Mardi Gras

Henry & Ben got these really neat Mardi Gras shirts straight from New Orleans! Thanks to Zee-Zee for them. They also got cool tie-dye shirts from Terry & Judy. Can't wait for some more warm weather to wear those. Rae went to New Orleans to run marathon #70. Henry & Ben are now calling themselves "The Mardi Gras Brothers" everytime they wear them. Check out how big they are getting. Growing like weeds is for sure.

Nana's Birthday

Nana's birthday is TODAY! Happy Birthday to the greatest mom out there! Hope you have a GREAT day and we are looking forward to seeing you in a few weeks!

Love all 4 of us....plus Turbo!

Zee-Zee's Birthday

This is late, but Zee-Zee's birthday was February 8. We finally got to celebrate after Ben was out of the hospital. We had a pizza dinner at NoNo's house. Below is a picture of Zee-Zee with Henry & Ben.

Happy (late) Birthday Zee-Zee! We love you!

Ben's Hospital Stay

As many of you are well aware, little Benton spent 5 nights at St. John's Mercy Medical Center (which included 2 emergency surgeries) after 2 ER visits and a visit to the pediatrician on Valentine's Day. Want to read the full story, complete with pictures? Keep reading! My disclaimer is that there will be misspellings and grammar errors. Just deal with it! :)

Saturday 02.12.11: Ben complained his neck hurt, we thought he slept on it wrong or was sore after driving to AR the night before. We even put a band-aid on his boo-boo and that made it feel better.

Sunday 02.13.11: Ben may or may not have had a slight fever in the morning, but we noticed as we were driving back from AR that he DID have a fever and gave him Tylenol and again before bed at 8pm. He was still complaining his neck hurt and was not moving it at all at this point. I start thinking maybe meningitis since he had a fever and wasn't moving his neck. At 10pm he woke up crying, not moving his neck, and fever (100-101). We call the after hours line for the pediatrician and talk with a nurse at Children's. We decided that since he was finally sleeping that we would stay home and take him to Dr. Z in the morning.

Monday 02.14.11: 12:20am Ben wakes up crying, high fever (102-103), still no neck movement. We decide he needs to be seen by a doctor so I take him to St. John's Pediatric ER. The doctor there decides he has an Upper Respiratory Infection and a swollen lymph node on the right side of his neck. He tested negative for both the flu and strep. There was no rash indicating meningitis, so he was given an antibiotic and told to see Dr. Z when he opened. We felt comfortable going home. At 11am G takes him for his Dr. Z appointment and Dr. Z is concerned since the left side of his neck is now very swollen and his fever was over 103. We went BACK to the ER at 12 noon. They do a CT scan because his voice was sounding different and they were concerned about something in his throat and airway. The CT scan shows an abscess on a lymph node in the back of his throat (technical name: retropharygeal abscess). A pediatric ENT came and decided it must be drained and should be done sooner rather than later. At 5pm he had surgery to drain the abscess. Everything went great and he was drinking shortly afterwards. G stayed the night with Ben and I headed home with Henry. This was Ben's home for the next 5 nights, Room 3230:

Tuesday 02.15.11: Ben had a good night and slept from 8:20pm until 7:20am. G said he ate a pretty good breakfast and was drinking pretty well. I went to work in the morning and got lesson plans in place for the rest of the week. Ben continues to have a pretty good day. The doctor comes by in the evening and says as long as he continues to do this well, he'll be leaving in the morning. G takes his turn with Henry at home and I stay with Ben at the hospital.

Ben snoozing on Tuesday.

Glad to have a treat!

Not happy about the 3 bracelets he has to wear!

Wednesday 02.16.11: Not a good day for Ben. He woke up looking like this:

And spent the ENTIRE day like this:

We knew something was up...and when Dr. R came by around 10:30am he told us he would NOT be leaving today and they would have to run bloodwork to see what was going on. His bloodwork actually looked pretty good, one count had gone up and the other ones down, which is what they wanted. Dr. R ordered another CT scan first thing Thursday morning. G stayed the night and I went home with Henry.

Henry enjoyed visiting Ben...watching movies and getting to eat slushies!

