2019 Holiday Update

It’s hard for me to believe that I’m already writing another holiday update but here we are! This year was full of blessings and excitement (aka a new camper.) We started the year anxiously awaiting the arrival of our son, Emery. We didn’t do much the first few months of the year because I was at home nesting and we had a lot of sickness last winter.

In February, we celebrated Granville’s second birthday with a big party. By “big party,” I mean that he’s our middle child and we texted some family at the last minute and told them we’d meet up at Golden Corral for his birthday. Austin and I took him to Sky Zone before the big shindig. He had a blast!

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This year we’ve really enjoyed watching Ellie develop a very unique style that’s all her own. She picks out all of her clothes and accessories so we get some interesting looks when we go out in public.

In March, we loaded up and went to Chicago to watch one of Austin’s best friends get married. That trip mostly consisted of me taking pictures of Drew eating everywhere we went.

Despite Granville’s wishes, his brother was born on April 19th at 2:42pm.

 

 

I’m sure you’re all wondering how we announced it to ALL of Austin’s coworkers…

This was posted to FoleyNet and Austin received a few phone calls about it! You guys didn’t think we would take all serious photos in the hospital, did you?

I’ve typed and retyped this paragraph multiple times now and I’m still struggling to find the words to describe how I’m feeling about this. A few hours after Emerson was born, I looked down at him and I just knew he had Marfan Syndrome. His long toes were one of the first things that we noticed. The genetic test that we had done, confirmed that. We’re doing our best to stay on top of all of the major issues that he could have as a result of Marfan Syndrome. He now sees an ophthalmologist, an orthopedic surgeon, and a cardiologist. He has Metatarsus Adductus (his feet curve inward) and we just found out that he does have some aortic dilatation already. It’s been overwhelming at times and I’ve struggled off and on with feeling like it’s my fault. We knew going into each pregnancy that there was a 50/50 chance of me passing Marfan syndrome to that child. Knowing that and living that are two very different things though. I know that God has a future for Emery and it will be full of amazing things that we can’t even begin to imagine. Please pray for us as we continue to make a lot of decisions about his healthcare.

In May, Granville went to his first Nascar race. He had so much fun!

As if that wasn’t enough excitement for one month, we bought a new camper too! Austin has put a lot of work into it and has a lot more left to do before we get her out to camp this year.

The rest of our summer was pretty uneventful which we were thankful for. Austin worked like a mad man (on his farmer’s tan) so the kids and I traveled with him when we could. We spent a lot of time at the zoo with friends and doing all of the fun summer things. Ellie took a ballet summer camp and fell in love with it! We decided to enroll her in a year long class and every week, she counts down the days until her class.

We learned pretty quickly that the rest of our family doesn’t fit into the ballet scene very well. At Ellie’s first recital, a dad got out of the mini van beside us wearing a suit jacket and a bow tie. What was Austin wearing, you ask?

Our biggest adventure this summer was finding a snake in my dresser drawer. I was home with the kids and as I called Austin to tell him about it, I watched the snake slither to the back of the drawer and start moving to the bottom of the dresser. It took me a few minutes to get myself together but I did and eventually I was able to catch it and get it out of the house.

In July, Ellie took a trip with her grandparents to see her great-grandma and she sent us all kinds of photos and videos. She had a lot of fun and we had a quiet week without her.

At the end of the summer, we sold our old camper and that was tough! We got to take it camping one last time after Emery was born.

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In August, we (I) started homeschooling Ellie. She’s doing so well and loves learning! I had no idea how many people would have an opinion on how we educated our kids until we made the decision to homeschool. There are so many things that we love about it but one of my favorites is the flexibility!

This fall, I decided I’d take on the task of making all of our kids’ Halloween costumes. There’s a good chance I’ll never do it again! My grandma helped out as I got down to the last minute and couldn’t finish it all myself. I even packed up all of my sewing stuff when we traveled with Austin so I could sew in the hotel room all day while he worked. I think they’ll be some of my all time favorite costumes! Some of the kids from our life group decided to coordinate costumes with us which was a lot of fun.

We also updated our church directory this year which meant the Francis family had some fun!

Yes, that’s actually what we did for our church directory!

At the beginning of November, we took a trip to Branson. This year we had some friends go with us and I’m really glad that we did! We had a lot of fun and Austin had a much needed break from work.

In November, Ellie had a sleepover with some friends to celebrate her 5th birthday! One of her poor friends went home sick before we took pictures and she was missed all night!

A few days before Ellie’s party Dog had 7 puppies. They’re adorable but three kids and eight dogs…🤪 The last few weeks have been crazy around here! Five of them are still looking for a home if anyone wants one…or two!

Our Christmas card prep usually starts petty early. This year was no exception! Austin chose the theme “cholos” this year and I started shopping as soon as we decided on it. We don’t have any “blooper” photos this year because it was pretty cold when we took them so we were rushing. We couldn’t stop laughing at each other’s outfits as we were getting ready.

We hope that all of you have a wonderful holiday season this year!!