JANUARY SUCKED AND FEBRUARY ISN'T LOOKING THAT GREAT EITHER.

The beginning of this year has been rough. Well, actually it started right after Christmas, and has just kept on going. The day after Christmas, Chase started throwing up. As I have mentioned before, that happens A LOT. Well, this time, it was pneumonia again. He didn't have to go to the hospital thank goodness, but it is hard to watch him struggle like that. It was hard to give up our German tradition of hanging out with friends and having a huge firework show on New Years Eve. Of course after the fact, we realized how nice it was to just relax and take it easy. It was really hard and conflicting for Chase. His poor little body was trying so hard to fight off the infection, but he wanted to stay up until midnight so bad. We let him, but he was so overly cranky, that we wished he had gone to bed earlier.

Chase was all better and ready to go by the 3rd of January when school started again. He was excited and ready to go back. After his first day back at school, he went to get his hair cut with Ethan. On the way back to the car he tripped and re-broke his arm. They didn't want to put him into a cast right away because they wanted him to see a hand surgeon in case they needed to put pins in it. He missed the whole week of school because if somebody bumped him, he would cry. We saw the hand surgeon the Friday after, and he decided that Chase could just try one more time with the cast (actually he told us that he really thought it was best not to do the surgery and put pins it, but he left it up to us to officially decide). So we are now on round 2 of the broken arm.

The final, but worse thing that happened in January was Madison's double pneumonia. It was about the scariest thing I have ever experienced. We are always expecting Chase to get sick. In fact, I think there are only 2 or 3 weeks all winter that he doesn't have a cough. When Maddi gets sick, it always throws us for a loop. She had been coughing really bad (like throwing up when she coughed) for a couple days, so we took her to the Dr. The Dr. said she had an ear infection and it sounded like she might possibly have pneumonia. She (the Dr.) put Maddi on an antibiotic. Since Madison had just finished a round of antibiotics for an ear infection in December, the Dr. put her on a different kind of antibiotic. It was one of those frustrating medicines that you have to give when your child's stomach is full. I hate those. When your kid is sick, she doesn't want to eat. Well, Maddi was doing alright for a day or so, but she kept complaining of stomach pain. Saturday night, she woke up screaming because her stomach hurt. We figured it was the antibiotics, so we decided to stop giving them to her and figured we could take her into the Dr. again on Tuesday (Martin Luther King Jr. day was on Monday). Sunday, she was acting pretty sick and she started throwing up again with her cough Sunday night. Monday morning she was completely lethargic and wouldn't eat ANYTHING. We put her down for a nap on Monday, and again she woke up screaming that her stomach hurt. When we went up to get her, her lips were blue. I got my shoes on right away and took her to the hospital (Ethan stayed home with Chase). In the states I think we would have called an ambulance because that is how freaked we were, but here, you are better off just driving because it will take around a half hour or longer for an ambulance to get to your house. When we got to the hospital, it was packed. I went to the desk to describe Maddi's symptoms, but the lady interrupted me before I could tell her that Maddi was having trouble breathing. (I won't even get started on my rant about the improper care of military hospitals.) Because the lady wouldn't let me tell her what was going on, she put us into the system as a low priority. It was a very busy day because of the holiday. We ended up waiting an hour an a half just to get into triage. Poor Maddi couldn't even keep herself awake. She would fall asleep as soon as she sat down. I was so worried. When we got into triage, I finally got to tell the guy what was going on. He put her on the puls-ox (I don't know what it stands for, but it tells the Dr. what her oxygen levels are), and she was only at 83 percent. For those of you that don't know, that is really low. He walked us back to immediately get her on oxygen. Once we were back there, our ER Dr. then told us that her heart rate was 180. She was working so hard to breath. Then started the difficult stuff for a mom to watch. They had to get an IV into her and she is our little chunky monkey, so it is hard to find a vein. The first day was a pretty horrible day. It was hard to watch her go through all of that. The first night was horrible, she did not want the oxygen on her face, so she would wake up about every 15 minutes and pull it off. Sometime in the middle of the first night, she had pulled it off, and would not let me put it back on. Her o2 level was dropping, so both nurses were in there helping me try and get her to put it back on. She is pretty strong when she wants to be. During the fighting she ripped her IV out. That was pretty horrible to see because she started bleeding and stuff. It scared me. After a while, she calmed down and we were able to get the oxygen back on. The next day they had to re-do the IV. They ended up trying 7 times before they called anesthesiology down and they put it in her foot. I think that was the only vein left. Things got alright after that. She was on oxygen until Saturday. Saturday night she was on her last set of IV antibiotics, when the IV slipped a out of her vein and she got about 20 ML of medicine in her foot. It was pretty puffed up before the nurse stopped it. I guess it was alright that the medicine went into her foot though because it could be absorbed into the muscle and still be effective. We were hoping she would make it through Saturday night so we could go home on Sunday, but she still needed it a little. Sunday night she made it through the night without needing oxygen so we got to go home on Monday. Madison spent an entire week in the hospital. She is doing great now.

