I Should've Known

I should've known that these two adorable little girls...

would one day turn into MONSTERS!!!!!

If they get to play in their room, the first thing they do is empty their shelves. I guess now might be a little premature to start teaching them to clean up their mess?

P.S. I got a very quick update on Anna Kate and she is improving! Thank you for praying for her!

Finally

At last, a video that you can actually see. Anyway, just a couple of notes that you may or may not notice (because my girls are just so darn adorable) while viewing this video. I just want to reassure you that I normally have a Noah's Ark faucet cover over the shower faucet, but I had just taken it off because I was cleaning the tub before we gave them a bath and I forgot to put it back on. If you look closely, you can see it on the right hand side of the video. Hopefully that appeases anyone reading this that picks up on my bad mommy moment.

Remember how excited I was about the garage sale I was going to on Saturday morning? Well, that excitement plummeted fairly quickly as I only came away with 2 shirts, a jacket, and a brand new still in the box Little People discovery house. I'm going to give it to them as a Christmas present. Needless to say, not exactly worth the early morning waking. I did go to JC Penny's today though to get them some much needed warmer footie pajamas. So have you ever noticed how they don't leave much room between clothes racks to manuveur a double stroller? Well, Hannah and Kate sure showed them. How do you ask? By pulling down two clothing racks. Not the whole thing, but the arms. It's a good thing that the cashier thought they were just too cute and could've cared less about the mess they made.

If you haven't checked out my post on Anna Kate below, please do. This precious little girl needs your prayers. I know (I KNOW) that I have some of the best prayer warriors out there! Thank you!

*I also added 2 new songs to my playlist in case you care to listen to them and are getting tired of the ones that have been playing over and over and over...again.

Praying for Poop-Again

Definitely not prayers for our girls. They have got the pooping thing figured out. These prayers are for a precious little preemie named Anna Kate. She was born just a couple of weeks ago at 2 lbs. 4 oz. I don't personally know the family, but know someone who is part of her family. Anyway, my mom and I chose her to minister to this month as part of our NICU ministry. She is pretty much having the same bowel and intestinal issues that Hannah had. She also has an infection. She has been transferred to a Children's Hospital where they are monitoring her and where they can do surgery if they need to. Anyway, I know the fear that her parents are feeling and I just wanted to ask you to pray for Anna Kate. Thank you!

A few of their favorite things...

These are a few of the girls' new favorite things to do:

They have just started to sit down and really look at books. It's sweet!

Their next favorite thing to do is watch Baby Einstein. They only get to watch one a day (unless I'm watching Rachel also and it's close to bedtime~then we make an exception and put it on repeat play). The girls put themselves in this position the other day while watching TV. Sisterly love already!

"Aunt Sam" (one of my friends who gained this title for teaching Kate how to clap) also taught Kate how to clap. Now when I clap, Kate will "clap." Her version of clapping right now is smacking one hand on top of the other. I think she's still working on the hand-to-hand coordination. She'll get it soon.

Hannah loves to dance. Anytime music comes on, she starts swaying back and forth. It's too sweet for words. She also took her first step on Tuesday. She immediately fell, but it was a step. Woohoo!

And, of course, we love to "torture" Bella. We are still learning what it means to be gentle though. Once again, I apologize for the darkness of the video. Bella is actually sitting in between the girls. You can't really see that they are playing with her with one of Bella's dog toys, but you can hear that they are having fun!

I am excited because we went on a little shopping trip to the mall, courtesy of Nanny & Grampy Lantz (THANK YOU) and they got the cutest little outfits. They are cold weather outfits though so you'll have to wait to see them. They are also spending the night over there so I can get up early and go garage saleing (is that even a word?). I am normally not one to garage sale, but we have this huge community garage sale with nice, quality clothes and toys so it's kinda been a tradition with my parents and my sister that we go. We started ever since I found out I was pregnant a couple of Aprils ago. I'm excited to add even more clothes to their wardrobe for a cheap price and possibly a few toys, but I don't know because we've run out of room to put them anywhere. I'll do a post on what treasure I find!

Walking & Rumbling

Here are our latest videos. We tried to get Kate walking, but she wasn't very cooperative. She walks a little bit in this video. I think she's probably taken about 10 steps now.

This video was from this morning and is HILARIOUS (well, at least I think so). Partly hilarious because, well, how do you teach 13 month olds that you have to share? And because of the amount of squealing. FYI, Kate is on the left and Hannah is on the right. Sisterly love beginning so early.

My Little Snow Leopard

We seem to be progressing right along with Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease with no major complaints. Hannah is such a champ! She hasn't really exhibited the fussiness I guess that most babies get with this. She is sleeping longer and taking better naps so I guess that's a good thing. Today, she woke up and just looked a little blotchy. Kate has never shown any rash so at this point, I'm thinking that maybe she never really got it. It would be a miracle because they share the same spoon and well, everything, really. Who knows? Here are some pictures of Hannah over the last couple of days, just in case you were wondering what the rash looks like. If you actually click on the pictures to enlarge them, I think that it puts the rash in proper perspective. Just from looking at them on the blog, it makes the rash look much less severe (except for the very first picture) than it actually was.

