Married to the Military

Girls Week

2012-01-26T19:41:00.003-06:00

Bryan has been out of town this week, so it's just been the girls and me... Oh, and that silly ole dog we have!! ;-) I have been trying really hard to involve the girls in our dinner arrangements since that's usually the toughest time of the day when I'm flying solo. I have been so excited about our meals this week, and M has been too. Here's what we've had so far...

Monday we ate like Mermaids... I made sushi sandwiches and they had Goldfish and sea shells with them. The sushi sandwiches were just PB&J, but I used the rolling pin and flattened the bread first, then rolled them up and sliced them so they looked like sushi. The "sea shells" were mandarin oranges. M was SO excited about this meal!! She had 3 sushi sandwiches!!! When I make her a PB&J normally, she eats the equivalent of 1 sandwich. I couldn't believe that changing the shape made such a huge difference!!!

Tuesday I just did baked chicken with fruit salad and bread, but M got to help make the fruit salad. I marinated the chicken in some salad dressing and just baked it in the oven... Nothing special, but it tasted good. I cut up all the fruit then had M help me put it in the bowl and stir it. The bread was just some hamburger buns I had in the fridge (we used up all the bread with our sushi sandwiches) that I toasted and put butter on. I cut them into strips (thanks for the idea, Mom), and the girls loved that!! Another successful meal!!

Wednesday I made mini bagel pizzas. M was very into the TV show she was watching and chose not to help with these, but she certainly could have helped!! I just opened the bagels, put a little sauce, pepperoni, black olives and cheese on them, then baked them for about 5 minutes. SUPER easy and the girls LOVED it!! We had grapes as a side dish. They both ate more than I ever expected them to!!

Tonight I made a ham steak, fruit and bread. A ate more of the ham than I did. I cut the steak in half intending for the girls to share one half and I'd eat the other half. M ate one little strip of their half and A ate the rest. When I saw how quickly she was devouring it, I slowed down on my half and ended up giving A about a 1/3 of my half!!! It was crazy!!! I think I may have found a new favorite for A!!! M said she didn't like "regular ham" whatever that means!! Maybe she'd prefer the lunchmeat variety?!?! Either way, they both ate another great dinner!!

Bryan should be home in time for dinner tomorrow night, so it's going to be a Papa Murphy's night for us!! I have DVR'd a couple of movies this week, so we may do pizza and a movie with the girls!!

We're all looking forward to having Daddy home tomorrow! We've done a little "FaceTime" with him on the phone while he's been away. FaceTime is the Apple version of Skype which we can do from our phones. Both of the girls have LOVED getting to see him! They both got to tell him good night tonight. It's so sweet to watch their faces light up when they see him! M likes to tell him all about her day and her toys (as if he doesn't know what toys we have). His only complaint is that he gets motion sick when she carries the phone around while talking. HaHaHa.

Well, I never imagined that I'd have enough for TWO blogs tonight, but I did!! To tell the truth, one of my projects has to be put on hold until Bryan gets home because I need a couple of 20 ounce soda bottles, and I've been trying to lay off the soda lately. I tried water bottles, but the opening isn't large enough for my project, and I didn't make it to the craft store today, so the other projects that are on deck will have to wait!! Wonder if we'll get out the door early enough tomorrow to get some more supplies?!?! :-)

Ok, well, I'll end this now!! I just wanted to share our week of fun food with everyone!! Talk to you later!!

Love you guys!! :-)

PUZZLES!!!

2012-01-26T19:15:00.004-06:00

As promised, here's a quick post to show you my next craft endeavor...

We FINALLY got orders for our move to Little Rock, so I'm in full fledged move mode now!! Part of moving with a 1 year old and a 3 year old is packing the car. The drive from Corpus to Little Rock will take roughly 12 hours. We plan to split the drive into 2 days... The debate is still on as to how to split the drive. One of us feels that we should hit the road in the afternoon the first day and make that the "short day". The other of us feels that we should do the "long day" first, so the second day is not quite so torturous for the kiddos. It'll be interesting to see how the cards all play out. With that being said, activities in the car for the girls is a MUST. This will be the first time that I've driven any real distance with the girls alone. Bryan will be in his car caravan-ing, but I won't have anyone (Hi Mom!) to help me entertain, feed, tend to the kids. This is where the creativity MUST start!! I have lots of ideas for M. She's pretty easy to entertain since she's a little older and understands that if she throws something on the floor, it's gone until we stop. A, on the other hand, hasn't quite grasped that concept yet. LoL. It will be an interesting couple of days to say the least!!

This project is for M. As I mentioned, ideas come easier for her as her skills are much more advanced. I saw this idea on Pinterest, and added my own little twist to it... I made Popsicle Stick Puzzles!! All I did was print photographs, glue them to large Popsicle sticks and cut them apart. This gives M something big to hold onto and also keeps the photos from getting too bent, etc. The twist I added was putting a strip of magnet on each of the Popsicle sticks. Then, I bought a small cookie sheet at Wal*Mart so they had somewhere to stick!! She now has 3 new Popsicle stick puzzles that will stick to the cookie sheet so they aren't sliding all over the place in the car!! I also took a puzzle that I made for the treat bags for A's Bubble Guppies birthday party and put magnets on the back of those pieces to make another puzzle. M has 4 new magnetic puzzles to occupy some of her time in the car for the long drive!! I hope she LOVES them!!

Oh, and I was worried that since the photos didn't have a lot of color variation, they may be a little tough for her (she IS only 3), I numbered the Popsicle sticks (a different color for each puzzle) so that she can have that as a little "crutch". The LAST thing I want is for her to get frustrated while I'm trying to drive and can't help her!!! That wouldn't be fun for ANYONE!!! :-)

So, here are the puzzles!!!

Sorry they aren't all oriented correctly... Blogger wouldn't let me turn them... ;-)

I have another project that I did this week, but the recipient hasn't seen it yet, so once it's unveiled, I'll see if I can get a photo of it... :-)

Hope you've had a great week!! It's almost the weekend!!! :-)

Love you guys!!

New Dresses!!!

2012-01-21T19:57:00.006-06:00

Hi!! This may be some sort of a record for me as of lately... ANOTHER blog?? Already?? :-)

I have been scouring the website Pinterest lately. For those of you that aren't sure what Pinterest is, it's a type of social networking site where people can "pin" on "boards (virtual cork boards)" items that they have found on the Internet that they like. Some are do it yourself projects. Some are recipes. Some are just things they like that they would like to buy. As you peruse the site, you can, in turn, re-pin anything you see that you like. It's basically a digital idea book that you create for yourself. The danger of this site is that you can spend hours "pinning" things, but never going any farther. I have been guilty of this as of lately, so I've decided to start actually doing some of the projects I've found. Here is one that I did last night. This literally took me an hour and a half of my time... And now each of the girls have new sweater dresses!!

I had some old sweaters in the closet that I do not see myself wearing anymore, so I converted them to dresses for the girls. I am going to re-do the hem on A's dress because I am not thrilled with the way it looks, but other than that, I am pretty pleased with how they turned out!! Without further adieu, here they are!!!

As one of my friends put it in her blog when she made a similar dress for her sweet little girl, "I love my children so much. I would give them the shirt off my back. Or, you know, the old crappy one in the back of my closet that I don't wear anymore." HaHaHa. I couldn't have said it better myself!! No, really, to be able to re-purpose something like this is GREAT!! Maddy is very much into wearing dresses right now, so this is right up her alley!! :-)

Have a great weekend everyone!! Hopefully I'll be up to some more "Pinteresting" soon, and I'll have more to blog about!! :-)

Love you guys!

Part Deaux!!

2012-01-09T20:15:00.010-06:00

No sooner did we get home from Kelly's wedding, it was time to load up in the family truckster and start the road trip to end all road trips... We left our house on December 15 and headed towards Atlanta for the big Towhey family extravaganza!! We had SO MUCH FUN!! I couldn't believe that every single person was there!! All of my mom's brothers, each of their wives, every one of their children, every spouse that has been added to the family and their children (ok, that means Maddy & Amelia)!! I think the final head count made it to 30!! The food was outstanding, and the company was even better!! I wish I could say "let's do it again next year", but I'm afraid that the Williams family won't be making it for a couple of years... Anyway, here's the big family photo!! I know that most of you have seen it, but I do have a few readers (Hi Tara!) who haven't, so here it is!!

After the extravaganza, we all piled back in the trusty 'ole Acadia for a drive to Charlotte where we spent Christmas with my parents and my dad's parents. We had a great visit!! We didn't take too many photos as we were busy spending time together!! Here are a few that we DID get, though...

Maddy helped Grandmom bake Christmas cookies this year...

She didn't like the sound of the mixer...

Ironically, Amelia thought the sound of the mixer was hysterical!!

This crazy girl liked the taste of flour... Ewww!!

She decorated like a PRO!!

Amelia thoroughly enjoyed the final product!!

The girls all dressed and ready for Christmas Eve mass..

Our sweet little family...

The girls with my dad's parents

We put out cookies for Santa!! Guess who is excited?!?!

We left Charlotte on the 26th and headed to Franklin where we obviously had too much fun because I realized while writing this blog that I have absolutely no photos of our time there. I think there are a few on my phone, but I haven't uploaded those to the computer... While we were there, though, we went to Cheekwood and saw a really cool train exhibit (Thomas the train was even there), we had breakfast at the Loveless Cafe, and Bryan, Maddy, Jay, Jenny and Chris went to a Predator's Hockey game!! We had a really great time!

We left Franklin on the 31st and started our long drive home. We stopped for lunch in Memphis and met up with Bryan's friend from college, Josh. It was great to get to see him!! New Year's morning we stopped in Dallas to visit with Breezy at the COOLEST McDonald's (thanks for finding it, Breezy)!! I think we were there for 2 hours!! I LOVED getting to see her and catch up even though it wasn't a long enough visit (Is there such a thing??)!! After that we finished our drive home and have been recovering ever since!!

I think that catches us up... We are now in pre-moving mode!! We're getting everything organized for our move to Little Rock!! We can't wait to catch up with some of our friends there!! After that, GERMANY HERE WE COME!!! I'll try to post again soon, but let's not all hold our breath!! I love you guys way too much to harm you in any way!! HaHaHa!!

Love you guys!! :-)

I'm Back!! (Part 1)

2012-01-09T19:23:00.011-06:00

Apparently I have too much to say for just one blog... Or at least that's what blogger says, so here's part 1... Part 2 to follow VERY shortly!! :-)

One of my dear, sweet friends from college (Hi Tara!) mentioned to me the other day that she has no idea what's going on in our lives, so I promised I'd blog soon!! Bryan has asked me to hang out in our bedroom tonight so he can use the kitchen table to wrap my birthday gifts. Who am I to argue with THAT?!?! So, here I am... Nothing better to do than catch everyone up!! :-)

My last blog was on Halloween. I could say that not much has happened since then, but I'd be a BIG FAT LIAR!! TONS has happened since Halloween!!! My life is pretty much written by the photos I take, so I'll just browse through my photo folder on here and update you!! Here goes nothing...

I was commissioned to take the photo for Bryan's class. They came up with the idea, and the girls and I just showed up to "make it happen". I think it turned out pretty good...

Next up was our Whirlwind Weekend... During this particular weekend, we celebrated Bryan's winging (yay for finally getting those pilot wings), Bryan's birthday, Amelia's birthday and Amelia's baptism. Wow! I just got tired all over again thinking about the weekend... Bryan's parents and Granny came to celebrate with us along with my parents. We all had such a GREAT time!! I wouldn't have traded the weekend for ANYTHING!! I think Bryan and Amelia were pleased with their respective celebrations as well!!

Bryan blowing out his birthday candles:

The TC-12... Oh & Bryan and me!! :-)

Pinning on those wings baby!!!

My dad giving the simulator a whirl...

Bryan's mom giving it a go!!

The birthday princess!!

THE CAKES!!! Isn't my mom amazing?!?! Why do I not have these crafty skills?? LoL...

Amelia's Baptism...

Dave & Loren (Amelia's stand-in Godparents since Chris & Kelly couldn't make it to the baptism), Father Menza (can we take him with us when we move?!?!), Amelia, me and Bryan after the baptism!!

Next up was Thanksgiving weekend. The four of us flew to Atlanta to celebrate the holiday. Not only did we celebrate Thanksgiving, but my sweet sweet cousin Kelly got married (Hi Kel!)!! Maddy was the MOST ADORABLE flower girl (if I say so myself), and I did a pretty good job as a bridesmaid... Here are a few photos from the event...

Doesn't she look WAY too grown up here?!?! Ugh... How will I ever make it through proms and (gasp) her wedding day?!?!

My handsome hubby and cute-as-a-button Amelia

Maddy and me at the reception

Maddy has SO MUCH fun at the reception!! She is still dancing and talking about it months later!! Here she is dancing to "Come on and ride the train" (one of the highlights of the reception)!!

Time really snuck up on me, and before I realized it, it was time to get our Christmas card photos done. Since I've taken up this photography hobby (and my hubby got Photoshop for my birthday last year), I decided that we'd make our own card this year. As a first stab, I think we did a pretty good job. One of my friends took the photo by the plane, but we took the rest with the tripod and the self timer... Not too shabby... Some of these you may have seen on the Christmas card. The others? Well, they didn't make the cut!! :-)

...To Be Continued...

Catching Up...

2011-10-31T21:02:00.008-05:00

My plan for this post is to share the photos that I have uploaded tonight from my camera which encompass Amelia's first birthday, our trip to San Antonio from this past weekend and our Trick or Treating adventures from tonight... With that being said, I don't plan for a lot of words... Mostly just photos!! Enjoy!!

First up... On Friday we celebrated Amelia's birthday a day early since we would be in San Antonio for her actual first birthday... Here she is!!

Friday evening we drove to San Antonio, ate some dinner and went to bed. Saturday morning we got up and headed to a really great children's museum!!

Amelia hanging out in the pretend airplane. :-)

After we left the children's museum, we headed over to Sea World... We didn't get very many photos there, but here are a few!!

Sunday morning we got up and headed to Randolph Air Force Base for the air show. The girls didn't last long at the air show, but had fun checking out the planes for a couple of hours!! :-)

Tonight, we went out with some of our friends to Trick or Treat. The kids had a ball, and we had fun hanging out with our friends, too!! After Trick or Treating, our neighbor had us over for pizza. We had a GREAT night!! :-)

We've been having a lot of fun lately!! Next up is our whirlwind weekend... We. Can't. Wait! :-) Love you guys!!

In Case You Haven't Heard...

2011-10-27T20:28:00.003-05:00

...Today was a VERY exciting day for us!!! We found out where our next Permanent Change of Station (PCS) will be!! We will be moving to Ramstein Air Base in Germany!!!

We still have a little time before we'll be heading over "the pond", but at least now we know where we'll FINALLY be settling for 3-4 years!! We won't know any dates for at least a few more weeks. We DO know, however, that we'll be leaving here and heading to Little Rock, AR for more training. Bryan will be flying the C-130J at Ramstein, so he'll need additional training in Little Rock to learn how to fly the J model. We'll be in Little Rock for about 6 or 7 months. The Air Force will move us with all of our belongings to Little Rock for this time. Then, they'll pack us up (again) in Little Rock to move us to Ramstein!!

We are VERY excited as this was our first choice for our next assignment!!!

Pilot training is almost complete!! Bryan is finished with all of his classroom stuff and flights. Now, we just have to wait for his winging ceremony which will be on November 10!!! We are so glad that we're almost done!! There's a light at the end of the tunnel!!

In other (equally exciting) news... Amelia will be ONE on Saturday!! Can you believe it?!?! This last year has been SO CRAZY!! I can't believe she's already a year old!! We'll be heading to San Antonio this weekend for a much needed family get-away, so we'll be opening gifts and doing a small celebration tomorrow before we leave. Saturday we plan to take the girls to a children's museum and Sea World in San Antonio. Sunday we are heading to the air show at Randolph Air Force Base, then we'll head back here. We will have her actual birthday party during the weekend of Bryan's winging ceremony. I am so excited to celebrate this with her!! We've wrapped her gifts and are all ready to watch her open them tomorrow. We're also going to get "fancy" cupcakes for tomorrow!!! I. Can't. Wait!!!

