Happy New Year!

For New Years Eve, we headed to Innsbrook with the Kallers and Tracie for some 2010 celebrations. I was a bit hesitant going because Caroline has been fighting off a nasty cold. We have all had a bit of 'something' these past few weeks so I packed up our things and off we went.

The kids had a great time together and the adults were looking forward to some Michael Jackson Dance for the Wii. Caroline seemed to be coughing and I kept having my sister Amy check her out since she is the all time pro with all that is wheezing. She seemed to be doing ok-just fighting off a cough. Caroline ended up sleeping with us that night which is totally out of character for her. She always wants her own space.

By the time we got home on Saturday she looked exhausted. She didn't seem to be getting better and her breathing started to sound worse. I made the decision to take her to the after hour pediatric urgent care to get her checked out. I just didn't think that it could wait until Monday and I didn't want to end up in the ER with a one year old (been there, done that).

After about 30 minutes at the doctors, my suspicions were confirmed. Poor little girl was wheezing, congested and totally miserable. They sent us home with one of these babies and put her on some steroids too.

So far, the breathing treatments and medicine have made a WORLD of a difference. She seems to be much more relaxed and has that 'sparkle' back (as Grandma Etta would say). She still wanted to sleep upright last night (with Dad) but slept in today until 8:30 and was a rock start during her first treatment. I am SO happy that she is getting back to her old self.

At this point, they are not going to say that she has asthma. It is the first time that her breathing has gotten so bad, but with our family history of asthma (Amy, Matt, Jack, Lily, and my mom) it would not be at all surprising if she does.

 Side note: did you know that eczema and allergies go hand-in-hand with asthma? I had no idea! Caroline has a bit of eczema and her skin always flairs up at certain time of the year. I noticed it just the other day. I had not idea that there was a correlation between the two. Although she has never been diagnosed with seasonal allergies, I would be surprised if she didn't have them with my families history...and she is lactose intolerant.

So, we will just watch her every time she has a cold or the weather / allergens could lead to an asthma attack. Luckily I have two pros that I can (and will) call obsessively in Amy and my mom with all of my questions. For now, we will just watch Caroline and keep the meds in her so she continues to return to our happy girl :)

More Christmas??

No. We are finally done with the Christmas enteries. Were you getting exhausted??

The fun continued, though, as we still had family in town to visit and catch up with!! The girls were exctied to play with their youngest cousin, Mary Ellen, and Mom loved getting to hold that tiny little girl :)

I mean is she a doll or what!! She seriously knows when the camera is on and loves to flash her 2 tooth grin.

A little holiday love.

Still More Christmas....

After Christmas morning at my parents house, we headed over to Gary's parents to celebrate with them. The girls were getting a bit tired so I don't have as many pictures, but we had a great time catching up with Gary's family-especially his brother Brian, sister-in-law Lisa and their little darling girl Mary Ellen who were all in town from FL.

 Gary and his brother Mike, along with Mike's wife Lindsay and myself surprised my father in law with his own MIZZOU corn hole set. He was so excited and loved it! We even broke it out the next day for a little in door corn hole fun.

Later on, Gary's extended family (on his dad's side) came over to join in on the fun! By this time the girls were exhausted. Brooke fell asleep on my lap-which is unheard of since she was the age of 1 maybe-and Caroline took a quick snooze in the pack-and-play. By the time the four of us got home, we were so tired. I think we may need to re-work our activities next year for the holidays so we can relax a bit more :)

A very JOHNSON Christmas

Next up on the agenda was our annual Johnson Christmas celebration! After we had opened our gifts at home, we headed back over to my parents house with all of my sisters and my brother to open even more gifts! The girls were running a bit low on energy, but (in true Grandpa Johnson form!) they rallied.

The best picture I could get of all five grandkids. It may not be perfect...but don't Jack & Caroline look great??

  

All three boys (Joe, Gary & Matt) received super hero briefs this year from Santa.
Not sure if this is disturbing or not...but Gary did get Captain America who I think is the best.

Caroline LOVES babies...

I think that she wants one for Christmas next year.

Who is more excited about the princess pack??

THANK YOU GOD MOTHER MIMI!
Best.Gift.Ever.

Lily: "WOW...this is awesome!"
Me: "What is it Lily?"
Lily: "I don't know...but it is awesome"

Surprise gift of the day!!
Tracie's idea was to build a corn hole set for Dad...
Gary took to the challenge and built a custom set for Dad..with me contributing to the project with my tracing and painting skills. He LOVED it!

Christmas Morning-Part 1

Santa came!!

Mom was up bright and early Christmas morning at 6:00 a.m. Apparently the rest of the family thought that Christmas was the perfect day to start sleeping in. I knew that I had to keep everyone on schedule, though, so I may (or may not) have encouraged Brooke to wake up around 6:30 a.m. Brooke may (or may not) have followed mom's lead and woken Caroline up...and Dad was then up by default.

 Brooke's favorite gift of the morning-a real Disney princess castle!!

Dad's favorite gift of the day-a real DAD tie!

Christmas Eve

The Christmas celebrating continued the next evening. We get together with my mom's side of the family over at my parents house. This year the crowd was a bit smaller. We usually have around 85 + people..but with the bad weather the crowd was more around the 50 person mark and that made the house seem a bit on the light side. A good time was still had by all and the girls were exhausted by evenings end. I was pretty tired too...and I didn't even have any party punch.

Yes, as you will see in the next few posts-my girls wore their Christmas dresses to all of our Christmas functions. If mom is going to buy you a cute monogrammed dress you are going to get your wear out of it! We  may even were them next year...and the next year as shirts.

PJ's are on and we were headed home to wait for Santa.

Christmas Eve...Eve

On the eve of Christmas eve, we started our holiday celebration with Gary mom's side of the family. There are lots of us (she is the oldest of 12) so it is always a good time. The kids had a blast and Brooke made a new best friend in Gary's youngest cousin Emily. She is 8 years old and, therefore, AWESOME in Brooke's eyes.

At one point, Brooke left us and decided to go to the bathroom all by herself. When I went in there to check on here, she was in the stall chatting loudly with Emily like there were two teenagers hanging out in the bathroom getting ready for a night out. When I asked her how she was doing, she said, "What are you doing in here mom?? I am talking to Emily!!" So sorry Brooke-remind me when you turned 13??

We mad a good effort to get a few pictures of the Fleming cousins...

This may be my favorite.