Merry Christmas!

Two weeks before Christmas we took Dawson to see the Temple in St. George, show him the Nativity they set up and all the lights. He absolutely loved it! He kept trying to touch the figurines- it was hilarious. He wanted to pet the camels too. Then he found the stairs and had to climb all the way to the top and then said, "Take a picture!"

 So we did. He is such a handsome little man!

This year we spent Christmas in Holden! We love going there for Christmas because the entire family gets together and sleeps in the same room Christmas Eve. It was so much fun! We had a pretty crazy adventure getting to Holden, but we did make finally in 6 long hours. 

First- we had to take the truck because there was no way we could fit everything in our car. This was a huge blessing in the end. We also were taking my dad's 4-wheeler and trailer up to Holden for my brother Choc to take to his place. We got about 1 mile before the paragonah exit and there was a guy on the side of the road with a thrashed tire. J.D. said, "Man, that guy has a thrashed tire." I didn't quite hear him, but thought he was talking about our own tire. I looked in the rear view mirror and said, "J.D.! The trailer tire is gone!" He didn't quite believe me, but thought we'd better check. So thank heavens the Paragonah exit was right there. We pulled off and onto the frontage road. Sure enough- the tire was completely gone! SO- we called my dad who had to go to Walmart to get a new tire on a rim, and drive it up to us. 

In the meantime, J.D. was working his mad negotiating skills on getting a discount on a tire with the Walmart Tire Center manager. You see, the tire that had blown completely OFF was the brand new tire J.D. had just bought not even a month prior. Mind you it was freezing outside and only getting colder as J.D. stood outside for over an hour negotiating, pacing (because he cannot stand/sit still while on the phone), and fixing the tire with my dad. Dawson was fast asleep and I accomplished winning several Solitaire games..... I passed winning over 1,000 since we'd had the Ipad, which wasn't even a month. My dad took the trailer home- second blessing even though it wasn't under the circumstances we'd prefer. 

Coming out off of the mountain down into the flats before Kanosh a HUGE drift of snow blew across causing the car in front of us to slam on their brakes. It forced the car we were passing off the right side of the freeway into the ditch, and swerved back into us, ramming into the truck, causing us to slide down into the median. We kept a good speed so we could try and get back up on the freeway. Needless to say, J.D. is the best drive (next to me) and we were okay. We backed up to the other vehicle who hit us and spoke with a guy who was in the driver seat. The police came about 20 minutes later telling us to drive down to the Kanosh exit. There we waited for another 1 1/2 hours waiting for the cop to come talk to us. He sent another cop because he was busy with other accidents. We saw 7 tow trucks with banged up cars while we waited. Not only had we waited, but the drivers in the other car switched....so we told the officer. Because we didn't actually see who was driving during the accident, the officer couldn't charge them.... however even their stories didn't match up with who was driving. They were Arabs from California driving a rental..... so since then we've been dealing with insurance trying to get our vehicle fixed. Everything should work out soon, and we were so grateful that we were in the truck with 4 wheel drive, and didn't have the trailer and 4 wheeler hitched up.

When we did make it to Holden, we were exhausted and ready to have a more 'Merry' Christmas. During our adventure i had talked to my dad several times, not just the trailer, but also because he used to be a cop and knew a little more on what we could expect from insurances, and the officer. He kept saying 'Have a merry Christmas..." At the end of the conversation before we got to Holden he just said, "I'm not gonna wish u a Merry Christmas until you are in Holden.... soooo goodbye." When we made it to Holden, my dad said, "So you are inside the house, warm, and safe?" I replied, "Yep!" And then he said, "Well, then you have a Merry Christmas!" haha! It was hilarious!

The next day J.D. woke up with a rash forming all over his body. 5 days prior to the day J.D. had gone to the doc and found out he had a sinus infection. So the doc prescribe ammoxacillin (sp?). 5 YEARS prior to this J.D. had been prescribed the same thing for mono and he broke out in a rash all over. They said it was because he was diagnosed wrong.... well we found out he is actually allergic to penicillins. SO- he stopped taking the medication, but it was too late. The medicine was in his system and it took 2 weeks for the rash to disappear on his skin and another 2 weeks for his insides to stop itching. 

Back to the fun side of Christmas....
Here is Dawson the night before Santa came.... sooo many presents already!

We all slept in Loni and Daniel's room upstairs on the floor. We woke up around 8:00 and made our way to see what Santa had left us. This is the grandkid line up from oldest to youngest (Taylee, Dawson, Destry, Kyson). Usually we do the kids and grandkids, but we are getting so many grandkids, we decided to just do them.

Bryant (J.D.'s dad) had started Andee's cradle, but she came 4 weeks early...so we never got to see it finished and I didn't know if he would finish it because we didn't have a baby. When we got downstairs, there is was- our baby cradle. We didn't want to make Christmas sad, but J.D. and I just couldn't stop crying. I tried to hold it together for Dawson and be excited for him and what Santa brought him, but it was the most sentimental and sacred gifts we have/ and probably will ever receive. In it were 3 baby blankets that were J.D.'s when he was a baby.

Dawson got a imaginext space ship set, a baseball tee, a puppet show, some books, a story with Grandma and Grandpa's voices recorded reading it, a dream lite pillow, a race car track thingy, and a remote control helicopter (which was my suprise to him and J.D.). 

I got a heated blanket, the cradle (for J.D. and I) some movies, a porcelain doll that has brown curly hair (just like Andee's), a Chi straightner and curling iron, necklaces, and again for J.D. and I a scentsy thing. 

J.D. got a clay pigeon thrower, the helicopter thing, Gospel Answers book by Joseph Fielding Smith, some movies, and a blu ray wi-fi player.

It was pretty awesome! We had a delicious breakfast! and later we went to play in the snow! Here is Dawson, Jetta, and Brant being pulled behind the 4-wheeler!

 It snowed all day Monday, and Tuesday! It was so awesome! Dawson just loved army crawling and laying in the snow. It covered him up!

 He was so happy to be with his cousins and outside. He absolutely loves the snow!

 More sledding on the 4-wheeler! Lucas was awesome and tipped them a couple of times into the fresh powder! It was so funny to see the kids go flying!

 Brant, Jetta, and Tilden got igloo snow brick molds to build forts and things! So they did! Brant and Dawson built there's while Jetta and Jessie built the girl fort.... we didn't make it for the snowball war, but the forts were pretty awesome!

As we leave Holden, we never fail to make sure we go see Andee's grave. We feel like we are leaving her everytime we leave Holden. We hope one day we can make it back and have a home there so we can see her grave more often. 

The snowmen are solar lights that turn on at night. Dawson says they keep her safe so she doesn't get scared in the night. I know this is just her body here, but we do feel like she is there with us when we go to her grave. 

Christmas was so much fun and we opened more gifts when we got back to Cedar with my family. The only bad part is that Dawson wants Christmas to be every day!....