Snowmagedon 12/13

(Found this unpublished and want to get it on there so to not loose pics and mems!) December 2013

Well, the recent snowpocalypse Cleon left us stranded at home from Wednesday evening until MONDAY. Whew! It was a long few days. Stephen was stuck working from home- and in a two bedroom apartment that is TORCHER for all of is. The kids banged on his door and stuck fingers under the bottom all day. School for the kids was canceled Thursday and Monday- which was a HUGE bummer for me. I rely on those days for my personal sanity. 

We did a little playing in the snow- but in an apartment that only goes so far. Also tiny fingers can't stand too much cold weather in the TEENS. Funny thing though- after living in Kansas for 4 years, the south does NOT know how to do cold weather/snow. I miss the snow plows and just general preparedness of northern states when it comes to cold weather and snow. There is no freaking out over milk and bread at the grocery store, the roads are usually cleared within half a day of a storm and people know how to drive in it. 

Goodness gracious people- SLOW DOWN. We walked to church Sunday cause we were so stir crazy and it didn't even phase people that there was INCHES of ice underneath them and if they had lost control going 40 there was a family they would possibly kill. I appreciate the snow freaks that just stay home- I'm with them. BUT when school was canceled Monday, and Stephen was leaving for staff training, I could take it no longer. So we loaded up and headed to okc. There was a good bit of snow there as well, but also a pawpaw and a Gigi to do some entertaining. Also a nice range with farm animals didn't hurt. 

We have taken care of chickens and cows, played in the yard, taken 4wheeler rides, shopped, and just had a change of scenery. It's been a fun few days and we will head back to nwa! 

November days

I can always count on Henry for a good snuggle. 

Stools up high. It's a problem around here. 

We have two strollers. One is used for babies, playing mommy, and sweet things. The other is used for racing, off-roading, and pushing it and other things over. 

Such a happy little guy. Till he's mad. :)

We are a little sad around here these days. We put an offer (full price, mind you) on a house a few days ago and got outbid. It was the first house we really loved and actually wanted to live in it. I definitely got ahead of myself and thought my apartment days were over. I am reminding myself that I have all I need and I can be content right here. Please say a prayer that God provides us a house soon!

On a happy note- my kids are enjoying each other right now! Not always, of course, but they really do play together more than I thought they would. When they play together and giggle, it's pretty hard to enforce rules, as you can see by this action shot. I drew the line when they started climbing on the arms and diving off. And please excuse the nudity. It seems they have the most fun when they are not being held back by clothing. :) 

Getting back in the game.

LeYesterday, she said "we have to go trick or treating again cause we're out of candy."

I really am trying to get back into the blogging game. I have really enjoyed it, and has actually proved beneficial to look back at life memories I have either since forgotten or strategically blocked out of my memory. :)

Can you guess what Henry is? 

Lately we are in a rough transition spot as a family- 4 of us in a 2 bedroom apartment no back yard- only sidewalks and dog poop filled grassy areas to wander. Henry has picked up more than his share of dog turds, and my dislike, not for dogs, big dog OWNERS has definitely gone up. Controversial statement right there since most of you out there are probably are dog owners, but let's just get real- pick up your dog poop and it won't be a problem. 

Anyway, Henry is in the closet of our bedroom- don't worry, it's a walk in, and he doesn't know the difference anyway...but needless to say, I can't imagine that any of us are getting our optimum level of sleep since I hear every snort and each time he rolls over, and I fear rolling over myself cause our bed creeks. I won't get into the other reasons that's less than ideal....

Add that to the fact that Henry is going through a particularly whiney/clingy phase. According to my blog world Blakely went through the same thing at this age (only, I'm sure, much worse). Praise The Lord I don't have a newborn right now. It blows my mind that Henry is the same age as Blakely when he was born. Does that make sense? 

As you can see, Henry is also in a pretty serious climbing phase. I'm sure our neighbors hate us since daily we are sticking a new piece of furniture outside our apartment because Henry keeps climbing and generally has fallen off of it more than once. We have lost bar stools, a coffee table, and a bench so far. Thank goodness we don't have stairs since he fell down a flight at Stephens parents last week. 

I sure am thankful he's happy when he's in my lap, though! I know it won't last forever- and I need to remind myself of that more. 

