Holiday Parade of Lights.

With the weather in the upper 30's low 40's we took the kids to the holiday parade of lights in downtown Fargo/Moorhead.  It was just what we needed after being stuck at home all weekend and the kids had a blast looking at the lights and getting candy.  Ryan made it home from his locum job in Valley City just in time which was great.  Such a fun holiday tradition!

'Tis the Season.

'Tis the season!  With Thanksgiving just around the corner followed by Christmas just a short month later, there is always a ton of holiday fun!  I absolutely love this time of year.  There is usually an abundance of soft snow, hot coffee, holiday music, and shopping!  Unfortunately in this post this is not the season I am talking about.  I am talking about the season of colds, stomach flus, and whatever other nasty bugs are around.  Our kids have had colds on and off for a few weeks.  Landon didn't feel well Friday morning but I couldn't tell if he was just tired and wanting to stay home from school.  I sent him to school and by 9:30 the school nurse had called me to come and get him.  Apparently, it was not my best motherly instinct.  He had a fever and was lethargic and pale.  He laid around most of the morning and I had to take him in the car at noon to pick up Kadence from school.  I threw a bucket in the car-thankfully as he ended up throwing up before we left the garage.  He ran a high temp 104+ Friday night and in to Saturday and we just figured it was the good ole stomach bug.  Saturday he appeared to be getting worse and when his temp reached 104.7 around 5 o'clock we decided he should probably go in.  Unfortunately, I had to take him to the ER as the walk-ins at our facility were already closed.  The NP took one look at him and said I'm sure he has Strep throat.  She ran the quick strep test which came back positive.  She gave him an oral steroid to help with the swelling in his throat.  His tonsils were so big it was hard to tell where the air was getting through.  She would have given him a penicillin shot if he wasn't allergic so it would work faster, but he had his first oral dose while at the hospital.  She hoped he would start feeling better the next day.

I snapped this shot on my phone while I was waiting in the ER.  It is so sad but shows just how crappy he felt.  He still felt pretty bad on Sunday and I even kept him home from school on Monday.  The poor thing hardly ate in 4 days and did a lot of laying on the couch.  This was our first bout of strep throat and I hope we never have to deal with it again (it was nasty).  I'm guessing that is not the case but I am extremely grateful for the antibiotics we have because he would have ended up in the hospital without them!

On a positive note, Kadence and I were able to escape the house of sickness on Saturday for some good girl time.  We went to the mall and I had a pedicure and she had her nails painted.  We then had lunch and did some shopping.  It was some great one on one time with my little lady!

Can't forget about the other little lady!  She wanted a picture with Mama just like big sister!

Here is to getting and staying healthy!

Big Girl Bed.

On Monday night Kenzie was looking for her Nuk and crawled out of her crib.  I was sitting in the living room watching Dancing With the Stars when I heard a loud THUD followed by blood curdling screaming and crying.  When I opened the girls' bedroom door I found one little munchkin on the floor crying and one big munchkin in bed horrifically screaming.  I immediately picked Kenzie up and then jumped in bed with Kadence to comfort her.  I think Kadence was more scared than Kenzie about the whole ordeal.  I have never heard her cry like that before.  So, after some extra snuggles we gave Kenzie her Nuk and put the girls back to bed.  I said a little prayer hoping that would be the only THUD we heard that night.  And it was.

Ryan and I had literally talked about switching Kenzie into a bed on Sunday and now we had no choice.  We made a quick trip to Target to get some sheets and a quilt and rearranged some furniture.  We were set!  Kenzie was not.  We tried to get her excited about her bed or to just play on it and she wanted no part of it.  I thought she would be happy to be more like her big sister!  We knew it was going to be a painful night and it was.  As it turns out, it wasn't the bed she didn't like but the fact that she couldn't have a Nuk in the big girl bed.  I pained through almost an hour and a half of screaming (Ryan would have given in so he was downstairs running on the treadmill) and she finally gave in.  When I went downstairs to run and tagged Ryan in, she stopped screaming after less than 5 minutes.  I was glad because she has him triple wrapped around her finger and I was afraid I would come upstairs after my run with him telling me he gave her the Nuk and she was sleeping.  She never got out of her bed one time the entire night-even through all the screaming!  Although, she woke up at 5 am and never went back to sleep.  That could be painful for awhile but I'm hoping she'll learn to go back to sleep eventually.  I was not surprised because she woke up about that time frequently and we would just give her her Nuk and she'd sleep until the other kids woke up.  I laugh because Kenzie still had her Nuk this long for our convenience and not for her.  We were not quite ready to give up sleep again.  I still am not ready but am holding myself accountable because I really don't want a 2 year old with a Nuk-which is only one short week away.

