Christmas 2007

Nap Time???

How can you get upset when this is what is looking at you when you walk in the room?

If you can't tell she has crawled under her bumper.

My child is a chipmunk!

I went in to check on Mallory this morning because I could hear she was not asleep and she was under her bumper. Normally if she is awake she is standing up give me the biggest grin when I walk in the room which is what she did after I took her picture under the bumper. She is so funny! Well, we are going to the doctor AGAIN today with Alyssa. She got a runny nose Tuesday so I started giving her breathing treatments but she is still wheezing really bad. She was up all night crying because she couldn't breathe. On a better note our house is showing today. After 2 months of not showing we are excited! Please pray that it will sell!!!! While you are praying please pray for my sanity with sick kids. I am not sure how much more I can take!!!

Merry Christmas!

Here are the pictures from our Christmas card. I couldn't get a descent one of them together. I love the expression on Mallory's face! I am so ready for everyone to be well. Alyssa still can't get rid of her ear infection. It goes from one ear to the next. Mallory finally got over her ear infection but caught a stomach bug this weekend. Alyssa had it last week. The problem with Mallory is that she will not drink pedialyte so we have to give it to her through a syringe. Poor Trey got up every hour last night to give it to her.

We are looking forward to Christmas. Bryan graduates from LSU Friday so Trey and I will be heading to Baton Rouge for the day. My mom is keeping the girls (that would be a pretty miserable trip to make in a day). Andy and Kelly will be coming in from Indiana so we are so excited to get to see them! Trey took a few days off of work next week. He has been working the past 20 days straight so we will be glad to have him home all day for several days in a row! Trey bought me a king size bed for Christmas. It is WONDERFUL! I have been begging for one for several years and he had a few sleepless nights so he decided we needed one. I have to say it is the best present I have had so far!!!! I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

Is this normal?

Alyssa REALLY enjoys the TV. I only let her watch a few shows but she really likes them. This was her watching the Baby Einsteins sign language video. She is in her high chair because she had just finished lunch. Do any of your kids get this excited over TV? Sorry it is sideways - it took WAY too long to download to fix it!!!!

The good, the bad and the ugly

Well, the good news is the girls are getting better. We have been to the doctor 4 times so far with Mallory and 2 times with Alyssa. The bad news is they both have ear infections. The doctor prescribed Alyssa an antibiotic and she is doing much better. Mallory on the other hand is not cooperating too well. The doctor prescribed her an antibiotic last Thursday and she did okay the first day but starting Friday she vomited every time we gave her medicine. We tried every way possible to hide it but she is no dummy! She was also running fever so we were trying to give her motrin too. The ugly was by Sunday she was vomiting ALL day! She couldn't keep anything down. The uglier is she is having to have three shots of antibiotic. Maybe they will get to go back to MDO before it ends at the end of this month! I will leave you with a picture of Mallory at 10 months.

Thankful

I have so much to be thankful for but today I am especially thankful for Alyssa. We have all been sick with a really nasty cold all week. I had it then passed it to the girls then Trey got it. We took Mallory to the doctor in Shreveport while we were there last week because she got pink eye with hers. I am the only one who avoided fever. Maybe I had it but I was just too busy to notice? Mallory and Trey had fever Friday and Saturday and Alyssa had it Sunday. I was worried because Alyssa was around 102 and she looked so sick. We got back to Ruston around 6:30 Sunday night and at about 7:00 Alyssa had a seizure. It was the scariest thing I have ever seen. She was in her high chair taking a breathing treatment and I noticed something wasn't right with her eyes. She will sometimes just stare off into space which is what it looked like she was doing. She didn't have convulsions she just went limp. Trey grabbed her to put her in the car to take to the ER. I was putting Mallory in the car when I looked over and saw Alyssa foaming at the mouth and turning blue. I FREAKED out!!!!! Trey told me to call 911. He took her back inside to start CPR while I called 911. I then remembered my neighbor was a nurse so I ran over and asked her to come over. I couldn't go inside. All I could do was fall to my knees and pray that God heal her! I honestly thought she was going to die! I have never seen anything like that in my entire life and hope to NEVER see it again. She started breathing right as Trey was about to to CPR. Trey had just taken a CPR course last week and had to do CPR on a baby! The ambulance got there and she was fine! We took her to the ER so she could have some tests run to make sure it wasn't anything serious. It was a febrial seizure. Which is common in children when they have a fever that spikes. The crazy thing is her fever was only 101.9. She has had much higher before. Everything is okay she is running around playing like normal. The doctors said she has a 5-10% chance of it happening again. It is going to be very difficult for me not to freak out next time she has fever! We are all doing better. I am well. Mallory is still coughing and has a runny nose but the pink eye is gone. Trey is feeling better.

