May 2019: Our NICU Journey with Joshua

May 2019

Our little miracle arrived at 8:33pm. He was able to breathe completely on his own without any issues so I was allowed to hold Joshua for about 3 minutes in the delivery room. We weren't even sure until he was born if I would be able to hold him right away, depending upon if he had any breathing difficulties. He didn't and I got to hold him immediately and it was wonderful! 

After just a few minutes holding Joshua, he and his Daddy and the NICU staff headed down to the NICU to check him further and get him settled in his room.

This is the very first picture of Joshua that we have taken in the NICU. Sleeping so peacefully, but oh, he looks so tiny!

Look at those sweet hands clasped together!

He even looked like he was waving to us.

This was the first picture of both Brent and me with our son.

Father and son

The main goals in the NICU were to teach Joshua to eat by mouth without the feeding tube and of course, to gain more weight.

Mommy and Joshua

A couple of days after Joshua was born, his big sisters all got to come meet him for the first time!

They all adore him!

Look at those little sweet feet he has!

This was just after Joshua got his central line removed from his abdomen and he was able to wear a little sleepwear for the first time.

My boy and I on Mother's Day 2019

I was away overnight and when I returned to the hospital, our boy had taken matters into his own hands, literally, and pulled out his own feeding tube. He was getting ready to head home!

Sure enough, 3 days later, after 18 days in the NICU and 52 total days for Joshua or both of us to be in the hospital, we were finally out of the hospital!! It was so good to have all of our family together under one roof again!

This little man was smiling to be out of the hospital finally!

A Trip to Zoo Lights

 One of our first Christmas events this year was Zoo Lights at the Columbia Zoo. This was the first time we had been and we had the opportunity to see it for free as we traveled through Columbia back from another art show. It was beautiful and so neat to have the experience of seeing the zoo at night with all the lights!

 We arrived at the zoo a little earlier in the afternoon so we had a chance to see a few of the animals before the Zoo Lights came on and most of the animals went to bed.

We spent some time with the seals

and Bethany saw her favorite animals-turtles!

We also saw the rhinoceros and the giraffes.

Then it was time for the lights to begin to come on. This large tree had lights synchronized with a story being told at the same time!

We rarely ever have to opportunity to see it...so the kids were thrilled when we found a spot where it was snowing!! (Soap bubbles, that is!)

We walked around to see more lights

and rode the train around the zoo to see the lights too!

We enjoyed all of Zoo Lights! It was a really fun way to start off our December this year!

McGuirt Family, December 2021

O Christmas Tree 2021

 We had a really busy November and we searched the calendar with no success for a day to go pick out a live Christmas tree. In early December we were headed to Virginia and found a lovely tree farm near our destination. I called ahead because some many places I had heard were running out of trees for choose and cut. The farmer assured me that his farm was open and had Virginia pine and Norway Spruce Christmas trees to choose and cut. 

We arrived at the farm and went around to the barn near the trees. The farmer walked up and said "Would you like to walk out to the trees or would you all like to ride the tractor?" The kids (and the parents too) were surprised and thrilled. We hopped up on the flatbed trailer behind the tractor and out to pick a tree we went!

Joshua loved his first tractor ride. His sisters thought it was pretty awesome too and we still had picking out the tree to look forward to also!

When we got to the trees, we decided we would pick a Virginia pine for our tree. The kids name our tree every year and they decided that this year they wanted to name our tree "Virginia" since the tree came from Virginia this year. We walked and looked and debated which would be the best

We finally picked our favorite tree and Rachel and Rebekah even helped Brent cut it down this year!

The girls and Brent carried the tree back to the tractor. We loaded onto our car and then had some yummy apple cider at the barn before we headed out with our tree. Next up is decorating and enjoying our tree!

Christmas at Mount Vernon

 As part of our events before Christmas while we were in Northern Virginia, we attended the evening Christmas tour at Mount Vernon. This was our 2nd time at this event. We first went in 2019 and enjoyed it so much then that we decided we wanted to do the tour at Christmas again this year.

The tour starts from the visitor's center and we always start with a picture with George and Martha Washington ;-) 

They had Colonial period music, a replica of Mount Vernon in the early days and Christmas trees decorated with items used during the Colonial time period to see while we waited for our tour.

When it was time for our tour, they call the name of one of the main figures of George Washington's day for each tour group to come forward and join the tour. At our tour time we were the guests of the Marquis de LaFayette. Our tour begins outdoors with the a chance to see buildings and grounds around Mount Vernon. It started to rain just a bit before our tour started so we were touring in the off and on rain this year!

After the outdoor portion of the tour, we headed inside for our tour of the first floor of Mount Vernon. They had the dining room at set up as it would have been for a meal in George Washington's day.

After our tour, we enjoyed hot apple cider, cookies and instrumental Christmas carols at the visitors center. Did I mention we also got to see a camel on our tour? Apparently during his time at Mount Vernon, George Washington's farm included a camel!

We enjoyed our tour of Mount Vernon and the chance to see how Christmas might have looked during the time Washington lived. We loved the opportunity to enjoy some Christmas celebrations from another time period in history. 

 

Christmas in the Capital

 We headed to Northern Virginia for our last show of the year in mid-December. While we were there, we spent a little time enjoying the Christmas decorations in and around D.C.

Our first stop was Pennsylvania Avenue and the National Christmas Tree. One of the first years we did the Chantilly art show in 2027, we drove down into downtown D.C. and paid a visit to the National Christmas Tree. The National Christmas Tree first began to be lit in its current location on the Ellipse in 1923. It has been lit in this spot for almost 100 years now! Our tradition to visit the National Christmas Tree began in 2017 and we hadn't missed a year until 2020. We were glad to be able to return to our tradition this year!

It was a very mild night for December and definitely the warmest it has been for our visit to the tree,so we actually decided to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue to see the White House more closely before our visit to the tree this year. 

It was not very busy outside the White House gates and while we were there taking a picture, they opened the farther gates and let us go right up to the White House fence. It was the closest we had ever been to the outside of the White House and a very neat experience for our family!

We headed over and spent some time visiting the National Christmas Tree after that.

We enjoyed some of the other beautiful decorations in Washington D.C. as well.

We even got to see a bit of the light show in the Park on the way back to our campsite.

It was nice to be back to our Christmas traditions around Washington D.C. this year and a fun start to the early part of the Christmas season celebrations this year!