Scariest Night of our lives... (Dec. 22nd)

After our "Little Christmas Eve" party with the Miners and the Storheims we had the scariest night to date. As you can see Anna was not feeling great during the party. (More photos on the next blog). She had a runny nose and small fever which we thought was a little cold.

We put her to bed at 9:30 with some Tylenol and checked on her every half hour. Then we went to go to bed in the same room as her at 12:00 am. As we walked in, Anna asked for milk and said "thank you" when we gave it to her. She felt hot, but I had already given her medicine and didn't think I could do much else. A few minutes later we could tell she wasn't drinking (from being stuffy- we thought) and then was breathing very heavily. Dave offered to get up and rock her, but we laid in bed for a minute just listening to her to see if we needed to do that. Within about 5 minutes she made a crazy gargling sound, which made us pop out of bed immediately. I ran to her and started patting her on the back ... wondering if she was choking (she had thrown up the night before- we think from gagging). Dave turned on the light and we looked at her face. I will never forgot the face I saw. Dave immediately recognized what was happening and ran upstairs to his Dad's bedroom as I screamed at the top of my lungs and carried her to the t.v. room. She was having a febrile seizure. It lasted for 2-4 LOOONG minutes and then she was out of it, completely unresponsive but breathing. Dave's dad, a doctor, laid her on her side and we tried to get her to come to. I have never seen her so lethargic and we've never been so scared out of our minds.

We waited until she was a little more responsive. It felt like the longest few moments in history. I had all sorts of scary thoughts going through my head (thanks to my work at a children's hospital). I was scared we were going to lose some of my favorite little Anna quirks. We took her temperature, but stopped at 103.5 degrees and packed up to go to the emergency room.

I was so scared that she would seize again and just held her in my arms, singing and trying to keep her attention until we got to Primary Children's Medical Center. They gave her Motrin and we waited for different opinions. The resident thought it could be an ear infection that caused the fever and then the seizure, but said ears get red with fevers, so we waited for Motrin to kick in. Mind you at this time it was 1:30/2 AM and Anna was pretty agitated (a normal response from seizures) but more alert, thank goodness. As it turns out she had a Urinary Tract Infection which we found out after a catheter and urine sample. Luckily I had a "little" experience in helping children with catheters. Unfortunately that same experience had created my fears of UTI's because of a procedure I helped children through everyday for4 years. Luckily Anna doesn't have to have one, but I fear for more UTIs. :(

Anna eventually perked up as the medicine kicked in and was soon running around the ER room in her diaper, almost back to her normal, happy self. She played "peek-a-boo" with "Santa" (aka her nurse), sang songs, and took good care of her baby doll. We left at 4:00AM with a prescription or the UTI's, tired as can be but happy to have our Anna back.

FYI: In case you are wondering what to do if you own child has a seizure this is the advice given to us by our physician. Get them to a flat ground, lay them on their sides or stomach. Make sure their airway is clear, but do not put your fingers in their mouth. Watch their breathing and if they seize for longer than 5 minutes or stop breathing call 911. Also, an interesting fact: They say that when someone has a 2-3 minute seizure it is like their body just ran a marathon. No wonder Anna was exhausted!

Annual Temple Square Visit

Anna was THRILLED to see the Temple. She yelled "Temple" out while we were on Trax (the downtown train) without being provoked. I have always loved this red tree. We were trying to get a photo, but the toddler didn't want to.

Great photos Dave! (meanwhile we were saying hi to the "Shepard's")

Anna has loved baby Jesus this year. She wanted to "walk on the water" to go to him.

Before we left Anna said,"Bye Bye Temple, See you Tomorrow!"

Loving the train! (though waiting for it was a little cold).

Pre-Christmas

We celebrated part of our Christmas early this year at home before we took off for Utah. Anna learned quickly how fun it is to open presents. Her responses were priceless.

This was our little Santa's Helper....

She left her hair in for church, but couldn't wait to get out of the long sleeves and hair bow. I love her hair in this photo!

No, I didn't forget...

For those of you who waited patiently for December's flag.... da da da DA! (For those who haven't followed along, it is a neighbor's flag, not mine...look at old posts).

