Brown Blessings: What a Week!

The week started off pretty normal. Aunt Karen asked me to come over and help her do some decorating and organizing. Riella kicked off Valentine's week in this cute outfit Grandma Thacker got her for Christmas.

Cam's nose had been running a bit in the morning, but nothing major. He just kept getting worse while we were at Karen's though. He started to feel a bit warm and his voice started going out and he looked awful. I was afraid he was getting a throat infection so I called the pediatrician and got him an appointment.

Here he is playing while we waited. He was miserable, but still in pretty good spirits. Thankfully, his strep test came back negative and his throat wasn't infected either. He did have a low-grade fever though. The doc said it looked like it might turn into croup that night.

Thankfully, it didn't turn into croup but he was so congested and coughing so badly that he couldn't sleep that night. At 3:30 AM we went downstairs to get some fluids. He thought it was time to start the day. He watched tv and lounged on the couch for several hours before finally falling asleep again on the couch with me.

This little cutie had no problem sleeping though. She slept 12 full hours and woke up happy as a camper. She is such a sweet baby. I have to be careful to make sure I'm listening for her because she never wakes up crying and will just be laying in there, but still hungry.

After school Tuesday we worked on assembling Ryker's valentines. He was so excited to do some with bugs! I love the way they turned out and they were so easy to do (& cheap)!

He got a new 3-D book at the book fair last week. He feel asleep looking at it with the glasses on and all. Cam didn't sleep well Tuesday either.

Cam was pretty nasty sick all week so we didn't leave the house and had lots of quality playtime in the playroom. I got out the Bumbo for Riella to try. She loves it! She also loves chewing and sucking on her fingers. I wish I could get her to take a paci instead, but no real luck there.

Riella has a horrible bald spot on the back of her head and everything else was growing all wonky. She was starting to get a mullet in the back. Not a good look! I asked Robert to use the trimmers to trim her up. Cam wanted a trim too. Then Ryker did too. This is the first time I've let Robert touch the boys' hair. I am a bit paranoid about him hacking it all off. I realize this may seem irrational to some of you, but I have haircut phobia. It all dates back to one particularly traumatizing Great Clips experience Freshman year of high school that left me with what I refer to as the Mushroom Cut. Imagine the shape of a mushroom and then put it on my head....not pretty!

Another heart ensemble for Valentine's week. By Thursday the germs had caught up with Riella too. Her nose was a bit runny and her eyes were watering constantly. It was SOOO sad. :-(

Nonna stopped by to bring her some clothes and a hat she knit her. She was pretty pathetic by this point. She kept throwing up all day. Pitiful!

Thankfully by Friday morning she was back to her usual happy self! Yay! Cam was much better by this point too.

Then, the snow started....again. We got 5.5" Valentine's Day.

Ryker made it home from school ok and was excited to show me all his Valentines goodies.

With the kids still being germy, we opted for a night in. We put the kids down and enjoyed some time together. It was the perfect Valentine's Day with my honey.

It took Robert almost 2 hours to get home Friday night so it was dark out when he got home. He shoveled two paths, one for each tire, got the car in the garage and left the rest. Saturday morning we all suited up and went out. The temperatures were actually pretty decent so I bundled up Riella for her first real snow experience.