Great Baby Shower!

We had a great day yesterday! In the morning, I went to a baby shower for me and Julia with the ladies from the CGS shepherding group. It was so good to be with everyone again (missed you, Angie!) and just talk like "old times." We got some great gifts and had some wonderful food. Thank you, Stephanie, for doing this for us!!

I came home to a not so great thing, though. Matt and the boys had been playing outside and while the boys were playing in the truck bed, Matt ran inside for a minute. He came out to find Joshua laying in the gravel driveway crying with blood pouring down his face from his head. He ended up fine...just a couple of cuts that seem to be healing well, but Matt said it was a pretty scary sight. If there's any humor in the situation, it's this: Here's a multiple choice question about what Gray was doing while Joshua lay on the ground screaming and bleeding.

a) Calling for help.

b) Asking Joshua if he was okay.

c) Looking distraught/crying/frowning/SOMETHING.

d) Playing away as if nothing was wrong.

You know the right answer:)

We finished the day with a birthday celebration for Matt's sister Stacy. Good pizza, salad, and cake and of course good company!

Hope everyone else had a good Saturday too!

Time to compare again...

What do you think now about the sibling resemblance?

Sleepy, Hungry Girl

Funny movie of Julia...she hasn't quite figured out that I'm the only one that can feed her and thinks Matt is holding out on her!

Yay Matt!

Just heard from Matt that he passed his 3 hour 90 question General Contractor exam today in Raleigh. Very excited for him!

Nothing to do...

It's been an uneventful week so I've been taking pictures and cleaning out. Here are some of my favorites of our sweet girl.

Good weekend!

What a beautiful few days we had this weekend! We had a good trip to Fort Mill, though it didn't even last 48 hours. We got there late Friday and went to bed soon after. On Saturday, I really enjoyed seeing some college friends at a baby shower in Columbia. I came home just in time for Amanda's birthday dinner. Always great to be with the family and celebrate birthdays! Sunday we tried to spend a lot of time outside and had fun going to the park for a picnic and seeing a few horses afterwards. The kids did well all in all. Julia is still coughing, but is much better and she adapted pretty well to her new environment. We got home last night at bedtime and everyone was pretty tired. Back to normal life today!

Quick Update

It's been a LONG week, but things are looking up. Julia is much better, though she and I had some quality time from 3:30 to 5:15 this morning. She's not having any trouble breathing and just occasionally her chest sounds like it's rattling, but it's cleared when she coughs. She was back to sleeping in her bassinet last night so that made life a lot more comfortable for me! The boys are still coughing, but more just to clear some leftover congestion instead of an active bad cough. And now we are headed to Fort Mill for the weekend as planned. I'm looking forward to seeing some college friends for a baby shower and celebrating my sister's birthday. It will be fun for Julia to meet some of our family who haven't seen her yet! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Julia movie

It's a little long, but the end is pretty cute...

http://family.webshots.com/video/3073355070101749189ZAATPi?vhost=family

More fun

Well we had a rough night again last night. I was up for the second time with Julia at about 1:30 and she wasn't breathing well. Instead of an easy in and out, her stomach was quickly sucking in and jerking back out, if you get what I mean. It felt like when she has the hiccups, but it was breathing. I was really concerned and got Matt up and he was calm and got her breathing a little easier. I probably would have taken her to urgent care, but Matt thought she'd be fine and we just plugged in the humidifier (which I realized isn't really working when I checked it this morning) and put her in the bed with us so we could monitor her. But she needed to be propped on me in order to breathe well, so I couldn't sleep much at all. I think also that being concerned about your child must produce some kind of adrenaline because I was so wide awake. Anyway, we made it through the night and of course they always breathe easier in the daytime, but I imagine she'll have a couple more rough nights before it's all over. The boys are back to normal today though, so that's good.

Oh- the other "great" thing that happened yesterday: Matt came home and told me Pogo wasn't out there to greet him. He has been running away even though Matt says his collar works. (Can you believe how stubborn he is?) Matt was holding Julia and asked me to go get him. We always know he's at one of the neighbors, either with the kids or with the other dogs, so I got in the truck and found him right away sitting on the neighbors' rocking chair. I pulled in and he hopped on down, just like a kid waiting to be picked up from a playdate. I put him in the back of the truck and started backing down their long driveway, which is bordered by woods and a big ditch at the bottom. Yeah, you know where this is going. I backed slowly down, right into the ditch and got the truck stuck. After a day of 2 sick kids and one bored kid, this was about the last straw. I went running through the woods back to our house in tears to tell Matt what I had done. Thankfully, he was gracious and didn't get mad. He tried to get the truck out himself and ended up having to get our neighbor with the tractor to pull him out. Guess that's the good thing about living in the country! Anyway, hoping for a much less eventful day today!

