Christmas...

Since we couldn't travel anywhere this year for really any of the holidays we spent Christmas this year with just our own little fam. And, yes, we were able to bring Briggs home from the hospital the Thursday before Christmas. To be honest, I was actually happy to just be home and have a stress free holiday... especially after being at the hospital for 4 days!

Briggs' hospital suite!

This year we had no choice but to keep things simple when it came to all of the Christmas hoopla. I so wanted to bake cookies and goodies for all of our friends and neighbors, read more Christmas stories to the kids, go look at all of the Christmas lights and just do all of the fun traditional stuff you do during Christmas time. I feel guilty we weren't able to do all of those things but I just have to remember that with everything that we have had going on in our lives this past year that I would just have to make up for it all next year. I think Heavenly Father knew what I was feeling because we had a very special secret Santa this year that the kids looked forward to every evening. We also had so many of our wonderful friends stop by and bring us fun little treats and gifts. Every time someone would stop by I just wanted to cry because it really meant so much to me and our family. We have truly been blessed with such a wonderful ward and friends!

We started our Christmas Eve morning off with some doughnuts and chocolate milk. I think Jackson ended up eating 3/4 of the dozen! He loves doughnuts... especially the chocolate ones. Since we couldn't take Briggs anywhere we decided to do Christmas Eve dinner at home. We just had an array of appetizers (thank you Trader Joe's) along with the infamous shrimp platter from Red Lobster (in memory of my Dad... all of my siblings and I share memories of going with my Dad to pick up the shrimp platter to bring home as part of our Christmas Eve tradition growing up). I have to say that it was so nice just to pop things in the oven because there literally was like no clean up! I didn't have a single dish to wash... totally awesome and I think every holiday should be this way:). All of the appetizers were super good and it just made for a yummy, simple, easy, stress-free evening. After dinner we made a gingerbread house and the kids absolutely loved it. At first they were more interested in eating the candies but once we got going they got more excited about decorating it. We then read about our Savior's birth in Luke 2 and talked about the importance of Jesus Christ and the impact He has on all of our lives.

The finished product...

Briggs being the sweet baby that he is...

Since I hardly put pics of myself since I am always the one taking them!

Before we put the kids to bed I realized that we still needed to leave Santa his cookies! Luckily I was thinking while I was at the store and bought some of those Nestle premade/precut cookies... since we were keeping it simple and all:). Stella was already in bed so Jackson was able to stay up a little while longer while the cookies baked.

Jackson "making" the cookies... I think this one might become our new tradition!

Christmas morning...

Santa's Gifts

Jackson, Stella and Briggs were so excited that Santa came and brought them presents! It was so much fun seeing their faces and reactions when they saw that Santa had been to our house. Since we were recording them I forgot to take pictures of them.

Stella using the new table and chairs from Grandpa and Grandma Hubbard... the kids love it!

I have to say that I think I am going to miss Santa just as much, if not more, than the kids. He has been my "go to guy" the past couple of months when the kids were misbehaving or just not listening to me. Jackson knows that mommy and Santa are really close and there were times when I even had to call him for some back up! Now that Christmas is a whole year away I am going to have to find another ploy... at least for another 10 months or so. I am still going to milk the whole Santa thing as long as I can... hopefully it'll last until Easter otherwise I am going to have to become better friends with the "Magical Leprechaun" or something like that. Any ideas? Please share... I need all of the backups I can get:)!

8 months...

And what better place to celebrate turning 8 months old than being in the hospital? You know you jealous of my pullout bed with the most uncomfortable rough blankets and my flat-as-a-pancake plastic pillows! Just kidding. We really are grateful and feel so blessed to be able to receive such wonderful care. I just had to throw my sarcastic (but very true) 2 cents in! Briggs' surgery went well yesterday and now he is just in the recovery mode. Since he had so many risk factors (with being a preemie and with his lung disease) the surgeon felt more comfortable having the surgery done at University of Chicago's Children's Hospital downtown.

Since we've been here I've been pushing for an exact day of when Briggs will be able to come home. If everything continues to go well then Thursday's going to be the day. I'm not a huge fan of hospitals, though I have and will always have a special love of the NICU.

Anywho, Briggs is just chuggin along despite a few hiccups, such as this one, here and there. Even though he has all of this extra stuff going on, he really is our easiest baby! Jackson was just hard by default since he was our first baby and introduced us into the real world of parenting. I see a lot of similarities between Jackson and Briggs though. Jackson loves Briggs so much and really is such a big help with his younger brother. When Stella was a baby she seemed more high maintenance and always wanted to be entertained, not to mention I was her only source of food since she refused to take a bottle! Now she is such a great little helper to me and is such a loving and kind sister to both of her brothers. And Briggs, I couldn't imagine our lives without this sweet little guy! It's amazing how every one of us is the perfect piece that helps complete our family puzzle.

Now to Briggs' current stats:

Weight: 13 lbs 11oz

Length: 25 inches

And here's his 8 month portrait courtesy of my iPhone...

The Big Day...

Right now as I'm hanging out in the waiting room my sweet little baby Briggs is in surgery. They are doing a fundoplication surgery(which is basically putting a wrap around his stomach to help with his severe reflux) and a g-tube insertion. Briggs reflux has been so bad for so long and we are really hoping this surgery helps. It's gotten so bad to where he chokes, can't breathe and I've had a couple of instances where I almost needed to give him CPR. He also is getting way to big to still have an ng tube and since he doesn't take any of his feedings by mouth any way he needs to have a g-tube placed in his stomach. I'm so excited because I don't have to worry about him pulling his feeding tube out of his nose anymore and I'm sure he is even more excited to not have to have a tube irritating his throat all of the time.

Thankfully both procedures are minor but he is still going to have to stay and recover in the hospital for the next 3-4 days. I'm just hoping everything goes well and we'll be able to bring him home before the Christmas weekend. He's our little champ and we are just so lucky that he's doing so well!

Happy Birthday Dad...

I can't wait until the day when you and I can share many more daddy-daughter dances together.

In just a glimpse of time, right?

Happy Birthday and I love you so much Dad!!!!!