Well, that's what's going on with us!!! We hope your week is coming to a nice close!! We'll check in again soon!!

Love you guys!! :-)

Updates...

2011-10-14T13:15:00.006-05:00

It just dawned on me that I didn't post about 2 very important things that have happened recently... Going in chronological order...

First, we just celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary on September 30... Here are a couple of photos we took to remember where we were for our 5th anniversary!! :-)

All of our handprints on the beach on a heart made out of sand. Bryan and my handprints have our wedding bands in the sand with them... :-)

A close-up of Bryan's ring...

A close-up of my rings... The diamond ring was my gift this year. We used my original engagement ring diamond in the center!! :-)

Second, MADDY IS CAST-FREE!!! Thankfully when we went for her check up with the Orthopedist on Tuesday, they did x-rays of her arm and said that it healed PERFECTLY!! Was there any doubt that this perfect child would also heal perfectly?!?! ;-) We celebrated by taking a "super fun bath" with bubbles on Tuesday night, then we went to the beach on Wednesday afternoon!! :-)

Oh well... Off to Maddy's 3 year check up at the doctor this afternoon... I took Amelia in this morning because I thought she had an ear infection. Thankfully I was wrong. The doctor and I deduced that it must just be her molars coming in that have made her a little cranky. Amelia was 22 pounds this morning!! Maddy was 19.5 at her one year check up, and we still have 2 weeks until Amelia's one year check up!! HaHaHa. I am anticipating a very uneventful check up for Maddy today!! :-)

Talk to everyone later!! Have a GREAT weekend!! :-)

Happy Birthday Maddy!!

2011-10-10T14:01:00.006-05:00

WOW!! How is it possible that our sweet little Maddy is THREE?!?! We had such a great time celebrating her big day!! We had a couple of families over for her party on Saturday. We rented a bounce house for the kids to play in. Our family had fun in it after all the guests left, too! Even Amelia enjoyed the bounce house!!! This year the party theme was The Little Mermaid!! Here are a few of the best photos from the day!!

We decorated Maddy's bedroom door after she went to bed on Friday night so when she woke up on her birthday on Saturday morning, the celebrations could begin!!! :-)

The inaugural use of the cloth Happy Birthday banner I made!! Maddy has had a lot of fun telling me what letters she sees!! :-)

Birthday breakfast with her special day plate!! She and I made cinnamon coffee cake on Friday afternoon and Daddy made sausage and biscuits in the morning!!

Amelia really enjoyed the coffee cake...

Showing off her new Little Mermaid T-shirt:

Maddy and Amelia bouncing...

Maddy's sandcastle cake... Complete with an Arial candle!! :-)

The "loot bags" for the party guests:

A little family bounce house action:

Maddy woke up at 3 AM on Sunday morning asking to get in the bounce house!! I'd say it was a hit!! :-)

We had SO MUCH FUN!! Happy Birthday Maddy!!!

Only A Couple of Days Late...

2011-09-15T22:24:00.005-05:00

I know I promised a photo of Maddy with her cast after she got it, but we have had a CRAZY week!! I think we might finally be getting our heads above water again... So, here she is!!!

She chose purple for her cast, and, clearly, you can see that she's devastated by having it!! HaHaHa. Honestly, though, the ONLY complaining she does is at bath time because she can not play in the tub. She has always LOVED her bath time, so this is a HUGE disappointment to her!! I have promised a "super great bath time" when the cast comes off... I guess I better figure out how to make that happen!! She goes for a follow-up appointment in 4 weeks at which time they'll do another x-ray to make sure it's healed. If it's all healed, then she'll be done with the cast!! Woo Hoo!!

The fracture is in the bone just above her elbow. The doctor seemed optimistic that in 4 weeks it'll be all better! I sure hope so!! :-)

Hope everyone's week is coming to a nice close!!

Love you guys!!

Oy vey!!

2011-09-12T13:19:00.004-05:00

I'd like to ask you to join me with a cup of coffee for this post. Ok, so I don't drink coffee... I mostly drink water, but you get the point. This is probably going to be a long post...

Friday night we had a friend and her 2 children over for dinner. Neither of my kids had napped all day, so they were pretty worn out. My friends' kids were pretty tired, too. All 4 kids were doing the best possible thing... Playing individually!! This meant there were very few "incidents" over toys. Sharing becomes MUCH more difficult when the kiddos are tired!! Maddy was riding her rocket ship in the kitchen. This was a gift for her first birthday, so you can imagine it's size... It's pretty low to the ground... Seemingly safe for an almost 3 year old!! I'm not entirely sure what happened, but while Bryan and I were working to get dinner served, Maddy fell off the rocket. I thought she banged her head on the wall, so I scooped her up to comfort her (she was crying). Maddy is usually a trooper with little bumps and falls. She is often known to fall down, stand back up and yell, "I'm ok Mom!!" That being said, when she laid there crying, I felt like she probably did get a little hurt. We sat down to eat, and she was being very sensitive about EVERYTHING. If her friend looked at her or anyone spoke to her, her eyes welled up with tears, her lip poked out and she tried not to cry. VERY uncharacteristic!! I got her some Tylenol and told her I thought she'd feel better soon. After dinner, I sent her out in the yard with the other kids and told her to play. She played, but wouldn't really use her arm much... When I was getting her ready for her bath, she told me that taking her shirt off hurt, and putting her PJ's on after bath hurt, too. I told her to get some rest, and we'd see how she felt in the morning (that was about 7 PM). Around 10 PM, she woke up crying. I gave her some Motrin, and she fell back asleep. I called the on-call doctor to see what she suggested. She suggested that we take her to the ER considering that the pain woke her up.

Bryan stayed home and slept (someone needed to stay with Amelia), and Maddy and I ventured to the Children's hospital in town. We arrived around 11 PM. We watched the movie Bolt in the waiting room... The WHOLE movie... Around 1 AM they finally called us back to an exam room. They looked at her arm, and there was a little swelling around her elbow, so they sent us to radiology for an x-ray. The doctor looked at the x-ray and couldn't tell if it was broken or not (there was no radiologist working that night), so they put a splint on it, sent us home and told us to make a follow-up appointment with the pediatrician on Monday...

Maddy was SO well behaved at the hospital!! She stayed awake the whole time, didn't complain and sat with me the whole night!!! She was so brave!! I was so proud of her!!

Fast forward to this morning... As soon as the clinic opened, I called to make an appointment. We had an appointment for 8:15 this morning. As soon as the doctor came in, she already had all the information from the hospital and a radiologist had already looked at the x-ray and concluded that her arm is fractured. We were sent home with some Motrin, arm still in the splint and sling and a promise of an appointment with a pediatric orthopedist.

I got a phone call about 2 hours later with information about tomorrow's doctor's appointment for Maddy. Looks like she'll be wearing a cast for the next 4-6 weeks... Poor kid!! She's been SUCH a trooper, though!! She rarely complains about the arm!! She's figuring out how to do things one-handed!! She even put her sandals on all by herself this morning!!! I feel so bad, but it was just one of those falling-just-wrong moments!!! The biggest disappointment is that I'm assuming our beach days are over!! I'm so thankful that we got so many days in before this!! I'm also thankful that she wasn't in a cast for the whole summer... and long-sleeve winter clothes would be tough to deal with, too... Here's hoping that this heals quickly and the time flies by!!

So, there you have it!! The whole long saga of Maddy's fractured arm!! She's doing GREAT!! I'll just be glad when all of this is behind us!!

I'll try to remember to post a photo of her tomorrow after she gets the cast... I'm hoping they let her choose a color, so it can be more "personalized"!! :-)

I hope everyone's week is getting off to a good start!!

More Than 2 Months?!?!

2011-09-01T12:57:00.005-05:00

Has it really been more than 2 months since the last time I posted?!?! Wow!! Betcha missed me, huh? No No No... I get it. I apologize... I hope you are able to sleep better tonight now that I've checked in... Over and out!

HaHaHa. Just kidding. There isn't a whole lot going on around here... Just hanging out... Catchin some rays at the beach... Trying to not let 2 mobile children DESTROY our humble abode!! LoL. No, really, everyone is healthy at the moment!! ::KNOCK ON WOOD:: Amelia is crawling up a storm, pulling up on EVERYTHING, but not all that tempted to take that first step just yet!!

Maddy will be 3 in just over a month!! Can you believe it?!?! I've been informed that we'll be having a Little Mermaid themed party with a bounce house. Hey! The girl knows what she wants!! Who can argue with that? Oh, wait, I'm the mom? So I can veto this? Yeah, I'm sure I could, but I know it'll make her SUPER happy, and I have a lead on a very affordable bounce house rental, so I think we can oblige... Just this once... HA!!

Amelia will be ONE in just under 2 months!! Oh. My. Goodness. Has it really been almost a year already?!?! We're gearing up for another Williams Whirlwind Weekend in November to celebrate her birthday (among other things). I'm trying very hard to get some Save the Dates done, but one of my photo subjects has been too busy to stand still long enough for me to capture his face... Yeah, for some reason Bryan thinks that his pilot training takes precedence over my photography hobby! Geeze!! How rude!! HaHaHa. As soon as I can get him and Amelia still and in the same location and happy and smiling for 3 seconds, I'll be sure to snap that photo... So, watch for your Save the Date cards in the mail. Or, better yet, just mark Veteran's Day Weekend on your calendar as the Williams Whirlwind Weekend of 2011!! Seriously, though, I'm hoping to get the photo tomorrow and get to gettin' on those Save the Dates!! I've been told by a reliable source that the perfect photo op will present itself tomorrow... Let's see just how reliable he is!! :-)

Like I said before, though, we're just hanging out and enjoying our last couple of months in Corpus. Bryan and I started talking logistics of our next move yesterday while we were hanging out at the beach. Rough life, I know!! Do we have any takers to drive 12-14 hours with a toddler and a preschooler for us?!?! No? That's what I guessed! HaHaHa.

Here are a few photos from yesterday's beach trip... Hope we don't make you too jealous!! You are more than welcome, though, to come visit!! Now's your chance... It's not likely we'll live here again after this short stay as this is a Navy base, not an Air Force Base!

Until next time, enjoy our beautiful bathing beauties!! :-)

Until Next Time... Love ya!! :-)

Grandmom Came To Visit!!!

2011-06-27T12:41:00.006-05:00

We had such a great time with Grandmom here visiting!! The girls had a little photoshoot with her... Here are the results of wrangling a 2 1/2 year old and an 8 month old who just learned to crawl... Enjoy!! :-)

I believe Amelia is saying, "Maddy just walked in front of the camera AGAIN!! Ugh!!" LoL.

Check out the concentration tongue:

"Please don't hit me... Please don't hit me... Please don't hit me..."

We had a great time, and are so thankful that she was able to visit us!! I hope it's not another 6 months before we see her again!!! :-)

Hope everyone's week has gotten off to a good start!! Love you guys!! :-)

A Month?!?!

2011-06-16T20:48:00.003-05:00

Has it really been almost a month since my last post?? I'm so very sorry to both of my faithful readers!! LoL...

I don't have any fun photos to share at the moment... Just wanted to check in...

It looks like I'll have plenty of hours ahead of me to catch up on blogging... The girls have both come down with Hand, Foot & Mouth Disease... It's going around on base here, and lots of our friends have it, too. Amelia woke up Tuesday morning with a really high fever and was upset all day... She sounded like she was in quite a bit of pain, so I took her to the doctor and her diagnosis was confirmed... We've been washing hands like crazy and Lysoling everything in the house. She seems to be feeling quite a bit better, but now has a rash over most of her body. Fast forward to today. Maddy was whining all day. I looked in her throat and didn't see anything wrong... Just before dinner, however, she laid on the living room floor and fell asleep. We woke her up for dinner, but she said that her mouth hurt and didn't want to eat. I felt her head, and she felt warm. I took her temperature and sure enough, she has a fever! From what I've read online, the symptoms only last about a week, but it is still contagious for a couple of weeks after the symptoms are gone. :-/ That being said, we're pretty much quarantined for a couple of weeks...

On a MUCH more positive note, my mom is heading this way TOMORROW!!! I couldn't be more excited!! I wish the kids were well, so we could do all the fun things we had planned, but I know we'll still have fun!!

I mostly just wanted to let everyone know that we're still alive and kicking. Bryan started class this past Friday and seems to be enjoying it so far. He's been able to come home and have lunch with us every day which is REALLY nice, and he's home well before dinner time every night!! This is SO MUCH BETTER than the first part of pilot training!!! :-)

I guess that's about it for now... Amelia is up and fussing in her bed. I better go check and make sure she's ok!!

Love you guys!! :-)

House Tour

2011-05-19T13:22:00.010-05:00

FINALLY!! I got the house put together long enough to take some photos!! Yay!! I was planning to do a video tour, but have come to the realization that the only way this was going to happen was to do it during naptime, so I didn't want to talk... So, here are the still photos of our house... If you scroll through them quickly, maybe they'll be like a movie... Here goes...

The front of our house... 1 car garage, front door, living room window, guest bedroom window, Amelia's window...

Standing in the kitchen looking at the living room. The doors on the right-hand side of the photo are the front door of the house and the coat/toy closet...

Looking at the living room from the dining area of the kitchen...

Looking into the kitchen from the dining area...

Looking over the bar that separates the kitchen from the dining area...

This is the hallway that leads to the kids and guest bedrooms. The first door on the left is the pantry. The second door on the left is Maddy's room. At the end of the hallway, it turns to the right which leads to Amelia's room, the guest room, the linen closet and the kids' bathroom...

The guest bedroom. MUCH larger than the one in Del Rio (and quite possibly the one in Abilene)!!

Amelia's room...

...Complete with a sleeping baby!! All together now... AWWWWW... :-)

The kids' bathroom...

Maddy's room... Complete with a sleeping preschooler... Let's do it again... AWWWW... :-)

This hallway is on the other end of the living room and kitchen and leads to the garage, laundry room, 1/2 bath and our bedroom... The door on the right is the 1/2 bath. The hallway ends in a T-intersection. To the right is our bedroom. To the left is the garage and laundry room...

This is the 1/2 bath...

The open door is the laundry room. The other door is the garage...

In the interest of not having a storage unit, we have crammed A LOT into this house, so please excuse all the "stuff"!!! This is the laundry room/Nash's room... He gets a good size one this time!! ;-)

Our bedroom... And, yes, I just realized that there's still a box at the foot of our bed. That's the last one we have to go through!! :-)

Our bedroom... Looking towards the door and the bathroom (the open door on the right). The closed door on the left is the closet (which is HUGE)!!

Our closet. This photo doesn't do it justice!! By far the largest one we've had so far!! :-)

Our bathroom... Oh yeah... Did I forget to mention that our house is handicap accessible? That's why there's a big hole under the sink and the rails by the toilet. There are also 4 rails in the tub...

The back yard...

The rest of the back yard...

That's about it!! We are really enjoying this assignment. I would even dare say that this is the best assignment the Air Force has given us so far. Well, as far as location is concerned this is the best! Bryan hasn't started class yet, so we haven't met anyone... I'm hoping to find some playgroups, etc. soon... Now that we're settling in. In the meantime, I'm okay with going shopping and playing on the beach!!! :-) So, we're all set up... Who is going to be our first visitor?!?! ;-)

Still Here...

2011-05-06T14:28:00.003-05:00

Just a quick note to let everyone know that we're still here!! We've been spending a lot of time unpacking and organizing our new home!! In our "down time" we've been hanging out at the beach!! The girls have made the transition very well!! We're really proud of them! Maddy was unsure of the ocean when we first got here, but she's all about it now!! :-) She begs to go to the beach every day!!!