Left her with a babysitter and woke up to crazy shirt and her diaper on completely backwards. :)

4 months later...

We had a great summer.
Stephen and I went to Crested Butte, CO.
We moved to fayetteville.
We live in a two bedroom apartment- Henry sleeps in our closet.
I played golf for the first time.
We celebrated 6 years of marriage.
My brother got engaged to the girl of ALL OUR dreams.
And my kids are getting too big.

Today. 6.10.13

Snuggles with Henry 

Swimming in the bay

Family bath to wash off the sand-excuse Henry's nudity

Just relaxing from a long hard day

update

Even though I JUST posted Henry's one year update, I feel that I need to do another one since a lot has changed since I actually wrote it!

Henry is WALKING full time.  He occasionally crawls to something if he needs to get there quick, but he usually takes the time to get up and walk.  He's always got something in his hands.  Straw, phone, spatula, pillow, remote...anything he can get his hands on.  I think it helps his balance or something cause he doesn't really walk unless he's got stuff in his hands.

He is sleeping AWESOME lately.  Puts himself to sleep at night and for naps- Stephen letting him cry REALLY paid off.  Sleeping from about 7 to 7, and taking two 1 hour naps a day.

He is totally off formula, and drinks 3 six ounce bottles of milk a day.

Blakely is also sleeping great.  Bed around 8:30, sleeps till 6:30 or 7, and one usually 2 hour nap a day.

She is LOVING being here in Florida.  She and Stephen catch crabs in the bay almost daily in the mornings. She loves seeing all the college students- and gets her fingernails painted several times a week by them.

We did have a little scare with Henry last week.  One of the most horrible parenting moments for me so far.  He fell off backwards off of the stroller and landed on his head on a concrete side walk.  He hit his head really hard so we were pretty worried he got a concussion.  So we called a nurse practitioner friend and she advised us to wake him up hourly to make sure his pupils dilate and constrict normally.  It was a miserable night, and he was fine, but then he threw up the next morning so we went ahead and went in to the ER.  The doc was going to do a CT scan, but it is a huge ordeal with a baby- IV, being knocked out, apparently increases chance of leukemia, etc.  So we opted out and decided to just continue to watch him closely since he had no other signs of issues. ---He is fine.

Our time here in Florida has FLOWN.  I can't believe we will be leaving in 2 weeks.  I am really sad.  I expected for it to go pretty slowly with me being stuck in our room much of the day with my kids sleeping schedules, but I have gotten to hang out with students and staff a lot more than I thought I would, and I am really sad we are leaving!

Henry turned ONE- almost a month ago... oops!

Well, Henry is ONE today! (promise, I wrote this on his birthday!) That is, if I actually get this posted today. 

 

 

Today he is one and happy as ever.  I CANNOT believe it's already been a year, and yet, at the same time, thinking back to a year ago being in the hospital, still living at our old house, Blakely not being potty trained or being able to talk all that great, etc, I can hardly believe it's ONLY been a year. 

 

Henry has been such a dream baby compared to the first year of Blakely's life.  I don't say that to complain about her, or to sound ungrateful to have her, but it's just true.  He is WORLDS easier.  I know I missed the last couple of monthly posts- oops, and TONS has happened of course.  I might repeat myself from previous posts, but here's what has happened in the last few months:

 

The whole fam got sick and Henry QUIT nursing.  Literally, was just done.  So we went to formula and I didn't complain.  He has had LOTS of eating issues- not eating at all, fussing EVERY meal time, throwing up at least once a day, etc. We saw a feeding specialist- who knows if it helped.  He didn't gain ANY weight from 9-11 months.  Kinda scary.  Sleeping was an issue- he decided he was done sleeping with me, but was also not so interested in sleeping alone.  We were spoiled when Henry was a newborn- we literally did not have any sleepless nights.  He saved them for the last few months cause we have had a lot! 

 

About two weeks ago everyone in the family got strep but me.  Henry gave up the pacifier for a few  days (no worries, hes back at it!) and we were all miserable.  We headed to Memphis for the halfway marker for Kaleo. The kids didn't do great in the car- it took way longer than we'd hoped.  Kids then got a cold and were sick the whole time we were there, BUT on Sunday, Henry took his first REAL steps!  We had a blast hanging out with Anna and Justin and Lucy, and of course BB and D-dad.

