Friday, September 11, 2015

Girls Day with Grandma

In late March, we went on a girls' date with Grandma.  Vivienne and Evelyn were so excited that they waited by the front door for Grandma to arrive.


We started with some yummy pizza at Mellow Mushroom.



After pizza, we headed to the movies to see Cinderella.  The girls have only been to the movies one time before this (to see the Lego Movie).  They were enthralled by the movie, and by the enormous bowls of popcorn.  Evelyn kept asking (very, very loudly), "What's HER name?  What's HIS name?  What SHE do?"  At least it was a theater full of kids, so her voice wasn't too disruptive.


Cowgirl Day

On this day back in March, Vivienne's preschool class dressed like cowboys and cowgirls.  My mad braiding skills came in handy.


Vivienne adored Mrs. Medez, her assistant teacher, and Mrs. Patrick, her main teacher.  What a great first year of preschool this was.



Batgirl and Princess Quarterback

No description necessary.  Taken on the same winter afternoon.  Hey, at least we actually had some clothes on around here...



February Snow

We got a lot of snow (for North Carolina) this past winter.  The kids enjoyed crunching around in it, building snow men and drinking lots of hot chocolate with daddy home.  Here are a few of my favorite photos.




Miles is adamantly opposed to having his photo taken with the family, so we were very lucky to get this selfie with all 5 of our faces in the frame.  Sort of.





Catching Up

Lots of catching up to do here, so excuse the old posts.  It sure is fun to look back, though, isn't it?

Sunday, April 5, 2015

Homemade Valentines

This was the first year that the kids had a class to share valentines with.  Instead of buying pre-made valentines at the store, the kids decided that they wanted to make their own.  Vivienne started by cutting out little hearts and adding faces to them (her idea).




Then she glued them to white index cards and wrote her name on them.


Miles decided he wanted to write "I love you.  Miles" on each card.  He hand wrote every single one.  This was a pretty big deal for him, because we have been working on his grip and writing and fine motor skills with an occupational therapist for almost 6 months.  For him to write this long was a pretty sizable accomplishment.



Our valentines didn't come with lollypops or super hero designs, but they sure came with a lot of love.

Monday, March 2, 2015

Christmas Break 2014

While Christmas itself was a bit painful (literally), Christmas break was wonderful.  Jason gets the week off from Christmas through New Year's, and we made the most of it. 

We visited Marbles:







We went to the Museum of Life and Science:









We even took the kids on their first bowling adventure:




I would say that we made pretty good use of our week off with Daddy.

Sunday, March 1, 2015

The Scariest Moment of My Life

I know that title might sound a little bit extreme, but this honestly was the scariest moment of my life (besides when my dad told me he had prostate cancer and I thought I heard him say he had pancreatic cancer... luckily that is all well behind us now).

In mid-January, I was sitting on Miles and Vivienne's floor reading a book to Vivienne.  I was sitting right beside the bunk bed ladder.  Evelyn was playing on the beds, which is not uncommon.  As she was coming back down the ladder, she fell right on her head right beside my foot.  She fell from about 4 feet off the ground, and she appeared to land directly on her head. 

She immediately started screaming that blood-curdling "I'm very VERY hurt" scream that you only hear about once a year.  I scooped her up, and she was thrashing around in my lap like an injured animal.  She asked for her blanket and her bear, but then she just started saying "ow ow ow" over and over again.  We tried to move her downstairs, but her wailing became so intense that we stopped in our bedroom and laid her on the bed. 

This was when I got really scared.  At this point, she stopped moving completely.  She had her head turned to the right and she wouldn't even move her head.  I could feel her moving her feet when I pressed them, but she was basically lying completely still and crying and moaning "ow ow ow" over and over.

Jason and I discussed whether this was a 911 type of moment, and I finally decided to go in the other room and call 911.  My biggest fear was that she had some kind of neck injury and that we had disturbed it or made it worse by picking her up and moving her.  The 911 operator asked me if I would like to have an ambulance (which I thought was odd, because I was calling her for her advice on whether we should get an ambulance?).  She said that the EMTs would be there in a few minutes, to be sure the front door is unlocked and to wait for them.  I texted my mom and one of my best friends, Pam,  to let them know that Evelyn was hurt.

