December 2015

 December started off with Kaleb's school Shakespeare play. He did a great job memorizing all of his lines and it was fun to watch.

December 1, 2015

I was scheduled for surgery for my hip the last week in February but they had a cancellation and since I wanted to get in before the end of the year I took it. That only gave me just over a week to get everything done I needed to since I would be laid up in bed after. Thankfully I always get my Christmas shopping done early and had already ordered Christmas cards. That just left the Ward Christmas Party I was in charge of that was the Friday before my surgery on the 4th. I wish I had pictures but I was running around like crazy all day that day and didn't even have time to run home and change before the party started. We had chicken cordon bleu, with a homemade white sauce, rice, veggies, homemade rolls and a cheesecake bar for dessert. The decorations were amazing and I'm so sad I don't have pictures but Matt made long, skinny wood boxes that we stained and filled with lights, greenery and pine cones for the tables and we had a really cute Santa picture station, ornaments for the kids to decorate, an appetizer table and Santa came too.

Long story, sort of shorter is that after hurting my hip digging at the cabin for our water line break the pain never went away. I couldn't rotate my hip back or very far forward for a couple weeks. We tried physical therapy, I tried steroids, they gave me a shot in my hip (that made it hurt worse) and basically I had hip dysplasia (shallow hip sockets) and also cam femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) (bone growths on the head of the femur) which can only be corrected by major surgery. Most people are in their 20's or 30's when they first learn they have dysplasia because that's usually when it starts bothering them and it's usually hereditary and more common in women.

The surgery was a periacetabular osteotomy (PAO) and anterior debridement. In basic terms the first part, PAO, is to treat hip dysplasia where you don't have enough coverage of the hip socket. They cut the hip socket away from the pelvis, rotate it to give it better coverage and then screw it back in place and your bone fills in the gaps left. 

This picture shows the cuts and how they rotate it. And then I had 5 screws put it to hold it in place.

The anterior debridement is to correct femoracetabular impingement (FAI) and is where they surgically dislocate the hip and shave away any bone growths and bumps that cause pain because if you don't have a smooth circle and socket then it hits and bumps the extra bone as you rotate within the socket.

My x-ray looked like this picture below with a bump where the neck of the femur should curve in and then there were a couple other places inside the socket they had to shave down.

I was told 6-8 weeks on crutches and then about a 6 month recovery, 1-year until you're back to all activities. I was not excited for that part of it.

Matt was sure to get a picture to document before the surgery. 

December 8, 2016

We had to be there at 6:00am. The only other surgery I've had was in 2nd grade when I had my tonsils out and all I remember is laying down and they put a mask on my face and started telling me a story and I was out after probably 5 seconds. I was nervous just not knowing what to expect but knew everything would be okay. I sat on the operating table and they put stuff in my IV to relax me and make me fall asleep. I started getting really hot as they laid me back so they checked my blood pressure but everything was fine. From there I was in and out of it while they finished prepping stuff I could hear them say my blood pressure was fine and I looked around once or twice and then I was out. I just remember waking up in recovery and Matt and the nurse were there. I was surprised how with it I was when I woke up. I still remember everything and was able to stay awake. I remember the nurses having a conversation about which room they were taking me to and so as they wheeled me down the hall and my parents were there I told them which room I was going to since I overheard them talking about it earlier. I was definitely tired and wanted to close my eyes but I felt fine. The actual surgery went from 9am-12:30pm.

After surgery I had to have oxygen on for a couple hours. That night they were going to have me try to stand up but my blood pressure was too low and as I would sit at the end of the bed I felt like I was going to pass out so we had to wait until the next day.

December 8, 2015

I was happy get back in regular clothes the second day and was able to walk around the halls with a walker. The nurses were always so surprised that I never needed any Percocet or heavy pain killers but the Tramadol I was taking seemed to take the edge off enough I didn't want to take anything more on top of that unless I had to. The kids liked coming to the hospital mostly to raid the family snack and drinks area.

December 9, 2015

Matt bought me a coloring book and markers to color while I was in the hospital and at home since laying in bed was going to be about all I would be doing.

Olivia liked to climb in my bed with me. I was feeling well enough that I was able to go home on day 3. I was ready to sleep in my own bed. I just had to show them I could do stairs with crutches and they discharged me with my ice machine that costs a pretty penny. [Months later seeing the bills it's crazy to see how each screw was almost $100, the ice machine was $1200 and how every saw blade and screw bit is accounted for!] Also, my awesome mother-in-law came in town to take care of me and the kids which was a huge help. And bonus, in the time she was here she potty trained Olivia for me, how awesome is that! Olivia was more of a struggle than the boys were though, I think she was being more stubborn than anything.

December 10, 2015

That night Matt took a picture of his mom and Olivia putting window stickers on her window.

Our ward was amazing and brought in meals for the first couple weeks and continued bringing meals a couple times a week even after I returned to work. It was such a huge help and we really have the best ward when it comes to things like that. One dinner came with a supply of gingerbread cookies, frosting and treats to decorate them with for dessert. The kids loved it.

December 14, 2015

That night Matt took the kids to the park to go sledding.

Not surprisingly Olivia made new friends and had a blast making snow angels and sledding.

Kaleb starting building a fort.

Olivia would join me in bed since that's where I lived and one day she took a nap with me after watching a cartoon.

December 15, 2015

Matt was a champ putting up with sleeping in the same bed as me. I had my ice pack machine going 24/7 and probably 8 pillows around me so he didn't have much room. And our bed was on the floor because I couldn't get in and out with it on our bed frame, it was too tall. He even moved a tv into our room temporarily for me. This view was all too familiar.

December 16, 2015

This is the list of medications I was on and they would write what time I needed the next dose so that we could keep everything straightened out. 

One night we headed with my aunt and sister to see the Christmas in Color drive thru with a million lights synchronized to music. I was worried sitting in a car that long but it wasn't too bad.

December 17, 2015

I thought this was the cutest candy nativity and Olivia made it in nursery. (with lots of help I'm sure)

December 21, 2015

We had Christmas Eve at my parents house and I pretty much stayed on the recliner couch. The kids were excited to get their pajama's from my sister and lots of presents.

December 24, 2015

We got home and they left apple cider, string cheese, apple, and cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. I know I took a picture of the note they left because it was hilarious. They said that will all the cookies Santa gets they left a healthier treat out that would be better for him than just cookies. 

Matt and I may have gone to bed after Santa came. :) Around 3am. I wasn't as much help as I usually am and may have slowed us down.

Olivia was excited but still tired but she quickly got into the present opening.

December 25, 2015

This picture is funny because the boys both opened a game for an Xbox One which we don't own. And then I made them take a picture. You can tell Kaleb is like, whatever and Ashton is thinking and wondering why he has this game. They kept saying they don't know why they got a game they can't even play. We just kept smiling at them and then they ran downstairs and found an Xbox One set up that we bought from my brother. 

And next to it was a new kitchen and table for Olivia. She was so excited and started "cooking" right away. Almost a year later and she still cooks all the time and loves using her kitchen.

We had breakfast with my mother-in-law, my parents, sister and my brother stopped by too. We had Christmas dinner at my aunt and uncles house like we usually do. I was exhausted by the end of the day and was actually happy to climb back in bed.

Olivia came to me and had me put on a storm trooper mask and she was in a Darth Vader mask. She was a cute Darth Vader running around.

December 26, 2015

*Other surgery info: I only took 2 weeks off of work, they told me to take off at least 4 weeks if it was a desk job but I knew I couldn't swing that but luckily my job is easy going and Matt set up a bed at work for me so I could lay down if I needed to since sitting is what hurt since I would get stiff. I never fell down with the crutches even with all the snow and ice (horrible time of year to be on crutches) but I did slip twice on ice shortly after I was off of crutches and it hurt. I also started trying to get around the house without crutches around 3-4 weeks in without putting too much pressure on my leg and I think that helped because by week 4 I was down to 1 crutch most of the time and by week 5 I was completely off of crutches. I still had physical therapy to do to get my muscles strong again but I was very happy with how quickly I recovered. And my doctor who is one of the best in the U.S. at doing this surgery couldn't believe how well I was doing and walking at my 6 week check-up appointment. He allows his patients to be 50% weight bearing on the operative leg right away whereas other doctors don't allow any weight bearing for 6 weeks. That means you're on crutches close to 12 weeks and it takes so much longer to recover. Overall I'm glad I had the surgery and I don't have the pain that I had before. I wouldn't even know I had surgery if it weren't for the 7-8 inch scar I have.

Well, that's December, Christmas mixed in with my surgery which isn't as exciting but we really had a great Christmas month!

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November 2015

We were all excited for November to arrive as that meant our trip to Disneyland! I don't have many pictures from the rest of November but I more than made up for it with how many pictures I took on our trip.

Olivia liked to wear her hat everyday and sometimes left it on inside too. She's big into accessories no matter what they are.

November 10, 2015

Olivia came and found me to show me she had painted her own nails. Thankfully she chose a lighter color and didn't get it on anything. She actually did a pretty good job for doing it all herself!

November 11, 2015

After much anticipation we packed up on November 14th early in the morning and drove to California. The kids always do good on the drive and I usually drive the whole way. If I'm not driving I'm sleeping and that doesn't make me a good driving companion!

We decided to go to Universal Studios since many of us hadn't been there in a long time and I hadn't been there since high school.

 November 15, 2015

Olivia loved the characters and giving them hugs. On the flip side the boys weren't about to stand by Diego.

