When I think back on this winter I immediately get the chills thinking about how cold it was. We had the coldest January Utah has had since 1946! Poor Mason didn't get to go outside for recess from the time he came back after Christmas break until mid February because it never got warm enough. It felt like everything was covered in a layer of ice. While driving to and from school (because that's the only time we left the house) the kids loved seeing who could spot the biggest icicle. This wasn't too hard since every house had icicles that were several feet long hanging from the roof. I have lived in Orem my entire life and have never seen icicles like this before. Being trapped inside by the cold was only compounded by all the sickness that was going around. After over a year of no sick visits to the Dr for any of our kids we got slammed by sickness over and over again all winter long. Runny noses, coughs, croup, pink eye, pneumonia, stomach bugs, RSV, and throw in some nasty migraines and morning sickness for me. You name it, we had it at least once. But even with all of the sickness that went through our family we felt very blessed that A: It was never too serious, just annoying and B: Scott avoided almost all of it so he could keep up with his crazy school schedule.
Poor Brynn had the roughest time of all the kids. I don't know why it is, but her little body is just not as resilient as our boys when it comes to fighting sickness. Back in September she had one bought of croup that landed us in the hospital because her narrow airways just clamped down so tight. 
After a night of steroids and racemic epi treatments we were discharged. On our way home Scott called me from a family fun fair he had taken the boys to at UVU saying he had entered Brynn in a drawing to win a bike, but she had to be present to win. They were about to do the drawing so he said we should stop by on our way home just in case her name was drawn. Anyone who has had a child receive racemic epi knows how lousy they feel afterward. Looking back at my sick, lethargic, jammie clad daughter I didn't think it was a very good idea, but it was on the way, so I figured we could pull into the parking lot for a minute. As soon as we pulled in I got out of the car to hear Brynn's name being called as the winner of the bike. It was a pretty pathetic sight as we drug her up in front of the crowd in her jammies and tried to get her excited about her new bike, but she just sat limply on the bike begging to go home. Parents of the year, I tell you.
A few days later and she was very excited to have a new girl bike and helmet!
One other noteworthy experience with Brynn happened in December. In late November the kids and I all got hit with a pretty nasty cough. I'm the worst mom ever and never take my kids to the doctor unless I know there is something they can do for it (i.e. ear infections, strep throat, or croup that require medication). There is nothing more annoying then going and getting a pat on the back as they say it's a virus and you'll just have to wait it out, and let's be honest, it's always a virus. Mason was over it in a couple of days, Miles in a week, and me in a couple weeks. Brynn, however, just kept coughing and coughing for over 3 weeks. Everyone else had gotten over it on their own, so I figured she just needed more time. She would have these coughing fits at night after she went to sleep where she would get coughing so hard she would often times throw up. So one night I woke up at 4am to Brynn sobbing downstairs. I figured she had been having a coughing fit again so I ran down to find her standing next to her bed with blood smeared all over her face. I couldn't quite figure out what had happened and she was too hysterical to tell me so I figured it must have been a bloody nose. I took her up and bathed her and cuddled with her until she settled down. After she was asleep I walked into the downstairs bathroom to soak her jammies and found bloody vomit all over the bathroom. I took her to the doctor and he felt like it was most likely a Mallory Weiss tear. He was very concerned about her cough and actually thought she had pertussis. After all the tests it turned out to only be pneumonia. A couple days on some heavy duty antibiotics and she was like a new girl!
Brynn has always had serious anxiety when it comes to the doctor, but thanks to her new found favorite TV show, Doc McStuffins, Brynn was quite the trooper through her many doctor/hospital experiences this year. She even says she wants to be a nurse like Mommy and loves to take care of her stuffed animals.
All of the sickness has cleared up and we have been healthy for several months now! Wahoo!!
But it was definitely one cold and sick winter to remember.
