Christmas Eve...

I am still finding tiny stray pieces of wrapping paper around the house! It's a joyful reminder that we celebrated our first Christmas with our precious son! And, what an extra special Christmas we had!! For over ten years we prayed and dreamed of the day we would be celebrating Christmas with our child and this year all our prayers/dreams were realized. Praise The Lord!!

Our Christmas celebration starts on Christmas Eve. The day we celebrate with Matt's father, Poppi. Since we were all dressed up we took a few pictures in front of our Christmas tree. We took about 20 pictures of this and similar poses because Mommy has to look good (or the picture will never be printed) & Zachary moves around so much it can be hard to get a picture of him looking at the camara. Not to mention Matt tends to have a "not another *@#*$* photo" look on his face, LOL.
After our family picture we set Zachary in front of the tree for some portrait pictures. He was mesmerized by a few of the ornaments. And, we used them to our benfit of getting him to sit still for even more pictures (among his favorites: Mr. Potato head, Fire truck & his hand print ornament).
One too many pictures and Zachary let us know he was done & ready for opening a gift...which, was not his so we had to distract him fast before he tore it open (causing even more tears).
Once Poppi arrived the fun began!
Poppi brought most of Zachary's gifts in a HUGE red stocking. Zachary was curious as to what was inside! After all the fun with Poppi, Zachary put on his Santa PJ's and came down stairs to say "nite-nite" to the Christmas tree & put out cookies for Santa.

Once Zachary was in bed Matt and I began a multitude of up and down up and down the stairs to bring down all the Christmas presents. By the time we were finished we were out of breath and exhausted. Santa's helpers took a BIG bite of the cookie Zachary left out and went to bed with the spirit of Christmas in our home, The precious gift of the birth of our Lord & Savior in our hearts & the thrill & anticipation of tomorrow in our minds.
..to be continued...

Christmas Eve

May you have a blessed Christmas surrounded by family & those you love!

From our home to yours, Merry Christmas!

We are in the full swing of the holiday season! It looks a lot like Christmas at the Miller house! Just this morning we were putting the final touch to our front door. My very creative sister made us a garland. It is absolutely beautiful! Thank you, Camille!! As you can see Zachary likes it too...
This last weekend was a very scary one for Matt and me. Being first time parents we were not prepared for the scare of our life that started around 5pm Friday night. Zachary quickly developed a fever that reached 102.7. He was absolutely pitiful & we felt helpless to his continuing whimpering cries. We called our insurance 800 hotline and spoke with a nurse for an hour! She gave us a lot of information on fevers. By the end of the conversation, all 3 of our home phone batteries were dead & recharging. Zachary went to sleep in his bed, we thought all would be okay. However, an hour after we laid him down, Zachary woke up SCREAMING and shaking. We went in to him & he was in what appeared to Matt to be a post seizure state. We went to call 911 but all of our phones were dead!! We ended up calling 911 from our cell phone. And, we rushed to get ourselves together because we fully expected to be jumping in the ambulance to rush to the hospital.

EMS arrived in a few minutes. By the time they arrived Zachary was sitting up, watching his favorite show (Oswald). And, he was largely back to normal. The medics checked him over and took vitals. All was normal. They offered to transport him to the hospital but suggested that he would be fine to wait until morning and visit our pediatrician.

Early in the morning we were able to make an appointment with our pediatrician, who keeps limited Saturday hours. Zachary's temperature was still 102. But, the doctor checked him over and said he was likely suffering from some sort of viral infection. She advised us to keep doing what we were doing, focus on reducing the fever. And, if he wasn't feeling better by Monday to come back. Luckily, Zachary's fever broke that afternoon. And, he continues to have a normal temperature to this point. As a result of this experience, we purchased new cordless phones!! In the process we learned that it is very common for children under 5 to have seizures as a result of a high fever.

Also, Zachary has not taken off his beloved Elmos Croc shoes since Friday night! The red rubber shoes seemed to be the only thing that gave him comfort! He has slept in them, walks around the house in them clothed and naked. We drew the line at bath time! We are very blessed to have made it through this ordeal intact! And, we now have a notebook full of details on how to handle any fever that may arise in the years to come.