Any end in sight?

So, Saturday night it started doing this:
And by the next morning there was even more! A little silly, when it's been so warm just a week or two ago... A lot of it was melted by the time Jaina and I came home from church, but it still seemed a little out of place. When is spring really coming?
And when is our household going to be well again? Just as Jeremy was starting to feel human again (Friday night)Reilly got sick again. He was the first one to get it, so I just don't know if it's the same bug, or a whole new one! He felt better Saturday, but he was still pretty out of it, as you can see from this picture.
This is like a landmark thing - the first time he has EVER fallen asleep while doing something (not in his bed or in his car seat). We were all huddled around our portable DVD player (no, I'm not sure why we weren't watching the tv in the basement) watching a movie, and Reilly just kind of drooped forward in Jeremy's arms and fell asleep. He felt good Sunday and today, but his appetite is still a little suspicious at times.
And just when I thought we were getting in the clear, Jaina got sick again last night. I don't know if it's the same bug, Reilly's bug, or just those nasty molars trying (STILL) to come in. Jaina and I had a slumber party most of the night last night. At first I thought it was just because she wouldn't accept anything other than her elephant:
who was in the wash at the moment. But even after he was clean and dry, she just couldn't sleep all night. She slept from 7 to 9:30, and then from 3:30 to 5:30, with a few 10-minute naps her and there before she woke up crying again. She, too, was doing a lot better during much of today, and took several naps, but I'm a little nervous about tonight. Going to bed in like30 minutes (it's 7:40 and I just got Reilly in bed). We have to catch up somewhere!

Messes, Sickness, and Pigtails

Well, there seems to be some speculation as to what Reilly did after his bath. Thankfully, Katie's guess was wrong! Here is a picture of what Reilly was just getting into rather happily when I discovered him.

Why do we even HAVE non-washable markers? It cleaned up fairly well, but you can still see every mark faintly (on the bannister and on his skin) - it stained the paint. We'll have to paint over that sometime soon. Why couldn't he have picked the yellow and gray markers instead of red and purple?

Here's a picture of Jaina from the same day, just because she is so cute in it!

The weather has been really nice (on and off) this week. Saturday we left the house at around 2 to pick up our new...slide/climber thing? A friend of Jeremy's from school gave it to us for free (their youngest had outgrown it). Reilly thinks it's pretty cool. I'll post a picture soon. (Grandparents... I know no one else is probably interested!)

After that we took the kids to McManus Park... it's in Bettendorf, down by the river. The is the largest(equipment-wise) park I know of... The kids love it, and we had fun, even though it was fairly crowded on a sunny Saturday afternoon in March... after that we went to...mybe Duck Creek park. I always forget the name of it. Anyway, we met some good friends there and had a blast (even with the rather cold breeze). I didn't get many pictures, (I had forgotten our memory card in the computer somehow) but our friends got some great ones, so hopefully we'll get those sometime soon.. ;-)

Don't mind her hair...it was our first pigtail experiment, and she was way unimpressed.

So... today:

Poor kid has been completely fine and happy the last several days, but he woke up VERY sick to his stomach this morning. He finally kept some Pedialite down a few hours ago, and he fell asleep on the couch downstairs watching "The Land Before Time." (again - we had already seen it once today)... Let's hope whatever it is passes quickly, and that none of the rest of us get it! He felt much better after his nap, and I've had to ration how much "juice," saltines, and applesauce he can have at one time...

Jaina is actually feeling quite chipper today, and it has been more of a challenge trying to keep her away from Reilly, so she doesn't bug him, than anything else.

While she slept and he watched tv, I sat behind "his" couch and made several bows. She has a lot of cute spring clothes she'll get to wear soon, and she doesn't have any hair stuff to match them. I've started making two of some bows, in hopes that her hair will grow out enough this summer to need two! I wrangled her hair into two semi-pigtails to try out this little springy set I made...

Does this guilty face look familiar from a little higher in this post? :)

Off to Africa....

