Christmas 2014

Back tracking to Christmas...we had a really busy season and Christmas day really snuck up on us!

We started the Christmas season even before Thanksgiving with the music, decor shopping and mall visits.
The santa village at Willow bend never disappoints. There is always a cute Santa and snow! Weslie wouldn't approach santa at all this year. Since I got a picture of all 3 of them with him last year I didn't force her and we waved from a distance.

We went to the awesome stake nativity again this year. Weslie loved the veggie tales nativity and pictures of the savior. 

We finally made it to the Gaylord Texan ICE! this year, which was perfect because it was Frosty the Snowman theme and Weslie was obsessed with the Frosty movie this year. In fact, we watched tons and tons of Christmas movies snuggled up together. It was only 9 degrees in the display and Weslie was very quiet and in awe the whole time. She really liked it though and talked about it for days. We had a really late night looking at the beautiful lights and displays at the resort. My favorite part was watching her go down the solid ice slide, bundled in her giant coat. It was hilarious looking.

lights nene
j santa
babes presents

 Kevin and I somehow made time for a date night and went to see the 12 days of Christmas at the Arboretum. It was really fun but I don't think we would do it again.

 We listened to Christmas music 24/7 and I loved hearing Weslie singing along. Her favorite song this year was Jingle Bell Rock. She was so excited every time it came on the radio and would've listened to it on repeat for days if I could've tolerated it. We went to see a couple different light displays. Frisco in the square is really neat if you're in the area, and it has "snow" every 30 minutes. It has a cool city feel to it. We did our annual drive through Deerfield. Sophie was asleep the whole time but we let Weslie and Remi ride in the front with us and look at the lights. Remi LOVED the lights and kept wildly sticking her head out the window and bouncing around. It's a good thing we were only going 2 MPH through the neighborhood. On the 16th we flew out to Vegas. The flight started out rough but ended with all of them asleep. We had a smooth drive from Vegas to St. George and spent the next couple of days with my Grandpa Grape and Kevin's mom and step dad.

 It was so great to spend time with them. We discovered swig's delicious cookies, slide racing, and saw the St. George temple nativity.

 Luckily we were able to drive up to Heber at the last minute to be there when Codi and Jeremy went through the temple and got sealed. The babies were a dream for the drive (we SO could have planned this trip more efficiently). We had fun spending time with them and reliving the memories of our early days living there. We ate lots of Cafe rio and other delicious foods (I we even got enough stamps to get a free meal before we left...wow!). It was really neat to be there with them when they went through the temple, and their sealing was so special. We had lived with them for so long and knew them so well so it was so special to see this change and all the blessings that went along with it. There was such a special spirit in the temple that night and I will never forget that sealing for as long as I live. We love them so much. You couldn't help but tear up when those beautiful girls came into the sealing room in their white dresses. They were all smiles. It was also fun to see the lights at temple square afterwards with my date. It was just like old times.

We went to church with them on Sunday and my girls looked adorable in their Christmas dresses. I felt so spoiled that I got to shop for them at Janie and Jack this year. That will probably never happen again haha. Sadly, our time up north was over and after hearing Codi's sweet testimony we started the drive back to St. George. On the way we got to see uncle Phil for a few minutes and it was great to catch up with him. Unfortunately this drive was a harder one which was perfectly understandable since everyone was probably exhausted. Needless to say we were glad to arrive and have a minute to relax.

That Tuesday we surprised my dad and took him to see Blue Man Group in Vegas (more driving!) He was shocked that he was finally going to be able to see the show and with the coolest people ever. It was so fun to do something like that for him. We left early and spent the day there walking around, sight seeing and eating delicious foods. We checked off an item on my bucket list and ate at one of chef Gordon Ramsay's restaurants and it was just as tasty as I could've ever imagined. We all rode the New york coaster...dad and Chloe rode it about 4 times!! The show was awesome and everyone was hyper and having a great time just walking around. We got a late night snack and treat at Serendipity. Chloe and Kevin ended the night risking their lives on the coasters of the Stratosphere. It was an awesome day and lots of great memories were made.

 We got to spend lots of time with the Ricks's eating great food and playing games. Sophie and Remi created their own club house. Surprisingly they all slept pretty good in their new surroundings. Chloe and I went on a date to see Into the Woods and it was AMAZING! I am still obsessing over it. I am proud to say I took the champion title in our spite and malice card game tournament.

