"mini" session

after some coaxing, aislyn let me take a few shots yesterday literally 5 seconds after her nap. our conversation went like this:

me: can mommy take a couple pictures of you before we get out of your crib?

aislyn: i don't want pictures!

me: please, the light is really good in your room right now and mommy needs to practice!

aislyn: i don't want pictures! NO! (crying now)

me: but after we're done, guess where we're going?

aislyn: (crying stops) where? with liam somewhere?

me: THE ZOO! with liam! and emma and jack!

aislyn: ok mommy!

and this was the result. the sad face one is the first one... then they got happier the more she thought about the zoo. a couple of them are actually on the stairs i think. cuz you know, the light is good there too. ha.

storage solutions

i don't know. i think creativity and efficiency may course through her veins. when you run out of room for all of your babies to sleep, you have to think outside the box, the icebox that is... some may think this particular space is only good for water, ice, checking the temperature... but aislyn? she sees something more.
and then, when you run out of room for your real babies, just store them under the jumperoo! he actually backwards crawled his way under here. but YEA! he's crawling forwards now! oh, and this smiley picture was followed by angry pictures which i won't share because more and more stuck he became. and did mom help him? no, she just laughed and took more pictures.

missin' my liam

OH WE ARE SO READY TO GET OUT OF THE HOUSE!! aislyn is going through a major friend withdrawal. i just don't do it for her. and of course, now kenny and i are sick. :( so, i guess we're home for another couple days with the PLAGUE which is what i'm referring to it as at this point. but it could be way worse, so thank the Lord for healing.

on the up 'n' up

i think. yesterday we didn't have any fevers except the little 99 point somethings that i try to ignore. they are both still coughing something horrible, but i hear that can last for awhile. little g was really happy all day long so i snapped a couple of him playing to prove that he is smiling again! (first time in a week i think!)

and then there is aislyn, who, as you can see, politely asked me to step off with my camera. while she has no fever, i think her attitude might still have a bit of a virus...

gift card day

so.. what do you do when you're broke, NEED to get out of the house and take a break from your sick whiney babies (who i love), and really need to feel like you're spending money for some reason? you gather up all your gift cards and store credit cards that have built up in your 5 different purses over the last few years (that have really low balances), you call your mom for a companion, and you have GIFT CARD DAY! we went to almost every place i had a gift card (i have no idea where most of them came from...my wedding?), and the rule was that i could not put ONE single penny on our debit card. and i did it! of course, my sweet mom dug through her purse to find the tax on the cute little flower vases i purchased at pottery barn. (thanks for the 69 cents mom, i owe you). it was so fun. and so free. and a much needed break before i came home to a really bad night with the kiddos. but they're doing much better today! YEAH! NO ONE HAS FEVER!!! and everyone seems to have a happy heart! anyways, thanks mom, i really had a great time yesterday. thanks for helping me pick fun things out!! you can totally borrow my necklaces anytime...

oh.. i almost forgot... and this is what kenny did.

i'm not sure who he reached on his rubber ducky phone, but he was really into the conversation... the baby bear in his left hand was napping. shhhh. (blurry picture, but i had to take it.)

blessings in the midst of sickies

let me just caveat this post- i KNOW there are far worse things than having two babies with high fevers for a week. but, that being said, this has been difficult for me, so i choose to blog about it. :) please don't think i'm begging for a pity party here. this has become my outlet this week as i have been cooped up like mad.

my sweet alyssa. with all that alyssa has going on right now in her life, and its ALOT, she has managed to find the time to bless my socks off. :) as i was reading a book called I Love You Through and Through to my kiddos yesterday (so cute, you should buy it), i spied a little elfyssa (airmail) leaving something on my door. and lo and behold, she had easter basketed me. there was a ballerina bunny, some things to eat that would feel nice on aislyn's throat, a monkey rattle thing for grayson, a little card, and for mommy? 4 yellow roses (of texas of course). i mean, i cried. isn't that silly? over a little easter basket? but man, it meant the world to me! and as IF that wasn't enough, my amazing friend rachael (wife to dr. steffen of the stitches) decides to bring us a chicken, a salad and some sweet potatoes for dinner! i mean, we so didn't deserve any of that, and there are families that deal with MUCH worse on a daily basis. but man its good to have friends that know you, and get you. and understand that even though everything will be fine, its hard in the moment. not to mention that rachael has a TON on her plate as well that i certainly couldn't deal with like she does! and THEN, last night, kenny's mom came over to sit with the kids after we put them down (thank you barbara!) so that we could go see my other rachael, my denver rachael, my jellyfish rachael, whose very presence is like, whats the phrase, honey to my soul? water to my soul? no. what is it? well, all i'm saying is that i don't get to see her nearly enough. and every time i do, it makes me smile. especially when she has a blueberry martini in a CUTE retro martini glass with a big ole raspberry floating in it, waiting for me (still not sure if i liked it or not, but the raspberry was good). so we got to get out of the house, if only for a moment. i took a shower, i put some smellies on (perfume, in my hair so grayson can't touch it. :)), i put real clothes on, makeup, it was nice. anyway, girls, thank you for making my day so much better. i cherish you ALOT.

at any rate, grayson woke up feverless (praise the Lord!) but aislyn did not. we got her to eat a bite of banana and a few bites of a waffle and a piece of bacon, which is the first thing she's eaten since thursday afternoon. so that's good! they both are still coughing so hard they gag, every 30 seconds, but i think thats normal with what they've got. and i would like to say that i can now quote The Jungle Book. "i wanna watch ungle book!" is a much repeated phrase during this particular virus. i need to be done writing now, the elephants are doing dawn patrol, and aislyn enjoys it when mommy pretends to be one. "hup two three four, keep it up, two three four..." i kinda enjoy it too.

