LegoLand

We made the decision a couple years ago to do away with buying our kids presents for Christmas. In our world, they get so much from family and anything bought times 5 is a lot! So, we thought that instead of buying gifts for them for Christmas we would take the money we would spend on gifts and instead take them somewhere for a fun family time they wouldn't otherwise get. For this year we had planned to go to LegoLand in Florida. Caleb's hospital stay messed up our timeline some but eventually, we made it!!  We had never been to LegoLand before and were so pleased with the experience overall. It was a great park for our kids ages and we all had a blast!

Riding some rides!

This ride, in particular, i remember riding and just being so grateful that Caleb was healthy-ish and that we were there celebrating our family together. We don't know long-term how many roller coasters that Caleb will be able to ride but we do know that his temperament is gonna make him a kid that LOVES them! and so, this being our first exciting ride in the park was SO. Much. Fun. 

As he squealed and laughed I really had to fight back tears of gratefulness for the healing he had received and that we were all there together having a good time. It's amazing how much perspective you can gain in a hospital stay :)

Legoland is brilliant to have lego playing areas as you wait in line for a ride. 

I'm telling ya, this is genius!

Our kids in cars is HILARIOUS!! They drive like their temperament and we loved watching them. 

I love Calebs face as he pulls away from the other two!

More Fun Rides….. and the band wasn't too shabby either!

 Obligatory poses with all of the awesome lego statues - especially the Star Wars ones.

Daddy got to get in on some of the riding action too!

We literally shut the park down that night. It was such a fun day and thanks to strollers, naps and snacks the kids handled a long day well. These 5 little people are tricky sometimes but we are so blessed to call them ours!

Christmas in Florida

600 miles later, we were in Florida!! We had missed Aunt Emily and Uncle Rob altogether :( but Aunt Lizzie, Uncle Shannon and Rebeka were home from Prague!! (I know we also spent time with Aunt April, Uncle Luke and Mace but there isn't a single picture to document it) 

So, for the most part we were low key at GiGi's house. Caleb still wasn't 100% so we just chose to be careful this Christmas. and there aren't many pics at all..

(It seems like we must have taken these at GiGi's tree but I can't find the real picture)

A trip to Florida would never be complete without a trip to see Green GiGi and Green Poppa. Thankfully there were a few pictures of that!

They love us so well and had even MORE stockings and presents for the kids (and Mommy and Daddy too)   This was the year of the jackets - which is perfect for us cold people in NC!

Christmas 2013

So Christmas wasn't what we expected, as I said in the last post, but it wasn't awful together. We are ridiculously blessed.  So, here are the pictures of how you make Christmas split between a hospital room and home all work out. 

I bought these stockings, this year,  after wanting them for years from Pottery Barn. Because we generally don't' give the kids presents and instead give them an "experience" for Christmas, stockings are the only "gifts" they get from their Mom and Dad. So, I had such high expectations of filling them this year. HA!!  Instead, we have awesome Church friends who not only filled the stockings, but bought gifts for our kids to open on Christmas, and totally overwhelmed Chris and I with love. 

What Christmas in a hospital room looks like :)

Christmas Lunch - from the hospital cafeteria. It was delicious I'm sure!

Later on, on Christmas Day, my parents flew in from Florida. 

It was such a fun distraction for GiGi and Poppa to show up!!

The day after Christmas, after the football players came, we got the best gift of all because Caleb was told he could GO HOME!!!!  

So, home they came and the celebrating continued with even more presents. At our house even more people had brought gifts to show us just how loved and not alone we were. 

This smiling boy on our couch makes me heart so happy…. and the boys together is perfection!

Although there aren't pictures to document it, i would hate to forget that we also got gifts from the hospital. They come into hospital rooms on Christmas Eve and load up the poor kids that are in the rooms with gifts. and while that is sweet and thoughtful, the part of it I'll never forget is that when Caleb got up the next morning and saw all the unwrapped gifts sitting on his "breakfast table" he was excited - but not just for himself because he immediately started thinking of which of his siblings would like which gift that was there. It never even crossed his mind that they would all be for him when he knew he had brothers and sisters that were coming for Christmas too :) I love his heart and the way he wanted to share with his siblings and am looking forward to the man he grows up to be. 

 and once all the Christmas celebrating was over, we piled in the van and started the trek to Florida….

New House (again)

So this house is 2600 sq ft on an acre. It's in a really great older neighborhood at the end of a cup de sac. So, that's not awful either :)

The yard is mostly in the back/side. It's pretty wooded although there is a pretty great flat spot on the side where we think the swing set will fit. 

 We think there's probably some significant water that can flow thru when it rains! 

This side is where there's the flat spot. The property line goes all the way out to where you can see out little people. That's Cherie (our realtor) out there telling them that their mommy needs to get some bunnies for the cage they're looking at. 

back of the house

I guess this is technically a family/living room. We're thinking if we knock out the top and side of those cabinets it will make it all seem much more open.

Tiny kitchen. There's blank wall where I'm standing that will probably turn into cabinets for storage 

Dining/formal living room. Thru the opening and to the left is the front door. 

this deck-ish room has several options. It could be a school room. Chris likes it for an office. and we both like the idea of it just being a porch. So, we'll see!

  all the upstairs bedrooms are a pretty good size. but they all look like this

 so there's lots of potential :)

down the scary stairs to the basement...

 that for real looks like this. We're thinking we'll take out the drop ceilings because there are pretty great beams  hidden there. The cement block walls will have to be dry walled. and that working wood stove will have to be moved if we're gonna let our kids inhabit the basement.

This is off the main part of the basement. It doesn't have a door but is a room of some kind

and this room is off of the one before (to the right) it has an old upright piano in it and t he entire room has closets around it...so that's weird but Chris thinks it may be a great start for bunks to be build into the walls :)

this is the other bedroom downstairs. It's pretty big and we're thinking the girls will end up in here together. although Cadence isn't thrilled about that. and she "hates the carpet" so we told her we'd lay some new carpet. But she does like the desk/shelves built into the wall so maybe they will stay! I saw this cool thing on Pinterest where if you paint something like that a different accent color it looks pretty neat. So, maybe we'll try something like that to  break up the monotony of the paneling (which we will probably also paint)

So, there it is! I'm just praying this house crap gets settled quickly!! any and all ideas are welcome to make this house not look quite so much like the one we grew up in :)