Heart Diagrams and cath pics

Here you can see the vein narrowing in the center of the picture. The old stents are all visible - they're the stuff that looks like mesh.

 

Here are some pictures of some stents in his heart before any ballooning dilation.

  



Here's the same vein as two pics above, but after dilation. More stents are visible in this picture. Those circle loops spaced our in a vertical line on these pictures are his sternum sutures from his open heart surgeries.

 

These are just some of the cath pictures that Dr. G sent over. I think these are really interesting, so I thought I'd share them. I also requested a new drawing diagram of his heart. I had one a long time ago when Ethan was a baby, but with all the work he's had done I needed an updated one. Dr. G sent over the one they use pre-caths. He is so great, he even labeled it for me! :)

 



Here's the labeled diagram of Ethan's heart from before this past cath and stent placements! Below is a diagram of a normal heart to use as comparison.



 
 

Ethan is doing very well. He returned to school Monday. :) Unfortunately we are still trying to get his INR therapeutic. He is currently still taking Lovenox (belly shots) much to his dismay. We had to order a whole new week's worth since his blood is still too thick. We were making slow but steady progress increasing his INR by 0.1 each day. Three days ago he was at 1.7. Our goal is to be between 2.0 and 2.5. Yesterday's test showed that his INR dropped to 1.4! :( I have no idea why it dropped since he hasn't eaten anything that affects his INR (green veggies and such) and he hasn't missed a dose of medicine. This morning's test was 1.6, so at least he's starting to climb again. It's very frustrating, but please pray that he get in his range quickly so we can be finished with these shots! 



Belly shot bruises



 



Cath review and pictures!

Ethan had his heart cath on Monday. Things went VERY well and we are so relieved! Thank you all for your prayers and support throughout his hospitalization! It means so much to us! Here's the details on all that happened.

Pre-op went very well as usual. Ethan had his Versed to keep him happy and calm before surgery. It definitely did the trick. :) He went to the OR and went on the table at 8:30. He did so well and commented on how "He loved the room." :) The Versed was definitely working LOL! Right before they put the mask on him to put him to sleep he told me he had a secret for me. He said "I love you". It just melted my heart to hear that right then :)

Pre-op snuggles with Daddy

 

Time for Mommy's snuggles!

It took the usual few hours to get access and pressures checked. Then they placed two covered stents in his left pulmonary artery. This is a small collateral artery that is his only connection between his heart and left lung (the bad lung). This is also the part that continually clots off every few months. These covered stents went inside his old stents to hopefully stop any chance of cells growing through the stent and closing off the artery again. We obviously can't lose this artery! Dr. Golden (cath doc) thinks this will really do the job well, but is still concerned about how his cells are going to react on the ends of the stents. He doesn't know if the cells will grow around the ends and try to close off there. We just pray that this isn't going to be the case, but it's definitely something we'll be watching for vigilantly! Dr. G. also pointed out that these stents made 7 for Ethan! He called him "Stentman"LOL. My wallet is filled with all his stent cards! *sigh*

The procedure went very well with no rhythm complications thankfully! I was so worried about that since he's had so many complications with that in the past. They were prepared and waiting with all the medications to get his rhythm in control just in case, but a mom still worries. The cath was over around 3pm. Then they called a little while later from the OR saying that they were having the bleeding issues again. They couldn't get his neck to stop bleeding from where the catheter was inserted. Of course that starts my heart racing since it brought me back to the bleeding mess of last time! They were able to stop it, then they extubated him and the bleeding started again. More pressure was applied for a long time and finally he stopped bleeding and pressure bandages were applied. His total bleed time this round was 1 hour.

