Surgery

Today Maggie had surgery to have ear tubes put in and her adnoids taken out. We've been really anxious as the day approached so I'm glad to have it out of the way. She is recovering well and is happy to be playing and coloring at home.

Yesterday a special surprise arrived from Uncle Mark. He sent Maggie a stuffed dog that was given to him the first time he checked into the hospital as a young boy. He had ear tubes numerous times as well as a couple of fairly serious ear surgeries and this dog was the one thing that kept him company through it all. He wanted Maggie to have it and also for her to rename him since he's always been "Dog" to Mark. She picked the name Macaroni and keeps telling people today "Remember how Macaroni used to be Uncle Mark's?" It was an incredibly sincere and thoughtful gift and will mean alot to both Maggie and me for a long time to come.

This morning we checked into Children's Hospital at 7:15 and I was really worried Maggie would be complaining of hunger non-stop. She is my snacker. Thankfully she never asked once and even better, the surgeon was running on time so we didn't have to wait too long. She was energetic as we waited in the pre-op room and she loved wearing the Looney Tunes gown with special sock/slippers. She was the perfect patient as nurse after nurse after doctor after doctor came in to ask questions and get vital stats. Jeremy decided he wanted to go back into the OR with her while she was placed under anesthesia. Ummmm, no thank you! I waited in the confines of the room and I'm glad I did because he said it was unbelievably hard to watch. Considering I had choked up on the phone the day before when they gave me her eating instructions, I was really nervous I'd be a mess when they took her out of the room. But since Jeremy went with her, it was much easier for me so I am grateful for that. As she was brought back into the room about an hour and 15 minutes later, she was groggier than I've ever seen her. It was a very tough thing for me to see. She just laid in my lap with no expression holding a popsicle for about 20 minutes. Then she slowly perked up and before you knew it, she was thrilled to be leaving the hospital in the wheelchair.

We are so glad to have the surgery behind us and pray for a speedy recovery. Our hope is that this will alleviate the number of colds and ear infections she gets as well as aid in the recovery of colds she does come down with. Right now it's tough for her to beat a cold and they usually last 4-6 weeks. Another hope is that the surgery will help her with the mild speech delay she's faced. We'll see how she progresses and then decide if another speech evaluation is necessary.

Thank you so much to Mimi & Bumpa who kept us company at the hospital. And a huge thanks to Nana & Bumpa who arrived at our house at 6:45 this morning to stay with Ragen. Not only did they watch him, take him out to buy Maggie a gift but they also finished cleaning up the mess from last night's big party. They did EVERYTHING. Thank you so you all!

Mags snuggling with her baba and Macaroni

Looking excited but not really knowing what's ahead of her

Ready to go in with daddy

Mommy is thrilled to have my baby back in my arms but was a little uncomfortable with how out of it Maggie was (and the blood coming out of her nose!)

Ready to head out after her 3rd popsicle

Ragen was so proud of her and picked out a Dora card for her and some coloring stuff

Davidson Family Christmas

To say there are a lot of Davidsons around the Seattle area is an understatement. We gathered last night to celebrate family and the holidays. This year the party was at our house and I was super stressed all week (OK, for 2 weeks!) to make sure the party went off without a hitch. My fears centered around the idea of having 40-50 people in my house at once. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying my house is small. It's just that it doesn't have that great party flow. There's nothing like a huge party at your house to jumpstart the decorating process! Thankfully everything went fabulously and all 42 of us fit comfortably. Well, 43 if you include Iggy! Tonight Iggy went home with cousin Bobby, Malei & Grey. We'll be dropping by to be sure he's displayed prominently all year round. :) The Davidson family had alot to celebrate this year as we welcomed 4 new members of the clan (Tanner & Chase, Kennady, Amelia). We had a wonderful time catching up with everyone and we certainly missed those of you who couldn't join us!

Setting the scene...the family room

The office which became more like a living room this year

The tented bar outside. Unfortunately the heater didn't do it's job and the red wine didn't enjoy the 17 degree temps!

The newest Davidson - Tyler & Henri's sweet little Amelia

We gather for the Iggy presentation

Iggy will continue to reside in Madison Park


We also celebrated Uncle Bob's 70th birthday!

I know people tend to gather in the kitchen but this is ridiculous!

I had to steal a few minutes with Amelia!

Double whammy!

We have stumbled upon the greatest kid friendly dinner out spot! On Mondays, Romio's in Factoria not only has "kids eat free" but at 6pm, they have a balloon artist from GiggleWorks (seriously - we're not talking simple boring balloon animals here!) to do free balloon creations for the kids. Jeremy literally stumbled upon it one night without me and it was a slow night at the restaurant so both my kids ended up with 3 creations each that night (including a 3 foot Yoda that looked freakishly real!). This week we went again and Maggie chose Ariel and Ragen chose the At-At walker from Star Wars. Neither a shocking choice. I think the Totem Lake Romio's has this same feature on Tuesday nights but I'm not sure. How perfect that Ragen was wearing his Star Wars shirt for the occasion!

