Redirect: new baby Boy!

I had the honor of spending the morning at the hospital last week with a sweet friend to help welcome their new baby boy! Click here to see a few of their pictures.

Pop Pops!

Look! a Pop!

One Pop!

Two Pops! 

We all eat Pops!

Oops. my Pop went Flop!

They've all gone flop

But the eating won't Stop!

Is that a little face I See?

A little face looking back at Me?

Look! A Face! A Face!

I see a Face!

Embrace that Face in all it's Grace!

Face. Face.

Misplaced that Face. 

What a Disgrace!

There goes that Face.

But here's another look in Case.

You might have missed that sweet girl's Face!

 

Lips Lips!

Pucker those Lips!

Pucker those Lips

I'm losing my Grip!

Stand! Stand!

We learn to Stand.

We learn to stand without a hand?

i Can! i Can!

Stand without a Hand!

I Can!

Oh dear! Oh dear!

One last Bite

This one last Bite gave me Quite a cold Fright!

Done. Done

I'm finally Done!

This Pop eating adventure has been loads of Fun!

Won't you join us?

I'm ready for another One!

Oh Gracious Lands!

I thought last Sunday was rough: Anne Perry's fever jumped to 103.

I thought last Tuesday was rough: Audrey Kate's fever jumped to 103+ and her breathing was labored and quick.

I thought last Thursday was rough: Addie's fever rocketed to 104.7 at 9pm and wouldn't come down for 2 hours no matter what we tried.

Do you see a trend a here?

We had to cancel our trip to the mountains with Gramma, Papa Al, and the Atlanta Wamsteds because Addie's antibiotic had hardly touched her poor ears.

And I didn't think our 3 day weekend could get much worse.

Well until Friday night when I landed myself in the bed and threw up on Sunday.

All better now!

Not exactly how we planned to spend our week/long weekend, but thankful everyone is on the mend!

Now we're all ready for a summer-of-no-sickness!

Can I get an Amen?

Amen!

What I Learned Today

• breathing treatments suck stink. breathing treatments for two exaggerate the yuckiness exponentially.
• one year olds do not like breathing treatments. it means they must 
• 1.) sit relatively still for at least 15 minutes (not the 5-7 minutes they claimed it would take at the peds office),  
• 2.) they have to wear a mask, 
• 3.) they have to breath the medicine air. 
• it also means mama is land locked for the 15 minutes too.
• pacifiers fit great underneath a breathing mask.
• fighting one year olds with a crick in your back while said little ones are weaning makes for a very painful 15 minutes of breathing treatments. 

(these photos are very misleading. this is not how the majority of the treatment went...)

• i have a new respect for people who must do these with their children on a daily basis. 

• breathing issues are scary. super scary.

• 102 fever make a babies' skin hot. super hot.
• luke warm baths work to bring fevers down. no, this is nothing revolutionary; but for us, it is. 
• high(er) fevers completely change a babies' personality. completely.

• ear infections hurt. they can also be blamed for disrupting sleep, causing crankiness, and creating antibiotic side affects.

• dosing 3 with two types of antibiotics, motrin alternated by tylenol and breathing treatments every 4 hours takes extreme organization, lots of labeling...and a spreadsheet.

• it's hard to have 3 sick little ones at the same time. sure, it gets it over with all at once, but when one baby needs snuggle time, no one but mommy will do. when two need snuggle time, it makes for a full lap. no three needing it at the same time this go round...
• rocking a baby/little girl to sleep, sick or not, makes for sweet memories. today, i had the privilege of doing that with each of our girls. 

(sitting in the rocking chair in the babies' room rubbing her back. looked down and this is what i saw. she slept for 2 hours)

• a 3 year old needs lots of one-on-one time with mommy. if not enough one-on-one time has been had, the said one year old will climb up in your lap at the most inopportune time causing you to lose a hold on your lunch salad (that's being eaten at 4pm) dumping it all into your lap all over your freshly washed sofa slip cover. it doesn't matter, but it does call for the biting of a tongue. and it's not hers.

 

(taken last week by request!!!)

• I specifically asked God to help me be patient with Addieboo. I did not ask Him to teach me patience. He had other ideas.

