Catching up

Ok, so I did 4 new updates but it posted them backwards! Scroll down and start from the bottom!

Just because

And because I couldn't resist, I had to give these pictures of Harper their very own post!! I know it's a lot but I couldn't choose just 1 to put on here! I wanted to take a picture of her and ended up taking 57!! It was like a mini photo shoot!

The Polar Express

My mom and I took the kids and my niece on the Polar Express! We ate cookies, drank hot chocolate, sang Christmas songs, and visited with Santa. They all had their matchin jammies on and looked so cute!

Doctors, Doctors, and more Doctors

In November, Justin tore some cartlidge in his knee. He saw an orthopedic doctor and he told him to wait 2 weeks to see if it would heal on it's own. When he was still having pain, they decided to do surgery to fix it. He was home for about 8 weeks and was going crazy! He did not enjoy sitting in the same chair 24 hours a day but he is finally able to go back to work.

Paycos had an appointment in Dallas with his neurologist on December 18th. (That added to my Christmas stress!!) He had an EEG done and they said everything looked normal! She saw no activity, which is great, but we couldn't wean him off the medication since he had seizures in July. He has to be seizure free for 2 years, then they consider taking him off the meds to see if he has outgrown them. In June, a generic of his meds became available and his doctor said it should be fine for him to switch. Well, he fell in that tiny percentage of people that generics don't work for them and his seizures came back. Once we put him back on the name brand, he was fine! So now, we have to wait another 2 years and try again...*sigh*. We are thankful that he is doing so well though!

It was Harper's first trip and she did great! Poor thing spent most of the day in the carseat or stroller but she was just as happy as she could be! We went to Papadeaux the first night we got there and pigged out! We ordered frog legs and everyone loved them. I couldn't force myself to try them...it grossed me out! After his appointments, we went to a park to play for a while and then to the Dallas Aquarium. We have been several times before but the kids are still amazed by everything!

We stayed at the Hyatt Regency downtown which was a pretty nice hotel. When we pulled up, there were men in suits and women in gowns getting out of these really nice cars and we felt like the Clampetts on vacation! We piled out of the car wearing our sweats with our kids running around like heathens after being in the car all day! It was pretty funny!

(we pulled over so I could feed Harper and the kid's decided to pick some cotton! I'm sure the farmer would have been thrilled to see that!!)

Where to begin...

Merry Christmas everyone!!! It has been a loooong time since the last update so I divided it up into several posts. We woke up on Christmas Eve morning to snow! The kids couldn't wait to get in it. I decided I could never live somewhere that had snow a lot. Getting them dressed (and undressed) to play in the snow was a 30 minute process! Not to mention the wet floor every time they came in...anyway, they built snowmen with dad and made many snow angels. (unfortunately, I accidently deleted the snowmen pictures off of my camera!)

On Christmas Eve, we spent the night at home and prepared for Santa! Paycos told Santa he wanted a Wii and a pet monkey for Christmas. We told him that Santa doesn't usually bring live animals to children but he was extremely happy with the Wii! Kyler's list changed daily and she was easy to please!

(cookies, milk and letters for Santa)

(Tuff's new rope from Santa)

I absolutley LOVE Christmas but this year, I'm glad it's over! For some reason, it seemed so stressful. I guess it's because we have a new baby. That, and the fact she won't take a bottle so I have had to take her EVERYWHERE I go!! Little stinker! We're working on that! But we had a wonderful Christmas spending time with our families and I'm looking forward to a new year!

WOW! Harper is almost 6 weeks! I can't believe how fast the time has gone by! She is really growing right before our eyes. She has chipmunk cheeks that are so sweet to kiss and is starting to smile and "goo" when we talk to her! She is sleeping 6 to 7 hours at night so we can't complain! I think she might be our easiest baby so far! Happy happy baby! (Except when I eat grapes! Advice: grapes + breastfeeding = fussy baby!!!) She follows Paycos and Kyler around with her eyes and loves when they talk to her. It is so sweet to watch her interact with them! Paycos is still doing great with her and so is Kyler, but she tends to be a little spastic! Kyler has also been acting out quite a bit and doing silly things that she wouldn't normally do, like, sticking play-do up her nose, stomping a cookie on the floor with her boot, throwing the little strings off of a banana on the living room floor, etc. Each day is something new!! I know this is a phase that she has to adjust to and that she's looking for attention, but she is driving me up the wall!! Lots of deep breaths!!! Paycos has now been seizure free for 2 months and is doing fantastic! He was having some "following directions" issues at home and school, then all of a sudden, he started listening better. I'm not really sure what happened, but he is really coming out of his shell. He used to be pretty quiet and shy. Now he's fighting Kyler to get some words in! (We all know how much she likes to talk!!) We are loving it and hoping that maybe we can lower his medication. We go to his neurologist in Dallas in December for an EEG and a check-up so we'll see!

We went to my mom's house to decorate pumpkins the weekend before Halloween. This was the first year that the kids actually carved their pumpkins. Usually, they just paint and decorate them with stickers, so they really enjoyed using the "big kid" knifes! Kyler had just come from a princess birthday party for one of her friends, so she was all dressed up!

Harper's umbilical cord FINALLY fell off so she had her first real bath in the baby bathtub. I had the best helper!! Doesn't that look like fun?!?!

We went to a fall festival at Kyler's school on Wednesday, a party at Paycos' karate place on Friday, and went trick-or-treating around the neighborhood on Saturday! We had the cutest Fairy, Wolverine and Mouse in the world! It was pretty chilly on Halloween night so Marilyn came over and stayed with Harper while we went trick-or-treating.

Here's just some random pictures:


Silly Face!!

Way to go dad...