Christmas in Iowa

Dave was on call Dec. 23 and it turned out he was in for an epidural in the wee hours through mid-morning on the 24th. Collin was up in the night and so I was short on sleep as well. Awesome, another holiday where we have rough nights and are late on the road to Mom and Dad's (Thanksgiving!).  

That morning before Dave was home, I got a text that Grandma (Elsie, my Mom's mom) was taken to the hospital overnight with shortness of breath. Mom and Dad had been there much of the night, and she was comfortable and they were waiting to hear from the doc again that morning. The initial problem was fluid on her lungs. Well...needless to say I cried. Quite a bit. And then stopped and had to get us packed up and ready. And then Dave came home and when we talked about it more, I cried more. I don't know what else to say except that my grandmother is incredibly important to me, I love her to the moon and back and I don't want her to ever leave. Yes, I know how rational that sounds, but logic doesn't push out my emotions lately (ever?). 

The plans changed from everyone gathering at Wellington Place (where Grandma is in assisted living) to my parents house with people stopping by to visit her at the hospital. We arrived at Mom and Dad's around 4 p.m. Us four adults were so very tired and I could barely keep my eyes open and honestly was not looking forward to an evening with a bunch of people. But of course, we got some sweets out and once everyone started showing up, I felt much better:) We had a great time visiting with my cousins, aunts and uncles. Kate played (bossed around?!) Madi and Cayla. Collin tagged along:) Then we did a gift exchange game which was pretty fun. After more visiting, the crowd left and though late, we started to get ready for our little Brown family Christmas. 

Face timing with T,T & Q

Hi Quinn!

Gifts!

I remember vividly the late, late nights when we would stay up at our house and open gifts after having the big family all at Grandma's. It is a little different these days with super young ones:) We Face timed with Okinawa while we opened their gifts and said Merry Christmas as they headed to the beach!! 

Cutie pie!

A jewelry box with a ballerina!

We had the kids open their gifts first and then put them to bed and had the adults open theirs. It was pretty fun with kids at age 5 and almost 2. Collin would be so into one gift, he didn't really care about opening the others. Kate was all over everything:) The kids went to bed super late and without a fuss and we had a nice time opening our gifts. Again, such thoughtful and fun gifts! It was so late when we were done. But of course there was more to do! Right as Andrew and Kylie were leaving, Collin woke up and so I went down (in the basement to see to him) and the others went to work cleaning up the mess and helping Santa:) I was so nervous Kate would get up with all the noise and go upstairs and catch them in the act! As I've said before, it is so nerve-wracking to keep up the Christmas....magic:) 

Somehow we are still standing, Merry Christmas Eve!

After awhile, I got Collin back down (3 a.m. but the others were up til 2:30 a.m.!) and came up to see the stockings filled...all was well. Collin got back up at 7 a.m. and I pushed Dave out of bed to get up with him. I slept and figured I might miss the kids seeing their Santa stuff but hoped Dave would get me before too long. Around 8:15 I got up and realized that everyone was still sleeping! Collin and Dave had watched tv and played but he hadn't noticed the stockings (not surprising) and so we tag-teamed it again. Dave slept on the couch and Collin and I played and waited for Kate to wake up! She didn't wake up until almost 10 a.m.! I heard her coming and was able to wake Dave up in time to see her reaction (priceless) and we had them open the gifts that we brought (from Santa - it's complicated) and then Gma and Gpa came down and we opened the rest of our stockings (Santa stuff that Mom bought). It actually worked out pretty well and we had a lovely, lazy Christmas morning. Gpa made pancakes and after a brunch meal we took naps and got ready. We were going to head to the hospital and see (Great) Grandma as we didn't have time the day before.

Christmas morning! playing with his new tools

We both had some lefse while we waited for the others to wake up

Collin climbed up on sleeping Daddy, it didn't last too long:)

Santa brought her an Elsa dress!
She kept telling people that she told him she wanted it when we visited him at the library:)

Opening the rest of the stockings

Andrew and Kylie came by and we all went down together. The hospital was rather empty on Christmas Day! It was good to see her and she was doing pretty well considering all that had happened. She loved seeing the kids, of course...oh. I forgot to mention. Kate was in full Elsa mode - wearing her new dress and with her Elsa braid. So that was quite a sight at the hospital:) Collin was pretty antsy in the small room, so we took turns running down the halls with him. We were only there an hour and she started to indicate wanting to rest. More visitors were coming later and I didn't want her to get completely overwhelmed. I didn't want to leave, I'd love to just sit there and nap with her and watch tv, but oh well. 

