A Storybook of Grace

Hailey celebrated her 8th birthday on Friday!   We also woke up to about 5 inches on Friday.  And this is just cuteness :)   Let’s see.  I’m almost five weeks out from surgery.  Still relaxing as much as possible, but starting to do more.  We took the 4 girls down to the city (Chicago) yesterday to go to the American Girl store.  They loved it.  It is so much fun to drive down there and see all the tall buildings and the Mag Mile and the restaurants and the river. It really is a beautiful city; too bad it has so many problems.  The girls are so excited with their dolls.  Then we took them to Cracker Barrel.  We had wanted to go to Rain Forest Cafe, but the wait was too long.  We did a little birthday celebration with the 4 of them.  It was a good day.  The boys stayed at home and did a great job here.  💝

So cute and SO NOT potty trained :(  Hailey’s birthday is coming up, but she got an early celebration with her great aunt.  She got her nails done and got to go shopping and they made a cake. It was special.  Made her feel special I know!  And oh my, the icing on this cake is actually Nutella!!!!    

  Happy Valentine’s Day (yesterday)!  We celebrated on Sunday with a gnome, building a V-Day LEGO, V-Day cups, plates, napkins, flowers, fried ravioli, chicken nuggets, salad, and cheesecake bites.  And the Super Bowl.   Our 17th wedding anniversary was on Saturday, which we celebrated on Friday - part 1.  We ordered food from the Shanty and key lime pie from Captain Porky’s and had candles, a fire, Prosecco (I think), and watched Netflix movies.  Part 2 will be an overnight in Gatlinburg in March 💝 My Aunt Dana flew in from FL on Saturday and has been a huge blessing, helping with the kiddos while I am still resting and recovering from the hysterectomy.  And of course it’s been nice to see her. 💕 Connor is keeping us busy with cuddling, potty training, and playing.  The cats are less than thrilled, but Autumn has been pretty brave about it.  Scarlet has been terrified and not brave at all.   We ended the weekend celebrations with orde...

  Well, what a big day!  I got out of bed today and out of the house for the first time since my surgery.  And we also got our puppy, Connor!  He was about two hours north of us up in Wisconsin.  He is adorable.  He cuddled with me the whole way home.  He has also already had two accidents in the house and the kids are all beside themselves about that.  This is our first family dog.   Sean and I got a puppy a week into our marriage, but we had already had sweet Allie for four years before we had our first child.  He’ll be 8 weeks tomorrow.  He’s so tiny still!  Any way, everyone over here is so excited.  I have found my way back to my spot in my bed.  Recovery so far is going well.  The kids have picked up on doing my chores and making breakfast and lunch  everyday for all of us while I rest and they have been great about it.  We thanked them with a surprise  DIY ice cream bar Friday and they loved...

Hello there,  I had my surgery on Tuesday - a hysterectomy.  Everything went well and I was able to go home same day.  I will say it was extra hard to go all by myself to the hospital because Sean wasn’t able to go with me because of hospital COVID rules.  Surgery was delayed about two hours.  I was really nervous.  OK frightened.  But God brought along some wonderful staff to help me remain a little calmer.  I tried to waste time watching Food Network and My 600-lb Life - both poor choices - food while fasting and OR scenes right before heading into one myself.  My doctor said they really had to jump through hoops to even get me in there (also because of COVID stuff), but I’m so thankful God allowed it all to happen and that my doctor advocated for me.  He knows my history physically, mentally, emotionally in regards to 12 years of bleeding (as my therapist puts it) so thankfully he went to bat for me.  I’ve been sore, but am doing...

OK, So little Miss Natalie loves, I mean LOVES Spider-Man.  It is so darn cute!  We have been watching all the Spider-Man movies with the boys and Natalie has been watching them with us.  She is supposed to have an 8:30 pm bedtime, but she usually loves to sit on the couch and cuddle at night so we end up letting her stay up later than she should.  Any way, now every evening she asks for Spider-Man.   I came down to the basement and found little munchkins walking around as Spider-Man.   We started “weeks” again and whoever’s week it is also gets Buddy Time on Sundays.  It’s Hunter’s week and he chose Dunkin’ and a quick trip to the lake.  We got 4 inches of snow through the night so suffice it to say it was cold and we didn’t stay for long.  We’ve had pretty cold temps in the teens, single digits, and feels like negatives lately.  Illinois.     Our little Addison turned 6 on Thursday, January 20th!  She picked a “polar ice...

  Last week and spilling over into this week has been filled with doctors appointments, mental health appointments, wiping snotty noses, cleaning up vomit, a mammogram, and doing our best to care for sick kiddos despite our best efforts to try to keep everyone well for my surgery in a week, and me starting back to a new semester in grad school. Thankfully Sean and I were able to sneak away for a few hours and get lunch at the Brat Stop - crazy place decor wise, but great food, and to go pick up puppy supplies - almost as good as shopping for a new baby.  Almost.   And even better.  A puppy video of our Connor!!!! https://youtu.be/tAXGOhCBLFM