Dr. G came out to talk with us after the cath and tell us how it all went. He said he is optimistic about how the stents will work and said they are placed well. He had peeked at the conduit and saw the narrowing around the sides of it. Last cath in September he placed 2 covered stents there. The stents are holding up great, but the artery touching the stent is narrowed already where they meet. He said there's nothing he could do with that since he didn't feel safe at all ballooning that open or placing another stent. It would just crack his conduit again and we'd be in another VERY dangerous situation. He said they do not plan on touching his conduit due to the risk, so the only step left is the open heart surgery to replace that. We have been expecting this surgery for a while now (it was supposed to happen last June and then again last September) so this didn't come as a surprise. He thinks we can hopefully wait until early next winter though before going in to replace that. That will give Ethan more time to grow before placing a bigger conduit in.

He then discussed a new finding with us. For some reason that he couldn't figure out (I say it was God) Dr. G felt the need to measure an area he hadn't looked at in years. He decided to check out the SVC in his neck on his way out after finishing the stent placements. He did some measurements and found out that there is an almost 50% pressure difference in a spot in his SVC! This is huge! The pressures above this spot were much higher than they were supposed to be, and the pressures below were obviously much lower. He thinks this could be the reason for the huge bleeding problems we're having as the caths finish up. There's just too much pressure built up right in his neck there to get the bleeding under control. He said that definitely needs to get taken care of soon, so we'll be having another cath to balloon that area and probably place another stent in the SVC. This next cath will be done in about 3 months he thinks. He didn't feel comfortable taking care of that during the procedure on Monday though. His plan was to be "in and out" to avoid any complications. He always reminds us that he has an amazing track record with caths, and pretty much the only complications he deals with all are with Ethan. :/ We love Dr. G and trust him completely (obviously or we wouldn't have him take care of Ethan his whole life). Ethan is just "one of, if not THE, most complicated case they have" according to his cardiologists. *sigh* Way to be a record-breaker, Ethan. ;) Dr. G basically wanted to have a successful complication-free cath, so thankfully we were basically able to do that this time!

Post-op! Pale, but doing well

 

 

When we saw Ethan post-op he was extubated and resting pretty comfortably. He looked pretty pale, but that's to be expected after what he went through and the blood loss. He didn't need a transfusion thankfully, so his body was able to just recover on its own. He woke up with his typical raw throat from the breathing tube, so he started in on his ice water and popsicles. Recovery went great and the only problem he had were some achiness in his leg, headaches, and nausea. He still is recovering a bit in the nausea department - once he starts eating something he wants to puke it right back up. Thankfully this is getting better each day, but please continue to pray that it goes away completely and he gets back to his great appetite!

He always gets really red, warm, and a bit puffy after his caths for some reason

He had a great recovery - probably the shortest one ever! We had a private room for the first time in a LONG time! I think this really helped him out! He had a very restful night only having to wake up at 4am for his second round of IV antibiotics, at 5am for a chest xray, and one other time for vitals. Much more rest than usual in the hospital! :) He woke up hungry and happy! I was so relieved! He behaved so well in the hospital this time, so that is a huge blessing!

Coloring fun waiting for breakfast

 

Playing some LeapPad games

 

Child life has improved SO much since our last visit! Maybe they're listening to all the survey responses after all! :) Ethan received a gift bag in the recovery room filled with markers, a hat, card games, coloring books, a magic kit, and some other games and activities. It was so nice and so unexpected! They even posted a schedule on the door of our room of the daily group activities in the playroom! This was something I put in each survey that we LOVED at Rainbow, and were so disappointed that the Clinic didn't do. Rainbow is so great about having fun activities and games going to keep the kids happy and entertained. We definitely miss that, but it seems like the Clinic is on the right track! :) YAY!

Finally made it to the playroom :)

 

Don't let the face fool you, he was SO excited to see a tractor to ride!

 

Ethan had an echo Tuesday morning. They weren't able to get a good picture of the new stents unfortunately, even though they scanned for well over an hour! It was frustrating, but hopefully everything is still good! We return for a post-op appointment on March 20th. Hopefully we can get a good picture of the artery then and it's all open and working well.

Echo time

Waiting around for discharge news...took a lot longer than we thought!

