February in Pictures

Erik welcomed February in with a ski trip to Vail, Colorado with his old friend Micah.

 While Erik was away, we got dumped on!  The kids enjoyed a snow day at home.  The boys kept busy with some car and water experiments!

We played outside and then made cookies!

The day after our snow day, I went out to start the car to take the kids to school and found out I left two windows open during the entire snow storm!  We had snow all over the inside of the car!!

Klaasen had "beach day" at school and even though there were several new inches of snow on the ground, he went to school in his swim shirt, swim trunks, goggles, sunglasses, and visor!

The older two kids had ski practice and their ski coach showed up an hour late, so I got to coach their team for a while.  I had no idea what I was doing, but told them all I was taking credit for their wins if they won big at the next race!!

 Erik got home the night before the kids' big race.  Skogen was so excited, he couldn't sleep, so Erik let him have a slumber party in our bed!  I was sleeping on the couch with Maida, anyway, who wasn't feeling well.

 The next morning Maida still wasn't feeling good, so we decided that just Erik and Skogen would go to the race at Trollhagen.

While Skogen was in the middle of his race, I decided to take Maida to the emergency room because her stomach pain and nausea really increased.

By the time the award ceremony came along, Maida was all checked into the emergency room and an appendicitis had been ruled out.

 Why the pain, fevers, and elevated white blood count, then?

Maida was checked into the hospital so that she could be monitored and we could try to find some answers.

 10 days, one hospital transfer, numerous doctors, and lots of pain and suffering later and Maida was release from the hospital with a burst appendix and a newly installed PICC line.

God watched out for our sweet girl through everything and made sure that everything happened in the appropriate time.  Maida's missed appendicitis was a pain in the rear, but looking back we could see many blessings come of it.

Maida wasn't home for too long after getting out of the hospital before she went back to school!  She did great with the PICC line at school and was so brave.

First ski race and hotel swim with the PICC line!  She was a big embarrassed at first and bummed that she couldn't get all the way in the water, but we sat on the edge of the hot tub together and made some good memories.

The next day Maida sat out of the race, but that didn't keep her off the hill!  While Skogen was warming up and slipping the course, Maida was out getting the feel of her skiies again.

Skogen had four great runs and it was such a warm day that the rest of us were out at the bottom of the course all day!

After Skogen's race was done and we had time to kill before the awards, Torsten went down for a nap in the loge and Maida got some meds hooked up!  I'm so thankful that our kids can truly sleep anywhere and that I was also able to administer Maida's meds anywhere we were so that it did not keep us home.

That night, Erik took Klaasen and Skogen camping with the boy scouts at the science museum!  They set their beds up by the dinosaurs, watched a movie on whales, and had some snacks.  Five minutes after they all tucked into bed, Skogen threw up all over the place and they had to leave.

This weekend was already a big weekend with the ski race and dinosuar camping, but it was even bigger with the finale of Skogen's soccer program!  He had one last practice, game, and then an awards ceremony and group photo.

The second week of Maida being back at school, the school nurse called and said her PICC line looked funny and was causing some pain and bleeding.  I called out home health nurse and our home PICC line care and they all decided that she should go in to get it looked at.  Since we don't have PICC line care at the hospital here, we had to get checked into the emergency room again.  Luckily, they staff a PICC care nurse in the hospital who came down and fixed Maida's line.

Keeping Maida alive was an expensive task!  This is how much medicine she would get in 12 hours and all the supplies needed.  It was around $350 per day!!!  Thank God for good insurance!

Maida got crafty in a new way and made some baby gifts for her teacher from last year!  I thought they turned out very cute.

Skogen's school had a fundraiser movie night.  We all gathered in the gym where they served popcorn and showed a movie!

 Erik got some T-bone steaks from a co-worker that he cooked at 2:00 in the morning!

Our family entered into a family ski race!  Erik decided our team should get in shape and ready for the race, so we were doing squats (or "rock butt" as our kids know them as)!

We woke up on Saturday morning to 62 degrees, so of course we hit the slopes!  We introduced our kids to skiing in just long underwear and mittens and they thought it was the coolest thing!  We  met up with Erik's friend Micah, Micah's brother, and Micah's nephews.  We had so much fun!!!

 No need for a lodge, we just parked the Excursion close to the side of the hill and camped out there in the sun!

Maida got a little PICC line action slope-side and even skiied with her meds going!  She was hesitant, but I told her that it was something her dad had never done on skies and then it became cool.

Family race day was a little colder and more icy!  Everyone had fun, though, and came away with some nice prizes!

Immediately following our ski race was soccer night for all three bigs!  Torsten took a nap in the gym while Klaasen had practice.

Maida got some PICC meds while Skogen practiced.

Then Maida came out and surprised us with how aggressive she was, even with her PICC!

"Mom, ask me about my t-rex," isn't something I expected to hear so early on a Monday morning, but it was Klaasen and he had drawn a t-rex on the inside of his shirt to be just like a shirt Erik's has.  When you ask to see the t-rex, the person wearing it flips it over his head and says, "Raaawwwwwr."

My little artist Klaasen was REALLY into art this month.  He drew this knight free-hand one day and even did some more shirt art!  So, we made the Creation Station where he can create things.

He told me that he was making this shirt to wear to school and sell to his friends!  Ha!

Overall, the month was extremely busy and full of the unexpected.  I am so proud of our kids and how they pulled through Maida's illness and having me away from the house for almost two weeks. I'm thankful to my parents who went back and forth, carting kids, and helping with whatever they could. I'm thankful for all our times to bond as a family and the many activities we were able to be involved with.