OK,OK,OK I AM UPDATING OUR BLOG....

So I keep getting emails and comments that I need to update our blog....ok people I am updating the blog! Hasn't anyone told you that working full time and raising 2 kids is rather time consuming? Oh yes, you are all doing the same things too. I am only joking but I really am finding it harder and harder to keep up with everything. I keep being told that it is ok if the floors don't get swept twice a day and the vacuum ran but I still believe it can all be done and all be done very well if you just stay on top of things. The only thing I have yet to figure out is how to keep everything going in such a short 24 hour day :)

Anyway....the last few weeks have been pretty busy. We took Coop to the doctor on the 21st to follow up on his ear infection and it was doing well. The doctor said if we made it past the 26th without another we would be in good shape and we have! He is a much better baby now that the ear infection is gone. He is also getting easier to read and is much more interactive. He is full of smiles and has officially laughed. He laughed first for his Aunt Karli which is no surprise as his big sister is a huge fan of Aunt Karli too. He is also starting to put on a little weight. He is a little over 10lbs now and seems to be filling out. He is growing in length too because he is actually growing out of some of his sleepers. Cooper really likes his Daddy! I keep saying he likes him better than me. But I am not worried, I will make my move when he gets a little bigger :)

My family came up for Easter. The actually came for Chandler's Birthday and Baptism celebrations but Easter fell right in there as well. I also had a little project for my Dad. He and Terry put lights below and above my cabinets. Although they created a huge mess, the lights look fabulous and I eventually got the mess cleaned up. Saturday night we celebrated Easter with the Keefer's at Bonnie's house. She invited my whole family as well and we had a great time

Sunday we headed to Sherri's for Chandler's Baptism and Birthday. It was wonderful as well and we had a great time. But I have to tell you the funniest thing....Sherri always makes her kids, as well as mine, these fantastic cakes. Well Chandler wanted a shamrock cake this year. So Sherri stayed up all night Saturday and made Chandler this cute cake. We got home from church Sunday morning and the dog had ate the cake! I know I shouldn't laugh but I am laughing right now just thinking about it. Sherri was furious and Chandler was a little sad but come on.....that is too funny!!!

So the family left Sunday and Monday Raelynn got sick! I don't know if it was the flu or what but she fought a very high fever for 3 days. She didn't sleep or eat and did nothing but want to be held. The first few days I was very sympathetic but now we are down to this horrible hacking cough and a very winy little girl. This past week has been long. Raelynn hasn't been sleeping well so between Cooper's nightly feedings I am in with her and basically I am exhausted. Add to it a few other issues I won't bore you with, I was elated when Friday rolled around. Friday night a friend of ours offered to teach us infant massage. We took her up on the offer and I am glad we did. Cooper loves it! I think it will be a very relaxing thing for him and gives us some good time together.

So April will be here in a few days and I will start running outside again. Yard work should begin soon and this cold weather should become a thing of the past. Therefore, I am certain this next week will be much more enjoyable than last! But whatever the week may bring I am still the happiest Mommy in the world!

JUST GO WITH THE FLOW.....

I don't even know where to start, let's see......ok, last week Lisa went on vacation. This was a well deserved vacation and planned way in advance. She was gone Thursday, Friday and Monday. Of course Sherri is my back up babysitter so she planned to watch the kids. Wednesday night I picked up the kids from Lisa's and headed home. That is when the fun started. Sherri called and Chandler had the flu!!! This meant I had no sitter for Thursday. I called a couple trustworthy friends and just my luck no one could help out. Tom was out of town at a meeting and there was no way I was going to leave Jill at work by herself. So Thursday was "bring your kids to work day". I was terrified! Thursday morning we had a doctor appointment for Cooper. They were very pleased with how he was doing. He is up to 9lbs 14oz. They couldn't really give us any reason for the crying episodes but said we would watch him. After the appointment I loaded the kids, toys, coloring books, DVD player, medicine and tons of snacks and off to work we went. I set them up in the back office that is currently empty and instructed Raelynn that she was not to show her face outside that office if we were on the phone or a client was in the office. She seemed to understand :). To my amazement they were angels. Not only did Raelynn listen to what I said but when one of our insured tried to go back into the office to see her she shut the door and said "No, I am not suppose to see you!" Jill took Raelynn to McDonald's for lunch and they bought some play dough. That kept Raelynn occupied for the afternoon. They were soooo good and I was very proud of them both. Thursday night Jan called and offered to come to the house to watch them Friday, I was so relieved b/c I knew I could not hope for such great results two days in a row. Friday went well too. Raelynn had so much fun with Jan and Cooper behaved himself pretty well too. He really likes Jan!!! I again was very happy. Unfortunately, that is where it ended. Friday night Cooper cried.....no I mean screamed the entire night. Saturday.....screamed. Sunday.....screamed. Terry informed me that I would call the doctor Monday morning because "we" could not keep doing this. We were all exhausted, Cooper included, and there was definitely something wrong. Monday morning Terry took the kids over to Sherri's and Cooper screamed some more. I called the doctor and of course they wanted us to come in again. Sherri brought the kids back to Lawrence and we went to see the doctor. Cooper had a severe ear infection in both ears. Yea! Terry and I were so happy! You might think this was a weird response to the fact your baby has a severe ear infection but that meant it wasn't his heart and there was a reason he had been crying 24/7. They gave him a shot and it seemed to start helping shortly after. He is still pretty fussy but he smiles and sleeps between the crying fits so we feel much better. Of course Raelynn was a trooper through all of this. She asked me Sunday night how Cooper was feeling and I told her he wasn't feeling well but we would figure out what was wrong with him soon. She told me it was ok and she would fix her own dinner and take a shower by herself so I could keep holding Cooper. Could she possibly be any cuter??!!!!! Our friends Tatum and Donovan had came over on Saturday to visit and of course we watched the Hawks win the Big 12 so we did have some fun over the weekend too.

