I had a blog that I updated all the time!
and then I had a third child.
I am kicking myself, daily, that I have not documented his life…or his sisters.
So, I need to update…badly!
Since our DisneyWorld vacay…Rives turned one, Nora graduated from kindergarten, Elyn is a full fledged swimmer, I finished teaching a class and started and finished another, Matthew finished school and planted a flower garden.
Those are just a few updates. I am going to update with picutres…I am!
12 hours yesterday at Magic Kingdom...11 hours today at Epcot. Yes, we are all exhausted but we are having a blast!
Spring break officially starts for our family tomorrow afternoon. Nora actually had today (Thursday) and tomorrow off while the teachers have professional development...poor Matthew.
We are getting excited about our vacation! Do you know where we are going?
Yesterday, at 2:30, Nora’s teacher called me and said she was in the nurse’s office with a fever of 102.3.
Awesome.
I was at Walmart with Rives and Elyn, getting our groceries and the kids in the van. I threw everything in and raced to her school. Pick up is at 2:40 and I was hoping to beat the car rider line…I DID! (Because we all know how long it takes to sit in car rider line…forever.)
On my way into the school I was calling my doctor’s office, seeing if there was anyway I could nab an appointment before the office closed at 4:30, on a Friday afternoon.
Um, yeah, no way. I’m surprised the receptionist didn’t laugh at me when I made the request.
I get into the nurses office and Nora looks pitiful…laying on the little bed and closing her eyes. I scooped her up (as best I could with Rives in his carseat, Elyn, Nora’s backpack and my car keys) and we headed out to the car to go to a convenient care clinic. (But not before a teacher on car duty stopped me to see if I was allowed to take Nora home with me…grrrrr.)
We made it to the clinic and I was told we would have to wait an hour…ok, not many options at this point.
FIVE MINUTES LATER or buzzer went off and we were escorted back to a room-yea!
Her fever had gone down a little bit (nurse gave her Tylenol) but she still felt awful.
Bless her heart!
Elyn, however, acted like she felt fine!
Hey mom, take my picture too:
The verdict…the flu.
She was a rockstar while they were swabbing her for strep and for the flu…didn’t even cry! Elyn was very impressed.
(In the meantime, Rives is MAD AS A HORNET that I am not letting him get on the floor and crawl around…like wrestling a sack of puppies.)
Thankfully, one of Matthew’s coworkers dropped him off at the clinic so we didn’t have to go an pick him up too.
We headed to the pharmacy to pick up her prescription (her very very very expensive prescription) and stock up on Clorox items to rid my house of the plague.
We hustled Nora upstairs into the guest room and gave her strict instructions to not leave the room.
She was happy to lay in bed, with her chicken noodle soup, and watch tv!
We kept Elyn and Rives as far away as possible from Nora…trying to contain the germs.
HOWEVER.
At 3am, Elyn came into our room and said her tummy hurt. She was also ON FIRE.
I kind of panicked and asked Matthew to get the thermometer for me. When the thermometer got to 104 I quit taking her temperature…I couldn’t handle it if it went higher. We ran a lukewarm bath for her and held her down in the tub. She did not like it one bit. I kept pouring water on her tummy, trying to get her to calm down. Finally, I told her we could count to 100 and then she could get out. I counted VERY SLOWLY to 100 and then wrapped her up in towels and cuddled her.
I took her temp again and it was down to 101.8…huge sigh of relief! We gave her a dose of Motrin and she was ready to go back to her room. Matthew slept on the other bed in her room and I stayed in our room. I knew I would have to feed Rives in a few hours and didn’t want to expose him to more germs than necessary.
I had the hardest time settling down because my adrenaline was pumping through me after seeing Elyn’s temp so high. That is scary!
The girls woke up this morning, feeling a little better and with lower temperatures. Praise God!
They are now snuggled up in the same room, the “sick room”, watching movies and reading books and coloring. They have already told me a million times that they are “bored” and want to know when they can leave the room. Ha ha ha!
We are keeping them in the room until their temps can stay down, without medicine. We do not want to take a chance with Rives getting sick!
Since we got home yesterday afternoon I have cleaned all three bathrooms, washed every single article of clothing, all the sheets, the comforters, all our towels, I have Cloroxed most surfaces and have washed my hands until they are raw. I have also started spraying saline up Rives nose in an effort to wash the virus out-ha!
Please pray for our sweet family, especially these girls!
Today was "wacky Wednesday" at Nora's school. My usually reserved and shy little girl decided to be bold and dress up for the occasion....
Just when I thought we were all getting well, Rives goes and gets Hand Foot and Mouth Disease. Ugh!
I think he got it at a local activity center. The activity center has a workout room and a track and seemed like a great place for me to FINALLY start getting rid of this durn baby weight. AND childcare was included in our yearly fee. (We have to have a family membership for fall and spring soccer for the girls….it’s super cheap and a good deal.)
You know they say you get what you pay for….
Tacky, tacky, tacky…that was unnecessary.
