Christmas 2015

Our Christmas celebration started as it usually does on Christmas Eve morning with the Reynolds side of the family party. We have breakfast in our jammies and open presents and hang out. This year we hosted it, and it was fun! Except for the part where I had a migraine. What are the odds?! I've had less then 8 in my whole life and I get one on Christmas Eve?! I wanted to die. I stayed drugged up and managed to make it through the day.

After that party we hung out and chilled for awhile. We had our traditional white chicken chili dinner and watched Inside Out before bed. 

Jaxton was really into Christmas all month and was so excited to get out cookies for santa. Everytime I asked him how many cookies we should leave out he increased it by one, so I think he ended up with 8 cookies! I tried to talk them into leaving Santa Dr. Pepper but they said no, it had to be milk.
Preston wrote the note by himself, it says "Dear Santa We have ben gud. Thank you for the presits. mere christmas! Love Preston jaxton Lucas

I'm so glad that we keep things simple for Christmas. It's hard because we want to give them tons of things that we know they will like but we also don't want them to be ungrateful and entitled. So we stick to "Something you want something you need something to read something to wear" and then 1 big family gift. So this year they got pillows, remote control cars, books and hoodies and a few little things too. Then our big family gift, a new trampoline with a net! 

The boys weren't allowed to come out of their room till 6am, so naturally right at 6 they came to get us up. They had a fun time opening their gifts

After the gifts were opened Preston said "well, we didn't get a trampoline, but thats ok, we got lots of other great things". We gathered up the trash and told Preston to take it out to the recycle barrel outside and as soon as he opened up the back door we heard a huge gasp and he came running back in saying "He did bring it! It's outside!!" They were thrilled. 

It was a really long day, so long in fact that I got to take 2 naps! Merry Christmas to me!!!
Jaxton snuggled up and napped on my lap which was nice. 

Lots of snuggles happened all day. 

Later that night we had a family dinner with everyone over. 

And then this morning I took down all the Christmas decorations. It's nice having them up, but it feels so cluttered with stuff everywhere, so I always look forward to having it back to normal. I was sad to see the Christmas card collect go tho. I've enjoyed having those up and looking at them whenever I'm in the kitchen. 

Vegas Baby!!!!

GoDaddy Christmas parties were amazing. I looked forward to them all year long. So it was sad when Patrick switched jobs and I had to say goodbye to those parties. But it seems that Carvin Software one up'd GoDaddy in the Christmas party department!

They flew us out to Vegas for the weekend!!
It was so nice to just fly there (50 min flight) instead of a 5hr drive.
They had a limo pick us up at the airport .My first time in a limo!! 

Back at Thanksgiving we stayed at Excalibur because it was the cheapest option, but this time we were in the fanciest hotel I've ever been in! The Cosmopolitan. We were on the 52nd floor! This was our view from our balcony. Yep, our balcony. 

Here is a panoramic view of our room. We just couldn't get over how nice it was!! We had 2 tvs, a couch, a mini bar, fluffy robes, a huge walk in shower, Jacuzzi tub. We were so spoiled. 

We met up with his boss and coworkers for a bit after we checked in and then Patrick and I went to go eat at the buffet at the Cosmopolitan, the Wicked Spoon. 

Another panoramic view off our balcony

 So on top of flying us out, and paying for our room we also got $200 for food/drinks! Since we don't gamble or drink our money went toward food. We ate at a buffet 3 times while there!! 

Saturday after sleeping(!!!) and stuffing ourselves at a breakfast buffet we went and walked around the miracle mile of shops. So many expensive shops! But we enjoy people watching and window shopping.
Oh and getting our fortune! 

Then we went and waited for the fountain show at the Bellagio which is always fun to watch. It was nice and sunny out while we were there but such a cold wind!! 

One of the buffets had THE BEST bread pudding. Oh man, I dream about that stuff! I had to take a picture of it. 

Here is some of the food that we enjoyed at the various buffets. We were just stuffed the whole time we were there. 

We napped and tried out the jacuzzi tub and fancy shower that afternoon and then that night we had a company dinner. We went to the resturant inside the Cosmopolitan and it was fancy! One of those places where the prices arent even on the menu! His boss just ordered a bunch of food and we ate it family style which was the best. Got to try things that I'd never had before, like octopus and crab cakes and other types of fish. It was amazing. 