Busy Day

This is probably boring to most of you, but sometimes I like to lay out my day, just to remember it.
-Woke up at 5:50 to get to the airport.
-Said a teary goodbye to loved ones. ):
-Checked in 4 large bags (3 week vacation and Christmas) to Southwest
-Got through security with 6 buckets full of stuff, coats, and 3 carryons.
-Boarded the plane, sat next to a man in a pin stripe suit who did not seem thrilled to have a toddler next to him, luckily she was good and he slept the whole flight.
-3 hours to Chicago with Anna being a sweetheart most of the time.
-Watched a little Shrek 2 and Elmo, but that didn't hold her attention for long, ate treats, colored, learned letters " A--- Anna!"
-Got a 45 minute nap, woke up with ears wanting to burst..then Anna did the same. Luckily I had a sucker for her!
-Watched Anna LOVE to fly including the landing (which she asked for more of once we slowed down)
-45 minute break with McDonald's ( I am SOOOOO ready to have my own kitchen and cook!)
-Another plane sitting on the runway.
-35 minute flight with Princess stickers, puzzles, juice, solitaire, and bare feet (Anna that is)
-Waited an hour with our friend, Katie, who picked us up, for our luggage
-Almost got locked out of our home.
-Anna slept for 3 hours
-Played with our dog, but she is in heat, so although we missed her greatly she had to be chained up to her bed. ):
-Put most of our Christmas decor away.
-Went through the mail
-Watched SYTYCD finale
-Dusted and vacuumed
-Easy dinner- spaghetti
-Gave Mia (my dog) a ver overdue BATH!
- Unpacked
-Blogged
-To bed (@11:00-hopefully) which is acutally 8:00 on the time my body is used to... so I am not too tired yet.

We have been busy alright!!!

So I haven't blogged since the nasty hair blog (which I wish I hadn't left up this long since it isn't the most flattering, but we have been busy with Christmas, Family and Friends, Trip to California, goodbyes with family and freinds and packing up to go home. I will post more later but here is a glimpse at where we have been!

Raggedy Anna and Dirty Heidi

I struggle with Anna's hair. It is getting longer, which is what I want, but as it does it just gets shaggier. I have trimmed her bangs and back a bit, but didn't know what else to do. She has her Mom and Dad's STRAIGHT, FINE hair and won't let me do it every day. Or if she does she takes it out and it sticks out crazy. The sides are taking forever to grow in so she almost has a mullet, though it looks better than that. My dad said, "what goes around comes around" (my mom had to deal with the same thing when I was little.) I have been waiting to have Holly, my fabulous sister, help me figure out what to do with it. Hopefully cutting it will help it grow faster. It is a little shorter than I expected, but hopefully it will grow more even.

So here is my baby before... ( She is so tired and zoning out to Elmo)

Here she is in all her cuteness.... (it's still a little choppy but hopefully it will all grow the same length at some point. The left side Holly barely cut and the right side she cut about a half of an inch)

Heidi's story-
I have been putting off my hair WAY TOO LONG. I haven't gotten it done since August and was in a state of frumpy ugliness, but by the time is was too late, I only had a couple weeks to go until I could have my FAVORITE hair stylist do it. So I waited and waited in all my dirty look glory. I think that people in A2 probably thought I didn't shower all the time, even though I did. During a hair conversation with a friend she said to me, "well roots are in, look at some movie stars"- thank you Carrie, for trying to boost me up-but I doubt they have 3 inches of regrowth!

I was a natural blonde growing up, but as you can tell, it is brown. Now, no offensive to beautiful brunettes, but I love being blonde. Three years ago at Christmas I went my natural color and had an identity crises, so not again, as least for a while. So here you have the new and improved Heidi, back with all her bleached blonde glory (and more volume-an added bonus!).

Here is the before... (just fresh off the plane with only 5 hours of sleep)
After...Roots Before... YUCK, glad I didn't see that all the time, though it would have motivated me to go do something about it....


Roots after...Thank you to the most beautiful Hair stylist I know, my sister, Holly. She is AMAZING! and look at her gorgous LOOONG hair (that is mostly her natural color- lucky girl).
Now we can see people without feeling ashamed. (: