Gonzalez Family Journal

Well, it has gotten significantly better in a short amount of time.  Here are a few pictures I took yesterday afternoon of it.

She looks a LOT better this morning.  I think we are on the mend!

Aspen started showing signs of a nasty rash on April 20th.  That evening, she started running a fever and the rash started getting worse.  She ended up clawing herself to pieces, spiking a high temp, not sleeping well that night and had her mommy concerned it was chicken pox.  We saw our pediatrician today and turns out, it wasn’t chicken pox.  He honestly didn’t know what it was so we went to the pediatric dermatologist.  Dr. Lytle said this was only the 2nd time he had referred someone to the pediatric dermatologist on a emergency basis — and the first time was Aidan!  I guess we are now known as the “rash family”…

These pictures were taken approximately 24 hours after the initial signs of the rash.  Doesn’t it look horrible?  The pediatric dermatologist (I love Dr. Theos!) said it is a virus or skin reaction to a virus.  She called it uticaria multiform ~ and said all we can really do for it is Benadryl & Zyrtec, oatmeal baths and lotion.  Poor little baby is so itchy, and you can tell she is totally miserable.  She said it could take a while ~ and it would probably get worse before it gets better.

I sure hope she feels better soon!!!!

I still cannot believe my baby girl is ONE!!!

We celebrated Aspen’s first birthday on April 11th.  She seemed to have an enjoyable time but I will say, she DOES NOT like the cake and attention of the singing.

Here are some pictures of the decorations and cakes.  The little “candy pop” were something I did myself.  I’m not usually creative but I was kinda impressed with myself.  I thought everything looked really nice.

Pictures of family at the party.

Singing Happy Birthday to the sweet little birthday girl and eating cake — YUM, YUM!!!

Mommy (and Aspen) opening her presents.

Thank you to everyone who came to the party and thank you for her presents – she loves her new toys!!!

On April 3rd (Aspen’s actual birthday!!), we went to the church Easter egg hunt.  The boys had a TON of fun!!!

Here are some pictures of them hunting eggs and eating candy.

And some other pictures of them enjoying the festivities.  Austin looks thrilled, huh?

What a great egg hunt.  So nice that Aidan & Anson are finally big enough to enjoy something like this together!!

So, between school & 4 kids, I have very little free time.  And honestly, what free time I do have, I spend it on Facebook.  Anyway, now it’s time to catch-up our blog (especially since people actually do check the darn thing and Ricky asked me to put some pictures out).

First, Christmas —

So, for Christmas eve, I bought a pre-built gingerbread house for the boys to decorate.  Ricky helped them and I think it turned out really good!

Then we baked some cookies and I helped the boys decorate those.  And then they got to eat them!  YUMMY!  I also baked a cake for us to sing Happy Birthday to Jesus.

Then — Santa!  The boys were SO EXCITED and Aspen had no clue what was going on … but she loved it anyway!

Opening presents was so much fun.  Grandma & Uncle David came over … and then Grandpa & Linda came over.  The children RACKED UP on some toys Christmas Day.  We were overloaded!!!!

The day after Christmas, Ricky took vacation and we took the children to McWane.  We knew they would love to see the trains exhibit before it was gone!  They also played some on different things that were there.  On our way out, we noticed the hurricane machine.  Ricky got in with all the boys – and as  you can see from the picture on the lower right, Aidan & Anson were pretty scared.  I guess living at the coast isn’t a very good idea until they get a little older, huh?

Now, on to January.  The biggest event in January was Aidan’s class trip to the circus.  Ricky took a vacation day so we took the little ones (Aidan, Anson and Aspen) the the circus.  It was the first time for all of them!

All of these were taken when we first got the circus, found our seats and got settled.

More pictures from the circus.  Everyone started getting tired – and Aspen crashed … she just couldn’t hang!

The kiddos had lots of fun and thank you Clearbranch for the AWESOME seats!!!

In February, we had a rare occurrence – snow in Alabama.  In fact, this past winter was an unusually cold & snowy winter for us.  The kids loved it!!!

Pictures of the boys playing in the snow.  Anson took a few tumbles but he didn’t let him stop him from playing hard.  And I think we still have the snowballs they put in the freezer!

Aspen got the enjoy the snow a little as well.  It was too cold out for her to stay outside long but she did love being able to go outside and experience it.

More to come later.  I’ve been here for awhile already … time for a little break.