Daily Life

I feel like my life has been a whirlwind, lately. And our house looks like a whirlwind has hit it. In the last  weeks, all four kids got strep throat (slowly, one after another, you know, so we could drag it out). It started with Rachel...
Sun, Jan 11th, was a normal day, then that night, Rachel suddenly woke up throwing up. She continued to throw up and had a burning fever on Monday. I hoped it was just a 12 hour stomach flu. Rachel did stop throwing up, by Monday evening, but she was still burning up and refusing to eat. " I guess it's a 24 hour flu," I thought. Then, Tuesday, she still wouldn't eat, and still had a fever. "48 hour flu?" I guessed. Wednesday, she still had a fever and wouldn't eat. I finally took her in to the doctor. While driving there, the thought came to me: "You might need to take her tonsils out." Strange thought...
Then, we saw the doctor, he looked in her throat and said "Whoa! Those tonsils are HUGE girl! Are her tonsils always this big?" Uhhh, have to admit...I had no idea what size my children's tonsils are, on an average day...I also did not know what size they were on THAT day...
He gave us a prescription for antibiotics and told us we should have her tonsils assessed, in a couple of weeks, when she was all better.
Here are some pics Katie took of Rachel, the sicky. Aren't those toes cute?

 Here she is, getting better, and eating...but her poor eyes still look so sick! :(

 The girls love to arrange all their stuffed animals on their beds and then ask me to take pictures of it. They are only supposed to have 4 things in their bed with them, when they go to sleep, though.

Some day to day things:
Maliya, always in Hayden's face. I can't complain about her obsession with babies, though, because she is going to be an AWESOME babysitter, in a couple years, here...

 Hayden crawls around the house so fast! It always surprises me when he comes and finds me in my room. I feel like that is so far to crawl, but he does it all the time!

 He loves to get into the dishwasher! Today, he kept throwing his toy ball into the dishwasher while I loaded it!

 Maliya, is pretty good about fixing her own hair. She is so cute and grown up!

 Hayden's cute little toes! He loves it when I do "this little piggy."

 I love to cuddle him and he loves to cuddle and sit on my lap, too!

 These Picasso Tiles from Grandma Topham are basically always in use...

Hayden also loves peek-a-boo. He will just hang out under the blanket for a lot longer than the girls ever would have put up with! He just sits, still as can be, under there, until we pull the blanket off! So funny! He is learning how to take it off, himself, now, though.

 Maliya, getting ready for school...

Costco trips, a regular To Do item, for us...

 Bottles and cuddles...

 Homework...

 Getting ready for bed...

 Teaching Katie the letters in her name. She is getting really good at pointing out K-A- and T to me.
And...on this day...(about a week after Rachel had gotten her antibiotics), I wondered if Katie didn't feel good. I took her temperature...hmmm, 102. After picking Maliya up from school I took her temperature. 100. So I took them both to the doctor. Yep. Strep Throat. Great.

Sending Rachel off to school...

 More and more doctors visits...

 Kids sneaking out of bed, at night...

 Hugs goodbye for dad...

 Running outside to wave goodbye to Rachel...

 Driving carpool...

 Birthday parties...

New Beginnings...

 Babysitting my nephew...

Giving blood, taking a Spanish class, getting ready for a Triathlon, volunteering at school, Rachel's 100th day...

 Then, Hayden getting sick. Of course, it was a Saturday, and of course, it was a holiday (Valentines Day). Most doctors must not want to work on Valentines Day, when it's a Saturday...we went to the urgent care clinic and were told that it would be a 45 min wait!!! Luckily, there was a Tonka truck to amuse Hayden...

 Sadly, Brian was helping his sister move, so I got to take all four kids to the doctors office. AGAIN!

Kinda a boring place for kids to spend their Valentines Day SATURDAY! But they made the best of it by running around like crazies... 

Strep throat. And more antibiotics. 

A few days later, I notice that Hayden's antibiotics are giving him severe diarrhea. I call the doctor, and get to buy MORE antibiotics. A few days later, Katie starts regressing and gets her fever back, even though she is still on her antibiotics. We go to the doctor AGAIN and get MORE antibiotics...We might be, single handedly, keeping the Smith's Pharmacy in business...