We left early the next morning to fly back home. A quick trip but so fun and nice. Definitely beat a GoDaddy party!! 

Tympanoplasty

 Poor Preston has been blessed with allergies. This means he's had a fair share of ear infections, which has lead to two sets of tubes and his adenoids being removed. Unfortunately as a result of the repeat tubes he has holes in his eardrums. Normally tubes fall out and the hole heals itself. In Prestons case the holes got bigger and bigger causing his hearing to be effected. So we had two choices, surgery to fix the holes or medicated drops for life and a hearing aid in the right ear where the hole was "significantly large".
We opted for the surgery.
So a few days after we got back from our Utah trip we went in for his Tympanoplasty. With the tympanoplasty they make a C shaped incision behind his ear, pull it back, collect some fibrous tissue and then surgically attach it to his eardrum. Then they reattach his ear. Luckily he only had to have this done with his right ear, the left ear's hole was small enough it could be fixed with a paper patch, which means no cutting. 

The surgeon came in and marked which ear was the one they would be working on, which Preston though was hilarious. I didn't since that permanent marker took a few days to get off. 

The whole procedure took about an hour and fifteen minutes and then he was in recovery for another hour. He has a history of having nausea/vomiting as a result of anestheisa and this time was no different. We were getting ready to leave and I picked him up and he threw up on me. Then a few more times after that. They gave him something for nausea and we left and he threw up a few more times in the car on the way home.
He was pretty out of it and HATED his bandage on, but it had to stay on for 24 hours. 

Once that came off he was much more comfortable. He had surgical tape all around the back of his ear which we had to leave on for 3 days and which the kids at school called "gross". Stinking kids. 

Then we very carefully removed the tape a few days later and got to see how it looked. So clean! Not as bad as I was expecting. 

They said it would take about 6 weeks before his hearing was back to normal, which I believe. But he knows he can't hear as good out of that ear and will turn his head to his other ear for us to talk into. We started doing antibiotic ear drops yesterday and will keep doing those for 3 weeks till his followup appointment on the 14th. He had an appointment with his primary doctor a few days ago and I had him check out the patches and he said they looked good, so I'm hopeful. Plus his hair is growing back nicely. 

Because of his allergies and the fact they are getting worse (at night he coughs so hard he throws up and will gasp for air) I took him in to his regular doctor to have some allergy testing done. If we can find something he's allergic to that is making them worse I'd like to know. They also did an asthma test to see if he has allergy induced asthma. But that test was inconclusive. So in a week we should have the allergy test blood work back and in the mean time we have a new nose spray and allergy medication to take. 

His hair is amazing. 

And finally, he had a Gingerbread Man meets Mother Goose program at school before Christmas break and he was Humpty Dumpty who fell off the wall and did great! He loves school and is doing so well. His reading is amazing, and he's learning so many good things. We have parent teacher conferences the first week in January which I can't wait for. My favorite thing is for people to talk to me about how great my kids are! 

Thanksgiving in Utah

It's no secret around here that Thanksgiving is my favorite. It's my holiday, and a big part of the reason it is my holiday is because it's when everyone comes into town to visit. But this year that couldn't happen because Andrew didn't have much time off work teaching and Jimmy and Mallory understandably didn't want to travel with a newborn. So we did the next best thing, we went to them!
You will recall our last Utah trip did not go well...
But the boys were older now and I wasn't 6 months pregnant, so we hoped for the best and expected the worst. Plus we put Captain Pee Pants (jaxton) in a diaper and drugged Sir Pukes Alot (Lucas). 

Our car is great for a lot of reasons, but one of the biggest flaws is it's lack of space for luggage and stuff. And since we were traveling with Laura we had to get a bag to attach to the top to hold all our stuff. And we had a lot of stuff. Brilliant idea #1- pack everything in space saver bags. 

We were packed full and everyone had drinks and we had movies galore so we took off Tuesday after Preston got out of school around 3. 

I decided for blogging purposes I would keep a log of all the things that happened. But then I got crankier and crankier as the trip went on and so the fun posts ended. But this is what it looked like as we traveled for that first day. 

We also played the license plate game where we tried to find 1 license plate from every state. The hardest part was trying to remember all 50 states! Took Laura and I like 20 minutes and then we remembered Ohio. We also predicted what the temperature would be like in the places we were going. I was really good at that game. I'm probably part psychic. 

