Happy Halloween 2011

We weren't quite sure if Jayden was going to be trick-or-treating this year, but he seemed to be feeling better on Sunday. We put his costume over his clothes and made a few quick stops. The little pirate didn't want anything to do with his hat, so daddy wore it instead.

 We spent the day down in Southern Illinois at deer camp for the family picnic. Jayden was less than thrilled to have me chase him around with a camera. I can just imagine all the pretty shots I could have taken of him!

Tonight trick-or-treaters all around will be going door to door in search of what my students call "free candy". We won't be passing any out because we are off to get Aaron's new toy and enjoy dinner. You can't really cook much when your kitchen looks like mine does right now! 

Happy Halloween, everyone! Have a safe night!!

Fall Pictures 2011

Our friend and photographer, Jessica Reid, took some pictures of us last night. I neglected to get Jayden's 2 year pictures done because he has been so sick, but finally we had  chance! Here is a preview of what she posted for us to see.

 I was really happy to see the family picture and the one of Jayden turn out. I can't wait to see a few more in a few weeks!

These are the last two that are dedicated to the two new members of the family and a 25 week baby bump shot!

If you live in our area and need family pictures, I highly recommend getting a hold of Jessica! www.jessicareidphotography.com

Thanks, Jessica for being so patient with us! We will be back for more in February (or maybe a bit sooner).

Our Weekend...and some.

The cribs arrived this past weekend and Aaron got started putting them together. I just couldn't wait to see what they looked like. I am pretty happy with our purchases!

 Jayden has been recovering nicely from his surgery and loves his new basement toy area.  

 Nana came up for the weekend and did a lot of laundry, hanging, and folding of clothes for the girls. We only have a few more things to do in their room before it is ready. Even though we are 12 weeks away, I wanted this taken care of, just in case. It seems like they have a lot of clothes, but I can only imagine how many outfits we are going to go through in one day!

 Their closet is a bit of a mess right now, but newborn clothes are ready to go along with a few preemie outfits for the first few weeks. Today after school I went for a doctor appointment and measurement sonogram. Baby A weighs 1 lb. 11oz. and  Baby B weigh 1 lb. 8 oz. Their facial structures are still looking a lot of like. I start my 2 week rotation starting November 11th.

To end our night, we stopped in Chatham for Madeline's basketball game. It was nice to watch her play along with a few of my former students.

Next blog post in a few days.....the kitchen remodel. Looks like Aaron has a few months(right in the middle of deer season) to get yet another project complete. It is a good thing he is a hard worker!

Our Little Patient

Our little patient had a successful surgery today and is on the road to recovery. He had a rough time after he woke from surgery and had to have medicine to calm him down. The strong guy was trying to rip out his IV medicine and screamed at the nurses to "stop it" as they were wrapping it tighter around his arm to stay in place.  I am pretty sure he will have a diet of cold treats for the next week and a lot of love to help him feel better.

 After some pain meds, snuggles from Grandma, and Mickey Mouse he feel asleep for a nice nap.

 Poppy, Grammie, and Maddie brought him a new race track and he was happy to get out of bed, IV still intact, to play. He wanted jammies on, so we had to cut off the sleeve to his shirt so his IV could fit through.

 Nana and PawPaw sent balloons and after he was feeling better, he decided it would be fun to hit them and enjoy a few laughs.

 The nice nurse let him play iPad while he checked his heart and lungs. Smart move.

 Then he relaxed with Daddy and watched the Word Series.

It looks like the little guy will get to come home tomorrow after the doctor checks in to see that he has had enough fluids. I am headed back to work in the morning and I will be waiting for 3:10 to hit the clock so I can head back home and check on the little guy.

One Step Closer

We are one step closer to having the basement ready to go! Carpet was installed today and we love it. Jayden was thrilled when he got home and was able to run around and around. I think he took about 30 laps before stopping for  break! I also picked out material for curtains to be made and it matches perfectly to both the green and tan.

 All the babies have carpet in their rooms and are ready for furniture to be moved in after a little bit of trim work is complete.

Tomorrow will be our break from the hustle and bustle of house work as we will be hanging out with Jayden at St. John's.

The Fan Cam

After working all day, hitting the grocery store, unloading, and prepping dinner for tomorrow night, I put myself on mandatory recliner rest for the remainder of the evening. I hit my limit and my feet were starting to hurt and the babies decided to have a party on top of all of it all. This feeling, although neat, just didn't agree with the rest of me. So, in my recliner rest, I have browsed every sight I can think of including www.fightingillini.com and the Fan Cam site which you can go to by clicking here.

If you get to the page and click the down arrow 12 times and the right arrow 30 times, you should come to an orange section to the right of the play clock. Zoom in 10 times and then go down 12 times. Now click to the right 15 times and in the center of your screen you should see a very familiar face or maybe even 3! Although the Illini lost the football game and played terrible, this is still neat to see. Looks like Aaron had a lot of fun with his buddies!

I think my recliner rest will continue over the weekend too. I will have a post-surgery boy to snuggle with and some help around the house. Aaron's parents will be coming up to visit little sicky, the boys will do some hunting Saturday evening, and I think the three of us will take it easy and starting washing some baby bedding and clothes. The process of putting stuff away needs to get started, especially since time will fly with the holidays coming up. Sounds like a pretty good weekend plan to me!

Jayden, pink, and 24 weeks

Aaron headed out for some hunting tonight, so Jayden and I ventured over to an area by the lake for some fall pictures and some time for him to run and play! I know next week he isn't going to feel like running and playing, so we have to fit it in our schedule right now.