The backlot tour is always entertaining and Olivia wanted to wear her 3D glasses for most of the tour.

The Waterworld show is always one of our favorites and we actually saw it twice. The boys loved it, Olivia didn't really care one way or the other.

When the sunset it actually got really cold, and it ended up being the coldest day we were there. The wind was blowing which didn't help but luckily we were able to hit every show and ride in the park which was our goal.  Only a couple of minutes after heading home these two were out.

The next day was our first of 5 days in Disneyland! My dad's other brother and his family also came this same week to Disneyland and so it was fun to meet up with them at different times and different rides.

November 16, 2015

Olivia was so excited to meet Minnie Mouse and she was able to meet her first thing that morning. She even had her Minnie Mouse dress on.

The Nemo submarine's were funny because Olivia kept covering her eyes and mouth if she thought something was going to be scary. We're not sure why her mouth had to be covered too but it was funny to watch. Maybe she thought water was going to get in her mouth? It was the only ride she did this on.

I let Olivia drive my car on Autopia so it was definitely a bumpy ride but we loved every minute of it!

Space Mountain and Tower of Terror were the only rides we didn't have Olivia go on, other than the couple that she wasn't tall enough for. They had changed Space Mountain to be a Star Wars theme which was cool to see.

Then Matt took the boys again.

The Genie was hanging out by the Jungle Cruise and Olivia loved playing around with him. The nights are much cooler in November and so I always had an outfit for Olivia to change in to. Plus, I didn't know how long she would want to wear her dress each day. (She picked 4 dresses to bring.)

Next was Star Tours which Olivia liked but the boys especially liked it. Ashton is still obsessed over Star War's and I don't see that changing anytime soon.

We watched the Christmas Parade the first day and Olivia loved waving and blowing kisses to everyone.

This was in line for Indiana Jones. Thankfully the lines weren't too long and we were pretty good about utilizing fast passes for the more popular rides.

Since it was cold at night you could always get right on Splash Mountain so that's what we did but some of us wore poncho's because we didn't want to walk back to the hotel soaking wet. We didn't take Olivia this time since it was cold but she loved going on Winnie the Pooh with those who didn't want to ride Splash.

Day 2 and Olivia was ready to go! We stayed at the Castle Inn and Suites and we love being able to walk to and from the park. We don't have to pay for parking and spend the time getting to and from the parking garage and if someone wants to head back early they can and we don't have to all leave at the same time.

November 17, 2015

Mater's Junkyard Jamboree is always fun.

I don't have a picture of Olivia this time we rode it but I took a video of her another time at night and she loved it and loved screaming "Wahoo" the whole time.

I'm glad they decorate early for Christmas so you can see the decorations because I don't think I'll ever brave Disneyland in December.

Anyone who has little one's knows that 40 inches is the magic mark when kids can ride most of the rides. The months before going I kept measuring Olivia and I knew it would be really close with shoes on. I was desperate to make sure she could go on the rides so I found some boots with a heal for her but they were a couple sizes to big and she just turned 3 so wearing heals wasn't something we had tried yet let alone mastered so we would put them on her right before a ride where she needed that extra half inch and then change out of them after. You can see in the line for Soarin' she isn't the most stable on them so most of the time we would carry her but they always measured her at every marker. My cousin was able to use them a couple times for her daughter who was the same height as Olivia. Soarin' was another favorite of hers so I'm glad she was able to go on it.

They had an indoor Frozen area with snow, music and a small hill to sled on. Olivia enjoyed the sledding.

And playing in the snow but she kept trying to throw it and you aren't supposed to so I had to keep telling her to stop throwing it.

Another ride I was excited she was able to go on because of the boots was Radiator Spring's Racers in Carsland. It's such a fun ride and one we all like.

She looks so little in the seat.

Olivia went on the carousel many times throughout the 5 days we were there.

Day 3 and Olivia wore her Cinderella dress. She was trying to make friends with a duck.

November 18, 2015

Olivia loved It's a Small World but the boys hate it. They were good sports though for the times we rode it.

Olivia picked a pink dumbo to ride.

Kaleb has light up Mickey Ears that he's had for many years but they weren't working this trip so they exchanged them for a new pair (60th Anniversary ones) and Ashton decided to get himself a pair too with his money. They also each bought these paintbrushes that allow you to change the flashing colors on anyone's ears.

I always volunteer to take pictures on the teacups. :) Olivia had been dying to go on the teacups since before we left on our trip and she had a blast.

We decided to take Olivia on Splash Mountain and she didn't like the "big hill" but she loved the rest of it. We kept asking her if she wanted to go again but she said no so we didn't make her.

One of my favorite's is Big Thunder Mountain and Olivia came with me on it. I videoed her through part of it and she just had a straight face most of the time. You could see her looking around and taking it all in but she wasn't sure what to think of it.

