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Christmas Day {Overload}

Santa found our house!

Opening our stockings!

Yay, Mom can download books!

Daddy LOVES Big Bang Theory!

Santa spoiled Emmalynn!

And so did all the family (here are a few pictures)!

 And Santa never forgets Miss Shelby! 

And then it was nap time!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

What a blessing it was to spend our first Christmas together as a family! We loved every minute of it!

I made our traditional ham dinner. (I haven't unpacked anything and so this was the table decor we had to work with).

It was super yummy (obviously)!

 We opened our traditional Christmas pajamas from Mrs. Claus!

And the stockings were hung...

Christmas Card {Scanned Photo}

Dear Family and Friends,

We hope this letter finds you well. As most of you know, we have had an eventful year! We have experienced a lot and want to share with you the lessons we've learned in 2012.

We learned that some of our biggest BLESSINGS come in small packages! After 11 years of wanting children, we were blessed with the tiniest bundle of joy weighing 1 lb 8 oz and 11 3/4 inches long. She just couldn't wait any longer to meet us and was born at 24 weeks (4 months early). We just love our little Emmalynn Fern Candland!

We learned to be GRATEFUL for modern medicine/technology and inspired medical professionals. Emmalynn was in the NICU for 137 days and received the best care! She had the “Cadillac” of stays by having her heart ligated, a tracheostomy, and a gastrostomy (gtube). We will forever be in debt to the wonderful doctors and nurses who saved our baby girls life.

We learned that MIRACLES happen everyday and inspire faith, hope, service, and love. Emmalynn's story touched not only our lives, but the lives of people around us, and the lives of people we didn't even know. We felt the prayers of so many and were in awe at the acts of service and hundreds of donations made in her name.

We learned that the SIMPLE things in life are what really matter most. Spending so much time at the hospital made us realize that all the things we wanted and needed to do all the time (you know Deneigh and her projects) weren’t as important as we thought. Deneigh is now living her dream of being a stay at home mom and simply focusing on our daughter and helping her thrive and progress. Speaking of simple, we are counting this as our baby announcement (hence the reason there are only pictures of Emmalynn), moving card (see the front of the envelope), and Christmas card (the novel you are reading)!

We learned that GROWTH is a challenge with a reward! Although we are grateful that at 7 months our little peanut is weighing 9 pounds, this isn’t the kind of growth we’re talking about. During the year we grew spiritually, and more recently Phillip is stretching himself mentally. After a 2 year wait to get into a program, we both felt it was important for him to finish his (long awaited) degree when the opportunity presented itself. Emmalynn threw us for a loop by coming early, but Phillip sacrificed a semester away from his girls and went ahead to Las Vegas to begin his 2.5 year program at UNLV. He is getting all A’s and we are very grateful for Skype/Facetime! Emmalynn is finally strong enough for his girls to join him in time for Christmas!

Our favorite thing we learned this year is the true meaning of LOVE. We learned what it feels like to love your child unconditionally. We increased our love and devotion to each other by becoming parents. We felt the love and support from so many of you.

We have so much to be grateful for and we look forward to more life lessons in 2013! We wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love,

Phillip, Deneigh, Emmalynn, & Shelby @

Family Snuggles

O' Christmas Tree

8 Hours!!!

I am one happy momma! Emmalynn slept 8 hours last night! We are all well rested and playful this morning!

Who Needs Toys...

...when you can stare at your hand all day!

And on a completely unrelated topic to this cute girl, there I was this morning minding my own business straightening my hair and BAM...I found my first grey hair!

We Made It!

We arrived safely in Las Vegas! 

On our way out of town we had to stop and pick up Shelby. She was just excited for a car ride, she didn't know it would be a LONG car ride! She hardly acknowledged Emmalynn, but Shelby has always been fine with babies and kids. We also used smell cloths so she would know her smell.

Emmalynn was an angel the entire trip! She looked at her favorite books and watched a little Baby Einstein. We stopped in Kingman and I was initiated into the "mommy club" because I changed my babies bum...on my lap...in a Walmart parking lot. Haha!

Just as we got off our exit to our new house, Emmalynn had a pretty stellar blow out. Needless to say, we were scrambling to find all her bath supplies! As you can see, she was totally content and happy to FINALLY be together as a family!

Thank you to my wonderful mom for driving us (I was afraid she wouldn't let Emmalynn stay though). She watched Emmalynn so we could do a little shopping and get one last date before we were on our own! I think it was an excuse to get in a few more Grammy snuggles!

Alterations

I bet you didn't know that zipper clothes are a no go for us. Emmalynn has her pulse ox wires and her gtube extension that make it impossible. But I just couldn't accept the fact that she wouldn't be able to wear soft and comfy jammies. So I altered a few to test the waters. I figured out where her gtube extension and pulse ox could come out on each side of each pair of jammies. I unstitched about an inch and a half, then zig zag stitched the fabric so it wouldn't fray and viola! We are in business. Warm jammies for winter!

Supplies & Equipment

This my friends, is the shipment of supplies we get each month to sustain our daughters life!

And the following is the equipment we use on a daily basis!

This is called a pulse oximeter or pulse ox. It's kinda a love hate relationship. I love it because it tells me what Emmalynn's oxygen is at along with her heart rate. The hate part is when these numbers dip when I am fast asleep and I wake up in a panic and my adrenaline is going, only to see her numbers bounced right back. It does give me peace of mind at all times and I'm sure most new moms would be jealous because I don't feel the need to think, "is she breathing". I can see exactly what her sats are at!

I love this picture I took a while back. See we wrap the pulse ox on her foot and we rotate it every 3 hours so the light doesn't burn her skin. I had to snap a picture when I saw the cord between her toes!

This machine is pretty important around here. It's her converter. It converts our air into the oxygen she needs. Right now she's at 1 liter but really it's just what they call a blow by so we don't even know what she's really getting. She only requires it when she is sleeping because she starts to get a little lazy.

And this machine hooks up to the converter and it's what makes her humidity. The humidity keeps her trach secretions from getting too dry.

This is the suction machine we use for secretions. Since Emmalynn doesn't breathe through her mouth or nose yet, everything comes through the trach and she's not quite old enough or strong enough to cough or clear her throat. So we use this VERY noisy machine. It startles her every time I turn it on.

This is the feeding pump. It hooks up to her belly since she has oral aversions and won't nurse or take much from a bottle. She gets a certain amount, based on weight, slow dripped over an hour.

This is a nebulizer we use twice a day to give Emmalynn breathing treatments for her little lungs since she has chronic lung disease due to being born so early.

7 Months!!!

Rolling?!

It was a total fluke I am sure, although her physical therapist is working with her, but Em sorta kinda rolled! We were playing on my bed, which made her lean towards me, and she kicked her legs over until she was mostly on her tummy!

The her arm got stuck and it wasn't fun anymore.

Goatee

Talk to the Hand

Emmalynn has official found her hands! I finally caught her on video. Right when she wakes up and stretches she sees her hand and she just stares at it. Of course I'm the mom and I think it's adorable!

Tis The Season

Tis the season for cute holiday clothes (from Grammy)...

...with a reindeer butt!

Just Playin'

Daddy Daughter Date

Yep, this just happened! Went on a daddy daughter date and got pedis! My dad is cooler than your dad!

Christmas Cards 2012

These bad boys are ready to be mailed out tomorrow. That's November 30th...the day before my goal of December 1st! I feel ahead of the game this Christmas...and for the first time ever!

Dear Shots

Dear Shots, 

I hate your stinking guts. You make me vomit. You're scum between my toes! 

Love, The Mommy