Moving, Christmas, Valentine's and Family Stuff - 22 pictures for your viewing enjoyment

MOVING
I thought this was so cute, I had to document it. My friend Laura, or an accomplice of hers, somehow snuck this display in our yard AS WE WERE LOADING our moving truck, sometime around midnight on December 18th.




I still don't know how we didn't notice but we got to enjoy these cute birds for another 2 hours before we left at 2am for our 25hr + drive to KS down the mountains and through the blizzarding midwest.



CHRISTMAS BREAK
These are really the only pictures we took over Christmas break in Dallas with Scott's fam, except for iceskating, but those are on Scott's phone. We did lots of fun things while we were there, next trip I'll take more pictures, promise!

It was fun to see Syd be able to open her own presents and know what she was doing. She got great practice on her 1st birthday a couple months before. She wears these slippers everyday, when I'm home with her. They are awesome. Thanks Grandma Walton! ;).

This is Syd going down a slide at a jump house in Tx with her daddy and cousins over the break. It was actually a LOT steeper than it looks! Scott is practically standing! ;)

KU MED INTERVIEW!!
So this was a big deal when we were in our room talking to my dad and Scott interrupted our conversation to read aloud the email that had just popped into his inbox. He got an invitation to interview at KU Med!! That was the day we had all been waiting for. Now that the interview has come and gone (as of Feb. 10th), we are now awaiting the day in mid-march when we find out if he gets accepted or not. But that's also the day we have to make many decisions. Do we go to KUMED so I can be by family while my husband is away so much or do we go to UT Galveston where we will pay about $50,000 less a year just for tuition? And will we do the military to pay for school? These are some of the questions on our plate right now...but they won't become answerable until we know if we are in KUMED or not! So much waiting since last fall...

VALENTINES 2012
So Valentines day was fun this year. My sisters and other contributors helped my mom prepare a stake and salmon dinner, including Cheesecake Factory Avacado Eggrolls (made by Michelle) and Cheesecake Factory chocolate Cheesecake (purchased by my Uncle Jeff), so that we could all enjoy a nice dinner without the same expense.

Here is everyone at the V-Day dinner party...Mike is taking the pic and the grand kids present are running around somewhere. :)

The music playing overhead was way too much to resist so after dinner we all migrated to the living room where we had a dance party. My favorite part was watching Syd's dance moves. I swear that girl has got better moves than I do, or anyone else I know. I will record it one day and post it as proof. Plus it's just super fun to watch. She is a child dance prodigy. ;)

Here's Syd and her cousin Cole hugging, like 5 times in a row. You can see above when the hug attack began. Oh, and the open mouth? That means kisses. :)

PARTY

The latest event at our house, was a goodbye party for my mom's best friend Jeanne who is moving to Utah. This clearly called for a sister photo shoot. 

Melissa's really the only one really getting into it..as always. 

Meanwhile, the party was going on upstairs...

We made our way up to mingle throughout the night. Here is Melissa's pregnant belly..she found out today that she is having another GIRL!!!!!

Welp, I think I'm about done with blogging for the day so I'm suddenly going to stop writing...Goodbye!

A Few Updates Since Leaving Utah

I always strongly disliked when I had a ton of "catching up" to do in my journal. I try and avoid "catch up days" and I feel the same way about it here on a blog-- except, this will be easier because I will just drop a picture from each event and describe it. Good idea.

FIRST THINGs FIRST: TODAY. It's best to live in the present, so I'll use that as an excuse to procrastinate my catch-up.
I decided just a moment ago that I'd take a picture of where I am at right now, which is at work, because I secretly wish that I had a picture of myself in every job I've had since I was 14 from that McDonalds hat to the lifeguard suit to the reporting microphone I held in hand...(well, that was for my major but it was like a job!).

Anyway, THIS is the desk at which I now work...You can see the beginnings of THIS blog post in the background!! And you see those flowers there??? Yep, everyone who passes by compliments me on how beautiful they are. This is the 3rd time in 2 weeks that flowers have been delivered to my desk--FOR OTHER GIRLS! ha! At least when they don't come get em right away, I get to enjoy them and feel kinda cool for a second before revealing to each person who asks that they aren't for me. Scott, GET ON IT!!!

Also, I'd like to point out my name tag, which I turned around just for you to see how cool I am with my own name tag. So this is where I am every Thursday, and where Scott is every Wednesday until medical school starts this fall and we will be officially unemployed for at least 4 years..!! I don't know whether to be excited about that or not..We have a different building we also work at just down the road, but it's pretty similar so you can imagine its beauty as well.

Oh my gosh, I can't believe I just typed all that about a non-event. But THIS, THIS is actually CUTE: So Scott sent me this picture text today when I asked him for a picture of Syd. It was just an average cute pic that he might send, UNTIL I SAW IT!!! Just loook and see if you can find the secret message in this picture!!!

She's totally throwin' up the "I LOVE YOU" sign language sign!!! Scott and I use it ALLLL the time and every time I come home from work (just twice a week), Scott has taught Syd a new trick that day. When I questioned if Scott had taught her that or if that was just a fluke hand gesture scott texted back: "Totally taught her. That was her debut." :) I love it! I LOVE YOU TOO SYD!!!!!

