3 crazy weeks

The last 3 weeks have been crazy, hectic, scary, fun, and full of gratitude. Let's start back on Saturday, Nov. 21. We woke up early (5 am) for a lovely 12 hour car ride. We threw the kids in the car and headed up north to Cape Hatteras in North Carolina for my brothers wedding. The ride wasn't too bad and we made pretty good time and the kids did a lot better than I thought they would (especially since neither of them took more than a 20 min nap). My brother was getting married the day before Thanksgiving on the beach and my family had rented a huge beach house. Needless to say we had a great time! I was busy baking a wedding cake (white almond sour cream cake with butter cream frosting yum!), a grooms cake (chocolate cake with PB cream cheese frosting and a PB chocolate glaze yum!) and I cooked all the dinners for the week including Thanksgiving dinner. We definitely stayed busy and poor Ryan had to lock himself in a room and study all week for finals and a brief he's working on for his moot court competition, so he popped his head out for meals and every once in a while for a small 5 min break but other than that he was MIA. We had a lot of fun though and it was great to see and be with family and celebrate the last Hansen getting married and top it off with a mouth watering supper delicious Thanksgiving feast.

(Some pics we took at the wedding, we'll post more on the photo blog so stay tuned)

Towards the end of the week I had noticed Caleb's lymph nodes were starting to swell but wasn't to worried about it cause he wasn't running a fever and since he had his tubes put in last March they've always been a little swollen. By Friday night (the night before we left) They were severely swollen and he was running a slight temp. Saturday driving home he could hardly talk, was having problems breathing, and was running a temp of 103. He also slept almost the entire 12 hour car ride home. So we stopped by a drug store and picked up some Tylenol for him and I was planning on taking him to the Pediatrician on Sunday when they opened at 9 but by Sunday morning around 4/5 am of him not being able to breath all night I took him to the ER. We were there for 6 hours sitting in a little room and the doctor saw him once and then before we left they gave us a prescription for some antibiotics which didn't do anything for him.

After a couple days, there was still no improvement. Caleb's lymph nodes the size of a small orange sticking out of his neck, he hadn't eaten anything in days, he was still running 103 temp even with a constant Tylenol, Motrin regiment, and was not able to breath very well or even turn his head. So we headed back to the doctors (this time to his pediatrician) on Tuesday. They gave him an antibiotic shot in his leg and gave me a new prescription for a much stronger dose of oral antibiotics for him to take and said to come back tomorrow so we can check him. The next day (Wednesday, Dec. 2) there was still no change when we took him back to the Peds. The doctor gave him another shot in his leg of antibiotics and sent us to the ENT, who finally looked at him and said Wow he looks bad lets get him better. He took one look in his throat said he had tonsillitis and thought his swollen lymph nodes were hardening into an abscess. He admitted us to the hospital immediately. It was a long day of visiting doctors only to end up at the hospital.

(This is Caleb at the ENTs right before going to the hospital)

By this point all Caleb wanted was to go home. Poor guy had been pinched and prodded and poked by all kinds of doctors and nurses and was not liking doctors any more ... or hospitals. Luckily we have a children's hospital here and they definitely make the kids feel more at ease being there. Before his IVs went in they put numbing cream on his hand so it wouldn't hurt when they poked him with the needle and he got all kinds of presents. His favorite was a supper soft froggy that had an IV in his hand as well (he still carries that frog around everywhere).

We were there from Wednesday afternoon to Friday afternoon and Caleb was on constant antibiotic treatments. His white blood cell count was at 24,000 going into the hospital and when we left it had only dropped to 16,000. But his fever was gone and his lymph nodes were shrinking and he was doing so much better so they let us go home. He's still taking oral antibiotics twice a day for the next 14 days but he's almost completely back to normal now and he's eating again.

Ryan's mom flew out on Thursday Dec 3 to be with Sawyer while I was in the Hospital and she stayed with us for the next week. We are always grateful and excited to have grandma come. She of course sword fought Caleb everyday for hours, washed dishes for me and took us shopping! The kids got new warm winter coats since they had none and new tennis shoes. Ryan got some new jeans (since his all had holes in them and his last pair of new jeans he got 2 years ago for Christmas) and I got new shoes too since the only pair I wear on a daily basis are falling apart and were bought at least 3 if not 4 years ago. So we got spoiled, THANKS MOM!!!!! We were sad to see her leave this past Wednesday, Dec. 9 but we're looking forward to her return and Dad's in May for Ryan's graduation, YAY!

And one more exciting news was we got a new car yesterday! Well new to us. It was Ryan's parent's old car that they shipped out to us for Christmas (they got a new one) so we can fit all 3 kids in it now when Hadley comes in 5 weeks! Ahhhhh, I can't believe I only have 5 weeks left.

(This isn't our car it's just one I found online to post, but that's what it looks like with different wheels)


So again we got spoiled and are so overwhelmed with gratitude for the love and support we've been given and I know if it wasn't for our wonderful and loving family we wouldn't make it through this law school experience we're having here. Thank You, thank you, thank you again mom and dad, and also everyone else that gave of their time to help watch Sawyer while I took Caleb to all those doctors appointments and the first night we were in the hospital, you guys are the best!

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Things that made me smile today

This morning Caleb and I were making some scrambled eggs for breakfast and after he helped me crack the eggs open this is what I saw.



How can this not make you smile. So that got me thinking, I should keep track of everything that makes me smile and happy today. I must say when you're constantly looking for things that make you smile you find them all around you all the time. So my list got quite long, here are just a few from today.

