It's been too long.

I know it has been a long time since I last posted, but here's what's new:

Zakry is definitely officially crawling. He's everywhere, and quick. The day he started crawling he also started pulling up to a stand on anything and everything. He now walks along the furniture. He did get that second bottom tooth and is now working on the top two teeth. He weighs 20 pounds and is soooo happy and healthy. :) It's wonderful.
He never sits still. Dressing him and changing diapers have become quite the task. It's funny because I know when Morgan was a baby I'd change her outfit several times sometimes at one setting because I couldn't decide what to put on her. Not with Zakry though. I best know exactly what I want him to wear because it is definitely quite the battle getting him dressed and there's no changing it once it's on him. He stands up in the middle of getting dressed and starts jumping. Night time is the worst. When he's tired he fights getting his jammies on sooo bad. It is terrible. He stays in just a diaper alot of the time when we are at home. LoL :)
He loves being outside and he loves swimming. I'm excited to take them to the fireworks this 4th of July. I'm pretty certain the loud sounds will scare him though. He gets scared of loud noises alot.
Morgan is also great. Never stops talking, but she's soooo smart. She doesn't act 2.5 and most people are shocked when they find out she's so young after having a conversation with her.
She tries to be such a good helper with Zakry. Always trying to keep him away from danger. She gets things out of his mouth that she think he might choke on. Now granted, she's pretty rough with him when trying to save him from danger that she actually ends up hurting him worse then the dangerous thing might have hurt him. LoL. She's still a great big sister though. And they love each other and that's all that matters.
I think that's pretty much all that is new for now.

Vacation and more Milestones!

Zakry got his first tooth last week. The other bottom one is about to come in any day also. He's also very very close to crawling. He can pretty much gets to whatever he wants with some determination and I'm certain any day he's going to be crawling all over the house. He gets up on all fours and rocks and scoots, but I have yet to see him actually crawl but he's getting there. Nena and Pappa said they saw him crawl for sure. So i'm sure it will be any day.
Rob and I left Saturday for vacation. The kiddos stayed with Nena and Pappa and we headed to Hannibal MO. We got to the hotel and went swimming for a bit. And then around 9pm we went driving around. We saw a cinema and decided to see a movie. We watched Angels and Demons and didn't get back to the hotel until 1am! This was definitely something that hasn't happened in a LONG time! We never get to just jump in the car like that and do whatever we want. So nice!
Sunday we went to Mark Twain Lake and Rob's uncle and aunt brought their boat up. We spent practically the whole day out on the boat. I couldn't have asked for a better day! It was so nice and relaxing. We even went tubing. I felt like a kid again! And it felt like Rob and I were just boyfriend/girlfriend again. Definitely was nice and refreshing and much needed!
My parents brought the kids up Sunday evening and we spent the next 2 days with them. Went swimming alot and sight seeing.
It was great. We are now home and I'm exhausted! :)

Milestones...

Well Zakry will be 8 months old tomorrow. It's crazy how fast time flies. When Morgan was 8 months old she was crawling all over and almost pulling up to a stand. Zakry has just mastered the whole sitting up thing and is pretty steady now. It's funny. Although he is a very hyper baby and he never wants to sit still, he hasn't been determined enough to crawl or even roll all over the floor for that matter. He can roll, but he doesn't really choose to roll to get to what he wants.
It's so funny how different him and Morgan are.
Anyway, I think that Zakry is very close to crawling. He sits on his bottom and he rocks himself until he either rocks to his belly or he rocks and scoots himself slowly across the floor. He can move several feet just by scooting on his bottom.
He also has figured out when he's laying down he can use his feet to push himself across the floor, whether he's on his back or his belly. He pushes his feet agains the floor and moves. This has all just started basically today.
So I can see crawling and walking in the very near future.
He really is a great baby. He's so fun and I really wouldn't mind it if he stayed this age forever. He's so fun and he's not into everything yet. It's great. To me it's the best age ever. :)
Morgan is at a great age too though. She listens pretty well and stays out of most things she knows she's not supposed to mess with and she's also very fun and of course is a blast to talk to. She's got the funniest things to say.
Well that's all for now.