After Rives contracted the disease I called the activity center to let them know about it (I know, really thoughtful of me, right!) and suggest that they clean their toys earlier in the day instead of after childcare closed. The lady on the phone told me that they only wash the toys and clean the room ONCE A WEEK!!!!!!! What?!?!?!?! That doesn’t quite seem like enough to me. Seems like the kids might get something like HAND FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE.
Ah well, it’s over (well, almost over)…here are some pictures of my poor baby boy:
I took this one on Wednesday of last week…some small red bumps popped up on his knees and thighs (on both sides). I didn’t think much of it, just thought maybe he was having a reaction to crawling around outside.
The next day, Thursday, my suspicions were confirmed when he had the red bumps on his hands, feet and his mouth…sweet sleeping baby boy:
So sad! The bottom of his feet had the bumps too.
His palms had the bumps too.
It’s hard to tell but his mouth had little blister all over them.
I took a picture of his bottom too that I will spare the internet…but he had the WORST DIAPER RASH I have ever seen. Thankfully, it didn’t seem to bother him too much. I mean, it hurt when we had to clean up a dirty diaper but he sure didn’t let it slow him down!
This is his leg and foot on Friday…still very red and he had a few white blisters on his feet and hands and still a few on his mouth.
His blisters have started to scab over and this is what his foot looks like today…poor boy!
His appetite was never affected, thankfully! And, really, considering how terrible the blisters looked, it didn’t affect his attitude or spirit. He got up a few times at night and didn’t sleep quite as much, but overall, he was great!
See:
We’re all happy he is on the road to recovery!!!!!!!!! And after I have a little chat with the activity center, the toys will be cleaned a little more frequently.
Anyone ever notice how crazy expensive television entertainment is? It’s crazy expensive.
In an effort to cut back a little on the ole budget we are considering doing away with our cable (Uverse). Most of the television that we watch is actually recorded television. We rarely watch anything live.
So, it makes little sense to pay crazy amounts of money each month for recorded television.
Isn’t that what these are? Recorded television:
I have been pricing things today and signed up for our free trials of both Netflix and Hulu Plus. I am going to challenge us, as a family, to only view things through these two for the next week.
We will need internet service, obviously. Since we have UVerse, our internet provider is AT&T…anyone have a better suggestion?
I am sad that Hulu and Netflix does not include live sporting events. I’m sure that will make Matthew sad too. I know it will make some of our friends sad.
But people, we will save over $100 each month if we get rid of UVerse. I think it just might be worth it.
Ask me again during football season if it has been worth it-ha!
Okay, if you are one who only has Netflix or Hulu Plus, let me know how you like it. What are the positives and negatives?
Like I mentioned in my last post, Nora has been planning for her birthday party for a LOOOOOOONG time. She even had a box that she put together shortly after Elyn’s birthday (in October) filled with ideas. She made multiple invitation lists, several cake drafts and continued to add to the party plan. I am afraid that we did not meet her expectations…she continues to remind me of things we forgot to do…I have got to do a better job planning, take after my girl.
One of the pendants I made…not exactly like Tangled’s but close enough.
One of the invitations that Nora made. She drew a scene from the movie on each one and then we ran it though the printer with the info on the other side. She added stickers for each person it was to go to. I love the handmade look and she really took a lot of time on the invitations.
This is the final draft of her cake design…as you can see, she gave it a TON of thought! That’s Rapunzel and Eugene on top of the tiered cake, Max, the horse, is at the bottom. She loves a tiered cake!
My mom and stepfather sent her this outfit for her birthday present…we are VERY into Tangled around here-ha!
Some of our decorations for the party. Matthew drew them (with some help of an overhead projector) and I colored them (with a little help of an artist friend of ours).
Nora LOVED them!
One of her major, long term requests was for all the party guests to play “pin the tail on Paschal”. She was serious about this game and was very worried that I didn’t have it finished 2 weeks before the party.
Cookies that a local GENIUS did for the party. These were the party favors.
The rest of the pictures are a combo of pictures from my camera and our friend, Michael’s, phone. My camera battery died-awesome.
Some of the kiddos getting some instructions before going crazy.
The birthday girl!
Some of the other party guests having a ball…
After all the jumping and tumbling, we went back to the party room for games (duh, Pin the Tail on Paschal) and cake and presents.
Playing the game…trust me.
Waiting their turn…
THE CAKE!!!!!!! And that’s the best picture I got. I am no longer in the running for Mother of the Year. I was almost identical to the picture!
I also got no pictures of the decorations…I stink.
Opening presents was a bit chaotic…like all parties, I assume. I am ready to have ZERO presents at future parties. Sigh.
See Elyn? That is where she wanted to be every single second. She was determined that it was her party too, it almost did me in.
It was a pretty good party. Nora said it was fun, that’s all that matters! I’m sure she’ll start planning the next one in just a few weeks-ha!
My baby is six years old!
Honestly, her life has not flown by like I hear so many moms say. Can I remember her being a baby? Absolutely! But I has seemed like six years. I barely remember life without her. I don’t know what I would do without someone to take care of. But it has seemed like 6 years.
I am thankful for that too. I want to feel like I have had her for 6 years, that I have been present for her days, that I have enjoyed them, that I have lived through them (ha!), that we have experienced them together.
