Life Lately

We've had a lot going on lately. This is just a random mash up of pics I wanted to load to the blog with no real story behind them! So skip this post unless you want to see a big photo dump!


These are some of my favorites from our Christmas Break together! Nick and I both had off work for quite awhile after Christmas, so before I headed to New York City, we got some quality time with the kids. They spent a lot of time having sleep overs on our floor...

 We spent a LOT of time snuggling....

The kids had so much fun playing with everything they got for Christmas! Tessa loved her EZ Bake Oven....I hated it. We ended up taking it back because her cake got stuck in there--ha!

Nick, Tommy and Tessa had Nerf gun fights almost every.single.night. As much as I LOVED how much fun they were all having, I ended up locking myself in my room whenever they started a war. I somehow always ended up getting pelted with those dang bullets and I was SO over it by the 4th or 5th night in a row! But they had so much fun and I love that Nick loved playing with them so much!

Both kiddos started basketball in January. It's Tommy's second year and Tessa's first. They've bot had a lot of fun playing this year!

I was so sad because I was in NYC during Tessa's very first ever basketball practice. Luckily, Nick sent me lots of pictures!

Other than basketball and just hanging out, we've been dealing with the PLAGUE! I'm not exaggerating when I say that. At the end of January, the kids both got sick. It started with Tommy throwing up. Then Tessa. Then they both got respiratory stuff. After that went on for a few days, I took them to the doctor. He swabbed them both and they both tested positive for influenza A. Wonderful.

This is how we all felt about the kids having the flu....

 Nick ended up getting it for a couple of days. He had an extremely high fever and couldn't function hardly at all. It was horrible. He was finally able to kick it and started to slowly feel normal again. Aunt Brookie braved the germs and came to spend a day with us.

 Overall, we dealt with the flu off and on for THREE WEEKS. Literally. Over 21 days. They would be horrible, seem to recover, be normal for a day and then the next day wake up with 103 degree fevers. It was insane and I truly felt like it would never end. There were times I got SO worried about them. I mean, look at Tessa's little face in this next picture. She would get SO pale and have dark circles under her eyes.....

It was the saddest thing ever and I felt so helpless. I wanted to take it away, but there wasn't much I could do. We did lots of cool baths, ibuprofen, wet rags and LOTS of rest. We were all getting a little loopy by the end of it....

The worst part of it all was towards the end. Nick and I had a trip planned to Nassau, Bahamas. We'd been planning it for several months--we had already bought tickets and paid for the resort. I was praying SO hard that the kids would be 100% by the time we had to leave or I wasn't sure I would be able to go! How does one choose between wasting hundreds of dollars or leaving your kids while they're sick?!?

Praise God, the day before we were to leave, Tommy woke up fever free and stayed that way. Tessa still had a low grade fever, but seemed to be spunkier. Then when it was time for us to go Friday morning, Tessa was fever free! It was seriously such a blessing and allowed us to leave without feeling horribly guilty.

Unfortunately, I had gotten sick a few days before. I was running a fever and had body chills and weakness. We were also praying hard that I would be feeling better soon too! I was feeling mostly back to normal by the time we left, but had some lingering muscle weakness and chills. That was mostly resolved by the 2nd day of our vacation.

So here's to life lately and praying our household stays illness free for the rest of the year!