Well, in July that is. And not us. My "little" brother, David. :)
He got his mission call Friday, and he's going to the Kenya Nairobi mission! We were all a little shocked, I think, guessing he's be somewhere in North or South America. (My dad had picked England...) He leaves July 16th, and he is so excited. Yay, David!!
(We love David right now, especially because he took such good care of us in Arizona when everyone was sick and my parents were even out of town!)

Home Again, Home Again

Wow. The whole ER trip with Jaina was thankfully a low point, as far as sickness went on our trip. The next day she felt better, and by Sunday she wasn't running a fever anymore. This was a huge blessing, because I don't think I could have traveled with her as sick as she was! By Sunday afternoon she mostly seemed her self, and Reilly stayed well, too! We got in a few visits Monday, then I packed all of Tuesday morning, and my parents drove us to Phoenix Tuesday afternoon/evening. We stayed in a motel there by the airport, and, though the night was a little long (those old metal port-a-cribs are tiny!) we got to the airport in time the next morning (our flight was at 7:35 am) and it actually went pretty well. There were one or two minutes there when I wasn't sure I was going to survive being mauled by my sweet little "lap child," and a few other where I wished she was one of those that would go to sleep in my arms when she was exhausted, but everyone was very nice and helpful, and we made it! And they didn't even lose our luggage! It was so nice to see Jeremy, and overcast skies, and our car! (I really had to watch it so I didn't smash their heads into the roof of my mom's Nissan Altima every time I put them into their carseats in the last few weeks...)
We stopped and got some late-ish lunch (moreso for Jeremy) at an "Oasis" on the outskirts of Chicago, (yum, Panda Express!) and then both kids konked out within like 3 minutes after that. Jaina slept about 2 hours, and Reilly slept more than 2 1/2 - almost all the way home! That is completely unheard of for our kids, so we counted it as another blessing!

A picture of Reilly on his favorite place, the trampoline!
With Sasha, my mom's labrador. Sasha is such a sweetheart, and I loved taking her on exercise walks with me, but for some reason Reilly is afraid of her! I guess she's just so big compared to him, he's worried that she'll get the best of him. (though he's safer with her than with either of the little dogs - a dachshund and a long-haired chihuahua mix) We usually chained her up when he was running around outside, so he wouldn't worry about her. Here he's obviously not worried... (he had been carefully dumping little rocks on her back, and went over to pet her with encouragement) Not sure what's up with that kid...
Jaina and her cousin Chloe (8 months) in the cute dresses grandma got them. Ashley and I got ribbon and I made them matching bows so we could take some pictures. :)
Reilly was actually getting pretty good at puzzles while we were there. I'll bet if we get him some 12-piece ones (my mom had a bunch of 25-piece ones) he could do them himself!
Even though she hasn't been sick lately, Jaina has sure been teething a lot - here she is with her prize: the Oragel!
My brother David and I during some intense card games. :)
Jaina has regressed a little when it comes to walking. With all the being sick she lost some of her confidence (she'd rather crawl or be carried right now) and possibly even some of the balancing muscles she had just started building up! Good thing she's so cute...
Here she is having fun at the hotel. Not ten minutes earlier she seemed near a meltdown because she was SO tired. Then -poof!- she found something to play with and was happy and smiley!
Here are our chiclets, passed out on the way home from Chicago.
It is so good to be home, and the kids slept pretty well the first night, and fabulously last night (no waking up at all!) Jaina did have a fever again all day yesterday, but it stayed low-grade, and was most likely teeth-related. I can feel her first set of molars trying to come in (finally), at least, and possibly her eye-teeth as well. If we can get those 8(!) teeth through soon, we might have a pleasant summer! I have a little bit of a cold, but if that's all I caught after the last few weeks, (and if we can continue to keep the stomach flu my family all has now from following us home) I'll count myself extremely lucky! The kiddos are already keeping me busy. I already have a picture on the camera I'd like to put up here (of what Reilly did today, AFTER his bath this morning), but I just uploaded everything this morning, so you'll just have to stay tuned... :) (Look at that innocent face - it can't be that bad!)

