4th of July Fun

I know, I know I said I was going to be better about blogging, but I guess nobody's perfect right? I wanted to put some pictures from last month. We had a good, hot July. The 4th of July was really fun. We got up early that morning and went to the balloon fest with some of our neighbors. It was fun to see the balloons up close. The kids thought it was a little too early in the morning. After the balloon fest, we went out to breakfast. Later that evening we played in the cul-de-sac with the neighborhood kids and then did fireworks with them. Hailey went to bed and Kirt and I sat in the middle of the cul-de-sac with the neighbors and watched the Stadium of Fire fireworks. We had a perfect view, we just wished it had started earlier.

Birthday Bash

We had a celebration of Grandma Forman's and Sam's birthdays yesterday. It was really fun! The kids had fun playing with the cousins and swimming. Hailey gets really shy whenever we are there and never wants to smile for any pictures.

Tina & Mavis

We have had 2 ducks that have been coming back to our house everyday. Our next door neighbor Kalyana affectionately named them Mavis and Tina when they first started visiting in the spring. They come to the back door and start quacking until we bring them some bread. Hailey and Sam get a big kick out of feeding them. Hailey is very protective and gets mad at anyone (most of the time it is Sam) who tries to scare them away. She yells, "SAM-U-WALL, NO SCARE THE DUCKS!!" Sam even says ducks when he sees them. Anyway, tonight while I was getting the kids ready for bed, I heard quacking and asked Hailey if the ducks were there and she said she could only see the mommy duck. We took some bread out to her and she just kept quacking and looking around. I know this might sound totally wierd, but she (the duck) actually looked sad. Admit it, you are probably thinking, "Wow, Emily has totally lost it, she has dedicated this whole post to a couple of ducks." Well, I feel like the ducks have sort of become part-time pets for us and I am really worried about Mavis. He was so sweet to Tina, I think they were really in love. While they were eating, Mavis would kind of just stand there all protective of Tina and looking around making sure that she was safe. I hope we will see Mavis again tomorrow, I will definitely keep everyone posted!

Happy Birthday Sam!

I can't believe that Sam is 1. His birthday was fun, but he did not understand the whole unwrappping presents thing. Grandma Lillywhite sent a wrapped up ball about a week early and he went around playing with it all week. I think he was really confused when Hailey started opening it, he liked the noise the paper made. After the ball was opened that was all he cared about. Luckily Hailey was there and was more than willing to open the rest of the presents herself. That evening we had cupcakes and ice cream cones with some of the neighbors. It was a really fun evening.
He is growing up so fast and is into everything. He has been walking for 2 or 3 weeks and now walks everywhere. He loves following Hailey and wants to be just like her. Hailey likes having someone to hang on her every word. Sam is such a fun loving, laid back kid. He loves giving sloppy kisses and throwing or kicking balls around the house.

The Zoo

We had Janae staying with us for the first 2 weeks of June and grandma gave us some money to all go to the zoo. We had a really great time, but were surprised because it was super cold! We would have thought that going to the zoo on June 13th would have been fine, but it was freezing. The kids were all wrapped up in their blankets.

I'm back!!!

I know I have been horrible with the blog lately. Life is too hectic with the kids to have any time to write during the day, and Kirt is on the computer almost the entire night. Well, I have good news - Kirt bought me a laptop. Yep that's right it is mine, which means he has to ask for my permission to use it! We are actually still working on a few problems with it, but hopefully we will get it all worked out and I will post some pictures of what has been going on the past 10 m0nths or so.

Sam in the hospital

On Sunday night August 12th, Sam got a high fever. It made me nervous because it came on suddenly and we could not console him. In the morning I called a nurse to basically find out how much Tylenol I could give him. She told me that I needed to take him in to see the doctor as soon as possible. On the way to the doctor's office I thought that it was kind of annoying that I had to see the doctor so he could tell me how much Tylenol to give him. The doctor started doing all these tests. The did a strep test - negative. They did a urine sample - negative. Then the doctor told me he would have to do a test where they had to take a sample of his spinal cord fluid. The nurse brought in a parental consent form. All of a sudden this little fever was getting scarier. Before the test the doctor said they might have to put him in the hospital, but it sort of sounded like there was still some hope. They took Sam to another room to do the procedure and then after being there for more than three hours (not just for that, but total) the doctor brought him back. He said that everything went well but that after watching him he decided that he needed to be hospitalized right away. So it was off to the hospital after dropping Hailey off with the Tippetts. (Thank heavens for the Tippetts!) So at the hospital it was more of the same torture for Sam and mom. Finally they took us to a room and the waiting game began. They hooked him up to an IV and started pumping antibiotics into him in case it was a bacterial infection. Basically all the tests were coming up negative which was good news. It meant that it was probably just a virus. The second day we were there Sam started to show that he was not getting enough oxygen while he was in a deep sleep. This confused the doctor and he decided to do more tests and an x-ray. All came back negative again. They didn't know what was wrong. On Wednesday night the nurse thought that she had weened him off of the oxygen so we thought we would be coming home. Right before the doctor came his oxygen levels started dropping again. Confused once more the doctor decided to do another test. This one was the worst. They were testing to see if he had reflux which may have been getting into his lungs. For the test they had to stick a tube down his nose into his esophagus and hook him up to more machines. This would not have been that bad except I was not supposed to hold him and limit contact. That was super hard because I could not even pick him up to feed him. The test started at 4 in the afternoon and was supposed to last for 10 hours. At 2 am the nursed told me that they were going to keep it in until 4. At 4:15 am Sam was hungry so the nurses told the people that were doing the test to come and take them out. That test came back negative also but the sent us home anyway with and oxygen tank and an alarm that he wears while he is sleeping. It is a pain but were are extremely glad to be home. It was definitely not a great week, but in the room next to ours there was a handicapped child. As I walked by one day I saw his mother holding him and rocking him. I wondered how many times they had been there and how many more times they would be there in the future. Suddenly I was very grateful that all the tests came back negative!