STRESS!

So...

This has been one stressful week. To start it off, last Sunday, we were at Nana and Pops' house and Duke and Molly were in the yard hitting golf balls. All of the sudden, I looked up about the time that Duke accidentally whacked Molly in the head with the club! OMG! Let me just say that I am the mother that freaks out and runs in circles not knowing what to do in a situation like this, so thankfully Chad was with me. We ran to Duke and Molly. She is crying and holding her head and when he grabs her and turns around, all I can see is BLOOD. And lots of it! We took her in and cleaned her up and realized that it wasn't nearly as bad as we thought and in fact it stopped bleeding so quickly that we decided we didn't think she needed stitches. The cut ended up being very small, but with the hit she took (we heard it hit) I was still worried that there could be some side effects later. I kept Molly in the bed with us that night so that we could check on her through the night and I stayed home from work with her on Monday to make sure that everything was fine and there were no side effects.

Thankfully, Molly recovered just fine and never seemed to be bothered by the whack.

I, however, stayed worried about it for a few days.

This is Molly a week after her hit in the head.

You can see the little cut at the top of her forehead.

Then.... Thursday, as Duke and I were leaving school, I stopped to talk to someone and Duke went ahead of me. A few minutes later, I heard him crying. I went toward the cry and found him walking to me holding his head! I moved his hands and saw that he had a place on his head above his eye. There was a small scratch but as I looked, a knot started growing. Remember, I'm the mom that runs circles freaking out, so luckily, the school nurse was still at school. I walked Duke down to her and as we walked, the knot got bigger and bigger. By the time we got to the office, it was HUGE! I have never seen a knot SO big. It wasn't just me either, everyone was big eyed looking at this! I layed him down in the back of my car and drove to meet Chad. I called and of course, he thought I was exaggerating. Never fear though, once we met him and he saw the knot, he saw for himself that I wasn't.

The pic does not do this monster knot justice!

Needless to say, I was home from work again on Friday with Duke. All day Friday, he seemed completely fine. He was completely himself and very active all day and the swelling had gone down tremendously. By Friday night, I was feeling fine about it and thought everything was fine. On into the evening though, we noticed that the swelling was coming back. The knot was back and just as large as ever! I, again, start freaking! As I waited on a nurse from Children's Hospital to call me back, I had heart palpatations and felt like I couldn't get a good breath. I really felt like I was going to have a panic attack or anxiety attack as I waited to talk with someone. The nurse called 1 hour later and explained that if the knot was not 2" or more wide, then I just need to watch Duke and make sure he didn't have any abnormal behaviors (definately didn't. we had to MAKE him sit and ice the knot.). His knot was between 1 1/2" to 2" wide, so I felt a little better. Again, Duke and I were on the couch so that I could check on him through the night. I still worried, as I did with Molly, "What if something is wrong and I just don't know it?" Chad assured me that if there were, we would see some sort of signs. Thankfully, there were none with Molly or Duke. I just know that this was way more stress than I seem to be able to handle. I hope this means that our head injuries are over with!

I am so thankful that everything turned out ok with my babies.

It's Valen"time's"!

We've had enough candy today to last a month. I try to make exceptions during holidays.

Duke would make himself sick off of it. Molly doesn't like most of it.:)

She brought me her marshmallow sucker and told me she didn't like it. She had taken one bite and threw it away. Honestly.... I just thought they were really cute. I didn't figure they would taste too great. That's a whole lot of marshmallow. Duke ate most of his and then came and said "momma, I'm sorry, but I don't really want anymore of this. I think it will make me sick if I take another bite." He was worried that my feelings would be hurt if he didn't eat it.

I hope he ate that much because he wanted it and not just because he thought

it would hurt my feelings. He can be such a thoughtful little thing.

Happy LOVE Day!

Snow!

Once the snow got her yesterday, we could hardly wait to get out in it! I know Duke must have asked me 40 times when we were going out.

Chad was working but Torie was here to do cakes, so we stopped long enough to take the kids out to play before Pops got her to take them home with him.

Here are pics of our Snow Day!

Of course Duke goes straight for the snowballs.

We all took a hit. Notice how unsuspecting Molly is.

Snow angels.

Duke getting ready to throw yet another snow ball. He thinks it is SO funny!

The kids and I in our backyard.

Me, Duke, and Molly working on our baby snowman on top of their pic nic table.




One snowball for the snowman, one snowball for Molly.

TA DA!

