Miss Abigail

We are so excited around here! My sister had her baby on tuesday and they came home today! Brooklyn could hardly contain herself with the excitement of seeing her new little cousin. As of now, they are naming her Abigail and are going to call her Abby. She is a precious little thing and her and Nat are doing great! The gals were thrilled with seeing her and given the chance I think they would have eaten her up. I think I will fighting Brooklyn over who gets to hold her! :) I was a little worried about how Gracie would feel about her- she LOVES well both the gals love Nat. I thought Gracie might be a little jealous- but she loved her! I don't know if there is anything better than the happiness a new baby brings into your life!

Ice Skating

Brooklyn has a little friend from school that takes ice skating lessons and so for weeks she has been BEGGING us to take her ice skating. We decided we would go for family home evening this week- tonight was the night. We went to the Eccles Ice Arena. We all got skates- they even had them small enough for Gracie- they were so cute. They also had little walkers that the gals could hold onto. Sean thought they needed the helmets- so they wore those too. Gracie lasted 2 laps- she actually enjoyed the 2 she did and then her and Sean watched Brooklyn and I the rest of the time. Brooklyn was really unsure when she first got on the ice. I think that she thought she would be able to go out there and skate like a pro. She wanted to give up, but we wouldn't let her- she finally got the hang of it (holding onto the walker thing) and had a BLAST!! (The lighting in there was really wierd and our camera didn't take the best pictures)

Gracie is all ready to go- cute little skates

Brooklyn is all ready- I made her take the helmet off for this picture

She is such a goof-ball sometimes

At the end she was really enjoying herself and having a lot of fun

We had a fun time skating together. She got to the point she wanted to go do spins on all the circle she saw.

Bring it On!

So we thought Brooklyn having strep was bad- although- she never did have a sore throat so that was lucky. We put Gracie to bed last night and Sean and I sat down to enjoy part 2 of the season opener of 24. (On a side note- Gracie has had a cough for the past 4 weeks off and on. And this girl has the most sensitive gag reflexes. Two days ago she was coughing so hard she threw-up 3 different times.) Back to the story- we are about through the first hour and Gracie wakes up coughing. I went in and got her and was shocked to hear awful she sounded from the hour and half earlier when she had gone to bed. She was coughing terribly and sounded like a seal. She fell asleep on Sean and I decided that I would just sleep on the couch with her- I got her all propped up and about an hour later she wakes up coughing and throwing up. This time her breathing sounded horrible. Brooklyn had Croup when she was around this same age and it was the worst illness she had- as far as scaring me. I figured Gracie must have it too. I bundled her up and went and stood outside with her (because the cold air is good for the airways.) I decided that maybe we should take her to the ER because she might need a breathing treatment. But she fell asleep in my arms. She was able to sleep off and on through the night. I think we watched "Shek" (Shrek- she is obsessed!) 2 times. About 6 I realized that she was burning up and decided that I would take her to Instacare when they opened at 8. She woke up at 7:30 coughing, bawling, and was just plain miserable. So I loaded her up and headed to Instacare. I really wanted to see a Pediatrician and ours is out in Tuesdays (of course)- I called the office and I was able to get into another one. Let me just tell you that Gracie is NOT of fan of the doctors office. As soon as we walked in the door she was bawling. She had a fever of 102.7 and it was determined that she does have Croup. She got a dose of a steroid, had her oxygen level tested (it was 97%- Good), got our prescription, and headed home. Her and I laid down and had a nice 4 hour nap. She is currently sleeping- but Croup is worse at night- so please wish me luck! On a good note- I saw BLUE skies today- it was pretty exciting! I hope the inversion stays away!

She has What?

We were going to go to Moab or St. George this weekend, but it just didn't feel like we should. Yesterday Brooklyn woke up and her asthma was terrible and then at noon she got a bowl and said she felt like she was going to throw-up. She then held the bowl the rest of the day- just not feeling well at all. Everyone in my house fell asleep and I headed to my sister's to help paint. I had been there about an hour when Sean calls and tells me that I need to come home and we need to take Brooklyn to Instacare. When she woke up she was in SO pain in her stomach and was holding it and moaning in pain. We got to Instacare about 15 minutes before they closed- I bet they were thrilled to see us! The doctor looked her over and felt her stomach- then he looked at her throat and said it was REALLY red. He asked her it it was sore and she said no. The doctor told me they would do a strep test and if it came back negative then they would do on X-Ray and blood work. I was thinking to myself- let's just start that now- because strep tests hardly ever come back positive. You can imagine the shock I had when he came back in a couple minutes later and said it was positive. I took her in there thinking that maybe something was wrong with her appendix or something and found out she has strep. It was crazy! Now I know why it didn't feel good to go on vacation!