Things are going very well. Ethan is taking the week off school to fully recover. He restarted his Lovenox injections (the blood thinner shots into his belly). He has to do these shots twice a day until his INR is in his range (2-2.5). This morning's reading was 1.4, so we still have a little ways to go unfortunately. He HATES these shots, and I totally understand since they hurt terribly! I couldn't stand doing them when I was on them, so I feel awful for him! Hopefully we can get in range quickly and stop the shots soon!

He has kindergarten sign-ups going on now, so we're trying to get all his paperwork together to register for fall. I can't believe he'll be in kindergarten next year! I also have some questions for Dr. G at our next appointment like if he's supposed to skip gym class next year, etc. We also have an upcoming appointment with neurology to assess Ethan. I attended a lecture through our local Mended Little Hearts group with the doctor recently. It was great and really informative, so I'm looking forward to our appointment with him! He discussed all about CHDs affecting kids in ways like ADHD, Autistic characteristics, headaches, etc. He basically described Ethan perfectly during his presentation! We'll see what he has to say and how we can help him for next year being in "big kid school".

And...Ethan tried playing Go Fish (the card game) yesterday for the first time. He loved it, but here's an idea of how the game went.
"Me: Okay, now you have to ask me for a card. Look at your cards and see what you need to make a match."
Ethan: Okay.
Me: So say 'Do you have a 2?'
Ethan: Yes.
Me: No. I mean, you ask me if I have a 2. That way you can get your match.
Ethan. Yes. Here you go. (Proceeds to hand me his card.)
Me: No, you need to ask me for a card. Say, 'Do you have a 2?'
Ethan: Yes.
Me: *sigh* Ask me for a card.
Ethan: Go fish.
Me: Really? "

He did catch on for the most part and enjoyed playing LOL



Silly boy :)

One last thing...Callie just finished fundraising for Hoops for Heart. So many of you donated for this program for the American Heart Association. She submitted a whopping $715! I spoke with her teacher today and she said Callie's donation blew everyone else's out of the water! She is the highest fundraiser of the school by far! :) Thanks so much to everyone!

Cardiology and catching up

Well...just to spread the word, Callie is participating in Hoops for Heart again this year! The past three years she was top fundraiser of her school - all thanks to you! We have been able to raise a lot of money each year for the American Heart Association! :) We're asking again for donations. If you'd like to donate money for Hoops for Heart we would be so appreciative! We're kind of behind due to Callie's trip last week (more on that in the next post), so we're trying to get money collected this week if possible. Please let me know if you are able to donate -- and ANY amount helps! You can send me an email at jkbradley44@gmail.com, and I'll send you my address to mail a check or cash. This is going to a great cause - obviously raising funds to find cures for heart disease is VERY near and dear to our hearts! :) Thank you!

Also...girl scout cookies have arrived! If you ordered some cookies, expect them soon! :) And thank you so much for all the cookie orders!

Okay, so we had a cardiology appointment yesterday. This was just a pre-cath appointment to make sure Ethan is looking good and ready for the cath. His EKG was good and we didn't even do an echo. :) Ethan was happy about that! We went over the plans with Dr. G (cath doc) for Monday. He's going to insert a covered stent (very similar to the one that was placed last time). This one will go in his left pulmonary artery though - this is the one that continually clots off. We hope that by putting in this covered stent it will stop the closing off of the artery! That would be amazing! The concern with this is we don't know how the ends of the stent will react. His cells have been growing through the open stents that are there, which is why they keep clotting off. This covered stent will stop the cells from being able to grow through the stent and clot, but the ends are a concern. The doctor doesn't know if his cells will wrap around the ends and clot off on the sides instead of in the middle. I asked what we do if that happens, and his response was "That's a good question." Then silence. Well, apparently he's not too sure what to do in that case yet either. Please just keep Ethan in your prayers that his body accepts this without a problem and doesn't have any growth around the edges!

