Fall Fun

Timothy and I went to play outside today when Charlotte went down for her nap and had fun drawing spooky pictures on the driveway and running around in the beautiful weather. They said it was supposed to rain all day, but it's just been cloudy and windy and cool, so it was a perfect day to go outside!

Charlotte is doing much better, she ended up having the flu, so we had to start her on Tamiflu last week and she did just fine. She was better within a day or so, just fussy and not much of appetite. Today though, she's been a completely different child...happy and laughing and playing and back to the sweet little girl I remember!!

Over the weekend, we went over to Brandon's parents' house to celebrate his grandparent's birthdays. It was a fun weekend and the kids had a blast playing outside and enjoying the attention of everyone! Both kids enjoyed seeing all the animals, and they both liked petting and holding the squirrels! I wish I had taken more pictures, but like I said, Charlotte was pretty fussy the whole time.

Charlotte's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day/Week!

So Charlotte has been having some issues lately...she has a cold, and it's at the end of the cold which means she's coughing a lot and sounds like she's losing her voice. Thankfully, her nose isn't too stuffy or runny anymore, so maybe we're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Monday night she decided that she just didn't want to sleep, so I was up either rocking her or listening to her cry for three hours...she wasn't in pain or coughing or anything, she just didn't want to be alone and she didn't want to sleep. At one point, I was rocking her and she sat up and I rubbed her head and she just closed her eyes and started saying, "babababababa", it was cute, she was totally delirious!

Today she was fussy and on the way home from church this morning she just started screaming...so we came home and she got some water and that made her happy. Not too long after that, she was playing with a book and all of the sudden starting screaming bloody murder, but then she got over it and kept playing...probably half an hour later, I noticed blood on my hands...and then a little bit after that, blood on her hands...I checked her over and she had sliced her finger, I'm assuming on the book and was bleeding all over the place. I felt horrible, but she had been playing so nice and quiet that I didn't think anything was wrong! So she got a bandaid and cookie and after that she was ready for a nap! She wasn't too sure what to think about the bandaid though, it was cute, she just kept waving her hand around. I had to take some pictures to document her first big "owie".

Pumpkin Patch

So, we went to the pumpkin patch yesterday since the ones here in TX are only open on Saturdays and Sundays and yesterday was the only Saturday that we could go before Halloween! The good part is, the weather was beautiful and we had a lot of fun, the bad part is, right before we left, I went to take one last picture of the kids and my camera beeped and a message read "memory card error"...so we lost all of our pictures!!

We did have a lot of fun though, Timothy loved being out there and getting to see the cowboys and horses and pumpkins and animals. He got his face painted (a very manly blue and green octopus) and had fun jumping in the hay. Charlotte just wanted to walk everywhere and spent most of her time dancing to the music. I did have some really cute pictures, but they're gone now. We might try to go back later in the month, maybe a Sunday afternoon...so I can take pictures again!!

So, sorry for not having any pictures, but you'll just have to imagine how beautiful and fun it was for all of us!

Sneezy, Sleepy, Grumpy, Doc

That's pretty much what's been going on here lately! Timothy had a bad cough thing going on Tuesday and had to miss school, he's still coughing a lot and we're all sneezing pretty bad...he has been having a hard time adjusting to his newest inhaler so it's making him very NOT sleepy (like up till 2 a.m. last night!) but we're working on it...we saw the doctor yesterday and she said just keep up what we've been doing and hopefully it'll get better. I'm thinking about having him tested for allergies though.

He did get his flu shot yesterday though, thank goodness, and I called today and they have some more in, so we're taking Charlotte tomorrow to get her one too. Poor girl will have to get two since it'll be her first one, but that's ok! Anyway, here are some random pictures from lunch time yesterday!

Nothin Much

\That's all that's going on around here. We're officially in a fall routine and I love it. Timothy started at a Mother's Day Out program last month so he goes to "school" Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9-2, Charlotte and I go to Ladies Bible class on Tuesday mornings and on Wednesdays the kids and I head back up to church to help bake desserts for our Wednesday night meals. I also decided now that Monday mornings we would go to the Library for story time so we're up and going pretty much every morning at the same time. The kids have adapted well to the schedule, Charlotte has dropped her morning nap, but her afternoon naps are usually about three hours long so I get a nice long break in the afternoons. We do have some fun stuff planned for this month now that Brandon is finished working over time. This weekend we're going to go pick out our pumpkins and next weekend we're going on a little road trip.

So here is what everyone has been up to lately - Brandon finished working over time last Wednesday and I can't even tell you how happy all of us are that he's done! He had a good year end though and even got an award from a general (I think it was a general) from D.C. this morning! Way to go hubby! I think he's pretty excited to have normal working hours now and have his Fridays off again though. He's been working really hard!

Timothy is officially potty trained. He does great during the day and doesn't really have accidents much at all anymore. He still wears a pull up for quiet time and bed time, but the other morning he woke up, ate breakfast and played for a bit and then went to the bathroom and his night time pull up was still completely dry! He still entertains us every day with silly songs and stories. I know I already posted about this on facebook, but the other day he sang "Blue Skies and Rainbows" and it went like this..."blue skies and rainbows and sun beans from Kevin are what I can see when my Lord is yelling at me". I laughed so hard! He's doing great at school though, his teacher said he's too smart for his own good, not sure if that was a compliment or not :) He still loves to draw and color though so I know that will keep him busy for me! He's really into Backyardigans now so we have to watch that every morning, it's pretty cute.

