2009, You're Lookin' Fine!

The first thing that comes to my mind when I think of 2009 is that I have my 10 year high school reunion this year.
Will I go?
Probably not.
Why?
I don't know. I'm shy like that, and really, I start to feel nauseous just thinking about it.
I didn't have a bad high school experience, but I don't want to go back either.

And then there are New Years Resolutions.

I have a TON of things I want to improve upon in 2009, but my top priority is to strengthen my prayer life. And I'm not just saying that to sound holy on the internet. My almost dried up well of a prayer life is the root of many of my problems and frustrations, I think. I know I don't pray enough.

Sean's resolution is to stop being so awesome all the time. (Okay, so I asked him to type out his resolution, and that's what HE typed, and I'm so glad he took me seriously, and it kinda reminds me of this post where I talk about his confidence level).

Hattie's resolution is to do everything a little fancier!

She got some Fancy Nancy books for Christmas; they've definitely brought out her inner priss. They're cute books. A better spin on the whole princess theme, I think.

Mary Ellen's resolution for 2009 is to gain a 3rd chin :).

The girl likes to eat, and since we'll be starting rice cereal in a month or so, she'll probably be the first in this family to achieve her goal.

And we hope you all have a blessed New Year! And a safe time celebrating tonight. Sean and I have plans to go out as we have a babysitter, but we'll be snoozing in our beds by the time the new year rolls in, I'm sure! You would think I was celebrating my 30th high school reunion this year, instead of my 10th. I know, I know :). But I have babies and they're sick, and sick babies don't sleep so well at night, so I'm TIIIIIIIERD!

Christmas Day 2008

Here are some pictures from my mom's house on Christmas Day. We had a lot of fun, but it was day #2 of no nap for Hattie, so she was melting down by 3:00, but considering the fact that she was super exhausted, she did fairly well.
The girls with their great "granny"

Mary Ellen after a nap!


Hattie getting her 2nd wind after no nap when she realizes she got more princess stuff!

My mom with all her grown kiddos. You can definitely tell who got the height in the family!

We had a great Christmas, but now the girls and I are all suffering with chest colds. So for the past two days, we've been staying in for the most part, enjoying new toys, watching too much t.v. and resting! I hope this blows over by tomorrow night because Sean and I actually have a babysitter for New Year's Eve!!!!!

Christmas Morning 2008

Pictures from our house Christmas morning:
Hattie got a princess vanity from Santa, and she was mesmerized!

She also got the long awaited "jumpa rope," and even though her motor skills are no where near refined enough to use it properly, she's content just holding it and jumping up and down :).

Mary Ellen slept in until 8:30 (after going to bed at 6:30!). She didn't have a clue about what was going on. All she new is that all the celebration is overwhelming and tiring.

Hattie played with her toys all morning while Mary Ellen napped, and then we went to my moms for lunch and round 3 of Christmas celebration, lots of food, and present opening. And I'll have to post pictures of Christmas at my mom's later because yet again, blogger is being uncooperative.......

5 years ago today......

we said "I do."
And I became one blessed woman to have snagged such an amazing man because (but not limited to).......
He lets me sleep in all the time.
He rubs my back when we watch t.v. together.
He loves Christ and really tries to walk in faith.
He puts up with my moodiness.
He's very affectionate.
He works hard for us.
He's an amazing father.
We share the same humor and goals for our future.
He has such a tender heart.

And I prayerfully hope that God will grant us many more years together.
Love you, honey!

Christmas Eve 2008

We had a blessed, merry Christmas this year. Lots of celebration in the last 2 days.

Christmas Eve was spent with Sean's parents and that side of the family. Sean's parents have 7 grandchildren ages 5 and under so it's totally chaotic but lots of fun. Warning: Picture Overload!
Wendy and Hattie who are two months apart. Wendy lives up in Washington state, so we don't get to see her much, but I was amazed at how well they played together and reminded how territorial 2 year olds can be :).


The 3 mamas to those 7 grandkids, and hopefully more to come - kids, not mamas :)!

The highlight of Sean's gift receiving this year! His parents are so generous. Many hours have already been spent enjoying this new gift. In fact, that's what he's doing right now......


I'll have to post pics of Christmas Day later Blogger is being very slow right now, but I hope you all had a beautiful Christmas and are getting to enjoy lots of time with loved ones!