Thursday
Thursday

Thursday

Thursday night

Thursday night

Saturday morning

Saturday morning

Kate-Saturday morning

Watching college football with Daddy before naptime

The Diagnosis

Hand-Foot-Mouth disease. Here are the facts:

*It's a common childhood disease.
*It's viral-transmitted through the air, mouth-to-mouth, feces-hand-to-mouth
*Symptoms are fever (which we had), loss of appetite (which is somewhat there), and a rash all over body, but specifically on the palms of hands, soles of feet, and ulcers in the mouth (hence the loss of appetite)
*Incubation is about 3 to 6 days
*Lasts for about a week

The doctor called it the Wal-Mart virus because it's hard to tell where you pick it up since it's mostly transmitted through the air. There's no medicine except for comfort (Mylanta & Benadryl to ease the mouth sores), Tylenol and Motrin.

On top of all of that, she also has an ear infection. Luckily, she is still her normal, happy self. I guess it just depends on how much discomfort she is in. Hannah's probably thinking, "This is a piece of cake. I was born only weighing one and a half pounds. You think some silly little rash is going to keep me down. No way, guys! I know who my God is!"

Kate has been exhibiting the same symptoms minus the rash, but I expect that to follow in the next day or so. Rachel has also been exposed as well as several of Hannah and Kate's other friends. So as so many parents do, we just play the waiting game. I think that this is one of Satan's grand schemes to keep families out of church. If he can keep diseases flowing, it prevents children from being able to go to church, thus preventing moms or dads from going to church because someone has to stay home. The doctor also said that it's typically a childhood illness, although, she has known an adult that had it. So, hopefully, I am in the clear. The main thing is that we keep them hydrated. She said because of the mouth sores it causes them to not want to eat or drink, which could lead to dehydration, which then could lead to hospitalization. So as long as we keep them hydrated, we should be fine. Just keep us in your prayers, please! Thanks!

Nothing Can Keep Her Down

There's a reason she is nicknamed Happy Hannah. Even with a rash all over her body, she still smiles for the camera.



Not sure what the rash is from yet. She's had a fever the last couple of days, but was finally over that yesterday. Kate seems to be following in her footsteps, just about a day behind Hannah. She woke up with this rash all over her body. It's little red spots. Luckily, we had a doctor's appointment to get flu shot boosters anyway today. Not sure if either of them is well enough to get their shot, but at least we can ask the doctor about the rash. I'll keep you updated!

Up to a lot of nothin'

I know that I will start to hear rustling from the crowd if I wait too long in between posts so I decided to be ahead. Hannah has actually had a bit of a fever starting yesterday. Not sure what it's from yet. They are both still cutting teeth and we are moving from the front of the mouth to the back so it could be from that. Who knows? Kate has been busy practicing her walking. I'll try to get it on camera soon. I think the most steps she has taken has probably been around 6 or 7. I've noticed her venturing from object to object on her own without having to be encouraged or coaxed so I think she's becoming a little more confident in her new skills. However, she still gets a little too excited sometimes and falls right over. Other than that I think things around here are normal. I'm going to try and take a little nap before Rachel (who's also not feeling well) comes over and I've got my hands full. Whooo...those nights wear me out, but I love hanging out with the girls. The other night when we watched Rachel while Matt and Sarah went out with some friends, all three girls were plopped in front of the TV watching a Baby Einstein DVD so George and I could eat our dinner in semi-silence. I had a little mental picture of the three of them playing together in about another year or so. So sweet!

Speaking of sweet, check out these sweet little faces...

Hannah-
Kate

Hannah-these pictures are post-fever so that's why her eyes are a little "groggy"

Kate

If Ever There Was an Award...

If ever there was an award for crappiest (my apologies to those who don't like that word-I could also use the word poopiest) night of the week, month, or possibly year. We might have taken the cake tonight. Sit back, relax, laugh, throw up in your mouth a little (really), and be SO glad that it didn't happen to you.

As you know, we are still dealing with a bad diaper rash for Hannah. I was giving her her medicine and stupid me left the bottle just within her reach and she spilled half of the amoxicillin on the counter. Not knowing whether or not the pediatrician would prescribe us another 1/2 bottle, I decided to do my best to salvage what was on the counter. I got some of it. I've also been trying to give Hannah some naked time and the best time seemed to be right after she goes to sleep. I've been letting her sleep diaper-free until I go to bed and then I put her diaper on. Great idea...until tonight.

