April...... Oh! April........

What an eventful month we've had! Where to begin....

We started the month off on a good note with our first Easter egg hunt/party as I previously mentioned in another post.

Just before Easter, we had a rather interesting "65th Birthday Party" for my mother. Not sure if it would actually be considered a birthday party without the birthday girl, but nonetheless, we had pizza and cake and celebrated..... my nephew's one month birthday instead!

As I also mentioned in the previous Easter post, we made it to church for Easter Sunday. The first we've been since Craig's surgery and the first time the babies have been in probably 6 months.

We had a couple of outings to the mall and are making an effort to get out more and be "normal". We were going to let the babies play in the kid's play area at the mall but it was closed for cleaning and didn't have time to wait for them to finish so we left. But we had a good time anyway getting out of the house and strolling around the mall.

Last weekend, we had our first official roadtrip with the babies. We went to East Texas to visit with some of Craig's family. It was a rather exhausting and short trip. The babies are still so small, it just isn't easy trying to travel especially without the help of Craig. We left the house early Saturday morning and headed to Longview. It rained pretty much the whole way there. I changed poopy diapers in the car while we stopped for a potty break because I didn't want to venture out in the rain. The babies cried and screamed almost the entire time and didn't nap a wink except the 15 minutes before we arrived. At some point on the road, I literally crawled all the way to the back of the car, climbing over the middle baby, to fetch the paci's. W & T don't ever use paci's unless they are sleeping in their beds so I didn't feel the need to have them up front with me. So, anyway, once we got there, I unloaded the babies and our stuff in the rain. Then, once I got their seats set up and got the babies fed, we sat down and had a nice lunch and I put the babies down to nap immediately after. They napped almost the entire time we were there which was a bummer since that was the sole reason we went was to allow Craig's relatives love on Jami's (Craig's mom) grandkids. They were just so tired and I knew they needed to nap but they got a little bit of time to hold them etc. before we had to leave. We left there about 4:30 and headed to Gladewater to go visit with Craig's uncle for a very short bit. Craig's uncle lives in a log cabin that Craig helped build and he has been wanting to show it to me for a long time as well as let Ben (Craig's uncle) see all the grandkids. We left there and the babies were fussy and hungry. We went to the local Dairy Queen and they didn't have enough high chairs to accomodate us so we drove on to the next town. That town didn't have any place to eat so we drove on... We passed several more towns before we found a Golden Chick with 2 high chairs so we unloaded the babies and brought in one of our own booster seats. We ate dinner and after that, we went to the car so I could change everybody's diaper and put pajamas on. By this time it was 8pm. We got on the road and Tyler fussed and screamed half the way home - they were awake the whole way home except for 30 minutes prior to arriving home at 10 or 10:30. It was good to meet his family and visit and see his uncle's cabin, I just think my kids were still too young for so much driving in one day.

This week, we took the babies to the gym for the first time and left them in the gym "kid's club". I've never been too comfortable with this but since the babies are getting older, I figured I would give it a shot - besides, I am getting desperate for some "me time". Craig's surgery was 4 weeks ago and my "me time" consists of me occasionally going into my bedroom to get away while Craig hangs out with the babies in the living room with nothing but one wall separating us. This is about the best we can do since he can't really watch them. This way, if something happens, he can just holler and I can come in and put out the fire. So, other than this "me time", I had one hour break Easter Sunday when we put the babies in the nursery and two nights a week when I go to school, which I don't really consider "me time". Anyway... back to the gym. The babies didn't do very well - they cried off and on the entire 30 minutes I exercised. There were probably 20 other kids in there too with only 3 adults so I am sure the babies were very overwhelmed. I wasn't a big fan of the "kid's club" because the baby section was tiny; the section for older kids was huge but the baby section was itty bitty. AND none of their toys worked because they don't keep up with the batteries! What the heck is that about? We probably won't be back until they are walking all the time and are able to play in the big area.

