Christmas Day

After a wonderful "go at our own pace" Christmas morning, we had church at 1:00. It was perfect. We weren't rushed and even had time for pictures before we left. Nate and Jaxon sang in the Ward Choir. Jaxon has been going with Nate to choir practice for awhile now. He is finally starting to sing the sacrament songs loud enough that I can hear him, and he sits next to me. After church we headed up to Grandma and Grandpa Anderson's house. They hadn't gotten home from church yet. Everyone carried something into the house and the kids immediately started looking at the gifts under the tree. MyLeigh saw an M&M nutcracker thing that dispenses M&Ms. She showed Mady how it worked and gave her 3. She turned to me and gave me some. The moment I looked at them I realized these were not milk chocolate M&Ms, at that same moment Mady starts SCREAMING, "These taste like peanut butter!". I scooped her up and ran to the kitchen. She was spitting them out the second she realized what she had in her mouth. While I was headed to the kitchen, MyLeigh and Jordan flew out the front door crying and yelling for Nate, who was bringing in some things from the car. I went out the back door with Mady in my arms and Nate went in the front door with the kids. He came back out and we hurried home for the Epi-pen. It turns out that we gave her some benadryl and watched her CLOSELY. We didn't have to give her the Epi-pen. I'm guessing that she didn't swallow any of them and I swiped her mouth pretty good. I didn't give her a drink so that what was in her mouth didn't go down. Her hands and eyes swelled up to a point that I get nervous. But that was all. So, I had been wondering if Mady was outgrowing her peanut allergy. Guess I got my answer. While all the kids are fully aware of Mady's allergy, they take extra care to be careful when she is around. What I realized from this, is that they know what Peanut M&M's are, but had no idea of the peanut butter kind. MyLeigh just assumed they were milk chocolate. Had it been something the kids were unfamiliar with, they would have asked me what it was. Had my parents been there, the candy would have probably been put away when we got there. Later I asked my Mom why she even bought those, cause they aren't "our M&M's of choice". She said they had been a gift from some friends.

After we got these pictures done with the kids, we realized Jaxon wasn't completely dressed. The stinker didn't want to wear the sweater that he was given. But we made him put it on for the rest of the pictures.