Soakin' up the sun!

Busy week...

Here's a recap of the fun we had last week:
BBQ's, play dates with friends, "Son Rock Kid's Camp" VBS for Jace, swimming at Grandma and Pa's, running errands in Moses Lake, riding "Sparky Boy" on the ranch, mommy heading for Ba and Ryan (I hadn't team roped for 10 years!), Maddie taking more steps on her own and cutting her first molar (this makes 9 teeth), finding and cuddling new barn kittens, playing with cousins, slip n' sliding, 5K workouts, meeting new friends, riding the 4-wheeler with dad in the orchard, and a little eye-lash trimming by Cade, sigh. We're enjoying our summer and all of the busy fun that it brings!!!
Maddie chatting with the big girl cousins

Jace singing, ever so seriously, at the Vacation Bible School program Friday night
Making sand angels at the pond
Maddie showing off her first molar and Cade's LONG lashes before the trimming
Peeking out of the "Shark Bite" slip n' slide which kind of bites...silly 3D glasses that didn't work and the plastic slide tore on these guys right away. Surprised?!?

CrAzy kiDs!

Is it only our kids who totally go nuts with company? We had a super nice family visit us tonight with their incredibly sweet, precious heart baby and the boys were so crazy! Embarrassing but funny at the same time. They really have skills when it comes to showing off, especially when they have a new audience...

Between Jace shooting himself with his toy gun (yes, maybe I shouldn't let him play with plastic guns, apparently he hasn't listened when I've lectured him on the DO NOT'S with play weaponry), Caden running between us and throwing a stuffed animal squirrel while giggling/yelling "squirrel" as we're trying to carry on a conversation, and Maddie crawling around with a little Hulk sound box thingy in hand that kept repeating in a rude, deep, obnoxious voice: "Rooaarrr, you're making me angry! You won't like me when I'm angry! Hulk Smaaaash!" while she's grinning ear to ear, it dawned on me that this is our new normal!!! Amidst all of the craziness, it felt good. Three healthy kids, excitement and giggles, tons of energy. Life.

It was great to meet our new heart friends and if they're brave enough to stop by again on their way through, maybe we can attempt another visit! It's pure entertainment with these three and I wouldn't change this craziness for anything...

One fish, two fish...

Bryan took the boys fishing Sunday evening and boy did they catch some whoppers. These were Jace's words exactly when he got home!!! Uncle Ryan, the fishing expert and fun loving uncle that he is, invited them and found a great fishing spot down on the creek. When they got home, they were so excited to show me their prized fish and Bryan even fried up one of the little Bass that they'd caught. The boys braved eating the little guy with TONS of ketchup and thought it was quite tasty!!! Me, not so much but I did grin and bear it :)

One fish they just had to keep. Jace added water to a 5 gallon bucket for their new pet and the boys played with their "bellied-up" friend like this for hours. Yesterday during their naps, I did give their fish friend a proper burial, he was really starting to stink up the porch! Oh, the joys of boys!!!!

Maddie and the rest of us are officially on the mend. She is doing so much better, off of the oxygen since Sunday (she kept ripping it off of her face and her cheeks were paying the price for it!) and she's been maintaining her sats in the mid-70's. The cough is really the only part hanging on still. She's eating much better...but according to the dietitian at Children's, she isn't getting enough and her weight has just plateaued at 9 kilos (right at 20 lbs.) for the last few months. Their recommendation is to stop her formula and start giving her 2-3 Pediasure bottles a day since it's 30 cals/oz. Maddie's only been taking about 15-18 oz. of formula a day plus whatever additional milk or juice she gets in her sippy cup and meals and snacks. I've been trying different Pediasure flavors, diluting it with whole milk, etc. and she's just not liking it. Any ideas on how to get her to take this are surely welcomed as well as any ideas for boosting those calories!!! I wasn't really worried about it until our over-nighter last week at the hospital...those dietician's always get me in a twit! Thanks :)



Enjoying her favorite...homemade mac-n-cheese smothered with butter and cheese!