Magical Wedding Day

It's her new favorite thing to play. My sister came over last week and dressed Hattie up. Then she said that we better start saving NOW for that magical wedding day because the more beautiful and "magical" looking, the better in Hattie's eyes. The above picture equals beautiful and magical in her two year old eyes :). I have no idea where my child even learned about a wedding day.

Sean and I are still banking that she'll want to become a nun :). The outfit isn't so different:

But the groom sure is! I think I'll start putting it in her head that she really wants to marry The Perfect Man.
We just have to get her away from pink because as you can see, she likes to wear pink.

And I haven't told her yet, but there will be no magical wedding day until she turns the magical age of atleast 30!

Besides playing wedding days, we've been baking (and eating) cookies......

Loving the exersaucer still, especially when it's put right next to the Christmas tree - bright, sparkly lights + exersaucer = a good time for Mary Ellen!

Christmas is in 3 days, y'all!!!!! Mama better get to wrappin'! Atleast the shopping is DONE :)!

{4 months}

and gettin' sweeter by the day.

This month has been marked with lots of giggles and coos since Mommy found a ticklish spot where the jaw-line ends and the neck begins on Miss Mary Ellen :).

Movement and noise has also been a big part of this month for our little melon! She can roll from tummy to back and has been doing that for a while. She's really close to rolling from back to tummy. She gets stuck on her side and gets pretty frustrated with herself. She's a big talker, too. When I put her down for naps, she usually talks before falling asleep and then she talks some more when she wakes up, sometimes she talks herself back to sleep. I'm not use to this. Hattie was either crying or sleeping when she was in the crib. This one has the gift of gab! Though I really can't imagine her being more of a talker than her older sister. That's a scary thought! ;)

We bought her this bumbo tray for Christmas but just decided to give it to her early because she won't be in the bumbo for too much longer. so we have to maximize the $9.99 that was spent to pay for it. She loves sitting in her bumbo and now I can put toys on her tray so she can occupy herself for even longer or when she doesn't have her sister around to watch. It's a great gift for this poor second child who doesn't get many new things.

I take her for her four month checkup on Tuesday. I'm interested to see how much she weighs. The creases and rolls on her legs lead me to believe she'll be on the higher end of the percentages for weight. She's already wearing 6 mos. clothing.

That's all I got for tonight, so I'll end with a picture of my 3 favorite loves:

Can we say wrapped around their little fingers? That daddy sure is :)!

Breakfast with Santa

Saturday morning our church hosted a breakfast with Santa. I'm so glad they had this because 1) I was wondering when I was going to brave the mall to get the annual picture with Santa with not one, but two children this year, and 2) All proceeds went to the K of C which does so much for our church and community.
Hattie was so brave with Santa, and I totally expected the opposite. Once she met him and got to talkin', she wouldn't leave the poor guy alone the whole time we were there :).

Matt and Gracen met us at the church. This is not the best picture I have ever taken, but it's cute with the dads and daughters. We forgot to include Mary Ellen in on this one. I think she was chillin' in the carrier. Poor laid-back, second child.

Well, I wanted to post more pictures, but blogger is being stubborn, so that's all I have for you today, I guess.
Happy Tuesday!!!!

It's funny.......

how Sean writes posts for me. The one about the Mac was written by him. Is it obvious?

So as some of you know, we've gone through a lot more than just our computer crashing in the last week.

Tuesday night Mary Ellen started running a pretty high fever (around 102). So Wednesday morning I called the doc, and we went in. They couldn't figure out what was wrong with her - no stuffy nose, no ear infections, no coughing or congestion. The doctor decided to take blood just to make sure it wasn't bacterial. Then they decided to collect urine (through a catheter :( - poor baby), but everything was normal there. They drew more blood, gave her shots of antibiotics just in case and sent us home worried. Over the course of the next few days they watched the blood culture, and we watched Mary Ellen. 48 hours later the doctor calls me and tells me the culture is positive - she has a bacteria. She starts saying things like possible pneumonia or meningitis. I freak out a little bit. We take her back in for more shots of antibiotics and are told to take her to Texas Children's Hospital to get more blood work done. My poor baby endures more needles. We're sent home to wait for the results.

