Christmas Recap

Ryan took his last vacation of the year today and I was off too.. It was so nice to be able to get the house put back together, play with Lynlee and all her new toys and relax some. We had an amazing Christmas but it was tiring.

We spent Christmas eve with my moms side of the family...

And then Christmas Day started out here...

I LOVE their faces!!!

All Lynlee has asked for was a drum set.. She's asked for over a month and her answer didn't change once. I'm sure glad Santa delivered.. (sorta, haha)

And she saw  a  workbench not to long ago and begged for. She can be just like daddy now..

Then after opening presents we headed to Ryan's family and ended the day at my dads...

 

 

I could flood you with more pictures but these were just a few of my favorites...

 

One Year..

One year... Has it really been one year since Lynlee got her life saving transplant? Has it really been one year since I've worried about brain damage or ammonia levels? Has it really been one year since we sat around Lynlee and prayed harder than I've ever prayed for God to take care of here during surgery and then we kissed her goodbye and sent her into something there was no turning back from. Those moments I'll never forget. I'll never forget her being so drugged up that she laughed when I kissed her and told her I'd see her soon.. Or that I barely had enough strenght to walk into the waiting room where we would spend the night praying.. When we got into that waiting I sat down on the couch with Ryan and held him as tight as I could and sobbed. I knew we had done the right thing but it wasn't easy. I was so scared.

But the answer is yes it has been one year. A crazy, rewarding, and such a thankful year. She's eating, drinking, and thrieving.. She's so smart and learns something new every day. She is funny. She makes us laugh. She is stubborn, and bossy, and demanding (her father's traits obviously! Ha!) And Oh I love her more than I thought I could possibly love anyone..

I'm so proud of her. I'm so thankful God put her in our lives and gave her the strength to do all he needed her to do. I pray that she doesn't take one day for granted because we don't. We know how your world can be turned upside down in just a few minutes and life isn't always fair. I want her to proud of who she is and that her scars make her unique.

As thankful as I am for this one year anniversary to be here, I have a heavy heart at the same time. I know even though we are celebrating Lynlee's life that someone is mourning the loss of a loved one. I haven't heard back from the donors family yet. But I know he was someones son. Possibly someones brother, husband, or even dad. My sympathys go out to the them. I am thankful they gave my daughter a future in their hardest times, and my words will never express what that means to me or how gratedful I am.

I couldn't decide what pictures meant the most of the past year so here is a few of my favorite. God Bless each of you that has been along for this ride. I hope each of you have a Very Merry Christmas!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.....

It's not our first snow, but the first snow we could enjoy with power... Lynlee seems to be pretty fair weathered like me. She doesn't love being cold and after one wipe out on her sled she was done! She did like shoveling, sorta...

How did we get here?

Yesterday morning as I was standing in the kitchen at 9:30am making a crock pot full of mashed potatoes it hit me.. I'm officially grown up, and I'm officially a mom. Not that I didn't know that but sometimes it hits me harder than other times. Is anyone else like that?

Don't get me wrong the old Stacy is still in there. When I went to sign up for things for the Christmas party MY first option was drinks followed by desserts... Well both of those were full so I grumbled and complained and picked the thing that had the least names.. So I showed up with crock pot potatoes.. And I love the older domestic me but it's hard to remember how I got here. I've traded in our Saturday nights taking shots of tequila at a bar for hopefully an hour of alone time with my husband sipping wine. Our Sunday mornings are definitely more enjoyable and functional these days! I'd rather spend 50.00 at a grocery store so we can eat for many days instead of 50.00 for just one meal out. Yep told you I was all grown up...

I won't lie the past 3 years have been hard. Emotional, physical and mental. We've had so many ups and downs that I can't even go there but last night might have been my most proud memory of being a mom yet. I was a little worried about Lynlee in her play. That she would stick out for not talking and she would freeze, etc.. But oh I was SO beyond wrong. No one there would have known she has a huge speech delay.. She got up there and done all the song with the motions and sang the words she could say. I totally teared up watching her.

She's come so far.

