Life Lately

Well hey there! Life has been FLYING by, but now that the holidays are over ~~hopefully maybe possibly probably not~~ things should settle down a little. Here’s a look at a few things we were doing in December:

Claire entered into the braces club. She was pretty nervous about getting them, but has adjusted well. She is super diligent about her dental hygiene (what 13 year old brushes, flosses, and rinses EVERY single night on her own?!) so I’m sure she’ll do just fine caring for her braces. She actually looks like a teenager now. 😭

Max had a music concert at school.

These are not his favorite things to do.

His teacher sent this picture to me one day: he was so excited when he heard he would be in helping Grace’s class. ❤️ But for real, why can’t they get along like this at home?

Grace had her winter dance recital. She was so excited- this girl loves performing for a crowd. Which is interesting, because at 4 years old she was the kid who hid behind poinsettia’s or blankies while on stage. 🤷🏽‍♀️

Not anymore.

She did a great job- she’s a natural dancer. Definitely didn’t get it from her Daddy.

Tessa came and watched her class perform. I thought it might make her sad, but she was actually happy she didn’t have to dance in front of the crowd. But she was happy to watch her buddy Ivy dance. Also I have no explanation for that wild hair.

Tessa’s teacher sent all kinds of things home for her to do. She loved working on this Christmas book in between…

many trips to Mayo. She has to have a Covid test there before EVERY procedure. She hates them.

Sclerotherapy round 1. We had the sweetest girl from ChildLife. I’ll go into more detail about what is all going on with Tessa in a separate post tomorrow.

Her teacher came over one day to do some activities with her, and left her with this cute little reindeer snack to make.

She also went to school for a little bit one day! I stayed with her while she was there, but she was SO excited to go. We had planned on going a couple days that week, but then Mayo scheduled her for more sclerotherapy. Because of that, she had to miss her class pajama/Christmas party. She was so sad, but I told her she could just wear her pajamas on the day we could go. When I mentioned this to her teacher, her sweet, incredible teacher wore her pajamas as well. 🥲 I had a hard time keeping it together that day. Between seeing the love from her teachers and classmates, to listening to them all say bye to her, to watching her meet Santa (also all arranged specifically for Tess by her awesome teacher) it was the most heart-warming thing ever.

All day Tessa kept telling people she met Santa. Side note: Santa was actually Max’s 4th grade teacher. 😏 We ❤️ him.

It was a pretty exhausting day.

We went back to Mayo for another Covid test, and came home to a tornado warning that evening.

We just made it into the basement before the power went off. A tornado touched down a few miles from our home, but we were fine. Our power, however, didn’t come on until the following afternoon. I got the kids ready for school and Tess and I ready for Mayo with no electricity and no running water. I had to take a “shower” with baby wipes before spending my day talking with doctors and nurses. I was actually thankful for my mask that day. They probably were too. 🙊

Tessa’s drains were leaking a lot after her sclerotherapy, so we had to miss watching a sweet couple get married. But Ben and my good friend took lots of pictures for us!