Cason's Party

We had Cason's 6th birthday party on Friday. He wanted to have it at the trampoline park again which is easy, fun, and wears the kiddos out----sounds great to me :)

Thanks so much to everyone who came out to help Cason celebrate his 6th birthday---he had a blast!!!

I didn't get very many pictures and I completely forgot to get a group photo this year. I guess we were just having too much fun :)

Our week in pictures

This little boy is starting to look so grown up! 

It's hard to get a picture of all 3 kids looking at the camera

We ate at Benihanas for my 35th birthday. The kids have never been before and they really enjoyed it! They liked the rice, they loved watching them cook, and they loved the ice cream. They just picked at their meat and veggies :(

I sure am blessed to be able to spend my birthday with these 4...

On Thursday, Cason and Corbin were playing on our patio when Cason ran right into Chloe's baby swing (little pink plastic one). We drove down to our pediatrician (after I texted the picture to several of my girlfriends to ask their advice on whether or not I should take him in---thank goodness for mama friends). Dr. G glued him right up and sent us on our way.

Before glue

After glue...

The next day...

Cason's spring soccer pics....

We sure do love this team!

Life Lately

Chloe finally started babbling a little bit...

I have to wake sweet Corbin up from his naps on Mondays and Wednesdays to go pick Cason up from school. He does not like to be woken up. On this day he laid down on Chloe's floor with her lovey and went back to sleep while I got her all ready to leave :)

Miss Chloe is a happy little girl...

I took the kiddos to the trampoline park last Friday for Toddler Jump and we ran into a friend. They love Harper :)

During the very few breaks we get from the rain, we have been getting out for bike rides. This was Chloe's first bike ride...

Cason got a new "big boy" bike for his birthday. He chose bright green of course. We have been having fun breaking it in with the Van Sickles :)

Our crazy crew...

We were supposed to have our last soccer game last weekend but it was rained out so we had our trophy ceremony at the donut shop. The boys loved it!

Corbin's Spring Sing

Corbin's class had their Spring Sing program last week and I'm so glad Chloe and I were able to go watch him. I was thinking he might stand up there and not sing a single word like he did with this Mother's Day program but he really did great! He was quiet at first but he really warmed up towards the end. We were so proud of him...

I think he looks so old in this picture---I can't believe he will be 4 in August! 

Here are a couple of videos where he was really getting into participating and I don't know why they look so pitiful on youtube---they look good on my phone :(

Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes

Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes (FAST)

Tootie-Ta (this one is my favorite!)

6 Year Well Check

Before I update about Cason's 6 year well check, I first need to go back and give a little update about what's been going on with Cason lately. Cason has had strep 5 or 6 times over the past year. Cason and Corbin have always had it together with the exception of one time in March when Corbin had it all by himself.

The last time Cason had strep was at the end of February. They treated it with antibiotics and all was well for a few days. Then about a week after we finished the medicine Cason started having lots of problems with joint pain. At first we thought it might be growing pains but it seemed too painful for that to be the case.  It was so bad a few times that he refused to stand up, walk, or even let us move him to his bed. This went on for about 3 weeks and we ended up taking him the the doctor a couple of different times. They thought it was either Toxic Synovitis or it was a reaction to the strep. Then, once morning he woke up and his wrist was warm, swollen, and he refused to move it so I took him back to the doctor. They sent us to have blood work done---the doctor though it might be Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis. However, his blood work all looked good except for it was still showing strep in his system (even though the throat swab was negative). His symptoms disappeared a couple of days after that. They wanted us to have a follow up with a pediatric rheumatologist just to be sure everything was okay even though the symptoms had gone away. 

We met with the rheumatologist a couple of weeks ago and she said that Cason had what is called Post-streptococcal reactive arthritis. His little body just had an abnormal response to strep. The rheumatologist said that because he reacted in this way to strep it is likely that he would react that way again and that it might last longer and be less responsive to Motrin in the future. The other main concern is that the people that get post-streptococcal reactive arthritis are also more likely to have it develop into rheumatic fever. Rheumatic fever can cause permanent damage to the heart so it is the recommendation from the American Heart Association that anyone that has post-streptococcal reactive arthritis be treated with penicillin for a year following the episode. So she wants us to keep Cason on penicillin twice a day every day for a year in an effort to avoid him getting strep again for at least 1 year. Cason has been such a trooper about taking his medicine every day even though I think it tastes really bad. 

So you can imagine my surprise when I take him to his 6 year well visit today and get told that both he and Corbin have STREP!!! Even though neither child has any symptoms, even though Cason has been on preventive penicillin every day to keep him from getting strep, and even though poor Corbin doesn't even have any tonsils (this is Corbin's 3rd time to get strep since having his tonsils taken out). 

We are just praying that Cason's little body will not have an adverse reaction this time and that it will not develop into arthritis or rheumatic fever. 

The doctor just thought his tonsils looked enlarged today while he was checking him out so he ran a strep test just to see and sure enough it was positive. I'm so glad we were there because I would have never known. Corbin's strep test was a faint positive so they said he most likely got it from Cason who they think is a carrier. So the next thing on our agenda is to get Cason's tonsils out as soon as possible. We were at the doctors office for a very long time---and with a baby and 2 wild boys it seemed like were were in a three-ring circus! I'm sure they were glad to be rid of us :)

If you are still reading this super long post, you'll be happy to know that everything else with his well check was great.

Weight: 53 pounds (83%)

Height: 47.3 inches (80%)

Cason and Madi were both at the pediatrician today for their 6 year well checks but we had to stay away from them so we wouldn't pass along any germs. I sure do love these two and I can't believe they've gotten so big!