Videos for Daddy

See our "what's up" post below. Here are some videos for our daddy, whom we miss very much!
Love,
Reilly & Jaina

Sick in Arizona

So, a few days before we left Iowa (Sunday afternoon), this is how we found Reilly:



Asleep on OUR bed. Out cold. The kid that hardly ever naps anymore. That should have been our first sign, but we just thought he was really tired... He ended up getting fairly sick that night, and had a low-grade fever for about 3 days or so and was grumpy for at least a week. Traveling with that was a little stressful... It went as well as could be expected, and we made it to the Gila Valley (Pima-Thatcher-Safford) Tuesday night. Reilly was so excited to be able to go outside, even though he didn't feel very good. One day he played in this sandbox for at least an hour by himself:


He is also in love with the trampoline. I'll have to remember to get a picture of that...
Jaina was also excited to be here, and was having a grand old time with all the relatives (though she's always a little shy at first) and toys. Especially any that Reilly's playing with at any given time. Notice her ponytail. It was in rare form that day. :)
Reilly still felt pretty icky off and on and was really grumpy for quite a while. I thought it was just teething at the time. (Both of them have been working on molars...) Here he is cuddling with my dad.
Grandpa trying to get on Reilly's good side by buying him his first ice cream cone. :) He was pretty impressed!
Sadly, that Thursday, Jaina got sick! She had a pretty decent fever all day along with lots of cold symptoms, and felt terrible.
I thought she'd be sick for a while (if she had whatever Reilly had), but the next day she felt better, (at least fever-wise) and we got to spend a lot of time with Jeremy's family Friday and Saturday. They were both pretty grumpy a lot of the time, but we still had a lot of fun.
Church went pretty well, and Reilly enjoyed going to nursery with Grandma. I had to take Jaina home to take a nap, but they both seemed to feel pretty decent Sunday and Monday. Here's Jaina Monday night, reminding us to brush our teeth! Her hair is getting pretty long in front... :)
Reilly has been feeling a LOT better,
but is still a little whiny, because he finds that it works when trying to get everything he wants from grandmas, grandpas, aunts and uncles...














He wouldn't even know I was here if I didn't remind him of how he's not allowed to throw huge fits, and if I wasn't here to tell him it's time for bed... He's a sweetheart though, and he's getting so old!
Reilly spent Wednesday night through Friday mid-day at Jeremy's parents. They were planning to watch both kids all day Thursday so my brother David and I could go down to Mesa, go to the temple, and see my friend Athena (and her new house!) This didn't work out so well, as Wednesday morning, Jaina started running a fever again. She was pretty sick, and it kept going up above 103º any time we let her go very long without tylenol or advil. We spent a lot of time sitting in a rocking chair with her watching Sesame Street or Baby Einstein (or sleeping) while I read books. Don't mind how I look sicker than her. I haven't actually had anyting yet! (Other than rather interrupted sleep)
It was really nice to have somewhere to send Reilly where he would actually get some attention, and not have to worry about him getting fed and taken care of here. (My parents were gone to Mesa for a few days).
Thursday her fever was up near 104º twice, and yesterday (Friday) I knew I needed to get her checked out to make sure she didn't have strep or some other kind of infection. Of course, being from out of state, the best place to go for insurance acceptance was the ER. David watched Reilly, and Jeremy's dad went in with me, and we took her up yesterday afternoon. The poor thing had to go through so many tests, and she was NOT happy about it. Of course they took her temperature AFTER two nose swabs (for RSV and flu) and a throat swab (strep) and with the room being warm, and all the screaming, her temp had shot even higher, to 104.7º! The RSV came back positive. She had some other tests to rule out any secondary infections, and after about 4 hours, we got to bring her home. She slept pretty well last night, probably because they had worn her out! It's good to know what's going on, and to know what to watch for (if it got any worse - she's doing pretty well, considering), and to know she doesn't have anything else pushing her fever that high. I just hope she feels a lot better before we have to fly home Wednesday!



















So that's our "vacation" story. Jeremy has actually been sick this whole time, as well. Come to think of it, they probably all had/have the same virus... At least he hasn't had to deal with taking care of us, and he's just been able to try to take care of himself, and study, study, study for boards! He's taking some of them today and some tomorrow. We wish him all the luck (and a well-working memory, mostly) in the world!

Faith and doubt cannot exist in the same mind at the same time, for one will dispel the other.