We are Still Alive.....BARELY

It rained all for days last week, which we never see in Las Vegas. Justin and I were so excited for some weather that reminded us of home. That is until the rain cloud stopped directly over the Patrick family and started pouring!

It all started on Monday, it was just one of those terrible, no good, very bad days for me. By the time Justin got home from work I was just done! Unfortunately I had to go to the store to pick up some milk and other things....that's when I noticed my car key was missing. Now you must know this is a fancy car key we are talking about. A couple of years ago my purse got stolen and one of the car keys was in it. When we went to order a replacement key we found out the price was only $400.....yeah, we decided we would just stick with one key. Well as luck would have it, literally weeks before we want to get a new car, I loose the dang key. Tore my house apart, organized every nook and cranny.....no key, no extra $400 to get a new key.....AWESOME!

So I took Justin to work on Tuesday so that I could get some errands done by using his truck. That night as I leave to pick him up it was POURING outside, and dark, and I'm driving a huge truck that I am not really used to driving so I was being extra cautious and careful.....apparently not and I got into an accident, on a left yielding turn. I don't really know what happened besides I totally didn't see the car and next thing I know, CRASH....the kids are screaming, I start freaking out. Everyone was ok, we were lucky! Turns out the work truck does not have the current insurance card in the glove box so I get a ticket for $899, and a nice court date where I will have to prove the insurance, yada yada yada......AWESOME!

Wednesday morning I notice that Coleman has not touched his bottle. Have you seen this kid? This is not a normal thing. He is coughing, running a bit of a fever, runny nose, looking HORRIBLE....so I decided to take him to the doctor and of course, nothing is wrong, nothing they can do for him. Well come Thursday, he is still not drinking anything and will only eat mandarin oranges. When he woke up from a 3 hour afternoon nap all he wanted was to be held and then he would continue sleeping, plus no wet diapers all day. So my friend who is a nurse tells me that I better make it my mission to have this boy pee tonight or I will end up in the ER. Justin and I took turns holding him and forcing water down his throat with a medicine dropper.....for 6 hours, until he FINALLY peed.

So Friday morning I took Coleman in to the doctors again, this time he sent us to the ER to get him an IV and to hydrate him. Here he is all dressed in his hospital gown and playing...the calm right before the storm.
He then got the IV and a chest X-ray. By this point he was miserable and just laying there. We were told pneumonia, and then he was given some antibiotics.

After monitoring him some more, his oxygen levels were falling when he would sleep. When that started happening the ER doctor decided to admit him overnight.

Not something a mom wants to hear...and now I am starting to worry.

Once we got up to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit things just seemed to get worse, he spiked a fever of 103.7 and his oxygen starting falling while he was awake. By this time he needed some oxygen tubes down his nose. We were also starting a process of breathing treatments. In the mean time they were trying to get a mucus sample, but they kept getting rejected by the labs because there was blood in it. That night we learned he had 2 ear infections as well. Our poor little man!
Both grandmas were so supportive and also freaking out as well. Justin's mom was able to fly out to help us with the boys which was so nice.

So we spent the weekend in the hospital, from Friday until Sunday night. It was long, and I was exhausted. The ending result being that Coleman had Bronchiolitis, which they think was caused by the RSV virus.




He was soooo happy to come home, and so was I. It was so cute, he just started wrestling with his brothers as soon as we walked in the door.

Through it all we did receive some TENDER MERCIES, which I must note.....

1. My house is really clean and organized from looking for that key.
2. The truck is totally fine to drive after Justin took off the bumper so we are not completely car-less.
3. Mike Roe was literally minutes behind me after the accident so we stopped and took the kids so they were not in the middle of the road in the pouring rain.
4. The nice hot bath I was able to come home to that night.
5. Hospitals, medicine, technology
6. My sweet mom for waking up really early to talk to me while i was in the hospital, and everyone one else was still asleep.
7. Justin's mom for dropping everything to be here to help us.
8. My iphone, pretty sure I would have died of boredom if not for that thing.
9. Insurance, Coleman is the only one of my boys that has medical insurance right now......phew!
10. Pray, Heavenly Father is there, I can feel it. With everything that we have been experiencing I have somehow been able to keep pretty calm, and ok with it.
11. Wonderful friends who I would die without
12. Diet Pepsi.....big huge ones!!
13. Tax Returns, I just finished my taxes and Hallelujah we are getting a return!

Here's What Coleman has been up to....

So Coleman is 14 months now, in other words.....INTO EVERYTHING!!!

Pretty much if he is not in his high chair or sleeping it is impossible for me to do dishes. He unloads the dishwasher as fast as I can load it. And his new thing, climbing on the door.

He is taking only one nap a day which means he has been awake for my piano lessons. I have gone through this teaching process with all of my kids and eventually they get it, but for now, he wants to bang on the keys as soon as he hears them. Fortunately most of my students come in sets of siblings so one of them can keep him busy.

Climbing...if we leave the bathroom door open he goes straight for the step stool to climb up to the sink, play with the toothbrushes and look at himself in the mirror.

This habit is the worst. He for some reason just wants to be behind the TV and is having a really hard time learning the word NO!!

And as soon as I open the fridge he bee lines for it. I thought it was funny that he knew exactly what to do with this can of whip cream.

