Our Valentine's Day Weekend (Picture Blog)

A lot has been going on the last couple of weeks, so I'm just going to quickly post a picture blog of our Valentine's Day Weekend. We picked up Jim's girls Friday night and took all three girls out to dinner because we were heading out of town on Valentine's Day for my cousin's wedding. We had a lot of fun!

Kayla's Valentine's Day Party - Checking Their V-Day Goods


She Got Extra Excited Over Something...I Never Figured Out What

Yummy!

Snoqualmie Falls - Valentine's Day

The Girls @ Snoqualmie Falls

Our Family on Valentine's Day

My Parents & The Girls

Kayla & Kelsey After The Hike Back Up

Kayla & Grandpa

Kelsey's Fishy Face

Kayla & Kelsey Helping Uncle Randy On The Tractor

They Loved The Tractor

Our Family @ Cousin Richard's Wedding

Jim & I On Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!

I'm just now realizing that today is also Friday the 13th...not that it really means anything. But apparently people are pretty excited about a couple of scary movies that are coming out today. Seems a little bit odd to have horror movies coming out Valentine's Day Weekend.

I've never really been a HUGE fan of Valentine's Day. I mean, what girl really wants her significant other to actually put some thought into planning a special day for his loved one and go out and spend a TON of money on overpriced flowers and a nice evening out when everybody else and their grandma's dog are doing the same thing? Okay, I'll admit! I DO!!! But not necessarily on Valentine's Day. I only feel this way on Valentine's Day because I'm reminded how often we DON'T get to spend a nice evening together. Some day.

For now - I have been having fun this morning, baking Strawberry Valentine's Day Mini Muffins for Kayla's Valentine's Day party at school. They turned out better than I expected and hopefully they will be a big hit (so I don't have to bring any home and ruin my diet even further).

I am reminded why I HATE baking.......the mess:

The finished Product:

Good times! Tomorrow we are taking the girls to Ellensburg for my cousin's wedding. Should be fun to get away from the house for a day. We are going to go a little early and find some cool trails to take the kids hiking on. Hopefully it's not too cold!

The Latest Broken Bone Update...

I finally set aside some time this afternoon to upload all my pictures from this month onto our computer. Some are from my camera and some are from my phone - but they are here. So I thought I'd put together a little picture timeline of recent events:

Kayla Being Her Dorky Normal Self (Beginning of January 2009):

The Injured Wrist - Pre Dr. Visit (January 15th)

In Pain - Pre Dr. Visit (January 15th)

Knocked Out In ER - Post Wrist Reduction (January 23rd)

Starting To Wake Up - Post Reduction (January 23rd)

What a Trooper! (January 23rd)

Getting Hungry - Waiting For The Orange Popsicle They Promised (January 23rd)

Finally - The Long Awaited Pink Cast! (January 29th)

In other news - Kayla's school randomly has Mark Twain Spirit Day where they pick a theme for that day and the kids are supposed to come to school representing that theme. Today was Crazy Hair Day so we decided to dye Kayla's hair pink and purple using the old-fashioned Kool-Aid method. We put the Kool-Aid paste in her hair last night and she slept with it in. We had to wrap her head in a grocery bag and tape it around her face. It was quite a site to see:

In the morning, her hair looked like this.

Fortunately, it didn't turn out as dark as I had seen in some pictures on the internet. It's just enough to notice it but not enough to look completely tacky. Hopefully it washes out soon. But she was pretty dang excited and her friends all started screaming as I dropped her off at school this morning. Oh to be young once again.....

That's all the news I have for now.....Check back later for more fun and exciting times with the Brown Family.

Broken Bones...

So just to keep you all updated:

I got a call around 12:30 from the office at Kayla's school last Thursday. Apparently a boy had pushed her off the monkey bars and when she fell, she landed on her wrist so they wanted me to come take a look at it. I decided to take her home and figured I would have Jim look at it when he got home because really, I'm not a doctor. I'm not sure what the office expected me to tell them that they didn't already know. It was pretty swollen and she was having a hard time moving her hand. So Jim convinced me to take her to the pediatrician the next day.

Her regular pediatrician wasn't available for us to see her, so we met with this grandfatherly type doctor who was very nice and sweet - but not very convincing. They took x-rays - the first set turned out too dark so they had to do a second set. The doctor didn't see any broken bones or fractures and even though he was convinced there was a broken bone somewhere, he sent us home and told us to come back in 10 days when they might be able to see the development of new bone.....uh ok.

Over the weekend, the swelling hadn't even begun to go down and it was still very painful for Kayla to move her hand. She had limited to no range of motion of her wrist and even some of her fingers. And this is when we noticed really intense and dark bruising around her wrist. I knew something wasn't right.

So - I decided it was my right as a mother to seek out a second a opinion and called the Pediatrics office at Virginia Mason in Issaquah. The pediatrician there also ordered additional x-rays. She also didn't see anything abnormal and was about to send us home with the promise of a follow-up phone call after the radiologist had a chance to look at the x-rays. I insisted she call the radiologist right then and have him look while we were there.

So three sets of x-rays, three doctors, and two appointments later, it was finally discovered that Kayla has a displaced and fractured bone in her wrist! The only person who was able to identify this was the radiologist! What the heck am I paying these doctors for??? I'm frustrated.

