Jen's Baby Blog

Lets get ready to ruummmmmblllleeee!

2011-03-25T14:15:00.000-07:00

That's pretty much what life has been like since we've been back. I'm not a Mom, I'm a referee! Just in this first few sentences I've already detached Carson from Taylor's hair, been bitten through my pants enough to bleed, and just set the clock for time out number 3. Ah, the joys of sibling rivalry. I hope it's not always like this. Luckily (?) it's only this crazy when we are at home, if we are out and about they are generally pretty good, and nice to each other. No wonder I want to stay out all of the time!

So yes, I apologize (again) that I have not updated the blog in FOREVER... I've been overwhelmed, and consumed by mommy hood, work (which I've since cut back on), roller derby, and well..life gets away from you quickly.

So yes.. back to January! Taylor celebrated her 3rd Birthday. We ended up just having it at home, took her out for pizza (her favorite), and to play some games. In the middle of January I also joined the local roller derby team. Call me crazy, but I LOVE IT! It took me a bit to get the hang of being on skates again, but it's coming along nicely. We had our first bout of the season on March 12, but I wasn't on the roster that time. I AM on the roster for our April 9th bout in East Texas, so I'm super excited about that. We also got a double jogger, and I put my skates on and skate around the neighborhood or down by the river and get some good exercise!

Also in January business started picking up for me, I was getting a LOT of orders and working pretty much all night and running errands a lot of the mornings when Drew was home to get supplies, fabric, etc. In February, I started working out of a local childrens consignment store/boutique doing embroidery, and custom orders. Unfortunately it was keeping me busy all of the time, and I was missing out on quality time with Drew and the kids so after some discussion we decided I would cut back on that as well as custom work for a while.

A couple of weeks ago I spoke with the school where Taylor and Carson do Mom's Day Out to see if we could switch her to preschool mid year. I've been feeling like I'm not able to stimulate her enough at home, and the kids needed more time apart because they are fighting constantly. They were willing to do it, but didn't want to throw her in with a new teacher so instead of actually putting her in preschool, I take her to her MDO class 4 days a week, and pick her up at the usual preschool time (12:15 instead of 2) except on Friday's since both kids are there.

After two weeks, going for 4 days she's already progressed in leaps and bounds. She's talking to her teachers regularly now, and she enjoys every day she is at school. She learns a lot and while the kids still fight, it's a bit of an improvement, as well as giving Carson some good one on one time with Drew and I.

Carson is growing like a weed, he's starting to repeat what we say when we ask him to and he is getting more verbal. He loves to sing his ABC's, though he misses a lot of the letters. I'll try and get it on video at some point! He has always had good comprehension, but he wasn't big on talking much. He has a lot more toddler speak than Taylor did so we don't understand much of what he says, but he's getting there. He's very stubborn, he doesn't like us to read him books, that would require him to sit still, he isn't big on learning things like body parts. He'd much prefer running around making messes, noise and climbing, or beating up on his sister.

*edit* It has now been an additional 10 days since I started this blog. I never got the photos uploaded and then it got busy again.

Last week we had spring break so the kids were both home all day all week and full of the crazies. It took both Drew and I to keep them busy. Two extremely strong willed children I tell you. At least they are super cute to make up for it.

Anyway, on to photos!!!

A snow day in Louisiana!

Carson is apparently allergic to penicillin. You should have seen the rest of his body, but his poor feet were swollen and he was covered in welts and hives that didn't go away for a couple of days. It wasn't until the end of his antibiotics that this happened. SCARY!

On our way to get Drew his dream car!!

He DID it!

Alright everyone.. don't FREAK out! Yes, this is my thigh. Yes it's a real tattoo. Yes it takes up a large area. I LOVE it!! This is my newest piece of art. I got it in march.
The kids actually getting a long for a few minutes.

Handsome Man!

I think they are related.

Drew doing his thang

This is Kevin, he's the one who watched our dogs while we were in CA in Nov/Dec. He also works with Drew.

Just like Mama.. it was empty :)

Carson helps

Taylor helps

A couple of photos from our first Derby bout in March. I wasn't on the roster but my job was still awesome!! I skated around wiping up beer spills and getting the crowd to do the wave.

Kids playing with water

This is our friend (and Drew's coworker) Chris. He's good peoples.

Carson going for a drive

Drew and Chris deep in thought.. probably about cars.

Drew's freshly washed car... the other love of his life ;)

Hanging around while Taylor was napping!

Glad we have such good dogs!

"Helping" me to unload the dishwasher.

These are pics from my FIRST EVER derby bout! It was SOOO fun! I can't wait until the next one in May! We lost this one 117 to 97, but it was a great game.

Hanging out in the yard on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. It ended having a BBQ with Chris and Drew and I going skating!

Well, I guess that's it for now. Now that I'm caught up on the daunting task of sorting through these and waiting for them to upload, I'm HOPING I can do it more frequently. But don't hold me to it okay!

I also have a couple of derby vids, but I'll save those because it's now been another 3 hours of pic uploading and it's almost 1AM! EEK!

HAPPY MONDAY!!

We're home!

2010-12-18T15:25:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I realize I haven't posted in FOREVER. We left November 18th for our trip to CA and I was slammed with orders up until a couple of days before we left so if I had a kid free moment I was either sewing or sleeping!

Our trip to CA was fabulous, we got to see just about everybody! I have tons and tons and tons of photos, but blogger is terrible to upload pics too. If you have facebook, I've posted most of them there as we went through each leg of the adventure.

Just a recap, first we stopped and saw my Grandma Lou, then on the way back to Mom's the next day, we saw my Grandma Helga and a couple of cousins and an Aunt and Uncle, then we went back to Mom's for a few days and hung out there. Shawn was still in NY so I didn't get to see him, but got to hang out with Alan a bit!

Wednesday we left to go to Dad's, and we were busy there! Saw most of the family on Thanksgiving, went to Santa Cruz, had a Birthday/Christmas brunch and a relaxing day. Monday morning we left for San Diego and got to spend a couple of weeks there. The weather was beautiful! We managed to have a few family dinners, hit up the Scripps Aquarium, the Zoo, Balboa Park, we got to spend a lot of time with Jeff, Marnie and Hannah. Taylor and Hannah had a blast together, it was so cute watching them play together!

Our trip back was a lot more smooth than the one there. We drove to Mesa to see Drew's Aunt and Uncle for the evening, then spent the next day at my good friend Ashley's house in Tucson (that is where we would like to get stationed actually!).

Once the kids were ready for bed we loaded them in the car and hit the road. It was 19 hours from Ashley's house to home, but that wasn't too bad since the kids slept on and off for about 10 of it. We got home right about 2pm and still had time to unload the car, let the kids have naps, go get our Christmas tree and do some decorating!!

I'm pretty sure we were sleeping before our heads hit the pillows!

I have to go for now, kids are getting hungry and Drew is at work, so need to manage to cook dinner before melt downs occur!

Piiictures!

2010-09-24T18:13:00.000-07:00

I can't tell you how long it took for these to load! I seriously need to find a better way to share photos. All of these took over an hour! There's still TONS!!! But I'm exhausted and falling asleep at the computer so I'll have to try more later. I still need to share photos of Carson's first birthday!!!

Anyhoo.. here's Taylor modeling a dress I made for her. I'm loving sewing!

A baby bunny we had in our garden.. there were actually 3! They took off though, hopefully before it rained!
Taylor and Carson at the park.

Carson showing off a pattern Iwas working on.. I didn't care for this one (though it looks super cute) but I DID find anohter tie pattern I LOVE! I'll have to post that one later.
I also ran my first 5K!! The Susan G. Komen race for the cure! It took me right about 40 minutes which isn't great, but I finished it.. and I ran as much as I could!!! Well, more like jogged :) I had a great time and look forward to another 5K in my future! We had to be there EARLY though.. about 7AM (Drew and the kids came to support me!) and it was still in the 90s and humid by the time we got running at almost 9!!

Don't know if I can keep up!

2010-09-07T20:16:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't posted in forever!!! Please forgive me! Things have been crazy here...

Lets see... the last big thing was that the kids somehow got Salmonella. Poor Taylor was sick, sick, sick.. but she was still eating and drinking and so she was able to stay home, but Carson ended up dehydrated and we ended up in the hospital with him for 5 days hooked up to an IV to get him feeling better. We didn't know until the day before we were discharged that it was Salmonella!

We don't know how they got it.. our eggs were never on the recall list, so we think that it was a coincidence. I mean, the previous few days, we'd eaten pork, chicken, eggs, the kids are always getting into the trash, or the dog bowls, Carson finds shoes and chews on them, the dogs could have tracked it in... we really just don't know.

Most importantly, they are both back to normal, and their immune systems will be stronger for it! It was a VERY VERY long few weeks though. Carson did not have a remotely solid diaper for 18 days. Taylor went about 10 days, but she was sooo good, she went in the potty the whole time. I think she must have spent most of those days in the bathroom.

Also, my Etsy business has been picking up a bit! I've been selling boppy covers pretty regularly, and a few camera straps. I've also gotten some custom orders for dresses that I've been working on, so I spend a lot of my evenings sewing once the kids go to bed.

My Mom came at the end of July for a few days before heading to a Mary Kay conference in Dallas. My brother Shawn and his girlfriend Emmy came for a day on their way back to school at Syracuse.

Drew is getting ready to go TDY again for a week, then he goes twice in October.

We are still going to Music every Wednesday, and both kids started Mom's Day Out again on Friday. BOY do Drew and I enjoy that 5 hours!!!

Carson had his FIRST birthday! Can you believe it's been a year already??? I can't!!! We just spent the day together as a family. Drew had to go to work that evening, so we had a nice lunch together, let Carson eat his birthday cake (which was a giant cupcake that looked like a monkey!), and open gifts. Taylor took that kind of hard, because you know... EVERYTHING is hers. We're still working on that.

Anyway, he also had gone to the doctor that morning for his 1 year checkup. He was 18.4lbs, and... I forget his height.. but he was in the 3rd percentile for weight, and the 25th for height. He's gone down a smidge on the weight scale (he was at 10%), but considering he was just getting over his illness, the doctor wasn't too concerned.

He's not walking yet, but he cruises the furniture, pushes chairs around, walks a little with the push toy, and if we are holding his hands, but rarely stands and lets go on his own and hasn't tried taking a step without holding on to anything yet. He can crawl like the wind though! He isn't talking a whole lot yet, though his babbling is increasing. He does say Dada, occasionally Mama.. he was saying it a lot, then he stopped and now only says it when he's upset, he says Dogs, and we think he says a few other things that we just can't understand.

Taylor is also doing great.... I think she had a growth spurt because all of a sudden she seems tall! She's still teeny tiny though for her age, mostly wearing 24 month clothes... and SOME 2T. Most of it is way too big in the waist though so we have to make sure her pants are elastic all the way around, or adjustable. I've been making a lot of her clothes lately so I do make them to fit (or a lot of skirts and dresses!)

Her vocabulary is expanding every day. She picks up little things here and there when we don't think she's listening or paying attention. She is speaking in longer and longer sentences. She's getting her own sense of humor and is starting to crack jokes on her own.

We still struggle with her bedtime, but once she's asleep she sleeps great. She likes to pick on her brother, and get out of bed and play. We were doing great with her wearing big girl jammies at night, but then she regressed and started being poopy picasso again so she had to go back into her backwards zippered jammies. It's strange because she goes on the potty before bed... and then still does more once she's in there... I don't know where it all comes from.

We also have exciting news... Carson has slept until 7am the last two mornings!!! I don't know if we had mentioned it before, but for the past few months, he's been getting up around 5AM. For us night owls.. 5AM is early. Luckily I have the best husband ever, and we trade off who gets up.. and whoever gets up, gets to take a nap when the other person gets up. Sometimes we have to swap up for certain obligations, or if Drew is working long hours, I know he needs his sleep so he can perform well at work. He's a champ though, and I appreciate all of his help with the early waking.

So yeah, we've pretty much been sleep deprived for a while. We are either walking around in a stupor trying to keep up with the caffeine, or napping if we can. Another reason why my blog is slacking!

We also have a somewhat new addition. A few weeks ago when we came out of Music class, this kitten came up to us and started purring and rolling around at our feet. It was in a business area with no homes, and somebody that worked there came out and asked if it was ours and we said no. She told us that it had been there all morning and they didn't know where it came from.

Of course, we have more than our fair share of animals, and are short on space. We really didn't want another animal. However we were right on the highway and I didn't want it to get run over, so we took it home to try and find it's owner.. or a home.

Note* Last year there was a dog running along the side of the freeway, but I didn't have the dog gate in the trailblazer, and the kids were in the car.. I thought about going back to get it once I took the kids home, but figured by the time I unloaded them, put the dog gate in, and went back, I wouldn't be able to find him. Well the next morning, I went to get on the freeway and there was the poor dog.. on the freeway, right off of our exit... run over. I. felt. horrible. Not only did the poor dog die.. but in this state, they don't pick up roadkill... so it decomposed for months on the side of the road. Every time I got on the freeway, I had pangs of guilt for not going back and looking for him. I told myself, never again would I not stop for a stray, even if it meant I had to go back. If that would have been one of my dogs, I would have been devastated. So yeah....

back to a few weeks ago. Got the kitten home, and put an ad on craigslist that I had found this kitten and to call or e-mail if it was theirs... waited a few days, then put an ad for the kitten to find a home (as well as on facebook). I got a lot of people telling me "good luck, we're trying to get rid of some too". Oh man! Apparently there are tons of kittens around here looking for homes. Another thing about this area, is that animals are low on the totem pole, and people don't spay or neuter like they do in say.. California. Even in CA it's bad, but nothing compared to here.

So, we have this kitten. It's super sweet, Taylor absolutely adores it. It loves Taylor, it stands up to the dogs, it's determined to be friends with Eibach (Eibach hates it). We don't want to take it to the pound because more than likely it will get euthanized there. It's way too sweet and affectionate of a cat to do that too. So it's still here. We're still trying to find it a home.. asking everybody we know.. showing photos of how cute it is to try and sucker them in.

