New Pics

I haven't posted any pictures in a while so I just snapped a couple quick ones. They aren't very good, but it's hard to photograph sick babies. Emma wouldn't look at the camera because she was playing with Smarties. She doesn't want to go to sleep tonight. I don't know what to do with her. One minute she seems to be getting better and then all of a sudden she snaps. I know her ear probably hurts, but I also know she needs to sleep and that I'm not going to hold her all night. We're not starting that habit! Thanks to Krista's tips about the cloth diapers, I'll try to continue using them with Emma. I'm going to wait until she's feeling better just to make it a little easier. We got paid today and I completely forgot to deposit Scott's check! Usually that is the first thing on my list. I am just so out of it. These past 2 weeks have got me pretty worn down. Lynn's supposed to be stopping by tomorrow. Yay! Emma always seemed to like Lynn. Right now Emma's standing in her bed talking to herself. I don't want to go in there cause it will only make her mad, but I also don't want her to keep Abby up. Uhg! Yep... I went in there and now she's screaming. Fantastic.

No Kushies for Emma

Last night was pretty fun. Emma woke up at midnight screaming and was completely inconsolable for about an hour. We were out of medicine so eventually Scott ran over to Walgreen's to pick up some baby Tylenol. I guess it worked cause right after she had some she drank some milk and went to sleep. Today she went to the doctor and found out she has an ear infection. Apparently your more likely to get it if you are just getting over a virus or the flu. So I guess last week's stomach virus caused it. I had no idea it was her ear. All the books say they have an ear infection if they are tugging on their ear a lot. She hasn't messed with her ear at all. She's just been screaming her head off randomly. I thought her tummy was still bothering her since she's refused to eat for almost a week and has been a little on the gassy side. Oh well. At least I know what's wrong with her now. They gave her some of that pink liquid medicine, which I remember tasting pretty good when I was a kid (like bubble gum). She's got to take it for 10 days. Hopefully that takes care of everything.

I also need to quit using the cloth diapers on Emma. Her poor little butt just kept getting more and more red after I started using them. She has the weirdest skin. We have never had a problem with any brand of disposable ones. You would think that the cloth ones would feel even better on her tooshie, but I guess not. I'm going to let it clear up and give it one more shot just to make sure it wasn't caused by something else. I would like to be able to use them, but that's OK. Abby has been fine with them, but her skin isn't nearly as sensitive as Emma's. Poor girl. I will definitely get my money's worth out of them even if just Abby can use them. Hopefully they won't bother the new baby though.

Another Trip to the Doctor

Emma is seriously making me crazy! It was good to get out of the house for Bible study tonight. Apparently all I missed at home was a lot of screaming! I was debating earlier in the day if I was going to leave my grandma with them or not since lately Emma has been snapping at the drop of a hat. She seemed to be in a relatively good mood this evening so I decided to go. I'm glad I did since Merideth showed up. It seems wrong to invite someone to something and then not be there yourself. When I got home Emma sat in my lap for a minute and Abby started making noises in their bedroom so I laid Emma down on the couch where she fell asleep instantly. It was a little odd. She usually can't fall alseep anywhere but her bed. That worked out though. When I was sure Abby had fallen back asleep I transferred Emma to her bed. She has to go to the doctor tomorrow to get checked out. I still can't get her to eat, she's always sleepy, she has a pretty bad cough....the list keeps going. Hopefully he can figure out what's wrong with her and hopefully it's nothing major. We won't be going to church again this Sunday. Maybe next week everyone will be feeling well.

Need Motivation...or a Maid

I have been so tired this pregnancy, I can't get anything done. I had just gotten on a pretty good system of getting things cleaned and taken care of around the house after having Abby, but now I'm just wiped out. Being sick certainly didn't help. We're supposed to be having the Delaneys over for dinner in the near future. I can't wait. That's one reason I wish we had people come over more often...So I could have some motivation to clean this place up on a regular basis!

Our boss, Jeremy, got Emma a new movie - Madagascar. She seemed to like it. Not as much as Cars though!! She still isn't feeling well. The most she's eaten at one time since Wednesday was half of a chicken nugget and a couple fries. My poor baby! I guess she's not going to starve to death, but I thought she would have her appetite back by now. She's been drinking, just not eating. So I 've been giving her some of Abby's formula. Hopefully that will help make up for some of it.