Amelia has 4 teeth now, and I think I saw another one trying to come through today!! I took her to the doctor the other day because she didn't seem to be feeling well, and she weighs 17 pounds, 10 ounces!!!! She's a very healthy little girl (minus the ear infection that we're treating at the moment).

Not much to report at the moment. Once I get the house the way I want it (and can keep it that way for more than 3 minutes), I'll do some photos or a video tour of the house to share on here!! I hope you all had a great week!!

Happy Mother's Day to any of the moms reading this!!

Love you guys!! :-)

Happy Easter!!!

2011-04-24T01:18:00.001-05:00

Here are a few portraits of the girls!! They just wanted to wish everyone a very Happy Easter!!!

Have a fantastic day!!! :-)

Easter Party

2011-04-23T14:01:00.008-05:00

The base had an Easter party for the kids today. Maddy had a BLAST!!! Here are a few photos from the day!!

The Easter Bunny led the parade on a fire truck...

Amelia did NOT like the sirens!!

No one was really sold on the Easter bunny this year...

Maddy's first pony ride!!

Getting ready for the big egg hunt!!

Maddy with her loot...

Maddy & her friend Alison hanging out while the daddies fish!

This is what Amelia did while they fished!

Real men fish with pink children's fishing poles!! ;-)

Maddy helped release one of the fish the guys caught!!

We've had a great day so far! Hope your weekend is going well!! Love you guys!! :-)

Update!!

2011-04-19T20:47:00.005-05:00

Good evening everyone! It's been awhile since I last posted, so I thought I'd give everyone an update... LOTS has happened since my last post!!

First, we have a new house in Corpus!!! After looking at some rental properties off base, we just decided that it was more cost effective to live ON base. We have a 4 bedroom home that we will be moving into as soon as we get there... Which brings me to my next piece of news...

The plan was for the packers to pack on Monday and Tuesday of next week. The loaders would load on Wednesday, and we'd all drive to Corpus on Thursday to unload either Thursday or Friday. WELL... We got a call today that the packers want to start packing THIS FRIDAY!!! YIKES!!! Good thing we already had a good start on our "to do" list!!! So, we're in overdrive now trying to get everything done in the next 2 days!!!

As for our little trip to Corpus last week, we had a GREAT time!! We all decided that Corpus seems like a nice place to call "home" for the rest of the year!! We went to the Texas State Aquarium (and bought a membership because with Maddy's love of fish, we're CERTAIN we'll be going back)!! Here are a few photos from the aquarium. Please excuse the poor quality. I used my little point and shoot and the lighting was terrible... :-)

Maddy and her new BFF... This guy followed us around telling Maddy all about all the fish!! :-)

Maddy and Abby... Abby's dad is in the class ahead of Bryan. We met them in Del Rio, and are THRILLED that they are already in Corpus, so we already have friends there!! :-)

A little family photo...

Also this past week, we let Amelia take her first bubble bath with Maddy. The very first thing Amelia did was scoop up some bubbles and taste them. HaHaHa. The girls were really at the end of their ropes that night, so they don't look super thrilled, but they really did enjoy it!! Promise!!!

Alright, well, I better get some rest... We have another day of hard work ahead of us tomorrow!! Love you guys!! :-)

IndianHead Ranch

2011-04-04T14:37:00.009-05:00

Last week we had an opportunity to go back out to Bryan's class sponsor's ranch... IndianHead Ranch. Just as the last time, we had an absolute BLAST, and the scenery, hospitality and food were EXCELLENT!!! Here are just a few of the 284 photos we took while we were there!!! Enjoy!!

Amelia says, "I'm gonna knock you out!!" LoL...

Taking a little snooze by the lake...

BEAUTIFUL!!

And it was hot... Check out those hot, rosy cheeks!!

Self portrait time!!! :-)

Amelia dipping her toes in the lake...

Yep... We were THAT close!!!

Made Mommy nervous, but they climbed pretty high together!!

This was our "ride"...

"Mom, this rock is REALLY heavy!!!"

Family Photo Op...

We had Oryx fajitas for dinner... These are oryx...

All-American girls at sunset...

Funny face!! :-)

Took this one through a telescope with my iPhone... Yes... That's a zebra!!! How cool is that?!?!

We had so much fun at the ranch, and we'll miss this part of Del Rio, but we're glad to be moving on!!! Here's hoping Bryan gets some news today at work about when we'll be moving to the beach!!! :-)

Look Out...

2011-04-01T13:16:00.004-05:00

... The Williams family is on the move again!!!!

Today was Bryan's track select which means that we found out which plane he will be training in next (now that he's finished training in the T-6). The available options were T-1's, T-38's, T-44's & the UH-1... Here's a little synopsis of each of these...

T-1's: These are the planes that will track you to go "heavies". This means you'll go on to fly something other than fighters or bombers (i.e. C-130's, C-17's, C-5's, etc.) The T-1 plane is here at Laughlin Air Force Base (AFB).

T-38's: These are the planes that will track you to go with the fighters or bombers. The T-38's are also here at Laughlin AFB.

T-44's: These will track you to go somewhere in the C-130 world. The T-44's are at Corpus Christi Naval Air Station in Corpus Christi, Texas (about 5 hours from here on the beach).

UH-1's: These will track you to fly helicopters. The base for these is an Army base... Fort Rucker in Alabama.

Since Bryan is very interested in eventually ending up back in the C-130 world, his first choice (and mine for different, and obvious, reasons) was to go T-44's. His second choice was to go T-1's (in hopes of getting back to C-130's). Today was his track select, and we found out that we'll be moving in the next month to Corpus Chrisi, Texas!!!!!! We couldn't be more excited!!!!

I'm so proud of him for all of his accomplishments so far in this process, and I can't wait to see how well he does during the second half!! Yep, we're at the halfway point, folks!! Can you believe it?!?! I'm also proud of how well our family has survived thus far. People in the Air Force world will often tell you how tough pilot training is on a family. The guys are working 12 hour days 5 days a week, then have to study on the weekends. Several of Bryan's classmates have asked him on numerous occasions how he is able to be a husband, dad AND student. It's not always easy, but we're doing pretty well (in my humble opinion)!!!

So, in the next month or so we'll be packing up and moving!!! In the meantime, we have TONS to do... You know, little things like finding a roof to put over our heads!! :-)

Anyways, we're pretty excited!! If you're looking for a little vacation, we'll be living at the beach this summer, so come on down!!!! :-)

Here's a photo of the plane that he'll be flying:

In other news, we went out to the IndianHead Ranch again yesterday. I hope to have a blog up about that a little later today or maybe tomorrow. We took TONS of photos, so be on the lookout for that!!! :-)

Love you guys!!

March Photo Shoot

2011-03-27T20:22:00.005-05:00

I just realized that I never posted the portraits I took of the girls this month on here. Bryan and I took the girls to the Val Verde Winery last week to take some portraits of them in the latest dresses I made. We chose the winery because we were told we should be able to find some green grass there... We found a little patch. I wasn't thrilled with these portraits, but I got some decent ones. The girls really weren't into it on this day, so that was a challenge, and it was very sunny, so they didn't want to look up. I am glad I got these, though. Enjoy!!

I hope you had a great weekend!! Have a great week!!! We find out on Friday what Bryan's next plane that he'll be training on will be. I hope to make some time to post that information shortly after it's announced!

Love you guys!!

San Antonio Zoo

2011-03-25T20:48:00.006-05:00

Bryan is officially T-6 complete!!! For those of you who don't speak UPT (Undergraduate Pilot Training) lingo, that simply means that he has completed the training for the T-6 airplane!!! Since he has completed his training, and there are a few days before his Track Select (meaning the day we find out which plane he'll be training in next), he got to take some leave (vacation time)!!! Since he didn't have to go to work today, we took the girls to the San Antonio Zoo!! Maddy had an absolute BLAST!!! Amelia is a little young still to take in the full experience, but she was a trooper!! :-)

A friend of mine had to drive to San Antonio to pick her husband up from the airport there (he was away for a week for some training), so my friend and her daughter joined us at the zoo this morning before they had to head to the airport. It was fun to have them with us!! :-)

Here are some photos from our adventure today!! Enjoy!!

Maddy liked climbing on any of the statues we could find:

In case you were wondering what they look like, these were our partners in crime today... Melissa and Abby...

Maddy thought this monkey was really funny! It helped that he was putting on a little show for us!! Don't worry... There was glass between us and him!! :-)

Of course, all of the fish areas were a HUGE hit with Maddy!!

Amelia seems to be taking on Maddy's love for fish, too... She was a little interested in the big fish tank!!

I'm not entirely sure what she was looking at, but I think it's safe to say she was a little stunned!! LoL...

Just thought this was a cute photo of Maddy:

Of all the animals, the elephants were Maddy's all-time favorite today!!! We even left the zoo with a stuffed blue elephant... I'd show you a photo of him, but he's snuggled in Maddy's bed with her tonight!! :-) (P.S. This is another of those statues I was talking about!!)

I couldn't very well NOT take a photo of one of the elephants!!!

Maddy couldn't decide if these birds were neat or scary... She'd inch closer then back up. HaHaHa... It was pretty funny!!!

Amelia had enough fun for one day... Poor kiddo was tuckered out!!

I just thought this bird was really pretty... There was an enclosure that you could go in and feed these birds. Maddy was ok with looking at them, but I could tell very quickly that paying to feed them would have been a waste of money! HaHaHa... I tried to get a photo of her with one of these little guys, but she wouldn't get close enough!! :-)

And, of course, what trip to the zoo is complete without the FLAMINGOS!!! Or, as Maddy would call them, the flaming-os... She puts the emphAsis on the wrong sylAble!! Too cute!! :-)

I hope you enjoyed "coming to the zoo" with us today!! We had a blast!!! Everyone is tucked in for the night, so I think I'm going to head that direction, too!! We have another busy day tomorrow with a storytime that our neighbor's Girl Scout troop is leading (I hear we'll be reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar and making some clothespin/coffee filter butterflies), then we have a birthday party and we'll round out the night with a little Farrow Street BBQ at our house!! :-) We better get some good rest tonight for our busy day tomorrow!

Love you guys!! :-)

It's Been A Week...

2011-03-18T14:00:00.007-05:00

It's been a week since I last posted, so I thought I'd check in with everyone...

Everyone is still healthy (thank God), so maybe we're past the winter-time crud!! Wouldn't that be nice?!?!

On Monday the girls and I went up to the flight line to visit with Bryan and his classmates. Another wife and I were "volun-told" that we would be taking the class photo with the T-6. Tamara (the other wife) is an amazing photographer. Together, we got some good shots of the guys. Since we were all there, and had a T-6 parked just for us, we took some "couples" shots for everyone... Of course, we are the only ones with kids, so we did a family shot, too. Here are a few of the photos from that day:

We got to go have lunch yesterday with Bryan and the guys from his flight. The wives all made a potluck-style Italian lunch and took it to the flight room for them. Since we all contributed, we decided to stay and eat with them. The girls had a GREAT time!! In honor of St. Patrick's Day, I made a chocolate Guinness cake that was DELICIOUS!!! Everyone enjoyed it!! :-) Sorry, no photos from lunch!!

Today, the girls and I have just been hanging out. I let Amelia play in the ball pit with Maddy, and I think they had a great time together!! What do you think??

With it being Lent, I am trying really hard to include Maddy in the no meat on Fridays thing this year. I feel certain that she's too young to give anything up just yet, but as a family, we can abstain from meat one day out of the week. For lunch today, I decided to give fish sticks a try with Maddy. Guess what?!?! She LOVED them!! The ketchup helped, of course, but she ate almost everything on her plate!! :-) Yay for new options!!!

And, just for good measure, here's a photo of Amelia wishing she could have fish sticks, too!!

Tonight, we're having Supreme Bean Burritos... Since Bryan isn't Catholic, he doesn't technically have to abstain from meat... However, since Maddy is 2, I think it would be very difficult to explain why she and I are eating PB&J and Daddy gets to have a steak, so he is joining us this year... at least when he's at home. Rumor has it that there was a big, juicy burger in his future for lunch today!! ;-)

I think that's about it from us!! Hope to hear from all of you soon!!

Love you guys!!

Silly Maddy

2011-03-11T13:09:00.004-06:00

My crazy sleeper has struck again... TWICE this week!!!

On Tuesday, I found Maddy napping like this (can you find her??):

Then, today, here she is:

And if this is not Bryan's child, I don't know who is...

Not too much new going on with us... We're just ready for this weekend. There's a big St. Patrick's Day family-oriented party on base tomorrow evening that we are planning to attend. Other than that, we're just hanging out. The girls have been healthy for over a week now, so that's FABULOUS news!!! :-)

Hope everyone has a fantabulous weekend!!

Love you guys!! :-)

Firsts...

2011-03-03T20:44:00.004-06:00

Today was a day of firsts for Amelia...

We'll start with the "first" that unfortunately has no photographic evidence...

A little background to start with: For the last couple of weeks, when we would go in to get Amelia out of her bed, she had rolled from her belly to her back. If we put her on the floor on her belly, though, she would just arch her back and cry until we picked her up or rolled her over. We knew that she could roll from her belly to her back, but she wouldn't do it if we were watching. That all changed today, though!! Amelia was laying on a blanket on the floor on her belly while Maddy and I were sitting next to her. I was doing Maddy's hair. As I looked over to make sure Amelia was still okay, I caught her at the end of her roll over!! I rolled her back to her belly, and she rolled back to her back. She did this several times!!! I DID put a video from my phone of it on Facebook, but I can't ever get those videos to load on here... So, YAY!! Mobility is beginning!!! :-) (Remind me of this excitement in a few months when she's getting into EVERYTHING, please!!)

Our other first is a 4 month go-ahead milestone. 4 months is when it is deemed acceptable to start feeding babies rice cereal. Since Amelia had her check up yesterday (more on that in a minute), and everything looked great, I bought a box of rice cereal today!! Tonight when we were finished with dinner, we put Amelia in the high chair and gave it a go... I must say that I think she enjoyed it even more than Maddy did at this age!!! The first time we tried it with Maddy, she didn't seem sold on the idea. She warmed up to it eventually, but it took a little time. Amelia was like a little bird. She just kept opening her mouth for more!! :-) Maddy even got in on the action and helped feed her!! Both girls did a GREAT job!!! Here are some photos!!

The very first bite. I believe her face says "What the heck are you about to do to me?!?!":

Are you sure about this?!?!:

Ok, this isn't so bad... More, please!!:

Big Sister Maddy helping!!:

Amelia's 4 month check up yesterday went great!! She weighs 15 pounds, 4 ounces and is 24.75 inches long!! That puts her in the 92nd percentile for her weight and the 58th percentile for her height!!! We have a perfectly healthy growing little girl!!! The doctor said she had no complaints about her development and said everything looks great!! She continues to hit her milestones just as she should!!

Amelia also has 2 teeth already!! I must say she's a little behind the power curve compared to Maddy who had 4 teeth at her 4 month check up, but the average baby doesn't start getting teeth until 6 months of age, so she's still ahead of the average kiddo!! :-)

I guess that's about it for now!! The girls are fast asleep, and we've had some long days and nights lately, so I think I'm going to get some sleep!! I hope you're all doing well!!

Love you guys!! :-)

We're Still Here..

2011-02-28T09:48:00.005-06:00

I know some of you may have been wondering if we were still here... My apologies for being MIA lately. We've had a lot going on!! :-) We'll start with the bummer news and move to the happier news...

~*~*~Illness~*~*~

This winter has not been kind to my sweet little girls. About 3 or 4 weeks ago, Maddy and Amelia were coughing with runny noses and just overall feeling under the weather, so I tried to take them to the doctor. The doctor on base was all booked up (it was a Friday), so they gave us a referral to go off base to a different pediatrician in town. I took the girls, and we saw a Physician's Assistant. She told me that Maddy had Bronchialitis and Amelia was okay. She put Maddy on a nebulizer with Albuterol. This was the weekend that Bryan had to go out of town with work. Oh boy!!! Maddy did so much better than I expected with the breathing treatments, but the side effects from the Albuterol were TERRIBLE!!! Maddy was not my sweet little girl. By Sunday night I had had enough and I stopped the breathing treatments. She no longer sounded like she was wheezing (which I had heard before the PA told me that she was), and on Monday I called our regular doctor. We saw the family practitioner on base and he advised that she no longer needed the breathing treatments, and she was good to go!! He also shared that there is a different medication that can be inhaled through the nebulizer that doesn't have the awful side effects, so next time we should ask for that one!!

