The holidays were rough in 2012

All pictures courtesy of the Iphone...

*Thanksgiving Day: Annie had a fever and we brought the sickness home. Annie had a fever for 6 days, a sore throat, white in her throat, and was NEGATIVE for strep.

*Ella caught it next, it went straight to her ears, and I had a killer sore throat. Again, both of us negative for Strep, and I decided to hold off on Ella's antibiotic because I was convinced it was viral- Annie had recovered on her own so I figured Ella could too.

*About 36 hours later, Ella was doing AWFUL. She was so hot and feverish, so lethargic, and was in an INCREDIBLE amount of pain. I was alternating Tylenol and Ibuprofen to try to get her to eat and swallow but she wouldn't/couldn't. It was the sickest I have ever seen any of my children in my life. I took her to the family doctor, who almost hospitalized her, but decided to try a strong antibiotic shot (Rocephin) first, with strict instructions to take her to the ER if I didn't see improvement within 12 hours. *The fever went away, and it was about 12 hours later that she started drinking. I took her back into the office the next morning for another dose of Rocephin. This is a pic of her coming home from the doctor's office that morning. So sad. 

 So she stayed really sick for another week, despite being on Amoxicillin (originally prescribed at the Urgent Care for the ear infection). I took her back to the doctor a week later because she was having coughing fits, coughing until she vomited. They heard something in her lungs, sent her for a chest X-ray, and found some fluid, and diagnosed her with bronchiolitis (caused by RSV). They sent us home with a nebulizer and breathing treatments, which we had to give her several nights in a row (in the middle of the night, of course.) In the meantime, I was struggling with the lack of sleep, and trying to get hard of my own sinus infection.

MY 32nd BIRTHDAY hit in mid-December. The kids were finally getting better, I was almost better, and Samuel and just finished finals and passed a very hard semester (several of his friends failed out of the nursing program. So sad.)  I scheduled a hair appointment for some fresh highlights and lowlights and a Shellac manicure (which has lasted almost a full month without chipping. LOVE it!)
 and some shopping and cupcake buying, and of course I had to start the day with my free breakfast at Joe's Farm Grill with Samuel and Ella, (I don't know what was so funny)
I thought it was kinda crazy that our pager was #32- the age I just turned.
And then onto Oregano's that night for dinner with our good friends (the Ritchey's). I NEEDED a pizookie.


It was a fun day, and after dinner Samuel told me he had to pick something up that he bought on Craigslist for his mom for Christmas. He said we had to meet this guy at a hotel. I was feeling super funny about it, it seemed so shady. We go into the hotel, knock, nobody answers, I'm feeling like something REALLY weird is going on, but I was totally unsuspecting...then Samuel pulls out a room key, opens the door and SURPRISE...it's decorated with balloons and streamers. He had spent the days before my birthday arranging with my mom and dad (who paid for the room- Priceline special) and his parents who were staying overnight with my kids (on a Monday night) and getting them off to school the next day. It was one of the best surprises ever. I got to sleep for 10 straight hours, it was badly needed. The room was nice too, with a mini-kitchen, an awesome hot breakfast, and comfy beds. Here's some pics.


 I look kinda tired but it was a VERY full day.

The next day we went to Kalia's little school Christmas program. She had talked Nana into letting her wear her sparkly red Sunday Christmas dress to school for the program. I had to laugh. I wish I got a good pic of her in it, but here's her class, she's in the upper right hand corner with a white flower in her hair.

*Christmas 2012
I did all my Christmas shopping online (LOVE IT) and got some killer deals. We decided to take the kids to see Santa on the Saturday before Christmas, and we decided to go all out and drive to Bass Pro Shop, where they have a TON of free fun stuff to do and a "fast pass" thing to see Santa. I called the day before and they said the fast pass would give you a time about 2 hours later than your ticket, so we knew we would need to plan on being there early enough for that. We drove 45 minutes to get there, arrived at 4 p.m. and were told (rather rudely) that THEY WERE ALL OUT OF FAST PASSES FOR THE REST OF THE DAY and we could come back tomorrow. Oh.My.Word I was INFURIATED and I vowed to NEVER go there again. But then I heard from a friend that if you go before Thanksgiving, there's not even a line. So MAYBE we'll do that. But DUH. Don't go to Bass Pro to see Santa a few days before Christmas. Luckily my girls and Samuel didn't seem to mind at all. The girls had already gotten a personalized video from Santa (portablenorthpole.com, love that site) so they probably figured they didn't need to see him anyway. See him way back there in the background?  


We were finally all healthy. It was Samuel's "year" for Christmas with all his siblings, and since his mom had two mini-strokes this last summer, I took charge of organizing Christmas for her, with the help of all the siblings and spouses. I was organizing all the activities for the whole week, making food and cooking assignments, trying to get babysitters so we could go to an adult movie (Les Mis anyone?). And I also tried to schedule a profesh family picture. That was the biggest nightmare. Um....let's just say it was all an unbelievable amount of work. There were a lot of people's schedules to accommodate, lots of little kids (ten kids under age 6) to try to work with (and their naps/bedtimes) etc. etc. But they were all very grateful and happy to have this new schedule to keep things running efficiently, so that helped. It actually went off pretty well, and the schedule helped immensly. Samuel and I sang a duet in church the Sunday before Christmas, we turned the beautiful "Mary's Lullaby- Tonight you are mine" into a really rad duet- it's normally not of course, but we got some really great feedback on it, so we considered that a good December moment.  I was just thankful to have my voice back after being sick for several weeks before that. Back to Christmas...
We had fun seeing the Mesa temple lights with the fam, and I got to see one of my dearest friends and mission companions while there, the wonderful Amy (Lundquist) Jensen. (dang it! No picture of us!)



BUT

The rest of Christmas still brought a lot of drama. The family pictures did not work out- after rescheduling about TWELVE times (no joke), we had to either cancel the pictures or take them without one of the families. We decided to take them without one of the families, which seems a little pointless, but we got a few good shots of our own, and one with Grandma and Grandpa- so that will be good to have, especially if anything happens to Samuel's mom in the next few years, what with her poor health and all. (Should I point out that in almost 7 years of marriage, the family has NEVER had a professional picture taken ALL together? Two families live out of state, that makes it hard.

I knew that we or our kids would probably get sick again after a family gathering, but I didn't anticipate how bad it would be. Specifically, how bad Samuel and I would get sick. Our kids actually turned out fine, with the exception of a slight ear infection for Annie and a double one for Ella. But with the household/possible moving/drama that happened two days after Christmas, it all just got the best of us, and we spent the entire Christmas break down and out, sleeping and resting. (What a blessing to have Samuel home the entire time, although we didn't get as much done as we would have liked.)