I really can't believe how far we've came in just a year. That we've went from worrying about ammonia levels and liver transplants to worrying about her in her first school play... (By the way, that's not my line... I was telling my problems to a sister the other night and they were her words of wisdom)

And just for the record I'm not mom of the year. I went to the school program with a dead cell phone and a camera with batteries that lasted 2 secs.. Awesome I know.. Ryan videoed the whole thing but I'll spare you the 10 minute video of my child.. Well most of you I'll spare.. Christmas will be here for the others..

And for those of you that didn't see on facebook her she is. My Christmas Miracle.

And her and Santa. She finally sat on his lap at the school party.

First Ear infection and cooking decorating

We've been 3 years and 2 months without an ear infection. Today was our first one and I have to say I really feel for those parents/kids that have so many. Lynlee went to bed last night just fine but was up so many times before midnight. By 2am she was up screaming there was no consulting her. We were up til 5:30 or 6 before she got back to sleep. I took her to the doctor early this morning not because I thought she had an ear infection I just wanted her throat checked etc. I'm so glad we took her in. So we came home with some meds and some awesome ear numbing drops that seemed to work instantly..

She was super tired this afternoon. I walked into the living room to check on her and this is what I found... My goodness there isn't anything cuter....

And tonight we decided to decorate the cookies we baked today.. It was the first Christmas that she was really into it. She loved it!!

We are hoping for a quiet night here with lots and lots of sleep... Tomorrow is Lynlee's school dinner and play tomorrow night..

I'll post more on that afterwards :)

What we've been doing!

No news is good news from us. I haven't blogged a whole lot because while things are pretty "normal" around here. We've been in the same routine for a while now and it makes for unexciting news. I've been working 3-4 days a week shadowing. Lynlee's still going to school three days a week and Ryan's working too. It makes the weeks long but the weekends are very appreciated to spend time together.

But here's just a few things we've been doing (picture style of course)

We worked on our Christmas cards..

 

Went to a Vava's Christmas Party-

 

 

Visited family for Christmas

And played with our early Christmas presents....

Lynlee has her school play this Thursday night. I'm so excited to watch it. I'm hoping she doesn't freeze up on stage, but its okay if she does.  I'll be posting pictures of it soon..

Have a great week everyone!

Past three

We've had an amazing weekend here. Done some Christmas shopping, worked on our Christmas cards, spent time with family.. I love this time of year.  But by request here's the past Three Christmas pictures!

 

 

 

Happy Thursday

Every now and then I see a picture of Lynlee and I can't believe how she's grown. The other night we got a text that included this picture. I couldn't stop smiling..

How my baby went from that to this I'll never know.

Hopefully it puts the same smile on your face. Happy Thursday!

Getting up to date

It's almost been a week since I've blogged.. And even though I would love to give you some awesome excuse reasons about why I haven't, but I can't.. I have no real reason except maybe I'm lazy..  Today was the first day I've worked since last Wednesday. So I can't even use that..

Not a whole lot has happened. Lynlee has been sick since the weekend. Cold, mean, runny nose, mean, congested, mean... Did I mention Mean?? Every time she gets sick she is mean. She still has 100% of her energy but she doesn't listen, does stuff intentional, etc. Like screaming at the top of her lungs while I'm on the phone when I ask her to be quiet or dumping her RED juice all over her CREAM carpet... Yea, I'm looking for sympathy here.. haha

We kept her from school yesterday because I knew she wasn't feeling up to par, but we let her go today. Well when Ryan went to get her she had pulled hair twice and was setting in the "other" room.. And I'm sure you have to really be in trouble to do that. Wow..

We did have labs on Monday. They were better this month than last. I'm so thankful this cold hasn't effected them.

Lynlee is still going to speech twice a week and they've take a new approach to working with her. It really seems to be working and she's making progress. We also got her development testing back that the school had done. She doesn't qualify for early preschool. Which is a good thing. We could take her for speech but most everything else was where it needed to be. Her physical (which includes both gross and fine motor) was a little below but it didn't qualify her. I feel relived that we didn't qualify for something for once..

On another note tomorrow I finish my last training for work. I'll still be shadowing for a while but that's one step closer to being out there on my own.. I'm excited!!!

I'll try not to be a slacker and blog more often.. and next time I'll try to add a picture.. I know your favorite part!