Fast forward to last weekend... On Thursday afternoon Maddy was playing on the floor with Amelia and out of no where started vomiting. We trudged through and after less than 24 hours, she had no appetite, but the vomiting had stopped. Sunday morning, we decided that she really hadn't eaten anything since lunch on Thursday, so she needed some calories. We gave her some Gatorade and no sooner did she swallow, she was asking for her bucket back. This momma had had enough!! We took a little trip to the ER where we were given antibiotics (to take 3-5 days at our discretion???), Zofran (for nausea) and one other medicine for stomach cramping (which I repeatedly told them she was not suffering from). We gave her one dose of the Zofran and did the antibiotic for 3 days. She immediately started keeping popsicles down and perked up pretty quickly there after.

Wednesday of this past week, the girls both started coughing again and had runny noses. Given that we had been down this road just weeks earlier, I called the doctor's office first thing Thursday morning, and was told they had no appointments (I was the 2nd person to call that morning), but they had one appointment left for Friday. I took the appointment for Amelia and we pushed through one more night. Friday morning, I loaded everyone in the stroller and we walked to the clinic. While the doctor was checking out Amelia, I asked her to listen to Maddy as she woke up that morning sounding wheezy to me. She hesitantly listened to Maddy as this was an appointment for Amelia, not Maddy. Upon listening to her, she realized that I was right... She was wheezing. I gave her the short version of what had been going on and she immediately ordered a chest x-ray!! What?!?! Yes, a chest x-ray to make sure Maddy didn't have pneumonia. When we got to radiology, they asked if Maddy would be okay going back alone. I gave them an "are you crazy" look, and they told me that Amelia was too young to go back. They matter of factly told me that my choices were to send Maddy back alone or leave Amelia in the stroller in the hall alone. Really?!?! You're making me make this choice?!?! I sent Bryan a quick text message, he talked with his instructors and was there before they called Maddy back!!! My knight in shining flight suit came to my rescue!! Once everything was said and done, the doctor diagnosed Amelia with RSV (a respiratory virus) and Maddy with Bronchialitis (again). Maddy was once again put on the nebulizer (we're getting our money's worth out of it). She suggested the Albuterol and I told her that wasn't an option and I wanted the Xopenex. After explaining what happened before, she agreed. She also put Maddy on a Predni-boost steroid. Steroids are no fun as they cause MAJOR mood swings, but this should hopefully knock everything out once and for all!!! As for Amelia, we tried a breathing treatment at the doctor's office, and her oxygen levels remained the same, so it seemed to do nothing for her. The treatment for Amelia is simply time because she is so young.

I am pleased to report that both girls are doing MUCH better!!! Both are still coughing and have a little runny nose, but things are definitely on the upswing!!! Here's a photo from my phone of Maddy being a trooper with her breathing treatment!!

~*~*~NEW STROLLER~*~*~

Bryan and I have been trying to find more things to do as a family on the weekends. Since our time together is so limited, we want to make the best of what we DO have. Bryan enjoys running and since this last little bit of baby weight (some from Maddy, some from Amelia) isn't going away, I thought I'd give it a go. I have been very careful not to overdo it because the last thing I need is to blow out my knee... For a 3rd time!!! So far, so good!! We only had a single jogging stroller before, so there was no way that we could all go jogging at once. When we filed our taxes and saw that we were getting a refund, we decided to purchase a double jogger. The girls LOVE it!! Maddy asks to ride in it whenever we go ANYWHERE!! I have run a couple of times with it, and I, too, love it!! We went for our first family run yesterday, and while Bryan had to go a little slower than he's accustomed to, I think this might just work out for us!! Here's a photo of our happy girls hanging out in their new stroller!!

~*~*~Jesse Hair~*~*~

Yesterday morning I knew that we were planning on our family run, so I didn't want to take a shower until after that, and my hair was a MESS from sleeping on it, so I had to do SOMETHING!! I decided to braid it (the high was 92 yesterday). When I came out of the bathroom, I asked Maddy if she wanted her hair braided too and showed her mine. She took one look at it, and said she wanted "Jesse Hair". It took me a minute, but I realized that the only person she's probably seen with a braid is Jesse from Toy Story!!! LoL. You never know what will come out of that kid's mouth!!!! :-)

~*~*~Track Select~*~*~

Bryan is almost finished with his T-6 training!!! We couldn't be more excited!! That marks the approximate halfway point of training!! Woo Hoo!!! On April 1 we will find out which plane he'll be going to next. There are 3 options... T-38's which are the track that you go if you are interested in flying fighters... T-1's which are the track that you go if you are interested in flying "heavy's" (pretty much anything other than fighters and bombers)... Or T-44's which are the track if you are certain you want to fly something in the C-130 family. Laughlin AFB (which is where we currently are) has T-38's and T-1's. The T-44's are at Corpus Christi Naval Air Station in Corpus Christi, TX. If we go T-44's, we'll be moving... The move could be as early as 6 weeks from now!! YIKES!! Bryan will get to fill out a "dream sheet" to tell his instructors what his preferential order is for these planes. We have talked at great length about what he wants (and a little bit about what I want), so we'll see what the final verdict is when he fills out his dream sheet... shortly followed by what the Air Force thinks is the best for us!! Keep us in your prayers that the best option presents itself!! I am sure it will, but I'm getting anxious!!

I guess that's about it for now!! Sorry for the lengthy blog, but it's been 2 weeks!!!! I hope that some of you will blog soon!! I miss hearing from you all!!!

Love you guys!! :-)

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!

2011-02-14T06:38:00.004-06:00

Maddy...

and Amelia...

wanted to say Happy Valentine's Day!! :-)

Aren't they just the cutest things you've ever seen?!?!

Love you guys!! Have a GREAT day!! :-)

SURPRISE!!

2011-02-10T13:11:00.002-06:00

Ok, so really this is just a teaser for the surprise that will be here on Valentine's Day!! The girls and I have a little something up our sleeves, and I am having a hard time keeping my mouth shut... No, I'm not going to share it now, but I am going to share that it's coming!! Ok, so, to both of my devout readers... Can you hold it together until Monday?!?! HaHaHa...

Also, just wanted to check in with everyone (or both of you as the case may be)!! We're rockin' right along... The girls are both healthy. Maddy went in for her flu vaccine today and was SUCH A BIG GIRL!! She even thanked the nurse after her shot!! She's so crazy! I suppose it helped that I had a little treat waiting in the wings if she was a big girl!! ;-) Hey! A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!!

Yesterday, we had the kids from the neighborhood over to decorate cookies on a stick for Valentine's Day. I tried to do heart-shaped cookies, but they turned out looking like butts. Oh well... The kids said they tasted good, and seemed to have a GREAT time!! I'm planning to do another project for the kids next month. I'm not sure what it'll be yet.. More cookies?!?! Cupcakes?!?! Individual pizzas?!?! The options are endless!!! Sorry I didn't get any good photos. I thought Amelia would be napping while the kids were here, but she wanted to join in on the party, so between carrying her around and keeping the icing on the cookie and out of Maddy's hair, a camera just plain wasn't feasible!!! :-) Maybe next time!!

One other bit of news... Bryan's sister Patty just gave birth to a beautiful, healthy baby boy this past weekend!! Collin Rainey Moyers joined the world on Saturday night... weighing in at a whopping 8 pounds, 15 ounces!! (And to think I thought Amelia was big at 8 pounds, 8 ounces!!) Everyone is doing well!! Congrats Patty and Micah!!

I guess that's about it for now!! I'm not sure if I'll be back to check in between now and Monday, but rest assured that there will be a surprise waiting for you on Monday!!!

Love you guys!! :-)

Who Doesn't Like...

2011-02-01T21:02:00.006-06:00

PLAY DOH?!?!

Maddy got to play with her Play Doh that Santa put in her stocking for the first time today. Mommy thought Play Doh was a great idea when she saw that Santa had given her a tub of it, but then quickly changed her mind when she considered the potential mess... Today, though, we took the plunge, and know what?!?! Maddy did GREAT!!!! :-)

Well, we started out a little rough... I put the Play Doh in front of her at the kitchen table on some wax paper, and this is the FIRST thing she did...

LoL... I quickly let her know that wasn't what we do with Play Doh, and after a very short Play Doh 101 lesson, Maddy was on her way to being a Play Doh expert!! She LOVED it!! She was very careful to keep it on the wax paper, and she was entertained for almost an hour!! In the life of a 2 year old, that is a pretty successful toy!!!! Amelia even got in on the action a little, too. I put her in the high chair with a blanket around her, and she was able to sit and watch Maddy play. She LOVED it too!! I told Bryan when he got home from work that I think today was the first day since Amelia entered our lives that I thoroughly enjoyed my day!!! Don't get me wrong. Every day has had it's good moments, but sitting at the table with the girls playing was SO MUCH FUN!! I was so thrilled that everyone enjoyed themselves!! Here are some photos of our adventures with Play Doh!! Enjoy!!

As I'm sure most of you have heard by now, last week wasn't a banner week for us. Bryan worked lots of hours, and was out of town Tuesday night, then again over the weekend, and both of the girls were sick. Maddy wound up being put on a nebulizer with Albuterol because she started getting wheezy... Like I said, last week was ROUGH. Plain and simple!! I am pleased to report that Amelia never had more than a little runny nose (which I'm now thinking could be her teething), and I took Maddy back to the doctor yesterday, and she's not wheezing anymore, so we're all done with the breathing treatments!!! Can I get a Woo Hoo?!?! We were supposed to do the breathing treatments through Friday, but the Albuterol had some very unpleasant side effects, so I took her back early to see if there was anything else we could do for the wheezing... Apparently, Albuterol can cause "excitability" in users. For Maddy, "excitability" came with hitting, yelling and throwing things. She was NOT acting like the sweet little girl that we all know and love. Quite frankly, it was a little frightening that the medicine had this much of an effect on her. I am so glad that I opted to check with the doctor!! Phew!! Thank goodness THAT'S over!! The doctor also gave me the name of another medicine that can be used with the nebulizer if we ever have this problem again. He said that it shouldn't have the same side effect... DOUBLE PHEW!!! Like I said, today was FANTASTIC!!!!

I guess that's about it for now... I am hoping to blog a little more frequently, but this is by no means a promise... simply a hope!!

I hope that everyone has enjoyed/is still enjoying all the snow this year. We haven't gotten any of the white stuff in Sunny Del Rio, and don't anticipate getting any. We did get a pretty intense thunderstorm last night, though. Poor Maddy (who has lived in Texas her entire life) has never really experienced a storm like that, so it woke her up and she was a little afraid. To make matters worse, we were without electricity for a couple of hours overnight, so when I went to her room to comfort her, she kept asking me to plug in her nightlight. I don't think I ever explained it in a way that she could understand, but I finally remembered that MoMo the Monkey has a light that's battery operated, so I reminded her to push the button and MoMo could light up her bed. That seemed to do the trick!! The storm brought with it MUCH colder temperatures, but I am pretty sure we'll be back to the 60's or 70's by the weekend!!

Ok, I said it before, but this time I mean it... I guess that's about it for us...

Love you guys! :-)

Arnapillow

2011-01-18T21:16:00.003-06:00

Too stinkin' cute NOT to share!! I love this kid!! :-)

Love you guys!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

2010-12-26T14:30:00.008-06:00

We hope all of you had a VERY MERRY Christmas!! We sure did!!

We opened one gift each on Christmas Eve per our family tradition. This momma likes for everyone to have fresh, new PJ's on Christmas Eve so we all look fantastic (stop giggling) on Christmas morning for all the photo taking... Here's Maddy when she got to open a gift early:

Amelia and Daddy:

After opening our new PJ's, we ate a quick dinner and got ready for church. Mass started at 6 PM, but we got there early to ensure that we got seats. During the homily, the children of the parish put on a little production of the nativity story, then mass continued as normal. All in all, we were at church for almost 2 hours... The girls did FANTASTIC (especially considering the length of time and the time of day... bedtime)!!! Here we are all dressed up and ready to go:

Our day started around the normal "wake up" time (6:30 AM) when Momo and Maddy woke up! We all got up (with the exception of Amelia) to check out what Santa brought for us. Here's a little snip-it of "the first glimpse" taken with my new Flip video camera that Santa let me open on Christmas Eve after the kiddos were in bed. The camera takes pretty good quality video, but since we didn't have very many lights on (and it was still pitch black outside), this video in particular isn't the best...

Amelia slept through all of Maddy's gift opening. Shortly after Bryan and I started opening our gifts, she woke up and joined us. Here are some photos of us opening gifts:

Opening stockings:

The first gift:

A remote controlled car for Maddy:

Hide & Seek JoJo the Bunny:

The Polar Express:

A Baby Alive baby doll...

The Thomas the Tank Engine Misty Island playset:

Amelia's awake!!!

Amelia's first gift was her Bumbo seat. That worked out nicely because then she could sit up while we opened more gifts!!

SHREK FOREVER AFTER!!

Maddy even snapped a few photos for us:

The girls got a wagon... Maddy immediately asked if we could go to the pool because our neighbors always took their wagon to the pool this past summer. LoL...

Maddy's new playhouse!!

"It has a slide, Mommy!!" :)

Around lunchtime, two of our very dear friends from Abilene came to join us for dinner!! We were THRILLED to have Mike and Breezy as our company for Christmas dinner... especially since they'll be heading to Japan in January for a 3 year assignment... When it was almost time for them to head home, we took a few pictures of the girls to document the occasion!! I sure hope it's not 3 years before we see them again... I'm already trying to research taking a space available flight to Japan with the girls for a visit... Wonder how that would go?!?! :)

I hope all of you are recovering from all the Christmas excitement!! We love you all!!

Also, a special congrats to Kelly & Andrew!! We couldn't be more excited!! I can't wait to hear all the details and plans!! :)

Love you guys!!

Guess Who?!?!

2010-12-23T08:17:00.004-06:00

Welcome to the Williams family holiday edition of Guess Who!!! Take a look at these two cuties and tell me if you know who is who... Keep in mind that one is a 2 year old photo (taken of Maddy on her first Christmas) and the other was taken this past weekend of Amelia for her first Christmas...

Ready...

Set...

Go!!!

Please leave your guesses in the comments section, and I'll try to remember to post a comment tomorrow with the correct answer... So, is the first one Maddy or Amelia?!?! And the second one?!?! :)

I hope everyone is ready for Christmas!! I know we are!! Our reindeer food is ready to go... Cookies for Santa are a CHECK!! The presents are all wrapped... Sausage pinwheels are chilling in the freezer ready to be sliced and baked Christmas morning... Ready to tear the bread for the stuffing tonight... Going out for Chinese food for Christmas Eve Eve (just for you Hannah, Heather, Uncle Mike & Aunt Michelle - isn't that what you usually do??)... Just waiting for the big day!!

Love you guys!! :)

**NOTE: Mom, since you and I have already compared these photos, you are disqualified... Don't tell anyone, but there is absolutely no prize, so no big deal!! :)**

Videos!!

2010-12-16T21:07:00.002-06:00

I took a couple of videos today so you can see Amelia!! :)

Since Amelia wouldn't nap, we took Maddy's naptime to have a little Mommy and me time... She really enjoys just hanging out. She doesn't always want to be held which can be a good thing, but also a bad thing... Good when I need to get things done... Bad when we're somewhere that she can't just lay on the floor!! :) All in all Amelia is a pretty good baby!! Maddy is finally adjusting to having Amelia around all the time. We're figuring out how to give everyone the attention she deserves!! :)

We're really looking forward to having Bryan home for more than 1 or 2 days in a row!! Next week can't come and go fast enough! It'll be quiet here on our little cul-de-sac as all of our neighbors have plans to travel for the holidays (some have already left), but it'll be nice to have our family together for the holiday!!

