Christmas Lights

As a youngin' I used to go to Temple Square to see the lights. David doesn't remember ever going before meeting me. (Doesn't mean he didn't though) I want to make it a tradition to go with the girls every year. What better way to enjoy the season than walking around and admiring beautiful lights and seeing the different nativities. We went down on a Sunday evening because it was the best day to fit it in and Jeff came along with us. It was fun to see the girls get excited about all the different things.

During our visit, Kadence decided it would be funny to stick her tongue out in almost every picture.
Here's the family....and Kadence's tongue.
The girls admiring the nativity.
It took a while but I got a tongue-free picture

Then we FINALLY went and saw "Big Jesus" as Shelby calls it. Shelby has been absolutely dying to go see "Big Jesus" and repeatedly told us "You promised we would go!" It was so cute because you could tell it was everything she hoped it would be.

I didn't bring my camera, but we also went to Christmas Village which was a tradition for both David and I. Again, it was fun to watch the girls get so excited looking at all the lights and displays. Jeff joined us again too which always makes the girls excited! This was the first year that the girls didn't have to hold our hand the whole time and were able to run to each display. We skip Santa every year because the line is long and its a cold wait. I'd rather see him at the mall. (Which we did two or three times) After Christmas Village it is our new tradition to go to Starbucks and get a white chocolate hot chocolate with peppermint added in. YUM! This year I had gotten a gift card for free from entering codes from our Huggies so it worked out great! The girls haven't like hot chocolate before, but they LOVED the white chocolate. (Although they didn't want any peppermint added in) I love going to both places for lights, and I hope that the girls will continue to love it as they grow up.

Confessional

I CONFESS....I am overwhelmed by the idea of blogging our Christmas. It isn't that difficult, but it just seems like a lot of work. I do this so that I can have a more permanent way of keeping our memories so I'm sure I will get to it.

I CONFESS....I am so happy to be able to go back to school this semester. I am excited, yet nervous. I haven't had to balance being a mom, taking care of the house, school AND school drop offs/pick ups all at once before. I'm hoping I can balance it all and do well this next semester!

I CONFESS....Our basement used to just be a giant storage shed. I honestly just ignored the fact that it was part of the house to be honest. Our food storage room and laundry room were basically the only rooms that I used in the basement and I shoved anything semi crafty or decorative in my "craft room." That all changed this winter break! I had been slowly clearing out what would be a family room the past month and with David home, the holidays over, and two pretty cooperative kids we finally cleaned the room out....well, mostly. There are still a few things in there that don't go in there, but the girls can go down and play in there now. Because the girls now have somewhere to play downstairs, David and I have been able to spend more time cleaning other areas of our basement. I now have a downstairs bathroom. The girls were so surprised we even had another bathroom. (I'm telling ya, it was bad!) David and I are continuing to work on our respective rooms and are hoping to have them drastically improved before the new year. Of course my craft room and his office will never be clean, they will actually have a function now which is fantastic. This is an embarrassing little confession, but I'm glad I am working on fixing it. :)

Graduation and Gingerbread Men

We were SO incredibly proud to see Davids brother, Jeff, graduate with his Bachelors! I got Kadence out of school so that we could all be there to support him. I thought of getting the girls in their fancy Christmas dresses but then I realized that would leave me fighting them all day to keep their dress down, keep their legs closed, etc. That seemed like a few fights I would like to avoid so I decided to just put them in purple shirts for Weber State. The girls were so excited to see Jeffy graduate and Shelby even told me "I'm so proud of him." Kadence is excited to graduate Kindergarten now so she can be like Jeff.

Here's Shelby waiting for the ceremony to start

Here's Kadence waiting
Here are Dale, Connie, Elaine, and Judy

Shelby was a little bored by the graduation speeches.

Jeff getting ready to walk

I got a picture of what family was still there at the end

We are so excited to watch Jeff become the amazing teacher we know he will be and are so proud of this accomplishment.

After the graduation we were going to go to decorate gingerbread houses with the Joys. They do this every year and we love going. Unfortunately David wasn't feeling great all day so we didn't end up making it. His pain meds made him feel really woozy and disconnected. He didn't think that he would have a good time. He started feeling a little better toward the end of the night so we decided to decorate gingerbread men at our house. I was sad to miss the family decorating party, but was happy that our girls didn't miss out.

My finished gingerbread man

The girls decorating

Shelbys finished gingerbread man

Kadences finished gingerbread man

Jeff came to decorate too

Jason and Sage came to keep us company...and Brylee slept the whole time in Kadences room

Here's Davids finished project. Its Gingy, chained up, eating Santa (Did I mention he was on pain meds?)

