Christmas Eve (Eve)!

Just like we've done every year for the past 5 years, we celebrated Christmas Eve on the 23rd. The girls don't know any different, and our church has Christmas Eve Eve services instead of Christmas Eve services, so it works out perfectly for us. We wake up on the morning of the 24th, have our family Christmas, then drive to Ft. Worth and don't miss any of our extended family celebrations. 

This year was a little different though. Kendall had had a slight cough all day on the 23rd, but when she woke up from her nap that afternoon her cough was really bad and she had a slight fever. We had four services that day, and I was serving in the 5:45 and attending the 7:00. I thought she might feel better when she got moving and got distracted, headed to church, so I went ahead and put the girls in their cute matching reindeer dresses and went on to church as usual. I was actually Kendall's teacher in the 5:45 hour, and then I planned on bringing her into the service with me, so I figured if I needed to slip out with her I could. 

She just started feeling worse and worse. I have never seen her feel so bad. She was having trouble breathing, she was really flushed, and she just had no energy. She sat with me during class the whole time, then we met Randy in the 7:00 service. He could tell she felt bad right away. She laid her head in one of our laps the whole service and her breathing was really labored. I was totally ready to leave there and head to the urgent care of ER, but then we remembered our sweet friend and pediatrician's head nurse Teresa was there. We caught her after the service was over and she listened to Kendall and watched her breathing and said she thought it was pretty serious. She actually called Dr. B to talk to him about it and he said he thought it was serious too and that he wanted her to take us to his office, listen to her better with the stethoscope, and possibly give her a breathing treatment. We were so thankful for both of them! I got the girls loaded up, we went to the office (right around the corner from the church, love Lake Jackson) and Teresa listened to her breathing. She said she was wheezing pretty bad and gave her a breathing treatment. We could tell that made a huge difference pretty quickly. She sent us home with a machine and told us to give it to her every four hours. Poor baby! We were pretty worried and she was just so worn out. 

So with all that being said - here's our picture we took after we set out Santa cookies:

 She just felt so bad. We got ready for bed, set out cookies, and then Randy read them "Twas the Night Before Christmas" before we put them to bed. Randy had been to our Galveston campus, Coastal for three services that morning, and then come straight back to LJ for our four services, so he was worn out from a day of 7 services! He fell asleep pretty quickly, like the girls!

 With him being asleep, I played Santa by myself. I had fun stuffing the stockings and setting out their gifts. I got in bed and was asleep for about 20 minutes before I woke up to Kendall crying. I went in and she needed a breathing treatment again. We did that and then I was so nervous about her breathing that I decided to sleep with her for the night. We had a pretty rough night. In all of the craziness though, I was so thankful that we had access to quick medical care and that there was something I could do to help my sweet baby who couldn't breathe. I don't take that for granted! I am thankful for so much - especially our three sweet girls!!

(P.S. check out our tree - we love it, but we have lost several strands of lights this year! It may be the last year for this tree, or we may be adding our own strands of lights, if that's even possible. Eeek!)