A Scary Few Days

Monday morning I found out that my mom was admitted to the hospital with a rare infection that was in her throat and moved into her blood. It was apparently the same bacteria as found in pneumonia but was in her throat and threatened to close off her airway. Thanks to the instincts of an ER doctor she was kept overnight and not sent home. The hospital would not admit her and the ER doctor kept her until a laryngologist could see her. When he did he admitted her right away. We found out later from her doctor that it was the same infection that killed George Washington, funny because she got sick on George Washington's birthday. My brother and I gave her a blessing Monday morning and it was very positive. She has continued to improve and is being released this morning. It was a very emotional time for the whole family because it happened to quickly. She has always been so healthy. It reminds us of how fragile life is and how important families are. It was nice to see all her children rally around her.

Rise and Shout!

My nephew Craig was accepted to BYU!

GO COUGARS!!

Uncanny!

My niece Jessica found this in her math book:

Fives

5 things I miss about living in Santa Monica, in no particular order:

- going for a walk in December in short sleeves (the weather almost all the time)

- living near some of my family

- small class sizes at school

- being around people who knew my mom

- avocado burritos

5 things I DON'T miss about living in Santa Monica, in no particular order:

- traffic

- parking, lack of and price of

- nannies raising all the children

- no close Target or Wal-Mart

- house prices

Vacation!

A vacation recap, mostly for me. This is my journal, remember? And pictures, for Jessica.

Two days after Christmas we headed to California. Easton started us out going late by puking in his bed, but we still decided to go. (Thanks Alicia for the laundry duty) The car ride was long, and we had some traffic, but overall it wasn't TOO bad. We got to see some friends from Torrance at the McDonald's in St. George, definitely the highlight of the long drive.

Andrew & Logan

We got to Santa Monica and visited a little and headed to bed. Easton got to sleep in a little tent, and it actually worked okay, he just didn't sleep in in the morning, because he could unzip and get out! We went to SMII ward on Sunday where I think I only know 1 or 2 people now, and then hung out. We went to the cemetery, and visited with the family. Kim made a delicious spaghetti dinner and we all laughed at Sarah's antics.

Monday morning the kids got to spend more time playing. All three of my kids LOVED playing with Sarah Jane, and she seemed to enjoy it, too.

Easton is even sharing cars with his cousin.

We went to Campos for lunch (YUM!) and looked at the ocean, saw the nativity there, then headed up to Simi Valley.

Lauren was very excited about the ocean, she didn't remember ever seeing it before.


Since the Steele's now have a Wii, much of the time there was spent playing, especially by Logan and Craig. Elizabeth entertained the kids by taking them to the park numerous times. Emily and I did the fitness circuit at one of the parks and walked around it and that was fun. On Tuesday we got to go to Del's work and see "Bedtime Stories" which was quite entertaining. We also saw some cool 3D shorts.


Easton, ready for the 3D movie

Wednesday was New Year's Eve and we ate lots of yummy food and played games. I tried to get Lauren to take a nap so she could happily stay up until midnight, but after laying in bed for 2 hours and not sleeping a wink I told her she could skip the nap. She ALMOST made it to midnight, but not quite. She fell asleep on the couch at about 11:45.




Here she is, out like a light.


After we blew horns and yelled and popped poppers we put her in bed.













2 minutes later she came out and shared in the festivities.





The next day was the drive again . . . shorter this time. We didn't have to slow down even once for traffic on the way home, and we beat the storm, so the weather was fantastic. We had a great time, thanks to Kim & Elizabeth for letting us stay and play. Yeah!


P.S. The next morning, Easton had puke in his bed again.

In December we did so many fun things! We had a party, went to parties, made cookies (ate them, too), went ice skating (1st time for Logan & Lauren), went to Temple Square, David took the older 2 sledding, and we saw Santa a few times. We spent Christmas Eve at David's parents' house, where Easton learned that opening presents is great! The kids had fun all over the place and got too many presents for Christmas. Whew!

the kids with Santa at the ward Christmas party

Lauren rolling out the dough for some Christmas orange butter cookies

Lauren showing "no hands" and Logan 1 second after his "no hands"

David & Me enjoying the lights at Temple Square

part of the clan gathered at Grandma & Grandpa's (the whole clan can't fit in the picture)

this was supposed to be a picture of Lauren, who was SO excited about her new Princess set of goodies, but Easton had to steal the show with his own excitement about Lauren's new present

Christmas morning . . . finally!

In the buff

One day I went in to get Easton from his nap and this is what I saw . . .

luckily, he was dry.