Christmas Morning!

We had a pretty good Christmas morning. How about yall?
Santa had been pretty good this year and brought each of the kids a couple of gifts. He brought Tyler a "train with a remote" and a flash light (just like he had asked for). He got a couple of other things and was very happy.

Haylee got a cute pink piano purchased at the resale shop! :-) and some cute Strawberry Shortcake books as well as a snow globe. She LOVES her piano and will sit down at it and play for 5 minutes at a time. So cute....I will have to post a pic later of her sitting at her piano.

Katelynn got a light up sea horse that plays music (kinda like a glow worm) and a snow globe too. She had no clue what was going but really enjoys her light up toy. They each got some fun stocking stuffers too.

I had already been awake with Katelynn for a little while and had just put her back to sleep. I was in the kitchen checking my email and heard Tyler open his door. He went straight to our bedroom and got Daddy up and I heard both of them come running into the living room and I came around the corner and Ryan flipped the light switch and the tree lit up and his train came on and started going around the tracks. Ryan yelled Tyler, he came! Tyler yells, Momma...Santa came and he brought me my train and my flash light!! It was priceless.


















Playing with the train!













Check out his cool watch that was in his stocking.













Just saw her piano...













Testing it out.













Her Disney princess ride on toy from Ryan and I.
Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

A little bit of Katelynn.....

Katelynn has really been enjoying the exersaucer lately. I will put her in there along with plenty of blankets around her and she will stay content in there for at least 15-20 minutes. Long enough for me to feed the older kids or to do some dishes or whatever it is that I need to get done.













I cant completely walk away though because of the crowd she attracts (ie Haylee). Haylee still has her moments of not understanding gentle and I will catch her hitting Katelynn or just being rough like she is with her brother. Or she will grab the exersaucer and just rock it making Katelynn very startled.













Here in these pictures, Haylee is enjoying popping the little apple up and then pushing (more like HITTING) it back down, also not so gentle. Poor Katelynn.













Tyler and Haylee finally get bored and go off to do something else. Katelynn can relax and smile!













Katelynn and her daddy. Everyone says she looks allot like I did but I totally see Ryan in her. I'm sure it's the dark hair and brown eyes but to me she just resembles him so much.

















Poor daddy has been working mad, crazy hours and looks very tired in this picture. They are trying to finish his project and having lots of "big pushes" to get done which means late hours and working the weekends. Also crazy for me! I absolutely cannot wait for him to get home and am almost nuts, well not almost, I am nuts by the time Ryan gets home. I would say 4 out of 6 work days I am without Ryan while the kids are awake. He might get home in time to kiss them goodnight as I am putting them to bed but most of the time they miss him. I totally don't know how single mom's do it and I don't know some days if I can continue. Pray for my patience and my sanity as I am by myself so much.

Also, pray for Katelynn that she will get better soon. I cant tell if what she had is just lingering or if she's got something new. She has never really gotten better from the RSV and I might need to take her back to the doctor. I have been putting it off because she acts fine and is happy, no fever or anything. She just continues to have this horrible cough that sounds almost as bad as it did right when her and Haylee got sick. She has had some kind of cold symptom since Tyler's birthday (Nov. 21st). A FULL MONTH! It's time for my baby to feel better!

Ain't no mountain high enough......

Haylee has been up to allot lately! She has discovered a new and exciting adventure. She learned how to climb up into our chairs at the kitchen table.















But that quickly was not good/high enough as she stands up to climb up to the table.


















To a place where I put everything that I don't want on the floor for her to get as well as some plates and food left from lunch. In fact, the first time she decided to do this, neither Tyler or I saw anything until she was already up on top of the table. She discovered Tyler's cheetos (crunchy...not good for a baby without any molars) and was just eating away on them. YIKES! I screamed and got her down and said NO Mam! After pulling her off of the table 5 more times and spilling my cup of Koolaid on my freshly professionaly cleaned carpet I realized I needed to push the chairs all the way up. The 2 chairs on the end won't scoot up all the way because the legs are in the way and that is how she was getting up there. Problem fixed! Except when we get up from the table and we forget.....Haylee always notices it!!

















