Christmas in the Emergency Room

My family always teases me that I love to spend Christmas in the emergency room in St. George. It started 4 years ago when I went to the emergency room in St. George at 3:00 Christmas morning with what I thought was severe heartburn! What a surprise when they told me I had to have emergency gall bladder surgery. ( I had 3 gall stones and my gall bladder was about to rupture.) I talked the doctors into letting me go home to watch Dallin open his Christmas presents. After that Brandon and I went to the hospital for my surgery. This year it happened again. Dallin started complaing of a sore throat Tuesday night. I thought it was just a cold and didn't think more about it. Christmas Eve he opened his traditional Christmas jammies and went to bed. He came out a few minutes later with a rash all over his body. At first I thought it was because I didn't wash his jammies so I gave him a benadryl but then I remembered his sore throat. I looked and sure enough it was strep throat and his rash was the beginning of scarlet fever. (We have had strep enough that I know what to look for) I called my doctor in Vegas hoping they would tell me that he would be okay for a few days but no such luck...we needed to go to the hospital right away. I decied we should take Megan too even though she wasn't showing signs yet but I knew if we didn't get her medicine then we would be back at the hospital the next day. Poor Dallin was so drugged up on Benedryl he just wanted to sleep the whole time. Megan thought it was the best place she had ever been and loved playing with everything and all the attention she was getting from the nurses. I was surprised that she stayed up until we left the hospital at 2:00 in the morning!! Thankfully, Santa had come while were were away and we were able to fall into bed. Our family was nice and let us sleep in and did not wake us up at the scheduled 6:00am. Despite all this it was a fun Christmas and the kids loved what Santa brought them. I just hope going to the emergency room doesn't become a tradition for us! Megan on her new Trike.

I tried to get a shot of her Christmas jammies. This was the best I got.

Dallin in his new Venom jammies

the Christmas loot

Dallin and his cousin Ryan

Lovin' just about anything Star Wars!

Megan got a baby set and a new trike from Santa

Dallin got me this necklace from his Santa workshop at school. He is such a sweet boy and I love it!!

He got his daddy a #1 dad MVP baseball trophy

Megan and her new vacuum. (I hope she likes to vacuum this much when she is really old enough to do it!)

Megan got a whole box of princess dress up costumes. So cute!

December Catch-up

December has been a CRAZY month for me. Needless to say I am way behind on blogging so I thought I would make just one big blog and try to play catch-up.

AB Honor Roll

Dallin made the Honor Roll at school and we are so proud of him. He loves school and has done so well. He is reading way above his grade level and is doing great in math. His teacher loves him and he has many friends. I am so thankful that he is an excellent student and loves school. We love you Dallin!! Keep up the great work!

Charlie the Elf

The Elf on the Shelf was a HUGE hit around here. One day a mysterious package arrived from the North Pole addressed to Dallin and Megan. We had just seen Santa a few days before so I told Dallin that he must have made a big impression on Santa for him to send him a package. We opened it and read the story book. Dallin was floored to think that he had his very own elf. He quickly named him Charlie and was so excited every morning to find him. Charlie was an excellent hider and hid everywhere from inside the Christmas tree to on top of the garage door track. We were sad when he had to go back to the North Pole but we are excited to see him next year!!

Teacher and Friend Gifts

Dallin has such a wonderful teacher at school so we wanted to give her something special for Christmas. We decided to get a canvas bag and make Rudolph on the front of it (using his foot and hand prints) then we filled it with all the things a teacher could need. Paper, pencils, dry erase markers, staples, pens, markers and much more. I wrote his name and the year on the inside so she can always remember who it is from. We hope she enjoys it and I am very thankful for all her hard work.

I gave all our friends homemade cinnamon rolls wrapped up with a bow and a cute saying. I hope everyone enjoyed them!

Sunday Best

The cutest kids in the world in their Sunday Christmas clothes. SO CUTE!!

Christmas with the Conks

We celebrated Christmas early with the Conk family and it was so much fun!

Dallin in his new riding shirt.

This is my "Surprised" look when I opened my Christmas present from Terry and Becky. It was my sconces for my stairway. I promised her I would act surprised even though I picked them out!

Kristin with her "money umbrella" that I made her. Don't we all wish that money would rain on us?!?

Meggie enjoying her Christmas presents

Dallin getting ready to rip into the presents.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Tender Mercy

Sunday morning (12/7) I woke up at about 1:20am and noticed that Brandon was not in bed. Normally this would not concern me too much. I don't consider him late until about 2:00am but for some reason I was really nervous. I got my cell phone and called him but when he didn't answer my heart sunk. I called him about 20 more times and left voice mail messages for him to call me and tell me that he was okay. I got up and paced the house, waited by the front window to see headlights. I had an overwhelming urge to drive towards Vegas to find him but I talked myself out of it. After all he wasn't even late yet. He carpools with Joe, another guy on his squad, I told myself to wait 5 more minutes before I called Joe and acted like a complete lunatic. When my 5 minutes was about up my phone rang with a number I didn't recognize. To make a long story short it was another officer who told me that Brandon had been in a serious accident and I needed to get to the hospital. He assured me that Brandon and Joe were alert and talking but nobody was sure of their injuries. I managed to ask him what happened and this is the gist of the story....a drunk driver was driving south in the northbound lanes of I-15. Brandon came up over a little hill the same time she did, the only thing he could do was to swerve. He hit an embankment and rolled the car a few times. The drunk driver was not hit and continued driving. Thankfully, a nurse and a retired EMT stopped to help them. The drunk driver was eventually caught (after she almost hit an NHP officer who was responding to the call). She was 3 times over the legal limit and had drugs in her system.

