Sunny Side Up: Winter/Spring 2016

I have so much catching up to do!! Life got really crazy around March and I found a million excuses not to blog, but life has settled down a bit and I want to take the opportunity to remember the first part of our year.

January and February always seem to be a little slow, but I kind of love it.

Dress up never gets old:
Princess Rapunzel and Leonardo the Ninja Turtle

Playing in the dirt and rocks

school projects

library storytime

One of the highlights of the year for Selah
is going to the Father Daughter Dance,
and this year she got to go with a special friend

Dancing the night away

Little beauty

These two are
such goofs!! I love them <3

So glad I get a front row seat to watch
how their relationship grows in the years to come

For the past couple years our family, along with two other families with young children, have been building a relationship with a local assisted living home by bringing in goody bags and crafts to pass out to the residents while chatting with them a bit. Usually what ends up happening is our kids act crazy while the elderly watch and laugh. I'm always concerned we're bothering them or being too loud but the nurses always remind me that most of them can't hear anyway and they are loving every minute of it. So glad my crazy life can be entertaining to others ;P

We decorated foam hearts to hang on their doors,

and passed out these teddy bear bags for Valentine's Day.

Selah and her friend would read books and sing songs
for everyone while the boys acted a fool ;P

Sometimes on our walk to pick up Selah from school
Owen will randomly lay down on the sidewalk, shield his eyes,
and gaze up at the sky...whatevs, you do you bud.

Plum tuckered out...I love everything (mostly) about
Selah being in public school, except when I have
to wake the boys from their naps, which is pretty much every
day, that and germs, way too many germs in public school

Valentine's Day morning at our house!

I love a holiday that celebrates love,
there's lots to love in our home

Valentine's craft

Spent the morning in downtown McKinney and came across
this "three" written in chalk, probably from a photo session
sometime earlier, so I said, "Hey! You're three! Go stand
by it and smile." He obliged me.

Don't mind my baby turning toddler over here

These two have a pretty sweet relationship

Trying to take a picture of Blake coloring but
Daniel likes to really turn on the charm
when I have my phone poised and ready for a picture

Attempt #2

We were out for breakfast just because,
and I LOVE going out to breakfast, especially just because.

I like him

So as you can see our year started out just fine. Normal. As expected.

Then came the month of March.

March brought us a wholelotta crazy. And messy. And scary. And tired, we were very, very tired during this month and most of the months to follow.

Blake had a couple nights of not sleeping very well, which is so not typical, he's usually a very good sleeper. Turned out he had an ear infection, no biggie, let's just give him some amoxicillin and call it day.

Well, yes, actually, it's a very big biggie, in fact, a huge big biggie. This child CAN NOT have amoxicillin. Ever.

Because this happens.

On Saturday morning his poor little body
was like 90% red and swollen.

So we went to the ER.

When the rash first appeared there wasn't much concern and we were just told to keep an eye on it, give him Benadryl and give him oatmeal/baking soda baths to help keep him comfortable. Then the rash got like a thousand times worse and he got swollen to the point that he couldn't stand his ankles were so swollen and his skin was pulled so tight. And that's when I called the after hours nurse and you could tell she was kind of freaking out but trying not to tell me how freaked out she was and she told us we needed to wake Blake up from his nap and head to the ER. Also during this time I was beating myself up because in the middle of the night he had woken up and I gave him another dose of Benadryl, which isn't a big deal except that I forgot it was during the spring forward time change so I gave it to him an hour too soon and thought he was swelling up because of an overdose. So we get there and I'm terrified because I gave my son too many drugs and they're going to have to do something crazy to help him and they're going to discover I'm actually an unfit mother and all my children are going to be taken away from me for forever (ya know, totally staying logical) but everyone at the hospital is so calm. I guess it's the ER so they see everything all the time, but nobody is freaking out, nobody is even the least bit phased. It helped ease my fears a little bit, but I was also like, "Do you see this kid? He looks awful, why are you not freaking out like me?!" The doctor took a look at him, asked us a couple questions and basically told us he was fine, this is a rare but fairly normal reaction for someone allergic to amoxicillin and all we can do is wait it out and give him some meds for the pain and itchiness. Oh, and that it can take about 6 weeks to completely clear up and leave his system and it can come back from time to time for a few months. Fabulous.

