Thursday, April 24, 2014

Happy Easter!









We had to wake Lindsey up so that she wouldn't miss out on everything. She's usually an early bird too!





Looking for eggs . . .





Cooper and Livi stayed home from church since they were sick, so I've only got pictures of the older two girls dressed up.









Olivia came and stood behind Gracie, posing for me as well. Little cutie!


Egg decorating went a lot better this year than past years! It's fun that the kids are getting old enough to do things now!


















When the kids got to choose a candy from their baskets, Lindsey didn't hold back at all! She picked the biggest chocolate in her basket! We laughed at how huge it looked with her holding it. She is definitely her Momma's girl!!!




I took this picture of the younger two girls watching Gracie get on the bus in the morning. They always watch her, and Olivia always waves. So sweet!


Here's all four of them watching someone mowing their lawn.




The kids Primary chorister has been teaching them the song "I Stand All Amazed" along with the signs. Cooper and Olivia have been picking up on it too. So precious! I'm so grateful for my Savior and his sacrifice so that we can live forever with our families!



Sunday, April 20, 2014

Growing Up

We have some friends in the ward who watched our kids so that we could go to the temple, and then we watched their kids so that they could go to the temple. They have three girls and they are the sweetest, best-mannered kids I know! The temple is about an hour and a half away, so right away there is three hours of babysitting just for the drive down there and back. The friend we switched with is the primary president and we've been trying to schedule and set up babysitting at the church by the temple, but so far it hasn't worked. We both decided we may just keep switching with each other if we can't get any other participants!




Cooper has decided that he has to make a silly face every time his picture is taken! It's going to be different just having these two at home next year!



Lindsey also thinks she needs to make faces for the camera! Silly girl!






This picture was taken on one of our last days with a crib because there is a couple in our ward having their first baby and we offered to give them our crib. The due date ended up having us boot Olivia out a little sooner than preferred. We debated trying her in the toddler bed or using the travel crib for awhile. After a couple nights in the travel crib, we just decided it was way too uncomfortable and we might as well give her a go in the toddler bed. She has done amazing with it! Good girl Olivia!


Sweet baby in her toddler bed . . .



I kept on finding Olivia up on the piano bench playing the piano. Then she would squeal because she couldn't get down. I figured she is way too little to be able to lift the piano lid so I told the kids that she would stop climbing up there if they would stop opening the lid. They said they weren't opening it and I didn't believe them until I closed the lid, and sure enough, the little stinker was right back up there with it opened, so I guess she can open it by herself. She is growing up so fast!



The night we got back from The Smokies, we noticed a bright red rash that felt hard, on Olivia's leg where she had gotten shots the week before. A couple days later it just looked like a bruise, like the picture below. I called and talked to the nurse who gave her the shots and she asked which leg. When I said the right leg, she said it was the MMR. She said she would have expected a rash on the other leg where the Varicella was given. After reading about vaccine reactions online, I thought I better bring her in to have it looked at just in case. The doctor kept feeling it for a long time to make sure there wasn't any fluid buildup. They told me to bring her back in if we noticed fluid or if her fever didn't get better. The doctor called the next day and said that according to the nurses notes on the day of the shot, it actually was the Varicella and that she was going to report it to the Adverse Reactions to Vaccines group. I'm frustrated that there was a contradiction about which shot it was! I hope they are right because I'd rather have her miss out on the second Varicella (chickenpox) dose than the second MMR dose. Geez!

Olivia had also been having fever off and on and diarrhea, which are typical with vaccines, but its been a couple weeks and she still has diarrhea. They took a blood sample while we were there and the results showed that she had some sort of virus going on. We found out another baby in our ward has norovirus, and symptoms are nausea and diarrhea (throwing up while we were at The Smokies). Now I've been nauseous and thrown up the last several days, so we probably have it. They can't do anything for a virus either. I am done with sickness and doctor appointments and medicine!!! For a couple days, the rash area peeled like a sunburn and now it just looks like a bruise, but it is still there, so I'm still worried about it. Poor baby!