Vacations, Weddings, ER Visits, and Halloween!

I obviously have taken a break from blogging. I guess I just haven't felt the urge to write for a while. I really want to get back into it though since it really helps me keep my sanity!

We were on vacation in North Carolina from the 18-24th. We really had a great time! We went to my brother in-law's wedding on Monday the 19th out on the beach and wow was it beautiful! The weather was perfect - the ocean was amazing and the ceremony was very nice. The rest of the vacation was spent just hanging out and relaxing. We walked to the beach, played in the edge of the ocean, and built sandcastles and mermaids in the sand. We took the ferry over to Ocracoke for lunch and some shopping. Matt and I really enjoyed our nights alone after the kids were in bed sitting and relaxing in the hot tub listening to the ocean.

Since we've been back from vacation things have been a little...stressful. Madeline started a low grade fever on Saturday afternoon that I thought may have just been teething since she's finally cutting 4 teeth that have been bulging for weeks now. However it turned into a slightly runny nose and a little higher fever on Sunday and Monday. I still wasn't too alarmed but was watching her closely and took her to the doctor on Monday afternoon. It turns out that she has a double ear infection that is pretty nasty. We were given antibiotics and went on our way.Monday night is when things went horribly wrong. She started vomiting up everything including her medicine and her fever just kept going up, finally hitting 105 on Tuesday morning. She was lethargic and wouldn't sit up, was hard to wake up so I took her to the Emergency Room. She was dehydrated so they gave her 2 bags of fluid and IV Zofran for the nausea. Her oxygen level was a little low so they also did a chest x-ray just to be sure, and it checked out fine. They gave her a big dose of Tylenol to bring her fever down and a dose of antibiotics. The Zofran worked like a charm and she didn't throw any of it up. She has been steadily returning to her normal self ever since!

When we got up Wednesday morning I was feeling so relieved. Maddie was back to playing and walking around pushing her toys all over. I was looking forward to a normal day and getting some things done since I still hadn't unpacked everything from vacation. However about 10am things went downhill pretty fast, I was folding laundry with my back to Grace and Evan when I heard a loud thump and then silence. I turned around and saw Evan staring wide eyed at Grace who had her back to me. I walked around to look at her and she had her mouth wide open screaming so hard that no sound was coming out and there was blood gushing from her forehead. After I calmed her down and got a good look at her forehead I knew we needed to go to the hospital for stitches or Dermabond. Thankfully my Mom came to the rescue, again, and watched Evan, Maddie and Leah while I took Grace to the ER. After a really long wait we were finally seen and were sooo lucky that she was able to have the cut Dermabond-ed back together!! I was elated that there would be NO stitches!

Today we are off to a follow up doctors appointment for Madeline to make sure that her ears are getting better and then I *hope* we will spend the rest of the day at home regrouping.

Tomorrow night is Trick-Or-Treat here so we will be getting ready for that big event! We will carve our pumpkins either tonight or tomorrow and get ready for the sugar high that will take over the next few days!