Kaelan the Thespian

Kaelan participated in his very 1st school "play" this morning.  He had a couple Christmas performances, as previously shared, at his old school but this was the first one that actually told a story AND he even had a speaking part.  We were obviously incredibly proud and loved every single second of it!  Here's some pics and the 4 part video.  Please feel free to skip the all or some of the videos.  I wanted to share the whole thing so my parents could see it.

This is the first time he tried on his homemade costurme (made by his mother who has less than zero crafting ability).  Thankfully he didn't know any better and was very proud!

Max and Daddy before the show

Walking on stage as Joseph's 6th brother

The family was famished and had to ask the ruler (Joseph) for help.

Joseph forgave his brothers

All were happy!

Singing

His famous line..."It is not self-seeking."

Taking his bow

All the kids went back on stage afterwards so parents could take pictures.

Funny faces!

A family shot... it was a rainy day so I apologize for our appearance.  :)

Here are the videos from the performance:

Joseph's Story

"Jesus Loves Me"

Speaking Part

"His Banner Over Me is Love"

Just an Update

I finished my last post by saying that Max had been under the weather but I'd share more later.  This posting is mostly for my records of this illness but also to share some cute pictures with everyone.  The poor little guy woke up about 1:30 on the Thursday night before the circus.  Not knowing what was going on I attempted to just let him cry himself back to sleep since he rarely wakes up at night.  After about 5 minutes of screaming I could tell something was really going on.  So, I went into his room to "the smell".  He had vomited all over himself and his bed and was absolutely miserable.  :(  Luckily this was a week that Mike was home so he gave the poor baby a bath while I changed his bedding.  He was sooo tired and pitiful and went back to bed easily.  However, it wasn't much longer before he was at it again.  Long story short, after changing his bedding 3 times and 3 baths, I decided to just stay up with him on the couch with a bowl ready.  He was exhausted but just couldn't lay down to sleep.  He spent the next morning extremely thirsty but "losing" everything he would get down.  Boy was there A LOT of laundry that day!!!  Here's a pic of the pitiful little guy as he finally allowed his exhaustion to catch up to him while he laid on the floor watching cartoons.

 Luckily he never had much of a temperature/fever and the vomiting ended about noon.  We assumed it must have just been something he ate or a short stomach bug like K had the weekend before so we went to the circus Saturday as planned.

 That is a picture from the following Tuesday.  He spent the weekend not eating much and sleeping more than usual but other than that, he didn't have any illness symptoms...until this day.  :(  He was ridiculously sleepy, quiet, and just not himself AT ALL.  I gave him some ibuprofen before nap and he woke up his normal, happy self (it's a wonder-drug!!!).  However, about 5:30 he came to sit with me on the couch and fell asleep on me which has NEVER happened.  As he was laying there I could feel that he was burning up so I took his temperature.  103.9!!!!!!!!!!!  I immediately called the pediatrician thinking I'd have to leave a message with the anwering service to be called back by the nurse or doctor on-call.  To my surprise, they were not only open at 5:45 but had after hours to which I rushed the boys in for a 6:00 appointment.  This is their normal dinner time so Kaelan was starving by the time we got there.  Luckily I had some goldfish in my purse and he patiently ate his snack and tried to comfort Maddox whenever he would get upset.  They did a flu test and a blood test to be sure it wasn't the flu (even though he had a flu shot) or a bacterial infection.  Everything was negative so he said to keep him drugged up on Motrin and Tylenol and if his fever was still over 102 by Friday, we were to come back in.  He also said it was not related to the stomach bug he suffered from a few days prior.  Here's a pic of him a few days later eating a popsicle and licking the cool whip off a spatula, seemingly feeling much better.  Although he had developed an awful cough and some pretty bad congestion, his temp was down to around 100.4. on Friday so I didn't feel he needed to go back to the doctor.

Then Saturday, we woke up to this pitiful face and another high fever around 103.5.  Clearly we were on our way back to the dr in this picture.  We were seen very quickly and it was quite obvious that he had a double ear infection.  Luckily this time, we were able to get some antibiotics and he was almost completely back to himself by the next afternoon.

Feeling much better the following Monday, after 10 days of being sick in some way.  :(

My happy boy was back!!!

Enjoying a delicious Valentine's Day cupcake from Nana's friend Sherry!  YUMMMMM!!!

Borrowing some glasses from Mr. Potato Head

At the zoo

Love these boys in hats!!!  ;)

In the midst of all the sick drama, Kaelan had his 1st dentist visit.  I know it came WAY too late but at least I finally got him there.  He did an AMAZING job during the exam.  I was extremely proud of him.  Unfortunately we found out that the enamel he has on his teeth is a weaker, thinner version than the typical hard enamel most people have.  Because of this, he has cavaties on each of his 4 back molars...uggghhhh.  The positive is that his adult teeth could have the good kind of enamel so hopefully he'll get lucky.  He goes back March 15 to get them fixed.  Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Circus

We had a great time during our annual trip to the circus last Saturday.  Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey were in town for their new show "Dragons" which, in our opinion, was the best one we've seen in the past 4 years.  It was full of animal acts, people and motorcycles on high-wires, acrobats, 8 motorcycles in a tiny cage, and a "shaolin" act showing strength and power that was very interesting (mostly to the older crowd).  The animals were of course our favorite part, including lions and tigers performing in the same cage, horses, elephants, dogs, and even donkeys, a llama, and some cats were doing tricks.  It was fantastic!  Kaelan says his favorite part was when the "real" dragon was summoned at the very end of the show.  Max was unfortunately sick the day before getting very little sleep Thursday night and Friday so he slept through the middle portion of the show but seemed to enjoy the parts he did see.  Here are some pics from the circus and a few other recents from the weekend.

They always open the floor an hour before it begins and to let the kids have some first-hand experiences with the clowns, costumes, etc.  Here are a couple pics with K dressing-up in some circus gear.

Max still sports the "cheese"y face  :)

That's K in the foreground (navy shirt) learning a dance from a rock-n-roll clown.  He liked his blue hair

Family shot

I hate that it's so washed out but I don't know how to fix it.  :(

Sleepy little guy

I just got a kick our of how he was sitting and had to share

His favorite past-time..."choo-choos"!

For some reason, both my kids would prefer to push the electronic train rather than use the remote (although they do that on occassion)

 Oh, Max is feeling better now but still not back to his normal self completely.  He had some sort of stomach bug that started with him vomitting all Thursday night and Friday morning.  That has now turned into a cold, however, I have a feeling that the cold is a result of him teething again.  Yay for more teeth (finally) but boo for cough, runny nose, and general fussiness!  He is also talking a lot more, attempting new words almost all the time.  Progress!!!!