No words needed, the pitcures tell it all!

12-29

Gracie update

Way to go Gracie!!
She still has that arm up and out of the blanket.

All fed, full, and sleepy.

A A new look: snow bunnies and snowflakes, added to her tree!

She has the best decorated shelf in NICU

Today I went with Robyn to see Gracie. She now weighs 3 lbs 3.5 oz. She is filling out and is absoutley a little doll. She was a sleepy head, peeking out of one eye every once in a while. The neonatal Dr, Dr. Sutter, said she couldn't hear the murmur this morning. We're hoping that means the vessel is closing. She drinks about 1& 1/2 oz. of formula each feeding. She is amazing! Please keep the prayers going!!

Kristi's Pop corn mania

pop corn everywhere!

Kadee thought she'd try to help!

Kristi's like, "Where do I start?"

"Forget this broom, I'll get the vacuum"

Kristi was so excited she found an air popcorn popper this year. She looked everywhere last year and couldn't find one, she even asked everyone she knew if they had an old fashion popper. She wanted to make caramel corn and needed to pop regular popcorn. So while we were in Target, a popcorn popper just jumped out at her. She gets this air popper out, puts in the popcorn, and it pops out real fast. She said, "wow, this is great." She put in another cupful and went to turn it on and it was dead. She looked at the instructions and it said it had to rest for 10 minutes after each popping. Kristi said,"OH man". Kristi, decided to try to pour the uncooked popcorn in without turning it off. She was having a good time, then as she was pouring the last cup in, she hit the lid and popcorn went everywhere, all over the floor in both rooms, and all over the counters. Kadee was trying to pick it up, but believe me there were a million pieces of kernels on the floor. We laughed about it and how Kristi didn't beat the popper after all.

The Moral to this story: Be careful trying to outsmart a simple machine, and no, we didn't pop the kernels on the floor, they are still in my vacuum. By the way, the caramel corn was delicious.

Christmas at the Tidwells

Gracie's 1st christmas present from NICU nurses

Gracie says " Hi there"

Yea, over 3 lbs!!!!

Callie, christms morning
She loved her "Crocs" with pink furry lining

Kadee trying to get into the action!

Yea, All Callie wanted for Xmas was the pink car from Walmart!

Kadee checking it out!

Christmas morning we went to Robyn and Todds. Kadee got sick Tuesday with 104 temp. and strept throat. We kept her away from Robyn so she could still go see Gracie at the hospital. So Christmas morning we took her home and it's amazing, Santa had come. Grandma, Aunt Kristi also went with us. All Callie wanted for christmas was a pink car from Walmart. She was so excited when she saw it. Kadee wasn't sure what was going on, but she did like the car too. After they opened all their presents, we took Robyn and Grandma to the hospital to see Gracie.

The NICU nurses had made a tile with Gracies footprints on it, made a tiny stocking, and took pictures of her with a big bow on her behind. This meant alot to Robyn, since she was having a hard time anyway on Christmas. Grandma got to watch Robyn bathe Gracie and Grandma held her for the first time. She later told me it meant alot for her to go to the hospital and getting to hold Gracie. She also said Robyn was so sweet giving Gracie a bath. She said watching her talk to Gracie and love on her, touched her so much. Grandma had tears in her eyes when she talked about it to me. Gracie is touching alot of peoples lives without even knowing it. I'll have more pics of christmas at our house that evening in my next post.

Grandma's in the kitchen

Grandma loves to cook and especially bake. She doesn't get to do alot, not because she can't but because I just usually do all the cooking. She wanted to make an "ole fashion fruit cake" as she does every Christmas. Kristi and I went to the store and invested in all the ingredients for this cake. She asked Kristi to help her make it and boy did they have fun! So Kristi got her and Bubba, (her walker),and they went to town. Callie and Kadee spent the night and they got to help Grandma decorate the top with cherries and nuts. Kadee loved the candied cherries. Kristi's a great cook, but she doesn't like fruitcake and now that she's made one, she really don't like it!! It is turned out very good and looked pretty too. I also make millionaires and chocolate covered peanuts and pecans for Grandma. She and Popie always kept candy in their freezer to have all year long. I usually don't make that much candy, but it made Grandma happy!

Busy little munchkins

Jumpin' Jack, Macy

AJ, using the megaphone to get someone's attention.

Look at the dirt mustache!

Kourtney trying to hang up something!

Here comes the wood brigade!!

Ryder going to get his load!

Brayden, A handsome dude!! "No problem, Gikki, it's not heavy"


AJ and Princess wants to help too!

Mia, AJ, Princess, and Brayden, a great team!