thank you sweet husband

its the little things right? my dear husband, who has been working so hard all week trying to get a new store open, sacrificed his run (as in, running, like miles, on foot) to stay home and help with the whiny sicky faces for lunch today. and he has NO idea what that little hour meant to me. thank you my love. i enjoyed sharing a coke and sandwich with you today. you are beautiful.
almost forgot... photo courtesy of elane photography. :)

seriously?

i was trying to stuff all of our medicine droppers into the dishwasher and sadly enough, they wouldn't fit. i ended up handwashing them and laying them out on the counter. and OH MY GOSH. the sight of all of them beside the sink actually made my husband shed a tear. we are so sick (no pun intended) of medicating our children! but hey, doctor's orders right? where do we draw the line? i breastfeed, i eat healthy for him (what i can eat anyway), my daughter is a veggie lover and a GREAT eater, and i don't give her that much crap. but still, they get sick. WHY? this week has been awful. we have sinus infection, cough, rash from antibiotics, fever like i've never seen before. ugh. i took grayson to the doc a second time last night, and when he heard aislyn cough, he was like "um, that would be croup.." WHAT? i wasn't even really taking her in to be seen. don't mean to rant and rave. its just been a frustrating week and i feel like i'm done now. all done. i hate seeing my kids SO stinkin sad. i just wish i could hold them all night long, but that would do them no good because then i would be even more tired than i already am, right? and even LESS able to mother them. man, i never understood when my parents would tell me how much they love me, and how worried about me they would get. and i would say "whatever paranoid parents..." and they would always say... "one day you'll see. you'll see amy dawn. you just wait til you have kids."

i see now, mom and dad. i get it.

happy birthday lyssa!

happy birthday 'yssa! we hope this day brings you unexpected joy and peace, and that 31 isn't as painful as 30. HA! you're amazing and we love you dearly...

to all of you...

...from all of us.

a little tribute to the holiday...

she looks quiet doesn't she?

just a shot from today...

just tryin somethin out even though i've posted these

when she's willing...

as of late, aislyn has told me "mommy, i don't want my picture." and she runs. she is becoming anti camera unless i bribe her with m&m's of course (nyem-nyem's). however, yesterday, she put the cutest hat she has on her head, and came over to me and said "mommy, i want a picture" and stood by the window and posed. ok, i'd down with that. so baby on hip, i shot a few of her and i liked this one. of course, she thinks she has to have her hand on her face to make a true pose which i think is too funny.

sweet mali-boo

...i also got a few of my precious little niecey. she is a ham for the camera.

i can see clearly now, the eczema's gone...

well, not totally. but the dryness is gone! and the Lord has been answering our prayers this week with grayson. his little face has looked so good since this last weekend. i'm not convinced it will last, i don't really want to get my hopes up! anyway, i shot a few of him today and wanted to share!

its official, he's a boy.

i think i've learned this week that grayson is 100% BOY. its so funny how different he is than sweet little girls. not that he's not sweet, but he's EVERYWHERE. jumping out of my arms, banging anything he can get his hands on against anything else he can get his hands on. and bathtime? i end up SOAKED. and he thinks its hilarious. its just so bizarre how not gentle he is! case in point, this afternoon i was taking advantage of the overcast sky lighting and taking pics of grayson and his 6 month old cousin mali. mistake. as soon as we put them next to each other, grayson was trying to eat her. here are just a couple shots from our experience. sweet crazy boy. have you ever even seen an ear stretch that far? poor little mali.

de-staple-ization

so, our wonderful friends, the browns came over to take aislyn's staples out, and dr. steffen was AMAZING! i think it was his dr. purse. aislyn had no idea what was going on and just enjoyed holding his sharp scissors. (thanks steffen, ha). anyways, wanted to post that fabulous experience. thanks steffen and rachael!

er visit part two- daddy's diaper turban

our first visit to the ER

and mommy's first breakdown. ok, not FIRST breakdown. but first ER breakdown. so, last night sucked. thank goodness kenny was back from his trip. i was always worried about having a boy because i remember the number of stitches my brother had, and the random ways he hurt himself on a regular basis. i never dreamed that at two, my daughter would have already had her first ER trip because of our negligence actually. ironically enough she was pummeled by a plaque that says "sugar and spice, and everything nice, thats what little girls are made of". oh, and alot of BLOOD. it wasn't nailed to the wall above her door, and thats worked well for a year and a half. but she hasn't been in door slamming mode until recently. anyway, i wanted to post a couple pics from our mishap. some are from a camera phone, so they won't look that great. they're actually all disturbing, beware. thanks for your prayers last night. the nurse was very nice. he gave aislyn a bunny which she fittingly named "rabbit". she did SO so good getting cleaned (well, what they call clean) and getting her staples. yes, staples in my daugher's head. seriously? you can do that? she has to keep them in for 7 days. it pays to have a good friend a few houses away who is a doctor. he's going to remove them for us and check for infection. and we have a paramedic fire fighter next door. so i think we're covered. anyways, that's all for today. enjoy the pictures. or don't. oh and the chocolate one, i had to bribe her with chocolate for her to let daddy put the turban on this morning, which cleverly enough, he used a diaper and it worked SO much better than the hospital one! i have a couple more to post in the next one...

i know i know...

its bad. i know. i haven't posted many pics of my beautiful boy because i keep thinking "maybe tomorrow his eczema will be better, and i'll do a photo shoot of him then". and i say that every day. the bottom line is, i don't know when it will clear up. but he's beautiful. so, don't look at this post and think "poor boy, look how bad that must hurt". just look beyond the pain (ha) and look at how precious he is! i just love the kid. OH! and LOOK! he got his first tooth on christmas day. and his second the next day! aren't they too cute! and OUCH by the way. i think i'm ready to wean. ha.