McCall - Three Weeks

Christmas Day Festivities

Merry Christmas everyone! What a wonderful time of year, pair that with the beautiful snow falling and it is a indeed my favorite time of year. We were given a great Christmas gift this year, our boys slept until 8 am! Wow, what a great way to start the day. The boys thoroughly enjoyed opening presents and playing with their new toys. In fact, they have been trading back and forth and sharing and haven't even had any arguments yet! I know that won't continue but we count that as a great gift to us as parents as well. We enjoyed a leisurely morning together and then headed out to go to Grandma's house for brunch and more fun. Only to see how much snow we really got, WOW! The snow drifts at our house were a few feet deep and we quickly got stuck in a deep drift just off our driveway. With the help of great neighbors we were able to get back into the garage and be rescued by Ryan's great brothers, Brad and Curt. We had a wonderful day with all the McCoy family, it was nice to have everyone together. Amazingly the 12 grand kids played together without any problems all day. It was so very nice, there was fun to be had by all, not to mention all the great food. I love this time of year, my waist line might not, but what the heck, what else would I do for a New Years resolution if I didn't over eat at Christmas?

Christmas Eve PJ's

Our Christmas Eve tradition of new pajama's. The boys are always so excited to see what pj's they got, they quickly change into them for a quick photo before heading to bed for the much anticipated Christmas morning. Then they spend all day Christmas day in their new warm and fuzzy pj's. Connor woke up Christmas Eve morning asking when they could take naps to make the day go faster. They also wanted to go to bed early so they could get to Christmas morning early. But as the day progressed we ran out of time for naps and getting to bed early. Bedtime came around 9:30, two hours later than usual, pair that with no naps and we can't say it was the most pleasant day we have had, but it was memorable. The boys were so very excited this year and really enjoyed tracking Santa on the Internet. Fun, fun times!

Gage's Gift

Well, Gage gave Santa and the Elves the same gift that Tate did last year, his beloved blanket. For those of you who know Gage well know that he has a special blanket, thank you Gina, that he totes around with him everywhere! While taking the blanket everywhere didn't really bother me much, the state that the blanket was in (sorry Gina) did bother me. Gage loves to weasel his little finger through a few stitches until he can put in a few fingers, then his hand, eventually his foot, until he can finally pull the blanket over his head and wear it as a poncho! I can't number the times I have sewn the blanket back together, but he always managed to find his way back to pulling it over his head. So we made him the same deal we did with Tate, if he wrapped it up and left it under the tree the Elves would leave him a brand new magical elf blanket. He hasn't missed a beat yet, although he is not nearly as in love with his new blanket. Here are the pictures of the so far successful event!

Gingerbread Mania

I would love to say that this year we cheated by buying our gingerbread house and assembling it. But that would only partially be true, because IF we do a gingerbread it is always bought and then assembled. No baking and love and memories went into this besides assembling it together. Maybe one year I will be able to bake it from scratch and build those memories! But for now, here is what we came up with.

Merry Christmas!

Well, our cards are not addressed, our letter is not written, our act is not together, but our pictures are! So here they are! Gage was in quite a mood! We will send out our Christmas letter soon, via email of course due to our neglect, but we'll call it "we just had a baby"!

Handsome boys, pretty girl!

Okay, I love to take pictures of the kids and we have been pretty confined to the house so we have had a little time on our hands to take a few photos and I have some pretty willing subjects, as long as they can hold their sister and get their picture taken! It really is the most wonderful time of the year!

Playing Dress Up

Okay, I have to admit that this is fun! When we have a blow out it is exciting to pick out the next outfit to put McCall in. Even the boys are enjoying picking out clothes and hair bows and blankets to try on her. I wonder when the novelty will wear off? I'm going to have to keep the camera handy to capture all of her cute outfits! Thanks to Auntie Tara and Rachael and Rebecca for this adorable outfit and bows!

Surviving and Thriving

We have made it through 5 days now, yeah, small milestones. McCall is doing very well and is a pretty good sleeper, she wakes up about every three hours so we won't complain about that at all! She dropped 8 oz and is on her way back up now. She is doing very well, probably the best in the family. The day we brought her home was great, then things went downhill fast. Our boys got sick with the flu and Ryan has been dishing out Motrin and Tylenol like candy. Not to mention cleaning up nasty flu bi-products from the kids. Poor guy, I think he got more than he bargained for.
Then I ended up with a spinal headache, no doubt from the 6 tries it took to get the epidural in my back. I have to wonder at this point, was it worth it for only an hour and a half? Oh, well, not much I can do about it now. So I ended back up at the hospital for a blood patch to fix the hole in my back that was leaking spinal fluid and giving me great headaches. That got fixed with another epidural puncture and depositing my own blood around my spine, that fixed the head aches immediately. But I had to lay down for two days and not lift anything so I was another patient for Ryan. He has been a trooper through everything, took care of all the kids, meals, laundry, cleaning, etc. I think I will keep him around!
Today things are looking up though, I was able to do a load of laundry all by myself and feed the kids breakfast! It's great to be back to some kind of routine and it has made me very grateful for health!

Announcing....

She's here! Announcing McCall ________ McCoy. We have yet to decide on a middle name for our little bundle of joy. Everything went very well and we are so proud to add her to our family. McCall is a whopping 6 lbs 12 oz and 18.5 inches long, our smallest baby. She arrived at 4:30 this afternoon, the doctor made it just in time for her arrival. Thank you all for your love and support on this exciting day for us. Can't wait for you all to meet her!

I apologize to Amy and all the Kennington clan for missing the shower held this evening, I know I missed out! I'll bring her down soon to meet you all!