Christmas Eve Traditions...

Christmas Eve we either go to Oma & Papa's or Gramers and Papa's for a yummy dinner. This year we were at Gramers and Papa's house for our traditional Mexican dinner. The highlight was the yummy beans from Lulu's restaurant. We always get to their house early enough to light the luminaries before we eat. After dinner we play a really fun white elephant game. Gramers always makes it lots of fun!

Megan, Lindsey, Lauren, Jordan and Sheridan

Cole, Jared, Caleb and Conner

Marcus performing for us!

A monkey hanging from the tree!

Liesl and Shelene

When we get home we let the kids open one gift.

What could that be?

PAJAMAS
Cole got "CARS" pj's!

Lindsey got comfy pj's that she can wear all year round.
Conner ASU pj's, he is our sports FANATIC!

Sweet Carly, Tinkerbell pj's!

Jr. High and High School friends after 18 years...

What a fun day! Saturday, December 20 I got to meet up with some of my Junior High and High School friends. Some of them I hadn't seen in 18 years, WOW! Everyone seemed good and happy!

Update from left to right:
Sarah Barnes - a lawyer, amazing! She always wanted to be one, she was always so smart. I am so proud of her! She also has one son, Jalen. I guess he is quite an athlete.

Kristen Stabile Anson - an accountant! Lives right by our old house in Chandler. She has 2 beautiful daughters, Kami and Kate. Likes to scrapbook, one of my loves too.

Heather Cooper Braeutigam - a mother of 3 healthy and happy kiddos. Calvin, Emma and Caden who are very busy and active. Heather lives in Missouri and is very involved with her church.

Denise Nicolson Donaldson - a Southwest airline flight attendant and nurse practitioner. Lives in Tempe and stays super busy flying and supporting Arizona's sports. Recovering from a recent broken leg.

Corrie Brabec - an accountant! Loves to be active playing tennis, hiking and doing anything outdoors. Is an aunt of a beautiful nephew.

What a great time we had catching up! Sure hope we can make this a yearly tradition. Hope everyone has a great year. Can't wait to email each other and keep info. on life happenings.

Poor Oma!

Tuesday night Oma was changing and discovered a bruise with a bump on it. Showed Papa and Logan and they thought it looked like a blood clot. She called her dear friend Ruth (a nurse) and she told her to either go to the ER (and they would probably put her in the hospital and watch her for a few days) or put a hot compress on it and elevate it. Gee can you guess what she did? Yes, she tried to care for it at home. Well today after we cleaned 5 houses I insisted we go to Urgent Care and get it looked at. She had me worried, I guess her Grandma Allred died of a blood clot.

So we went to Urgent Care. Checked her vitals and her blood pressure was high. The doctor came in and looked at her leg said it wasn't the dangerous kind of blood clot, but he wanted to give her an antibiotic because it would probably open up and he didn't want an infection to occur. He checked her over her legs were a little swollen. Decided she was fine, but on the way out he wanted to check her blood pressure again. Well it was HIGH! He had us come back into the room and checked it several more times. It was reading higher every time. He had her lay down, he had her stand up, he had her sit up, her blood pressure continued to rise. He then recommend we go to the ER. Not only go to the ER, but told us he would like her to take an ambulance because of how high her blood pressure was. She and I started to get nervous then.

Decided that is what she needed to do. The firemen arrived first and were amazed that she had no other symptoms with this high of blood pressure (no heart pains, headaches, aches anywhere). In the ambulance her blood pressure hit a high. Larissa came and got me and we met Dad, Logan and Lance at the hospital (No Lisa because she had gall bladder surgery today)! Oh my what a day!

Once at the hospital they did blood work, EKG's, ultrasound (on her legs) and several test. She began having a little discomfort in her back and chest, but once they put her on oxygen she felt a little better. Every test so far came back okay. I feel so bad for her, she was tired, wanted to take a bath and go to bed. Around 10:00pm Larissa and I headed for home. She has to work at 3:30 in the morning and Lindsey needed to get to bed she has finals tomorrow (Erik's at work).

11:30pm Logan just called and said they are on their way home. Not sure why or what exactly was the cause, but all the test came back and no sign of anything. Weird...you never know why things happen. Doctors orders: rest and take it easy this weekend (I hope we can keep her down!).

What a week! Dad had 3 teeth pulled, Kurt strep, Lisa surgery, and mom trip to the hospital by ambulance because of high blood pressure, yuck! Next week will be better. Glad everyone is doing better!

Conner's Christmas Performance

Sunday, December 14 Conner performed in a children's choir at our stake Christmas Program, "Witness of Christ". It was an amazing program. They sang "How Far is it to Bethlehem and Christmas Bells are Ringing" wow! His Papa Morris sang with the adult choir. The spirit was so strong, a wonderful musical performance. Carly went to support him. Lindsey stayed home with Cole he has one of his horrible asthma coughs going on. Next year Lindsey and Erik hope to be involved in the performance, this time of year is hard for Erik. We are very proud of Conner and love that he is willing to share his talents.

Conner...broken or dislocated?

Conner came home from school Wednesday saying he hurt his finger playing football at lunch recess. The nurse had taped it and sent him back to class. He told us it hurt, but really didn't complain too much about it until today. After cleaning with Oma today I get home to Erik saying he thought we should take Conner in and have his finger x-rayed. He headed off to work, I fed the kids, bathed them, then Conner and I headed in to the ER. X-ray time, wish Aunt Rissa could have done them. They had him but his fingers in some crazy positions.
Conner he is such a good sport. He was happy to be able to watch ESPN while waiting for things to happen. Tyler notice it is his middle finger, he wants to be just like you (you had a hurt middle finger right?). We joked about how this was the only time he could have his middle finger up.
Oh and x-rays show only a sprain, yeah! Now he can still play WHAM basketball on Tuesday, his first practice. Love this kid!

Crew is FOUR today!

Happy Birthday CREW! Wow you are four?! Crew is one smart little man. His mom, Heather, teaches preschool and watch out Crew knows his stuff. He is a very kind and polite little man. He loves hanging out with his dad and is very good with Case. We love you!

Mesa Temple has amazing Christmas Lights!

Sunday, December 7 we went into town to see the temple lights. I am amaze each year how beautiful and creative the lights are. The kids loved them. I love the nativity display too. The new statues look so real. We watched the Luke II movie, I love this time of year. Glad we were able to go as a family!