Our Busy Week

We've been so busy lately! 

Saturday evening we decorated the tree. It's fun having the kids help, but stressful as well. I'm not sure how my mom survived with us 4 eager kids! Anyhow, we got it decorated and it's... well.... interesting. 

We got a 7-8 ft REAL tree from Lowes. We love it. it's so pretty. I know we've had fake trees the past few years, out of budgetary necessity, but it was SO nice this year to finally get a real one. 

Will liked helping daddy cut off the webbing. 

Like how I missed the entire middle section of lights?? Geesh. I know it's hard to see here, but from the red ribbon and up- is all the ornaments. Or most of them. The lower branches hold the "kid proof" ornaments, or they did. Will has rearranged every ornament a million times. Some are all on one branch, others are under the tree, some we had to take away, to preserve them.... so our tree looks a little "funny." Oh well, it is what it is. I don't have the energy or desire to mess with it.

I finally got the stockings I've been yearning for. They are huge and from World Market. I had an additional 25% off coupon and a gift card I've been saving... so I got quite the deal. They are knit- do you know how hard it is to find traditional knit stockings??!! It's pretty hard! The girls are solid red, the boys all have some gray in them. I had the hardest time decided to do all matching, or mix it up. I decided to mix it up, but I'm still not sure if I should have. Anyway, I also added candles to the fireplace to resemble a fire.

And I did add some lights and a poinsettia to the top of our cabinets. That's about it for this year. I'm amazed I did that much. :) (If you are asking, "WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO SARAH?? THIS IS NOT LIKE HER!" I'm asking myself the same thing. This year has killed me)

I did a few crafts with the kids. We made these bird feeders. They were fun... and so easy.... and actually worked perfectly. I love it when that happens! 

Our friends Josh and Gladys gave us a cute basket of stuff for the kids. In it was some fake snow stuff. The kids had a blast with it on Sunday morning. Will actually played with it... a little. He really doesn't like messes. But my Amy dug right in. That's my girl!

Sunday was a trying day..... The kids have been sick. Amy stayed home from school on Friday. It started as little colds and morphed into full blown snot, sneezing, coughing and headaches. Will wasn't feeling too great, and the baby was also a little sick. We probably should have stayed home, but we both had a ton to do at church, so we braved it. (which was the first mistake) ..... We couldn't get Will down for a nap before church, and he really has to have one. When I picked him up from nursery, the worker said he'd been in timeout because he was hitting. I said, "yep, that's about right, he's exhausted." The after church, we had plans for dinner at a friends house. I hated to cancel, but in retrospect, we probably should have, even though I hate being "those" people that cancel last minute and we really wanted to go (second mistake). Will was by now past overly tired. Dallin and Caleb we there too and the kids just ran and ran and ran. At one point, Will walked over to me and said, "Mommy?" in a really sweet, pitiful way. I said, "What's the matter bud, you tired?" and I picked him up. As I was lifting him, he fell into a seizure. 

It was a bad one, lasted 3 minutes and was more violent than the others he's had. I just wanted to cry for the guy. Luckily it ended and since we were with other members of the church, Lee and Cole were able to give him a blessing. It was sweet. The ride home was a nightmare because Will was so tired. He cried the whole way. Which made Tyler cry. And Amy, not wanting to leave the party, and being tired herself, was also being difficult. We finally got Will to sleep (it didn't take much) in our bed. Tyler was up all night though because he's so congested he couldn't breathe well. 

Monday- I don't remember Monday. Was there a Monday this week? Oh yeah, I do remember I called Mom and said I wish we lived closer because I could have really used her help that day. And I think I did laundry. 

Tuesday- that evening I was helping with the Relief Society (women's church group) Christmas activity. It was fun. We did a gift exchange, had dinner and did a cookie swap. I didn't do that one, I'm trying to lessen the sugar around here. I had to take the kids because Lee had class... but luckily he was able to come get them around 7 and take them home, and most importantly, put them to bed. That was his last final! yippee! (giving, not taking! He's so glad he never has to take another test again!) 

