Happy Birthday to Our Little Girls

We celebrated Abby and Emerson's birthdays on January 24 in Norfolk. I can't believe another year has flown by and we now have a 6 year old and a 1 year old! These 2 little girls bring so much joy to our family! Happy Birthday to the sweetest girls ever!

Emerson loved her balloons.

 

 

Abby looking all grown up.

Abby had to have a Frozen cake.

Emmy had a puppy cake since that was her first word and one of her favorite things ever.

Birthday Sisters.

Our crew

Abby was so excited to get a Frozen blanket from Grandma Cindy.

Emerson was a little overwhelmed with all the presents.

Poor baby crashed in Grandma's arms

Time for cake. Emerson is a little eater! She likes to stick out her tongue and make chewing faces to show you that she wants to eat. She also tries to steal food and climb up in her highchair so we thought she would love the smash cake but she really seemed pretty unsure of the whole situation. She poked around at it and Robb finally gave her a bite with a fork and she dug in a little more.

After she had a couple bites of cake and got frosting all over her hands she was done with the cake and shoved it off the highchair onto the floor for the dogs to eat.

She is looking pretty proud of herself for making such a mess. Bath time!

Abby eating her Frozen cake. I think she took off all the fondant snowflakes and ate them.

It has been a crazy busy year but writing this post and looking at their pictures makes me realize just how much they have grown and changed in just a year. Happy Birthday Girls!

 

 

 

Surgery

About 3 months ago my ankle that I broke 2 years ago started to hurt more. After being on my feet all day at work it was swollen and my big toe was numb sometimes. I chalked it up to not wearing good enough shoes for awhile but finally decided I should get it checked out. When I went in they took an x-ray and one of the bigger pins that criss- crossed the joint had broken in half. I guess that happens?? It seems like I should have realized when that happened but I can't think of a time when I would have done that. After looking at the x-ray the Dr. thought it would probably best if I had those 2 pins out and some of the other hardware as well. I knew that I should just get it done yet this year since we had paid our out of pocket and deductible with Emerson's birth, week long hospital stay, tubes and surgery. Wow! That little girl was expensive this year! I had made an appointment for Dec 30 to get it done but I was kind of hoping to just cancel it and forget about getting this done. The first time around was SO painful that I have been dreading this.

After talking it over with Robb, we decided that it would be silly to have to pay for it next year when it would be pretty inexpensive this year. I went in on Dec 30 at 1:00 and they prepped me. I went into surgery at the Lincoln Orthopedic Center at 3:00. By 3:30 I was done. They had first thought that they would just do an ankle block instead of general anesthesia but the anesthesiologist said he would prefer to do general so I was sleepier afterward than I thought but it went okay. They had trouble getting some of the screws out and actually broke another one while taking it out. I did get to keep the screws that they took out. The boys thought that was pretty cool! When I woke up from surgery my ankle hurt some but nothing like last time. By 6:00 I was ready to head home. I was pretty sore for the next 4 days but after that I could walk around with the walking boot and could drive.  It was a bummer starting my year out like this but I guess it's done which is good.

Happy New Year

I was a little down and out on New Years Eve since I was still taking pain meds for my ankle but Robb picked up the slack. Robb showed the kids a good time. They made Jello, had pop and ate whipped cream out of the can. Just in case you are wondering about us, this is how we live it up and ring in the new year.

We also have a dance party!

We may be a little crazy but this is how our household runs.

Happy New Year!

This year has been amazing and I can't wait to see what next year has in store.

Not a very good picture but here is our New Years Eve Selfie.

Year in Review

January

Happy 5th Birthday to our little girl.

Getting ready for this baby!

February

Last picture of our family of 5.

Welcome to the world and our family miss Emerson Paige Lutz.

March

At 3 weeks old Emerson got a high fever and ended up in the ER. After many blood tests and a spinal tap it was determined that she had RSV. She had to spend 5 days on the pediatric unit. So thankful that our baby was okay.

Spring was in full swing with basketball. The boys loved it and Robb enjoyed coaching.

April

My grandma Wilson passed away. She lived a long and full life but it was still hard to say goodbye.

Emerson ended up in the ER again for high temps. Luckily they let us go home. Poor baby gets all the germs from her brothers and sister.

Happy Easter

The boys are playing football.

 

May

We celebrated Mother's Day and got our beautiful baby girl baptized on the same day.

Bryce, Caleb and Abby got to be a part of Megan Lunds wedding. Congratulation Lane and Megan!

Happy Birthday Daddy

Emerson is 3 months old. We are adjusting, slowly, to being a family of 6.

 

June

Happy 8th Birthday Bryce and Caleb!

July

Our Yankton vacation is always a blast!

Happy 4th of July

Emmy gets to try eating food. She loved it!

Abby learned to ride a bike without training wheels.

Bryce and Caleb spent the night at camp.

August

Back to school for everyone. Bryce and Caleb are in 2nd grade, Abby is in Kindergarten and since I started my new job in Endoscopy Emerson started an in home daycare.

 

September

Robb and I celebrated 11 years together.

Abby played soccer and Robb coached.

Emerson had the small cyst on her forehead removed.

October

Happy Halloween

November

Happy Thanksgiving

December

Merry Christmas

You really can't get much more of an eventful year than adding a child to your family! This year has been a year of happiness, growing, patience, learning, changing, tears and togetherness for our family. Things aren't always easy when the kids out number the adults but together we are making this family work. I'm not sure you can ask for much more. I am thankful for this last year and I look forward to the many challenges, happy times, hard times and fun times we will have in 2015.