That was it for January. I was really hoping February would be better. Well, it is only the second week and our hot water heater broke. When the guy came to look at it, he said that it was a 28 year old water heater and he wouldn't be able to get any parts for it and that he was going to have to put a new one in. Somehow the hot water heater and the furnace are connected or something because they have to change out the furnace too. We get to experience 2 days of no heat in the coldest week Germany has had so far. I am serious about cold too. The other day we had a high of 9 F. It started snowing on Wed. They brought in a couple extra heaters, so lets hope we stay warm through the night. Yesterday, we attempted to do the boil water method for bathing, but German stoves are not as strong as American stoves. We had our pot on there for an hour and it was not even close to boiling. We ended up imposing on some members of our ward that live close to us because a week without bathing is just yucky. Hopefully things will be back up and running tomorrow. We are really hoping this will be the end of our bad luck. We are hopefully going to the states in March. Chase's current passport expires in March. We applied for a new one the first week of January. We are really praying that his new one will be back so that we can visit. Both Ethan and I are really homesick.


The pictures are all from when Maddi was in the hospital.


This was the Sunday before we went to the hospital. The cookie is our attempt to get her to eat something.



This was when we got to the hospital. I am telling you, the iPod is the greatest invention ever. Letting her know she would watch Toy Story was literally the only way that we could get her to keep her oxygen mask on for the first bit. Her arm is in a splint that is supposed to keep her arm straight so she doesn't pull out her IV. It didn't work.


This was her sleeping the first night. She was so pale. She looked just dreadful.


The red cross brings a dog around to cheer up the patients. It has proven to help with wounded warriors. The dog will actually cheer them up and give them hope for recovery. Madison loves dogs and was thrilled to have this one come to see her. She loved how he got to jump on her bed.


She was starting to feel better. She had a lot of color back and was starting to get energy. When she got bored of watching TV, the only way that she would be happy and calm was coloring. Ethan bought her this Strawberry Shortcake coloring book. She loved it. Before we left almost every page was completely colored.



Madison really loves Grapes. It was so good to see her begin to return to her playful self.


Chase would come and visit every day after school. He loved the masks that people would wear when they came into the room. He put one on so he could be the Dr.


He was telling Maddi that he needing to make sure she was feeling better. He was the Dr.


Towards the end of her stay, she was really feeling normal. She did not want to stay in her bed. It was a trick for us to keep her occupied. She really loves Barbies and brushing their hair. We brought her some of her toys from home so that she could play.


This was on the day that we got to go home. It was so boring waiting for them to get all the paperwork done so that we could leave. Ethan decided to take a nap with Maddi who was jumping all over the place. You can see a blurry picture of her Mickey Mouse that the night nurses gave her. She loved it.


All ready to go. She was better, but she still looked pale for a couple days.


This was the machine that was so hard to sit by and watch, but almost like a train wreck you had to watch. I became obsessed with watching the numbers. If it dropped below 92 it would start to beep. If it stayed down below 92, we had to wake Maddi up and make her move positions or do whatever we could to get her numbers back up. When I took this picture, she wasn't hooked up to the heart rate or breathing monitor anymore, so that is why the top two lines are flat.



In the end, I learned a lot from the experiences that we have had in the past two months. For one, I am so grateful for the gospel and the power of the priesthood. I am so happy that we have the priesthood in our home. I am thrilled that Ethan was able to give Maddi a few blessings to give her strength and that he was able to give me a blessing so that I could have the strength to take care of her without stressing too much. I also learned what a blessing it is to have a ward family. I have never been on the receiving end of ward service. It was a huge blessing to have dinners brought in and so much concern over Maddi. It was great that we did not have to eat at the dining facility every night for dinner. I can't believe the love and care that we received. It really made me realize just how lucky I am to be a member of the church. I love the gospel and the blessings it brings to our lives.