Thursday 02.17.11: I go back to the hospital first thing and am there for the CT scan. It shows the abscess has filled up again (not very common) and he has surgery by 11:30am. This is the first time Dr. R has had to re-drain an abscess! You know you have been at the hospital too long when the nurses and doctors recognize you. Ben slept most of the afternoon on Thursday.

Ben coloring (left-handed) before the surgery.

Ben LOVED the Mater balloon from the Maltby's. Thanks guys!

After surgery #2...in recovery. What a sweet face!

Friday 02.18.11: Ben is back to normal!! He ate very well and was drinking like a champ. He wanted to play and walked down to the playroom.

By noon he got taken off of fluids and only has to be hooked up when he gets his antibiotics. He feels MUCH better and I found myself telling him to not jump off the couch and not run down the hallway.

Lots of people LOVE Ben....he enjoyed getting visit and lots of bears and balloons. He also got toys, books, and lots of fun stuff!

Saturday 02.19.11: BEN GETS TO GO HOME! Above, Henry & Ben are having lunch before we got to leave. He got one last dose of the antibiotic before leaving around 2pm. We all enjoyed sleeping under the same roof, in our own beds, FINALLY! Ben has made a complete recovery and will be on 2 antibiotics for 10 days.

We want to thank everyone for all the prayers, thoughts, e-mails, calls, texts, food, and visits! We are very blessed with wonderful family & friends who love us dearly. We know God has big plans for our little man. Thanks for helping us through this! The prayers worked!

Erin's Baby Shower

This weekend we traveled to Rogers to see their 2 feet of snow and have a baby shower for Erin. We are SO excited to have another member in our family! We can't wait for Butterbean to arrive in April. Our trip down Friday night that usually takes 5.5 hours, took over 7! Part of I-44 was shut down so we had to detour. Needless to say, we were VERY glad to make it to Arkansas. Saturday morning was Erin's shower. Thanks to Lisa for doing a great job with the food and set up! Kris was in town from Ohio and Susan from Texas to celebrate the new baby and also my mom's birthday. It was fun to see everyone. After the shower we went to see Will & Erin's new house then a fun and delicious family dinner. We headed home Sunday after church.

Can't wait for Baby Kraner to arrive!

Rachel, Susan, Kara

Henry, Aunt Erin, Kara, Ben

Sleeping at Nana & Papa's house

Mommy & Ben walking to see Daddy & Henry sledding in the Melton's yard.

Daddy gets a turn!

Henry's turn.

Pretty Arkansas Sunset

Drury vs. UMSL

Tonight Drury was in town playing UMSL. We went to the game since we are proud Drury graduates. Henry loved going because we saw kids from his class at school, Lauren and Zoie. Lauren's mom is the UMSL women's basketball coach. Both the Drury Boys and Girls won! GO PANTHERS!

Henry, Lauren, Zoie

Go Panthers!

Having fun in the stands!

Glasses & Climbing

Henry has glasses! And boy does he look like a big kid now. We ordered them last week during the snow days and they arrived today. After swim lessons tonight, Henry climbed the rock wall at The Center of Clayton. He did a good job considering it was his first time. He didn't want to climb for too long or too high. Afterwards he and Ben enjoyed Subway sandwiches for dinner. Henry ate an ENTIRE foot long sub and a bag of chips! I think I may have to get a second job, just to keep enough food in the house!

Henry heading up the wall.

Getting a little help.

Getting higher....didn't go too much higher than this.

Henry and his glasses.

Boys showing me their muscles.

Addie's Party

Saturday we helped Addie celebrate her 3rd birthday at Bounce U. Henry and Ben had LOTS of fun and especially enjoyed the cupcakes at the end. Hard to believe little Miss Addie B is already 3. Not too much longer and our Mr. Ben will be 3 as well. They grow up fast!

Jaiden, Henry, & Josh attacking!

G and Ellie shooting back!

Mommy & Ben going down the SUPER big slide.

Ben on a slide

Chase Cooper having FUN

Jaiden & Henry

I love you Chase Cooper!

All the kiddos!

Singing Happy Birthday to Addie!

The Birthday Girl

More Snow!

February started off with SNOW! Not as much as the weathermen predicted, but snow days for me on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd of February! Below are pictures from the snow days....