I really need to start cooking again. We were doing pretty good about not eating out all the time. Then I got tired... We have been eating out nearly everyday, at least one meal a day it seems. And when we eat at home, I just throw in a frozen pizza! I'm a horrible mother! Emma hasn't been eating anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter as far as that goes. Oh well. I need to find some recipes for healthier things. I think I just make the same 5 or 6 things over and over again. None of which are particularly healthy. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know. The only problem is we're picky eaters (well, mostly me).

Baby Model

After last week, I'm still really exhausted. Emma is not helping at all. She has been a major grump!! I know she still doesn't feel completely better yet, but she's making me crazy! I still can't get her to eat very much and she will freak out all of a sudden and have a little screaming fit. She doesn't want to be held or talked to so I just put her in bed and let her scream it out. Hopefully she starts feeling better soon.

I finally got my newborn pictures of Abby ordered from Kara. They look great! I will probably need to be ordering some more, cause now family members are asking where their copies are. I just told them they can have some wallets, but we aren't made out of money!

The cloth diapers are going great. We've been using them for a few days now and I've only had one leak. It was overnight though. Now I just know that Emma needs at least 2 extra liners for night time. Abby did some modeling for me so everyone can see. What a cutie!

Getting Better...I Hope

I think everyone is recovering now. I hope so anyway. The girls and I still don't have much of an appetite, but at least nobody is vomitting. Abby has only been drinking 1-2 ounces at a time since Tuesday which isn't a lot compared to the normal 4-5. The past couple times she's gotten to 3 though, so we're making progress. Emma will only take a couple bites of something and she's done. I don't feel like eating, but at least I understand that I have to eat. I felt pretty sick and light-headed earlier. I just don't know if mine is from being sick, not eating, the pregnancy, or a combination of them all. Scott seemed to be affected least by it, which is good I guess since he was the one that had to be at work. My mom sure did pick a great week to visit! I'm not going to bring the girls to church Sunday, cause if there is any of the virus left in them and they get the other kids sick, I would feel awful. Not to mention Emma has to put everything in her mouth!

I haven't had any complaints with the diapers - no leaks or anything. I might have to get Emma some 2T pants though and cut them off to hem them. She doesn't have much space in her pants. It's kinda funny though. I don't think I needed to buy as many as I did though. It seems like I will have to do a load every other day anyway due to the size of my diaper pail. That's ok, at least I have them just in case. They will come in handy though if I end up having all 3 kids in diapers at the same time. Emma's definitely still a little young.

I had my first prenatal doctor visit Tuesday morning (before everyone started getting sick). Everything was fine. They said I was measuring in good for how far along I should be. That concerned me a little since the always say I measure small. We'll see how it goes. I passed out and threw up when they took my blood though. I'm awful at giving blood! I didn't have a chance to eat breakfast that morning cause Emma didn't wake me up until 8:00 and I had to leave at 8:30. I survived though!

One Sick Family

Wow! This week has been horrible! I haven't had time to write anything. Tuesday night I ended up taking Abby to the hospital cause she kept throwing up and everything that goes along with that. I didn't want her to get dehydrated so I took her in just to be on the safe side. They ran some tests and everything but it all came back negative. They told me it was probably just some kind of stomach virus. Whatever it is was is apparently contagious! Wednesday night it hit Emma and me. I didn't get any sleep that night. I was more sick than Emma. That's good...I guess. At least when I throw up, I know to go in the toliet. But when I wasn't puking, I was cleaning up Emma's mess. Everytime she got sick I had to change her clothes and her blankets and everything. That is not fun, especially in the middle of the night when you're already sick. Yesterday I was so exhausted, I just laid on the couch and slept as much as I could. Scott took care of the kids when he was home. When he had to go to work my grandma came over and helped. Now she and Scott are both sick. I'm feeling better, still a little tired though. My mom is coming down today. Hopefully she doesn't get it too. I'm trying to get everything washed and disinfected, but it's hard to get moving.

On a brighter note, we got our cloth diapers Wednesday. Since I got sick and the kids were having some pretty unpleasant diapers, I decided to wait until we were feeling a little better. I started using them today. My only problem with them is they put some extra junk in your trunk. A lot of babies we know could use the extra padding to hold their pants up. Emma on the other hand, has enough junk of her own! It's kinda funny. So far, so good though.

Cars

Emma is completely obsessed with the movies Cars! About a month ago she learned how to say the word "car". Then last week Scott bought her the movie cause he thought she might like it. I thought she would like it too, but I had no idea it would be to this degree. First thing in the morning she runs to the DVD cabinet saying "car, car, car...". And when she wakes up from her nap it's the same thing. It was cute at first, but gee whiz! I have watched at least 15 times in the past week. It's a good thing I like the movie too or I would be completely crazy by now. It definitely keeps her occupied if I have to get something done around the house though. While the movie is playing she even brings me her Cars book to read to her!