During all of this Mary Ellen's fever dropped, and she wasn't appearing sick. She was smiley and cooing like always, so I really had a peace that she wasn't sick and that there was a mistake or a misread which is why I never sent out a big email or told everyone about it. Luckily my mother's intuition was right on this time! The doctor called Sunday morning and said the culture from the hospital came back negative; the test results of the bacteria from the office came back and showed that the bacteria was one commonly found on the skin. The test at the doctor's was contaminated. They are still going to watch the culture at the hospital for 24 more hours to see if it grows anything, but the doctor just called me this morning and said that she thinks there is no bacterial infection. Whew! Praise God!

And as if that weren't enough excitement for the week, I broke out in the worst case of eczema I have ever endured. Probably stress induced, even though I really only had one stressful moment during the ordeal with Mary Ellen. The doctor made it clear to me that my skin was so bad, she needed to give me shots of steroids and put me on steroid medication to clear up my skin. Doing this treatment meant that I couldn't nurse for over a week. Some of you know what I went through when Mary Ellen was first born to continue nursing, so having another setback was very disappointing for me. But my skin was causing me so much suffering, keeping me up half the night, too, that I couldn't say no to the treatment, so I'm pumped up on steroids now and am no longer nursing. I'm disappointed, but yesterday when I was dwelling over never getting to nurse my baby again I had the thought that atleast I still have my baby. Many women who suffer with the discomfort that comes when you stop nursing abruptly also don't have a baby to nurse anymore. And I am very thankful that my baby is still here and healthy. She's just going to get her nourishment elsewhere. And my skin is already 50% better after only two days of treatment.

Through all of this, though, God has really drawn me near to him. Just last week I had a friend give me a prayer card with a morning dedication on it that I've been saying each morning. It came at just the right time. The words rang in my ears and heart as I've said it each morning aloud:

I place the uncertainties of this day in Your hand, Lord. Turn them into certainties that are bound to bring glory to You. For my part, so far as I can, I foresee the events that either appear on my calendar or simply happen in the ordinary course of routine. These, together with the unforeseen events, I offer to You. Bless also all the interruptions, the accidents, the pleasant surprises, and the sudden disappointments. I might not remember to pray to You at the time, so I now refer all these things to the glory of Your name. Amen.

So I guess "It's (not) funny" contrary to what my title says for this post. We've had a rough week, but it has not been one that we've had to endure alone. God's been right there with us providing me with the strength and understanding I've needed to get through it all. And when I think about how much worse the turnout could have been, when I see the images of all the really sick babies we saw at our visit to Texas Children's, I know that I am blessed, and my struggles and disappointments of this past week are so miniscule.

And today is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, which is yet another reminder of the mercy and love of our God, yet another symbol of hope in a disappointing world. The beginning of His biggest blessing to us.

We Are Back Up and Running....

Well...after taking our old Sony PC to the repair nerds we found out that fixing it would cost almost $400. So, we decided it would be more prudent to simply replace it since the old one was about four years old which made it a dinosaur in the computer world. We replaced it with a...drumroll...MAC. Its a MAC Mini. Its so cool. The entire computer is about the size of a paperback novel.

Hopefully the kiddos give me some quite time today so that I can upload some pictures from the weekend...we went to see Santa!

Happy feast of the Immaculate Conception!

CRAAAAASH

is what our computer did 2 days ago. I'm on the computer at my inlaws now.

Hopefully we'll have our old computer or a new one next week sometimes. We're trying to figure out how much it'll be to fix the old one first. To see if it's worth fixing or should we just splurge and get a new one.

Until then I''ll be suffering from withdrawl from not checking all of your blogs or communicating through email :(.

On a positive note, my house hasn't been this clean in quite a while, and I am all caught up on laundry!!!!!

I think.........

somebody likes......

the exersaucer!

Christmas & Computers

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. We decked the halls of our house this weekend, so I thought I needed to do a little blog decorating as well.

Also, I might be a little sparse on the ol' computer for a while. It's about to crash. I can just tell. You don't even want to know how long it took me to change the header. Patience was a big part of the last hour and a half of my life. I even called Sean while I was watching the bars sloooowly inch to completion on this dinosaur and told him I was about to lose my mind! So maybe I wasn't being very patient afterall......

My question is, we are probably going to have to buy a computer soon. Sean is dead-set on getting a laptop. Any suggestions? He wants a Mac, but aren't they pretty pricey? I want the best bang for our buck, and there isn't a lot of buck, okay.

Gotta get off the computer now. I think I'm starting to go cross-eyed.

