My poor little guy....

We all went through colds and coughs here at our house and then Gavin came down with one. I took him in and he had a double ear infection and a cold; not too bad. So we came home with antibiotics. After a week he still didn't seem well and was way stuffy and coughed so much he'd end up throwing up his bottle and food. Last Saturday, Nils got him out of bed in the morning and went to change him and noticed he didn't sound so good. We undressed him to watch him breathe. I then became so nervous because right under his chest area it would sink way in and then came back out with every breath he took. It just looked like he was having a hard time. I finally then just said enough was enough and we took up to the ER. They immediately could also tell that he was weazing (not sure how to spell it) and having a hard time. He sounded like the weazy dog off Toy Story basically. They hooked him up to an oxygen machine to watch his breathing better / monitor his oxygen levels. They did some other tests then as well. Long story short, he had RSV. He wasn't in the bad catergory of oxygen that we needed to have him hospitalized so they instead sent us home with breathing treatments. Better for me then staying in the hospital too. :) So we came home with him and just watched him. He was such a trooper doing his breathing treatments! He'd sit there and just stick his face in the mask like he knew exactly what to do. I really could tell he didnt' feel well. It was hard having to wake up through the night to do a treatement, but he again was super and would cuddle for a minute and go back to sleep. We are still on them. We have had to keep him in and not take him out of the house for a couple weeks now so I'd do trips to the grocery store by myself just to escape for a bit. :) The Dr. switched to doing them only once a day so YAY! I call tomorrow for follow up to see if he wants us to still do them or what. He is improving though and I'm so happy. Nothing is worse then seeing your little baby sick and not happy!
Below is a picture of him as we just started the treatment and he just sits......

Here is a picture of the machine we hook him up to....

This is a picture of him after he is done. He just sits still and stares. The treatment makes his heart race a bit so he is a bit hyper after, but it takes just a bit for that. Usually right after when we unplug it he just sits and stares at ya.

Here is to now hoping we get Spring here quick and kill all the bad yucky germs out there that are going around!!!!

Just a little behind......

Yep, imagine that. Sam got behind on the whole blogging thing! :) I just have had myself doing too many things and trying to be in too many places at once and I haven't had much time to myself to sit and update the blog. Sorry. I will give you a run down of the past little bit though.Not a whole lot of exciting things have happend though.
Gavin is getting bigger and bigger and boy is it sad to see how fast they grow! It seems like Nils and I just brought him home and he is now going on 7 months!! He is a great little kid though. The cholic is gone and WOW what a whole new world!! He is working on tooth number five now so that is the only grumpy we get. Poor little fella. He is rolling everywhere and just yesterday began to get himself around by doing army crawls. I will have to try to remember to get it on camera next time. He loves being around his older brother and sister. They are a huge help for the most part too and I am grateful! Whenever I need to get something done they team up usually to try and calm him down and/or entertain him until I can feed him or whatever.
Brooklyn is still, well....Brooklyn. She is hell on wheels still. That girl has a mind of her own and is VERY moody! I think she is in the horrible three stage and I hope it passes sooner then later. At times I really just don't know what to do with her. She is always into things she knows she shouldn't be and/or doing things that she knows she's not suppose to. You can tell her no and get after her and when you turn around she's at it again! (sigh) She tries her best to help with Gavin though. Some days are better then others. She has hit a stage though that she thinks she is big enough to pick him up and she really is not! Scares the daylights out of me and I hope it too will soon pass. :)
Ryder is still doing Preschool. He'll be done this year. He is trying really hard to learn his letters and all that comes with it. He is a whiz with writing his name and close to recognizing all his letters in the alphabet. He loves Preschool though and does great! He has been telling me when the snow melts that he'll be happy so he can play baseball. Yippee! I can't wait either so I guess I'm glad he's happy for it.
So there is our life in a nut shell lately. I hope to do better now at keeping this thing updated. :)

Our visitor.....

Nils and I were sitting here the other night when my dad came in and said that when he had gotten up to go to work that morning, he had seen a bull elk out in the field in front of his house. He said it wasn't very far away from him, but when he started his truck it took off. We then decided to keep our eyes out in hopes to see it. We'd get up and check in the mornings (since the kids were up usually before the sun was) and then we'd check at night right before it got way dark in hopes he'd come out to feed. For a few days we saw nothing and began to think my dad was seeing things and going crazy in his old age. Then one late afternoon we decided to head over to his parent's place to visit in Franklin. We decided to go up over the hill past my dad's fields just to see. Yep, sure enough,the elk was out there!! So after all, my dad wasn't just going crazy! :) I had Nils pull over and we just watched him eat for awhile as he just would mill around. I didn't have my camera and was mad at myself for not grabbing it. Nils told me maybe now we knew more where he kind of was staying we'd watch and catch him again. So sure enough the next night we could see out our window that he was going out to the field to eat! We quickly rounded up the kids and got the camera and up the road we went. We pulled over on the road and just watched the elk. It was so neat!!! He is a big bull elk; a 6x6!! I started snapping pictures and he'd watch us every then again and on occasions would start to go back away from us. We were able to sit there with the kids and watch him for about a good 45 minutes probably just eat and walk around!!
There are also a herd of deer who have moved in for awhile now and in the one picture they were out eating too. They are always out in the few fields eating and moving around. It was just really neat to see an elk that close up; not trapped in!! We have seen them of course but not just out in the open where they are free to run and go where ever.
Enjoy the pictures I was able to snap. Sorry they are not the best quality. I took some through my car window because it was so dang cold and then some I was shivering and they went a tad blury. :) He has a few places by our house and my parent's that he beds down and it's been fun to watch him hide out. We hope he stays and hangs out for a bit.