We stayed the night in Blanding and the next day drove to Roosevelt to see Patricks Grandma and Aunt/Uncle. His family had never met the boys before so it was fun to introduce them. We all had lunch together and it was a nice to break up the trip that way. 

About an hour after we left Roosevelt on our way to Provo it started to snow. Which was fun, but then turned into stress. Patrick wasn't stressed as the driver though, he did great. Laura and I were a little anxious, but not scared. And it was really pretty to see! Looked like a Christmas card. Then about 15 minutes outside of Provo it quit. 

We spent that night hanging out at Jimmy and Mallorys and meeting Bennett and getting our plans adjusted for Thanksgiving.
The next day we cooked our different dishes at different places but then headed to the church to all eat together. That was nice because then we didn't have to worry about fitting everyone in a small place and the kids had room to run.
I don't think Lucas napped any of the days we were there, so he was a little more fussy and cuddly then normal.
He and I dressed up like Pilgrims. 

Since Jimmy was chief he sat at the head of the table. 

We played football inside for awhile in our Cardinals attire, per tradition, and then we had to go outside to cool off. There wasn't any snow, but there were massive amounts of leaves which we had a leaf fight with, and that pleased Preston. 

Here we all are dressed up! Patrick decided last minute to be the turkey which was a nice touch! And Jimmy and Mallory were Indians who stole a little pilgrim baby. Preston and Jaxton were channeling their Asian Indian roots and Lyla lost her hat, but we still looked good! 

Being in a food coma makes you find a spot to sleep wherever you can. In this case it meant the stage in the cultural hall with jackets for pillows. 

After we were done there we headed back over to Andrew and Janieces house since they literally live across the street from the church and hung out there eating more and visiting. And holding Bennett. 

We really didn't want to leave Utah without playing in the snow, so Friday morning we drove to Provo Canyon and found some snow to play in. It. Was. So. Cold. I know that snow and winter is cold, but this was like 19 degrees cold. As soon as we got out of the car Lucas started crying and didn't stop the entire time. 

He wouldn't even look up for a picture. 

 We were a little braver then the boys, but still cold!!! 

I literally couldn't feel my cheeks in this picture and couldn't tell if I was smiling or not! 

Mallory and Rox stayed in cars with babies and eventually Patrick headed back to the car with my crying cold boys but we still had fun. 

That night we went to a bakery across from our hotel called The Cocoa Bean and warmed up with some hot chocolate and cupcakes. Then I tucked everyone, including Patrick into bed and went with John, Andrew, Laura and Janiece to go see Creed. 

When we got out of the movie that night it was snowing and it snowed on and off all night which means the boys woke up to snow the next day! They were so much happier this time since it wasn't nearly as cold. Preston got to make a snow angel which was on his list of things to do in Utah. He's the only one who wanted to make one. 

Look! No tears! He calls snow "snowman" so every time he would see it he would just say "Oh snowman! snowman!" 

I taught them the art of making a snowball. And throwing it.

And we tasted the snow. 

Sunday before we left Jimmy and Mallory had Bennett blessed in their home. He looked so cute in his little outfit & didn't cry at all. 

No, Lucas is not wearing church clothes. I had him dressed and then he dumped hot chocolate all over himself. If you are wondering if that made me angry, the answer is yes. 

Then we left and started our drive home. We split the trip in half again which means we only had to drive to Vegas. Along with half the world as there was traffic. 

Patrick wasn't feeling well when we got in, but the boys needed to get some energy out and I wanted them to see the lights of Vegas so Laura and I took them out on the strip. We're so brave. We had a groupon to stay in Excalibur, which was shaped like a castle so they loved that. 

After we saw the mini statue of liberty Jaxton would pose in each picture with his arm up in the air like he was holding a torch. 

Our view from Excalibur. 

They enjoyed Vegas. We stopped at a Jack in the Box for breakfast on our way out of town and Preston had a breakfast jack for the first time and thought it was the most amazing thing ever and now associates that with Vegas so when Patrick and I went to Vegas a few weeks later for a work thing he asked us to bring him back a breakfast jack. 

It was a good trip. Had some ups and downs. It was really hard having 5 people in 1 hotel room. Not a lot of space from each other. And we had coughing boys so I feel like I just listened to them cough all night. So while I prefer to stay home in our own our environment it was nice to have everyone experience new things. I think Preston is the only one of us who would be happy to live in snow. The rest of us will be Arizonans for life.