Christmas at our House

Norah made this year so much fun!!  The whole Christmas Season she was singing Christmas songs, dreaming of Santa, and squealing with delight at every house decorated in Christmas lights.  Ben and I spent the whole month Christmas shopping and treating ourselves long before Christmas morning even arrived.  So when it was time to open presents Christmas morning, we simply reminded ourselves of all the fun things we had done and purchased over the past few weeks.  It was a fun month.  Christmas was full of wonder and awe as we remembered our Savior's birth.  We of course retold the story of the Nativity and everyone opened new Christmas pajamas the night before.  Norah left out cookies and milk for Santa and was off to bed.  She was so excited to awake Christmas morning knowing that Santa was suppose to have come and left her a present.  She went right to the Christmas tree and didn't see her new kitchen set waiting around the corner.  When she finally turned around to see it, she exclaimed, "what's that?!" "I want that!"  She spent the rest of the morning playing with her new kitchen.

 We cooked up a ham and enjoyed the rest of the day with our small little family.  We missed our far away family, but truly enjoyed being with our cute kids and feeling the spirit of this magical time of year.  Hope your Christmas was as merry as ours!

Before and After

We noticed a difference in Emmett's eye the day after he started the medicine.  Looking at pictures of him today compared to a few weeks ago, there is a dramatic difference.  I wish I would have been documenting it week by week, but I let myself get too busy with other things. 

Norah has a hard time not being in every picture :)

These are pictures of him a week before we found out he had the tumor.  But it's obvious that his eye is being pushed forward due to the mass behind his eye. 

 

This was after he had taken two doses of the med, not much difference, but it did seem like the swelling and the redness on the outside corner of his eyeball was a little less.

And here's our handsome boy today!  The swelling has gone down so much but his eye is still pushed forward a bit.  Hopefully only a few more months of this and we will be in the clear.  But of course if it doesn't shrink away we'll have to get a biopsy to find out more about it.  It makes my heart hurt a bit to look at the pictures of him before he started the medicine.  For weeks I knew there was something wrong but I didn't know what.  Our pediatrician's office kept assuring me it was just a clogged tear duct.  Once we moved and I had to find a new pediatrician, that's when the new pediatrician confirmed my suspicions that something wasn't right.  I am grateful for doctors and nurses, but I also believe in mommy intuition, I feel like it's a gift to woman and mothers and it usually doesn't steer me wrong.  I am learning more and more that I need to fight for what I think my children need.  This last week we were told that Emmett needs to wear an eye patch now on his good eye.  He's not using the eye with the tumor behind it as much and it's becoming lazy.  He only has to wear the patch for 3 hours a day, but he doesn't like it much. Thankfully he's still too little to take it off. The doctor says he shouldn't have problems long term with his vision as long as everything goes as planned.  We are definitely being looked after and pray that all continues to go well.  We love our little Emmett.

 

Thanksgiving

 

Early Christmas Present from Grandma and Grandpa Bush

She was so thrilled to see these monkeys, such a great gift for her, thank you!

 

 

Emmett enjoyed all the attention!

 

  

  

Norah was spoiled rotten by all :)

 Such a wonderful trip to Utah.  We didn't plan on heading to Utah for Thanksgiving because after all, we were unemployed.  But Ben was offered a job a few days prior, so we decided it would be fun to be spontaneous and pack up and go.  It was a looong drive.  Hard to tell a 2 year old we are going to Grandma's and then it takes a whole day just to get there.  Norah had so much fun getting reacquainted with everyone and was nearly in tears when we had to say goodbye.  Thanks for the family fun everyone and we hope to see you again sooner than later!

Autumn

Autumn is a much prettier word than "Fall".  But it seems like we did have quite the "Fall" this year.  Ben lost his job at the beginning of October.  It felt like things were crashing down all of the sudden.  We had just moved to a new area for his job, and then out of the blue they decided to let him go, the worst part is that we thought he was about to be promoted!  And then a few weeks later we found out Emmett had a tumor behind his eye.  We took him in for an MRI on Halloween which was fitting for the day because it was SCARY.  He had to be sedated and I nearly had a heart attack watching my baby try to wake up from the sedation.  Thankfully Ben was there otherwise I probably would have bawled through the whole thing.  But I'm not here to complain; I have to express how thankful I am, for everything.  After just over a month Ben found another job, a much better job, and Emmett is on an oral medication to shrink the tumor, and it looks like it's working!  We have another MRI scheduled for next week to see how it's really working.  I am oh so thankful that Heavenly Father is mindful of me and the needs of my family.  We did have a hard "Fall"  but we have been blessed and can testify that going through hardships makes you stronger and brings you closer as a family and closer to Father in Heaven. 

 We made a trip out to a local Pumpkin Patch complete with a petting zoo!  Norah loved it in spite of the cold rain.  She fed the animals straw and pellets which was the highlight of the trip.  Actually, the pumpkin donuts might have been the highlight of the trip, so good!

I tried to get her to clean out the pumpkin, but she was not interested, to put it mildly :)

Daddy found a treasure while raking leaves!

Emmett had his MRI scheduled for 2:00 on Halloween Day.  Amazingly enough we made it back home and got Norah's Halloween Costume on just in time to get to our Ward Trunk or Treat. Again it was cold and rainy, but worth it to watch Norah as she learned about the Magic that happens when you say "Trick or Treat" :)  We all went home tired and cranky that night, but I would call it a successful Halloween, especially when you look at that smile on our cute little witch.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Beach Combing

We love living in Washington.  There are so many fun places for us to explore.  Living near the Puget Sound is quite different than the beaches I know from Oregon, but it's still a lovely place to be.  We tried to get to this little beach early enough to see it at low tide.  The water was already coming back in when we arrived, but we still found some treasures.  Norah was just thrilled to be able to throw rocks into the water.  It was a chilly day but she didn't mind walking in the water and probably would have walked out a lot further if we would have let her.

Ben found a huge snail nestled into the rocky beach.  He really wanted to keep it!  He carried it around for awhile hoping to at least show someone else, but in the end just returned it to it's home. 

This Jellyfish was my find.  Pretty big Jellyfish!  We also found a lot of sand dollars, clam shells, and lots of really pretty rocks.  I always think of my mom and my grandpa when I find a good looking rock.  My grandpa collected rocks and polished them up.  My mom got her appreciation for a good rock from him.  So our family loves pretty rocks too :)

Emmett was with us at the beach too, he just didn't know it.  Nice to have a baby that will sleep wherever we go.  Although he is becoming less portable in his old age :)

 Ben found a a little hermit crab.  Norah thought it was so awesome.  Someday we will take her crabbing.  I went with my family when we lived in Oregon and loved it.  I know she would too.

 

 We found some blackberry bushes along the beach.  We brought a bag with us for Norah's clothing should she get wet in the water, which she did.  Instead of changing her clothes there on the beach though we decided to wait til we got back to the car, and used the bag for blackberries instead.  We took at least a pound home with us. Yummy!  I don't think Norah minded walking around in wet pants at all. 

Silly girl closed her eyes, but she wouldn't stop eating blackberries long enough for me to get a good pic!