I'm sure this happens every day at the hospital...

I think she was teaching him to say Elsa

(Great Grandma was transferred up to Mayo today (Dec. 29) for more tests and to meet with a cardiologist and others. We'll learn more in the coming days and decisions will be made soon. What a blessing to have a large family and everyone around to help, participate and support one another. Grandma -sorry, I always flip between referring to her as Great or just Grandma - seems to be dealing with it all okay. We all know she would rather be back home at Wellington!)

After saying goodbye to A&K in the hospital parking lot, we headed back to Mom and Dad's and packed up to head home. A very quick and busy 24 hours!  The ride back to Wisconsin was rather tiring, I dozed while Dave drove, the kids watched Mary Poppins;) and napped. We arrived back at our place around 8:30 p.m. Whew! 

I would have to say it was a pretty exhausting and emotional Christmas but, once again, filled with wonderful memories, great conversations, magical traditions and a lot of love. 

Lenninger Family Christmas

Time to buckle up and recap our Christmas this year! How is that possible? I feel like we had so many celebrations this year and that means a busy, busy December, but one filled with lots of family, goodies, presents, laughs, special moments and love. I can't tell you how many times Dave and I looked at each other with a "I don't want to forget this moment" kind of feeling. I'm sure he wasn't close to crying like I seem to be all the time but having kiddos this age sure does make the holidays pretty magical! And stressful. I'm not going to even pretend it was all rainbows and sunshine (oh, sunshine how we've missed you!), we can blame my hormones a bit for definitely feeling overwhelmed at times and extremely exhausted but I hope that didn't show too much:) 

We normally spend Dave's week off in December in Missouri at his parents and hope to have his sister Laurie join us there. It is always tricky with Dave's week, Ron's week off and Laurie's work schedule to coordinate and this year proved no different. The plan was better to have Laurie fly into Wisconsin and so we hosted up here! Turns out my docs would not have loved me being 9-10 hours away, so that was a bonus:) We had (Dave, Laurie and I) hoped for a wonderful white Christmas up here with lots of playing in the snow. But instead we had warm temps, rain and then just sleety, weird and cool weather. Not a white Christmas... (it was Dec. 14-21).

Laurie and Dave taking the kids for a walk in the winter wonderland. Or wait....

Ron and Bobbi arrived on Sunday, Dec. 14 and stayed for a week. Laurie arrived Friday, Dec. 19 and left on Dec. 23. It worked! It was nice to have a whole week with Dave's folks, it is so nice not to feel rushed or like the time is short, especially when making that drive. However, the week was rather full of commitments. Dave was supposed to be off all week, but because of switching and demands at work, he ended up working three pretty long days out of the five:(  Kate had school and her Christmas concert, my van was taken into the shop to get fixed, there was still some shopping to be done and a doctor's appointment! 

Gma and Gpa L had some BIG packages for the kiddos this year...

Their new HugglePod - an early gift so they could enjoy it:)
I'll have to take another picture to explain what this is!

Ready for her first school concert!

Knew her songs, did all the actions, Dave and I thought she seemed too old! She's in the middle in this pic...

Our view and the huge group that was singing! She was way over on the left

For Kate's first concert, I was a little nervous being new to the school and whole process. I had never even been to the gym before! Thankfully, Kate knows everything:) Dave ended up on call that day - grrrr...and we knew Collin would not do well at all, so Grandma stayed home with him and Ron and I took Kate. The gym was small and packed - yuck. We dropped Kate at the stage (4K & 5K sang first) and found a couple seats. I texted Dave about five minutes before it started and he was there! I was SO happy. He made his way over to us and managed a seat with us. Kate's group did three songs and she did great. It was a very large group and for the first (many!) seconds we couldn't find her! She just looked so big. The best part was after her group was done, they have a parent come and pick up the child from the stage to sit back with them. Well, we grabbed Kate and got out of there! Ron and I weren't there for more than 30 minutes - that's pretty awesome! We were able to go home and have a normal night instead of keeping Kate up late and sitting in a stinky gym through endless performances by kids I don't know. That fun will come later:) 

We were also able to add in all the fun Christmas stuff like doing puzzles (two:), baking cookies and watching holiday movies. Everyone had a good amount of cuddle time with the kids and some even got naps:) 

Baking cookies!

Playing with an early gift

Fun apps with Gma & Gpa

Lots of dancing and playing with boxes

We even made it down to the Dells to see a live Mary Poppins dinner theater! So much fun.

Photo op (in terrible light) We were dressed up and loved the show!