So - they wrapped her wrist up and sent us to the orthopedic department at Seattle Children's this last Thursday. The physician's assistant at Children's told us the break affected the growth plate in her wrist which is pretty critical and can affect the growth in that area for the rest of her life if the bones are rubbed together too much. As a result, they had one chance and one chance only to put the bones back in place.

We then were sent to the Emergency Room where Kayla could be put under so the orthopedic doctor could be as aggressive as he needed to be to get the bones back into place on the first try. My mom was kind enough to take the afternoon off to go with me to Children's and we were allowed to stay in the ER room while they attempted the "reduction" of her wrist. About 10 minutes into the procedure, we hear Kayla very calmly say "Ow". No big deal - they told us that might happen. A few minutes later, she starts to talk again, only this time it was a more intense "Ow....Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, OW!" I was in a mighty fine position to kick the orthopedic doctor in the rear end and I was completely tempted. But the lovely nurse stepped in and gave her more drugs and she immediately calmed down. But this sent both my mom and I into tears - it was the most horrible thing to watch and listen to. Luckily, they also gave her a medicine that makes her not remember a thing so it was more traumatic for Grandma and I than it was for her.

So - the procedure went well and as far as they can tell, the bones are where they need to be. We go back to Children's again on Thursday for a follow-up to make sure the bones haven't moved and Kayla will FINALLY get the pink cast she has been DYING to have. But, because of the whole growth plate issue, we will have to continue following up every 6 months until they are satisfied with the growth of her bones. It's a sad situation.

If I wasn't 28 years old - I would hunt down the boy who pushed her and beat him up myself.

Random Christmas Picture Post...

We Wish You A Merry Christmas...A Day Late!

I just wanted to wish everyone a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS and I hope you all are staying warm!!! Just when you think we have had enough of this white stuff on the ground, I looked out the window about two hours ago to find it snowing AGAIN - and we aren't just talking small snow flurries - it is flat out snowing LARGE flakes!!! When will it end?

Because of our Christmas schedules with the kids, we decided to do things a little differently this year. Every other year, we either get the kids from the beginning of Winter Break until 1:00 pm Christmas day OR from 1:00 pm Christmas day until the end of Winter Break. This year, we had the kids from the beginning of Winter Break until Christmas Day which meant we had to have Kayla in Lynnwood by 12:30 to get Jim's kids on the 1:00 pm ferry to Port Angeles. So - Grandma and Grandpa Startin came over on Christmas eve and we had our Christmas Dinner followed by a massive present extravaganza (Santa still brought his presents later that night to be opened Christmas day). The kids LOVED getting to open their presents early.

Katlynne and Kelsey both got Digital Cameras
(this was Kelsey's first - she was excited)

My first sewing project was double-sided fleece blankets for the girls:

The evening ended with a Wii Fit Tournament - even Grandma and Grandpa joined in...
Apparently it tuckered Grandpa out!

Christmas morning we all woke up rather early to see what Santa had brought. Kayla got a new baby and stroller as well as a really cool art easle / white board so she can teach her babies and stuffed animals a thing or two (she LOVES to play teacher to her dolls and animals) (and I'm just realizing I didn't even get pictures of Santa's gifts).

The stockings were the biggest hit:

I have a very warm-blooded child who occasionally leads me to believe that we aren't related. She's the only one you would catch in her undies and a tank top in the middle of winter when the snow is falling and it is about 30 degrees outside!!!

She got her very own manicure set!!! Now mom won't have to clip her nails!

All in all Christmas turned out pretty good. After we dropped the kids off at their evening destinations, Jim and I headed down to Bonney Lake where we went and saw "Yes Man" (the latest Jim Carrey movie) with my parents, my Grams, my Aunt Deana and Uncle Dave and their boys. It was a lot of fun. Now - Jim and I are both childless for the next week with no clue what to do with outselves. Good times!

Walking In A Winter Wonderland....

Have I ever mentioned that I LOVE the snow??? Well I do! And even though it can be a major inconvenience to most, I welcome snow days. Today we woke up to a blanket of white outside our apartment. It was great! Jim and I both decided our lives and our cars are more important than work and decided to stay home with Kayla and have a family snow day. After we decided it would be fun to take our little plastic snow saucers across the street to my school for some sledding, we walked outside to assess the driving situation and discovered this:

(the lower right corner of the pictures marks the driveway to our neighborhood)
~~ two cars were spun out and stuck at the bottom of the hill ~~

the guy in this next picture had just gotten out of his car after sliding and hitting another car that had been stuck since earlier this morning

three cars were spun out and stuck right across from our driveway - one facing the completely opposite direction

As we were getting all bundled up and ready for some sledding, we watched a couple in a big black Dodge truck start down the hill, put on the brakes, and slide half way down the hill sideways before he was finally able to stop. He managed to turn himself facing back up the hill and get out of there. There were many others who fell victim to this small hill right outside our house...but there were a few who managed to find their way out.

I'm glad I have nowhere to go and am certainly glad I avoided work today. I was actually supposed to be the backup person since my boss wasn't able to make it down her hill either. Oops - who would have thought I would get snowed in too??? Have I mentioned that I LOVE the snow???

Anyway - we made it across the street (took me about 20 minutes because I went sliding sideways down the hill on my feet) and we spent the morning sledding down the hills around campus and making snow angels. It's been snowing all day and doesn't seem as if it will let up any time soon. Do you know what this means??? ANOTHER SNOW DAY TOMORROW (let's keep our fingers crossed)!!!