2017 Year in Review

Christmas Day 2017

Gavin - he told us he wanted "boy toys." So we gave him all things BOY.

Laynie wanted Shopkins.  We also found this Barbie doll house at a yard sale and fixed it up for a surprise.

Gavin was beyond excited.

Laynie - not so much.

She calmly sat down by her presents and looked.

Gavin dived right in.

The first gift he wanted to open was the gift that Laynie gave him.  He knew it was a Cars 3 car.

Santa gave Laynie some Pinkalicious books.

More Barbie furniture.

Cars 3 the movie

Shopkins!

Underoos!

A pretty dress

 Make that 2 pretty dresses

Gavin gave Laynie a My Little Pony - Fluttershy

I gave Matt a new laptop bag to take to work.  I was sneaky and had his mom order it via amazon for me, so he had no idea.

Nerf gun

Happy Laynie

Gavin putting together his newest Lego set

Proud Gavvy

My Matty Bear

Laynie Bug

Seeing the snow that came down for Christmas day.

Went to Grandma Anderson's house for Christmas dinner.  Grandma/pa A gave Laynie a pink mitten/hat set.

And Laynie loved her candy necklace that was in her stocking - even though she can't eat it yet.  Doctor's orders cause it's too hard.

Hard Palate and Gum Line Repair

On December 20th, Laynie went back to Primary Children's Medical Center to have her hard palate repaired.  When we met with Dr. Siddiqi prior to her surgery, he said he was going to also try to repair the gum line and if the bone matrix stuck, Laynie wouldn't need another surgery at age 6 to repair the gum line.  So... fingers crossed, but this could very well be Laynie's last surgery.

Princesses and a castle made for a nice distraction.

The anesthesiologist was okay having Laynie proceed to surgery - even though she still had a bit of a lingering cough from all the sickness in our home the weeks prior.  A few days before, Matt gave Laynie a blessing of healing.  Priesthood blessings are powerful.  This is just one small example of how we've been blessed by the Priesthood.  If her surgery was postponed, our surgeon wouldn't have been able to perform the surgery until January, and we would have had to max out on our deductible once again.  Laynie's quick return to health saved us thousands of dollars.

She picked out the pink cozy coupe to drive to the O.R. in.

Laynie was still really sedated when we first got to go see her.

After bringing her to her room, Laynie's tummy hurt.  She tried to drink a little water, then turned her head to the side and threw up blood.  It went all down her neck and back and got in her hair on both sides of her neck.

I got to give her a big hug while the nurses changed her bedding and clothes.

 Laynie was then able to eat via syringe.  She went through a bit of milkshake, slushy and water.

We got our first real snowstorm of the season the night Laynie stayed over at the hospital.

There was a lot of blood coming out of her nose and mouth.  Laynie slept fitfully through the night and I stayed with her - probably only getting 4 hours of interrupted sleep.  By the next morning, Laynie wanted to watch cartoons,

then play with her Shopkins.  They wouldn't release her though bc she needed to bring so many fluids and she was refusing.

Matt came up and Laynie was really happy.  He took her for a walk in the halls while I tried to sleep a little more.

They still wouldn't release her, so we took another drive in a cozy coupe to the play room.

Laynie loved the toys there and didn't want to leave.  We went back to see if she would drink some more, but Laynie was ornery and tired and feisty.  She fell asleep in Daddy's arms.  Once asleep, they decided to release her...  (Of course!)  So we woke her back up to leave and made it home around 6pm.

Gavin stayed the first day with Grandpa.  He treated Gavin to a 7-11 Slurpy, McDonald's, and the museum of curiosity at Thanksgiving Point.  Matt came home to spend the night with him and then Misti's family watched Gavin the next day.

Laynie was kinda sad after the surgery, but overall, she handled it like a champ.

Ice cream for breakfast?  You bet!

Lots of loves for Daddy.

I felt a little left out so Gavvy gave me some loves too.

