New Years Eve!

Ben is still fighting that fever today, so he refused to get dressed! I tried to get the boys to do something with me, and Ben wanted to play his new Jenga game and Conner chose to put another new Lego set together. Tonight Nick and I wanted to play games with boys. Ben was so tired, he wasn't really into it, but the rest of us enjoyed a game of Mexican Train Dominoes and a little champagne and sparkling grape juice! The rest of the night was spent tending to Ben's nose... he didn't exactly have a bloody nose which was good, but he had some blood in his nose several times tonight after he went to bed. He kept getting up and then we would have to sit together for a while to see if it was starting to bleed! This boy is pretty nervous about all the things that are going on in his little body right now. (So is Conner!) I am hopeful that the fever will break overnight. Not exactly an exciting New Years Eve for us, but at least we are all home together!!! 

If I am going to make any resolution, it is this.. I will try harder to embrace God's plan for us and live with less fear. These three guys are the most important things to me and I am so thankful that despite all the recent health issues, we are all here together and we will welcome in the new year with high hopes of good health and an abundance of love for one another!

Christmas in Conrad!

We headed to Conrad on Saturday to celebrate Christmas with Nick's family. We enjoyed another fantastic family Christmas! On Sunday morning, Conner and Ben weren't feeling 100%. Conner has had a little trouble with some anxiety surrounding the health issues that have plagued us as of late, but he was able to work through it. Ben was pretty lethargic by late morning, so we decided to head home. We didn't get our family photo because we left in a hurry! When we made it home, Ben had a fever, so he went to bed and I made another call to U of Iowa. They said the fever was probably unrelated to the ITP, but his platelet count could drop so, again, we will be keeping watch over our boy. Thank you to Mama and Papa for a wonderful Christmas!

Labs and Legos...

We woke up this morning to Ben having a nose bleed. Not a great start to the day! We had a great Christmas in Bettendorf, but it was time to pack up and get home. When we got home, I called the oncall hematologist at the Children's Hospital and he wanted to get another platelet count from Ben. I had to take Ben to the lab in Marion to have his bloodwork done and the doctor called a while later to let us know that the platelet count is still very low, but hasn't decreased since his stay in the hospital so we just have to continue to watch him and try to get Ben to take it easy. So, the boys decided to spend their evening putting some new legos together! They wouldn't even let me help...

 

Christmas Day!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! Such a wonderful day!

Christmas Eve in Bettendorf!

We arrived in Bettendorf this afternoon and headed to Christmas Eve service at church. The boys love being able to dress up and participate in the service. Conner was a shepherd and Ben was a wiseman this year. They loved it! After church, it was time for family photos, Nana's lasagna, and some family time! We enjoyed some "Christmas poppers" with toys inside and the kids played with those for a while. They also played video games with each other. Soon it was time to put out some milk and cookies for Santa and get all the kids to bed!

Merry Christmas Eve!

We had to get a couple of family photos before we head over to Bettendorf for church!

Our Christmas!

The boys were ready to open presents this morning since it is December 23 and today is the day that the four of us celebrate Christmas at home! I only had to remind them about 18 times that we needed to wait for Dad to get home from work before they could open anything! We all love that time together and this year was no exception. Conner and Ben went through their stockings first. Santa has been an interesting topic at our house this last month. They have heard rumors at school by now about Santa, so we did try to have that conversation with them, but they are not sure what to think about "Santa" right now! I do believe this will be the last year that Santa visits our house in the way that he always has... things will change a little for next year! For now, the boys are enjoying the "spirit of Santa!" When Nick got home, these guys were ready to do some unwrapping! We did go a little overboard this year! The highlight was that we got the boys a Nintendo Switch so they are fascinated with that and are looking forward to some gaming!

Christmas Lights...

We needed something fun to do tonight so we decided to check out the fancy light display near Center Point. We went last year and it was amazing! It was quite a bit busier this year, but well worth the trip. We enjoyed our hot cocoa on the ride there and as we got closer, we saw that they were accepting donations for the University of Iowa Stead Children's Hospital and that seemed pretty perfect to us! Ben exclaimed "That's where I was!" and Conner was ready to take a donation over so I was able to get a picture of him! The lights and music were amazing again, and it was nice to get out of the house and do something that we could all enjoy!

Basketball...

The boys had two basketball games scheduled for this morning. Ben is not able to play right now, so he and I watched Conner play two games starting at 8 am this morning. Conner did a great job! He was dribbling the ball everywhere and even had a few rebounds! He is really enjoying basketball this year and seems to be improving a lot! Ben wrote the game highlights in his journal for the first game. For the second game, Ben played on my phone for most of the time, but he did cheer on his brother a little!