Drew named it INGA. Which stands for *sigh* "It's Not Going Anywhere".

So... anybody want a kitten????

Okay, I need to get back to my bathroom... I'm painting it tonight and was taking a break for it to dry a little so I could make sure I didn't miss any spots before cleaning up. I don't have any photos right now because I'm not on that computer, but I did want to at least post an update.

If any of you that read this have Facebook, I post updates there fairly often and upload some photos since it's a lot easier to upload there than here... but I will try and get here when I can. I can't guarantee anything! I'm hoping that my Etsy business picks up more (oh.. by the way.. it's www.etsy.com/shope/ALatteCreations). It would be nice if I could supplement our income AND be able to stay at home with the kids! Not counting on it yet, but at least it's helping to pay for the hobby. :)

Hope everyone is doing well!!

Love to you all,
Jen

A picture is worth a thousand words?

2010-07-28T21:55:00.000-07:00

So we've been pretty busy this month...again. Okay, really... when are we NOT busy anymore??? Getting photos processed and uploaded takes the longest...I've been trying to take more photos in an uploadable format so I can do it faster, but I forget. Anyway.... not many words today, but here are some photos from July! I'll post more later, but here are some to tide you over for now. :)

We SURVIVED!

2010-07-01T18:37:00.000-07:00

Well, after a SUPER LONG MONTH, we are still here and alive!

Drew worked some crazy shifts, then spent 10 days in North Dakota at Minot AFB. In the meantime, the kids and I were going to appointments, and classes, and trying to keep as busy as possible to get through these long days without Dada!

First off, let me give you an update on Carson. He is doing MUCH better. A few weeks ago, we had the WORST DAY. It started off, little man woke up with a rash all over his legs and some on his arms. I called the doctor and she said they had me bring him in. She determined it was some type of contact allergy, though we weren't sure what from (maybe sunscreen?). She gave me a prescription for benadryl so we picked that up and came home.

He took a short nap, then woke up and I was trying to feed him and he kept doing this weird seizure looking activity. He would arch his back and squeeze his eyes shut and push his arms out, and scream while he was doing it. He had done something similar before, but never this many times in a row. He was almost doing it non stop for 30 minutes or so. I called the nurse back and she said to take him to the pediatric ER on the far side of town.

As soon as Drew got home to stay with Taylor, we hopped in the car and left. Of course at that moment, a severe thunderstorm decided to strike and I was forced to drive 20mph on the freeway, the rain was so thick I could barely see, it was freaking me out a little.

We finally made it to the ER, soaking wet. The doctor checked him out, and was concerned that they might be complex partial seizures, so he called Carson's neurologist to consult with him. They decided to start him on an anti-epileptic until we could get back in with the neuro.

By the time we got home, we were all exhausted and was in no mood to figure out dinner, so we decided to go out to eat. While I was making Taylor's plate, I cut up a piece of honeydew melon for Carson. A few second later I glanced at him and he was choking on the stupid melon. I'm not one to panic when they are choking, Taylor used to inhale food so fast she'd often choke on little pieces of things and I'd quickly give her the baby heimlich and it would come right up. So, I whipped him out of his seat, and did the same thing. He started crying, so I assumed the melon had come up, but when I sat him vertical, he started choking again. Each time I would put him on his belly and start giving little blows to his back, I'd here him gasp for air and let out a little cry, but every time I sat him up...he'd start choking again. At this point I started to panic when I couldn't get it out, so I yelled for the waitress to call 911. She was standing there the whole time so she had her phone out and ready. I ran up to the front still giving him the baby heimlich trying to get the melon dislodged.. I knew he was getting some air because he'd let out a cry now and then and I could hear him getting small breaths in, but I could not sit him up. I was so scared that I was going to lose his airway that I was afraid to move, and he just had tons of saliva pouring out of his mouth. Finally (after about 3 minutes), the ambulance showed up, and they got us in and checked him out. They couldn't see the melon and they could hear him getting air so they suctioned out his mouth and they decided that he was choking on the mucous that was forming each time he would gag.. which would in turn make more mucous. They suctioned him out some more and had me sit him up and let him calm down, and eventually caught his breath and was fine. Of course, I was bawling by this point, and shaking like crazy. I just wanted to go home.

We got our dinner to go, and came home and all went to bed early.

Worst. Day. Ever.

That was Wednesday, so fast forward to that Friday and we went to his 9 month well-baby appointment. It was a little late, he was actually almost 9.5 months by this point. I have been concerned about his gross motor skills. He still doesn't put his arms out to stop himself from falling over when he's sitting. He wasn't pulling up, but was army crawling a little. While I was filling out the paperwork I was marking "doesn't do this yet" on a lot of the gross motor skills section.

Luckily he has a really pro-active pediatrician (I love her!) and she agreed that we should get him a physical therapy consult to see what they thought. I also showed her the video of Carson's seizure like episodes and then as soon as she watched it, he had one right in front of her. She asked me if he had ever shown signs of acid reflux and I said no, not that we had noticed. She then asked me if I ever heard of Sandifer's Syndrome and I said no. She told me that it's something that's associated with acid reflux and that his movements looked a lot like it. She put in a consult for a pediatric GI doc as well.

So, the following Tuesday we went to the neurologist, and he watched the video and said that those were not seizures and had us stop the anti-epileptic med. He said to follow up with the GI doc to see about Sandifers. We go back to the neuro in October to hopefully be released from his care.

The next Monday (last Monday) was our GI consult. I didn't care for the doctor, but he said the video does look a lot like Sandifers and ordered an Upper GI, as well as starting him on Prevacid, a slow releasing acid blocker. We started that and it seems to be making a BIG difference. Not right away, but now that it's been almost 2 weeks, his episodes have gotten a lot less frequent. Last Thursday was his upper GI. We went in, he had to drink some barium (poor kid was so hungry since he wasn't allowed to eat 4 hours prior, he practically inhaled the barium!) then they took a series of several x-rays to see what it did in his belly. We are still waiting to hear the results, but since we haven't heard yet, I'm assuming we'll have to wait until our recheck appointment on the 19th of July.

Also Thursday he had his physical therapy assessment. Of course, in the week and a half since his doctors appointment, he started pulling up to his knees, and for a couple of days had been pulling up to his feet. He is still army crawling but boy can he fly! So, the physical therapist spent 45 minutes with him doing various tests and exercises to assess his development. We actually just received the written report in the mail today, but essentially, he's slightly (about a month or so) behind on his Locomotion skills. He's slightly ahead on his Stationary skills, and on track for his reflexes. She did show me some exercises to do with him to get him working on his locomotion skills (crawling on all 4's, his protective extension reactions, and standing activities). As long as he keeps on this path, we don't need to take him back, but if he continues to show, or shows more delay, then we will need to reassess his development, but for now.. we're good!

Poor Taylor has been having it rough this last month. She has been showing increasing signs of sibling rivalry. Pushing Carson and chucking things at him. It's hard to blame the kid, with Carson's medical issues and a lot of doctors appointments, and Drew working so much, she hasn't gotten a lot of one on one attention with either of us. It breaks my heart, and I try to do as much as I can, but there is only one of me.

I've been doing some reading on Montessori, and Waldorf teaching methods to try and incorporate into our daily activities. A lot of the problem I think, is that she is under stimulated and my problem is, I'm not sure how to show her how to do new things. We have begun to simplify the amount of toys and increase the imaginary play, as well as getting her hands on with helping me prepare meals and other things. It seems to help some, and I'm hoping we can keep adding things for her to do.

She is definitely a smart cookie! She's talking up a storm (as long as it isn't in public!) and comes up with new things every day to make us laugh. Lately she's been asking "What's That?" about everything. She adds, "huh?" at the end quite often, and I have no idea where she picked that up at! She'll say "What's that, huh?", "Who's that, huh?" Silly goose.

Drew came home on Tuesday afternoon, went in to work Wednesday for a while to in-process, then worked day shift today. He has FOUR WHOLE DAYS OFF, YAY!!! Then starts back normal swing shifts on Tuesday. We are excited to have Dianne (Drew's Mom) here for a few days starting Saturday!

Taylor has been in absolute heaven having her Dada back. She really missed him a lot and it shows. Every time we would see a yellow car, or a man in BDU's, she would say "Hi, Dada!", then I'd have to explain to her that it wasn't Drew. It's very hard, but I'm glad this was just a short trip.

We have also signed her up for Dance classes in the fall. She will be in the 2 year old class on Monday afternoons. I wanted to do gymnastics, but she can't do it on her own until she's 3, and if I have Carson with me, I can't do it with her, so we thought we'd start with something else that she can do for now to see if she likes it. She does love to dance at home, but she also loves to tumble!

Mom's Day Out is going well. She loves to go to "school" and she learns a lot... but apparently in class she never says a word. She's been going for 6 months now and hasn't made a peep. But she plays and participates, and she comes home telling me all about it. She marches to the beat of her own drum... that's my girl!

We are still going to playgroup 1-2 times a week, music class for both kids on Wednesday and sometimes we meet up with our sweet neighbor Martha and her kids Boston and Baylor as well to play. Boston is about 6 months older than Taylor and Baylor is about a month younger than Carson so they all get along well.

I've been hanging in there. Exhausted, because I stay up to late at night working on projects and other things. I've even taken to catching a 30 minute or so nap during the day if I can manage to get both kids to sleep at the same time. Usually they will overlap a little, but Carson is a short napper so it's not usually much of one for me either! I'll take what I can get if it gets me through the day. Also been a little stressed about parenting two kids. Wanting to be able to give everything I have to both of them, and realizing that it doesn't seem to be enough. I'm so thankful that I have a supportive hubby that is so involved with the kids whenever he can be. He never hesitates to keep them both so I can catch a breather, or split them up so we can get some one on one time with each of them, he does most of the outdoor stuff with Taylor since it's so hot and humid for Carson and I.

Drew is really tired of working long shifts, but the exercise should finally be over and he can get back to his regular schedule and have weekends again! I'm glad for him, and for us, because we love having him around!

I'm going to attempt to upload some photos, we will see if blogger is going to agree with me tonight!

Okay, these aren't exactly in chronological order, but I tried. :) Blogger uploads backwards so I always have to rearrange everything and it gets a little tedious so I usually end up just grouping them with the event!

Taylor waking up from a nap to the dogs, they like to give her kisses good morning.
Drew and Carson after giving the kids a bath.
A genuine smile from our little princess.
and the little man too!
He sure loves his pops.

This always makes my heart melt. When they are eating next to each other, Taylor often reaches a hand over to Drew's arm and rests it there. Just telling him that she loves him in her own way. She continues to eat one handed, but you can feel the love there!
and Carson is just happy to have his Cheerios. At a playgroup Birthday Bash at the park. Carson and Miss Bella.
Taylor eating her cupcake.
For some reason I like this photo, she seems like she's growing up so fast!

Sporting his cool hat.
His first time in a swing! He did really well hanging on tight, and he thought it was a blast!

We went berry picking with our friends early one morning. I think it was about 8:30 am before it got too hot, but we were still sweating buckets with the humidity!

Carson was pretty unhappy at this point, but we kept moving trying to keep him consoled. This was around the time he started having a lot of his episodes.
Taylor picking blackberries
She actually spent most of the time playing in dirt.
Learning about which ones were ready to be picked.
With her walking stick.
Some fruits of our labor! I guess vegetables would be the better word ;) Our first take from our garden....curly cucumbers! We made a cucumber salad and it was YUMMY!

Our first tomato, but we never got to eat it (or the next two), the bugs beat us to it. Maybe the next one will get ripe before the bugs find it!Big sister and little brother, coloring!
He's such a ham!

A couple of my projects while Drew was TDY. Recovered the kitchen chairs in laminated cotton. Easily wipeable, and a fun pattern!
I must be on a damask kick because I recovered the glider as well. The ottoman had broken, so I repaired it and since I was doing that I went ahead and recovered the whole thing since it was getting dingy and worn. It's seen a lot of use in the last couple of years!

Love this photo of Taylor, I just want to squeeze her!

At another playgroup, a pool party this time! The hostess had a play set as well, so Taylor was in the big girl swing! Doesn't she have the cutest skinny little legs??

He's going to hate me for this one later. I ran off without his hat and it was pretty sunny out, so one of the other Mom's had an extra hat for her daughter, and we borrowed it. Notice he's NOT smiling this time. Don't tell him I posted this on the web.
She did not want to get out of this pool! First one in, last one out!

So happy to have his Dada back!

Both of them are!
Happy pants.
My wonderful man, and our babies!

That's it for now! Not sure when I'll get to post next, but we should have more time since Drew will be working normally. We haven't planned out the next month very well yet. I know Dianne will be here until the 7th, and then my Mom is coming at the end of the month. Carson has an appointment on the 19th, otherwise it will be the same ol' routine! I'll take photos when I can to post, but it's a lot harder when you have TWO kids trying to grab the camera and usually somebody in my arms! It's always out, I just need to pick it up when I have a free, clean, hand. :)

Love to you all!

12's, 12's, and more 12's

2010-05-27T17:35:00.000-07:00

Well, Drew has been working 12 hour shifts for the last couple of weeks and through the weekend. Trying to keep busy, the kids and I went to Houston from Saturday to Tuesday to see my friend Paula, and her kids (Archer and Ezra) that are the same ages as Carson and Taylor. We had a great time, hung out and chatted, went to the park, the zoo, Taylor and Archer tormented each other (no not really), and we got to see a little bit of Houston!

Drew has the next 4 days off for Memorial day, except he has to go in a little while on Sunday.. then back to 12's until who knows when. They are really killing them with these exercises.. and me too! He's working day shift, so he's gone before the kids get up, and doesn't get home until they are in bed, or almost in bed.

