~Getting Her Ears Pierced~

For Christmas, Santa gave Mckell a coupon to get her ears pierced.  She was so excited and wanted to go first thing the day after Christmas, but she wasn't feeling great, so we waited a few days until she was feeling better.

Mckell was so excited, that is until she was sitting in the chair.  Then she started to get a little nervous.  In fact, she wanted to back out.  She said that she felt like she was going to throw up.  I told her she had to be tough, because there was a little girl standing there watching, waiting to get her ears pierced after Mckell.  I told Mckell that she had to make it look easy, because if she didn't she might scare this little girl off.  Mckell got tuff and did it :)  I know she was so happy she did!

She picked out her birthstone for earrings, and couldn't wait to get home to show Dave her knew look.   She looks so grown up with her ears pierced!

~Happy 11th Birthday Hunter!~

Hunter is now the big 1-1!  I can't believe it!  He is getting so grown up!  I'm not ready for my baby to turn 12 and be a young man, so I hope this year goes by slowly, lol.   We surprised Hunter with breakfast in bed.  Lexi thought this was so cool and wanted me to bring her breakfast to her in bed too. :)  I told her it had to be her birthday, so of course, she can't wait until it's her birthday!

Just after breakfast, I got a call from Dave at work.  I couldn't really understand what he was saying to me, but I could tell he was upset and I could make out "Come".  So I immediately jumped into the car and headed to his office.  It has been super stressful at work since a week or two before Thanksgiving.  Dave has been dealing with hackers getting into their systems and changing things.  He has been super stressed, and hasn't been able to eat or sleep for quite some time now.  Infact he has lost about 25 lbs since Thanksgiving, because of not being able to eat.  He has me worried, so I knew this call wasn't good.  When I got to his office, he had calmed down and could talk.  He explained that he thought he had a stroke.  He was talking to someone at work and all of a sudden started slurring his words.  He knew he sounded funny, but could not for the life of him get what he wanted to say come out.  He couldn't think either.  He tried, but couldn't think.  It shook him up pretty good.  We immediately went to the ER to get him checked.  When we got there his blood pressure read 170/120.  They hooked him up to all kinds of machines, and did all sorts of tests.  His EKG came back good, as well as his blood sugar.  Of course his blood pressure was off the charts, so they were concerned about that.  They did a scan of his brain and saw that everything looked ok.  So it was determined that Dave had a mini stroke but it didn't leave any damage to the brain.  Which is GREAT!!!  This was a huge scare, but we now have him taking blood pressure medicine to help control that.  It seems to be working.  Now if we can just get his stress at work to go away he'd be all better.  But I guess that is wishful thinking.

Dave and I spent the entire afternoon at the hospital, while Hunter stayed home to babysit.  He is such a good kid, cause I know this is not what he wanted to be doing on his birthday, but he didn't complain.  I felt bad for him, so when we got home, I let him call some friends over to go and play basketball over at the church.  We then opened gifts and then he headed out with my dad and brother Richard for a guys night out.  They were so nice to do this because they knew I wouldn't be able to take Hunter out with Dave being in his condition.  They are awesome for making Hunters birthday GREAT!  It is so good to have family!

Dave was so excited to give Hunter his very own gun :)  Hunter had fun shooting at pop bottles (he's a good little shot) and can't wait to go out shooting for real with his new gun.
Happy Birthday Hunter!  We are so glad to have you in our family!

~Merry Christmas!~

This year we decided that kids could get up at 5:00 to see what Santa had brought them.  Dave and I were hoping that this would be the case, because the last several years we have had Christmas at 1:00 am, because the kids would not go to sleep and Dave and I knew that if we wanted sleep, we might as well just let them see what Santa brought, so could go to bed.  Well this year, the kids got up, looked down at the family room, saw that Santa hadn't come yet, and went back to sleep.  They did this all night long, not knowing that Santa was leaving their presents in the theater room.  Finally at 6:30, Dave and I went up to wake them up.  Lexi was so disappointed because she thought that Santa had not come, after all, there were no presents in the family room.  But when they saw their stockings were missing, they knew he must have left their presents somewhere.  They were so excited to find that Santa did come, and that he did bring presents.

Garrett wasn't so sure about getting up early.  He was a little moody, lol.

The kids opening presents from Dave and I.

Santa brought our family a Ping Pong table and several movies. Hunter got snow clothes, 3 Xbox games, snow boots, a remote control helicopter, books and some clothes.  Mckell got a bracelet making kit, a jewelry box, a gift card to get her ears pierced, earrings, books, clothes, and some snow boots.  Lexi got 3 Frozen Barbie dolls, a Flynn Rider stuffed animal, a bunny stuffed animal from Sopia the First, a book, a coat, shoes, and clothes.  Garrett got a cars race set, an Buzz lightyear spaceship, a book, clothes, and a coat.  I got a camera, a 2014 calendar, clothes, and some perfume.  Dave got clothes and a couple of pairs of shoes.  It was a really good Christmas!

Both sets of Grandparents dropped by to see what Santa brought.  Grandma and Grandpa Wangsgard had fun playing ping pong.

Our cute little family!  I wanted to get a picture of us all month to do Christmas cards.  With things being crazy at work for Dave, and with being the bishop, we never could find time to take a picture.  Well I finally got my picture today.  It just will not be for our Christmas cards, lol.

We headed to my mom and dad's for lunch and to exchange gifts with the Wangsgard side of the family.

Love this shirt Christian gave me, lol.

Hunter playing with his remote control helicopter.  Can you see it?

Garrett playing with his remote control car.

Lexi and Paislee making a fort.  Lexi LOVES having Paislee up for the holidays.

After visiting with the Wangsgard side of the family, we headed up to Huntsville for dinner and to exchange gifts with the Ropelato side of the family.

I love how Garrett gets so excited when he opens (or Lexi opens) his presents.  He is such a cutie!  We had a very good Christmas!  It was such a good day visiting with all of our family.

~The Ropelato Christmas Party~

Tis the season for family parties!  Jeff and Becky hosted the Ropelato family Christmas party this year.  The kids had a blast playing with all of their cousins.

Jasmin, Mckell, and Hayley.

A special visitor came, Santa!  And he brought all of the kids socks.

I was looking for Garrett and totally missed Mckell sitting on Santa's lap :(  So that is why I don't have a picture of her.

Larry, Dave, and Brent.

After our visit from Santa, the kids got all dressed up to do the Nativity.  Hunter wasn't thrilled, but I told him he has to participate in it until he is in Jr. High.  He was a good sport.

We had lots and lots of angels.  As you can see, the Ropelato's have plenty of girls.

Garrett was a wiseman.

I don't know if Jerry realized he was sitting right in the middle of the Nativity play that the kids were doing, lol.  Dave joked that he was the king. :)