Happy Halloween!!

The boys this year are Vikings and Owen is their dragon (thanks to our friend Aliesha who let us borrow his costume!) I think their outfits turned out pretty cute. I had more planned including a shield but being sicker than sick it just did not pan out. The boys enjoyed a church activity last night including "trunk or treating" and a quick trip down our street tonight in what accumulated to way too much junk! Owen was in the best mood today he has been in in weeks! He was a cute little dragon:)

Here are some pictures!


TRUNK OR TREAT
















TRICK OR TREAT






Owen figured out this "trick treat", "thank you" thing VERY quickly and walked by Ian the entire time carrying his bucket. Ian said he did better than Jacob and Nathan even. :)

Nightmare with Owen

I will start this post by saying that the last 24 hours have been the longest 24 hours in as long as I can remember. But as I sit here tonight I am so grateful that I am home with my entire little family, especially with Owen.

Last night around 11:45 Owen woke up crying. I tried to go in and sooth him without turning lights on but he could not be soothed. So, Ian went in to try and decided to give him some Tylenol or something since he was obviously not feeling well, however when he turned on the light he was startled to see Owen's face starting to swell up. He brought him to me and I took one look and flew out of bed, got dressed, grabbed diapers, his blanket and monkey and my wallet and keys and literally flew to the Children's ER which is normally about 10 minutes away. I think I made it in half that including the lights. When I ran in the nurse had just walked out to call someone and took one look at us and yelled to the front desk we were going back to trauma. In just that 5-10 minute drive his face had tripled the swelling his eyes were totally shut and his bottom lip was just enormous. I could not even recognize him. It was horrifying. Thankfully he was screaming his head off so I knew he could breathe. They immediately had me take off his pajamas and administered an EPI shot and got in an IV. Unfortunately the first and second IVs did not take so after a third they started steroids and other meds and after about two hours we started to see marked improvement. Thank God. Thankfully once everything calmed down he was able to sleep and did so until the dr came to check him out for discharge. He was a completely different boy when he woke up. All the nurses just loved him:)



This was about 4 am I think right around when they were saying we could go home soon but it was two more hours. The lip was almost back to normal and you can't really tell how bad his eyes were still with them closed.

When we got home Ian and Owen passed out for three hours on the couch:) How could I not take a picture?

This is in his bath today around 2. Tonight it is about half as much. Slowly but surely....


Tonight in the dog food. Hopefully there is not something in THERE he is allergic to!

As the day has progressed he is getting better. I spoke to the RN at his doctor's office and they told me I could bring him in but we have everything here and they really did not wan to expose him to more sick kids. So we decided to see how he looks tomorrow. The doctor put in an emergency referral through our insurance to see an allergist but it takes 24 to 48 hours for it to process. So for now we wait. He was on Augmentin for sinus issues but he has had that before. He did have a couple cashews about 5 hours prior to the reaction but again he has had those many times before. He also had some Motrin which they said could also be a factor. So for now none of those things are allowed. At this point we just hope we can find out what the cause was so we can avoid it in the future for sure.

Poor Jacob was so upset throughout the day. When Ian picked him up his teacher said he had many crying spurts throughout the day because he thought he was going to come home to Owen at the hospital again. Poor kid! He loves Owen so much even when he drives him crazy.

So tonight Owen seems to be doing okay. He has been fussy and has napped off and on all day. His one eye especially is still swollen but the RN told me it could take at least 24 hours for that to go down. It is definitely better than even three hours ago. He has been goofy tonight in the bath and even climbed half way into the dog food bucket trying to eat Keira's dinner instead of his own:) Now I just hope we can all sleep. I tried to sleep earlier but I just keep waking panicked that he is not okay.

I am SO thankful he woke when he did and so thankful his breathing is ok. God is good.

On a side note I wanted to share these two pictures taken yesterday before the craziness. Jacob and Nathan thought they were SO funny carrying Owen around in a diaper box:) And then one of Jacob and Nathan doing their reading homework. Jacob has just really taken off with reading and I LOVE that HE can read with Nathan some nights!

Cell Phone Pictures

I have been wanting to take a few pictures off my cell phone for a while now and finally tonight I had Ian do it for me. Here are some cute ones I have saved from as far back as last May:)I love looking back at the little baby pictures of Owen. I love the little boy he is becoming but I miss the baby he was.

Home again Home again ......

Sunday morning we headed out of town with our planned stop for the night being just north of the Las Vegas strip outside Nellis AFB. It was a fairly smooth ride. We tried to go to Cabelas first in the morning but it was not opened yet. The boys were bummed but with the promise of Bass Pro Shop instead no tears were shed:) I did take their picture out front of Cabelas with some pumpkins but that is as close as we got (well besides Ian's two other trips solo:)

We made it to the hotel fairly early and after a quick stop to the commissary to get stuff to make dinner we enjoyed a relaxing night cooking dinner in our room (best two room suite ever!) and then took the boys swimming for about an hour in between thunder storms. They all loved the hot tub, especially Owen. He was quite upset when it was time to go. The life Jacket came in handy for dragging his fit throwing self out of the pool area:)

here they are having dinner, hanging out watching a movie and swimming! (not quite in the right order but you get the gist)










We ended our trip with a early stop at Bass Pro Shop in Las Vegas. We all got a kick out of the fish print parking spots:) The boys loved the fish. Nathan was especially thrilled with the trip as he got a brand new BIG boy fishing pole. Too bad it poured all day today or I have a feeling the three boys would have been fishing somewhere:) We discovered that up in Moreno Valley our FAVORITE Chicago Restaurant, Portillos opened a branch. We could NOT drive right by without stopping for a hot dog. YUM! Thankfully we had NO traffic throughout the entire trip. Overall it was a fun time just way too short. I am thankful to be home and know my dad is home safe as well. Now if Owen can just get better. He is totally miserable. Back to the real world tomorrow, school for the boys, work for Ian, taxi driver for this mommy:)

Beautiful Utah Canyon and fun with Family!

Saturday we woke up and had just one day to do a few things around the area. We decided to take a drive up and through the Canyon down into Provo. I am so glad we did! It was beautiful! Ian and I both decided we could just put up a tent and live there forever. Owen fell asleep (poor kiddo was so miserable) and Jacob started getting sick but other than that it was a great trip:) The boys loved taking pictures of the scenery and collecting rocks.









After our drive and some shopping we met my sister and nephew Corban at the park and the kids had a great time playing for over an hour on the playground and climbing trees.





After the Park we headed over to meet my parents and Erin at a pizza place called Pirate Island. I am not sure what I was expecting something like Chuck E Cheese but oh this was SOOOOO much better. It was decorated like something out of Pirates of the Caribbean and the pizza holy cow it was good! Ian and I were expecting nasty Chuck E Cheese pizza and boy were we wrong! It was nice being able to see my dad drug free and doing a bit better before having to say goodbye. It was a short trip but so worth it.