Easter Egg Hunt

So the Easter bunny found us last week. He stopped by on Saturday which we like since then we can focus more on Jesus and the Resurrection on Sunday. Here are a few pictures of the kids during the hunt. I'd post pictures of the kids on Easter but we somehow forgot to take a picture. Oh well! Most weren't dressed in a super festive manner anyhow.

Science Center trip

This weekend, we headed out to the Arizona Science Center. We always enjoy visits there. Sarah generally has a list of things she wants to do and see and wants to run from one to the next. So much to do, so little time....

Wheelchair race!

Playing in the sand.

Waiting for Forces of Nature.

Who is that strange-looking lady???

These next three pictures were created in the Digital World exhibit where you take a picture and then can alter it. U did Megan's and Matthew's. Sarah did her own.

Spring Break Fun

We enjoyed having Sarah home for her nice long Spring Break. It's a little over 2 weeks--there must be some perks if you start school in July, right? At first she actually didn't want to have Spring Break, as she was devastated she wouldn't be seeing her teacher for over two weeks. However, she seemed to get over that fairly quickly and enjoyed her break from school.

Sarah, Megan and Matthew had a lot of fun playing together. Sarah is always coming up with new games to play and activities to do. Megan and Matthew got to play "student" a lot while Teacher Sarah taught them about exciting things like how blood clots and where Russia is. Their school was complete with a lunch break, although the young pupils didn't understand why they needed to wait to eat their (play) food. They had backpacks full of toys that went all over the house and there were many adventures in the teepee. We took walks, played at the park and enjoyed the beautiful weather we have this time of year. We watched some movies and played games as well.

Our picnic in the family room. We were going to go to the Ostrich Festival but it was rainy and a bit cold so we had a picnic and watched a movie instead. Megan and Matthew loved the mobility they had!

We went to a Rockies Spring training game. Yes, they won. U actually won the tickets which included an all-you-can-eat buffet. Megan, Sarah and U enjoyed that as well. (We'll just say the food issue was a bit sticky for Matthew and me.) Megan and Matthew were super excited to see Dinger, although they seemed to prefer him at a distance. Sarah wanted to see him as well.

At the park.

Examining their roly poly collection.

Playing with the water table.

A visit from friends (one of my college roommates and her family)

Zoo!

We went to the zoo. It's so nice out right now and we wanted to take advantage of that and see some of the animals. It was a nice trip.

Checking out the savannah.

Doing "blast off" with daddy.

Sarah having a heart-to-heart with Bess the orangutan.

Climbing on the tree with daddy.

Truck!

Matthew loves trucks! A lot! He sees them everywhere and he likes going to see them up super close (and even touch them.) So he was super excited about this:

Megan enjoyed getting in on the fun as well.

Nephi is a Riot

Apparently I skipped the joke section in second Nephi. Sarah and Megan found it hilarious!

Sisters!

Sarah and Megan sure do love each other! It is a lot of fun to see them interact and it is really nice that they can comfort and help one another.

Megan is always happy to give a hug to Sarah.

Sarah and Megan were excited to wear matching dresses to church.

Look who's coming to town!

The cutest Santa ever!

(Figured we might as well continue with the Christmas theme from last week....)

I love Daddy!

Megan gives the best hugs!

Helper Megan

Megan loves to take care of things and do things herself. She has especially wanted to take care of Matthew lately, everything from changing his diaper to brushing his teeth.

She sure is a fun girl!

Here you can see Megan trying to pull Matthew out of bed in a headlock.

Holding her head still while getting her teeth brushed.

Holding Matthew's head still while brushing his teeth.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

The leprechaun found us. 

Did he find you?

Daddy's Magic Pajamas

Everyone wants to wear them. They even look like wizard robes if you are the right size. A toothbrush makes an excellent wand too.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

I know, you guys are probably thinking I'm crazy for making it Christmas in March. Who does that? Well, we just got the pictures from our ward Christmas party and I wanted to share. So here they are.

Note: U was out of town for the party which explains his absence from the pictures.

Cheese!

Megan has rediscovered how much she loves cheese. She used to eat it fairly regularly before we knew all about Matthew's allergies and before they were old enough to share food. Since that point, she gets the occasional sample here and there, mostly when we're away from the house. Well, when she was getting over being sick and her food choice consisted primarily of apple juice in a syringe, she saw Sarah's cheese stick and asked if she could have some. And since she'd eaten about nothing for five days, we were happy to oblige. She gobbled it up. And then ate another. And another. And another. Yes, she ate four cheese sticks in a row! And would probably have eaten more.

The next day, I think she had three for breakfast, two for lunch and one for bedtime snack. She'd ask for cheese and then would get so excited when we got it out for her. Huge smile, rocking back and forth in her chair, her arms flailing in delight and making excited squeals.

She continued asking for cheese a lot the next few days. And every time we'd give it to her, she'd get super excited. Seriously, cheese is the best thing in her world.

What about Matthew? Well, he asks for cheese pretty much every time Megan has it. He wants to experience what the excitement is all about. And we tell him no because it will hurt his tummy. Even Megan tells him "hurt, hurt." It's pretty cute! Maybe someday he will be able to eat it....

An epistle of sickness

We've spent the last few weeks under the weather. Seriously, this last round has been a doozy! It looks like we're finally about back to normal, for which we are very thankful. Here's a rundown of what happened.

