Alexis and Her Groupies

A few weeks ago we went to the movies to see "A Christmas Carol". The movie was great but it was an even better treat when Alexis ran into some of her best pals!

Julee Gets the All Clear

Last week Julee had her final follow-up with the plastic surgeon for this go round. With the exception of gym, she has received the all clear from the doctor to resume her normal activities. Gym will have to wait until after the Christmas break. The last of her dissolvable stitches have disappeared and she even went back to the orthodontist yesterday. Poor girl! It will still be a few weeks before her upper loosens up completely and she will continue to do some massage therapy on her lip a few times a day. Other than that, she is good to go. We are grateful to a skilled surgeon who definitely had Julee's best interests at heart. Here is a little mini timeline of Julee's progress.

November 16th - the night before surgery

November 17th - Going home after surgery

Noveber 20th - 3 days after surgery - still lots of bandages

November 26th - Celebrating Thanksgiving without the bandages

December 5th - Just a few stitches left but you can hardly tell

We are amazed at how quickly she has healed;

and are thrilled by how beautiful she (still) is!

The Best Birthday -- EVER!

Alexis said today was the best birthday ever! Here are all the reasons why:

25 ice cream cone sugar cookies to take to friends at school!

A present before breakfast!

7 inches of snow which means NO SCHOOL!!

Mom allowing herelf to be pelted with snowballs (if you look

right in the center of the picture you can see the snowball flying through the air)

More presents!!

Opening presents BEFORE dinner!

Throwing snowballs at Daddy on our way to birthday dinner at Chili's!

The staff at Chili's singing their version of Happy Birthday!

Free ice cream sundae - mmm chocolate!

Enough time before bed to start building the Indiana Jones temple!

Not pictured: Several birthday phone calls and a 45 minute long distance

birthday chat with cousin Kylie!

Happy 9th Birthday Lekkis! We love you and are glad you had such an awesome birthday!

Resting up for the big day..........

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Yesterday we spent the day putting up the Christmas tree and deocrating the inside of the house for Christmas. It is one of our favorite seasonal activities. From the moment the tree box hits the living room floor, the excitement is overwhelming. Julee and Alexis have tree decorating down to a science. We love to sit and listen to them engineer the whole process - "Wait, there are too many in one spot here" or "You better put one back there; it's looking pretty bare" or "You can't put that blue ornament there-it's too close to that other blue one". For the first few days after it's finished, one of us is always commenting about how pretty the tree is. After the tree, come the other house decorations. Our favorites are the Nativities and the Nutcrackers. By the end of the evening, we were all set. Now we just enjoy the decorations and wait for Santa....

The tree

The Nativities

The Nutcrackers

Thanksgiving Day

This year we had a great Thanksgiving holiday! We spent the morning at home watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. It is pretty sad that I am more into it than the girls. We always watched the parade when I was growing up so it doesn't seem like Thanksgiving without it. We were in charge of the turkey and mashed potatoes this year so that went on in the background while we watched Santa come to town. For dinner we got together with 2 other families we are friends with. It was a very relaxed atmosphere and turkey dinner was AWESOME! After lunch, the ladies scanned the Black Friday ads and Rick taught all the kids to make catapults out of clothes pins, plastic spoons, and electrical tape. The kids loved it and mounted an all out marshmallow war against the army miniatures. It was hilarious to watch it all! After the catapult war, some more people came over and we had a dessert party. There was as much dessert as there was actual dinner! It was such a fun time and we are thankful for such wonderful friends!

I didn't manage to get a picture of the buffet table before we all ate, but here is the turkey fresh out of the oven. It makes me hungry just looking at it.

An unexpected dinner guest? Or is that Alexis?

The catapult specialist

Who will surrender first?

The battle continues

The dessert table - what's not to love!

P.S. My friend and I were among those crazy people at Target at 5am on Black Friday. We made it through 13 stores, McDonald's for breakfast, and Chipotle for lunch before we called it a day. Insane? Yes. Fun? Absolutely!

Update on Julee

Julee is recovering nicely form her surgery. She is looking forward to her follow-up visit on Tuesday where they will take out stitches and clean her up a little bit. She has invented new ways to eat solid food with a spoon without ever touching her upper lip. Yesterday she even felt okay enough to work on some homework. She continues to be a trooper, never complaining about anything. Julee amazes me! Alexis has been pretty amazing as well considering she is the one not getting all the attention. Julee is the first person she looks for so she can check on her and see if she is feeling better. The other morning before school, Alexis left a note for a still sleeping Julee. It was so simple but so sweet!

Alexis' note

(written on white paper in black pen so it's a bit hard to see when I scanned it)
Front

Inside