Steeling Little Moments #2

This is a continue from the previous post. The babies were napping when I took Tyler's photos.

Steeling Little Moments

I am quickly learning that as a mom and a photographer you have to be quick and steel those precious kid moments when you can. Otherwise life just passes you by and in a blink their gone. Anyways, the sun came out this afternoon and Tyler had a twinkle in his eye and looked cute today so I thought I would take a few pictures of him. He NEVER wants to so of course I had to bribe him with homemade chocolate chip cookies that daddy made yesterday. Well here are a few that I love. As you can see in the first shots he is NOT into the picture taking but comes out of his shell with some awesome kung fu moves! I love my baby boy and I can't believe he is going to be 5 in a few short weeks.

Great New Find for any toddler mom

So I'm sure a lot of mom's out there have already found these wonderful life saving and cloth saving bibs. They are called Bibsters and Pampers puts them out. I found them at Target the other day and bought a box to check them out. It never fails that I forget to pack bibs in the diaper bag and if I manage to remember I always forget to bring a bag to put the food ridden dirty bibs in the transport home. And by the time you get home and remember you had dirty food bibs in the bag it has been a few days and now they are gross and moldy and need to be thrown away. So this brings me to the Bibsters. They are disposable bibs with the pocket in the front to catch the food that doesnt quit make it into the mouth. We went to the Spaghetti Factory yesterday for a birthday party and used them on the boys. They were great and kept them clean. The best part about it was we took it off and left it for the bus boy to toss! Target has them in a box by the toddler food area. There are 32 of them for about 5 bucks. I love finding new useful things.

Miracles Happen at the Brackett House

Some may not consider these things miracles, but I do. When you live in a house with sickies for a week, not to mention they are all boys so we all know how boys are when they are sick, you find yourself giving thanks for the smallest of things. Well I have to say that the babies have slept more than they ever have in the past 2 days which is nothing short of a damn miracle. Thursday night we put the babies down at 7:45 and we didn't hear a peep from them until 6:45! Yes, 11 hours of sleep. Which means that mommy got 8 straight hours of sleep. And I haven't quite figured out if they slept because they were so damn tired or if it was the few things we had done before their bedtime ie: the honey water, Motrin, and warm steam vaporizer. So of course we decided to do the exact same thing last night and guess what? We put them down at 8pm and Noah woke up at 8am! And Ryan slept until 10am this morning! I kept going in to check on him to make sure he was alive still. Ryan is always the first one up. Now, I did end up getting up 3 times that night with Ryan but it wasn't bad and I still slept in until 8 which I have NEVER done. I almost felt too rested this morning! ha ha. But I thanked God for these little nighttime miracles because without them mommy wouldn't be surviving.

Besides the miracles with sleep, there was a little miracle with TJ this morning! He got up and without the persuasion of me nagging him he went out and did the yard work! Anyone who knows TJ knows that this is one of his least favorite things to do. So we were really sad when we had to let our Landscaping Co. go. I loved having them come every week and handle that. But something had to go to make my life better when we got our van. But I will say that getting our gardeners back is something I am striving for. So kudos to my hubby for working his butt of today to make me happy! Gosh as I read this back I am starting to realize that I am not too hard to please. The simplest of things makes me happy. A good nights sleep and a nicely manicured yard. What a looser I am. ha ha.

Anyways, I am happy to announce that our family seems to be on the up and up now. And just in time to celebrate my Grandpa Jack's 80 birthday celebration tomorrow. Happy Birthday Grandpa.

