Christmas Weekend

The Pearsons are getting ready for Christmas! 

For the first time in 5 years I was allowed to get a real Christmas tree! Yes, you read correctly, I was allowed. You see, Brian boycotted buying a real tree because we were never home for Christmas. We always came to Tucson for the 2 week Christmas break and he saw no reason to spend money on a live tree. Every year I would ask for a tree and every year he would say, "If we ever move back to Tucson I'll buy you a real tree." Thankfully he kept his word! There would have been hell to pay if he told me no. Well, it did help that his friend Duhon threw out our fake tree when he helped us move into our new house.  Duhon, works at a Christmas tree lot and won't allow friends to say the "F" word, much less own one.

 We headed to Duhon's lot on Friday night and picked out our tree. It's beautiful and the house smells great. Which reminds me, I better water it, it's been a few days. Oops. I've never been accused of having a green thumb.

Looking for the perfect tree

Jax was really into decorating the tree.

He took it upon himself to get the step stool.

He was so proud of himself!

Saturday morning we headed to the mall to visit Santa. Jaxon was looking forward to telling Santa what he wanted. He had it all planned. He was going to tell Santa he wanted a Batman with a black cape and a Bat Mobile. Yes, he's very specific. When we got there he was able to make a Christmas wish. His wish? For Reesey to come home for Christmas. :) 

When it came time, Jaxon sat on Santa's lap like a champ! No crying, screaming or hesitation. He went right over, climbed on his lap and told Santa what he wanted. He is getting to be so big. Sniff. Sniff.

Reese knew it was a Christmas Weekend so she wore her Christmas jammies! 

Sunday night we took a little trip to Winterhaven. Winterhaven is a neighborhood here in town that hosts a festival of lights. Many of the houses in the neighborhood decorate their houses with holiday displays. We have never taken Jaxon and thought this was a perfect year to do so. The weather was perfect for a stroll in the midtown neighborhood. We had a little hot chocolate and enjoyed the beautiful lights.

Jaxon's favorite display was the very first house we saw.

The Christmas Polar Bear

Not sure which animal is behind him.

Christmas Rhino and Christmas Giraffe

The hot chocolate had a bit too much chocolate I think. Jax was WIRED!

This house was clever! The 12 days of Christmas. My favorite was "8 Maids A Milkin'" Ami, Nicole & Mary... this made me think of you guys :)

Where's Waldo? this made me chuckle. 

This house doesn't look like much, but it was my favorite. They had a water & light show set to music! Think the Bellagio in Vegas. It's amazing what people can do! I have a video, but am not sure how to upload it with my Mac. 

Watching the water show

Horse drawn wagons were in full force on Sunday

It certainly was a busy weekend... taking turns going to the hospital and staying with Jaxon, trying to make things normal for him and not wanting him to feel as if he's been abandoned for his baby sister. Needless to say, we are ready to be a family of four, under one roof. We are ready to stay home for days at a time with nowhere to go. We are NOT ready for sleepless night, however! 

A Reese update....

She is holding her own body temperature. YAY!

She is gainly weight steadily. She weighs 5 lbs 8 oz! Whoot Whoot!

Her formula intake is up to 60 cc's (2 oz) She has to drink 30 cc's in order to be considered a "successful" bottle feeding. 

She has not be gavaged (tube fed) in the last 2 days. Yipee!

She is now on her own feeding schedule instead of a set schedule. She will now dictate when she eats. Which they say is a step closer to being home. 

She still has about 3 episodes (low heart rate & forgetting to breath) a day. As of 2:30 pm today, she hadn't had an episode since last night.

She is wearing some newborn onesies and some of her preemie onesies are too small. 

Today was a good day in the NICU world. I'm hoping things keep looking up and we can all be home again.

She is seriously the sweetest baby

Notice the tape residue from her pulse ox monitor

Those 3 leads (wires) monitor her heart rate.