Lets see, a few milestones.... Carson finally cut his two bottom teeth, he is army crawling, but we are still struggling with sitting up on his own. The mommy in me is of course worried, but the Dr. says he's okay, and he CAN sit up.. he will sit up on his own in the bath tub and splash around, but unless he has something right in front of him on the floor, he doesn't sit for long, and he still falls over. He also has started eating regular food with us, not all of it, but mild things like spaghetti, potatoes, bits of fruit, meat. He's doing really well with it, and loves it!

What else, he likes to growl at us now, and he says Dadadadadada, and sings. He loves to look at his reflection. They've both had colds for a bit now, and Carson ended up with an ear infection, so we are treating him for that. We are hoping the symptoms go away soon so he (we) can have a good nights sleep!

Okay, lets see what we have here. This is the newest addition to our furniture. A utility bar for our appliances that we use on a daily (or almost daily) basis. Our counters were always so full that we had just a tiny working space so wanted to get something to put our big appliances out of the way, but still easily accessible. My Dad has this same bar, and thought it would work perfect... and it does! We love it!

Drew and his kidlets.
Oh yeah, I also decided to try my hand at making some cute clothes for Taylor. Yeah, yeah.. I know.. I need another hobby like I need a hole in my head... too late!!! I'm having so much fun making stuff. I'm finally getting the hang of this sewing thing a LITTLE. I love the boutique style clothes, but they are SO expensive. I can make these at a small fraction of the price... and a little time on my part.
Modeling for me.
This is a knot apron dress, one of these by a company called Matilda Jane runs about $68!! Crazy huh....

With a matching headband that you can barely see.
Love this fabric!

Taylor was having a luau day for her Mom's Day Out program. I was looking for Hawaiian themed clothes in her closet, but couldn't find anything so I made her one! She actually picked out the fabric herself (out of about 6 different patterns), she said, "this one Mama, like it!" We had a painting day (outdoors), by the time we were done there was paint on EVERYTHING. She had a lot of fun though. She painted on the last piece of my old background paper. Which reminds me, when Drew is off this crazy schedule I need to take some more studio type pics!

Sooo, I accidentally gave Carson a haircut. Yep. I was going to trim his little long wispy hairs and the guard I grabbed apparently was REALLY short, it looked much longer than I thought it was going to be. Instead of doing a little test area, I just ran it straight down the middle of his head, which was followed by a huge gasp and an "oops". I must admit, I was terribly upset that I inadvertently cut his hair, but now it has grown on me... in fact, we are planning to give him another "trim" here pretty soon! This was right after the incident, and he's happy as a clam!

Eating his first spaghetti dinner, not by gerber.

Playing in their room.

These were at our last music class, well for two weeks anyway, we start the fall session next week!

Hiding scarves.
Carson and Baylor (she is about a month younger than him, and lives across the street from us!)
Martha, Boston and Baylor
Alaina, and Scout (Alaina is the music teachers daughter).
Colby and his Mommy
Dancing to music

We were enjoying being outside a couple of weeks ago and I was snapping photos. I think this was one of the first times Carson was in the actual grass. Poor kid, it was warm, so he was just in a diaper and he had a pretty good rash by the time we went inside.
Picking weeds with Dad
I did not pose these, they were just sitting the same ways..
You can see his teeth cut through here! They are through a lot more now!
Thought this was a funny face!
Taylor, modeling a headband for my friend's Etsy shop!
I love this face!

Visiting our friends. Taylor and Archer.
Carson and Ezra
The closest we got to All 4 of them in a photo at once.

There are more from our Houston trip, but blogger is acting up and not letting me upload so I will try again later. I also have some videos to share, but I need to charge the camcorder battery first!

Well, off to do some more projects and stay up too late!

Love to you all!

More photos!

2010-04-29T20:41:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I'm a slacker. I was intending on heading in to the craft room to upload photos and do some crafting but all of a sudden I got the deep cleaning bug and set to work. Next thing I know it was 11pm! Figured I better get in bed since this morning was my morning to get up. :)

It's 10:45 now and I'm just getting started, but it's Thursday! The night I attempt to watch Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice in between tending to children who are fighting sleep. I think I'm asking for DVR for Mother's Day (hint, hint, babe ;) ).

Anyway, on with the photos!

We finally finished our front yard! We finally decided what we wanted to do with it, spent a couple of weekends at nurseries and planning where and what we wanted to put places.

This is when we came home with our first load of plants! Drew got to work right away. :)

These got a little mixed up, but this was the following weekend. We wanted a smallish tree for the corner but couldn't decide. We thought we wanted a japanese maple, or a crepe myrtle, but at the nursery we fell in love with this Snowball Viburnum and had to have it! Of course the blooms fell off within a week or so, it was at the end of it's blooming period. We could possibly have more in the fall, but if not we'll see them again in the spring!
Mostly finished, I haven't taken a photo yet, but we did put two small white Azalea plants in front of the three windows.

Carson was hanging out in his chair for a few minutes while we were doing a bit of the gardening!

Taylor was helping organize my pots I had gotten for a project!

Here is my finished project, it's actually in the back yard.. I made one on either side of the fireplace and they are different. This one is mostly purples, the other one is yellows, oranges, and reds.Taylor got bored with gardening and decided to go for a drive. She's spent the last couple of weeks with a dirty face. She LOVES to be outdoors and playing in the dirt! You should see the bath water at night!

This was at a birthday bash for our playgroup. Remembered to grab my camera this time. Once she gets comfortable she likes to climb the stairs and go down slides. It takes her a while though.
Eating cupcakes.
This is Miss Bella. She's so cute! She's a couple of months older than Carson.

I love this picture of Taylor getting ready to come down the slide. She has such wild hair, but the sun behind it looks ethereal to me. Our beautiful baby girl!
Carson hangin' out on the floor playing with the piano. Poor little dude, as I've been processing these I realized he's not been in too many lately! He's forever in the carrier on my chest, not with me, or sleeping when I have the two hands to take the photos! I'll have to fix that!

Grandma Ivy and Grandpa Ron came to visit us, and I got a few photos while they were here as well! I still have more on our little camera that I have to get off but here's these for now.

Grandma holding Carson and playing with Taylor.
Getting a squeeze!

Grandpa and Drew installing the rain gutters.
Just before they left. First it was just Taylor, Carson was asleep.
Then Drew came out, sporting his PJ pants as usual.
We did the switcheroo so I could get in the photo too!

While we were doing that, Carson woke up so we got one last one with him in it as well!Whew!! That's those for now. I still have more from the Air Show, and my visit to the Duck Pond! I don't know if I will get to those tomorrow, but I will try. I have a long to do list when the kids are sleeping so I need to hack away at that a bit as well.

Hope everyone is having a great week! TGIF (almost)!

Wow!! Was I behind on photos!

2010-04-27T19:43:00.001-07:00

As I'm sitting here sorting through 550 photos from April!! Yikes!! A lot of them are similar so I wont share them ALL, but I'll put up some of my favorites. This might take me a few days so I'll do them in batches!

I'll start with some of the older ones.

This is how bad the pollen is in the spring!! I'm glad we don't have really horrible allergies to this stuff.
Easter!! The yellow of the kitchen lights and painted walls throws the color of these photos off. I could go through and fix it, but I can't ever get it to look just right and it would take a long time to go through them all.. so I'm leaving them as is!!

Drop!

Lookin' a little mischievous

This one wants to be green!

I haven't colored eggs in a LONG time!
She's too busy to pose with me.

Ooh, look! It's blue!
Taylors first dyed eggs.
The kids' Easter baskets.

Somebody was up early and into the peeps and "chockit"

A poor unsuspecting half eaten peep somehow ended up stuck smack dab in the middle of Taylor's bum. Now all she needs is ears and she'd be the Easter Bunny!
Out hunting eggs!
Found one!

The basket is starting to get heavy!
Here's one too!
And another! (I think we need to get more difficult in hiding them next year!)
This photo cracks me up.. like father like daughter!
I made our name for our mailbox.Here's a video of Taylor hunting eggs!

Well, this has taken me 2.5 hours, so I'm off to bed and I'll try and get to more tomorrow!

Quick Update

2010-04-23T21:06:00.001-07:00

Lets see, so much has gone on the last couple of weeks!

Last week, Wednesday, Carson had his MRI in the morning. He had to go under anesthesia for it, and he did fantastic! I kept waiting for them to roll a screaming baby back to me, but they opened the door and here was my little man tucked under the covers up to his neck just hangin' out looking around! He didn't cry until he saw me and realized what he had been missing. We still haven't gotten the results, so I'm hoping that's good news.

Also Wednesday, Drew had his big V. He did very well, I was surprised when he walked out to the car! We had the kids and no sitter so I dropped him off, and went across the street to PetSmart to look at the animals with Taylor, then came back to get him. I didn't want her running amok in the Drs. office so I kept her out busy. I thought they would wheel him to the pick up area, but no.. out he came.. frozen peas in hand!

He was pretty much recovered by Sunday though a bit sore.

Saturday, my Grandma Ivy, and Grandpa Ron came to visit from Nebraska! They spent until Wednesday with us and we had quite an enjoyable time. Grandpa had made another chair for the kids table so now Carson has one too! He also made us a cool magazine rack! It's going in the "library" for Drew's magazines ;).

We had a closet door that was broken, and Drew got another door to replace it, but hadn't gotten around to hanging it, so him and Grandpa spent a day doing that. Apparently everything that could go wrong, did so they had to keep doing little things to the door to finally get it to fit. Works like a charm now!!

They also hung rain gutters in the front of the house! It rained one day and the rain coming off the roof was tearing up our beds and Grandma and Grandpa said this will not do. They treated us to the gutter materials, and Grandpa directed Drew and together they put them up. It was quite a sight! I do have a few photos, I will get them up at some point. I think I'm behind back to Easter still!

Monday, Grandma and I drove to Monroe (about an hour and 15 minutes) to take Carson to the neurologist. I really liked him a lot. He was very impressed with my video of Carson's head drop episode (video is below), and agrees that it is indeed an issue. He said there are two types of head drop seizures, one is epileptic in nature, the other is not. He tried to get us in that day for a short EEG, but was unable to so we went back today (Friday). He did the rest of the exam and he said that he is 90% certain this is something he will grow out of. He's otherwise on track and strong. I'm hoping he's right!

Here's the video so you can see what we are talking about.

Okay, I started this post last night but never got to finish. .now it's Saturday night so trying to continue!

Tuesday I had to go to the dentist in the afternoon, and Wednesday, Grandma and Grandpa left us to head to Houston. Thursday I did a quick trip to Dallas to get a couple of things that we had been needing from Ikea, and of course my old faithful stops to The Container Store and Whole Foods. We now have clear counters to work with and a "utility bar" for all of our daily used appliances! Plus a place to store diaper bags, purses, and bibs!! I still need a photo of it though.

Friday I took Carson back to Monroe for his EEG. The tech was a bit concerned because normally EEG's on babies are done with them asleep, but the neuro wanted him awake, so she was afraid he was going to be really upset for the electrode placement, much less for two hours of recording! However, he was PERFECT. She said he did better than most of their 12 year olds! He was content and smiling while she was putting them on with glue and tape. He got a little fussy when she used the air to dry the glue especially towards the front of his head, but he just hung out, it took quite a bit to get them on, there were a lot!

After that we moved to the recording room where he was hooked up to the machines and they wrapped his head all up so eh couldn't pull out any of the wiring, and gave him a little strap for the smaller machine to be a little backpack on him. It was all wrapped up too so he could play with it and not worry about any of the wires coming out.

He also had a video camera on him for the 2.5 hours (I was sitting with him trying to make him have a drop episode). I'm not sure that he ever had a full one, but he might have done a couple of little ones. I hope so that way it will at least be recorded! It was a long 2.5 hours, but we made it through. He only got fussy a couple of times because he was getting tired but I gave him his paci and we played with more toys and he was better. But boy, he was asleep within 2 minutes of getting back in the car!

So now we wait for the results. Hopefully we will hear something soon, but I'm guessing we will have to wait until our recheck appointment on the 10th of May. That seems like a long time to wait!

Taylor is doing well. She's pretty much potty trained! She's been wearing panties during the day for a week and has only had a couple of accidents. We still put her in a diaper at night and at naptime, but otherwise she's doing great! We've even gone out to dinner, and gone for walks and been gone for a few hours at a time and she hasn't had any accidents!

Tomorrow we are going to the airshow, and Monday Drew goes back to work. I think he's sad that his leave is coming to an end, and I am too! I love spending time with him and so do the kids! I'm hoping to get a Mommy/Taylor day soon since I've been spending so much time with Carson lately taking him to Doctors and what not. I miss my baby girl! She's getting to be quite funny.

Oh yes, we noticed today that Carson is FINALLY Getting ready to cut his bottom teeth! There are two little holes where the teeth are starting to come up, but we can't actually see them. I'm guessing in the next couple of days they will be there.

Well, that's about it for now, just wanted to give everyone an update. I'll hopefully be able to get to those photos some what soon. Been working on some other projects around the house lately!

Love to you all,
Jen

Easier for me to update without pics!

2010-04-12T12:15:00.000-07:00

I know you all wait anxiously for photos, but I can update more often with just words since uploading and getting the pics off the card takes a long time but I can type here and there pretty easily! So I'm going to start trying to update MORE even if I don't have time to get the photos up, and I will get those up as often as I can. Does that work??

The BIG update, I know I talked to quite a few of you regarding Carson and his apparent seizure activity. We aren't positive if that's what it is, but it definitely looks strange and has been going on for a while. Again, we weren't sure before so I haven't mentioned anything because I didn't want to scare anybody unnecessarily until we had more information. It started maybe 3 or 4 months ago with him dropping his head down to his chest (or the floor if it was during tummy time), but we thought it was probably his muscles still developing.

A friend of mine had a daughter with "Head Drop Seizures" and said that I should watch him because the way I described his movements reminded her of those. So we've been keeping an eye on him, I mentioned it to his doctor at his 6 month checkup, but she said he could still be working on muscle control and that he was on track developmentally so to keep watching.

