We just can't seem to win

Monday, December 12th @ 5:30pm - when I picked the boys up from daycare Zach told me his left ear hurt. Zach never tells me his ears hurt. I asked if he wanted to go to the doctor and he said yes. So a quick call to our pediatrician after hours urgent care clinic and we had a 6pm appointment. We just drove straight there....the clinic started at 6pm so I knew we were the first appointment. When the doctor looked in Zach's ears it was confirmed that BOTH EARS were infected. Zach had tubes put in just under two years ago, but we learned back in October his tubes were no longer connected, but just sitting in his ear canal waiting to fall out....which meant we were susceptible to getting ear infections again. So the doctor faxes in a prescription for amoxicillin. We head to the grocery store next door to pick up some supplies (the boys sweet talked me into donuts and we needed more kids ibuprofen). We then headed to Walgreens to pick up the prescription...and apparently they 'forgot' to look at faxes in the past half hour - so we had another 20 minutes to burn until it was ready.....we hit the McDonalds drive-thru (next door to Walgreens) and eat in the car while talking to Dustin on the phone as he was in Boise for a business trip. We finish eating, get our prescription head home. Zach takes the full 10 day treatment of amoxicillin, and doesn't mention anything about his ears after the 2nd day of the antibiotic.

Friday, December 23rd @ 3:30am - guess who woke up saying his left ear was hurting again - Zach? Wait....it has only been TWO DAYS since he stopped taking the antibiotics for his last double ear infection. We head back to the pediatricians office when it opens. Guess what - DOUBLE EAR INFECTIONS again. The doctor opted for a stronger antibiotic - Omnicef.

Thursday, December 29th @ 4am - Zach comes in our room saying his stomach really hurts, he falls asleep on our floor. Two hours later he throws up in our toilet. Jen stays home from work with him - he can't keep anything down, even liquids up until about 3pm and has a low grade fever (99deg range). He just keeps complaining his whole body hurts, his stomach hurts and his head hurts. Then all of a sudden he decides he wants Ritz crackers, eats a whole roll over the course of three hours - keeps it all down, but develops a 100 degree fever. Jen looks in his throat and it has all these red dots in the back -- does Zach have strep throat while on antibiotics?

Friday, December 30th @ 3pm - Zach stays home with Dustin today. He doesn't eat anything, he doesn't throw up, his temperature stays in the 99deg range. Logan already had his 2 year check up schedule for today so we decided to take Zach with us as well to be looked at. He is still complaining about the body aches. Zach has been on Omnicef now for 7 days - the pediatrician looks him over and decides to remove the tube in his right ear as it was pretty far out in the canal (the tubes tend to block the view of ear part they need to look at for infections). Once the tube is removed the doctor sighs and says the right ear is still really infected. Strep test comes back negative. The doctor feels that the issues Zach has been having the past few days (vomiting, body aches, etc) are actually stemming from him having an ear infection for a few weeks now that isn't responding to any oral antibiotics. It is too close to the holiday weekend to have our ENT put tubes back in and the pediatrician is adamant we can't just let it be - our only option is Rocephin injections. One a day for the next three days. Zach gets his first injection and cries/whines for almost TEN MINUTES afterwards. I've had that shot in my butt before and it DOES hurt - Zach had to have it in his thigh! Dustin carried Zach around for the next couple of hours so he didn't have to walk. Oh - this gets better.....guess who else has an ear infection?! LOGAN! Logan's right ear also was infected - the doctor found it during his wellness check...so Logan is starting on Omnicef (screw amoxicillin).

Saturday, December 31st @ 11am - Wow, Zach is back to his normal self. The boy with all the personality. We can tell the injection yesterday at least was making him feel a bit better. We head back to the pediatricians urgent care office for the 2nd injection. Zach took it better. He only cried for a few minutes this time. We reward him with lunch at Del Taco (he likes the playscape) and a trip to the movie theater with Dustin in the afternoon.