Valentine's Day

Well we still have sick kids...Gray is just lethargic today and Julia has a cough and cold...but wanted to quickly share these pictures from our Valentine's Day treasure hunt yesterday.

Oh What a Night!

So we had a first for our family last night: We all (the four oldest of us) developed a horrible stomach virus within a few hours of each other. Julia had a huge spit-up earlier in the afternoon so she may have had it too. The boys, Matt, and I spent the night going to and from the bathroom to throw up. Julia also was wide awake for a few hours of that time, so at some points, I was holding her in one arm to nurse her and helping a vomiting boy with the other hand. Meanwhile, Matt tried to keep up with the laundry and Pogo, who whines in his loudest voice when the washer/dryer is on and he's in the laundry room. And then of course Matt and I were taking turns in the bathroom as well. It was pretty bad and though I think the worst is over, Joshua just threw up an hour ago so he's not out of the woods yet. I can only be thankful that we aren't getting it one by one so that hopefully tomorrow we'll all be back to normal and done with it! Sorry for the gory details. Hope those who are reading this don't get the bug, as I hear it's going around our church.

New Shepherding Group

We just went to our first new small group meeting last night. It meets at the beautiful home of one of the families that has 3 young boys and 2 baby girls. They have a great setup for the kids to play upstairs and there were 2 babysitters to watch them. Another family came that had 2 boys and a little girl, so there were 7 boys ages almost 3 to 6 and I think they really had fun together. There are 4 or 5 other families that weren't able to make it, a few of which we don't know well at all. It was a different first small group night than when we started our old group, mostly because we already knew everyone there. I'm definitely looking forward to getting to know people much better and feeling more at home in our new church. We miss you, old shepherding group, but are thankful for a new one!!

All is well!

The dermatologist told us not to worry about Julia's hemangioma. He expects it to get a little bigger, then go away. Yay for good news! Glad to have that behind us!

Julia's 6 week checkup

Julia and I both had a 6 week checkup yesterday. Everything went fine, but there's still something about doctor appointments that stresses me out! I'm thankful we don't go that often. Julia weighs 10 lb 5 oz now, which puts her in the 70th percentile, so she's gaining weight well...I was glad to hear this, considering how often she's been eating!

The only abnormal thing we had to discuss was the hemangioma by her eye. The doctor wants us to see a Duke dermatologist that specializes in these things, though unless there is significant or rapid growth and/or it gets too close to her eye, nothing will be done about it. The one Joshua had on his head never got all that big and went away on its own after a year or two, so hopefully the same will happen with Julia.

It was a very busy day with the two appointments and a birthday party (Happy Birthday today, Jackson and Lydia!!), so I'm looking forward to a low key day at home today....well, as low key as you can get with three little ones!

I know I'm biased, but...

Julia was so cute in her dress and leg warmers this morning for church! Here are some pictures:

Smile!!

Parenting stuff

So I've told you that the boys love Julia. In fact, the other day when Matt was wearing his "I love Holly" shirt, Joshua asked if he could have an "I love Baby Julia" shirt! Both boys tell me often how much they love their baby sister, yet I think Gray hasn't quite come to terms with her. As can be expected from a 2 year old, his confusion/anger at having a new baby in the house isn't coming out in words. It's coming out in...poop. Yep, what I thought we'd been through already is happening again. He'll go on the potty, but several times a week is going in his pants or his cloth diaper, which he's only supposed to need for peeing in his sleep. It's made for some nasty clean ups and I'm ready for this stage to pass! I've cleaned poop out of his diaper, his pants, the toilet seat, the bathroom cabinet, the wall, his pillow and the floor. I'm afraid to see what is next!

In other parenting news, I'm noticing something about 3 year olds. Joshua was a very grumpy 3 year old at times, yet I've told you that he's coming out of that and is much more agreeable. Someone is taking his place, though! Gray had his share of two year old tantrums, but for the most part, was a happy little boy. Joshua was the "no boy" and Gray was the "yes boy". Not so much now. Gray is now saying "No" or "I don't want.." or "I don't like.." about everything! And he is reluctant to give out hugs, which he never was before. So I'm thinking that 2 year olds express their feeling through tantrums and then 3 year olds learn to use their words, but haven't figured out how to reign in this new skill, so they just go with the negative for everything, and then at 4, they have some kind of epiphany about life and become more pleasant. That's just my observation so far...we'll see if it continues to be true for our family.

And a random note for those not in Durham...it's snowing like crazy right now! We still have snow in the back from last weekend and it just melted from our path and driveway yesterday and now it's getting covered again. It's been a crazy winter!

Bumbo and more randomness

It's a blah day but we did take a few pictures...

Joshua in the bumbo

Gray in the bumbo

Julia hanging out in the pooh chair

This is how Gray put his shorts on...and he insisted his cheek wasn't hanging out.

Julia's first time in the bumbo

Julia doesn't like going to Dr Joshua