For comparison, here's the real At-At Walker...

Prayers

Each night since Ragen memorized it a few years ago, we've been saying the "Now I lay me down to sleep" prayer with him (he says it, we listen). A few weeks ago Maggie asked to have the prayer said in her room as well so we started saying it for her. A couple of nights ago she asked if she could say it herself so we figured this might be good entertainment at least. We were so impressed! She only needed prompting once and was cute as could be saying her big girl prayer.

(I left the lights turned low for ambiance but I think I might need to retake the vid and leave the lights on!)

It's the holiday season!

One of my favorite days of the year is the day after Thanksgiving! It symbolizes the start of the holidays and I just love everything about it - even the rush of shoppers at 4am (not that I've ever participated at that ridiculous hour however for the first time ever I did make it to Target at 6:30am this year to pick up the Disney Princess Vanity for Miss Maggie - shhhhhh!).

Growing up, we'd go cut down our Christmas tree the morning after Thanksgiving every single year. Rain or shine! We'd go with my cousins & aunt/uncle to the same tree farm and go to breakfast. It is a special tradition I hold close to my heart. Jeremy and I committed the 1st Christmas sin and have a fake tree (for now at least!) so we have bypassed that tradition but I look forward to picking it back in in years to come.

So now that we're not freezing are tooshies off in a tree farm on this day, we have a new tradition. We take the kids downtown to see Santa and catch some of the Macy's parade. In years past, we'd be standing in line for Santa (for 2 hours) and catch the parade as it went by. For the past few years, we've been fortunate enough to have a "hook-up" and get to go by appointment to a VIP Santa in the upper floors at Nordstrom. I have to tell you it is heavenly! The kids did so great sitting on Santa's lap. I was very nervous about Maggie - she's hit & miss but she did a fantastic job. After Santa we did a little shopping and then went on the carousel at Westlake.

Once we were home, we got out the Christmas decorations and holidayized our house. We are now fully immersed in Christmas cheer and I'm loving it! It really doesn't matter to me what we do on the day after Thanksgiving, as long as I'm kicking off the holiday season with my family, I'm a happy girl!

The "real" Santa photo arrived today and I'm thrilled with it!

Macy's has a wonderful program where in the stores you'll see these "Believe" mailboxes and a letter writing station. For every letter that is dropped into the box, they'll donate $1 to Make-A-Wish. I love this campaign!

We couldn't believe that at 1pm on it's first day, there was virtually no line for the carousel.

So very thankful

The list is endless. There are too many things I'm thankful for this year. First and foremost is my family. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving day with the perfect blend of some quiet time along with the craziness of extended family. Jeremy and I snuck over to the Tennis Club to hit with the ball machine (I'm so thankful I took up tennis!). Then we spent the afternoon at home with the kids before heading to my parents house for dinner. Unfortunately Mark, Melissa & the kids couldn't make it up for the holiday but we were blessed with a large group of relatives on my mom's side. I think my grandma was in heaven having that many of us together. We had a lovely dinner and quality time with the family.

At the top of my THANKFUL list :)

The kids donning the hats they both made in celebration of Thanksgiving at school. Ragen's was a head-dress and Maggie's was a turkey complete with dangly legs

My grandma with 3 of her 6 grandchildren

School Thanksgiving

At Ragen's school, they did a Thanksgiving feast where the kids were wearing hats signifying the Pilgrims and the Indians (I mean Native Americans). Everyone brought Thanksgiving food including one friend who's family tradition is to eat potstickers on Thanksgiving :) Ragen polished off 10 turkey rolls setting a class record!

They had made placemats stating what they are thankful for and then the teacher read them to all of the parents. The answers ranged from "my family" to "sugar."

The Thanksgiving feast

All the pilgrims & indians

Ragen's Native American self portrait :)

Why can't they always act this way?

I had to share this sweet moment between Ragen & Mags. We were at Kelsey Creek farm trying to get a Christmas card photo and in between takes, they were snuggling like crazy. I was able to snap them in a moment. I find myself chuckling at this picture because they are so hot & cold. A lot of the time, they treat each other exactly as portrayed here. Other times...not so much!

Disney on Ice...in style!

A couple of weeks ago a few other moms and I took our girls to Disney on Ice up in Everett. There were 4 moms and 6 little girls and we had a blast. As a special treat, we took the girls up to the show in a limo (thanks Vanessa!) and then went out to dinner at Anthony's in Everett beforehand. Watching the girls lip synch and have a dance party in the limo was hilarious. It was raining like crazy that night so we were thrilled to not be driving. The show was fabulous and we had incredible seats. I was actually sad for Ragen that he wasn't there because despite the lean towards all things girly, he would have loved it. The show featured The Little Mermaid (Maggie's favorite), Cars (one of Ragen's faves), the Lion Kind (another Ragen fave), Mickey & the gang, and Tinkerbell. It was a really special night out with our little ladies!


