Thanksgiving

I completely forgot Wes had some photos from Thanksgiving and I'm so so glad he did. These are photos of the kids with their great-grandma Stephenson and some of their second cousins on Wes's side. They all did t-shirts in honor of Wes's Aunt Debbie and Uncle Joe that died a couple of years ago. Their kids put on this mini-reunion/Thanksgiving so that was really neat.  Liam and Addy had so so much fun playing with all the kids. I'm glad that they got to spend time with them and I'm sorry I missed it. Such is the life of a nurse.

Santa!

We headed down to Yerington for a fun Christmassy weekend with Nana and Papa. Saturday morning the Yerington Ward had their annual breakfast with Santa. We hadn't made it to see Santa yet, so I was excited to go!  The kids were thrilled as well.  When Santa walked in they started cheering and Finn ran right up to him, but then decided he wasn't too sure about the jolly ole guy.  Liam came up and whispered, "I know that isn't the real Santa. It's big Scott." I said, "Yes, but how awesome is it that we have someone so special in our life that works with the real Santa?!" Liam replied, "Yes, that is quite the privilege and it's very special we are in on that secret" :D  We got some adorable photos of the kids with Big Scott Santa that I will always treasure. It was a great kickoff to our Christmas weekend.


 

Snow and Ornaments!

We had a promising start to winter- lots of snow! We had subzero temps and a good snowfall. Unfortunately that has been about the extent of our winter. *sigh* BUT, we enjoyed it while it was here. The kids had a BLAST playing in the snow and Finn thought it was fantastic when they would throw snowballs at him through the windows. They enjoyed sledding down the little hill in our backyard too. They stayed out as long as they possibly could! That afternoon we enjoyed making some salt dough ornaments. It was a great snow day (if not a little bit messy!)

Trimming the Tree

The kids and Wes went to California to meet Wes' parents at his cousin's house for Thanksgiving. I had to work, but they came back that night so it was no biggie.  Then the entire Stephenson crew came for the weekend and we had a great time. I put Chris to work hanging out outside lights up.  The teenagers love doing all of that.

I had actually put our tree up the week before, but not decorated it. I was really worried about Finn pulling it over or ripping off all of the ornaments, and I thought that having it up a week before decorating it might help the novelty wear off. It worked, sort of.  But I must say Finn LOVED the Christmas tree. When we lit it up the night we put it up, he ran around pointing and saying "ohhh" at one point he even started blowing kisses to the Christmas tree, completely unprompted. He's totally going to be my little Christmas Elf.

The kids were SO SO excited to decorate the tree. One of Judy's longtime friends was coming through Reno so she stopped to visit and it happened to be while we were decorating the tree. It was a bit chaotic, but super fun. Addy insisted that she put our angel on the tree topper.  Addy got a Rapunzel ornament from me this year ( we spent many hours watching Rapunzel together this year), Finn got a Mickey Mouse ornament (because it was the theme of his first birthday party) and Liam got a Hogwarts castle ornament because he and Daddy have been reading Harry Potter together this year. They were all a hit!

We decided to make Grandma's wooden ornaments the ones to go on the bottom half of the tree because they aren't breakable. It's a good thing we did that, because even with them on the bottom, Mr. Finn still managed to break some and luckily we had super glue on hand for emergency ornament repair.  I actually ended up taking the tree down two days after Christmas because I was so tired of picking up ornaments all over the house that Finn had dispersed. ;)

Decorating the tree and sitting in a room with only the tree lights on is really one of my favorite parts of Christmas. The scene never disappoints and really fills me with the spirit of Christmas.

So here are photos of our tree and house decorating adventures!

Halloween!

We did attend our ward trunk-or-treat before actual Halloween but I got zero photos. Chasing three kids around that are looking for candy will do that to ya. ;) However, we had a lovely Halloween!  We went to our annual stops of GG and Grandpa-Great's and to Brent and Elise's. We've been doing that since Liam's very first Halloween.  The kids always feel extra special with the special treats both stops have for them. One of my previous co-workers, Susan, was also at Brent and Elise's house this year and she brought toothbrushes and toothpaste for the kids- BRILLIANT!

But to back up, while Grandma was here, we had a little photo shoot of the kids in their amazing costumes. My friend Amy has an Etsy shop called Pink Lemon Knits and she made their hats. Then grandma made the rest of the costumes to match. How cool are they?!













Now, back to Halloween Day!  We did our initial stops and then we went to Titi and Uncle Shaawn's for the hayride!  We had our chili dinner, took some pics, and then I went with the big kids on the hayride and Wes took Finn home. He was tired and not all that into the whole thing, so we figured they'd have more fun at home then him crying on the entire hayride.  The kids had a BLAST trick-or-treating. And it was adorable how Izzy and Liam were very protective that Addy or Peyton didn't get peanut candy.  The hayride is one of my favorite traditions- so fun.































We headed home after all of the fun! I noticed Addy had been coughing like crazy while trick-or-treating but she hadn't been sick at all. When we got in the car, I noticed she was wheezing A LOT.  I decided to drive fast home to do a breathing treatment. When we were in the car, it got worse and worse. She couldn't talk without coughing and wheezing. My mind was racing because I was afraid we'd get home and our little nebulizer wouldn't work.  I quickly came to the conclusion we had to go to the ER.  I know how bad lungs can get and fast. I sped there, praying the entire way. Liam was almost crying even though I was trying to reassure him because I think he knew how scared I was.  We got to the ER and they took her right back. She ended up getting two breathing treatments and a dose of oral steroids and cleared up. I was so relieved. The doctors assured me I did the right thing by taking her in.  She was wheezing a lot. I'm not sure what really made her flare up- it may have been dogs at our friends' house, combined with the hay and fall leaves. I'm not sure. We kept her on oral steroids and breathing treatments for a few more days.  So, the night ending with quite a bit of excitement! Here were the photos I posted on instagram from our little adventure.





Even though she couldn't breathe, she was quite the happy girl! Can't say how thankful I am for breathing treatments!