Our Most Recent Happenings

 May has been a busy month. Mothers day, Lauren's birthday party, Lauren's actual birthday, a quick trip to Nebraska, and doing all the end of school year wrap up stuff.

First up to share: Lauren's 6th birthday party!!!!
She was so excited to be having a birthday, she had been making little invitations on little pieces of scratch paper for months and when I asked her who she wanted to invite she said that she had already invited every person she has met in Wisconsin. After a lot of consideration we got it narrowed down to 11 of her closest friends from school. Whoever came up with suggestion that the number of friends you should invite should be equal to age they are was in fact giving some really good advice. Wish I would have listened. The party was really fun and special thanks goes out to a couple of friends, Becky my photographer and Lindsay, my cake helper, and of course Jeff for being supportive of my crazy antic and being a wonderful host to a bunch of six year olds. Here are a couple favorite pictures.

Lauren's actual birthday was much less glamorous (thankfully) with the request toaster strudels for breakfast and meatloaf for dinner. Her birthday was on Sunday and luckily she was just able to spend the afternoon playing with her new crafting stuff. 

 The day before Lauren's birthday we surprised Lauren by taking her to a horseback riding lesson. She has been saying that she wants to be a cowgirl when she grows up, well if that is true she is going to have to learn not to cry when she is on the horse. She even had the smallest horse. One of the trainers rode double with her and that made her feel much more comfortable.

Lauren riding Applejack

And here a just a couple of random photos that never got to see the light of day. 

Doughnut day is still alive and well at our house. I think we have found of favorite doughnuts, the only problem is that it is far away and has NO seating and they aren't very friendly. So we are trying to find our second favorite doughnut.

Seriously? Who wouldn't smile like this after eating a chocolate doughnut with sprinkles? 

Pretty picture of Spring Harbor Beach. Jeff and I took a blanket and watched a movie on his phone. Sounds nice right? Well it was until the swarm of bugs got too close for comfort and it started to rain on us. 

Me photo bombing our picture pre-rain!

Lauren and I before our date to go see The Music Man. Our friend Maddie was in it and Lauren loved trying to pick out which one she was on the stage. I had to pay $10 for her seat and she ended up sitting on my lap the entire time!! Which was fine, I got some seriously long snuggle time.

Nebraska was really fun. I went to go see my new sweet little niece Hannah and to see my sister and her family that were visiting from Idaho. I drove out there with the kids and I was super nervous about it, but it turned out to be pretty slick drive. Every hour we did a dance and then had a snack or new activity. I'm not sure I'm ready to do it again in a couple weeks when three more of my siblings will be visiting my parents. 

My Favorite Phrases of the Day

There were two really funny things that my girls said today that I just wanted to make note of so someday I could look back and laugh at my funny kids.

1. We just discovered today that we have an ant problem. When Kenna saw them she said "Mom. An aunt. Die it." Lauren on the other hand is elated. She has it in her mind that we are now an 'ant farm.'

2. I was taking my special mothers day nap (which is really no different than any other day but it is sanctioned on Mothers day) and I had told the girls to play nicely together in Lauren's room and that that would just be the greatest mothers day present ever. Anyway a little while later I heard them fighting and I heard Lauren's door open.

Lauren: Ke-nna. Its Mothers day, don't go tell on me.

I just laughed a little. I wonder who she was doing it for more. Me or her? Probably for me. She was the sweetest thing today. She had planned with Jeff to wake up and make me pancakes. So at 6:30 she woke up all by herself so excited and came into our room and asked Jeff it is was time yet. They waited for me to hop in the shower and then they headed down to make breakfast. Lauren got the table all set and had put candy on my nightstand. I have decided that it is really fun to have kids that can do nice things for you on Mothers day. They are so adorable.

SICK GIRL

This morning Kenna complained that her tummy hurt. Now she has diarrhea.

Jeff: Maybe I should go for a run.
Me: Yeah. Go right now. Do you have your shoes on?
Kenna: Why does Daddy need to have his shoes?
Me: Because he wants to go for a run.
Kenna: Can I come????????

Bwahhhhahhhhh. She is a pretty spry sick girl. Even sick she could probably run faster and farther than me.

Jeff's Hospital Stay

WARNING: This is a super long post about Jeff's pneumonia in boring chronological detail. Read if you are interested, go to pinterest if you aren't.

Our awesome Valentine's day. I took him a pizza and chocolate
covered strawberries that he pretty much barfed up after two bites. 

