"STELLA!"

I promise, that somewhere in the near future, I will be posting pictures of Amelia's birthday party. Life just has a way of busying itself so that I haven't had a chance to sit down and blog. And then there are also those moments when you don't want to sit down and blog because you know you will somehow waste too much time in front of the computer. Its been a little bit of both lately as well as the fact that I've had sinus problems that I'm just getting over (I hope)
BUT, I had to share a couple funny stories about Isabella. Quite honestly, this child keeps me laughing on a daily basis. A little bathroom humor, lately she has been wiping herself more when she goes potty, but after I let her do this we had to make a new rule that she can wipe if she goes pee pee, but I have to wipe after she goes poop (you can put the pieces together with that one.) Anyway, yesterday I walked in the bathroom and she had a big smile on her face and said "Mommy, I'm going to go poop so you CAN WIPE ME!!!!!" In a, aren't you excited that I'm doing this for you kind of way. Oh yes, darling, nothing makes my day more. :) Then today, she was going potty and Amelia crawled in there and I heard Isabella yell at her "Get Out -- it stinks in here!" She's such a little nut. For the next story-- A little background, just last week we got cable - or actually a little more extended cable because if we switched our phone over and had our phone, internet and cable service all together it would be the same price we were paying for our internet, basic cable and telephone service we already had. This, of course, benefits my husband greatly because now he has ESPN -- which is huge since he's from Michigan and they rarely show Yankee college football in the South if another (albeit not as good) southern college is playing. :) This will make my husband extremely happy come the fall. Along with this, a friend of mine had mentioned another kids network called Noggin. I try not to let Isabella watch too much television, but there are some shows that I like. One of these is Miss Spider's Sunny Patch. She might not be learning anything like counting, alphabet, etc. so its probably all just be for pure enjoyment rather than educational purposes, but I personally am a big David Kirk/Little Miss Spider fan, so I let her watch it. Isabella has most of the books, so she enjoys the show. ANYWAY --(the little background is longer than the story itself :) -- On Noggin they have a couple commercials or fillers right before or after the show and one of these is for some kind of kids awards (which no, my child will not be watching) the commercial goes something like this -- "Justin Timberlake will be hosting this year's, etc.....he's a talented singer" --- here he is dressed up in a cape and sings FIGARO!...... "he's a talented actor"..... here he yells STELLA! I personally didn't think anything of this commercial, she's seen it a couple times, but no big deal. Well, last night we decided to take a walk and Isabella noticed that she could hear her echo and wouldn't you know it, my child screams out "STE -LLA!" I about lost it! And yes, I have realized even more how careful I have to be with what she watches as well as what I say in front of her. Who knows what this child would repeat. :) Again, I promise in the near future to post birthday pictures of our big one year old!!!

Happy 1st Birthday!!!!

Today is Amelia's first birthday -- I really think this has been the fastest year. It really doesn't seem possible that a year has passed since we drove through the night and then held our baby girl for the first time when she was just hours old. I realize I didn't have to go through labor, but not sleeping for 40 hours is no piece of cake. :) Obviously, she has changed so much in a year but most of all, I cannot even begin to express how much more precious she has become. I truly cannot imagine my life without her and I am in awe of how God has "doubly blessed" us. I feel like there is so much I could share, and I was going to write a long post talking about her, but then I decided that I would instead maybe write her a letter to save for her. Not that I have a problem sharing personal things or my emotions, but I think it would probably end up being rather long. :) But I didn't want the day to end without me mentioning Happy Birthday to her and Happy first day of spring to the rest of you. And if any of you are in the area, here's an invitation to her birthday party next Monday. :)

And here's a picture that I took today of her doing mine and Daddy's new favorite face -- her scrunchy face. She does it when she is being silly or when we are playing something like Peek a Boo with her. She cracks us up everytime - and I do believe she knows how much we enjoy it and how cute she is. :)

Up to our elbows...

Yes, we are still pretty much up to our elbows in poop -- sorry for being descriptive, but ... oh never mind, most of you are mommy's you know what its like. Poor Amelia is still sick - but she is doing better in some aspects. She is actually eating now, which is a big plus. I took her to the doctor's on Friday and the verdict is....... she's fine. Ok, I don't think he meant totally fine, but she doesn't have any throat or ear infection. He said its probably a virus and maybe some teething on top which caused her not to want to eat. Thankfully, she doesn't have an infection, but I just wish there was more I could do for her. She's lost some weight and looks so skinny to me, but the doctor didn't seem too worried about that. Right now she is only 17 pounds, which being as long as she is looks even smaller to me. Pitiful -- so pitiful. :( The only funny thing was that at the doctor's office, he came in and started checking Amelia out and of course, she hated this. He put the stethoscope on her back and she was sitting there with her mouth wide open, tears coming down her face, but making no sounds. The doctor and I both kind of laughed and he said "Ok, now take a breath." :) I believe she is either going to be my extra emotional one - or just my drama queen. Along with everything, she has been SO clingy to mommy. She doesn't want daddy to hold her, feed her, etc. and if I leave the room she cries. Today, Kenny was trying to feed her some cereal while I got something else done and she was turned around in her chair crying after me, I went over and started feeding her and she was fine. Kenny said "How's it feel to be SO loved?" :) Thankfully, his feelings aren't really hurt. Oh, the other cute thing during this whole sickness is that she will cry for her teddy -- I'll be cuddling her and she'll say "te-ddy" until I go and get her little teddy bear for her -- how cute is that?! Keep her in your prayers still, I don't know how long this "virus" could last, but I hope she is over it soon, she definitely doesn't need to lose any more weight. And please pray that I will be able to find the right things to help boost her immunity, she just seems to catch things so easily. On a better note, the good news -- everyone else in the house is still healthy, Praise the LORD!!