Ethan did so well for his EKG! :)

Daddy and Ethan playing on the computer waiting for the doctor

Dr. G once again reminded us of the fact that surgery is approaching. He said we have exhausted all options for working on his conduit - especially since last time was so dangerous and it cracked. He said we're not even going to touch it again. The next step is the open heart surgery to replace it with a new larger one. We've been expecting this (that was actually supposed to happen back in June and then again in September), so it's just something to know is coming.
Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers for a very smooth and successful cath on Monday! I will keep you all posted as the day progresses - and even more so on Facebook if you follow me there.

Other than that, things have been going well. Ethan has been feeling well thankfully and did not end up getting the sickness that went through our house last week. I had some nasty stomach bug for 2 days, a sinus infection, and lots of congestion and headaches. I'm still not back to 100%, but I'm doing SO much better than last week thankfully!

Ethan finally got his new glasses! He loves them, so that's a relief!

Mid-blink :)

We took a trip to Chuck-e-Cheese before Callie's trip. Here are some pictures of that!

*Note the small child on the games in the background. This kid was climbing on EVERYTHING without any parent in sight! John helped him get off countless games all while his mom ate pizza and chatted in a booth with her friend. Grrr!

The kids all had a dance party and ticket grab :)

Callie shooting baskets

My dad's birthday was this past weekend, so we had a little ice cream cake to celebrate. Ethan had to help Grandpa blow out his candles though!

Also we had a little family bowling night. We met up with my dad for a Chinese buffet, then headed over for bowling - and met up with my cousin who was playing there in a league that night. :) We had a lot of fun!

Ethan is not the most focused bowler. :) Here's a video showing a bit of how his evening went. LOL After rolling it towards me, he managed to bowl in the wrong lane!


<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/hnRGd1mcbCk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Thank you everyone for all your thoughts, prayers, and support! It means so much to us! I will keep you all posted with the cath updates. I will also be posting up about Callie's trip last week - but that might be broken up into a daily log... Still working on it :)

CHD Awareness and busy busy busy!

I can't believe how long it's been since I last updated! We've been running around super busy lately, so I am sorry I never got back to everyone with the cardiology plans. Here's a bit of what we've been up to lately.

Cardiology:
Our cardiologists all discussed the ideas for surgery versus cath. They decided that we should do one last cath attempt before the open heart surgery again. What we'll do is place a covered stent (just like the last cath) and scope out each of the other collateral arteries. If any of the other stents need ballooning then we'll take care of those at that time. I do have concerns obviously since placing the last covered stent was so traumatic to Ethan's body - his bleeding issues were so difficult to stop since the catheter is so much bigger to use for this type of stent. We'll be discussing all the specifics at our pre-op appointment on Feb 28th. Please just keep Ethan in your prayers for a very smooth and easy cath - with no bleeding issues this time! The cath is scheduled for Monday, March 4th.

Pulmonology:
We've been dealing with a nasty cough that just wouldn't go away for a couple months this winter. With breathing treatments and time Ethan is starting to do so much better! I'm so relieved that his lungs seem to be clearing up so well - especially with this cath coming up so soon! Hopefully he'll continue to stay clear!

School:
We're still working on this. Ethan loves going to school this year - thankfully that's much better than last year. But he still doesn't seem to care about actually "learning". He just wants to go to play with his friends, the toys, and do art projects. His teachers comment that they're still having to work with him on his concentration and focus on schoolwork. He just seems to struggle so much in paying attention to schoolwork! He does still do much better when doing work on an iPad or computer as opposed to a worksheet or flashcards. He's also excellent at doing work like building letters out of blocks, solving puzzles, and hands-on things like that - even if they involve the same things that a worksheet would be showing. Oh well, hopefully he'll improve with his attention and ability to focus on things on paper soon. I have a feeling kindergarten is going to be rough for him next year...

Callie:
Callie's been keeping VERY busy lately! She's been busy having fun with her Girl Scout troop. One activity we did was attend a K9 unit show at our local library. The girls loved it and had a great time!

