After a LONG CRAZY flight, we made it to Texas...

So after a not so fun New Years Eve, we got to get packed for our Disney Cruise (we had only 1 1/2 days to be exact). When we arrived to the airport, the kids were surprised to learn that their cousin jaylee and her family was also joining us. I think they may have even been more excited about this than the cruise itself. Normally I wouldn't give all the details of a flight as it can tend to be rather boring, but not this flight. We got on the flight and once we were all seated, there was a bit of a stall. We got seated and right away the girl behind us starts cussing a storm. Then she proceeds to tell the person next to her how she hates kids (great, do you realize you our sort of surrounded by them and THEIR PARENTS right now?). She was probably in her early 20's and extremely immature. Finally the plane took off and I was hoping the girl would shut up all ready, but she didn't and I was seriously trying to keep my mouth shut. Addie was in her own world and luckily wasn't paying attention and Matt and Tate were across from us so they didn't get the earful. Basically the cussing, complaining and children hating comments went on the entire flight, ugh. As the flight got further along my adorable little niece along with another baby started to get a little cranky. Because we sat on the plane so long, before it took off and got such a late start, it was starting to get really late for the little ones. From there a crying fest began. Before long you started getting some nasty comments from other passengers regarding the crying. Now, as a mother, I know there is only so much you can do for a crying infant. I felt bad for the parents and the poor kids not being able to figure out how to rest in such a strange moving device (plane). Can crying get annoying and/or frustrating? Yes, but when you know you are going to be sharing a plane with other people, your bound to get a baby, fussy toddler or more. That's a risk you are taking. Also you have to understand, that babies aren't purposely trying to ruin your flight, they don't know any better. At one point the crying stopped, then some irritated man started doing some LOUD fake cry. Im assuming it was to just get his frustration out. Well that was stupid because then he woke or startled the kids who were crying and it started again. Finally the plane landed and of course you get the smart remarks about how they can't wait to get off the plane, from several people not just the annoying girl behind me. Suddenly the intercom came on to inform us that there was an issue with the gate and we would have to wait... First the girl behind me starts to complain even more than this grown man starts yelling. He was yelling extremely loud saying how parents need to get their kids to shut up and he needs to get off this plane now, etc, etc. He was starting to go crazy. Then the girl stared join in as well as others. I seriously felt like we were on a plane of children haters even though our kids were quiet the whole time, it made me nervous. The plane then informed us of a further delay and we ended up having to sit on the plane for about an 1 1/2 hours. During this time, crazy man called the airlines and started threatening to blow up the plane if they didn't let him off and went on and on and on. And lets not forget about annoying girl behind me. I had it and turned around and said, " It's not like the babies can help it. But your acting worse than them....". I didn't get crazy man to shut up, but I got annoying girl to. then she also sudden changed her tone to point out how crazy the guys was and how he needs to get over it, yadda yadda yadda. At one point a female passenger who was sitting by the crazy guy, got up and walked to the front of the plane and said she could sit next to this guys anymore. The plane finally pulled into the gate, but then informed we had to all had to stay seated while they dealt with a situation. Of course we knew what the situation was, the crazy man threatening to blow the plane up. So now we had to wait for airline security to take this man off the plane. But it doesn't end there. Now a 2nd crazy man starts yelling at the flight attendants and saying how he is scared for his life and how they are holding him on the plane against his will and they are like kidnapping him and better let him off. So the babies were still crying but watching these grown men act this way was so much more ridiculous. I seriously wanted to hold my children close to protect them from all the crazies. Finally, security showed up. by then Crazy #1 shut his mouth and pretended to sleep. They took him off the plane and finally we could all get off as well. Seriously, Maybe this guy had an awful flight, but because of him we had to stay on 45 min. more. I couldn't believe how many people were still irritated more with the babies than this grown man, but whatever. We made it to Texas, phew! Since the plane was super late, our shuttle from the hotel was no longer running so we had to find a cab. We got one, but of course we got the driver who payed no attention as to where we were going or his way around his own city, but we made it. The next day we would get on The disney Cruise ship.

New Years Eve... Not so great

Kids were super excited to spend New years up at the cabin since we haven't been able to enjoy it for a couple of years while we lived out of state. It is great being up there in the winter because there is a super fun sledding hill in the back of the cabin and great snowmobiling. It is also very beautiful and relaxing.

On New Years Eve morning we decided we were going to go snowmobiling as a Family. We didn't get to far and had issues with one of the snowmobiles so turned back. The kids then decided they wanted to sled so they joined their cousins sledding down the hill. The kids started getting tired walking up the big hill so the guys grabbed the snowmobiles to pick them up and bring them back to the top. Since one of the snowmobiles wasn't working, we decided to use a four wheeler. We do this all the time since the hill is so long. Matt pulled the 4 wheeler of to the side once he got up from the bottom of the hill, at that moment Addie started heading down but somehow managed to get off trail and headed right for the back of the four wheeler. I heard her screaming as I was standing near the bottom of the hill. Matt then grabbed her and I heard him say, "We got to go NOW"! I knew then it wasn't good. I started running up the hill and saw Addie's face covered with blood. I then saw the gash on her forehead. It was long and opened to where you could see her skull.

This wasn't the first incident Addie has been in. In-fact she had been to the Emergency Room twice before this. Once for a concussion and skull fracture and another time when she got hit above the eye with a golf club. Both these times were scary and with the Golf club incident, there was a good amount of blood and lots of stitches, but this was far worse. Both previous times were hard for me to keep my composure. I didn't want to scare Addie but I wasn't sure I could hold pressure on her head without losing it. Luckily my sister in law was a nurse and could handle this stuff much better than me. I begged her to come with us as we drove down to the hospital from the cabin. She did so and it really helped me to be able to stay calmer around Addie.

