Resurrection Day

We woke up early this morning and got the kiddos up!

Gabriella being silly when she was looking in her Easter basket

Yep, still being silly. And Xander loved his Veggie Tales movie!

After a quick couponing trip we headed to church. 

Sleepy snuggles on daddy

Our family! 

Me and my dad!

Mom and I. Dad said we should take a picture with our glasses off so we humored him. 

Gabriella said, "now a picture of the girls. They are boys but we are girls!"

Mom and I were busy getting lunch ready and then Amy and Ariella showed up. 

A picture while Ariella was slicing veggies

Crazy picture!!

After some good laughs with Ariella, it was time for lunch. 

We tried something a little different and made our deviled eggs with plain organic greek yogurt instead of mayo. It had a sort of weird tang to it. Half of us liked it and the other half didn't. 

Xander LOVED his egg and yelled for more!

After lunch we celebrated Amy's birthday and then the kids hunted for Easter eggs filled with money!

We had to hunt inside because it was so rainy out. 

Gabriella and Ariella looking inside all their eggs. 

Mom and I switched wigs! 

Gabriella missed her nap today so she fell asleep after about 2 minutes in the car on the way home. She fell asleep holding the Happy Napper monkey that my parents had given her. 

It was a great Resurrection day. So nice to be with people we loved and just have some good laughs. 

Here is a little status update I shared on Facebook yesterday of something that happened Saturday night at our house that really humbled me and made me feel so blessed to be a parent:

Last night we sat the kids down and I talked to them about Easter and what it meant. After I explained about Jesus rising from the dead so we could live forever with Him in heaven, I told them that Jesus lives in Heaven and He can live in our hearts too. Gabriella closed her eyes, and said,"Jesus will You live in my heart? Okay." Her face turned bright red and her eyes lit up instantly. She got a huge smile on her face. I asked her if she could feel Jesus inside her and she nodded her head and laughed! We had talked about Jesus dying for all the bad things we do and how much He loves us. And she just asked Him into her heart. It was so awesome to get to watch the way she felt when He came to her as soon as she asked.

Shave and a Hair Cut

I decided to shave my head when my mom found out she had to do chemo. I don't care to list all the reasons on here of why I made my decision to do so, if you want to know them you can ask. I'll just say that I love my mom like crazy and I would do anything in the world to be supportive of her and help her out.

On Tuesday morning I sent my enlisted partner in crime (Jill) and we set to work!

Getting ready.....

My "butch" cut! 

We saved my hair and cut it as close to the scalp as possible so that I would be able to donate it all to Wigs For Kids. 

When we laid the first chunk down Gabriella grabbed it, started shaking it around (which made it fly everywhere), and started yelling, "Ooooooh! Brown hair mommy!!"

Time for the buzzers! 

Then we lathered up my head and got the razor out!

All done! Bald and proud!

Jill was awesome! If you ever need your head shaved and lots of laughs, give her a call!!

Fun Times Around Our House

With Xander and Gabriella being so sick, we spent most of last week and this week at home. We had fun but I was about to go stir crazy!!!

Gabriella figured out how to unlock and open our back door which meant she let Xander and herself outside to play on the back deck. She was doing a happy dance and Xander was running around squealing with excitement. 

Gabriella wanted to take a picture together "because we are just girls"

Xander was pretty fussy and just laid around most of the week. 

I asked Matt to clean up Xander and his high chair. So he stuck both of them in the bathtub....

Friday night was the annual carnival at Vineyard Christian School. 

Gramma, as usual, was manning the raffle ticket table. 

There were over 60 raffle items that were donated!

James got to come!

(Poor kid had gotten stitches a few days earlier from hitting his head on a bumper)

Aunt Linda won the cake walk 

(Jonathan won it twice!)

April having fun!

I got home and took off my capulana. Gabriella wrapped it around her head and said, "Look, I'm just Mary!" (she plays with our Little People nativity set a lot)

Silly girly!