I am pleased to report that our "good days" have begun to outnumber our "challenging days"!!! I think we may be getting the hang of this 4 person family! The transition from 1 kiddo to 2 has been a bit trying, but I think we might just make it. No one will be getting voted out of the family any time soon!! Maddy and Amelia have even started to interact a little. Amelia is really starting to think that Maddy is funny... Another good thing/bad thing, though. Sometimes Maddy is doing something I don't want her to do, but Amelia smiles at her, so she continues doing it. Oh well... Better than it upsetting Amelia, right?!?! :)

Maddy is really getting into Christmas this year!! That is helping A LOT because with our 70+ degree temperatures everyday, I'm having a difficult time getting into the spirit of things... Go figure, right?!?! Maddy is all about it this year!! She keeps telling me that Santa is bringing her a baby doll... I guess I better find a way to relay the message to the big guy before he leaves the North Pole next weekend!! I'd hate to have a disappointed little girl on my hands! She keeps asking where Santa is, and I keep reminding her that he has to stay at the North Pole to make all the toys!! :) She's having so much fun this year, and I'm LOVING it!!

Ok, so now I'm just rambling because I'm waiting for the videos to upload... I guess that means that I should step away for a few minutes and stop boring all of you!!

If I don't get a chance to blog again before Christmas, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Love you guys!!

And the stockings were hung...

2010-12-12T13:28:00.004-06:00

...by the LCD with care! Once again, we do not have a fireplace, so our stockings are hung on our special stocking hangar by the TV!! :) More on that later, but for now, we purchased our Christmas Tree yesterday and got it decorated... Here are a few pictures from that:

Maddy putting the star on top!!

Showing off her Little Engine that Could ornament from Papa Jay & GiGi:

Posing, but refusing to look at the camera! :)

In other news, Maddy and Amelia each received a letter from Santa in the mail yesterday. Maddy was VERY excited... Here's a little video from after we read his letter!!

Well, Christmas is almost here, and our cards finally made it in the mail yesterday, so hopefully you'll be receiving yours soon!!! :)

The girls' naps did not overlap today, and Bryan had to go to work, so I better get back to Amelia before she gets upset and wakes Maddy!!

Love you guys!! :)

New Photos

2010-12-08T21:34:00.005-06:00

Hey everyone! I took a few photos of the girls today and thought I'd share them with you!

Please let me preface the unveiling of these photos with this statement...

Taking photos of a newborn is difficult... Taking photos of a 2 year old is difficult... Taking photos of a newborn AND a 2 year old together is ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE!!!

Here are the photos I took of the girls:

Needless to say, this was where the "photoshoot" ended... HaHaHa!! :)

In other news, we attempted some holiday baking today. Maddy stood on one of our tall kitchen chairs by the counter... Amelia was in the Baby Bjorn (and wasn't happy about it)... Needless to say, after the first type of cookie was completed, we called it a day. Maddy was a happy camper getting to lick the spoon, though...

I'll continue trying to post photos of the girls, but things are pretty crazy around here right now!! I don't know why... LoL. I hope everyone is enjoying this holiday season. I know we are!! Maddy is so much fun this year! She really seems to understand who Santa is and what his job is... Now, we just need to work on the REAL reason for the season... :) We have watched Dora's Christmas Carol, Shrek the Halls and The Polar Express more times than I care to count this past week, but she's LOVING it!!!

I guess that's about it for now...

Love you guys!! :)

Dinner With Santa

2010-12-02T10:20:00.004-06:00

Last night I took the girls for the annual base Christmas tree lighting, then we went to have dinner with Santa!! We had such a great time! It was my first real outing alone with both girls, and I was very proud of them! They did so well! Maddy was a little wild, but she's 2, so who can fault her?!?! LoL. Here are a few pictures of our little cuties!!

The girls, all dressed up before we left for our evening:

Col. Frankel (the base commander) with the kiddos just before they lit the tree:

The girls and I after the tree was lit:

Sorry that all you can see are Amelia's toes. I didn't realize that's how she was situated until I saw these pictures... Oh well... Here's a rundown... She was SLEEEEPING!! We all know the rule... Never wake a sleeping baby!! :)

Unfortunately, Bryan was still at work and missed out, but he got to see pictures and heard Maddy's rendition of how the evening went... Let's just say that she often gives Boomhauer (from King of the Hill) a run for his money!! HaHaHa.

No photos of the girls with Santa will be displayed at the moment. I chose the "best" one for our Christmas card this year!! No tears, but we still weren't too sure about the big guy!! :)

Check out this link for the base's news article about the evening... Photo number 3 makes Maddy our little celebrity!! ;)

I hope everyone's week is coming to a nice close!! I know I, for one, am SUPER thankful that this weekend is almost here!! We've had a long week!!

Love you guys!!

T-6 Solo

2010-11-17T21:46:00.006-06:00

Just a quick blog to congratulate Bryan on his solo in the T-6 today!!! He did a great job!! I took the girls so we could watch him... Amelia slept the whole time and one of Bryan's classmates chased Maddy so I could watch. All in all it was a successful morning!! Per tradition, once he was finished with his solo, we got to walk out to the plane and take some photos together... Then, he was dunked in a big tank of (what appeared to be very cold) water. Maddy wanted to know when it was her turn to go swimming. HaHaHa. Here are some photos we took... Enjoy!!

This is what Maddy did while Daddy was flying... She played in the dunk tank with one of his classmates:

There he is:

This is what Amelia did while Daddy was flying... SLEEP!! :)

After the solo flight!! :)

There he goes:

That water looks COLD!!

I hope you all had a wonderful Wednesday!! We're over the hump and looking forward to the weekend!!

Love you guys!! :)

TIME!!!

2010-11-11T21:06:00.005-06:00

I have finally found a few minutes of "me time"!!! I thought I'd use some of this time to fulfill my promise of posting photos of our little family (as has been promised for almost 2 weeks now)!! Can you believe it?!?! Amelia will be 2 weeks old tomorrow!! Not much has changed since my last post. We're settling into our new routine. Amelia is still sleeping great... Getting up just a couple of times every night... Maddy is still NOT sleeping well... Still getting up a couple of times a night. HaHaHa. I just bought this toddler alarm clock from Amazon.com today in hopes that we can kick this getting up all night habit once and for all!!! When the monkey's eyes are closed, she is supposed to be asleep, and when they open, it's okay for her to get up. I'll have to let you know in a few weeks how successful we've been. LoL.

I know you've all been waiting, so here are the promised photos:

Checking Amelia out for the first time... All Maddy kept saying was "look at the baby!!" She must have said it 3,000 times in the first hour she was visiting at the hospital. LoL.

Kisses for her baby sister:

Hugs for her baby sister:

Holding her for the very first time... Looking like a proud big sister!!

Amelia's first Halloween. Bad parents that we are, everyone had on their Titans gear except Amelia. We'll have to take another photo once Amelia can fit in her Titans onesies!! :)

First bath... The obligatory photo... Unfortunately, Amelia doesn't seem to care for her baths like Maddy always has. I'm hoping that once she's a little older, she'll enjoy them more!! :)

That's all I have time for at the moment. I have great plans of taking some newborn portraits soon... Once that happens, I'll be sure to post some of those, too!

Happy Friday everyone!

Love you guys!! :)

I haven't forgotten...

2010-11-06T10:32:00.005-05:00

...to blog about Amelia's arrival. It's just that having 2 little people is a little bit of work, and, quite frankly, when they sleep (at the same time), I try to do the same!! I was planning to upload some pictures today because Bryan and Maddy went to San Antonio for the day to go to an airshow (thus leaving me with the little person that eats, sleeps and poops... emphasis on the sleeps), but I forgot to get the photos off the camera before they took it with them... I DO have one picture that someone else took on my computer of the 4 of us that I'll let you see as a little sneak peek!! :)

Amelia's arrival was just about as smooth as I could have asked for. You may recall that Maddy came 2 days before her due date, so when I made it TO my due date with Amelia, I decided (after some discussion with the doctor) that it may have been in our best interest to induce labor. This was certainly not my first choice, but with the impending arrival of a houseful of company, the pressure got the best of me. I will say, however, that when I got to the hospital and got hooked up to the monitors, my contractions were already pretty regular at 4 - 5 minutes apart... BEFORE the induction even started. This is actually when all the books say that you should head to the hospital... We may have ended up there that night anyway, even if the induction wasn't scheduled... There were 3 steps that the doctor suggested we try to encourage Amelia to "come out and play" as Maddy began saying to my belly the last couple of weeks. :) The first step was scheduled to take about 12 hours. About 6 or 7 hours in, it was go time!! Shortly after my contractions got so intense, Amelia was here!! Just like Maddy, once the ball was rolling, things happened very quickly. This time it was so quick that the doctor didn't even make it in time!! HaHaHa. I had no idea that a nurse could deliver a baby, but I'm sure glad they are trained to do that!! :) Weighing in at 8 pounds, 8 ounces, Amelia is perfect in every way!!! We couldn't feel more blessed with our happy little family of four!! Oh yeah, and after all of Maddy's sleeping problems (which continue to this day), Amelia sleeps like a dream!! I sure hope that she keeps this up!!

In other news, just days before Amelia's arrival, Bryan and I took some 2-year portraits of Maddy. Here are a few of our favorites:

I hope you're all doing well... Again, sorry for the delayed post... and the lack of pictures of our newest princess!! I'll see what I can do in the next few days about that!!

Love you guys!! :)

Can You Believe...

2010-10-10T21:59:00.008-05:00

...That Maddy just turned TWO?!?! I can't believe that she's been in our lives that long!! Here are some pictures from her birthday celebration this weekend!! Enjoy!! :)

Daddy putting together the Cozy Coupe:

Birthday Breakfast!! :)

All ready to head to story time at the library on her birthday!! Her shirt says "Miss October"! :)

Story time this past week was all about fire safety. Some of the firemen came out to read the stories and show the kids the firetruck.

This fireman got in his turnout gear so the kids could see what they will look like if they are ever in a fire. Maddy wasn't too keen on getting too close. Understandably so...

Then, we got to meet Sparky the Firedog. Maddy still wasn't too sure:

Finally, Maddy got to hop in the truck and take a look around:

Opening presents later in the afternoon... A new Thomas the Train book:

A Dora dress-up dress:

Maddy got a new laptop (or should I say LeapTop)!! :)

Big smiles for the stroller set for her baby dolls!! :)

Taking the Cozy Coupe out for it's inaugural ride:

Lovin' it!

Saturday morning in her new Dora PJ's and her birthday girl crown, sash and magic wand!! :)

Saturday I decorated the Dora cupckes... Here's the hair:

Flesh colored icing:

Skin & hair:

Add some eyes:

And a mouth...

Not too sure about everyone signing to her:

Digging in:

:)

Opening presents from her friends... A Dora backpack:

And a Dora bath toy!!

Needless to say, we had a very Dora birthday here!! Maddy was in HEAVEN!!! I'd say that Maddy had a very successful 2nd birthday! I know that we had fun! These special days just get more and more fun the older she gets!! :) Now, I must get some sleep before Dora's biggest fan is ready to face the day!! :)

Love you guys!

Here ya go!

2010-10-05T15:37:00.004-05:00

Because several of you have been asking...

And because Maddy is napping...

And because I already have dinner prepared and ready to go in the oven...

What?!?! You've gotta do what you've gotta do while the kiddo is napping...

I thought I'd share my latest pregnancy picture with everyone. Let me start with, I feel GINORMOUS!!! In case you were unaware, ginormous is just about as big as you can get... My belly button has popped out this go-round, which did not happen to me when I was pregnant with Maddy, and I'm extremely self conscious about it. Self conscious and hormonal... Yep... That's a deadly combination!! So, please pretend like my belly button is still an inny... That would make my day!

Ok, so I've put it off long enough...

You know, last time it was much easier to share pictures once I had reached a similar girth seeing as how I'd been sharing them all along. This time around I haven't shared ANY pictures. Most of you saw me pretty early on, but I don't think any of you have seen me recently.

I'm officially waddling now, too. That's fun when you have an almost 2 year old who likes to dart and have you chase her and give you a heart attack because she's running towards the street.

So, you really want to see this picture, huh? Ok... Without further adieu...

So, there you have it!! Amelia is ready!! Oh yeah, and so am I... As soon as my mom gets here! :) Tomorrow marks 37 weeks!! The car seat is installed. The hospital bag got packed last night. Yep... We're pretty much ready... As soon as my mom gets here! Do you hear that sweet baby girl? Your grandmom needs to be here before you make your grand entrance so someone can watch your big sister! Thanks!

In other news... Tomorrow is Bryan's Red Carpet Day. This is a day for the spouses to get to see what the guys do on a daily basis, take a tour of the planes they'll be flying, try our hands at flying one in a sim (we'll see if they let this preggo take a turn), etc. We have been told that the event is "kid friendly", but I've also been told that the first hour or so is nothing but PowerPoint slides. I'm not going to lie. It may be difficult for ME to sit still for an hour of PowerPoint slides. There's no way that I'm going to ask Maddy to do the same. When Bryan has his solo flight, I should be able to take Maddy to check out the plane then, so she won't be missing out. Instead of taking her, I signed her up for a half day at the Child Development Center (CDC) on base. That's the daycare on base. I hope she has a fun day and makes some new friends. I'm a little nervous about sending her, but I know that if I'm going to get anything out of the Red Carpet Day, it's in our best interest to have someone watch her!! Wish us luck!

Well, Maddy's stirring a bit, so I better end this!

Love you guys!!

I have a good excuse...

2010-10-02T14:01:00.006-05:00

I am WELL aware that it's been quite some time since I blogged. Don't worry, though, I have an excuse!! Almost 2 weeks ago my computer bit the dust! Bryan and I have been sharing a computer, but let's face it, our computer hours are the same limited hours since trying to do anything on the computer while Maddy's awake is a moot point. LoL. About half of his time that he spends on the computer is studying, so that really doesn't leave much time for us to just play on ONE computer. We have our iPhones, so I've been keeping up with everything on there, but blogging kind of took a back seat. Have no fear, though, our anniversary was this past Thursday, and I got a new laptop from Bryan as a gift!! I got this little jewel from Samsung, and I LOVE IT!!! :)

I had made a little note to myself that had a list of things that I wanted to include in this blog, but most of the items were pictures. I haven't had a chance to upload any pictures to this computer yet, so those will have to wait until another day.

One thing I REALLY wanted to share with you was this site... I wish I'd known about this before Maddy was born, but I'm in luck as Amelia will be here VERY soon!! :) My bald headed children could use these. There are days that I wonder if Maddy's hair will EVER come in. HaHaHa. Speaking of, my neighbor has been watching Maddy when I have to go to my doctor's appointments (which are now weekly). While I was at the doctor this week, I got a picture text message of Maddy with pig tails!!! Shannah decided that it was time to give it a shot. They were actually 1/2 pigtails as Maddy's hair is still too short to get it all up in pigtails, but she sure looked cute!!

