Christmas Survey

I saw this on my friend LaNelle's blog so I though I would give it try!
1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? I WRAPPING PAPER! Hands down. My grandma Shumway was famous for using the most beautiful shiny Christmas wrap. I AM GONNA MISS THAT!
2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial, just because I would worry to death about killing it. But I do love the smell of real trees thats why I have an evergreen wall flower in my living room!
3. When do you put up the tree? Usually a few days after Thanksgiving
4. When do you take the tree down? Around New Years
5. Do you like eggnog? PUKE ON MY FACE. However, it does remind me of my dad
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Hmmm... This one year I got the coolest doll house. My sister and dad put it together I believe. I STILL HAVE IT!
7. Hardest person to buy for? Hmm.... I dont know maybe my parents and troys parents but we dont do gifts we just send pictures!
8. Easiest person to buy for? Hinckley he is so happy with anything and Troy is pretty fun too
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Oh a few. I want a collection like my mom has someday.
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail... HANDS DOWN!
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Hm... well this one time my Grandma sent something in a box that was a hot dog cooker thingy and for like 2 weeks I thought that is what she had bought me. LOL! BUt it wasn't really the worst.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Oh I have a few... Miracle on 34th Street, White Christmas, Christmas Vacation, Mr Krugers Christmas
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Oh early like before THanksgiving.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Nope.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Hot cocoa and cinnamon rolls and tons of nuts
16. Lights on the tree? white
17. Favorite Christmas song? Anything but the Christmas Shoes song...ugh to that song! I really like the spiritual songs more than the other kinds. I have to agree with LaNelle
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? A little of both. I love being with family but hate all the travelers.
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? If I sing the song
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? I grew up with an angel on the top but I do love stars. As of right now we dont have one!
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? One present on Christmas eve usually PJ's the rest on Christmas
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? The Christmas shoes song (can you tell I hate that song haha)
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? Homemade
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Leftovers from Christmas eve
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? hmmm... theres a few things on my list!
26. Who is most likely to respond to this? i dunno
27. Who is least likely to respond to this? I dunno

Thanks SABRINA!

My good friend and neighbor is doing a preschool with some other moms and she had the fire truck come to her house on Friday. Here are some fun pics!

more pics of cake and candy

We also made salt dough ornaments for Hinks to paint!

Holiday craftiness again

So this past weekend the boys had drill so we were suppose to have a girls day when we just baked the whole day! However, it was just me and Nichole! Well, Rachel came for a little while but we went out for lunch and went to wal-mart. But needless to say Nichole and I had A BLAST! She taught me some fun stuff about cake decorating can candy making. Here are some fun pics

Holiday craftiness

So I decided that it is time I introduce HInckley into art and craft time. I have been such a bad mom at doing things like that with him. We do a lot of coloring but that is the extent of our fun. So we went to wal-mart today and got a few things to do! Here is just the beginning!

Thankful for Hinckley

Today Hinckley closed his eyes and said, "Mom, I'm dark." SO CUTE! Oh he is so innocent. So I closed my eyes and said, "Hinckley I am dark." And he did it again and he said, "Mom, I'm dark too." I he is a doll!

The other day his daddy told Hinckley no about something (I dont remember what it was) and he said, "Mom I am sad." He is starting to associate his feelings with things. TOO FUN!

Early Snow

A couple of weeks ago we had snow and Hinckley went out and played in it!

Sleeping baby

Sundays are sometimes really hard for us because we have church at 1pm! Hinckley normally doesn't get a nap on Sundays because its too late when we get home. Well one Sunday, we went to a friends house for dinner and he was so grumpy we had to leave early and he fell asleep on the way home. So this is my cute 2 boys.

Dress up

The other day we had some friends over and Hinckley decided to get into our tin foil. Our friend Nichole decided to dress Hinks up with it. It was too cute.

Lizard

Today Hinckley and I were on a nice little drive to get out of the house for a minute. And Hinckley grabbed his rubber lizard and said, "GUESS WHAT LIZARD?".... WE'RE GOING SWIMMING! I about died laughing. I guess we are going swimming when he wakes up from nap! So cute. Sometimes life gets a little crazy but its so worth it for moments like this!

Halloween & the Army Ball

We enjoyed a very warm Halloween this year! We dressed Hinckley up in a turtle outfit and he insisted that he was a snake! Very cute. We took him to about 6 or 7 house and he LOVED it. We also took him to BOO at the ZOO and it was WAY crowded. I will never do that again!

