Snow Days

We had an amazing snow storm with the most snow I've ever seen here.  We got almost 15 inches - the 2nd most ever for a storm recorded in Wichita.  The kids ended up having 3 snow days (Thur - Mon), and Jon had to work several nights in a row.  I spent most of the time in the house with Ava, but Joey and Katherine spent hours playing outside.  They loved it.  It was nice to have one good snow storm for the winter, but I'm ready for spring!

The Flu

Jan 25, 2013

I kept Joey home as much as possible during the flu epidemic, but I couldn't keep him home from school, and he ended up with Influenza A. He did get his flu shot in October, but it's hard to know how much it worked for him since he doesn't have a full immune system.  He woke up with a fever and said his whole body hurt, so I took him straight to the doctor and asked for a flu test.  By noon, he was already on Tamiflu and the rest of the family (except Ava) was on it too.  He spent that day and one more day on the sofa, but we really dodged a bullet.  He ended up having a minor case and it never got too bad, and no one else in the family got it.

Ava 2 Months

On Feb 18, our baby girl was 2 months old already.  I've been trying to get pictures of her for every month.  I tried at 1 month, but none of them were very good.  I think her 2-month pictures came out much better.

She grew a lot and is getting pretty chubby.  From her 1-month to 2-month doctor check-ups, she gained over 3 pounds and grew 3 inches!

Sewing

We surprised Katherine with a sewing machine for Christmas.  She had never talked about wanting one, but I think she would like it.  I don't know how to sew, but my mom does, and she agreed to help Katherine learn before I bought it.  It took several weeks, but we finally took it to Mom's so they could spend a Sunday afternoon working on it.  It turns out that I was right - she really liked it.  For now, she's just working on learning the stitches, but she's having fun.  The next step will be getting a pattern and teaching her how to put things together.

Last Spinal Tap and Strong Chemo

On Feb 5th, Joey had another spinal tap and Vincristine dose (strong chemo through his port).  I think it was the 15th spinal, but, most importantly, it was his last!  I kept reminding him of how awesome that was, but he didn't seem to understand the importance of it.  It was a huge milestone in his treatment.  

It also happened to be the 100th day of school, so his class dressed up like they were 100 years old :)

He really didn't feel well after the treatment and he had a rough week after that.  He had a lot of bone pains and his back hurt for several days.  Luckily, he was out of school so he could rest.  He slept several extra hours each day.  I know he doesn't feel well when he crawls into bed on his own in the middle of the afternoon. 

"New" Room

We're always trying to come up with ways to help Katherine keep her room more organized.  She has a cut-out area in her room, so Jon made her some shelving to fill the space. He spent a few weeks building the shelving and I spent several days organizing her room.  The shelves look great.  The jury is still out on whether or not it will help her stay more organized :)

Exploration Place

The kids are out of school for a few days.  The first day started with me backing into the garage door with my car (Joey was playing with the opener and left the door down just enough for me back into it).  Next was dentist appointments for both kids, then lunch at Koch so Mom and Rick should show off Ava.  Then Mom took off for the afternoon and we hung out at Exploration Place.  I could have done without the garage door incident, but the rest of the day was fun.

So Many Pills...

This is a heavy pill week for little Joey...

Grandkids

Mom wanted some quick shots of her with the grandkids on Sunday afternoon.