Noah loves Grandpas new boat...

The ice has barely melted and it is already getting put to good use...I have a feeling it's going to be a fun summer!!  Until then, the boys will go fish as much a they can on it!

Rowan is 11 months old...

Let the one year birthday party planning begin!  OOHHHHH how I love this "little" screamer!  Lots of new things happened this month...

she signs "more"and "milk", she continues to move around everywhere and pull herself up on everything and has fallen down the stairs about 10 times (without every really hurting herself thank goodness), hopefully she gets it down soon.  She screams ALOT, not like "I'm mad" screaming, but more like, "I'm here, pay attention to me!" screams. Not gonna lie, our whole family says the words at least a couple times a day, "Rowan!!  Oh my goodness, stop the screaming!"  Even Noah has that sentence down pretty good.  She is starting to be attached to her mama, hates the gym day care...I am already dreading when it's Nursery drop off time, I have a feeling there will be some major melt downs...she loves to pull down books off of the kids shelf and open the ones with the "touch" friendly pages, and run her little fingers across each of the pages to feel the different textures.  It is really cute to watch her look at her books, I sure love her!!!

March Madness...

No not basketball.  Not in our family...just lots of busy-madness mixed within lots of fun and happy memories!  It has been such a mild winter, and a few weeks ago was the first big snow we have had all year.  The kids were so excited to go out and build a snowman!  It melted the next day, but was very fun while it lasted.

 Paisley plays dress up in my closet all the time.  She put this little get up together, and I thought I would take a pic of her fashion sense of style.  Not bad for a 5 year old!  Man, she is ALL GIRLY GIRL!

We bought a pass to the Legacy Center.  It is wonderful, Ryan and I are now more motivated to work out, and we can go swim whenever we want with the kids.  The kids thought they had died and gone to heaven swimming there.  It has been a while since they swam, so this was such a fun new thing to do as a family.

 Rowan got splashed in the face the second we dipped her in, and it ruined her.  She cried and was not liking it for most of the time.  She just hugged Ryan and buried her face into him for a long time.

 However, as the night went on she warmed up to the idea of being in the pool a little more, and now she loves it.  I could never get a smile from her that night though.  Oh well.

 Oh St. Patricks Day...who knew it could be so exciting!!  This year Paisley talked about it non-stop the week before the day came.  All of her little friends were making "traps" to try and catch one out on the loose. Paisley was convinced that she could catch one on the night before St. Patricks Day.  Her, Jay, and Devree made this "trap"/house for it...their excitement was so entertaining!

 They had a trail of candy and gold coins on the inside to try to lour it in...

 Paisley even put her slipper in there for a bed for it to sleep in.  Unfortunately, that silly leprechaun was much too sneaky to be caught, but he took the gold coins, and left her and Noah some treats in place of the candy trail, and some bug catchers, in hopes to help them with their "catching" skills.  They were thrilled!

Rowan's Surgery...

It was a hard day for our little RoRo.  Here she is with Daddy, (bright and-early 7am) as we were getting to the hospital.  She was HUNGRY!!!

 After about a 20 minute wait we got into a room and put her little hospital jammies on.

 Next was the little toe monitor.  She thought it tasted really good.

 What a big smile for the nurse!

 I know she looks really happy here, but she wasn't.  Those were quick moments.  We were trying everything in our power to keep her distracted from her empty tummy.  

 The hospital had some sort of state inspection that day, so everything was taking FOREVER to get started.  Lots of triple checking paperwork, etc.  Kind of annoying.  We waited for about another 45 minutes before Ryan finally got her to fall asleep.

 Finally the anesthesiologist came in to take her away.  She slept on his shoulder as he whisked her away from us.  It really broke my heart.  I knew all would be well, but it's still so sad!!

 It's a short surgery, and she was back to us just in time for us to finish our hospital pancakes that Ryan got at the grill for us.  I remember Noah being really out of it, and a bit upset, but it was NOTHING like how Rowan was.  She was SOOO MAD.  Gosh, I really can't explain it.  Just lifeless, couldn't even open her eyes, pure dead weight, yet frantically screaming at the top of her lungs.  Its was the saddest thing ever.

 Finally she calmed down enough to eat a bit.  But she was still pretty upset in between gulps and she was swallowing so much air that she kept burping, which set her off into a frenzy due to the pain in her ears when burping.  They made us keep her an extra 30 minutes or so until she calmed down enough they thought she was ok to go.  Thank you to my dear friend Jessica for getting Paisley off to school and keeping Noah for me so Ryan and I could do this together.