Then yesterday, we had a fun day of playdates at the mall and ER visits. Not the babies... it was Craig. I know.... you are really surprised right? Craig woke up yesterday early in the morning with diarrhea (I know... TMI) and it just progressively got worse. He started vomitting as well. It was getting close to time for me to go meet my friend at the mall and I asked Craig over and over if he wanted me to stay. He said no and told me to go. I think he wanted peace and quiet without 3 loud babies around more than he wanted me to take care of him. I called to check on him while I was gone and he said he was taking himself to the ER but he really wanted me to drive him but I couldn't get here quick enough for him and then what to do with the kids? I left the mall and began making phone calls trying to find somebody who could help me out with the kids. My SIL, Lisa came over and watched them for me so I could get up there and see what the heck was going on. THANK YOU SO MUCH, LISA! You were a life saver! When I got there, Craig told me his heart rate was well into the 200's, he had the chills and was dizzy. They started an IV and drew some blood and ran some tests. His white blood cell count was high so they said he probably had some type of infection but they wanted to do a cat scan just to make sure it wasn't something else. They checked abdomen, intestines and appendix. His intestines were inflamed but everything else looked good. They diagnosed him with a severe GI infection, gave him some meds and sent him home. He is feeling a little better but still not feeling very well at all.

We had a doctor's appointment this morning we had to cancel and we have some friends coming over tonight and we were going to BBQ on our new grill but we will probably have to cancel that too. We were also planning to go to church with his family for baby day this Sunday because whoever has the most visitors will be crowned baby king and baby queen and will get a pizza party afterwards. Plus, one of the church members is a photographer and is taking pictures of all the babies and we get a free group pic and one individual copy as a gift for mother's day. We were looking forward to all this but we may not be able to make it to that either.

I'll let you know how the rest of our weekend and month goes and I will do a post with more baby updates and pictures soon.

Happy April everybody!

Easter Weekend

The babies had their first Easter Egg hunt this year. We got together with some friends the weekend before Easter which turned out perfectly since the weather was so yukky on Easter weekend. The babies were still not sure about grass so they didn't do much in the way of picking up Easter eggs so I had to carry them around and put them in their baskets for them. They still enjoyed the experience and we had a great time!

Playing on the blanket
Let the egg hunt begin!
Hannah and I were twinkies.




We braved the weather and managed to make it to church Easter Sunday - the first time since Craig's surgery and the first time the babies have been since last Fall. They did great in the nursery for an hour, not sure how they will do for 2 hours. I was so busy getting everybody fed, dressed, loaded, unloaded, loaded and unloaded in and out of the car, undressed, fed and put down - I forgot to take our picture for Easter. We enjoyed being able to get back to church.

Ready, Set, Take off!

Just a couple of weeks ago, I blogged about Hannah taking her first steps. Since then, she has pretty much been taking only one step before falling... Until yesterday... Yesterday, she started taking 5 or 6 and sometimes more steps at a time. She is constantly getting up to walk - much to my surprise, she is walking more than Tyler. Tyler can take 8 or so steps at one time but he doesn't do it as often as Hannah does. Tyler would rather push his walker - he is really into that right now. Whitney is still not interested at all in standing, pulling up or walking. :) She'll get there, in her own time. We are just as proud of her for her accomplishments. She definitely is the best mimicker ever!

Midnight drama!

Last night I finally headed for bed around 11:45 and not but maybe 5 minutes after I got in bed, I heard this helicopter flying around. I could tell he was circling and I thought there had to be either a car accident of some sort or the police were searching for someone. We got up because we could see red and blue police lights shining in through our windows. We started looking out the windows and the police had stopped this big van directly in front of our house. They put the guy in handcuffs and into the back of the police car.

We kept watching and watching as more and more police showed up. The helicopter kept circling with his spotlight shining down on our neighborhood. We see police cars going up and down the next street over and we saw policemen on foot running up and down the streets. By this point, I was pretty nervous. We continued to watch as the police officers began walking up the street with the drug dog. More and more police continued showing up and they continued to go through the van and pulling out various things - drug paraphernalia no doubt.

Finally Craig went out there to see what was going on because it was evident that they were still searching for somebody. The police man told Craig they chased this van down because they were busted in the middle of a drug deal. When the van stopped, 4 guys took off running. At that point the police man said they had 3 of the guys in custody but one was still on foot. Craig came back in and we continued to watch out the window.

Finally the helicopter left and that was a huge relief because we knew they must have caught the guy. Then a few other police officers showed up again and they stood out there talking discussing the whole fiasco for a few minutes before leaving. The wrecker showed up and hauled off the van and it was finally quiet again around our house. I was still so nervous, I decided to sleep on the couch for a while next to Craig in his recliner (his new bed, post-surgery). It was probably 2 a.m. before I finally fell asleep. So, needless to say, I am exhausted today!

Our neighborhood has had a few incidents involving the police in the 5 years we've lived here but never anything close to this level. I'm just glad they caught the guys and hopefully nobody was hurt. So, for my friends who live close by me, if you saw any of this, now you know what happened if you didn't already.