Of course opening and getting into every drawer and cupboard. I know i should get the child locks but Jack figured out how to open real quick when he was a baby and I have never used them since, except for cleaners and pantry.

All I have to say is, It's a good thing he is darn cute! I mean look at this chubby little kid! I couldn't help but get the picture of him on that chair, its so funny to me.

Jack is ready for some Privacy

I've noticed lately that Jack is wanting more time alone, without his brothers bothering him. The other day he made this sign and hung it on his door. Its a picture of a door that says under it, "NO COMING IN"

So its starting!

Target

For everyone that knows me they know I LOVE Target, my mom loves Target, my sisters love Target, my friends love Target.........and so do my kids! Infact I will ask Lincoln what he wants to do today and his reply most of the time is, "Go to Target!"

Lincoln grabbed the dividers and said, "Look mom, I'm a Target alien!"

And when Jack brought this picture home from school I got a good chuckle. The assignment, draw a picture of what you did this weekend, and so naturally a picture of Target.

One of my goals.......STOP going to Target!!! This will help me save a lot of money $$$$

Jackism's

Lincoln was cleaning up and said, "Oh here is my lego man, I need to get it in its box."

Jack's reply, "put Lincoln, you need to put it in the box"

Then he looks at Justin and I am says, "Lincoln always do's his words wrong!"

Stinky Pete the SUNBEAM!!!

Lincoln was so excited to be a Sunbeam, he got to wear a white shirt and tie just like daddy and Jack. I loved these pictures of Jack helping him button his shirt.

So far Lincoln is doing Okay in Primary. I think with me being in there every week its really hard for him not to come to the back of the room and talk to me, or stand up and demand my attention as I am trying to teach Sharing time....it will get better, I hope, he is loving it so far.

Shaving Like Dad

Aunt Erin almost got the boys some Shaving Kits for Christmas. They asked daily if they could shave, and still ask daily. It was just too cute! Jack is concentrating so hard.

Christmas Morning

The boys woke up around 7am which was perfect.....except for Coleman, he slept through most of Christmas morning since he was awake half the night! As you can see they were very excited to see what Santa Brought them. Uncle Jordan and Aunt Kristine got them these Nerf guns that they choose to open on Christmas Eve, and they slept with them and brought them out with them.

Jack wanted a remote control dinosaur and he got one! He must have been really good this year. It is really cool, but a tad bit creepy, you can pet it and it reacts to you, it will walk up to you and sniff you and stuff. Jack was thrilled!

For like 6 months + all Lincoln would talk about was this Batman Bat cave. Whenever he was asked what he wanted for Christmas it was the first and only thing out of his mouth. Even when we showed him Toy Catalogs and I would say, "Ohhh do you want that cool toy?", No I want a Batman bat Cave......Good thing he got it or Christmas would have been most definitely been ruined.

Coleman finally joined us and discovered Santa left for him a Little Einsteins ride on toy, which he has enjoyed ever since.

Aunt Erin surprised us all and bought the boys a Wii!!! They were so excited! When asked who his favorite Aunt is Lincoln said, " Aunt Erin, she bought us the Wii"......so come on Aunties if you want to be loved you know what you have to do :)

After we opened presents at Grammy's house we went back to Grama and Papa's house where we had a fun Christmas will all the cousins....Of course I left my camera at my mom's so I am waiting for some of those pictures.

We really enjoyed our visit. Jack especially was really sad to leave and said to me, "Mom I want to move here so I am play with my cousins all the time!" Broke my heart, the boys had SOOOO much fun playing with their cousins everyday.

Christmas Eve

We headed home to California for Christmas this year. We haven't been for 3 years so it was about time. We loaded up the truck (thankfully because we had A LOT of stuff to bring) and we off for a nice long week of vacation.

It was funny because just as we passed Bakersfield on the way Jack says, "Oh here come the trees, we must be in California"...which is so funny and a bit sad that he never sees real trees here in Vegas.

We spent Christmas Eve at Grammy's house and did the normal traditions that I have done my whole life. Movie, Candlelit dinner, open one present etc.


The boys were so excited to leave out cookies for Santa that they made with Aunt Erin. Lincoln has on no pants, i had the cutest matching Christmas PJ's and of course he spilled red juice on them, so they were in the dryer quickly before he went to sleep. I wanted to be sure he was in his cute Christmas PJ's for the morning pictures ( it was very important for me!)

Here they are all tucked in their beds. Daddy read the story of Christ's birth and then they went right to sleep without any argument of course. They were tracking Santa online all day.

My mom's house isn't very big and we were all there, except Aunt Shauna (sad face) so our family took my moms room (thanks mom) and we talked Uncle Jordan and Aunt Kristine into having Coleman in their room..........Unfortunately Coleman woke up around 3:30am and was wide awake even after his bottle. I didn't want the whole house to wake up and especially not the kids so Coleman and I went for about a 45 minute drive until I saw him yawning and getting sleepy again......NOT FUN!!! He NEVER does this and of course would pick Christmas Eve to do so....Who knows maybe Uncle Jordan snores really loud :)



Also while we were there we went to the temple and Justin baptized my brother Jordan for my grandpa on my moms side. It was a really special experience especially to see Justin and Jordan, Im lucky to have strong priesthood holders in my life and for examples to my boys. The spirit was very strong in the temple that day and I think it lit a spark in all of us to do more work so thanks mom for that opportunity.