Vampire baby

WARNING: BLOOD!

*Numbers all run together when the doctors start talking to us... if you're a nurse, or medically literate just smile and act like you understand what I'm talking about.

So, yesterday after H's morning blood work, we were informed that his hemoglobin count was dropping. *He was down to 6, 8 was the day before and 15 is normal. 

His SED** rate was still high too, but his other inflammatory marker was down, which was good. 

{I'm taking med school 101 ASAP}

After more blood work, hemoglobin count was confirmed and after speaking to a (ready for this one)hematologist they agreed he needed a blood transfusion.

4 hours later he was full of blood! 150ML worth...

He was beyond ready to get out of his room and play, so off to the play room to wear him out!
He is still doing great though. No fevers, no bad reactions to the blood, and eating like a MAN! I'd say my boy is back... he just needed a little blood.

It's a PIRATES life for a 2 year old!

And so begins my new love for party planning.


Hunter's 2nd birthday party was an absolute blast to plan.
I started planning, researching, ebay-ing, and Etsy-ing a good three months prior to his party.


I knew I wanted a pirate theme!
Inspiration: party blogs; including Owen and Mason's 2nd birthday and hostess blog.


So, here's what we did.
For a few activities we had a treasure hunt, plank walk, and pinata.
In theory, when everyone arrived they would get decked out in their pirate gear and grab their black gable boxes(labeled with their new pirate name) and start their treasure hunt. Their boxes were stocked with a treasure hunt check list and a telescope.

The sand box was full of jewels, necklaces, rings, pirate bouncy balls, and alligators.

Here are the food tables we had set up, minus the main dish table.
(I had pictured this party in my head for so long now and how I would take pictures of everything pre-party guests, but once it got close to party time we were just trying to make sure the presentation for the guests was perfect.)
Plus, Oklahoma weather is not always the most cooperative. Today, it gave us an enormous amount of wind!

The desert table:
A local, and old, high school classmate made the cakes.
She did an amazing job!
We also had cake box cookies and cake balls to snack on.
For the edible decor we used swedish fish "sea bass", white chocolate covered pretzels "pirate bones", and red gum balls "squid eggs."

Just for detail purposes, our main dish foods were:
cheese burger and jerk chicken sliders
black bean mango salsa
with tortilla chips
fruit kabobs
cape code potato chips
and for the kids there were fish shaped pb&j's packaged up and "Pirate's Booty Aged White Cheddar Popcorn"

Drinks:
izze soda
lemonade with raspberries
tea
water bottles
and juice boxes

All the kids seemed to stay entertained and full, which is exactly what I wanted, but they were all a little young for the treasure hunt.
Luckily,the treasure chest pinata was enough for them.
It was loaded with gold fish, raisins, ring pops, and smarties.

Here are just a few action shots from the party.

A huge, gigantic THANK YOU to my family for helping with this party. I know I am several months late posting this, but after going through these pictures I am remembering how hectic it was before the party started.

My fabulous helpers:
Janna and Rachel VanHoozer
Nana and Papa Calaway
The "grill" guys
And my beautiful mother that made the banner, labels, treasure maps and much more!

My son has what!?!

I'll try to keep this short and sweet, but with the important details.

I should've started this several days back when we first got admitted into the children's hospital, but that just wasn't possible.

Here's a quick run through on how we got to day 5 in the hospital with Hunter.

Emma had a fever Sunday, leading to Hunter getting one Monday... Emma seemed to manage hers fine, but Hunter's continued to rise and he started getting worse. Jake was in the field all of Monday until late Tuesday night when I begged him to come home early because I was starting to worry. Wednesday morning Hunter wakes up with another high temp, but completely covered in a bumpy rash. I only noticed his checks at first, but then I saw it was on his belly, arms, and legs. Pediatrician appt. made and daddy rushed home to watch the girls. Our new pedi is a good 40 min away(a big deal when you're used to Tulsa/Owasso) and after 2 doctors checking him out there, we were told Hunter had Kawasaki's Disease.

This is what he looked like pre-pedi appt and while we were at the pedi

Now, off another 20 miles down to Wilmington for an Ultrasound on his Lymph Node and blood work. Before we even made it in to get the ultrasound I begin to question just taking him to the ER. He is burning up, even after Motrin, he's completely covered in a red rash and he's basically out of it. The doctors office was nearly impossible to get ahold of and I am starting to meltdown(I rarely meltdown). By this time it's 4:00pm and we've finished lab work... now we wait in the CVS parking lot for an hour for the results. Thankfully, a kind friend of Jake's meets me with a phone charger because my phone is quickly dying, I still haven't heard the results, and Hunter is getting worse. Once again, I have to call the doctors office to see what the next step is. Basically, he gets admitted for dehydration which is fine with me... we HAD to be admitted!

IV's started(this process took forever) and a lot of observation and waiting. His rash is out of control by this point... belly, back, groin, legs, arms, face, head. His hands and feet are swollen and bright red. His lips and tongue are also bright red. His mouth is swelling and his eyes are slowing beginning to close. But, for the most part he was still sitting up in bed and playing with his toys.


Day 2 in the hospital only puts us at day 4 of fever so treatment for Kawasaki's cannot be started yet. We are given a list of what he could "possibly" have and basically continue to wait. They end up starting Doxycycline for Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and this is where we start to get bad. My MIL thankfully/luckily/graciously flew in from Tulsa and stayed with the girls so Jake could come stay with us and bring us some clothes. Now, to lighten up the mood... I send Jake with Hunter at 4am for blood work so I can get some rest. I was sleeping so wonderfully until I hear a nurse, "Ma'am, you're husband just passed out." Are you kidding me!?! I run down the hall to see my big, strong, Marine husband completely passed out on the floor with 4 nurses around him. Hunter is screaming from his failed blood work attempts and with only 2 nurses with him now, Jake is on his own! Apparently the nurses were really worried about him though, I guess he hit his head really hard on his way out of the room.