Callie's in the pink all the way to the left

She's also finishing up her basketball season and doing so well! She has improved so much this year, and actually starting scoring baskets, stealing balls, and becoming quite aggressive on the court! :)

She also was invited to help her friend's indoor soccer team play some games this season. She played last weekend and this weekend (doubleheaders each Sunday). Indoor soccer is a totally different game than she's used to with her outdoor team, but she seems to really like it. She's going to participate in an indoor soccer training program starting in two weeks. That will also improve her outdoor game I'm sure, but I think she's wanting to sign up for winter soccer with her friend too. *sigh*

In addition to all this, she auditioned for the children's Honors Choir. The kids had to individually audition in front of the music teachers, and the top 7 students from each school in the county were selected for this choir. We are so proud of her that she was selected and will perform at our Community College in March!

Softball and spring soccer seasons are fast approaching, so things don't look like they'll be slowing down soon. Oh well, at least there's not much time for boredom!

CHD Awareness:
Onto the big week! Ethan is one of the Cleveland Clinic Children's Hospital (our hospital) Littlest Heroes for the week! He was able to have a photo session at the hospital and they used one of the pictures to make a poster and explanation of his heart journey! It is so exciting! :) Here is a picture of the poster they made.

Here are some of the other pictures that were taken - these are just some of my favorites from the shoot.

 

 

Here's a picture of Ethan showing off his muscles and scars to promote CHD awareness!

And once again I haven't made a new video. One of these years I need to start much earlier than February! Here's the video that I made when Ethan was 1 all about his first year's journey with heart defects. I guess it'll just have to do. :) Just click this link below to watch the video - and there is music so make sure your volume is on.

http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=7f65c3ff418f1ce42ccd29&skin_id=601&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url


That's about all I'll update on for now! I will have a Callie post coming up later this week about Callie's big trip! Please continue to keep Ethan and our family in your prayers!

Ethan's Journey at OneTrueMedia.com

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

pulmonology and cardiology

Well, I need to do an update on our wonderful Christmas...but first I'll take this chance to update on our appointments and stuff from this past week. I'll get around to Christmas updates soon though! :)

Monday:
Monday we had Ethan's physical therapy. We brought along his oxygen tank since we've really been struggling with his oxygen saturations these past couple weeks. During his physical therapy from the Thursday before he kept dropping into the 30s after each activity. We didn't get much work accomplished since we kept having to stop and rest so much! Needless to say, once I brought the tank along we didn't even need it! His sats didn't go out of the 50s throughout his session so that was much better than he's been! He was able to do his exercises and had a lot of fun - they even let him jump on the trampoline!

We received a call yesterday from his oxygen supplier and they need to do their annual assessment to make sure he still needs oxygen. I don't think we'll have a problem keeping his at home supply since he never makes it out of the 60s for his sats! They'll check his numbers at rest and doing various activities though just to see if he still qualifies. That'll happen later this month.

Tuesday:
Tuesday we headed downtown to see pulmonology. I requested right off the bat that Ethan doesn't get the Albuterol. The past three appointments he has taken this medicine during his spirometry testing. With this med he gets SO out of control, naughty, and hyper. We had to discontinue it at home a long time ago and switch to Xopenex with a much calmer boy. His levels looked pretty good - basically the same as last time. The doctor was really expecting better though. He figured Ethan's lungs would be clear by now, but he's still really junky and wheezing constantly. The only good thing is there are no crackles being heard in his lungs anymore!

