- Allllllll ABOARD! -

Alllllll aboard! 

Tickets, please, tickets! 

Well, ya comin'?!  :)

What a MAGICAL night it was aboard the Polar Express with aunts, uncles, cousins, grammies, and papas!  Golden tickets and hot chocolate and cookies for all!

Hot! Hot! Hey, we got it!  ...Hot! Hot! Whoa, we got it!  ...Hot! Hot!  Yeah, we got it!  ...Hot! Hot! Ohhhh, WE GOT IT...

...'cause THAT'S the way things happen on the Polar Express!

The chef staff on the train told the kids to ring their new bells ALL THE WAY HOME so Santa would know where they lived....... It may or may not've been the longest 30 minute commute of my life, but who can throw down an eye roll at that awesome Christmas magic?!? #notme!  

The bell still rings for all who truly believe! <3

- Merry, MerrY, MERRY... -

...joy, JoY, JOY!!!

After the girls were exposed to COVID last December and therefore we all had to spend Christmas Day at home [in some sort of a pseudo-quarantine, JUSTINCASE they might develop symptoms], we made ALL THE STOPS this year and saw [almost] all of the family and had a holly jolly time opening gifts and re-telling favorite pasttimes and feasting the days away.  Merry joy!

Between Christmas Eve Mass [which we arrived to about an hour early to get a seat, so thank you to Eden for sharing markers and coloring pages with Harper and Scarlett while we tapped our toes fairly patiently waiting for Mass to start!]...

...and a quick run home to shag the itchy dresses + lay out carrots and cookies cookie and milk for Santa... 

...and Christmas Eve at Brian's parents'...

...and Christmas morning at home [Santa came!]...

...and Christmas Day afternoon at my parents'...

...we were happy to be home together on December 26, just the five of us, lounging in our PJs and enjoying all of our new toys and gifts! 

COVID has taken away so many things over the past year [and even throughout 2020, too...], but I'm so thankful it will never take away our joy or the love that we share!  I absolutely adore seeing all that Christmas is through our kiddos' eyes, and even moreso now that they're learning about the REAL reason for the season.  So sweet, so special!

Merry Christmas, friends!  O come, let us adore Him! <3 

 

 

 

- The Christmas Letter: 2021 -

And juuuuust as we thought 2020 was the craziest year in the history of crazy years… 

 

[ ENTER 2021. ]

 

Ho HA Ho…  But, oh!  WHAT. A. YEAR. full of unexpected blessings and huge triumphs and great joys!  On New Year’s Day, we found out we were expecting another tiny miracle!  A couple days after that, Scarlett turned 3 and barked her way through a puppy paw-ty at our house.  And a couple months after THAT, Harper turned 6 and finally got to have her YMCA skating party [the one that was cancelled last year on the first day of sheltering-in].  Cue the trumpets and trombones – and heck, the WHOLE ENTIRE BAND… We stand in awe at the blessing of children and absolutely love celebrating these two three little souls that have been entrusted to us! 

 

In early May, Brian went back to in-person work at Purina for the first time since March 2020!  Does he miss the luxury of traipsing downstairs to work from home in sweatpants and slippers, cup of piping hot coffee in hand?  We’ll never ever know!  On evenings and weekends, he still managed to construct an outdoor grill and build bunk beds for the kids in addition to keeping up with his honey-do list full of many smaller home improvement projects.  Between a week of Totus Tuus and many many weeknights of T-ball and tumbling, we squeezed in a family vacation to Big Cedar in June and also enjoyed many laps around Lake Lou on Grammy and Papa’s new pontoon!

 

In no time at all, the clock struck August and it was back to school for Harper [1^st grade] and Scarlett [Pre-K 3].  On the last day of the month – and 10 days before her due date – our beautiful Juliette Thérèse made her grand debut!  Bows be ours forever and ever!  She is the most adored little sister and would probably unanimously win “favorite family member” if we took a vote.

 

October kept us on our toes between the Fleming family vacation to the Smoky Mountains,Juliette’s baptism, and a 2-week quarantine following positive COVID tests for 2/5 of the family.  In the thick of the quarantine chaos, my maternity leave[s] ended and I resigned from Mercy Labor and Delivery after being at the bedside for the past decade.  It was most definitely a bittersweet decision, though I’m excited to scale back from full-time work and have all weekends and holidays with the fam.  I will continue working part-time at Veritas Fertility & Surgery as well as crafting with Cecilia Clare & Co. and managing my shiny new Etsy shop! :D

 

Whew!  I thought about planning for a less eventful 2022, but I think we’ll just go full speed ahead into the New Year with bigger dreams and greater goals than ever!  With Love at the center of our lives, I can’t wait to see what the next 365 days will bring.  May you also feel His love, see His wonders, and share His grace.   We are praying for you always; please pray for us, too!  

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 

 

 

- Quarantine Lyfe -

LATE ENTRY [yet always better late than never]:

Is it Thursday or Monday or 10am or 6pm?! ...WE HAVE NO IDEA; but fortunately, it doesn't really matter when the entire family is on quarantine for days weeks on end!  After Brian came down with some SEVERE fatigue and nasty congestion in early October and subsequently tested positive for COVID, we were issued a very official quarantine letter from the IDPH and the 14-day Fleming family lockdown began.  I thought it would be prudent to test the rest of us several days after his positive test; Harper came back positive also and later developed mild congestion, but all the rest of us were negative [even though Brian held Juliette for hours the day his symptoms began and and then slept with Scarlett in her bed that same night...?!? SUCH A WEIRD VIRUS, I swear.].  ANYWAY.....staying cooped up together for 14 days in a row made us a litttttle stir crazy and had us lookin' a lot like:

Bleh, woof!  [Before everyone goes throwing some judgy judgment this way, let me just say that, even though we found out halfway through quarantine that Harper was positive, there was absolutely NO WAY POSSIBLE to be the only functioning parent in the household and to keep the two older kids separated from each other!  ...And at that point, they had already been on top of each other for a week and 'twas what it was.  I'm so thankful it all panned out ok!]  

