Christmas Eve 2013

We stayed as close to our ivy girl for Christmas break as much as possible.  The kids loved

staying at the Grand America for Christmas and it was so nice to switch off sitting with ivy.

  

Christmas eve was spent making totally different, but still magical memories.  

The kids all got dressed in their jammies that Buddy the elf dropped off to them at the Hotel.  

They came up to see Ivy and visit in her room for a while then we went to dinner

and swimming at the Indoor pool. The Grand also had the coolest Gingerbread houses

all throughout the Hotel.    

They mostly loved jumping from Bed to Bed while watching our favorite christmas movie

"Home Alone!"  As hard as it was leaving Ivy for the night, my other kids needed me too.

She was out for that whole week, sleeping because she was intubated. Which kind 

of made it a bit easier to leave for a bit. I still struggled not having her home with us.

One of the hardest things we've ever had to go through.

We didn't make Santa cookies, but we left him some nice chocolate covered 

strawberries and sparkling cider. ha!

I adore these sweet letters... especially Hayes' {sniff sniff}

Recovery for Ivy...

We spent 5 weeks at the Burn Unit at the U of U, These people were AMAZING!  I can't even

explain how wonderful and special they are to us.  They made our stay there so wonderful and 

they are still a very big part of our lives today. 

After she was extubated she took a few days to recover from that,  and then my girl was back, drinking, eating (week sorta), talking in her raspy voice.  She was back!! 

We had visitors come daily. She was so excited to open all of her presents that were waiting for her to open.  She had her own special Christmas at the Hospital and Dad and the kids came up later that day to celebrate with her.  

Her cousins came for the New year and stayed at a Hotel in Salt Lake and came to visit her daily.  

We were More than excited to take her home on January 15th 2014.

Each of the kids had their own sleepover with Ivy and slept with me on the couch in her room. 

ugh! {ha}

She loved every moment of those special sleepovers, they would color, help her with her physical therapy, watch movies, etc.  The nurses were so amazing to us, and of course let my kids do ANYTHING and eat anything they wanted, just to help the sleepover more special.

 I love these people SO much!  

 Witney made this beautiful painting and it lit up the whole room! We loved looking at it 

along with all the balloons and flowers we kept receiving!

after a while, Ivy didn't like sleeping in her hospital bed, so she slept in mine.  Love her!

***Chrismas Morning for Ivy ***

 I will never forget her sweet face and excitement when she woke up and saw that Santa had found her at the Burn Unit!  Still brings tears to my eyes.  

She loved all her presents, and especially that Saige, her American girl doll now had a 

wheelchair and crutches. Ha! A Christmas that we will always cherish with our sweet girl. 

Taylor 2013 family Christmas Card...

{front}

{back}

Christmas at the Grand!

The kids had a blast, considering the circumstances spending Christmas at the Grand America!

 I could not have pulled this off without my amazing friends!!! 

So many wonderful people helped our family out this Christmas, it was a different 

Christmas, without ivy, but still magical. 

the kids woke up and Hayes literally cried when he opened his 3DS! Not kidding! 

we were laughing so hard.  It was all he really wanted.  Such a sweet boy!!

 Everyone scored and got everything they wanted this Christmas 

{quilty parenting} ha!   

Then we went and had the Christmas Brunch at the Grand. Which was of course Amazing! 

 We all went up to the Burn Unit to visit with ivy while she was 

sleeping and kiss her cheeks.  The kids wanted to go back and swim and play 

with their toys, so later Boston watched the kids at the Hotel while 

we took the whole Burn unit staff Dinner from "Cafe Rio!"  

we love and admire these people so much, it has been our home away from home.  

Happy Birthday Cory!

Cory is a simple guy who doesn't like a lot of attention, especially on his birthday.  I tried

to have Boston print out a note for him while i was at the Hospital with Ivy, and reminded

him to have all the kids write a cute letter to their daddy. 

Boston was AWESOME!!  He made him the absolute cutest card and letter and had

the kids all sign it. He made his birthday special even though the circumstances. He's 

such an awesome young man.  Plus he knew how much i love to celebrate everyone's 

birthday, especially their dad!  

Cory is seriously such an amazing dad and husband.  My kids are blessed

beyond measure to have him as example to follow and to look up too.  HE has set the bar extremely high for my girls, which makes my heart extremely full!  He is our Rock!  

I love how much they love and adore him.    

xxoo