Sorry to throw you off with that blog title, but it looks like I'm forced to procrastinate "catch up" another day or at least until I get home from work because the pictures I had uploaded for it....I accidentally deleted. Oops!

Sydney Michelle Walton: WNBA

So Sydney is recovering quite nicely from her incident Saturday night and her ear infection. She's still on antibiotics but she seems to be almost as good as new! ;). 
Last night during bath-time I had to go get our camera because Sydney seemed to be getting VERY close at shooting her bath-time blowfish balls into the basket. All it took was a little lecture from daddy and.......well you can watch the video. She's a champion!

My First 911 Call

K, so I definitely think a lot more before typing when I know it's going to be shared with more than just my bedroom closet, where I store my journal. Good thing Scott already did this one for me!!! I'm going to let the letter Scott typed up and sent out to our family last Sunday be our first blog post. The event he wrote about was actually what inspired this blog. I don't want to leave anything out and I want pictures to accompany what I write! That's what this blog is for.

HERE IS THE EMAIL: It tells the story of what happened 3 days ago, but more importantly, gives you useful information in case this ever happens to you!

Hey all,                                                                 Sunday, February 19, 2012

Just thought I would send this email because education is so important in scary moments with kids and people we love. Last night Steph and I were sitting on the couch talking with her uncle and aunt while holding Sydney who was feeling under the weather all day. She was running a slight fever but nothing too alarming, just sleepy. Anyways, I took Sydney from Stephanie who had been holding her for the past half hour. About a minute or so after taking her and holding her, I felt her begin to tense up as she lay on my shoulder so I lowered her down so I could see her. As I lowered her, we could see her slowly going unconscious as she stared blankly and unresponsively. I stood up seeing something was wrong and as I stood, she began to convulse and it was clear that she was having a seizure. I laid her on the carpet and monitored her labored breathing and kept her from choking on saliva and having something block her airway. It was obviously terrifying and being first time parents, we were anxious and scared. Stephanie frantically called 911 while her uncle and I gave Sydney a blessing. During the episode, which probably lasted a little more than a minute, but felt like an eternity, we felt things would be ok but were worried. After the seizure stopped, Sydney was obviously wiped out and was limp and unresponsive. She wanted to fall asleep, but not having a response from her to know that she was out of the seizure completely, I tried to continually startle her to get her to intermittently open her eyes and let out a moan. She continued breathing, though it was labored. Sydney continually grew more conscious but she struggled to recognize voices and was not responding very well. It was obvious that her little body was completely wiped out from the short seizure as she could not lift her arms, head, or legs. She lay helpless, but so precious on the ground. We felt so bad for her but knew things would be ok as her situation improved. Stephanie was waving down the ambulance while I continued to watch Syd.

                                 Courtesy of my sister Mel who arrived just after we got in the ambulence.


The paramedics soon arrived and were able to get her oxygen, monitor her heart, and educate us on what was happening a little more. We took Sydney to the hospital in the ambulance (thankfully we just got on some good insurance that we didn't think we would qualify for) and after a few hours there we were back home. 

Now for the real reason I wanted to write. It is so important to know how to react in these scary situations and knowing what was going on would have put me more at ease (I don't think it would have helped Steph much -- she's the mom).  Sydney had a febrile seizure. Maybe some of you know what these are and how to react, but if not please TAKE the 15 minutes to read some of the links below so that you are better prepared if this were to happen with any of your kids. Hopefully it never does, it is a terrible thing to go through as a parent, but being prepared would certainly have helped. Febrile seizures are basically harmless and is just the way a toddlers body reacts to a sudden spike in temperature. It isn't the degree of temperature as much as it is the sudden change that causes the poor kids body to seize by lowering their seizure threshold very quickly in that moment. Syd's temp was just above 102 (not too terrible but obviously above her threshold). The sudden spike was caused by an ear infection we didn't know she had. We have all had a little virus over the past few days but up until a few hours previously Sydney didn't really show signs of being ill.

So, moral of the story, read about these seizures, especially if your kids are between 6 months and 6 years, so you are prepared but hopefully this never happens. About 3-5% of kids in this age range have febrile seizure, most commonly between 12 and 18 months (Syd is 16).  But, they usually have ties to family history so even though we have never experienced these, it may be in our genes! Sydney is doing great, just on an antibiotic for her ear and tylenol to keep the temp down. We love you all, hope all is well and that you are having a good Sunday. Thanks for everything!

Syd looks like such a big baby here! Size-wise...she's allowed to be a big baby after a seizure. ;)

Scott, Stephanie, Sydney Walton

http://www.babycenter.com/0_febrile-seizures_1439648.bc 

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000980.htm 

The only advice I don't agree with, after having just gone through this, is to wait on calling 911. If your first kid is having their first seizure, I am not going to pull out a stop watch and see if the seizure is lasting more than 3 or so minutes or whatever the recommendation is as my daughter struggles to breath, is unconscious, and having a seizure. CALL 911!