Spring Break 2018

Let's just say that even though our Spring Break didn't include anything extra special and no vacations, it was nearly perfect in so many other ways.  Wanna know why? There is a 5 letter word that doesn't happen very often in our household that we all experienced last week.  It's called SLEEP!  Many of you are fortunate enough to get a good night's sleep often. I, however, am not.  So while some people frolicked around in sunny locations, I was horizontal on my mattress from about midnight until at least 8:30 am every single morning (except just 1).  And that, my friends, makes me a HAPPY camper! More than 8 hours of sleep is just not available to me these days and I really needed it! 

So, with that being said, I will say that we did do SOME fun things.  I took the kids to Michael's to make glittery slime with gems in it, I took them Chik-Fil-A to play for a couple of hours on a cold day (it. was. nuts inside. SO crowded. But I learned that you can get free ice-cream instead of a book in a happy meal which is just the best. I felt a little guilty trading in books for sugar, but.....), we went to Target and I let each girl pick out a new puzzle (Piper is SO into puzzles these days- a girl after my own heart!) to entertain them for the week, we stayed in a hotel one night where the kids all got to swim and I got to soak in the hot-tub (this is the night I didn't sleep.  Sully is just the worst at hotels....), AND I celebrated my birthday!  My birthday was great- low key- and exactly what I wanted. Shawn let me sleep in until 9:30 (you guys should know that before I ever had kids, I was totally a morning person. I would have HATED to sleep until 9:30 because as I would have said 7 years ago "now half the day is wasted!" But now that I'm old, fat, and perpetually tired, 9:30 doesn't even feel like enough. I think I could sleep 'til 3pm every day if I was allowed to).

He then brought me breakfast in bed, and then we went on a family hike.  That's all I wanted. I wanted to hike because I crave the outdoors and the weather was perfect, and Shawn took the day off and there was no school so hiking is what we did! After that, we came home and Shawn made me my crab.  After Hawaii we will never go back to the days where I dipped my crab in a buttery garlic sauce.  Once you try Karai crab, you will never go back! Mmmmmm.... It is divine. And I should mention that part of why I love my birthday dinner so much is because Shawn REALLY lets me relax.  He serves me and then tells me I am NOT allowed to get up from the table until I'm finished.  No picking up dropped silverware from the kids, no handing out napkins or pouring re-fills on their drinks.  I sit and he handles them.  My birthday is really the one day a year that I get to relax 1,000%.  And, I have a good husband to let me. It was a sweet, sweet day!

Chik-Fil-A is always fun, but poor Piper was battling a cold on this day (you can see it in her eyes), so this meant we stayed home for the next couple of days because then she passed it on to Sully....

Thankful that Shawn gets free hotel rooms every so often because of all of his travels.  The kids think the hotel life is the BEST life :)

This was Lucy's gift to me.  She overheard me saying that I needed a new grocery list pad, and so she got a stack of papers and made me a whole big stack of "lists" to use. She did this and then hid it for a few days under my bed (until my birthday) because she said she didn't think I would EVER look there! :) :) If that doesn't make you smile, I don't know what will! I loved this!

This is from my birthday:
 "This morning, along with heart shaped french toast for my breakfast-in-bed, I opened the best presents ever. Lots of homemade goodies from my babies, but one gift from Shawn that means more to me than he can possibly ever know. A loooong time ago I told him that one day I wanted a nice locket and for this birthday he delivered. These pictures are laser etched in so that they’ll never wear out or fade over time. And he said he chose a heart so that I can “wear my heart against my heart.” 😭 I don’t know if anything is more touching. I had no idea. I thought he was getting me an Instant Pot! 😄 But I cherish this and could NOT love anything more. I’ll wear it everyday! Sorry for the long post. And, I don’t normally post about gifts that I get because “who cares.” But I just thought that this was so, so, SO sweet. He’s right- he has half of my heart, and my babies have the other half. I’m so incredibly lucky."💖😭 #HeDidGood #MyHeartIsSoFull

I think it means even more because he is not usually a sentimental gift giver 😂 But after Sully was born (and we knew we were done having kids) he surprised me with a beautiful rose gold ring with their birthstones in it, so this matches, since it’s also rose gold. My 2 best gifts ever. Also, I know a lot of thought was put into this because the chain didn't come with the necklace. Shawn knew I liked box chains the best and searched high and low for a long enough one that was rose gold as well. I am beyond in love with this! 

How cute is this? All these crooked candles placed in each cheesecake/cupcakes with love, by Lucy and Piper. They counted out all 31 of these and then Piper took this picture to show off how good it looked!

Piper also took these pictures:)

Another reason why we had a GREAT week was because Lucy started a new medication.  It is a non-stimulant because her weight got the point of being scary-low.  She just DOES NOT eat while on adderall and she was literally skin and bones.  Her ribs stuck out, her belly protrudes like a mal-nourished child, her spine sticks out and 4T pants are loose around her 6 year old waist (she was 37 pounds at this appointment. Sullivan is 32 pounds and he is 2 and she is almost 7 if that helps you put it in perspective).  I was beyond worried about her and told the doctor that for the 10 days we had Spring break, I needed her on SOMETHING that would help her eat.  She is really hard while not on medication right now (for all of our sanity I have to keep her medicated on non-school days too. Please don't judge me; it's been a long battle and I'm doing my best), but I couldn't stand seeing her not eating.  So since she wouldn't be at school and need the adderall for focusing in the classroom she was put on Guanfacine.  Oh my goodness! It helps with her mood swings a lot, but she is EATING AND SLEEPING AGAIN! She has gained 4 pounds in 14 days and I couldn't feel better about it! She's officially 41 pounds as of this morning- still very underweight for her age but SO much better than being the weight of a 3 year old! She was really good last week while home and she was hungry. I decided to try her on it this week at school WITHOUT the Adderall, and her teacher said she did pretty good. Way better than not being on any medication, but not quite as good as being on Adderall.  However, to see her eating again is worth a little distraction in the classroom, just for now at least, until she gains a few more pounds.
My beautiful Lucy.  I will move mountains for you.  We will get through this struggle together and I will be by your side every step of the way. I love you more than you know.

