Thursday, January 10, 2013

Christmas Time

I wanted to record our Christmas time because at some point, as hard as things get, or as AWESOME as they get, I love seeing what happened to us. It goes along with my resolution this year.

So, here is our Christmas that should eventually have photos! 

In October we got word that the AMAZING contract we had for the last 2 years was ending. So we carefully put away a lot of money not knowing what we would be in for as far a job or new contract or what. As {our} luck would have it, we did amazingly well ( we also have no debt { medical doesn’t count in this}... dang right peeps!) and so we were able to live fully on our savings. I am a budgeter and a planner and I really try hard to think about the gifts that I want to give to our kids, so I knew what I needed to cover in cash, what we were to give each of them. This was not including any gifts to each other because, in all honesty, we are OK going without. 

Dallas was able to find a job a lot faster than we expected, but before this happened, my car, which is a hybrid, decided to not start one day. This was also at a time that D’s gramps was very sick and we had some people to be taxi’s for. So we used my budgeted amount of money to fix my car. It was a batter but Hybrids tend to kill you when something goes wrong. But we were still OK. 

Somehow, with our tighter budget pants on, the kids enjoyed a very nice Christmas. And Dallas got a mustang. { Long story... awesome story} Best present EVER!

December was a hard month in general for us. I had to have Christmas all done and taken care of before I went into surgery. After surgery, there was no way I could do more than a few things and I was not allowed to. My brother, OK it was his wife... whom I also ADORE! { whom I love and adore and had no idea about the above mentioned difficulties in our life} Offered to buy a ticket and flew my dad down to help for one week. This was such a much needed help. I couldn’t do anything. I was not mentally doing awesome and I really needed my dad. And because of the distance for Christmas, my kids really needed my dad too. 

I was not doing great though, trying to get better. My poor dad spent more time in an OB office in a week than he probably has in years. I am not doing recovery so well and the tumor they took off was huge and made things a little worse. 

So my dad was able to help me keep the house running, kids happy and most of all, me sane. 

While my dad was here we wanted to experience a few of the temples from the outside and so we went to the new Gilbert temple that was announced. It is in the works and it is HUGE and beautiful. We learned a lot about the things they are putting into the temple and I an’t wait to go back and take some more photos as it progresses. 

We also decided as Christmas time we would head into the LDS Mesa temple and look at the lights. Ty wasn’t really having it so we didn’t end up spending a ton of time. Lucky for us it was one of the warmer nights that my dad was here. He had a cold that he was coughing and I felt so bad for him. BUT not bad enough that he didn’t kept it to himself and I got sick soon after. 

I enjoyed the lights a lot. I wish we would have been able to walk around more and next year, if I can’t get my kiddos to go then I am going. I want to try out some newly found education on LIGHTS!! 

IMG_8356.jpg

IMG_8342.jpg

IMG_8307.jpg

IMG_8303.jpg

I must add, that Ty didn’t really want to go to the lights. And we had to trick/convince him it was ok. So we didn’t get to stay long. Next year I want to go earlier in the year and walk around and enjoy it a lot more.

That Saturday, my dad had his last night here. We set up face time and skype with my mom and Aunt Nicky. The traditional Jammie's were going to be opened so Grandpa could see them in them and grandma could watch the kids. Nicky also wanted her present opened and so we had a technology filled evening. The boys loved it. Grayson is such a flirt with his Aunt Nicky and grandma. 

IMG_8247.jpg

We took Grandpa home to the airport on Sunday. I am pretty sure, though he was glad to be getting back to grandma, he was a little teary eyed to be missing hearing “ papa” followed by patters of feet running for a hug. 

On Christmas Eve we made dinner, had a nice quiet night and read Christmas stories. We went to bed and Santa had everything ready to go. 

The next morning we had the fun chaos and the boys loved their stuff. They also face timed with Grandma the old lady and grandpa the boy and Nicky while they opened up their stuff.

IMG_8364.jpg

Christmas left without much drama.

Ty was left thinking that Santa was coming every night. 

We were left with more toys than we needed.

And we were happy. 


2 comments:

Chantel said...

Your brothers wife is awesome :) He he. Cute pics of the kids and I love your new water mark. Very nice!

Unknown said...

What a great bunch of photos! It sounds like you have a couple of very sweet kids and I'm glad your family had a nice holiday. I just stumbled across your blog and figured I'd just drop a note to say keep it up, and here's a link of good cerebral palsy resources in case you are interested. Hope you find it helpful, and I wish you and your family the best in the new year!