Charlotte is growing and growing so much. She's still not saying too many words. She's says mama and dada but I don't think she really knows what it means. She says "this" a lot though. Usually when she's showing you something. She loves to go find toys or books and bring them to you to share. She loves to read books and lately she likes to play with blocks, stacking them up and moving them from one bucket to another. She's still not really into dolls or girly toys, but it's getting better. She loves trying to climb and she loves walking on her own now.

Charlotte has had a constant runny nose since we got back from WA, but she's also cut a lot of new teeth, mostly molars. Timothy had a coughing-spitting-up-mucus episode a few weeks ago so I took back to his doctor and they started him on a new inhaler and increased dosages on his other medicines. He now takes on inhaler twice a day, a daily nose spray, Singulair every day, and he has a new inhaler to take when he has a bad coughing episode. Poor kid, but he's sleeping well and not coughing as bad now so I guess it's all working!

We're getting all geared up for Halloween, but I'll post about that later! Enjoy the pictures!

Warning - This Could be Long!!

Sorry it's been so long, I got our laptop back on Friday, but I haven't been motivated to download pictures and blog much, but I have time to rest and think today so here I am! And yes, this will be long because the kids and I were gone for a week and a half and we were busy!!

So, we left on September 1st to head back to up to WA for a visit with my family. I've seen them a lot since the last time I went up there (last February) but I hadn't been back up there so the trip was much overdue! The kids did fine on the flight out there, Timothy played on his new Leapster and Charlotte mostly snacked and played peek a boo with the people behind us. We got in that morning and spent the day relaxing and adjusting. The next day began the adventure. Charlotte and cried off and on during the night, but it never lasted more than a minute and she would go back to sleep so I didn't think anything of it, but when I went in that morning to get her she was covered in dried puke...nice...but she had apparently gotten it all out over the night and she was fine that morning, she ate her breakfast and was fine so it ended up being ok. I had an appointment to get my hair cut (by the best hair stylist I've ever had - love her) so my mom played with the kids at the play area in the mall while I had my hour of pampering, it was so nice!! Thursday night we went up to Poulsbo to celebrate Heather's birthday and of course, Charlotte was fussy and as soon we got home she puked again and then she was fine! Crazy kid!!

Friday and Saturday were nice and relaxing, it rained and it was nice and cool and everything was just perfect. Sunday we went to church out at Delano and it was so nice that morning, it was cool and as soon as church began it started pouring down rain, which, if you've ever been to the camp at Delano, you know how amazing that sounds, combine it with hundreds of Christians singing praise to God and I have to admit I teared up a little! It was beautiful! We had a fun morning of worship and fellowship and then spent the afternoon relaxing and enjoying the rain. Monday was about the same...Brittany and I went to see that Sandra Bullock movie "All About Steve", it was really cute, I totally recommend it!!

Then we got down to business, Tuesday we took Tyler and Timothy and Charlotte to Chuck E Cheese, it's become tradition to go there and play with Tyler. Timothy had a blast and Charlotte loved walking around looking at everything. She wasn't too crazy about the ride, but she still had fun. Wednesday my dad took Timothy to the playground and to McDonalds while my mom and Charlotte and I went to the mall (we were on the way there when I turned around in the car and noticed that the bottle of Aleve we had given her to play with - bad idea, I know - was open and empty, but she was fine!) and we did a little shopping. Thursday we met Candice and her kids at Titlow Park and had a picnic and let the kids play on the playground and down at the beach. Brandon and I used to take Timothy there all the time when he was little, I love that park, and he had a blast playing with Ethan and Lara. Thursday night we went out to the Oden's and had a birthday dinner for Jeff and spent time catching up with friends.

Friday we went to opening day at the Puyallup Fair. We didn't get to go last year because Charlotte was so little I was too scared to take her (germs EVERYWHERE!!) but this year was better and the weather was PERFECT!! We even talked my dad into breaking his 10 year streak of never going to the Puyallup Fair! The only bad part was that Charlotte had eaten some red velvet cake the night before at the Oden's and she also had had a lot of corn casserole and apparently when those two are combined...you get the idea, not a pretty picture diaper...and the worst part was that I only had four wipes left in the diaper bag!! But, we got her cleaned up and cleaned up ourselves and still had a fun day at the fair. Timothy loved it, his face was so precious, every ride he was on, he had the biggest smile ever. I wish Brandon could have been there to see it, but of course, I took a lot of pictures.

We finished up the trip with a picnic dinner up in Port Orchard with Heather and Kevin and Tyler. It was prettiest park, right on the waterfront, and it had the coolest playground! It was such a fun trip, despite all of the yucky puke and poop...and I'm so thankful to have such a wonderful family to visit!! We're going back up for Thanksgiving and I'm so happy this time that Brandon gets to come with us, he hasn't been back up there since we moved!! AND...hopefully I'll get to go back again next Spring since we found out that my unemployment has been extended through the end of April!!!! It's been such a great month and I'm so grateful every day for God's blessings! Enjoy the pictures (this is just a few, the rest are on Facebook) and I promise I'll blog more often next month!

Still Here

I'm here, and I really want to post about our trip to WA, but right before we got home, Brandon called and said that the laptop had stopped working so we had to mail it off to HP to get it fixed and I'm waiting for it to return (hopefully this week some time). So, I don't want to download pictures onto the desktop just to have to transfer them to the laptop later in the week so you'll all just have to be patient :) We did have a great trip despite the occasional throwing up from Charlotte, diaper blow outs at the fair, my one sick day and Charlotte somehow opening a bottle of Aleve (but not swallowing any)...trust me, it really was a great trip. I promise I'll get the pictures up as soon as the computer arrives and I'll also blog about Timothy's first day of school (which he LOVES!!!) so stay tuned!!