9 months old, Birthday and the Children's Museum

Mallory is actually 9 1/2 months old. I just got around to taking her picture this weekend. She is growing like a weed. Her front two teeth are finally coming in. The two beside the front two have already come in and it looks pretty funny. She is pulling up in her crib and on toys. She has taken a few steps holding onto the couch. She has bite marks all around her crib.

Saturday was my 29th birthday. My friend Chris made me this beautiful cake. It was wonderful! I woke up to 4 GREY HAIRS!!!!! I promise they were not there the day before!


The girls and I went to Monroe last week to have a play date at the Children's museum with Megan and her kids and Jolie and her kids. We had so much fun. We were the only people there so the kids were able to run around and do whatever they wanted. There was a baby area for Mallory and Gavin and Jolie, Kathryn, and Alyssa played all over the rest of the museum.

Mallory and Gavin played well together until Mallory just wanted to give him kisses!!

Yep - that is Mallory standing up playing.

Here is Kathryn and Alyssa playing together.

Sisters think alike

Apparently it is more fun to play under the exersaucer than in it!

Mallory at 9 months

Alyssa at 10 months

Pigtails, Tubes & Standing Up

Alyssa finally has enough hair to have pigtails!!! YEAH!!!

Mallory decided to crawl in her clothes hamper while I was folding her clothes!

Mallory is standing up by herself when she has something to hold onto!!!!

Well, Alyssa had her surgery yesterday. Everything went great! The worst part was waiting on her to tinkle before we left. They finally just let us leave without her doing it because we knew she would go as soon as we got in the car - and she did! She had an ear infection going into the surgery so she still isn't 100% well but it shouldn't be long. Trey started trying to get her to talk last night! I told him it would probably take a few days!

Mallory had her 9 month checkup Tuesday. We really like the doctor. Everything was great! She is growing like a weed! When we were finished with our checkup the doctor asked about Alyssa and we explained the situation and she said she would see her since she was a sibling. We were THRILLED! We do like the clinic in Monroe but 1) it is in Monroe and 2) we have yet to see the same doctor twice. So, that was another answered prayer. I have to change everything with the medicaid office but according to the doctor it shouldn't be a problem.

Our house is still a work in progress. We went to Shreveport last weekend but stayed with some friends because we didn't want to risk Alyssa getting sick. Trey went by there and checked everything out and the mold is gone however the ceiling was still not fixed to our approval. They came back and painted the entire ceiling Tuesday and we had our carpets cleaned so this weekend we will clean up the dust and put it back on the market.

My Little Ladybugs

We went to the fall festival at Temple last night. It was fun! We put Alyssa in a jumpy thing for the first time but she really didn't know what to do. I had to wake her up from a nap to go so she wasn't in a very good mood! I am sure she was also burning up since it was 76 when we got there and they had on fleece from head to toe!

In other news Alyssa is getting tubes put in her ears next week. She has had a constant double ear infection for the last month. She just can't get rid of them. Finally we went to an ENT and with one look in her ears we were told she needed tubes and part of her adenoids out. She has a split uvula so they can't take all of them out. The ENT was also certain that this is the reason she is not talking. Hopefully we can get her well and talking!

Mallory is doing great! She will be 9 months tomorrow. I will post a 9 month picture when we are in Shreveport. If you haven't noticed I am taking her picture each month for a year in the same chair so I can see how much she has grown. She is talking and pulling up. I don't think it will be long before she is walking.

