RELEASED

What an exciting morning I had! Daddy was released from the hospital today "for good behavior," as he says. I can't believe it--after almost 7 weeks he is finally home. He has gotten so much better since the ventilator was removed, and he was finally able to sign himself out of the hospital. Isn't it crazy when you can be grateful that you can hold a pen and write your own name? As they were getting the wheelchair to take him out he said: "Well that was an interesting way to waste two months of my life." And I told him that whether or not it is a waste is up to him. He will be able to gain a lot of strength from this time knowing that the Lord spared his life. He agreed with me of course and before we knew it he was getting wheeled outside to breathe in some delicious, cold, inverted Utah air.

I really can't describe how happy and grateful I am that this was our outcome. The torturous weeks when we didn't know what was going to happen to my dad already feel like a faraway dream or rather, nightmare. The Lord in His mercy has given us the best Christmas gift of all time.

SEEING SANTA

I honestly hate what Christmas does to my shopping life. Nothing is on sale to my satisfaction, and there are people everywhere! And the parking...oh the parking. So I tend to avoid the mall in December, but this past Tuesday I had a coupon that was expiring, so I had to use it and saw while I was there that the "See Santa" line was really short. I was on the phone with Ashley who told me I should just take Stella to see him and get a picture. I decided I was going to do it, until I saw that the cheapest package for pics was $20, and I was NOT going to pay someone $20 for a picture that I could take better myself. I then called Ashley and we commenced to make plans to take the girls to see Santa. When I told Brent about this he said: "I bet Stella will cry." To which I replied: "I sort of hope she does. I love those Santa crying pictures." Yeah, I am that mean some times.

So we started off the adventure with a lunch at The Cheesecake Factory. It was crazy busy, but the girls were really well behaved. It helped that the restaurant brought out a little kid plate and had a pretty decent kids menu. The girls decided to share a quesadilla since everyone knows that you should always share an entree at The Cheesecake Factory because they are too big for one.

Happy kids make happy moms.

After our delicious lunch we were off to see the man they call Santa. Both girls were still in great moods, but as soon as Stella realized that I was going to make her pose with that scary guy, she started freaking out.

The following pictures of the girls are absolutely priceless to me and I loved them all so much I had to post them all.

My mom then finally rescued Stella from Santa. I love this picture because Stella is still staring at him with disgust, and perhaps some fear.

Ava just seemed bored.

Look what a fun new family tradition we started! Can't wait until next year!

PATIENT

I realize this post has been much anticipated by all of you so that you can finally get the update on how my pops is doing. I have been waiting for him to be up for some pictures so I could post them while letting everyone know how much better he is, even though as these pictures show...he has a very long road to a full recovery.

It has been officially one week since they finally took out the ventilator and my dad started breathing on his own again. When he first started waking up he did not realize where he was or what had happened. He didn't remember anything, and actually didn't even remember going to the hospital in the first place. Seeing him that day was a complete treat. I had missed him so much and started to blab on about all of the things that had happened while he was gone, even though he was still out of it and I am sure the details of that conversation have been long lost.

Seeing him the next couple of times though was not as pleasant. I kept thinking that he would start looking like my dad again, but he was looking worse in some ways and he had a hard time communicating. However, today, a week removed from the big day of ventilator removal, he is doing much better. He is back to using his phone (which we would always tease him about how much he used to use it), and he can talk now without a problem. He has started eating real food as well. Even with all of this good news though, he is still extremely frustrated with how little he can move and how much he can't do on his own. I told him today that he needs to remember that it is the Lord's will that he is still here, and that he can get better...he will get better.

My dad has always been a very willing photo model, and I was glad he didn't insist that I put my camera away today. He is growing a beard, and says he is not going to shave until he gets out of the hospital (still a few weeks away). I am looking forward to that day so much because then I can finally bring Stella to visit her grandpa again.

Isn't it interesting how patient you have to be when you are a patient? It is so annoying to be in the hospital and have to wait for things and I know that it is driving my dad crazy. We keep telling him that he has to be patient, and that he WILL recover. I can't believe how well he is doing already. I am so proud of him.

Note: The gowns and masks are to protect us because he has an infection. However, even though they are annoying, I sort of feel like they also protect him from anything that we might have or anything that the nurses might carry from room to room. Stylish, right? Mostly I thought it was funny that I posed for a picture and was smiling even though you can't see my mouth.

MOM, I'D RATHER THROW THESE APPLES

My friend Krisi and I decided that we would take each other's family pictures, and this year I had my heart set on driving all the way down to Provo to an apple orchard for our family pics. When Brent caught wind of my idea he was super convinced that we didn't need to go anywhere further than our front yard. I told him that I would be happy to accommodate him, but since he complained about distance last year when we went downtown, I wasn't having it. Pictures are OBVIOUSLY so important to me, is it so much to ask that I get what I want without complaints? (Answer "yes" here.) Okay then, I agree.

I thought I was being all prepared by adding a bouquet to our shoot so Stella would have something to hold, but what I didn't count on was that we would be surrounded by fallen apples and that Stella would be absolutely enthralled with picking them up and then throwing them and yelling "whoa!" So for her, being interrupted by that important task to be in some pictures was certainly not fun. Whenever she would freak out, I kept thinking "No! This isn't happening!" Proof again that no one understands the stress of having family pictures until you actually take family pictures, and we only have one kid!

Anyway, Krisi did a great job and we managed to get some fun pictures. Now that I have had to make myself go through them to decide which ones to send with our card I can post some of my favorites. To see my favorites that I took of Krisi's family you can go HERE.

After Krisi and Eddy took off with their tiny baby I took a few more of Stella, and I let her have her way with the apples most of the time to maximize her happiness.

BOOKER CLAN

To see Ashley's family pics and a few of Bells check out the PHOTO BLOG.