Want to hear a little fun fact? When my mom was pregnant with me, she was due the day after Christmas and she seriously considered naming me...Noel. Yes, you read that right. Thank you, Mama, for (1) coming to your naming senses, and (2) having me 10 days early. :)
This weekend, I celebrated the big 3-7 and had such a wonderful day, all thanks to my hub. That, and a few more things I'm saying CHEERS to on this day, just ONE WEEK before Christmas:
Birthday fun. I love, love, love holidays and love, love, love birthdays, and my hub made me feel so extra special on mine this year. On Friday night, we went to dinner with two other couples we love and had so much fun! We went to this beautiful, cozy restaurant in Charlotte called Dogwood Southern Table, and ohmydearLord, it was SO good! I will be dreaming about my scallops and boar for weeks on end! We had plenty of laughs and plenty of fun, and it was such a great birthday eve. :)
On Saturday (my actual birthday), my hub and kiddos spoiled me rotten. I had the perfect mix of me time and family time and loved every minute! They started my day with breakfast in bed before welcoming me to the kitchen to open my gifts (my favorite of which was an enlarged, framed photo of my babies). <3
I then got to enjoy a Barre3 class, sweating it out with two other girlfriends who were there as well, and then walked right across the street to get the mani and pedi my hub had scheduled for me, which I NEVER do! After returning home (to a spotless house with all laundry and dishes done!!!) and getting showered and ready, my hub and kiddos took me to lunch.
We then dropped the littlest three back home with a sitter and were able to watch Banks' basketball game in peace :). My parents joined us at his game and then came back to our house so we could all hang out, exchange Christmas gifts, and enjoy the homemade carrot cake my hub made me (as he does each year, using my mom's recipe - my favorite!).
I then snuck away to spend some birthday gift cards at my favorite clothing boutique before returning home for dinner and more family time with my Lu Crew. It was just such a wonderful day. One of my favorite birthdays ever spent with my peeps. <3 I'll finish out the celebrating tonight with dinner with girlfriends and will continue to be so thankful for another year on this earth with the people I love. Thank you ALL for the birthday love and well-wishes. Thirty-six was a year full of beautiful change, and I have high hopes that this next year will be a joyful, memorable one as well. <3
On Saturday (my actual birthday), my hub and kiddos spoiled me rotten. I had the perfect mix of me time and family time and loved every minute! They started my day with breakfast in bed before welcoming me to the kitchen to open my gifts (my favorite of which was an enlarged, framed photo of my babies). <3
I then got to enjoy a Barre3 class, sweating it out with two other girlfriends who were there as well, and then walked right across the street to get the mani and pedi my hub had scheduled for me, which I NEVER do! After returning home (to a spotless house with all laundry and dishes done!!!) and getting showered and ready, my hub and kiddos took me to lunch.
We then dropped the littlest three back home with a sitter and were able to watch Banks' basketball game in peace :). My parents joined us at his game and then came back to our house so we could all hang out, exchange Christmas gifts, and enjoy the homemade carrot cake my hub made me (as he does each year, using my mom's recipe - my favorite!).
I then snuck away to spend some birthday gift cards at my favorite clothing boutique before returning home for dinner and more family time with my Lu Crew. It was just such a wonderful day. One of my favorite birthdays ever spent with my peeps. <3 I'll finish out the celebrating tonight with dinner with girlfriends and will continue to be so thankful for another year on this earth with the people I love. Thank you ALL for the birthday love and well-wishes. Thirty-six was a year full of beautiful change, and I have high hopes that this next year will be a joyful, memorable one as well. <3
School feasts. Enough about me. It was so fun attending Banks and Raleigh's holiday feasts at their school on Friday. It was loud and crazy and chaotic and fun in that cafeteria! And while Harrison had to miss out on the festivities since he had preschool that morning, Bella was able to partake in the elementary school shenanigans. We have three full days and one half day before our Christmas break begins, and this week is chock-full of school events that we are so excited for but...I can't wait for our break to begin!
Pottery painting. We also had fun as a family when the six of us went to paint pottery last week, something we do every year for good reason: each year, for the last six years, I have created a new Christmas plate for us to pull out and use for our Christmas dinner. All of the plates have the kids handprints of footprints or thumbprints on them, and it is so fun to pull them out and use them each year! And as of this year, we now have all six of the plates we will need! Next year, I'll have to move on to glassware or something... Anywho, we also let each kiddo choose their own figurine to paint while I am working on the plate. It takes a week to get them back, all glazed and fired and ready, and I cannot wait to see our creations when I pick them up later this week!