ANYWAY.

I love this family so hard, but I also look back on this time and -- NOT TO TOOT MY HORN OR ANYTHING -- still wonder how I made it through.  Between the homeschooling x 2 and all the homework assignments that came along with that, scheduling/attending Zoom calls with the school to administer Harper's missed tests, totally entertaining two stir crazy children who couldn't leave the house PLUS nursing/caring for a 6-week old infant who was 100% dependent on her momma, I somehow still had to scrape up the energy to get three meals on the table each day [plus provide 30 snacks in between] and then find the patience to get everyone bathed and off to bed.  And then dishes!  Laundry!  Tidying up the toy tornado that tore through the house!  Single parents:  I salute you so hard.  Admittedly, there were VERY MANY uncharitable thoughts made towards poor Brian as Juliette was crying for milk and Scarlett was skipping around the kitchen singing at the top of her lungs and Harper was beg/yelling OVER both Juliette and Scarlett because she needed help with her homework day after day after day and zomggggg; glancing over to the couch amidst all the constant chaos to catch yet another glimpse of dear hubby PTFO for approximately 23 hours of every single day was just a liiiiittle too much at times [but rest easy, I only regretted my vows to love him in sickness and in health about 6 times, which is not too shabby, considering.........].  During the 2-week ordeal, we only left the house one time; and that was to load up in the van and pull up to the Walgreens drive-thru to swab ourselves for COVID.  God bless the handful of sweet souls who dropped dinners on our porch and also my literal saint of a mother who brought a few pots of soup AND a "busy bucket" full of new games and crafts and books for the older girls to peruse [and then sat with them on the porch -- social distanced and with a mask on, of course -- just so I could sit inside and stare at the wall in silence for 15 whole minutes. L to the O to the LLL.]. 

Long story short:  COVID, you're the worst. 

But minutes turned to hours and hours turned to days, and somehow -- likely only by the grace of God -- we made it through and were all released just a few days before Halloween!  I'm still waiting on my blue ribbon and/or gold crown for keeping the family afloat, but hey...maybe some day. :)

FATHER, SON, AND HOLY SPIRIT........amen.  [...But seriously, any time on that buffet breakfast, pal!]

- Out of the mouth of babes: VOL XXIX -

After finishing a brownie:
"Mommy, I forgot what does an ice cweam [cream] bar taste yike?"

In anticipation of family vacation:
"Mommy, are you ah-cited for bay-cation? ...Because I am!  But pob-ee [probably] it will take foreva' to get 'dere."

 

 

While putting a Band-Aid on her hand:
"Where is my boo-boo?! I fink 'dere used to be one right here..."

 

As Juliette was crying while getting into her carseat before church:
"I guess Ju-wee-ette is 'cared [scared] to go to church because she doesn't want to be bwessed [blessed] or sumping."

After Juliette had a blowout:
Scarlett:  "Why does Ju-wee-ette have dia-wee-uh [diarrhea]?"
Harper:  "Scarlett, that isn't diarrhea, it's just the way babies' poop is because they can't have poops like us because their buttholes are too small."
Scarlett:  "Oh."

 

 

While dragging Juliette's baptism gown across the floor:
"Mommy, is this your wedding dress?"

While playing church with a slew of stuffed animals:
"OKKKKK, EVERYONE, get down on yo' knees!"

While watching Juliette nurse:
"Awe [are] you feeing her?  DON'T FEED HER!  She is just gonna poop in her dia-puh!"

Randomly:
Scarlett:  "Mommy, I wish I was a grown up."
Me:  "Oh, really?  Why?"
Scarlett:  "Because 'DEN you would be a gwanma [grandma]!"

 

As Juliette was nursing:
Scarlett:  "Ju-wee-ette yikes yo' boobies!"
Brian:  "So does Daddy..."
Scarlett:  "But Mommy, 'DAT is so silly, Daddy isn't a baby!"
Me:  .....

Randomly:
"Mommy, Daddy dwinks [drinks] a WOT [lot] of bee-yuhs [beers], because he dwinks one, two, fee, four, five.  And a wot of bee-yuh is NOT HEL-FEE [healthy] because he should drink water instead."

 

Randomly, 5 days into quarantine [with 9 more to go!]:
"I bet my teacha [teacher] is missing me!"

 

Every 10 minutes [seemingly] during our 2-week quarantine:
Scarlett:  "Mommy, do I have COVID?"
Me:  "No."
Scarlett:  "Does Haw-puh [Harper]?"
Me:  "Yes."
Scarlett:  "Oh."

While complain/pouting to Brian during quarantine:
"You awe [are] sick and Mommy is feeding 'da baby and Haw-puh [Harper] got in trouble so I have nobody to 'nuggle wif'..."

 

As Juliette is sleeping in her swing:
"It's nice for us to get a break from 'da baby!  Because we are sick of taking care of 'da baby, right Mommy?"