Visiting Florida for New Years

Dec. 29, 2015
We got to FL late on the 28th.  Early the next morning Bradley, Daniel, Eliza, Abby and Nathan were up early.   I didn't want them to wake everyone else up so I sent them outside to jump on the trampoline.  I was working on Eliza's hair when I heard yelling outside. Then I heard Bradley yell, "I'll go get help."  Daniel was sitting on the ground crying when I went outside.  He kept saying, "It hurts so bad!"  He was feeling nausiuse and was pale.  His left wrist was hurting him a LOT!  Once we got it stablized he did much better.  Aunt Janna, Sam, Josh and I loaded up in the van with Daniel and headed to the urgent care in Melbourne, FL to get his arm checked.

Daniel in the waiting room.  It was a good thing Aunt Janna brought her Ipad to help pass the time.  We waited for almost 2 hrs before getting him in.

Josh was great moral support. :)

Back in the exam room.


His wrist has some swelling. 

There is a buckle fracture on the radius just above the wrist.  The growth plate wasn't damaged at all.

 

Daniel getting a splint to hold and protect his wrist until we get back to Mississippi for a cast.

 
The nurse was really nice.

 

Ready to head back to the Smith house and join the kids for some fun.

Nathan loves Ammon's Jake and the Neverland Pirates set.

Nathan might need a pirate ship.

Samuel is such a sweet boy...and so cuddly!


Clean up, clean up, everybody everywhere!

The kids all worked together so well to get the Christmas decorations cleaned up.  The only sad thing is that I won't have all these good helpers to help put my Christmas decorations away!

 
Andrew and Taylor getting the tree ready to take outside.
Andrew is hiding behind all the branches.

 
Scott and Taylor where the muscle behind getting the tree out.

The Christmas tree has left the building!

Christmas 2015

Before we can celebrate Christmas we have to celebrate a birthday!  Our dad turned 35 years old!!


He wanted banana splits for his birthday, so we put candles in the ice cream and sang to him.

Happy Birthday to You!!

Nathan was there to help make a wish and blow out the candles.  He is such a great helper.

Santa must have thought we were good this year. :)

Christmas morning in our new Christmas PJ's.

Dad helped Josh open his presents.  He caught on to the whole opening thing pretty quickly.

A new snugly elephant and blanket!

We tried to get pictures by the tree, but the windows behind were letting too much light in and washing out Nathan's little face....

So we tried a different spot.
Nathan got a coat, a couple games, some toys and a new blanket.

Eliza got a coat, a doll, blanket, scooter and hat with scarf, plus a trunk.

She was excited to have a trunk for her special things.

Daniel got a trunk, some balls, a game, blanket, ant farm and coat.
We ordered him some ants for his ant farm, but they died in the mail.  Gotta reorder some.

Bradley got a trunk, coat, movie, blanket, deodorant, Pogo stick, and balls. 

 

Josh got some blankets, clothes, a coat, a car and a walker.
He loves his walker.  We can't believe he is so big!

It was a great relaxing Christmas.  It was fun to be all together at home.  It was a good little break for Andy from studying for boards.  The break didn't last very long though, and he was back to the books.

Ice Skating in the Gulf Coast Collisium

Ice Skating for the First Time!  So I didn't think this through very well.  I thought taking all the kids ice skating would be fun.  It was a lot harder than I thought.  A friend came and kept Josh and her little boy Luke on the side and I had Bradley, Daniel, Eliza, Nathan and our friends Traci and Carmen.  That's a lot of kids who don't skate!!!

Eliza holding on to the wall.  I tried holding on to their hands, but it was really hard to keep us all up on the ice.

Bradley and Nathan hanging out on the wall.  Bradley was the first to get the hang of the skating.  He spent a lot of time on the ice, literally!  He was skating the best by the time we left.  Nathan was either holding my hand or Andy's after he came to find us.

 
Eliza trying to skate across the ice.  It only took about 45-60 minutes for her to get brave enough to head out on the ice.

Eliza


Eliza, Bradley and Bro. Rogers. (His wife was keeping little kids on the side.  He and Andy came to find us after they made some church visits.)

 
Bradley with Daniel coming down the wall behind him.

It took Daniel a little longer to get his ice legs under him, but he was doing really well when we left.


Dad, Nathan, Daniel and Eliza

 
I was super happy when he got there.  My legs and hips were able to fall off!!  I might be too old to ice skate with a kids between my legs like this.

I just love the look on his face right here.
It's a "Ah!  We better not fall!"  look. :)


Dad, Nathan, Bradley, Traci and Bro. Rogers.

Daniel cruising up from behind.  We had so much fun skating.  I was wishing they had the little walker style things for the kids.  It would have made the skating a lot more fun.  The kids loved it anyway.

Side Story:  Shortly after Andy got to the skating rink there was a boy that crashed out on the ice.  He ran into a big guy and went down.  The man tried to miss the kid but ended up stepping on his face with the ice skate.  The man fell down and hit the back of his head on the ice.  The kid got his face cut open from the hair line down to his eye.  One of the workers scooped the kid off the ice and skated to the exit.  The man laid on the ice for a few minutes before getting up.  Then he talked to some people for a few minutes and skated off.  I didn't ever see the little boy.  Andy was just putting his skates on when the kid came off the ice.  His mom was pretty hysterical.  Andy went in with them to a room to look at the kid's head.  It went clear to the skull!  He helped get the bleeding stopped and packed so the boy could be transported to the hospital.  Andy told the mom it would be fine for her to drive him to the hospital to get stitches.  She was just visiting the area and didn't want to try and drive, so they call the ambulance. After the accident about half the people left.  We stayed until the end, but everyone was a lot more cautious!