Beginning of April

When I look to the future it seems like June will never arrive, but when I look back on the past I'm amazed at how quickly the time has flown this past month!  After Grandma and Grandpa Brady left we had about a week before Grandma Asay and Grandma Sanderson showed up!  They were in state for a Genealogy trip and we were lucky enough to steal quite a few days away for ourselves.
  Unfortunately for them, but heaven sent for us, they showed up at the best/worst possible time.  That Thursday Alex had woken up throwing up, and Quinn had a runny nose and cough that kept getting worse and worse as the day went on.  By the time it came to pick the Grandmas up from the airport I was torn in 3 different directions!  Quinn needed to get to the doctor because her inhaler wasn't doing anything, but Alex was still throwing up, and we needed to get to the airport!  Luckily Tyler was able to get off work early to go to the airport and poor Alex got tossed in the car so we could go to the Dr. Quinn threw up in the car on the way, and Alex again at the dr. office.  We looked like quite the rag tag bunch with me waddling along trying to manage my circus, in the rain.  The dr. told us to up our inhaler dose and see if that would work, if not then to take her to the ER.
    Tyler and the Grandmas showed up with dinner and we had a great 20 minutes before Quinn started going downhill and Tyler rushed her to the hospital.  She was throwing up and having a very hard time breathing and ended up passing completely out in the ER waiting room (and not from exhaustion).  That got the nurses attention and Quinn a room quickly!  After 3 hours of breathing treatments she started to respond just before they were going to admit her to the ICU.  Tyler and Quinn were admitted that evening and stayed the night, then I switched him in the morning so he could finally get some sleep!  Thank goodness the Grandmas were there so we didn't have to worry about the other 2 kids at all!  Quinn and I were there the rest of the day and were finally discharged Friday evening with instructions to see a Pulmenologist as soon as we could.  We got to enjoy Saturday and Sunday with the Grandmas and took a drive around town to see the sights and visit the big Allegheny cemetery.  It was a windy cold day Saturday but we went to Clavon's old fashioned ice cream parlor for some treats and had a fantastic time!  A must visit.  Monday the Grandma's left to do some genealogy adventuring for the week and the girls and I readied ourselves for Tyler's birthday!       Poor Tyler, all I remember about the day is that we had brownies and ice cream and the girls bought him a lego dragon and they played lego's all evening with him.
      The rest of that week was crazy because Quinn started throwing up again, then Heidi and then myself and Tyler.  It was so incredibly stressful but we were so being watched over by angels!  A friend randomly brought over dinner 2 days and freezer meals for another 2, and then another friend ran to the store to get milk and cereal for us when that ran out and the next day another friend brought over dinner again out of the blue!  I didn't have to cook for an entire week!  In the middle of all the vomit, Tyler took Quinn to her Pulmenology apt and it was decided that she might have not had pneumonia in the first place but just Asthma this whole time.  I was feeling completely overwhelmed at this point and so when Tyler called to report, said she would need breathing treatments twice a day for the next year, and on top of it she had an ear infection, I just cried and cried.  Pretty sure pregnancy hormones were at play on top of all the stress.

 On Quinn's birthday I was a sick zombie so we decided to celebrate on our Conference/Easter Saturday.  The morning was spent celebrating Quinn with helium balloons and special cereal.  We have a tradition of the birthday person getting to drink out of the birthday gobble and so far this birthday season Quinn has stolen the precious cup from every single person on their birthday.  She was very happy to have it for her own this day, and chose chocolate cereal for breakfast.

 Daddy got her a stuffed work and sand toys, which was funny because I had gotten her sand toys as well and so it was determined that we would use the tube sand that weighed down daddy's truck and an old rubbermaid container to make Quinn a birthday sandbox.  She LOVES it, especially now that the weather is much warmer.

 Alex and Heidi each bought Quinn a robotic chicken wind up toy.

 And we got her a squishy turtle because she loves the turtle song so much.  She calls it tim.

 Here is a shot of Heidi and little Heidi in her sandbox.

 The sun came out in-between conference sessions and we had an Easter egg hunt.  The kids each had 20 eggs to find but after about 5 Quinn discovered the candy inside and just sat and ate hers.

 We hadn't had much of a chance to be in the backyard this spring so it was a mess and a real trick to find those eggs.

 In between sessions we also ran to the grocery store and had our cake and ice-cream!

Quinn LOVES strawberries and whipped cream and ice-cream so I didn't even bother to make her a cake.  She wasn't at all interested in Alex's birthday cake so I didn't feel guilty.  

 After 3 previous birthday's that month you could tell she had figured out the singing the birthday song and blowing out the candles connection and she wanted to do it over and over again.

 It was so much fun celebrating Quinn, I think we all spoiled her in our own way that day.