Diligent friends. We have been trying to get a clear understanding on what's going on with Bella's hearing for several months now. This has entailed four audiology visits, appointments with two different ENTS, and multiple rounds of hearing evaluations. Our latest attempt to assess her hearing happened last week. Because we have had to sedate her twice in four months for her neuroimaging and spinal surgery, we were hoping to avoid doing it again in order to complete the hearing test she now needs. So, last week, she and I spent two hours at our (awesome!!!) audiologist's office, as I tried, over and over, for nearly two hours, to get the child to nap. Bella is an excellent sleeper but also, I now know: a very light sleeper. So, she would fall asleep, and then wake up at the slightest sound. Because the test we were trying to complete requires that a child be completely still and completely silent, we needed her to sleep. Well, it was a big fat FAIL - not as in, she failed the test. A fail as in we were never able to get her still or quiet long enough to complete it. So, we are now in the process of scheduling sedated testing. :( Although we tried so hard to avoid this route, it's really the only thing we can do at this point to get a clear picture of what's going on so we can address it as needed. So, please keep her in your prayers as we continue down this road. <3
Cookie dough. If you were around these parts at all last year, you know that I made and decorated well over a thousand cookies as a fundraiser for our adoption. And while I LOVED it and miss the baking, it is a very time-consuming hobby, mainly because I am a perfectionist. ;) I haven't had time to dive back in to the cookie world since we've brought Bella home given our full therapy schedule, BUT last year, one of my girlfriends requested to purchase a batch of my cookie dough so that she could cut, bake, and decorate her own cookies with her kids for Christmas. Why my dough? Well, here's the thing: because of the specific recipe that I use, my dough does.not.spread. when baked. So, instead of simply getting store-bought dough, cutting it with festive cookie cutters and then baking it only to end up with blobs that kinda-sorta-maybe-remotely resemble the original cookie cutter shape, the cookies with my dough do.not.spread. at all. They produce cookies that are the exact shape in which they were cut (snowmen! reindeer! trees! stockings! houses! ugly sweaters! Santas! all things festive!). So, this year, because I don't have time to bake, decorate, and sell the Christmas cookie bundles like I did last year, I decided to simply sell my dough so families could cut, bake, and decorate it with their kiddos! I put the offer out there on my neighborhood Facebook page and had a great response - 70 orders to be precise! I completed 1/3 of the orders this past Friday and will finish up the remaining 2/3 this Friday. Whew! It is really fun to be baking again, even if I'm not the one getting to do all the decorating. :) Also, I cannot tell y'all how amazing it feels to be baking again while having Bella here with us! All that baking last year - all for her - and now, she's here to assist. The thought of that makes me cry. <3
(Bella and Daddy were there, too. I just forgot to snap their pic. Oops!)
This year's plate, pre-glazing/firing. The berries are the kids' fingerprints :)
Diligent friends. We have been trying to get a clear understanding on what's going on with Bella's hearing for several months now. This has entailed four audiology visits, appointments with two different ENTS, and multiple rounds of hearing evaluations. Our latest attempt to assess her hearing happened last week. Because we have had to sedate her twice in four months for her neuroimaging and spinal surgery, we were hoping to avoid doing it again in order to complete the hearing test she now needs. So, last week, she and I spent two hours at our (awesome!!!) audiologist's office, as I tried, over and over, for nearly two hours, to get the child to nap. Bella is an excellent sleeper but also, I now know: a very light sleeper. So, she would fall asleep, and then wake up at the slightest sound. Because the test we were trying to complete requires that a child be completely still and completely silent, we needed her to sleep. Well, it was a big fat FAIL - not as in, she failed the test. A fail as in we were never able to get her still or quiet long enough to complete it. So, we are now in the process of scheduling sedated testing. :( Although we tried so hard to avoid this route, it's really the only thing we can do at this point to get a clear picture of what's going on so we can address it as needed. So, please keep her in your prayers as we continue down this road. <3
Electrodes were on. And she was asleep!....well, asleep for approximately 5 minutes and then refused to nap for the remainder of the appointment. Siiiiiigh.
Cookie dough. If you were around these parts at all last year, you know that I made and decorated well over a thousand cookies as a fundraiser for our adoption. And while I LOVED it and miss the baking, it is a very time-consuming hobby, mainly because I am a perfectionist. ;) I haven't had time to dive back in to the cookie world since we've brought Bella home given our full therapy schedule, BUT last year, one of my girlfriends requested to purchase a batch of my cookie dough so that she could cut, bake, and decorate her own cookies with her kids for Christmas. Why my dough? Well, here's the thing: because of the specific recipe that I use, my dough does.not.spread. when baked. So, instead of simply getting store-bought dough, cutting it with festive cookie cutters and then baking it only to end up with blobs that kinda-sorta-maybe-remotely resemble the original cookie cutter shape, the cookies with my dough do.not.spread. at all. They produce cookies that are the exact shape in which they were cut (snowmen! reindeer! trees! stockings! houses! ugly sweaters! Santas! all things festive!). So, this year, because I don't have time to bake, decorate, and sell the Christmas cookie bundles like I did last year, I decided to simply sell my dough so families could cut, bake, and decorate it with their kiddos! I put the offer out there on my neighborhood Facebook page and had a great response - 70 orders to be precise! I completed 1/3 of the orders this past Friday and will finish up the remaining 2/3 this Friday. Whew! It is really fun to be baking again, even if I'm not the one getting to do all the decorating. :) Also, I cannot tell y'all how amazing it feels to be baking again while having Bella here with us! All that baking last year - all for her - and now, she's here to assist. The thought of that makes me cry. <3
And that's it for today! Have a GREAT week, and I'll be back at least two more times before Christmas with a couple festive posts. Happy Monday, friends!
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