Idaho and the Flu

The weekend started off great. We drove up late Thursday night and got to Grandma's house in Idaho around 11:45 pm. It was a nice drive. The kids all slept for the majority of the drive and went right to bed once we had arrived.

The next morning, Grandma Brenda and Papa Dallas sang Happy Birthday to Eston and gave him presents. They weren't able to come to Salt Lake earlier in the week so waited till we came to their house. Eston got some new clothes for the fall/winter seasons and a Woody doll. Eston carried his "buddy" around the entire weekend. This toy top the charts on gift giving.



Later in the evening Grandma Brenda and Papa Dallas decided to have dinner in the tree line with us. Papa made a fire in the fire pit, and we roasted hot dogs. This was the start of the kids "camping adventure".



We ate a lot of good food and ended the main course with Logan throwing up everywhere. We don't know if he was sick or if he just choked on his cracker and gagged himself. But it was quite the show stopper. Had we known what the rest of the weekend would bring we should have just left then.



While Matt and I were cleaning Logan and his mess up. Papa sat outside and helped the kids roast marshmallows. I am glad that they didn't have to suffer because of the attention that Logan needed. It's always nice when there is an even adult to kid ratio.



We gave the kids a choice on whether they wanted to sleep in the house or out on the tramp. A month ago Eston slept with Matt outside and loved it. Sammie was not able to get over this so she immediately said yes. Eston decided a bed sounded nice so we divided and conquered. I had 3 kids and Matt had 1. Sounds even. Eston ended up sleeping with me and kicked me through out the entire night. Matt came in about 4 in the morning complaining of an upset stomach. By 8 am he was leaning over the toilet. Matt was sick the rest of the day and just stayed in bed and slept.

Side note: I just love this picture of Logan and Grandma "O".



Since Matt was out of the picture for the day we had to get creative with what we could do to entertain the kids. Papa washed the suburban and let both kids help with that. They had a great time and stayed dry. I was shocked.



They climbed Grandma's plum trees and ran freely around her huge yard.



Later that night as we were eating dinner, Matt had joined us at this point, Sammie complained of her stomach hurting. Within an 20 minutes Matt and I were tag teaming buckets between Sammie and Eston downstairs. The twins stayed upstairs with Dallas and Brenda until it was bed time. The night was horrible. We were up until about 4 in the morning with the kids throwing up about every 10-20 minutes. The next morning Dallas came down to tell us that him and Brenda had also gotten sick in the night and Brenda was doing horrible. We decided to cut our loses and load the car up. We headed home first thing Sunday morning with the hopes that no smells or noises would come from the back seat until we had reached our home. We got lucky. After we got home we all took a long nap and went to bed early that night.

Lucy came down with the bug on Tuesday night. At this moment I am the only one who didn't catch the flu.
As fun as Idaho is, I don't want anyone in my family getting sick again unless we are at our own house. It is too hard when you aren't on your own turf and I feel bad that my in-laws caught the bug as well.

Sammie's Dance Recital

Sammie just finished her first dance recital. She was adorable. I don't know who was more excited for her big night, her or me.

This past few months she has been taking dance with 4 of her friends. Every week she was so excited to go to class. She never complained and always kept trying to tell me that I couldn't be late (kinda hard with 4 kids under 4).

This girl was in her element.
This is her dance class. She took with Anni, Etta, and Salote.



I had to laugh at this picture because this was one of my favorite poses for years when I was a kid.



I took a few pictures at her rehearsal.




They are all looking to the side because that is were their teacher was standing to help them out. We loved having Miss Natalie as a dance teacher this year and hope she comes back for next year.



Sammie had a tough time getting ready for her big night. Saturday morning she woke up with the sniffles but acted ok. But by 3:00 in the afternoon (1 hour before she had to be at the recital) she had a total melt down. She was sick with a head cold. I tried to curl her hair and she screamed, I offered to stop she screamed louder, I told her I would skip the make-up and she screamed, I put the make-up on her and screamed she wanted it off. Sammie was sick and she was crying, but was also determined to get to her recital. I debated about what to do. I figured if it was a little head cold I would send her because it was such a big night for her and she has looked forward to it for a long time.



She did great and was adorable to watch. She had a painted smile on her face and was one of the few preschool dancers in her class that followed the teachers dance moves. We were very proud of her.



FYI: We came home that night and around 10:30 at night Sammie got slammed with what appears to be croup. Poor little girl (and sorry to all dancers she hung out with), her big night and she wasn't at her top level. She is a trooper.

A Busy Conference Weekend

Let me just say that if it is going to be declared OFFICIALLY SPRING, then we better have good weather. My kids wanted to go outside and play so bad, that I finally caved in and let them, lucky it was one of the few moments that there was no rain/snow. It was however about 40 degrees outside. I was inside, which explains why you can see the dirt on the window in this picture.



We went into our Conference weekend with sick kids, mainly Lucy. She had been sick for a week and on Friday I finally took her to the doctors office again. They ran some tests and called Saturday morning to let us know that she had a Double whammy and was slammed with two nasty viruses. She had the Paraflu (croup) and RSV they told us to take her up to Primary Children's hospital to get her breathing checked. After a few hours we came home and as of today she seems a lot better. However, we are now moving on to baby two. Apparently TWINS do share everything. Poor Logan is all congested and miserable. All he wants is to be held and cuddled. Luckily his lungs still seem clear and it seems to just be a head cold so far. I will be happy when they both are over this nasty stuff.



On Saturday night my sisters came over and took Sammie and Eston over to my brother's house for dinner and to hang out during the Priesthood session. It was a nice break since I had two babies that needed my attention. They had ice cream and Sammie made a huge mess (this girl hates to be dirty) we had to get a pic.



I did manage to finish making the girls Easter dresses this weekend. I am excited to see them wear them together. Sammie has been begging to have a matching dress with Lucy. I just need to go get Sammie's shirt for underneath. The boys also have matching shirts and ties. I love that I can coordinate my kids clothes with each other every now and then.

Home Sick

Monday night started out normal. We put the kids to bed at 8:30 and did a little cleaning. At a 11:30, just as my head hit the pillow, I heard Matt yell that he needed me now. I went upstairs to find that Eston, my little boy, had thrown-up for the first time in his life. He is just about 2 1/2 years old. He had no clue what to do with himself. After Matt had taken him and cleaned him up, along with all of the throw-up, Sammie tells me that she feels sick and barely made it to the bathroom to visit the toilet. A little side note, I don't do well at all with Throw-up. Matt is amazing and takes care of 99% of anything that happens with that.

Matt took both kids downstairs to care for them through out the night. Now, you might be saying to yourself right now, "That is so sweet for him to let Brynn get all of that sleep." Oh no, the day before our washing machine broke. So I went with Lucy to my sister's house to do puke laundry until 4:00 am. Matt and I were both haggard by the next morning. Matt even stayed home from work to continue looking after Sammie and Eston, so I could keep the twins seperate from the action. I love that man!!

Here are a few pictures of the patients.



Eston just never quite caught on to the idea of a "throw-up bowl."



He also felt so sick, but wanted to play.



It has been quite the busy three days. We still don't have a washing machine, but at least we don't have stinky throw-up clothes laying around.