An update on Amelia... Amelia seems to be doing very well still. I was a little under the weather (again) at the beginning of this past week, so when I saw the doctor on Wednesday, he put me on a liquid diet for 24 hours. I still don't understand all the logic as I'd LOST 4 pounds the previous week, but I took his advice (for the most part) and tried to stick to clear liquids as much as I could. For lunch and dinner on Wednesday I had broth-y soups. That was as far as I strayed from my clear liquids only diet. I'm pleased to report that I'm feeling MUCH better now!! I'm very excited to meet Amelia!! We are at about 36 1/2 weeks. 36 weeks is technically considered full term. All that means is that from here on out if I go into labor, the doctor will not try to stop it. Amelia has developed enough that she can survive on the outside. 40 weeks is the ultimate goal (and my due date), but 36 is considered "long enough". I am still feeling pretty good. I, obviously, get a little worn out most days, but, thankfully, Maddy has been taking some pretty good naps, so I can lay down and at least rest while she's sleeping. Yesterday and today I cleaned the house. I can't honestly tell you the last time that I did all the chores in 2 consecutive days. For months I've been doing just a little here and there as it's been needed. This afternoon I plan to vacuum out my car (someone who shall remain nameless dumped an entire bag of Trix cereal on the floor) and install Amelia's car seat. For some reason the installation of the car seat seems to seal the deal for me. I don't know what it is, but that just makes it real!! I am praying (and would appreciate it if you'd join me in prayer) that Amelia will hang around until my mom gets here. Our friends, the ones who have been watching Maddy for doctor's appointments, have offered to take care of Maddy if Amelia comes before my mom gets here, but I'd much rather have Maddy at home in her own bed and all that good stuff with my mom. So, sweet, sweet Amelia... PLEASE wait until after October 22 to grace us with your presence!! Thanks! :)

Maddy's birthday is this coming week, and I'm SO excited!! Bryan and I have gotten her quite a few gifts that I'm very excited about!! We got her a set with a baby swing, bouncy seat, car seat, etc. for her baby dolls. My plan is that whenever I'm taking care of Amelia I can encourage her to do the same things with her babies as to keep her involved, but not too hands on... If you know what I mean! ;) We also got her a pink Little Tikes Cozy Coupe!!! She LOVES to play outside, and I think she's going to LOVE her Cozy Coupe!!! I also made her another book that documents the past year of her life (like the one I made last year). That's actually what I was working on ordering when my computer crashed. Thanks, Mom, for bailing me out. I was absolutely SICK when the computer crashed, as I thought I'd lost all my hard work!! I had e-mailed the book to my mom so she could look it over for typos, etc, so she had a copy and was able to order it for me!! :) I'll be sure to post some pictures after Maddy's birthday.

We're having a small get together with some of our neighbors next Saturday evening to celebrate her birthday. It'll just be a small gathering for a myriad of reasons the least of which is that I'm just so dang exhausted all the time!! :) I'm going to make these Dora the Explorer cupcakes for our guests to enjoy... I'll try to get some pictures of these to share!

Ok, well, everyone was napping, but I can hear them starting to stir, so I should end this now. If anyone has any good ideas for 2-year portraits of Maddy, please pass them my way. I need to get those done before Amelia is born, as I'll have to do some newborn and sister portraits then!! :)

Thanks for your patience while I was away!

Love you guys!!

Bryan's writting this one

2010-09-06T20:26:00.007-05:00

Hey all,
I figured that I would take a spot on Katie's blog and write about what We shall I say Me did this weekend.
So on Sat I got up and took Maddy with me for my normal Sat morning run around base which this one was 4.75 miles or so. She always enjoys going for runs with me around here plus it's more of a work out as well. While we were doing this, Kaite got to sleep in some more, which she needed cause of a cold she got. Which they gave her some good cough medicine to help it. Once we got back I needed to go out to the store to get the rest of the supplies for the BBQ that I was cooking and WE were putting on for my class on Sun. So I took Maddy with me again so we got to spend more Father/daughter time. At first she wasn't so thrilled with leaving Mommy but she got over it and napped for a few while we drove across town.
First stop was Home Depot to get charcoal for the smoker and a hatchet so I can cut up some wood that I have acquired here. Then it was over to Wally World for the rest of the groceries needed for the BBQ on Sun as well as a special treat for Maddy. I also was able to score me some more 380 ammo which was hard to find this time last year for a good price, but I'm getting a good supply of ammo for what I carry. But back to getting Maddy her special treat. As y'all know that we have been potty training Maddy, she went this past week 3 days without an accident so I told her that we would get her something special for doing that. I got her another Thomas the Train Engine, more specifically Edward the Engine he's the #3 one. So we headed home for the rest of the day. Maddy napped after lunch and then we took her to the pool once she got up cause it closed after today. But while she napped I made a Sausage Fatty. Since I was smoking a Brisket all night for the first time, I figured that I would make one for breakfast and smoke it in the morning.

On to the Sausage Fatty. When Katie first heard about this she wasn't to keen on the whole idea. But once she saw it she was much more sold on the idea. Then she smelled it once it was done and then ate it she was sold on the idea. So whats in this fatty everybody kept asking. Well its a 1 pound sausage chub, rolled flat, stuffed with what ever you want, then either smoked as is, or roll it with a bacon weave over the sausage roll. I put in some pepper jack and some apple wood smoked cheddar cheese, jalapeno's, and some hash browns with peppers and onions in it. Then rolled it up and then rolled the bacon weave on it. Which I then smoked on Sun morning for 3 hours and served it up with some biscuits.
Here are the pics of the Fatty,
finished product.
Even Maddy enjoyed some of it. But mainly her bisckets though.

See we even had leftovers, so Steve you could have had some had you been here for it.

So I did my first overnight brisket smoke. Which was fun but don't know if I will do it again though. If I do it again I won't cook it as long or at least start checking it at about 8-9 hours in. This brisket wasn't my best one by far but I learned a lot though. It got to hot and it just fell apart once it was done. So I had to make chopped brisket instead of sliced which I prefer. But it did turn out good though and everybody said that it was really good. Even Maddy liked it, she had two helpings of it and we all know how she can be a picky eater some times. So I sat up for the first 5 hours or so watching the fire that I build in the pit and drank some beer with a class mate here. Katie stayed out with me for a while then she went to bed. I don't blame her, she needs all the rest she can get.
A couple of pics of the fires from the night.

Well on Sun all we did was enjoy the goodness of the sausage fatty, go to the pool and then have people over for the BBQ. Sorry for no pictures of the brisket but I didn't take any this time. Hope that everybody had a great weekend. I know we did and we all are looking forward to me starting class on Wen.

House Tour

2010-08-25T15:35:00.015-05:00

I know you've all been chompin' at the bit waiting for the grand tour of our new home. I am pleased to announce that I finally got around to taking the videos today!!! :) (I say that as though we've all been sitting around not doing anything... HaHaHa. We've been working really hard to find a new "home" for all of our stuff. Don't get too excited... There are still some things that have been "put away" that are still awaiting their "forever homes" - or at least as forever as we'll be in Del Rio!!) I would also like to say that keeping a home clean with a 2 year old running around is not an easy task, so please excuse any messes that you may notice in the videos!! Thanks in advance!! :)

And now, for your viewing pleasure, here are the videos:

I had to do these in 3 short videos because Blogger will only allow me to upload about 30 seconds of video at a time. I'm hoping that Santa will bring me one of those really awesome hand-help Flip video cameras!! I'll have to go talk to the big guy about that one!! :) On second thought, we have an anniversary coming up... Hmmm... Hey! A girl can dream, can't she?!?! :)

In other news, Amelia and I had a check up today and it looks like everything is still going great!! Other than the to-be-expected "growing pains" I've been experiencing, I'm feeling pretty good overall. I'd just like to mention that having a 2 year old and a husband that gives the Energizer bunny a run for his money will really wear a pregnant lady out!! HaHaHa. I'm definitely no worse for the wear, though!!

I think homemade chocolate chip cookies are on the agenda now that the blog is updated. Hey, don't judge! I only have 9 weeks left before it's time to lose all the weight I've put on since February!! :)

Love you guys!! Can't wait for some of you to come visit when Miss Amelia makes her grand entrance!! :)

Makin' Mommy Proud!!

2010-08-12T14:42:00.003-05:00

I have been trying to capture this on video for several days now, and Maddy hasn't ever really cooperated, so this is the best I could get. I think it captures her personality pretty accurately, though (OOO... Something shiny!!)! HaHaHa... Enjoy!!

For those of you that are out of practice or not well-versed in toddler talk, the goal of the video was having Maddy do the sign of the cross (like she does at dinner every night)... In the name of the Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit!! :)

Still working on that virtual tour of the house for everyone... Can't get a certain someone to put the last few things where they go (and this preggo can't do it)... ::Clears throat:: Yeah... I'm talkin to you mister!! LoL. No, really... We're really close, so hopefully by the end of the weekend!! :)

Love you guys...

Daddy's Little Helper

2010-08-07T12:41:00.003-05:00

Saturday mornings are becoming Daddy-Daughter Time in our house. I think this is a win-win situation. They get to spend some time together without me... and I get to sleep in a few extra minutes!! You may recall this post from a few weeks ago when they washed cars together... Today, they made muffins for all of us!! Something tells me that I should be glad that I didn't see these videos until AFTER I'd indulged in THREE of their muffins. HaHaHa. Most importantly, though, it looks like they had a great time!! Enjoy!!

After we ate breakfast, we started on one end of the house and went room-by-room to make sure that all that was left in each room is to hang pictures on the walls. We made it to the living room/dining room and kitchen by lunch. We stopped for lunch and Bryan and Maddy are now resting on the couch. I can't imagine why. LoL. Just kidding!! Hopefully after they are finished resting, we'll finish up the last couple of rooms, then hang pictures either today or tomorrow!! Once that's complete, I will be able to vacuum, dust, etc again!! And after that? We can finally take pictures/video to put on here!! After I let Bryan relax for a day or two, I think we'll tackle Amelia's room. Seems like a good plan to get her room as put together as we can now... BEFORE he starts class!! Oh yeah, and somewhere in there we'll need to call the moving company for the base and have them come by to pack up some things for us to put in storage for the duration of our stay here. With no attic space, we thought we'd take advantage of that service... Rather than having to get rid of a bunch of stuff we're not quite ready to part with and/or don't need at this point in time!! So, believe it or not, we're actually pretty close to being "settled"... Maybe our next post will be a virtual tour of the house!! :)

Love you guys!! :)

Update

2010-08-04T13:07:00.003-05:00

Hi everyone! Just wanted to let you know that we have made it safe and sound to Del Rio. I was planning to take some pictures of the house to post, but we're just not ready for that yet. While we've unloaded quite a few boxes, we're still not "settled" yet. We have realized since our arrival just how lucky we are to have been assigned the house that we have. It's a 4 bedroom 2 bath house. That means that both girls will have a room of their own and we'll have a guest bedroom. There's a kitchen and a dining room, a living room and an actual laundry room. We can see the base pool from our back yard (mostly just the top of the slides, but Maddy knows what's behind that brick wall... LoL). Also throughout the neighborhood there are lots of little playground areas. We can pretty much walk anywhere on base that we want/need to go to. Our house was built in the 1950's, but has been recently renovated, so that's a HUGE plus!!! All the rooms have ceiling fans (which we saw online is not the case for all the houses), and Nash has a fenced in yard!! The yard is lacking shade, but he can find shade if he needs it... Just doesn't have the covered patio that our house in Abilene had.

Maddy has moved up to a "big girl bed" which sometimes proves to be a good thing, but other times I wonder if she was ready for it yet. I think so much has changed for her these last couple of weeks that no matter what bed she was in, she'd still be out of sorts.

Bryan got us all set up with the insurance here... They have asked that I make an appointment to verify my pregnancy (AS IF there's a question at this point!!), so I go on Friday morning for that, and hope to have a new doctor lined up ASAP!! :)

We FINALLY have Internet... It was installed yesterday morning.

We're still working on the TV situation. The DirectTV guy came out this morning and said that the only way to install would be on the rooftop, but since we're renting, we had to run that by the landlord, and they said no. They suggested that we put it in the side yard, so we've called them to come back out and take a look at that. If that doesn't look like a feasible option, we'll call the cable company and go that route. At this point, I don't care what happens... I just know that Maddy is bored out of her poor little mind watching the same few DVD's over and over and over and... Well, you get the point!!

We've met quite a few of the people from Bryan's class. It looks like most of them are married. There's a wife that is due with their first child 3 days before I'm due with Amelia. That should be interesting!! :)

We've been trying to take Maddy to the pool everyday since we got here just to get her out in the fresh air. We bought her one of those swim suits with the floats built in before we left Abilene, but didn't get a chance to try it until we were here. She LOVES it!! I was a little worried because she was less than thrilled when we first tried it on her, but now that she sees how free she can be in the water, she's in heaven!! That child has NO FEAR!! Wonder where she got that from?!?! The first day she had a hard time keeping her feet under her, so we had to keep pulling her face out of the water. Day two it seemed to just CLICK... Now, she can doggy paddle with the best of them!! Here's a quick video to show you how much fun she's having at the pool:

I guess that's about it for now. I tried not giving Maddy any allergy medicine last night to see how she'd do today since we're in a different area, and she was sneezing all morning, so I gave her some Benedryl a little while ago. She promptly crawled onto the love seat and conked out. She's been asleep for an hour and a half already. I should probably get off here and do something productive...

Talk to everyone later, and I'll try to post pictures or a video soon of our house!

Love you guys!! :)

CAUTION: Babe in Bikini

2010-07-24T13:10:00.006-05:00

What started out as a simple car-washing lesson...

Quickly turned into playtime with the hose!! Enjoy this photos of our "babe" in her "bikini"!! :)

Hope you're able to stay cool in this heat... Maddy is doing her best!! :)

The Unknowns...

2010-07-19T21:14:00.003-05:00

...Have mostly become knowns!!

May I just start with a BIG, GIANT WOO HOO!?!?!?

Since Bryan went for his physical in San Antonio last week and everything went well... (Thank goodness he's as healthy as we suspected!!) ...Lots of our unknowns have been answered...

Last Friday Bryan FINALLY got his orders. After getting his orders, we got some lunch, then he went back to base and started getting our answers...

He talked with TMO (Traffic Management Office) who is supposed to help us get our household goods from here to there. Just as we were told a few weeks ago, they have a three week wait from the time you get your orders to the time they can schedule a moving company to pack, load and move your stuff. Quite frankly, we don't have three weeks... That being said, we hired a moving company to move our things for us. The government will allow you to do a DITY (do it yourself) move. If you go that route, they will reimburse you for some, if not all, of the costs you incur. We told TMO that we'd be doing a DITY move, and we'll just plan to use whatever reimbursement they give us to offset that cost. TMO suggested that since we're only going about 5 hours from here that we pack and move everything ourselves. Bryan had to hold it in and not laugh at them... Considering I'm 6 months pregnant and we have an almost 2 year old... HaHaHa. Yeah... THAT would happen!!! :) The packers will be here next Monday, and they'll load the truck on Tuesday...

This brings me to my next tidbit of good news... Our household goods will be delivered on Thursday next week... Know what that means?!?! That means WE HAVE A HOUSE!!! Want to know the BEST news of that?!?! We have a FOUR bedroom house!! We were told originally that we only qualify for a 3 bedroom house. We were prepared to handle that, but poor Amelia was going to just kind of live in the guest room, sleep in the pack 'n' play and not have a room of her own. NOW, she will have her very own room with her very own furniture!!! I believe that calls for yet another WOO HOO!!!

Our Realtor seems to FINALLY be working to help us now, too. The closing on our house is scheduled for next Thursday. We understand that we can do everything through the mail, but with that being the day that all our household goods are to be delivered, it will likely be tough to get away, find a notary, sign everything, then FedEx it back here all while trying to supervise the delivery of our household goods. Seems like it would be much more simple to get all of that done BEFORE we leave Abilene, wouldn't it?? Well, our Realtor is actually trying to get everything moved a little earlier. We'll see if it happens!!

I guess that's about it for now. I'd just like to point out that my mantra of "Everything happens for a reason" really seems to be holding some truth right now!!

So, all of this to say... WOO HOO!! Although our new home on base is not likely to be the most modern and up-to-date place, the 4 bedroom seems to be about 100 square feet bigger than our current house. I'd go out on a limb to say that the things we need on a daily basis should fit just fine and adding another person to the mix shouldn't cramp us too much. I am fully prepared to look into renting a storage unit as we will not have a garage or an attic to store things in our new home. The things we have in our garage and attic now, though, are not things we need regularly, so I think we'll be A-OK with them being elsewhere for a little while!! :)

Thanks to everyone who prayed for us, and helped us to keep our chins up through all of this!!! We're almost over all the hurdles and can get settled back into life to try to find a new normal... At least until Amelia graces us with her presence!! HaHaHa!!

