Christmas Eve 2012

We enjoyed Christmas Eve at our own house this year.  Someone was doing the Twelve Days of Christmas for us this year and left this gingerbread house kit on our doorstep so we saved it for Christmas Eve.  Jonny helped us decorate, but he definitely thought the candy was the best part.  He kept sneaking candy while we were decorating and then was delighted to eat the leftovers!

We also made and decorated cupcakes to celebrate Jesus' birthday.  Jonny loved the singing and especially blowing out the candles (which we had to do over and over).  It was a lot of fun!

Dr. Jonny

 Who knows quite what prompted Jonny to grab a piece of floss and put white underwear on his head so that he could be Dr. Jonny!  Maybe it was his recent trip to the dentist's office, his recent interest in what he can be when he grows up, or maybe just a three-year-old's wild imagination!  Whatever it was, I ran for the camera as soon as he put on the underwear and told his dad, "Open up so I can fix you."

The Christmas Tree

 We decorated our Christmas tree for FHE last night.  Jonny wasn't super interested in helping, but we got him to hang up about seven or eight ornaments, a handful of candy canes and then Chris lifted him up to put the angel on the top of the tree.

 Most of Jonny's ornaments ended up right next to each other.  He liked to hang them from the red bead garland.  Maybe it was just easier for him to hang them from the garland rather than the tree.  I left the ornaments where they are because it's kind-of cute!

Snow!

 We finally got our first snow!  Jonny and I slept over at Grandma's house Friday night and when we woke up in the morning, there were little skiffs of snow in her yard.  When Jonny saw them, he said, "It's the holidays!"

 When we drove home and found that we had a bit more snow at our house, he was even more excited!  He told me things like, "Look at all the snow all over!  It's a big mess!"  and "It's okay.  I like snow.  I'm going to eat the snow!"

 Jonny decided to throw a snowball at me while I was taking pictures.  He didn't hit the camera, but he has surprisingly good aim for a three-year-old!

The next morning, before breakfast or anything, Jonny went in search of a hat and gloves so he could go back outside and eat snow.  That's evidently what Jonny likes the best about snow so far:  eating it!

Ward Christmas Party

 Our ward Christmas party was Saturday night.  The theme was "A Night in Bethlehem" so they asked everyone to dress up.  This is what we came up with.  Chris used his college graduation robes and a dish towel and I used my robe and a piece of cloth.  Jonny doesn't have a robe so we got lucky when my mom remembered that she had a costume that she had made for my youngest brother when he was in a Christmas scene many years ago.  It was a little big for Jonny but it worked out well with the addition of a pillowcase on his head!  He liked the fact that he could spin around and have something flapping around his knees and his head at the same time!  We went around the cultural hall to the different "shops" to "buy" our food.  (We were given a bag of pennies at the door to use to pay.)  After buying our food, we then sat on blankets spread on the floor while we ate.  I signed up to bring 36 pastries, so my mom and I made a bunch of fruit turnovers.  One of our ward members is a professional photographer so he took family photos in the stable that was set up on the stage.  Jonny was entranced by the star that was hanging in front of the stable, so it was hard to get him to look at the camera.  We haven't received a copy of that picture yet, but when we do, I'll add it.  It was an enjoyable night.

New Bed

 Jonny's crib converts to a day bed so that's what he has been sleeping on for the last year (ever since he learned how to climb out of the crib).  He still fits fine, but I had been wanting to get him a twin-size bed.  When a sister in our ward decided to upgrade her teen daughter's bed from a twin to a queen, she offered to sell the twin bed to us.  I jumped right on it because the price was right, the mattress is a pillowtop and is clean and comfortable.  They even delivered the mattress to us last week.

We've had the bed for about five days and it has been magical!  Jonny often woke up in the night when he slept in his daybed and would get in bed with us.  Ever since we've had the bed, Jonny has slept through the night in his own bed!  It's been wonderful! 


I should say, he's slept in his bed all night with the exception of the second night.  At about 7:00 p.m., Jonny told us that he wanted to sleep in his bed.  We expected him to climb right out a few minutes later but when we didn't hear from him for about ten minutes, we wondered if he had fallen asleep.  He had!!!  We didn't want to wake him up because we didn't know if he would go back to sleep later and we didn't really want to let him sleep because we didn't know what time of the early morning he would wake up.  We found out at 3:30 a.m. when he strolled into our room and flipped the light on!  It scared me to death because he usually just comes in the dark and climbs in bed without the light!  I took him back to his bed and got in HIS bed with him and it took an hour but he eventually fell asleep again for a couple of more hours!  Needless to say, we are not going to let him get in his bed at 7:00 p.m. again!

Boise Temple Open House

 The Boise Temple has been closed for the last year so it could be renovated.  It is finally finished and the open house was held over the past month.  When my sister came for a visit, we took the four kids and met my mom at the temple.

