First ER visit

Well, I knew it was bound to happen.  First of all, I was a frequent visitor to the ER as a child.  Prior to the age of 5, I had stitches three times, swallowed a penny, broke my arm, and had a severe kidney infection.  Secondly, I work in the ER and I just knew that one of my children would being seeing my place of employment at some point.

Saturday morning I was not feeling very good thanks to a developing sinus infection.  Jeremy decided to take the kids to the gym so that I could head over to Target to get some medicine to help with my symptoms.   After I had been at the store for about 30 minutes, Jeremy called me and said that Mikayla had fallen through the window of a playhouse and had hurt her arm.  She was much more upset than she was with most of her multiple falls and he was worried that she had broken her wrist.  Jeremy was so great with her.  He stayed very calm, got her in a comfortable position once they got home, and got her some Motrin.  She was relatively calm once I got home.  Mikayla would not move her arm and was still in a significant amount of pain once I got home, so off to the ER we went.  My mom came which helped a ton.  We were there for 6 hours and I appreciated having her there to talk to and support me.

After some painful xrays, it was determined that her arms was indeed  broken and would need to be reset.  We originally thought that she would need to be sedated for the procedure, but after talking with the orthopedist, she only need a little “push” to get it back in place.  With the help of the Child Life Specialist and some Versed (also known as “goofy juice),  they were able to do a Bier block (which numbs the extremity so they can move her arm around without causing her pain).

Mikayla did great!  Aside from anxiety about getting her IV started, she did really good.  She will be in a cast for the next 4-6 weeks which should bring its own set of challenges.   So far, Mikayla has done really well.  I’m so proud of my big girl. 

This is Mikayla right after we realized we were getting more than just a cast.  She was upset because we wouldn’t be able to go to my Grandaddy’s and Aunt Pam’s that afternoon like we had planned.

She bounced back pretty quickly though – she has a great personality.

Mikayla really liked riding in the wheelchair.  We are off to the ortho room where they are going to reset her arm

  This is Mikayla (post goofy juice), on her way home with her blue cast (because blue IS her favorite color).  That bag is full of prizes that were given to her.  We left with two stuffed dogs (Bones and Colby), a gift bag of penguin stickers, a stamp, and a pencil, and a package of Bendaroos (that as a definite highlight).  I swear it was like Christmas all over again!  This is a picture of Mikayla’s broken arm.  The larger bone (the radius) has a fracture near her wrist.

This is a picture of her arm after they fixed it – looks pretty near to perfect!

All in all, we had a very good experience in the ER.  So many of my friends came by to say hi to her and everyone that took care of us did a GREAT job.  I could not have asked for anything better. 

Side note:  I will post some pics from our Christmas festivities soon!  As you can see it has been pretty crazy around here.

Merry Christmas!!!

I hope and pray that everyone has a very Merry Christmas!  I hope that you get to spend lots of time with you family and enjoy every minute of it.  Much love to all of you!

Love,

The Matthews family

 

P.S.  This is our Christmas card picture which should be arriving in the mail to you soon.  With my tardiness in ordering them, they didn’t arrive until today!

FIVE YEARS OLD!

 

Five years ago, this little girl made me a mommy.  She has blessed me and our family in more ways than I can even think to count.  I look at this picture and am just amazed that five years have already flown by.  It is definitely going to be a bittersweet day for me, today.     This is Mikayla at less than one hour old.  She was born by semi emergency c-section after I labored for 23 hours (which included 3 1/2 hours of pushing!).   I have to say that that was the longest day of my life, but also the best.  She was so sweet and alert that first day. 

Mikayla at one year

I love how this picture just somes up her personality, even at just one year old.  She is a silly and fun-loving little girl that makes us laugh on a daily basis.

  Mikayla at two years

This is Christmas at my mom’s shortly after her 2nd birthday.  She loved to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and was SO excited to open up these Mickey and Minnie dolls.  This was also right around the time that I was first able to get some bows in her hair.  It took so long for her hair to come in – I thought it would never grow.

Mikayla at 3 years old

This was a big year, because Mikayla was a new big sister!  She is a great big sister that loves her brother so much.  She is very caring and thoughtful and always tries to make him happy.

