Nate 30th!

 Months before Nate's birthday we knew he would have to be gone at a work training in Vegas over his 30th birthday. So rather than let him spend his birthday alone with a bunch of co-workers, I snagged a flight and joined him so I could at least be with him on his actual birthday. We left Monday the 16th and came home on his actual birthday, January 19th. During those days we celebrated a little along the way. My brother in law, Mike, was in Vegas for a work convention as well so we met up Wednesday night for a super nice dinner at Gallagher's as his treat! I should have taken a picture of the steak Nate ordered... I think it was bigger than him!! Definitely the nicest dinner we've had in a long time, but the company was even better since we don't get to the the Sampson's very often.

  Then on Nate's actual birthday, we flew home to a surprise night with friends and cheesecake. I had planned everything before we left and my mom carried it out so when we pulled in everyone was already there for the surprise. Bad idea though... all Nate wanted to do after being gone all week for work was come home and relax as a family. Oops!

 Friday I had another surprise (that I let out of the bag the day before on accident!) for Nate and his birthday. I had invited all of his guy friends to come over and hangout. Nate doesn't do guy nights very often so I thought it would be a good idea for him to spend with his buddies since he had already been with me all week. They got to spend the night doing whatever guys do surrounded by a bunch of food and treats while the kids and I left the house.

Sunday was Nate's moms celebration time. She always makes a special treat for everyone's birthday. This year Nate requested the infamous Rothe "crack" cake. I can't remember what we had come up Sunday night so rather than go to his parents, they came to us because a dessert like this is too good to go to waste just because something came up!

 I think Nate was all celebrated out after a week long, but the these little munchkins were loving every sweet minute of it! Maybe we all, meaning ME, went a little over board this year, but it was a big year for Nate this year and I wanted to make it memorable... May not be the memories I was hoping for, but at least it was memorable, right?

Happy 30th Daddy! We love you, even if you are getting old!

A New Year...

For New Years this year, we met up for dinner with the Christensen's at Training Table. They had a long day on the road from traveling back from their family stuff, so they called it a night early. Once the Christensen's went home, we went over to the Feveryear's to celebrate with them and the Knotwell's. We played with them for a couple hours and toasted to the new year with some sparkling cider at 11:00. We then made it back home to celebrate the real New Year with just our family of 4. What a perfect night surrounded by good friends and then ending with my 3 three favorite boys. Nate and I couldn't have picked a better way to celebrate a new year than just our family. The boys stayed awake to midnight like champs! 2011 definitely wasn't the easiest or most exciting year we've had together as a family, but it brought a lot of changes and with change comes great things! 

Here is a quick recap of 2011 highlights:

Jackson became a Sunbeam and gave his first talk in Primary

Nate turned 29

Grandpa Dave dodged a major bullet with his Pulmonary Embolisms

Met up with Sister Michaelis for the first time in 8 years

Jackson turned 4!

Andersen turned 18 months and made it to Nursery

Jackson finished his first year in Preschool

I finished my 2nd triathlon

I turned 27 and celebrated it with all my YW girls at camp

Nate played Jesus Christ at Youth Conference... WOW, what an experience!

Jackson had his first fathers and sons campout

Jackson finished another year of swim lesson

Nate and I celebrated 6 years of marriage

Our family trip to Hawaii!

Nate and I took a trip to New York for Christine's wedding

Andersen turned 2!

Milly joined our family

Jackson became a Silverpup for his 2nd year of preschool

Andersen TRIED potty training... for a few weeks

Andersen had his first dentist appointment

I got my Honor Bee

Took our every other year trip to Colorado for Thanksgiving

Jackson played 2 seasons of Soccer and his first year of T-Ball, while Andersen got to live vicariously through his brother.

And many more fun timeswith family and friends!

 

Here's to another year... Hope 2012 brings us something fun!

Planet Play

With it still being the holidays and family in town from Texas, we all met up one night at Planet Play for some family fun. We had dinner and then played games for 2 hours! We started with some glow-in-the-dark mini golf. The boys loved it and I beat Nate so what could be better? Next we went and played mini bowling. This is super fun! Way faster and better than bowling when playing with kids. Jacks got his first strike. The bowling balls are so small and light that Andersen could even do it all by himself. Another friendly competition between Nate and I, ending with me winning, AGAIN! Trust me that never happens and Nate didn't like it one bit, but a win is a win and I will take it, even if it is little kid games! Later we did the go karts a couple times and played a few arcades. Andersen loved every second about the go karts and had a perma-smile the whole ride. Jacks just got into the competitive spirit and just wanted to win, but Uncle Ryan snagged that title. After we were all gamed out we treated ourselves to some ice cream and then called it a night. This place was definitely not the cleanest place I have been to or would like it, but the kids had so much fun! Wish the other Rothe Family was still in town to go play. We had tons of fun while they were here for Christmas.

Our "Christmas Break"

It all started the Wednesday before Christmas. I was gone during the evening so I wasn't there until the end of it all, but from the story Nate shares is Milly was being her typical stubborn self and peed on the floor. Nate disciplined her and then picked her up to go take her into the bath to clean her up. As they were about to the tub, she started going to the bathroom again but this time on Nate, so his instant reaction was to drop her. Unfortunately it wasn't a soft landing for Milly in the porcelain tub. I got home as she dropped in the tub and I heard her yelp. She was pretty mellow after, so Nate cleaned her up and we just watched how she was doing the rest of the night. Thursday, the next day, I was off work so I got to spend the day with her and see how she was doing. We could tell her back leg was hurt but couldn't tell if it was broken or just tweaked from the fall. Being with her all day and watching her continue to limp and be very lethargic I knew I should take her in to the vet.

