She's a trooper

Before

Procedures done but still asleep.

After a purple popsicle.

She did great. No major findings that we know of so far. He did observe the same abnormalities in her airways he originally thought he saw on chest x-ray but did not seem overly concerned about them at this point. We are waiting for results from mucus samples and should have those by next week. Over all we are pleased with how everything went yesterday. Julianna is a trooper!

Prayers for Julianna

Please pray for Julianna today. She is having a CT scan and bronchoscopy in the morning to check for abnormalities in her lungs. We have been seeing a pulmonologist to figure out why she gets so many "coughs" and why they last so long. Originally they suspected asthma but she has been on asthma medication for 2 years now and it hasn't seemed to help much. So after a recent chest x-ray he wanted to do further tests to see if we can figure out what the problem is. She already had a "sweat test" to rule out cystic fibrosis and everything was normal, praise the Lord. I am nervous about the procedures tomorrow because she has to be under anesthesia for around an hour and that seems like a long time for my poor little baby to be out. I'm sure she will be fine but please pray for an uneventful day and calm nerves for us all.

Mele Kalikimaka

We were ready to celebrate Hawaiian style.

The decorations were all ready to go and Santa finally came.

He left all kinds of goodies.

Cool plane.

The whole set up. We must have all been really good!

Just waiting for the kids to get up and discover their treasures.

Would everyone like what they got?

I spied one thing I liked right away. Our Hawaii state pillow. We have one from every state we have lived. This made pillow #6.

Santa Mouse.

The stockings were hung... but no chimney, who cares?! I'm sure St. Nicholas will still be there.

Christmas morning went really smoothly. The kids both enjoyed their new toys and played and shared nicely with each other.

Mace let Julianna take a ride on his airplane.

She loved her pillow pet.

He liked his helicopter.

I liked getting lots of kisses.

Jibby helped Daddy open some presents.

He liked his new Auburn hat.

Then the kids went outside for one last surprise.

It was a big hit. They played until they were so muddy (it rained the night before) that I had to hose them off before they went back inside.

We played all morning then had 2 other military families over for dinner. Ike (the chef) made a wonderful meal and we all had a great time. Thank you Ike for a wonderful Christmas. I am so glad you are home!!!

I would like to conduct a survey. Please comment and tell me what time you went to bed on Christmas Eve. Include the # of children that you have (if any) and how old they are. Ike and I were up until 2am. By far I think the latest we have ever been up. Santa didn't bring some items assembled! Whoopsie. :)

We're ready!!!

The cookies are baked.

Our teeth are brushed.

And we are SOOOO excited for Santa.

Yes, we all 4 have coordinated pjs.

Is that Santa?

My sassy little reindeer!

She put out reindeer food on the grass.

All done!

Time to get ready for bed.

The boys!

So stinkin cute!!!

Me and my smiley Mama's boy!

Checking out the ornaments.

Give me a kiss.

MUAH!

Looking at the train. I love this picture.

Everybody watching the train.

Me and my sillies.

Handsome.

Zerberts on Sissy's belly.

Tackle Daddy. haha

Cookies and milk for Santa. Carrot for Rudolph.

We're all set.

Checking out the Santa Tracker.

He was in Arizona, not close to Hawaii yet.

Oh boy! We better head to bed!!! Merry Christmas! :)

I finally have a date!

YAY! I didn't have to go to another party solo! My date is home and looks pretty handsome. ;)

That same handsome fella escorted the family and I to a wonderful brunch with Mr. Claus. As you can see, Julianna has no qualms about the jolly old man dressed in red. She is more than happy to sit and chat with him this year.

Mason on the other hand was still not feeling secure enough to sit with Santa by himself. So at least we have a picture with Daddy to add to our Santa picture collection. Usually Mommy is stuck sitting on Santa's other knee. (A line from Glee is popping up in my head but I'll leave that one alone.)

We're starting to feel pretty Merry around here. Although I destroyed the first set of MomMom Redmer's sugar cookies, I didn't let that dampen my spirit. I moved on to fudge today that is delicious and will work on my German Braided Raisin Bread tonight. HoHoHo. (I'm just practicing... after I eat all of these holiday treats my belly is going to start shaking like a bowl full of jelly.)