It was a long drive to the hospital that night but this is when living with the in-laws really came in handy. Becky watched the kids and Terry offered to drive me in. Brandon had to get stitches in his head and broke his wrist. He had to have surgery on it last Thurs. They put a screw in it. He is healing really well. Joe broke his C7 vertebrae, compressed a disk in his back, and has major road rash on his hands. The spinal surgeon says his neck will not require surgery to heal but he does have to be in a neck brace for 3 months. He was in the hospital for awhile but is home now. They are very blessed that their injuries were not more severe.

There are so many things that I am so thankful for. Of course that Brandon and Joe are going to heal and make a full recovery. This alone is a tender mercy that Heavenly Father has given to me. After we went to see the car at the wreck yard this was especially clear to me. THEY ARE LUCKY TO BE ALIVE!! I am so thankful for the department. So many of these guys are like our brothers and took such great care of us. Many responded to the call and went to the hospital immediately. They lined the halls when they brought Brandon and Joe in. They called me and kept me up to date until I got to the hospital and stayed there with us on their own time until about 5:00am. Their concern and love were sincere and I will forever be grateful to them!!

We had a WONDERFUL dinner brought to us by some great friends all the way from Vegas. Another friend came to the hospital and took me out to lunch and sat with me while Brandon was having his wrist surgery. We have had countless phone calls and so many people have been so supportive. The Sheriff even sent some cookies!! But most of all I am so grateful that my husband is still here to be a best friend to me and a father to my children. This Christmas season will be a little sweeter for me and I received the BEST present I could ever ask for!!

A visit with Santa

Every year we go to the Dickens Festival in St. George to see the 'real' Santa. He is so cute and so great with the kids. Dallin was so excited and had his wish list all planned out. Megan on the other hand was not too thrilled with the idea. She kept telling me that Santa was " too yucky" and she wasn't going to sit on his lap. I thought she might change her mind but she was not too happy about it and cried for most of the pictures. She finally agreed to take some candy from him and give him a quick hug. Of course, as soon as we left she said she was now ready to sit on his lap. UUGGHH!! Maybe next year.

Family Photo

I am so THRILLED with the pictures that my sister-in-law Kristin took of my family on Thanksgiving day. She is a wonderful photographer and was kind enough to offer her services to me for some much needed family photos. I LOVE them all and can't wait to blow some up and hang them in my house. Prepare for picture overload. There was no way I could pick out just a couple. Thanks again Kristin!!

Santa's little helper

This is a fun thing that my sister-in-law told be about awhile ago but it has taken me this long to look into it. It is called The Elf on the Shelf. It comes with a book and with an elf who is Santa's special helper. The book explains to the kids that the elf watches the children during the day and at night he flies back to the North Pole to tell Santa how the kids are behaving. He then flies back to the house but not to the same spot so the next day the kids have to look around the house to find him. I think this will be a fun new Christmas tradition for our family. (Brandon thinks the idea of the elf coming to life at night is kind of creepy...a little Chucky-ish) but I think it will be great fun! I just ordered it last night and hope it arrives soon. It comes all the way from the North Pole so it might take a few days! :) Isn't Christmas so fun?!?

We've been FRAMED!!

It's been awhile since I have written about the house and I am happy to say that A LOT has happened.

This is right before we poured our concrete. The excitment is building...

Our footings being poured. Again can you feel the excitment building?!?

The wise man built his house upon concrete and 3 feet of fill dirt thanks to our 500 year flood rating! (It rains about twice a year here!!)

Yipee!! Our first walls are going up! How exciting! (and scary)

It is beginning to look more like a house now.

In front of our soon to be house. We spend a lot of our day down at the lot. It has been amazing to watch it go from paper (it has taken us about 2 years to plan), to dirt work, to concrete and now to actually see it framed (almost) is wonderful!!

Most of our upstairs is built out of bonus trusses and thanks to the Gorge having construction and our trusses being huge we had the WONDERFUL opportunity to pay the Arizona DPS to give our lumber company an escort over Beaver Dam Bridge!$!$!$ (It is the only way here without going through the Gorge!$!$!) Then we sat and watched the crane lift them into place. It was very thrilling and I am thankful the crane operator and our framer seemed to have a lot of experience. The whole construction experience is so interesting to me. I always say I am thankful there are other people who have figured out all the different ways to build a house. If it was up to me we would all still be living in mud huts!

XOXOXOXOXOXO

WHALA!! It is not quite the finished product but at least I can see it taking shape. I love that I can walk through it now and imagine where everything will go. I can hardly wait to have my family under the roof of this beautiful HOME that so much time and effort has gone into. We still have a long way to go but I can almost hear the laughter and feel the love that will happen within these walls. I look forward to all the memories we will make here. I can't wait to have all our family and friends over. We love the neighborhood and have already made friends. All the hard work will be worth it! I will keep everyone posted on our progress.