some catch up

This is the longest I have ever gone without posting.  Man I really want to still document here but, as with everyone else, there just seems to be no time to sit down to actually do it.  But today I do have a little time so I thought a little catch up post was in order!  

Let's see.  What has been going on around here since my last post in mid-November? 

We took a little trip to Branson, MO.  It is about 4 hours away for us and we had never been.  Well, actually Lonnie and I have been to Big Cedar many times before (which is close by) but never ventured into Branson.  We wanted to take Blakely somewhere and do some fun  things just for her.  She has adjusted to being a big sister really well but she definitely needs some Mommy and Daddy attention sometimes.  We took Brenda with us so she could watch the twins while we took Blakely places.

We had a great time.  We went to a butterfly museum, 

had dinner at Dixie Stamp.ede where Blakely was enthralled...

went to the Titanic museum (Lonnie has a high school friend that works there and knows everything there is to know about it)

went to Silver Dollar City where Blakely rode her first roller coaster and loved it.  

and had lunch with all of us at Br.anson Landing.  

Lonnie and I went on a date one night and had one of the best steaks we have ever had.  It was fun to getaway and the babies did great.  (also...traveling with a babysitter is bomb)  

We had a good Thanksgiving...I took ZERO pictures.  At the last minute we decided to travel to see Lonnie's family a couple of hours away.  A few of them had not met the twins yet so I am glad that we went.  Of course we had to load up the van with what looked like a week's worth of stuff just to spend a few hours away from home.  Everyone did good.  I took a pack n play and Benton and Emery actually napped in there together.  I wasn't sure they would do that but they did and I was soooo thankful because it made for much happier babies!  

We had our twice yearly wine and gourmet dinner.  It was so wonderful and a great date night for us!  

In early December I hosted a Christmas pajama playdate for all my friends and their kids.  We bought them all matching jammies.  It was so much fun.  Chaotic, but super fun.  The big kids and medium kids played in the playroom most of the time and the mommies and the babies stayed upstairs.  We drew names for the kids to exchange gifts and the mama's played dirty santa.  I think we started a tradition!  

It was so hard to get a picture of all the kids.  We were like a bunch of crazy mamas trying to get the babies to look and the big kids to smile at the same time.  But we did it and I love this picture oh so much.  

December is always a busy month made harder this year by everyone being sick for what seems like forever.  First Blakely got a little cold with a cough.  Then Benton and Emery got it.  They all got better for a few days and Blakely's cough came back.  Then about a week after being well the twins woke up snotty one morning.  No big deal.  That night they began to run a low grade fever.  Emery woke up in the middle of the night screaming and would not calm down.  She would only fall asleep sitting up on Lonnie's chest for 30 minutes at a time. The next morning her fever was up and she was crying a lot.  We gave her Ty.lenol and her fever went down and she acted better.  Still didn't want to be put down but she wasn't crying.  Well a couple hours after that she just became so lethargic and wouldn't nurse.  I got really scared because she was just limp and I couldn't really rouse her.  She wasn't asleep she just had this really sick look.  I ran her up to our doctor's office.  Her fever was 103 when we got there and they could tell she was so sick.  Strep, flu and RSV were all negative.  So I was like well what the hell?  I just knew it was going to be strep or rsv.  Anyway, our doctor, who is so wonderful and we LOVE him, came in.  He looked in her hears and said well I have GREAT news.  She has a raging ear infection and her eardrum will probably rupture.  Great news?  Ha!  Anyway, he was so happy to see her ear like that because ears don't typically cause that high of a fever (it had risen to 104 at this point) so he was thinking she may need a spinal tap and cultures and hospital, etc.  So yay for ear infection!  They gave her a shot of antibiotics there and Mot.rin and she perked up a little bit.  We avoided the rupture thank goodness!  About 5 days later, Benton was still so so snotty and started running a low grade fever again.  I took them both in (so he could check on E's ear too) and Benton had an ear infection...not near as bad as Em's but still had one.  So on antibiotics he went.  Oh and I didn't even mention this but they both had thrush.  Fun.  Great.  Emery got another ear infection after being off the antibiotics for 4-5 days because she was STILL snotty.  So she got another round of antibiotics.  I took them in for an ear check this week and Emery's is getting better (still have 5 more days of meds) and Benton has fluid behind both ears but it is not infected so as long as he doesn't get a cold anything then that should go away. I am so ready for everyone to feel better!  Oh and Blakely still has a cough for which we have started her on an inhaler.  Blah winter

is that not the saddest face???

Also, I felt terrible for Emery because all of her crying with that first ear infection was because she was in pain.  I honestly never even thought about an ear infection.  Blakely never had one and it just didn't even cross my mind.  I thought she was crying because of her fever.  She's never had a fever before so I thought that was just how she was when feverish.  When it would go down she would stop crying.  And it all just happened so fast.  She became snotty and not 12 hours later she was completely inconsolable.  Anyway, every time they get snotty forever more I am going to worry about ear infections.  So Daddy got an otoscope for Christmas ;)

My grandmother turned 80 and her sister 92 on December 19.  We always go have lunch with them and give them their gifts on that day.  I loaded up all the kids and took them on a Saturday to a very popular restaurant here.  It was hard but I am glad I did it.  They were both so happy to see them and it went well.  

Well that seems like a good enough catch up post!  Babies are waking up and it is time to go get Blakely from school.  Christmas is next!