So some people have asked to hear the details of Jeff's recent (now not so recent) illness. I will try to remember dates and such but it is getting a little bit blurry. I got sick with the flu on a Wednesday February 6th. I remember because I was at the mall walking with my friend and I had to go pick Kenna up from preschool but I felt soooo awful. I called and cancelled a playdate that I had set up for lunch. I originally thought that it was a cold because my throat got really sore. I was taking 4 ibuprofen every 6 hours because it hurt so bad. I never checked my temperature because I guess I wasn't curious to know. Thankfully I have wonderful friends who went and got groceries for me and cough drops and brought over some dinners because I didn't leave the house for a week. Jeff was on a really busy rotation at the VA hospital and I could drum up enough energy to keep my kids fed and turn on a movies until Jeff got home at night. It was miserable. All the kids ended up having fevers, (they all got their flu-vaccines so they were pretty mild) that week-end, but that made it a little easier because they were sleeping more. Jeff got his fever on Sunday and stayed home from work. On Sunday night he couldn't lay down because it hurt his ribs too bad. So on Monday he went to the doctor because he was pretty certain that he had pneumonia. He was pretty dehydrated so they ran some IV fluids through him, and an x-ray showed a small spot on his lungs so the Dr. prescribed some anti-biotics. That night he still couldn't lay down and even sitting  was really painful. Tuesday morning he called his Dr. and asked for Morphine for the pain. By the time I got home with the medicine (my first trip out since I was sick) he thought he was going to die. I thought he was being such a wuss. I asked him if he wanted me to take him the emergency room and he walked down to the garage and sat in the car. I called my friend Misha and asked if I could drop my kids off at her house in approximately three minutes and she happily took my sick kids. I left Jeff at the E.R. because he said he was fine and it was going to take a while and I had a dermatology appointment that I had waited 6 weeks for so I went to that. Picked up my kids and went to see Jeff. He was already in a hospital room. The x-ray just 24 hours later showed his entire left lung infected and the bottom half of his right lung. The sputum test showed that it was MRSA and it was in his bloodstream too, which can quickly spread the infection to other organs. So he was put on three different anti-biotics all with good MRSA coverage. Luckily he was started on IV antibiotics soon enough that the infection didn't go to his heart valves. I called his parents that night and let them know that Jeff was in the hospital. On Friday he still had a lot of fluid in his lungs and they thought there was a pus filled sore in the lining of his lungs. So they put in a chest tube (a tube inserted through his back and put into the lining of his lungs that is attached to a vacuum to suck the fluid out). I didn't know about this procedure. Jeff was pretty out of it in general and he couldn't talk much because of the pain and effort that it took. But anyway when they were doing a CAT scan earlier in the morning apparently they gave him lots of drugs to get him to lie flat so when they decided that they needed to put in a chest tube no on told me. Jeff was pretty much knocked out and he never answered his phone when I called to see how his CAT scan went. I finally called the hospital and had them connect me his room and finally he answered after like 20 rings and all I could get him to do was mumble. So I was a little freaked out but felt better that he answered the phone. My neighbor called a couple of hours later and said that she and her husband went to see him before they left from work (they both work at the hospital) and they told me that he was really sick and that I should probably go see him So I was totally freaked out and had already arranged for a babysitter anyway so on the way to the hospital I was planning Jeff's funeral in my head and wondering how long it would be before I started dating. When I got there Jeff was coherent enough to tell me what was happening. It took him 30 minutes with five naps in between. I didn't know how long Jeff was going to be in the hospital but it was clear that he was going to be there for a little while longer and I couldn't do much more by myself. Jeff's parents got here on Saturday afternoon to help take care of us. It was really nice because they would go see Jeff in the morning and then they would watch the kids so I could go spend time with him at night.

So all in all Jeff was in the hospital for nine days and his chest tube got out 4 liters of fluid from his lungs (after a dose of some blood thinners, the gunk was too thick to be vacuumed out at first). There were two kind of ironic things about Jeff's illness. He was in the infectious disease unit of the hospital (which means we had to wear masks, gowns and gloves when we went to see him) which was the same rotation that he had just finished. And the second ironic thing was that his internal medicine program director happened to be doing that rotation and was Jeff's doctor. Dr. Vogelman was the reason that Jeff decided on Wisconsin. Jeff said he was an amazing doctor and an amazing person. I am happy that it was him who was taking care of Jeff. I know that made him feel more comfortable about his illness. I was never really as worried as I should have been I suppose. In my mind Jeff was where he always is: the hospital. After he got released he told me that if he had waited just a few more hours to go to the ER he could have permanent organ damage. His recovery was pretty slow. It was over a week after he got home that he could start helping out. And he was on IV anti-biotics for four weeks that he hooked himself up two twice a day.

We feel so blessed to be somewhere where people took care of us. Our friends would bring meals without being asked, one of the doctors that Jeff works for at clinic came to our house with a bag of groceries for us. Everyone was so generous with their time and efforts and really made this potentially stressful event in our lives a much smoother one. Now if there would have been anyway for my brain to function better and to not have locked my keys in the car while picking up a pizza that would have been appreciated, but everything worked out fine.

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor. I make no guarantees in the accuracy in the use of my medical jargon. There may be addendum's after Jeff reads this.

McKenna is 4!!!