A little over two weeks ago, Megan developed an icky sounding wet cough. A day or two later, she developed a fever. She had just gotten over a cold less than a week before so I wondered if she hadn't actually ever gotten over the cold but had developed a secondary infection. We took a trip to the doctor to find out. Great news--just a new cold.

The same day I took Megan to the doctor, Matthew developed a fever. His lasted a couple days and then he was back to normal temp with lots of cold symptoms (runny nose, coughing, etc) but otherwise acting normally. Megan's fever continued, however, and she started acting worse--not eating, not wanting to play--plus she sounded wheezy. If I hadn't taken her to the doctor on Saturday, I would have definitely taken her on Monday. However, since I'd just been told it was a cold, I didn't figure I needed to go back. By Tuesday, I was pretty concerned about her breathing plus she really didn't want to do anything but sleep. She wasn't eating at all and wasn't drinking much either. (The best way to feed her at this point was to give her apple juice in a syringe. She seemed to like this pretty well.) So we went back to the doctor and boy am I glad we did! Her fever was around 102, her oxygen level was around 92% (which is above the 90% I was looking for when she was on oxygen, but apparently is considered borderline. In fact, I found out some doctors send kids to the hospital automatically if their oxygen level is 92% or below). She was not acting good at all. She had a double ear infection and her lungs had lots of wheezing and crackling, even with the nebulizer treatment we'd given her 3 hours earlier. We did a nebulizer treatment at the office with albuterol as well as another medicine to help open up the airways. She sounded a little better after that, although there was still some wheezing and crackling. Her oxygen level was still 92%. However, she was acting a lot better--she was moving around and interacting with us more plus she'd drunk a whole bunch of water and eaten a few dehydrated apples. She got a shot of an antibiotic to help with the infections and then we were sent home with instructions to do nebulizer treatments every 3-4 hours and to come back the next morning. Needless to say, it was a long night with lots of interrupted sleep to do breathing treatments with Megan but totally worth it since we were able to be at home, not the hospital.

The next morning, Megan was acting better and didn't have a fever. She still wasn't eating (just apple juice in a syringe) but that's not so abnormal when you're sick. I was hopeful she'd be doing a lot better when we got to the doctor's office. Unfortunately, even though she was acting better, she still wasn't doing so great. Her ear infections had cleared a little but not as much as expected given the injection she'd had, her oxygen was still at 92% and her lungs sounded as bad as they had when we arrived on Tuesday--lots of wheezing and crackling. Ugh! Definitely disappointing. We did another breathing treatment with the two meds and she got another shot. Her oxygen level went up to 94% and her lungs sounded MUCH better! Yeah! So we left with an appointment for the next day and instructions to do breathing treatments every 4 hours. Oh, I should add that the doctor who saw her on Tuesday was off on Wednesday but ended up coming into the office to finish up some paperwork and was the one who saw Megan on Wednesday. I'm really thankful for that because it allowed us to have good comparisons between how she was on Tuesday and on Wednesday. Also, she told me on Wednesday that the only reason we didn't go to the hospital on Tuesday is because Megan perked up during our appointment and was acting a lot better by the time we left. I'm really glad she didn't tell me that on Tuesday--I think I would have been more worried than I already was!

We also found out at the Wednesday appointment that Megan has mild asthma that flairs with colds. I'm not really surprised by this since she tends to get colds easily and they last a really long time, both of which can be signs of asthma.

Matthew had continued having cold symptoms, but eating and playing normally. Well, Wednesday night, he developed a fever. I figured there was a strong probability of a secondary infection so I added him to Megan's appointment. Sarah had had cold symptoms since Monday and really wasn't feeling well on Thursday, telling me it hurt when she coughed, so I added her to the appointment as well. It's what you call a 3-fer-1, right? Except you have to pay for all 3....

At Thursday's appointment, Megan was looking much better. One of her ears was completely cleared and the other was mostly clear. Her lungs sounded much better as well. Strangely, her blood oxygen level was 90%. Bizarre! Matthew's lungs, on the other hand, had crackling and wheezing. Not surprising, I suppose. His oxygen level was fine at 96%. Sarah had just a little wheezing when she breathed in really deep, but nothing too bad. Megan and Matthew both got prescriptions for antibiotics and we needed to do breathing treatments with them. The doctor recommended using some cough medicine for Sarah to help thin the mucus.

Over the next few days, we did quite a few breathing treatments with both Megan and Matthew, gradually decreasing them as they started doing better and coughing less. (All three kids had horrible sounding wet coughs.) Matthew's appetite decreased a little but never to the point where he wasn't eating. Megan's appetite was pretty much nothing until Friday evening at which point she started readily eating select foods.

Sarah actually got worse before getting better. She had a fever all day Saturday and Sunday. Sunday, in particular, she felt miserable. She just laid around all day and took multiple naps. (One nap when she's sick is rare so multiple is amazing! And shows how bad she felt.) I figured we'd be back to the doctor on Monday since she probably had a secondary infection. However, she woke up feverless on Monday and was feeling much better. Yeah!

I'm certainly thankful people are feeling better!

(Oh and, yes, I did have this cold, too. Although it was nowhere as bad for me as I didn't ever develop the icky cough. The hardest part was probably the lack of sleep due to all the breathing treatments with Megan. Not that I'm complaining--I'll do what it takes to help her breathe. Especially when it means being at home instead of the hospital!)