So with one more Rocephin injection left for January 2nd - we are worried we will still end up having Zach get another set of tubes for his ears in a few weeks. Who knows.....maybe Logan will need tubes as well :( Time will tell, but as of right now - we just can't seem to win.

Logan's two year check up

Today we headed to the pediatricians office for Logan's 2 year check up. Most of the visit revolved around Zach with the ear infection issues (see 12/31 post) - but Logan ended up having an ear infection as well - his right ear. Logan also still has his dry skin issues, living in Utah doesn't help. The doctor tells us to use the creams, lotions and soaps we are already using...guess we just need to be more aggressive about it (lotion and cream 2x-3x a day?)

Logan continues to be our happy child that loves to play and be active. His personality continues to shine and everyone loves to be around him. Our pediatricians office is right next to the day care the kids attend. While Logan and I walked from they daycare to the pediatricians office kids from Zach's class were playing in the backyard and waving hi to Logan and asking how he was as we were crossing the street. Logan just smiled at the kids and talked to them in his two year old gibberish language. Logan is apparently the social butterfly and everyone knows him.....sounds like Dustin, right?!

Here are Logan's growth stats - he continues the tradition of tall big headed kids :)

Height = 35.7 inches = 83rd percentile

Weight = 28 pounds = 50th percentile

Head Circ = 49.8cm = 78th percentile

Happy 2nd Birthday LOGAN!

Today our little man turned two years old! We kept it quiet this year - the kids were looking forward to going to daycare and having cupcakes with their friends. Jen took Logan to the store last night to pick out the cupcakes (they have to be store bought.....state health code rule at daycare). As soon as Logan walked in the the daycare center everyone greeted him and wished him a happy birthday - he had such a huge grin on his face! After work we went home and had some take and bake pizzas and cheese sticks (Logan's favorite). Jen finished putting the finishing touches on Logan's cake and then it was time for presents!

Presents turned out to be quite an ordeal at our house this year. Zach felt like he HAD to open all the gifts...he had a hard time with everything was for Logan and he was quite upset it wasn't his birthday - we heard many times throughout the night from Zach, "my birthday is taking too LONG to get here!". Logan was kind enough to let Zach help with the wrapping paper....

Believe it or not the hit of the gifts was from Jen's Grandma McIlwain - she had taped together ten $1 bills for Logan for his birthday. Logan thought it was sooooo COOL!

The ToysRus gift certificate from Great Aunt and Uncle Twogood also brought a smile to Logan's face - he knows what the ToysRus logo looks like - the place with all the TOYS!

Now it was time for birthday cake! Jen made Logan a construction cake. Logan just stared and stared at it....after a few minutes he finally stuck his finger in it to taste it. He loved eating the chocolate rocks!

Happy 2nd birthday Logan! Logan is our happy child - he smiles all the time and loves to laugh. Zach and Logan are best buds and play together all the time. Logan likes to share - when ever he gets a snack or a drink he gets one for Zach as well. We think Logan will be our little athlete...he is so active and can throw a ball better than any two year old we know!

The first gator ride!

The boys on their first gator ride in the neighborhood!

Christmas Morning

Logan was the first one up this morning - he got to see what Santa brought him first! He enjoyed going through his stocking with Grandma Twogood....and of course checking out that green dump truck (John Deere ride on Gator).

When Zach woke up - he was SO EXCITED to see the green dump truck in our living room. He was also excited to see that Santa's reindeer ate the food he left them. We let the boys play on the gator for a bit...we weren't ready to tackle the rest of the presents yet!

Okay NOW it was time to rip into all the other gifts! The boys were really spoiled...they had presents from every family member and even from some of our friends!





Here is Jen's stocking stash.....her "Santa" sure knows what she likes!

Dustin got his ipad2!

Now the boys decided to start playing with some of the toys.....they liked playing with the play BBQ set - Dustin even got dressed up in his apron and hat and played with the boys.