Matt's car broke down and we finally got it towed home (it broke down on the way to hospital when Xander got admitted). Dad came over to help Matt take a look at it and the kids had fun crawling around in the car. 

Looks like dad is working really hard....

Helping daddy try and start it....

Playing out back while mommy was mowing the yard

Xander and Josie are great buddies!

Silly boy!

Me and Matt. I don't know what to say about this picture....

Silly Roo!

Aaaaaahhhh, Sunday night!

Silly girlie again

Xander having fun playing with the flashlight!

Pneumonia and a Hospital Stay

Xander spiked a fever of 105.3 over last weekend and it hovered between 102-104 the rest of the time. His runny nose got all icky and he started coughing horribly. Saturday afternoon I noticed that his skin was "pulling" into his ribs when he was breathing. Thinking it was croup we took him for a long walk outside in the cold air. He was up fussing all night long Saturday night.

Sunday morning rolled around and he looked so sick :( 

We played in the bathtub with some warm steam to see if it would help the congestion. He just sat there the whole time looking sad. 

Sunday evening his lips turned blue for a couple hours and I kept a sharp eye on him (it has happened several times before from his tracheomalacia). We were up most of the night again Sunday night as Gabriella had started coughing terribly too. 

Monday I took both kids to the dr's office to get checked out and Xander was having very labored breathing. She diagnosed both kids with bronchiolitis (different from bronchitis) and said that Xander needed to go straight to the hospital to be admitted. She couldn't hear how his lungs sounded because he was wheezing so much. 

Three Rivers Hospital was completely full so off we went to Medford to Rouge Valley Medical Center and the pediatric wing of the hospital. 

Matt's car broke down leaving work and (praise Jesus) his buddy Shiloh was able to come pick him up and take him to the hospital to meet us. 

Gabriella had missed nap and was feeling bad as well so her and Matt took a rest on the bed watching tv while I took care of all Xander's admitting stuff. 

Poor kid trying to rest after they used a power sucker to suck out his nose. 

Snuggles with daddy after getting his blood drawn. 

Waiting to see how his x-ray looked.

Gabriella had fun playing with the buttons on the bed that made different parts of it go up and down. 

In the evening after dinner Gabriella was getting a little restless (and I was stressed out) so we headed outside together to play on the playground. Gabriella said, "We are just girls so we play together at the playground!" She was very happy to get outside. 

Xander when I asked if he wanted to smile and send a picture to Grampa. 

Xander's chest x-ray show pneumonia (combined with influenza and RSV symptoms, on top of the bronchiolitis) so he was given two shots of antibiotics and an oral dose. It took him at least 20 minutes to calm down after the shots and this was after he had calmed down. 

Naomi (our sister in law) was able to watch Gabriella overnight (such a blessing for us! We felt terrible asking someone to watch her when she was so sick too but with mom having her first dose of chemo just one week before we didn't have many options. Naomi was a HUGE lifesaver and even snuggled Gabriella when she woke up crying in the night)

After Matt ran Gabriella over to Zac & Naomi's house, he brought back a treat for me and Xander.... coconut milk ice cream bars covered in chocolate and almonds!!!

During the night his pulse-ox dropped down to 83 :( We were able to get it back up by re positioning him to a very propped up position (and lots of prayer!)

Morning rolled around and his fever was under control with tylenol, he hadn't needed any oxygen and he finally started drinking enough to go pee so we got to go home!! Yay!!

Watching tv with daddy and waiting for discharge papers

So excited to be headed home! Poor little man had a rough time in the hospital but we were so happy to head home! 

While Xander was in the hospital we found out very quickly who loved us and had our backs. The calls and text messages that we got from people expressing their concern, sharing their love and prayers, and offers for help made us feel so loved! And Matt's employer was so understanding as well! As my sister-in-law texted us, "we will all get through this crazy time together". 

This time reminded me of the song by Matt Maher that says, "Love will hold us together, make us a shelter to weather the storm. And I'll be my brother's keeper so the whole world will know that we're not alone"