Oh, and happy beginning of Advent. I hope as we all prepare our homes (and our blogs), we will also prepare our hearts for the coming of Christ!

edited to add: Thanks to my friend, Katie, for taking our Christmas card photo on Saturday. Katie is so awesome with the girls. She does such a good job of making them look like little angels. You would never know they give their mama trouble all day long or that the older one was not very cooperative during the photoshoot ;). You ROCK, Katie!

Thankful {Thanksgiving} Thursday

*I am thankful for the love that fills these walls. Chaos and constant it is, but I have 3 people in these walls who love me and love each other unconditionally. I am thankful that God has blessed me with an amazing husband and two beautiful, precious, healthy children.

*I am thankful that God has called me to the vocation of motherhood. It is the most difficult, selfless (which is why it's so difficult) thing I have ever embarked on but oh, so rewarding!

*I am thankful for my husband who has made me the lucky one in our marriage.

*And I am thankful to God who has given me all that I have; even though, I deserve none of it.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Fabuloso!

Sweet Amanda gave me the above award.

Here are the rules:
First I must list 5 things that I find fabulously addictive:

1.) COFFEE!!!! I use to not need a cup each morning. Two kids later, I need atleast 2 cups before my morning grouchiness starts to subside and the fog in my head begins to dissipate. I have found that getting up several times a night with a wee one can quickly kill the chipperness that a typical morning person feels at say 7 a.m.


2.) Sticking with caffine, I find Dr. Pepper to be fabulously addictive. I try to only drink it on occasion due to the high calories, but about once every couple of weeks or so I get a huge craving for a Dr. Pepper and must drink one, even if it's just a baby can; otherwise, I get a massive headache and that ain't fabulous.


3.) White noise - After having kids and hearing lots of squeaks and shifts in the night from them, I have to have white noise in the background when I sleep so that I only hear the serious cries and am not constantly awakened by sounds. I am so addicted to white noise while I sleep now that I don't think I could sleep without it, even if there were no kids in the house. I don't know how I slept with silence in the background for 25 years?!?!


4.) Domestic blogs. I am not super crafty at all, but I love all of the blogs that are out there that help moms with ideas for cheap decorating and give inexpensive, creative ideas. Two of my faves are this one and this one. I'm even going to try and do this idea when I decorate Hattie's big girl room!

5.) Locked Up Abroad - ever seen this show? I watched it for the first time with Sean last night. He's highly addicted to it, and I have to say that I am, too, now. It's totally interesting and fascinating.

Now I have to share the award with 5 other fabulous bloggers:
1.) Laurel because she's my sweet sister-in-law and posts about her beautiful daughter and life in the northwest.
2.) Missy because she's my other sweet sister-in-law who has an awesome blog and is a mama to 4 little cuties, ages 5 and under.
3.) Shalonda because she's Catholic, an Aggie, and has two beautiful girls and the sweetest personality.
4.) Akat because I just "met" her. She has a cute blog and is expecting her first baby this spring.
5.) Christie because she never blogs anymore, and this can be a start to getting back on track - as if you have time, I know ;), but she's an amazing friend and is expecting baby boy #2 in March, and I get to be his godmother :).

Hope you all have a fabulous Tuesday and a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Say Cheese!

Amanda's post got me thinking about our Christmas cards this year. We're blessed to have a sweet friend, Katie, who is going to take the picture and make the cards for us (thank you, Katie!). She has her work cut out for her, though, trying to get a good picture of two adults, a toddler, and a baby smiling or looking pleasant and all looking at the camera at the same time.

It's easy to get Hattie to smile. She's a ham with the camera, but this is what her fake smile always looks like:

All scrunched up and kind of evil looking, I think.

And this little bit - it's pretty easy to get a smile from her, too.

All I have to do is get up in her face and be all squeaky and the smiles come. But with babies it's all about timing - finding the perfect window where they're up and happy, not tired or hungry - and that's usually about a 45 minute to one hour window for Mary Ellen. Otherwise, we can forget the smiles.

And I found the girls matching Christmas dresses about a month ago. So excited about those! Dressing my two girls alike for holidays and such has been a dream of mine ever since I found out Mary Ellen was a girl. But I've learned the hard way that I shouldn't show Hattie a new dress until the day she can wear it. She has asked me every. single. morning. if she can wear her Christmas dress TODAY! It's lacey and poofy and totally up her alley.