Kenzie only whined a few minutes at nap and then slept 2 hours!  So, I'm hoping we experienced the worst of it the first night!  Love that strong-willed little stinker!

On a side note, we don't have a crib in our home.  Weird.  

Gymnastics.

I started taking Kenzie to a gymnastics class Monday mornings while Landon and Kadence are at school.  I had been taking Kenzie with me to run errands at that time because let's face it, it's far less painful with one child versus all three.  I decided that although Kenzie likes those times with just me and her that we should do something a little more fun for her.  It is a 50 minute class at the American Gold Gymnastics here in town.  The class is somewhat structured with some instruction by 3 coaches but allows for some free play and "go at your own pace" technique teaching.  Kenzie screamed the first 10 minutes of the first class until she realized I wasn't going to leave her there.  We had our third class today and Kenzie is loving it.  She's still a little reluctant of doing things with anyone other than me, but I think she is warming up well.  Hopefully by the end of the session she will have made some good social improvements.

I love being able to take her to run off some energy when it is cold outside.  I snapped these shots with my phone and found out that she apparently sticks her tongue out when she is concentrating really hard.  Hilarious.  I did gymnastics with Landon and Kadence when we lived in Sioux Falls and I can honestly say that the program here is much better and is actually teaching them some base skills.  I chuckle because generally I struggle to find things I like better here than Sioux Falls!  Love watching this little lady grow.

Snow Day!

The weather was pretty yucky and rained pretty much all of yesterday and into the evening.  That turned to ice and it began snowing around 3:30 am today.  We woke up to a blanket of white this morning.  Landon knew immediately when he woke up and came in excited as ever to tell us to wake up and come look out the window at the snow.  They were all excited about the snow and begging to play outside so we told them they could go outside after we got home from church.  It was pretty cold with a brutal wind so I knew that it was probably going to take longer to get them all dressed than they would actually spend outside but thankfully Ryan reminded me that it didn't matter because they were so excited.  So we bundled them all up and they were off to help Ryan shovel.

 Kenzie thought playing outside was the best thing ever.  She looked so adorable in her snow pants and her hat over her eyes that I just couldn't stop taking pictures of her!

Kadence rarely gets cold outside and had a blast.  She is just a flash of pink and I love it.  The funny thing was that she was wearing snow pants and shoes that were 2 sizes too small for her (we went shopping for some boots and snow pants this afternoon for the poor girl.)

 So.Much.Fun.

 They were out longer than I would have guessed and came inside looking adorable with the cutest little rosy cheeks.  Nothing a little hot cocoa doesn't cure...

The first of many treks outside to play in the snow!

NDSU/SDSU Game!

Ryan and I were fortunate enough to go to the Bison/Jackrabbit football game.  This town is absolutely insane about the Bison so it was pretty fun.  Ryan's boss gave him 2 of his tickets and they were awesome seats!  I forgot to snap photos with my phone unfortunately.  The seats were at the 40 yard line 3rd row up right behind the SDSU bench.  The seats were so phenomenal that I never lost interest! It was a great game with the Bison winning just 20-17.  Ryan wore his blue SDSU shirt and I kid you not he was the only person in the entire section without green and yellow.  He stuck out like a sore thumb!  Some people we knew that were at the game texted him and said they could see him because he was sticking out so much and they were clear across the stadium!

Landon had a family project for school last week where he had to "disguise" a turkey.  Ryan came up with the idea to disguise the turkey as a Jackrabbit.  It actually turned out pretty cute and Landon was excited about sharing it with his class.  Although, he kept saying NDSU instead of SDSU which was driving his dad insane!  I'm guessing this disguised turkey is also driving a lot of people insane on the wall at school since this town is so obsessed with the Bison!

Ryan and I met up with some friends after the game and ended up having a great date day away from the children!  They were at home and did awesome with a new babysitter...I think they were actually a little disappointed when we came home!

Happy Hat Day Friday!

Today was Hat Day for Kadence's school today! She was so excited to wear her hat that she was asking if it were time to go all morning.  It was a fun way to kick off the weekend!

 This little girl probably has more fashion sense than I do at age 4.  I think I may have some problems when it comes to shopping when she gets a bit older.  I was cracking up because these were the poses she was giving me when all I asked was to take a picture of her.  She has such a fun little personality already.

Kenzie had to get in the picture of course.  It was adorable she was looking at Kadence and trying to pose just like her.

Then she gave me her gymnastics "Ta-Da!"  What a ham! Have a good weekend! :)