There she is, the morning of her birthday, February 23. She was so excited to put her 6 year old shirt on…look at those sleepy eyes.
She had been planning her party FOREVER and came up with the theme eons ago…Tangled. I made her a banner with the Tangled sun on it and hung it up in the hallway so she would be surprised when she woke up.
We hung some purple balloons too…classy decorations-ha!
Matthew took her to breakfast that morning and I am so sad that there is not a picture of that…oh well. There is always next year.
Matthew had conferences at his school that night, so he didn’t get to join in on our festivities. He was sad and I was too! I’m so glad that got to spend the morning together, over donuts, though.
Elyn, Rives and I went to her school for lunch. (I always look at pictures of Elyn on “non-school” days and am baffled by her clothing choices…that girl has her own style, that’s for sure! She gets to pick out her clothes for T/Th and I get to “help” on M/W/F.)
Nora has been talking about this birthday sticker for WEEKS. She was so excited to get it! She even put it on her pajamas that night and slept with it…sweet girl!
Nora and her sweet friends…Isabella and Lydia. She loves those girls!
After we picked up Nora from school. we headed to get our toenails and fingernails painted…such a treat for us all!
They loved their nails!
I told Nora we could eat wherever she wanted to eat…her choice!
Her choice:
Not MY favorite, but not my birthday. The girls had a great time and Nora hit the jackpot when she got 55 tickets on a game.
Two stickers now! The Chuck E Cheese one got put on the pajamas too.
After dinner, dessert!
Showing off her nails in this picture:
My brother-in-law said, “Between the seatbelt and the “club”, Rives isn’t going anywhere!” Ha! I guess it does look like he is in prison-haha!
Sadly, this is where the pictures end. By the time we left TCBY, Nora was DONE with the day…very tired and crying. When Matthew got home, we opened presents and rushed everyone off to bed. Even though the end of the day was not the best, I hope she has good memories of all the fun we had throughout the day!
Nora,
Happy birthday baby girl! You made us “dad” and “mom”, thank you for that! This year has been such a growing one for you!
You started kindergarten and absolutely love it! You are sad on days you don’t get to go and, after the first week, don’t complain too much about getting up in the mornings. You love your teacher, Mrs. W, and have some good friends in your class. There is one little boy in your class, “Conner”, and he doesn’t stay in y’alls class very much of the day. I assume he is in some special needs classes. When we were making your birthday list, you specifically mentioned him and said, “No one has invited “Conner” to a party…we need to invite him too.” I love that you thought of Conner!
Your daddy and I are always rookies when it comes to you. I’m sorry that we have to test everything out on you…that stinks for you! Being the oldest can be wonderful and extremely frustrating. We are probably more uptight with you than we will be when Elyn and Rives are your age. We don’t want to mess you up and, because of that, we tend to “overdo”. Thankfully you haven’t held that against us…yet.
You have a sweet heart and already show us how you love God. You love going to Bible class and do a great job of retelling details of the lessons to us, afterwards. You love to sing praise music and I’m impressed with how much you can remember from songs.
You still LOVE television and movies. Much to your disappointment, though, you don’t get to watch very much of either. Since we get home so late (around 4:20 most days) by the time you have played, done your homework, eaten dinner, gotten ready for bed and we have read together and said prayers there isn’t time for tv or movies.
We still shelter you in regards to entertainment. You don’t really get on the computer and play any internet games. I am sure you are in the minority in your class when it comes to “gaming”. You love the Wii but mostly you love to bowl on the Wii. We don’t play on the Wii very often. As far as tv watching, we still limit it to Disney or Nick Jr…and you are perfectly ok with that, and so are we! You have your entire life to be exposed to “older” things. If you still want to watch Mickey Mouse and Phineas and Ferb, we are NOT going to discourage that! You also prefer Disney movies to just about anything else. I love your innocence and it will break my heart the day you “learn” something mature. I don’t shelter you out of my own naivety…I fully intend to introduce you to topics on a more age appropriate timeline. I hope we can talk openly and I can be honest about not so naïve subjects one day…I just don’t want “Hollywood” to be the one to decide when those conversations should take place.
You have pretty much the exact same friends you have had your whole life….Gibson (#1), John David, Elyn, Sterling. You have made new friends too, sweet, sweet friends in your class. But, if I were to ask you who you wanted to invite over to play you would tell me Gibson first and follow with other friends after that. I think it is so sweet that you two are still best friends. I have no fairy tale dream that you will be each others bridesmaids in your weddings one day (I really hope you will though) but I am thankful that your friendship is 6 years old!
You still sleep with your two pink blankets, every night. Just like you did when you were one.
You love to draw and color and write. You love to sit with books and could for a long time.
You probably could still get a nap every day….kindergarten and its busy schedule does not allow for that though. You fall asleep on the way home at least 2 out of 5 days. When it is time for bed, you are READY to sleep and it drives you insane if Elyn keeps you up. She does a lot of things to annoy you…little sister right, I guess.
I love you so much Nora! You are a precious little girl! You have a personality that baffles us at times, very emotional! I pray that God will use all that emotion to serve Him. Thank you for teaching me to more gentle and think before speaking. I love you and your heart!
