July 2015

Lots of fun happened in July.... life got a lot less fun towards the end of July but lets focus on the happy parts first. 

My workout buddy... When I don't get up on time, he loves to "Oork ouut" with me :)

Loves to do exactly what Dad does... his little buddy...

My garden did great while I was home... produced magic beans, some radishes and the carrots have been a huge hit! We even have some purple ones!! ;) And a tomato... 

This is what happens when you jar your fruit... it is easy to see and the children sneak it out! Ha ha ha Bless her heart... they were hiding on the other side of the fence mowin' down on some blueberries....

The fourth of July was super fun! We spent it with Brian's family, and we had an awesome time. Kids played in water,  adults shared yummy food and we watched some great fireworks from the little town of Baker.

Doug and Donna have this little track on their property and Madison was loving it. We all were actually. It was a lot of fun and we all enjoyed ourselves. But Madison probably had the  most fun.

Snagged this awesome family pic!

The puppies definitely enjoyed themselves too...

Pinned!

Madison had her very first race! And she totally loved it. It is so funny to me how opposite she is of Brian and I. She was telling us about how everyone would be watching her and how awesome that was... How super cool her helmet was, and how everyone would be asking, "Woah! Who is that girl in the rainbow helmet?!?" I kid you not... she is definitely all about herself right now! Ha... trying to teach some humility as well as thinking of others, not just ourselves.... We shall see.

She totally got dead last, but told everyone she won, because she saw the "winner flag" aka the checkered flag! Hee hee!! It totally worked though... I'm glad she has so much fun with it.. It's fun to see her get competitive about things. And it was fun to watch. :)

You go to a race... you're going to get dirty... 

The racers

Her fierce competition! ;)

She made a pit stop to chat with dad... 

I don't know why, but I absolutely love this picture.

And of course Brian got his racing in as well :)

Pretty sure there was some smack talk going on... ha ha ha or she was just letting hime know she had the coolest helmet ever... and might have even said hers was way cooler than his.... yikes

Typical fighting.... He squezed on, she wants him off so squishes him forward... I snap pictures of the whole thing

Picking up her trophy.... Everyone in the pee wee class got one ;) But she was pretty stoked.

If you know us very well, you know we don't go on vacation very often... But we planned this week long vacation and had been planning it since like March. Brian and I went camping up by Rexburg and took the bikes and rode. The kiddos went with my parents, camping, to a family reunion, and then to WA. It was awesome. Seriously it was such a needed break and was so great to get away without the kids and without any online obligations. I even took a break from Beachbody and didn't have a challenge group, and no book parties! So seriously no need for internet and no texting, phone calls... we seriously had no service and for a week it was delightful... :)

On the way to Rexburg

It was so pretty! Everything was crisp and cool and beautiful. Perfect weather the whole time we were there... It was fantastic!

Even got to ride a little with our good friend Porter. :) We love seeing the Bartchi's when we travel to Rexburg.

Some fresh huckleberries! 

Packing up :( It was sad.... but it was a great trip

The battle wound. I was pretty proud of my bruise! :)

The day we got home from Rexburg, we theoretically still had a week without our kids. We had big plans of painting and getting some much needed spring cleaning/tidying up done while they were gone... But the night we got home, we drove to Miles City to pick up our dogs, and on the way home got a call that Mason was in the ER with a 106 temp. He had been in the Dr. office earlier that day thinking it was an ear infection.. but nothing was found... When he got super hot that night my mom took him in, and I flew out to WA the next morning catching a 5 am flight... EEekk SO TIRED...

But this started a whole new adventure that forever changed our life.... It was a very very long journey trying to figure out what was wrong with the poor boy :(

This is quite seriously what he did 75% of the time for 11 days.... 

And this is what he did the other 25% of the time.... It was SO sad...

It's one thing to see your kid with the flu or an ear infection... it's totally different when there is no end in sight and they keep spiraling downward... slowly... slow enough that people... DOCTORS... tell you to wait it out, you are over reacting... and day after day your kid gets more sick and lethargic.

It was depressing, sad, and so hard to watch. And it took forever to figure out what was wrong.

Overall he had 3 ER visits, 3 clinic visits and then ended up admitted to the hospital. His face says what I feel about that whole process... Don't even ask me how many times he got poked or had blood drawn... oh my... :(

He did not appreciate my sense of humor

Meanwhile.. Miss Madison was still loving life at grammie's and all the animals, dress up and the pool. Poor girl totally got the shaft on her vacation as well, but she was a pretty good champ about it all.

This happens to be my old dance outfit... that brings up many emotions... Ha! There is a very funny story that goes along with this outfit. It was fun to see her in it... Probably a little bit older than I was when I wore it. 

Life sucks for sick kids

He LOVED having his ears rubbed... so we did it... a lot. 

This is how we got water in him. He was so dehydrated they had to prick his toe to get blood at one point... it took 45 mins. It was terrible.. they just keep pricking and squeezing.... it was horrible. :(

He was a miserable little boy. You can see in the picture on the left he had developed the red eyes at this point. This was like day 7 or 8 of fever, and no improvement... 

And then on day 10 they finally decided to give in to the Kawasaki disease diagnosis.... They said he was an atypical presentation of the case. He didn't have the swollen lymph nodes and while his tongue and lips were red, they were not "strawberry". But he met enough of the criteria that they treated him for it.

He received one dose of immunoglobulin through an IV and a few very high doses of aspirin. He stayed on the high doses of aspirin until a day before he was released. And has continued on just a regular dose of aspirin until his coronary arteries are back to normal size.
We were in the hospital for 4 days... He was so cantankerous, and has gotten a little better... but definitely has some irritability that is residual effect from this disease...

His little IV produced quite a funny reaction from him. If it was kinked or slightly obstructing the flow of the solution it would beep. At irst he was terrified to move right after it was put in, and when it beeped his face was hilarious... I wish I got it on video... but he would hear it beep and have this panicked face and stare at his little bandaged up arm... It was adorable and sad all at the same time.

Eventually he got used to the beep noises and would hear it beep and just hold his arm out to the side and wait for someone to come and fix it... Also super cute and yet sad all at the same time.

This was the day before we got released... He was just a crank. But it was fun to take him around in the wagon and get out of his room... See something different. Right after he was released we headed for home the following day.