Now, where did we put that St. Joseph statue?? We need to take him with us!! :)

Love you guys!! :)

Little Tidbits

2010-07-15T20:27:00.006-05:00

~*~Amelia ... Williams~*~
The Jury is still out on what Amelia's middle name will be. I think we've now narrowed it down to Joy and Elise. Bryan very much prefers Elise, and I'm voting for Joy. We'll see who comes up with the better defense once D-day arrives (or maybe [read: hopefully] sooner)...

~*~Maternity Portraits~*~
Saturday morning we're heading out with my friend Olivia to take some maternity portraits. We had planned to do 2 sessions: one that was just Bryan and me and one that included Maddy. Since we're really running out of time (more on that later), we're going to do our best to do all the photos in one session. I think Maddy will be cooperative, so I think it'll work out just fine!! I'm very excited!! When we took Maddy's, we had all kinds of props. This time, we don't have very many props... Ok, so really, we only have ONE prop (I'm trying to think of a couple more before Saturday). LoL, but I think that adding another person and changing the location of the photos will be plenty!! I can't wait to see how they all turn out!! :)

~*~Moving Update~*~
I called today to have all of our utilities turned off when we move. It's all beginning to feel very real!! Bryan should have his orders tomorrow by lunch. (Thank God!) We've been waiting a LONG time to get his orders. We're hoping that lots of our "unknowns" will become "knowns" tomorrow. We'll see if we get the answers we want... But, nonetheless answers are better than no answers at this point!! We're planning to have our "final out" at Dyess on July 28. That means that on that day Bryan will file his last little bit of paperwork, and we'll hit the road. I scheduled one last doctor's appointment for that morning, so Bryan's planning to take Maddy with him for his "final out", then we'll meet, pick up the dog (not sure where he'll be during all of this), and hit the road. 5 hours later, we should be in our new city... I wasn't kidding when I say that it's getting VERY close!!!

I guess that's about it for now. We're looking forward to starting a new chapter of our lives, but as you can imagine, there are some nerves that come along with this transition! Just say a prayer for us that everything goes smoothly with the move. We can certainly thank God that our house sold!! Today is the last day of the "option period" which means that after today, there's virtually no way that the buyers can back out of the sale!!! I happen to think that's pretty exciting!! The home inspection is complete. The appraiser came out today. (We're still waiting to hear what he has to say.) All that's left is the termite inspection. I don't suspect we'll have any problems with that as we just had an inspection in the spring, but it's still a hurdle we'll have to get over before the day of closing!!

Ok, so I just said that I was going to end this, so I suppose I really should. This is how I end conversations, too (right Mom and Breezy?). LoL.

Talk to everyone later!

Love you guys!! :)

Whoa... What a Day?!?!

2010-07-07T21:14:00.006-05:00

Our day started one way and ended COMPLETELY different... Here's how our day started:

Everyone peacefully playing together in the pool...

Nice hugs, Maddy!! :)

Nash says, "Duh, what are we looking at Maddy??"

Maddy says, "I got it Nash!!"

Proof that Maddy needs a sibling... Yes, she was pushing the tennis ball in the swing...

Ok, so maybe a little supervision is needed once Amelia gets here. HaHaHa...

Yep... Trying to swing on the teeter-totter with the ball now...

"Yo, a friend to sit on the other side of this thing, please?!?!" Said in her best Mafia voice...

Can anyone guess where this led??

OUCH!! No, really, it didn't hit her in the face. She was just leaning back pulling on it. Looks like it whacked her good, though, doesn't it?!?! :)

"Really Mom? Pictures while I eat my popsicle?!?!"

"Thank Goodness Gi-Gi helped me with my popsicle!! If not, there's a good chance Nash would have taken a bite!! Thanks, Gi-Gi!!"

Then, THIS happened... The bottom fell out, and Lake Williams is back with a vengeance!!

Look at the end of our street!!!

Bryan standing at the end of our street!

So, we started our day needing sunscreen and swimsuits, but the day ended needing rain boots!! Here's hoping that the rain stops soon... Maddy LOVES being outside, and having to keep her in for several days will NOT make for a happy toddler (or Mommy or Daddy for that matter)!!

I guess that's about it for now!

Talk to everyone soon!

Love you guys!! :)

4th of July Parade

2010-07-05T21:35:00.005-05:00

So, I saw that several of you were involved in the first annual Dollar Store Fan Battle... While the Williams members of the family are insanely jealous that we missed out on this momentous occasion, we had a little fun of our own for the 4th...

Every year our neighborhood has a little parade. This year, we got to ride in Mike and Breezy's '56 Chevy and be participants in the parade... We missed Breezy BIG TIME, but had a good time nonetheless... Here are a few pictures:

Maddy was a "free woman" since the Chevy doesn't have seatbelts... Can you imagine??

"Helping" Mr. Mike...

She got a little gangsta' on us...

Supervising... Don't worry Mrs. Breezy... Maddy kept Mr. Mike in line!! :)

The parade was on Saturday morning. Sunday afternoon we had a few of our friends over for a small BBQ. When we started making plans, we kept our guest list VERY short because of the house being on the market... Which brings me to our FANTASTIC news...

Our house is under contract!!!! Thursday night a couple came to look at our house. After some negotiating on Friday, we signed the contract. The home inspection was today, and we should find out the results of that tomorrow. Things are FINALLY starting to move along!! I couldn't be more excited!! We're scheduled to close on July 30. PERFECT timing!! I'll keep you posted on our move to the thriving metropolis of Del Rio, TX!! HaHaHa.

Bryan's mom is coming for a visit tomorrow morning. I also have a baby doctor appointment for Amelia and me in the morning. I feel like the little miss is doing great... Let's hope the doctor agrees!

One last thing... We have not settled on a middle name just yet. The poll reveals that her name should be Amelia Joy, but we're going to sit on it just a little longer!! :)

Talk to everyone soon!

Love you guys!!

Help, Please

2010-07-02T21:00:00.004-05:00

Bryan and I have been thinking long and hard about a name for our new baby girl. We have settled on the first name of Amelia, however, the middle name is giving us a little trouble. We have it narrowed down to 3 choices: Jane, Joy and Elise. We have added a poll to the side of the blog. Please vote to let us know what you like...

Amelia Jane
Amelia Joy
Amelia Elise

Thank you so very much, and I look forward to revealing the result!! :)

Love you guys!!

The Verdict Is In...

2010-06-29T15:48:00.003-05:00

Baby W had a doctor's appointment this morning. Bryan and I took the baby and got to take a little peek... The verdict is in... We now know if Maddy is going to have a baby brother or a baby sister... It looks like Bryan and Nash will officially be outnumbered now, and we'll have two little princesses at our house!! Yep, that's right!! We're pleased to announce that we'll be having another little girl towards the end of October!!! :) Baby girl W is due to arrive around October 27, 2010. She currently weighs in at a whopping 1.5 pounds and is right on track for her due date! The doctor said that everything looks great!!

Before the question comes up, no, we haven't decided on a name. We're actually having a bit of a tough time choosing one. This is where you, our faithful readers, come into play. We're taking suggestions for names. Before you get too excited, the following names have been suggested by baby name websites and have already been vetoed: Bathsheba, Ruth and Gertrude (among others)... Hit us with your best shot!!!

In the meantime, I'm going to continue looking for stain remover for pink clothing... Still haven't found the best product, and it looks like we won't be seeing any dark colored clothes in our near future!!! :)

We'll keep you posted on her progress!! Talk to everyone soon!

Love you guys!! :)

I'm Afraid...

2010-06-14T20:44:00.005-05:00

...That I may have passed my fear of characters on to Maddy.

This guy:

had Maddy TERRIFIED tonight. HaHaHa. The spouses' group for Bryan's squadron had a fundraiser this evening at Chick-fil-A. The group will receive a percentage of the profits that were made between 6 and 8 PM this evening. I am a fairly active member of the group, so my mom, Maddy and I went to show our support and had dinner there tonight. What a farewell dinner for my mom, huh? Her last night in Abilene, and we take her to Chick-fil-A... Lucky, huh? LoL.

Back to Maddy and the cow. Maddy repeated "cow" the whole time we were there, and as the cow got closer, she changed her phrase to "big cow". Once, the cow tried to give her a high-five, and her countenance changed VERY QUICKLY and she frantically started repeating "hug me" to whoever she was closest to (me or my mom). HaHaHa. Poor kid was terrified. Of course, after he walked away, she went right back to repeating "cow". LoL. :) Needless to say, we didn't get any pictures of her with the cow. :)

I hope everyone's week got off to a good start. My mom leaves in the morning. We're pretty sad, but getting back to "normal" was inevitable. HaHaHa. Dad, I'm sending her home. Take good care of her!

Talk to everyone later!

Love you guys!!

This One's For Bryan...

2010-06-09T13:57:00.003-05:00

Some people start their day with coffee... Not Bryan! When he needs a pick-me-up, his go-to beverage is this:

So, why am I bringing this to your attention today? Well... I'm glad you asked. What's that? You didn't ask? Well, let's pretend that you did...

Today marks 20 weeks of this pregnancy. Yes, I'm aware that we haven't talked much about this pregnancy. Yes, Kate, I know that you warned me about bambino numero dos... and that I better do things exactly like I have with Maddy, and, well, it looks like I'm already slipping. Here's hoping that life will slow down soon, and I can give this baby a little more attention. At the current moment, I'm doing as much as I can... Resting, eating, yep... Got it covered! HaHaHa...

Ok, so back to the fact that this is week 20. I've been following this website that goes week-by-week to tell what's happening with the baby... What's happening with me... Etc. My favorite part of the website is that it compares the baby's size to something tangible that we can all picture in our heads. I heard about these sites when I was pregnant with Maddy, but never found one. This time around, I searched again, and was pleasantly surprised with how easily I found one... This week (week 20), the baby's size is compared to that of a can of Red Bull... So, Bryan, this week is for you!! I LOVE YOU!!

I hope you're all having a good week. Our week has been stressful and hectic, but (knock on wood) today has been a HUGE improvement, so here's hoping that our week is improving!

Love you guys!

New Car!!

2010-05-25T20:26:00.003-05:00

Well, Maddy and I did it... We bought a new car for Bryan. Here are some pictures to share with you:

We hope he likes it!! Maddy sure does! :)

Talk to everyone soon!

Love you guys! :)

Discovery Place

2010-05-23T19:57:00.007-05:00

This afternoon my mom and I took Maddy to Discovery Place. It's one of those hands-on kids science museums. I've always loved those... Still do, and the apple doesn't fall far from the tree!! :) Since Maddy had to ride home in just her Pull-Up, I'd say the adventure was a SUCCESS!! HaHaHa! :) There is a special room just for people Maddy's size, and she LOVED it!! The room had a water table (pictures to follow) which Maddy couldn't get enough of... Hence, riding home almost naked!! After we were in the kids room, we went upstairs to explore the other exhibits. My mom made Maddy a princess crown out of aluminum foil, which Maddy seemed to enjoy. The whole time we were upstairs, however, Maddy kept asking to go back to the water table, so once we saw what was upstairs, we headed back down... to the water table. I really think that if we'd done nothing other than the water table, Maddy would have been perfectly satisfied. LoL. Here are some pictures of our big day!!

Our first time at the water table:

A GIANT Light Brite!!!

Making music with pots and pans:

Looking like she's going to beat that kid up... Don't worry... She was sharing:

Even Mom got in on the fun...

Heading in for round 2 at the water table...

Check out the extreme concentration (tongue sticking out):

Upstairs checking ourselves out on the "TV":

Maddy in front of the Eiffel Tower made out of blocks:

Heading into a round room with lights on the floor that made music when you stepped on them... There was a fog machine in the doorway that Maddy really liked:

See? She RAN in and out of the room to go through the fog (over and over and over and well, you get the point):

Maddy's foil crown. Isn't she lovely? Sing it!! :)

In other news, Chris and April came to visit this weekend. Here are Maddy and Uncle Chris taking a little snooze...

Last, but not least, Bryan and I have some exciting news. Those of you who are on Facebook probably already know it, but we bought a 2009 Pontiac G8!!! Bryan has been wanting one for quite some time. We found one in Charlotte, so my dad and I went to take a look at it yesterday, and made an offer. We'll head back in the morning to fill out the paperwork and get the keys. I hope that Bryan enjoys his Father's Day gift... ;) We're going to get it to Atlanta (haven't decided how it'll get there yet), so that after Grandpop's birthday party, we can drive it home. After I pick it up tomorrow, I'll try to post some pictures...

Talk to everyone soon!!

Love you guys!! :)

Maddy's Ready...

2010-05-13T20:00:00.005-05:00

...For her daddy to take her camping!! :)

Maddy's Grandpop got a new tent today, and Maddy gave it a whirl. She really had fun climbing in and out of it! See for yourself:

She even figured out what she is supposed to do in a tent. Don't be fooled, though, she stood strong all day by not taking a nap, and didn't give in for the tent either!! :)

She even convinced me to get in with her long enough to take a picture. No one get any ideas... I am still not interested in camping!! : )

I guess that's about it for now. We've all been exhausted around here lately! Maddy woke up early this morning, so she and I took a nap on the couch this morning, but as far as an afternoon nap goes, Maddy hasn't been too interested in that lately.

We are working on potty training a little bit. Yesterday, Maddy did a very good job with it, but as she got more tired in the afternoon, she lost interest and her successes. Today, Maddy woke up seeming as though she wasn't feeling well, so today was not a good potty day. I think her 2 year molars are FINALLY trying to break through. They've been pretending that they were ready to come through for about 5 months. The drooling started this morning, so hopefully, they'll break through soon, and we can put teething past us until her 5 year molars... Or until the new baby starts teething. LoL.

I hope everyone is having a good week. We're looking forward to a visit from Chris and April next weekend for Chris's birthday!!

Love you guys!! :)

HOLD ON!! HOLD ON!!

2010-05-03T20:28:00.003-05:00

So, here's a little background before I post my latest video of Maddy...

I frequently use my hands-free device while I'm talking on my cell phone. Also, often while I'm on the phone, I'm holding Maddy (as she's a pretty big Momma's girl these days). I tend to hold her on my right side. This also happens to be the ear that I put my hands-free in. Every once in awhile (ok, so pretty frequently), Maddy will pull my hands-free out of my ear since she gets a reaction out of me. What is the reaction? Well, I yell, "HOLD ON HOLD ON" to the person on the other end hoping he/she will not hang up and give me a chance to get my hands-free back. LoL.

Now, on to the video... Maddy was "talking" on her play cell phone today and kept yelling something. It took me a little time, but I finally realized that she was yelling "HOLD ON HOLD ON"!! LoL. She's been cracking me up BIG TIME lately!! I love this kid!!

I hope that gave you a little chuckle for your day!

Love you guys!! :)

It's Official!!

2010-04-28T21:59:00.004-05:00

Just a quick note with a couple of pictures to share this news with you:

Yep... There is a For Sale sign in our front yard!! Here's hoping this sign is accompanied by a "SOLD" sign in the near future!!

Have a great end to your week!

Love you guys!! :)

Photography Lesson 5 - On-Site

2010-04-13T20:47:00.008-05:00

Hey everyone! Today I had my 5th photography lesson. Normally I do not post any pictures until after I show them to Olivia, but tonight, I'm just too stinkin' excited NOT to share them with everyone!!! Today was our on-site lesson meaning we went a couple of different places outside to take some photos. The best part about today? Maddy was the subject!!! (A pretty dang cute subject, if you ask me!!) Well, I'll let YOU be the judge of the cute-ness... Here goes:

Obviously, I didn't take this picture, but I liked it so much, and I don't think Olivia will mind that I posted it on here... (Thanks, Olivia!!)