 

He is still not walking a ton, but he is building his courage and trying.  We left on Monday to head to Florida and the kids did way better on that trip.  Both kids get terribly carsick- but Blakely takes dramamine.  It will be nice when Henry can too!  We arrived at our condo- two bedrooms ON the bay.  Two kids in one bedroom was NOT working, so Blakely has her own room, and Henry is in our bathroom.  There are no walk in closets, so it was our only option.  There is about a two hour period each night where we can't use the bathroom until Blakely is good and asleep- since there is a bathroom connected to her room. 

 

Henry did a 180 when it came to food and he is eating LIKE CRAZY.  We are not sure what happened, but it's like he just got it.  He eats lots of what we eat, and he eats several squeezie baby food pouches a day.  We are weaning him off formula slowly, and he seems to be liking milk just fine. 

 

He has been waking up a little early (between 5-6) which is a bummer, but it seems to be getting 15 minutes later each day. So hopefully it will keep moving in that direction.  He takes a nap around 8- I try to keep him up until then even when he gets up super early to encourage him to sleep later.  He usually naps for about an hour, occasionally a little longer.  Then another nap around 1. He goes to bed around 7, but lately has been having trouble falling asleep.  He goes down fairly easy for naps- lays down awake but drowsy and puts himself to sleep, but bedtime is a different story.  Lots of laying him down, leaving, coming back, holding him, repeat.  We are really trying to lay him down sleepy so he'll get better.  He wakes up several times at night and we go in a hold him for a few minutes and he USUALLY goes back to sleep.  We feed him a bottle at some point cause it helps him go back to sleep, but we are trying to move away from that.  The last few nights he has around an hour that he is awake and crying, but we are starting to lay down the law and let him cry for longer.  So hard for me, but necessary. 

 

He drinks about 4 bottles a day, anywhere from 5-8oz of formula/milk mix.  He usually eats one or two squeezies in between each bottle, puffs and eggo and cheerios for breakfast- hes allergic to eggs, turkey cheese and bread for lunch, and chicken (or whatever we are having) for supper.  He has four teeth- top right is just finally poking through.  He's getting much better at chewing, but still has a strong gag reflex and throws up pretty regularly.  He is heavily into putting EVERYTHING in his mouth.  Drive. Me. Crazy. 

 

He is not saying any words.  He MIGHT say 'dada' but I kinda don't think so.  He rarely even makes the 'mmm' sound.  He is a little behind verbally, but he makes up for it in masculinity.  This boy is a BOY. 

 

He is rough, loud, makes boy noises- growls, has a deep voice, loves to head but, loves to wrestle, loves to fall- accidentally and on purpose, loves to climb, loves to knock things over, is the fastest grabber in the west (and east...) and pulls hair.  He is a maniac when he's in a good mood, and the only way to describe it is that he is destructive.  He runs into everything, falls over, pulls everything he can reach, is loud, rams his head into you, grabs you, and is laughing or grunting the whole time.  He's hilarious.  He is relentless when he wants something- ie. sunglasses, cup of water, food on your plate, anything in Blakely's hand, remote, computer, cords of any kid, etc.  He gets his feelings hurt when you sternly tell him no, but smiles at the drop of a hat.  I have never seen a smilier baby than him.  He is a momma's boy, and misses me terribly when I leave him.  He is usually in tears when I pick him up from the nursery or sitters- we are working on it. 

 

He is still OBSESSED with his sister, but they have definitely already started fighting.  Physical for him, verbal for her.  But they are buds too. 

 

He is wearing 12-18mo bottoms and 12-2t shirts.  He is not wearing shoes- I don't plan on putting him in any until he is REALLY walking. Size 3 or 4 diapers. 

 

He is great at self entertaining.  He plays with his toys well, and just roams around getting into stuff.  He doesn't need entertained except from about 4pm to bedtime- he is a little fussy. 

 

He LOOOOVES his dad, and other than when he is sleepy or doesn't feel good, he wants him over me any day.  He whines when Stephen comes in the room and doesn't come pick him up.  He is ticklish and SOOO easy to get him to laugh. 

