3rd & 1!

We celebrated Ashlyn and Paxton's birthdays...football style! Ashlyn has been asking for a football themed birthday party for months now so when we decided to have a joint party for the 2 we went with a football/cheerleader/Cowboys theme!  We rented a pavilion at a really fun park.  We grilled out burgers and hot dogs and had cake!  The kids had a ball playing on the playground.  The splash park was under renovation, but it turned out we didn't need the splash park!  About 5 minutes after singing happy birthday and having cake a MASSIVE thunderstorm blew in.  The forecast predicted a 30% chance of rain...HA!  It had been very windy all day and started getting a little darker, but the storm caught us by surprise.  Everyone hunkered down under the pavilion and most managed to stay fairly dry...and then there were others (mostly under the age of 5) who preferred to be wet and had a ball playing in the rain.  The storm passed after about 20 minutes and we were able to clean up and head home.  It was definitely a memorable party!  Thanks to all of our family (for all the help setting up and cleaning up) and to our friends who weathered the storm to celebrate with us!  Happy Birthday to our little cheerleader and quaterback! (I have MANY more pictures to post but due to technical difficulties, I will just post what I have and update later as I am able:)

Blowing out her candles

He LOVED the cake

Hunkering down during the storm

Not a baby anymore

Who is the big boy sleeping in Paxton's crib???  Where did my baby go!?!?

Into everything

Feeling better and back on the move!  And into everything! He cracks me up!

When ya gotta go

Ya gotta go!

Put the hurt on!

We stopped by the park to scope out the location of the upcoming birthday party!  Unfortunately the splash pad renovations won't be completed in time for the party, but the new park looks awesome!  We will have a great time.

We stopped by Babe's for dinner after the park.  YUM!  Paxton put the hurt on some Babe's.  That boy can eat!!!!

He had 2nds and 3rds!

Water table fun

With Hannah Kate and matching bathing suits and all!

105.3!

Ok...so maybe I panicked...but after 72 hours of 102-103 fevers (alternating Tylenol and Motrin) I went straight to the ER when he woke up at 3 am with a 105.3 fever! Yes, I panicked fearing he would have a febrile seizure. I sped to the ER (with the hazards on) with the interior lights on so I could watch him in the mirror! They got us right in and when she checked his fever in triage (under his armpit) it was 99...I requested that she check it the other way because that is how I had been monitoring it at home and it was 103.7! For the life of me I do not understand the discrepancy! Anyway, they gave him another dose of Motrin (on top of the Tylenol I had already given him at home before we left). They did a check x-ray because his breathing was pretty labored. The x-ray showed some congestion but no pneumonia. The ER doctor was wonderful and basically diagnosed him with a virus that would run its course but could last another 2-3 days! I paid for our $200 dose of Motrin and a peace of mind. His fever continued for another 48 hours so our pediatrician wanted to see him. He took a bunch of swabs and ruled out the normal viruses and then wanted to get a urine specimen to check for a bladder or kidney infection. Ha! That was not fun...he wore the bag under his diaper for a while but never went so they had to catheterize him for a sample. The preliminary results showed a high likelihood of a UTI so he started him on an antibiotic while we waited for the cultures to come back. We went home after a very long appointment. Chance ran out to get the prescription and I started getting the kids ready for bed. We were playing in Ashlyn's room and she told me "Pax ate that" and was pointing to the door stop that was missing the rubber stopper! Awesome! Let's add ingested a foreign object to his list of ailments! I is a quick finger sweep as he swallowed the stopper. And our search and rescue mission began! More on those efforts later...anyway...long story long :) the cultures came back negative so we stopped the antibiotics right around the time his fever finally went away! It was a very long week of a very high fever of unknown etiology!!!! Oh yeah, and Ashlyn decided to potty train right in the middle if it all! Good times!

My sweet angel on Mother's Day

Oh...I forgot to mention...my teammate was sick too so I was running the fever/potty train week solo!  Here are some funny pictures my 2 sick boys took one afternoon!

At the pediatrician's office

In the ER

Feeling better after a $200 dose of Motrin!

Happy to have those smiles

Potty training

Ashlyn decided, in the midst of Paxton's week of fever, that it was time to potty train!  I have been told continuously, "they will do it when they are ready".  I guess she was ready.  It has gone very well.  We had a few accidents the first 2 days, but have been accident free for several days now.  She even went to school in her BGP's.  She may have diabetes by the time it is all over...M&M's are her favorite reward, with gum a close second.

Keeping her company

M&M lips

Our first public outing in BGP's!  No accidents!

Bubble head

Bath time fun!

Mother's Day 2013

My sweet Mother's Day cards!  Love them!