Christmas 2010

Oh Christmas. I surprised myself this year by getting all my shopping done by December 5th. I know, it was seriously some kind of miracle. So other than the stress of getting everything mailed to family on time, our December was pretty low key. We got to enjoy a quiet Christmas at home this year. I am honestly thinking that this is the only way to go. While I missed the mass of family that we have always seen on or around Christmas, there is something to be said for being at home with no where we "had" to be.

We started with our Christmas Eve tradition of opening one gift. My parents let us do this growing up and I loved it. My girls do too! lol

Rory was super excited to have her "own" barbie. It was her very first one. She slept with it that night. Cadence took off to play with her Rapunzel doll in the Barbie castle she got last Christmas which is why I don't have other pictures of her on Christmas Eve. It was tough to get the kids to go to bed that night. Even though we don't really make a big deal out of Santa they were still super excited for Christmas to come. After three stories they finally chilled out enough to let us tuck them in.

I then stuffed stockings and put out everything else for the next morning. Here is what our living room looked like Christmas Eve...

Grandma Suzi sent these adorable angel ornaments for the girls. Cadence wanted to keep her's "safe" and wouldn't put it on the tree till the next day.

Christmas morning "dawned" nice and cloudy. And by cloudy, I mean at 9 am it was still pretty dark in the house! The girls were up at 8am like normal and the opening chaos began. Here are a few pictures of them making a paper mess...

What the floor looked like at the half way mark. We had to stop and clean up paper and then opening could resume! lol

It was an awesome morning. The girls got so many wonderful gifts! They were super spoiled despite being miles from our family this year. We had waffles and took our time getting ready for the day. We spent the evening at the Bowen's house, where we had an amazing Turkey and Ham dinner. The kids played with some friends and their new toys, watched movies, and Brady and I got to chat, laugh and play one amazingly long, and super hilarious game of Uno with friends. It will definitely go down as one of the best Christmas' I have ever had!

Brady had most of the week off after Christmas and so we had a lazy week. Monday was a rough day for me pregnancy wise. Lots of pressure and discomfort all day. I was prepared to go to the hospital for them to check me when it finally started to go away after dinner. I had a Drs appointment on Wednesday, where they checked me to make sure everything was alright. I was dilated to a one, but still "thick" (or not effacing). All this is perfectly normal considering this is my third baby and I am now entering the home stretch. I have been having braxton hicks often, but everything else has been pretty normal since then.

Our best news is to do with Rory. At my appointment on Wednesday I popped her up on the scale when I was done just to see if any of the dietary changes we have made are working. She was 25.6 pounds!!!! Keep in mind that she gained only 2 pounds between her 1st and 2nd birthdays. On November 12, when she had her scope, she weighed 22.4 pounds. Putting on 3 pounds in almost two months is AMAZING!! I was so excited to see that number on the scale! The changes we have made for Rory have been simple, but a little complicated. She gets a benefiber supplement twice a day. We have switched her to a high fiber/low sugar diet. We are avoiding as many "fake" sugars as possible and sticking with those sugars found in nature. We have seen a pretty big difference in her stools in the last month. Her diarrhea has gone from daily to every few days with solid stools being a much more common occurrence.

We have also taken her off of soy products completely. We noticed after lunch one day that Rory had a rash on her face from the ranch she had with her chicken. I took a look at the ingredients and Soy bean oil was the very first ingredient. She had the reaction a few more times after that and so I decided to take soy out of the equation. This has been pretty difficult. Soy is in SO many things. I have resorted to making almost everything from scratch. It takes much more time, but Rory's stools got even better and she has cut WAY back on how much she eats. At first I was worried about that, but after seeing the change on the scale I feel that we have found our culprit in Rory's health/weight issues.

That is pretty much all that has been happening for us as 2010 comes to an end! We hope that you all had a wonderful holiday season and a Happy and safe New Year!