Christmas

Christmas morning we opened gifts and John made Crepes for breakfast.  John has always wanted to try crepes and Teresa happened to give us a crepe mix and a crepe pan for Christmas so he put it to use.

The girls got clothes and shoes, things they were in need of.  Ashlee bought Mikayla some targets for target practice and a hat.  Mikayla bought Ashlee a new selfie stick.  John and the girls got me some clothes that are current with fashion trends trending now (my wardrobe is really out dated). My mom got me a bread machine for Christmas.  Hopefully I can finally make bread and have it turn out right! The girls bought John some headlamps to use at night when he is feeding along with some Carmel Milky Ways.  The girls and I got John a motion detector for our driveway.  Hopefully we can catch those dang theives that keep breaking into his truck!

We hosted Christmas Dinner at our home this year.  We had my Mom and Terry, Adam and his family, and Grandpa Billy and Kay over.  We shared a quick video about Christmas, enjoyed dinner and exchanged gifts.  It's always nice to get together with family, but it always seems like our time together is short.

Family Temple Trip

Ashlee has been asking for some time to go to the temple so she can take the names she has done family history work on and do baptisims.  Life has been crazy and we haven't had the time so a few weeks ago we decided we would make a trip in the month of December and since Mikayla turned 12 several months ago too, we could go to the temple as a family.
We were able to join in with a small group of youth from Jackson and do baptisms with them.  It was a nice, spitritual day, and being that it's December, we got to see the temple all decorated for Christmas.

Allergies

Ashlee has has sinus infections and strep throat 4 times in the last year and two other times she had sinus infections and pharyngitis.  In the last year she has been sick and needed antibiotics 6 times.  After her 5th time of being sick in 7 months I decided it was time to take her to the ear, nose and throat doctor to find out what's going on.

The ENT saw her every 7-10 days for about 2 months, looked in her sinuses several times with a camera, did a CT Scan on her sinuses and a few cultures.  He came to the conclusion that her tonsils were fine, but the problem was in her sinuses.  Repeat sinus infections turned into a fungus.

We spent a month on edge wondering if she was going to have to have surgery.  Towards the end of October she was seen on a Monday, by Thursday they had received some of  her cultures back and asked us to come in the next day because surgery would probably be the following week.  Thankfully when she was seen the next day, she had made improvements from when the doctor last saw her on Monday; so the doctor decided to double her medications and recheck her in another week.  The plan was to try to avoid surgery, or at least try to get her closer to a school break, so she could have surgery without having to miss so much school. If surgery was needed she was going to miss about 2 weeks of school.

The doctor came to the conclusion that allergies were causing sinus infections, sinus infections were causing strep throat and the sinus infections were turning into fungus in her sinuses.  In Decemeber when allergies tend to be lower, she was allergy tested for 86 different allergies and had several postitives. Ashlee is allergic to grass, weeds, pollen, mold and dust.  All things that are in the environment and especially bad in this valley that we live in.  The allergist and ENT both recommended that Ashlee begin allergy shots.

 Every week for a year Ashlee will get an allergy shot.  After the first year, the hope is that she can go to having shots every other week and she will continue to have shots for the next 4-5 years.  Hopefully these shots work and she can be healthy again.  The doctor said that Ashlee has lived with allergies for so long, that she doesn't even realize anymore how they affect her, her activity level, sleep, etc.  She has just accepted the way she feels as being normal, and doesn't really know anything else.

This is what her back looked like when they did the allergy testing.  Her left shoulder area that is really red, started to turn purple as the test went on.  Grass is her highest allergy.  She was in tears during the test.  They poked her 86 times with this needle like tool.  John was allergy tested several years ago and the doctor he went to used a different method.  I think Ashlee's doctor is "old school" and used a different technique on her.

Weekend Trip to the Cabin

It seems like it's been forever since we have been anywhere. Teresa and Dan offered to let us use the cabin for the weekend so we decided to take them up on their offer.  A nice, quick, weekend trip away after working 6-7 days a week straight for months was needed very much.  We relaxed at the cabin and went for a little drive, picnic and hike.

Halloween

The girls are getting too old for Halloween in my opinion, but the church was having a combined ward activity so we decided to go, which meant they needed to have a costume.  Here is what they came up with their costumes....there are lots of homeless people around town anymore which is both sad, upsetting and somewhat disgusting because nothing is being done about it, so they decided to look like homeless people.  They came up with their own signs and even made a sign for John.

The church activity didn't turn out as we planned so we ended up taking the girls and Nicole trick or treating for a while before going home.

Young Women's Evening of Excellence

Ashlee and mikayla shared their Personal Progress Projects at Evening of Excellence tonight.  Ashlee has spent the last year working on family history and sewing.  Mikayla completed one 10 hour volunteer project, went to girls camp, learned how to make jam and bread and completed some art projects.  These two girls work hard at everything they do.

Olivia, Mikayla, Ashlee, Savannah and Elle

Olivia, Hannah, Mikayla, Ashlee, Elle, Savannah, Nicole.  We have a very small group of young women in our ward.

Wedding

One of the girls McKayla, that use to babysit Ashlee and Mikayla when they were younger got married yesterday in the temple.  Today was her reception and she asked Ashlee and Mikayla to help take Polaroid pictures of every guest and help with gifts.  The girls did a great job and everyone loved their Lularoe dresses.  Our girls are growing up so fast.

Ashlee's First Day of High school

It's hard to believe that Ashlee is already a Freshman.  Today she had her first day of seminary and her first day of high school.  The high school she is attending is huge.  2,500 plus students and really spread out.  She has lot's of walking to do through out her day.  Have a great year Ashlee.

Ashlee Sewing

Ashlee found a dress on Pinterest and decided she wanted to make one.  One dress turned into five dresses.  She made a dress for herself, Mikayla and I along with two for her cousins.   Three of the dresses she made in four hours.  Several people asked for her to make them dresses too, unfortunately school will be starting soon, so she will need to wait until she has a break from school.   She did a great job,  I am glad she knows how to sew and uses her talents.