Wednesday, December 29, 2010

A very Merry Christmas!

We enjoyed a lovely Christmas weekend! We headed to my parents house on Christmas Eve to eat some great food and spend time with my family. Poor Joseph and Madelyn were very sick and I was wiping both noses ALL weekend. Joseph went for a 2 and 1/2 year well baby appt. (to follow up on his speech) on Wed. before Christmas and he had just started coughing and sneezing that day. The doctor looked in his ears and she noticed that one of tubes had already fallen out (tubes were placed in both ears back in February) and that ear was infected. :( The other ear still had the tube in it and it was fine. He was put on amoxicillin that day and I begged for a stronger medication, but she said we had to start with amoxicillin. I was already prepared to have to take him back a few days later for a stronger medication since that one never worked for him last winter when he had multiple ear infections. Thankfully he seems to have responded well to the medicine and is feeling MUCH better. If he continues to have ear infections the dr said he will have to get the tube put back in. I'm praying that he will NOT have to have the surgery again. His speech has EXPLODED the past few months and he's now talking in sentences most of the day. I've been so worried about all the delays that he's had since he was a preemie and born 2 months early. I am very thankful that he has almost caught up on everything now!

Madelyn was feeling terrible so I took her to the Patient First office to have her checked out around 3pm on Christmas Eve (our pediatrician's office was closed). I was afraid that she had an ear infection b/c she had so much drainage and congestion that her nose kept pouring and she could only breathe out of her mouth with TONS of coughing, sneezing, and congestion. The dr checked her ears and they were both fine, but after listening to her breathe, the dr said she had an upper respiratory infection and she was prescribed amoxicillin too. She is now breathing thru her nose again and is feeling much better too!

We had planned to all go to the Christmas Eve service at our church, but both kids were feeling so miserable that we just didn't make it. We brought the kids home around 6:30pm from my parents house and gave them baths and medicine and put them in their beds.

Joseph was up bright and earlier than usual on Christmas morning (5:45am)! YIKES!!! I guess Santa doesn't get to sleep in on Christmas! Haha!!!! He was very excited to find the plate of cookies that Santa ate (Santa left a few bites on the plate and Joseph said he needed to eat them right away). :)

We videoed him when he walked into the playroom where our tree is located and he saw all the presents and had a BIG smile on his face! I asked him "Oh Joseph....Did Santa come bring you all these presents"?!!!! He looked all around and then said "NO" loudly and Joe and I laughed so hard! Hahaha! I think he was expecting to actually see Santa in his big red suit and he didn't ever see him in our house therefore Santa didn't come!

We had a fun morning letting the children play with their new toys as I continued to wipe noses. Joseph was exhausted after playing so hard and getting up so early that he had to take a nap at 10am and didn't wake until noon. We headed over to my parents house that afternoon to enjoy a Christmas meal with them. We also invited our dear friends Erik and Kelley and their 2 boys (around the same age as Joseph and Maddy) to join us for dinner. Erik was Joe's roommate all thru flight school and Kelley has been a wonderful friend of mine. Erik had just returned home from a 7 month deployment on Dec. 20th on the USS Truman and they weren't going to visit their family in GA until after the holidays. We had the best evening eating a wonderful meal that my mom prepared and spending time with my family and our friends. The children played so nicely together and Joseph LOVES their 3 year old son Jackson. They ran all around playing and had so much fun. I am glad they were able to join us that evening.

The snow began to fall on Christmas night and it snowed the ENTIRE day on the 26th. We got over a foot of snow and it was a beautiful winter wonderland outside! Joseph still prefers the warm weather, pool, and beach over the snow, so he didn't last long playing outside. We still have a ton of snow on the ground today, but the roads are finally clearing up.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the weekend. I hope you all had a lovely Christmas!