Ryder wins again!

It was that time of year again, time for the yearly Christmas coloring book contest in Preston. Ryder grabbed the coloring book out of my mom's paper and started coloring that day. He was so excited. He ended up coloring quite a few, but being a slaker of a mom that I am I spaced getting them handed out until the day before they were all due! So since we were behind I told him to pick out about four or five really good ones and we'd hand them in. So he did. He then got a call that he had been chosen and won at Preston Dental. For his prize he got a spinbrush toothbrush! Yep, a dentist gave the kids a toothbrush for their prize! :) A little on the nutso side I thought considering they usually do something fun for the kids. LOL It was good though and Ryder was happy because it was a lot cooler looking then his he said. Brooklyn had finally decided to color a few pictures but then got ticked one day because she said Ryder had more then her and ripped them all up. So needless to say she did not end up getting any done to hand in. She realized after Ryder had won that maybe next time she would not throw a fit and do good with them. We shall see how she feels next year. :)

Here is a picture of him and the others who won along with the dentist. Ryder loves to sit and color and I was glad he won! WAY TO GO RYDER!

Ryder's Christmas Program

This year Ryder's Preschool class went over to the nursing home and had a short program for Christmas. They sang some Christmas songs and those kids were great. What a good group of kids. Miss Mindy is their teacher and she does such a nice job with the kids; they sang their hearts out! Ryder is my shy boy believe it or not and Nils and I were so amazed he stood up there and sang! He sang all he knew and danced to the one he needed and did actions for the others. I was proud of my boy! :) I had my camera being really stupid though for some reason so I didn't get very good pictures. (That would be why everyone looks like they have alien eyes.) LOL
Here are a couple pictures of him & his class getting ready to sing.


These next few are just him and his class singing. They are doing actions to the songs and then the one they are singing Jingle Bells and shaking bells. Ryder thought that was neat.



It was fun to go watch and boy was I a proud mom. Yes, I know strange being so proud of him singing. Really for Ryder though to be up in front of people he gets nervous and shy so for him to sing was a step I was happy to see! He sang his little heart out and did so well!! Two thumbs up for Miss Mindy and the hard work she did to get the kids ready. It was a good little program.

Ward Christmas Party

We had our Ward Christmas party the first part of December, I just am slow at getting the pictures up from it. We had a dinner and then following the dinner we had a short program on the birth of Christ. It was a very good program!! Then of course Santa came! Ryder and Brooklyn were so excited for a few days for it and had been super good so they could see Santa. The minute Santa walked in and Ryder got a glance at him he ran and started hiding under whatever chair he could. He was not having any part of that for some reason. He litteraly was shaking and pretty much in tears when we asked if he wanted to go up and tell Santa what he wanted. It was just plain nuts. I am not sure what hit the poor boy. Brook, after seeing I think how Ryder was acting, decided no way too. She didn't want to go see him either and started to cry. We found some good friends of ours in the ward, the Austin's, and their little boy was waiting in line. Their little boy and Brook are in nursery together and are best buds so she said she'd go with them. She waited in line and became happy and excited. It was finally her turn and I could tell she was a bit nervous, but she did it! She told him that she wanted a dollhouse. I then sat Gavin on his lap to get a picture and Gavin decided to heck with it and screamed. What a night! I did capture a few quick pics though. Crazy kids any ways. :)
Here is Brooklyn excited now and ready to see Santa!

This is the one of Brooklyn staring down Santa & telling him she wanted him to bring her a dollhouse for Christmas.

And here is the one when I sat Gavin on Santa's lap. He was not a happy camper and wanted no part of that. LOL ;)

Overall they had fun though I think. Ryder did calm down after awhile and just looked from way back in the gym at Santa. :)

JAZZ GAME!

Last night we were able to go to the Jazz game and had such a blast. Nils got four free tickets from a friend who has season tickets and couldn't go. We took our friends Kory and Jennifer Kofoed with us. The seats were great and we had a good view of everything. The Jazz won which of course made it that much better too. It was a good game and was a total BLAST! I am grateful for my mom for taking my kids for us so we could go and for our friends going with us. I was very happy as well that the weather was in our favor and good! Nils and I always watch Jazz games on TV, but man in person it's fun. Here are the pics I was able to capture. Some are not the best quality but work. :)