Get well soon Grandma!

It's amazing how busy this time of year gets, time is just flying by. Christmas is in 11 days?!?!

Our family spent the weekend in Washington visiting my grandmother. She had brain surgery on Thursday to remove a large tumor, and thankfully she has been doing well. To one of the sweetest, kindest, funniest, most generous people I have ever met -- get well soon Grandma! We are all thinking of you and praying for you, and we can't wait to see you for Christmas. Thank you for everyone's thoughts and prayers, it means a lot to us!

Payton is doing great, she's getting so big. We taught her to high five, which is so cute! She loves any toys that she can shake and make noise, and she also loves to try and crawl towards cords, laptops, cell phones, outlets... she's keeping us busy! I think she understands the word "no", although she doesn't really heed it. When I say it to her she stops what she's doing and looks at me, then gets this little smile on her face and goes right back to what she was doing. She's been getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth, so "traditional" crawling may be around the corner... although Payton hasn't really done anything the traditional way! :) Diaper changes and getting dressed are becoming a big challenge, she just does not want to sit still long enough and immediately flips over when she's placed on her back. She is officially a Dragonfly today, no longer a Ladybug. I'm excited for her to join a class with older babies, I think she'll enjoy their activities more. She loves group time, when they read a book or sing songs with everyone. They also do lots of art projects and stuff, so I think she'll have a great time. We had her LAST dermatology appointment yesterday at OHSU. Yay! He lowered her dose, which we're going to continue for one month. After that we will only give it to her once a day for two weeks, then every other day for two weeks... and then stop! So only two more months of propranolol, which is a weird thought. He said we don't really need to come back to see him unless we notice any bulging around her eye or a lot of regrowth. He also mentioned that if the superficial part of the hemangioma persists we could potentially have it lasered off, but the earliest he would do that would be 2 years old. I don't anticipate us doing anything like that, but we'll see how it looks before she starts school and make a decision then. Hopefully it continues to just go away! We are so thankful that this medication exists (and the fact that it's really cheap didn't hurt either). It's amazing the difference it's made, but we are also thankful that it will soon be over!

Kyle is going to get us a Christmas tree after work today, life got too busy and we didn't make it to a tree farm like I had planned. Oh well, there's always next year :) I'll definitely post pics of our lights, tree and house decorations when I find my camera... it might have gone missing, which is funny because it's usually attached to my right hand. Don't worry though, it can't be too far away! As soon as I find it I will post lots of pictures. We have a little fake tree downstairs as a decoration, and Payton loves looking at it, she breaks into a big smile when she sees it; I think she will be really wowed by a big tree!

This weekend we're doing Christmas at the Hall household, which will be fun. I'm excited to watch Payton tear some wrapping paper! I think she will probably enjoy that just as much as the actual gift. She looooooooooves paper. It tears, it crinkles, it bends, it rips... what's not to love?!

Today is Kyle's birthday! He is 26, which he says sounds so much older than 25 :) When I met him he was just 20, which is funny to think. Happy birthday hubby!