Monday, December 31, 2012

Happy Birthday to Me!

My sweet kids.  They love to be all around me. And they get so excited for me.  Its very precious.  They couldn't hardly wait for me to open presents, so we opened them after breakfast :). No sense in waiting!

 New warm jammies from Kelli.

 Some hot coca...
 New sweater from Kristen (not from Sports Authority...just the box :) )
Kim got me some gorgeous jewelry too!

 A quesadilla maker from the kids (from mom)

 A card that Callie made for me
 He's a great babysitter!
 Mom's sweet card with shopping money in it :)
 And a really big box from David!
 A Dyson!!  WOW!!!!  Our vacuum has been dying a slow death for a long time.  We've been replacing the belt every other time I use it.  With 5 kids, you sort of need a good vacuum.  I turned over all of my coupons and kohls cash to him after Christmas with the hopes that perhaps he would find a good deal on one and he did!  Still, it was a sacrifice to spend that much on a vacuum.  I know he would have rather bought an ipad or something for himself!  I was SO excited though!!!
 THIS is what came up after I vacuumed ONLY the living room for the first time!  And I had just vacuumed with my old, dying vacuum.  AND I had just had my carpets cleaned 2 weeks ago! This thing is amazing!
 So happy about my new vacuum.  Seriously.  I know alot of women don't get it.  But I'm practical.  If you're going to insist on spending money, don't blow it on something I'll use rarely or don't really need.  Spend it on something that I will use all the time!!  
 My sweet friend Alli dropped off this cake that her girls made and decorated for me :)  Isn't that the best?  And it got David off the hook from having to make one for me!
 I even got a massage that afternoon with a gift certificate that my choir directors had given to me.  It was HEAVENLY!!!
 We played some games with the boys while waiting for midnight...
 The boys headed down to the neighbor's house to watch them set off fireworks in our court...I stayed home on my nice cozy couch to feed Judah... 


They made it until midnight - couldn't believe it!  And we taught them a new game - Scattergories!  It's fun having older kids!  :) Looking forward to 2013 and all that God has planned for us in the new year!!

Saturday, December 29, 2012

A Progressive Dinner...Sort of...

 We had a relaxing morning.  Got the house back under control after all that company and all that Christmas!  New stuff...finding a place to put it...putting Christmas stuff away! Josiah did a little research on our neighbor's Kindle Fire.  He has been saving his money for almost a year.  Has been saying he wanted an iPod Touch.  After we did our own parental research, we thought a Kindle would be a better use of his money and would line up with what he would use it for (and be allowed to use it for).  We asked to borrow Abby's Kindle so he could try it out...
 That night, we wanted to go see the drive-thru lights display.  We hadn't been able to do it before Christmas and didn't want to miss it.  We wanted to go early enough to be home and in bed.  I didn't want to cook.  Had cooked for a couple weeks' worth of company and was ready for a break.  And I had all these coupons for free food that was going to expire at the end of December.  So...I decided it was the perfect night for a progressive dinner!  We had 2 orders of free cheesy bread from Dominoes, a free pizza from Papa Johns, 6 free donuts from Krispy Kreme, free apples & milk from McDonalds, free chicken sandwich & 2 kids meals from Chick fil a, and free ice cream cones!  How about that!  It was so much fun!  We brought paper plates in the car and ate while we went through the lights.  It was great!  And didn't cost me a dime! Some of our favorite lights were :






Friday, December 28, 2012

Judah's Leg

I was really scared.  More than I realized.  And when I go into the pediatrician's office and say "I'm a little bit worried" and he says to you "then I'm a LOT worried if YOU are worried because you're so laid back about things!", it doesn't give you a warm fuzzy feeling.  Let me back up.

On Christmas day at some point, Mom was changing Judah's diaper and I was down the hall in Callie's room.  I heard him cry out and went in to see if everything was okay.  Mom said that he was fine until she bent his leg while changing his diaper - and then he just screamed out.  I got him settled back down, looked at his leg (looked fine), touched it (he was fine), stood him up (he put weight on it) and was a little perplexed.  Told Mom that he had his shots the week before and that maybe he just still had a tender spot on his leg that she bonked during the diaper change or something.  Mom said she heard him cry like that earlier when David was putting him in the high chair - that his leg had gotten stuck underneath him, bent, and he screamed like that.  Very strange, but his leg looked fine!