A couple of weeks ago, we caught a nice afternoon and played outside. My kids love to go outside and this cold weather is driving us crazy. It was suppose to get real cold in a few days, so the kids, lead by Brayden helped me move some wood closer to the house . Cecil hadn't been released from Dr. yet on his hernia surgery, so he got out of it this time. They're were such good helpers, I couldn't believe they did this all themselves. They love to build a fire in the fireplace, or in their language, "Pireplace".

Little Elves making cookies

Finished Product

Kadee, Ryder, and AJ making thier cookies

Here comes Brayden showing his talents.

Callie and Mia, aren't they having fun?

Guilty! yummy dough

Look how good Mia is.



Actually, these pics are in reverse order. I'm still not good at posting pics.

My daycare kids love to help and sometimes it just easier to do it yourself. I knew the kids would love to roll and cut out Christmas cookies, so everybody got to help. It didn't matter that we got flour everywhere and all over us, but they had a ball. They actually did a great job. We made 4 recipes of dough and alot of cookies. I wasn't brave enough to let them decorate them, thought they could do that with their Moms. I decorated them that night until 1:00 am. Yummy!! I have great kids and parents, which makes my job alot easier.

Elves at work

Little Gracie sucking her Thumb

Sweet, sweet, Gracie

There's no greater love than a Mother's

Her 1st bow Isn't she sweet?????????

I love my thumb!! How cute is that?

Little Gracie is doing good. I went to see her the other day and she was sucking her thumb! It was so sweet and cute. I know all you Mom's with thumbsuckers, say," oh no", but she doesn't do it all the time. She hit a milestone this week weighing in at 3lbs .09 oz. I just want her to hurry up and grow, I grow when I eat alot, so she should too!! All the nurses in NICU are so nice to us when we go in. I love to go just look at her, truly a miracle! Thank you God for our little Gracie!

A Christmas tree for Gracie

Our little Gracie is doing good. I spent about 3 hours with her yesterday and got to hold her for the first time. It was wonderful. I had to fight back the tears, but it was so good just to hold her and cuddle her. She is not having as many breathing episodes as she was, but the little hole is still there. The doctors are doing another echo cardiogram this week to see if it has closed any more, pray that it has so Little Gracie wont' have to have surgery. I know Gracie can feel the love of everyone around her. Aunt Kristi and Uncle Brian have also got to hold her for the first time. Amy had her turn Saturday. We took Robyn Christmas shopping Saturday, she got most of it done. She did good until the last stop and Amy told her she was getting in a wheelchair, no ifs ands, or buts. She was glad to ride though. She has been through , and is going through so much, it hurts me so bad to see her hurt!! I just thank God everyday for giving her and Gracie life. I'm going to keep the Special tree in my room up until Gracie comes home and then we'll have a "Christmas for Gracie"

It's Christmas time at Mema & Pa's

Outside at night

My favorite, the entryway

Kristi's village

More of Kristi's village, Isn't it fun!!

Kristi's western tree. Neat skirt!!

Vikki's special tree in her room.

Our big 10 ft. tree in LR.

Grandma's tree in the Den

If any of you have been to our house at Christmas, you know we love to decorate. I take care of the inside and Cecil and usually some elves named Kourtney, Macy, and Brian help decorate the outside. He changed the outside this year by using our "North Pole" decoration theme. One Fall about 10 years ago we made a whole set of painted North Pole themes. We hadn't used them in about 4 years, so it's nice for a change. Thanks to Brian the lights got put up on the roof. Kourtney and Macy helped too, they are great helpers. I'm in charge of the inside and this year I had a little interruption called "Baby Gracie." I finally got up everything I need to, but I didn't use everything I had. Believe me, I have enough stuff or should I say "Treasures" to decorate several houses. We have 4 trees up in our house, Kristi's, Our big 10ft one, in the LR, Grandma's, and my special one in my bedroom. I love to collect village pieces and this year I added a few more that are nostalgic to me and Cecil. That's terrible, it shows we're aging!!!! I added a movie theater, 50's style diner, church, and some gingerbread houses. These aren't expensive pieces, they're Walmart and 50% off Kohl's, but that makes them ever better to collect. I've got Kristi hooked also on village pieces, except hers are western. We laughed alot when we went shopping, we tried staying away from this department, but for some reason we always ended up there and usually got in trouble, coming home with more. Last year we entered a neighborhood contest and won 2Nd place for our outdoor decorating, winning a $100 gift card to Target. We have entered again since we changed our decorations this year, so we'll see. We love Christmas and try to make it so special for our family. It's a great time to tell someone you love, just how much you love them. It's a great time for giving and remembering our God! Merry Christmas!!!