Sooo not food poisoning

Dan came home late Tuesday night bent over complaining of bad stomach pain. I sent him off to bed where he stayed for all of about 30 minutes and spent the rest of the night in the bathroom vomiting. At about 430 in the A.M. he drove himself to the Germantown ER, leaving me a text message on my phone that he had gone.

Abby and I woke up at about 630 and I couldn't find Dan. I soon found my phone and knew where he was. He was given morphine and the doctor wanted to do a CT scan to check his appendix. My budget money conscious husband almost walked out without the test but the doctor convinced him to do it since his white blood cell count was high.  I got Jake and Tess off to school and headed over to Callie Brewer's to do some visiting. Within about 5 minutes Dan called to say the test results were back and he had appendicitis. They would be putting him in an ambulance to take him to Shady Grove Hospital for emergency surgery within the hour.

I quickly left, picked up Tess from preschool and dropped both girls off at Bonnie's. I wanted to be sure to see Dan before they took him in to surgery.  I beat the ambulance to Shady Grove Hospital and actually had to wait awhile for him to arrive.  I was able to see him for a few minutes before the surgery. Dan always manages to be friendly and funny in any social situation...even when he is about to have emergency surgery! The pain medication may have helped out there this time too! He was ham'n it up with the nurses. I stayed for 2 more hours to see him after surgery and then headed home get the kids. We ate dinner, which was brought over from a ward member, and then we headed back to Shady Grove Hospital to check on Dan. The kids and I didn't stay long that night but I was glad I made the trip back. Tess and Jake were pretty worried about him and couldn't stop talking and asking him questions. Abby was pulling chords, eating all his jello, and literally bouncing off the walls.  Dan was exhausted but happy to see the kids.

I have to mention that since he had been given so many IV drips and fluid during the day he had to go to the bathroom 3 times in the thirty minutes we were there... and was pretty annoyed.  Me and my 35 week pregnant bladder weren't very sympathetic. I couldn't help but laugh...and then I helped him in and out of bed!

Tess and I picked Dan up from the hospital the next day around 2pm while Jill McKinstry took care of Abby and picked up Jake from school for me. The doctor told Dan to take it easy, no high energy activities for awhile. His diet was restricted to liquids and then easy to digest/small portioned food. He has been hungry for days now!

I am so grateful for all the help from family and friends! I received lots of phone calls from ward members ready and willing to help out. Word spread quickly since I was visiting with a member of the Relief Society presidency's when  his test results came back! I really appreciated all the support.

Dan and I realized just how lucky we were to not be moving right now. Can you imagine if we had gotten the home we put an offer on or found a home with a back yard to rent...we would be very excited to be moving but we would be moving right now. Dan can't lift more than 15lbs for another 2 weeks and I'm well, 35 weeks pregnant. The Lord definitely knows what's best.  Now hopefully this baby won't arrive until Dan has all his energy back and all the heavy lifting and organizing that I had on our schedule for this weekend gets done!!

At long last

 I am DONE! 

Over the past almost 4 years I have worked with the following 5 dentists: Dr. Farber, DDS Orthodontist, Dr. Zupnick, DDS Periodontist, Dr. Tanenhaus, DDS Endodontist, Dr. William Chmar, DDS Periodontist and Dr. Dzyak, DDS Oral Surgeon.

As I drove home from my appointment today I felt a huge weight lifted from my shoulders! I felt 40lbs lighter....and that's saying a lot since I have about that much of baby weight on me right now! I am so very thankful to have my 3 implants and be completely done with this long ordeal!

The master-mind behind my entire treatment was Dr. Chmar.  I have visited his office the most by far.  I told him today that he feels like family and will definitely be receiving Christmas cards from the Barnhurst family.

Dr. William Chmar

His assistant/receptionist Hageed.

I've gotten to know her very well. She is originally from Isreal, a mother of two, grandmother of three, and a very patient and special person to put up with Dr. Chmar! She made me promise to stop by with all the kids every once and awhile. 