SOME PHOTOS OF OUR CHRISTMAS

Chase and Maddi were both so excited for Santa this year. I think this is our first picture where they are both happy to see him. I went out of my way to visit the good Santa this year. He is the nicest man. He really lives for playing Santa every year. Maddi and I ran into him at the post office in September and she called him Santa. He went up to her and asked her if she was being good. It is always fun to see him around. I know Maddi isn't looking at the camera in this photo, but it was the better of the two I had.


I finally made cookies in enough time to deliver them. The kids were so excited to help decorate them. We were almost ready to start and they were getting a little overexcited.


Maddi didn't last long into the decorating process before she started eating the cookies. She has such a sweet tooth. I wonder who she gets that from. ;)


Chase really enjoyed decorating the cookies. He doesn't have much of a sweet tooth, so he was able to get all into it. I showed him how to put some sprinkles in his hand and then use his two fingers to put them on the cookie. He was very good about it.


I had to laugh. Madison only decorated 2 cookies. The first one she ate right away and the second, she just kept layering on the frosting. It was so much fun to watch. As you can tell, there is a lot of frosting on this cookie.


This year for our countdown to Christmas, we made a chain and we had our Nativity book. Each day the kids would trade off putting a piece of the Nativity up and taking a link off the chain. Chase would take the green links off because green is his favorite color and Maddi would take the red ones off. Maddi ended up taking the last link off and she was so excited. Chase got to put up baby Jesus. I don't have a photo of him doing that and I have no idea why.


After Santa came!


Every year the kids get an ornament. It usually has something to do with what they are into that year. I think everyone knows that Chase is into Star Wars. This year, I happened upon directions to make a death star Christmas ornament. Chase didn't have all the pieces, so we ordered them and made it. Chase loved his ornament from Santa. It was fun to see him so excited about it.


The Christmas tree after the gifts were put out and the stockings filled.


Chase was so excited. He jumped right onto the couch and grabbed his and Madison's stalkings. Chase is always thinking of others. He would never grab just his stalking.


I love this picture of Maddi. She looks like a diva, but really she is just pushing the hair out of her eyes. She refuses to let me put it behind her ears.


I had to put up this photo of Ethan. We stayed up too late and we were both so tired. There aren't any photos of me because Ethan hates to take pictures, but I thought this one was great. He was really excited about his gigantic Toblerone bar.


We started a new tradition this year. A new pillow on Christmas. I don't know why I never thought of this before. Pillows get disgusting (yes, even with a pillow case) and if you put them in the washer they get really lumpy. The kids were pretty happy about them.


Maddi's big toy from us. This year we decided to scale back on what we do for Christmas. We are really working as a family to spend less money on things we don't need. This is really hard for me. I love to shop and buying things for the kids is always a lot of fun for me. This year we decided to only get the kids one big toy from us and one small toy from Santa. It was hard, but it helped me realize that in the end it didn't matter. They were both ecstatic about the toys they got and they didn't need anything else.


Chase opening his new Star Wars lunch box. It is so vintage and he loved it.


When Maddi was born, I had a friend make her and Chase some growth charts that matched the themes I had chosen for their rooms. As Madison started collecting bows, I realized the need for a bow board. I asked the same friend if she would make one to match the growth charts. It turned out adorable. I really love it. Maddi loved all the little fairies on it.


Maddi with her gifts minus the bow board. I was pretty proud of how we shopped this year. We shopped the sales and had most of the clothes in October when the big sales were. I think it was nearly impossible for me to not give the clothes to the kids as soon as I got them. The wait paid off.


Chase with all his gifts. The book he is holding, was an awesome find. We found it at a German store. It teaches you how to build all these Star Wars ships and droids all out of Legos. The directions are all in German, but it has pictures and Chase loves building Star Wars stuff.


The kids in their Christmas outfits. I was so happy that we were able to focus a lot more on the reason we have Christmas and less on gifts. I was really excited to accomplish my goal of shopping with a budget. I know it doesn't sound big, but this is the first time we have actually set an amount we were aloud to spend and kept with it. It has definitely inspired me to continue to live frugally because I learned that you can get what you want and need in the budget you are given as long as you plan.

TUPPERWARE PARTY

So, last year I discovered Tupperware. Most people like Pampered Chef, but not me, I love Tupperware. They have so many useful products. My favorite is this http://order.tupperware.com/pls/htprod_www/tup_show_item.show_item_detail?fv_item_category_code=10004&fv_item_number=P10059991000 because I use a lot of herbs when I cook, and this is the best herb chopper thing I have ever used.