We spent a lot of time soaking in the bathtub while waiting
out this awful, awful rash...poor baby!!!

It was good to know he was going to be fine, but it was a long, hard road to get there, and there was so little I could do to help him feel better. He was so itchy and uncomfortable. And he could. not. sleep. Poor guy was literally up one night from 11pm until 1pm the NEXT day, little 10 minute cat naps here and there on my lap, but he was so uncomfortable and starting to get a little loopy. We did a lot of soaking in baking soda water and watching Curious George and Mickey. It was awful. I was so dang tired and he was miserable. A friend reached out, God bless her, and basically forced me to let her help me. I seriously thank God for her because I was losing my ever-loving mind. She took Owen to play (on her birthday I later discovered!!), while another friend took Selah to church, and Daniel took Blake so I could nap. Luckily it was only about two days where he just couldn't sleep and was miserable but he got better and better every day and slept better and better every night. But man, am I thankful for sweet friends who know me better than I know me.

No more amoxicillin. NO MORE!!

Recovering quite nicely but still so sleepy.

Ok, phew, that's over! But wait, what? Bug bites? Ok, sure, let's throw bug bites in the mix. We can just all be itchy together! We went to this particularly woody park, which is a super fun park, but apparently there are lots of bugs at this park and both Selah and Owen (and me!) had lots of itchy bug bites for daaaays. Ironically, Blake had no bites. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! But these were not like mosquito bites that go away in a couple days, these were like chiggers that itch like crazy and stay for lots of days. So again, no sleep and lots of Benadryl cream.

Daniel and I were able to get away one night for a date night! Our New Year's resolution was to go on more dates together, at least once a month...we've gone on uhhhh two? And it's September. We'll keep working on it :/

We went on an adult Easter egg hunt!! Daniel
won me a cake! It was delicious!

Daniel surprised Selah and I with tickets to the
college gymnastics championships, SO FUN!!!

My mom came for a visit at the end of March during her spring break and we made lots of fun memories!!

We spent the morning at a tulip farm and had
a picnic lunch

Sadie came along for the ride

We took the big kids to Zootoptia

Grandma Jan and Auntie Malinda joined us for a girl's night
to see the Broadway play "The Little Mermaid".
This is also the night Selah started to feel yucky
and have a fever, but there was no way she was
going to miss this special night so I gave her
some motrin and off we went!

My mom and I took the boys to our church's Easter egg hunt
and picnic while Daddy stayed home with sick Selah,
but Daniel put on another egg hunt for Selah when she
was feeling better, so she didn't miss out completely!

Still feeling yucky but Selah joined my mom and I as we
spent some time in downtown McKinney

gathered around Grandma's fun tablet

Easter morning!!!

Another picnic and egg hunt after church with
our community group

Then we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house
for Easter dinner.

Yummy!!

Ended the evening at the park

So then, my mom's last night with us, Easter Sunday at like 11pm Blake woke up with an awful sounding cough and having a hard time breathing. Are you kidding me right now?! Thankfully my mom was in town and could stay with the big kids because I can't think of anything worse than having to wake up my sleeping kiddos to drag them all to the ER/bring Blake by myself to the ER while Daniel stays home with the big kids, both options sound terrible. So Daniel and I took Blake to the ER

where he was given breathing treatments for croup and monitored for 2 hours to see if his breathing improved, which it did, so at 3 in the morning Daniel and I head back home to trrrrry to get some sleep. Daniel had to work the next morning and I needed to get my mom to the airport and get my children healthy! Selah was still feeling kind of crummy, and she always hates to see Grandma go and sobs big, heartfelt, genuine sobs of despair so sometimes I'll give her my phone to look at pictures of our time with Grandma to help her feel better. This time she snapped this sad face photo to capture her feelings about this whole situation and recorded a video of her saying how much she misses grandma :( She really, really, really hates goodbyes. Sweet girl. She loves big.

