Friday, June 29, 2012

A gift from above


My dear friend Kenna gave birth to a sweet baby girl last Friday.  There is something incredibly precious in holding a little one fresh from heaven.  In this picture, Baby Kristen is only a couple hours old.  She is now a week old and contracted some sort of infection that has caused her to have a fever for the last few days and so they are in the hospital right now trying to figure out what is wrong.  I know this is incredibly difficult for Kenna and Travis... I can't imagine having your sweet itty bitty one already hooked up to machines and such at such a young age... so please be praying that the fever and whatever infection she has will go away and that they can go home!  Thank you.

Clean floors?



What do you do when you desperately need to mop your floors but your sweet little miss will not take a nap and is constantly directly underfoot?  You put her in the front mud room of course with some juice so she can still watch you but can't walk all over the wet floor!


Clean floor... accomplished! At least for the next 6.2 seconds.....

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Life is fragile

Around 5:30pm on Father's day as our friends were leaving, Chloe escaped out the front door and even as I've told her MANY times to not play on the rocks that are right next to the edge of our retaining wall in our front yard, she got too close and took a tumble off the 5-6 foot wall.  I was inside so I did not see her fall but we are guessing she landed either on her shoulder or on her head.  After 20 minutes of incessant screaming (which is NOT like her) and not seeing a bump appearing anywhere, we decided to take her into the ER.  Joe had the first meal and announcements for the beginning of his conference so he stayed home with Nate and I took Chloe to Barton Hospital which is about 25 minutes away in Tahoe.



To make a long story short(er), we waited for over 3 hours before finally getting a CAT scan and the doctor coming in to say that her skull is fractured and there is slight bleeding in the skull and without a neurologist and other head trauma capabilities at Barton, they were going to have to transfer her immediately to Renown in Reno.  After another hour or so of waiting on the helicopter to get there, getting an IV started in her hand and administering meds for pain, nausea and a sedative, they finally got her strapped onto the body board and loaded into the helicopter.  I was unable to go with her on the flight, so I rushed home to pick up Joe which a friend of ours stayed with Nate, and then we drove to Reno not knowing what to expect.



Thankfully Chloe was sleeping when we got there as the doctor had already examined her and said that the bleeding has stopped and as long as there were not any other complications in the next few hours, she should be out of the woods.  Let's just say it was a sleepless night, but we are so thankful for all the prayers of the saints that were pounding the ears of our Heavenly Father.  She was doing great in the morning... even gave us a few smiles.  They continued to monitor her throughout most of the day, but then gave us the OK to go home and just to keep her calm and watch her closely over the next few days.  Easier said than done when it comes to Chloe Marie!



Praise the Lord though that now, a week and a half later, she is fine and dandy and although the fracture in her skull is probably not fully healed, it doesn't keep her from wrestling with her brother.  :)

Every day is a gift and this was a harsh reminder of this.  Take extra moments to kiss and hug your kiddos or loved ones today.  I firmly believe that God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love Him, even when we don't understand.  This was quite a traumatic experience for myself and Chloe and our family to go through, but I could not have desired a better outcome.

Thank you Lord Jesus!


Father's Day

Disclaimer... I realize this is a little late...

Happy father's day to those dads out there who work so hard and are an inspiration to their kiddos and to others.  My dad is amazing man who has accomplished so much, worked super hard, and yet still treasures and makes time for his family.  I love you heaps dad.

My husband is the best father I have ever known.  He is full of love and patience and mercy and grace for his kids and takes the time to pour into them individually and they both absolutely ADORE him!  It is the sweetest thing to see Nate running as fast as his little legs will carry him with both arms outstretched to his daddy when he sees him walking down the hill towards home.  It brings tears to my eyes when I think about the wonder and beauty of how this man I married loves our children.

This year for Father's Day Joe had to work most of the day, but he stole away for an hour over lunch to take Nate up for a gondola ride.  Again, he is incredibly thoughtful not in what he can get since it is "his day" but in how he can serve his family.  Nate, Chloe and myself are incredibly grateful (even though they don't fully realize it yet) for what a wonderful gift of a dad we have.


Here are my collared boys on the gondola on Sunday.  Chloe was sleeping so I stayed home with her.  

That afternoon was the start of one of Joe's conferences so he was busy with that and we had a play date with some friends.  Who knew we were about to have a crazy end to our Father's day...

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Welcome


Welcome to the new Dalton blog!  Thanks for stopping by.  I am still trying to figure out this new blog so bear with me.  Many adventures and little life stories to come!