Life's curveballs

Amidst all the craziness that this time of year brings along, Sam had knee surgery the day before Thanksgiving. Then, on Thanksgiving in the early morning hours, we found ourselves in the ER with what looked like a possible blood clot for Sam. They did lots of tests and the conclusion was made that it was a "Vagal nerve response" or in other words, due to the pain he was in, Sam's body was in essence trying to shut down "unnecessary" extremities. With that scare behind us, unfortunately more challenges were on their way. Sam's Dad, David passed away the week following Thanksgiving. He has been battling cancer but his death still came as a shock. We will miss him very much and possibly even more the missed opportunities that will have to wait for the eternities. But we are thankful for the knowledge of the gift of the resurrection and the the atonement for each of us made by the Savior. For this we can be thankful! With all of life's trials, we've still been trying to keep up the pace during this winter and holiday season and find joy in our everyday events. Here's some pictures from before Sam's surgery of a sunny day out sledding.

Beautiful Utah Sunny Day!

They Love their Daddy!

We decided to paint..... finally! Just cause we didn't have quite enough going on already...

We hosted Grandma Mary and Grandpa Tony for Thanksgiving, and thank Goodness they were there with all of Sam's shenanigans (emergencies...)We were so thankful for all of their help. Here's a picture after Mary had gone to Elle's Thanksgiving feast with her. So fun.

Some friends and I kept up with tradition and went out to the latest twilight movie. Not sure what we were going for in this picture. I think I said be serious, so some did, some didn't and I apparently went with the ol stand-by of  duck lips. The movie was about as good as this picture....

We've put up all three of our trees. This one is the "kids tree" so they get to decorate it. We did this one when Sam was gone so I got to be the one to boost Elle up. It's our family tradition to have the littlest put the star on the tree. She was pretty excited, pretty excited and pretty cute!

And for a post on another day, Reese turned 10! I can't believe how quickly he's growing up! We love you Reesey! More on this soon. We hope everyone is not only holding up but thriving throughout this busy holiday season!