tid bits

Sorry for the lack of picture posts....apparently my new computer does not have the capability (the hole) needed to insert my camera card directly in to the unit. So as of right now, I have no way to get my pictures on to my new computer. But don't fear, Mike is going to buy me an adapter and I will be good to go. I have plenty of pictures from Christmas!

We went to a buffet for dinner tonight, where Jacob saw Santa. We see this man out and about every year at this time, along with his wife, who pretty much resembles Mrs. Claus (minus the white hair). I don't know if he grows out his beard and wears only red this time of year, but I don't remember seeing him any other time of the year, and darnit he looks exactly like Santa! He always plays the part and talks to Jacob. Jacob always asks me where his hat and boots are!

Jake is still getting over his yucky cough and I am slowly getting it. As long as I don't get the fever with it I will be good to go.

Tomorrow Mike plans on starting his 'honey do' list around the house, little things that need to e fixed or touched up. Then we are heading back in to town to visit with Emma and family once more before they fly back to Seattle.

I hope to have pictures up soon!

Holiday rush!

Whew, I cannot believe Christmas is over, and the New year is just around the corner!

Jacob (unfortunately) caught another bug and started running fever late Tuesday night. Nothing extreme, but enough to wonder what he was coming down with right before Christmas. He ended up running low grade fever for a few days and has a nasty cough, but was good to go today. I am just glad we avoided another trip to the doctor, more antibiotics, or even worse, a shot!!!

We have been going nonstop since Wednesday. Our favorite little niece came in from Seattle with her mommy and daddy (Mikes' sister and bro-in-law) early in the AM. We ,however, did not see them until Thursday. We spent most of Wednesday cleaning the house, running to Walmart, going to church and attending parties=)
Jacob and I had made a gingerbread train early in the day and put it out for Santas' reindeer. (He wanted to sample the gingerbread and candy, but the kit was one I found deep in the depths of the pantry, from last year. It was pretty well past it's expiration date, but served it's purpose nicely). We (of course) baked cookies for Santa and a cake for baby Jesus as well.

On Christmas morning, Mike was way too excited and could not stand it, so we went to wake Jacob up at 6:45 in the am to see what Santa had left.

Jacob was quite excited about his new car and wanted to ride it right away! We sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and then started tearing open the other presents! Jacob willingly opened his other gifts and patiently watched us open ours. Santa was very generous and left mommy a nice new laptop! Daddy got a new watch. You gotta love St. Nick.

Jacob got a big kick out of seeing that Santa ate all of his cookies, and left just one with a bite taken out of it! He asked if he could have the rest of Santas' cookie. Of course I let him, it was Christmas for petes sake!

We then jumped in the car and hopped from house to house, town to town visiting family and friends. We finally got to see Ms Emma and her parents, whom we have not seen since March.

On Friday night we left Jacob with the neighbors kids and their wonderful sitter to go out to dinner and a movie. It was very nice (but very odd) to go out for a nice evening without children!

Today we headed back in to town to spend more time with cousin Emma and her family. Jacob and Emma get along so well. Jacob stayed the night with Emma and their Grancie. Mike and I are back home, exhausted. Grancie is bringing Jake home tomorrow.

I will post some pictures from the week tomorrow. I hope everyone had as awesome a Christmas as we did.

Christmas Eve eve

2 nights to go....did I mention that I LOVE Christmas. I am a total kid at heart this time of the year! Christmas Eve is my favorite!

Tomorrow we plan on baking a birthday cake for baby Jesus, making our first ever gingerbread house (from a kit, of course), and baking cookies for Santa. We are also going to church tomorrow night, and stopping by a friends' place for a Christmas Eve party. Then off to bed for Jake, and off to the garage for daddy! Jacobs' little car should not take too long for Mike to assemble, the box says 15 minutes....

Our party on Saturday night went well. Not as big of a turn out as previous years, but still a blast. I included a few pictures from the night, I did not take very many, apparently!






On Sunday, we all slept in and when Jacob and I woke, he requested to paint the bird house we bought months ago.