It's a long story, but Collin did join us. He didn't sit great during the meal, but did amazing during the show!

Our little lady. Still perfecting our princess table manners, but she did just fine. And she loved it:)

After the show, we got to meet Mary Poppins!! 

When Laurie arrived, we had our traditional yummy Christmas meals and opened gifts! (should be noted: Dave waited very patiently all week to open gifts:)

A swim hat from Gma/Gpa and a new bus from Aunt Lou

They LOVED their swim goggles and wore them for a long time while we opened!

This man LOVES to put on hats and shoes. Anyone's. Here he is modeling Aunt Lou's new boots!

So many new fun things to play with!
(HugglePod hanging under stairs in the background)

We did have some rather sick family members for the week:(  Collin had a runny nose the day before people arrived. He sometimes coughed at night, but it stayed pretty much at a yucky nose. Bobbi arrived and a day or two later was in the midst of a nasty cold. Since she is a mom, she powered through and still delivered amazing food and baked cookies and played, but at times had almost no voice and I'm sure felt miserable. Laurie also informed us she was sick in New York at the time, went to the doc and got some meds but seemed to have it in full swing when she arrived:(  She also powered through and didn't seem to let it affect her too much, she still helped me SO much with the kids - thank you! The rest of us somehow stayed well through it all.

On Laurie's last day, I had another doctor appointment and she needed to be taken to the airport in Madison. It was Dec. 23 and I also needed to get a few items for Dave (from the kids) and he was on call all day. So....we took the adventure head on and left the house early that morning (it did snow that night/morning, just enough to make our roads a little slippery:) and we all went to my clinic in the Dells. Laurie watched Collin in the waiting room and Kate came in with me. All is well - Baby's heart rate was super high and was moving all over. She said it was good to see the variability with movement. Belly measuring right on, BP was good. I just get to come in and say hi each week until Babes is here! 

36 weeks!

When we came out, Collin was already a little over it all (great!) and we tried to decide how much to do next. Laurie didn't leave until late in the afternoon, so we grabbed some coffee and headed to the outlet mall to try and knock out the presents. I gave her the option of taking her straight to Madison and let her sit somewhere and read until her flight. In relative quiet. But she was brave and said she'd help with the kids in the mall. After getting the giant fire truck double stroller that is impossible to push/maneuver, we headed into literally the first store we saw:) We had great luck there and Laurie was laughing at how efficient I was. Collin was not in the shopping mood and so he ate a whole treat from Starbucks while Kate and I grabbed whatever we thought Dave would remotely like:) Laurie found a couple good deals and then when we left, I made the decision NOT to pass the ride-on toy things in the concourse of that mall and just went across to the other store, bought one more thing for Dave and called it good:) We then decided it was best to just get to Madison. On the way, her flight was delayed a number of hours. So we changed plans again, drove all over Madison, found a place to eat and then decided to go to the zoo to kill time (free zoo)! It would have been a really great idea had it not started to spit out and get colder and if more of the animals were outside. But Laurie and the kids were great troopers. We did see the lion, some monkeys, seals, penguins, goats, giant tortoises, flamingos, etc. 

Yes, we went to the zoo on Dec. 23

We hated dropping Laurie off at the airport but appreciated all our time with her. Kate was pretty emotional/cranky the whole ride back. The weather was a bit yucky and the interstate was super crowded. It was a very long ride for me:) Kate started sobbing in the back about halfway home that she "just wants to be home" and she wanted Daddy. Collin didn't sleep but didn't fuss too much. Dave was stuck at the hospital again pretty late, but the end was in sight - Christmas Eve the next day! I really love the traditions we have with the Lenninger side and the fact that we were all together - what a wonderful week with family!

Trains, Dentist & Dance, Oh My!

On Monday, I was excited to take the kids to the Canadian Pacific Holiday Train, it comes through Mauston each year and has looked really spectacular and raises lots of money and food donations along it's way. It was scheduled for 4:15 p.m., not dark yet and the train looks WAY cooler in the dark, but by the time we left it was pretty magical. The kids were troopers and most of the time were in the double stroller. It was rather cold and more than once I wondered if we should have brought them this year. They open up one of the cars and then play some music and the head to the next stop! The musical people were Kira Isabella and Home Free from the Sing Off! I was excited to hear them and they were awesome. When the performance started, Kate got to ride on Daddy's shoulders and she was pretty happy about that. Towards the very end, I took Collin out and the highlight of the night was watching his face light up as he saw the whole train. Precious. Totally worth it. There were also lots of cop cars around with their lights flashing, so it was pretty much a very exciting night for Collin:) 

Wish it would have been darker, but still pretty cool

The car that opened for the performance

We love trains!