Quote of the Day:

This quote is from a few days ago, but it was pretty funny.
Morgan was sitting in the back seat of the car and she talks to herself alot and answers herself. I heard her saying:
"One for you...okay....and one for you...okay...and one for you...okay...."
I turned around and she had a booger on each of her index fingers holding them up and talking to them! YUCK!
So funny, but so gross. I'll love to share this one with her when she's 16. HAHAHA

What's new with us?

Well, Zakry had some tests done to find out what's causing the wheezing. He had a sweat test to test for Cystic Fibrosis and that was negative. He also had an upper GI. That showed he does have acid reflux and also that his stomach does not empty as quickly as it should, which that with the acid reflux, could be blocking his airways, resulting in wheezing. So i'm glad we possibly found the cause and praying that the treatment helps. The treatment is Prevacid and I am reducing his bottles down to 4 ounces at a time, every two hours and adding cereal to his bottles. Hopefully this will help him not get too full and it will settle well. So far, so good. Still some wheezing, but I haven't started the prevacid yet, because the pharmacy hasn't got it filled yet.
For now, I do have to continue giving him breathing treatments (pulmicort) but hopefully we can stop those in the next month or so.
As far as everything else goes, though, Zakry is getting SOOO cute and big. He's sitting up very well now on his own and he's so happy most of the time. He's saying MaMa and Dada and he gets slap happy at night and starts laughing about everything. It's quite funny. He's more than I could have EVER asked for in a baby boy. He's definitely a mama's boy and I love him sooooo very much. I wouldn't mind if he stayed 7 months old forever.
Morgan...she's doing great also and she's a typical 2 year old. Very very smart and bossy. But she's as cute as ever and I do not wish her to get much older either. If only I could keep them this age forever. :)
That's all for now.

Quote of the day:

Actual conversation

Morgan: "Mommy, I wanna go to school"
Mommy: "Sorry, chick, you gotta wait a few years"
Morgan: ..."I not a chicky, I morgan"

LOL

Quote of the day:

We were on a walk and there is a pretty nice size ditch with a small creek running through it. Morgan said "Mommy, look, water!....We need a boat!! Where's the boat!!??"

Quote of the day:

"Look, mommy, I love that house, it's sooo cool!...Mommy can we make a house?....I love building" - She is her daddy's daughter!

Quote of the day:

Poppie was laying on the couch in pain from some medical testing he had done and he was moaning and then he got up and said he was going to the bathroom. Morgan proceeded to lay down in his spot on the couch and imitated Poppie, saying
"It hurts, it hurts...I need to go potty, I mean go to the bathroom"
Morgan certaintly pays attention to everything we're doing, for sure.

Zakry is sleeping like a charm!

For the past 2 nights neither child has woke up at all. Zakry has slept 12 hour straight for the past two nights. Before that he was waking anywhere from 1 to 3 times a night still!Since I stopped propping a bottle in Zakry's mouth and letting him cry it out to go to sleep, he's been the best baby ever! Zakry was a HORRIBLE baby for the first 3.5 months and he got a little better after that, but now for about the last 2 weeks, other than having a little sickness/ear infection, he has been INCREDIBLE! I mean the best baby ever. Very rarely cries. He's learned to jump in his jumperoo and play with toys some. He's so much happier now! I really wanted to enjoy his baby days since he may be our last baby but I haven't really been able to enjoy him until now. Now he could just stay this size forever (but don't you know, he'll grow faster than ever now!)And Morgan is just way too smart! She's as cute as ever but sooooo honry lately! She's learned to put her new shoes on by herself without help and has been doing that like crazy.This morning she came to me and said Mommy, it's 8o'clock. And I looked at the clock and sure enough it really was 8:02. I have no idea how she knew this. I think she was just saying it...but it scared me a little that she is really that smart! LoL...she's only 2!

Morgan walked to the neighbors to play!

