We'll Be Home Soon

Not too much has changed around here lately. We still don't have a forsure date set when we will fly home, but we do know it will be the first week of May. So that is good news. We probably wont know for awhile. Also, we don't know when they will come and pack-up our stuff or when we will ship our car. We are hoping to keep all of our stuff as long as possible because with Branden it would be hard to live with such few things. Also since we will be staying with my parents until we buy a house they pretty much have everything we need until our stuff arrives. We will ship some of Branden's toys a little early so he has some stuff when we arrive, along with some of my summer clothes because our household stuff could take months to get to us. Once April hits we will start to know more information and David will really start to out-process and then the time should really fly. We are so excited to be coming home. Thats all we really talk about. We always say things like...When we are home we can say, "remember when we lived here or went there" or when Branden gets older he will say, "you never bring me anywhere" and we can say...."you lived in Germany and we brought you to Paris for your Birthday!" Well, thats it for now. See everyone soon! Plan on coming to a Big Welcome Home Party!

Snowman

Last weekend we got a couple inches of snow. It is all gone now except for the huge snowman David and Branden made. I'm hoping it melts soon because it looks gross outside because it has leaves all stuck to it. But David hopes it last until April.

Here's Branden and David rolling the first snowball

Getting Big!

Big hug for the snowman

Branden went in after the second layer of the snowman, but David wanted to finish making it

He used all the snow in the yard

Valentine's Day

We didn't do much on Valentine's Day since Branden had just gotten over his fever the night before. Our friends asked us to go to dinner at a Castle, but we didn't think it was a good idea to take Branden out so soon. So we spent the day at home, it was still a really nice day and weekend. I made strawberry scones and strawberry and banana shakes for breakfast and David made steaks for dinner. And on Sunday Branden and I made special heartshaped pancakes for David. And also Branden helped me make cupcakes, a cake and cookies!! We were really busy in the kitchen. Branden is a really good helper!

Here are the beautiful roses David got me for Valentine's Day, plus 4 boxes of chocolate! I already almost have 2 eaten...don't judge...i love chocolate!

We got Branden 6 small balloons and big Elmo balloon for valentine's day. It had 2 watches tied to the end. He loves David's watch so much we got him his own....he still likes Davids more!

These are the roses Branden got me! Isn't he sweet!!

Branden looking at his balloons!!

So happy!!

We also got Branden a Hi-5 DVD...He was so happy! We have probably watched it 50 times already. I'd say The Wiggles are out! Here is a video of when we gave him the new dvd.

Branden Visits The Hospital

First of all don't worry Branden is ok!!

Yesterday morning when David was giving Branden a bath he noticed that he had a rash on his stomach. Branden was pretty upset yesterday morning that he had to have a bath so we thought maybe he just got so worked up that he gave himself a rash. But after it didn't go away after his nap we started to get worried. When I was changing his diaper I noticed it had spread to his back. The rash wasn't bumpy, it was more like red dots every where. We weren't too sure if we should bring him to the hospital to get looked at or not. We weren't sure what could have caused the rash. He hadn't had anything new. The only thing new in the last week was the medicine for his fever and that was on Friday and on Saturday he had some Valentine's Chocolate. I was worried more about the chocolate because that was more recent. So I had David look at the ingredients. He said there wasn't anything wierd in the chocolates, but they are made on the same machines as nuts and peanuts are. I was worried then that he might be allergic to peanuts because I have been very careful not to give him anything with peanuts in it until he is two. I guess you should wait until your child is 2 to give them peanuts to reduce the risk of peanut allergies. So around 3pm we brought Branden to the ER. It took a little while to be seen, but once we got in it only took about 10 minutes for the doctor to figure out why Branden had this rash that had spread to the top of his head now. He asked if Branden had a fever and for how long. We said about 3-4 days and he said, we like to see this rash, its a really good sign. Its called...blah, blah, blah (something with a R...I can't remember right now) It means the fever is all gone and this is just a sign of it. So we were really relieved. It's just a virus Branden had. You get a fever and then a rash follows. The rash can last up to 2 weeks the doctor said, so we were glad we went it to get it looked at because we would have been so freaked when this rash was still here today. But the rash doesn't bother him at all.