She always has the best seat in the house:)

Dave and I drove separately as he was going to head to Baraboo afterwards and pick up a bed we bought. The kids opted to ride with him on our way to grab some pizza and we were both surprised at the hellish traffic immediately following the train. It was nuts! Took forever and Dave found a way out and across the bridge way before I did. I took a long route and was finally getting somewhere....when I had my very first fender bender.  :(   We were stopped in the right turning lane and when we got the green arrow we just started to go. There was a big truck in front of me and when I looked left before turning, I turned back to see him slam on his brakes but I didn't in time. A pedestrian was crossing the street and forced him to stop. I hit his back hitch and bumper. I wasn't going fast but man there still was some force! I instantly got upset and we pulled right over into the Kwik Trip. I waddled out of the car and was trying not to cry. He had no damage to his truck and all I could see was my license plate was busted. The guys was nice enough and very quickly I was back on my way to Pizza Hut. I cried a bit driving over and arrived at the packed Pizza Hut to my family happily getting ready to eat. Dave just kept telling me that it was okay and at least I was safe (Kate joined in) but I was just kind of bummed. Mad, sad, teary, pregnant. :) 

I went home and put the kids to bed. When Dave got back, we looked at the front end of my van in the garage and turns out, a lot more than just my license plate is damaged. You can hardly tell but all the plastic pieces up front are kind of loose, have a small crack in each headlight and the hood moved somehow...it's weird. And expensive. And I can get over that fact that I had my first accident and it was a little scary. But I can't get over how much these things cost and so mostly my emotions are in the mad realm right now:) Great timing too, right? Christmas, Babes coming...uff da. 

After the accident - how can it cost so much!

Tuesday morning brought trips to the dentist for both kiddos. After being highly recommended, I dragged us all down to Madison to a big pediatric dentist place. I'm sure the ones around here would be fine, but if I am going to be bringing three kids in, I want that place to be equipped with all the things it takes to keep a child happy at the dentist. And I want to think that my child's problem/meltdown is not the worst they've seen that day. Is that bad? 

This place was awesome. Loved it from the minute we stepped foot in the waiting room. They took both Kate and Collin back together and Miss Kate went first. She went to a dentist up here last year, but that was all. She was brave and did everything perfectly (in fact, opened her mouth so much, we had to tell her to stop:). I was concerned, she had been complaining about some teeth hurting when she would bite into hard things lately. After telling the super awesome hygienist, she said, "I know why those teeth are hurting!" A little to happy for my taste, but turns out it is because they are already loose! They were a bit surprised as she just turned 5, but said it can happen that early. Speaking of that 5-year-old, she proclaimed it the best day of her life, to have two loose teeth.  :)  She had x-rays taken with Miss Jenny (hygienist) while I tried to keep Collin occupied. Dr. Tim says all is well with Kate, she does have sort of cross bite or under bite that they are going to watch. 

Then it was Collin's turn, I wasn't sure what to expect. But he happily climbed up into the chair. Grabbed the arms and laid back. He opened for her to count teeth (16, oh and Kate has 20) and she said they look great. He even sat and let her clean/polish them with that powered toothbrush thingy. What a trooper. Dr. Tim said he's never had a 1-year-old do so well! Their healthy teeth combined with good behavior made me one happy mama. After a family trip to the restroom (ooh, won't that be fun with three...) we got in the car and Kate said we had to go straight back to school so she could tell Mrs. McGuire that she has two loose teeth:) I realized that I had forgot her school bag and we would have to go home and then to school. Going to a dentist in Madison will be interesting, I don't want her/them to miss too much school for appointments, so maybe it won't last too long, but for right now, it was what I wanted. We had to find some lunch and then ran to Target to grab some things and so we missed school that day. 

Our big boy

Photo cred to Kate:)

Tuesday night we had planned a supper together with the Plamann's, fondue at their place! Super fun to see their beautiful home decorated for the holidays and have yummy fondue. The kids played and by "played" I mean that Collin hit Harper in the head every single time she came near him. I. Was. Exhausted. trying to prevent him from assaulting her the whole night. Just Harper! He didn't bother Clara or Kate that night. Good grief. He does seem remorseful sometimes and will apologize. But he can also do some damage. Good thing Harper is one tough 17 month old. Can't wait to get out of this stage. 