 He had a lot of fun running and kicking at the leaves while we were there and when we got home he sat back in the recliner with his juice waiting for the Bears to come on TV.

On the other hand, there is now a brighter pink in the girls' room, which almost put Aaron over the edge. These two pinks match their bedding perfectly and will be calmed down once carpet comes on Wednesday and their cribs arrive later this week.

On Monday, we will mark week 24, which means only 13 more weeks to go! The babies are around 12 inches long and weigh over a pound each. I will find their actual measurements in a few weeks when I visit the doctor.

The rest of the week will be spent working on the house, playing with Jayden, and keeping him healthy for his big surgery and over night hospital stay on Thursday. I am really nervous about this, but I know it is for the best. He is so much happier when he is healthy and that is what we want!

4 years ago....

It is hard to believe that four years ago we were walking down the aisle with our friends and family among us to hear us say "I DO". We dancing the night away after a great dinner, at a beautiful reception, planned to the very last detail.

 We have sure grown up in the last four years in many different ways. Our responsibilities have changed, our faced have aged, but we have remained best of friends working together to make this thing called life work out the best we can.

As one of my best friends said today, "Look at all that has happened since the "I DO". She is right, there has been a lot, but I wouldn't change any of it for the world.

5 houses in 4 years with 3 kids, ages 2 and under that make 1 big happy family that so many people would give anything to have. We are truly blessed and it all started with the words "I DO". I am looking forward to what the next year brings for the both of us. I couldn't think of a better person to share my sleepless nights, crying kids, house remodels, and all the other events that makes the world spin around with....I really am one lucky girl.

Happy Anniversary, Aaron! I love you!

Poor Buddy

Poor Jayden just can't win. We headed to the doctor today because he had been running a temp on and off the entire weekend. His right tube is clogged which has caused an ear infection. His nurse practitioner, who we love, told me that we need to let doctor know on the day of his surgery so he can put a new tube in or clean his current tube out. He had red enlarged tonsils too. Yesterday was day ten of antibiotics and we started a new kind today. I can't wait for this child to feel better, start eating, and go a long period of time without medicine. I hate that he has to have surgery again at such a young age, but as the doctors put it, they have never seen a child needs tonsils out as bad as he does at such a young age. We have been practicing eating popsicles because that will be an important food group following his surgery!

 However, when he is sick (which is all the time) he gets his way 100%. His daddy took him on a 4-wheeler ride out to see the horses tonight. He loves the 4-wheeler so much that he pretends to drive it himself. Thank goodness he doesn't have any allergies and is able to be an outdoors men like his dad!

 He saw an airplane when he was out there tonight and was obsessed and couldn't stop looking at it. That allowed me to take a picture of his pretty, long eyelashes and big brown eyes.

In other news, the basement is 9 days away from carpet. A few walls still need to be painted and some other things done here and there, but it is getting closer!

 Someone found his dad's pencil and made a straight line on the wall, so someone else helped him write his name with the words of "never again can you write on the wall".

 But, it made him REALLY happy! Of course it did--any destruction a 2 year old boy does makes them happy!

 The floor is getting grouted and coming right along!

The walls in the front bedroom are officially pink. I think we need a white stripe around the room and a brighter pink down at the bottom. We will see what we have time for in the next 9 days because Jayden's room still needs painted too.

The Great Pumpkin Patch 2011

I didn't think we were going to make it to the pumpkin patch this year. Jayden started with a fever Friday night and it has continued on and off the entire weekend. This morning he woke up with a semi-normal temp, so we decided to make the trek to Arthur for a family outing. We decided that this may be our last big trip until the babies arrive. We may make it down to a fall picnic at deer camp if Jayden is recovered from his surgery, but that will be a game day decision. Hopefully, I will be able to travel down South for Thanksgiving with the boys this year, but again, it just depends! So, this weekend was our chance to enjoy a family day! Jayden was a trooper and didn't spike a fever until around 6 tonight. So here is our day:

On the way to The Great Pumpkin Patch in Arthur, Illinois!

 I would highly recommend visiting the patch if you live in the area and love fall. They have so many neat displays. They are so talented there that they even decorated the White House lawn last fall!

 We met the Sitko family over there so we could catch up and let the kids play just like we did last year.

 They checked out the animals and neat displays.

 We found this little area with a little waterfall. Jay didn't want me to take his picture, so this was the best I could get!

How tall this fall?

 Looks like he is almost 3 feet tall! He is actually 35 3/4" according to his physical he has last week.

 Here is the baby bump at 23 weeks! I think next year's trip to the patch may be a challenge. I am either going to have to take a lot of help with me, only take either Jayden or the girls, or simply just "skip" a year.

 Payton really wanted me to take her picture at the sign too. The little diva kept her white sunglasses on all day. So cute!

 A random nice lady offered to take our picture on one of the little trails that Jayden decided to visit. He wasn't thrilled, but at least we got a picture!

 He worked really hard with Payton to move tons of pumpkins from the edge of the path to the table.

 Our last stop was a pumpkin that was born in Taylorville! We thought that was really neat!!

Our little trip to the pumpkin patch was a success. Jayden wanted his Dad to hold him most of the day, the weather was perfect, we survived without a fever or any major falls, and we enjoyed a nice lunch with our friends and had wonderful dessert from The Homestead Bakery! Yum!!  Happy Fall!!