RSV, Take Two!

It's been a BAD fall and winter with illness.  Not just in our home, but everywhere.  It doesn't help that we catch everything that comes around because we are in a new area and getting used to the germs that are around.  It happens every time we move.  Although this year has been particularly bad.

I have been going through my oils like crazy and constantly putting them on the kids to protect them from getting more sick, or keep them from getting it all together.  They have done a pretty good job I must say.  So when Jason started with a croupy cough and getting sick, I mixed up my normal oils for croup and started putting it on him.  He had the croup twice this year already and when I put oils on him, it was gone within a matter of 2 hours.  The oils have been awesome.  But this time it didn't go away in a couple hours.  I kept putting them on his little feet and chest and also added them to his back/spine.  After a couple days he started to get worse.  I was very perplexed as what was going on.  I tried a few more oils and still things were looking worse.  When he would cough, it almost sounded like a small whooping and that's when I got scared.  I called the Dr right away and he squeezed Jason in even though the clinic was closed.  I was afraid that it was whooping cough.  Even though he is all caught up on his vaccinations, I heard you can still get it before you are a year old.  The Dr then did a pretty through check up on him and told us that it was RSV.

Now Jason had RSV when he was a couple of months old and it was scary then, but this time he got it really bad.  In fact the Dr put him on round the clock breathing treatments and a precautionary whooping cough medication and wanted to see him first thing on Frday morning (it was a Wed night we saw him).  If he had not improved by then we were looking at a hospital stay.  We were very diligent with his breathing treatments and gave him a blessing.  When we went to see the Dr first thing on Friday morning, Jason had improved significantly.  I was so excited!  He was starting to feel a lot better and turned around very fast.  If he would have gone in the hospital, we would probably have not been able to make it to Utah.  He got better so fast and hasn't had any problems or symptoms with his lungs since.  We were a little worried that he would get asthma because he got RSV twice in less than a year, but so far, that's not the case.

It was so sad to see him like this!  My poor little baby.

Science Experiments

Lydia is not much of a "sit down and lets do crafts or color" type of girl.  Her attention span is pretty short when it comes to things like that.  She bores easily and so I've had to come up with alternate activities we can do.  One thing she LOVES is our science experiments. We have done a few of them and she never bores of the fun we have when we see the world through the eyes of science.  Our latest experiment was a glass of water with an inch or two of oil on the top.  Then you put a drop of food coloring in it and watch it fall to the bottom of the oil.  After it falls to the bottom you can watch it slowly make it's way through the oil barrier into the water and then you get an explosion of color as the drop of food coloring disperses into the water.  It's a pretty cool thing to watch.

Christmas Cards for Recovering Soldiers

The last Family night we had in Texas before our trip to Utah, I thought it would be nice to write some Christmas Cards for wounded soldiers recovering in the hospital.  We had our lesson and then we wrote 6 Christmas Cards to send.  Lydia colored on the cards as her special hello and we also inserted a pass along card for them to receive a free movie from the LDS church.  It was a very nice reminder that no matter how little you may think you have or how bad you think you have it, there is always someone who is worse off than you.  I have a special place in my heart for our soldiers and we really thought that it was a good idea to let them know that there are people who really do care about them.

Me and My Babies

Kelvin took some great photos of me with the kids.  It's been a little while since I've been in pictures with my kiddos.  I usually take the pictures of Kelvin with the kids, so it's a nice change.

Dinner with Friends

Before all the festivities happened for Christmas, we got together with some of our friends for dinner.  We all brought something and it turned out great.  We felt bad because one of our friends wasn't able to make it.  She was really looking forward to it too.  The picture is a little blurry, but we wanted a picture to remember some of our friends while we were here in Lufkin.

My center piece that I put together a few minutes before the dinner.  Pineapple with pomegranate seeds in half of the pineapple.

It's a bad angle but here is Jenny and Jake Anderson (she's pregnant) and Lindsey and Jack Bryce.

New Christmas Nativity

One day while roaming through Target for some things we found a nativity made by Fisher Price's Little People.  It was pretty cool and priced decently so we bought it.  It is nice to have something that the kiddos can play with that's a Christmas decoration.  There are add on's that you can buy which we probably will since it didn't come with any Shepherds.  (I guess you buy those separate, weird.)  Lydia and Jason both really loved it and played with it everyday until we left for Utah.

Playing With Balls!

We love to have fun outside.  We are a definite play outside kind of family.  But since there are very few places that we can play outside, we have had to improvise.  Inside games of chase, tag, and ball have become regular for us.  The kids love getting involved with those activities and it burns off a few more calories for me so what the heck, right?  Well I caught a small game of kicking the ball on video and it is too cute!!!  I love these two kiddos with more words than I can say.