That Saturday we went to the Army Ball with our friends Devin & Nicole. We had SO much fun dancing and socializing. The food wasn't the best but it was so nice to have a night away.

Hinckleys Lightening McQueen Bed

The other day I was looking on the BYU-I bulletin board (I do that often) and came across this steal of a deal! HInckley was SO EXCITED. Its too bad it is not red... BUT he still thinks its his lightening mcqueen bed and that is all that matters. He slept in it last night for the first time after we cleaned the heck out of it. He actually stayed in the bed and I think the only reason he did was because we told him if he got out even one time he would go back to his crib. I am not liking this because that means my BABY is growing up! He is in his own bed, we bought him a new BIG BOY toliet, new BIG BOY underwear... Whats next he is going to be asking for my keys so he can take a girl out on a date? YIKES!

This is why I am crafty... JK!

So today while Hinckley was taking a nap (he is in a new BIG BOY bed) I decided it would be fun to decorate cupcakes for the ward Halloween party tonight. Hinckley has been coughing a little so I decided it probably wasn't a good idea for him to be decorating and coughing so I just did it myself. To tell you it was actually kind of boring without anybody trying to sneak a candy or two. But here are the finished product. Troy hasn't been feeling well either or I would have waited for him to play. We still have a pumpkin to carve too! Plus I think we are going to BOO at the ZOO tonight. So we will see what happens! (BTW even though Hinckley is suppose to be taking a nap I can hear him playing in there! We will see how long this lasts!

I am crafty... Really I am

This past Saturday was Super Saturday in our ward. It is always a lot of fun to visit with friends and be crafty! I am usually NOT creative or crafty but I was excited with my final projects. I made a hooded towel for Hinckley and a quiet book for him during church. It was a lot of fun! And I have to post pictures of the towel because I dont think my mom would believe me if I say I used a sewing machine! LOL!

Flippin for Gymnastics

Today was Hinckleys first day of gymnastics and he LOVED it. Actually, loved it is an understatement. I literally had to pull him off the mats. Its going to be a great thing for him. I will have to take pictures next week and post them. If anybody wants more information of where I take him and stuff let me know!

Pumpkin Patch

We went down to this Pumpkin patch down in Idaho Falls. It really wasn't that cool but we had fun!

Trains & pumpkin patch

There is this train just sitting in the middle of the town of Rigby and since Hinckley LOVES trains we decided to go check it out. Here are a few pictures!

Night night Hincklism

Hinckley has this habit that he has to say good night to things. Mainly its his cars, thomas the train, book bag, etc. Last night however, Troy was working on homework and it was time for Hinckley to go to bed so we went and got Daddy. He was saying good night to the usual and then he looked in office and said, "night night, daddy's homework". IT WAS SO ADORABLE!

Free Zoo Day pics

On Sept. 27th they had free admission at the Idaho Falls Zoo so my friend Hollie and her 3 kids and Hinckley and I went out for an adventure!

Hincklism

We were reading books together this morning in bed and we flipped to a page that had an alligator on it. The only problem is that alligator was half way cut off because it was only half on the page. Hinckley pointed to it and said, "alligator broken mommy". It was so cute! This next Hincklism may offend some people and if it does I am sorry but he is just an innocent kid! A couple of days ago he was looking at my friend Kim's pictures of her babies and he said, "chocolate baby" She is part white and part african american and he husband is VERY dark african american. It was pretty cute but then it was a teaching moment too. I think my brother did that when he was young.

Yesterday at the doctors office this lady came out who had only one eye the other eye was just the socket and a huge bandaid on her nose. I was so nervous that Hinckley might say something and sure enough he did good thing he noticed the HUGE bandaid first! He said, "look mommy bandiaid... BIG bandaid."

Peace

Troys dad came to visit us this past week and we had a lot of fun. I will have to upload some pictures. We were suppose to have an eventful weekend but because of snow it was not the case. The weather has officially CHANGED! We are not in fall in Idaho you skip that season and head straight to WINTER. We pulled out the coats, hats, and gloves this weekend! I am SO not looking forward to a snowy winter but at least I only have survive 2 more and then it is off to better things!

Whirlwind...

