Christmas

It's been busy. It's been hectic. It's been scary. It's been wonderful. It's been...life, mixed in with the holidays.

Remember the seizure? Well, my friends, that was just the beginning. I'm not going to follow up my last post with another depressing account of our recent reality-check brought about by Addison, but I will let you know that after we got home from the ER after the seizure, my baby girl got worse. A few days afterward (and the week of Christmas), I took her in and the pediatrician got kind of frantic, saying we needed to rush her to the hospital because she had acute bacterial pneumonia in both lungs and that she could go "downhill" at any moment, which scared the bejeebers out of me. So we spent a couple days at the hospital by her side (how painful is it to watch your child hooked up to an IV and a bunch of other strange wires?). Thanks to the extreme generosity of our friends, neighbors, and both Visiting and Home Teachers, our load was lightened immensely and we got through everything unscathed. But scary, nonetheless.

And on to the busy...
Cupcakes for Makenna's preschool party (thank you Pinterest)


Stocking Stuffers for Makenna (we call them SS's in our house- we like to be cool and talk code sometimes) Play make-up made out of nail polish (again, thank you Pinterest)
(BTW, Christmas morning with the make-up was a hit)

Gingerbread houses with our friends. These kids did an awesome job decorating their houses- I was impressed 100%.

Bull Run Festival of Lights in Manassas- incredible! We meant to do this last year but never got around to it. It's a driving light tour through the Bull Run Battlefield.

And the little carnival they had at the end of it-
The Botanical Gardens downtown and their amazing train display (jaw-dropping artistry, I'm telling you) with our friends.


Christmas baking and my helpers:

Daddy-daughter time (I don't know how we got so lucky, but because of the whole pneumonia scare/hospital stay, Drew ended up taking off 2 whole weeks from work- we were in heaven):
Christmas morning:


My mom coming for 10 STRAIGHT DAYS, which was heaven, and so much fun.


(Please, oh please, don't disown me Mom for posting this. It just proves how AWESOME of a grandma you are:)

And last but not least, the little taste of snow we got this week. Beautiful, but a little lacking in amount.

What a fabulous Christmas we had here in Virginia, sans family, which I was weepy at first about, but later came to grips with and embraced.

The End of a ridiculous amount of family pictures.

A Change in Perspective

Sometimes it takes a good scare to knock things into perspective. I'm guilty, like most, around the holidays to become so completely consumed by all the things that need to get done before Christmas Day that I forget what's truly important, what's right in front of me. I've got presents to wrap, shopping to finish, fudge to make, crafts to finish, boxes to ship, programs to attend, etc., etc. etc. I often find myself asking, "Have you taken 30 minutes to play with the girls this afternoon?"
I'm guiltily admitting it right here for all to read.

Wednesday night little Addison suffered a seizure. While Drew and Makenna were Christmas shopping, I was home alone with her, when she started to seize. I was scared to death at what was happening right in front of my eyes. I called 911. The lady on the other end calmly walked me through the To-Do's and Don't Do's. I think I was a shade short of hysterical if I'm remembering correctly. Within minutes the ambulance was here, along with the fire truck and a police car (and about a half dozen neighbors curiously watching from their porches). Just as we were leaving, the rest of my family drove up to see a parent's worst nightmare- a firetruck and the paramedics at your house. I won't go into the specifics of the rest of the night, other than to say my sweet little girl suffered from a febrile seizure. Her temperature was 104 when we got to the hospital (for the life of me I will never understand why the EMTs in the ambulance piled blanket after heated blanket over my naked girl in an already-sweltering ambulance, but that's just me).

Although deathly scary to witness, this type of seizure is not dangerous. I pray, though, I will never in my life have to sit there again and watch that happen to a child. Mine, or not, does not make a difference.

But as I said before, a good scare is sometimes necessary to knock things back into perspective. I'm grateful for this experience this Christmas season. Because as I was sitting there, holding my girl, wondering if this was it, all the rest faded into the background. I held her as she was shaking, stiff as a board, hiccuping for breath and I cried. All the presents, the engagements, the "necessary to-do's" became so very unnecessary. We've spent the last two days, wrapped up in what's truly important- family and our Savior. I've enjoyed holding my girls tight, telling them I love them and making sure they know I mean it. We've read piles of Christmas books. We've played with our Nativity . I've relished in spending more time than usual reading the Christmas Ensign, planning my lesson for Young Women this Sunday about making room for the Savior.

I love my two girls so immensely. I love my husband. I love the Gospel of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

I just found this beautiful song and will use it for my Christmas lesson for Young Women this Sunday. Thought I would share it with you while you remember the true meaning of Christmas.

