Pure Joy

A few months ago Jackson decided he's Spiderman.

"See Mom, my fingers are sticky, that's why I can climb so well."

"Sydney, I already knew that because I'm Spiderman."

"Ya Mom, I'm so sneaky because I'm Spiderman."

A few months ago I made a comment that maybe we could look online for a Spiderman suit.

5:00am whispering and the side of my bed -  "Mom, can we go get on your computer to find me a Spiderman suit?"

At lunch - "Mom, did you go online for my Spiderman suit yet?"

A week later while checking my email - "Now, Mom?"

OK, FINE.

Ebay...from China.  Spiderman suit plus shipping $9.00.  FINE.

The next day we get news that we'd be closing on our house that week...4 days later, we move.

Oops.

Do packages from China forward to a new mailing address?

Why yes they do.  It just takes 3 weeks.

PURE JOY.

Happy Easter!

Gifford Family Easter Egg Hunt

Floyd Lamb Park

Update on the update

Jackson is still doing well with his breathing treatments and antibiotics.

He has his energy back and seems to be his normal self again.

When we got home from the fair the other night, both Sydney and Carter had fevers.

The next morning I looked in their throats and found white infected tonsils....again.

Carter was on day NINE of his second ten day antibiotic. 

Really?  Again?

I took them into the doctor...again.  Her jaw dropped...literally. 

She said, "I'm going to have to go read some stuff, I"ll be right back."

Both of their strep tests came back negative this time...so it's some other infection....that apparently is harder to kill than strep.  Also, both kids have double ear infections again (assuming the ear infections ever went away...)

She decided to shoot them with "the biggest gun" of antibiotic she had.

Those shots were so painful.  Both kids are limping on their poor legs today.

Both kids woke up fever free, but their throats are still nasty.

All three kids have a follow up appointment on Monday.  

Until then, Carter's feverish self prefers to rest on the nice cool tile.

While all this sickness is taking it's toll on our family, we are being blessed in many other ways.

McKay is loving his new job.  He comes home happy at the end of the day.  

We managed to switch jobs/insurance without a single day lapse in pay or coverage.

Our house buying process has gone through almost without a hitch.  We're just fingertips away from getting the keys.

When it seems like there won't be enough money...there always is....and extra.

SO, although it's tiring being home with sick sick kids, I'm seeing blessings pour in every day....and I'm happy to tough through the hard days...as long as it doesn't  last another 7 weeks.  ;-)

Clark County Fair 2011

Yesterday afternoon we braved the ridiculous winds and went to the Clark County Fair.  This year we bought wrist bands for the two older kids and McKay so they could ride the carnival rides all they wanted.

We've been talking about this for weeks and the kids couldn't wait to get there.

We met up with Chris and Summer and kids and had a blast.

 Sage, Jackson, Sydney, McKay, Summer, and Maddy.

 Carter and I hung out and watched all the big kids ride. 

Carter's favorite part of the fair was seeing all the animals.  He's laugh every time the goats, chickens, or cows "talked".  He loved touching all the animals he could get his hands on.

Sydney thought it was so cool watching some eggs hatch.

Jackson and Sage waited patiently to get back to the rides.

I spent most of my time walking them around to the little kid rides while Sydney got to go with the "big kids".

The wind was a major pain, and it got pretty cold after dark, but the kids had a blast...and that's what it's all about... right?

Update on last post

Jackson is doing AMAZING.

His cough is almost gone.

Before, when he'd cough he wouldn't get the "junk" out.  He could cough for 5 minutes and it did no good.

Now, he hardly has the need to cough, his chest is finally sounding clear.

Those breathing treatments are a miracle!

You know what else is great?  The doctor prescribed enough medication to give 75 treatments!  He only takes 4 a day, so I'm guessing that was the doctor's way of saying

"You crazy lady, please don't ever let your child's cough go for so long...here's some extra meds for the future..."

Thanks Doc.

Something I didn't mention before was that McKay started a new job on Monday.

Something that happens when you leave an old job is you also leave your old insurance.

So, this lovely pneumonia episode happened during the short uninsured period.

In two days I spent $570 between doctors visits and prescriptions.

Yesterday we got an email from McKay's new employer stating that our new insurance has been processed and our effective date is APRIL 1, 2011....5 days prior to the doctor visits! 

All I have to do is send in a copy of our new insurance card, and I'll get a reimbursement for all my out-of-pocket expenses.

