February in Review

Since I'm such a slacker in the blogging area of life, I am now having to write reviews of not days or weeks, but entire months instead. Hey, at least it's not a year in review, yet!

February brought some sickness, loved ones coming and going, tons of snow, and lots of fun.

Matt went out of town for four days the first week of February. This marked the third time in two months at his new job. To say that I was starting to feel a bit overwhelmed---well that'd be accurate. But mostly only because somebody (usually more than one) always gets sick or hurt while he's gone. It amazes me how these things work out, but I digress.

Anyway, he was coming home on the 7th, but he wasn't going to be back in time for Peach's music program. This made us all sad, but luckily I recorded all of it for daddy to see. Additionally, a much beloved aunt came to town that very day. And it was a total surprise for all of us. My mom asked me to run out to her car for something, and when I stepped onto my porch my sister jumped out in front of me. I got a little teary-eyed I was so excited. I haven't seen her since before Hunk was born!

She came in to see the kiddos who were home (the younger four), and met her nephew for the very first time. I had to capture it!

HA! I just realized they kind of match in this photo... totally not planned!

Shortly thereafter, the big girls got off the bus and were surprised when they saw auntie standing on our stairs.

We did make it to the music concert that evening. Peach did great. They sang several songs, and we all enjoyed watching her shine.

The snow days came after the holiday. We had so many days off from school between parent teacher conferences, illness, and snow days. A week after V-day, the girls all had a snow day. We knew it was coming because the meteorologists were saying how big it was going to be for a week before the storm hit. Even store shelves were bare. By the look of things, it was the end of the world, but thank God we all survived. haha!

Since I had some prior knowledge that we'd be snowed in for a few days, I stocked up on some fun.

 This is what we woke up to early Thursday morning.

 I threw in a game, some activity packs, sandcastle building supplies (they work in snow just as well), and I pulled some stuff from our pantry like hot cocoa mix and chocolate chips (to note that we would make hot cocoa and cookies).

 Getting all bundled up.

 The snow was falling at about an inch per hour that morning.

 Ready for fun in the snow.

She makes me laugh--like all the time!

 It's exhausting watching sisters play.

 Heading out to the snow again.

My big-eyed boy.

Lots of fun for this cutie.

She's never really seen much snow. So this was all a first for our Scrunchie!

This one and I always surprise attack each other with snowballs.

 Dad stayed busy, too!

Snow angel.

 Obsessed with making snow angels.

Happy to be out in the fun snow!

 A tiny hill in our yard provided quite the entertainment!

And we had Friday off as well. The two big girls and I went sledding with one of Brownie's sweet friends and her dad.

 His family has a great hill, and I will say it was the first time I'd ever really gone sledding in my entire life. I've played in the snow plenty of times, but I had never really gone sledding. So much fun!! Thank goodness there's no video of my super awesome wipe out that I was nearly certain ripped my shoulder out of socket. Actually it felt much better a few minutes after my tumble, but I was a little worried at first. I don't think 30 year olds should tumble down the hill for recreation--or at least not this 30 yr old!


The snow thawed that weekend, but news came about another storm that was supposed to hit Sunday night. Well, that didn't pan out, so the kids all had school on Monday. But as Monday evening rolled in, the news was reporting another major storm with strong winds. So we played outside Monday night before we'd be stuck inside another day. Daddy built us a Mickey Mouse snowman.

 The after-mess!

This one started off as a storm that was supposed to be worse than the previous one. Schools canceled Monday night for Tuesday, and when everybody woke up, we were all thinking they blew one. But we had fun anyway. We even had a candlelight dinner on Monday night.

 Poor Hunk had to just sit back and enjoy the snow show. I also enjoyed the exercise that came with shoveling the driveway--sorry, no pictures of that!

Scrunchie also had a birthday. She turned two, but I'll write about that in another post.