Speaking of getting ready for Christmas, I asked Hattie what she wanted Santa to bring her this year. Here's her list of what she wants:
1.) A jump rope
2.) A purple present
3.) A story-tale
4.) Princess rings and princess earrings
"And that's all that we need" is how she ended her list :). Easy enough. I can handle all that with like one trip to the local dollar store. I better enjoy the desire for cheap presents while it lasts, right! And she has made it very clear that she is NOT sitting on Santa's lap. She is going to stand by him with Mommy when she tells him what she wants. So that picture'll be pretty interesting, too, I'm sure!

Happy Friday, y'all!

Thankful Thursday

I've seen this going around in the blogging world, and I'm kinda grumpy today, so I thought I should copy this idea and count my blessings. I have ambition to do this every Thursday, but we'll see......
Some of the things I'm thankful for on this Thursday (in no particular order):
1.) My husband who politely puts up with my morning grumpiness when I haven't had enough sleep the night before.
2.) These two healthy boogers:

3.) The gorgeous days we've been having.
4.) My sister who came and spent the day with us recently and watched the girls so I could go grocery shopping and then took Hattie to McDonald's to play and get out of the house. When are you coming back, Aunt Brittany ;)?!?!
5.)Finally having a cordless phone! With two small children it was REALLY impossible trying to talk on our retro phone that's attached to the wall without being able to move around the house. The cheapster in me was refusing to buy one since we have a perfectly good working phone, but hubby insisted, I submitted, and am SO glad I did!
6.) Mothers Day Out!
7.) God's grace and mercy in my life......I don't even want to think about where I'd be without THEM!
8.) Healthy babies brought into the world without complication. Congrats on becoming an aunt, Katie!!!!!! Can't wait to see pictures of baby Luke!
What are you thankful for this Thursday?

Cha-Cha-Changes!

#1 Welcome to our now private blog, and I hope you were able to get access without complication.

#2) Look who moved to a big girl bed this weekend!!!!

We had no intention of moving her quite yet, but I found this bedspread on Friday, and she REALLY wanted to sleep in her "princess bed" that night, so we figured why not just give it a try. So far it's smooth sailing!

#3) Mary Ellen has learned to roll from stomach to back, and since we tummy sleep her, it's NOT BEEN FUN! These last two or three nights have not been nice to me since she's been waking often to be turned back over. I pretty much feel like this today:


#4) Remember how Sean posted that I like to paint things? Well, this is what our kitchen use to look like:

And this is what it looks like now:

It's still a work in progress, but the color helps, I think! Sean thinks our kitchen looks more "country apple" than ever. And yes, the cabinet door is now covered with chalkboard paint, which so far is working out great for quick lists and "art."

#5) The wonderful cold weather!!! We are loving it!!!!

{3 Months}

This little girl is 3 months old today. She is quite the chatter-box, moreso than Hattie was if I remember correctly. If Mary Ellen is awake, she's either cooing or smiling, and if she's not doing either of those things, she's usually tired. She's a happy baby. In fact, I've had the thought that we should've named her Joy, but then she wouldn't be named after her great-great grandmother, now would she :)!

Mary Ellen's biggest accomplishment this month is that she laughed out loud for the first time on Monday. It was by accident. She was as surprised as I was. Something startled her, and I laughed because babies are so cute when they startle, I think. Then she laughed as if she got the humor in it all, too. She's our little booger!

Mary Ellen loves to watch her big sister play around her. Hattie is her favorite source of entertainment. I also started putting her in the bumbo this month, and she loves it and holds her head well.

My only real complaint is that she's still not sleeping through the night; she still gets up around 2 a.m. to eat and then sometimes at 5:30 a.m. What a blessed mama am I to have that as my only present "hardship!" Blogs have opened up a whole new world for me, and after reading about so many struggles that parents go through with their sick babies and children, I am so thankful for this perfectly healthy little pumpkin no matter what the hour!

And I'm just as thankful for her "lively" big sister, too!

Happy 3 month birthday, Mary Ellen. You're getting blonder and stronger by the day! And who would have thought that your brown-eyed parents could produce such pretty blue eyes in such a pretty little munchkin!

Because......

sometimes you're just in the right place at the right time with your camera nearby.

But don't let these pictures fool you. They are not a true glimpse of what my morning has been. There was lots of whining and crying (some from the kids, too), and I just happen to capture the 1 minute where everything was right with the world in my house.

Now it's naptime, and Mama is going to recharge and try to gain back the portion of her sanity that was lost over the course of the last 4 hours :).