I know this sounds like an everyday average thing, but it felt so weird seeing my baby girl walking down to the neighbors to play. She crossed over 3 backyards to get to her little friends' down the street.
Of course we watched her the whole way and made sure she was in plain sight. Then we gathered Zakry in the stroller and walked down to get her about 10 minutes later or so. I know that the future will hold lots and lots of playing with the neighbors and running around from house to house on our little street, but it was just a surreal moment today. Bitter/sweet! :( :)

As for Zakry he's seeming to be happier and happier with every passing day. Jumping away in his jumperoo and enjoying life, finally! He's sleeping like a perfect little baby lately, only waking up once or twice in the night and going back to sleep without a peep after being fed. As long as I lay him in his crib, even naps have become quite the breeze. He goes pretty much right to sleep if he is truly tired.

Rob is going to switch jobs. Sounds crazy to be quitting a job in these economic times, but he has an offer that he really believes will be best for him and our finances. I am all for him doing whatever makes him happier and at peace.
His current job is a 90 mile drive one way and has completely exhausted him. The job he's going to be switching to is only 60 miles away but he will be carpooling with either 3 or 4 other guys who live in our area. So this will save us about $400 a month! That sounds great to me!
But what's even better than that is that he'll be with his best friend and some other guys that he worked with when he very first started working construction, 10 years ago. He's very very excited about this new endeavor and I believe that God has it all worked out, knowing Rob needs a change!

Zakry hit a milestone!

Zakry sat up for about 15 minutes straight yesterday. He was in a very relaxed mood (not kicking and rearing backwards like usual) and therefore he just sat there forever just looking at us. It was so cute. My mom took some pictures, so I'll post them as soon as she sends them to me. I tried sitting him up today though and he just kept rearing backwards and using his feet to try to stand up. I know that boy would rather run around than to sit up! LoL...he just thinks he's so big.

Morgan had the stomach bug the last few days. Monday night she threw up every 15 minutes for 3 hours and then every 2 hours for the next 12 hours after that. Let's just say I'm still doing laundry from it and it was a very long night. Thankfully noone else has got sick in our house yet. I think my dad may have got it though. Yuck! :( But Zakry, Rob, and I seem to be clear so far!

I took Zakry for his 6 month well exam yesterday. They want to have him tested for protein allergies because he is still wheezing. He started wheezing when he got RSV back in January but the wheezing has never completely gotten better, so the doc is thinking maybe it's an allergy and if so, i will have to switch to Nutramigen which is a formula that will cost me approximately $60 a week!!! Yuck! Let's pray that it is not an allergy and that he will get better soon!!!

Morgan has been so so sick lately she really hasn't said anything extra funny or clever to use for the quote of the day, but i'm sure i'll have one before too long! :)

I'm not sure how to make this blog anymore exciting so that people enjoy following it. I only have a few followers and I'm not really sure how to get more followers either...but whatever. I guess if anyone has any suggestions on what to do to make it more enjoyable to read, let me know! But really I'm doing this so my kids can read it when they're older so i guess it doesn't matter if anyone reads it, but it is cool to get comments and stuff. :) I am a little envious of my cousin, Heather's amazing blog. Her's is so fun and interesting and like a million people follow her!

Sick again!

Both kids are sick AGAIN! I can't believe it. This has been the worst cold/flu season ever! Now they are both very cranky, runny noses, coughing...Morgan was running fever...etc. I am taking them both to the docs today to see what's up. I'm supposing it's just viral and of course there's nothing they can do for that. So $40 later, a 40 minute drive each way later and 2 or more hours taken out of my day and probably no medicines for them. :( I love that my doctor doesn't just throw out meds easily but it's frustrating when your kids are sick and there's nothing you can do for them.

I'm ready to just go on a long vacation and on my way out the door i'll spray a whole bunch of lysol everywhere and hopefully decontaminate the house. I need something to really help the kids' immune systems so they will stop getting sick! Any suggestions?!

As for me, hopefully I don't get sick. And hopefully Rob doesn't get sick. He already has such a stiff neck he didn't think he could even work today...and then I bumped my head really hard on the corner of the phone bill drop box...ouch! Right on my temple and I have a big bump and a headache.

Wow...what a whiny complainy post! Sorry! :)

Quote of the Day:

From over the weekend...
Rob was being goofy and yelling about wanting me to make popcorn and Morgan started yelling in a very serious tone:

"Stop it, Stop it daddy, STOP BEING CRAZY!!" Her way of pronouncing the words was sooo funny and cute. We seriously almost fell off the couch laughing!

Oh yeah, American's aren't the only ones on this planet!!