I can't believe that my crazy, feisty girl is four. Right now she is screaming for more marshmallows in her hot chocolate because hers apparently melted, (or more likely, she ate them and didn't realize it). Her birthday was back in February while Jeff was in the hospital, (which I do intend to blog about sometime) she was sweet and said that she wanted to wait until daddy was home to celebrate. We kept it low-key, just us and Grandma and Grandpa. I just remembered that Grandma and Grandpa took the girls to a bounce house place and then out to dinner on Kenna's make-up birthday.

We had a Blues Clues game for Kenna to find where the presents were hidden.

The boys putting the bike together!

Blues Clues cake.

Re-Birthday

My Birthday was back in December, and it was a pretty crappy day for me. Let me preface this with how my Mom does a birthday with a Birthday Check List of must-haves

1. Crete paper and balloons up before you wake up

2. Breakfast of choice'

3. Presents on the table

4. Dinner of choice

5. Birthday cake of choice

6. Candles

So on my actual birthday I got one of these things. So I know that I am 27 but I still need Crete paper and balloons and a birthday cake. Jeff was had worked overnight so he pretty much slept on my birthday, and I could not let him live down my disappointment. So when we were in Nebraska for spring break Jeff surprised me (appeased me)  with a little re-birthday. (Caitlin, if you are reading this, it was your blog post that inspired me to plant the idea of a re-birthday in Jeff's head). It was already a really great day because my Mom spoiled me and my sister by having a girls day. She took us to get pedicures and massages. When we got home there was Crete paper and balloons, and Jeff had dinner made. He even whipped up a strawberry trifle. I'm not sure when he did all this because he was watching four kids and took them to the park too. Then to top it all off he got my family to play Pictionary. I'm not really a game person, but I love playing Pictionary with my family. I didn't get my apricot stuffed french toast, but it still was great to be surprised like that.

Colored Tights

The purchase of colored tights was one of my New Year's resolutions. So I saw some at Target that were on clearance that were a kind of mustardy yellow. I wore them with a blue and white flowered skirt, a blue shirt, and camel colored boots. I thought it looked kind of cool and with the reassurance of Jeff that it looked good, I went to church. After sacrament meeting I asked one of the young women in our ward what she thought of  my colored tights (since she was the one who encouraged me to get some), and she said that when she saw them she wondered what was wrong with my legs. Pretty awful spray tan or something like that. So colored tights equals epic fail.

Check Marks For My Resolutions List

I have seen the ocean. Jeff and I flew to California during some of his vacation time. Our friend Misha stayed at our house with her kids and watched them. I have a feeling we didn't pay her enough to watch our three kids, plus her two kids, all under 6 for three days, but I knew my kids were in excellent hands and so the trip was relaxing and peaceful. 

We went to Catalina island and spent our

whole trip there. Here is a picture of the ferry.

(I had never been on a motorized boat and it was

on my unofficial list of things to do). 

First view of the island from the ferry.

Seriously, this was the first thing I did. 

Look at that green grass. We haven't even 

seen grass since Christmas. Oh I can't wait 

for spring in Wisconsin. 

Riding tandem bikes. Also on my unofficial 

list of things to do. I asked the guy who was

renting them if there were any tricks to riding

a tandem bike and he said that after the bike 

ride they offered couple counseling. They 

totally need to. Sitting in the back you don't 

have any steering abilities. I like to steer. And 

you also have no braking abilities. I like to brake 

going down hills. Jeff doesn't. I found this out the 

scary way. 

Our hotel room. Right across the street from the bay.

Jeff wanted to go para-sailing. So here we are

on the boat waiting our turn. The guys that ran the boat

were totally crazy. Seriously Bro. They were the 

stereotypical California beach bums. Oh and one more

note. Shoes should not be optional on a boat. One

of the guys who was going para-sailing took his off

and it smelled so bad. I thought I was going to throw-up. 

Going up.

600 feet above the water. It was actually 

really peaceful up there. 

It was really nice to get away for awhile, I hoped that it would be a little warmer than it was, I walked around feeling cold the whole time. 60 sounds warm, but it wasn't. 

My favorite parts of our trip:

1. Waking up early and walking to a non-touristy spot to watch the sunrise. While we were watching, a group of dolphins swam in front of us. 

2. Climbing on the rocks looking for tide pools and shells.

3. Seeing the pelicans dive into the water and grab fish. Totally cool. 

4. Playing arcade games and eating a really great pizza. 

5. The people we sat next to on the ferry. I love talking to different people.  

My Least favorite parts of our trip: 

1. Paying for the taxi ride from our hotel to the ferry, and then the ferry to the airport. 60 dollars each time. Ridiculous. 

2. Paying for parking at the airport. 19 dollars a day. Also ridiculous. 

3. Paying the tolls on the drive to the Chicago airport. There were four of them. 

4. The stinky feet guy. 

5. The two people behind us on the plane who talked the entire flight. Which left at midnight California time and got to Chicago at 5:50 central time. This was the only sleep we were going to get and we wanted to sleep.