This is the 2nd year in a row that we gated the Christmas Tree! Joseph loves turning on and off the lights (which we let him do b/c it's just a button that you push) and also grabbing any and all ornaments off the tree (which he is NOT allowed to do!!!). Maddy is also busy crawling all around and she likes to pull on the tree also so we decided it was best to gate it off so we wouldn't have to worry about the tree falling over on one of them.
Our precious sick little girl...
Christmas Eve with my sis-n-law and nephew at my parent's house...
Pop got a new flashlight!
Nana taking care of sick Maddy...
Present time for Joseph and Jordan was playing Wii Golf!



My aunt made the most adorable Christmas tree bow for Miss Madelyn. It looked so very precious in her hair and she actually had long enough hair for it to stay in!!!!! :)

Christmas Morning....
Potty Training Elmo!!!! Operation potty training for Joseph starts THIS FRIDAY....DECEMBER 31st!!!!!! Please pray for us as I'm sure we will need it!!! We are following a strict 3 day training program and are hoping for success!

Joseph and Maddy got a joint gift....this fun play kitchen!!

My precious baby girl being a little mommy!
Standing up! She's going to be walking VERY soon. She pulls up on everything and then stands there and lets go often. It kindof makes me feel sad to see her meet these milestones as I just want her to be a baby for a little while longer.
Maddy tackled her brother! The first of many times I'm sure! :)

Loves her new baby Cabbage Patch doll! They doll has bright blue eyes just like Maddy!
She also LOVES checking herself out in the mirror. She stares at herself for the longest time and smiles so big. It's so cute to watch!
Christmas night at my parents house...

Sweet Jacob and Madelyn. Jacob was born about 3 weeks earlier than M.
Silly boys...
Sledding with daddy...
Beautiful snow...
Snowballs...
Tree in our front yard...

Sunday, December 19, 2010

The most wonderful time of the year

The photographer that captured our homecoming pictures back at the end of July was running a holiday special for pictures with Santa. She had this scene all set up and I thought the pics turned out pretty good! Here was the scenario.....I handed Maddy to Santa and then reached for Joseph and plopped him down on the big guys lap.....as if I thought it would be that simple! Haha! BIG MISTAKE! Poor little Joseph was terrified and yes...he was that screaming, kicking child that you see each year with Santa. He wanted to get down immediately so I helped him down. The photographer quickly asked him if he could help her decorate the tree and she gave him an ornament. She was thinking fast and it was a GREAT distraction! He was distracted enough to get the following pics!

We're enjoying this holiday season with fun activities and family. I will try to post more pictures of what we've been doing soon! Joseph's preschool is putting on a Christmas performance this Tuesday and even Daddy gets to take off work and come see it!

May you all enjoy this wonderful month of December and remember....Jesus is the reason for the season!






Wednesday, December 15, 2010

On the go!!!

Maddy first started moving her arms to crawl on Nov. 27th. She's been working hard on her new skill and here she is 2 weeks later crawling from room to room in our house! She's so sweet and it's such a joy to watch her master new skills!

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Thanksgiving

We enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. Joseph had a program/feast at school he was so cute. We went to eat Thanksgiving lunch at my parents house and my mom made a delicious meal! Joseph and Maddy took a good nap at their house that afternoon and we relaxed some while they were sleeping. I was thankful this Thanksgiving to be living here in Virginia Beach and to be able to spend time with both our families during the month of November!
Joseph painted at school. The color of the month of November was brown and the shape of the month was square.......so those are brown squares (made with square sponges and paint) on the paper below (in case you were wondering) and also painted leaves! :)
Joseph found Mommy right away and was pointing. I thought he would take off running towards me, but he stood up there the entire time and was looking all around and observing everyone in the audience.
Everyone brought food for the feast and Joseph was grabbing ham rolls off the table (and then tried to put it back after he touched it.......luckily I caught him as he was about to do that and he put it on my plate instead. Oh boy!!!
Our table decorations were so cute! All the kids handprints from the 2 year old class where on our table (with their names under their hands)!
Here was Joseph and Maddy on Thanksgiving morning when they woke up!
Maddy loves watching Joseph.
We went over to my parents house for Thanksgiving lunch. Here is Maddy and her Daddy!
Nana and Joseph
Family picture
Nan and Pop
Joseph and Daddy feeding the seagulls bread for their Thanksgiving meal!