The rest of the day was spent completing some Christmas shopping while avoiding the mall completely!

Yesterday I worked, and today we got to see baby Addie ( for Jacobs' sake, I sure hope it's a girl like he insists that it is!). The office has a TV conveniently placed for your families viewing pleasure, so Jacob and Mike watched baby jump around in Mommy's belly. Jacob exclaimed "she looks like a bean!" She sure does, and active one! We also got to hear the heartbeat for the first time today!

I may not post again until Friday or so, as we have a busy next few days.

Merry Christmas to all!

Wait, am I supposed to be sick?

I think that is what Jacob thinks, actually that's what we are all thinking! You see, despite being diagnosed with the horrific chicken pox disease, Jacob shows NO signs of the illness. Minus a pock mark here and there, which actually look like skeeta bites, he is his typical healthy 3 year old self. Chicken pox rocks!

Jake had his Christmas party at school today and came home with a crapload of stuff! I usually make it to all of his school parties, but I had to work today and missed this one=(

Tomorrow is our annual family and friend Christmas party, and we will have lots of pictures from that! I have been running around like a mad woman trying to get this house together, plus getting all of the presents wrapped. Holy crap I never realised how many presents there were to be wrapped. Towards the end, as my back ached and my legs throbbed with stiffness, I actually handed the roll of tape to Jacob and let him tape up the gifts! So if you get a gift from us that looks like a 3 year old did it, well, he did. Just feel extra special!

Pocks it is

The verdict is in, Jake has the chicken pocks (or pox, however you want to spell it). Though it is an extremely mild case! He might have a total of 10 pock marks on his entire body! No fever, no snot nosed whiny boy, nothing! I never thought I would have been so happy about vaccinating my child. Dr. F says because he had his vaccination, the disease is in a much milder form than if he had not had it. Yay vaccines=)

I was even able to drop little man off at daycare so I could get some much needed cleaning done around the house for the big party this weekend.

Cleaning, that's what I was doing.......

sick as dogs

Well, as you might recall, Jacob had strep throat about three weeks ago. Since then, all health has gone downhill in our family! Mike has been having hives on and off since then, and I just broke out in a set of my own this past weekend. Mine are resolving pretty nicely, but it sure was difficult on Saturday to throw beads from the Mardi Gras float with fingers as fat as sausages.

Our neighbors invited us to be in the Christmas Parade this past weekend and we had a blast. Jacob insisted on throwing one peppermint at a time, and wanted each one to be picked up by someone!





My fingers are back to normal today, but my legs still are itchy and bumpy from all of the hives.

We noticed last night Jacob was starting to have a small rash himself on his belly. By this afternoon though, it had progressed to more of a whole stomach/back rash with larger bite like marks on his arms and legs. My first thought - the dreaded chicken pox! I called his school to see if their had been any recent breakouts, and to my dismay, there had. So, my conclusion is that we are now dealing with chicken pox. Oh, and to answer your question, yes he has had the vaccine. It does not prevent the disease, it just lessens the severity of it. Humph.

So I put in a precautionary call to my OB today and the nurse who called me back said everything was fine as long as I had had the chicken pox before. I have, as a child. Now, Jacob gets to hang out with me at home tomorrow while I disinfect for our party this weekend. Oh, and don't worry, he is no longer contagious (if chicken pox is in fact what he has).

Say a little prayer for our families health....we don't want to be sick for Christmas!

Snow Day!

What! SNOW in Louisiana.....unheard of! We might get some sort of snow/sleet every 5 - 7 years, maybe...



This morning while I was leaving the house (at 5am) for work I noticed the snow, but it was so wet that it was not sticking to the ground. As I pushed on, I soon realized I was fighting a damn blizzard. Snow was swirling and slamming in to the car, roads and bridges were icing over, and everyone around me went in to freak out mode. You see, here in La, we don't know what to do with the white stuff you other people call snow. To ask us to drive in it...blasphemy! I arrived at work safely, some 2 1/2 hours later. I called Mike when I got there and he informs me that Jacobs' day care was closed for a snow day, as well as all of the schools in the area! So daddy and Jake stayed home for a snow day, and when I got home we all headed out to build us a Frosty. We didn't have a carrot or coal, or a hat or scarf, so we made us a southern snowman.....complete with a leaf nose and mulch eyes=)









Jacob was so excited, we had to force him to come inside once the sun set. I hope the snow sticks around for a little while, I know he would love to see it in the morning when he wakes, and since he won't remember this snow day, we took lots of pictures. See you again Mr. Jack Frost, in another 5 years or so!

