Merry Christmas

Wow! I can't believe that Christmas has come and gone. It seems like we were in such a hustle and bustle and then it was all over. I have to admit that I really do enjoy Christmas time, despite being gone almost every night. The Christmas season usually starts out with a tradition of going to The Forgotten Carols with Kurt's family and it always reminds me of the true meaning of Christmas and gets me into the spirit of it all. I love having my cute little family to spend Christmas with.

Christmas morning was so much fun this year with Ethan. He still doesn't get it all the way, and I think by the end of the day was overwhelmed with all the new toys, but he was cute. Every year since I can remember my mom always put a fresh set of sheets on our bed, so I've carried that tradition to my marriage and I make Kurt help put a fresh set on our bed. Well the ones that he got out of the closet this year were some cotton ones, and needless to say I was so dang HOT all night long. I tossed and turned because of the heat, and I'm sure because of the excitement too! Finally at about 3:00 in the morning I made my way out onto the couch where it was much cooler and was able to fall asleep. At about 6:30 Kurt was waking me up telling me Ethan was up, I don't know if that was true, or if he was just as anxious to get up. We got Ethan up and brought him out to his presents where he actually tore the paper off. We gave him a few different ones but as soon as he opened his truck he was done and off playing. It was pretty funny. Kurt and I gave each other our presents and then finally got Ethan to open the rest of his! It was such a fun and great Christmas!

Later on Kurt's parents came and stopped by to see what we got and see Ethan. Then about noon we headed to my parents for lunch and to open gifts. We had enough time to come home, nap Ethan, and then head to Russ and Lynette's for dinner and to open more gifts. We were completely spoiled by everyone and love ALL of our gifts!! It was an awesome day!! I was picture crazy in the morning and got lots of pictures and then by the end of the day when we hit Kurt's mom and dad's my camera was in my bag and we completely forgot to get it out. The sad thing is is that no one else in the family took any pictures either....so no pictures of the Jenkins family....maybe we might have to pretend we are doing it all again and take some pictures!! We hope everyone else had a Merry Christmas!!!

Now we can all take a deep breath and know that we have 11 months to prepare for the next Christmas season! Did I mention that I hate living near Jordan Landing during Christmas time!?? I love it all the other months!! They need to fix the dang light by Conoco or do something to get all that traffic straightened out!! Anyways Happy New Year!!

Christmas Eve Lunch

The past couple of years it's been tradition to go to lunch on Christmas Eve. Normally it's at Francesco's....in the back with no one around, but this year we hit Rock Creek Pizza in Riverton. I lost out on my favorite manicotti, but the pizza is pretty good. I always like doing things on Christmas Eve just so the day doesn't drag. I usually never sleep good because I'm always excited to give Kurt his presents. And now that Ethan is older I think it's going to be much more fun!! Thanks mom and dad for a yummy lunch!

Family Parties...

You gotta love Christmas time when you have a gazillion parties and get to see all the cousins, aunts, uncles, and some people you don't really know at all. I know you are all laughing but you know it's true. Some of the time you don't even know the people you are talking to. Needless to say I enjoy all the parties and the time that we get to see family. Our first party was with the entire Jenkins side of the family. We did get a picture of the entire extended family, but I don't have a copy just yet, so that will come later. We did get a picture of all the grand kids within Kurt's immediate family. Grandma Lynette made pj's for all the kids since it was a pajama party, so here is the moment captured.

Next was the Margetts party. This side of my family is quite small and we try to get together as often as we can, however it's never enough. Without my sweet grandparents we just don't get together as often. Grandma Audrey was always having parties and some kind of fun thing at her house to get us all together. I definitely miss those days. We do however always have an annual Christmas party to get us all together.

The brothers! Paul, Cory, dad, & Steve

Then it was the Blight party....which is my mom's side of the family. This family is huge, mainly because it's two big huge families...my Grandma Bonnie and he sister Sharon and all the kids and their families. It's always a blast and this is the one party that Santa comes to. Ethan wasn't so sure about Santa...he didn't freak out, but he wasn't liking sitting on his lap. He did tell him "Ho Ho Ho" and "Bye!" but that's about it.

On Christmas Eve it's tradition that we have the Ashby party, which is Kurt's mom's side of the family. It's always a fun party and makes Christmas Eve night go by fast! We always play games and get to chat with everyone. This year Sue out did herself by doing some chime songs. It was pretty funny! It's always good to see everyone on the Ashby side.

Lovin the dessert


The twins and their girlies!

Golf Cart Sledding....

This past weekend us and The Coon's headed to Midway for a little get away. At first Dallas chickened out claiming that we might die on the road, but my hubby was adamant that we were going up with or without them. So without the Coon's we jumped in the truck and headed for Midway. The roads weren't bad at all, it took maybe an extra twenty minutes or so. We got up there, unpacked, ate dinner, and started the Jazz game. That's when I got a call from Dallas saying that Isaac was complaining so much that they were now on their way up.

We never do much up there, sleep, shop, eat, and let the boys go do whatever they want. Dallas and I both were taking a nap when three hours later Kurt and Isaac came in laughing their heads off and telling us that we needed to come outside. Let me remind you that I think it was like 6 degrees. We went out and they had hooked Isaac's tow rope up to the golf cart and were pulling the sled behind it. I got a few shots of us all riding, except for Dal who is prego (not wanting to go into labor) and holding Ethan for me while I tried to take pictures. Really the pictures don't do it justice, we were laughing so hard.

and this is what happened on my first try. Like I knew how to steer...I ran myself right into a snow bank, with no coat or gloves.

It was a fun and much needed get away!!

Mr. Patch Man

Yesterday was a check up with Ethan's eye doctor. There is good news and some not so bad news. The good news is that the patching we have been doing on his eye has actually helped his eye and he is looking straighter with it. He has also started to use that eye a little more and increased his vision (not that it was bad before). The not so bad news is that he is actually crossing it more, when he is crossing; so the doc said we need to do some more surgery. So in a couple of months Ethan is going to go in and have some surgery done on his eye. They will actually move both the side muscles by loosening one and making the other side tighter. It will be an outpatient surgery just like before. The doc said to continue to patch for the two hours a day so that we don't lose anything that we have gained. So in hindsight this is a good thing. I was prepared that we were most likely going to have to do some surgery, so I'm ok. I wish my little guy didn't have to go through this again, but better now then when he is older. Also if we don't do anything now then if his eye becomes completely lazy he will eventually stop using it and lose vision. The other good thing is that most of the time most people can't tell when he does it. It's not like he crosses with both of his eyes. It's more that he prefers to use one at a time, so usually he will focus on us with both eyes and they look completely straight, and other times his left eye will go in and the other one will look at us. It's not too bad, but enough to need some surgery to make them straight.

Our doctor is great and I completely trust him. I'm also grateful that we've went through this process before and we know what to expect. The doctor said that this is definitely fixable and that no matter what we will get his eyes straight. The one thing he can't guarantee is if Ethan will ever use both of his eyes together. Hopefully this will help correct everything and if not, then we will go from there. We just take it one step at a time. The doctor said the crazy thing is that his eyes look just like the eyes of a child who needs glasses to correct farsightedness...but that he doesn't need glasses because there is no sign of farsightedness at all. I'm just so thankful that he is healthy, happy, and just as bit as crazy as every other little boy! This is just one small trial that is completely correctable! So off to surgery we go in a couple of months! Wish us luck!!