Thanksgiving in all it's Glory!

The week started out so well. My parents were able to fly out because we were all so excited to meet the newest addition to my brother's family (Andrew). On Sunday, 20, we blessed Lux and enjoyed celebrating my birthday (26) with everyone.

 Then on Monday, mom found out that she needed to fly to England immediately because my Nanna had a second massive stroke on the other side of her body and would never fully recover and would be confined to a wheelchair if she made it thru this. Since she had a no resuscitate signed paper, we knew this was her last week on earth before being reunited with my Grandad after living for 15 years without him.

Tuesday the 22 was my actual birthday and was very enjoyable. We went to a Thai place the night before with my parents to celebrate since everyone was going seperate directions early on Wednesday. So on Tues we got pizza, made a salad, found mini martinelli's and ate dessert for the actual day. I very much enjoyed it!

Wednesday, dad drove mom to the shuttle at 4am to begin her journey to England. Dad, Lux and I left for Rexburg by 7 and then Chayse headed to work at 7:30 to begin his day. I was sad to leave Chayse here and not spend Thanksgiving together, but for some reason it seemed like the right thing to do. He wouldn't get home til 6 so the earliest we could have been to Rexburg (7 1/2 hrs driving) was eaaarrrrlllyyyyy am...3ish on Thanksgiving. So he spent it with his family while dad and I lived it up in the best hotel in Rexburg. Seriously. It was amazing!!

Here Lux was when I came out of the bathroom after arriving at our hotel. Haha! Makes me laugh every time! ;)

In her pram outfit to stay warm in the fridged weather that is normal for every other city, except St George in the winter.

 Our chickens! They cook faster. I did the one in the paper bag. Both were delicious. Good work, dad!

Multi tasking Papa! One sleeps and the other plays. Dad very much enjoyed being able to hold his 2 granddaughters and did it whenever possible.

Sleeping Lux and alert Amber. Don't be fooled, Lux does not sleep that often. Really.

Andrew and I with our new daughters, only 7 weeks apart!

Lux loving her bouncer. It was the best thing I packed for this trip, she was so happy and smiley while in it.

Here's my baby girl in her blessing dress I made for her. Thankfully I started very early on it, pretty much when I found out she was a girl, and finished it the week my hand started going numb. It didn't go back to completely useful until she was 4 months old. Lame-oh! But I got all the little details that needed to be done by hand soon enough that I wasn't in too much pain while finishing it up.

 Papa and his 2 girls!

We took some shots of them both in their blessing dresses. It was a lot of fun to see them together. Next time they'll be able to interact more!

As for the rest of the week...Thursday was very enjoyable and relaxing. Some cooking and games. No midnight shopping unfortunately. My baby isn't very flexible sometimes and the shops were 30 minutes away so I couldn't be dropped off. Boo Hoo! But whatever. On Friday we got our shopping in and had a great time getting started on the Christmas presents.

While we were out, mom arrived in England and headed straight for the hospital. Nanna was still alert and was able to speak with mom a little bit before passing on a few hours later. What comfort that was to know she was able to hold on til my mom was able to be with her. Just a very special moment for me even tho I wasn't able to be there. I wish Lux had a passport, but that definitely slowed us down. I wish Nanna could have met Lux in person, but with skype and photos we did the best we could ;)

Then Saturday we took the photos of the babies after breakfast and dad and I headed out on the open road. About an hour in I got a call from Chayse saying he was sick and didn't feel well at all and wondered when we'd be home. Then I got a text a few hours later as we are in Salt Lake City saying he was waiting for the tests to come back and he was in the hospital. What went through my head? "Tests? He just said he was sick. We are 4 hours away driving and have a baby with us, guess we'll get there when we can." I was just incredibly calm because I couldn't do anything to help. And if I started going crazy I knew Lux would.

So we drove the next few hours with no word until we made it to Cedar. I got a call from his mom saying they had visited him and things were alright. Then I got a call from the nurse saying he was going into surgery (whaaat???) and he'd be out in 45 minutes. That's when I was a bit confused and we showed up seconds before Chayse did to his hospital room. Sure enough, he got his appendix removed. He was in such great pain from 7 until noon when he drove (yes, drove himself) to the hospital and ended up parking in 3 spots at the same time and ran into the ER and was hooked up to some morphine. (Now he understands how wonderful that epidural was!)

How thankful I am, oddly enough, that he had to stay behind. He would not have mentioned those pains in Rexburg and tried to cover up the need to vomit from the pain. His appendix would have ruptured (Dr Myers--yes, we are related--said he was glad he came in because it would have very shortly!) and would have been in the hospital for weeks. And it would have been bad to live in a hotel to be near him, then have to travel with a sick husband and baby! ahhhh!! Blessing in disguise that was.

My dad watched Lux that night so I could stay late at the hospital wth Chayse. He also stayed longer before going back to Vegas to fly home. I am glad he was there to help out and keep me from stressing! So was Chayse's family. After my dad left I took Lux to their house for Shay to watch her so I could get Chayse's pain meds and get things ready for him to come home.

So recap of the week:
Sat Nov 19: Mom and Dad arrive
Sun Nov 20: Lux's blessing day
Mon Nov 21: Nanna most likely won't make it
Tues Nov 22: Happy 26 Birthday to ME!
Weds Nov 23: Chayse goes to work, Mom to ATL en route to England, Dad and I take Lux to Rexburg.
Thurs Nov 24: Thanksgiving with Andrew, Jill and Amber
Fri Nov 25: Nanna dies around noon MST.
Sat Nov 26: Chayse gets appendix removed
Sun Nov 27: Dad flies home, Chayse comes home from hospital

And to end, my sweet baby girl with her Papa. Chayse made a speedy recovery and was back to his regular schedule by Thurs and I had enough happenings to last me a verrrrryyyyyyy long time!!!!