Christmas Fun Vegas Style

We decided that it would be fun to head down to the Belagio one night to walk around the atrium and watch the water show with the kids. Damon and Summer were also staying with my mom and dad for the holiday so we all went together.  The atrium was absolutely breathtaking like usual. The watershow was unbelieveable and the scary grinch guy was a little questionable, but the kids loved it. All of it.

After being out in the cold at the Bellagio, we decided to cross the street to the MGM and eat dinner at the Rainforest Cafe.

The kids were exhausted but they had a blast hanging out with their cousins and getting all into the Christmas Spirit.

Christmas Vacation!!

We decided to leave a little extra early for our trip to Las Vegas. So, when Nate got off work, we headed to Beaver. It was absolutely freezing, as you can tell by the picture of the temperature gage in the car. The sunset was beautiful on the drive though. We got there in plenty of time to go to dinner at a restaurant next to our hotel. After eating, we headed back to the hotel to take the girls swimming. They were so excited about this. They hadn't been swimming since Summer and they were ecstatic about it.

There's one rule that always stands in my family with hotel rooms. You see, since I was little, we have had to live in several hotels while waiting for housing. We moved quite a bit and hotels became our home a few times. The rule we always had was no jumping on the beds at home, but you MUST in hotels. :-) My brothers did break a hotel bed once by doing this, but we won't talk about that.

 

Addy did fall off the bed in the middle of the night on this trip. I asked her if she was ok and she just ignored me and got back into bed. Silly girl.

Lunch Date with Daddy

Nate gave me the idea of coming to see him for lunch one day with the girls. So, one afternoon, during a pretty yucky snow storm, we decided to go spend a little time with Daddy on his lunch break.

We went to Scheels in Sandy and I was SO surprised at what this place was.

They had a Ferris Wheel in the middle of the store. The store itself was pretty much a mini mall with a food court and everything. Insane. Hailey was beyond excited to ride the Ferris Wheel.

After riding the Ferris Wheel, we walked around and the girls loved touching and climbing on all the Animal photo ops they had throughout the store.

We love having spur of the moment lunch dates with dad. Even though he works far away, it's fun to go see him and do something a little different for lunch.

Holiday Spirit

Here's a glimpse into some fun things we did during the Christmas Season this year.

Addy's letter to Santa

Traditional visit with Santa

Christmas Cookies with Uncle Damon

A little stop for Hot Chocolate before driving around to look at lights.

Lights in Spanish Fork

Gingerbread Men.

SO much better than gingerbread houses.

As usual, I helped out in Hailey's class for their Christmas Party.

Hailey's letter to Santa

Traditions.

Kiss Chains. You eat a Hershey's Kiss every day till Christmas.

And, a little mischief Eddie the Elf was getting into.

We did a lot of fun things with the girls this year and our December was pretty magical.

Addy's Print

Addy has been working really hard on her letters and one day she brought this paper to me. It made me giggle to see her 'fancy' them up a bit, but I was so impressed with her writing. She had no help whatsoever.

Croup

Sunday morning December 2nd, Hailey woke up with no voice and an awful cough. Having heard that same cough before when Addy was an infant, I knew we were in for trouble.

I took her into the after hours clinic for her doctors office and the doctor on call informed us that she had croup.  I was not happy about this because I knew what was ahead for my little monkey.

We got the steroid for her and off we went. She had to have the steroids so her throat wouldn't close up.

She was absolutely miserable.

A couple days later, she was sitting on the kitchen counter, still not able to breathe well and she made a funny noise. I turned quickly to see what she was doing and she was reaching for me with the most awful/scared look on her face and she was BLUE. She couldn't get ANY air in. I freaked out and yelled for Nate.. He came running in as I was grabbing my phone to call 911 when she finally was able to slowly get a TINY bit of air in. I held her and tried to calm her down so she could breathe a little better. After a few minutes, she was calm and back to breathing a little better. I kept a close eye on her that week and kept her home from school the entire week. Luckily, Addy didn't catch it.

I hate croup.

Mall Outing

Summer and I decided to take the kids to the mall one morning for some play time. It had started getting really cold the beginning of December so what better spacious place to go than the mall!!

Of course we had to get 1.00 ice cream cones. 

Addy sure loves her cousins.

I love being close to my sister in laws. It's great to have someone to hang out with all the time. I'm grateful to have my sister in law Summer in my life. I don't think she realizes how grateful I am for her.

Movie Party!!

Nate loves to spring movie nights on the girls and they love it!  Even though I can't remember what movie they were watching when I snapped this picture, I do remember it was a fun night.

Thanksgiving 2012

Last year we spent Thanksgiving alone and we loved it, but we were definitely looking forward to spending time with family this year.  I was given the assignment to bring mashed potatos and that's just what I did.  The dinner was amazing as usual and it was so great to see all our family that we don't see too often.

This was Addy being irritated at me for taking too long to get ready for Thanksgiving Dinner.

Thanks Jess, for the pictures. :-)

This weekend was full of family and activities.

Addy is the best at posing for the camera.

The girls all went to see Breaking Dawn. Carmen and I had already seen it but were not hesitant on seeing it again. Nate took the girls to see Rise of the Guardians at the same time.

This was my new do that I got the day before Thanksgiving. My cousin Rachel is my stylist and I love the look she gave me. She took 10 inches off and I can't believe it still looks pretty long.

A night at the Johnson's doesn't go without games. This is a family favorite. Wits and Wagers.

This was a great Thanksgiving weekend full of fun and family. What more could you ask for!

Nate's Surgery

For a few years now, Nate has been experiencing some intense pain in his right shoulder. He was a pitcher in high school and continues to play the sport that he loves deeply. Baseball. Softball, now that he's out of high school  but still, a lot of throwing involved and it's gotten to an unbearable point. This is a guy who plays at least two nights of softball a week and usually one of those nights is a double header.

Once realizing his fate, we made an appointment for an MRI.  In the MRI, it showed a small tear in the labrum and a really bad bone spur.  So, the next step: Surgery.

We made a surgery appointment for a day in November and awaited its arrival. The day came and the girls went to Aunt Summer's house to play while I took Nate in for his surgery.  They were 2 hours late getting him in because of an emergency surgery that came in. So, we just sat and waited.  The doctor had told us that he wouldn't know how bad the tear is until he got in there and checked things out in surgery. 

After an hour and a half of waiting, I got the news that he was out of surgery and doing well.  The doctor came out about 10 minutes later to let me know what all went down in surgery.  He said the words we were NOT wanting to hear. The tear was MUCH worse than they anticipated and his recover would be extensive.  We were hoping for a 3-6 month recover and instead we got an entire year.

I knew this news would kill him and I had made the conscious decision that I wasn't going to tell him till the following day when the meds had worn off.  They gave me permission to go in and see him and as he looked at me all drugged and half alert, the first words out of his mouth were: "How bad was the tear?"  then he followed with the next question: "short recovery, right?"  I shook my head to inform him of the truth and I've never seen such a look of sadness and disappointment on his face as I did then. He got emotional with the realization that sport would not be in his future for the next year and it hit him pretty hard. Aside from sports, Nate has become an avid Gym rat.  He lifts at least 3 times per week and this would not be an option for quite some time. He was worried about losing the muscle in one arm and being lopsided. :-) That's kind of what happened, but he'll gain it back quickly.

2 weeks later, we went in for his post op appointment where they took his stitches out and gave him an order for Physical Therapy twice a week.  

He has been sticking with his stretches and his exercises and the doctor said he could hopefully swing a bat by the fall, but absolutely NO throwing.

I guess we'll see what the future of this year brings.