These two.

My kids are awesome. Here's a brief update on the two of them.

Henry is crawling. He started inching along a while ago. Then started conventionally crawling a week or two ago, and just in the last few days he has really taken off. I wouldn't say he's fast yet, but he's getting faster. It's so funny how different my kids are. Blakely started crawling and immediately was fast and efficient. It's taken Henry a little longer to enjoy crawling.

And with that...Blakely now has the annoying little brother. He crawls over to her, no matter what, to take her toy, her food, pull her hair, climb on her, and just pester her in general. She is actually a pretty good sport about it most of the time, but he definitely gets on her nerves. There is a lot of "Mom, get Hankie out of my way!"....."No! Hankie, that's MINE!"...."Henry drooled on my toy!"....etc. Ahhhh siblings. I have a feeling Blakely might get a little short sided with the sibling rivalry considering both Stephen and I are LITTLE siblings. Stephen especially will be able to sympathize with Hankie since he has a big sister who picked on him. :) But we will do our best to be fair, despite having terribly mean older siblings. Kidding. :)

Henry is also standing all the time. He walks around on the furniture, and just yesterday started standing without holding on to things. He is so proud, too. He will look at me and make sure I am watching, then let go and stare at me and smile while he shows off his "no hands" trick. I won't say he's close to walking cause I know he could easily prove me wrong and not walk for months, but he wants it BAD. So it seems like it won't be long.

He's definitely not lacking in courage. The poor guys injury count had skyrocketed since his mobility has increased. Lots of tumbles, pulling heavy objects onto his head, and crawling into objects- I guess cause he's looking down? Should I be worried? He currently has a couple of nice bumps on his head from diving off a chair yesterday (mom fail, I know...) and crashing into his music table as well.

Blakely is a little chatterbox. She has imaginary friends and animals, and also likes to pretend she IS various animals. She is always talking to herself, singing to herself, or talking and singing to her animals.

She is still obsessed with her "buddies"-all her stuffed animals. And insists on sleeping with ALL of them.

Although I am convinced she's a genius, she has some hilarious grammar issues that I am sure are normal, but are just too cute to correct. "Is your gonna go, mommy?" "Where he binky?" Etc. "what color sis it?"

And she's always "just" doing something. Have I already talked about this? It's adorable. "I'm just crying...I'm just watching tv....I'm just playing with this..." Speaking of just crying, she has really started to identify her emotions. She will tell us when she's sad, crying, happy, etc. I think it's really good cause I think she is learning to control her emotions a little better.

Don't get me wrong...she can be a total basket case. The girl is fragile. She is in tears if she can't get the lid off something, if she thinks you are going to tell her no, and many other random times. I don't know if it is just being tired or if she's just that sensitive. She also gets her feelings hurt by others VERY easily. It really breaks my momma heart. If someone takes a toy from her, doesn't want to play with her, or does something mean to her, she remembers every detail and will talk about it for weeks. And she will get upset all over again as she's telling me about it. We take her to a gymnastics place to play- no lessons or anything, just running and jumping on things- and a few weeks ago a kid took a toy from her and pushed her, and she talks about it and gets upset every time we go to or even talk about the gym.

We have also discovered she is a peacemaker/people pleaser like her daddy (NOT like her mommy...) if she has a toy and another kid is throwing a fit for that toy, she will almost always try to give it to them- even when she shouldn't (like if the kid tried to take it from her, etc) Conflict makes her very uncomfortable, and when she sees another kid throwing a fit she will, try her best to give them what they want. A good and bad thing I am sure. She also does her share of not sharing, but for the most part she wants others to be happy. She is sensitive to tension too. When Stephen and I have gotten I to "discussions" (we'll call them that...) we are not raising our voice, but they probably are a little intense, she will always come to us VERY concerned saying, "what are you talking about, guys?!"

She has started being scared. Who knows why. She will randomly be afraid when I put her to bed at night. She will just say she's scared and it will take her a long time to go to sleep. She almost always feels better when we pray and ask Jesus to take care of her and help her sleep. She had also developed a fear of sharks. We have talked a lot about how we are going to live on the beach this summer and she is always super excited about it. Except a few weeks ago she came to me in tears because she didn't want to live on the beach because she didn't want to get bitten by a shark. No idea where she got that.

