January was really warm until the end. We got a little snow, but there were big beautiful flakes that fell from the sky. You would have never know the day before we were in the 70s! January also left us with some sickness. Damon got the flu really bad. He was out of it for 4 days! That's a really long time for one of our kids. We also knew he was sick because he didn't leave the couch for 3 entire days and missed school. He had a fever, aches, migraines, no appetite, throwing up, extremely lethargic, very unlike himself. The flu was all over the school, and we thought our entire family was bound to get it. After Damon had it, 5 days later Bentley got a fever. She pretty much just had a fever. She was feeling better but then threw up in the car on the way to basketball games. Radley then got a fever one night and nothing else! Thankfully no one else seemed to get what Damon had.
It's hard to see in the pictures, but the snowflakes were so big and pretty.
We never got enough to play with, but it was still fun to watch it fall.
Acey was trying to heal Damon, haha!
She was worried about him and laid with him most of the day. I think it made Damon feel a little bit better.
He was starting to feel better here. Most of the time he just slept and couldn't focus on anything.
I think they love one another!
Kenney started recording this video of all the boys playing with Mackenzie's babies. It was funny because they didn't know he did it and tried to tell us they never play with girls toys. We showed them the video to prove it!!
Mackenzie sure loves reading, and she's in such a fun phase for it!
Not much has been happening in the day to day around here, which has been really nice. Our weekends have been taken up with basketball, so we really haven't wanted to do anything else during the week.
She was so tired one day she just covered her head and went to sleep.
Propping her foot up to get comfortable.
These two really do love each other.
She's got great style.
One of the less severe ice storms we've had, but it was a chilly day!
Everything was covered in ice.
Acey and Mackenzie are pretty funny to watch together. Acey has been really good with her. The only time she jumps on her is when Mackenzie is holding food.
This girl talks ALL THE TIME!! I love her sweet and raspy and sometimes growly voice!
We had a good time in Missouri despite the rough start. The boys got to go laser tagging and loved it like always. I was able to do some shopping. There was video gaming and lots of other games, coloring, treats, and a needed break from home!
Drinking fancy juice out of crystal glasses on NYE!
She warmed up pretty quick to Aunt Zadi, Oma, and Papa Dude
They even got a fancy dessert to eat in crystal glasses.
Bentley is so genuinely excited!
Loving this holiday!
She loved the dessert too!
This girl loves to shop! She has some good taste and loved this Kate Spade coin purse!
Acey loved Oma's house too.
Watching their designs come to life or so we thought...
Papa Dude in his element showing the kids how to make cool stuff.
The special display of Joan Rivers dresses donated by Nanny.
A sketch given to Ann aka Nanny of one of the dresses.
The real dress
The Louie
The Gucci trunk and sign giving credit to Nanny
Running around on the stage doing a 'show.'
Playing in a dance room.
Bentley was trying to be a ballerina.
MJ wanted to run too!
Mom and Dad got to go on a date, whoohoo!!
Mackenzie is loving to splash around in the tub.
This is how she has been telling us she's hungry or that she wants something to eat. I love it!!
Our blissful Christmas holiday ended abruptly the next afternoon when Kyler said to me, "Mom my head itches." Yep all my worst fears came crashing down. LICE, LICE, LICE!! I looked at the back of his head and saw a nasty bug crawling around. And then when I remembered that we had all shared the same hat the night before when we played the saran wrap ball game!! NOOOOOO! At that point we all had to be treated. We drove into Childress to buy the treatment and see the Payne family who drove up from San Antonio. We spent the next 4.5 hours treating everyone's hair. Kyler had the lice for a while because there were so many nits and eggs, as well as live lice. Radley had one bug in his head and not much else. By this point, Damon was suffering with a migraine and had thrown up in the car. He really didn't want us to mess with him, but we had no choice. Thankfully his went pretty quickly because he didn't have anything. Luckily Kenney and I didn't either. Bentley however, had quite a bit. Not as bad as Kyler's but we found 3 live bugs and quite a few egg sacks! Yuck! The boys really wanted to spend the night with their cousins, and we assured them Damon would be fine the next morning. Nana and Shayla were troopers and agreed to let them stay.
The next day I was supposed to be finishing up the packing for our trip to Missouri. But now I had to also do load after load of laundry!! Bentely woke up with a slight fever and wasn't feeling good. Shayla then called to tell me that Radley woke up and threw up on the couch. I felt horrible that they had to clean it up, but we thought he had just gone to be super late and gotten up way too early because he was acting fine. Damon, however, was still not feeling good and his headache had not gone away, which was strange because he never had a migraine that lasted through the night. I decided to go in early and pick up the boys. When I got there, Damon was still not feeling good and was running a slight fever also. Great, just great! With everyone home, I was finally able to get our packing done as well as most of the laundry.
We left the next morning for Missouri with Acey in the car too. Not too far down the road, Radley asked what the spots were on his hands and feet. I remembered seeing a few red spots on Bentley's ankles but didn't think anything of it. But when Radley mentioned spots on him, I thought about a conversation I had with Kerry about a kid at church who had hand, foot, and mouth. I was pretty certain at that point that's what was going on. I called ahead to Missouri and warned everyone there. We successfully cleared out the house, haha! Everyone left or made plans to make sure they would not be there when we got there!! At lunch we confirmed that the kids had hand, foot, and mouth. Damon's fever and continued headache was because he now had hand, foot, and mouth. So by this point we had lice, fevers, migraines, puke, and HF & M, not to mention the pouring rain the entire drive and the dog going with us that just adds to the fun!! Before the week was over Mackenzie got spots, and Kyler had a super high 103-104 fever one night. Some of the other cousins that were at church with use ended up getting HF & M too, and their spots were so much worse than ours. So even though all of the kids got the virus it could have been much much worse!
A few little spots on MJ
Bentley's hand. She never really seemed to complain about her spots and neither did Radley. Damon had one hard night, and the spots bugged him the most.
One of the big blisters on MJ's leg.
Her biggest blister
Ears
Bentley was begging for the week leading up to Missouri that she wanted to get her ears pierced while we were there. She would not shut up about! We were planning to wait for her to ask us when she wanted it done and figured she was old enough to let us take care of them afterwards. It was quite the ordeal to fin a place to get it done. We wanted to find someone professionally trained, but we couldn't find anyone that would do it. It took us 3 attempts to find 2 people at Walmart that would be able to do both ears at once, but after about 4 hours of trying and waiting it was finally time!
She was so excited!!
Her pursed lips!!
She was so excited about her ears and looked in the mirror more than I thought possible! It has since been a challenge to keep them cleaned, but it is almost time to switch them out.
She did super well during the actual piercing. It was after when all the people were clapping and looking at her that she got nervous and scared. However, even through the tears, she couldn't stop finding herself in all the mirrors to see her ears. I was skeptical about getting it done at Walmart, but it turned out great. The ladies were super nice and her ears look really good.
This is her explaining to Dad how it happened. I love hearing it from her perspective!
Poor Mackenzie looked pretty rough with her spots, scratches from a fall on Christmas, and her big goose egg! Thankfully she's a pretty happy girl!
Here's video of Mackenzie's injuries!
The swing is always a hit!
Acey loved running around too!
Don't let them fool you, they should have been wearing jackets!!
Here's a little view into our drive to Missouri. In Radley's defense, he was sick and Dad was encouraging the fit making it worse. Kenney got a good laugh though.
I forgot to add this to an earlier post, but this is Bentley all ready to get shots: purse, phone, lipstick, and her crown. All very fitting!