I hope everyone enjoyed our little photo shoot!! Maddy had a GREAT time!!

Talk to everyone soon!

Love you guys!! :)

Sidewalk Chalk

2010-04-08T20:47:00.005-05:00

The Easter bunny brought Maddy some egg-shaped sidewalk chalk. We decided to give it a go tonight. Maddy thoroughly enjoyed the artistic freedom it allowed her... Who needs to be confined to one lousy piece of paper when you can have the whole driveway to express yourself?!?! HaHaHa. Here are the pictures, and one short video from our adventure with sidewalk chalk:

The Chalk...

What to draw... What to draw...

Ah ha! I've got it!

Happy Camper...

Show us your muscles!!

Did you ever wonder what a toddler's chalk outline looks like? Squirmy!!

Looks like she drew it, doesn't it? I mean, why, yes, my child genius drew this!! ;)

What do you hear?!?!

AIRPLANE!!! (Thank goodness we live on the final approach for the airport... It'll be even better when we live on base in Del Rio!!)

Happy kid... These are her 2 new favorite words. I suppose it could be worse, but by the time you've heard them for the 1,000,000th time for the day, you're ready for the her vocabulary to expand... Just a little!! ;)

We had so much fun outside, but she told me two times that she was "all done", so I packed up the chalk and headed inside. What happened next is beyond my comprehension...

Please note the red face and the angry clenched fist...

...And the reaching with all her might for the door handle...

Yep... She cried for about 20 minutes. Apparently, my pregnancy-induced indecisiveness has rubbed off on her...

Once she saw that the Wonder Pets were on TV, and she got her cup of milk, she calmed down. Terrible two temper tantrums, here we come!!! :)

I hope everyone has a good night. I'm going to go lay down and read. I just got 2 new books in the mail yesterday (thanks, Mom), and I started one last night. It's really good, and one of those "I don't want to put it down" kind of books, so why am I still rambling on here?!?!

Talk to you later!

Love you guys!!

Third Installment...

2010-04-04T20:45:00.005-05:00

... of our Easter weekend...

Here are the last pictures of our Easter weekend. I forgot when I posted the self portraits earlier to post these pictures of Maddy first thing this morning checking out what the Easter Bunny brought for her:

Some Yogurt Melts, Lil Crunchies, Sidewalk Chalk (in the shape of Easter eggs), and a VERY COOL Magna-Doodle...

After our fantastic Easter dinner with our friends, we came home and the Easter Bunny had come BACK!! This time he left some eggs for Maddy to "hunt". She really enjoyed this part of the day, too!! :)

Poor Maddy didn't understand that there are a finite number of eggs for an egg hunt. She kept asking for more. HaHaHa...

Oh boy! Reeces' Peanut Butter Cups inside!!! The Easter Bunny is THE BEST!!

Well, I think that should cover our weekend. Sorry it was so scattered, but, it is what it is!! :)

HAPPY EASTER!!

Love you guys!! :)

Easter... Part Deux...

2010-04-04T12:30:00.004-05:00

Here are a few of the "self portraits" Maddy took of us this morning. I let her have the remote for the camera (as I knew there was a better chance she'd sit still). LoL. She had fun. These may not be professional quality, but they're some fun memories!! Enjoy! :)

Check out this artistic picture... Dog in front in focus... Maddy and Mommy in back out of focus...

No need to hide the remote... She was having FUN!!

And... That's a wrap, folks!!

We would like to wish everyone a VERY HAPPY EASTER!! We're on our way to a friend's house for some Easter celebratin'!! That's how we do things in Texas!!

Love you guys!! :)

Easter Party!!!

2010-04-03T21:00:00.004-05:00

Today was the Easter Party for the two C-130 squadrons on base, and the families, of course. It was a little chilly and windy, but far from COLD. They had a bounce house and it was a potluck lunch. Poor Maddy was DYING to get in the bouncy house, but the boys in there were playing ROUGH, so she never got a turn. I think she'll survive, though. The 2 highlights of the day were the egg hunt and getting her picture taken with the Easter bunny. Here are a couple of pictures from the day...

Preparing for the hunt:

Found one!!

I have two now... What to do?? Running out of hands here Mom!!

The basket doubles as a purse when you're Maddy...

Yes, the Easter Bunny looks a little scary, but he is actually a friend of the real Easter Bunny who was booked at a seemingly more important event today...

I hope you enjoyed this little peek into our day. Maddy had a great time. We're going to spend the afternoon with some friends to celebrate tomorrow. :) I also have an "in" with the Easter Bunny and he promised me that Maddy wouldn't be disappointed in the morning!! :)

Happy Easter everyone!

Love you guys!!

Funny Kid...

2010-03-31T21:02:00.005-05:00

Maddy just keeps me laughing. I guess she has to learn this stuff somewhere... I just don't know where... ::WINK WINK::

Here's a video of Maddy "burping" her babydoll:

After I took this video, the little ham wouldn't stop cheesing for the camera, so I took a couple of pictures... Here's the best one:

I put Maddy to bed. Everything went normal. I laid her down just like I always do. When I went in to check on her before I came to bed, and THIS is what I found:

Between the time I put Maddy to bed, and I came to bed, I washed her sippy cup, which I do every night... It's part of our routine. As soon as I turned the water off, I heard something scratching on the window. Of course, my heart kind of skipped a beat because that's not usually a good sign. No worries, though... This little guy decided to hang out on the window and watch me do dishes (please pay no attention to how NASTY my screens are)...

Speaking of cleaning (or the obvious lack-there-of)... I am meeting with the Realtor tomorrow to get the ball rolling on getting the house on the market. My plan is for her to come over tomorrow and just tell me what needs to be done. Don't worry, Mom and Dad, I'll keep the list until you're here. I wouldn't want you to miss out on any service hour opportunities!! ;) No, really, though, my mom and I have already made a list, so I'm hoping we've already noticed all the "big" stuff...

Ok, well, I guess that's about it for tonight. I'll talk to everyone soon!

Love you guys!!

Allow Me To Introduce Myself...

2010-03-28T20:52:00.004-05:00

Hi! My name is, well, yet to be determined. Mom and Dad say they know what my name will be if I'm a boy, but if I'm a girl, they still have some "discussing" to do. HaHaHa. I'm not big enough yet to reveal my gender, and, quite frankly, I like having a little secret between me and God!! He's a nice guy!! He's really taken good care of me so far!! :) My mom wanted to share my first "photos" with everyone, but she's not been feeling well. My big sister Maddy caught a cold from some of the kids she plays with then shared it with our mom. Wasn't that nice of her? I hear she's a good sharer!!! Mom can't stop coughing and isn't sleeping well because of it. I heard her telling Maddy earlier that since Maddy's feeling so much better, she was going to take the humidifier tonight. She says that'll make it easier for us to sleep. I hope she's right. She deserves a good night's sleep. Speaking of, she took some Benedryl not too long ago, so I have a feeling we'll doze off soon. Enough about Mommy, though... It sounds like SHE'S writing this, doesn't it?? :)

Mommy and I had our first doctor's appointment this past week. The doctor checked us out and said everything looks GREAT!! She said my heartbeat sounds great, and I should make my grand entrance into the world sometime around October 27. Mommy said that Maddy's birthday is October 8. I sure hope she gets to celebrate her birthday before I get there!! Wouldn't that be a bummer way to introduce myself to her. HaHaHa. But, wait, isn't that what younger siblings are supposed to do? To make life "totally unfair"??? :) I could get used to this!! :) With my due date being October 27, that means I'm almost 10 weeks old already!!! Time flies when you're growing so much!!

I feel kind of bad because I was making Mommy sick to her stomach all day everyday for a little while. I decided to cut her some slack since she has a lot going on right now. I have just been making her a little tired now. She thanked me and told me that was MUCH easier to handle!! Now, if I could only get Maddy to stop bouncing on Mommy's belly... :( Oh well... I'm sure that's not the last sibling rough-housing I'll endure in my lifetime.

I guess that's about it. I'll post the pictures the doctor took of me on Wednesday. I'm still a little tiny bean, so there isn't much to see, but Mommy thinks I'm ADORABLE already!! The black part of the picture is my home (Mommy's womb) and the grey part is me!! The very last picture shows my heartbeat... STRONG!!! ENJOY!!

Love you guys!! Can't wait to meet you all!! :)

Please & Thank You

2010-03-18T20:47:00.004-05:00

Tonight, I made myself a loaded baked potato and a salad for dinner. Maddy saw the shredded cheese for my potato and wanted some. I wanted to share the manners that this little girl has...

That's right, she said please at the very beginning of the video, more towards the middle of the video and thank you right before I gave her the plate!! She occasionally does it without prompting, but no matter what, if I remind her, she says it!!

I was worried about how much cheese she was eating. I didn't know if that would give her a belly ache later, but then I saw this:

Yep... Most of it seems to have ended up in her lap. I think we'll miss any potential belly aches this time!! :)

Finally, my biggest helper in the house helped clean up all the spilled cheese:

Please note the tongue. HaHaHa.

I hope everyone's week is coming to a nice close. Ours is. We went to the park this afternoon (second day in a row). We both have a little pink on our cheeks, but I'm happy to report that Maddy had SPF 50 sunscreen on today, so the pink may just be a little remnants of yesterday's fun in the sun!! I guess that's it for tonight!

Have a GREAT weekend!

Love you guys!! :)

Another Photography Lesson

2010-03-13T21:15:00.006-06:00

Hey everyone! After taking a little break from my photography lessons (for various reasons), we resumed this past week! It was so great to get back to it! This week's lesson was taking portraits in the studio. A friend of Olivia's (my instructor) came over and we took some maternity portraits for her. Since I didn't ask her permission, I won't be posting any of those photos on here, but I will say that I was AMAZED at the difference that the lights Olivia has made with the quality of the portraits!! I see a Christmas gift in my future... Oh wait, what's that you say? Mother's day is right around the corner?? Good point! I'm glad you mentioned that! (Bryan, are you reading this?) My homework this week is to choose a couple of people and borrow Olivia's studio to take some portraits. I've chosen my friend Diana's new baby girl Lilly and, of course, the princess herself, Maddy. I took a little poll on Facebook for ideas for Maddy's portraits and have made my decision. Once I take them and discuss them with Olivia, I'll post them on here. (I like for my homework to be a surprise when I show the photos to Olivia, and she reads my blog. Hi Olivia!)

Here are some of my photos from my last lesson's homework:

I hope you enjoyed these pictures! I can't wait to share more with you soon!

Have a great weekend!

Love you guys! :)

Excuse

2010-03-10T17:38:00.002-06:00

Here is my excuse for not blogging lately:

This is a picture of my dear sweet daughter sitting in the exam chair in her PJ's in the Emergency Room on Sunday night (complete with hospital bracelet around her ankle). :(

Here goes the long version of the story:

Sunday marked 3 weeks since this saga began. Maddy was very out of sorts, grumpy and not sleeping well, so we took her to the doctor. They checked her out and said that they couldn't find anything wrong with her. They said that the cough she had was probably just a little cold that would need to run it's course. Later that week, on Thursday, we took her back because everything seemed worse. When we went that day, they said she had an ear infection, gave us a prescription for a 5-day oral antibiotic and sent us on our way. Two weeks later (this past Thursday) I took her in again. The cough and congestion were much worse. It was all I could do to get her to sleep more than about 5 or 6 hours per night (she normally sleeps 10), and she was more cranky than I EVER remember her being. The doctor checked her ears and said that she had a double ear infection. Her prescribed Augmentin which is the strongest oral antibiotic they can give her (read: TERRIBLE diaper rash and for lack of a better term, diarrhea). Poor kid is MISERABLE at this point. So, that was Thursday. Saturday, she started with a little bit of a fever... 101 or 102 (somewhere around there). Sunday, we opted to stay home from church and rest. Sunday evening Maddy started babbling like crazy. Mind you, she knows quite a few words, so to hear her babbling on about nothing is not quite normal. We didn't think much of it, though, and let her play. A few minutes later, she came over to where I was sitting and started whining. I picked her up and she was BURNING UP. While we were sitting there, she got very lethargic. She was just limp in my arms (no eyes rolling back or anything SUPER scary... just obviously NOT feeling well). We took her temperature and it was 103.7. We decided that maybe a bath and some Motrin was in order. After her bath, she was 103.9. I felt like I had "waited long enough," so we got her dressed in her PJ's, put our shoes on, packed a few snacks and some water (no need for preggo Mommy to become a patient, too from passing out), and headed to the ER. We were in and out in less than 3 hours. I was thoroughly impressed with that part. I was NOT impressed, however, with the way they took her temperature. They used the same temporal thermometer her doctor's office uses, but did not do it the way they do at the doctor's office. When they told me her temperature, they said it was 99.6. This momma ain't buying that!! When we saw the doctor, he checked her out and looked in her throat... (Enter the DUH moment... I realized at this point that through all these doctor's visits NO ONE had looked at her throat!!!!) The doctor said, "No wonder she won't eat anything!! Her tonsils have huge puss pockets on them!!!" Enter the diagnosis of Tonsilitis. The doctor gave her a shot of Rocephin which is an injectible antibiotic (antibiotic number 3 now). He suggested that we follow up with her doctor the next morning. So, I called and took her in. Of course, her doctor is out of the office this week, but we saw a fantastic nurse practitioner (Dr. Wiley ALWAYS leaves us in good hands when he's away), and she agreed with the diagnosis. She let us know that Rocephin is a series of 3 shots usually, so she had the nurse give Maddy shot number 2 on Monday. We went back yesterday morning for the 3rd, and final (thank God), shot. I am ELATED to report that Maddy is doing GREAT today!! While she was getting the shots, we stopped with the Augmentin, but resumed that today. That being said, her 10-day antibiotics will last 12 days, but who cares?!?!?!

I had forgotten what a happy kid she normally is. She played most of the day all on her own!! She ran around, played with her toys, showed me all her picture books and told me what most of the pictures were. She's doing GREAT!!! We have a follow-up appointment with her normal doctor on March 25 just to make sure that all the fluid is gone and the ear infection is totally clear. With the exception of this ear infection, the others have all cleared completely before a new one appeared. Therefore, we've never discussed having tubes put in her ears.

I guess that's about all that I have to report about The Princess for right now. I just couldn't be happier that she's feeling so much better today!

As for baby #2, I wouldn't want to leave him/her out. We're doing pretty well. The nausea is still lingering, but I have started to have some short periods of "normalcy", so that's a HUGE PLUS!! My appetite has grown exponentially. I'm pretty worn out, but I take all of these things as good signs. As lots of wise folks before me have said, "This, too, shall pass"!! Our first doctor's appointment is March 24, and I'm very excited! I am expecting a little peek on an ultrasound at that appointment, which should be lots of fun!! I'll be sure to post pictures if we get any!

I'll do my best to keep blogging, but as was mentioned before, I've been pretty tired lately. My goal is to sleep when Maddy sleeps (at least until this part of the pregnancy is over), so I'm breaking that rule already... BUT, I'm having a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios, so I think that's ok. LoL.

I hope everyone's having a great week! After taking a few weeks off from my photography lessons for various reasons, we're resuming tomorrow!! Woo Hoo!!

Talk to everyone soon (I hope!)!!

Love you guys!! :)

Poor Baby...

2010-03-05T11:57:00.004-06:00

Poor Maddy has been battling an ear infection and a cold for about 3 weeks now. After tiring of wiping her nose and noticing that she was beginning to sleep less and less, I decided to take her to the doctor yesterday. The doctor diagnosed her with a double ear infection. Poor kid just can't catch a break. She's had 2 doses of the 10-day antibiotic, and seems to be perking up a little. She's far from 100%, but feeling better is GREAT! We were up very early this morning, and once she woke up, she played hard. While we were eating lunch, though, she hit a wall... Check her out:

Poor thing just couldn't keep her eyes open...

Have no fear, once this video was taken, I let her lay down for a nap. She's been sleeping ever since. Here's hoping for a good, long nap!! Poor kid!

Love you guys!