Sickness Update

Well, I spent the morning debating on whether or not to take the babies to the Dr. again. I decided after their nap I would take them. Poor Ryan has 2 ear infections and has green and yellow pus draining out of them, he is running a fever, has a horribly running and stuffy nose, has a bad cough and is basically just miserable. I made him his favorite scrambled eggs with ham and cheese for dinner and he barley ate a thing. As for Noah, he has a fever, stuffy and runny nose, a cough and diarrhea! So far his ears are clear and both their lungs are clear as well. So those are both good things. I am focusing on the positives here, not negative. We also ended up seeing a doctor who we have never seen before because their regular pediatrician was off today. And I must say that I think I will be switching over. He was awesome. He put Ryan on a systemic antibiotic and the antibiotic ear drops. He wanted to make sure that we didn't end up back in the office in 2 days again, which I appreciate so much. Plus he wanted to get the ear infection knocked out as quickly as possible. And he gave me several different options and let me decide what I wanted for both of my kids. And anyone who knows me knows that I like options when it comes to my kids. He also told me to give the boys a teaspoon of honey mixed with warm water in a sippy cup to help their cough. And you know what, it worked! Our regular ped. always tells us there is nothing for a cough and to put on the cool mist humidifier which is a piece of crap and does nothing other than drowned out sound. He also gave me a few ideas on how to get the boys to sleep through the night without just letting them cry it out. He was more realistic with his approaches and told me that it would take weeks to get them to do it. Then he gave Ryan ear drops right in the office and looked for some samples to give us to take home. NO ONE has ever done that before. So as of now, the babies are sound asleep and we haven't heard a peep from them and it has been 35minutes! Almost a record for these past few days! Maybe God will bless me with a few continuous hours of sleep tonight. I only have 30 more minutes until I can go to bed! My mom is going to take Tyler for the weekend to give him a break from a boring sick house and me a break too! Thank you mommy. I know Tyler will enjoy himself so much. He will be going fishing with Papa on the sailboat and playing Tony Hawk with Grandma on the XBox! And of course eating all sorts of special Tyler foods. Ahhh. I remember those days at my Grandparents and I miss that. Can I come?

Attitude Check

This morning I asked Tyler to go brush his teeth and use the timer. While he was doing this I was laying out his clothes for school. I realized it had been a lot longer than 3 minutes and found myself getting really irritated at him. I yelled for him to hurry up and when he came out there was this blueish white substance all over his chest. When I asked him what it was he said "I brushed my armpits" Normally I would have gotten mad but all I could do was laugh! We had such a great laugh about it this morning. Then I realized something so simple. He is only 4 and he is a kid. Is it really that big of a deal? NO. Let him be a silly kid, that is one of the things I love most about him and you know what, he's the one who has to put that armpit toothbrush in his mouth later tonight! So I will get a second laugh later! Anyways, my mom sent me this in an email today and I had to share it with everyone. I woke up this morning, well let me rephrase that, I never actually got to sleep last night because of the crying. Anyways, I was not a happy person this morning and was feeling a bit sorry for myself and after reading this I realized I needed a change in my attitude. I have so much to be grateful and thankful for. These days of no sleep are soon to be over. There are so many couples who aren't able to have children and would love to wake up 24 times in one night for a beautiful child. Much less 2! Who cares if there is dog hair on the floor and the house is messy, at least we have a home to mess up. Don't let the 400 piles of laundry bother me, at least we have clothes on our backs and too many at that. Stop worrying about what needs to be done or get done and live for the day and for everything that God has blessed me with.

Rules from God for 2009

1. Wake Up !! Decide to have a good day. "Today is the day the Lord hath made; let us rejoice and be glad in it"Psalms 118:24

2. Dress Up !! The best way to dress up is to put on a smile. A smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks. "The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at outward appearance; but the Lord looks at the he art." I Samuel 16:7

3. Shut Up!! Say nice things and learn to listen. God gave us two ears and one mouth, so He must have meant for us to do twice as much listening as talking. "He who guards his lips guards his soul."Proverbs 13:3 ;

4. Stand Up!!... For what you believe in. Stand for something or you will fall for anything.. "Let us not be weary in doing good; for at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good...." Galatians 6:9-10

5. Look Up !!...To the Lord. "I can do everything through Christ who strengthens me." Philippians 4:13

6. Reach Up !!.... For something higher. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, And He will direct your path." Proverbs 3:5-6

7. Lift Up !!... Your Prayers. "Do not worry about anything; Instead PRAY ABOUT EVERYTHING." Philippians 4:6

Chips called, they want their hair back!

So those who are old enough, remember that show Chips? So after bath time tonight I used the blow dryer on the boys like usual however Noah seems to have an uncanny resemblance to Jon off of Chips and Tyler's hair looks just like Ponch! Of course not as dark. I got a good laugh.

