Mud Puddles and Boys!

It didn't rain today... but the boys still managed to find some mud to play in!  At first I tried keeping them away, but then I gave in and just loaded them in their rain boots and let them go to town!
(Our neighbor was cleaning his four wheelers off from riding so that is how the mud appeared.. from power-washing the mud off them.)

And just for the record:  Katelynn was home and playing outside too but my girl had ZERO interest in participating in the mud party.  She did get a little wet from the overspray of the powerwasher, but she was much more content playing and riding her bike away from the mud!

Busy Day of Hearts, Candy, and the Color Red

Happy Valentine's Day from the Miller Family!!

I love small holidays like this one.. okay, so I guess I really love all holidays, but it's fun to be able to have extra fun and be extra crafty on days like Valentine's Day!  I love homemade valentine's and we kept with tradition and made all ours again this year.  The hardest part of all of this for me is to let my kids do their own thing with them and try not to interfere much.  I was very proud of both of them though- they spent a lot of hours handwriting and making all their own cards for each of their friends.  Katelynn made 17 and Justin made 11!

This year was Justin's first year of participating in Valentine's cards since it is his first year of preschool.  We skipped joining the crowd of handing out candy and went for a toy instead.  I, of course, stole the idea from pinterest.  Justin is working really hard on trying to write all the letters of the alphabet, and I was so proud of him for writing all 11 classmates names and then signing his own on each card.  He did a great job!

 His cards read, "Hope you have a WHEELIE fun Valentine's Day!"

 

Katelynn and Justin both gave each of their teachers a tulip plant with a little pencil holder heart-shaped note that read, "Thanks for helping me grow!"

 

Here is Justin after his Valentine's party.. full of sugar and excited about all his cards and treats!

Katelynn's class all made their own Valentine's boxes prior to Valentine's Day.  I went into the classroom that morning and helped the kids all pass out their cards in the boxes and work with them.  They were all so exctied about getting to look at all their treats and cards!  They had a salty snack, cupcakes, and read their cards but they had to wait until the end of the school day to do it!  

I had a folder of all sorts of crafty Valentine's and Katelynn went through them and picked out her own that she wanted to make.  She did the cards all by herself, including cutting out 34 hearts out of paper.  The only thing I did was help her glue the hearts together and glue on the google eyes on her suckers.  She made her own choice about what to write and color in each card and how she wanted to decorate them. 

Katelynn's box of treats was VERY full of candy when she got home.  It's almost like Halloween.  We have to keep it up high and eat them on occassion.  I can't believe the amount of sugar that comes home on this holiday these days.  Many parents made a "treat" bag full of candy instead of a card! 

Here's our third Valentine.  He may not have had a school celebration to participate in, but his brother and sister made sure to share some of their suckers with him so he didn't miss out on the sugar high today.... in fact, he got plenty of sugar.. enough that he wouldn't sit still and smile for a picture (not that he really ever sits still at his age sugar or not..)

And just for fun... look at how much my valentines have grown...

(V Day 2012)

(V Day 2013)

It IS the week for HEARTS...

... but this topic isn't about the Valentine's Day lovey-dovey heart stuff.  It's about the REAL heart.  Justin's actual organ.  It is kind of comical that this would be the week we would be getting answers about it though.. the day before Valentine's Day and all!

I try not to express my medical worries about my kids over the blog until I have definite answers so I haven't really offered up this information before now and thankfully I can write about this without tears in my eyes because despite the worry and fear Jonathan and I felt for a short period of time, the answers were good ones.

I am sure you all remember in June of 2011 when Justin had his first (and only one we are aware of to this date) febrile seizure.  While he was being evaluated the day following the seizure, the pediatrican noted that he had a murmur.  He asked if we had ever been told of it before, and we had never heard of it before.  He let me listen to it, and I could tell exactly what he was referring to.  Since we were six months away from Justin's 3-year well check, he suggested that we just monitor and re-eval at the 3-year visit.  During that visit, they could not hear the murmur at all.  Our pediatrician explained that there was a normal murmur heard a lot in children (especially thin children) and it was typically just a normal echo of the blood flowing through the cavities of the heart so we weren't going to stress about it.  I had almost forgotten about the incident all together by the time his 4-year visit came.  Then we were sitting there during the exam, and I noticed the pediatrician spending A LOT more time listening to Justin's heartbeat.. a lot more than normal.  Before he could even say anything, I asked him if he was hearing a murmur.  He said he was actually.  Justin had a little bit of a cough that week, and it seems that it is when he is sick that they tend to hear his murmur more.  Our ped hesitated, trying to decide if it was significant enough to send Justin for a cardio eval, and he explained that it was probably normal but that he would rather play it safe and have us go. 