As he's been getting bigger, it's become more and more apparent that something else is going on. I caught it on video and called and scheduled him an appointment. He went in last Wednesday and his doctor (who I really like!) agreed that something is not quite right about the little episodes and suggested we get him in for an MRI and an EEG. They called us this morning and he goes in Wednesday morning for his MRI, which he will need to be sedated for. He goes in Monday for his consult with the neurologist which is actually in Monroe (about 45 minutes to an hour East of us). The doctor said that the good thing was he still seems on track developmentally (a bit slower than Taylor, but still well within normal range) and that she's hopeful that whatever is causing this will not have any lasting effects, but wants to make sure we cover all of our bases.

Drew has his big V on Wednesday as well in the afternoon so it's going to be a busy, busy, busy week ahead. Especially for me since Drew is going to be laid up for at least a few days! We'll figure it out though.

Otherwise, both kids are doing well. We've been working with Carson on learning how to sleep out of a swaddle. It's been a long week, but he seems to be adapting fairly well. We struggle a little more at naps then we do at bedtime, but he's sleeping most of the way through the night (about 7:30 to 5) when he gets up for an early breakfast. Sometimes he goes back to sleep, sometimes not, so it's a bit rough. Our next step is to try and nix that morning feed and get him sleeping at least until 6! 6:30 would be nice. 7 would be heaven. ;)

Taylor is growing like a weed, she sprouted upwards a bit, but is still a skinny minnie. Put it this way.. she's 2 and 3 months... and she has been wearing some 12 month shorts! 18 month shorts are a little longer, but a tad loose in the waist. 24 month shorts/skirts we need to roll down the waist to make them a little more snug. She needs 18-24 month shirts though since she got taller, her shirts got a little on the short side even though they fit everywhere else.

Her bottom 2 year molars are in now so she has been in a slightly better mood. Her top ones haven't started yet so I'm expecting the grump to come back shortly. We're going on a couple of days of her not taking naps and we're not ready for that yet, so hopefully she goes back to napping soon!

We've been working a lot in the yard the last couple of weeks, finally and putting in lots of plants, flowers and even a tree/bush! I did take pics, but I have to get them off the camera still. Taylor has had fun helping put dirt in the holes for the plants and running around while Drew works. I help with the designing, and take care of Carson when he's awake. I built a couple of tiered planters in the back, started an herb garden, and am working on making a raised garden bed as well! We started a compost pile and we plan on putting a fruit tree in the back!

Easter was enjoyable. We ended up having one of Drew's friends stay the night and have breakfast with us Easter morning. We took Taylor out front to hunt eggs, she had a blast and found them all! Although next year we are thinking only a teeny tiny bit of candy, because she was hyped up on sugar for about 4 days! Maybe that's why she's not napping!? I did fill their baskets with Easter books, and regular books and some fun stuff!

Oh, Carson is up, I guess I better run. I'll see if I can't get some photos and videos up tonight. I'm trying to go to bed earlier since I know it's going to be a lot of early mornings coming up, so we will see how it goes.

Love to all!

-Jen

Rest of the pics!

2010-03-28T18:25:00.000-07:00

Okay, somehow these got totally out of order and it was going to take me ages to figure out how they went, so I just grouped them together around the same time/day!!

Carson hanging out with Papa

Taylor sharing her water with Carson.

Music Time!

Hangin' out with her pops...both of them, forever in PJs

This was at the Norton Art Gallery, the day after Dad arrived. I did an photo shoot for some of the playgroup kids which ended up taking a long time!! Drew, Dad and the kids were all so patient, but at least it was a nice day at some beautiful gardens!

Talking to Mimi on the phone!

Walking the wall.

We went and got some dinner at a place called McAlister's deli, and Dad ordered a potato as something extra in case we were still hungry (and if not, for Drew when he got off of work). When we opened it.. it was the hugest potato we had ever seen. I took a photo of it next to an ink pen for reference. Drew enjoyed it well ;)

This was a Raw apple pie that I made for dessert one night. YUM!This was when we went to the petting zoo! These are all mixed around, but you get the idea!

Those goats sure know who has the food.
Taylor checking out the chickens. I think we need some. :)
Normally I'm behind the camera, and am never at the places we go (at least there's no proof of it!) Somehow we managed to make it the whole morning and I was in a ton of photos for a change, but managed to forget to take any of Drew!
This guy had the funniest teeth! (The Alpaca, not Dad!)
Mama and her babies!
Me and my Dad (and Car Keys too!)
Taylor with her walking stick.
Hi.
More chickens!
I think that goat was nibbling on Carsons socks while I wasn't paying attention, but at least he covered my plumbers crack for the photo!

Can you see his funny teeth now?

This Kangaroo had a Joey in her pouch... kind of like how I had Carson in mine!
Check out the horns on this guy!

No fear!
Okay, maybe a little.
Dad made a buddy.

This one is my buddy. SMILE!

A Scottish Cow.. they are so cute!

I think we need a donkey too.

Dad wrestling with the boys.
It snowed last Sunday too!!! We had a beautiful Cardinal sitting on the fence. They sure are gorgeous birds! The snow added the perfect touch.

Hope you enjoyed the photos! I'm off to give Drew a hair cut, and make myself a smoothie and read a book!

Love to you all!

-Jen

Dad's Visit, and some Randoms.

2010-03-27T19:59:00.000-07:00

We had a great visit with Dad for a week! The kids enjoyed seeing their Papa and spending some time with him. Taylor was shy at first, but after a couple of days she was "nuggling" with him more than she ever does with us!

We did all sorts of fun stuff... we ate at some different and new to us restaurants, we had some Cajun cuisine! We went to the petting zoo, and we went to the art gallery gardens while I was doing a photo shoot. We went to the SciPort Discovery Museum, and we went out to check out one of the B52's that Drew works on! It was awesome!

Anyway, I took as many pics as I could, so I'll start uploading!!

These were from the Norton Art Gallery the day before Dad came. I had a little photo shoot with some playgroup kid a couple of days later so I had come to scout out the area to see what the foliage looked like. I used my little models for practice!

This was a couple of days ago shortly after both kids woke up from naps. They were playing on their bedroom floor and I managed to get them both to look at me! Taylor sure loves her Brother! She's always putting her hand on his cheek, and she does it without any prompting. I hope that their relationship continues to grow like this! I love watching my babies together!

These are all from today, we were all hanging out in the living room after having gone for a walk since it was such a beautiful day!!

Taylor has blueberry smoothie all over her face. She likes to share my smoothies, but I think she ends up with most of them all over her!

I love this picture of my bright eyed little man!

Maybe he will be a musician too!

and perhaps he will enjoy books as much as his sister!

We wont tell him he's reading it upside down.Time to Tickle Taylor!!
She sure has fun with her Dada!

Now she's going to read to Carson.. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!
Or maybe it's time to "nuggle"I made cupcakes for our new neighbors, and had some left overs that wouldn't fit in the container, so we had them for a yummy snack today! She sure likes chocolate (I wonder where she got that from!?)

and he's just happy as usual...drooling as usual too!Carson has fun with Dada too!

Fresh from a bath and riding on Dada's shoulders
I think these kids got more of Drew's genes than mine!

I have a LOT more, I still have to post the ones from Dad's visit.. but I've been working on these for 2.5 hours already, it's after midnight and I'm exhausted!!! Carson did not sleep well last night, I'm hoping tonight is better because it's my turn to get up tomorrow! The rest of the photos are just about done being resized saved, so it's just a matter of getting them uploaded. I should be able to get to it tomorrow night.

I'm going to a going away dinner for Betty tomorrow, we will really miss the Baldinger family!

I'm off to bed.. goodnight!

Here they are!

2010-03-14T19:37:00.001-07:00

Well, we got to SPRING CLEANING this weekend so that's been fun. It's SO nice to purge a few things and do a lot of the mundane tasks that we have been meaning to get to for ages. Like.. since we moved here.

The kids adjusted to the time change well, it was a beautiful weekend so Drew and Taylor did outside stuff and played while I did inside stuff, and popped out when I could. It was nice and windy yesterday so Drew helped Taylor fly a kite! I did it with her Friday and she didn't like holding it so much, but she loved watching it! I didn't get any photos however.. my hands were full!

We had a busy week, two music classes (one was a make up), Mom's Day Out, and Weight Watchers as usual..plus lots of outside time to take advantage of the weather. It rained at the beginning of the week, but cleared up beautifully!

Anyway.. on to the pics I promised!

These are from when it snowed last month. It snowed lightly the day before, then pretty hard the next day! We ended up with about 2.5" on the ground.. enough to make a snowman! We couldn't stay out long though because we didn't have gloves or boots for the kids.. who would have thought we would need them here!
Making snowballs.

It's brr Cold!

Snow covered houses down our street
She thought she needed to clean up the "mess"
Mama and Carson
Standing up to Dada's first snowman.
MUST make it BIGGER!!

Hanging out after a bathThis is how she makes a "sad face"

First time in french braids! They lasted all of about 20 minutes before she pulled them out. Hey, I tried.

Outside coloring with Chalk. Our neighbor, and Taylor's friend (Delany) came over and wrote her name on the sidewalk.. Taylor isn't writing her letters quite yet. Although she seems to have mastered "D"! Oh, and O of course.. which isn't to be confused with Ovals.

Drew and Carson hanging out in the trunk (I cant quite remember why that was open actually.. oh well :) )
Cheese grin
Handsome boy
He likes to suck his lips in like an old man!
So serious!
This is how you will usually find him.. hand in mouth!
Deep in thought.
She got a booboo from the concrete while she was coloring so we had to have a Dora band-aid.

I made an ABC book for Taylor (and someday Carson!), I spent hours on it! But she doesn't seem to really care for it all that much. I even laminated the pages so she couldn't tear them. :) Here's the first few pages anyway.

I hope that's good for now! I keep meaning to take my camera with me to her Mom's Day Out school, and also to Music class and some of our other outings but my hands are usually full and I forget!

That will be my goal for the next month! Though hopefully you will find me posting here before that!

My Dad is flying in on Tuesday so that will be nice to have him visit. I have a photoshoot Thursday of some playgroup kids. Hoping that goes well and the weather cooperates! I always get nervous doing these things, but they seem to like the photos so I guess that's what counts. :)

Well, off for now. I'm dragging from the time change.. the kids were up extra early this morning. I think I'm going to grab my book and go to bed.

Hope you enjoyed the photos! I will work on taking more.

Goodnight!

I didn't forget!

2010-03-11T19:43:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to let you know I didn't forget the photos. My computer decided it doesn't want to pick up my HD so I need to try the other one, but I've been crazy busy this week! I haven't managed to make it in there yet! Keep checking I will get them up, probably this weekend when Drew is home!

Alive and Kickin'

2010-03-03T21:08:00.001-08:00

Does anybody read this anymore?? Just wondering!

We've been busy, busy, busy as usual! We were all sick a couple of weeks ago with a stomach bug that was pretty nasty. The only one spared was Carson (thank goodness). Taylor started with it, then myself a couple of days later, and Drew a little after me. I think it lasted 3 or 4 days for each of us before we felt better.

Drew was working 12 hour mid shifts for about 10 days which pretty much sucked! But he's done now and back on swings... for now anyway! Our weeks pretty much look like this:

Monday: Playgroup
Tuesday: Weight Watchers
Wednesday: Music Class followed by Chick-Fil-A play (with music class friends).
Thursday: Mom's Day Out (a.k.a. School)
Friday: Playgroup
Sat/Sun: Family time!

In the hours that we aren't at something scheduled I've been trying to fill Taylor's days with fun activities at home (music, art, exploration, etc.) to try and keep her stimulated. We were struggling with her attitude and temper tantrums, decided that we were losing the battle of wills and perhaps she needed more in the way of structured activities. It seems to be working along with some different parenting approaches. After much reading, I don't think there is any one answer, but I'm hoping we will find a combination that works for us!

I have found for some people, the patience to be a good parent comes naturally. I am NOT one of those people! But I'm learning. Every day is a new day to work on it, and I'm finding it challenging and exhausting, but enjoyable and rewarding at the same time!

Some our favorite things to do lately is have Mommy and Taylor time. We have been going to Barnes & Noble to the kid section and reading lots of books a bout once a week! I get a skinny caramel latte, and she gets an organic chocolate milk, we share a snack and run around reading lots and lots of books (and are learning how to put them back when we are finished!) for a couple of hours. Last time we went, after some reading we went to get our snack and Taylor hugged my leg and said "Love You, Mama". (Okay, choking back tears). When we are there I feel like we can really bond over something we both love...reading!

Her vocabulary has been expanding in leaps and bounds. She's beginning to put together short sentences, and learn more names to her emotions, and well, she's a clown in general! She's picked up some of Drew's and my oddities (okay, mostly Drew's. Just Kidding!) and comes out with the funniest things sometimes. She has a new fascination with "money". Though her favorite is "Chuck E Cheese Money" that she carries around and puts in her pockets.

She still has an affinity for stickers, though twice now she's rolled them up and shoved them up her nose. Let me tell you.. sticker-in-nose surgery in the car with a pen and a child who wont stop sneezing is a LOT of fun. Reminder to A) add tweezers to the must have items in my purse and B) no more stickers in the car without a second adult to keep an eye on where they are going.

Carson has had a runny nose lately. He doesn't like it, and neither do my clothes. I'm hoping it clears up soon because snot is no fun! Minus the fact that he wakes up between 3 and 5AM to eat (though I think it's a habit we haven't figured out how to break), he is a darn near perfect baby. When he's tired, we swaddle him (he still prefers to be swaddled to sleep, amazingly!) and lay him down, and he puts himself to sleep quietly the majority of the time. He takes 2-4 naps a day depending on their lengths and any interruptions. He goes to bed at 7:30, the same time as Taylor and can sleep through pretty much anything once he's out. He wakes up early morning to eat, but then goes back to sleep until 7 or so.