Sickness and what nots....

Sorry, I've been rather absent from blogging lately. It seems like its been crazy busy around here -- I know, aren't we all?!? We were able to spend this past weekend at the beach with my family, but now that we are back Amelia is sick. Poor thing, she doesn't seem to have a very good immune system. Now that she is going to be one (in just a week!!!) I can hopefully give her some more things to try and boost her immunity. She has had a high fever, which will break a little, but she can't seem to get rid of it all the way. She has had diarrhea, threw up once, and won't eat. Yesterday, she ate a couple bottles -- although then she had diarrhea so its not really staying in her. This morning, she wanted to drink water, but then that's what she threw up and she would only eat a couple bites of cereal. My mom went and got Pedialyte for her, but she won't drink it either. I think she has a sore throat with all of this -- I kind of knew this might be coming because Kenny was feeling sick over the weekend with the sore throat, congestion, muscle aches and everything and now I am getting a bit of a sore throat myself. I've got an e-mail into the dr, but I'm assuming they will tell me to watch her and make sure she takes in some fluids today, etc but its probably some type of the flu virus. UGH! She is so pitiful this time, she just lays their in my arms. The good news is that Isabella isn't sick --- at all --- just the contrary, she's been extra active and not understanding that baby sister is sick. Isabella has never been sick, she gets colds every now and then, but she has never been sick so she really has no idea what it means to feel sick like baby sister is. I told her this morning that she had to be careful because baby sister doesn't feel good and she said "Yes, she does, she feels good!" :) Praise God that only one of them is sick! I hate to see Amelia sick, but I can't imagine having both of them this sick, so God is gracious to me! And I'm glad she is sick this week and hopefully she will be all better for her birthday party next week!

And now for a couple funny stories -- first of all while we were at the beach my nephew Garrett who will be 4 in May told my mom that he wanted a baby sister like Amelia --- he has a little sister, but he wanted one that was the right color, he wanted a brown baby. :) Not going to happen, but how cute is that?!

Yesterday, I got Isabella up -- of course the day she has gymnastics, she decides to sleep in alot :) - and as she was going potty, I was sitting in front of her and she pointed to my shirt. My shirt was kind of a tie dyed look with brown, turquoise, orange and white. Anyway, she pointed to a brown spot on the shirt and said so happily "BROWN!"...... "Like poop is brown!" I about lost it, but I tried to just say, "You're right", because I knew if I cracked up she would think this was funny and then repeat it somewhere else. :)

So, I might be absent a little longer. I do have a small memory card for my camera so I can take pictures again, so if everyone gets and stays healthy I'll post more pics soon.

New Design

Ok -- so its March and I'm just now getting around to changing my Christmas background -- instead I've put one up with a Christmas picture -- sorry. This background won't be staying long (I hope.) I actually had been planning on changing it a while ago. A friend just asked me the other day when I was going to change it, she said she thought that maybe since it was my blog I hadn't noticed it as much -- oh yeah, I noticed it, just hadn't gotten around to doing anything about it. Around Valentines Day, I was hoping to get a cute picture of my girls together so I could use that at the top -- no such luck. Amelia, although as smiley as she can be, when the camera comes out, she starts crawling toward me everytime. So I set it up, get the girls sitting down and then as soon as she sees me, here she comes. :) Then I actually got a cute picture of them outside 2 weeks ago, when for some reason my camera gave me this message "Card cannot be used" -- so now I am totally out of a camera because something is wrong with my memory card and I'm going to have to get a new one. Ok, not totally out of a camera, I still have 2 film SLRs, but what good does that do my blog! :) Frustrating!! Thankfully, I was able to get my pictures (about 600 of them) off of the card, but I can't use it in my camera and it won't let me format it. I'm hoping maybe someone can help me correct this problem, but if my card is shot, I guess I'm going to have to get a new one soon because I have someone's first birthday party is coming up soon!!! :) Anyway, maybe I'll start posting some old pictures until I get this fixed, until then enjoy this crazy mixed up purple design I've created.