And now we wait for Sully to get better.  He was seen for possible pneumonia last week and they ruled that out, but they also said he should be getting better by now and he isn't.  We are still doing SO MANY breathing treatments.  Usually when he has an asthma flare-up, its only bad for a few days to a week tops.  This has been 8 days so we might be visiting the doctor again on Monday!

Other than that, we look forward to Easter this upcoming Sunday. Happy Good Friday everyone :)

March Happenings

Hello March. I am SO glad you are here! 

With March comes beautiful weather nearly everyday (in Oklahoma at least) and after a REALLY cold Winter I am seriously thankful for the warmth and sunshine we've had the last couple of weeks.  Winter this year was brutal. Like, for real. Last year at this exact time, Shawn and I were in Hawaii and I was feeling pretty bummed out about not being there this year, but the abundance of sun we've had lately helps just a little :) We've been able to have park time and play-dates and get-togethers with friends!

I was able to get my garden planted, so the last 2 weekends have been busy with yard work and "de-winterizing" our yard. Our tree in our front yard is full of buds, my tulips and daffodils are all fully bloomed, my peas and spinach are starting to sprout and we even had a strawberry fully ripen up this week to eat! It is so fun to watch it all! I'm not sure how my cucumbers and carrots will do because an animal dug in my garden the night after I planted it all and that was the spot they dug in. I was SOOO mad the next morning! It must have been a cat because it happened in the middle of the night and only cats can get over our tall fence. Stupid cats! So I might have to replant those, but other than that, it's been fun getting outside and taking care of my yard again. 

On March 7th, I came home from picking Piper up from school and Fitz was crying really loud.  I ran over to him and his leg was dangling.  I immediately thought that he must have pulled it out of socket because he's a small dog and I've heard of that happening in small dogs fairly easily.  So I took him to the vet and they had to sedate him to get an X-ray.  He wouldn't hold still and every time we touched him he started crying.  They told me he actually had a broken femur, not an out-of-socket-hip, and I immediately broke down crying!  I felt SO bad for him. I have no idea how it happened and I was only gone for an hour, but he was really hurting! The doctor gave him pain blockers and prescribed lots of different medications. We decided to let it heal naturally instead of doing surgery and so far he is far exceeding my expectations.  The doctor said since he is a baby his bones will heal pretty quickly; it will be 4 weeks before he will feel comfortable to put weight on his back leg and 8 weeks before it's fully healed.  We are at 2 1/2 weeks as of today and he's slowly starting to put a little bit of weight on it when he stands.  He has gotten SO fast at running on 3 legs.  It's amazing how quickly he has adapted to not using his 4th leg.  The first 3 days he was really hurting but now he's doing WAY better! That whole week was H-E-L-L.  Shawn was gone and it just so happened to be the kind of week where EVERYTHING goes wrong. I even almost stole someone's car! Haha, I was so frantic and rushed the day of the broken bone that I flew into Lucy's school to pick her up (I didn't know how long I'd be at the vet so I didn't want to risk not being able to pick her up) and in my haste to get back to my car I ran up to a white van and opened the door and started climbing in.... suddenly I saw a kid in the back (he was about 10) and realized I had started getting into the wrong car! He was probably beyond terrified! I apologized and told him I was sorry but I hope I didn't scar him for life! It was just that kind of week. Stress, tears, croup, colds, pain, appointments, TONS OF DOG DIARRHEA ACCIDENTS, etc. for 7 days straight and no husband to help with any of it.  I'm so glad that week is over!

Next was a new tradition for us!

Instead of doing the whole 'half birthday' thing for The Pi Baby (since she's a Christmas Baby), we decided to use National Pi Day (on March 14th) to celebrate her!  She got a balloon and a new nightgown and extra kisses on her special day! 

And then, of course, we celebrated St. Patrick's Day yesterday.  The girls didn't catch a leprechaun, unfortunately, but he DID leave them chocolate coins for their great effort!  They were SOOOO bummed that he got away, but I think Lucky Charms with green milk cheered them up quickly :)  Dinner, as always, was green and delicious and with the holiday being on a Saturday I had extra time to do their hair and makeup.  Green and gold all around! They love getting their makeup done, and I love doing it for them on special occasions. 

Shawn just left tonight and we won't see him until Thursday, but at least it's officially Spring Break which means no schedules, no early mornings, no homework fights, and a little bit of sleeping in.  Plus, we're gonna go stay in a hotel next weekend here in Tulsa for a little "stay-cation" to let the kids swim and let ME soak in a hottub :)  So it should be a good, easy-going week. *fingers crossed!*

Happy Spring every one!