Wednesday night Kate had a dance performance at one of the nursing homes. Luckily, we had done the same thing last year and knew the drill. There is not much room and so even her teacher requested that only one parent come and no siblings. No worries, that was my plan if possible anyway! Well, unfortunately, Dave seemed to come down with some food poisoning or some bad GI bug. He took his first sick day ever and came home from work in the morning. Spent the day sleeping and being sick:(  He wasn't able to watch Collin for me that evening, so we all went over and I went plenty early. We were the first to arrive and I had Kate ready and practicing in the hallway (too adorable) but I burned up all of Collin's good behavior just waiting to get started:) Praise the Lord, Kate's class was the very first to perform. We were able to get up close enough to watch from the side. She did pretty good, I know she knew the routine a little better, but I know when they are looking out at rows of elderly people it is a bit different than the mirror in the studio:) Collin clapped for her when she was done. He also went crazy when he saw tennis balls on the bottom of a walker. "Ball, ball, ball!!" I could barely hold him after he saw that. We got out of there as fast as we could after her performance and went to the Kwik Trip to grab some supper (I know, I know, awesome, huh?) I was going to grab Dave some Gatorade, etc. but it turned out that Kate was busy grabbing food and Collin was trying on all the sunglasses. Since I had to grab some things, I couldn't hold him and honestly, he is getting big enough and strong enough that it is really hard for me to hold him, especially with all our winter gear on. I've never been so happy to get back in the car and head home. Only then to realize I totally forgot to get Dave those things. Definitely a Mom/Wife of the Year kind of day.   Ugh.  :)

Kate performed Thursday night at the Sharing Supper at the Mauston High School. The Sharing Supper is a big night at the high school with a free meal and other activities and various organizations support it and volunteer. Last year, the kids danced in the middle of the lobby among the tables of people eating. Thankfully, this year they moved it into the auditorium. Kate was psyched, ran down front to sit with her class and give hugs to her dance teacher and helpers. 

Ready to go, Mom!

Complete with tutu

Hanging out until the recital starts

She did even better than the night before, she bumped into the other girls quite a bit as the others were kind of all over the place (sorry! I'm obviously totally unbiased but my daughter knows her dance and the others still wander around and do everything late! It's true!) We sat in the very back with an antsy Collin and the way it was lit our camera and video weren't showing up well at all. :( I started to video but also had Collin on my knee and he started yelling, "Tatie! Tatie!!" so loud when her class came out, I had to stop. So cute. 

When is this show going to start?

Waiting patiently...

On stage, waiting patiently to start

Her class was first (danced to The Nutcracker) and the lighting was terrible:(

I had an email from her dance teacher the later that night that praised Kate for being so well-mannered and polite, she also said that Kate knew the dance perfectly. Wow- if that doesn't make your day, I don't know what will! It is also apparent that she saves 99% of her frustrating behavior for Dave and I. I guess we want it that way?! 

Oh, Santa and Mrs. Claus were at the Sharing Supper. Kate was busy and didn't get over there. As Dave was letting Collin run around, he slowly got closer to them. When they wanted him to sit with them, he was not happy. I came out right about then and tried sitting with him - still not happy. Then, Mrs. Claus wanted a picture with just me. She put her hand on my belly and was saying, "Santa, put your hand on her belly! Put your hand on her belly! There's a baby in there!" Santa did not want to. He was like, really. no. But she insisted and we got this pic...

Last night, Kate fell out of her new bed. I've been expecting this, she prefers to sleep right on the outer edge for some reason. The bed is higher than normal (trundle + storage underneath). I was struggling with Collin that night (don't ask) and as soon as I finally had him back asleep...I hear a giant thud. Then crying. Then her brother crying. Good times. She didn't even remember it the next morning (ooh....that's not a good thing with head injuries...) and she has a scrape/bruising on her nose. Tough chica. 

Today we ventured out to an open house for a new business in New Lisbon, a fitness facility + coffee shop + little organic market + cafe/deli. Yay! It's like everything I love in one place. So happy. We also heard that New Lisbon is getting a McDonald's and a new grocery store out by the interstate. Woo hoo! Going in the right direction:)

And then...we ventured out to see Santa at the library! Kids were dressed festively, line wasn't long, same Santa and Mrs. Claus from Thursday night:) I figured Collin wouldn't want to sit with them and of course it was his nap time.  You decide if he loved it or not...

Classic. So, I jumped in and was going to squat down with him, Santa said - just sit up here. I look like a giant. Oh well. Kate loved Mrs. Claus and was a little more leery of Santa. 

What a week we've had. And it gets only more exciting from here on out!