As I was taking pictures of one of her adventures for my blog she found all of the stuff she is not allowed to touch. A knife.....oh good. This girl knows how to push over any boundary which is not a good sign for the teenage years.

















Okay, got her down and pushed the chair in. Oh well, I'll climb up and see what bubba's doing. Yikes, so finger painting can only be done during her nap time.

















She just amazes me! From splashing in the toilets, to the climbing....things that Tyler never even tried. So, she has successfully climbed the bookshelf, up my KING size bed, up any couch/recliner, on Tyler's desk and into his window, her changing table, the kitchen chairs and now the kitchen table. What will she climb next?

And finally the Christmas tree.....

We have finally gotten the Christmas tree up. We have all been sick and I am ready to be well for a while. Katelynn started to get something all the way back to Tyler's birthday (Nov 21st) but it was just a typical cold. No fever just tons of snot and lots of coughing. I put off going to the doctor seeing that I am on my 3rd child and I know the drill. Nothing the doctor can do if it's just a viral thing. Finally right before Thanksgiving I was ready for her to sleep at night and I didn't want to get into the holiday weekend and her get worse so I broke down and took her into the doctor. Just as I had figured....there is nothing we can do it will just have to run it's course. They did check her for RSV and it was negative.

Then Thanksgiving evening I came down with probably what she had. I had no voice for literally 7 days. Horrible cough and lots of chest congestion. I was miserable and was still having to take care of Katelynn who was STILL sick. Well the following Wed after Thanksgiving, I am still sick, Katelynn is STILL sick (and now getting worse) and now Haylee started showing the same symptoms. I called and got a appt for the next day. I knew what they were gonna say. It's viral....YES but when does it go away? PLEASE make it go away!!!

We got to the doctor after having a horrible night with both girls! Mind you, I am still sick myself. They start to do the RSV test in the nose and I said, umm...I was just here last week and they tested Katelynn and it was negative! She said we have to do it again. The doc came in and said they both have RSV!! WHAT? From where? We don't go anywhere except for church. How did they get that? After examining the girls she said they both had Croup too! Okay, getting scared now b/c that is what Tyler was rushed to the hospital with by ambulance and had to stay for 3 days!

She thought we caught it early enough and gave both of the girls a steroid shot and then some steroid medication to take for 3 days. Thank God my mom was there to help me with these sick girls who both desperately want to be held. The key with Croup is to not let them get upset which triggers the air way to constrict which is what happened with Tyler. I was scared!! It's enough to be sick yourself but then to have to take care of not one baby but 2 babies who have this illness that could be dangerous.

I have the best family in the world. My mom was able to stay the night with me and my sister in law came and stayed with me that Friday which was really a hard day. Ryan and I both slept in the living room that Friday night b/c Katelynn was sounding really bad and we kept having to run and stick her in the Freezer so she could breathe. We were very close to going to the hospital that night. My mom came that Sat. morning and by this time Haylee was doing about 50% better. Katelynn is taking a little longer but I could hold her I just knew I couldn't hold both of them and that is what they were needing!

Now Haylee is 90% better with just a lingering cough and Katelynn is still struggling. Her cough still sounds just as bad. Her spirits are up and I can't tell if she is feeling better or if she is just getting used to feeling this way and trying to make the best of it. :-) I am hoping that next week we are mucho better!!! I personally am 100% better too by the way.

So with just one child sick I was able to get the tree up over the course of a few days. Here are some pictures of Tyler decorating the tree. This pic is of a picture ornament I bought a couple of years back. It is a snowflake and came as a set of 3. We thought who other than Tyler do we put in these ornaments. We ended up putting a pic of daddy in one and another of daddy kissing mommy in the other. Now we have 3 kids to put a picture of in the 3 ornaments. Funny how that worked out!













If you click on this picture, you can see the other ornament of mommy being kissed!














Haylee liked eating on the Christmas beads!

















Nice hair Haylee


















The finished product!!


















Our tree topper the Star! (this one has the ornament with the picture of daddy!)