Computer working...picture to share!

Now that we have the home computer working (for the moment at least), I wanted to share this picture from last September of Seville taking her breathing treatment. She is such a good girl when it comes to putting up with the treatments! Poor baby! :(

3 Dr. Visits + 2 Kids in the Hospital + 1 x-Ray Appointment = One Busy Week!

However, I am happy to report that both girls finally seem to be doing a bit better. Hadley actually has been doing pretty good since we left the hospital on Wednesday. She took really well to the treatments and still gets a bit winded at times, but overall is doing really well! Seville on the other hand really didn’t sound any better on Wednesday night or Thursday, so we had a “meeting of the minds” appointment with her pediatrician yesterday late afternoon and she spent well over an hour with us and I think we are finally getting somewhere. She thinks that whereas Hadley ONLY has croup, Seville on the other hand has croup complicated by something else??? That something else is the question we are trying to get answered ASAP. She didn’t think it was pneumonia, but we went ahead and had a chest x-ray this morning to rule that out. It was negative, so that is GREAT!! They also took one of her neck and her adenoids are enlarged, so we will have to see where that ends up fitting into the picture. The next step is to get her tested for allergies and asthma, so we have that appointment set-up for next Wednesday. The pediatrician thinks it is fairly likely that she has asthma to some degree. In talking with Scott’s mom this morning she informed me that Scott’s allergies were always much worse in the fall and that he was very allergic to tree mold and ragweed, so it will be interesting to see what the tests reveal next Wednesday. In the meantime she is on breathing treatments every 4 hours (that seem to be helping quite a bit this time around) and oral steroids. I am not sure if I mentioned before that one year ago on September 18th was when Seville started breathing treatments and ended up on them for 3+ months. We don’t want to go down that road again, so that is why we are trying to get to the bottom of this. If my home computer was working I would post a picture of her on her breathing machine last year, but it’s not! We are going to try to figure that out this weekend!

Have a great weekend everyone! We are going to watch my nephew, Sam, play football tonight and then tomorrow night the girls on the street are scrapbooking! Fun, fun!

Double Header

Just thought I would post a quick update for any of you who knew that we were in the ER with BOTH girls today! We are back home and doing much better (well kinda…at least we are home!)

For anyone who is saying “WHAT???”, I will give you a quick run-down! As is the case when something like this happens (at least in our family), Scott was out of town and spending the night in Dallas when all of this started. When Scott is traveling it is our tradition that Hadley gets a girl night with mommy after sissy goes to bed and she gets to have a slumber party in our room. Thank goodness that was the case last night! At 4:00 a.m. she woke up gasping for air completely out of the blue. She could not get a breath at all. I was terrified and for the first time in my life was going to dial 911, but I just knew it would scare her to death if the ambulance came (Hadley is already terrified of doctors and getting her to even take medicine is a knock down drag out battle EVERY TIME!) I thought maybe if I calmed her down she could get enough breath to stabilize and I could drive her to Children’s Mercy, an excellent children’s hospital here in town. I called my Mom and Jon and they came down right away. I also called Children’s Mercy and they said it might help her to breathe cold air, but at this point her lips were blue so they said I needed to hang up and dial 911. I decided to take her down to the freezer and give it a shot and THANKFULLY within 30 seconds it began to do the trick. Her breathing stabilized and my mom and I took her to Children’s Mercy while Jon stayed with sleeping Seville. Now to back track Hadley had been feeling a bit under the weather the past few days, but nothing compared to Seville who I had already taken into the doctor on Friday and Tuesday mornings for breathing issues (both times they sent me home saying that it was just a viral infection and would have to run its course!) Luckily when we got to Children’s Mercy it was not busy and they got Hadley in right away. They determined that she had Croup (which is caused by a viral infection) and would need steroids and a breathing treatment. The breathing treatment is a pretty serious one I guess because they have to keep you there for two hours under observation and then evaluate if you need another treatment. Hadley fought the nurses, but luckily the treatments worked wonders on her and she sounded great after the two hour observation. About that time Scott arrived at the hospital (he took the 6:00 a.m. flight home from Dallas) and Jon arrived up at the hospital with Seville. I asked if they could go ahead and listen to her and whether she needed to be admitted too…SHE DID! So, they checked her in and then started the same treatment plan. She did not respond nearly as well, but they still let us go home, which I am grateful for since if you require a second round of the breathing treatment you have to be admitted (to the hospital vs. ER) for the full day/night! Seville was a bear to keep in that ER room and I didn’t want to do it for any longer than we had to. Hadley was discharged first and went home to play/rest with Grandma Sue Sue and Grandpa Jim while Scott and I stayed with Seville. We all finally got home this afternoon…mentally and physically drained! The rest of the day has still been a struggle, but both girls are resting fine now! We hope they recover fully soon! According to Children’s Mercy they have not seen two children in the same house with croup at the same time because it isn’t contagious, but leave it to the Skinners to pull that one off!

