Currently...

I have been horrible at staying up to date with things here and I hate it.  I love documenting the little things because it's so easily forgotten down the road.

That being said here's what's being going on with us so far this year:

Currently... New Year = New Do

Currently... Ava has been into making things and writing letters for her friends and family.  I found this picture on my phone.  It's a poor quality picture but I wanted to share her sweet heart.  

"This paper is for Daddy."

Tell me that is not the cutest thing you ever did saw!

Currently... A member of our family is minus a fingernail.

Nice huh?  Ava got the year started off right with a Urgent Care visit.  She tripped while on a walk and caught her finger nail on something on the way down. 

Brian said she cried for about 30 seconds and that was it.  It was still connected on one side so we figured we better let someone look at it.  Plus Ava told me "Your Mom is not a Doctor so I don't think you should touch it."  How can you argue with that.  Home girl has a point.

Sitting in the Dr.'s office with her was quite a treat.  I think she was nervous and apparently she's a nervous talker because she did not stop talking the whoooole time.  Even the lady at the front desk was cracking up at her.  

When the Dr. came in and decided to just take it the rest of the way off he told Ava, "OK I'm going to just wiggle it a little bit and you tell me if it hurts and I will stop."

He twisted and tugged a little then looked over at Ava and said "Is this hurting?"  She nodded yes but kept staring straight ahead, tear free.  After about two minutes he was able to get the nail all the way off.  I was really impressed and so was the Dr. that she did not scream or cry one bit.  

I've always known she had a high pain tolerance but I didn't know it was that good.  Our first clue she handled pain well was when she was about 16 months old and she had to get shots.  I remember her just laying there on the table with a confused look on her face while the nurse gave her the shots.  When she was done Ava sat up off the table and shook her tiny little finer at the nurse and said "No, no, no!" 

Currently...Parker has become quite a little talker too.  Here he is at a dentist appointment earlier this month.  That boy looooves going to the dentist.  

One of the funny little things I wanted to write down before I forgot was this story from the other day.  

We were in the car on our way home from somewhere and the girls were trying to convince me that they "need" another baby brother or sister... I know right?

In the middle of all of this Parker chimes in "My Daddy is going to buy me a hamster... and I'm gonna name hims Hello Kitty... and I gonna be sooooooooo sec-cited (excited)!"  Then, without missing a beat he turns his head, stares out the window like nothing ever happened and starts singing "Rub some bacon on it..."

Who's kid is this?!

Currently... Auntie Chelsea came to visit and we were all very "sec-cited" about that!  She came for a whole week (!) to watch the kids so Brian and I could...

fly to California.  We went for a Management Conference with his company but as an added bonus I got to...

Surprise my Bestie at her Gender Reveal party!

It's a girl!

I think she's forgiven me for lying to her about my not coming.  It was only a little lie.  I wasn't really in Northern California but Marina Del Ray IS north of Irvine, right?!  So it was only a half lie.

Brian and I had a great time in California.  We were thinking about it and that was the longest we'd been away together without kids in almost 7 years.  Wow!  We so needed that.

Currently...The next big thing to happen in our household happened this last Sunday night.  The kids were all wrestling around in the living room and at one point it got a little too rough and Brooke bonked her forehead on the kitchen tile.  She cried and said she felt "confused" and "nauseous."  We had them all settle down and watch some cartoons.  For awhile Brooke acted fine.  But about an hour later when it was time for bed she started crying really hard saying her head hurt really bad.  

Brian got her up and checked her pupils and said we should take her to get checked out.  Now usually I am the first to want to rush the kids in to get things checked out, but this time Brian was saying it was necessary and that made me nervous.  I knew it was serious then.  

She stopped crying shortly after we got her in the car but the whole way to the hospital she was making me nervous.  I kept having to talk to her to make sure she stayed awake.  While I was signing her into the ER she just walked away from me and I had to stop and ask her where she was going.  This was totally not like her.  Even though she's my oldest she's usually the shyest and attached to my hip most of the time.  She said she was going to lay down on a chair but two seconds later she ran back up crying and said she was going to throw up.  By this point the guy behind the desk grabbed something for her to throw up in and quickly asked if she was running a fever and how long she had been having "Flu-like symptoms."  

You know there's a Flu epidemic when ER nurses automatically assume that's what you are there for.  Haha.  

Anyway they ended up getting us back in a room pretty quickly which was good because she end up throwing up a couple times.  A nurse came in and he started asking her lots of questions to try to determine just how badly she was injured.  She was able to answer his question about who her best friend was and what she got for Christmas.  But when he asked her what she had for dinner she could not remember.  That made my heart drop because you could she she was really struggling to remember but she just couldn't. 

  They had her do a CT scan and gave her some anti nausea meds.  

After that she seemed to recovered surprisingly quickly.  We were able to go home within the next couple hours with instructions to wake her a few times throughout the night and treat headache and nausea as needed.  

She's supposed to take it easy for the next week but other than that Dr. said the CT was good and that she will be completely fine.  He also told Brooke "You tell that big brother and sister to be careful with you!"  He chuckled when I told him it was her younger brother and sister that had caused all of this.  

Brian told me that when Brooke and I left for the hospital he went in to check on Parker and Ava.  He saw Parker sitting up in bed and asked him what was wrong and he said "It was just an accident."  Poor little guy.  He felt so bad.

Thank you to all our friends and family who prayed for our little Brookie during this scary time.