Day 3 in hospital and day 5 of fever... which reached 105 by this time. We're on our 3rd IV(12 failed attempts) and his eyes are completely swollen shut. They start his IVIG treatment which runs over a 12 hour period and this should make him feel 100% again. I think there was about a 10% chance we'd need another round of treatment since so many Kawasaki's patients take to the first one. Once it was finished we saw a good improvement, but within several hours his fevers began to spike and his rash came back.

His lips and eye lids started to peal. This was his rash coming back... not good, but no where near bad.

Day 4 in hospital and I finally get to see my baby girls!! Becky brought the girls up to see us while she asked all the medical questions. Hunter was in an unbelievable amount of pain from his Doxycycline IV and his temp was still rising. That evening they started his second round of IVIG and ran it quickly through the night so he wouldn't be hooked up when he woke up for the day.

Day 5 in and after his second round we can see a great improvement with H. His eyes are beginning to stay open longer and the swelling is almost gone. His rash was almost gone and he was sitting up in bed more. They took him off his IV to promote more drinking and eating, but later on in the day he got several more fevers and his rash came back. We decided to just let his body try to correct itself with Tylenol and after some low grade temp reads, he stayed completely fever free all night!

I think it helped that Pops flew in from Tulsa and brought Hunter the biggest lollipop ever. The smiles and squeals he let out were hilarious. Then after about 10 minutes of his Pops sitting next to him, he looked over and just starred at him, then he grabbed his ear and smiled. It took him awhile, but he remembered who his Pops was!

Thank you ALL for your prayers and encouraging words. I'll keep you posted on when we get to leave this place and I can finally finish up the details for the girls' party on Saturday!

Morning reflections: mommy time

Here I sit at 6:00am with my peach Chobani Greek yogurt and Tazo Awake tea thinking of things to-do, what I want to change, fix-up, organize, plan, etc.

Last week in church our pastor said on average people have 3,000 ideas a day. I don't know if I believe that... I usually have about 8,000 a day not including the 250 that come to me as I'm drifting off to sleep. My husband on the other hand admitted he has no where near that many a day.

Anywho, my bad idea of yesterday was trying bananas with the girls... Again... For the 7th time now(you'd think I'd learn by now). Emma was up twice last night and then almost for good at 5:00am and I could already see the bumps on her cheeks. She usually gets it the worst, I haven't seen Riley yet though.

So, since E woke mommy up early I decided I had no excuse not to go run this morning. Plus Jake is home so... Quickly grab my Nikes(no socks), can't find my headphones(I'll use Jake's), forget my contacts, and ready, set, go... Im using my "fit to 5k" app on my phone and basically by step 5 I was just mad. My headphones won't stay in, I have huge, bleeding blister on my right ankle, and the running band holding my iPhone keeps coming loose. Ok, so I cut my run short but I ran the entire way home and then threw my shows at the door :) at least I tried. And now that I have this out in the open, I can honestly say I am starting my new workout/eating healthy lifestyle today, blah! Finding the best time to run seems to be my major set back though. In order to run in the mornings before Jake leaves for work means going at 4:30am but then the time everyones in bed and Jake is home to watch the kids I tend to be too tired. That was my pathetic attempt for sympathy and now I feel like making myself run at both tines(ha).

We're trying a new church today, hopefully the one Hunter will attend 2-day preschool! With Riley practically running everywhere now, H going to preschool, and planning this 1st bday party I am realizing my last moments with my "babies" is ending soon and I will have 3 toddlers :(



Mommy time is now over... Back to the real world with my little ear rubbing baby boy.

Just because...

...I never show him how much I REALLY appreciate him.

My husband is my rock when I need strength, my comedian when I need to laugh, my friend when I need to vent, my sanity when I just need a "break", and a sweet reminder of what I want for the rest of my life.

I wish I could put in to words how truly amazing you are. You work 12 hour days... or day after day after day with the only complaints being heat and not being challenged enough. I cannot wait to see what else you accomplish with that mind of yours. I never want you to worry about the love and infatuation your children have for you. Trust me, the only reason they seem like "mommy's girls and boy" is because I secretly give them smarties and cookies :) I will never be able to grasp how in the world you deal with me. An over-tired, cranky mommy that wants so badly to be everything you deserve. You are the son and brother I pray Hunter will become. You are such an incredible role model for our children.. spiritually, comically, and personally.

You needed this to be all about you for a change and also just because!

Who wants seconds?!

Can you believe it? Two posts in a week... it's a miracle! Or maybe Jake is still taking vacation so we're able to get out more. This one will be quick and mainly revolving around pictures. I find that it is so much easier to just post our pictures on here instead of emailing everyone.

Independence Day with the Johnson's means eating dinner early, struggling to keep 3 babies awake for fireworks, finally reaching 9:00pm with 2 of 3 kids and standing outside to see the base fireworks, then hearing the big booms and cheering and realizing we are just a little too far to join in on the festivities. Really?! Oh well, we enjoyed our day with Jake home and just being our family of 5. This time last year Jake was actually getting to celebrate the 4th with some wiffle ball in Afghanistan.



Today we headed down to Wilmington for some birthday shopping for the girls, a trip to the childrens museum, and some incredible pizza from Mellow Mushroom(comparable to Hideaway). The museum was so much more enjoyable this time around. The girls were able to go almost everywhere and Hunter loved exploring like a big boy. Trains are becoming a new hobby for him which is adorable to me. He's becoming a little boy now!

Hope you all had an incredible holiday!