We Wish You a Merry Christmas

Christmas this year was spent in Arizona. At the beginning of Christmas break I took a whirlwind quick trip with the kids to Las Vegas to see my parents. I left early Monday morning and was back to AZ by Tuesday night. Quick, but well worth the trip. Then we spent the rest of Christmas nice and relaxed. I love Christmas time. Seeing my tree up just makes me smile. I often spend quiet evenings once the kids are in bed with all the lights off and the Christmas tree lights on, just staring at the tree. Our tree is full of memories. The majority of the ornaments are ones that have been gathered over the years. So each year, we take a family picture in front of the tree with our Christmas Sunday best. The kids are getting so grown up!

The traditional Christmas family picture.

 Here are some pictures of our day spent together.

Looks like we have a nice treat out for Santa this year!

Christmas morning before the kids came downstairs. Thanks Santa!

Adam trying to be a present.

Santa brought things with wheels this year. The girls are getting used to the roller skates....
I think that'll take some time.

We enjoyed a nice quiet morning in our home with our little family. Then we joined the rest of Chris's family for Grandma's Christmas and yummy food. I love being with family all day! Thanks to all for a wonderful Christmas day.

Dance, dance, dance - Christmas show

It wouldn't be Christmas time without the Jeanne's School of Dance Christmas show! The girls did a great job. This is probably my favorite dance show of the year. I loving hearing all the Christmas music. Thanks Katelyn and Megan!

These are the girls cute costumes. Cute girls!

Adam was happy to be on the grass playing after the show.

Merry Christmas - This Year's Christmas Card

Merry Montage Christmas

Shutterfly Christmas cards

View the entire collection of cards.

Thanksgiving

This year we went to my parent's in Las Vegas for Thanksgiving. As always, the trip was filled with fun, family, and food! My sister was able to come too and so all of us were there. It was quite the full house! We enjoyed yummy food, ate too much...ate more and enjoyed everyone's company.

Katelyn and her cousin Eliana

 All the Chesnik cousins! We are only missing Hailey (Missy's youngest) in this picture

I want food!

My Grandma McFarlane crocheted hats for all of her grandkids (my group) and her great-grandkids (my kids). Everyone wanted to wear them all the time!

I love this picture of Adam with Chris

On Friday evening, we went to see the lights at Ethel M. Chocolate Factory. They have a cactus garden which during Christmas time is displayed with lights. Of course everyone wore their hats! All the kids had a great time.

Saturday was my birthday. Normally I'm not a morning person, but I decided that for my birthday I wanted to go to the temple in the morning with my mom. It was so relaxing and a perfect way to start my day. And it was early to fit everything else in that day! When we got back, we got everyone ready for Chesnik family pictures. They turned out great for the amount of kids we have. We had the huge group posed and ready, and then Katelyn turns to me and said she didn't feel good. She looked absolutely green. I said sorry and excused the 2 of us and got her some water. I think she was just getting really hot. She felt a little better and took some pictures, although you can still tell she was a little green. At one of the breaks when we were sitting down and smaller groups were doing pictures, Katelyn threw up all over the carpet. So sad that she felt so crummy during picture time. In all we managed and got the pictures done.

Here's everyone! All the kids are getting so grown up.

This is a three generation picture with all the girls.

After picture time, we went to a movie to continue celebrating my birthday. Chris and I took our kids plus my sister's girls to Tangled. I love that show! The kids (5 in all!) were great and we had a good time.

Then of course a birthday could not be complete at my house without homemade ice cream. Mmmmm. Thanks to my family for a great Thanksgiving weekend and birthday party!

Adam's first trip to the ER

Adam's first IV....well this is a picture of his hand wrapped after the IV got taken out. He's got his train blanket and apparently a show on so he's not too concerned about the bandage on his hand.

Adam is officially my first kid to need to go to the ER (knock on wood...don't want to start a trend). As I was packing upstairs to get ready for our family to go to Vegas for Thanksgiving, I heard Adam scream downstairs. The way he screamed, and even worse when I picked him up, I knew something was really wrong. I did my nurse head to toe assessment but couldn't find anything out of place. It seamed when I held him he calmed down. But I really knew something was wrong when my VERY active toddler didn't want to be put down. After a while of not getting better, we asked Chris' dad (a doctor) to come do his assessment. Nothing was really found either other than, yes, Adam was not acting normal. So, then it was a trip to our pediatrician for a night time pediatric check. We were thinking anything from a fall (but there was no evidence of one) to a scorpion sting (which there was also no evidence of one). The doctor couldn't really find anything either...so much for modern medicine! (Can you tell I was getting a little frustrated?) She said if he couldn't sleep that night then to take him to the ER. By this point it was late and so Adam was tired. I thought he would possibly just sleep it off, but he woke after only a few hours of sleep. So then it was off to the ER, with many tears from me worried about my baby, and tears to my mom that I might not be coming for Thanksgiving. As a nurse, I have to say that you would think I would be great with sick kids. I am. Just not my own. By the time we were at the hospital it was appearing that Adam was guarding his stomach when we would pick him up and he didn't like his underarms touched. The ER doc decided it was most likely abdominal so we went for x-rays. They then did blood work and an ultrasound of his abdomen to rule out anything bad. Then a LONG time later it was decided that maybe he was just full of a lot a stool. Great. An ER visit for poo! Adam seemed to be better after an enema so we just left it as that, even though he was still acting not completely normal. We had a follow-up visit with our pediatrician on the Monday after Thanksgiving. He felt it was possibly a cracked collar bone...so off we were to more x-rays. No crack. So we have a mystery that was never solved. A few days after the incident I did notice some bruising on the right side of his shoulder/neck area, so I am convinced it was a fall. In all, after a week Adam was back to normal. Glad he's OK!

"Don't eat the church!"

Today we went to Amy and Scott's ward for the kids Primary Program. The boys all did a great job. At one point during the program, Brock turned around to talk to Adam. Adam for some reason was licking the bench or just had his mouth up to the bench. Brock said to Adam, "Don't eat the church Adam, don't eat the church!" Brock was very concerned and said it several times. I love how little minds work and sometimes the funny things that come out of their mouth!

Megan's parent program - Ocean unit

Again, I am amazed at all the things the kids are learning in Club. Megan now knows the difference between a vertebrate and invertebrate, she knows about sharks and whales and fish, and tidal waves and how they are formed, and sea stars and so much more about our ocean. To add to that, she can name all the oceans in the world, and point them out on a map. A lot of what they learn is put to song to make it easier to remember. I think this is why Megan loves it so much. I even learned something new from Megan that she had learned. Did you know that sea stars (commonly referred to as star fish, but they are not a fish) take their stomach out to eat? Then if they don't like something that they've eaten they just leave their stomach there and they grow a new one. Nice. Kind of wish I could do that sometimes.

Club has a small loft. Megan is showing me her shark puppet.

Megan smiling during the classroom portion of the parent program.

This is the small playroom that is decorated like a submarine for this unit.