I also want to update everyone on my b-day (which was AWESOME), but I just haven’t had a chance, and our family computer is not working, which is the one all of our pics are on. I promise to try again later this week or weekend! Have a great and healthy week!

Old Settlers Carnival

We've had a great weekend so far filled with lots of fun activities for the kiddos! We started off on Friday night by going to the Johnson County Old Settlers Carnival. Hadley had been looking forward to it all week, and it ended up being a beautiful cool evening! As many of you know, I don't really have a lot of family so we sometimes call some of our close family friends "family" and this weekend we had some "family" in town! Their name's are John, Jennifer, Kalia and Kaleo. I won't bother you with the long explanation of how they are "family" because it goes way far back, but Kalia is my mom's God Daughter. Anyway, we thought it would be fun if they went with us to Old Settlers, and we all had a blast! I apologize in advance for any blurry pictures, but hey it was a carnival at night! Hopefully it will just put you in the middle of the action!

Kalia and Hadley picked the big slide as their first ride. Here is Hadley with what John called her "big dirty sack!"

The daddies took the girls first! Up they went...Kalia in the lead!
WHEEEE!!!
Then the mommies went...Hadley and Kenna with a slight lead!
Oh now...I think we are falling behind!
Hummm...too close to call...what do you think?
Hadley in her matching fish on the kiddie octopus ride!
Kalia in her matching fish! It just happened...they didn't do it on purpose!
Looking pretty serious!
I think she is still having fun...just kidding...she really was!

Instant best friends!
Hang on tight for the alligator coaster!
Here come some real blurry shots!

Check out Kalia's face!

Poor Seville...she just wants to be big, but I am not even sure if she will be big enough next year. We just got back from her 18 month appointment last week and she is only at the 20th percentile! She weighs less than Hadley did at her one year appointment!
The gang...Kaleo, Kalia, Hadley and Seville!
Right before the girls rode their last ride we ran into Becki, Brett and Averi (our old neighbors and good friends!) Their older daughter Sierra was at a high school football game! Here is Averi and Hadley!
I couldn't decide which picture was cuter!
Averi and Seville go to daycare together at Gail's...needless to say Seville was way happy to see her!

The girls on their last ride for the night! We did the ferris wheel too, but my mom has those pics on her camera! Seville even got to go on the ferris wheel!
They let the brave one drive...up and down, up and down!

On Saturday morning Scott and I took the girls to Panera at the mall and then we went shopping for a bit. We looked at some Halloween costumes and Hadley has decided that she wants to be Tinker Bell...this is better than the spider she originally wanted to be which I couldn't find in any stores or catalogues (not in her size at least!) Hadley also went to Build-A-Bear and got Miley Bear some new jammies and a matching Halloween costume. She still loves that bear to death and takes her everywhere we go!

Last night Scott had his KU Architecture School Reunion. He went to that in Lawrence, and I went to the Legends with my Mom, Jon, Jenny, John, Kalia, Kaleo and my girls! We ate at Yard House, shopped, went to T-Rex, had ice cream and played games at Dave and Busters...all in the rain!

This morning we took the girls to my company picnic. They had a bouncy house, face painter, playground, etc. It was a good Sunday morning outing!

Now Seville is down for a nap and then we are off to my mom's for one last get together before Jenny, John and the kids leave town! Its been a great weekend! Still need to post pics from last weekend at the lake but that will have to come another time! Have a great week everyone!

Every Monkey Needs an Outfit!

These aren't the best pics, but I just had to share my little monkey in her monkey outfit! I just couldn't resit this cute little hoodie. I thought it fit Seville to a "T"! Some how the little monkey even managed to scale a barstool in our bathroom and climbed onto our sink and got a big red mark on her forehead right before I took these! I like to just sit back and watch what she is going to do next and only intervene when necessary because she constantly amazes me with what she will try. I tell everyone she is a different breed of child! She is so night and day different from Hadley, but I enjoy her outgoing, do-it-herself attitude!