The rush is over!

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.

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??

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

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!

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!

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

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!!