Wayyy Past Due

HA! I bet you all are thinking I'm talking about Christmas, New Year's, or maybe even something last week, but nope...Thanksgiving...I know it's probably like "illegal" in the blog world to be posting about something so long ago, but... oh well. I mean I never even posted about Halloween, so I guess I could put you all through even more torture, but I won't. I don't know what my problem has been. I get behind blogging and then overwhelmed with all the fun things I had wanted to blog about and instead of just doing it, I forget about it and check out everyone else's instead! But my husband is away, again...and I'm bored so I figured I would catch up a little. For what it's worth, I did start these Thanksgiving and Christmas posts a few weeks ago (when Justin was gone on the "man" trip four-wheeling), I just never posted them because I was embarrassed of how incredibly past due they were, so now...they're even later but I decided I don't care-they're for journaling purpose so PLEASE JUST SKIP! :)

Thanksgiving was spent with Justin's family in AZ. Dawn and Cory hosted and did a fantastic job. The boys got up early and played in their Turkey Bowl even though it was rainy and muddy-they loved it. We then had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with loads of yummy food, great company and of course lots of pies. Did I mention that the boys were amazing and did all the clean up?! Definitely needs to be a tradition. Some of us braved Wal-Mart early on Black Friday and then later that day we headed to the church to play games in the gym. It was so much fun and a great way to let the kids get out some of their energy that was being bottled up because it was too cold and rainy outside to play. We all played "line tag", a dress up relay, and kickball.

Pax loved being the center of attention during his turn of the dress up relay. He especially loved his daddy running super fast with him.
Jake was not a fan, but at least he did it.

Friday evening we had a surprise Birthday party for Vince and Marsha at El Charro. It was nice to have them visit. We need them to move back to AZ because we don't get to see them near enough.

All the Echols left on Saturday to go back home, but we did get some surprise visitors on Sunday evening. Jarom, Mel and the kids stopped by! They were traveling from El Paso and needed to take a break. So here's the Ellis grandkids in their jammies.

I'm Back!!

I know, I know....it's been quite awhile....and somehow, I'm going to try to cram an entire month and a half in one post. So this is what we've been up to:

*Early November: We were able to go visit Kaybri and Paxton's best buddies, Kinley and Kyle(their cousins in American Fork). Kaybri had a seizure within the first 5 minutes of being there, so she was asleep or grouchy for the remaining time we were there. But Paxton and Kyle got to roll around and chase each other for awhile. They are only 1 month apart, and both super cute, chunky boys.
*Thanksgiving: Cory and Dawn's family came to stay with us a few days before Thanksgiving. We had such a good time playing and visiting with them. The day before Thanksgiving we all packed up and went down to Justin's parents for the rest of the week. All of Justin's siblings were there except for his sister. We ate lots of yummy food, played games, did a little bit of black Friday shopping, shot off rockets, and the boys made race tracks to race some cars. It was lots of fun, but also a little bit of a stressful week because we had put Kaybri on a pretty restricted diet a week or two before to try to help her seizures. Of course she didn't understand why she couldn't eat the food everyone else was eating. Dieting during Thanksgiving is not recommended.
*December 3rd-11th: We went and got our Christmas tree for FHE night; it was so pretty and smelled so good. By the time we got it in the tree stand though, the kids were screaming/crying and it was time to go to bed. So we decided we'd decorate it the next night....WRONG! We found on Tuesday that there was a pretty good possibility that Kaybri could get in Wednesday (the 5th) to do a Video EEG, so I spent that night packing and trying to get everything organized for while we would be gone. They did get us in on Wednesday and we were there until the next Tuesday. The doctors wanted Kaybri to have 4-5 seizures while we were there, so they slowly took her off all her medicines. She had a lot of wires glued to her head, and then gauze wrapped all over her head. It looked like she had a major head injury. She was confined to her room the entire time and was supposed to stay in her bed the majority of the time so they could video her. That's a big challenge for a 2 (almost 3) year old. By the end of the week, Kaybri and I were both about to go crazy! She did have 3 seizures and quite a bit of abnormal spikes that showed up on the EEG. The doctors had to give her some medicine through her IV during her last seizure to make her come out of it. So after that, they decided to put her back on her meds and not risk having a seizure they couldn't control. The test should show what part of the brain her seizures start and whether they are focal or generalized, and if they are focal there is a possibility for surgery. We are so grateful that they got us in so quickly, and that the doctors are finally trying to do something besides giving her more drugs.

While we were away, Paxton stayed with Grandpa and Grandma Echols. I think he totally enjoyed having all the attention to himself! They came to visit us in the hospital a couple of times and it made our day! Kaybri and Paxton were both so excited when they saw each other.

*December 11th-Present: We were all SOOO happy to be coming home and to be together again, but that feeling has been overcome with TOTAL SICKNESS! Paxton got sick with the flu on the way home, and it got passed on to Kaybri, and now on to Justin. The kids still are not 100% better, but at least they're not throwing up anymore. Nevertheless, the tree is still not decorated and the majority of the "things to do" before Christmas are not done, but I am still semi-sane and hey, I finally got a chance to update my blog!