Lately...

Well we have been a little busy around here! We are finally almost all recovered from all being sick!!! Now I am not going to lie and pretend like life is peachy over here because honestly there is A LOT of freaking crap in my life right now that I wish was just OVER, but since this is my family's journal I feel like there should be some kind of note to it so hopefully one day SOON Mark and I can look back and say look at all we have made it through (believe me there is a lot!) Anyways this past weekend I had a work trip to Carlsbad. It was nice to get out of town for a bit. Yes I took all 3 of my boys with me--ever since the ER fiasco I can't stop looking at Boston's head to make sure it looks normal so there was no way I was leaving him!
I had a meeting ALL day Saturday and since our hotel was on Lego Land's property Mark decided to take the boys by himself lol while I was at work. Now when he told me this I tried not to laugh, but he never takes them anywhere together alone--and I don't think I would attempt to go to a theme park alone with them lol! Anyways he claimed they lasted 3 1/2 hours there lol so I guess I will believe him. I still can't believe they went to Lego Land and he took maybe 3 pictures!!!!
After my day of meetings we got to go out to dinner with my aunt and 2 cousins!! I LOVE them and wish I saw them more because they are all AMAZING with the boys and to us!
Then Sunday we went and had brunch at a business partner of my dads before we drove home.


Lego Land
Trey at Lego Land
Boston at Lego Land
Trey would not leave Dustin & Austin alone lol he was on them constantly!
Trey with my cousins so his 2nd cousins?? Dustin & Austin
Bosty boy in his seat at dinner
My cousin Austin & Trey
Aunt Tracy & Boston at brunch in front of the vineyard

*Thank you so much Tracy for all the Valentine presents for all of us--I wish we could have seen you longer!

Our Drama King!

Well Boston-you gave us quite the SCARE yesterday! It all started when you woke up from your nap and I noticed that your soft spot looked swollen! So I did what every psycho mom does who has the internet--I googled it!!! (why do I do this???) Anyways all the things that come up basically said 1 thing, which was go to ER!! So I called a nurse friend who also confirmed I needed to go. So I called Mark at work and said meet me at Cardon's Children (which I highly recommend). So we get there and sign in when our freaking AMAZING friend Jaclyn (who is a nurse there) who I can not thank enough called in and told all her nurse friends we were friends with her so they come out and call our name and say "Boston will be treated as VIP" lol (which at this point I did feel kind of bad because we just beat everyone in the waiting room back lol but I also didn't care) So away we went right back to our own room and had a CT within 20 minutes of being brought back and right after we finished that they were waiting in our room to do Boston's IV and a pannel of blood work. The CT started out our scream fests for the day when they strapped his little body from head to toe to a board and wrapped him so tight like a burrito so he could not move, but they did let me put a vest on and go stand right up to the machine and try and talk to him over the screaming which I was thankful for. Then came putting in the IV port thing--again buckets of fun to watch as your child is screaming bloody murder. Then came the 1st session of waiting. We were waiting to see what the labs and the CT said. They all came back normal. (The CT was done to make sure that Boston had not fallen or hit his head and we didn't know it) This meant the spinal tap was next which I had been dreading the whole time we were waiting there. I knew the swollen soft spot most commonly meant 1 thing from my lovely google search which was meningitis. (it did not help that the only 2 kids I know that have had this have passed away with it) At this point our Pastor came which was super nice and we so APPRECIATED!!! He got to pray over Boston before the spinal tap which I LOVED because I was so worried about it. So they prepped us for the spinal tap which I decided I was going to stay in and watch so I could hold his little hand. Little did I know that my tiny baby boy would be so strong that 1 whole man would be in there to lay on top of his tiny body folded in half so he couldn't move--don't worry Mama shoved her hand under that man and held onto his hand! Even though it was awful awful to watch and hear as soon as it was done he was fine! At this point all the doctors and nurses were pretty convinced he was going to test positive and they were telling us what would happen and that Mark, Trey, and I all too would be treated so it was a little nerve racking! And luckily just as they finished it Mark's parents and 2 sisters got there and waited with us for the next 2 hours for the results which were NEGATIVE!!!! (my mom had Trey and since we had all been so sick we didn't want other people watching Trey and getting it so she couldn't come) So the conclusion was to give him an IV of antibiotics to help rush him over this cold/ear infection which they think has him so stuffed up and congested that it put pressure on his soft spot and made it swell.


