Christmas Eve 2020

December 24, 2020: After dealing with the morning heartbreak with Dieter, it was so nice to be able to have all our family over to our house for Christmas Eve.  It was a welcome distraction for our sorrow and offered the boys smiles and excitement.

Kaden got pizza socks.

Paxton got a Star Wars: the Child lego set.

One of the white elephant gifts was this reindeer ring toss.

Paxton got this Star Wars baby Yoda blanket and pillow from the white elephant gift exchange and it was just exactly what he needed to help comfort him on his first night without Dieter.

Dec 25: Christmas morning.  

The boys and their stockings.

Paxton wanted Star Wars legos.

Josh joked about not letting me put my stuff in his garage, so when I saw this sign, I knew I had to get it as a joke!  Ha ha!

Versii picked out this Star Wars lego ship.  It took awhile to put together, but he was so excited.

Paxton's Tatooine lego sets.

So many Legos.  

***

Not pictured, Kaden got a fancy XBox controller for Christmas, which he convinced us to let him have early.  

Dieter

December 20, 2020: My parents were in town for Christmas and we had invited Santiago, Kathleen and the kids over for what we anticipated would be a fun evening of visiting and games.  

About 5 minutes after they arrived, Oakley and Paxton went walking down the stairs together, Dieter lunged and attached Oakley.  He bit him so badly on the shoulder that Oakley had to have stiches.  We were very lucky that the damage was not worse.  It was just awful, the most horrific experience, especially knowing that our dog did this to our cousin.  Santiago immediately left with Oakley to get the emergency room.  And I ended up driving Kathleen and the rest of the kids to meet them at the hospital.  

When I returned from the hospital the boys were just sobbing.  It was heartbreaking on so many levels, knowing our dog had just injured a person we love, unprovoked, and knowing that this one event had forever changed all of our lives.  We loved Dieter so much!  He was such a sweet dog to us and although he had been aggressive with other dogs trying to enter our home, he had never shown aggression to any one before.  

***

We knew that we didn't feel comfortable keeping Dieter in our home after he had attacked someone.  And just couldn't risk the possibility of him hurting someone else.  Josh and I called every shelter in Portland and the state of Washington.  None of the rescues would take him because now he had a bite history.  The Humane Society told us that if we brought him in, they would have to put him to sleep.  So Josh and I spent the days leading up to Christmas Eve trying everything we could to try to rehome Dieter to an adult only home who would provide a good life for him.  We even went as far as driving 3 hours north and then 3 hours east to try and meet people who wanted to give him a home.  Both time Dieter would bark terribly at them and was aggressive.  The last woman we tried to meet with, he was the most horrible to, he tried to lunge at and attack her.  It was so vicious and disheartening.  By that point it became clear to us that Dieter would never willingly go with anyone else.  We were his family and he was very protective of us.  Sadly, we had to make the heartbreaking decision to put him down on Christmas Eve morning.  We will miss his terribly.  We loved Dieter so much and really thought he would be our forever dog.  We have so many great memories with him.

***

We learned that because of Covid and the fact that people were not getting together much, it was negatively affecting dogs due of the lack of socialization.  Which was leading them to become more territorial than usual.     

December: Sisters Trip to Denver

December 4: I flew to Denver to meet my sister Julie and Maryann for some girl time.

Maryann and I went to visit her sister Brenda.

I forgot my sunglasses and Versii loves aviator style, so I figured I could wear them while I'm in Denver and then gift them to him when I get back.  

Visiting Brenda's daughter Colleen at work.

Dec 6: Family celebration at Brenda's some some of her kids birthdays.

L to R: Jacob, Tammy, Julie, Maryann, Joy, Brenda, Angela, Uncle Gary and Aunt Ann.

Celebrating these 3 kiddos: Seth, Oakley and Colleen.

Julie and Brenda

Brenda lives kind of out in the middle of nowhere and cell service is not great there, like barely works at all.  So went we got in the car to drive back to Maryann's and made it to the point in the road that our service came back, I received a voicemail and text message from a woman named Lisa saying that she had my kids and Versii had been in an accident.  

***A scary phone call to get at any time, but even more so because I was out of town and couldn't do much from where I was.   He had flipped his electric bike down the street from our house and the boys just have my number memorized.  She was sweet enough to stay with Versii, while Paxton rode home to get Josh.  Versii was wearing a helmet, but unfortunately, it was not the full-faced helmet that covers the chin.  Apparently, he went to turn and said he hand slipped off the break and the front tire jack-knifed and sent him flying off the bike.  He landed directly on his chin on the pavement.  He really badly damaged his chin.  Versii is pretty much terrified of doctors and the last time he split his chin open (which was tiny in comparison) we went to urgent care and ended up leaving 3 hours later with super glue and no stitches.  Versii just would never calm down enough to allow for stitches.  This time, he was refusing to go to the doctor and Josh was trying to clean, glue and steri-strip it himself.  We were all trying to get Versii to be willing to go the doctor.  Thankfully, Josh called over Brady, a dentist from our ward.  He checked to make sure Versii hadn't damaged his teeth and helped Josh give him a blessing.  After that, Josh was able to convince Versii to go to the emergency room.  

They went to the emergency room and Versii was able to get stitches.  Such a relief to know he got the medical attention he needed.

Josh said he got really nauseous when they started on the stitches.

Versii all stitched up.

Quite the scab.

Dec 7: Visiting Linda and her family.

Dec 8: We went to the Christmas market in downtown Denver on our way to the airport.

It was a fun, very relaxing trip...minus the stress of Versii's accident.

I always love spending time with Julie and with Maryann.

November 2020 Highlights

November 11, 2020: We bought electric bikes for Kaden and Versii, but Paxton was too short for them.  So Josh bought an adult trike and a kit to turn it into an electric trike.  This was the first time the boys all went riding together.

November 18: Usually we wait until the day after Thanksgiving to decorate for Christmas, but with Covid and all the changes that brings, we felt we could use some extra cheer and decorated early this year.

Nov 18: One of Paxton's remote learning projects was to tour Camas and take pictures at different locations.  It is his first year in middle school, although he's only been a to in-person school a few times for a few hours, all year.

This picture was supposed to show Paxton at Louis Bloch Park, but I thought it was more fun to include the street sign.  Joy Street!  

We got a ring doorbell camera.  It's nice to see what's going on ourside.

Nov 19: Which everything going on, Josh felt we needed extra lights this year.  So we put more Christmas lights up than any other year.  

Nov 29: Kaden spoke in Sacrament...via Zoom.  At the time, only the speakers were allowed in the building, so we watched from home, just like everyone else.  He did a great job.