Still Sick

Well I spoke too soon yesterday about Branden being all better. After Branden woke-up from his nap his temperature had came back and was all the way up to 102 degrees. The rest of the day he just wanted to be held by me and we just read books and watched Hi-5 over and over. Hi-5 is his new favorite show. But he did want to call grandma & grandpa at one point, so we called them and we saw them on the webcam for a little bit. He didn't want to eat anything, but he was drinking a lot so that was good.

He went to bed around 8ish, but he was up by midnight crying because of his fever. I gave him some tylenol hoping it would help with his fever and help him get some sleep. But he was pretty much up all night with a fever. I also had to hold him all night because everytime I tried to put him back in his crib he would start to scream. So I just brought him in the spare bedroom so I could get atleast a little sleep but he still had to sleep on me, not even next to me would work. So I am sure all that body heat didn't help with his fever.

Once morning came we woke-up David to go get some stronger meds for Branden. Someone at David's work had told David about something she gives her kid that works really well on fevers. I wasn't so sure if we should try it at first because I didn't want him to have a reaction to it in the middle of the night. But since the tylenol wasn't working and it is during the day I thought it would be a good time to try it. Once David got back with the meds we gave it to Branden. He wasn't to happy about it because you have to give it to him in the butt. No Fun! But his temp was 102 and with in 10 minutes...no kidding....his temp was down to 99 and he was up playing and within 30 minutes in was at 98 degrees.

But around 6:00 tonight his fever came back...100 degrees. So we gave him some more medicine. And now he is sleeping, so HOPEFULLY tomorrow he will be all better. We are keeping our fingers crossed.

Sick

Branden had his first really high temperature yesterday. I hadn't been feeling so good the last couple of days, so I figured it was only time before Branden caught what I had. He woke-up not feeling so good, not wanting to play and didn't want to eat anything. Pretty much he just wanted to be held all day and watch movies. I tried taking his temperature a few times, but he really wasn't having that. When I could get him to hold still for a minute and get it under his arm it read 100.5 and it was still going up. When David got home from work he brought home a new thermometer so we could take his temp in his ear and then it read 102.6! Poor Branden! We weren't too sure what to do because he has never had a fever like this and I think we were both so worried. We decided since we just had given him some tylenol we would give him a cool bath and then see what his temp was and how he was doing. After his bath he was doing much better...100.5. He was so tired so we put him to bed and then woke him up at 10:30 for some more tylenol just so the fever wouldn't come back in the middle of the night. And now today he is doing so much better. This morning he wanted to play his drums and his temp was 98.7...Yea! Yesterday he didn't eat anything, but today he wanted mac-n-cheese for breakfast so thats what he got. It just must of been a 24 hour fever. Were all happy he is feeling better. Its was hard to watch him not feeling good.

Here are some pictures of Branden I forgot to post....
Branden coloring

Sleeping with all his blankies (3 of them) and his other cat Shadow

He likes to walk around the house with his rain boots on and his umbrella

Carnival

On Sunday it was Carnival in Germany. Basically I can best describe it as Halloween in America, but no Trick-or-Treating. Kids dress up in costumes and there are parties and games. It also starts during the day at a wierd time...2:11. There was a party at the local community center in our town so we brought Branden there dressed up as an Elephant. When we got there we weren't too sure what was going on so we just found a place to sit. Kids were running around everywhere and Branden was a little freaked at first and just wanted to watch what was going on. But once the music started to play I brought him out to dance for a little bit. There was tons of confetti on the floor he really like picking up and throwing. But once the music got really loud he told me "ready to go...too loud" so then we left. We were there for an hour. He said he had fun, so that is all that matters. I will post some pictures of him in his costume once I (David) uploads them to the computer.

But for now here are some cute pictures of Branden after he got done drinking some chocolate milk!

Look at that sweet face!!!

Kids Zone

Here are the pictures from last weekend when Branden was at the Kid Zone. He had so much fun there going down the slide and playing in the ball pits. Here he is going down the slide. He would lean forward to make himself go faster!

Going again!

So much fun!

First time he went down with Daddy, after that he wanted to do it himself!

How do you get up there?

Just jumped in!

playing some video games

Big Hug!

Rode these cars everywhere

Kids would climb up that tent looking thing beind Branden and then slide down.

On our way to the party!

here is a video of Branden going down the slide!!