Family Portraits 2022
We had our family portraits taken this past fall as well. I am so thankful that we are not making yearly portraits a priority. I have so many pictures of the girls but not many of us with them so it is always nice to have this yearly time set to make sure we have great pictures of all 4 of us. This year, we took them at Table Rock and it was a gorgeous background in the fall.
Wetzel Family Portraits
Last year for Christmas, we all gave DJ’s parents a portrait session (don’t worry mom, we know we still owe you a session too). We were able to have those portraits taken by a fellow photographer friend back in September when we were all gathered at their house. The kids surprised us and did great for the pictures even though we started taking them not long after they all got out of the cars. We love having these special pictures of all of us together!
Sookie
2022 ended with a big surgery for Sookie. She has a very bad habit of eating anything and everything she finds laying around. Well, that led to an obstruction in her intestines which became an emergency situation. She was acting very strange one morning (after having vomited a pair of doll pants) and I just knew something wasn’t right. When she sat in DJ’s chair in his office, something she’s never done, I felt like she was trying to tell us something was wrong. We took her to our vet and they saw something on several x-rays that wouldn’t move despite filling her full of fluids. So, we ended up at the emergency vet where they did an ultrasound and recommended surgery. It was a pretty involved and risky surgery but she did great. We were able to bring her home the next day and begin the fun of keeping her in her crate and calm for 3 weeks. The first 2 weeks weren’t too bad because we had meds to mostly sedate her. The week after she had her sutures removed she still had to be kept calm but she wasn’t on the meds anymore so she was not happy at all. We were all so thankful when she could take the cone off and not have any restrictions anymore. However, we know she’s already eaten other things that she shouldn’t have and are just praying everything passes on it’s own so we don’t have to go through this all again. We told the vet at the hospital that we hope we never see him again.
Ava’s Ears Pierced
Ava had a big moment over Christmas break. She got her ears pierced. Unfortunately, that led to another big moment when she had her first ER visit. We got her ears pierced at our pediatrician office, hoping that would avoid any sort of issues. Well, her ears managed to get infected somehow and since it was Sunday night and New Years Day, we had nowhere else to take her but the childen’s ER (thanks to one of our nurse friends for telling us that’s where we needed to go after I sent her pictures). She was so disappointed to have to have the earrings taken out and now have to wait at least 3 months before having them pierced again. But, she looked so grown up for a few days before they got infected. She is all better now and is counting down the days until she can get them pierced again (although mama is even more hesitant to do it now after this experience).
Christmas with the Lindsays
Thankfully, we all finally got over our sickness and nobody else got sick and we were able to go to Ron and Jane’s house to celebrate Christmas with the Lindsay side of our family. It was so special to be together with everyone (missing Eric, Jenn and Piper of course). We got to meet our newest cousin, Ruthanne, and I got some baby cuddles in with her. The girls had a blast playing with Blake, Lucy and Olivia. It is so fun to see all the girls together and Grandmama especially loved having all her angels, as she calls them, together. We just wish Piper could have been there to get a picture with the whole girl gang. We are so thankful for this time with family to celebrate another Christmas together.
Christmas Day 2022
We had a nice quiet Christmas at home this year. We planned to go to church since it was on Sunday but couldn't go due to me being sick (more changed plans). I definitely did not feel great Christmas day but we made the most of it and the girls had a great day. We opened gifts, watched church on YouTube, ate our big Christmas brunch and watched Charlie Brown Christmas. It was a really sweet day together. Of course, I couldn’t let the day start without taking pictures of the girls in their Christmas pjs. Zoe was not happy about that idea but finally agreed to smile when she had her blankie with her. The girls loved giving each other the gifts they picked out for each other. Zoe especially loved the HUGE bag that I used to wrap her gift from Ava...she could even fit inside it. We also continued our tradition of having the girls pick out gifts to give away. They both packed shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child and they also selected a gift for someone their age for Toys for Tots. We always want to make sure they know Christmas is more than just getting gifts. We also did our traditional 3 gifts for the girls. Ava got an Alexa speaker to be able to listen to music in her room (something she needed), the rest of the Star Friends books (her favorite series for something to read), and 2 Harper Iman dolls (thanks to Target for the huge sale for her something she wants). Zoe got a new water bottle to be able to take her favorite almond milk to lunch at school (something she needed), several books mostly related to ballerinas like Misty Copeland (something to read), and she also got 2 Harper Iman dolls (thanks to Target for the huge sale for her something she wants). We fell in love with the Harper Iman dolls and the mission that the mom and daughter who started the company created of making dolls of all skin tones and hair textures for girls like ours who can't always find a doll on the shelf that looks like them. We were so happy to be able to support their company this year! This Christmas definitely looked different than we expected but it was a special day to celebrate Jesus’ birth together as a family.
Christmas Eve
Our changing plans continued Christmas Eve when I started running a fever. It turns out I had strep throat (as did DJ but we didn’t realize it at the time). That meant, I couldn’t go to the Christmas Eve service at church. We were supposed to go with DJ’s parents and my mom. DJ and the girls went on with his parents and my mom came over and watched it on YouTube with me. It was not the Christmas Eve we expected but the girls were so excited to go to the service and they had a great time. Zoe even wore the outfit my mom and I made for Ava the first Christmas after my dad passed away. It is made from his Lindsay tartan shirt. It was so special to be able to see Zoe wear something of his this year. I of course had to take pictures…and Zoe of course was super silly for the pictures.
The best we could get with 2 girls and 2 dogs. But we had to document Sookie’s first Christmas!
Christmas with Grammie
The theme for this year’s Christmas is ever changing plans. We are thankful we were able to spend a day with my mom, Jenn and Piper for Christmas. However, we missed my brother being able to come since he got tied up with work in Florida. We hate Eric couldn’t come but we are so thankful we were able to still get together with the rest of the family (especially since due to sicknesses we weren’t able to do Christmas with DJ’s side of the family).
We enjoyed a really nice relaxing day with mom, Jenn and Piper. We opened gifts, enjoyed food and the girls had fun with the gingerbread crafts that Jenn brought. And we all especially enjoyed playing with Beamer, their new black lab puppy. He was so cute and we loved being able to meet him this young.
Beamer was especially cute when he was trying to help with the unwrapping of the presents. The girls (plus DJ) decided to have a decorating contest for the gingerbread men ornaments. Jenn sent pics of the finished pieces to Eric and he was the judge. Ava’s ornaments won the competition (I think her’s was the 2nd one). They all worked together on the house creation. We had such a great time celebrating the holiday with my family!
Dance Christmas Tree
Zoe’s dance studio sponsored a tree for the Festival of Trees at the Hyatt again this year. We took the girls to see the trees and find Zoe’s ornament on the Dance Without Limits tree. It took a while but we finally found her ornament.