 We took this picture (above) after we were finished with the tour.  As you can see, we are holding onto both little boys to keep them in the picture.  They were pretty done with the whole thing.  The amazing thing is that Jonny was throwing a fit right before we went into the celestial room and when we entered and stood in there, Jonny was as good as gold.  The temple was beautiful and when Jonny sees pictures of the temple or when we drive by, he asks if we can go again.

Fall Photos

 While Jonny was dressed up earlier this week, I stuck him in front of the lilac bush in our yard since the colors were so beautiful.  These are all of the photos I took, in order.  He did really well in the first few, but you can definitely see his cheesy smile in the last ones!

Halloween 2012

 Jonny dressed up as a dragon for Halloween this year, in a costume that I made for him.  He was pretty excited about it.  I'm pretty sure that he thought the wings would actually work because he kept asking if he could fly on Halloween!

 Chris's sister brought her kids over to go trick-or-treating with us.  We walked down our street as far as the little ones could go.  We only went to about 10-15 houses and Jonny got a little more than half of a bucket of candy.  There aren't a lot of trick-or-treaters on our street so everyone is pretty generous with the candy.  Jonny had such a good time that he has been asking to go trick-or-treating again every day since Halloween!

Back in the Hospital

Ahhh!!! Another hospital stay for Chris!  His pancreas flared back up and he was in a lot of pain again so we took him into the hospital on Tuesday, Oct 16.  They kept him until Saturday, Oct 20.  His pancreatitis was not nearly as bad as the first time so he was not in the ICU this time.  We weren't expecting another case of pancreatitis again since his gall bladder was taken out.  The doctors thought at first that he had a stone that might have been left behind, but after running some tests they don't think that was the case.  Instead, they told us that the fluid pocket around the damaged part of his pancreas most likely caused this inflammation.  The fluid pocket has grown from 2 1/2 inches a month ago to 4 inches now.  The doctors would prefer to let the fluid drain off on its own but that could take anywhere from 6 to 12 more months!  We have a doctor's appointment this week for a check up and hopefully to make a plan so that we won't have a THIRD case of pancreatitis!

 We happened to be there one day when Chris got to finally eat again.  Let's say that Chris got to drink the broth and the grape juice but the green Jello just disappeared!

Jonny was definitely more comfortable with the hospital this time around.  He didn't mind stretching out on his daddy's bed to watch cartoons!

Jonny doesn't let his dad get too far out of his sight.  All week long, he kept giving Chris a hug and telling him, "I'm so glad you're home from the hospital.  The picture above was taken the day after Chris came home from the hospital.  Jonny doesn't take naps anymore but he snuggled right up to his dad and fell asleep!

Making Faces

 To get that one good picture on the last post, we had to take several pictures since Jonny is into making faces lately.

 This is Jonny's MAD face!

Daddy's Finally Back to Work!

Six weeks later, Chris was finally able to go back to work!  Jonny really got used to having his daddy around all the time so the first day that Chris went back to work, Jonny asked me several times, "When is my daddy coming home?"  The doctor told us that it will still take another month or two for Chris's pancreas to heal completely, so we are looking forward to the day that Jonny's daddy feels like rough-housing again so Mommy can take a break!  (You probably can't tell from the photo below, but Chris lost 30+ pounds during these last six weeks.  But it's definitely not a diet plan that I would recommend!)

What a Month!

 Yes, these pictures show Chris in the hospital.  The ICU, in fact!  It started on Saturday, Aug 25 when he started having an unbearable pain in his abdomen and was throwing up.  We took him into the emergency room where they discovered that he had stones in his gall bladder and that one had come out and was stuck in a duct.  It was preventing the enzymes from the pancreas and gall bladder from getting where they needed to so it caused severe pancreatitis, a highly painful inflammation of the the pancreas.  While he was still in the ER, he stopped breathing after they administered two doses of pain medication.  Consequently, Chris spent a week in the ICU.

 Jonny was allowed to come see Chris after a few days.  He was pretty hesitant to get too near his dad.  He told him, "You're sick."  As soon as Jonny discovered there were buttons on the bed to push, he didn't mind sitting up on the bed with Chris.  He enjoyed making his daddy's head and feet go up and down.

 Jonny also liked borrowing the nurse's stethoscope.

 Jonny got to ride on the wheelchair with his daddy when Chris was discharged.  He thought it was the best thing ever, but of course I couldn't get him to look at the camera!

The doctors wanted to take his gall bladder out because it had more stones in it, but they wanted his pancreas to heal before surgery.  So Chris spent another couple of weeks feeling sick and sore at home before they took his gall bladder out on Tuesday, Sept 18th.    He spent two or three days sleeping on the couch but he is finally starting to feel better.  It will take him another two weeks or so before he can go back to work.  We've also got to get him eating and building his strength back up.  He's lost about 25 pounds because it hurt to eat.  At one point, Chris was told not to eat fats, meats, fresh fruits & vegetables, dairy and sugars.  It's been quite a month, but hopefully Chris has turned the corner and is going to be better soon!