Valentine's Day 2013

Valentine's Day was supposed to be pretty fun around these parts. Only one kiddo had school because there were parent teacher conferences this day. Well, we ended up with a visit to the ER. Poor Brownie woke up with a fever. Not too high, but enough to make her want to lie on the couch and sleep. So I let her. At about 10:45, she woke up screaming in pain. She was doubled over grabbing the lower right quad of her belly. I asked her to try to go to the bathroom, all the while she is screaming and crying in pain. I immediately tell Matt I'm taking her to the ER because I'm just dead sure she is about to be poisoned by an exploded appendix. So he carries her to the car, and we're off.

 On our way there, the screaming has subsided which strikes me as odd, but I've never dealt with appendicitis before so I don't know what is normal. In the meantime I call my sister and the preschool to arrange for her to pick up Bug.

By the time we reach the hospital, she has little to no pain and I'm perplexed. We are taken immediately back to the triage room where they briefly take her vitals and discover a fever of over 103 degrees. We get a room and we begin to wait. And wait. By this time I'm thinking it's probably not her appendix, and that was soon (almost) confirmed by a PA (?). She said that Brownie would still be in pain, but regardless, they wanted to know why her fever was so high.

They ended up running several swabs, x-rays, and blood tests, and everything came back negative/normal. Well, almost everything. The doctor was very careful in her review of Brownie's history and discovered that when we had blood drawn six weeks before at that hospital (for a visit to a specialist), she was low on iron--like as low as one can be for "normal." And since that time, her count dropped a whole point. Since this was of concern, and we weren't quite sure if she had a bacterial infection or virus, the doctor sent us home with orders to retest her iron in a week and a Rx for an antibiotic.

I ended up filling the antibiotic to have "just in case" because her cough was really starting to develop. And we weren't able to get that blood test until two weeks later thanks to a ton of snow! And we're still waiting to hear back on that blood test.

By the time we got settled back in at home on V-day, everyone was worn out and too tired to celebrate. So we waited until Friday night to give the kids their gifts. They got some candy, a special red velvet cupcake treat, a cute little heart necklace and bracelet, and then one individual gift--skirts, a movie, a Minnie Mouse art pad,and miniature Disney books. Of course, Hunk didn't get candy, jewelry, a cupcake or any of that big kids stuff. Since he's growing so fast, he basically got clothes. And I didn't leave Daddy out--he received some special candy, and a cupcake!

And back before any of this happened, the older two girls had their parties at school the Tuesday before V-day. I got to see both of the parties, as did my sister (she helped me out since I was overbooked that day).

I made cookies for Peach's class, and Peach helped me decorate them. I think she did a smashing job!

 I also made each kiddo a shirt for the big day.

 Peach had hers on in the above pics, but she had a sweater on over it. And my poor Scrunchie never got her picture taken in her special shirt, but by golly I did make her one!

Hunk was the only one willing to sit for a spell while I captured him on V-day in his mommy-made shirt!

 This is Hunk's one true love, Sophie!

No bows this year (sad face). But I think the girls survived. I made it all better by including one of these in their gift set.

  I also gave one to each teacher--well, I take that back.

I had plans to give them to each teacher, but Bug's two teachers got left out. The day that I was rushing Brownie to the ER right before preschool pick up was the day and time I had planned to deliver the goodies. The next day there was no school. Then it was the weekend. Then Monday came and the two preschoolers had fevers. The next two days were their parent teacher conferences which we missed due to their fevers (and no daycare options). And the next two days were snow days. By the time that next Monday rolled around, it just seemed silly. So I figured I'd make up for it with their end of the year gift

Anyway, the Tuesday before V-day my MOPS group put on a MOPS and POPS night--a date night for us complete with Olive Garden food and homemade desserts. We played a version of The Newlywed Game and listened to Caroline's pastor and his wife talk about marriage. It was so much fun. I wish we cold have those nights more often!

So despite poor Brownie's illness, I still think our V-day festivities were pretty good. I know I enjoyed doing everything I did for my kids and husband. I love them so much, and I'm so glad I get to show them my love everyday.