 Here is a great shot of Daddy's spoiling, and his hand.  He got scratched while helping restrain a patient in the psych ward at work the day before.  He comes home with lots of interesting tales from work in the psych ward- I don't think it's a job I want him to have.

 The Grandma's came back that evening and we got to spend Easter Sunday with them as well as Monday before they took off again, then they were back on Thursday before leaving Friday.  We did so much but I got so few pictures!

 We stayed up late Thursday night reading books and talking.

 The girls have declared it Grandparent season and I think they are waiting for the next visit from someone, it's been such an exciting month!

 Quinn loves oatmeal and blueberries with honey and whenever she eats this particular breakfast she props her right foot up on the table.  I had to get a picture so I would remember.  She also is obsessed with and freaked out by bugs of any kind.  When she sees any speck she starts gasping and yelling "bugs, BUGS, BUG!!"
Saturday was the girls first day of soccer this year and Heidi's first day ever.  She was so excited she woke up early and ran into everyone's bedroom saying "Wake up, it's soccer day!"  We walked to the park, which was a joke because the girls were on their birthday scooters and I was waddling slower than a duck (Alex's comparison).  Tyler pushed Quinn on the swings and things went well until Alex and Heidi were split up and put on different scrimmage teams- this devolved into tears after about 10 minutes but with a bit of bribery all was set right again and we enjoyed some extra time afterwards playing with friends, hanging out at the park and chatting like a real family with no looming tests or school deadlines.

We spent Saturday afternoon piling the truck up with stuff for goodwill and then dropped it off and hit the grocery store.  Such a family day!  Quinn can open the fridge and if she isn't trying to break into yogurts then this is what she does.

We upgraded the sandbox to a plastic swimming pool and the weather has been so warm that Tyler put in the AC units already!  It's still rainy and cloudy but now that we have the sandbox I can send the kids out on the porch, shut the gate and let them play in the sand rain or shine while watching from my lounge chair through the open door.  It's flipped the tides on home life and attitudes- amazing what a little freedom and sand can do.  

Alex had her homeschool evaluation and officially passed 1st grade.  I wanted to end the year with a bang, but after weeks of sickness and grandparent visits our schedule was all off and it would have been a nightmare to try to establish any habits again just to end a few days later.  So we called it and are enjoying our summer vacation.  I decided that this was the best choice anyway because I want some time to just enjoy my kids as a Mom before we add another and jump into the stress of packing and baby and moving.

I did a few physical therapy sessions and can happily say that I'm cured!  Well, at least of most of the day time hip pain which is HUGE!  The day after Quinn was in the hospital I could barely walk at all, it was almost a joke, a very painful and terrible joke.  After getting adjusted and getting a maternity belt that works great and doing all these little exercises everyday I can now walk down the hall with only normal pregnancy pain and not debilitating hip pain.  Rolling over in bed is still nearly impossible but things are SO much better.

Things are mostly rainy and warm now with a few sunny days and some partly cloudy days mixed in.  The girls and I have been listening to Anne of Green Gables in the car as we drive around town and I think even Quinn enjoys it.  We have decided that Heidi is a little Anne.  We are constantly rearranging the carseats and trying to find a way that works so Heidi can buckle herself, Quinn is on the outside so I can get her in easily, and everyone is happy.  I think to myself everyday how I wish we had bought a van instead, and then I cringe and remember I don't want a van, and then I spent 10 minutes getting the kids in the car and swear I'm never leaving the house again.

I'm currently 32 weeks pregnant which is just crazy.  I thought it would never come and we are nearly on the home stretch.  In some ways I feel we have left the worst behind and things are only going to get better, and then I look around the house and remember we are moving and we don't know where, and there is the packing up of an entire home to do plus the actual delivery of the baby on top of the last miserable weeks to endure and the hormones that hit plus recover after that.  It's so easy to get overwhelmed that I'm just trying to enjoy one day at a time and not look past the next week.  I enjoy the weekly dates to the grocery store with Tyler- the girls get watched in the Eagle's Nest and Tyler and I stroll down the isles with Quinn who is usually adorable or a monster, never much in-between.  I don't think we will ever get to do that again once we move.  

We made friends with the neighbors across the ally and one the house over, and have enjoyed 2 minute walks to the park and visits to all the amazing parks around the city.  Spring is such a wonderful time to be in Pittsburgh.  We had a campfire at the neighbors house and it was just so nice to finally be making neighborhood friends and really feeling like we are fitting in, it kills me.  Tyler and I were lamenting our moving plans and then I found a deer tick on Quinn while I was putting her in her crib and it washed all the good feelings away.  We woke up the other girls to check them for ticks and Tyler pulled the gross little thing off Quinn's arm with tweezers while I googled lyme disease.