My dad asked if we could "drive" the Ferry and they only allow a couple people so Matt took the kids up there while we watched from the top deck. Olivia without Matt realizing reached over and pulled the horn one time when she wasn't supposed to but they had fun "driving" the boat.

We've done this before but this was the first time the kids received a certificate from doing it. It's always fun to get a keepsake, especially a free one!

She had excitement on her face all the time! That's what Disney does to you.

I think every time we go someone has to try knocking on the small door by Alice in Wonderland.

We bought 2 day tickets to Universal since they were the same price as a 1 day pass and the 19th was our day to go back but we had already seen everything and so we had a day off. We did some shopping at Downtown Disney rather than waste our park days shopping, the boys went swimming at the hotel and we ended the day with dinner at a really good chicken place. Unfortunately right before arriving at dinner Kaleb became car sick and lost it all over the car, our rental car. That was fun to clean up. Thankfully he tried to keep everything on him but that meant I needed to run and grab him a different outfit. Luckily a Kohl's was nearby.

November 19, 2015

Funny girl trying on a mask.

Ashton had fun swimming but it was too cold for me to jump in.

Day 4 at Disney and Olivia was able to meet Tiana. There wasn't a line since she was just getting there which is what we like. We had just come from Big Thunder Mountain so she was in her boots so I had to carry her over to Tiana. If you ask Olivia what her favorite princess is 9 times out of 10 she says Tiana. She loves her the most.

November 20, 2015

We don't always make it over to Tom Sawyer's Island every Disney trip but we spent some time running around the island and checking things out. It's good for the kids to be able to run around after waiting in lines.

Olivia enjoyed going through Tarzan's treehouse with Matt.

The canoes are always fun and it's neat to see Disneyland from a different perspective looking at all the people while you're in the water.

Olivia helped paddle which was more that she splashed Matt with her paddle.

Outside of the Haunted Mansion.

It's hard enough to get a picture with all 3 kids looking and smiling but when I have this to contend with it really makes it hard. All 3 of them like to make silly faces for me.

The Haunted Mansion is always fun to see with the Jack Skellington decor and we stopped at this photo backdrop on our way out.

We don't usually wait in any character lines, it's just not a big deal to us but this little girl is just a LITTLE spoiled. So we waited to see Minnie at her house. She's holding up her Minnie Mouse pin by her mailbox.

Ashton and Olivia explored the yard while we waited in line.

The plastic furniture is always deceiving since it always looks soft but it's rock hard and very uncomfortable. But that didn't stop these 3 who took the chance to sit. 

Ashton made use of the other chair.

Thankfully the line wasn't too long and went pretty quick.

We also went to see the Princess's in Fantasyland because the line was super short and we were right there. She loved twirling and talking with the princesses.

The lights on It's a Small World were really pretty.

We went on Splash Mountain twice in a row since there wasn't a line but even if there's just one person waiting there you have to get out and walk around so we did since there were a couple people at the front of the line.

Day 5, our last day. For not being people who wait in line for character's we waited in line again to let Olivia meet Elsa and Anna. If we would have planned it better I would have had her in her Elsa dress but I figured the line would be too long to even attempt to see them. We only waited about 20 minutes and we were able to go back to see them.  They talked with Olivia for awhile and she was being really shy.

November 21, 2015

This video my dad took of Olivia on Flik's Flyer's is a good representation of what Olivia was like on rides. You can hear her say "Wahoo" a couple times and that was what she would do the most on rides, especially Soarin'.

 We decided to go on Radiator Spring's Racer's again with fast passes.

We also didn't have Olivia go on Tower of Terror even though she could have because I know she would get scared so we waited on that one. I didn't want her terrified of a ride so that she wouldn't ever go on it again.

Once was enough for Ashton but we had enough fast passes with people who didn't go that they went a second time.

Good old California Screamin'! I can't ride this without thinking about my not so fun experience on this ride but I still enjoy it. I can only do it once because it makes me sick to my stomach but I still enjoy it. And this was Ashton's first time going on it and he loved it!

That was a bunch of pictures. I actually didn't have my camera out that much because I wanted to enjoy the trip and not worry about every picture opportunity but when you're there 5 days from open to close it still adds up! 

We had a blast on our trip and were sad to see it end. The Paint the Night Parade and Fireworks/Castle show were amazing and so much fun to watch. The joy and excitement in the kids' faces (and who am I kidding, our faces) is what brings us back to Disney over and over again. We love it and there's nothing else like it. Olivia keeps asking to go back so we're going to have to start saving money for another trip since we all know Disney is not cheap!

The last part of the month was Thanksgiving and I didn't take one picture apparently. But we had fun with family and there's always lots of yummy food!

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