He's started to eat solid food other than rice cereal. So far he's had carrots, sweet peas and green beans. Carrots are of course his favorite so far, because of their sweetness I'm sure. He's already taking after his Mama! He's a rolling champ now, maneuvering his way around the living room. He's getting better at sitting up, but still needs quite a bit of support. I imagine he will get there soon though! He has an appointment on Friday for his 6 month check up. Can you BELIEVE it's been 6 months.. half a year.. already?? I can't. I need to take more pictures.

He's become a little chatterbox too. Squealing and "singing" and of course, grunting. He loves to play Pat-A-Cake, and with his sensory balls that he got for Christmas. Taylor likes to take them away, but we are practicing our sharing. She is a really good big sister, even if we have our minor setbacks.

I'm going to put a few photos up that I have on this computer. I'll have to get to the other computer for the rest, so I will work on those tomorrow night! I just wanted to give you SOMETHING to look at (if there is anyone looking!!)

Taylor coloring at her art easel we got her. She's a little short for it still, so she needs a stool to really reach.

Carson's 6 month photo!

"Dwiving Yewwo Car" with Dada.
The dogs think they want to go too.
Sharing a momentYes, her arms are still in their sockets.
Holden is "smewwing me"
Carson and I were there too!!
Drew got run over by a Little Tykes car. No injuries were sustained in this accident that weren't healed by kisses and "tickle tickle tickle".

I have more pics from the snow day too! We ended up getting a few inches the day after my last post! Enough to build a snowman even! They are on the other computer though so I'll have to get those off.

Other exciting news. My Dad is coming to visit on the 16th for a week, so we'll get to enjoy having him here and show him around where we live a bit! It will be nice having family here again, as there can never be too much! I get homesick quite often. Our friends and neighbors will be leaving in about a month, and I'm not sure what I'm going to do! I will miss them dearly. I wish it wasn't so difficult for me to make friends, but I guess I'll have to work on it some more!

Well, I'm off to bed.. it's almost midnight and at least one little one will be up in 5 hours or less! So goodnight, and I will post more pics tomorrow!

Pics!

2010-02-11T18:29:00.000-08:00

Well, we've been back to having a crazy week. The kids are finally feeling better, so that's good.

Monday was a regular day. Taylor and I did some new activities that she enjoyed and we had fun together.

Tuesday I had to take Holden to the vet. He had a small pea sized mass, you can see it in this photo circled in red, it's just a teeny tiny thing:

Well, the vet aspirated it and looked at it under the microscope and it showed some abnormal cells, though she couldn't put a finger on what they were. They were definitely not right, so they recommended removing it ASAP. So, we scheduled him for the next day to have it removed.

After that Taylor and Carson and I went to my Weight Watchers meeting and they were both very good. It was Drew's day for a couple of hours of quiet time which he enjoyed while we were gone. We were going to go to a playgroup potluck that evening, but it got canceled.

Yesterday I dropped Holden off for his surgery, his blood work had come back and was all pretty normal. I came home, jumped in the shower and went to take Taylor to music class at 10. Well, apparently she had changed it to 9am this session and I didn't even notice on the form this time so we missed class!! Boy did I feel silly. Some of the other Mom's from the class often go out for lunch after class with the kids to Chick-Fil-A and invited us along. Since we missed class I figured it would be a good time to spend with Taylor and let her play with the other kids so we went off and did that.

While we were there, the vet called to let me know Holden came through his surgery just fine, but the tumor went a little bit deeper than the subcutaneous tissue, so she took a bit of the muscle too hoping to get wide margins in case it comes back cancerous. We should know in 3-5 days what the tumor is and what the next step is. I swear that dog is working his way down the list of genetic defects. What next?? Good thing he's handsome, and a good, sweet dog (if you ignore the poop eating and spastic anal glands).

After we left Chick-Fil-A (where Taylor had a lot of fun, and even ventured away from me a bit!) we went home and she went down for a nap (unwillingly). Carson went down for a nap shortly after, as did I! When everyone was awake, we went to pick up the dog and came home.

This morning we woke up to... SNOW! Taylor was so excited. I went to take her to Mom's Day Out and when we went out into the snow, she jumped up and down and pointed and said "LOOK! Snowing!! Oh, BOY!!" It was just too cute. I wanted to get some video, but I didn't have enough hands, so maybe tomorrow if it's still snowing. It didn't start sticking to this afternoon, but it is a little bit now, and still going! We might get anywhere from 2-4 inches of accumulation by morning, which isn't a lot compared to people who live where it snows regularly, but it will hopefully hang around long enough for Taylor to go out and play in, in the morning.

I took her to MDO, and ran a couple of errands and came home. Drew started a fire, and the 3 of us (Drew, Carson and I) hung out relaxing, watching the snow and hanging out in front of the fireplace.

Carson finally slept through most of the night last night, for the first time in over a week. We've all been exhausted. I hope to get through another night!

After picking her up, she hadn't napped there, so we put her down for a nap her, but she spent the whole time throwing a fit and tossing everything out of her crib. She finally passed out 30 minutes before it was time for her to come out.. but I let her sleep for a bit anyway.

Here's some pics from a few weeks ago. Drew and Taylor playing outside. She would slide down the slide and Drew would fling her up in the air (just a little bit). She thought it was a blast.

Carson was hanging out in his chair getting some fresh air.
Doing some tummy time in his jungle gym, he was looking and talking at me through the mirror.

I put him in his crib while I was putting some clothes away and he was watching his monkey mobile go around.

Taylor wanted in too, to hang out with her brother. She is really obsessed with getting in his crib, but we have only let her once or twice under supervision so she doesn't think she's entitled. I think they definitely look like brother and sister!
She wanted to "holdem" (hold him). She grabs the boppy and puts it on her lap and says "holdem, holdem please". It lasts about 30 seconds before she's done.

Here is our snow today. There was a lull in the snowfall and it started to melt a little bit so this wasn't at the whitest... it started snowing again in the evening though. See the smoke coming from our chimney in the back? Such a peaceful day!
The snow buildup on the G6 that was parked outside last night since Drew forgot the garage door opener.
That's about it for the past week (and some photos from before). I have a photo shoot tomorrow for a military event that I'm not looking forward. Somehow I got booked for it without really getting an option to agree to it... this will be my last one though for a while. I don't really care to do military events! I'm glad to have the experience, but they stress me out too bad!

I'm going to an exercise class on Saturday morning called Zumba. We will see how that goes. It's at 9am, and honestly, that's too early for this mama on a Saturday morning, but it's the only one I can make it to when Drew can be home with the kids. Otherwise we don't have many plans!

I'll try not to wait too long to update again!

Oh Hi!

2010-02-02T19:47:00.000-08:00

I can't believe how fast time flies sometimes. It feels like I just updated this the other day and I look and it's been 3 weeks! Yikes.

I don't have any pictures right now, but I'll get some up for you. I just wanted to give you an update about what's been going on!

Right now we are sick, sick, sick!!! It started last Tuesday with Taylor. She started coughing in the afternoon. By the evening she was coughing so hard she was vomiting. On Thursday she hadn't improved any, and Carson started coughing too so I called Friday morning and got them an appointment with an off base Dr. for the afternoon.

We took them in and she checked their oxygenation and listened to them. Taylor was wheezing a little bit so she got a breathing treatment, but Carson was okay. She suspects they have RSV which caused Bronchiolitis. They were put on Prednisolone once a day, and liquid Albuterol three times a day.

Taylor is still coughing, but she hasn't vomited in a couple of days so I think she is improving. Carson however had been getting worse. I called the nurse on Sunday, and again today to ask about his symptoms, and they finally gave me a referral to go back to the doctor today. She listened to him and he was definitely worse, wheezing a lot. He got a breathing treatment at the doctor, and she sent him for xrays, but I don't think he has pneumonia since she didn't say anything and they haven't called yet. She did send us home with a nebulizer so we can do breathing treatments at home every 4 hours to help him breathe. Poor kid has lost his voice, so he sounds like an old man when he cries. It's very pathetic sounding and makes me want to cry with him.

On top of that I think they are both teething. Taylors gums are looking kind of swollen in the back so I think her 2 year molars are coming, and Carson's are looking swollen in the front so his first incisors might be coming in too. When it rains it pours! I've definitely been taking a physical and emotional beating this last week trying to keep them both happy and breathing this week. We've had a lot of scary moments especially when they start their coughing fits and can't catch their breath. I will be thankful when this is over.

I've caught the cold too, but my symptoms aren't quite as bad. I think yesterday was my worst day with a bad sinus headache and I have the sniffles and a cough, and my voice is also pretty raspy.

Saturday was a busy day. Somehow I got talked into doing a craft show on Saturday Morning, at the same time as I had a photo shoot for a Purity Ball that evening. This was before the kids got sick so I was originally going to take Carson with me. Then we decided he would stay home with Drew so he could get rest and Drew would bring him to me after his first nap so I could nurse him, then take them home again.

Well I spent two weeks preparing for the craft show.. staying up too late crocheting away. I made about 20 hats, and 40 flowers on clips in about 10 days and I sold.......... ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! It was a cold day (For LA) and there was not a lot of traffic that came through so I didn't sell a thing. I was pretty bummed, but apparently nobody else did that great either. Oh well, I'll list it up on my Etsy shop, and I wont have to crochet for a while! :)

The Purity Ball photo shoot went fantastic. I'm still processing all of the pictures but I should have them all done by Friday and uploaded. The event is so full of love and beautiful young ladies with their fathers, it really is amazing with a wonderful purpose. I can't wait to get these photos up for them, who knows. .maybe it will get me some more business as well!

Drew survived the day at home by himself with two sickies. I was very proud of him because I KNOW that it's not an easy task!

Taylor was suppose to start music class tomorrow, but she could still be contagious so we are skipping it. She also missed MDO last week, and she'll miss it this week, which is a bummer because she's always asking about "school".

Lets see.. milestones this month. Carson has been doing two things. He rolls over and over sometimes, but other times he'll roll onto his belly and then scream until somebody helps him back to his back. I don't know what that's about! We haven't been doing a lot of floor time lately because he can't breathe well when he's horizontal, so he's been spending a lot of time in my moby wrap on my chest, or in the jumperoo which he loves. I just ordered another type of carrier that can go on my back easily too so we'll see how he likes that. It's called a Mei Tai, Taylor can go in it too, they go up to 35lbs! I've really been getting into this Baby Wearing thing, I wish I would have found these wraps when Taylor was an infant. With my Moby wrap, I can shop the whole commissary and Carson will pretty much sleep the whole way. Plus the little Asian ladies that work there get a kick out of it (they are all asian inspired wraps/carriers).

He doesn't care to hang out in the bucket unless we are continuously moving, so the stroller with his bucket is great for walks, but when we are shopping or doing something that we need to stop a lot, I wear him so I can keep bouncing even if I'm stopped and he stays happy.

Taylor has been, well, 2. I guess this is normal. I really miss the days when she was happy all the time. Sometimes I wonder if I am doing something wrong, and why she's so angry. I'm sure she's got some cabin fever right now which doesn't help. We got a mini trampoline a while ago so she can let out some energy when she's in the house and that really works wonders. She loves to "bouncy bouncy", and we've been watching probably more movies than usual lately since we've been quarantined here.

She's been adding new vocabulary in leaps and bounds. She surprises me every day with a word she knows. She recognizes her name in writing now so every time she sees it she says "Taylor" and nods. She is also saying that she's a "big girl", and when Carson rolls over she pats his back and says "good boy!" It's pretty funny.

I can't really think of anything else. It's just been insanity here with the sickness and obligations. My brain is a little foggy as the last few weeks has run together! I'll get some pics up when I can, I've been taking some, though not many the last week or so since it would be full of runny noses and baggy eyes. :)

Love to you all
-Me

Rest of the videos

2010-01-12T12:08:00.000-08:00

Carson rolling front to back (havent been able to capture the other way on cam yet)

Christmas Morning

Trying to ride her trike with short legs:

Pics and Vids!

2010-01-11T18:59:00.000-08:00

Here's some pics from the last few days!

Taylor out playing with Drew, couldn't get her to look at me though.

Cossie was out running around too.

Getting another Birthday Present in the mail!

Putting her baby doll night night.

and getting her back up!
Little Miss Pink Cheeks! Her Winter Eczema is back.
Definitely think they have the same eyes!
Carson loves Elmo too... twins!
Eating Rice Cereal

Finally getting these uploaded! These videos took HOURS to upload, so there are just a few. They are kind of chronologically backwards, but you get the idea!

*EDIT* While I was working on this, youtube went down so I couldn't link the last few videos. They are uploaded, I just can't access them, and I REALLY need to go to bed, so I'll check tomorrow and link those if they are up.

Carson eating cereal for the second time:

Taylor's Birthday Cake

Love to you all!! Post the rest later!

-Jen

Carson's 4 Month Checkup!

2010-01-07T13:32:00.001-08:00

Well we can just call him Mr. 25%

His growth has slowed down a lot! Doc isn't worried though, he's still on track developmentally so he's good!

Here are his stats:

Weight: 13lbs 6oz (25%)
Length: 24.5" (25%)
Head Circumference: 41cm (25%)

He's doing fantastic! He was really checking out the doctor and smiling a lot for her so that was good. He still gets a bit tired holding his head up, but she said that was okay for his age. He'll have it up fine and look around and try and grab things, then all of a sudden he drops it fast. She said just to keep working on his tummy time, and try putting a towel under his arms, it should help keep him from rolling over (which he does when he's done being on his belly).

He was due for some vaccines, but there were about 15 guys in there waiting to get some as well and Carson was getting tired, so we decided we'd go back another day when they weren't so busy. We might try going tomorrow to see how it is.

It's been pretty cold here, cold for Louisiana anyway. They actually shut down schools because it MIGHT snow today.. which I don't think it will considering the clouds are clearing and it was 37 when we woke up (it's 32 now). Taylors MDO was canceled which she was bummed about, so we had movie morning. We'll play some games this afternoon too and try and keep her busy.