We still haven't sold our house in Shreveport. We are having major issues! A couple of weekends ago we were there and noticed some black stuff around the vent. Trey took it off and discovered mold in our air ducts. Obviously, the heating element had a short in it so the fan on the heater was staying on and blowing hot air in in the attic against the cold air from the air conditioner. We called someone to clean it out and they fell through our ceiling in the living room. When we went home last weekend Trey checked it all out and was NOT happy. They didn't even come close to matching the paint on the ceiling and there were about 5 or 6 air ducts that still had mold in them. So they were supposed to fix it this week and we will check it out this weekend. In the meantime our house is on hold. So please pray that this will be fixed and it will sell!!!! I am about to go crazy in our tiny house in Ruston. We are surrounded by partying college kids! Last night our neighbors had a party (in their YARD) until about 1am! They did come over yesterday and warn me so I wouldn't call the police - wasn't that nice???? We have found a house we like but are scared to go ahead and buy something with the issues with our house in Shreveport. Anyway, I will let ya'll know how the surgery goes next week.

Pumpkin Patch

Eating

Since nothing else is going on I thought I would write about eating. I occasionally look at a friend of my sister-in-law's blog. She has a little girl about a month younger than Mallory so I like to see what she is doing compared to Mallory. Well, I was looking at it last week and noticed she has started posting quick and easy recipes. I thought this would be a great idea to share recipes. We get in a rut of eating the same things over and over. So, I am going to try to post a recipe weekly. Since I am posting about eating I thought I would put a picture up of the girls eating.

Alyssa is eating the same thing she eats for dinner every night. She is SO picky! Oh, we found a clinic we LOVE in Monroe. We had to take Alyssa back last week for a follow up visit but the day of her appointment she woke up crying and continued to cry the ENTIRE day! She NEVER does this so I knew something was wrong. Her other ear was infected so she was given a shot and more antibiotics and is like a different child. We have an appointment with an ENT in December (apparently these doctors are VERY busy) to decide if she needs tubes in her ears. The doctor thinks she does and so do we.

This is Mallory's first time trying Cheerios at home. I noticed on her MDO sheet they put she ate a snack of cheerios. I figured since they are giving them to her I would try. They must put them on the tray and then look away because every time I have given them to her she plays with them then throws them on the floor. She has yet to eat one!

Okay, so here is my recipe of the week:

Crock Pot beef tips

1 package of Stew Meat
2 Packages of Brown Gravy mix
Salt, Pepper and garlic powder to taste
1 beef bouillion cube
water

Put the stew meat in the crock pot. Pour the gravy mix over the meat and cover with water. Put in beef bouillion, salt, pepper and garlic powder and stir. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours. Serve with rice. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Monday was Trey's birthday. The big 29! We just have one more year of being in our 20's! We had a birthday dinner at Chili's. Our friends Chris and Richie came over from Shreveport. Chris made this awesome cake. The best part about it is that it not only looks great it tastes great too! Chris is an unbelievable cake decorator. She can make anything you want! Daniel, Kristen, Cody & Tanya met us too. We had a great time. Alyssa made her first drawing for Trey for his birthday. I don't know why I haven't let her draw before. She really enjoyed it. Mallory wanted to take part but I told her she had to wait a few more months!

Chris' masterpiece!

Alyssa's Masterpiece!

Mallory is 8 months old! She is getting so big. Crawling all over the place and talking all of the time. She said Dada for the first time on Trey's birthday. I thought that was neat! She has 4 teeth and about to have 6. She has finally graduated to 6 months clothes. Alyssa is 18 1/2 months. She is sick. Yesterday we took her in for her 18 month check up but it ended up being a sick visit. I was worried. She was almost as sick as when she was hospitalized on her birthday. Thankfully we had some of the resources at home to help her get better. The doctor gave us several medicines and we are continuing to give her breathing treatments. She is back to herself today (after waking up every 4 hours last night to give her treatments and medicine)! This is her 5th ear infection in less than a year. We are SERIOUSLY considering tubes. Trey was doing some research on the internet and really thinks that is what we need to do. He really thinks it is why she is not really talking yet. Hopefully we can get this done before she gets sick again! The doctor is another issue. Alyssa is on Medicaid and because we don't have permanent custody we can't add her to our insurance. Their are only 2 doctors in Ruston that accept medicaid and neither of them are pediatricians. The are both general practitioners. We haven't heard great things about either one of them. I told Trey let's give this doctor a chance. So we get there and most of the patients in the waiting room are children. I think this looks good. We get in the room and he is pretty stoic - which is not really what you want in a pediatrician. Then he starts asking questions about the mother, etc. He asked what the mother died from and I told him a drug overdose and then he said "so she is a crack baby"! I about came UNGLUED!!!! NO - she is NOT a CRACKBABY I said! Even if you think she is isn't there a better way to say it???? Needless to say I am not happy with that doctor and will be trying to figure out some other way for her to see a doctor. If I have to pay for everything out of my own pocket I will!!!! Well, I will leave with Mallory's 8 month picture.