Blah!

I cannot believe I am actually finding time to sit and blog....

Things are still totally crazy (in a good way) around here!

Looking back to last Thursday night, Jacob and some of the nieghbors kids were in a Christmas program with their school (daycare). I purchased a handsome little 3 piece suit for Jake and put on his best church shoes. Then we bundled him up and headed to his daycare for the pah-tay. Gigi was in town and she came along. The kids were adorable, as displayed in this short film captured on the camera (incase you can't tell, Jacob is in the suit, standing next to the blonde boy in the front row....second from the end on the right):(Will post video tomorrow)
It was packed in the church and pretty hard to get decent pictures. I am so glad I nabbed some before heading out that night.

Afterwards we all headed to Baskin Robbins for a chilly treat. Jacob ate all of his ice cream and some of mine. Turned out to not be such a great idea, because he ended up throwing up once during the night and twice the next morning! We are awesome parents...letting our child gorge himself on ice cream at 8pm at night=)

The following day (Friday morning), mom and I went shopping with a possibly sick Jacob (we waited until he stopped throwing up....). Friday night the neighbors and I took the kids to see Playhouse Disney live on stage. They LOVED it! We were a little late arriving though since we decided to partake in some TJ Ribs before hand and lost track of time! After the show, right outside the River Center, the city was having it's annual festival of lights. Including real snow for the kids to play in, ice skating (or so we thought), little crafts for the kiddies and live music.

We decided to check out the 'ice skating' first....what a joke! They had actually painted some plywood white and created a makeshift 'rink' for the kids. It was hilarious. No ice involved! Soooo....we skipped that little endeavor and headed out to the snow. Yes, the snow was real, and boy was Jacob excited about it. That is, until he stepped foot in it and fell down. He didn't like it much after that, but he completely lost all sanity when we took him out. We managed to sidetrack him with some of the crafts and then headed home.

Saturday morning we went a birthday party at a jump zone type place. Jacob had fun, but threw the BIGGEST most obnoxious tantrum when we told him to sit down during the unwrapping of the presents. Mike had to remove him from the situation for over 15 minutes before he finally calmed down. He missed the whole present segment of the party! The rest of the day Saturday was spent shopping and running a few errands. We stood in line for 45 minutes to see Santa, and I managed to capture some pictures on my camera, therefore enabling us to sneak out without having to pay the $15+ they were asking for your childs picture with Santa. Late Saturday night we got a phone call that Mikes' grandfather had been admitted to the ER for a heart attack, and was stable.

On Sunday we all ventured to the after hours clinic in search or a relief for Mikes' back pain. He had been having some trouble with his back, but it got unbearable on Sunday. 3 short hours and one shot in the butt later, Mike was good to go. We then decided to go ahead and head in to town to check on Grandpa. He was in CCU, so Jacob was not allowed in.

We spent the beginning of the week in town with family and Grandpa came home yesterday! He was SO glad to be back in his own house!

We got back to our home late last night (Tuesday) and had our first docotr exam and sonogram today! Baby looks great, heart beat is strong, and mama is having some wicked nausea! It is supposed to snow tonight (what?!?!?), we'll see about that!

Sorry it took so long to update!!!

Aaaackkkk!

We are out of town right now on another spur of the moment side trip/family emergency....I promise as soon as I return home and finally get some free time to sit at my own computer I will update, pictures and all!

Thanks for hanging in=)

small little tidbit

Just a little post to let you know we have had one helluva crazy week / weekend and I have tons of pictures to post. Check back tomorrow!!

graveyard shift...

