Week from you know where...

What a week for poor Zachary! We celebrated their birthday on Saturday and on Sunday afternoon he ended up with a fever. We would have NEVER expected what was going to happen next. We were still planning on celebrating their actual birthday with a dinner out. Well Monday came and we still had a fever which at this point is in the medium range. So we cancelled dinner out. Tuesday, their birthday, we ended up at the doctors office. The only symptom...a fever...a very high fever. His throat did look sore and with such a high temp (104.9 prior to leaving for the doctor's office) she felt it may be Strep throat. We did the test....it came back negative and eventually the culture did too. We did get antibiotics right away. Wednesday comes no improvement, in fact he is now showing signs of a viral infection (runny nose, cough and rash). We are barely keeping his fever at bay...we were making it just 6 hours between doses of Motrin. Six hours is the minimum amount of time between doses and we were just barely making it, the fever would spike to high amount right before I could dose him. So I called the doctors office...they said keep doing what I was, give the antibiotics time to work...normally 48 hours is the ideal amount of time to give for symptoms to start to slow. Wednesday he spiked again at 104.8, so I stripped him down, put a cool cloth on his head and made him drink water. So Thursday morning we are back at the doctor's office...a few more symptoms. Now it is starting to look like Mono...grrrreeeeat, just what I want to run thru my house! So we took some blood...Zach is such a trooper. Friday I finally got the fever to break...wooo hooo! By Sunday Zach was looking more like himself. Monay I got back the Mono test...negative...thank goodness. So it was a really BAD case of Tonsilitis. I felt awful for him...he barely ate, could barely stay awake and would use all his energy trying to play and then get pooped out. It was nice to see the real Zach on Sunday. The other two enjoy seeing him too. They were a little bit jealous of all the attention that Zach was getting. Just happy he is better and we can go back to school! After dinner one night the boys decided to operate the remotes...too cute.

A note from Jeremy

Hi all,

Jen has been doing all the posts on our blog for the past two years or so. But I thought it was time for me to put a quick note on here. As most of you probably have read on here or Facebook Jen has been super busy for the last few weeks. Yes, she found a way to do even more stuff than before!! Because I had a relapse with my back issues I am able to do very little around our house or take care of the kids, which meant she has had to do even more than normal to keep things running around our house. She planned and delivered the kids' birthday party flawlessly while taking care of the additional responsibilities around the house and me. All the other things she does and has done for me and the kids are too numerous to list out here. But it is necessary for me to let her know I do appreciate it all. Thanks, Jen! You're a great mom and wife!

Love,
Jeremy

Birthday pictures

Ice cream cake anyone???
One more time being sung to...

Time for presents...helicopter for each boy...

pom-pom for Liz...and yes they are Tinkerbell...

Footballs for the boys...

and dinosaurs too...

princess jewelry to play with her new vanity...

a couple monster trucks...

princess necklaces too...

an ambulance, firetruck and a couple other trucks for the boys

Happy 3rd Birthday

Dear Alexander,
Happy birthday! I cannot believe you are three years old. You are such a handsome boy. So many traits just like your daddy. You are so caring and loving. You are a thinker. You are also goofy and know when to let your hair down. Hearing you crying when the doctor's took you out of me was the MOST amazing thing I have ever experienced. You paved the way a during your NICU stay and was the first to come home and break us in as first time parents.

Dear Elizabeth,
Happy birthday little girl! You are three today...that time has flown by. You are our little princess/diva. You are so pretty. You may be the only girl but you hold your own with your brothers. You are tough yet tender. You are playful and goofy. You are a very loving! You are a little cuddle bug! You can be a girlie girl but a tom boy too. I like to think you are a mini me.

Dear Zachary,
Happy birthday honey! Three years ago you had a tough start to life, but fought and made it. You had to fight battles thru your NICU stay but once you started turning corners you never looked back. You are our tough guy. You are so incredibly loving. You are carefree and love to have fun. You are too darn cute. I think you are a good mixture of your daddy and me.

To my babies (as that you will always be):
In the early morning hours of February 16th, 2007 my life changed forever. You have made me complete. Little did I know I had such a big hole in my heart. You have filled it and continue to fill it. I could not imagine life without all of you in it. It has been such a journey, a journey I would do again. You are all smart, beautiful, caring, kind, loving, funny, have smiles that light up a room and on and on. I (and your daddy too) love you more than life. I am so lucky to hold the title of your mommy. A title I take very serious! Happy Birthday my loves!!! Bring on the three's!
Love, Mommy

It's Party Time!!!

Yesterday was the kids' birthday party. This year we decided to change things up a bit and give me less stress. Instead of having the party here we went to Family Fun Land. It made it so much easier on me...did not have to cook, did not have to clean, did not have to decorate. They did it all for us. The only thing I had to worry about was the cake aka my migraine maker (self induced). The theme for the party was Finding Nemo. I struggled for a while to figure out what to do then one day Jeremy ask about Nemo...talk about a ton of bricks hitting a person...there it was staring at me...thank you honey! So here he is:
We did have guests and I wanted to get the cleaning done but it did not happen and you know what, that is ok. There will be plenty of time to worry about a clean house after the kids leave home, but they only turn 3 once! Nana, Papa and the girls came to stay Friday night with us. The kids loved having them here. Here are the 6 kids eating breakfast...