• you can, in fact, watch Monsters, Inc. and Alice in Wonderland too many times in one day or two or three days.

• a shower can completely change your outlook on life.

• my mom has pretty much saved my sanity in the last 2 days. my dad, pat, paul's mom and paul's dad have been incredible encouragements even long distance. i am so thankful for all of them.

• we have some of the sweetest friends. i think we've had at least four families offer to bring us dinner (nevermind, make that six). three sweet friends to bring me treats during the day. countless prayers being said. more sweet emails and texts and fb messages than i can count. and we're not even dealing with anything long term.

Everyone is in bed. Unlike last night, no one has been up yet again.

Tomorrow is a new day, and I'm praying it goes smoother than today!

But for now, I'm thankful for what I learned today.

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. 

Psalm 73:26

Where we are...

the little girls got their one year shots on Tuesday.

have i mentioned i hate shots?

i know, i know. if we don't vaccinate, we endanger the entire population. I'm not anti-vaccinations. i just hate shots.

someone has been running a fever since last thursday.

101. 102. 103.

it was Anne Perry with the 103 that did me in last night

motrin always lowered it, but it was always back in those fever times: late afternoon/early night and first thing in the morning.

hot baby skin.

i was pretty sure it was from the vaccines. (wrong)

then the coughing started and the runny noses, a sure fire sign of ear infections in our girls (the noses). and the baby girls slept very (very) little last night. i was in the rocking chair with someone from 4:30-6:30am.

so...to the doctor we went today.

where we are...?

Addie has a double ear infection and upper respiratory infection.

two ear infections so bad that the doctor was shocked she wasn't in excruciating pain. i've been noticing her saying what did you say many times a day. I was getting a little suspicious. understood now.

Anne Perry has one ear infection, an upper respiratory infection and bronchiolitis and the worst fever. they gave her a breathing treatment at the doctor.

Audrey Kate has double ear infections, also an upper respiratory infection and a worse case of the bronchiolitis. she also got a breathing treatment at the doctor.

(by then, i needed one)

We were sent home with antibiotics and a this cute little nebulizer for breathing treatments.

I was more than thankful my mom was able to go with me today. I've taken all 3 by myself many times, but today God knew I needed my mama to hold a baby getting a breathing treatment, to read to Addie, to remind me that it was going to be ok, to entertain the other 2 while Anne Perry cried for 20 minutes straight and finally fell asleep in my arms. Thankful for my mom.

I once again sat in the doctor's office in disbelief.

This seems to be a trend.

I was a little annoyed (we'd been waiting an hour and a half and by the time we left, we'd been there 2 and a half hours!).

And I was a little relieved.

I'm not crazy (yet), although I think I'd trade that for everyone being well; and I didn't overreact (at least not there!).

I know (in my head) that there is absolutely nothing I can do to prevent this kind of thing, or cause it. We use good (non alcoholic) hand sanitizer. We wash hands. We take our own booster seats if we go out to eat. I use the shopping cart covers. We don't rarely associate with kiddos showing signs of sickness. They eat well. They get enough sleep.

What else can i do? Or not do...?

oh...and Paul is in the bed with a fever now. 

As I sat and rocked Audrey Kate (again), I made myself start counting the things I was thankful for.

I lost count. I mean, it doesn't take long to look around and be thankful for so much.

Good doctors. Good meds. Supportive family. A house that is a home (again, finally). No sickness since mid-March. Amazing friends. Food on the table and gas in the car. Paul's job. Insurance. Little girl laughter. And the list goes on...

But for now, I'm heading to bed. at least one someone has woken up 5 times in the past 3 hours.

I leave you with a picture I took of our beautiful magnolia tree a few days ago.

And I'm reminded that His mercies are new every morning. great is Thy faithfulness!

Happy 1st Birthday Party!

Lots of dreaming. Lots of planning. Lots of lists.

Add in a little disbelief.

Not too fancy. Not too frilly.

But full of love and detail!

I wanted something super special for our little miracle twins 1st birthday celebration.

A party that centered completely around them!

Being surrounded by many of the people who prayed for their survival and have supported us over the past year. 