We went over the doc's desire to have Ethan take some antibiotics to try and clear out his lungs, but upon looking all of them up they all interact somehow with one or more of his medications. It wasn't worth the risk to mess with his other drugs, so we'll just continue to do the Xopenex treatments, HyperSal, and vest treatments. He also tried to figure out some preventative measures as well. Dr. Royce (pulmonologist) mentioned that normally in a case with chronic bronchiectesis (SP) like Ethan has, they would remove the damaged lung lobe. This would be his right lower lobe that is almost chronically collapsed. However, he also said that in Ethan's case we'll not be able to do this after all. Since Ethan's lungs are so damaged, the remaining lung sections wouldn't be able to compensate for the missing lobe like a healthy child. He needs as much lung as possible, even if it is damaged. We return in 3 months to see if any progress has been made. The doc also requested that we get a culture from his lungs during his next heart cath. They'll run this culture to see if there's any pneumonia or problem that we're not catching right now.

Thursday:
Thursday we had cardiology. The echo looked decent. We weren't able to see for sure if his collateral artery (the one that kept clotting) is open or clotting again. Dr. Zahka (cardiologist) discussed with me our feelings that this past cath didn't help Ethan out. We now have to figure out the next step since obviously something needs to happen to improve his sats and make him feel a bit better. He is discussing Friday morning options with Dr. Golden (our cath doc). They will also meet with the entire surgical/cardiology committee to discuss his case. They have four options right now on the table. One is fixing his lungs (don't know how to do this though). Two is doing something with his pulmonary veins. Three is the open heart surgery to upsize his conduit (this is the one that we planned on doing in the summer but cancelled at the last minute). Fourth is another cath to open stents and place another covered stent in his last pulmonary collateral artery.

Dr. Z thinks it'll probably be the surgery that we planned for last summer, but we don't know for sure yet. The entire team has to meet so no one is able to change the plans last minute again. They need a unanimous decision for this to happen, so hopefully they can come up with something great and all agree on it! Maybe some new brilliant idea will come out in the meeting as well?! He said we'll know the answer and plans by next Friday. That'll give them enough time to meet and discuss everything.

Thursday was also John's 33rd birthday! We were able to celebrate with Hibachi dinner and a homemade german chocolate cake. We also went through 25 german chocolate cupcakes in 2 days! That man sure loves the stuff! :)

Happy birthday, John!!

 

Ethan was really excited about his Hibachi!

John, his brothers, and Callie waiting for our dinner :)

 

 

Please continue to keep us in your prayers - and please pray that the docs come up with a great plan for our next step. I will let you all know once they tell me what we're doing - it should be next week.

catching up

Things are going well. I know it's been a little while since my last post. Here's basically what we've been up to lately.

Ethan has his wet cough again. It's been back for about a month and a half, but it seems to be getting worse this past week. :( His sats are still basically where he is normally - that's in the 60s when resting and dropping to the 40s or 50s when moving. He is still able to pop back up to the 60s once he rests though, so the lower numbers aren't TOO terribly concerning.

Last Thursday (a week ago) Callie had her first basketball practice of the season. About 15 minutes before practice began Ethan started complaining about a stomach ache. He was perfectly fine all day before that, so we packed up and went to practice anyway. After about 5 minutes there he started with his shivering lip, shaking all over, and ended up spiking a super high fever (almost 104 F)! I left Callie at practice and rushed Ethan home. Once we walked in the door he raced to the bathroom and started vomiting. He puked everything up for about 2 hours! Oh he was so miserable! His sats were in the 40s then so he went back on oxygen for the night. He really doesn't handle being sick well at all with his oxygen sats. He was finally able to keep some Tylenol down and thankfully that brought down his fever. He fell asleep and slept peacefully all night long. No more fevers! He woke in the morning feeling good, ate a little bit and kept it down, and finally weaned off oxygen around lunchtime. Thankfully he's been feeling good (well except for the cough/congestion) ever since!

Ethan was miserable  :(

We were able to decorate the house for Christmas! I love having all the decorations out and lights up everywhere. :) The kids had a lot of fun decorating the tree, caroling at a nursing home, and making lots of Christmas treats!

Decorating the tree

Decorating cheesecake squares

All finished!

Moose wanted some snacks too!