She loves to pray. She always prays with us at supper, and likes to pray for people at night when she goes to bed. It's pretty sweet. One night when we were praying for her to not be scared she wanted to pray that her friend Hudson wouldn't be scared too.

I know there is so much else I want to document on my kiddos but for now this will have to do since Henry just woke up. :)

Oklahoma road trip

Well Henry is asleep in Blakely's bed. He wet through his clothes this morning so his quilt is being washed so I convinced Blakely to sleep in our bed. Both kids went down within 15 minutes of each other, and both are asleep. (For now!) woo!

So my parents live on a pretty cool little farm with chickens and cows and farm toys- tractors electric car, dogs, etc. And I have been telling my friend Katie that she and her son needed to come down with us sometime. Well, since I'm moving soon and we are best friends we decided we really did need to do w road trip together before I leave. So we scheduled it for a few weeks layer, then I realized Sunday that the only time I could go was Monday. So I sprung it on her, fully expecting her to pass. Instead she surprised me and said let's do it. So we hopped into the car (not really, there's no hopping with 3 kids) Monday morning and headed down. I literally told my parents the night before, and both had to work, so our expectations as well as actual plans were slim. We decided to just take our time and enjoy the hiccups that were certain to come with traveling with two toddlers and an infant.

Our highlights for the ride down there were 1. The moment we realized the van DVD player was going, each toddler had an iPad in their lap and Henry's personal DVD player was playing all at the same time. Oh, modern technology... (I'm a little embarrassed, but had to share) 2. We discovered Blakely gets intensely carsick (this is a recurring problem) and she CANNOT handle the iPad in the car. She threw up, but I saw it coming just in time to have Katie hold a bag up for her. We were a ways away from a stop, so unfortunately I was forced to litter said bag. We pulled over on the side of the road and I really felt like keeping it in the car wasn't worth the risk of her or another kid throwing up due to the stink. (Sorry environmentalists!) I now know to ALWAYS keep lots of bags in the car because although this was the only throw up of the trip, she came very close a couple of other times. And 3. We finally made it to town with no less than 5 stops. (Starbucks, pee break, snack break, barf break, and lunch)

We arrived to 80 degree weather, put on our shorts and had a blast. The kids couldn't have been happier. They ran around the pasture, fed and held chickens, collected eggs, fed cows, played baseball, played on a jungle gym, jumped on the trampoline, and got so dirty that there was a ring of dirt around the tub after their bath. Henry was asleep by 7:30, Blakely around 9:30. There were 2 earthquakes that night that were totally bizarre! Apparently not an uncommon thing around there.

The kids all slept in- mine 7:30, and Hudson 9:30. (As jealous as I am, I am still thankful for 7:30!) it was cold and windy, which was a huge disappointment after sweating the day before. Sure made us glad we got there in time to enjoy it though!

All three kids were SUUUUUUUPER whiney, so we loaded them up for errands since it was too cold to okay outside for too long. We stopped at Braums for lunch when I learned Katie had never been. The kids were being crazy and driving us nuts, Henry threw up on the only pair of pants I brought, so we went to old navy to get him some more! After that we stopped by my moms school to say hi. The kids fell asleep on the way home. We played that afternoon. I cooked supper, and after baths we loaded up and left town right at 8pm. It went by so fast, and yet as we were leaving it seemed like there was no way we had only been there a day.

The ride home, of course, didn't go as planned and I think there was only about 1 hour out of the 5 that all three kids were actually asleep. The kids sleeping the whole way and Katie and I getting the whole drive to visit up front turned into me chauffeuring everyone and Katie taking care of each kids endless requests. We did however manage to not stop until Topeka because we never wanted to wake up whatever kid was sleeping as we passed the stops. We only stopped in Topeka for gas- the light had been on wayyyy too long, and we were in a scary area at 1am. Needless to say, we both had to pee like the dickens when we got home. Katie shuffled her kiddo and stuff into her car, and I shuffled both my kids into bed, and amazingly, everyone went right to sleep. Blakely even slept till 8:30 the next day, which she has NEVER in her life done.

It was sooooo much fun, and well worth the tired and whiney kids I got afterwards.