Life Lately

Nothing exciting is going on here. We still haven't sold our house. We lowered the price this week so hopefully we will get some action. It hasn't shown in over a month! I think we have pretty much decided to build here in Ruston. We found a neighborhood we really like (and a bonus is it is across from the peach orchard). There are only about 10 houses there right now. We have contacted a builder now we are just trying to find the perfect house plan. Our lease on our rent house is up in March so we figured if we started building next month it would be finished around March. We like Ruston I am just ready for us to be here and get involved in a church. Trey is still playing at Broadmoor until we sell our house so we all just go back to Shreveport every weekend. I am ready to make some mommy friends here. I did get good news today. When I dropped the girls off at MDO they told me they had an opening on Tuesday so now the girls can go two days a week.

The girls are doing well. Mallory is crawling all over the place. I can hardly keep up with her! She has 4 teeth and working on a few more. She talks (babbles) ALL of the time! She will be 8 months next week! Alyssa is starting to talk more - she is FINALLY calling me Mama! She has been calling me Dada forever because that was the one word she would say. She is now 18 1/2 months. Well, I better go and get some work done while I am childless!

Mallory Crawling (or leaping like a frog)

Story Time

I love this picture! Trey was reading to the girls and I snuck a picture. I cut Trey's head off but I still love the picture. Life is busy here. We are living in a rent house in Ruston during the week and at our house in Shreveport on the weekends. I will be SO glad when we sell our house and find one in Ruston. Although the house we are renting is new and nice it is TINY!!!! Trey loves his new job. He is doing several different types of therapy and is really enjoying it. The girls will start Mother's Day Out one day a week this week. I am really looking forward to the couple of hours of alone time. I LOVE my girls but still need some me time! We have never done MDO so we are going to try it out. Well, I have loads of laundry to get done so I better get busy.

Our First Tech Game!

7 Months Old

Mallory is 7 months old! She is sitting up by herself and eating just about anything we give her. She is so much fun. She is not crawling yet but she is trying. Alyssa is 17 1/2 months. She just gets to be more and more fun. Her big thing right now is for us to sing to her. She gets us to start and when we stop she cries her eyes out!

We had a busy weekend. We moved to Ruston on Saturday morning. We found a house to rent and will be living there during the week and in Shreveport on the weekends until our house sells. We moved all of the big stuff on Saturday but have a trailer full of small stuff to unload today. We will not have internet until Thursday so I decided to post real quick while Trey was mowing. Trey's dad, Bryan and Christine (Bryan's girlfriend) all came in for the weekend. We had so much fun!!! We decided Christine was a keeper because she picked up on Settlers quickly and liked playing it. Settlers of Catan is a board game we LOVE to play! She also likes to play spades. Hopefully she will play with us again after Trey & I whooped her and Bryan!!! Trey starts his new job tomorrow. Well, I heard the lawnmower stop so I better get ready to head to Ruston.

Fun With Friends

She is not quite sure what to think about someone else on her toy!

She decided to play with him!

They are watching Mickey Mouse together!

Mallory had fun too! I love her two little teeth!!!!

My friend Jill had a doctor appointment here so she dropped Jackson off to play. I can't believe how big he is! He is almost 3 but it seems like he was just born yesterday. Time flies!!!! It was nice being around a "big kid". It gave me hope for the future. He was able to tell me what he wanted, he listened to what I said and he used the bathroom on the potty!!! We do have him beat in one area - my girls can EAT!!!!!! It took Jackson about 30 minutes to eat 1 1/2 chicken nuggets while Alyssa ate 4 in about 30 seconds! Mallory is also a good eater. When he first got here Alyssa kept trying to give him a kiss but he didn't want any part of that! He kept running out of the room. She finally moved on to something else.