And then there is Dr. Dzyak and his staff. I have never been to a more pleasant and happy dental office. AND his office was one I can honestly say I felt the least amount of fear in, ever!! Although that may have a lot to do with the fact that most of the time he completely sedated me for my procedures! 

So happy to be done!

The cutest grin EVER...

After a long 12 days of one crooked snaggle tooth grin Aunt Bonnie yanked that tooth right out. Now look at my beautiful Tess....

I LOVE IT!

(We love you Aunt Bonnie!)

Little Girls Night

The night of the father-son camp out I decided to do a girlie party for my two girls. We invited C.C. and Lexi McKinstry over to for manicure/pedicures, hair salon, and movie/treats. I didn't get any pictures of the mani/pedicures but I have to mention that Abby had to have every color on top of each other, she kept me busy while Jill took care of the other 3 girls. It was a great night. Jill and I enjoyed chatting amidst watching our comical girlies!

C.C. cracked me up with all the bows she stuck in her hair! 

 Even the dog got a make-over.

We ate treats and watched Tangled. 

C.C. got to spend the night! These two had been looking forward to this for weeks. 

We love having cousins close by!

Father-Son Camp Out

 Jacob has been looking forward to going camping with Dan all month. James needed to stay home and take care of Bonnie (she hurt her back) so Benny joined Jake and Dan.  They ate a lot of junk, stayed up super late, enjoyed playing with Dan's new iPhone app for finding constelations, rode a dirt bike through some wooded trails and came home completely exhausted.


pictures to come

That cute face

saves her every time.

Here is the latest on Abby....

Abby is officially potty trained. I have learned a lot about her over the course of doing this...she is one stubborn girl!  After picking out new undies, Hello Kitty, she didn't want a diaper of pull up on when she slept. She hasn't had one accident during naps or bed time! Amazing girl!

She is a very interesting toddler! Her first major OWIE occurred on a warm day, the very first time I put her in a cute sun dress. She fell down while running/bouncing on the sidewalk and totally skinned up her knee. Her reaction to getting hurt is so different than Jake or Tess. She immediately covered her knee with her skirt not wanting me to look at it let alone her. I picked her up not knowing how bad it was and got blood on my shirt, which totally freaked her out. When I went to clean the cut and put a band aid on it she was hysterical. Then any time we needed to take her pants off, or underwear, over the owie she would get all upset about it (which led to some potty accidents and fun clean ups for me). Her owie is completely healed now, though we still have to have bandaids covering the site. And this is what I get to deal with when I give her a bath...

She stands in the tub crying while I quickly clean her and get her out....she won't calm down until a band aid is back on the site. There is a tiny scab now that has to be covered! WOW!

My sister Emily has a child that when she was Abby's age she would leave instructions for babysitters that said something to the effect of, if it is quiet or you don't see her go running!  I am finding that the exact same is true of Abby. For example:

After feeding Abby lunch and putting her down for a nap on Sunday I found her playing in the bathroom with the blunger, then she emptied her sippy cup of water in her toddler bed, next she pooped her pants (because of said owie above) and while I was cleaning up her mess she found Tess coloring with markers and did this....

All this within about a ten minute time frame! I gave up on getting her to nap that day.

I have discovered that I have to be oh' so creative with how I discipline Abby. Honestly, I"m at a bit of a loss. She isn't phased by time-outs, losing toy privileges and most recently being spanked. Dan and I only spank when the kids put their lives in danger. Abby knows she can not cross the street without holding my hand. Most of the time I am gripping for dear life because she fights me every time. Last week Tess wanted to walk Jake to school, something we don't do anymore because of how long it takes her to walk. I decided we'd give it a try. We left 20 minutes before the final bell and were still late. (We live 2 blocks from the school, that is slowly we had to go.) On our way home Abby got out of my reach, stopped at the end of a side walk right before a street and just looked back at me with that daring look that all Mom's know.... I'm testing you MOM!... and she darted out into the street. I took off running. Luckily no cars were coming and she was fine, just grinning up at me! I spanked her. I hit her potty-trained toosh and she didn't care one bit! What to do? Any advice readers would be oh so welcome!

Though I am exhausted at the end of every day dealing with her sassy, button-pushing, curious ways I can sit and laugh with Dan about something funny she recently did or said.