Blake started getting better after a couple days, and then Owen got croup. Thankfully we knew what it was and he didn't have it as bad as Blake so we didn't have to go to the ER for breathing treatments. After a couple more days he was healthy as well, and for the first time in like 6 weeks everyone was healthy (and sleeping well!) at the same time!!! HALLELUJAH!!!

We all needed some extra snuggles after one rough month!!

A laundry basket full of toys...what more could you want?!

Owen was still recovering from croup, but we still went out
and enjoyed the day with Thomas the Tank Engine!

He sure is one special little boy and I love
getting to spend one-on-one time with him!

Ice cream always gets a smile

Happy birthday to Daniel!!

We love him and are glad he was born 28 years ago

Eating paint is sometimes more fun than painting with it.

This is their absolute favorite place to play
and will stay there happily playing until
I have to stop all the fun for things like,
ya know, meals or errands or naps

Daniel's birthday gift was a weekend
to himself, but we got to see him on
Saturday morning to cheer him on as
he ran a 10K...overachiever, sheesh,
sit on the couch and veg out will ya ;)

We had fun with our cousin while Daddy "relaxed" at home

We love our time with Auntie and Uncle,
and coloring at their table together

Just throwing this one in there for a dose of reality
and remembering how my house looks 80% of the time

Just taking a stroll

Checking out a new local indoor play place

The boys had fun!!

Hanging out with school buddies!

Selah and I got to go to a Amy Grant concert and
I sang along to every single song, oh, I just loved it
so much, and being able to share that night with
Selah was extra special! Also, Ellie Holcomb
was there also, and she's pretty much my new favorite
on Spotify

birthday party fun

My college roommate got married in Austin so Selah and I
made a quick day trip down to help celebrate her
becoming a Mrs.!

beautiful bride

Selah lost her first tooth!!!! And totally caught
the "tooth fairy", but she learned for next time
how to be a bit sneakier

Splash pad with friends...summer is right around the corner!!

We had a sweet little friend join us two days a week
for a few months and he is the smiliest baby you'll ever
meet, he was such a joy to have in our home!!

We sent the kids off with grandparents and devoted an
entire Saturday to FINALLY painting our bedroom (the paint's
been sitting in our laundry room for 2.5 years)

I LOVE the color!!! But, jokes on us, because a week later we
found out Daniel was laid off from his job and we're moving
to Austin... what?! Did not see that coming.

Some good ole tree climbing fun

Selah's starting to really read on her own and this is
one of her favorites!

We got to attend Daniel's best friend's graduation,
and I got to snuggle with his adorable niece!!
If I hadn't just gone through a crazy, exhausting month
I just might have left with some baby
fever ;) but I was perfectly content to cuddle that baby
and hand her right back to her parents lol

Theeeeen, poor Blake, we were all heading into church, and Daniel was holding Blake's hand to help him up the concrete steps when Blake slipped and Daniel pulled him up by the hand which popped something in his arm. NOOOOOOOO!!! I was supposed to be in the nursery that weekend and so Daniel came and found me after a couple minutes to tell me Blake was refusing to use his arm and hadn't stopped crying since he fell. Ok, back to the ER. Three times in two months is a record for us! Owen stayed in the nursery and a friend said they would take him home after church and Selah came with us to the ER.

We made a stop at home real quick to get some pain meds for Blake, except, in my rushed and frantic state, I grabbed the wrong syringe and instead of 1.875 mL of infant's Advil (which is the correct amount for his age) I accidentally gave him 5 mL... FIVE!!! 1.875 mL vs. 5 mL! AHHHH! Seriously guys, I can not be trusted to administer drugs to my children, I just can't. So, again, I'm freaking out about both Blake's arm and a drug overdose. But again, my fears were mostly unwarranted because instead of a broken arm needing to be in a cast for weeks (which is what I anticipated) it was just a nurse maid's elbow and all the doctor had to do was pop his elbow back in place with a quick twist, which he screamed bloody murder, but then was absolutely, completely back to normal within 3.5 minutes. Yay, yay, yay! And because of his weight he really can have close to 4 mL of that particular medicine so it wasn't too much more than that and the doctor wasn't worried even a little bit. Thank you Jesus, thank you.