Visit from the KC Reynders

Two weekends before our move to Arkansas, our KC Reynders came for a visit. David's brother and their family came along with David's sister Kate. The kids love their cousins and their aunts and uncle! Our kids have a special place in their hearts for their Aunt Kate. They sure love her. We love her too! She is pretty awesome with the kids :).

We enjoyed playing games and chatting. We were sure glad they all came to visit!

Here are some pictures of the fun we had with family before our crazy move.

Strength in our Circumstance

We had the opportunity to meet up with our PT family friends one more time before our rotation in St. Joseph ended. We met at the Crown Center in Kansas City again. This time we explored the new Fairy Tale Village exhibit! The kids had an absolute blast! Whoever designed the exhibit did a fantastic job! It was so neat to see and explore. We crossed over a drawbridge into an enchanted castle. We went through the woods and saw little Red Ridding Hood and the big bad wolf, and Goldilocks and the three bears. Almost any fairy tale you can think of is included in this exhibit!

Here are pictures of the fun!

Pinocchio! 

Princess Elsa/Evelyn

The whole crew!

Peter, our Night!

It was encouraging to meet up with these amazing ladies. They are both awesome moms and great examples of faith in God. We are each members of different religions but we have the same faith in our Savior, Jesus Christ and we have each relied upon that faith and His grace to carry us through this crazy time of change and uncertainty. It strengthens me to know we are each in a similar circumstance. These ladies are amazing! Tristan has four kids she has been moving around with every 8 or 9 weeks for rotations and Jana has two with another entering this world any day now! Truly AMAZING!

Sickness

We have had an unusual amount of illness in our home this winter. It started in early December with Hannah being very ill. She was extremely congested and she had a hard time breathing. I ended up taking her to urgent care and we were grateful I did. They gave her breathing treatments and a shot to help her system regulate. They even took x-rays. The doctors and nurses there were concerned. But after the breathing treatment, her oxygen levels were close to normal. We were glad we took her to the doctor when we did, it would have only gotten worse.

Then early in January, we all had head colds. Everyone caught it; no one was spared. It wasn’t too bad. In fact David and I had several conversations about how it could be worse. We decided that the worst illness to experience would be the stomach flu or something to that effect; constant nausea, vomiting, diarrhea… that would be far worse than a head cold or a little congestion.

It was as if our conversation was prophetic. The night of Evelyn’s birthday, after a joyous, fun-filled day, David, Kate, and I were all chatting while the kids were all asleep. Then Hannah wakes up crying which is abnormal for her. We wait a minute or two then I go in to check on her. She had vomited all over her bed. Poor baby! We thought she had just eaten too much, because she had! She had a large dinner and birthday cake. We got her cleaned up and back in bed only to have her throw-up again within an hour. We realized then that this was the start of our most dreaded illness… we were up almost all night with her. Her poor body would wrench up every two to four minutes to dry heave; dry, because the contents of her stomach had already been spewed. It was heartbreaking! We both cried. It is one thing for me to experience the pain of the stomach flu and another thing entirely to watch my little baby suffer. A priesthood blessing was given, along with many fervent prayers. I think we all were able to feel the comforting power of the Spirit with us.

Her body eventually slowed and she was allowed to rest a while. It took her three days to recover though. And on that third day, it was mommy’s turn. It didn’t hit me as hard as it hit our poor baby Hannah, but it was still no fun. Then David and Peter were ill. At least they waited till I was feeling almost normal so I could care for them and the girls. Thankfully, their case wasn’t as severe as Hannah’s either. The biggest blessing though is that Evelyn was spared! She didn’t get sick!

As if that was not enough… today, Hannah and Peter are sick again with fever, congestion, and coughs! Oy… We went almost a whole year with no illness and now we seem to be making up for it.

However, through all this illness, we have felt the comforting power of the Spirit. We have felt our Father’s love for us. It is amazing how hard times are made easier when we rely upon and put our trust in our Father and the atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ. 

Potty Trained

Evelyn has mastered the potty! We have been working on it for some time but I felt she just needed a little push to become fully potty-trained. We decided that we needed to show her our confidence in her ability. She needed to know that we knew she could do it. We decided that we would do this by putting her in underwear. Evelyn did awesome! She is fully trained. We are grateful she has confidence in her own ability now. Oh! and Hannah is very interested in the potty. She will say potty and go sit on a stool in the bathroom as if she was going… who knows… maybe she will be ready to train soon ;).

Kaleidoscope

It just so happened that all the PT families of the class of 2015 are in Kansas City area for this clinical rotation. The moms decided to meet up for a play-date. We all needed one! We took the kids to Kaleidoscope at the Crown Center in Kansas City. We had a blast, and the kids had fun too ;).

Dramatic Weather!

We have had a mix of weather here in northern Missouri! It would seem the weather has been feeling a tad bipolar lately… The weather went from below freezing for an entire week with no snow, to 65-70 degree weather and then within three days, snow! But, no matter what the weather, we find ways to enjoy and have fun!