Playgroup was tomorrow, but canceled because it's cold which I don't really understand since it was indoors. It's amazing that everybody all freaks out when it gets below freezing! Drew is still at work though, he's pretty cold he said. I should get him those little warmers that go in your boots and gloves... I'll have to find some.

Anyway, that's about it. We've just been hanging out really. Taylor has had an attitude and a half lately, and Carson is just happy as a clam! Looking forward to it warming up so we can go out and play again. We did get a mini trampoline that we set up in the house for her to get some energy out on. SHe'll play a bit then get up and bounce around, then play some more, then get up and bounce.. at least it's helping her release some of that extra energy she has!!

Until next time (when I get that video off the camera)

-Jen

Taylor's 2 year checkup

2010-01-05T18:23:00.000-08:00

I'm exhausted so posting a quick update for Taylor's appointment, then I'm cleaning the kitchen and going to BED!

First mistake was that it was nap time (I didn't get a choice for appointment times), second was that she hadn't had lunch yet. Third wasn't really a mistake, but a misfortune.. while we were waiting for her appointment, there was a kid next door (which isn't actually separated by any doors) at the immunizations clinic getting shots and he was screaming his head off which freaked Taylor out. She kept saying "Baby, Owie".

So they call us back, and she follows me into the hallway, the door shuts behind her and she stops dead in her tracks. She absolutely refuses to go any further. So I go pick her up and she starts screaming at the top of her lungs, I mean SCREAMING. I've never heard this child scream so loud and I've heard her scream pretty loud. She was completely red, only stopping to take a deep breath so she could scream some more. She screamed while we weighed her, screamed while she was measured in length and when they went to do her head measurement not only was she screaming, but she was trying to hit me and kick the nurses at the same time. Talk about embarrassed! It took all 3 of us to hold her down and get her head measured.

So, her stats:

Weight: 23.7 lbs (3%)
Height: 33" (25%)
Head Circ: 48.5cm (75%)

So, she's still small with a big head! Doc isn't concerned about her being small since she's always been that way, she's pretty much stayed under 10% since she was born. When the Doc came in she hadn't looked at the chart yet and she asked if she was there for her 12 month... I thought geez.. is she really THAT small????

Anyhoo, Taylor continued to scream as loud as she could anytime she was even looked at, and even louder when she was touched in any way, shape, or form. In the end, she checked out fantastic. She's very advanced for her age both physically, and verbally! They are expected to know approximately 35 words by the time they are 2 and she knows probably closer to 300 (we started writing them down, but stopped around 250 and that was a couple months ago!).

She didn't need any shots today which I was relieved and kind of irritated about because I know the last ones she got were early since she wasn't suppose to have any more until she was 2. They don't seem to communicate very well there, or actually look at dates. By the time we left there I was physically and emotionally drained.

She was pretty much a crab the rest of the day. She kept telling me all afternoon "Doctor, ears, baby, owie" which translates to the Doctor looked in her ears, and gave the baby an owie. I'm sure that hearing the baby cry is what freaked her out.

Carson's 4 month appointment is tomorrow morning at 7:50 (oh joy) so I'll post an update about how that went!

Taylor's Birthday Celebration

2010-01-03T21:21:00.001-08:00

Well, we celebrated Taylor's Birthday today, since Drew will have to go into work tomorrow (I guess it's today now, I should be in bed :) ) . We went to Chuck E Cheese for lunch and had some fun!! Here's the pics from that

I love how she has her hand on Chuck E.. like he's just her good pal.
Likes driving already, she's definitely our kid.

This was her favorite.. Bob the Builder car, every time it stopped she said "again!"
He's not sure what to think about this place with bright lights.
Lunch Time!!!
Om Nom Nom!
He's not sure what this pizza thing is about... but he's looking RIGHT at his lunch.
Baby juggling! She wanted to give him a kiss.
Games are a lot more fun with Dada!

Oh yeah.. .Whac A Mole!

This was a giant rocking horse, she didn't like it.
On the way home
Getting sleepy.
While Taylor was napping, I decorated her giant cupcake... it's suppose to be Elmo. I think it looks terrible, but when I pulled it out, she said ELMO!!!!!
Fresh from a nap and opening gifts! She went right to them this time and started opening, but the first thing out of her mouth was "Santa??"

He's pretty fresh from his nap too, hangin' out in his jungle gym.

FUN!!
She's diggin' the Fairy wings from Uncle Jeff, Aunty Marnie, and Hannah!

Ohhhhhhhhh
Her OWN laptop!

Every kid needs a Mr. Potato Head!
Trying out her laptop...
He's still happy in the gym. :)

Oh Boy! Elefun!
More Kindermusik instruments too!!!
Mama and her babies.

A hat for Taylor... NO silly!! That's for Mr. Potato Head!
He's getting goofy.

She likes that mustache!
Dada likes to watch, but she can do it herself.
Time for cake!

Blowing out the candle!
She did it!
We actually ate dinner AFTER cake so she wasn't wired up on sugar just before bedtime.
She was also watching her FAVORITE movie.. UP!
Drew is looking pretty tired after a day of fun.

My next plan is to get some videos up for you all!! I have been taking them, but I need to sit down and get them uploaded.

Exciting news, Carson rolled over from front to back, several times!! He doesn't like being on his tummy much, so I'm not surprised he figured that one out first. He's almost rolling from back to front but he can't quite get that arm over. I did get a video of him rolling the other way though! I'm certainly not ready for him to be mobile yet!

We also gave him his first bites of rice cereal. It went pretty good, he was getting the hang of it! We haven't been giving it to him regularly yet, he's been waking up early in the morning ravenous, so I was wondering if breastmilk maybe wasn't enough to keep him going through the morning, but the rice cereal didn't seem to help much either.. of course he only ate about 1.5 tbsp! We'll get into a routine here soon and get him eating it a bit more and see how it goes.

They both have doctors appointments this week (Taylor's 2 year on Tuesday, and Carson's 4 month on Wednesday) so I'll be posting how those went. Otherwise we've just been keeping busy with the holidays!

I hope everyone has been having a happy new year so far, and I'll work on getting those vids up!

-Me

Might be here all night...

2009-12-26T21:36:00.000-08:00

because I have a TON of photos to upload!!!

Here's some from Taylor and I making cookies for Santa.

I showed her how to press the cutter into the dough.
Then she could do it on her own, she did great!

But it's fun to do them all at once!
Time to decorate!

Sprinkles everywhere...
Yum Yum! Those look fun.After bath time, we took the cookies (and carrots for the reindeer!) to the fireplace!

Santa came!Christmas Morning! Check out the giant bear!

Carson got a new hanging toy that plays music in his stocking.
Santa left presents for the boys too.He grabbed it!

Opening presents!

Car Keys.. with some Car Keys!Dada gets some too :)
Taylor would rather play with her stickers that she got in her stocking.
He's not sure what to think :)
Ohh, a big pretty doll!
He likes his glow worm.
Trying out her new trike.

I wasn't there for Christmas.. just kidding!! I forgot to have Drew take some pics of me too, but that's okay.. I was there for cookies. After we opened gifts (A big Thanks to our wonderful family!!) I made banana nut pancakes for breakfast than started dinner. It took a little longer than I had intended so we didn't actually eat until 5. After dinner I boiled the turkey carcass for soup which we had last night and it was YUMMMMMY!

All in all it was a pretty good day considering Drew wasn't feeling well (and still isn't), Carson was cranky, and Taylor was the definition of a two year old. I was just REALLY tired, fighting off sickies too (losing the battle now). More than the day.. it's been an enjoyable Christmas WEEK!

One of my friends who has an Etsy shop makes super cute stuff for kids. She sent me a bunch of her goods (leggings, clippies, a receiving blanket) in exchange for some photos that she can use in her shop. So I did those yesterday (well, not the blanket one yet), and had some other fun while we were at it. Here's the results of that... well some of them, I took a LOT of pics yesterday!

Sporting her new trike.Little Miss Attitude.

Yes, I bribe her to smile for me :) She's enjoying those bribes now.

Profile with a clippy.
Now THAT is a real smile.
We brought out Carson's bear too (Carson was taking a nap)
I wanted in too!

Such a soft cuddly bear!Carson got some leggings too!
Can you believe he's 4 months old now??
With some crazy hair.
Handsome man!
That's about it! We are all not really feeling great so we've been hanging out trying to get better before Drew goes back to work...oh, and eating of course.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and have a Happy New Year!

Photos from the last few days.

2009-12-23T09:36:00.000-08:00

Taylor and I decorated a Rice Krispy treat house! We needed something fun to do since we've been in the house so much lately.

Putting on some gumdrops.

Kisses for Mama.
Sneaking a taste.

Some of the left overs that didn't fit in the house mold :) Nom Nom!!
Here's some for you too!
I like decorating with icing..

I'm good at this!!
Now we are getting a little carried away. :)

Carson fell asleep hangin' out with his pops.

My first Christmas Ornament that Taylor brought home from MDO :) Notice her smile, so typical, haha.
Our tree, I cut off the angels head a little.Just playing around.
We give lots of kisses!!

Taylor ran away, so I had Drew be my model while I played with lighting.
Bribes work.

Beautiful smiles!
Loves her Dada!

The rush is over!

2009-12-19T17:24:00.000-08:00

Well, here it is, December 19th, and I'm finally getting a chance to update the good ol' Baby Blog. Did you all miss the updates??

Drew is FINALLY done with that darn exercise, and they PASSED! That means they don't have to do it again in a few months, thank goodness. I have been busy, busy, trying to get Christmas stuff finished up, gifts wrapped, things made. Pretty much every waking moment has been filled with one thing or another (and that's when the kids are asleep).

My flight back from CA, was pretty good. They were able to let Dad in all the way to my gate to help me with the kids and our stuff. We got there early and were able to pre-board. Our flight was completely jam packed. The gentleman next to us was the father of 6 kids so he was very patient on the flight, not that the kids were bad! Carson slept most of the time. The man in front of Taylor I apologized to in advance since her feet were right at the tray table behind his seat (her car seat lifted her up pretty high). Of course somehow the portable DVD player batteries didn't get charged so we only got 10 minutes of a movie before it died, we were only 45 minutes into the flight.

I managed to keep her busy with books, and coloring until the last hour or so, then she started getting tired of being of her seat and started kicking the one in front of her. Luckily she didn't pound it like she did on the way there (there was nobody in front of us then), but I had to constantly remind her not to kick the seat. She was getting really moody when we finally started to make our descent. Five minutes before we landed, she fell asleep, go figure...when everybody was getting off the plane, the guy in front of her said she was meant to be a soccer player for sure, haha. We joked about her falling asleep 3 hours too late.

We waited until everybody else was off before we unloaded and got everything together. Drew was already waiting just across where we exited from, whew!! We stopped for a late lunch/early dinner and did a little Christmas shopping while we were in Dallas, then headed home.

So, that was the trip home. Since then I've been working on Christmas, Drew has been working. Oh, we got our Christmas tree on Monday the 6th since Drew was on call. That was fun... okay, not really, but it's definitely a story! The first place we went to didn't really have any good trees, plus we had forgotten to go get cash, so we left there, went to the ATM by our bank, and it wouldn't take our card.. so we drove the half a mile down to the actual branch, but the ATM's are all inside and they had closed 3 minutes earlier. We drove back to the non-working ATM and I sat there and tried it a few times until it finally took the card and got cash. We went to another tree place and they didn't have any of the trees we like.

We decided to head back towards home up the side highway and hope they had something there, they did, but Drew accidentally passed it, so he turned around, then passed the entrance again (it was already dark). He turned into the driveway after the tent, and there was a grassy area in front of it with tire tracks, but not an actual road. He started to turn in and I said (take notes here) "That looks pretty muddy, do you think we might get stuck?" The response: "Nah, we'll be alright". We made it approximately 15 feet later, yep.. stuck.

Luckily the owner of the place had a 4 wheel drive (no surprise there), and he pulled us out. Of course I told him we had to get a tree from them now. Luckily they had a good one. :) Nice and smelly and green!

We decided we aren't going to put lights up outside this year, not because we don't want to, just because I can't do it during the day, and Drew is just now really getting a day off with less than a week until Christmas. It seems like an awful lot of work just for a few days of lights. I decorated the inside and that will just have to do. Hopefully next year they wont have an exercise for the 3 months before Christmas!

Another big event that's going on is Taylor started going to a Mom's Day Out program. It's at a church in town, actually at the same church my Weight Watcher's Meeting is held. She goes just one day a week (Thursday's), from 9am to 2pm. They play, and learn from the bible, and also learn a shape, a number, and a letter. They do music and story time, and they take a nap! She seems to REALLY enjoy it. In the morning we get her back pack with her lunch and diapers and her nap mat (a photo will follow, I made it myself!) and head off. She tells me she's going to "cool" with her "packpack" to "play" and go "nigh-nigh". Last week I got my very first ornament (a snowflake) with her picture in the middle. I haven't taken a photo of it yet, but I will!

I also get a report card when I pick her up that tells me how she did during the day, and also the picture of the day that she colored (she draws a lot of O's.. it's her favorite letter). All in all, it's awesome. She has fun, learns, plays with other kids, we get a break from each other and I get to run a few kid free errands (Drew hangs on to the baby) then come home and get some things accomplished before going to pick her up.

We also started putting them together in the bedroom at night! I thought it was going to go a lot worse than it did, but in the week they've been room sharing, we only had one rough night. Taylor usually goes down between 7:30 and 8. Carson usually goes down between 8:30 and 9 after one last evening meal. Usually Taylor is already out by then, so I just sneak in and put him down with his sleep sheep (it makes white noise) on, and he falls asleep with in 10 minutes or so. Sometimes I have to go back in to give him his paci a couple times but he gets there.

They both sleep through the night fairly well. Carson gets up around 4 on occasion, but most of the time it doesn't wake Taylor up, and if it does, she goes back to sleep pretty easy.. except Friday when the garbage truck woke her up. That was a tough day. Anyway, I think she enjoys sharing the room and having the company in there, I'm glad that it's going so well, and we have our room back!