Winter Whirlwind

I've never felt it more than now, but does it seem that once September hits, everything speeds up and doesn't slow down until (fingers crossed) the New Year? From Fall Festivals to Barn Sales to Young Women's in Excellence to guests upon guests, to Halloween festivities to Thanksgiving preparation to decorating for Christmas to baking and baking, we've (read: I've) been busy.

And even though my Christmas shopping is done, my cards have all gone out, our house is dressed to the nines, I still feel like I haven't been able to slow down and take 2 minutes to update this blog with pictures, stories, etc. It may be in part because my sweet husband has been working his pants off for the past 3 weeks trying to get ready for his trial (which is finally starting on Monday, halle-freaking-lujah; oh, I'm not bitter). 16-hour workdays are starting to wear on the Mrs...just a little.

I have, however, found time to give way to my new-found addiction: Pinterest. CAN'T STOP MAKING THINGS. (More to follow)

So here goes- a few pictures, a few stories, and a few projects to catch me up before Christmas.


Family pictures at the Jefferson Memorial. Freezing. Addison refused to nap that day. Late start= light fading fast. But we did it with the fabulous Kings, who are always fun and managed to turn a potentially awful afternoon into another fun adventure.

Thanksgiving with Mom Mann. She came in for the whole week and we had fun hanging out, visiting Arlington National Cemetery (how have we lived in Virginia for 6 years and never stopped by?), which was amazing. She most graciously offered to make all the Thanksgiving pies, namely 2 pumpkin, 1 peach, and 1 apple. Delicioso. The Kings honored us with their presence that night as well, offering up the best dang banana dessert I've ever tasted (I don't even know what it was called and I especially don't like banana stuff, but this was KILLER).

This may be the absolute worst picture of me, but it was the only one we got, so there you go.

At Arlington Cemetery. We watched the changing of the guards with gobs of other people. After the ceremony ended and the new guard was on duty, everyone left but we stayed to take pictures. Lo and behold, Taps started playing, never having sounded more beautiful than it did then. We felt bad for the hundreds of people that left before the main event. I think they should put up some sign warning the spectators, "Don't leave until after the bugle boy plays".

Personally, I thought this was too cute of a shot not to get. Apparently the man behind us did not. He said (a little too loudly), "I guess some people are just too dumb to read the signs." So I laughed and took another picture.

Last weekend we got our Christmas tree put up. It may be the most beautiful tree (certainly the most delicious smelling) we've ever had in 10 Christmases together.
The girls most certainly loved decorating it, and we only lost a few ornaments to curious little fingers. See that tree skirt below? That's one of my Pinterest projects. It's a No-Sew Ruffle Tree Skirt. After only 4 hours of gluing in front of my TV, 6 yards of fabric, and 90% of my hands red and blistered from glue-gun burns, she's finished. And mighty proud of her I am.

I took the girls to see Santa early this year, being totally over the 3-hour wait we've encountered in years past the week before Christmas. This Santa is truly amazing at Tyson's Corner. There've been some articles written about him, so I'm grouping him in with our local celebrities. I went on December 2nd (way early) at 10:01, a minute past his grand entrance. And guess what? We waltzed right on up there like it was nobody's business, they sat right down on his lap and gave the old man their wish lists (apparently Makenna wants a dolly. They both look overjoyed, don't they? Solemnly overjoyed.).

I had a Groupon for the pictures, which we picked up after talking to Him, then went about our morning at the mall. On the way to the car, Makenna stops dead in her tracks and says, "Oh NO! I forgot to ask Santa my question! Can we go back, please?" Not wanting to disappoint, we sneak in the back and ask the nice elf if my darling 4-year-old can ask Mr. Claus just one tiny question, pretty please? So she marches on up there, sits on his lap for the second time in a day, and inquires, "Santa, why does your wife have to stay in the North Pole on Christmas Eve?" He told her she had special jobs to do while he was away and she had to make the hot cocoa. Mystery solved.

This is my girl, re-enacting her exciting morning's events. All her dollies are waiting in line to talk with Santa Claus (who is being played by Mr. Smurf). Her story was complete with the princesses pushing in line and Cinderella kindly reminding Belle "You need to wait in line until it's your turn."

And my last little Pinterest project, completed today:

Leg warmers for the girls with tie-ribbons. Tell me, WHAT did we do before Pinterest? There are so many adorable ideas...pace yourself Kara, pace yourself.

So that's it, my friends. Officially caught up until Christmas, my birthday (hint, hint, wink, wink), Mom coming on the 28th, and New Year's Festivities. Oh, how I love the holidays! Off to bake 4 more batches of fudge...

Fall, Phase 5

Visitors, visitors, and more visitors! We love them. We live for them. We wait anxiously for them to get here. We mourn the day they leave. Fall is the time for visitors for us.

My brother and his "good" friend (wink, wink) came to visit us the 2nd week of October. We had a blast and loved sightseeing, eating out, ushering (more on that later), and talking late into the night.