Around 4:00 that afternoon, this x-ray was taken of Milly's right femur. Sure enough it was broken pretty good! We had only 2 options... Either put her to sleep or do surgery! With it being 3 days before Christmas at this point, there weren't too many options for surgeons available. The vet we took them to weren't willing to be flexible with payments and I didn't have Nate to make a decision, so I took my chances of being able to find a surgeon the next day. They helped stabilize Milly's leg as much as possible, gave her some pain meds and off we went for the night. I spent that night calling around. Eventually I found Cottonwood Animal Hospital on Highland Drive and I scheduled an exam with the surgeon, Dr. Bagley, for first thing in the morning.

Off we went Friday morning, 2 days before Christmas, bright and early to meet with the Dr and get his recommendations. He agreed with the two options, but encouraged us to do surgery with her only being a puppy and having so much life ahead of her. Well, a long day of tears, lots of worrying and doubts, and a lot more money than anyone should or would ever want to spend on a puppy, we chose surgery and Dr. Bagley got to work Friday afternoon. A few hours later we were informed she did great through surgery and he didn't see any complications that would come of the surgery. They kept her over night and Nate went and picked Milly up Christmas Eve. They offered to keep her over Christmas but we figured it would be more fun to have her with the family for the Holidays. This is what her back leg looked like right after surgery. She had a shaved back end and leg and 7 staples for the incision.

The doctor gave us plenty of meds, and this little lady was drugged to the max to keep her mellow and off her leg for as long as possible. We had to keep her from walking on it and doing pretty much any activity on her leg for 2 weeks (which is impossible for a puppy!). After two weeks, Milly had a check up to remove the staples, but still limited activity. With it being now 5-6 weeks after surgery and updated x-rays taken of her femur, Milly has been given privileges to get back to normal activities. She still walks with a slight limp every once in awhile, but I am sure with time she will be back to 100%. Her hair has grown back perfectly and you would never know she went through so much. For her surgery, the Dr had to put a steel plate to hold things into place, so he said they might eventually need to take those out but until it bothers her, we will just keep it in.

I don't know if  Milly would consider herself lucky or not, but with us almost putting her to sleep, I would consider herself very lucky. Since then she has been great on house training, so if anything good came out of all this, it was definitely the most expensive house training I bet anyone has ever paid for! This for sure made our Christmas a memorable one. A huge thanks to Dr. Bagley. I don't think Nate and I have met a better veterinarian!

Everything Christmas

I think the boys thought Christmas was never going to come this year! Once it finally did they loved every minute of the 2 day celebration. We started Christmas Eve by seeing "Arthur Christmas" as a family joined by Grandma Kay, Nana and Grandpa Paul while Grandpa Dave went to visit Great Grandpas grave. After the movie, we met up with Grandpa Dave for dinner at Chili's. By the time we were done, Andersen was already pooped for the night! Good thing he got a quick power nap so we could come home and get in their Christmas PJ's

  and set out our cookies and milk for Santa.

This year Jacks told me what to write for Santa's letter and I was the scribe word for word. Love the innocence children have and the Christmas magic they bring by believing in Santa.

They didn't go to bed any earlier than usual, but they definitely didn't fight bedtime. Jacks was so excited, that I am sure he laid there for awhile trying to fall asleep but he didn't complain one bit! Although he was worried he was going to hear Santa or Chippy. I reassured him that as long as he stayed in his bed when he heard noises he would be just fine.

Around 6:30 am Jackson was at the side of my bed complaining he didn't get a Gaston costume! I was so bummed he had peeked, but everything was wrapped so there really was no way for him to know if he did or didn't get the costume. Here are the two boys getting ready to go see their Christmas surprises. Jacks obviously was at his peak of excitement. Andersen on the other hand was excited but didn't really grasp the idea that Santa brought presents while he was sleeping.

Here is their individual Santa piles. And yes, Jacks was right. Santa didn't bring him a Gaston costume. I guess Mom and Dad were right when we thought Santa doesn't support the bad guys so he might not have any of those costumes.

He was sad for 2 seconds and then his Nerf Gun and extra bullets saved the morning.

Andersen took a little longer to unwrap but he wasn't too far behind Jackson.

Milly even got presents!

There is nothing more fun than watching Christmas morning! Luckily for the boys, both set of Grandparents got to watch them open their presents too.

After the quick couple hours of opening presents we had to rush and get ready for church. What a good way to celebrate the Saviors birth by attending Sacrament in the mix of all the other activities.

After church we were on our way to make our rounds to all the different families. The boys were already pooped and the parties hadn't even begun yet.

Our first stop was my brother Jared's house with all my brothers. He had tons of food and snacks for all and then let the kiddos decorate Christmas cookies. Andersen enjoyed eating the frosting more than decorating, but the rest of the kids did an awesome job with their cookies. It wasn't the same without the Sampson's but thank goodness for Skype.

If the kids weren't eating or decorating, they were running around like wild animals totally soaking up every minute together.

After Jared's house, we made it over to Nate's parents house. We started with a nice dinner and then thanks to Jacks being impatient we went straight to presents. Somewhere in between all the evening fun at the Rothe's we made a quick stop across the street to visit my Grandma and whoever of my aunts, uncles, and cousins that were still there.

It was another year of getting spoiled by our families! Nothing better than Christmas memories.