For example:
Dan was in our bathroom getting ready with Abby under his feet playing with our scale. At one point Dan put her on the scale to see how much she weighed. Abby's reaction was hilarious. Dan told her that she weighed 30lbs to which she hollered at the scale over and over "NO, I NOT THIRTY, I TWO!"

Her latest phrase of affection is  "Mommy, I love your face!" (She can also say the exact opposite but I still think it is funny!)

Before turning out the lights at night I let the kids feel/watch the baby move as I lay down on the floor. A couple days ago Abby was giving the baby a kiss and then the next moment she gave me a zurber,  it totally took me by surprise. We were all laughing as she continued over and over to "zurber the baby".

I took the next picture at the doctors office today when Abby was pretending to be my doctor.

On our way through the parking lot Abby was actually letting me hold her hand. I noticed how cute and small her little fingers were since she wasn't fighting my grip! I told her " Abby, you have such a cute little hand!" to which she responded, " I know. I got it for Christmas!" And then continued singing the chorus of  I'm Walking On Sunshine....it must have been one of the songs that was playing in the office! Funny girl.

Abby is in a toddler bed now. Most nights I put her back in bed at least 3 to a zillion times! She doesn't nap every day which makes home schooling Tess a bit more difficult. But I do have to mention that on the days she doesn't nap she is still a happy curious little girl all day long! Occasionally she'll fall asleep on the couch in the late afternoon.

 Yes, that is a pacifier in her mouth. It's a battle I'm not up for fighting right now!

Abby is soooooo independent.  She dresses herself. Unfortunately that also means she changes her cloths about 4 times a day (adding to my loads of laundry!)

Also, for several weeks now she has been doing her own seat belt in the car. Heaven help me and everyone within ear shot if I so much as un-twist her buckle.

She has taken to helping me do my cleaning! I have learned to expect it plan for it and enjoy it. She vacuums with me, dusts, Clorox's the bathrooms, and unfolds my folded laundry. It's great!

Abby is the only child who inherited Dan's ability to roll his tongue! 

Isn't that face just so kissable!

Tess

Our sweet Tess has lost another tooth. Although the way it all happened was so true to how Tess's luck has been recently.

The day before her very wiggly tooth came out Tess was out back riding her bike. We were given the OKAY by her doctor to ride her bike because it still has training wheels on, which is suppose to make it hard for her to wreck. Well, the bike tipped and she went crashing down on her bad leg. Her cry was one that seriously alerted me! I spent the next 24 hours praying she hadn't broken it again. She wouldn't put any weight on it and the doctor told us to come in for an x-ray. So, skip ahead to a couple hours before we head into the doctor's office that next day. During lunch Tess took a bite of her sandwich and began to cry.  She twisted the two front, very wiggly, teeth causing them to bleed but still remain in her mouth. She kinda freaked out. Okay she totally freaked out and vomited. She spent the next 30 minutes slurping he spit and afraid to even close her mouth.

I finally convinced her to let me touch one of the wiggly teeth with a cold washcloth. It fell right out!!! 

We headed to the doctors office where my prayers were answered! No broken bones. She bruised her weak bone badly. The doctor told me to baby her, carry her, because it really was painful. This bruise set back her recovery a bit but she'll be fine!!!

So, the other front tooth was still so lose, and crooked! It looks like it is half-way out and hangs lower then her other teeth. Tess is very self-conscious of her new smile. I tried several times to pull it myself but couldn't. Luckily we had a dentist appointment for Jake and Tess scheduled just 2 days away so I figured the dentist could take care of it.

The dentist put some topical on it and twisted a bit but Tess cried so she stopped. The dentist explained that the tissue is tougher at that tooth so it is hanging in there...literally! She instructed Tess to wiggle/twist in on her own and it would be out in about a week.  (I have to add that Jake and Tess ACED their cleanings with NO cavities! I'm one proud and thankful Mama!)

So here is her cute smile! 

I have to say I think it is so cute and I love how it makes her talk and read during school time! She is just adorable, even with a "snagel" tooth!