Preschool Graduation

Right before this nasty virus (and mosquitoes) attacked our kiddos, the boys did have their preschool graduation on Memorial Day evening. They performed in a play and Big Bad Wolf (Jace) and Little Bear (Cade) did superb. It was a really cute, "new age" fairytale that was taped prior to the graduation program on one of the last days of preschool, so the crowd had the opportunity to watch it on big screen at the graduation. The class did so well with their lines, it was really impressive!

These boys are really good buds and having them together for this past year of preschool was just awesome. Thanks Mrs. Becky for such a fun year!!! Cade was advanced to his second year of preschool and Jace onto Kindergarten this August during the ceremony.

It's bittersweet knowing that our oldest is off to school this fall. My comfort in this is that Jace is so ready for school. BUT he will be terribly missed here at home by all of us. It's also tough realizing that there will be more "influences" in his life besides Bryan and I and I'll only get to spend about 6 waking hours with him a day. I'm surely going to miss him. He's a sweet little boy who adores his cousins and friends, is super creative, has an awesome imagination, loves to please, thought preschool was just "it", invents adventures for his lil' bro and himself, constructs some very cool objects, is great at riding his bike and swinging on the swing set. We are so proud of Jace and just looking at him makes us smile, inside and out. He has goals and when he sets his mind to something, he quickly achieves it. As I watched him ride away on his bike during our walk last night, I couldn't help but fall apart inside. My baby is growing up so fast...faster than he can pedal away from me. My role as mom is ever-changing...now I feel like I just need to hold on, help him steer when he needs it, and just enjoy the ride.

Home with O's

After monitoring Maddie for 24 hours at Children's, the consensus was she needs O's (she's on 1/2-1 liter of oxygen depending on her sats/coughing episodes/pucking) and just needs to have time to get over this bad virus. She did have a pretty good night last night and after a chest x-ray this morning, it was ruled out that this is affecting her lungs or heart. It's just a respiratory virus and leaves her hypoxic (looking blue, low sats, w/ harder time breathing). So the decision was left up to us: oxygen at home or stay in the hospital until she could come off it......so we're home. I did go back and forth on this but she kept pretty stable with the support of oxygen and is drinking and peeing enough for now. I don't feel so hot myself and I know we can all get well faster here at home without the risk of catching something else while in the hospital! Here's a few pictures of our girlie from this week.

We all looked/felt like this last night...a little tired maybe?!?

Here's the weird rash (and a little food she was saving for later I guess). This is after the hives/mosquito bites had tamed down. Her arm in the above picture is the aftermath of itching it sooo much- looks awful.

Thanks for checking on us and thinking of Miss Maddie. Please say extra prayers for a sweet little heart friend of ours, Lindsay. She's getting her angel heart tonight!

We're in the hospital...

After another trip to Seattle Children's this week (we came over here on Monday) Maddie was admitted this afternoon to the floor. She caught the yucky virus her big brothers have had and after labs were run Monday, it was determined that she has "Metapneumovirus" which is very similar to RSV. It affects the respiratory system, usually bronchial, and it typically just runs you down. She's had a fever off and on, very irritable and can't keep much down due to the horrible cough. We also learned it's common in warmer seasons. It really was hard on the boys so we were just waiting for little miss' turn since it was inevitable she'd get sick with two brothers hacking all over the place! They're feeling much better now after a full week of recoup.

We came back to the ER this morning after finding that her sats were in the mid-low 60's with dips in 50's with our pulse ox at home. She has typically been running around 78-80 lately, even on Monday when we were here, her sats looked great. She also woke up quite puffy, much more "blue" and pulling quite a bit when she was breathing. Luckily, she's hydrated (enough). They just want to keep an eye on her and watch what she's going to do in the next 24 hours or so...and we need to figure out what is causing her sats to be so low! Heart wise, she looked fine on Monday so it's really stumping us. She's not that congested, they suctioned her really well and hardly got any mucous out. So it's weird. Maddie's on oxygen and is still trying to pull of all of her leads and nasal cannula, so I see this as a good sign. On top of all of this, she also has a horrible rash which is a combo of old mosquito bites and hives. Yes, she does look quite lovely and if Iwasn't typing this on the hospital's computer, I'd post a picture. Sorry for no updates lately...we're going on 10 days of kids being sick, Maddie being the caboose and feeling so crummy. Poor little love.