Matt drove, I sat in the passenger seat and my sister in law held pressure on Addies head in the back seat. Luckily I had some left over tissue paper from a gift, in the back of the car, because my sister in law ran out of paper towels.

The bleeding slowed down a ton by the time we arrived to the small hospital. That was comforting. However because of the location and severity of the cut we knew we had better get a plastic surgeon to stitch her up and I was very worried about another concussion. It was funny (not really) because we would tell every person/nurse we talked to that we knew we wanted a plastic surgeon. They would at first tell us that it really might be fine without one, but as soon as they saw it all would agree with us.

Once we checked her in we learned they were not able to locate a plastic surgeon and we would have to drive to Primary Children's which was about an hour drive from where we were. While the doctors checked her out, I drove my sister in law back to the cabin, grabbed Addie's favorite blanket and other necessities and headed back. When I got back they had checked Addie out and she didn't seem to have a concussion and they gave her the ok to head to Primary's so they bandaged her up and we hoped in the car to head there. Addie was awesome all the way there. She played games on dads Ipad the whole way.

Once at primary children's we had about a 40 min. wait until we could get in a room. Once we got in the room we had a similar experience where the nurses would try to tell us how good the people on the floor were at stitching and we may want to consider them, then they would look at the cut and change there mind. In fact we had at least two people (one a doctor) saying they wouldn't feel comfortable sewing this bad of a cut up. From there they went on a 3 plus hour search for a surgeon. Being New Years, the surgeon was busy and not many were available. Finally we located one and the began to prep her.

During the 4 hour waiting period, Addie was calm and doing great. however, by the time the doctor had arrived she was feeling pretty worn out and was ready to go home. When the nurse came in to put the IV in her arm she freaked. They had to use a second person to get her to hold still. She was so mad at them she started yelling all sorts of things to them. Things like, they couldn't do this because it was her bed time and she needed to go to bed "NOW" and they better stop. The best was when she looked at them and said, "You are bad doctors"! I felt so bad for her.

They finally got the medicine in her to sort of knock her out and finally she went calm again. The doctor had to do 3-4 layers of stitches. The cut (or gash) was 2 inches long. But it was finally all sewn up.

Addie started waking up from her drugged state and moving her arms all around the air. Matt and I went over to her and she continually puckered her lips to get kisses from us. She then started pointing to Matts face and counting. Sh said Matt had four eyes. Somehow I still had two, but matt had four.

After she started waking up and stopped throwing up she feel asleep and we were able to to head back to the cabin. Oh yes, she wanted to still go up to the cabin. Plus we had left Tate there during the whole fiasco.

We got back at 11:00. Matt and I were exhausted. It had been a 7 1/2 ordeal of emotions. Addie slept the whole drive back, but then woke up right when we pulled in. Of course she didn't want to miss the New Year celebration and woke up right away. Everyone was watching a movie so we joined them and counted down to midnight with them.

This will defiantly be a New Years to always remember. I was so proud of my little girl though and how tough she stayed. She was amazing. She even let us take pictures, but I wouldn't show her the graphic ones until later. She finally begged me enough after midnight and all the boys were checking them out, so I showed her and she was fin with everything. I can tell she is proud of herself too. Hopefully his will be are last visit to the Emergency room.

Christmas

It's been a long time since I have posted anything. As usual, sooo much has gone on. We are now back in Utah,which has been bitter sweet. The kids have loved being back and loved seeing their cousins and grandparents more. They have also met many kids their age in our neighborhood. They love having so many kids their age so close by. I am so glad they are loving it being back. Nothing makes a mom happier than when her kids are happy themselves.

Although there is so much to catch up on I figured I should probably just add the most recent events that took place knowing I may never catch up to it if I don't. So here we go...

This was are first Christmas back and in our new home. It was a rather small Christmas being that the kids main gift was a Disney Cruse the first of the year. Of course I wanted Santa to present this gift the best way possible so we worked together and gave it everything we got.

The kids found a package labeled "Open Last" and of course, opened it last. There was an envelope with a fun poem informing us how we had to get into costume to find all the clues leading to our final gift. Each of us opened up our own package to find our own pirate costumes. We put them on and searched the house for several clues and gathered many puzzle pieces along the way.

The final clue led us to the basement where we found a pirate ship set up (with a Mickey flag) and on it was 2 more envelopes and a picture of mickey! the first envelope told us to put all the puzzle pieces together and than flip the puzzle over for a surprise. We did so, flipped over the puzzle and it said, "Get Ready For A Disney Cruise"!!! It all sounds fun and great, but the kids had no response. Both just stood there so I had to ask them to repeat what the puzzle revealed. they did so and I asked if they were excited and they said "sure".

I didn't get it. I then told them to open the last envelope which they did and this was a letter from Mickey himself. It told them they had "__ Naps" to get ready and how all of mickey's friends where waiting to see them. Tate's reply was "I guess we're going on a Disney cruise", then he tossed the letter to the ground like he could care less. I then turned to Addie to see her response and she was just playing in the boat not listening. "Addie", I said, "Did you hear hoe many naps we have left tell we go"?

This is when I started catching on to why they hadn't gotten overly excited yet.

"Go Where?", Addie asked. "On a Disney Cruise" I said. Addie then replied with her eyes wide, "FOR REAL"! "Yes, For real, what did you think all of this was for?", I asked. "I thought it was pretend", Addie said. FINALLY she started jumping up and down and both kids got super excited. They thought the whole thing was just a fun game. Sheesh!