The best way for the consultant to recieve your order, would be for her to call you and get it directly from you. You would just have to let me know if you want to order something so I can give her your phone info. If that won't work for you, I am working on a link so you can buy stuff online. Either way, you will get it shipped directly to your house. We will miss you here, but I wanted to give you the option of ordering. Sorry it is taking so long to get the link up, but I really want to get it right.

Anyway, I love their stuff, and my party will be open from now until the 20th January. You don't have to, but of course I am trying to get the word out.

CHASE IS SICK AGAIN

So, I am going to vent a little here.

I don't think it is a secret to anybody that Chase is sick a lot. He throws up at least once a month, but most of the time it is more like twice a month. We have no idea why he throws up. It is almost never a bug. He throws up all night and then the next morning he is completely fine. His last Dr. thought that because he only has a bowel movement every other day, his stool was backing up and pushing on his stomach and making him throw up. He has had a few x-rays for this, but they haven't really found anything conclusive. So for now we just deal with some wakeful nights of throwing up. I have actually had to get on him a few times because he just won't wake me up when it happens. He will tell me in the morning that he can't go to school because he was throwing up.

Throwing up isn't the issue right now though. Chase has asthma and because of it he gets coughs quite often. Last April his cough turned into pneumonia. We were in Paris and we saw more of our hotel room than the city. It started with a day of throwing up and then the fever came later in the day. The same thing started happening at the beginning of the week. I had a feeling it was pneumonia. There is an unwritten rule over here that we don't call the Dr. to set up an appointment for a sick child until they have had a fever for 5 days straight. The fever has to be over 100.8. I say it is an "unwritten rule" because the Doctors won't pay much attention to you or give you any medication until your child has had a fever for 5 days. It is pretty much pointless to make an appointment before the 5 days because all they will do is give you some medicine for a fever and tell you to come back if it lasts 5 days. Since Chase gets sick so often, we have it down to a science when to schedule the appointments.

We called this morning and got an appointment right away. We pretty much just have to say that he is asthmatic and he jumps right to the top of the list. I was at the Dr. a little earlier this week with Madison and had talked to him a little about Chase and told him that I bet we would see him by Friday. I was right. Another thing about living over here is that we get a new Dr. very often. He is our latest Dr. It is always hard to get a new Dr. because we have to start over with Chase's medical history. It is a long history. This time it was different. The Dr. came in after they did Chase's PulseOx (For those of you that don't know, that is the Pulse and oxygen level. It was down to 91. We will usually be in there with neb treatments if it falls below 94. If they can't get it to go above 94 while he is in the clinic, then they have to be hospitalized.) and instead of asking me about Chase's medical history straight off asked me how we get refills for his prescriptions. I told him that they usually just give us about 10 refills to start with. When that runs out, I just call the clinic and they put some more in for use. That was when he started talking to me about how upset his is with the lack of care Chase has been getting. I was a little shocked because I thought it was going alright. I mean, aside from the fact that he is sick all the time.

The Dr. told us that because Chase is asthmatic, he should be seen by a Dr. every 3-6 months. We should get an updated asthma action plan at every appointment. The Dr. should not be putting in automatic refills for any medication. We should be getting 1-2 inhalers at a time and then after seeing him again, he would get more medication.

Now I will tell you what has actually been happening. We have had one asthma action plan since living here. That was when Chase was 3 and after another bout of pneumonia that actually took two rounds of medication to get rid of. We have changed doctors twice since then. When the Dr. fills the prescription for Chase's Flovent or Albuterol, they usually give 10 refills. When we run out of refills, we just call the clinic and they put more in the computer. Aside from Chase's sick appointments, we usually only have his annual appointment. That is a huge difference from what the Dr. today told us was supposed to happen. It is so disheartening to go into an appointment and find out that what every Dr we have had was supposed to do wasn't being done. They weren't taking care of my child like they should have. I am supposed to put my trust in these people to take care of my kids when they are not taking the time to do their job. It is really frustrating. It was even worse because I had absolutely no idea that any of this was supposed to happen. I could actually see how upset the Dr. was that none of this stuff had happened.

Towards the end of the appointment he told me that he is actually the head of the pediatric department. He said he is going to personally make sure that Chase gets the asthma action plan and appointments he needs. No more refills over the phone. I am really happy that we finally got somebody who cares. I really hope that this will make it so Chase doesn't get sick quite so often. He also told me that in Chase's case, we don't need to wait 5 days to make an appointment. Yippie for all the new information.

