NoLa Family Weekend

About two months ago probably closer to three, we took the kids to New Orleans for the weekend.  Mr.'s firm hosted their annual family night at the Race tracks and we decided to make a little getaway out of it.  The timing couldn't have been better, or worse.  I had just gone back to work full-time and both the Mr. and I were getting sick.  A rainy weekend in the city, with no house cleaning or laundry was pretty amazing.  A whole afternoon may have even been spent cuddling in our bed watching it rain.

We had a good trip over to New Orleans with average traffic, but the kids remained pretty happy.  Once we got checked into the hotel, we did a quick wardrobe change and headed to the races.  Jackson absolutely loved seeing the horses and had large time "betting" with his daddy.  Mattie slept most of the evening in her car seat, allowing us to socialize a bit with Mr.'s co-workers.

Come Saturday morning I pretty much felt like death.  Mr. headed to the drug store and picked up plenty of Kleenex and found some sinus medicine I could take while nursing.  We tried to make the best of the rainy day.  We strolled through the city and grabbed some lunch and then headed to the Aquarium.  Again, Jackson loved seeing the animals and cruised through each exihbit!

Our original plan was to take the family out for a nice dinner on Saturday night...but after long afternoon naps we opted for a quick bite to eat and FroYo instead.  We all slept great that night, minus the coughing and sniffles.

We packed up Sunday morning, did a little shopping, grabbed lunch and headed home to the urgent care for meds to kick our sinus infections.  The best part of the entire weekend is that we managed to keep our little's healthy and sinus infection free:)

The double Bob also doubles as a luggage cart:)

Our happy little uptown girl

Watching the rain and checking out the streets below

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Two Thumbs Up!

After a long six weeks, Jackson's doctor gave the thumbs up to remove his cast. Truth be told, this was actually his second cast.  About two weeks ago Action Jackson managed to break his first cast.  Yes, my son not only managed to break his elbow, but a cast too! I'm pretty sure every ER from here to Kingdom Come will know us by name:)

I was pretty thankful when his cast basically disintegrated around his hand, making it necessary for a new one.  Cause let me tell you, after only four weeks it stunk to high heavens! It was covered in grass stains, play-doh, cookie icing, mud, dirt...need I go on? Why has no one invented a cast cover or cleaner?

Jackson handled the cast with such grace the entire six weeks.  He never once complained about it itching or stinking or scratching his nose when tried to wipe his face with his "cast arm".  He grabbed a trash bag every night before his bath and reminded me to cover his arm.  So, we did a little dance before our last trash-bag-bath!  And I surely celebrated being able to wash his filthy hand immediately after it came off:) 

This boy teaches me new lessons about life everyday!

Waiting on the doctor to read his x-rays!

Doc said all is healing well, cast can come off:)

Thumbs up dude, double thumbs up!

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Skeet Shoot 2013

We've been huge skeet shoot slackers the past couple of years.  I guess such is life with a growing family and jobs that keep us forever busy.  I've posted about the annual shoot here and here and probably a couple other times as well.

Last year we skipped out due to fertility cycles and the shoot being in Texas.  This year, Mr. went to the shoot while the kids and I hung out with my sister and family.  We went out to the shoot for a bit on Friday night since my sister wasn't getting in town until late in the night. 

Jackson was a little freaked out by the loud gun shots, and took awhile to warm up. No sooner than our good friend (who always thinks of everything for the kids) whipped out an awesome big brother present for Jackson, he was all good!

The big kids had a great time playing soccer and running around like crazy.  Mattie didn't think too much of it and was less than thrilled with her ear muffs.   Tough life for a little girl:)

Hopefully, we'll be able to make the trip back to Texas next year.  We have always loved the hill country and a little time away!

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Jackson & his broken arm

It happened.  My baby boy broke his first bone.  And while this may be his first broken bone, I am sure it won't be his last.  My heart is broken for my little dude, which I am sure won't be my last either.

How did it happen you ask?

Well, you'd think that Action Jackson would break his first bone riding his bike, pretending to be Spider-man, or falling with style like Buzz.

Oh no, not the case.

Jackson broke his elbow while dancing, with his cousin, at a Mexican restaurant.  Sorry kids, not exactly the story to brag about while showing off battle wounds.

What's worse than his story is our story of completely blowing him off and chalking it up to being overly tired.  #parentsoftheyear #parentfail

Thursday night Jackson and I went on a date to Disney on Ice.  We got home late and Jackson woke up as soon as "the sky opened" Friday morning.  He went to school on Friday, so at most he got a two hour nap.

Friday night we met up with my family for dinner downtown.  It was a beautiful night with plenty of bands playing and music for Action Jackson to shake his booty to, which he loves to do! 

Fast-forward a couple of hours.  Jackson has been dancing and having a ball for a couple of hours.  He's dancing and trips and falls.

No.big.deal.

Except for the fact that he wouldn't quit screaming.

For the first time ever, we had to leave where we were because we could not get Jackson to settle down.

My mom saw Jackson fall and is a nurse.  She was convinced there was nothing wrong with Jackson and that he was probably just exhausted.

So, home we went.  And he screamed until we threatened to really give him something to cry about...you  know that ol' parental threat.  Why at that point we didn't head to the ER I will never know.

Jackson ended up sleeping with us Friday night and moaned in serious pain.  At 1:30AM he woke up and we knew his little fall did something to his arm.  However, nothing was swollen or bruised.  We waited until sunrise and Mr. took Jackson to the urgent care as soon as it opened.  They took a few X-rays and thought that Jackson probably just had nurse-maid's elbow and popped it back into place.

They sent the boys on their way and said Jackson should be back to normal.

Boy was that so not the case! We took Jackson to an Easter helicopter egg drop and he couldn't even hunt eggs.  He passed on the fun jumps and was just not getting any better.  He screamed getting in and out of his car seat and refused to move his arms...and then his hand started to swell.

No sooner than we questioned whether or not we needed to take Jackson to the ER for a second opinion, the urgent care called.  Turns out that the radiologist read Jackson's scans and saw a break in his elbow.  They had us bring Jackson back in and they put a splint/cast on Jackson's arm.  And almost instantly our dude was back to himself!

Mr. added some fun art to Jackson's cast and he couldn't have loved his "toothless the dragon" more.  The only problem with Jackson being in a cast was that when people asked him what happened, he would fall down and show them...that's my boy!

Yesterday Jackson had to be seen by a pediatric orthopedic to confirm that his elbow was in fact broken...which he did.  Now Jackson is in a real cast and it hasn't slowed him down one bit!

My heart seriously breaks thinking about the pain Jackson was in Friday night and Saturday.  Good news is that I doubt he remembers and he's all smiles now:)

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