School is OUT.

These two monkeys are officially done with school.  Hard to believe I now officially have a first and second grader. Both of them, had a great year.  They have learned a lot and I'm grateful for good teachers.  

The day after school was out, Braden woke up like this.  

His left cheek was super swollen.  

We had all slept in, 'til passed 8am.  It was around 8:45am when he came to my bedroom complaining that his ear hurt.  When I looked at him, I jumped out bed, called the pediatrician, made an appointment to be seen right away.  My original thought, was that it was related to an ear infection.  We saw the doctor right away, they came up with two possible causes, one: inflamed lymph nodes due to some kind of infection and two: a more serious, life threatening condition.  They sent us to the ER at Primary Children's right away because the ENT at Children's didn't want to see us to examine him.  SO ANNOYING! 

We spent 6 hours in the ER with the a diagnosis of inflamed lymph nodes due to infection.  They gave him antibiotic through an IV, which was so horrible.  It took 3 pokes to get the IV in and about 40 minutes to administer the antibiotic.  My prayers were answered, when right when Braden was getting poked, Scott walked into the room.  I was so grateful.  It was hard to watch my Mr. Braden so scared and Scott's calming ways helped him and me calm down.  Scott spent a good 2 hours with us until he had to go back to the Huntsman.  They sent us with a huge bottle of antibiotics and he had to take it for 10 days.

  

I must admit, that I was so scared that it'd be something worse, especially after our pediatrician showed so much concern and a possible need to get imaging, like a CT-scan.  CT-scans have so much radiation, I didn't want Braden to go through that, unless he absolutely had to.  I'm glad the ER physician felt the same way and went with the antibiotic treatment.  The swelling went significantly down after they administered the IV antibiotic and I was grateful. 

It is hard to spend one on one time with 3 kids, and in a way I'm glad that I got all that time together just with my Mr. Braden.  He is such a good little boy and I'm glad that he is all well now and continues to be a healthy 6 year old.  

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That same week, we had a little reunion with some of my Virginia/DC friends.  Holly was in town and we got together at the park with Katie, Breckin and Michele.  We were all in the same ward in Virginia and four of us ended back in Utah, except for Holly, who still lives there. It was so fun to talk for a little bit and see the two newborns.  These are such great women and I'm grateful for their friendships.

Little Addie is adorable and Brielle got to hold her. Brooke kept saying, 'cute baby'.  

It seems like Brooke was just that little not long ago.  

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The Friday after school, my fun neighbor Gretchen threw an End of School party.  She went all out and had a bouncy house for the kids, had cute decorations and our complex looked so cute.  

The jumping rope was a hit.  

Brooke kept asking Scott to jump! and so he did!

It was awesome.

Brielle got the hang out it too.  

The bounce house was so much fun for everyone. 

Brooke was in heaven.

Can I please have her eyelashes?

We had chalk coloring on our carport...

more fun games...

Steph was our popcorn lady...

The Petteys got a projector and right at dusk the kids gathered to watch Despicable Me.

They were all into it...

We all had a bunch of junk food and we partied hard until way past everyone's bedtimes.  

The perfect way to start the summer.