I remember missing parts of Addie's 1st birthday party, either in pictures or because I was taking pictures. And I knew I sure couldn't capture the memories I wanted with two birthday girls. So our friend Lori came and took pictures for us. She did a fabulous job, capturing the details and the people. She made sure she got a picture with the twins and each grandparent. I am so thankful for her talent and for the wonderful blessings she's given us in pictures in addition to allowing me to be the mom at the girl's party!

We have very few family-of-five pictures. There is a reason for that. Turning 3 has not changed that...much. No amount of bribing, begging, punishing, avoiding, or ignoring helps; but I'm determined that the pictures will be taken to show the reality as it is.

Buried faces and all.

And I love this one!

My sweet friend Anna once again helped me create the girl's birthday banner! Its so much fun (for me) to hang it up and see (in words) the reason for our celebrating!

The balloon wreath here is pretty special. Not because of the colors or because it took a ridiculous number of balloons and an equally ridiculous amount of time to create, but because the wooden initials in the center also hung on the girl's hospital door when they were born.

And here we are a year later!

This celebration was extra special because each of the grandparents (and my aunt!) were able to attend, except Gramma's husband Papa Al. I was a little concerned that Addie's head just might explode with so many people she loves, but she handled it pretty well considering! :)

(Gramma, Grandpa and Ms. Gail, Rie Rie and Nana, Mama Pat and Papa Ray)

Making/obtaining 2 of everything wasn't twice the work. As my mom says, it's three times the work! But it was so much fun to get everything coordinated, decorated, created and see it all come together!

I could say I made the cakes, but that would be untrue. I had so much help either directly or indirectly with the preparation for this party that I'd say it at least took the efforts of 5 people to create all of this! The initials on the cakes were done like the initials on the cookies below. I found Bake at 350 a very helpful read on this subject! I read about making party hats from this blog. Of course I made mine a little differently, but it's the general idea. I knew I wanted special bibs for the girls, so I jumped on etsy.com and found a seller who had designs that I liked. The SeamsSoSweet owner was amazing to work with: located and custom ordered the fabric and made the bibs complete with the girls names just for them!

After a yummy lunch of bbq, spring pasta salad and fruit, it was time for cake!

And a picture with everyone!

(first row: Thomas, Mandy, Cady, Gramma, Uncle Jay, Kira, Elijah Brooks, Jay (aka Mr. Steve), Ellie and Tyler. standing/second row: Anna, baby Kennedy, Papa Ray, Mama Pat, Nana, Rie Rie, Mommy, Daddy, Addie, Grandpa, Ms. Gail, Erin, Tim, and Diane)

Right after we put the cakes down, Lori snapped this picture. I think it's one of my favorites because they are looking at each other. 

The smash cakes had fondant dots on them to match the bigger cake. Addie had a few and then we let the other big kids taste them at well. But this is what the little girls thought about it!

Don't take my cake!

Anne Perry had a BLAST with her cake (kinda like she did with her cupcake!). She really hammed it up for the camera. A sign of things to come? Who knows, but this little girl had a blast!

On the other hand, Audrey Kate wasn't as eager to get messy and eat sugar. She was much happier with me holding her or at least not being in that highchair in front of that sticky mess! She looks like such a big girl sitting in Addie's chair!

But when we sat them both down next to Anne Perry's cake, they both seemed to continue to enjoy themselves!

They were stripped down, sticky, got a bath...and then we decided to do one more picture. It just so happens these next few turned out to be some of my favorite!

They just look so happy!

Of course what's a party without party favors?

I found a super yummy sugar cookie recipe at Our Best Bites and a fun new way to add initials to iced cookies without having to freehand them at Bake at 350 !

Completely imperfect in design but completely perfect for our party!

And just in case you haven't seen enough of our little girls, here's a video started by Daddy, finished by Ms. Gail, and edited a little by me!

For me, this day was perfect. I'm pretty sure our little girls enjoyed it just a little bit too. Although they won't remember their 1st birthday or anything much surrounding it, I hope these pictures (and words) provide them with good memories, even if they aren't their own.

There isn't much I could say about these little girls that I haven't already said over the past year. They are simply amazing. Completely amazing in my book. Little people with some big fight in them.  A tremendous blessing to those who know them.

And a testimony to God's goodness.

Blessed Be The Name!

Happy Birthday Anne Perry and Audrey Kate! We love you!!!