When we arrived at the cardiologist's office today, I wasn't that concerned.  Our pediatrician is excellent at playing things safe so I wasn't that worried that we were going to hear anything other than it was normal.  I started worrying when the cardiologist even spent more time listening than what seemed normal.  After listening extensively, he explained to me that Justin actually has two heart murmurs.  One is the completely normal one that we had been hoping for.  The other sounded like Justin had a hole in his heart.  My gut sank to the floor about then.  To make matters worse, we just had a friend whose son (age 6) had a stroke due to an undiagnosed hole in his heart so that's all I could think of.  He wanted an echocardiogram ordered to confirm his suspicions and thankfully they were able to do it that day.  I had texted Jonathan and we were both just so sick to our stomachs awaiting those results.

Since this is already a storybook, I will skip all the points of the echo and get straight to the end.  Justin does have a hole in his heart (a VSD.. ventricular septal defect), but thankfully it is not one that can cause him any complications in life.  He said that at the very most it makes him a little higher risk for an infection of the heart, but that is super, super rare and fingers crossed, Justin's still has time to close up.  We are hoping that by age 6, it will be closed up anyway.  We will return in two years to repeat the echo and see if his has closed. 

Here is the picture we were given to show where Justin's hole is in his heart.  If it were larger, it also may be an issue but Justin's is very, very small.

BIG Feet!

The shoe feddish continues.. this week it is mommy's tennis shoes that Ryan is sporting.

Our Student of Excellence

Today we attended an award ceremony at Katelynn's school.  She received an "Award of Excellence" for getting all "3's" on her report card.  (They don't grade in A,B,C at her age so it's a 1,2,3 number system instead.)  We are proud of our little student!

The Greatest Show on Earth: The Ringling Bros Circus!

After seeing the circus animals come to town by the train, the kids had been counting down until the day they were able to attend the circus, and that day finally arrived.  We headed down to Charlotte early and had lunch at Firehouse Subs, then attended the preshow where we were able to walk around the stage and meet some of the fun people of the circus!

 

This was by far the greatest moment of the circus for Justin.  He LOVED watching the dirtbike guys ride in the circus acts.. and even better he met two of the drivers and got to sit on a bike!  Katelynn didn't want to sit on it, but I got her to at least stand in the picture.

Some of the preshow acts included the kids.  Only Justin participated in the dance party.

Then Katelynn and Ryan participated in the congo line where you did the limbo at the end of it.

And then for the most exciting part- Ryan was picked to help out one of the clowns in his magic trick of spinning a ball on his finger.  Of course this was huge.  Ryan loves balls.  He went right out there on stage in front of everyone in complete awe (and notice he matched the clown.. ha,ha).  Sadly, they weren't facing me so I didn't get the picture very clearly but Ryan balanced the ball on his own finger for a moment!

Afterwards we enjoyed a really awesome show!  Everyone was very interested the entire time.. Ryan did fall asleep for a bit, but when he was awake he was pretty amazed!

Ice Cream and the Park? Yes, please!

It had been such a beautiful afternoon watching the circus parade that we decided to make the most of this unusually warm January weather and head to the park... but not before we stopped by the gas station and loaded up on some popsicles/ice cream for a little treat!

 

 

This was probably the first time we have been at the park since Ryan can navigate on his own.  It is both scary (for mommy) and exciting (for Ryan) to be able to do almost everything the big kids can!

 

Justin is getting a little too daring for mommy's liking.. he thinks he needs to climb up higher than high on anything he can.  This was nothing compared to the other obstacle he was climbing (I wasn't willing to take a picture as I stood there praying I could catch him if he fell...)

 

 Katelynn has officially mastered the pole.  Last year I had to help her get from the platform to the pole to slide down.  This year she did it all on her own.  Those long legs help!