Notice how my face is in NO pictures lol I practically cried since checking in so I kept telling Mark not my face!
Finally they let him eat!!!
Sitting with MiMi--we had just found out the results were negative!

So today we are at home "Thank the Lord" and the swelling has gone down a little but it still needs to go down some more. He seems ok but won't crawl. He will try and freeze and just start crying so we are guessing he stiff from the spinal tap so hopefully that goes away soon too! Thank you to everyone for kind words and prayers!!! I am just happy to be home and so excited to focus on his 1st birthday that is exactly 1 month away, and put this behind us!!!

Freshly Squeezed!

Trey helped me make orange juice
in my attempt to down as much vitamin C straight from the source!
So we have been hit HARD over here in the Smith house! Don't know exactly what it is but its AWFUL!!! I got it Saturday evening and still have it, Boston got it Monday night--and gave me one of my least favorite nights ever last night!!! I have been doing both motrin and tylenol to try and get a handle on his fever, but it just wasn't working he stayed at 102-104 ALL night long so he moaned and wimpered for about 10 hours straight. (I did call our peds hotline and apparently they don't start worrying til 105 degrees so I was just waiting to see if we were going to the ER or not) Then at exactly 7 this morning his fever broke and he fell asleep, but of course 15 minutes later Trey was up so I have been up since yesterday and can not wait to go to bed!!! I am a little nervous though for tonight because Trey still has not had the MAJOR fever yet and is just staying at 99, even when I had the fever it was at 103. Oh and Boston has a ear infection too--so that's fun lol!!! So hopefully we all get better soon....

My 3.00 Wreath!

Soooo I have been seeing these book page wreaths on blogs and saw a couple in some boutiques (they are selling them for like $55.00) and decided that was my next project... So I went to the dollar store and bought a wreath frame and 2 books. (I am very sorry Walter Hunt that I bought 2 of your 600 page books for the sole purpose of tearing out every page, but then again if they were at the dollar store I am guessing they weren't winning any awards lol) Anyways then before I tore the pages out I painted the sides of the book gold. Then tore the pages out and just started folding and gluing away!!! Here is the tutorial I got some of my ideas from.
WARNING this was a little more time consuming than I thought lol--I used about 1100 pages.
Trey takes EVERY cushion off the couch whenever I do a project because normally I don't let him lol
This is where I pretend these are all LOVE letters from Mark lol
Then I decided to dangle a doo dad in the middle--One side talks about LOVE
One side says The Smith's--I printed that with my new SILHOUETTE people!!!!!
So obviously I am not a photographer but you get the idea!

Guess who is standing on their own??

So Boston has been standing on his own for a couple weeks now--still no steps but he sure is happy he can stand there lol!!
He claps for himself every time he does it lol...

Toms

So I am sure everyone knows about TOMS. My dad has been wearing them for years and at first I did not like them (for me) but my sisters and mother in law started wearing them and then I thought they were cute so I did too-- Well MiMi and PaPa got the boys some for Christmas and I just think they are the cutest things on their little feet!!!

Yummy!

Waiting patiently for the Chocolate Chip cookies to be done...
He stayed there the whole 9 minutes
til he got to put one in his mouth!
Yes we put our milk in a wine glass tonight--its more fun that way!

Stroller Hiking-ha!

So Hallie & I decided this morning very last minute to go hike the trail that leads up to the path that goes directly up South Mountain. We took our double joggers and pushed all 4 kids up the path! It was super nice outside and the kids did great sitting in the strollers the whole time! (Now if you don't have a heavy duty jogger don't go try this--it won't work lol) It was pretty rough terrain but the older boys thought it was funny and it put the younger ones straight to bed. Now from the looks we were getting form the runners and bikers I am guessing a lot of moms don't take their strollers up this path, but its definitely something I would love to do more before summer!

Layla & Boston knocked out!

Saying their goodbyes...

Sleep Over!

So the boys had a slumber party last night--Boston to GiGi's and Trey to MiMi's! From what I was told both boys did AMAZING so I am guessing we will have to do it again soon and let the boys go to the opposite grandparents house lol! I separated them because I thought it would be fun for the boys to get the one on one attention. Mark and I had an amazing date day! We went shopping, saw a movie, went and ate at White Chocolate Grill (which I highly recommend), got in the jucuzzi, stayed at the Westin, & went out to breakfast--it was the most relaxing day I have had in 2 1/2 years lol literally!!!!! So THANK YOU so much for watching them! I thought this was a cute picture though of Trey with his suitcase...