I don't even know where to start the past week or so has been insane! Last Saturday Sept. 27th I received a phone call from my mom that my Grandma who had been in the hospital all week was not doing good. I was at the zoo with my friend Hollie and her 3 kids and so after we got some lunch we headed home. Troy had an overnight campout Friday and had just come back from it and so I kissed him good-bye and headed to the hospital. I got there about 3:30 or 4pm and they were trying to put a drain in to drain 90 mL of urine. (thats almost a whole liter) So my Uncle Laron who had been there since 2 or 3 that morning came out and he caught me up on everything. Grandma got up to use the bathroom twice in the night and both times blacked out, so they called my Uncle who lives only a block away from the hospital and he got there to help. She then started vomiting and she hadn't eaten anything so it was just bile. They took her down for a CT scan to check a few things out and she threw up twice. Mind you that my Grandma had MRSA. So every time a doctor or a nurse or a visitor came you had to dress up in a gown and mask and gloves. By the time I got there they were very worried that they couldn't drain the urine. When I went in to finally see her I just knew it was her time to go. I stood there holding her hand and talking to her. She looked awful but she was still sharp as a whistle. The next couple of hours are a blur to me. We had to take her down for another CT scan and before they did they had to draw some blood. It took the poor guy 45 mins to find a vein (she could only have blood drawn from one arm b/c the other arm had something wrong with it) and she has very small veins. By the time we got down to CT her blood pressure had dropped considerably. She went in and they told us it would only be a 15 min procedure. So I called my parents and sister to update. Within a few mins the doctor came out and said he couldn't do it b/c her white blood count was too high and her blood pressure was too low. (later we found out she would have died if they had done this procedure to drain this blood clot thing)

So we took her upstairs and she did not take the travel well at all. Her blood pressure dropped, her hands were ice cold, we had about 4 or 5 nurses there working on her. My grandma's eyes closed and she was non responsive. A nurse came up to her face and was like... "Evelyn... Evelyn... can you hear me?" "stay with us Evelyn..." "Bethanys here... Laron's here..." I was speechless I didn't know what to say or do. This nurse opened her eyes and they were totally non responsive to hand movement and light. And I thought to myself this is it. She is gone. The nurse leaned to me and said start talking to her. We dont know if she can hear you but if she can she needs to hear your voice. So I started talking and singing and anything I could do to not start crying like an idiot. She eventually came through and started to respond. Again the next couple of hours are a blur. I called my parents and told them they needed to come NOW and my sister too. So they both started driving. My Aunt Lynette, Uncle Roger and Miranda came too. While they were there Grandma had another episode of slipping into a coma like state. The doctor was right out the door and he came rushing in along with many other nurses. They finally got an IV in her through her thumb and adminstered some medicine. She was throwing up every 20 mins or so and what tipped off this episode was I was standing there holding her hand and talking to her and I could hear her gurgling. She was chocking on her vomit b/c she was passed out. So I quickly leaned her up and then the nurses stepped in. THANK GOODNESS!

Amy got there I believe about 11pm. We sat and talked with Grandma and helped her throw up and called for a nurse everytime she needed the bed pan which was about every 30 mins or so. This new nurse came in about 11 too and she was HORRIBLE. I will spare the details b/c I could write 30 pages about her. I finally left about 1 am and Amy took the first shift until about 5 am. I was alone with Grandma for a while before Amy came and let me tell you it was so HARD! I just kept thinking... please dont die on my watch. Every beep, every sound, or no sound felt like an eternity. Amy stayed with her probably during the hardest hours. I came home and it took me forever to fall asleep. FInally after a few short hours of sleep I got up and Amy got a few minutes of sleep and then we headed off to the hospital. Again she had a horrible morning and was really struggling. My parents arrived 15 hours after they took off from Tucson. They drove the whole night. They got there about 11am and went right in to see her. My dad gave her a blessing and released her from this life when the time was right. A lot of us were in the room including a few cousins and all her children. She bore her sweet testimony of the Gospel and then started throwing up again. So most of us left the room. We stayed at the hospital most of the day until about 9 at night. I took my exhausted parents home and Amy left to go back to Boise. The family took shifts that night and again she had a horrible night. At noon on Monday she passed away. She passed away very peacefully the children had to make a decision to take her off life support but they did give her some medicine that she just passed away in her sleep. About 30 mins before she passed she looked straight up and said... "whose here?" and nobody had walked in the room. I think that was Grandpa coming to get her. It had been 10 years since they had been reunited.

The rest of the week was a HUGE whirlwind. My mom and Amy were the busy bees of the week. Without them we would never have made it through the week! We had to clean out Grandmas house and prepare my house for all my siblings to come. We had a viewing on Thursday night and the funeral and another viewing Friday. It was a beautiful day full of sunshine and even a rainbow. It was hard but we made it through! I am going to miss my grandma so much but i know she is in a better place.