Christmas 2020

 I was really burned out this past Christmas and not looking forward to all the festivities. I was overwhelmed with 2020 in general and my expectations were not being met. I think I was just feeling down and could not get into the spirit of Christmas.

 

Much to my surprise this Christmas turned out WAY better than I expected. I normally do not start decorating until after Grady’s birthday and party. Also, this year I was really wanting a new tree and ornaments, etc. but by the time we started decorating all the stores were sold out. It was beyond frustrating and honestly, I didn’t put up a single decoration, Chad did all the decorating this year.

 

We had Christmas pictures on December 6^th and after pictures we let them open 1 present early which was pajamas and a book. I read on Amber Massey’s blog a while ago that she let her kids open their pajamas on December 1^st so they could enjoy them all month long and loved that idea but since Grady’s birthday is December 1^st we do it a few days after. Grady was less than impressed with the pajamas.

 

I kind of felt bad that we didn’t do much Christmas activities this year. I think it was just hard with the pandemic or at least that’s what I’m telling myself, we also had a newborn so that makes things harder too.

 

We always have Christmas Eve with my family and this year it was at my sister’s house in Tulsa. It was the last year that my mom will be working full time, she is retiring in June. So, let’s just say she went a little too crazy and we couldn’t open all the presents that night.

 

On Christmas morning I normally love to make a HUGE breakfast, but I tried to switch things up a little bit. Instead of making biscuits and gravy I ended up doing a breakfast casserole, and it was WAY less hectic. The kids woke up and opened their stocking and then played with their toys in their stocking while I threw the casserole in the oven. And then they started opening their presents. We took little breaks in between presents. It lasted a lot longer, but it was so much more enjoyable than rushing through it. My parents came over later that morning and we gave the kids their “big” gift. After all their gifts we ate and I didn’t rush to clean up, it was a good day! That evening we made pizzas for dinner and just chilled.

I am so happy that we are able to give them this big present, last year was a different story. This year was much more relaxing, and we will be adopting some of these changes in the years to come. We discussed doing an easier throw in the oven breakfast for Christmas morning and then a big breakfast like biscuits and gravy, etc for New Year’s Day.

Grady's 5th Birthday Party

 I have been looking forward to throwing a Movie Night birthday party ever since I started looking up ideas for birthday parties. It didn’t hurt that Grady LOVES to watch movies while eating pizza and popcorn. Unfortunately I had too much fun with the party that I didn’t get much pictures but trust me it was so much fun. We really wanted to have it outside in the backyard but since it was in December the weather was nice but not nice enough, so we decided that it was best to have it in our garage and it worked out perfectly. We blew up some inflatable beds for the kids to lay on and I picked up a bunch of blankets from Ikea the weekend before when we were there. I bought a projector and screen during the Amazon Prime days and rented a popcorn machine for the weekend. I also bought way too much pizza and a massive cookie cake.

During the party we watched 100% Wolf and had everyone eat dinner and popcorn while we started the movie, halfway through we stopped the movie to cut and eat the cake. It was a blast!

Halloween 2020

 Halloween is by far my favorite Holiday; I love it so much. As much as I love Halloween, I do not like the scary side of Halloween.  I love the imagination and excitement of the kids’ faces come to life. Plus, fall is my favorite season too.   It’s embarrassing but I start thinking of costume ideas months ahead of time.

 We are at a stage with Grady where he wants a certain costume so in order to get him to do my family costume idea, I have to let him pick out a costume of his choice. This year we decided on Sandlot and oh my goodness, it turned out perfectly. Some of the items didn’t come in the mail in time (dang pandemic) but it worked.

 This year looked a little different for our Halloween activities. We went to the zoo for Hallozooween and then the day of Halloween we met up with some of our old neighbors and went to our old neighborhood to trick or treat. It was low key but perfect. 

Broken Bow, Oklahoma Trip

 This trip was very much needed after having a newborn and being in the NICU. It came at a perfect time too. We met up with our friends from Dallas who we normally travel with, although this was the first time we included to kiddos.

 

Coming from Tulsa, the drive was a little rough we took a back way into Broken Bow and it was very windy and had sharp corners. We got to our cabin and it was stunning. It was the perfect set up for our 2 families. They had the living room and on 1 side of the cabin was a master bedroom with a twin size bed and their own bathroom on the other side of the cabin was another master bedroom with bunk beds and another bathroom. We stayed in the bunk bedroom and it was a HUGE hit with the kids. We got there right around 5:00 so we hurried and unpacked the car and headed out to dinner.