Abby hasn't been up to much lately. She's laughing a bit more and we're still working on trying to eat solid foods. She had her first applesauce tonight. For some reason she thought it was funny. She seemed to like it though. She keeps pushing it out with her tongue, which is a pain. I'm still waiting to pick up our new diapers. It should be any day now. They are being shipped to Walmart, so I'm just waiting for an email saying they've arrived.

Bye-Bye Binky

I am happy to announce that Emma is pretty much off the binky! For the past 4 or 5 months she has only been using it to sleep, but that was beginning to be a problem, because if she woke up in the night I would have to go in and find her binky for her before she could go back to sleep. She's 16 months now. For some reason, that seems to be the age that all her friends got theirs taken away too and now that we're at that point, I see why. We only started taking it away yesterday and she's doing great! The first time she screamed for abour 30 minutes which was about what I expected it to be. The second time it was only 10. The 3rd time was maybe 5 minutes, probably less. And when I put her to bed tonight it was only 30 seconds - literally - from the time it took me to walk from her bedroom to the kitchen (which isn't very far at all) she was done crying. I was so excited. She didn't even fuss enough to wake up Abby who was already asleep in the very same room! I was pretty impressed.

Busy Day

The past few days I haven't really left the house because of dragging the kids out for no reason in the icy-snowy ickiness. We haven't had this much snow for 3 years! It was completely unexpected as far as I'm concerned. I hate being cold and the snow just kept falling!

Today, I was forced to leave the house, because Abby had a doctor's appointment. She's 4 months old now and weighs 16lbs 2oz. She had to get 3 shots. How sad! I also went to see my doctor and scheduled my first prenatal appointment, which is next Tuesday morning. I thought that was a little odd, be cause they usually don't want to see me until I'm 10 weeks along and I will only be 7.5. Oh well.

My friend Krista just had her baby last night, so I went to visit her in the hospital. He's having some breathing trouble, but should be completely fine. It is her 3rd boy. How crazy! His unbilical cord was tied in a knot and he was only 5lbs 13 oz. They said he wouldn't have lasted much longer with the cord like that. He just wasn't getting any nourishment. So far they haven't had any major issues though.

I had a very exhausting day. I felt like I was constantly doing something. I did take an hour break to watch Reba when it came on TV! Now I have to work in the morning. Hopefully I don't just pass out.

Not Much to Report

There hasn't been a whole lot going on. I've been super tired lately. It just gets worse and worse everyday. Yesterday I tried to just take it easy which is hard to do with 2 little ones. I don't think I have cooked anything in about 2 days! We've had our income tax money and with me being so exhausted, we just keep eating out. We really need to quit though. I wouldn't reccommend it!

It's snowing like crazy! We're supposed to get 3-6 inches overnight. I hate snow! And I have to go to work in the morning. Uhg! At least I don't live too far away. Abby has been eating baby cereal the past few nights. She's doing pretty good. She just has to work on the part about keeping the food in her mouth.

Emma got some sunglasses. We were in the car the other day and the sun was in her eyes really bad and she kept putting her hands over her eyes and yelling. She doesn't keep them on very long though. I tried to show her that when they're on the sun won't bothher her as much but it just didn't click. She'll get it eventually.

McDonald's

Our old youth minister, David Parks, is in the states for a few months. He wanted to get together with all the old youth. The turnout wasn't too great considering we're now spread out all over the country and even the world (thanks to the military). We met him at McDonald's for breakfast. We had a good table-full thoguh - Spencer, Melody, Jessie, Scott, me, our 2 kids, David, Jenn, and their 2 kids. I think everyone had a pretty good time. It's always neat to see people that you haven't seen in years (Corrie is huge - for example). David will actually be preaching at State Street next Sunday. Our small group has been praying for him regularly and I'm sure everyone will like to actually get to meet him face to face. How exciting!!

Speaking of Tax Returns...

How funny that I mention I can't wait to get our refund, and when I checked our account this morning it had gone in! I wasn't expecting it for another week or two, but hey, I'll take it now. I already ordered the diapers! Yay! It will be about a week before I can pick them up though. Scott also got a Macbook for when he starts school this fall. Now to pay off some bills...

Kushies and Shine

I finally got a new cell phone!! I'm so excited! It a LG Shine. I love it! Emma better not throw this one into any kind of beverage! Here's a picture in case you don't know what they look like.