Nothing else exciting is going on here. This is Trey's last week at Schumpert. We are probably going to rent a house in Ruston for 6 months because there is NOTHING for us to buy right now. Well, Mallory is getting a little upset so I better go put her down for a nap!

Growing Up

This is her new smile

My girls in blue. The are watching Trey sing Jesus loves me!

Mallory really enjoyed Alyssa's motorcycle. It sings and lights up!

I just thought I would post some pictures of both girls. It is hard to get a good picture of Alyssa. She is always on the move! Mallory is starting to sit up pretty good by herself. We are really working on having it down by 7 months! Our house still hasn't sold and we haven't found anything in Ruston. I guess that is all that is going on for now.

Ruston........Here we come!

We are moving to Ruston! Trey is going to work for Lincoln Healthcare (Matt Shirley). He was offered the job back in July and it was just too good to pass up. He will be starting September 4th. Our house has been on the market for about a month and a half. We are praying that it sells quickly! We have been house hunting in Ruston and think we have found the house for us. We are sad to leave Shreveport since we have been here for over 6 years but excited about what God has planned for us in Ruston.

6 Months Old!

Mallory is six months old. She is growing but is still in 3 month clothes. In fact, the outfit she is wearing in the picture is a newborn outfit. She is eating more than Alyssa ever ate but she is so active that she is staying slender! Alyssa is 17 months today. She is getting so big! We have been very busy the last two weeks. Trey's Grandfather passed away on the 3rd. He was ready to be with the Lord and his wife. The day after the funeral we went to Indiana to visit Andy and Kelly for the week. We had so much fun! Thanks to the Potter's (Kelly's parents) we could have a date night with Andy & Kelly without the girls. The girls traveled well until the last flight home. It was VERY rough!!! I told Trey I don't want to fly again anytime soon! This is Bryan's last week in Shreveport. We are going to be very sad to see him go!

Mallory's first taste of cereal

I think I can....I think I can

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Here is Mallory trying to crawl but can't quite figure it out.

My new hobby

I bought this pillowcase from Wal-Mart for $2. I think the entire thing cost around $8!

This was my pillowcase from college. I thought it would be cute because of the ruffle at the end!

My mom bought Mallory a pillowcase dress and I kept looking at it thinking I could make this. Even though I had no idea how to use a sewing machine. Well, my friend Christine came over yesterday and she and I made two pillowcase dresses for Alyssa. They are so cute and were pretty easy to make. I am much more comfortable with my sewing machine now. Next I need to attempt to make Mallory one but that is going to require sewing a seam which makes me a little nervous! Anyway, I thought I would share my finished products with everyone. I took them to show to my ladies Bible study group last night and I have been asked to make some for them. I don't know where I will find the time but this is something I really like doing!! The problem is it is addictive. It is just like scrapbooking. Once you sit down and drag all of your stuff out and start doing it you don't want to stop!

Baby Dedication

I love this picture because they are looking at each other.

Mallory talked the entire time!!!

Mimi and Popy

Grandad

We had the girls dedicated this weekend. Everything went great. Mallory talked the whole time and Alyssa waved at everyone. They had matching dresses that my Aunt Jo made for them. They looked beautiful. All of the grandparents, Aunt Susan, Uncle Ray and Bryan were there.

In other news Mallory has two teeth!!! Her bottom two front teeth have started to come in. I noticed she had really been chewing on her hand lately so Tuesday I rubbed her gums and thought I felt something so I looked and the first one was coming in and by the next day the other one had come in too! She is a little fussy but not too bad. She is rolling all over the place. I can't believe she is almost 6 months!

Alyssa is walking (really running) all over the place. She turned 16 months last Sunday. She is getting so big! The girls are really starting to pay attention to each other. It is so much fun to watch them talk to each other.

MIMI.....This one's for you

My mom and I were shopping at a local children's boutique before Mallory was born and she found this headband for Alyssa. I thought it was WAY too big and would not let her buy it. Well, when I was in the hospital after having Mallory Mom took Alyssa shopping and came back with the headband. I found it today and put it on Mal and had to take a picture. It is bigger than her head!!!! Oh, and lately she always sticks her tongue out. Well, Alyssa is running into the dining room so I better go and catch her!