Wednesday- Will and Tyler still weren't doing well. Not "bad" but they weren't "well." Will took a great nap- he slept for over 3 hours, which I thought was great. I was on the phone with my sis in law, Lauren, and he was getting really whiny and tired again. He had just woken up, so I figured he was still 'waking' up. Anyway, he climbed on my lap, and fell into another seizure. Ahhhhhh!!! I quickly hung up with Lauren, started video taping and did all the stuff that goes along with it. This one lasted 2 minutes. It was violent, but not as bad as the one Sunday. I called Lee, told him and asked if he could possibly leave school to get Amy. it was just at pick-up time and I hated to drag Will into the car, to sit in the pickup line, etc.... Anyhow, of course Lee came right away and we spent the late afternoon holding Will. The poor thing. We did have to go to church for one quick thing that night, but Will was back to normal by then. Lee took the boys home, I kept Amy, and I had a presidency meeting. One other lady there (Jennie) has a girl Amy's age, so they were able to play. 

I did call the pediatrician somewhere in there. I just wasn't sure what to do. Will's neurologist has left the practice and is only doing hospital rounds in Nashville right now. So we can't see him. He has an appointment with a different neurologist, but it isn't until January. So he's kind of without a neurologist  which isn't a great thing. I love our pediatrician though, Dr. Rosser. He's so nice. He called me back, let me express all my concern and agreed that it was tough situation  He called in some antibiotics for us, without us having to even see him. He was like, "Get him started on this and it will take care of the infection end. If he's not visibly better within 2 days, call me back and we'll figure something out." Lee picked it up after church and started him on it right away.   

That night was also a little rough as Tyler still didn't sleep well. I held him from midnight until around 5:30am.... sleeping in the recliner. Which has become my sleeping spot! I put him in his crib and then laid in Will's bed (Will had fallen asleep in our bed, and given the day, we didn't want to move him) I didn't have my alarm clock, but I thought "I'll just lay here for a minute...." Well, 2 hours later, I awoke in a panic because it was 7:30... and we leave to bring Amy to school at 8. Everyone else was asleep too- even Will! Which was a miracle! Amy got to school on time, and all was well. 

Tyler had his recheck at the (new) neurologist office today. He's fine, hasn't had anymore episodes, his EEG was normal. So unless he has the spasms again, we don't have to go back for him. We did talk to the Doctor a little about Will. It's hard because he doesn't have his records yet, doesn't know his history, and doesn't know anything about him. He mentioned changing his medication, but I didn't want to jump into that if we didn't need to. We all (including Lee) finally agreed to keep him on the antibiotics and see if the infection was causing the seizures. Hopefully he'll be seizure free until his January appointment, and once he can review all the records and examine Will, we'll see where it goes from there. We do like this Doctor better than the other one though. We think the other was really good, but with his accent, he was so hard to understand. And he really didn't explain things well. This new guy explains things, probably a bit too well, but that's ok. We prefer that. He's also plain ol white American, so we understand all of what he's saying (when he doesn't use big 'doctor' words :)

We got home from that and I realized I had time to make it to Amy's school. They were making Gingerbread Houses and I want to be at school each and every time I possibly can. I just love being in Amy's class. And she loves it too. 

Full of frosting and candy! That's my girl!

So that's our week..... I'm sure you enjoyed reading all of that. Did you make it through?? If you did, you earn a medal. 

I'm not feeling too great myself. I think I'm getting what the kids have. I'm tempted to call a doctor tomorrow and get started on some antibiotics. I hate to do that, but we've all been sick for over a month- we have got to knock this thing out of this house!

Oh I forgot- yes- our elves did finally arrive! I think they were waiting for the tree to go up. They arrived, first- in the tree, and brought the kids Santa pillowcases. Amy was soooo excited. She loves the elves!!

The UGLIEST wreath ever! I was trying to "fix" it and then got sidetracked.
I keep forgetting to take it down!

Ok, now I'm done. :)