50th Wedding Anniversary

This year, on April 23rd, my parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.  We commemorated the event with a reception held in their honor.  All of my brothers and sisters took part in planning and carrying out the festivities, including a small family reunion with some of the Oberholtzer side of the family.  It was a wonderful experience to work with my siblings on this project.  I love them each so much and kind of miss the weekly group hangouts via internet that we had as the plans started coming together.  The event itself turned out to be fantastic. Lots of friends and family traveled to be there for the special night.  We also surprised my parents with a handmade quilt with the handprints of each of the children, spouses, and grandchildren.  I am grateful to be part of this family.  They have always been a strength to me in so many ways.  One of my favorite things to do is to get together with them all. I am also grateful for the wonderful examples I have in my parents.  I wish I knew their secret to raising a family that all gets along as adults!  Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

Presenting the quilt to Mom and Dad

Some of the Oberholtzer side of the family, including my dad's brother and sister, and some of my cousins.

Zander turns 7

I have no idea where the past 7 years have gone!  It is amazing how time just keeps marching on.  We celebrated Zander's birthday with a family celebration and then invited friends to the park for a party.  I put my cake decorating skills to the test and made a pretty sweet R2D2 cake.  I love my Z-man so much!  I can't believe how much spunk is in his little body!  He loves Legos, Star Wars, Video Games, and math.  He came to Earth with an extremely strong will that helps me hone my parenting skills.  It makes me wonder what kind of trials he will face in his life to have been blessed with such a strong will. I am sure he will do anything he puts his mind to.  I just hope he uses his powers for good and not evil!

Look at My Little Readers!!

I love that both of my kids love to read and this a common scene around the house.  I don't even have to ask them to read!  Sometimes I have to make them stop to do other things!  Love these two little nerds!

Zander's Hospital Stay

In January, Zander came down with a stomach flu.  He would be sick all night and then by the next afternoon feel better so I kept thinking he was getting better.  Then the next night he would be sick again.  This went on for a few days. Haylie got sick during that time and got over it in a day so when Zander still wasn't better we took him into the doctor.  The doctor told us that some stomach flus that were going around were lasting for 6 or more days.  We were on day 4 so we figured we had a couple more days to tough it out.  Finally, after a week, I took him back into the doctor because he wasn't keeping anything down and was becoming dehydrated.  The doctor told us that he didn't like what he was seeing and wanted to admit him to the hospital right away.  I went into a bit of a panic.  I was supposed to be to work to teach school in about 30 minutes and I was worried about what was wrong with Zander.  Thankfully, I worked with a wonderful team teacher who rounded up a sub and made up some lesson plans, and Dave met us at the doctor's office and calmed me down a little.  Usually in cases like these, it is a matter of  rehydrating for a day and then things start to turn around.  He ended up in the hospital for 5 nights.  Even after having the IV and getting rehydrated, he still was having diarrhea and throwing up.  We had blood tests, xrays, and ultrasounds and on paper he was the picture of good health.  The only thing that we didn't have back were some of the stool culture tests.  Finally, things started to look up and he started eating more and keeping it inside and we finally got to go home.  We found out later that the culture that tested rotavirus came back positive.  Rotavirus is a pretty common virus that many people get.  We figure that it hit him hard because he had recently been on antibiotics so there was no bacteria in his stomach to help fight off the bug.  I am so thankful for good health!  I am also thankful for modern medicine that is available to us.

Zander feeling better finally!

He was one sick little guy!