July 4th Weekend

Well, Happy Birthday to our country! We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend. Ours was busy, hot, stressful, and fun. We had two stops planned for both Saturday and Sunday, and we ended up making it to each planned event (plus one "surprise" visit to the hospital Saturday).

Saturday after lunch and naps, we went swimming at my Uncle Gregg's house. The twins were playing around a bit while we were waiting for Brody to wake up from his nap so we could leave. Jaxson's little booty sticking up in the air is adorable, isn't it??

More playing...

Their cute outfits. They have the freshly-applied, greasy sunblock look going on.

Jaxson: Aaa haa! Mommy's takin' pictures, so I knew there had to be a bow up here."

The very nice pool. Kris is jumping off the diving board. :)

I told Brody beforehand that there was a diving board that he could jump from. I didn't think he'd actually do it, but he surprised me by going twice in a row--not without holding my hand though.

He was very intrigued with every "toy" in the garage. No different than at home.

YaYa, Emersyn, and Papa

I thought this was cute with his little wet footprints.

This pic is a recent fave. So sweet!

Chillin' pool-side...

After a couple hours, we packed up and planned to stop home to grab a salad quick and then head on to a cookout at my friend Jill's house.

This was the last picture I took Saturday evening. I was feeding the babies their dinner while Kris got Brody a plate of food.

Brody was acting very clingy, tired, and just...off. We both attributed the behavior to the warm weather and a shortened naptime earlier in the afternoon. He had two bites of food, which Kris had to coerce him to do, and shortly after I snapped the above picture got sick and threw up in the grass. We had planned to stay until after dark because my friend's husband always sets off some amazing fireworks, but instead we immediately packed up to head home. Brody was screaming his lungs out in the back of the van, and when I turned around to check on him, he was getting sick again, and it looked like foam and bubbles coming out of his mouth. I, naturally, was freaking out, and at that moment it hit me that he was having an allergic reaction. I knew the only thing he had to eat at my uncle's was a chocolate chip cookie (which were seriously the most amazing cookies EVER, Meghan :) and I remembered that some chocolate chips carry an allergy warning about being processed in a facility that also handles nuts. I went back to sit with him for the quick ride home. His lips looked like they were swelling a bit also, and he was just so upset. I felt awful and stupid. And careless.

We gave him a dose of benadryl as soon as we got home. We did not use the EpiPen, but come to find out later, we probably should have. Kris and I were both under the assumption that it was to be used for breathing difficulties or loss of consciousness. Anyways, we watched him for a little bit at home. He calmed down and looked a lot better, but we were both really worried and felt he should be checked out at the hospital. Kris took him in, where he was given a steroid medication (oh, and a popsicle) and was observed for a little while. They got home after midnight, and Brody slept in bed with us for a few hours until I moved him back to his own bed. He is taking benadryl and the steroid medicine for a week to ensure no other reactions occur. Apparently it takes some time for the allergen to completely exit his system.

SO! Since I'm done beating myself up over this, here are the lessons we've learned:
1) Be more vigilant! Unless we make something ourselves--especially baked goods, i.e. cookies, cakes, brownies, etc.--he can't have it. The "may contain..." warning is on SO many things! And I KNEW this!! Some chocolate chips, plain M&M's, some frosting, some brands of pretzels. Ahhhh! It's hard not to become obsessed with this, especially when your own child's safety is on the line.

2) If we're ever questioning whether or not the EpiPen should be used...use it!

3) The ER doctor said Brody could have had another reaction days later from the same incident, which is why he's taking benadryl and prednisone all week.

4) Pay attention to little signs that something may be wrong.  When we left my uncle's house, Brody was squinting his eyes like something was bothering him.  They were probably itching and feeling strange to him, but I figured the sun was shining in on him.  Instead of rationalizing everything and attributing his behavior to this or that, I really need to keep my "allergy mom" hat on and never rule out the possibility of a reaction.

Sunday morning the kids were all red, white, and blue for church. Emmy had on the cutest dress!

Jax

Well this can come out now that I'm done posing...

We stopped at my grandparents' cottage in the early evening for a very short visit. We had planned to be there for dinner, but Brody took an extra-long nap and obviously needed the sleep from the night before, so we let him be.

My cousins, Lindsay and Olivia, holding Em and Jax.

Brody down by the dock.

LOVE this one of my grandma and Jaxson.

My younger bro, Scott, holding Emmy.

Then we visited with my dad down at his boat and watched a few fireworks. Seriously, I am a much happier person whenever we are on the lake. I just love being on the water. It's very calming and relaxing.

Emmy and I. (I was playing around with photo editing and then couldn't figure out how to change these back. Oh, well. I think they look kinda neat.)

Babies playing inside the boat...

They had so much fun looking out the sliding glass doors!

Uncle Scotty being silly...

Babies inside, Brody outside.

It was my hope that Emmy would fall asleep in our pack 'n play and Jax would fall asleep on my shoulder. Ha! Neither happened, so after watching a few fireworks we loaded up and headed back home. I think we arrived back around midnight.

I can't get over the fact that it's July already! Shortly after the babies were born, summer seemed like a lifetime away.