Thanksgiving, Birthday, Sickness and Scares

     I have been super busy lately with my guys!  We had Thanksgiving at our house this year and most of Phillip's family got to come down for a visit.  Big family, crammed house but we all enjoyed it.  The boys got to play with their cousins James and Abigail and they all had so much fun.  Being that there were 6 kids total there was not a dull or quiet moment in the Hearne house, haha!  Thanksgiving dinner was delicious!  It was Phillip's first time to smoke some turkeys and like anything he cooks, it tasted like a little piece of heaven.  I totally ate a gazillion yummy leftovers over the next couple of days.  Food just seems to get even better after it's been refrigerated!

Jake as an Indian at school during their pow-wow.

    

Cutting one of the turkeys, yum!

The kids loved getting wagon rides.

Giving Mommy his best Thanksgiving smile!

He was napping during Thanksgiving dinner but woke up ready to eat.

Some trampoline fun!

Jesse and Aunt Angela

Grandma with two of her grandsons

Jake having a shoot-out with Grand-dad

The guys hard at work, haha!

The delicious spread of food!!

     While family was in town we also got to celebrate Jude's 1st birthday by going to Gatti's Town for lunch followed by a little football themed party here at our house.  I cannot believe my baby is 1!  Didn't I just bring him home from the hospital a few months ago??  Lol.  I dressed him up in a Cowboy's outfit with some cute football leggings(which got no love from Daddy BTW).  My favorite part was when Jude dug into his "smash cake".  He absolutely enjoyed it! 

 These were taken the day of his actual birthday.

After a ton of pics with Jude looking down or not being still Jake came to my rescue and got this guy to laugh.

Sort of a tradition for us now, going to DQ for birthday treats.

Daddy and Jude dude ready to eat.

Very first time to eat ice cream!

And this was his poor face after it was gone, lol.

Birthday Party later on that week.

Halfway to becoming Shrek, haha!

He totally dug in here.

My lil football player likes to dance.

Mr. Lucky Jes scored the jackpot!

Cannot believe Joe Joe rode this; he was very brave and giggled the whole time.

Roller coaster simulator...I miss the real thing!

Deal or NO Deal! They came out pretty good with Dad being smart and taking the deal after 2 cases were left.  Turned out they had the case with the most cash though...of course. Lol.

     That following week we all got the dreaded stomach flu virus.  That crap lasted what seemed like an eternity and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.  I've never been that ill before!  Poor Phillip got the short end of the stick since he was the janitor who had to deal with the upchuck.  Jude had it Monday, then Joey Tuesday, followed by me that evening, and Jesse in the middle of the night.  Phillip was a lifesaver and nursed us all and he had no time to rest afterwards because he got it the next morning. 

     On that same week while Joey was getting sick, Jude was eating in his highchair.  I was in chaos-mode and after he finished I went over and took his tray off but I forgot to grab a paper towel to clean him up and stupidly ran to get one.  All during a 5 second period he stood up and slipped out, landing directly on his head on our ceramic tiled floor.  I saw it all in slow motion and couldn't get there fast enough.  His sweet little face seemed to spell out "oh no" right before he fell. It was one of the most terrifying things I've ever experienced as a mother.  He was crying, I was crying, but thank God he was moving.  We iced his head right away, which was a little red.  He seemed fine afterwards and there was no bump so based on all that(and Joey currently throwing up everywhere)me and Phillip knew if we took Jude to the E.R. we'd probably be sent home with an arrogant response like, "he's fine, kids are resilient, just watch him closely over the next few days". 

     We like to think that we know how to handle everything because we have 4 kids and we've "been there, done that"...for the most part.  Well, I will never assume such nonsense again.  Day 2 after the accident Jude woke up with side of his head badly swollen.  In a completely not-funny-at-all sort of description, it was egg-shaped on one side.  I drove him to the children's E.R. crying hysterically, praying, and thinking my child was bleeding internally.  The doctor in the E.R. looked over his head and said since it was significantly swollen they would need to run a CT.  Jude was the best baby ever, he was still during the entire scan and they got the images they needed in one try.  Afterwards the doctor informed me Jude had a hematoma and they were unable to detect a fracture but were still waiting on the radiologist's opinion of the scan.  I was rejoicing and felt so relieved! 

Swollen on his left side

Really noticeable right around his left eye

     Then thirty minutes later she came back and said the radiologist confirmed there was a small skull fracture; it was like someone had punched me in the stomach.  While I was quickly losing my grasp on my emotions she said they called the neurologist and we'd need to wait to see what he wanted to do.  What little I knew about medical terms I knew enough to know that hematoma and nuerologist meant something was wrong.  Nurses came in next to hold him down as he screamed and fought to try to find a vein on his tiny wrist.  They got the IV in and took his blood and double wrapped his lower arm with a brace and tape.  I just knew he was going to go into surgery and I was bailing. 

Playing peek-a-boo with doctors, nurses and anyone else walking by.

My poor baby :(

     Thankfully prayers were answered when the neurologist came to speak to me and said the words, "he's going to be fine".  He informed me that skull fracture was a very small one and should heal with time because he was so young.  They do want me to take Jude back in January to confirm he's healing properly and that the fracture doesn't become a "growing fracture".  So we aren't completely out of the woods but I know that God is watching over Jude and with the power of prayer the appointment will prove he's okay.  December 1st will go down in history as one of the most scariest days ever!  We are all incredibly thankful, times like this really make you count your blessings.