Tonight is my first night back at doing the night shift thing....not so much looking forward to it! I worked night shift for 6 years, and never gave it a second thought. But now that I have been working normal people hours for almost 4 months I am regretting going back to nights!!!

It will only be one night every week or two, but still....what was I thinking???

Jacob has been good, coming out of his shell more at school. His big debut (Christmas pageant) is tomorrow night and we cannot wait. I hope to post a video of it by Friday! Gigi is coming up to enjoy his singing with us.

Baby bug 2 is kicking in the nausea right now so I must grab a bite to eat! Wish me luck tonight....mainly that I can stay awake all night!

1000!!!!

My blog has over 1000 hits on it.....wow!

I know that is meager compared to most other blogs, and that over 1/3 of the hits were from myself making posts and checking the layout, but still, it is a step in the right direction! Someone must be interested in what I have to say!!!

Jacob is feeling much better today, back to his old self. The humidifier and plug in had only one night of exposure before returning to the deep darkness that if the hall closet today.

It was quite dreary out and we spent most of the day tidying up. Jake had a birthday party this afternoon for the neighbors little girl (who just adores him). She made 7 and had her party at a 'jump zone'. Lots of fun! Afterwards we were invited over to their place for dinner.

When we returned home, I found Charlie Brown on TV and turned it on for Jacob. He has seen it before, but I don't think he remembered it because he was mesmerized, especially by Snoopy. Snoopy is my least favorite, I guess because of the 'flying ace' scenes. You know which ones I am talking about. A 10 minute animated scene without one word, just Snoopy flying around on top of his dog house....

Anyways, tomorrow shall be spent doing the like, finishing the tree decorating, going to church, watching the Saints (hopefully) win!

Sleep easy

Vicks plug in - check
Vicks vapo rub to nose and chest - check
Vicks humidifier - check
Antibiotic - check
Dimetapp nightime for children - check
water and kleenex at the ready - check

Sleep easy little man

Black Friday finds...

If you recall, Mike informed me a few weeks back that he would like to partake in the shopping extravaganza better known as 'Black Friday'. So last night we combed through the ads deciding what it was we wanted to tackle the crowds for. We came to the realization that only Walmart, JCPenney, and Bed Bath and Beyond were even going to make it worth our while. We circled and jotted, creating lists and a game plans.

This morning we rose before the sun (4:45 to be precise), dressed in the comfiest clothes we could muster to put on, and like the awesome parents that we are, trudged in to our 3 year old sons room to wake him from his slumber. Let's back up a little.....yesterday we noticed Jacob was getting a slight runny nose and his breath smelled so awful that it left you wanting to run screaming for the hills. I kind of figured he might be getting strep, but he had no fever and was acting OK. Soooo, we decided last night that it would be OK for him to embark on our 5 am shopping with us, for a little while at least.

When we woke him this morning, he had snot plastered to his little baby face and his lips were dry and cracked. Shake it off we told him, it's time to go!!!! (we did check his temperature just to be sure we were not really too horrible) Into the car(s) we hopped and headed to Walmart. We took 2 cars because Mike thought he might find something for me there and did not want me to see it if he were to purchase it. The parking lot was JAM PACKED!!!! We did not expect anything less. We found two parking spots relatively easy though and pushed our way in. Mike somehow nabbed a shopping cart and off we went.

We found a few choice items but there were some things I finally gave up on. With every register open, we stood in line for an hour, Jacob being and angel the whole time, before packing up and heading out.

We did end up taking Jake to the doctor shortly thereafter and she decided to go ahead and put him on a 10 day course of antibiotics (or as she calls them anti-bee-otics), pretty sure it was strep he was fighting. She told us baby bug #2 would be completely protected from the nasty strep monster, even if I were to contract it from him.
We then headed to BB&B where we purchased curtains and rods for the remainder of the house. After Mike had a little meltdown about the money spent for the day, all was good and we headed home.

