Sick Days and Charley Turns One!

Before we get into the fun stuff. I have to write (for their "baby book") about these last couple of weeks of sickness with ALL 3 kids! It all started with Reed getting sick at Mother's Day Out on a Monday with the stomach bug then he took a turn for the worse. He was as sick as I have seen him since he has been home from the hospital 2 years ago. He would not eat, play, walk, turn his head to look at you,etc.. So my mom calls me at school on Thursday and says "we are concerned that he might have meningitis because he does not want to move his neck." Not the best thing for her to call and tell me 10 minutes before I am going to teach Calculus class:-) I, of course, am a basket case and think that Reed is going to have to go to the hospital for an aweful illness. Long story short, they did a quick strep test which came back negative and the doctor just said she thought he had a bad virus with a really sore throat because his lymph nodes were really swollen. Well, we had a follow up visit the next morning and his congestion had gotten much worse so she sent us for a chest x-ray which came back as viral pneumonia. Then later that day, the nurse called and said the culture came back positive for strep. I was so excited to know a reason for all of this! The antibiotic didn't help that they put him on over the weekend and he ended up getting an ear infection too. He was still not really eating at this point and hardly drinking his milk. I called the doctor and she put him on a new antibiotic which worked!!! I had called cardiology several times during all of this just to make sure that he didn't need to come in. It actaully made the doctors feel better since the others were sick too. Braden also had strep and Kylie had a double ear infection with thrush. It was probably my hardest week as a mom minus the hospital days! Praise God they are much better now!!! Now onto the fun stuff. Kylie Reese is getting around everywhere and mostly by walking. She is going to be celebrating her first birthday this upcoming Friday! Where has the time gone?!!

The great grannies came for the weekend to celebrate Charley's birthday. The boys were enjoying the warm weather especially since they could eat Popsicles outside. Kylie walking with her papa. She is going to have some tough feet...who needs shoes?!

My little girl is growing up but she is so much fun. She is so well natured and pretty laid back. Don't get me wrong though, she lets her brothers know if she doesn't like when they mess with her! Braden is still ALL boy. He loves to do anything outside and is really into throwing balls and playing in the dirt. The boys were running to get out of the driveway from the big trucks at my parent's house and they both wanted to be picked up by nana! Braden is terrified of the trucks. He will not even get close to the driveway if he hears or thinks a big truck is coming down the driveway. I guess this is a good thing though!

Oreo's anyone??? It is such a relief to see Reed feeling much better. He has lost weight since being sick so we pretty much let him eat whenever and whatever he wants! Charley's First Birthday Party!! Isn't she just the cutest thing? She is a little mixture of Craig and Tina. Tina had everything decorated so cute and the "berry" theme was carried out throughout everything. She had cute little cupcakes, sugar cookies for party favors along with bubbles for the kids, a strawberry pinata, and pink and green candies.

My dad and I were both taking pictures of them so I didn't get all of them looking at the camera at the same time. Charley didn't care a lot about her cake because Craig gave her one of these rock candy suckers that she did not want to let go of. She ended up sticking the sucker in the cake to eat the cake!

All of the "big kids" had already left when we did the pinata so my boys were the biggest kids left to try and bust it open. Needless to say, Ryan had to help with that! Nana having a little talk with Kylie. These two are going to have some good times growing up together.

Tina, with her brother Jason, entertained the boys for a while with the sand and water table. This is one of those fun toys that I refuse to buy because I don't want to clean up the mess:-)

The boys went down to the pond to do some fishing. Can you tell that Braden and Reed were about past going?? Ryan showing the boys his 'big' catch!!

Oh, little Miss Charley can have a little fit when she wants to. Nana was giving her water out of the water bottle and this is what happened when Nana took the bottle from her. Guess who won this battle? Papa, Tina, Charley, Kylie and Nana

These next two pictures summarize who's each of their favorites. Well, not really but most of the time when you ask Braden "Whose boy are you?" he will reply "Papa's!" and when you ask Reed "Whose boy are you?" he will reply "Nana's". I know it's not Easter yet but we have to get at least two wears out of these outfits:-) Don't they look too cute?? I know some of you think that dressing the boys in knee socks at age two is pushing it, but I love it!!!