This was truly a move I am so blessed we did not wait to do with Rowan.  It was a $600 deductible, and the doctor said it was our choice to wait and see how she does in a few month, but recommended doing it now.  So we considered both options, but then decided it was worth it to have a happy healthy baby and not risk keeping her in pain.  SO INSPIRED to do this!  Her poor ears were so full of puss and fluid that she didn't even pass her hearing test before the surgery.  The next day at her follow up visit, the doctor said her test results came back with a rare type of strep in the ear, which would have gone unnoticed and very likely caused a lot of damage to the inner ear had she not had the surgery right away.  She was pretty cranky the rest of the day, but she is so good and happy now.  The only thing that is so funny to me is that she is so "tipsy".  She can't keep her balance very good, and falls over all the time.  I keep laughing at her, she even falls over just sitting sometimes.  I'm sure she will adjust and get her balance back now that her ears are normal.  She just has to fully adjusted to life without ears full of fluid!  She also seems to be more sensitive to noise.  Paisley was so cute and concerned for Rowan.  She has made sure to tell any of her friends that come over not to make too much noise because it will hurt her ears.  She was also very concerned about seeing her after her surgery too, wanting to make sure here ears would not be bloody.  She sure is funny.  Glad my little Rowan is happy and healthy now.  Just a little concern and hope that she will pass her hearing test next week, but I am sure she will.  Lets hope we have as much success with these tubes as we did with Noah!

10 months old...

Aunt Shanna got her this cute outfit.  I remember thinking it would be forever before she could wear it...not so.  It is a size 18 month, what a chubblet!

 So interested in her book...

 At 10 months she is busier then ever, finally sleeps through the night but wakes up early now...I'm not sure which I prefer, loves the stairs, loves trying new foods, likes to show off her vocal skills, waves "hi" all day to everyone.

 There is the big smile I was looking for!

 Mom will you let me get back to my book please?  Thanks.

Next Tuesday she goes in for tubes.  So sad, but so good.

Every Winter...

Lets start this off on a POSITIVE note...Happy Valentines Day!  We started off our morning by showing our kids some love with these gifts.  Both were beyond thrilled and so excited.  Paisley named her bear "Lots of Love", and Noah has talked non stop about how after school he can't wait to play Batman with Bracken.  Rowan just gets lots of kisses this year. :)

 This month has been a hard one.  It seems like every winter, we always get lots of sickness.  This year, Noah just has the usual 24/7 yucky nose and cough.  It never seems to go away, but at least he acts fine.  It’s my girls that have had it rough.  Paisley has been struggling with her asthma ever since December, and we have continued to give her breathing treatments and her inhaler, however the last 3 weeks have been especially bad.  She gets too tired to go to dance or gymnastics, she gets a high fever that comes and goes, she is extra irritable (which is so fun for me!), and finally last week it hit her hard, and she came down with a bad case of Pneumonia.  The poor girl has missed so much school, extra curricular activities, friend time…everything.  I have felt like we have all had to stop our lives in a way and just be home.  But I feel the worst for how awful it must be to continually struggle to breath.  I can’t imagine.  My heart breaks for her and I wish I could take the pain away.  She convinced me to let her go to school today, so she wouldn’t have to miss out on Valentines parties, but I can tell she is still struggling.  It’s a hard place to be, the “half way” better place.  You can’t over do it, yet you don’t want to sit home and rest all day either.  I’m not sure what to do about gymnastics and dance…she has missed so much, but I don’t want to push her back into it.  And then there is sweet little RoRo.  She had an ear infection at Christmas time, another at her 9 month app. in January, and yet another last week.  Antibiotics don’t seem to be working, and she just finished 3 days in a row of getting a shot, yet…still sick.  I am taking them both in for a follow up visit today.  I am praying that Paisley is doing better, she has been on so many steroids and different medications, I just hope she doesn’t need any more, all of that can’t be good for you, although I am grateful for them.  And Rowan, it looks like the next step is to schedule her right away for tubes…we will see.

Lots of treatments, at least 2 a day...

 Cute pose.  I just love her little legs here.

Ear infections, yet so happy too!  (most of the time!)

 Her "sniffy" face...glad I caught this one on camera, it is pretty funny.  She does it all the time.

 My cute boy...

Here are some extra big smiles...

Does that smile look familiar?  Here is Paisley around the exact same age...

Cheese!!!