Catching Up

Wow... can I procrastinate with the best of them, or what?! Apparently, I (subconsciously) decided to take a break from blogging for the Holidays!! It will be tough catching up, but here we go...

The weekend before Christmas, we were able to take a little trip to Boise to see Nate's parents. I guess this was Abby's idea of helping me pack for the trip:

We had a really nice time getting to visit with Grandma and Grandpa.

Grandma Law is currently going through chemotherapy to fight breast cancer, and it was so good to see her looking well. We had fun watching her "model" some of her different wigs. Uncle Brett came to visit, too, and it was great fun to see Jade and Amber. They are such beautiful cousins!

Abby took this photo of her Daddy and Uncle Brett. It's quite the perspective!

Later that night, we got to go to an Idaho Steelheads hockey game with Aunt Rox, Uncle Scott, and their boys. We got a whole row all to ourselves! Or should I say, we TOOK a whole row!!

We had really good seats....only a few rows up. The game was exciting and the Steelheads played great! Abby seemed to enjoy the game....scratch that...she seemed to enjoy the food:

In between the hotdog and the ice cream, she also ate a whole bag of Doritos and half of a six-inch sandwich from Blimpie's. Can we say growth spurt??!! She wasn't the only one who enjoyed the concession stands!! Daddy has had a tradition that he's kept at every game -- in between 1st and 2nd periods, he always goes to get a plate of super nachos!

Abby loved the skating bear, the "fanatic" fans in front of us, and getting to sit next to "her Nolie."

The only part of the evening she didn't seem to enjoy was when the announcer told people to, "Make some noise!!"

Although we didn't end up having enough time to see everyone that we wanted to (what else is new), we had a really nice weekend!!

Uncle Chad, Aunt Jami, and Camber arrived on Dec. 23rd, and I think Abby was more excited for that than she was about Santa Claus! She was so anxious for them to stay with us so that she could play and play and play with her cousin!! The girls played together so well the whole time the Kenisons were at our house, and we were so glad to have them with us! This year for Christmas, I decided not to stress out about all the little things. Very few treats and cards were made. No family picture was taken. No special home made gifts or projects were completed. Yet, somehow it was one of the best Christmas's I can remember for a long time. It was nice to just relax and enjoy the Spirit of the season. I felt so truly grateful for my little munchkin, my husband, and all our family. It was nice to reflect on how much the Savior's birth and life means for all of us, and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the holidays this year!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

The New Year, however, was not quite as relaxing or fun. On December 30th, Abby started having a mild cough. We didn't worry too much, because she wasn't running a fever. Unfortunately, she woke up several times during the night, and by morning DID have a temperature of about 100.2 degrees. She also had developed a wheezy, raspy sound when she would breathe, and we decided we better take her to the Dr. Ammon Urgent care was open, and they got us right back to an exam room. The Dr. said it could possibly be Pneumonia, but after concluding that the end result would be the same, we decided against x-rays. After a breathing treatment and a prescription for an antibiotic, we headed for home. The Dr.'s instructions were to have her take it easy, get lots of fluids, and go to the ER if she got any worse. Nate left to help my mom move to her new place, and so I was left to keep an eye on the munchkin. I had just given her the antibiotics and some Tylenol, and was rinsing out the medicine dropper, when I heard, "Mommy.......bbllllaaaaaagghhhh." That's right. Puked. All over herself and the chair! Why does puke have to smell so horrible!? After getting a traumatized little girl in the tub and cleaning up the chair, I called Urgent Care. I never know in situations like that if you are supposed to take more medicine, or not. They said to try getting some food in her belly first and then giving her some more, so that's what we did. Within about 5 minutes of taking it for a second time, she felt the urge to puke again. Luckily, this time she gave me a little more warning, and we made it to the toilet! Between the puking and her fever getting worse, along with the wheezing and raspy cough coming back full force, I decided not to mess around.....we headed for the hospital.

I felt so bad for my little munchkin as we sat in the Emergency Room waiting area. She still felt nauseous, but because there was no longer anything to come back up, I had to watch the poor thing dry-heave and make the most horrible retching sounds. I could feel all the eyes of the other awaiting patients on us, and I just wanted to scream at them, "Why the heck do you think we're here, folks??!! She's sick -- so back off!!" Fortunately, they didn't make us wait too long before taking us back to our own private space. And after a couple of hours, Daddy was able to join us.

Some anti-nausea medication, chest x-rays, two breathing treatments, and five hours of Sponge Bob later, we were finally released to go home. Turns out, it wasn't Pneumonia. They asked if we had a family history of Asthma, but that wouldn't really matter in her case, would it?! In the end, they chalked it up to a Bronchial infection, and were finally ready to let her go after her blood/oxygen saturation levels stabilized. I did check her birth mom's records when we got home.... she had Asthma as a child, so we will see if this is a recurring problem. We picked up the new prescriptions for a steroid and some Albuterol (to do breathing treatments), and headed home. By the time we said Happy New Year to the Kenisons, Aunt Sam, and Uncle Brady, got some dinner, did another breathing treatment, and got the munchie to bed, we were exhausted. We intended on at least watching a movie together and bringing in the New Year quietly. We made it until about 11:00. We just couldn't stay awake. Abby was back to her normal self within a couple of days, but it was hard seeing her feeling so sick and lethargic! Happy New Year to us! Let's hope that 2010 will hold a few less Dr.'s visits, illnesses, and injuries, and a whole lot more of the laughter, joy, and family togetherness that we enjoyed in 2009!