One of my biggest concerns about doing the party at the fun land was being able to spot our kids anywhere. It was going to be a busy day at fun land as well as other people watching the kids. Wanted to make it easy for everyone. My first thought was orange shirts...kinda like Nemo. Well go figure I could not find plain orange shirts. So the next color I found green...it worked just fine. The next step was to make them recognizable from the front and back. With a little help from an iron on I was able to make a unique shirt for each of them...birth order on the back...

and first names on the front. The shirts worked great! I was able to go into the play area and find everyone quickly. Plus they are not only for this occassion but as a regular shirt too.

One thing we try to do every time we have all 6 Lenzendorf grandkids together is to get a picture of them together. All in birth order: Mackenzie & Alex, Morgan & Liz, Maddie & Zach.

Quick picture with the cake before it was time to play...next time we see Nemo he will not look so great...lol.

Zach and Alex looking out the big monkey's eyes.

Alex on the run...

Liz on the run...

Zach on the run...

Luckily the kids have 3 cousins. Each girl watch one of the kids. Mackenzie and Alex in a moment after coming down a slide...

Morgan helping Liz on the zip line...

Maddie had the hardest job of watching Zach. He literally would get down the slide first and hit the ground running and even look back to see if Maddie was behind him yet. Luckily Maddie is the youngest/smallest of the girls cuz Zach we weave thru the obstacles very quickly.

All 6 bouncing in the bounce house...

After playing it was time for lunch and cake. Liz waiting anxiously to blow out her candles...

Alex wondering where one of his candles went...

Zach wondering if he can blow them out yet...

Every birthday party needs birthday hats...

Liz liking the cake...

Alex enjoying the cake...

Zach enjoying mostly frosting...

Then it was onto presents...

and cards. People were very generous as always.

After going around and saying thanks and giving hugs it was out to the game area...basically a kids vegas. Here Sarah helping Liz and Alex at a game...

Zach getting a lift from his godfather, Fred...

Fred, Sarah and Grover (Alex's godfather) helping all three win big...

It is all about the tickets...look at those!!!

Then we have to cash them in...how many do we have???

And the prizes...we fell way short of the 6000 tickets needed for the giant Mickey Mouse but we did walk away with a few snakes, hacky sacks and bracelets.

We had a blast!!! The ride home was a quiet one. We figured we would have a little down time with a nap but that was not the case. The kids went to their room but never fell back to sleep, so it was not long before they were back downstairs ready to play with all their new things. Mommy and daddy were ready for a nap! Oh well, they had a great as did we. We loved watching the kids interact with everyone. We hope everyone had a good time!

Love, Jen

Did you know???

Did you know that three years ago Brittany Spears shaved her head and Anna Nicole Smith died!!! Something that I will always know. Why? Well when you are stuck in a hospital bed with limited channels you are forced to watch things over and over again especially on late night tv. Three years ago today (it was a Friday) I was admitted to Labor & Delivery. It all started the night before, with having some strange symptoms. At this point I was no longer climbing the stairs at home and sleeping downstairs by myself. My comfort level was pretty low. I had worked earlier in the week, but was sent home early on those days. I was planning on going into work to tell my boss and co-workers that my last day would be Saturday. Little did I know that I would be calling them to tell them that I was going to the hospital. That Friday was very long for us...constant monitoring. It took all day to finally see our Perinatologist. She admitted me to the Antepartum unit to get the steriod shots and would be released Sunday if all went well. I was happy to hear that considering I threw together my bag as well as quickly said goodbye to my four-legged kids with all intentions of coming home. Sunday turned out to be bad...I went into pre-term labor (which they believe I was in Thursday night, but it had stopped). They started me on Mag and told me I bought myself a ticket to stay for the duration of the pregnancy. I bawled! The week ahead was rough. They got the pre-term labor to stop and took me off of the Mag, but it started up again. They put me back on Mag. Jeremy was being run ragged. He would go to work, stop at home to take care of the dogs and then come see me. There were worries about something happening and him not being able to get to the hospital in time. In order to keep us both sane we decided to have him visit every other day unless something was happening. He visited on the 13th so we celebrated Valentine's day then. He then visited on the 15th...who knew that day was going t be the longest day of our lives...literally! There are so many memories from that week three years ago. I had wonderful nurses, had ups and downs all week, did not get much rest and more. But all of it worth it in the end! And the movie goes on....

Here is the last picture of my belly...this was at my baby shower that was 20 days prior to being admitted to the hospital...

A visit from Nana and Mackenzie

This weekend we had some visitors. Nana and Mackenzie made the trek across the state to come see the kids. They got here Friday night before bedtime. The kids were very excited about them coming. I told them in the morning and used it all day long to my advantage...you use what you can when parenting, right! Saturday Jeremy and I got out TOGETHER! Nana and Mackenzie took care of the crew while we did some shopping together. Thanks to them were able to go out for lunch...couple time...does not happen much here! So BIG thinks to Nana and Mackenzie! When we got home the kids were still napping. After some talk, it was decided that they would stay one more night, which we were very happy to hear. The kids loved having them here and playing with them. Here are some pictures from their visit. Looking forward to seeing them and the rest of the family for their party.
Love, Jen
Liz and Zach attacking Mackenzie
Mackenzie reading to Zach

Liz taking a picture of Zach and Mackenzie

Mackenzie showing Alex a picture on her phone...