Taylor has been in a mood lately, the terrible two's in full swing. Some days start off better than others, but it's been tough. Her new thing is hitting her head on stuff when she gets mad or frustrated. Not sure how to nip that in the bud, but I guess it's just a phase and she'll grow out of it hopefully. I'm tempted to put a bike helmet on her during the day (kidding). The next big thing with her is to really concentrate on potty training. We had not really been pushing the matter since I've been on my own a lot, plus traveling so we've just been letting her control it.. but the novelty of getting to go on the potty has worn off and she no longer asks to go every 5 minutes. Not sure if we'll start that soon or wait a little bit longer. I'm sure she's getting close to ready. It's just a matter of having enough hands at the right time.

She's also getting really good at putting words together. You can tell there is a lot of thought in between them since she pauses, but she's getting there. My favorite things she says are Thank You Mama (or Dada).. which actually sounds more like Tay Too, and Love you which sounds like Wuv You. She probably says somewhere upwards of 250 words now. We counted a few months ago and she was at about 175, and she says new ones ALL the time. She's soooo smart it's scary! Sometimes I don't even realize what she knows until she says something and surprises me. They really do pay attention to EVERYthing.. even if it doesn't seem like it.

Drew has this week off, so I'm looking forward to him being home. We're thinking of him taking leave in January and finding some snow somewhere to take Taylor too. I think she'd really have fun, and we haven't seen snow in ages!

For Christmas dinner we decided we're doing a small small Turkey, AND a ham since we weren't together for Thanksgiving (we normally do Turkey on Thanksgiving and Ham on Christmas), we'll freeze lots of left overs so I have a few meals ready when the kids are making it hard for me to cook.

Oh yeah, we've also been sick. I think Taylor started it, then Drew and I both got it at the same time. Carson is the only one who seems to have escaped the cold! I think we are finally on the mend though, so tha'ts good!

Anyway, I'm sure you've been waiting for pics, so I'll get to uploading what I've got!!

Took this just before we left CA, it's my new favorite photo of Taylor!

These were my attempt at Chrismtas pictures of the kids. I got the lights set up, the backround set up, the kids dressed... then Drew got called into work. Seriously!! What kind of luck is that? So I was left to photograph the both of them by myself.

It started off well.. Taylor was being very lovey to her brother.

She even smiled at me (okay, I was holding an M&M above the Camera)

Looking pretty
"Lights!"
He doesn't need bribes to smile.. :) yet.
Well, no smiles, but at least they are both looking. Hey, don't you think they look a lot alike here?
So serious, little Santa.

and really, this is how it was towards the end. One cheesing for M&Ms. One tired of the Bumbo.

Too slow with the M&M's because I was busy trying to give the baby a pacifier while I regrouped.

Well, if you've received our Christmas card yet, you will know enough turned out.. so mission accomplished!! I sure could have used some eggnog after that fiasco! :)

Here is the nap mat I created for Taylor's MDO class. She LOVES it. She climbed in it right away and she sleeps like a champ at MDO! The blanket is attached and the pillowcase holds the pillow she normally sleeps with at night. It rolls up and ties with a ribbon, and even has a handle (it's on the underside) to carry it with! It has a 1" foam pad inside to keep her comfy. It's velcro-ed at the end so I can remove the pad for washing.

See!! She likes it!!
When I was printing out photos for a photo frame I got for the wall I realized I didn't have any good photos of Carson and I either, so I had Drew snap a couple.

These are just a couple of snapshots of Carson hanging out with the dogs. They are such good boys and so patient. I think everybody was enjoying the bit of sunshine coming in the window. :)

Pulled out the jumperoo for Carson, he's about outgrown the swing. He's not quite big enough for it yet and gets impatient, but he'll sit in it for 5 minutes or so at a time playing with the little bug. Soon enough he might find it interesting.

These I took today, one of the hats I made a while ago finally fits Carson.. sort of (it's about 3 rows too tall). I decided it needed bear ears so I put some on it last night. I really like the way these came out.. it helps that he's such a cute boy!!!

Guess I need to work on getting more pics of Taylor and Drew this next go-around!! She's not been in the mood to be photographed much lately, but hopefully we'll work on that. She doesn't sit still for more than 3 seconds so it does make it hard. Little sweet stinker.

Alright, I'm off.. thank you for your patience in waiting for an update!

Love to you all!
-Me

Thought you might get a kick out of this.

2009-12-03T22:48:00.000-08:00

Taylor had "art day" today!

It's really not as bad as it looks and we were actually watching her draw on the table, but didn't see her color on her arm! The marker is dry erase so it wiped off pretty easy, and it belonged with the book which was made for drawing and erasing on. I thought the cracker art was a nice touch!

Personally my favorite was the piece I like to call "Stickers a la be'be'"

Happy Thursday!

Have you missed us??

2009-12-02T21:36:00.001-08:00

Man has it been a busy couple of weeks!! I spent the first 6 days at my Dad's in San Ramon, went down to San Jose a couple of times to see Grandma and I got to see Grandpa. It was so hard to see him the first time and he wasn't doing very well that particular day so it was difficult. It was also hard since I can't take the kids there so we have to wait until somebody can stay with them for me to go see him. I've only seen him twice, but he looked soooo much better the second time!! He's been moved to a new facility and they are working really hard with him. He still has the trach tube in, but they are working to be able to remove it.

Last Saturday Dad and Leslie went to Half Moon Bay and got 13 live Dungeoness crabs, and we had a crab feast with the family. It was SOOO yummy!! I LOOOVE crab. I could live off of it really!

Monday we left to go to my Mom's house for Thanksgiving. Wednesday I went with Alan to take some photos of him for fun, my models aren't to willing to pose for me at the moment so I take advantage of having a willing participant when I can!

We got to spend time with lots more family and enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving feast! Alan, Laura (my Uncles Steve's beautiful new wife) and I got up at 4 on Friday morning to do a little black Friday shopping. I had never been since Black Friday wasn't so big until after we were already in England. Got that out of my system! Can't say I'll do that again! I did score at least ONE good deal anyway!! We were home with coffee and bagels before the kids even woke up! Then had a yummy quiche for second breakfast!

I came back to Dad's Friday evening, and Saturday I got to go see my Grandpa again, then we went to my nieces Baptism and party after. It was a beautiful ceremony and I am so glad I got to be there to experience it!

Today, Katalia (My SIL) and I went and got wonderful SUPREME pedicures, courtesy of Leslie and Dad while they watched all 3 kids. My feet feel wonderful and smooth!!

Tomorrow I am going to Weight Watchers with my good friend Jill, though I'm going to take a pass on WI because I KNOW I'm going to be over, but I only have to WI by the end of December, so I'll be back within my goal range by then for sure, once I get back home and to my regular eating program. Hopefully I will see Grandpa again tomorrow as well.

Friday Dad has a family dinner planned for my last day/birthday party! Saturday I need to be at the airport by 8:45 to catch my flight home! I'm looking forward to seeing my hubby again, I sure have missed him!!

It's been an exhausting trip, but I'm glad I've been able to be here to see my Grandpa and lots of family, and offer a little help here and there.

I've uploaded photos to the Picasa site (link to the right) lots from our trip!

Pics

2009-11-11T09:56:00.001-08:00

I haven't really had time to update, things have been busy here with Drew's work schedule and such. I wanted to post a few of my favorite pics from recently to share with you!

I'm headed to CA on Tuesday so I'll update when I can, sorry things are slow around here lately!!

Everyone is doing well, just busy busy busy!!!

Hangin' out in his bouncy chair
Music Class fun.. we had a disagreement about keeping the ponytail holder in. I think it ended in a tie.

Playing in the morning.

She sure lovers her Car Keys!
Playing outside on her slide.

We went to the Norton Art Gallery with our neighbors yesterday and traded taking family pics of each other. Had a hard time getting Taylor to cooperate, but well... that's life with an (almost) 2 year old!! No smiles from her this time. :)

Have a great Weekend!!

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T21:49:00.001-07:00

I'm writing from the comfort of my chair, where I am recovering from my peanut butter cup coma. Drew mistakenly left me unattended with the candy bowl and the chocolate forced itself upon me. We obviously needed WAY more trick or treaters (and way less candy within my grasp!). Ok, bottom line.. my self control went kaput.

Well, I'm still alive, although I just might take a pass at Weight Watchers Tuesday. EEK!!

I've uploaded some photos to the Picasa site. Some from last Saturdays' Halloween party with Betty at the park. From Halloween tonight as well!

On Monday, Carson was 2 months old!! I missed the first month, but I'm going ot try and take a picture next to his teddy bear every month to see how he grows!! So here's month 2!

After his photo, Taylor wanted to hold him (as she often does) so we set her up with the boppy pillow and let her hold him. She's very good at giving him his paci, but we have to remind her to be gentle sometimes. She's a good big sister and loves her brother!!
Wednesday we had music class and in the evening we went with Betty and Delaney to a Pumpkin Light Night at a local elementary school. Thursday there were horrible storms here all day! We were narrowly missed by a tornado which took out a bunch of trees and houses in a nearby neighborhood. The waters are still rising forcing many people out of their homes, covering roads and threatening levees! Tomorrow is suppose to be the peak of the rising water, and is not suppose to rain for the rest of the week. We are on high enough ground that we are safe though, so that's good!!

Yesterday (Friday) we had a makeup music class from when the teachers kids were sick, but we were the only ones that made it so we had a nice one on one class! After Drew got home last night, Carson and I went to the commissary to stock up on groceries. Today we both took turn running errands and getting some things accomplished.

After dinner, we got the kids dressed in their costumes so I could take some photos. Here are my favs!

Monkey costume from Grandma Debye.
Hot Dog costume from Papa
A couple more of Carson out of costume while Taylor was getting a bath.

We ended up going to Betty's and sitting in her driveway passing out candy with her and some other friends from the neighborhood. Drew and I both took turns taking Taylor Trick or Treating. She still wont say anything, and clings to our legs, but she's getting the concept that when you go to the door they give you candy thing!!

Now Taylor doesn't eat much candy, in fact, I'd say rare to never. She will occasionally get a cookie, maybe a bite of something we're eating, but usually it's a very rare occasion. I think this child consumed more chocolate tonight than she's ever had in her 22 months combined. She was bouncing all over the place!!! I'm glad it's another year until Halloween. If we can keep it together tomorrow I think the rest of the candy needs to go with Drew to work on Monday!! Maybe we'll keep some of the suckers around for rewards but the chocolate has GOT TO GO!

Here's also some videos from the last week or so.

Tonight in Betty's driveway!

Carson kicking his legs to make his toys move on the bouncer.

Talking and getting mad during tummy time.

This one was actually from when Grams was here, we went to the SciPort Discovery Museum. Taylor sure loves the giant piano!!! Now we just need to teach her chopsticks!

Well, I'm exhausted so I'm going to go to bed! Drew's already been there for 45 minutes while I updated the blog.

Not sure what the plan for the week is besides WW on Tuesday, and Music on Wednesday. Drew is still working weird shifts, though hopefully split 6's instead of 12's, that would be wonderful!!!

Goodnight all, hope you had a wonderful Halloween!

2009-10-27T20:04:00.000-07:00

The last 8 days have been pretty much CRAZY in this house. Drew is working 12's, and not having the extra set of hands has proven to be VERY difficult!!

I think Taylor's terrible 2's are in full swing (a couple months early of course), and Carson still requires so much of my attention. I CAN tell you that I must be burning a ton of calories between the two!!

Friday through Sunday Taylor refused to nap, so those were very long days. She was such a great napper, then all of a sudden, BAM! Would not sleep! I'm hoping it was just a phase and we'll be back to napping this week!!

Yesterday Drew was originally suppose to be on Standby (meaning he'd go in when they called him, not at the usual 6am), which was fantastic because Carson had a well baby appointment at 7:50, and I was going to have to wake Taylor up to go with me and could use the help! Unfortunately he ended up having a class he had to take so he still had to go in at 6. Go figure.

Well, I had to wake Taylor up at 6:30, which is early for a kid who normally sleeps until 8:30 or 9! Got everybody fed and out of the house by 7:15. About 3 miles down the road it starts raining, oh joy! So we got soaked (not Carson since he was in his bucket, and covered with a blanket) running into the clinic. I didn't bring the stroller because it's pretty huge and the med clinic isn't very big in the room so I figured it would be more cumbersome. Last time I go without the stroller! Taylor was running amok and had her 2 year old ears on (i.e., pretending I didn't exist). We had to do Carsons appointment, then go get his vaccines, THEN go to the lab and get his bloodwork. Understandably that's a lot of things to do when you are a toddler and don't have 100% of Mom's attention. By the time we left there I was ready for a Martini. Kidding.. but I did drive through Starbucks.

We got home, and went to feed the dogs (Taylor helps), and blast.. no dog food. So the dogs were flipping out, Taylor started screaming because she wanted to feed them and of course tired from her early wake up call. Carson was upset from his vaccines, he would wail in pain everytime you touched his legs which were sore, and the tylenol didn't seem to be helping. The rest of the day was pretty much out of a horror movie.

In the end, we survived, though not without a lot of tears (myself included!). We even managed to go get dog food and the dogs were happy again.

So!!! To the important stuff!! Carson is a big boy!!

His stats:

Weight: 12lbs 3oz (75 percentile)
Length: 23.5 in (50 percentile)
Head Circumference: 40 cm (50 percentile)
The doctor says he's absolutely perfect and beautiful (but hey, I already knew that!). She thinks he's probably a bit longer, because he was pretty scrunched up when they were trying to measure him, so we'll see where he is at his 4 month visit.

He is cooing a lot, and even lets out a little laugh now and then. He smiles a lot too, I love those smiles!!

Taylor, besides being in a mood, is also doing well. We've been going to Music Class, and playgroup. Saturday we had a Halloween Party at the park with Betty and some other friends.
Drew and I have been writing down all of the words she says and it's well over 175, and she's learning more every day!!

