Baby Ballet...Baby Yoga...

Or maybe just a certain little girl's attempt at crawling...I don't know how she does it!!

Seven Months Old

Well we're on the downhill slope to one year old now, crazy how fast time flies by! Charlotte is developing quite a personality, she is not nearly as cuddly as Timothy was, but she loves to play. She will sit in my lap for as long as she can if it means she gets to hold on to a toy and show it to me. She is already much loved by the nursery teachers at church. They always have to comment on her pretty dresses every Sunday. Their saying for her is, "when she's done, she's done" and it's so true because when she's done having someone else hold her and she wants her mommy, she will scream until they buzz me to come get her and as soon as I take her she stops crying and just smiles back at them, little stinker! So anyway, here are some pictures and tidbits about what she's been up to lately!

I love to play on my tummy and I am so close to crawling!! I figured out how to make my feet work, but I haven't quite figured out how to move my hands so I fall on my face a lot.

I can sit up on my own really well now and I like to play with toys in my lap.

I love to watch my big brother and I love it when he sings to me in the car, we have lots of fun in the back seat!

I am eating so much new food now! I still like sweet potatoes and bananas the best, but mommy insists that I have prunes every day...good thing I like them cause I sure need them!

I can pick things up and move them around now, I like to have toys in both of my hands and then I bang them together.

I love to read books and "help" turn the pages.

Sometimes I will wave "bye bye" but only if I really like you :)

Mommy is trying to teach me to sign "more" but I think I'd rather just cry for more, especially more food!

I like to put my thumb in my mouth after every bite I take, it just tastes better when you can suck your thumb with all your food!

I can say "dada" now and I love to babble at the top of my lungs.

I'm getting to be a big girl and I am so happy that I can play and interact with my family now, mommy says that we are very blessed to have such a happy little girl!

Five Wonderful Years

Last Friday, Brandon and I celebrated our five year wedding anniversary. It's hard to believe it's been five years, in some ways time has gone by so fast and in others in feels like forever (in a good way!). Brandon and I met fall semester of my freshman year of college. We started dating that January in 2001. I'll never forget he told me on our very first date that he was going to marry me someday, I thought he was crazy! We dated for a year and a half before he proposed (summer of 2002) and then we got married on March 6, 2004. It was a long dating/engagement, but it was totally worth it. We flew down to California for our honeymoon and went to Disneyland and Universal and the beach. It was a lot of fun, the hotel we stayed in was horrible and it was so hot that week, but there were so many good memories.


In the five years since, we've moved all our stuff to Washington, lived in a tiny little apartment, a tiny little house, a nice big house, and a smaller but cozier house, and then we moved to TX. We've had two fish (Kisses and Flash), a cat (Rocky), and a dog (Dixie). None of them are with us anymore - thank goodness - but we have acquired two beautiful children, Timothy and Charlotte. We've been through several jobs and lay-offs, we've had two wonderful churches to help us on our way. We've gone through one car (the Honda) and still have the Corolla and now Brandon's Tundra. We actually have bought some of our own furniture, but the majority of it was given to us by family and friends. We've had some wonderful times and some hard times, but I would trade it for anything.

Sorry I don't have pictures of the fish or the cat - the fish weren't worth taking pictures of and the cat was my worst enemy.

Our sweet little Dixie - poor girl ran away on the 4th of July this last year

Timothy Michael York - born April 19, 2006

Charlotte Dyanne York - born August 17, 2008

Brandon - I love you so much, thank you for giving me this wonderful life and for providing for our family and giving me these two amazing children. Thank you for always being there to help me and listen to me, thank you for being my husband. I love you.

Mommy's Little Helper

I can hardly take the camera out lately without someone wanting to "do it all by myself" and take his own pictures. So I thought I would share some of Timothy's pictures from this past week. I did go through and delete the ones that were basically a red blur from his fingers, but these other ones weren't too bad!

As you can see, Charlotte is usually his favorite subject, but he also wanted to take pictures of his painting, his Lightnings, and the ones I had to delete were of his dump truck and the TV...all his favorite things!

These are pictures that I took from this past week...the first is of the beautiful flowers that my parents sent us for our anniversary and the rest are of the kids, enjoy!