The next day (Wednesday), I watched him throughout the day and it looked like he was holding his left leg straight - not wanting to bend it.  But again, leg looked totally normal. Not red. Not hot. Not swollen.  I would stand him and he was totally fine.  I put him in the bath tub that afternoon and watched to see.  Normally he kicks his feet all around during a bath.  He kicked his right leg, but his left leg he was definitely holding straight.  He was moving his foot, but his leg was straight as a board.  Not bending the knee at all.  Now I was worried.  When I got him out of the bath, I put him jammies on.  I looked at his leg again - touched and poked all over. No reaction.  But when I tried to force it to bend, he started screaming.  I called the pediatrician the nurse was perplexed too.  I told her that he had shots the week before, but I had never seen anything like this.  Red or swollen around the injection site maybe, but nothing like this before.  The nurse didn't really know either, but said they could get me an appointment the next afternoon (Friday).

So after David's family left, Judah and I headed to the pediatrician.  I was getting more and more worried. My mind started to race.  What in the world was possibly wrong with him?  It was so strange. So unexplained.  My pediatrician was worried when I told him I was worried.  He saw exactly what I was talking about.  Asked if he had a fever at any point (nope, no fever), asked if his leg was ever red or hot (nope, never).  He left and then came back in and said I needed to go to the orthopedic at the children's hospital for them to do an xray and evaluate.  UGH. My heart sank.

I called David and let him know we were going over there.  I was thankful that they were getting me in - knowing it was late on a Friday afternoon - but a little alarmed that the pediatrician didn't have an easy answer for me.  

As we waited in the waiting room, I just prayed and prayed over this sweet boy.  Prayed that the doctor would see exactly what he needed to see.  Prayed that there were not any broken bones or dislocated joints.  Prayed that there would be a simple answer and simple response. We waited a long time.  Over an hour (and this was after 1.5 hours at the pediatrician). He finally fell asleep on me, and as he did and his body relaxed, I looked down and saw his precious little leg bent...
It was such a relief to see - I felt like if it were something serious, he would never bend it.  But this is what I had seen over the last day or so.  When he was totally relaxed (sleeping, nursing), he would slowly relax his leg and bend it.  

We finally headed in to the see the doctor after we did the xrays and we heard good news! No broken bones. No dislocated joints.  Just a reaction to his shots.  Called toxic synovitis.  The doctor said generally when you see something like this it is one of three things.  1) Trauma. There has been a break in a bone.  The Xray crossed this one off because the XRay was fine. 2) Reactive arthritis. The body is reacting to something causing a sort of arthritis where it sends extra fluid to joints.  In this case, extra fluid on his knee causing it to be painful to bend. 3) Infective arthritis.  Caused by infection of some type.  Would require surgery to correct.  Because Judah had not ever run a fever and his leg had never been red or hot, the doctor felt confident it was not this type.  I told him that was part of why it was so perplexing - 95% of the time, Judah was happy as could be!!  Like this:

So the doctor assured me that he thought Judah was going to be just fine.  That in a few days I should see improvement and there was no treatment or anything that was needed.  If anything changed (fever, red or hot leg, etc), he gave me his card and said I could call him at any time. I was relieved.  And thankful. 

Until next time!

 Emily was so sweet with Callie.  Very patient.  And willing to let Callie copy most anything she did :)

 Playing a little "Just Dance" together

 The boys pretty much stayed out in the woods most of the time - they wanted to show Noah their fort and so I don't have many pictures of them!  :)
 We introduced Grandmommy to hummus! She liked it!

We were so glad they could make the trip up to see us and meet Judah!!  Can't wait to see you all next time!

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Welcome Grandmommy and the Hassells!

 Grandmommy meets Judah :)







 We packed everyone up that afternoon and headed out to the zoo!  David got his mom a wheelchair so she could enjoy it without having to do all the walking.  And it was a bit chilly that day!  :)
 Oops...out of order...not changing it either...
 The whole crew! (Minus me - taking the picture - and Judah - who was in the stroller right next to me :)  )
 The kids were dying to show Emily and Noah the ropes course and they were so excited - even Sharolyn decided she wanted to do it!
 Caleb and I walked around to see some animals while the big kids were doing the ropes.  Hello Mr. Elephant!

 Callie did it with David - she's braver than me!




 We got to see Baby Winston - the new baby giraffe that's only 6 weeks old!  He is adorable!
 Emily and Caleb
 Grandmommy and Callie - snuggled all up together :)
 Noah, Jacob, and Josiah 
(don't you love how everyone is all bundled up...and Josiah's in a tshirt? Good grief!)
 David and his sister, Sharolyn (and her husband Wade in the background grinning!)
 Trying to teach Caleb how to play Uno.


 We watched the DVD of the kids' musical from Christmas


 Enjoyed some dessert...
...and they taught us how to play Mexican Train dominoes (Beth taught us a couple of years ago, but we forgot...).  It was fun!