Maggie, Ellie, Ella, Grace, Reese and Josie riding in style

Up close & personal

First of many "rounds" - these were the $72 snow cones in a Tinkerbell cup

Aerial & Flounder

Another "round" - this time was $72 cotton candy in this Tinkerbell hat

The NEW bouncy place

"Bouncy places" have been all the rage in our house for the past couple of years. Both kids absolutely love them. With Ragen in school full time, we don't go nearly as often as we used to. Back in the day of having both kids home a day or two a week, I was always looking for things to do. But now our days off are limited.

On Veterans day (I know, I'm way behind!), Ragen went to a birthday party at the NEW place to be if you're a kid in Bellevue. Sky High Sports is a giant warehouse full of trampolines! It was a drop-off party and when I went to pick him up a few minutes before the end, I felt truly sorry for this brave mom. She had 7 five/six year old boys running around like crazy in what can only be described as chaos. They were sweating profusely and having the best time!

If you're looking for something fun to do, you should definitely try this place out. They have a jousting area for older kids and one set of trampolines looks like it might be for the younger crowd. There's also a set of tramps that go right into a foam pit taking me back to my gymnastics days.

Word of caution...don't go on a day when there's no school! They do take reservations ahead of time and even sell out so plan ahead!

It was incredible to watch the height these boys could get!

Maggie snuck her way onto the trampoline when we picked up Ragen

Happy Halloween!

Last night was our 2nd annual Halloween bash with the Tucker family. Sadly for Jeremy, he was the solo Daddy last night because Alex was out of town but we were so glad Courtney and the girls could join us in our neighborhood.

We started with dinner for the kiddos - mummy hot dogs. Then we prepped for trick-or-treating. Maggie was super excited that Court brought real makeup and did her up so that she was the best looking Aerial around (well, she and Madison were both Aerial so they both looked the bestest). We have a fantastic neighborhood for the holidays and people go ALL OUT. We always laugh that it's like in the movies when they show Halloween and there are so many people on the streets passing each other but in most areas, that doesn't really happen. Here it totally does. There were times last night when we had to get off the sidewalk because there were so many people walking through at the same time. After about an hour of trick-or-treating, we headed inside. My mom was kind enough to have stayed here to open our door to the little goblins so we could all take our kids out. Once we were home and put on a movie for the kids, the adults sat down to a buffalo chili dinner. It was such good stuff but we didn't think about the fact that the 2 hours it sat simmering was only intensifying the "heat" in the buffalo flavor...it was so spicy!

Thanks Court, Madison & Mackenzie for joining us again this year!

The kids loved helping me deck out the house for Halloween

Table is set complete with Twisted wine (so Halloweeney!) and Peep ghost straws

Mummy dogs - so tasty!

Ragen & Mags all ready to go

Court, Mack (the lobster), Madison (Aerial), Maggie (the mermaid), Ker, Ragen (Luke Skywalker)

The kids LOVE going to "Snoopy's house". These people decorate like crazy for every holiday.

Pre-Halloween festivities

This was a very busy week leading up to Halloween. Not only was Jeremy gone so the kids and I were on our own, but there were festivties everyday (if not twice a day). Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of my dad stepping in for the "Pumpkin Carving with Dad" at Ragen's school. Thanks for pinch hitting, Bumpa! Here's a recap...

Prepping the pumpkins for carving. Ragen was totally grossed out by the "goo" so he insisted on using a spoon.

"Dad & Me" carving night at Maggie's preschool. Daddy was playing golf at Pebble Beach (poor daddy!) so Brian Quinn stepped in as dad for the night. Ellie & Maggie had a great time at their special dinner out and carving night. Thank you Brian!

Annual trick-or-treating at Gamma Phi. Note to self - make sure Maggie has a nap on days where she's expected to follow directions and socialize with massive amounts of people after a long day.

Trick-or-treating for Kids Camp at the Bellevue Club. So that Maggie wouldn't rip her mermaid dress any further, she opted to wear her Sleeping Beauty dress. Ellie was a hula dancer and Josie was a ballerina. They got an insane amount of candy for this activity. Just what we needed a few days before Halloween.
The mermaid is ready for the pumpkin parade at her preschool

Maggie's class (at least most of the gang)

The carmel apple station at Ragen's class party

Halloween Carnival at the Bellevue Club. The only group shot of the kiddos - Josie, Reese & Ragen with Maggie, Ella & Ellie. It was nearly impossible to get them to pause for a photo in between the face painting, musical chairs, bouncy houses, games, movie and running around.

Musical Chairs

Why yes...it is possible to jump on bouncy houses in a mermaid costume!