So Rob did the message at youth last night and he did so great. He called my brother for some stories of things he'd seen oversees while on missions work. Aaron sent him this comedic video clip about how amazing we have it yet nobody's happy. How true! This video was funny but also so true about how we get so frustrated when technology stops working for a minute and we don't even think twice about how amazing it is that we have the technology that we have in the first place. Ironically the computer froze while playing this video for the youth last night and all we could do was laugh instead of get frustrated.
Then Rob read some of the stuff that Aaron wrote telling of the things he'd seen and the things that will make you change the way you think about your clothes that are maybe a little too small or that maybe aren't "in style" anymore. And the next time we see someone with a prostetic leg and realize what an amazing thing for us to have "fake" legs and so many in other countries are dragging themselves along with missing feet/legs and they don't even have crutches or a wheelchair, let alone a prostetic leg...
After that we played a video that Rob's brother made that broke the world down to only 100 people and if there were only 100 people, only 4 would be American and I think it was like 16 would be starving, and so many of that 100 would be dying of diseases that would easily be cured in America and so on and so forth...
This all really got me thinking and well really humbled me and made me feel soooo blessed all at the same time. And what's crazy is that I go days upon days upon days (probably months at times) without thinking about anyone oversees and what they are going through. I live in a bubble and I know that I'm not the only one! And although there are millions and millions of people on this earth (not just in America) God loves me! Me! How cool is that?!

Quote of the Day:

Me: "Morgan, if you touch that again, you're going to sit in time out!"

Morgan, with a very bratty look on her face, reaches out as if to touch the drawer again and then takes her little finger and touches me with it and says "Touch!" (this girl is only 2!! Where did she get this smarty pants remark???)

And how do you not crack up and laugh about that? I had to laugh!

Been so busy!

I haven't had a chance to post much in the last few days. We've been so busy. We had our youth rally Saturday night. It was the first one for Rob and I to ever head up and it was wonderful. Rob did so awesome recruiting help and putting certain people over certain tasks and we had so much help. It was just amazing.
We had around 300 people there. "In the Midst of Lions" (a screamo band) played, also a rapper, Mynista was there and he was great! And my favorite, Elijah Tindall a comedian/minister from Oklahoma was there and of course he was hilarious and did an awesome job.
We gave out free pizza and soda, tons of prizes that the local businesses around town donated and we had a skateboarding competition.
It was just great. We had alot of fun and hope to do it again in the future...hopefully in a larger facility though.

Quote of the Day:

Morgan has started singing all the time and her favorite is:

"Twankle, Twankle little star, how are what you are, up high, down low in the sky, twankle little star."

LOL...i'm not sure what the "twankle" is all about...we aren't southern anymore!! :)

Fun website for all you moms of toddlers...

www.toddlertoddler.com

I found this website today while searching for fun activites to do with Morgan. We did 3 different things today from this site. It was fun! They even set up a virtual zoo trip and aquarium trip on there with videos of different animals. We sat and watched both and named all the animals. We both had fun! :) I think i'll be visiting this site frequently!

The greatest job on earth.

So I was mopping my floors and I realized, I really truly have the greatest job on earth, (imo, that is). I have what I always dreamed of. I am able to stay home with my 2 amazing, healthy kids and do what I want for the most part.
I was mopping the hall and I past Morgan's room and i saw her sleeping peacefully in her bed and then I passed Zakry's room and he too was peacefully sleeping and it dawned on me: "I have 2 children!" I know it's been nearly 6 months since I became the mother of 2, but i don't know, something today made me really realize that I'm living my dream. I always wanted at least 2 children, boy and a girl, and I wanted to be a stay at home mom. I think I was saying that from the time I was like maybe 8 or 9 years old. Well I have that and some days are so stressful and I find myself feeling depressed or unhappy, but I shouldn't have those days. This is my dream and I really think that I would be miserable working outside the home and taking my kids to a babysitter every day. I love only working about 5 hours a week (just enough to give me a bit of a break) for the church and I love working with youth. I truly have a great life.
With that being said, I'm trying to improve on my motherhood and wifelyhood. I'm trying to do a craft or activity with Morgan each day and I am trying to spend more time just holding and loving on Zakry.
Today we printed off shapes and I cut them out and then I hid them all around the house with tape on the back of them. I then gave Morgan the outlines of those shapes and we went around and found all the shapes and taped them onto the outlines in the correct place. I was amazed that she knows her shapes very well and I have never really worked with her on them.
We're working on colors, but she still doesn't quite understand how something is a star is also yellow...she thought it was a star not yellow...
We're watching less tv which is great and watching what we eat. Fruits and veggies instead of sugary snacks! :) I feel much better and even if I don't lose weight, at least I feel good about
myself and how I'm raising my children to eat.
Anyway, these were my thoughts for today and although I may lose sight of how great my life really is somedays, now maybe I can come back and read this occassionally and remember how great I really have it! :)