My family is coming to visit this weekend for Easter and to celebrate Chandler's birthday and her baptism. I am so excited to see them and for them to see the kids. It has been awhile since they have been here to visit. We also have the Keefer's Easter on Saturday night so it will be a great family weekend and a lot of fun pictures!

THAT'S NOT FAIR!!!

Do you remember when you were little and you would say "that's not fair!", well I have a whole new perspective of what's "not fair".......changing an absolutely disgusting diaper when you have the flu! THAT IS NOT FAIR!!!!! :) Yes, this past weekend was not wonderful. I either got the flu or ate something that I should not have but Friday night I got sick. I felt rough most of Saturday also. Of course Mom's don't get to be sick because little people still need to eat and get dressed and watch movies and go to the bathroom, all of which they need your help with. As soon as I started to feel human again there were a million things to do because I had not gotten anything done for whole 24 hour period. So at about 5pm on Saturday I went into high gear sterilizing and disinfecting the whole house just in case it was a touch of the flu. I am actually leaning more towards it was something I ate but regardless I think my house was cleaner than the hospital. Sunday we had Kaden's birthday party which Raelynn had looked forward to all week. While I was feeding Cooper Kelly filled Raelynn's plate at the party which consisted of potato chips and M&M's. When I asked Raelynn who gave her the M&M's, she replied "Kelly. I love her." It was hilarious. Give my kid sweets and she'll love 'ya forever. After that we were off to our candle party for the March of Dimes. We had a great show of course....Kudos to Sherri as she always provides a great show. She was able to pass on 30% of all proceeds to benefit the March of Dimes and right now I am sitting at about $150 and am still collecting orders. I am very excited about that and extend my thanks to everyone who has contributed. I am so lucky to have such supportive friends. Thank you! As you can tell Sunday was a very busy day. We did not make it to church and Raelynn was very disappointed. I have discovered that Raelynn loves the music at church and that is why she never wants to stay in her Sunday School Class. She told me last week that she wanted to go to church with me because she liked it when I sang to her. Who can resist that??? I gladly took her into church with me and as soon as the singing was over proceeded to give her raisins, fruit snacks and life savers to keep her quiet as the pastor spoke :). And my parents think I didn't learn anything from them, hahahha.

As for Coop, he is going to be the death of us! He has started have these episodes as we like to call them of pure screaming. There seems to be nothing we can do to calm him and he acts as if he is in pain. He used to have them every once in awhile but now the are more frequent and last longer. Terry was very concerned about it this weekend and thought maybe we should let the doctors know. I hesitated because I do not want to run to them every time something is a little off. However, today Lisa called and agreed with Terry that she thought I should call. Lisa is always the last to think we should call the doctor so with her reinforcing what Terry said, I called. Well guess what? Yep, more lab work. Just like everything else this could be a sign of trouble. Therefore, they want us to bring in a stool sample and they will check his white blood cell count and we will go from there. So here we are, since 3:30 this afternoon, waiting for our son to poop. I am positive that he will wait until right between the midnight and 3am feeding to do his duty and I will have the pleasure of waking Terry and sending him to the 24 hour lab with poopy diaper in hand! The pleasures of parenthood! Oh yeah, did I mention Terry is once again sick with cold? Oh yes, yet another to take care of. (Just kidding Terry) Anyway, things are wonderful with us. As much as I sometimes believe the days will never end I still could not be happy than I am with my sick husband, temperamental son and demanding daughter!!!