I heard some fussing and figured Hannah had probably peed so I went to check it out. Yep, she had peed all over her blanket and bed. Not a big deal, very easy to clean up. I stuck her in Kate's crib while I changed her sheets. I had 3 corners of the sheet on the mattress. I look over and see a glob of poop on Kate's sheets. Hannah was standing at the side of the crib. Kate's head was just under her butt. I quickly pulled Kate out of the way. As soon as I moved her, I saw a big poop smear. Little did I know that Kate's head was already on a pile of poop. So I just smeared her head through the poop. (Anyone want to run to the shower and make sure your hair is clean?)

I grabbed Hannah and got her on the changing table, stripped her, and threw a diaper on her. Then, I threw her back in her crib. After dragging her monkey through the poop, stepping in it, and putting her hand in it, (luckily she had a pacifier in her mouth so she didn't eat it), Kate got a bath...twice. So what was supposed to be a nice, quiet night reading a book until "The Office" came on, turned out to be a pretty crappy night. I hope that you can enjoy your evening knowing that it must have been better than mine!

P.S. I love my little girls so incredibly much. It takes a lot of love to keep your cool when there is poop smeared everywhere.

And She's Off

Kate is busy busy busy making her way from thing to thing holding on...mostly. About ten minutes ago she just took 4 steps all by herself. I wasn't close to her to catch her if she fell. She was walking from an endtable to one of her toys.

WAY TO GO, KATE!!!

It's official

It's official...our house is FOR RENT. It's hard to tell in this picture, but we recently painted the actual stucco part of our house. It's a light khaki color. If you enlarge the picture by clicking on it, it will probably show up better. We also painted the front door a vineyard color green. We're pleased with the results and hoping that a fresh coat of paint will make our house stand out. At this point, we're just really praying that God will provide a renter because our moving out is completely contingent on that. So if he does, GREAT! If he doesn't, then we will learn to be content until moving is a little more feasible.


Sweet Hannah still has a nasty diaper rash. Here are some pictures of her hanging out with Daddy on the couch. If I would let him, I think that George would nap on the couch with them everyday. Somehow Daddies just don't seem to get the whole they really need to nap for longer than 45 minutes thing. I do cave every once in a while though because I know that those are precious moments for him.

I took apart one of the exersaucers and found Kate playing in this part of it the other day. She was sitting in it just like a baby normally would except that it had no height to it. It was really cute!

This would be a great picture if my daughters could keep their eyes OPEN for the camera.

Kate

Hannah swinging on the gate

Her new favorite thing to do is climb in laundry baskets.

Daddy pushing them around in the laundry basket

I think they are coming down with colds, too. Blah. Welcome to the stage of sharing germs. You will be in this stage for at least the next 10 years. Fasten your seat belt, hold on tight, and wash your hands frequently.

To Appease the Masses

So according to some of you out there (ahem...namely Nanny Lantz, but who's mentioning names), I need to update my blog. I do agree. I guess I just got into a little blog funk and without extremely exciting news to report, I just haven't felt like posting. Here's some of what's changed recently. George has been working A LOT (notice the capital letters) and he is also on a new shift. He works 5 days a week from 10 a.m.-6:30 p.m. It's nice to have him home in the mornings, but I told him today that it's not the mornings that I need help or am anxious for company. It's when it gets to dinnertime, I am ready to get out of the house. We'll make do though. Plus, the weather has been AWESOME and it really has me itching to be anywhere but my house, even if that just means getting outside to get into my car to go somewhere inside. He was also hard at work painting our house. Taking full advantage of the real estate market right now, we are putting our house up for rent and looking for a bigger house for our family. The house we have now is great but is a 3/2 and when we originally moved in, we didn't realize our family would expand as rapidly as it did. While we have opportunity and are not in any rush, we figured we would try to rent out our house and see if we could go bigger for less money. We've looked at a couple of houses so far. George really wants some land (not a huge amount), but enough to replant his blueberries and to have room to park his truck and trailer. Speaking of the truck and trailer, starting on October 1st, we pretty much cut off all but 5 of the lawns we were mowing. We decided to downsize and turn those lawns over to a friend who has a lawn business. However, George will be the primary employee so it will mean him spending more time away from home to do lawns. The only reason we really kept the 5 or so lawns we did was because we have a lawn mower that we need to pay off.

As far as the girls, Kate took her first step and then quickly crumpled to the ground. Uncle Michael thought that using a remote controller would entice her and he was right. She is not by any means an independent walker, but she actually will lead you now if you hold on to her hands and walk behind her. Hannah has been battling the same diaper rash/yeast infection that Kate is now cleared of. No ear infection for Hannah, but I think that we have been in the pediatrician's office almost every week for the past month and the copays do add up. Here is George laying on the couch with the girls this morning. Hannah is airing her hiney out, but we covered her up for the picture.

Kate was laying on the ground staring at Bella right before I took the picture. They love to chase her and pet (which right now is a not so gentle pat) her.