March stuff

Tyler continues to stuff his mouth so full, he cannot eat it!
Having a little fun by himself on the blanket the day of the bar-b-que.
Tyler has really started to take off in the walking department this week. He has started taking 4 and 5 steps at a time and is cruising all over the place. He also got another tooth this week - #7!
Whitney is my girly girl and likes to play dress-up. She likes using these teething rings as bracelets.
I fixed Hannah's hair curly the other day. You'd never know it because I usually don't take the time to fix it (bad mom :)) but Hannah actually has curly hair. Here is a back view.
Front view but the pics don't do it justice.
Craig - post surgery. Hanging out in his recliner 24/7.

Hannah is playing dress-up - wearing my purse. And she even matches!Whitney played dress-up with my necklace and shoes after church one Sunday and she loved it. She did not want to take the necklace off!


Just before our "I-got-to-get-out-of-the-house" walk. A couple of weeks ago, the babies were going through a very fussy spell. Craig had been working 6 days a week for several weeks and I was going insane so we decided to go for a walk one Saturday despite the cold temperatures!
We ventured to the park one day after Craig got home from work. Whitney going down the slide with mommy.
Tyler's turn down the slide.
Hannah's turn
More swinging pictures - Whitney
Hannah being silly.
My baby doesn't look like a baby here. He looks so grown up to me in his polo shirt and plaid shorts.

Hannah had her hair put up in her first pony tail. One of my girls is FINALLY growing hair!

This is what it looks like after taking the pony tail holder out.
Daddy and Whitney goofing around.
My two handsome men
My silly boy
Sweet Hannah inspecting my mouth.
Daddy and Hannah
What is up with that hair man???
My sweet sweet Whitney giving Mommy big hugs.
Three's A Crowd!

Every kid eats..................

...................... POOP every once in a while right???? LOL!!!! You heard correctly, Hannah had her first encounter with poop. UGH!! So, Friday during the kid's nap, I went outside and scooped all the poop up out of the yard because the weather is getting nice and it is time to get outside. We have this backyard for more than a potty for our dog right?!? After they woke up, I took them all outside on a blanket and had a nice time having snacks outside. This day was uneventful...

It wasn't until Saturday that all the fun stuff started. Craig's first Saturday off in a month and the last weekend before his surgery so we wanted to live it up - to a degree - this weekend. So we decided to have a cookout Saturday night followed by dessert fondue. Craig and I had chicken shish kabobs and the kids had hotdogs and such. We moved their chairs outside and we all ate outside followed by some playtime on the blanket. Craig and I were still eating but the kids had already eaten so we put them down on the blanket to play. A huge bonus - the blanket is an awesome babysitter for the time being. The babies will not venture off of it and onto the grass because they aren't used to it. well... Hannah will a little bit but not much. Whitney will sit on it if you put her on it but won't crawl onto it on her own. Tyler wants nothing to do with it. He holds his legs up as much as possible to avoid touching the grass. So anyway... they were playing, we were eating and just as Craig looked up, he saw Hannah putting something into her mouth and he said "what did she just put in her mouth?" I said "I don't know... I didn't see." So, I ran over and she had already spit it out. She immediately spit it out, made an awful face and started to cry. Poor baby got a hold of my dog's poop!!! UGH!!!! It was an old dried up piece that blended in to the grass and I didn't see it. It was right on the edge of the blanket so she didn't have to venture off to find it! Anyway... I picked her up right away and took her inside to scrub her hands, and brush her teeth and mouth all over. I wanted to scrub her mouth inside and out with soap but I figured that probably wouldn't be good. Hopefully human's mouths are self-cleaning! :)

Hannah's first step(s)

I have been working with all the kids more and more to encourage them to walk. They always want to crawl to get to me because they 'know' they can do that. Well, today while I was working with Hannah, I did something different. I stood her up in front of the couch facing me. She was leaning against the couch at first, then I encouraged her to walk to me and finally took a step. She only took one step but I am so proud of her! Her second step was more of a falling lunge toward me. She definitely has that first step down though. I worked with her over and over again because she was very interested in walking. She took one step at a time multiple times and Mommy is very excited for Hannah!

She almost looks like she is mid-step here but she isn't, that is just the way she is standing.

This is after the first step - post second lunging step. This is a pic I was able to capture (in the midst of our practice walking) of her standing on her own without holding on to anything. She and Tyler can do it but just for a few seconds, so it is difficult to catch on my camera.