Christmas Memories

Its been a week since the last post...and Christmas. Its taken almost that long to recoup and reorganize (seriously, Santa may need to bring us a bigger house for Christmas next year...or less presents for Kaylee).

The week of Christmas was a whirlwind of travel, family, fun, and lots of memories. We started the week with a trip to Peoria to check in with Kaylee's neurosurgeon and orthotist (helmet doctor). We were literally in her neurosurgeon's office for no longer than 15 minutes. For those that are not aware of the geography of Illinois, Peoria is an hour and a half from Champaign. Kaylee's doctor was happy with the progress that the helmet appeared to having with her plagiocephaly. He would like to see her wear the helmet another two months. While didn't expect him to say "that's all, folks", we were a little bummed nonetheless. After a quick call to Plattner's to see if we could move our appointment up in hopes to avoid the snow/freezing rain that was supposed to be moving in. As luck would have it, they fit us right in....and we left with great news.

A new scan confirmed that Kaylee's head was begin to round out. That made us feel a little better about another 2 months of helmet therapy. After some adjustments to the helmet, we were homeward bound.

We tied things up at work the following two days and headed north for Christmas with the Cooks, turned around on Christmas day and headed back to Champaign for the Estes Christmas. In between those trips, almost 8 inches of snow was dumped in Morrison and almost 6 inches in Champaign. I love snow! And it was perfect for a white Christmas.

We couldn't have asked for a better first Christmas for Kaylee. Lots of time with family and fun all around. I can't wait for next year!

More than Santa

Source

Love of the Sugar Cookie

Special Visitor

I'm not sure if you were aware of this, but the big guy from up north was in town yesterday. He made a special stop at Kaylee's daycare. Much like the first time Kaylee met Santa, she did well with no tears. I'm sure she let him know exactly what she wanted for Christmas this year.

Busted

Things got a little quiet last night while I was making supper and switching some laundry around. Then I saw why....someone physically moved my barricade in front of the Christmas tree, pulled out a present, then proceeded to start unwrapping it. I must say she was getting the hang of it before I put the present back. Needless to say, I had to step up my efforts in protecting the rest of the presents. 

Helping Put the Tree Up

After spending a almost a week in Kansas City, mom was more than ready to spend some quality time with her baby. She's still a little young, but it was snowing outside and dad was busy working on his research paper, so we put up the tree this weekend.

For the most part Kaylee was pretty disinterested in what I was doing. She held a few ornament boxes and checked out the tree, but I am happy to report she doesn't bother the tree at all. The presents underneath are a different story. She just loves the sparkly bows!

So Sweet

Cute kids at our Christmas gathering at Melissa and Erik's yesterday...

Christmas Day

Christmas day we headed north to my folks house. We got there just in time see my cousins and aunt and uncle. As we were pulling in the drive, my dad was taking the girls and Madison out for a snowmobile ride. Unlike Champaign that was covered in ice when we left, Morrison had lots of snow - perfect for taking out mom's new ride. We had plenty of fun on that in the couple of days we were there.

Madison, Papa, Cassidy and Corrina

Opening gifts was a lot of fun with Madison this year. She was very good at opening, although most of the time, she just wasn't sure what she was getting, but that didn't matter, she loved it all! If I can ever get my sister to update her blog (hint, hint), I'm sure there will be lots of photos and maybe even a video of Madison when she found out that Santa ate her cookies. Too cute.

Carefully opening

Trying out her new plastic food.

Telling her mom to "Get Out" of her new house.

We''ll head to Bloomington on Friday to have a mini-Christmas with Melissa, Erik, and Jackson. I'm sure we'll have lots more to share....but we're so lucky to have such a wonderful family to spend Christmas eve and Christmas day with. The gifts we received were great, but the time spent with the ones we love was wonderful!

Christmas Eve with the Estes'

We spent Christmas eve here in Champaign celebrating with Ron's side of the family. Lots of cooking, lots of eating, lots of fun! In between snacking we played some Wii and caught up with everyone.

Kayla making sure we're not getting any pictures of her tennis swing.

Paul and Kyle playing baseball.

Kayla - Go, Go Power Rangers!

Leslie - Say Cheese!