Mikayla at 4 years old

This is another picture that just speaks volumes about Mikayla’s fun loving and active personality.  She never stops moving and is almost always laughing and smiling. 

Mikayla – 5 years old!!!

I am in awe of how blessed I am to be this little girl’s mother.  She is so vibrant and fun – she makes me smile every day.  I thank my Heavenly Father every day for the opportunity He gave me to be her mother.   I am thankful for the cuddles, hugs and giggles that she fills my days with.

Mikayla…I love you and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

What has Criddle been up to this week?

 

Criddle has been one busy elf this week.  Mikayla has had so much fun coming down stairs and seeing where he has “flown” too.  

Stay tuned for more of his shenanigans…..

Santa Claus is coming to town….

 

The kids went to go visit Santa last week.  Mikayla was so excited to see him and tell him her long list of things that she wanted.  I actually had to cut her off, because that girl could talk forever!  Gavin was not so eager.  He was okay sitting in my lap as I was sitting next to Santa, but when I placed him on Santa’s lap, he went pretty ballistic.  Thankfully, Santa’s helpers had a nice wooden rocking horse that we placed just in front of Santa for pictures.  Gavin was cool being close to Santa, so that worked out wonderfully and made for some very nice pictures.

Just for comparison purposes, this is a pic of Gavin without the aid of the rocking horse. ;)  Yeah, that was NEVER going to happen.

Magical Nights of Lights

Last Thursday, we took the kids to see the Christmas Nights at Lake Lanier Island.  It is a little pricey, but the kids had a great time.  Mikayla liked helping Jeremy “drive” the car through the lights. Gavin thought it was totally cool to be able to get out of his car seat and sit with me.  (I took the picture, so I had no idea he was picking his nose – oh well)

The did enjoy switching places a couple of times, too.   :)

At the end of the light show, there is a Santa’s workshop where you can buy ornaments and other Christmas goodies.  Mikayla insisted on these reindeer antlers and of course, Gavin had to have some, too.  The were totally worth the $5 bucks a piece (not!).  I have already had to repair both of them.  It made them very happy, though. Mikayla has been a little obsessed with being Rudolph this year.  She was especially happy to find these. They also had marshmallows to roast by the fire.  Mikayla only believes in warming her marshmallows, though.   There can be no black them, which is the complete opposite of how I like my charred ones.

We did get this ornament while we were there.   It was a nice way to remember our fun evening.

Meet Criddle

I don’t know if you have every heard of The Elf on the Shelf.  He made his first visit to our house last year.  This year, I thought that I would try to document his shenanigans. 

Mikayla named him Criddle last year.  Criddle visits our house during the Christmas season and watches over our home.  He reports back to Santa each night and then picks a new spot each day in which he sits to continue to watch us.  Sometimes, he can be quite mischievous. 

Tonight, Criddle came and set our tree up.  I can’t wait to see Mikayla’s reaction when she sees what he did.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We had a great time spending some time with my family.  Both of my sisters and their families were in town this week, so it was especially fun to be able to spend time with them. My mom found these cute hats in the dollar bin at Target.    Mikayla had a lot of fun wearing that all day. On Thanksgiving Eve, Mikayla, my mom and I made these place cards.  We had a great time working together and succeeded in keeping little hands off of the M&Ms prior to other people consuming them.  (That was no small feat!) We have about reached the capacity of my mom’s dining room.  I think there will definitely be a “kiddie” table needed in the near future.  It was so nice to have so much family there together.  The only person that was missing was my brother and his girlfriend (they were out of town with her family).  The more our family grows, the harder it is to get us all together.  I feel very fortunate to have so many wonderful people in my life. 

We think my dad is the master of being able to get EVERYTHING on his plate.  Most of us had to do things in shifts, but he was able to pack it all on.  So funny!

I am so grateful for my family and the opportunity to spend time with them.  I miss those that I wasn’t able to see yesterday, but I hope they all know I missed them and love them. 

And the winners are…

  

Mikayla's school pictures.

 

The winners from Gavin’s portrait session

 

The winners from the family photo shoot.

 

A personal note to my family… Let me know what pictures you want and in what sizes.  I have a large variety.  Just email me your requests!