Need Some Help

Ok, so for the past month or so, Timothy has been coughing and had a mild cold. Last week, he would cough so bad at night going to bed that he would be up for an hour or so coughing before he fell asleep, or he would fall asleep coughing. This past weekend I noticed that he was better at night, but if he ran around a lot or played outside it would make him cough. Today he woke up coughing and spent the day throwing up mucus all day. Finally around 4pm he fell asleep and I was watching him and noticed that the skin around his ribs was sucking in every time he breathed in and he was breathing fast for someone who was sleeping...so I got him up and dressed and we headed off to urgent care. The doctor came in and I told him all of the above and he listened to him breathing and suggested that he get some chest x-rays so we headed off to get that done and when we got back from that he said there wasn't an infection but it sounded like asthma...so he prescribed an oral steroid that he only has to take twice and we're supposed to get a nebulizer and start doing breathing treatments 2-4 times a day.

So my question is for all you other moms out there who have had to go through this before (because I know you're out there!)...what should I do? Should I trust the diagnosis of the urgent care doctor and go ahead with the treatment or should I call the pediatrician and get him in there to someone who's a little more specialized with children? If it really is asthma, should I buy a nebulizer or just rent one? How long do you need to use it? Just until the symptoms go away? This is so new for us! Obviously I probably should have asked the doctor all of this, but I think I was just so surprised to hear him say asthma that I froze! Anyway, I would very much appreciate any advice anyone has to give and thank you in advance for your help!

Update in Pictures

Obviously it's asking to much for me to write about our life and post pictures at the same time :) So here are the pictures!

Whirlwind

Where do I start? We have been so busy lately! I decided to go back up to WA for a week mi-February since I know I'll have to start back to work sometime this month and I wanted to go up there while I could have a long visit so the kids and I left on the 16th and flew up there for a week. We had so much fun, but it went by soooo fast! We got to hang out with Heather and Tyler and Kevin the first couple days and then spent the rest of the week with Grammy and Grumpy and Brittany. Timothy had a blast playing outside - did I mention that we picked the best week ever to visit WA! It was mid-50's and sunny the whole time we were there, it was beautiful! We had so much fun though, it really did go by too fast.

Last Monday we came back but we brought Grammy with us! We had quite an ordeal getting out of Seatac, apparently there was something wrong with our plane so after they got everyone on board, they told us we had to get back off and it would be about an hour to fix it...finally about FIVE hours later we got out on an different flight. Mom and I were so thankful for the new play area in the airport, it was such a lifesaver to let Timothy go run around and play while we tried to figure out what to do! We finally made it home about six hours later than we were supposed to and we were exhausted!! We all crashed as soon as we got back, I don't even remember sleeping, I was so tired.

Tuesday morning we hung around the house and then that afternoon I had an interview for a job. I'm hoping it works out, mostly because I hate interviewing and I would rather just take a job as long as it's a good offer just to avoid more interviews!! We'll see what happens there. Wednesday the kids and I hung out while mom was over at Stefan's helping out with the kids there, Timothy was pretty excited when we got to pick up Grammy after church that night. Thursday morning mom watched the kids while I went to get my new driver's license and then we went to WalMart to pick up a few things.

Friday morning mom had to go back over to Stefan's and Charlotte and I went to the airport to pick up Aunt Brittany! We had fun shopping and hanging out at the house and then on Friday night mom and Britt watched the kids for us while Brandon and I went out to celebrate our anniversary (a little early, I know, but hey, we had babysitters!!). We had so much fun getting to go out without kids. We went to the Melting Pot, it's been our tradition each year for our anniversary. I had gotten a new dress and Brandon dressed up and it was so much fun. I was so thankful to have mom and Britt there so Brandon and I could enjoy some time together.

Saturday morning we all went over to see the new addition on Stefan and Stacia's house and to play with the kids and then we all went out to lunch together. Mom and Britt and Charlotte and I headed up to San Marcos that afternoon and braved the cool weather and wind to do a little shopping. On Sunday we went to church and met the Crafton crew for lunch and then mom and Britt and I drove down to check out the campus at St. Mary's where Britt's planning on going to law school. It was so pretty, it reminded me a little of Harding with all the old buildings and the pretty landscaping.

And then today they left to go home, it was sad, Timothy had a little meltdown in the airport crying but he was ok by the time we got to the car to come home and once he opened his new Thomas puzzle he was great! One of the best things we did this past week was spend some time looking around online for ideas for his birthday party. He is dead set on having a Star Wars party so mom and Brandon helped me find ideas for that, that was so helpful! So I guess sooner than later it will back to life as usual here. I'll be working and the kids will be in daycare and we'll get back in a routine. It's a little sad and a little surreal...it's been like a really good vacation, getting to stay home for so long, and while I don't want it to end, I know it's only temporary so I'll manage.

The week ahead should hopefully be a little lazy. Brandon's parents are coming up for a quick trip this weekend so I'm sure we'll have fun with them and then hopefully work will start soon. I'll try to post some new pictures soon!