Celebrating the Holiday Season

 There is a reception center in Pleasant Grove that sets aside the first weekend in December to honor our Savior by performing "A Night in Bethlehem" for the public, free of charge.  The venue is an old church house that Matt attended when he was a little boy.  It was a great way to kick off the holiday and bring in the Christmas Spirit.

Ceasar Augustus taxing all the people (we were encouraged to bring a can of food to donate to the food bank as our tax to get in.)  We then went into a room where we watched a short video and a lady dressed in 0AD clothing talked about that sacred night and some of the traditions/rituals of that time.  For example, did you know that baby Jesus was wrapped in swaddling clothes as a sign of his noble heritage?  At that time, sons kings were wrapped that way as a ritual signifying that they would one day rule on high.

Then we went into the cultural hall area where there were live chickens,

string games,

carpentry lessons,

spinning of the dreidel,

and a little play that was put on on this stage.  The play was of Mary finding out she would soon have baby Jesus and Joseph's reaction.  We then followed Mary and Joseph to the manger scene in the once-was chapel area and watched a reenactment of the Nativity.  At the end, we were able to go to the primary room and look at a bunch of nativity sets on display.  It made for a very special night.

Afterward, we had to go see a house that was glowing a few blocks away.  This picture doesn't even do it justice - the entire back yard was plastered with lights as well.

What's a holiday without getting sick, right?  Gavin had to miss almost a week of school because we weren't sure what he had.  At first we thought it was hand, foot, and mouth, but he never got it on his hand, feet or inside his mouth.  Laynie soon got sick afterward, then me.  I went to urgent care b/c I knew it was strep throat.  I test negative, but luckily was given an antibiotic to help.  a few days later, Matt got strep, tested positive and he and the kids were given antibiotics as well.  Apparently strep can affect children much differently than adults.  Both kids didn't complain of sore throats, but had the chills/fever.  With all this sickness passing around, we were very worried Laynie wouldn't be healthy for her next surgery.  Matt gave her a blessing of healing and she made a remarkable recovering just in time.

Linda planned an gingerbread decorating activity day.  She let the kids take home supplies to make one of their own.  They were sooooo excited!

Laynie LOVES candy.  The candies on this house may have only lasted a few days...

Gavin with his house.

He got creative and even put a hanging sign above the front door.

Sick kids and a dangling Marty the Elf

This was the first year an elf visited our home.  We named him Marty.  He'd do silly things throughout the night and then become frozen once the sun came up.  This particular morning, we found him hanging from the blinds with a pen to which replied to a note Gavin left him.

Gavin wrote:  "I like Marty.  Love, Gavin"

Marty wrote:  "I like you too!"

We spent one evening driving around looking at lights.  This was my favorite home.  You had to tune your car radio to a station.  One of the songs that played was hallelujah.  It was beautiful.

A little male finch made a home in our Christmas wreath.  He's only flown into our home twice now... 

My Mission Mum, Sharon, sent the kids little presents in the mail.  They were the first presents to go under our tree and the kids were elated.

All I want for Christmas is my 1 front tooth.

(Gavin lost his third tooth (top left incisor) on December 7th.)

We had our Anderson Family Christmas party on the 18th.  Kathy was so accommodating to Laynie's surgery date.  Aunt Ann made gingerbread cookies for the kids to decorate.

Daddy playing with the apps on his phone - and of course, the kids loving it.

Making Christmas sugar cookies on Christmas Eve.

Is this a cheeky picture?  Laynie loves to show off her bum these days, and of course, Gavin joins in.

Christmas Eve Sunday Best

We gave the kids new church clothes for Christmas Eve.  Gavin loves his 5 piece suit and Laynie looked awfully cute in her red, white and green.  (The head band and leggings were given to Laynie from Primary Children's hospital.)

Gavin has started watching Studio C - and laughing uncontrollably.  This was his idea to be a shoulder angel on dad.

Christmas Eve Jammies

Gavin was tracking Santa most of the evening on santatracker.google.com.  He was pretty determined to stay up till 2am to see him.  But alas, come 11:00, he dozed off to dream land.