Quote of the Day:

Morgan prayed out loud without repeating anyone or anyone telling her to today! I was such a proud momma!

She sat down to eat her lunch and she said "I pray" and well she says that alot but never actually prays. She usually just bows her head and we can't get her to say anything but today she immediately started praying very loudly and as clear as day...this was her prayer:

"Father God, thank you for this food, I love Jesus, Amen"

Quote of the Day:

Quote from Yesterday:

Morgan was at my parent's last night and this quote was directed at my mom:

Morgan was using the potty and asked memaw to sit on the stool. Memaw said “I don’t want to sit down” and Morgan said, “You too fat?”

Aparantly MeMaw had used that as an excuse in the past to not sit down in Morgan's little chairs that obviously most adults would be "too fat" to sit in...lol :) Morgan's memory is just exceptional and she certainly remembers EVERYTHING you tell her!

Sleeping through the night...

This is a dream of mine. Zakry still wakes up 2 to 3 times a night for a bottle and he is almost 6 months old!! He has only slept through the night maybe 3 times since he was born!!! Morgan slept through the night at 7 weeks old and did that until she was about 13 months old. We finally got her sleeping through the night again and in her own bed when she was a little over 2years old.

But last night...oh it was fun. Morgan came in my room I think a total of 5 times and finally I ended up letting her stay in our bed because Rob was getting ready to go to work anyway. Zak woke up 3 times and the last time was right at 6am so I thought I'd give him a bottle and since Morgan was in my bed they'd both hopefully sleep until about 9...not...they were both awake at about 7:30 anyway and I'm tired...very tired.

I think I am similar to like a hibernating bear when it comes to night time. I LOVE my sleep and I despise getting broken sleep. Night times are my absolute least favorite thing when it comes to babies who don't sleep all night. I DREAD getting out of my bed to go warm a bottle in the cold kitchen on the cold hardwood.

Anyway, i know it's the price you pay for these kids but I can't wait until Zak is sleeping through the night then I'd be able to handle the occassional nights like Morgan had last night because it wouldn't be an often thing...Oh well

Quote of the Day:

This quote is actually from yesterday...It was bedtime and Morgan went and got in my bed instead of hers and she said

"No bedtime, I wake up...I relax" (Meaning, she wasn't going to bed she already did that and woke up and she just wants to relax in bed with mommy and daddy...lol, she's too funny!)

Valentine's weekend

Well this weekend was great. Saturday Rob and I got to go have a date day. We went to the mall and just walked around without a care in the world. Then we watched the movie "Taken" (crazy movie). We just ate dinner in the food court and it was just so relaxing to not have to lug kids and diaper bags and strollers around. It was wonderful and something that should probably happen more often! :)
I bought Rob a whirley pop popcorn maker for V-day and we've already made 2 batches of popcorn. It works soooo well and makes great tasting popcorn!
Rob got me my favorite: Chocolate covered strawberries from the Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate store. They were sooooo yummy! He got me a whole pound and I ate like all but 2! :)

Morgan had managed to give herself a black eye a week ago friday, and that finally faded but then today she ran right into a doorway at church and her whole cheek is comepletely black and blue. Well then her and Rob came home while I went to the store for a minute and she fell off of the bed and got her first bloody nose. Apparantly there was blood everywhere and daddy wasn't sure what to do. She hasn't ever bled except for from her mouth the few times she's bitten her tongue or lip so this was definitely a new one for us! Daddy did a good job though. The bleeding ceased and all is well. :)

Quote of the day:

Quote by Morgan: "I go to Pizza Bell"

Quote of the day:

I look over and see Morgan bent over Zakry and Zak has both hands grasping her hair with all his might...
Morgan says very calmly: "Help Mommy, I really stuck."

