Let me start this post by saying I hope everybody had a wonderful Christmas and had fun ringing in the new year.

We spent Christmas morning and lunch with Adam and Nicole, spent the afternoon driving towards my parents, saw a truck flipped over due to awful weather, slowed down making the last 20 miles of the trip last 35 minutes. But we got there safely despite the icy roads and snow and precipitation and high winds. Christmas evening and the next two days were spent with my parents, siblings and their significant others. Much fun was had by all. Yes we took pictures and yes we will share but now is it is time to share the big deal that has slowed down getting the pictures to you.

On Saturday December 26^th, Anna started to show a sign of getting sick. The following Monday she was slightly fevery and just wanted to be held. At some point during the afternoon she started to have retracted breathing (stomach & throat sucked in to breathe). Since she seems to have breathing problems whenever she is sick we just kept watching her. At 11 pm when she woke again her breathing wasn't right and I took her downstairs and said to Damion and Dawn that we were taking her to the ER. No call to the doctor, straight to the ER. In the ER the second person we saw within 5 minutes of getting to the room was Jill, a respiratory specialist whom we liked and was our advocate that night. Fast forward to 2:30 am. We are told Anna would be admitted for observation and were taken to her room, which happened to be the same room Jack was in a couple of years ago with RSV.

At 7:30 am on Tuesday, Anna's doctor did his rounds and I decided that he is much too chipper that early in the morning. He said tests were negative for RSV and 60-80% of influenza strains, a radiologist would review the x-rays again to rule out pneumonia, and specimens were being sent to the state for H1N1 testing, and that we'd be in again overnight because she needed to not be dependent on oxygen through the night.

Wednesday morning the doctor confirmed it wasn't pneumonia and he thought it might be viral and due to her age could not diagnosis her with asthma but that word was sure used a lot and that based on the fact she was still dependent on oxygen she'd be in the hospital another night. After an afternoon of running around attached to her oxygen sensor but not her oxygen tubes we were optimistic about going home the next day. However the night did not start at all as planned (had to be put back on oxygen for several hours) but got better thanks to Nurse Amanda answering our bagillion questions and helping wean Anna off the oxygen.

Thursday morning when we met with the doctor we were a little unsure if Anna would be going home or not due to her numbers throughout the night. Fortunately after a bagillion questions and answers between us and the doctor we brought her home by lunch time! She is still on a couple of medicines and receiving nubulizer treatments. We have a follow up appointment on Tuesday and will learn then if she is an H1N1 statistic and also have even more questions for our favorite pediatrician.

And what about Jack? Well as you read, Dawn was visiting and being the super duper best friend that she is, she took care of Jack for us most of those three days. Damion & I took turns staying with Anna but we still tried to spend as much time as we could with Jack. I don't know if we spent enough time with him but I am soooooo grateful that Dawn was here to play trains, watch Einsteins, be told “no” several times, feed and nap Jack for us. Not having to find a new “home” for a day or hour blocks was a blessing.

I know its been a long time since an entry, sorry but life hit uber busy mode.  Since Thanksgiving, we hosted a birthday party, Jack turned 2, Anna turned 3 and Damion & I celebrated our 10th year of marriage!

We had a dusting of snow on December 7th.  It was enough to get the kids all excited about snow.  Since Damion was sick I bundled up the kids and we spent a bit of time outside.  Anna's first course of action was to throw a snowball at me.  Jack's first action was to take off with his lawn mower.  This past week we got about an inch of snow (could just see the top of the grass blades).  The kids now have snowpants and a sled.  The last two days we have spent almost an hour outside playing.  After sleding down our itty bitty hill, Anna says she is ready for the big hills at Grandma & Grandpa's this weekend.

When we are inside Jack usually has a car, truck or drum stick in his hand.  He loves just laying on the floor and pushing the cars around but after we've played downstairs for a while and go to the main level he runs to his drums.  He proceeds to play for a bit and then tips the set over so he can play the bass with his sticks instead of the pedal.

Anna has refound enjoyment in playing with her kitchen.  One never knows what she has made for you, but you can bet she's worked hard on it and will tell you all about it.  She also learned to count to four in Spanish.  She knows calls her "Uno Moo" game "uno dos tres cuatro".  Games are also a new found fun thing for her.  So after Jack goes for a nap we play awhile before she takes her nap.

Damion spent the last two weeks helping a music teacher friend with sound at her schools Christmas performances.  He also recorded the programs and created dvd's for her to sell to the students.  Now he's back to website development when not being attacked by Anna or Jack while he tries to relax.

And me?  I just got done making and sending out Christmas cards.  And once again I've told some friends we need to start them together earlier in the year....maybe next year.  Hahaha.  My next task is to start getting stuff organized for a scrapbooking retreat the middle of March.  The goal is to get stuff for pages a couple at a time to spread out the cost and energy that goes into planning 26 layouts.  Maybe I should focus more short term though and get some pictures up for all of you to enjoy, eh?  Maybe.  We'll see.

 In case we don't get another post up, everybody have a wonderful Christmas and a great start to the New Year.

Warning - I didn't spell or grammer check this because I am running out of energy.

This is a really long entry, so please click "Read More" to get everything all at once.  Thank you.  - The Management :)

Today was a rainy chilly day.  One might say it was a typical Central Illinois fall day.  While running errands with the kids I made mention that it was getting cold outside.  Well let’s just say Anna took this statement and ran with it.  
Anna:    It cold out, Mommy?
Jess:    Yea.  It’s getting cold outside, Anna.
Anna:     (said in a voice with increasing excitement) My birthday when it cold!
Jess:    (said while smirking because she knows where this is going) That’s correct.
Anna:     It my birthday, Mommy!
Jess:     Soon, Anna.
Anna:    (giggles and smiles)
This adorable little girl can’t remember I told her five minutes ago to leave her shoes and socks on while we are in the van but can remember a passing comment several months ago that her birthday happens when it gets cold outside.

While Jack isn’t putting thoughts like that together yet, he has decided he wants to work on his letter identification.  The letter of particular interest is “O”, with “T” not too far behind.  Why?  I don’t know it just is.  Tonight while going to Meijer he stopped by the pedestrian crosswalk right where the “STOP” is painted on the road.  I looked and saw nobody coming so I let him go about doing his thing, but this time he surprised me.
Jack:    (while pointing to “o” with right hand) O!
Jess:    Good job, Jack.
Jack:    (while pointing to “t” with left hand) T!
Jess:    That’s correct.
Jack:    (while pointing to “p” with right hand) P!
Jess:    (said shock) That’s right, Jack.  Good job!
Jack:    (while walking away smiling he points to the “s”) O!
Jess:    Sorry buddy that’s an S.
Jack:    (laughs and runs to the wrong doors)

This past Monday Damion took the day off and we took our annual trip to Tanners Orchard.  As an extra treat, Dawn joined us this year.  Jack slept on the way there, Anna not so much but fortunately this did not create any problems with crankiness while we were there.  This year we went to “the big garden” as Anna called it and picked apples.  Yup we’ve gone two other times and never went into the orchard.  It was fun to watch the kids just run on an open mostly car free path and then pick the apples and still have the energy to run back to the animals and pumpkins.  After almost two hours everybody was ready to go so after purchasing the mandatory pies, caramel apples, apple donuts and apple cider (which the kids went nutso over) we were on our way home after a day of fun.  And of course there are pictures up in the gallery but just so you know, some of them actually have descriptions with bunches of details.