"It's a Christmas Miracle"

That's been a common phrase around here these days. It's a "miracle" that anything gets done!

Hope your Christmas was as blessed as ours was. My parents were supposed to arrive Christmas Eve, just in time for Lonnie's family Christmas dinner. Unfortunately, their flight got canceled due to bad weather, so we had to celebrate at the Lamp's without them. Here are a few pics from the fun.

Joanna got a new puppy for Christmas and Keira LOVED it. Especially since it was so tiny and soft.


For a little while Ethan was doing this hilarious thing everytime we said his name to take a picture. He would pose with his hands behind his head, like he was kicked back and just relaxing. TOO FUNNY!


All the "cousins" together. (Cousin is a loose term, but it seems close to accurate)


Keira's hair is so fine it gets majorly static-y (is that a word??) in the winter. The Lamps couch made her look like she'd been electrocuted!!


Caden got a light saber for Christmas...Exactly what he'd been wishing for. How did Joanna and Dustin know??



Grandmas Shirley bought them both stuffed bears for Christmas. They named them Parker and Lillie!



We had planned to all spend the night together at Margaret's house since that's where Mom and Dad are staying. We wanted to all be together to open presents on Christmas morning. All the presents were at Margaret's house already, so we decided to stick with the plan. Curt and I even got a bed this time since Mom and Dad didn't make it. Keira slept in Ethan's crib, which she thought was cool and Cade got the floor in the office. (He thought it was cool too!)

And visions of sugar plums danced in their heads...

My Grandpa rocks!

I know most of you think you have great Grandparents. I'm sure you do, but Grandpa is hilarious. A little back ground info: My grandparents live just north of Louisville in Indiana. They own lots of rental property in the area. Last year, their taxes went up ALOT and Grandpa protested by paying his taxes in one dollar bills. Can you imagine...the lady had to sit there and count THOUSANDS of dollar bills.

Well this year, taxes weren't any better. So what did he do? Read the story here:
4029tv.

I know, I know. He's GREAT!!!

Love you Grandpa!!

From our family to yours

The rock has been removed!

Cade has his tubes put in this morning and his precious rock was removed. As you can see, it was really tiny. Curt told me this morning that that was the only rock I was getting for Christmas. I think it may also be the most expensive rock I own!

Cade's first words when I saw him in recovery were "Did I pop the balloon?" I guess the O2 mask they use to sedate him has a balloon on it for him to blow up. He must have been trying really hard to pop it because it that was the last thing he remembered!

His ears are draining A LOT of gunk, it's hard to imagine that all that was backed up behind his tympanic membrane. I can't believe he didn't complain about it hurting him. Actually, he complained more about it hurting after the surgery than before. It must be a weird feeling for him to have all that coming out and be able to hear much better also.

Here he is at home relaxing. He feels much better with cotton in his ear, so you can see it sticking out.



When I went to wake him up this morning, this is what I found. I guess he decided his bed was too cold and needed to camp out on the floor next to his heater. He's such a funny guy!

Cade's going tubin'

So we went to see the ENT this morning and he tried his best to get the rock out, but Cade has ANOTHER raging ear infection, bilateral, not just in the rocky ear. So, his ear was already super sensitive and Cade was NOT too happy about the MD digging around in his ear. He was a trooper and tried his best to be still and not cry, but he was too scared and it hurt too much.

Based upon Cade's history of ear infections (he just finished antibiotics around Thanksgiving and frequently has ear infections that he doesn't complain about, he just wakes up one morning with his ear draining lots of gunk) and since he needed to be sedated to get the rock out, our ENT recommended putting in tubes while he was sedated. I wholeheartedly agreed because I've never been too thrilled about his draining ears/frequently rupturing tympanic membrane AND I really didn't want to hold my screaming child down to try to get the rock out without sedation.

So at 8:00 tomorrow morning we'll be at an outpatient surgery center to get tubes put in and a rock taken out. Sadly, all I can think at this moment is...couldn't this have waited a few more weeks so it could meet the deductible for next year. (No, we haven't met our deductible yet this year...we never get sick thank goodness!)

I'll keep you all posted. Thanks for your prayers today. I felt them, since it is now 1200 and somehow I have managed to keep myself awake for the last 24 hours. I'm even reasonably coherent at this moment. Shocking!!!

He did WHAT?!!!!

I know, all of you moms out there are collectively groaning at that statement...as you should. Very few sentences that start that way end up well. Here's the rest of the story.



My very SMART boy Cade decided it would be a great idea at school sometime LAST WEEK to stick a rock in his ear. Did he tell anyone that it didn't come back out? Not until today when he started screaming at lunch that his ear was hurting him. Curt assumed it was due to all the wind we're having today, but evidently the wind blowing against it pushed the rock up against the membrane in a way that triggered intense pain for him.

Once again, we pulled out the otoscope (thank you Harding College of Nursing for making me buy it sooo many years ago!) and saw a tiny pebble embedded in his tympanic membrane. I'm guessing there's not a chance it will come out without an ENT, a little sedation and some tiny surgical tweezers. Dr Lance came over and confirmed my diagnosis a few minutes ago. He's going to talk to the ENT on call and let us know when Cade has his procedure, probably tomorrow.

Hope this sparks some great conversations with your kids about why it's not a good idea to stick things in your ears...or nose. Keep us in your prayers!!!

Ooooh baby!

Tonight has been sooo much fun. Just look at all the fun we've had at our house!

Ethan and Ally


Goofy guys!


One of Keira's favorite activities


Sooo handsome


Thanks for letting us spend the evening with your kids. I know you think we're doing you a favor...but I think we enjoy it even more than you enjoy a night out.