She can also read the letters A, F, M, O and Y. She knows the colors Yellow and Blue, sometimes Red, but she still needs reminded.

She's a wonderful big sister to Carson. She gives him kisses and hugs, and likes to sit and hold him in her lap. She helps me burp him, and she gets me diapers (in fact, will throw a fit if she doesn't come with me to do diaper changes), she gets me his pacifier. She tries to put it in sometimes too but we have to be careful because she can be a little too forceful sometimes. When he's crying she'll sing to him (Lalalalala).

Drew has been working hard providing for us, and helping me when he can! He doesn't get much sleep so I appreciate what he can do.

I am still doing Weight Watchers and I had 3 months from the time Carson was born to get within 2 lbs of my goal weight, and I reached that today, a month ahead of schedule!! I still want to lose another 10-12 lbs (to get back where I was when I got pregnant with him), but at least I can do so without having to pay again! It's been difficult this time, that's for sure!

I do have quite a few pics to upload, but I haven't had a chance to get them off the card yet so when I do (probably this weekend), I'll get them up for you to see!!

I hope everyone is doing well.. love to you all!

Pumpkin Patch and Fun Farm

2009-10-17T22:45:00.000-07:00

Well, Blogger seems to be having some issues, I tried uploading photos last night and couldn't get any to upload. Today I got some up, and I can't get anymore!

I decided to start using Picasa Web Albums again since I often have TONS of pics, but they take a long time to upload to the blog so I pick my favorites and post those. This way you can check out even MORE pics. I will still post some of my favorites here.. but here's the link to my Picasa Albums:

http://picasaweb.google.com/JDTWhite

I will also post this link permanently on the right side of my blog so you will always have easy access to it (or you can bookmark it as well!!). The rest of the pics from the last few days are up there!

Anyhoo... yesterday we met with playgroup at a fun farm and pumpkin patch. There was a hayride, we picked our own pumpkin (we only got one this time because we didn't have enough hands to carry them), we walked through the corn maze and played in the corn pit! Of course Taylor had woken up early, and she's still getting over being sick so she was a bit on the crabby side.

I've also noticed that the majority of my photos include the top, or back of Taylors head. She really does not like to pose for me, and when she does, she gets 2 inches from the camera and I can't focus on her go figure!!

Carson was asleep the majority of the time in his moby wrap, but we plan on going back to a smaller pumpkin patch (where the pumpkins are already picked) and get a few more pumpkins as well as more pictures!! :)

Walking with Mama (and brother)

Finding her way through the maze.
How about this way??
Road block! Lets go under it!
I better catch up so they don't get lost!
La La La
Drew getting eaten by the monster Louisiana bugs.
We did it!!
Where to next?
Oh, rocks!
La La La.
What's up here??
Loves his baby girl.
How about this one? Can I get up here?
I like little pumpkins.
Lets go get a pumpkin!
Loading up for the hay ride!
How about this pumpkin?
Looks like we found a good one!
Can Taylor carry it??

As I was working on the above photos last night, Drew was having Dada time with Carson and he was SMILING away! I can never get enough baby smiles!

Well, that's all that I could get uploaded... darn blogger! Oh well.. at least you can see the rest on Picasa. I'll try and go put captions under them if I get a chance!

Drew starts working 12 hour shifts from 6am - 6pm tomorrow. Hopefully it will only be for the week, but I have a feeling it's going to be a LONG one! We can do it!!! I just hope Taylor is feeling better and isn't quite so cranky.

We got the rest of our exercise pen panels Friday so Drew is out putting up the barrier to make a kennel area for the dogs. When it's raining and muddy out it will be their area to relieve themselves without getting covered from head to toe in mud, and cutting down on our workload, and stress level. You would be amazed (or maybe not) at the amount of mud two Great Danes can track into one house. Of course Holden likes to get it all over his belly as well so he can shake it all off on the walls *insert big sigh here*.

Hopefully this kennel area will help. They aren't taking so well to it thus far, but we're hoping if we can get a patch of artificial grass to put in there it will entice them to go ahead with business. Unfortunately the smallest we can find it is a 15 ft x 1 ft piece which may work if we cut it and piece it together in a different fashion, but I'm still hoping we can find a smaller, more square piece. Ahh.. the joys of living in a place where the water table is really high. It just doesn't drain very fast and stays muddy for days after the rain!

I'm off for now. Hoping to get a little crafting done this afternoon. I've been in a "make at least 4 cards a month" challenge, with a drawing for a prize at the end and there's only 3 months left and so far, I've met my goal! I have a few more projects I'm working on as well. Of course I've been crocheting like crazy while nursing Carson.. you'll see the pics on the Picasa site.

Love to you all!!

Gap Casting Call

2009-10-12T21:17:00.000-07:00

So the GAP was having a casting call, so I entered Taylor and Carson! You can vote for them once every 24 hours, so be sure to vote as often as possible!! These weren't my FAVORITE pics, but they had to be taken within 3 months and I was having a hard time getting Taylor to cooperate for some good ones, with time running out to enter, I just picked a recent one that showed one of her greatest attributes and ran with it!! :)

Here's Taylors, and Carsons is still pending approval, but once it goes through I'll post it here also.

http://family.go.com/gapcastingcall/entries/jenzzx2/85999413/

Here is Carsons!

http://family.go.com/gapcastingcall/entries/jenzzx2/265999065/

Grams Visit - Sunday

2009-10-11T20:28:00.000-07:00

Dianne (Drew's Mom) flew in Tuesday to spend the week with us and boy have we enjoyed her visit so far (we still have her for another couple of days!) So here is a compilation of some photos so far!

Grams, Carson and Drew hanging out.

Wide awake!Smiles!

Who says Dane's aren't lap dogs?
Mama and her babies.
Sweet Sister giving kisses.
Carson going to his first park outing, asleep in his bucket wearing his hat that I crocheted for him.

Grams snapping some shots of Taylor and Drew at the park.
Crawling through the tunnel.

I think we need to get her a bigger sweatshirt! At least she was warm. :)

In the bubble.
Taylor and her Dada.
She loves the slide!

Everybody wants a photo of the cutie patootie!

My beautiful princess.
and my handsome hubby!
Grams rocking Carson back to sleep.
all bundled up!
Say Cheese Grams!!!
This is a lot harder than it looks.

One sided rocking
But it so much more fun with two people!
don't go too fast dada, Taylor might go flying.
This elephant isn't very fun.
but it's better with help!
Big hands and little hands.
Whee!!!
Peekaboo!
Going down the big kid slide.
with a helping hand!
Help Mama, that's a big step!!
climbing back up for another slide.
Down again, down again!

It's starting to rain, so it's time to go home!
These boots were made for walkin'....
just not with me in them!!!
How cute is she in her new outfit (and hat that I crocheted for her :) heehee!)

We've been having a great time! We've gone to the Boardwalk (outlet mall) for some shopping, and dinner. We've had our park outing, we went to base to Drew's work and got to check out the B52 up close and personal and see what he does!

Drew and I got to go out on a date tonight while Gram's babysat for us, it was wonderful! We went out and had sushi, then walked over to the Cheesecake Bistro and had a piece of cheesecake and coffee then came home.

Not sure what the plan is for tomorrow, I think we were planning on heading over to the Science Discovery museum again, and Drew is marinating some steaks for BBQ.

Also our concrete finished getting poured along the side of the house (I'll take pics when I get a chance), and we've ordered extra panels for the exercise pen to make a barrier so when it's raining and muddy the dogs will have a kennel area to relieve themselves so they don't track mud in the house, or at least a lot LESS mud.

Well, that's about all for now, I should probably get some sleep while the baby is sleeping. He's been doing pretty good with that however! He's been getting up usually about once per night and again earlier in the morning but will go back to sleep for another couple hours (as do I if I can!). I still have my slow days when I stay up a little too long at night, but otherwise I'm not feeling too sleep deprived. I do need to get into gear exercising again as I feel a bit sluggish, but I'll get there!!

Goodnight!!

Smiles!!

2009-10-02T11:11:00.000-07:00

We're starting to get responsive smiles from Carson, yay!! Got a video of it for you. :)

Few more of the Car Keys.

2009-09-25T20:08:00.000-07:00

I can't remember if I posted about how we asked Taylor to say Carson and she said Car Keys! So we've been calling him Car Keys as a nickname....it was just too cute!

Anyway, here's a few more pictures from yesterday and tonight. His hair is looking a lot lighter! It's harder to tell when the light isn't so bright!
One of his half smiles, he wouldn't give me a full one!

Resting with Dad
Sleeping with Mom
We had a rough day yesterday getting him to sleep, so I reverted back to my Baby Whisperer book (the one that worked so wonderfully with Taylor when we were struggling around 10 months old). Following her techniques (implementing a routine) for his personality (somewhat touchy and sensitive) he has been FABULOUS today! He's hardly fussed at all, he's gone to sleep by himself several times (even though his naps are short), so here's hoping for a good night of long sleeps and that things continue in this manner.

I'm off to plan meals for the week and make up a grocery list so I can go to the commissary tomorrow. Post when I can!

Pictures!

2009-09-23T13:20:00.000-07:00

Here's a few pictures from the last few days and some video as well!!

Taylor having a PB&J
Carson was smiling when Drew tickled his upper lip, except whne I snapped the picture, he frowned...little goober.
Helping me out in the kitchen.
My first hat I crocheted.

and my little model. :)

My second hat I crocheted. It's too big though so it will have to wait a while to be worn!Drew hanging out with Taylor and Carson

Holden being goofy

Taylor at the Science Center

Taylor and Carson meeting for the first time

Has it been 8 days already?

2009-09-22T11:29:00.000-07:00

Can't believe it's been over a week since I posted! Not sure I'll get pictures up today or not, but I wanted to give an update!

We're still hanging in there! Still a bit sleep deprived, but I get one good stretch of sleep from about 11 or 12, to about 3:30am. The rest of the time it can vary from 1-2.5 hours of actual sleep, but it's progress! Now if I can just keep from falling asleep in the glider and waking up with kink in my neck!

Carson is getting to be a chunky Monkey! He feels heavier and heavier every day! He should with the amount he eats! We had to move him up to size 1 diapers already, as the newborns were getting snug.

He's been a pretty good baby, not colicky or anything , but he will fuss if conditions aren't perfect (clean diaper, full belly, rested, etc.). He also does not like to ride in the car. Most babies fall asleep with the movement of the car... not Carson! Most of the time he is awake all along, and gets fussy often when we are driving, I know all of the good places to pull over now since we often have to stop to calm him down, re-insert his pacifier (which he still doesn't particularly care for), and get going again.

He is definitely a "touchy" baby.. meaning he likes to have contact with somebody most of the time. I've been using my Moby Wrap (sling type carrier) a lot with him because he much prefers to be strapped up against me as opposed to lying in his bucket.

Taylor is growing up too fast all of a sudden. She's becoming a sponge with words, and she knows a lot more than we think she does. When she was asking her where her body parts were she pointed to every one of them without prompting..she knows:

head
eyes
nose
ears
mouth
chin
neck
shoulders
elbow (she calls it her elmo, haha)
hands
fingers
belly button
knees
foot
toes
back

she can't say all of them, about half of them but I thought it was good that she knew what they all were! I should try and get video of it.

Her new loves are Dora the Explorer, and Elmo (she tries to sing the Elmo song, LaLaLaLa) it's pretty funny. She loves to color, thank goodness for water soluble crayons. Her new catch phrases are "Alright!" and "Oh, NOOO". She likes to build things with blocks as well.

Her potty training is going okay, we still are letting her tell us when she needs to go most of the time instead of prompting her, she tinkles several times a day, but we still aren't getting #2 most of the time until after the fact. We'll get there! In another month or two when Carson isn't quite so demanding (hopefully), we'll really start working on it, but in the meantime she seems to be doing pretty good on her own.

We had to go get her new shoes (again) the other day as the ones we got when we were in CA are too small already. Her foot measured at a 5.5, but the lady that fitted her at stride-rite suggested we go up to a 6 so we could get a little more use out of them. They are a bit big, but she can walk okay so that works. I'm sure they will fit perfectly in another month and a half! She's getting taller, but she's still a skinny minny. Her 12 month dresses and pants are too short, but her shorts are just now fitting in the waist! So she is now in 12-18 month dresses and pants (though the pants need rolled over at the waist or cinched with a tie to stay up), and still in 12 month shorts, most tops and onesies.

Drew's birthday was Sunday, and it was his day! I made him waffles for breakfast. He spent a lot of the day relaxing and playing a new game that he got with his new racing wheel, then he went for a drive for a bit, and then we went out for Chinese food. I made him some blueberry muffins for dessert (he said he didn't want a cake this time). Overall, it was a nice enjoyable day!

The weather here has been rainy for a couple of weeks. It started off nice today and I thought we might go for a walk after nap time, but it's raining again. Ohhh well.

Drew goes back to work on Monday. He had to run in to work today and help a new guy that he was sponsoring get checked in so I had my first trial run for a few hours with two awake kids. It went pretty well! I'm still kind of nervous when he goes back, but I'm sure we'll figure it out. There will be ups and downs, but overall, Taylor is pretty good and Carson doesn't do a whole lot just yet so I should be able to handle it! I think once things get going we'll work out our routine and things will be okay.

I also tried my hand at crocheting the other day. I saw these really cute hats on Etsy and I thought... I can make one of those! I even had a crochet hook hanging around. So I googled how to crochet on youtube (I've done it a little before a long time ago, but I never actually made anything), and made Carson a beanie. It's not that hat that I saw at first, but I wanted to practice something easier before I tried the cute one I saw. Hopefully I can figure that one out for a photo op while he still sleeps a decent amount. I want to make Taylor one too, if she'll wear one! It gives me something to do while I'm nursing Carson as well since scrapbooking and computer surfing are a bit difficult to reach while I'm in a chair!

Well, I'm off for now. Naptime will be over shortly. If I can get some pics uploaded tonight I will do it. I got the video off the camcorder as well, but still need to get it online for ya.

Love to you all!

-Jen