- Sawyer fell asleep at the begging of lunch, he's never done this before, I think he's still getting use to the time change. And look at those cheeks don't you just want to kiss them and eat them up, he's got soft squishy thighs to go with them. I love it! :o)

- Caleb had learned how to roll his tongue and wanted to show off for the camera. :o)

- The tempature in my house this morning, no AC, no Heat. It was wonderful, at least to the pregnant lady, everyone else was freezing. :o)

- Caleb shooting bad guys with his helmet on. :o)

- The beautiful fall colors that I get to see out my window and driving around town. :o)

- Since I had my camera out Caleb kept asking me to take his picture and he was being silly every time I pointed it at him. After I took one he'd say let me see, let me see and laugh at himself. :o)

- Caleb LOVES Hungry, Hungry Hippos but Sawyer's always been to little to play with us and tries to eat the marbles, well he finally understands not to eat the marbles and we've been letting him play with us. They have fun together. :o)

- Two marbles went missing after this I figured they were some where I'd find them later. After Sawyers nap I went to put his pants back on and felt two little round ball on his bum but outside his diaper. I thought gross he pooped and it got out of his diaper some how. thankfully it was just the missing two marbles caught up in his onesie. :o)

- I haven't eaten crunchy peanut butter in a long, long time. But had some today and it was yummy! :o)

- Feeling my baby move and kick me all day long, looking at my growing belly, and even catching a glimpse of myself in the mirror always makes me smile. :o) (almost 30 weeks, in just a few days!)

- Discovering a new park to play at! :o)

- This picture cracks me up every time I see it. Sawyer got so frustrated that he couldn't climb up this tunnel and kept sliding back down. (He only made this face for literally a split sec and I'm surprise I captured it. It was more the begging of being sad than mad. After this I did help him up and he was very happy.) :o)

- Caleb pretending to take a shower. :o)

- How cute is that. Going down the slide together and Caleb was so gentle and protective of his brother. :o)

- Two of the three boys I love the most in my life. :o)

- I know this puts a smile on everyones face, aren't they just the cutest! I love my boys!! :o)

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HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

We had a great Halloween, hope everyone else did as well. We're just glad it didn't rain on us when we went out trick or treating. It had been raining off and on all day. So the ground was pretty wet but luckily that was all. The kids got tons of candy (not like they need it or me) and we didn't receive as many trick or treaters as I anticipated so we have TONS of left over candy that I bought to pass out. Any one want any or it? You'd think being pregnant during the holidays would give me a good excuse to eat anything I want but I don't think it does it just makes it harder to not eat it. I swear I look at goodies to eat or just think about them and gain another 5 lbs. Oh well, all worth it in the end when I have my sweet baby to hold. But I digress sorry back to Halloween. Here's some shots we got of our little Peter Pan and Dinosaur before we left for Trick or Treating. (You'll notice Sawyer has a sucker already because Caleb had some candy in his bag from our ward trunk or treat and he just had to have one.)

Happy Halloween!

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Pumpkin Carving Fun

We had a fun time carving our pumpkins tonight, although I think most of the fun was had by Ryan and my self since the boys are still to young to actually carve them. Earlier in the week Caleb and I cleaned them out and I don't know where Caleb gets this but he hates getting his hands dirty so he wasn't into helping me pull out all the seeds and gunk. He cracks me up, what little boy wouldn't want to get messy. Any ways, here are just some pics from our fun pumpkin night.

I love Sawyers face in this last photo, our friends from across the street came home from a halloween party and the kids were running around outside together and Kiera their little girl had some lip gloss and I don't know what she was trying to do probably put it on him but Sawyers expression just cracks me up. Watch out Sawyer you're getting a little sister soon and I'm sure one day she'll try and put lip gloss on you too. :o)

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Discoveries

Things my kids have discovered over the last few days:

-Dipping sauces, Sawyer now wants ranch or ketchup with everything and then he usually just eats the sauce.

- Caleb discovered the emergency button at the law school that calls the police, and they are pretty nice on the other end.

- The bath tub turns into a slide if you stand on the far end and let your legs slide out from under you. Sawyer can almost slide the whole length of the bath tub.

- There are monsters and bad guys in Caleb's room before he goes to bed, but you can get rid of them by shooting them with an invisible bow & arrow and sword.

- Sawyer has learned how the water dispenser works, needless to say I forgot to put the lock on it a couple times and now our floor is quite clean in front of the refrigerator.

- Ryan was swinging Caleb around and asked him if he was an airplane, Caleb responded, "no, I'm a child of God"

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3rd Trimester!

So nothing really interesting or important to blog about lately but I just want to say I'm officially in my third trimester today. I can't believe I'm already 28 weeks and only have 12 more to go, maybe 11 if I'm lucky :o). This pregnancy is going by so much faster than my last two but I guess that's just cause I'm so much busier this time around. Thank goodness. Can't wait to meet my sweet baby girl. She's definitely an active one, trying to keep up with her brothers already.

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Change is in the air, I mean hair.

Before:

After:

I've been wanting to do this for awhile but thought I'd wait until the Fall. Now that it's Oct. 1 and the nice cool Fall weather has rolled around, I went for it. It didn't turn out as dark as I wanted it, it's more coppery (is that a word?) so I may redo it with a darker color, but I like it. What do you guys think?

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Got Milk

Our recycling day is every other week and we forgot about it 2 weeks ago so it was quite a build up. This is 4 weeks of milk and some OJ that we consumed, just to give you an idea of how much we love milk here in this house. Well at least how much the boys and I love milk, Ryan's getting a little better at it, he prefers his OJ.

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