Our November

Things usually start getting crazy around Levi's birthday, mid Oct and don't stop until after New Years, and this year was no exception, but for worse reasons than usual. 

November started out with the usual festivities of Ken's birthday...

and Jeremy insisted we get all his candles on the cake!

How many people will it take to light them before they all melt?

This was taken without a flash, that's how bright the lights were from the candles!

Seriously, look at those flames!

Make a wish!

It was a pretty simple night of dinner, games and a few small gifts... just the way Ken likes it!

Heather was scheduled for a craniotomy to remove a non-cancerous mass on Nov 7th. So, right after Ken's birthday Cathy headed out east to help her with her recovery process.
This is where things go nuts.
Her surgery went fine, but her recovery did not! A few days post op the pressure was still too high inside her skulln(causing her brain to hemorrhage in two places), she suffered a seizure, had a drain drilled in her head and a large clot at the surgery site. The night before we were scheduled to drive town to Texas to visit Sharon and Andrew and family before the holidays, we got a late night phone call from Will who had just heard from her doctors that they didn't think she'd make it through the night! Jeremy hopped on a flight within 2 hours of that call and Jason and Jamie (et all) began driving out the next morning.

I knew driving all the way out there only to add our 4 kids to the equation was not going to help anything (I know from experience ICU units and restless children to not mix very well). So, after talking it through with Jeremy, and realizing there was not much I could do for Heather, I decided that rather than wait at home alone I would to drive the short 8 hours to the Smith home as originally planned. The kids were super excited to hang out with their friends and I needed a change of scenery.
...

We loved the warmer weather and spent the first several days there just playing at parks and hanging out. 

Selfie with Dallin!

Nathan was loving the lego table and made several Star Wars inspired ships, and a runway for them!

Here's a couple pictures taken at the park on Wednesday afternoon.

The next day, Sharon's 3rd (Levi's equivalent in her brood) had a doctors appointment for an MRI ordered to clarify her almost total hearing loss in one ear. It was supposed to be a long, but routine visit, the results of which were scheduled to be discussed after Thanksgiving, almost a week later.

This was the primary reason for scheduling our visit at this time. The appointment was several hours long since she needed to be fully sedated (3 year olds are not known for being able to hold very still for long periods of time). I wanted to be there to help hold down the fort while Sharon went so she didn't have to take her other girls. Well, boy was I glad we came!

Long story short- half way through the procedure they found a mass attached to her spinal cord, decided to add a contrast dye to get a better look at it, and before bringing her out of sedation they had both her parents in a room talking about surgery for the very next morning to remove said mass!

They spend the next several days with one of them there with her at the hospital round the clock and I had the privilege of hanging out with these guys back on the home front!

We extended our stay by a few days to hold down the fort until family could fly in and offer reinforcements, and got to witness amazing people from their ward step up and serve in amazing ways. And, spoiler alert, I am happy to report that the surgery went very well... and now both she and Heather are home and stable. Two brain tumors in the same week... what are the chances???

The kids and I got home a few days before Thanksgiving. Jason and Rasy were home by then and Ken was still in town holding down the fort in Elizabeth while Cathy, Jamie and Jeremy remained in New York. Heather was touch and go for almost an entire week until the swelling started to go down and her blood clot passed. Jamie, Jeremy, Cathy, Will and Grady took turns being with Heather round the clock as both company and advocates for her care, and all stayed until she regained a level of consciousness that allowed her to advocate for herself.

It was very strange to have Thanksgiving without my better half- a first among many, like us being apart for almost 2 weeks while he was out there!

I wanted to celebrate with everyone who was in town, so we still had Thanksgiving.

Turns out, Dallin REALLY likes yams!

To fill in my time with Jeremy gone I decided to bust out Christmas early, so yes... that is a Christmas tree behind the Thanksgiving table :)

The sparkling cider bar:

Jeremy and I spend the evening on the phone trying to plan Christmas and looking over Black Friday ads. It was really hard for him, given his surroundings and situation to think about Christmas. Somehow, we still managed to get all our shopping done and out of the way!

I also managed to get up the outside decorations, with the help of the kids. Dallin was so scared of our Frosty (perhaps because he was the same size as him) but after being outside with him for a couple of days, they finally because friends and Dallin stopped yelling at and hitting him every time he walked by!

Jeremy and Jamie drove home together that weekend and we were all back together by the end of the month. As soon as we had all of us back together I took an hour to get us all down to the park on Mainstreet with the giant Christmas tree. One picture... that's all I need! I just want 1 picture to put on a Christmas card- and that is what I got!

Here are a few other's I tried to snap before the kid's ran off to the playground!

Dallin was super not wanting to cooperate, so the best I could do was with a squeezy applesauce :)

Hannah wanted to change into her Christmas dress and take pictures in that- such a girl!

She wanted me to make sure I got her new shoes- her first pair of Sunday shoes with heels!

So grateful this year for family, friends, miracles and gift of a Savior who fills in where no one and nothing else can. So much to give thanks for, and a good reminder to start and finish both the Christmas season and the year with the reason for it all at the center of our lives.