Hospital Visit

Spence got SUPER sick the week before finals in November.  He was prescribed some meds to take, but they just weren't working.  After muscling it out for a week with absolutely no sleep and hardly eating anything, he called his doctor to tell him that the medication he prescribed wasn't working right and he was sent to the ER with the notice that he may have to be admitted to see what was going on.  He went straight from school and spent about 11 hours in the ER before they had a bed for him upstairs. 

He was not excited to have to stay....

Thanks to some great friends, I was able to go to the hospital around 7 pm that night and decided to sleep there with Spence since he was not looking very good at all.  It was so hard to see him in so much pain... and it was especially hard to go home to Colby without Spencer.  It was just the weirdest thing to know that Colby and I were at home doing regular everyday things when he was ten miles down the road sick as a dog and we couldn't be there with him.  

 Later that day I was able to take Colby in to visit for a few minutes.  The nurses said I could bring him in, but not for very long since there is so much sickness in the hospital. 

We were blessed by so many people here that week.  That was one of the hardest weeks for me to date, but it helped so much to know that there were people to help take care of our family when we needed it most.  So many people offered to help watch Colby so I could visit Spencer in the hospital over the four days he spent there.  We were given meals, flowers, priesthood blessings, etc. and everything was so appreciated.  

He was admitted on Thursday and stayed until Sunday night - just in time for the big vacations we had planned for his November break.

Cooling Down

The weather started to cool down in October so Spence and I were finally able to take Colby to the park one afternoon without sweating bullets.  He loves the swings and especially the slide.  I was able to take a photography class at the recreation center this summer but it was always way too hot to bring Colby out with me to practice taking pictures.  So this was the perfect opportunity.  I am SO not great at it, but its a lot of fun.  I mainly just want to learn how to take pictures well enough that I am happy with the memories that I've captured of my little family as the years go on.

I think my photography teacher would be proud of the picture below. :) :)  Gosh he's so cute!!

And I had to add this one in because of the face he's making.  He learned what "Ready, set, go!" meant a few weeks before.  He likes us to say "Ready, set..." and then he finishes with "GO!"  This is his "GO!!" face in action.

Halloween 2012

I was not on the ball with Halloween costumes like I was last year (well last year really wasn't that much different, but whatever, at least we sewed two costumes together on Halloween day).  Spencer and I had a few family costume ideas including our favorite - a pilot, flight attendant, and a peanut - but none of them worked out like we had in mind.  So that left us a few days before Halloween on the night of our ward's trunk-or-treat with no costumes.  Spencer had the brilliant idea of being trekkies.  We just so happened to have the perfect clothes and I whipped up some arm bands and badges with cardboard and aluminum foil.  Funny enough, I think this has been my favorite costume we've had since Spence and I have been married.  There's just something so awesome about a simple, cheap, and comfortable Halloween costume that makes me happy. :)

A few days later we dressed up again and went trick-or-treating for the first time with Colbs.  He LOVED it haha!  He literally ran from house to house choosing his own pieces of candy.  That was the night we discovered his love for plain m&m's.

I didn't do too much holiday baking this year, but I did venture out and made a pumpkin pie from scratch - crust and all.  It was sooo yummy.

  

Allergic Reaction

WARNING:  These pictures are pretty sad/graphic of Colby's allergic reaction progression.  

After the room makeover, Colby came down with a nasty cold that turned into an ear infection.  His doctor prescribed Amoxicillin which we were religious in giving him twice daily, for eight days.  He had taken it once before for an ear infection so we didn't think much of it... until day eight.  On day eight he woke up with a strange rash that kind of looked like roseola (the last time he took amoxicillin he broke out with the same small rash at the end of the ten days and his doctor said that it was probably roseola since he had broken a fever and his body was healing - apparently it was not).  The rash started that morning as a few dots at the top of his legs and by the time we left the doctor's office at 1 pm, it had spread clear up past his armpits.  It didn't bother him too much yet.  His pediatrician confirmed that it was an allergic reaction, stated that his ear infection had not healed, gave us a different medication for him, and told me to take him into the ER if he started wheezing, having trouble breathing, or looking disoriented.  Awesome.

As the rash progressed, it got more itchy and more annoying for Colby.  The rash took its form in this order:  started with small spots, eventually the spots got larger until they pretty much formed one giant spot (that was beginning to take place in the picture above), then target lesions (pictured just below), the target lesions would swell and then turn purple in the middle, and then clear up.  This would move from one area of his body to the next until every inch of his body had its turn.  

You can see his swollen ears in the picture below.  It was so sad... he would scratch his ears and they were so swollen that they would just flop back and forth.  His feet and his hands were really swollen, so much that he wouldn't walk at all.  If I put him down, he would start to cry and his body would start to shake involuntarily because his feet were in so much pain due to the swelling.  It was SO SAD. He was still battling a fever and an ear infection on top of the allergic reaction.  Needless to say, we watched a lot of shows that week.    

The rash moved to his head last.  Spencer had gone to school already by the time Colby woke up, and when I walked in to get him from his crib, I saw this boy... with my baby's voice.  IT WAS THE CRAZIEST MOMENT.  I could have sworn to you that someone had swapped my baby out for another.  I couldn't even recognize him!  He hadn't been wheezing, but he had been choking on his food a little bit that day and it made me nervous knowing that his airways could close up, especially since his entire face was swollen.  I made an appointment for that day to make sure his airways looked fine.  Everything looked ok and I went home feeling a little better.

It took four to five days for the rash to finish its course - and thank heavens it did!  It left us with our healthy child again and I am so thankful!

For my memory's sake:  

The doctor explained that the reaction probably didn't show itself for 8 days because it was still building up in his body.  Unfortunately by then he had already taken an entire bottle of Amoxicillin.  Also, often an allergy doesn't manifest itself until the second time a person has had contact with the said allergy.  That would explain why he didn't have an allergic reaction the first time we gave him the medication.

Throwback... Tuesday??

Let's just take a minute and reflect on this cute little one.  I mean, seriously- those thighs? that helmet??  

He was caught trying to saw our tupperware in half.  What a handy little man.

Beach Day

Before we drove back to Arizona, we spent a few hours at Huntington Beach soaking up the sun.  Brian, Nicole, Darren and Sydney were there to party it up with us and we had a blast!

I love this picture of Spence and Colby... frame worthy for sure. :)  And the next few make me smile so although they pretty much are the same thing, I had to post them all.

In this last one Spence reminds me so much of Buster on Arrested Development for some reason haha!  

Disneyland Day 3

I've got some catching up to do, so in no particular order, here are the photos from Disney day 3.  

I love this ride... seriously so fun.

This pic was taken in Animation Studios... yes, I know he doesn't have shoes on, but I just had to post how HUGE  that chair is compared to the Colbster!

I loved being there during Halloween.  The decorations were super fun and The Haunted Mansion was SO awesome!

Love this sweet Ally girl!!!