December 2015

December started out with a party with this crazy bishopric! As you can see, we had a little too much fun creating a Christmas card for the YSA ward

Ryan and Laura Hales, Drew and Marin James, Matt and Jill 

Don't they look amazing in those sweaters?

sleigh ride for my eSpeakers work party

Gingerbread creations with the Parish's!

 Emily showing off her Christmas shirt she made!

 Jeff, Amber, Nicki, Emily, Jackie and Thomas

Trisha and Danny

TJ and Davin

R2D2 by Matt

Jackie, Megan and Trisha

 My absolute favorite tradition....cookies for Santa picture!!

Yes they humor me every year...Thanks kids! :)

Jingle bells....Jingle bells....

Yummy breakfast

present opening...

Emily enjoying the snow

We surprised Emily and told her she would be going to Lehi Jr. High in January 

XC Skiing! 

Snowshoeing with the Heaps family 

Camile and Chris 

So lucky to have our "brown daughter" Erika with us!

FOOTLOCKER XC NATIONALS

We got to go on the bus with our Tommy Boy and his team

Emily got to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa Whiting

California is the place to race in December!

Thomas started out STRONG!

After this last picture was taken I ran to the finish line with about 1/2 mile to go. I never found him....we searched everywhere and found him at the medical tent. He had blacked out and somehow he willed himself to finish the race...walking himself in, going from top 30 to 2nd to last.

Our friend took this pics of him coming in....

The first thing he asked us when we got to him was "Did I finish the race?" 

We found out months later that this was caused by POTS syndrome. He was dehydrated, short on salt, and fuel which would make it hard for anyone to race but with POTS, it makes it nearly impossible. His body completely shut down! We now know that both he and Jackie have POTS and they are learning to take care of their bodies with LOTS and LOTS of salt, caffeine, water and compression. They are blessed to have found a doctor who could diagnose them!

 Everyone was excited to hit the beach before going home to snow and COLD temps!

It was a blast to be with our Tommy Boy and his awesome XC Team!

AWARDS NIGHT! 

Super Classy don't you think? 

 So proud of our boy~

 

Overall it was a great XC season! Way to go Tommy Boy!