Monday, December 29, 2014

Fabulous 14 Years

This little guy turned 14 this year!  Easton was born on December 18, 2000 and we have loved having him in our family.  He is funny, witty, helpful, and is such a blessing in our lives.  I made Easton blueberry pancakes using the "Best Pancakes Ever" recipe for breakfast before sending him off to school.
 Easton opened all of his presents before we headed off to the restaurant, California Dreaming for his birthday dinner.
 ...A huge box of jelly beans!
 Wow!  A really cool Gshock!  Easton has wanted a G shock watch for years but they were always too big for him.  Well, this year we finally found one that would fit him!


Our 14 year old son....looking great with his new watch and his new Clark boots.  What a good looking boy.  I love this guy who has a good heart and the desire to do good.
 Mom and Dad at the restaurant
 Easton was excited to order the onion ring loaf....tasty!



He's Growing Up!


Our little boy, Dallin is growing up.  He has a new car to take to college.  He is very excited to be driving a white 2003 Nissan Maxima.  It's a good, reliable car that should be with him for years to come.  He said, "I can date girls with this car!"

A Christmas Change


This photo was taken in 2008

 Our family is growing up and maturing so I thought this year we would update our mantle and Christmas stockings with some more "mature" stockings.  We have had these Christmas stockings with stuffed animals ever since the kiddies were little.  We loved our stuffed animal stockings and they have served us well.  In this photo you can see the old stockings that started with Ashton's white teddy bear stocking the first year she was born in 1990.  Stephen had been on a two week business trip and brought this special stocking home to give to his sweet little baby girl...he missed her so much.  The other stockings were added as each new child was born.

With Easton's reluctant approval we moved into a different style this year and decorated the mantle with an updated look.
This photo was taken in 2013.

Wah-la!!!  Here's the new, updated look in the Carroll home......Easton picked the smoky, brown stocking in the middle and all is well.  Ashton and Brandon's are on the two on the left.  The rest are kind of up in the air.  I think Dallin picked the one to the right of Easton's and Stephen and I have the two on the right.  I love our new stockings!

December 1, 2014

 The traditional December 1 dinner celebration is always a special event and one that we all look forward to.  It's kind of our way of kicking in the Christmas season and getting ready for focus on the true meaning of Christmas.  The children also get their Christmas ornaments from Grandma and Grandpa Homer to put on the tree.
We ate grilled hamburgers this year which was kind of out of the box for us.  We usually have some fancy, shmancy meal that I work all day on.  The boys wanted hamburgers so I happily obliged. They were yummy and the red jello with whipping cream was good as well even though it was store bought....actually, that won't happen again.  How lame is that...store bought jello!  Ha!




 Lame store-bought jello!
 Easton is holding up Landon's ornament that he got this year.  Since he's on his mission we opened it for him....a cute little bear reading his scriptures, how appropriate!


 Easton received this cute ornament!

Singing through Christmtas

 We support the arts and singing!  What a great opportunity we have every year to be able to hear an amazing concert performed by the middle school choir that Easton is a part of.  They work so hard and it's very entertaining to see and hear these awesome eighth graders perform the numbers they have been working on.  We have been watching this group perform together since Easton was in sixth grade and they get better and better, so fun to watch them improve and grow as singers.

A little 'Inconvenience"

On November 22, 2014 Dallin was at the gym doing a warm up run on the treadmill.  He started to feel some pain in his chest, kind of like a really bad running cramp.  He decided to push through it and hope that it goes away....well, it didn't go away.  It got so painful for Dallin and he was struggling to breath.  He got off the treadmill and slowly walked around the gym, hoping to catch his breath.  His breathing became more labored and the pain just wouldn't stop.  He laid down on a mat and call me (his Mom).  He said something was wrong and he needed me to come get him.  When I asked what was wrong he told me that he was having trouble breathing.  Stephen jumped in his car to head to the gym and I told Dallin to get some help at the gym.  He eventually caught the attention of his friend, John and was able to get help.  They called the paramedics and they arrived shortly after Stephen got there.  They assessed him: his oxygen levels were good and his heart was good.  They said to go to the ER.  Stephen rushed to the ER as Dallin painfully struggled to breath.  When they arrived at Gwinnett medical a chest Xray showed that his left lung had collapsed, causing extreme pain and difficulty breathing.
The doctor did a quick surgical procedure and inserted a chest tube into Dallin's chest cavity to help the lung expand and to help Dallin breath better.  After the procedure was completed Dallin was checked into a room to be monitored.  The hope was that the leak in his lung would heal and close up on it's own.  He stayed in the hospital from Saturday to Wednesday.




 The doctor released him to go home for Thanksgiving with the chest tube still intact.  We returned to the doctor the following week for another chest X ray to see if the lung was healing itself.  The X ray showed that the leak (or bleb) had not closed up and that Dallin would need surgery to repair the lung.  The doctor would have to make two incisions through his ribs, insert a drainage tube into his chest cavity and then staple of the section of his lung that contained the leak.  The doctor would also be scraping the inside of his lung (like using sandpaper to rough it up) so that scar tissue would develop and help close off the leak.

Dallin went in for surgery on Friday, December 5.  The procedure took a couple of hours and then the recovery/healing process began.





Dallin was in a ton of pain and was having a hard time getting comfortable.  As he was coming out of surgery he spoke a lot of Portuguese to the nurses and me.  And I mean a lot.  I kept telling him that he needed to speak to me in English is he needed to tell me anything.  He kept saying, "Sorry Mom."  Once when I asked him to speak English he said, "But Portuguese is cool!"  When I told him that he kept speaking to the nurses in Portuguese he asked, "Did they like it?  It's cool!"  He would answer the nurses questions in Portuguese and they would kind of just give me a weird look.  He had a rough night trying to manage his pain and it was obvious that he was very uncomfortable and a little bit cranky.
This is a picture of the "bleb", the little blister that was inside Dallin's lung that burst.  The doctor filled his lung with saline and when he pushed down with his tool you could see the little leak.  This is where the oxygen leaked out and caused the lung collapse.


 Stephen stayed the first night with him at the hospital and I returned around lunchtime the next day.  When I arrived he had made a lot of improvement and his pain was under control.  Now we just had to wait and let the surgery do its thing and wait for the healing to happen.  After a couple of rough days and another X ray Dallin was cleared to go home on Monday!!!!  The chest tube was pulled out and a big old band aid placed on the wound on his chest...the chest tube that was pulled out was the size of a garden hose. Ugh!  Everyday Dallin would improve and his strength began to come back...




Today is December 22 and Dallin goes in tomorrow for a final checkup with his lung doctor.  He will get a chest X ray today and hopefully we can put this ordeal behind us and never look back! I'm grateful for the doctors and nurses who helped him get better but I'm most grateful that Dallin's lung didn't collapse while he was on his mission in Brazil!

Monday, December 1, 2014

Let the Feast Begin!

The Carroll Thanksgiving feast always begins with begins with a message from our family Patriarch, words of wisdom and knowledge that we are blessed to hear.  And then the eating begins!!!!!!
 Stephen, Michael, Jeni and Kolby
 Easton, Dallin, Keagan, Brian, and Paul waiting patiently to start filling up their plates.

 The cool people table
 Emily Tucker and baby


 The 12 year and under table
 There's my boy, Easton!

Thomasyn and Cristin
 After dinner we gathered as a family and sang Christmas Carols to open the Christmas season.  Christopher did a great job playing the guitar as accompaniment.



 Alana (David's daughter) shares with us what she is grateful for.