We started a new ladies Bible study at church last night. We're going through the book of Colossians. It seems like it should be a pretty good one. Last night we were there for almost an hour over the amount of time we were supposed to be there. Hopefully that doesn't happen too often cause I am apparently the only person who can get Emma to stay in bed. She was up until about 9:00 last night. Not good, since she still got up at 7:30 this morning. Oh well.

I can't wait to get our income tax return! I've got big plans for it. It's actually pretty much been spent already. How sad. :( We have a few credit card bills to pay off and completely get rid of FOREVER, we are switching to cloth diapers, which will save us a ton of money in the long run, we have to fix the A/C in the van, and Scott wants to get a macbook - if we have enough left over. We should though. I mostly can't wait to get the diapers! I'm really excited about them. New cloth diapers are just like regular diapers except you throw them in the washer. They are realy cute too and there is no folding or pinning like back in the day. YAY! Can't wait! (Is it sad that I get excited about diapers?)They also have a cute name though - Kushies.

Pictures

It looks like
someone is
starting to
enjoy tummy
time!









Emma finally
looked at the
camera for me!!

The Mirror Baby

Abby now has a favorite way to spend her time...talking to the baby in the mirror! As soon as she sees herself, she gets this big grin on her face and just starts talking away. It's the cutest thing! I probably say that about a lot of things...but it really is cute!

Emma's new thing is runnning in circles and sqealing at the top or her lungs. She's not mad when she does it. I guess she just likes the way it sounds or enjoys the reaction she gets out of us. It can get a little irritating after 10 or 15 minutes though!!

My mother should be coming down within the next 2 weeks. She hasn't been down since Abby was born. I told here she should just move down here cause she's missing A LOT. These babies go through a lot of changes when they're little! I don't think she'll ever come down to stay though. :(

I have to go to the doctor on Thursday for a "professional" pregnancy test. Not that it's really necessary - I know I'm pregnant. (Why else would I want to go to the doctor? For fun??) Then they will schedule my first actual prenatal appointment probably for early March.

Piggy Tails!!

We were invited to a superbowl party last night, but didn't go. Everyone was tired. I actually got to go to bed at 9:30 last night! The girls didn't have a good night though, so I still didn't get enough sleep. I've been up since a little before 6am. Uhg! Today I finally got Emma's hair to stay in pig tails! I'm so excited! What a cutie!

I couldn't get Emma to look at the camera. And this is the best one I could get of Abby. I had to make it black and white cause the lighting was awful and made the color look all crazy.

Lazy Day

I didn't get much of anything done today. I should have cleaned up, done laundry, washed dishes, and went grocery shopping. Pretty much none of that got done. I felt extra tired today. During nap time I almost did they dishes, but decided taking a bath sounded like a better idea. When Emma got up, I put in The Incredibles and napped a little on the couch. She mostly looked at her books while the movie was on, but at least she was occupied with something. We didn't do too much after that either - a little coloring, a little reading, etc.

Mike and Wanda got here around 6:30ish. We decided to go to Tumbleweed instead of Outback. We didn't get there until about 7. I had no idea it was that late! When we got in the van to come home, it was already 8:30. Emma usually goes to bed close to 7:30! She was very well behaved for it being so late. She keeps surprising me with how good she is when we go out! That 's a good thing I guess. It seems that whenever we go out to eat there is always another kid somewhere in the restaurant screaming or crying or throwing a fit. Emma just looks around and when she spots the kid she says, "Cry? Cry." It's kind of funny. It seems like she is concerned - like, "is he gonna be ok?".

Chuck E. Cheese

We had another crazy day! We made a trip to the VanFleet house so I could chat with Merideth and Emma could play with Victoria (19 months). We discovered that little girls are very mean to each other! They kept hitting each other! We were both a little surprised. I guess it's just a phase. Hopefully they will both grow out of it. We had a pretty good time once we got them distracted with a couple of bananas. They LOVE bananas! Merideth also invited us to go to Chuck E. Cheese with them. It was Emma's first time. I was surprised that they actually had quite a few games and small rides for toddlers. She had a great time. Too bad I forgot to take my camera. She got pretty mad when I told her we had to leave though.

It's way too cold here! I wouldn't mind doing all this stuff if I didn't have to bundle up babies and lug them to the car by myself when I've got the wind blowing Emma's hood off and Abby's blankets are flying everywhere!! When will spring get here!?!? Tomorrow we're supposed to go out with Mike and Wanda (my dad and stepmom). I think we will be going to Outback Steakhouse. I have never been, so they're taking me for my birthday dinner. And on Sunday we have a superbowl party we've been invited to. What a busy week!!!