Only A Couple of Days Late...

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!!

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?!?!

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!!!

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?!?!

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

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...

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!! :-)