twas the night before christmas

Pearson is ready for Santa to come!!

Ho! Ho! Ho!

christmas eve

We celebrated Christmas with my immediate family Christmas Eve afternoon.  

Last year it was just Carson.  This year there are three grandbabies!! 

Each Christmas is just going to get more and more fun!! 

Pearson knew just what to do with the presents.  Rip it open and eat the paper!!

Carson is not into taking pictures this year, so I tried to snap a few when I could, even if he wasn't smiling.  

We gave him a fun little mask and cape with a C on it, but he wouldn't look at me.  He was being shy.

Pearson got lots of fun things, but he really loved playing with his guitar from his cousins.  

Matt got an electric razor.

I got some TOMS and I love them!!

Matt and Pearson got a special present from my Mom and Dad.  My Mom was in the attic cleaning it out and came across an old Baylor sweatshirt that my Uncle had given me when I was little.  It is a little big, but it will be perfect for Pearson to wear to his first Baylor basketball game on Wednesday night!!

Thanks Lolly and Pops for all the fun goodies!!

After we celebrated with my family, my Dad's side of the family came over for dinner and gifts!!

Oma, Pearson, & Joe

Oma & Joe and the 3 great grandkids!!

All the celebrating wore Pearson out.  He NEVER falls asleep when he is around people, so I know he was tired.  

I went ahead and changed him into his Christmas PJ's while we were there.  Isn't his little bum so cute?

We usually go to the Christmas Eve service but it just didn't work out this year, so I'm looking forward to going to church with my family tomorrow since Christmas is on a Sunday this year!!

christmas eve eve

Friday night we drove straight from Arkansas to Nonnie's house for my Mom's side of the family Christmas celebrations.  

Can you tell we look a little tired??

This was Pearson's first Christmas celebration and experience opening presents.  He loved the ribbon.

His favorite part was eating the paper!!

Of all the fun things they got, all Pearson and Olivia wanted to play with was one of Carson's old toys!!

Thanks Nonnie for all the goodies!!

I'm glad we made it back in town for Nonnie's delicious chili, the abundance of desserts, opening presents and our fun Chinese gift exchange!!

a special visit to arkansas

Matt's grandmother has been in and out of the hospital for the past few months.  In the last few weeks, her health has really gone down so they moved her to a hospice home. We got a call Thursday night that she was not doing well at all, so Matt left work around 2pm and we were out the door headed to Arkansas by 3:30pm.  Pearson did well for most of the drive until it got close to bed time.  He screamed for about 45 minutes until he finally fell asleep.  We got to Arkansas around 9pm and enjoyed spending time with Mema and introducing her to our sweet boy for the first time!!  We got to spend some more time with her and Matt's entire family on Friday morning before we had to head back home.  We are so thankful for the time that we got to spend with her.  

Matt and Mema talking sports with each other before we headed home.  I know exactly where Matt gets his competitive nature and love for sports!!

Four Generations

{Mema, Grandaddy, Matt & Pearson}

Pearson was worn out from all the traveling and staying up late so we couldn't get him to wake up for a picture, but we are so glad that we have a picture of him with his great grandmother to show him someday.  

santa baby

merry christmas from my parents

 My Mom made these cute little reindeer outfits for the grand-babies this Christmas so we decided to put them all in their outfits for my parent's Christmas card picture!

Here are some of the other pictures I took that didn't make the Christmas card!

Pearson says, "Mmmmmm Olivia's foot is looking pretty yummy right now!!!"

It wasn't easy getting a 3 year old, a 5 1/2 month old and a 4 month old to cooperate, but I think we got some pretty sweet pictures of the grand-babies!!

kidney stone.....

So this is random......but I passed a kidney stone this morning.

Wanna see it?  

I'm sure you probably don't, but I'm going to show it to you anyways!!  

Pretty crazy huh?

I'm sure you don't really want to hear the story about it either, but I'm going to tell you anyways.  It's my blog and I want to remember all the crazy little things that happen in our lives.....including the time I passed and kidney stone and didn't even know I had one. 

So Monday afternoon I got a "catch" in my back.  I had been sitting on the couch all day long helping a friend set up her blog.  I just figured I had sat on the couch in a funny way and my back was just hurting.  It kept hurting all throughout the day kind of off and on.  I didn't really think much of it because I usually get a funky "catch" in my back once a year or so.  No biggie.  Well later that evening, we went to dinner with some friends.  My back was still hurting off and on, but I wasn't in enough pain to leave dinner.  After dinner we went over to their house and I couldn't seem to get comfortable on the couch.  No matter how I sat my back just kept hurting worse and worse.  I then started to feel nauseas.  I had no idea what was going on with my body so I told Matt that we had to go home.  On our way home, I seriously felt like we were driving to the hospital again to have a baby.  The pain in my back was very similar to the back labor pains I had with Pearson.  (Not as intense, but very painful.) When we got home, Matt had to put Pearson down for bed while I sat by the toilet feeling like I was going to throw up.  I laid in bed with a heating pad on my back for quite some time.  I was finally able to fall asleep but I'm pretty sure I didn't move a muscle all night because it hurt so bad to move.  And to add to the back pain, I woke up with cramps.  All day Tuesday, my back pain and cramps were off and on, so at this point, I really had no idea what was going on with my body.  Wednesday morning I nursed Pearson in bed and while I was nursing I felt a really strong urge to go to the bathroom along with a really sharp pain.  As soon as I was finished feeding him I went to the bathroom and heard a "ping" in the toilet.  Sure enough a little stone had come out.  I had never had a kidney stone but I thought that it looked like one.  I got online to read all about symptoms and sure enough back pain and abdominal cramps are some of the symptoms.  I called the doctor and told her all my story and she told me she was 99% sure that I had passed a kidney stone because all my symptoms were totally gone.  She said I could have gotten a kidney stone for a million different reasons, but it could have very likely been related to my funky postpartum/nursing hormones.  

So there's the story......I had a kidney stone.  Kinda crazy, but in a weird way, I'm kind of proud of myself for enduring the pain and not even realizing what was going on.  I guess having a baby increases your pain tolerance, because I'm pretty sure I would have had Matt take me to the hospital the first night that my back hurt so bad! Ha!! I'm hoping this was a one time thing and I don't continue to get them, because it wasn't fun.