What a blessing.

Poor kid

After two years of chronic ear infections, Jackson got tubes in his ears last April.

I thought for sure I'd finally have a healthy little guy.

Not so.

About 10 cases of strep throat later, he had his tonsils out in September.

He's been so healthy since those tonsils came out.  

He's gained EIGHT pounds and grown FOUR inches in just SIX months.

Aside from the night time growing pains, he hasn't suffered more than a cold since those huge tonsils were removed.

Until now.

You might remember my post about all the kids being sick.  We had strep, sinus infections, ear infections, and nasty coughs all around.  Everyone was put on antibiotics.

Sydney got better right away.

Carter seemed to be doing better, then had an allergic reaction on day 9 of the amoxicillin and got horrible hives.

When the hives hit he lost all the progress he'd made and had two ear infections and strep again.

He's now on day 8 of his new antibiotic and is just showing progress.  

Jackson finished his round of antibiotics about two weeks ago.

His cough lightened for a few days, then came back.

I figured it was allergies.

WRONG.

He woke up yesterday and couldn't swallow his breakfast.

I took him in expecting strep, and he had strep all right.  A nasty case of it.  The doctor had me come look in his poor throat and mentioned that she wished she had a student there to show...it was pretty disgusting.

Then she listened to his breathing.

"Did you know he's wheezing??", she asked me.

"Uh, no...just the never ending cough..."

She put him on a breathing treatment right then.

It didn't fix the problem.

He has pneumonia.

So, we now have a lovely nebulizer machine and some very intense antibiotics.

Let's hope this kicks the sickness before it starts to go around our house again.

Love, the frazzled pregnant mother of three, going on 6 weeks of never ending sick children.

;-)

Salt Lake City Trip

This past weekend McKay and I were able to go to Salt Lake for General Conference.

You wanna know one of the best parts??

It was a KID FREE trip!  We haven't had one of those in a while, so it was very nice.

We dropped our kids off at McKay's brother's house in Logandale on Thursday afternoon and enjoyed the long quiet drive.

We had a nice quiet dinner before heading to our nice quiet hotel.

Are you starting to get the theme of the weekend?

Nice and quiet!! ;-)  It was great.

Friday we visited the Jordan temple, followed by 4 hours of our very first visit to Ikea.  

WOW.

Probably not the best place to go when we're buying a new house that I'd just love to remodel and refurnish.

Again, WOW.

Friday night we met up with our good friends Jake and Angie Rice.

They were students with us in Virginia our first year of law school, but then ditched us and transferred to Utah. ;-)

We ate at a place called The Training Table where you look through the menu and then call your order in with the phone on the table.  It was yummy and fun and right next door to the play we saw afterwards.  We walked over to the Hale Center Theatre and saw A Tale of Two Cities.

It was great.  Long (3 hours), but great.

After our late night we got up early and headed to General Conference.

It was nice weather (high 60's) which made the long walk enjoyable. 

Conference was great.

After conference we visited The Great Salt Lake.  

It was SUPER windy, but not cold, so we braved the winds and messed around for a couple hours.

McKay enjoyed drawing pictures in the sand.

Then Jake and McKay had jumping contests while Angie and I laughed and laughed.  

They both took a fall or two which resulted in more laughing from the girls.

Then McKay insisted in me taking this picture. ;-)

Later that evening we decided to hit up the bowling ally.

Only one problem, I was wearing flip flops...no socks.

So, we stopped in at the dollar store and I somehow convinced everyone to join me in buying beautiful socks for our outing.

Haha.  Totally felt like high school.

We spent the rest of the evening chatting in our hotel room until late, then said our good byes.

We woke up Sunday morning to this.

From 70 degrees to a couple inches of snow.  I guess we got to truly experience Salt Lake.

We watched the temperature rise to the 70's again as we pulled into Logandale to pick up our kids.  

They cried when we got there....because they didn't want to leave.

Who would want to leave when you get ride four wheelers, wagons, and horses all weekend??

 (Sydney's pretty sure we'll buy her one of these....like today.)

We somehow talked them into leaving, but not before promising to return in just a few days for the Clark County Fair!!

What a great weekend!

I had plans

to do a lovely post of our trip to Salt Lake this past weekend.  I went to grab my camera from my purse and realized I left it in the door pocket of our car....which is at work with McKay.  

Darn.  

So, stay tuned and we'll see if I find another spare hour to work on that later this week.

It's a