We are home now, in for the day. To sum it up I will give you my thoughts:

-one large pack of 100 count mega blocks for Jacob and cousin Emma to enjoy: $10
-one 2 quart crock pot from Walmart purchased at 5:30 this morning: $4
-DVD's for everyone: $6
-dragging my oh so willing husband and sick child out to shop with me on Black Friday: PRICELESS!!




and lastly some pictures from yesterdays festivities....

So Thankful

What am I thankful for???

Well, I actually had a list typed up here for most of the day today, but once we returned home tonight, I got to thinking. I cannot possibly condense everything that I am thankful for into a small neat little list. I am thankful for SO many things each and every day.

We hope that on this Thanksgiving day you take the time to simply reflect on all you have to be thankful for, and then get down on your knees and thank Our Heavenly Father for it all.

What Jacob is thankful for, however, speaks for itself....M&M shots, golf cart rides, and battery powered ice chest scooters!







what are you thankful for on this most beautiful day?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Have yourselves a lovely little Thanksgiving, from our family to yours.

I've missed you SO much!

Today marked my first day back in the NICU (well, really it was the well baby nursery, but who cares, babies are involved and that is all that matters!).

Today marked the day that I finally realized what I went in to nursing for.....the babies!!!

Oh how I have missed my babies (doesn't matter that they are not my babies, nor does it matter that this was my first time ever working a shift at this hospital, they were MINE today!). I walked in to the nursery and a huge toothy uncontrollable grin crossed my face. I was home. I knew I missed it, but actually getting back in to the swing of things really made me realize why I do what I do. It is a passion, a love.

It really does not matter that I swaddled screaming babies, cleaned up poop, wiped off spit up, jabbed needles in to unsuspecting legs, or dealt with nutcase parents. At the end of the day, I am still smiling=)

Thank you Lord for leading me down this path!

The ONLY bad part of today was only getting to see Jacob for 15 minutes before he headed off to dream land. I smothered him in kisses and read him snowy Christmasey books and tucked him in tight. Goodnight big man, sweet dreams.

Happy Holidays!!!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

sweetness

It is a very nippy 37 degrees out this morning! BRRRRR!

I wanted to show you all what Jacob made at school yesterday (sorry about the glare, the sheet is laminated):




We thought it was so precious that when Mrs D asked him what he was thankful for this year, he included baby Addie (Addison is the name we have chosen if the baby is in fact a girl like Jacob insists!!).

What a sweet big brother he will be.

I am going to lunch with a neighbor and some friends, then heading home to watch the LSU game, then we are headed to Mikes' aunt and uncles house tonight for a rockin' 30th anniversary celebration.

Have a good day!

call it quits!

Done! Our Christmas shopping is done as of today, November 20th, 2008! Well, except for my dad, who is the hardest person in the world to buy for. What the heck do you get a 61 year old man???? Oh my does Jake man have it made this Christmas too! We (I) bought him quite a bit. Good thing I was able to convince some family and friends to just buy some of the toys from me to give to him!

Jacob and I were talking today (on the way home from school), as we often do, about his baby (AKA baby in mommy's' belly). He says with a very firm tone: "It IS a girl and I think she might wear red" HA! I was asking him if the baby would wear pink if it was a girl! We were also discussing Santa, and how he makes his grand entrance in to the house. I informed him that Santa comes through the chimney/fireplace. Jacob gets a very concerned look and simply states "well, then we cannot turn on the fire....OK?!"

Our boy is really starting to like taking showers. Most often we plop him in his own tub to play and splash like most kids, but sometimes when we are pressed for time at night we throw him in the shower with us (me). He hated it at first, screaming about soap in his eye and the like. Now though, he asks me to scoot over so he can have a spot underneath the 'sprinkler'!

His newest thing is saying (out of the blue) "mama/daddy, I love you this much!" Stretching his arms out as far as they will go. It makes my day when he does this. It is so random and sweet. In response, we say "we love you to the moon and back", to which he just smiles=)

Life just doesn't get much better than that!

is it Wednesday already...?

Oh my, how the week has flown!

