lot of snot!!!), watery eyes and are coughing, sneezing, wheezing, and are just plain pitiful! With the exception of getting hand, foot and mouth disease over the summer, they haven't been sick at all. This is really our first illness. It breaks my heart. In addition to his cold, William also has something going on with his eye. His eyelid has been red on and off for a while now but it's gotten much worse and his eye has been super crusty when I go in to get him in the morning. I took him to the pediatrician yesterday afternoon and he got a prescription for antibiotics for the first time. Stokes and Ryan didn't seem like they were quite as sick as William so I'm holding off on taking them in to the doctor unless they spike a fever, their coughing gets worse or it sounds like they have a hard time breathing. Ryan got worse as the day wore on today so I'm hoping that the Benadryl, Vaporub, suctioning, a humidifier and some TLC will do the trick. BTW, new moms and expectant moms, you NEED this Nose Frida for suctioning! It's awesome. But here's a warning: babies don't like it.

Pitiful :(

Check out that snot and swollen eye lid! Bless him!

Yet another snot-shot! And it's mixed with food.

Poor Ryan seemed OK this morning, but got progressively worse as the day wore on. I believe we may have a trip to the pediatrician looming for tomorrow. I feel so bad for my little guys!

Stokes is taking more and more steps and is quickly becoming a real "walker". I'll try to get a video soon so y'all can see him in action!

A throne for a prince

A few months ago, we had a sales rep from a company called NuMotion come by our house to take measurements on Ryan. Ryan's PT, Ashley, set it up with this sales rep so that we could get Ryan fitted for some new equipment. She thought it would be helpful for his development to get him a chair and a stander. It takes months to get these things approved through insurance and then made, so we knew we wouldn't get the equipment for a while. Just the other day we heard that our NuMotion rep had a loaner chair that we could use until Ryan's stuff was ready. He came by the other day, gave me the tutorial on how to take it apart, make adjustments, get him buckled in and so forth.

The benefit to using a chair like this is so that Ryan can work on his posture and positioning. It makes him work to sit up and he will be aligned properly so that the correct muscles will get stronger. It makes him bear weight on his legs and feet and forces him to keep his back straight. Ashley and the rep think it will do wonders for him.

It's a little hard to see my sweet boy in this new chair because it makes Ryan's situation seem so REAL. My mind likes to pretend I'm in a world where Ryan's just fine and he will catch up any day now to do all the same stuff that his brothers are doing. In reality, that may or may not be the case. This chair is a precursor to seeing Ryan in a wheelchair and it makes me realize that I need to wrap my mind around that. It may happen. Hopefully not, but it could.

For right now, I've been instructed to keep Ryan in his chair 2-3 times a day for about 30 minutes each time. I can adjust the position to allow him to sit up straight to really work hard or I can lean it back so he can rest a little if he gets tired.

Here's my prince on his throne.

Look who we met

It's Santa! Our neighborhood did a breakfast and picture opportunity with Santa this morning at the clubhouse. It was the boys' first time meeting The Big Guy! They were so excited! Actually, they had no idea what was going on and were just looking around and taking in the scene. ;)

There were quite a few families from the 'hood there and although we only dropped in for a minute to do the obligatory photo op, it was nice to see some familiar faces and meet a few people we didn't already know.

The boys were not scared of Santa at all! They just acted like it was any other day. I secretly kind of love the pictures of kids screaming and/or crying on Santa's lap, but our boys were happy to be there (or at least not mad or scared). Ryan was enthralled with Santa and was staring up at him almost the whole time. Stokes was distracted by anything and everything (surprise, surprise) and William took turns looking at Santa and looking all around. HO HO HO!

L to R: Ryan, Stokes and William

I love how Ryan and William were both looking right
up at Santa here!

A merry little (early) Christmas

We had a mini Christmas celebration early this weekend at our house. Zack and Matt (brothers-in-law) and Thomas had tickets to see Joe Bonamassa at The Well on Saturday night so we decided to make it a family weekend and Tara and Ashley came with our nieces! Since we didn't already have plans to be all together on Christmas, we decided that we would use this weekend to celebrate together.

Matt, Tara and Leece got here on Friday night and Ashley flew in on Saturday (she had an event to attend in Greenville, NC on Friday night) and Zack drove in Saturday afternoon with Taylor and Anna.

On Saturday, we went to MaSha's house for lunch and then hung out at our house for the rest of the afternoon. The big guys left around 5:30 to go downtown for dinner and drinks before the concert and all the girls and the little guys had dinner at home and ordered pizza and had a low-key evening.

Leece checking out MaSha's
Christmas tree

MaSha and Stokes

William, Stokes and Ryan

Stokes, William and Ryan
BTW, I took about a million of these pictures and these
two are the only halfway decent ones. Stokes and William
kept trying to crawl away!

MaSha and Ryan

Taylor and Ryan

Stokes taking a few steps for Da-da

Stokes visiting the dogs

Tara and Leece

Thomas swinging William

Ashley with Ryan

MaSha and Leece

The big boys before the concert

The big boys and the little boys

Sunday morning was our big celebration with brunch and opening presents and stockings. It was mayhem but really, really fun! My boys still didn't really understand opening presents and stockings, but they love all their new stuff. We all enjoyed getting to see Leece, Taylor and Anna open their gifts!

Peery triplets in their Christmas PJs

Ryan

William

 

Stokes

Anna and Taylor with their hot cocoa

Our brunch spread

We had egg and sausage breakfast casserole, grits casserole,
fruit, sausage balls and honeybun cake

GranO and MaSha chatting

Anna playing with Ryan

MaSha, Ryan and GranO

Stokes walking towards MaSha

MaSha juggling Ryan and Stokes - she's gotten very
good at holding multiple babies!

COUSINS!

Ryan and Taylor

Presents time!

MaSha helping William open his gift

Kids opening presents

Tara helping Leece

MaSha and William. His expression
here cracks me up!

Stokes was modeling his new winter jacket

Leece LOVED her new chair that is
just her size

Big girls with their new robes

More gifts!

GranO and Stokie

Stokes checking out his handmade wooden truck

Ryan with his stocking

William with his stocking (kind of)

Stokes with his stocking

I was helping Stokes play with his new toy from MaSha

Present opening chaos! So fun

Ryan with his Mama

MaSha and all her grandkids

Taylor, William and GranO

Stokes and me

Our family :)

Matt, Leece and Tara

Tara and Leece

All the girls

Ashley and Leece