We also took a trip downtown to see all the Christmas lights, the decorations at the Horseshoe Casino, and looking at the "Christmas Story" house. On our trip we made a pit stop to see the river at night, walk around a little by the docks, and stopped to take a picture by a train crossing sign for Ethan. He was too nervous to stand by himself by the sign, but he happily went for it with Callie and me.

Terrible picture, but he was excited :)

We're doing the whole "on again off again" thing with physical therapy. Callie had her initial 8 weeks approved by insurance. Then for re-approval we ended up waiting a full month of fighting to get insurance to accept it. They said they'll provide 4 more visits then attempt again. *sigh* Ethan finished his initial round as well (5 I think) and now we've been waiting 2.5 weeks so far to get his insurance to approve more. Who knows when that will be, but hopefully it's soon! I know they start losing out on a lot of the benefits of the therapy during this time off, so it's so frustrating! The therapists are all still amazed at how tight Callie's muscles are. They've been working on stretches, spine alignments, pulling techniques, and muscle building but she still has major back muscle spasms (thankfully not terribly painful for her) and the tightness is crazy. Hopefully insurance will get on track and we can keep trying to make improvements with the kids!

Ethan also had an eye doctor appointment this past week. His vision has apparently gotten worse so a new prescription for glasses was written up. We're planning on ordering those (along with the rest of the family) this next week. Maybe this will help out in his paying attention in school and improving his school work. :)

We also had a little malfunction with my car recently. The kids and I were on our way to therapy when a weird noise starting happening and smoke started coming out of the hood. Needless to say we ended up calling a tow truck. Ethan was thrilled! Thankfully it seems to be just an issue with the emissions (maybe a clogged catalytic converter) so the car is working.

He was so excited to watch the tow truck!

Ethan had his last ever preschool Christmas concert! This year he did so great and actually participated up on stage! He was so excited all week looking forward to this!

Ethan's in the front row with the white shirt on. This was during one of the first songs with bells to jingle :)

This video is one of the songs they sang. It's the only one I could upload since they're all on my phone and too big to get off. :( Brilliant me brought the nice camera and even extra batteries so I didn't miss anything. Apparently making sure the memory card would've been a great idea before leaving the house. GRRR!

By the end of the songs though he was getting pretty winded. The second to last song involved some spinning in circles and jumping up and down. He made it through the first round of the song, but by the second round he was coughing and had to stop and rest. He just leaned back against the stage and let the rest of the kids finish up the song. The last song he was still resting for so he mainly observed again. He started singing at the last verse when I think he caught his breath enough. After the songs the kids were released to their parents, so he came to sit with me and rest some more. He was very blue at that point, but after a little sitting and some snacks he was feeling better. :)

snack time

Last but not least, we finally took our family Christmas pictures! Now I have a VERY impatient family when it comes to pictures. Callie and I will sit and do pictures for as long as it takes to get a good one. The boys in the family want "one and done", without even caring what it looks like! This year I was able to get three pictures before everyone quit...so even though it's not perfect at least we got something! The kids also posed for a picture. Here's a preview of how that went...

And yes, Ethan wasn't pleased with the fact we didn't have a train to set up around the tree.
He fixed that by setting up his own track around it :)



LOL - Callie wanted nothing to do with Ethan kisses!



 

We have had a great holiday season so far, and we plan to continue with a lot of fun Christmas activities in the next few weeks! Please continue to keep us in your prayers that we all stay healthy (we're all fighting congestion and Callie has been complaining of a sore throat the past 3 days). I plan on taking her to the Minute Clinic today after school. *sigh* But please keep us in your prayers that we can get healthy and stay home (no hospitals!) this Christmas season! Last Christmas Day was spent with me getting IVs in the ER due to my stomach flu and Ethan getting checked out for swelling in his chest that same day. Not a great Christmas with Callie being the only one not sick! We pray that this year will make up for that! ;) We hope and pray that you all have an amazing Christmas as well - and I'll post again if there's anything exciting before Christmas!