Our baby snowman!

Mom called and told me how to make snow ice cream. mmmmmmm!

I don't ever remember having snow ice cream. The kids helped me.

Snow days are fun days!

And it looks like we may be getting more Sunday night!

Bring. It. On!

Circus Fun (and vomit).... a couple of weeks late!

Nina and Papa took us to the circus! We had not been in a really long time and Molly had never been. She was mostly excited about the animals of course.
We didn't get in the door good before we had to buy the expensive toys that will be thrown in the floor once we get home and probably never picked up again.

But, we had to have them!

We took the kids down to the floor before the show. They LOVED it!

The guys on the stilts were amazing!

We had to get pics on the dirt bikes.....

and wear clown noses....

Once it started, the kids were really into it.

Molly cheesin.

I wasn't able to get a good pic of Duke because about halfway through the show, I looked up to see Chad and Duke going up the stairs to the bathroom. Turns out, Duke had thrown up in his own lap! I am assuming that it was the large amounts of chicken, french fries, milkshake, chips, popcorn, sprite, etc.... that didn't mix well because he didn't feel bad and didn't have a fever. He wanted to stay and finish the show. So, we did. I hope the people around us understood.
The funny thing though was Chad was the one that took Duke to clean him up. Duke had on two shirts and his khaki's when he went into the bathroom and when he came out of the bathroom, this is what he looked like.

Of course, I had a fit!...... Several reasons.
1. My child is at the BJCC with NO pants on. Chad threw his khaki's away!
2. It is about 30 degrees outside and we have to get to the car with NO pants. (and some woman says as we fly past her RUNNING to the car, "where's his pants?!" to the person walking with her. Of course I have to let her know he threw up.... although it was none of her business, like I am going to bring my kid to the BJCC with no pants and an adult coat! But anyhow... I said "he threw up!" as we ran past.
3. His good khaki's got thrown away (I could have put them in a garbage bag)!
4. His long sleeve shirt got thrown away as well!

I couldn't believe it, but it was all in the trash in the men's restroom and Chad was saying, "Crystal, we can buy new pants and besides, he had throw up all over him. There was no way to get him cleaned up in the bathroom of the BJCC."
Well, I don't know exactly how I would have handled this situation had I been the one cleaning him, but I feel sure it would have been a little different.
It's like I always tell the kids..... "Daddy's don't do things the way Momma's do."

That was proven at the circus! However, I must say, I appreciate the fact that Chad was so calm about the situation and got everything taken care of so quickly because I'm sure he was much calmer than I would have been. As usual. I freak out, he stays calm.

He's a good daddy!

Fun times.....

Between all of the rainy days and cold weather, we had a couple of days that felt like spring.

So of course, we were outside.

Molly finally got on her bike and Duke would help her down the hill. It was sweet!

They ran around the yard chasing each other, picking flowers, and just ran to be running.

They have so much energy!

We LOVE these days! They LOVE each other. I'm so glad they have each other.

Snow Day at Stone Mt.

For Duke's birthday, Nana and Pop's took the four of us to Stone Mt. for the snow. We had never been before, but it was super fun! The kids really enjoyed it.

They got to build snowmen and throw snow balls. Nana and Pops entertained them with the snowmen and snowball fights while I took pics of course. I wonder if the kids will ask about me later b/c I am never in the pics!

Molly and her snowman!



Nana and Molly



I think Duke preferred the snowballs over everything.




You just can't be in the snow without making snow angels. The snow isn't really soft though so we didn't really make the imprint of the snow angels.





Duke even got to go tubing. I couldn't get a pic of that though b/c we couldn't get close enough. Molly wasn't quite big enough yet. This is a pic that I took of the tubing track.



Molly got to tube in an area for the smaller babies. She loved it! Bite her!



Sweet girl!


Of course, once Duke was finished tubing, he had to join Molly. He was probably a little big for this area, but he had fun too.



Sweet face.





At one point, the park started shooting the snow into the area where we were playing in the snow. There were huge chunks of icey snow shooting out, they actually stung when they hit you. Pops walked Molly in backwards so she could enjoy the fun.



Me, Chad, Duke and Molly in front of Stone Mountain. (notice Molly looks like the little boy off A Christmas Story who can't move b/c of all of the thick clothing.)



Nana and Pops with Duke and Molly in front of Stone Mountain. It is really amazing!



Thanks Nana and Pops! We had a great time. We will have to do this again!
I think it's time to go home.....