We headed to Grateful Head Pizza Oven & Tap Room for dinner. Once we got there we noticed that the line just to order was massive! TIP: If you travel to Broken Bow and go to Grateful Head, order by phone or online. I called and ordered our pizza and it was ready within 10-15 minutes, we were able to bypass the line. While we were waiting for our pizza someone came out and started to turn people away because they were running out of food. I’m so glad I called. We took our pizza and went across the street to Beavers Bend Brewery. I have nothing but amazing things to say about Beavers Bend Brewery. We sat outside and they had an outdoor area with games for the kids to play at and the beer was outstanding.

The next day we rented a boat for 4 hours. We decided that the boys (excluding Barrett) would go on the boat for the first hour or so to fish, etc. I had prepared breakfast, a casserole, before hand so it was super easy to just throw in the oven the morning of. The girls met up with the boys around 10:00 and let me tell you, this lake was absolutely breathtaking. It was windy and chilly the day of so that was a little bit of a bummer but it was still fun! The only thing I regret is not bringing lunch or more snack on the boat with us. The kids were getting a little restless with not that much to do on the boat. After the boat ride we went back to the cabin for lunch and naps.

 

After naps we went to the petting zoo there in Broken Bow. This was a little disappointing, the kids had fun but they didn’t have as many animals as I was expecting and it was messy. They did have pony rides which the kids LOVED. We stopped by the Vojai’s Winery on the way back to the cabin and grabbed a few bottles of wine. We also did a tasting there, it wasn’t my favorite wine and kind of made my stomach hurt. Very fruity and sweet wines, it wasn’t kid friendly either.

 

Our friends made us dinner at the cabin that night and it was so much fun to chill and relax. After dinner we had smores, of course and then hung around the cabin and got into the hot tub. We love to travel with our friends and do well traveling together. We were laughing because we really complemented each other, things we forgot they had and things they forgot we brought. We didn’t have to run to the store for anything. We are already planning on our next trips together (couple trip and family trip)

 

The last morning, I had premade some quiches for breakfast and we just cooked those in the oven and picked and cleaned up the cabin to leave to go home. Grady did NOT want to leave and was so upset but luckily fell asleep on the way home. We also took a different route home which was much better.

Audrey's 3rd Birthday Party

 We really debated on even having a birthday party for Audrey since we didn’t know if we would have a 2-week-old or a 1 month old, but I just couldn’t do that to her. She’s not really “into” or “obsessed” over anything so I didn’t really do a theme this past year. I felt bad that I didn’t go all out with her birthday party because we had a newborn baby, so we decided to have a princess come to the birthday party, Queen Elsa. I think her birthday party turned out perfect, I didn’t do much decorations beside a table backdrop which came out adorable. I also kept the food simple and bought chicken nuggets from Chick-Fil-A and did a fruit bowl, cheese tray, and made sausage tarlets. We had the cake made from someone local and kept the party it really small.

She loved her party and that's all that matters! 

 

Barrett's Birth Story

 I have always dreamed about being pregnant and with my other 2 pregnancy I thoroughly enjoyed pregnancy and could not wait to get pregnant again. But my 3^rd pregnancy was completely different and HARD. After having Audrey a month early, I was terrified my whole pregnancy that I was going to have a super early baby.

 

I started having contractions early in my pregnancy, about 25 weeks, so I knew I was going to go early but prayed that the baby would stay in a little longer. On July 14^th I started having consistent contractions around 4:00am. I texted my boss asking if I could work from home in case I needed to leave for the hospital (since work is in the opposite direction of the hospital I deliver at). I continued to have contractions the rest of the morning, but they weren’t painful. At about 9:00am I decided to lay down for a bit. I couldn’t relax at all, I started timing them again, the app I was using was making me nervous and telling me to leave for the hospital. Chad was at work, but my dad had come over earlier that morning to the house to work in our yard. I called Chad and he was a little apprehensive, I think it was because it was his birthday and people at work brought a cake and food for him, but I decided to just go ahead and go to the hospital especially before my dad decided to go back home so he could drive me up there.