Here is Jeffs finished project

We all had fun, but I'm hoping we can do it with the whole family next year.

A Day Later Than Friday Confessional

I CONFESS....I absolutely love my kids to death, BUT a great way to rejuvenate this mommy is to get a babysitter and take me on a date! David planned a date for me tonight and it is exactly what I needed in order to be able to show my kids that I do in fact love them. (I get a bit crabby)

I CONFESS....I really really don't like being in front of people. I don't know what it is. I can spill my guts to anyone about anything. I am NOT shy in that sense but I don't like being up there in front of people. It doesn't matter if I'm by myself or with other people, I just don't like it. Some people laugh at me because I was a cheerleader and that's kind of what we had to do...and I did...and I have no idea how I did it. Hmmm, its a mystery. If you want to get me completely embarrassed and uncomfortable just make people look at me. (But please don't because it seriously causes me anxiety!)

I CONFESS....I can't stand shoes/boots! I only like sandals and flip flops. I don't like when my feet are covered up, it freaks me out. I wear flip flops year round rain, snow or shine. People think I'm crazy and my feet DO get ice cold but I would rather that than wear shoes. Because I broke my knee I have been trying to figure out a shoe or boot that will work for me in the snow. I don't want to slip and re injure my knee so I understand that something more than a flip flop IS necessary. I have bought and returned boots because I just can't stand them and I have slipped twice already. Hopefully I can figure something out to get me through the season.

I CONFESS....I wear a tank top under every shirt I own. I like that it sucks in a little of the loose baby belly (YES, I have a yucky mommy tummy) and it also tends to make my boobs look more perky! Both of these reasons for wearing a tank top are thanks to having kids, and I think its a fair exchange. I can manage to wear a tank top for the rest of my life if I get to hug and kiss them every night.

Davids Boo Boo *GRAPHIC*

So yesterday while I was helping in Kadences classroom I received a call from David. He told me that he cut the end of his finger with a paper cutter at work. I collected the papers I was cutting at the time for Kadences class and headed out to be with him. Luckily Kadence's teacher is also our Aunt and was willing to keep both girls as long as she needed. (I'm SO grateful for that!) After being confused about where I was supposed to go, I finally arrived at Workmed. David was a little behind me. (The school cop drove him) We arrived and they got us RIGHT back to a room so he could lay down. The looked at him and decided they needed an xray because David thought he had gone through the bone. We could hear him stitching up the guy next to us, who happened to fall off a roof and opened his face pretty good as well as his arm. (GROSS) David was in quite a bit of pain, and all workmed is allowed to give is ibuprofen. David can't have ibuprofen because of his stomach, he had to just manage without anything. (I felt TERRIBLE!) After the xray the dr confirmed that David did indeed go straight through the bone, but that the piece on the other side was small. He wasn't sure what to do and sent us to the ER. (After a pee test of course) The ER did another xray and found the same thing. The piece of bone he cut off was too small to pin so the dr figured they'd just sew it up as well as they could hoping to leave David with a normal-ish looking thumb. Now here comes the graphic pictures....

Sort of self explanatory, but this is his hurt thumb

It cut the bottom part of his thumb, but it also cut almost through quite a bit more of his thumb
Thumbs up!

Here's the thumb unwrapped. You can see how he has thumbnail on either side of the cut.

Here they are cleaning out the blood clots and gauze fragments. Still have nail on each side of the Q-tip...Super gross!

Still cleaning but this is the angle from the tip of his finger

Cleaning it out...

Here's his thumb all cleaned and ready to be stitched.

Here it is after the stitches. 5 inside and 15 outside

After this picture they actually cut a piece of foil to the shape of his nail and put the foil in his nail bed. This will hopefully make it so that he can grow a new fingernail. All in all it was disgusting to watch. I felt terrible for him because he was in so much pain. Luckily the ER was able to give him pain meds and they numbed the whole thumb with a shot. He still hasn't been in much pain at all and can mostly only feel pressure. Now we just wait. Anytime you cut bone you are at an added risk of infection so they have him on antibiotics (also gave him some in his IV) and we will follow up with a hand surgeon on Friday. The hand surgeon will check for infection and will give his advice on the healing process.

David is such a stubborn guy that he insisted on going to work today. Not only that, but I didn't realize that his car was still at work and so he rode his bike. Not that I wouldn't have driven him, he simply didn't tell me. (UGH!) Kadence was already on her way to school, Shelby and I were both awake YET he rode his bike! I think I'm going to kill him before he heals!