Our computer randomely crashed on Monday, leaving us to buy a brand spanking new one today.....right before Christmas. That was exactly what I was going to ask Santa for! How did he know=)

Yesterday I got a phone call right about 430 in the pm. It registered on caller ID as being Mikes' cell (thank goodness I didn't answer with one of our many pet names, that would have been embarrassing!) but it was Mikes' co-worker Trent. He was calling to say Mike was having one of his major migranes (which only occurs about twice a year now) and was being driven home. Once they arrived I ran out to the car and my nursely duties kicked in! I gave Mike his much needed migrane relief medication and laid him in the pitch darkness of our room. All the while Jacob is with the lovely neighbor who offered to keep an eye on him while I nursed sweet Mike. While this is taking place, my (other) neighbor rings the bell and informs me that our sweet Molly girl (labrador retriever mix) has busted through the fence and is frolicking with her dogs.....

So Trent, being the wonderful friend thast he is, goes out to our yard and fixes our fence temporarily.

Mike ended up sleeping all night and was good as gold this morning. Jake and I spent 2 hours at the park with cousin Cooper and his expecting mommy Aymee. The boys had a blast rolling around in the sand and just doing dirty ole boy things.

Mike purchased our new computer this evening and we were able to inform Santa of Jacobs' biggest Christmas wish:

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3295910

I think Santa might just make good on this particular wish (wink).

We are exhausted, and I am attempting to complete our Christmas shopping tomorrow!

G'night all!

Not me Monday

Not Me! Monday

The truth is that, as a mama, I cut corners all the time and make mistakes and clean my kids' face with spit on my finger. I only paint my nails....wait, I never paint my nails.....But I have been trying to become woman enough to admit all that. To that end, I created the blog carnival I call Not Me! Mondays, where I could be brutally honest. And live to tell about it.


This past weekend, while we were at the kiddie carnival with friends, we participated in a cake walk. We actually won a cake from a local bakery. On the way home I most certainly did not allow my husband to talk me into sticking my finger down in to the cake to see what kind it was, with the knowledge that it was a free cake and we were the only ones eating it. I would never do that....how unsanitary!!!!

I was definitely not falling asleep, head bobbing and all, throughout orientation this week at work. How unprofessional would that be!

I noticed Mike getting hives all over his body and assuming it was the new detergent we had JUST opened, I did not continue washing clothes like it was no big deal. Now noticing tonight that the hives have very much grown in size and all clothes must be rewashed...

We DID however thank our Heavenly Father (and still continue to do so) for our most precious gift this week.

Happy Monday!

nuttin much goin on

Good weekend, a bit chilly. The high today was in the low 50's! Very nice break from our typical La heat. Yesterday we did a good bit of Christmas shopping, with Jacob in tow. He was pretty much a complete angel the whole time! Today we went to church, then headed to a small festival we were invited to by some good friends. The kids played some games and jumped on the inflatables. Jacob was great until it was time to leave. No nap + long day jumping = very cranky 3 year old! He got over it quickly though and we made our weekly Walmart run this evening.

I CANNOT believe LSU pulled that win off last night. Were we the only ones left with our mouths hanging open in the 4th quarter as Jarrett Lee somehow attained 5 touchdowns to win it for the tigers????

On a side not, no morning sickness or anything of the sort as of yet (yay). I swear though, I already have a 'belly pooch'......grrrrrr

have you guessed our secret???

Let me give you a hint....











That's right....baby bug #2 is on the way! We are beyond excited/overjoyed/elated! We thank our Heavenly Father for this most glorious blessing. Jacob is pretty excited himself. This was our conversation tonight:

Me: "Jacob, you are going to be a big brother, you know that right? You are going to be the big brother to the baby in mommy's belly"

Jacob: "Did you eat it (the baby)?!?!?!?

Me: (laughing hysterically) "no, Jesus put the baby in mommy's belly, and when it gets big it will come out"

Jacob "Yeah, it will pop out and I will catch it"

I think he pretty much has the concept down....don't you....??

Oh, and that also means that 3 cousins will be born next year (us, sister in law, and Mike's cousin are all pregnant, due within months of each other).