I stood on the front porch until the ambulance arrived.  It only took a few minutes (which of course felt like years).  The EMTs came upstairs and fairly immediately recognized that she had a broken clavicle.  Upon hearing this, I fell into a puddle of tears, first with the "oh no" type of feeling and then with the "oh yay" (it's not a broken neck!) type of relieved tears. 

Somewhere in all of this, Pam and her husband came into our room.  They happened to be right down the street at a coffee shop on a date.  She was at our house no more than 5 minutes after I texted her.  I have told her that I will never, never forget that she came that night.  In retrospect, I think God knew that we would need them, and he made sure that they picked someplace really close for their coffee date.

The EMTs gave Evelyn a shot of morphine in her left shoulder.  She did not enjoy that, and kept on screaming.  He said that it should put her to sleep and that they could move her once she went to sleep.  She never fell asleep.  She never stopped screaming.  Jason had to carry her down the stairs to the gurney. 

My dad walked in the front door as Jason was carrying her down.  He was driving a new set of bunk beds to our house when this all happened (the irony is not lost on me).  He didn't see the texts that I had sent him about what happened, so he was totally shocked to see Evelyn in that state.

The EMTs pushed Evelyn to the ambulance on the gurney.  At that point, my mom arrived and Evelyn got to see Grandma for a moment.  When I got into the ambulance with her, she just kept saying "I want Grandma!"  So I ran back inside to retrieve Grandma and off to the hospital we went.  As soon as the ambulance started moving, she finally stopped crying (thank you, morphine!). 

After arriving at the hospital, Jason was able to find us.  Evelyn had this dazed look from the morphine and just being overwhelmed by the entire experience.


Daddy held up his phone so that she could watch Umizoomi.


Here are what her x-rays looked like.  It was a clean cut through the bone with the ends overlapping slightly.



The doctors at the hospital gave us a sling and asked us to try to immobilize her as much as possible (easier said than done!).  We got a prescription for Tylenol 3 (with a little codeine), which came in very hand the next day.  Here we are heading home in the van:


Evelyn was in pretty bad shape for a couple of days.  The first day, she wouldn't even really walk at all.  She was clearly in a lot of pain.  Every time we picked her up or moved her, she would cry out. We quickly learned to pick her up by her bottom instead of by her armpits.

She spent a lot of time on the couch watching TV with her "entourage" (as Jason calls it - her set of about 20 babies and stuffed animals that she insists come down with her every morning). 


It didn't take her long to fall asleep on the couch like this.



I got lots of extra snuggle time, but our girl couldn't keep her eyes open.  She wore these pajamas for about 3 or 4 days, I think.


We were so humbled by the sense of community when this all happened.  From meals to cookies to visitors with "get well soon" signs... we just received so much love.  The first smile we saw since her accident was over a blue frosted cookie from our neighbors.  


After a couple days, we visited the orthopaedic clinic.  They did x-rays and said to come back in 6 weeks.  It was a rough first few days, but she was back to her normal self in no time.


We go back for our final x-rays in just a few days.

Christmas 2014

Well, Christmas 2014 was a blur.  I got very sick just a few days before Christmas.  On Christmas Eve, I was so sick that I couldn't even get out of bed to set up the kids' presents and bake everything I had planned.  I was so disappointed that Christmas wasn't going to include some of the special things that I had hoped for this year.

While I was asleep in bed in a nauseous stupor, Jason (without my asking or prompting whatsoever) took the recipes that I had left in the kitchen, went to the grocery store to buy everything and stayed up until well after midnight cooking.  He also put out all of the children's Christmas gifts and set everything up.  I woke up on Christmas morning to discover that he had assembled the breakfast strata (which involved things like roasting the mushrooms before adding them... not your basic strata) and baked french toast.  I am so incredibly lucky to be married to such a dedicated and loving husband and daddy.

I don't have very much detailed memory of Christmas Day itself.  Grandma and Grandad came over to celebrate with us, which is always a treat.  We were able to eat a delicious meal on the back porch.  I love North Carolina winters.  The kids loved all of their toys.  Miles got a plane that he can assemble and disassemble.



Vivienne got roller skates and a bike and some princesses.


I can't even remember what we got Evelyn, but she seemed happy enough.



I spent most of the day sleeping and feeling like this:


But Christmas was nonetheless a great day to celebrate our Savior and our family and focus on what's really important.  I wish we could carry that into every other day of the year.  In the spirit of that ideal:  Merry Christmas, everybody!