 

My dad is a very cautious and law-abiding driver, like 10 miles under the speed limit type. We took my car cause that is the car I wanted to come home from the hospital in but of course I was low on gas. I told my dad that we could make it, but he just had to stop anyways. I was doing my breathing exercises all the way to the hospital and I think that made him nervous cause he also ran a red light. Chad was already there and I went straight in and checked myself in. Luckily my doctor was the doctor on call so he heard that I was there and came to check on me in the waiting room and walked me back to triage to check me. To my surprise I was only at a 2-3 so they asked me to go walk and try and encourage labor so we walked the hallways and I found stairs I walked up and down. When we returned and they checked me again I was at a full 3 but since I was only 36 weeks they couldn’t induce me so they gave me medicine and an IV to try and stop the contractions.

 

The contractions stopped for about 1-2 minutes and then continued up again. At this point the nurse called my doctor, Chad and I were for certain that they were going to send us home but to our surprise another nurse came in and told us that they were going to admit us! They said that they thought I was in early labor and explained that they would give me the epidural and then break my water.

 

They started to wheel me back to Labor and Delivery at about 3:30 and I was so excited! I was hoping he would be born on Chad’s birthday and I was getting my wish (later regretted ever wishing for this). They gave me the epidural and unlike my other 2 it didn’t work immediately, I remember Chad asking the nurse if anyone has issues with the epidural and her saying very rarely (still wondering why he would say such a thing and put that energy out in the air). They had me laying all over the bed to try and get it to take, it would take the edge off but it wasn’t taking completely, I explained this to the nurse and they tell me that they changed the concoction of the epidural and that it wouldn’t be like my other deliveries. They wheeled in the delivery table because they thought I would go quick and then broke my water which I felt it and let me tell you, its not pleasant. I continued to complain about feeling contractions, so the anesthesiologist comes back into the room and gives me some more drugs through my epidural which at that point the room was spinning. Again, it took the edge off for a little bit but not completely and it didn’t last. It was getting to be around 5:00/6:00 when my doctor came to check in on me. I told him that I was feeling the contractions and that I felt like I could get up in walk. He explained to me what the anesthesiologist said about them changing the concoction and I told him that I could feel everything. I also wasn’t progressing as they had thought I would and was only at about a 5 or 6 so they started me on pitocin. They then called another anesthesiologist to come and check things out. The contractions were really starting to get painful at this point. She pinched me all over and every time she pinched me, I could feel it. They gave me another dose and told me to wait about 15 minutes and if it didn’t work, they would re-stick me. That 15 minutes was brutal, and I kept telling the nurse “it’s not working”, “Please call her back”. I was exhausted, my body was tired, and I wasn’t progressing

 

I still do not know what happened with the first epidural but they re-stuck me with a new one and I was a completely different person, just how I thought I should feel. It was about 7:30/8 when she re-did my epidural and at 9 the nurse checked me and I was at a 6. She told me she would give me a little bit and come back in an hour or so to check me again. Well, she came back around 9:30 cause the baby’s heart rate was dropping on the monitor, she went to go check me again and saw the baby’s head. She calls my doctor to tell him I was ready. I had to resist the urge to push for a good solid 15 minutes for him to show up. I kept asking the nurses “Is he here yet”. Finally, everyone starts piling into the room when they see him running down the hallway. He comes into the room and starts getting dressed and takes off his shoes (later tells me that they are nice shoes and he didn’t want to mess them up, gotta love him).

 

Chad was setting up the camera on our Tripod when my doctor was getting ready and then told Chad to hurry up lol. He walked around the table and I pushed 1 time and Barrett was out! I voiced that I wanted to pull him out so my doctor told me when to reach down and I was able to help pull him out, @9:47 pm. I put him on my chest and the moments after was terrifying. I was able to hold him for less than a minute before the nurse took him from me to get examined, and after little bit they called the respiratory team and immediately took him to the NICU. Chad went to go be with Bear and I was in the empty room by myself where I should have been holding my baby. They came to move me pretty quickly after delivery to my post-partum room. I remember telling the nurse that when your pregnant all you want is to hold that sweet baby but now that he is here I miss being pregnant. Probably the only person to miss being pregnant not even an hour after delivering. I begged to go see my baby but I still was not able to walk due to the epidural, I tried to stand up and I almost fell down so they told me I had to wait. I was determined to see him and hold him that I was moving my legs on the bed to try and get the blood flow. I asked Chad to help me stand up and we got in trouble with the nurses. The NICU PA came into our room to explain Barrett’s situation to us and at about 2:00 am I was FINALLY able to go be with my baby. I was still wobbly, but the nurses let me use a wheelchair to go back to the NICU.