 This year was such a fun Christmas. Weslie finally grasped the idea of Santa and the twins were able to open their own presents and showed lots of excitement. They each got a book, toy and a few little things. The babies got a doll house and Weslie got a minnie mouse dress up house and ukelele. Santa brought her a special Cinderella music box. It was a great Christmas for everyone.

That Saturday we had a big party to Celebrate Grape's 80th Birthday. There was a nice program and they played a video that I made to celebrate his legacy. It was really neat to see everyone's pictures and hear the stories he had to tell. It was awesome having so many family members all together again. I'm so grateful for him, his example, and for his testimony.  The last couple years I have really come to appreciate how lucky I am to have a family that is so close and that loves and supports each other so much.

The last couple of days in St. George we had some much needed downtime to spend together relaxing and lounging around. Coincidentally Kevin's dad, sister and step mom happened to be in St. George as well so we got to spend a couple hours catching up with them which was great. I cannot believe how much driving we did, how many things we got to do and how many family members we got to see. What a trip to remember! It was awesome but when it came time to make the drive back to Vegas and fly home I think we were all tuckered out and ready to be home again. There's nothing like sleeping in your own bed.

Remi and the Horrible Weekend

It started with a small cyst on her bum. All my kids have had these little things before (thanks to Kevin's genetics) and I have popped them and they have gone away each time. This time, it didn't. Within a day she was super red all around the area and had a fever. I took her into the pediatrician Friday morning and she drained a ton from it (ouch). The doctor gave her a shot of antibiotics and prescribed a cream and sent us home advising us to go to the hospital if it didn't get better. When we got home I put my sad little Remi down for a nap. When she got up we had dinner. She seemed to be really uncomfortable sitting on her bum. When I took off her diaper for the bath I was surprised to see that she was completely swollen. So we had a friend come over to help give a blessing and took her into the ER at the Allen hospital. I did not like that hospital at all and they couldn't even treat her! They drew her blood for tests and tried for 15...yes 15 minutes to get an IV in her chubby little arm. I held her down and bawled with her, soaking her hair in my tears. I felt so helpless. That was one of the saddest things I have ever had to watch.

"Legally" Allen said that they couldn't let us leave to get treatment elsewhere which looking back I wish we would've fought. So they had an ambulance shuttle us over to Children's hospital in Plano. The paramedics were really great though and were able to get an IV in pretty quickly. I sat in the front of the ambulance worrying the whole ride and trying not to sob while the driver listened to sports news on the radio. They said that the infection was most likely in her blood because her white blood cell count was so high so I was panicking. She would fall asleep during the car ride and then wake back up and cry again...over and over. We waited in the Children's ER for hours and then they finally admitted us in the hospital.

By the end of the night she was so exhausted that she wasn't even fighting us off anymore...she was just laying there crying. Every time I laid her down and there was a nurse or doctor she panicked and started crying and reaching for me. Once she was crying and reaching for me so I brought my face close to hers and she grabbed it and held me there close and stopped crying. Everyone wanted to touch her sensitive spot and evaluate it.

We sent Kevin home to get some rest, knowing that we were going to be there for a few days. Finally around 2 A.M. the on call doctor at the hospital came in and looked her over and was probably the 5th person to explain that it wasn't ready to be drained and that we needed to draw it to a central place and let it "ripen" (ew). Apparently it's like a lesser degree of Staph that is genetic and all 3 of them will probably have it their whole lives. Luckily, we now have antibiotic cream that we can put on any little zits that ever appear. Around 3 A.M. we had a quiet moment and she fell asleep on my chest in minutes. I laid her in her sad little operating table/hospital bed/ crib and fell asleep as soon as I laid down.

Literally 20 minutes later she woke up in a panic so I held her until about 4 A.M. when the nurse came in to administer her IV antibiotics. I held her on my chest and we finally slept for a few hours. She was exhausted and hurting and scared and just wanted to be held close. Even being exhausted I didn't want to be away from her either. The nurse came in to check her vitals at some point and was like, "Make sure you're really careful if you fall asleep with her on your chest." and I was like, "Ok." and continued on haha. She wasn't going to fall. I couldn't be more aware of her than I was during those rough and painful hours. The next couple of days consisted of warm soaks in tiny basins, IV flushes, and lots of snuggles.

Thankfully her fever broke pretty quickly and it ended up draining on it's own the last night so no surgery was needed. There are probably much worse reasons for a baby to be hospitalized but this one was scary enough for me. I am so grateful for all the prayers and help that we received, for priesthood blessings, and great medical care. I'm so glad she is healthy again and I hope we never go through something like that again!