Day 1: Skyline Drive. LOVE this place. Never been there when it's been engulfed in "Civil War Fog" (as we call it in our house). But there's a 1st for everything. It was eerily cool, though.

You may be wondering why we all settled on the same color scheme for a night out on the town. I've been lucky enough to usher at Ford's Theatre downtown whenever a new show comes out. It just happened that all my friends I'd signed up with cancelled (except Rachel who rocked and ended up babysitting for us) so that the four of us could go together and usher for Parade. LOVED it. Such great music, such amazing actors.

We also hit up the Jefferson Memorial, which is one of my favorites. I think it often gets overlooked because it's not on the actual Mall, you have to walk a ways to get there, but it's beautiful sitting there on the Tidal Basin, and although my favorite time to go there is during Cherry Blossoms, it was just as pretty with the Fall colors.
I loved this picture (I hope it's okay I'm posting it, Daniel, for all the world to see on this very blog.)

Although I was so sad Daniel and Chalyse left too soon, I was overjoyed to have Jenn & Co. roll in 2 days later. Jenn is my BYU BFF. I love her to death and it amazes me we've stayed friends for over a decade, laughing and picking up right where we left off. I have come to love her hubby too and now her sweet little Magnolia. Bundle of Adorable is all I have to say about that.
We loved touring DC by night (first time, but I don't think the last- it was seriously awesome), crafting together (not the guys), strolling through Georgetown, visiting the new MLK Memorial (we were definitely the minority there- I'm just sayin'), and playing Partini late into the night. So many laughs. Such good food. Love these people!

Doesn't he look like the Sphinx?

Lastly we just said good-bye to my Grandma and her husband, Phil (they celebrated their 5th anniversary at our house!). Grandma was out in March, but this was Phil's first time at our house. To put it softly, our girls ADORED them in every way possible. They were loving and hugging on them every time I turned around. Addison is in love with old men (don't ask me, but the only way we survive Nursery is with the help of two gray old men in there with her) so she was in absolute heaven. They read books together, Grandma told stories and retold old memories and Makenna ate it all up. We wished it didn't have to go by so fast; we were surely sorry to see them go.

The "Occupy" DC protest group. Looks like the exact opposite of fun to me.

I absolutely love this lady. I have so many wonderful childhood memories with her and it warms my heart to see Makenna and Addison making their own memories with her.


We LOVE visitors out here on this side of the country. We're looking forward to Grandma Karen coming this weekend for Thanksgiving and then Grandma Donna coming the morning after Christmas!

Fall, Phase 4

Hello, my name is Kara and I'm addicted to...

RIBBON.

And this is why:
For the past 3 Falls that have come around (and occasionally in between), I've made the long trek up to Hagerstown, MD. There's a little gem of a store up there in this historic town that calls my name, teasing, taunting me until I give in. Ever heard of the Ribbon Outlet? No worries, I hadn't either until she introduced me to it. Where I am singing her praises for the introduction, Drew is cursing her name for the same reason. I never knew I needed 60 yards of 1-inch autumn-orange grosgrain ribbon until I spotted it from across the room and it called to me, whispering, "Pick me up Kara. I'm only $1.25. What's the harm in bringing home a monster spool of ribbon for a mere $1.25?" My problem is that I fear for his loneliness in my Ikea ribbon box and so I throw in 10 or 15 of his friends...every time. And before I know it, I'm the proud owner of a lovely 30-yard spool of 2-inch leopard print fabric ribbon that I just KNOW I'll find use for someday.

There, it's out. I've confessed what I've come here to confess. Ah, I feel like a weight's been lifted from my shoulders. No need to hide my secret jaunts up there and then minimize the enormity of my loot once I come home. Now, onto my stash. You're curious, aren't you? You wouldn't think I'd tease you with the thought of a Crafter's Mecca and then not give you any proof of its existence, would you?

This is what I brought home a few weekends ago on my latest run up there. Sum of my purchase: $25.

Each bag you see was a mere .20 for a total of $1.00 for everything in this picture. Have I converted you yet? The only downside to buying these bags is you have to sit there and roll it once you're home. Helps if you have a super awesome hubby who'll acquiesce and "roll with it".

Lastly, each little spool of red was .10, for a total of $3.80 for all those spools. Brown ribbon was $2.00/spool.

And just to show you that my addiction has not gone to waste:
My latest Fall craft. I seriously love how it turned out. Got the idea here. Didn't turn out quite as cute, but it still found a home in my entryway.

The "L" in my FALL mantle arrangement.

Lest we forget my other obsession? Hair bows for the girls. The holder and the bows themselves were the direct result of ribbon outlet ribbon.

And just to remind me to keep my addiction at bay, a daily reminder that I probably don't need any more...for now.

It's fun to have a little addiction, though.