These pet hamsters were such a hit too....Zach and Logan were chasing them around the house!

When the boys finally decided to start watching some of the movies they got for Christmas....they decided it had to be drive-in movie style in the green dump truck. The battery for the gator wasn't going to be ready for another 4-5 hours, so the dump truck wasn't moving.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Santa made his stop!

Zach made some reindeer food at pre-school to leave out tonight. Santa's reindeer LOVED the food....check out the nose marks!


Look at our pretty tree all lit up.....

The presents were put in piles....

Zach and Logan apparently got their Christmas wish from Santa - the GREEN DUMP TRUCK!

The Canyons

Today we had a free trip to the Canyons ski resort......and when we say free...we mean much much more than a free lift ticket! Apparently the company we work for are Canyon Club Members - as a form of recognition the company GIVES the membership to employees to use on a specific day basis. Yes - GIVES! Dustin received recognition from his management on the awesome job he is doing and gave us the club membership to use today! This worked out perfect for us, because Jen's parents were in town - so they could hang out with their grandchildren for part of the day while we went skiing!

We arrived about 8:30am to the resort in Park City. Valet unloaded our car and showed us to the Alpine room - the exclusive area for the Canyon Club Members. They had a private locker room and a lounge with a complimentary continental breakfast. They even had a dedicated concierge person just sitting in the Alpine room waiting to answer our every question. The lifts didn't open until 9am so we had the concierge gives us some tips on what ski runs would be best for our skill level, then we headed out to check out the area.

We soon learned that one of the BIG perks of being Canyon Club Members was you were able to go to the front of EVERY ski lift line! Oh Yeah. The employees at the lifts would see our membership badges and even go out of their way to get us to the front of the lines - you could easily tell everyone else was getting jealous....especially a few hours into skiing when the lines were getting really long.

We stuck to the easiest slope for a good hour - once Jen felt we had mastered that, we tried moving on to a blue run. That run turned out to be ONE LONG RIDE! It took us almost an hour and a half to make it back down the mountain.

Dustin was enjoying the scenery and finding ways to have some fun.

Jen on the other hand was taking her sweet time - the blue runs were a bit too intimating for her. We haven't really had much natural snow fall in Utah yet this time of year (yes - this is not normal), so most of the snow was man made...and really icy. We were used to the Utah powder snow....not this trip! Jen was excited to see this sign....Once we made it back to the bottom of the mountain - Jen decided she needed a break. Dustin headed back up the mountain for the next hour - he was able to take the lift up THREE times since he didn't have to wait in any of the long lift lines! After his hour he decided he was done for the day as well......we both aren't exactly in tip top shape ;)

We both put up our feet and had some hot chocolate for a moment of relaxing.

We headed back to the Alpine house, let them know we were done for the day. They took all our gear out to our car and offered us some drinks. It is going to be hard to go back to the Canyons ski resort again unless we have the Club Membership to use....VIP all the way!

Once we got home we learned the kids had a complete blast with Grandma and Grandpa Twogood - they watched movies and went to the Harley Dealership in Lindon. The boys love going to that Harley dealership because they have a toy ride on bike that is free - no quarters needed. We were able to make a great Lasagna Christmas Eve dinner and then bundle everyone up to go out on a drive to see the local Christmas lights!

Jen's Birthday

Today is Jen's birthday! Her parents came to town this afternoon to help celebrate and enjoy Christmas with us this year. We decided to go to Cheesecake Factory for dinner and dessert. The boys LOVED having Grandma and Grandpa Twogood with us!


Afterwards we opened presents at home. Jen's parents bought her a new pair of shoes....

The boys picked out some footed PJ's and cake ball making kit for Jen...

Some other awesome gifts from friends/family...

Then Dustin topped them all with this gift....Jen's first DSLR camera! A canon Rebel T3i...

He had already charged it up and taken some pictures of the kids on it for me! Here is my first memorable picture on my new DSLR camera :)


Thanks for the great day!