MADISON'S 3rd BIRTHDAY

The beautiful birthday girl. I can hardly believe that she is 3 years old. Time has really flown by with her. I keep thinking that she is just turning 2. She has changed so much this year. She is growing so fast. She is 39 and a half pounds. I am not sure of her exact height, but she is giving Chase a run for his money on that. She actually jumped up to the 90th percentile in height. She is smart too. She knows about 10 letters of the alphabet by sight. She is starting to trace letters and she is learning more every day. She is so much fun to be around. She loves Chase and they play so well together. She is coming out of her shell so much. She actually talks to people when they talk to her.

I gave Madison a few choices for her birthday party. She picked Minnie Mouse. She is really into Minnie Mouse. I ordered her dress because my sister found it online. I thought it was super cute. I am really into the pillowcase dresses. Since I haven't learned to sew yet, (Ethan got me a sewing machine for Christmas, so I am going to learn very soon) I ordered it. After I ordered her dress, I started to order the other supplies for the party. That was when I learned that Disney changed the color of Minnie Mouse's dress. Her dress is now pink. I am so obsessive about how things work for the kids' birthday parties, I was so bummed that the colors wouldn't match. I decided to buy generic things that were just red, white and black. I had such a hard time with this party. Nothing was going right. The biggest mistake was that I forgot to fill the balloons. I was super bummed about that. The kids love balloons. Anyway, aside from the problems with the decorations, the party went alright.


I did cupcakes this year instead of a cake. I was really excited about it because they looked so cute in the photos online. They turned out alright. I tried a new frosting that I loved until I put too much food coloring in it trying to turn it red. The food coloring made the frosting taste funny. I ended up making another batch of frosting which didn't turn out either. For some reason the butter wasn't mixing together with the other ingredients. Just when it thought I had cakes and cupcakes down. There is always next year.


The food spread. I love how all the food looks. It is so pretty.


She was so excited for all her gifts. We gave them to her right when she woke up. We had her birthday party on the 17th and since it was so far from her birthday, we decided to just give her the presents from us on that day too.


She got some clothes for her birthday. She loves clothes. She puts on like 3 or more outfits a day. Some of the outfits she comes down in after nap are so funny. I really should take daily photos.


She also got a ton of dress up clothes. She is always putting on dresses and dress up shoes and calling herself a princess. There are a lot of dresses and shoes that came with it. She loves it.


Madison getting some food with some other people that came to her party.


Madison was so excited to blow out her candles. She has been looking forward to it for a long time. She has been walking around singing happy birthday to herself for weeks. It was so cute.


Madison loved her cupcakes even if I didn't. She is taking a gigantic bite out of this one. I had to stop her so I could take the bow (which was made out of ribbon) and the cupcake liner off.


She was showing me her messy fingers here.


This is definitely one of our smaller parties. We had 3 families come to her party. It was a lot of fun and Maddi had a blast.


I didn't take many photos of her opening her gifts. This is her excited face. It makes me laugh every time I see it. She was really excited for the lip gloss and nail polish. She also got a Tinkerbell barbie, a stuffed animal, a remote control car and a knitted purse. She had a lot of fun and really loved having her friends over.

GETTING READY FOR CHRISTMAS

We made gingerbread houses at Chase's School. The one on the left is Chase's, the one in the middle is Maddi's, and the one on the end is mine. I am bummed because I left my camera at home and didn't get any photos of us making them. It was a lot of fun though. Maddi went crazy with the candy. She would not stop getting candy to put on her house. She loved it. Chase only cared about making a Christmas tree and a snowman. It was a lot of fun.


We set up our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. I am still slightly bitter about having a fake tree, but it is almost a must over here. I just have to say we made it longer with a real tree than some people that moved here from Oregon last year. Maddi and Chase were very excited to set it up. Christmas was so much fun this year. Both kids were very into it.


Chase really wanted to help so I told him to go and separate the branches. He did it in such a funny way. It was adorable.


Ethan let Chase help put the top of the tree on. He was barely able to lift it up, but he did it.


We decided to let Maddi put the star on top of the tree this year. She was sitting on Ethan's shoulders while he untangled the cord.


She sure tried to put it up there, but just wasn't tall enough. In the end Ethan did it.


Usually Chase is under the tree with Ethan, but this year Maddi was so excited and Chase was all into the ornaments.


Chase hanging his first ornament. We always start by having the kids hang the ornament they got the year before.


Maddi hanging her ornament.


Ethan hanging his.


This ornament is always a hit with the kids. I have a photo of Chase doing this exact thing.


Me hanging my first ornament.


Can you tell this is Madison's section of the tree. I love how at this age, the kids put all the ornaments in one place.