Family Christmas, Emergency & Answered prayer!!

Family Christmas:

Whew! This Christmas flew by so fast, didn't it?!? I'm glad I took pictures so I can look back and see how good it was. I mean I blinked and it's new years! 

We had a very full Holiday season. I think I can safely say our craziness started a few weekends ago when my baby sister got married. It was a wild and beautiful weekend! The wedding was the second most exciting wedding I've been to, the first being ours of course that took place 5 years earlier at the same time on the same day! (not kidding!!) I was Jess' matron of honor, Brandon was David's best man and Tristan was a "bell ringer" instead of ring bearer. It was neat being able to look right across the way while they were repeating their vows and look into my husbands eyes. We were right where they were just a few days ago it seems. Peyton slept through the entire ceremony in my cousin's arms (thank you erin:).

Fast forward a week and we're in San Angelo Tx, where the bulk of my family lives, for the 'fair family' Christmas. We had a blast!! Oh my word, I love spending time with my family and I have missed them terribly. My brother Jeff, sister-in-law Lori and their little boy Josiah were in from Florida. Josiah is 5 months old and I finally got to put my hands on him for the first time, I almost didn't let go!! He is a doll. I also enjoyed spending time with Mom, Dad, Jess, David and the rest of my family that extends greatly!

Emergency:

We actually stayed through Christmas morning in angelo. Christmas eve evening after the kids were sleeping we played Quelf, a game we have fallen in love with, it's so much fun!! During the middle of our game we heard one of the babies crying, turned out to be Peyton. When I went in our room to check on him he was standing up in the pack n play gasping for air! I grabbed him up and took him into the bathroom to create steam with the water to open his air way only the water wasn't getting hot enough. He was gasping and not getting a full breath and I was starting to feel a rush of panic come over me, thinking maybe someone fed him something earlier in the  day and he was having an allergic reaction. Not 2 minutes after that thought we were on the way to the ER. When I went in I told the man behind the counter "My baby can't breathe and I don't know what's wrong!" His answer to me made me want to rip his head off! "Sounds like croup, I need you to fill out this form." I about lost it. After asking him if he was serious, he assured me the baby was breathing even though it wasn't well and he needed our info so he could help us. So AFTER I filled out the paper work they saw us. He was not having an allergic reaction, he had croup caused by rsv AND an ear infection. Poor baby. They gave him a shot and a breathing treatment with steroids to open his throat up. About half way through the breathing treatment he started to breathe. PRAISE THE LORD! That was the scariest thing I've ever dealt with, I was fighting back all the thoughts in my mind about 'what if'. We got back to the house and since he'd had the steroids he was up until 2:45.... merry christmas!!

Christmas morning we got up and started loading the car to head to Fairfield to see the rest of our family. While we were getting the boys ready (i'm a bit stressed at this point not to mention sleep depraved) Brandon tells me to go look out the front door. This is what I see...

This is our dog Macy and her Christmas puppies! I so wish I was kidding. 

So we have two little black and white boxer and ? mix puppies if anyone's interested!! Haha

Answered Prayer:

Christmas day we drove to Fairfield. So ready and excited to see the Davis family. We lived in Fairfield for 10 months before moving to Beaumont and at times I miss that 'home' feeling. It was and is always a cozy place to be.

This christmas Brandon's parents got us something I would've never guessed in a million years! They got us a van! Not kidding!!!!! They prayed about it and really felt like that's what they were supposed to do. How amazing is that? We have been talking about how we needed a second vehicle and with our family only getting bigger (that's not saying I'm pregnant) so we've made it a matter of prayer. Well come to find out, we weren't the only ones praying! We have had quite a few friends tell us they've been praying in that way for us as well. God is too good to us! Here's us just figuring out what they were giving us...

That is the title in Brandon's hand. We were in total shock! Then we went outside and looked at it, it's beautiful. 1998 Hunter Green Chrystler Town and Country, has had 1 owner! God is too good to us! He is faithful even when we don't deserve it. Reg and Monica thank you for following his leading, this is the best Christmas present EVER!!

Holidays

I am FINALLY updating!! Well sort of, more or less rambling. I don't have many updates of what's gone on with us. Just what's going on in my head. You see...the month of November and December are my favorite months of the year. Not only do I love the crisp cool air of fall and the cold wet "winter days" of Texas. I love the seasons! I love Thanksgiving and Christmas. 

I, like most people, have those great memories of being on the way to my Aunts house for Thanksgiving lunch or heading out to my grandparents farm to an evening pot of gumbo. I was always so excited to see my grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles. I have such sweet memories as we would sit at the kid table and listen to my brother as he attempted to make us all laugh. His goal was to once again make my cousin Stephen spew something out of his nose!  

As for Christmas there were many memories made around the piano singing songs of praise and celebration. The old hymns sung with my family and all their harmonies. Or being at the farm wondering what crazy goose hunt my Pepaw would put us up to this year so we could enjoy our christmas present.

My all time favorite memories were of two things we did at our own house growing up. 

#2: Putting up and decorating the tree. We usually put it up the day after thanksgiving. It was always a family affair, everyone helped. Even the person who would sit on the couch and tell us "a little to the left". That was usually dad! We would listen to Christmas music and look at all the ornaments as we put them up, talking about all their stories of where they came from. 

#1: Every Christmas morning before we opened presents one of us would read the story of Christ birth, out of the first few chapters of Luke. I read it my last Christmas before I got married and barely made it through it without crying like a baby, knowing it was my last turn to read it at home!!!

Traditions are neat things to have, we haven't started many yet. But these are two that I wish to continue in our family. My prayer for my boys is that they will not get caught up in the "Christmas" of this day and age. But that their hearts would be so wrapped up in the thought of God coming to this earth that they wouldn't care about presents. We don't do Santa. I know my child will be the kid at school that ruins it for some sweet innocent child- "Santa's not real!!" 

But here's the truth of it for us, we don't want ANYTHING to take away from what it's really about. So much so that we're praying about doing gifts at all and how to go about doing them if we do. I LOVE to give gifts and want to see my children learn to give with the right heart but I also want them to give and not expect anything in return.

In all the craziness that has gone on in these few short weeks and the ones to come, I still cannot get my little mind to understand it.... Emmanuel "God with us"! I don't fully understand it but I am so thankful He was and is and is to come!