An early birthday celebration

Tonight we decided to do some birthday celebrating early. Jen and her friend Kristin's birthdays are only three days apart....we always use this as an excuse to go to a yummy place for dinner without the kids. This year we decided to hit up....


Dustin and I had never been to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse....and boy was it YUMMY!

Getting caught up....

I know...behind on blogging. I am working on getting caught up! Leave me a comment to let me know you love me and want me to hurry up! ;)

Pets are family members too

**This post contains some 'graphic' images...if you can't stand blood - don't read it**
We have two cats. Aussie who is 10 years old, which we adopted when he was a kitten a month before we got married. Sammie who is 9 years old, we adopted when she was a kitten thinking she would be a great 'companion' for Aussie. The two cats really never had the ideal brother/sister relationship. Of the two cats - Aussie was our favorite...the more laid back cat. Sammie ended up being the spastic cat that had a love/hate relationship with everyone.

For the past couple of years (yes...YEARS) one of our cats would randomly spray on the walls in our house. Not all the time...just randomly. We always figured it was Aussie, you know...a male cat marking his territory. We could never catch the guilty cat in the act. A few weeks ago we came home to this...

Yes - that would be BLOOD in cat urine on our master bedroom wall. It was almost like the guilty cat had to make it obvious for us to see it. Well, we flipped both cats over so see which one had blood on their fur and guess which cat it was? Not Aussie, it was Sammie. Our poor kitty had a bad UTI.

Now remember our spastic Sammie? We actually had a vet tell us one time when we lived in Austin to not to bring her back because she is SO HORRIBLE at a vet's office. So we knew it wouldn't be a fun experience to get a UTI looked at with a vet here in Utah. Dustin clipped Sammie's back toe nails and headed to the 24-7 vet hospital (it was a Sunday).

$300 later the vet agreed she had a UTI - what urine they could obtain from Sammie spraying on the vet (yes, literally) confirmed the infection, but also ruled out any type of cancer or other concerns. Sammie was given some antibiotic injections and was a very happy laid back cat for a few days. The vet even called us a few days later to ask how Sammie was doing (first time we have had a vet call to follow up)....she seemed perfectly fine. No more pissing on walls, and from what we could tell no more blood in the urine.

About three weeks later when we returned home from work on a Friday - we found the blood stained urine spray on our master bedroom wall again. We knew that wasn't good. Dustin took Sammie back to the same 24-7 vet hospital on the following day. They sedated Sammie and did an ultrasound of her bladder to figure out what was causing the infections. Here is what they found...

That would be a 1/2 inch calcium oxide 'stone' in our cats bladder. Calcium oxide is very hard, sharp and does not break down - it just keeps growing bigger. This 'stone' in our cats bladder was obviously too large to pass, but was not blocking her urine flow. This 'stone' was moving around in her bladder constantly scraping the sides and causing internal infections. The only way to eliminate this was surgery to remove the 'stone'.

So after a discussion on what to do - we decided to fork out the $$ to get the surgery to eliminate this unnecessary and completely treatable issue. Blood work was done to ensure all the internal organs of the cat were in good health and surgery was scheduled for the following Thursday. Monday the vet called and said the full urine analysis came back and her bladder infection was REALLY bad and she needed another antibiotic injection today so she could still have surgery on Thursday.

Thursday came and Sammie had surgery. The vet kept us updated - everything went as planned. When the bladder was opened to remove the 'stone' the entire lining of the bladder was really bruised - the vet felt it would take a few weeks for Sammie to completely heal from the damage of the 'stone'. Sammie came home on Friday and was hooked up with some great pain killers for three days.

We kept her cone on for a full week to allow her abdominal incision to heal. Three weeks after surgery we have noticed a remarkable difference in how our cat behaves and the luster of her fur coat! If we only could speak the language of cat we could have solved this issue much much earlier - that 'stone' had been inside her bladder and growing for a few YEARS. Where is Dr. Doolittle when you need him?