Daily Quotes:

Quote for today:

"Morgan, get that pizza box off of your head!"

It's Friday!

I love fridays. I never have much to do on Friday's during the day except housework and then we usually get to go to dinner or rent movies or something on Friday nights since Rob doesn't work on Saturdays...

Not sure what we will do tonight. We'll be watching my brothers while my parents go on a date for Valentines day so maybe we'll order pizza and rent a movie or something. Who knows...

Tomorrow is V-day! I'm sooo excited. Rob and I are going to go to the mall, a movie and dinner in the city.

One reason I love living in a more rural area is because it's kind of a special treat now to go to the "city". When we lived there it wasn't nearly as special to go shopping or eat out at a nice restaurant. But now it's always so exciting.

My sinuses have been going crazy so I'm hoping that subsides so we can have an enjoyable time tomorrow.

Morgan hasn't really said anything exceptionally cute lately but some of my all time favorites include the time when I spanked her and through her tears she puckered up and said "Mommy, that's my butt!" LoL...i'll never forget that one.
Hmm, i can't think of anymore favorite quotes right now...see that's why I'm blogging...because my memory isn't the greatest and I forget all the cute things these kids do.

Remember, Morgan is only 2 years old and she talks as well as most 3 and 4 year olds. I forget alot of times that she is only 2 and I expect her to behave like she's 4 or older. She's such a big helper. She's always trying to help me with Zakry...which results in loud thumps and crying (I think she's been trying to pick him up when I'm not watching and she's dropped him). It's hard to get mad at her though because she loves her brother soooo much and she never intentionally hurts him. She's going to be the worlds best big sister.

Zakry is so cute. He's getting so big. I started putting him in the high chair to feed him his cereal now and he's such a big boy. He sits up in it so well. I think I did everything so much sooner with Morgan because I remember having to prop her up in the high chair and things. She must have only been like 3 months old or something. LoL...I rushed her to grow up so fast. But Zakry, well let's just say I haven't been in a hurry to feed him or to see him crawling around the house getting into everything.

I called the doctor because he seems to always be constipated so she wants me to start him on some veggies and fruits to get him some more fiber...so I guess we'll begin that soon. With Morgan i was soooo excited to feed her baby food, but with Zakry, yeah, not so excited. It's messy and requires me to do it. I like it when they can feed themselves. :) I can't wait until he can hold his own bottle! That will be a very exciting day for me. I want the best of both worlds. I don't want him to get into everything or be able to put certain things in his mouth, but I want him to be able to feed himself. Contradictory, I know. :) Just give me my cake and let me eat it too!

Well this seems like it's been a long post with nothing very interesting...I'm going to work on my creativity for future posts...but it's going to take time...bear with me.

January 2009

This is for my kids!

Well I've been thinking for a while now about starting a blog so that I could have a journal of some sort that my kids can go back and read when they are older and to help us all remember the big and small details of our lives.

I'll start with my life beginning on the 27th day of September, 2003. That's the day I married the most wonderful man in the world and a day I'll cherish forever! Rob (my husband) and i decided to move to be close to his work and so I could go to school and get a certificate in Computer Administrative assistance. I completed that the following year and went on to work for the next 2 years. In March of 2006, we found out we were expecting our first beautiful baby girl, Morgan Grace. She was born Dec. 3, 2006.

We started the daunting task of having a house built back in my hometown so we could be closer to my family. We love our house and are so happy we made the decision to move back.

We took on the Youth Pastor position at the church my parents are pastors at and have now been the youth pastors there for about 2.5 years. It's been amazing...more about that someday. :)

In January of 2008, we found out we were expecting our amazing little man, Zakry Jase. He was born Sept. 8, 2008.

These 2 kids have made our lives complete and we feel soooo blessed that God has placed them in our lives for us to take care of.

I will most likely use this blog to journal all of the wild and crazy things Morgan says throughout the day and to talk about the milestones Zakry has hit each day.