House full of sickies

So it's official, mommy is sick. Fever, phlegm, and a horribly ache body. Little Ryan woke up this morning with a fever and Noah has a snotty nose. So far Tyler is the only healthy one in the bunch. I feel so bad for him. He is so bored of watching movies. I try and muster up enough strength to play a round of Trouble with him and even get up to get him something to eat. You know mommy isn't feeling well when I tell my son "eat what ever you want" and he grabs a pack of transformer fruit snacks for breakfast! TJ is trying to make it through work today and ended up at urgent care this morning for his sickness. The doctor said he has a bad respiratory infection and he blew out his left ear drum from so much pressure! OH MY GOD. I cant imagine the pain of that. So he is now on antibiotics to help him recover. I am contemplating packing us up and going to the Dr. tomorrow just to make sure we don't have something worse. And if antibiotics can be prescribed I'm on bored. Anyways, pray for all of us, especially the kids. I would rather suffer this sickness that them.

Here comes the STORM

So after careful consideration I decided to sleep on the couch to avoid any unnecessary germs from TJ. I thought, this cant be that bad. I grabbed my pillow, a few blankets and an extra down comforter and set up camp out in the living room. Let me tell you, it sucked. I think I got a total of 2 hours of sleep last night between tossing and turning and trying to find a comfortable position while laying on what seemed like a balance beam, the horrible wind, the spotlight security lights from our neighbors house that seemed to follow me wherever I moved, the horribly loud vomit sounds from my sick husband and the crying babies, who by the way woke up with snotty noses! I finally got up about 5am because I couldn't stand it any longer only to find that my throat is raw, my body is aching and I look like death. I popped an 800mg Motrin, took 1000mg of vitamin C, my thyroid medication and a caffeine pill to jump start my body. The achiness has subsided and I'm starting to think that it might just be from the awful sleeping conditions. My father in law called this morning to check on everyone and said he has a lot of junk in his chest and my mother in law thinks she has strep throat. I know it's going around and I am still praying that no one else gets it. There is a bottle of Lysol disinfectant in every room, and I carry around my bleach solution and towel to wipe everything I touch. We are supposed to be going to Monterey this weekend by ourselves, but I cant help but start preparing for us to cancel this too! For some reason I know God is testing me right now. So I am trying to rise to the occasion and not be angry and put on the best fake happy smile I know how! ha ha.

Few more of Valentine's Day

Here are a few of Tyler rolling out pizza dough. He's a big help when it comes to cooking. There are a few pictures of our heart shaped pizza and the cake. Which by the way both were so yummy. I will post the pizza dough recipe later for anyone who is interested.

Much Needed Rest

So we all know that we have struggled for 20 months to get Ryan and Noah to sleep through the night. Well, TJ and I finally have had enough of the getting up 3-10 times per night. Last night we decided to buy ear plugs and let the babies "cry it out". Everyone knows that I am not a "cry it out" fan, however I am beyond sleep deprived and the babies are not getting the rest they need at night. So we did our normal bedtime routine, turned their music on, turned on the night light and put 5 suckies in each of their beds. I think that last one was the key. They went to bed like normal and like normal woke about 11:30 crying. I hadn't put in my ear plugs because I wanted to see if I could deal with it first. So I listened to Noah fuss and fuss but it was a miracle. He only fussed for about 3 minutes and went back to sleep. There were 4 of these last night and each only lasted 2-5 minutes. I think they must have found a suckie and put themselves back to sleep. Mommy and daddy never got up for them and they slept until 7am! So this is going to be our new thing. I refuse to enter their bedroom unless I here the "mommy I need you" cry. Hopefully after a few days of this they might just sleep all the way through without waking at all. Wish us luck.

Valentines Day

Well, it never fails for our family. Anytime we have a special day planned, a holiday or a trip someone is ALWAYS sick. Usually it's the babies however, this time it's TJ. He has a horrid flu bug and has been hibernating in our room all day. But I am trying to make the most of the day with my beautiful boys. This morning they each got a teddy bear and candy. I made scrambled eggs, bacon and toast for breakfast. Tyler helped me make a strawberry cake with rainbow chip frosting in the shape of a heart for tonight's dessert. And Tyler and I just got finished making homemade pizza dough for our heart shaped pizzas for dinner. I know it sounds really corny. But I cant help it. I am corny. Each of the boys made cards with their hand prints on them for Daddy and Ryan and Noah are wearing festive Valentine shirts that say "Rock my Valentine". Of course those were courtesy of my good friend Denise. So here are a few pictures from this morning. There is NO shortage of hugs and kisses in this house! Happy Valentines Day everyone