Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas!

We've been rather consumed by Annie's spinal fusion surgery and recovery.  Now that things are slowly starting to get back to normal, I'm finally getting around to posting some pictures from the past several months.  Here's just a hodge-podge of pictures.

We had some time before church one morning and the girls were looking rather put-together, so I snapped some shots of them.

I took Lexie and Molly trick-or-treating for Halloween.  Lexie wore out after about an hour, but Molly still wanted more candy, so she and I went back out for another hour!  It was a fun night with these girls, but sure cold!

Meanwhile, Annie stayed at home, happy and warm.  At the time, she was in isolation in preparation for her spinal fusion surgery, which she ended up sick for and had to reschedule anyway.

Lexie is one of the best cuddle-buddies I know!  I love how willing she is to warm me up with a snuggle!

We had a very quiet and calm Thanksgiving at home with just our little family.  By this time, Annie was over her terrible illness but was in isolation again for her rescheduled surgery date.

Annie's new haircut in preparation for her surgery and hospitalization.

Annie's surgery was the day before Lexie's birthday, so we celebrated the night before Annie's surgery.  My parents were extremely kind in not just coming out once for Annie's cancelled spinal fusion, but then again for the real deal a month later!  Lexie was excited to have Grandpa here to celebrate her birthday with her since they share the same birthday!

My mom also brought Annie this beautiful afghan she made! It matches Annie's room perfectly and Annie loves it!

Molly is still devouring books faster than we can get them for her!  This is how I discovered her at the library one day--in the middle of the book aisle reading on the floor! This is truly her natural habitat!

Annie was feeling well enough from her spinal fusion that we were able to celebrate our traditional Christmas Eve with her watching slideshows of pictures from past years watching the girls grow up.  We realized this year just how many pictures came up of Annie going through surgeries, or in the hospital.  She is one amazing girl and has experienced more trials in her 11 years than any girl should have to.  But she is a tough cookie and my ultimate example of patiently and quietly enduring.  I know Annie can't talk, but even if she could, I strongly believe that she would not be complaining about her lot in life, and I should be much better at following her example.  This has been the first Christmas Eve watching these slideshows where our hearts have ached at how quickly our children are growing up.  We sure miss their cute little baby faces, but we are thrilled at what they are becoming.

We set out cookies for Santa as usual, well, except for that one year when we forgot and Santa raided our kitchen trying to find a snack!  But apparently I didn't set out the right kind of cookies.  After the kids went to bed, we discovered this note that Molly had written for Santa:

"Dear Santa, I know mom left you bad cookies so you can have one or two mint cookies in the Christmas tree container on the kitchen counter on the left side of the oven.  From, Molly"

In the morning we learned that Santa took her up on that offer!

 Oh, the excitement Christmas morning!