I'm done

I'm done. Yes, I am cooked. I have washed 3 different sets of sheets today and I'm still not finished. I put the girls to bed after their bath last night and was going to relax in front of the TV and enjoy some of my favorite shows, you know....Ugly Betty, Grey's Anatomy, and ER. Yah, right. First off, Betty and Grey's were both recap shows....AHH! I just wanted to veg out and watch something new, but oh well, I'll FF thru most of it and just enjoy sitting down. You know because the little one wanted to be held most of the softball game and of course I had to stand up the whole game! :) CAUTION: The story below is about little ones and throwing up (isn't that all I blog about lately?) read at your own risk.

I was just minding my own business when Grace comes down, yes, she did it again. No fever, no tummy ache, but she threw up anyway. What is with my babies and why won't this virus leave? I thought it was all out of Grace's little system. I thought wrong, I guess. So I cleaned her up and got her back in a bed and decided to just go to sleep myself. Not for long.

Sus came down about 2 am and she threw up, but she is running a fever and feels horrible. I put her on the other side of the bed from me so that I could keep an eye on her, plus she was crying and wanted me. Of course, I made her sleep on towels, I don't want to wash my sheets, again.

I got to go back to sleep.

Then Parker started crying about 4:15 this morning. He almost always sleeps until 7 or 7:30 so I went and got him and nursed him back to sleep until about 4:45 and I heard someone throwing up in my bed (good thing I had towels everywhere, right?)...I thought for sure it was Susie. It was Parker. Yes, I had no idea that a little one could throw up that much. Neither one of the girls threw up when they were that little. Most of the time it would show up rather ugly in a diaper, but I can handle that, no biggie. It was sad. So, Parker and I went and finished out our morning on the couch. Needless to say, I am cooked. I'm tired and I know I'm going to need a second cup of coffee. Of course, I don't have to worry about going in public today so I can concentrate on getting something done here at the house....we'll see. I think I just might take a nap. Don't you want to come home now, Daddy?

Game #2

Because of the being sick in Searcy thing, Grace missed 2 softball games. They play twice a week so she'll be fine, she was just nervous because she had been gone for a while. We went to Academy and got her some "official socks", a big girls' visor, and a purple scrunchie with softballs on it. Yes, and Sus and I have shirts to match Grace's team, but I couldn't take a picture of all three of us so you will just have to look at the little ones.

Here is Grace up to bat her first time and she did GREAT! She got a double and then 2 plays later, she got to run home. Now she knows what it is like to be a real ball player!

Does she look excited? I took this right after she ran into the dugout! She also got another hit, but she hit it to the pitcher and she threw her out at first base.

Grace played shortstop last night and loved every minute of the game... I only had to tell her to pay attention one time. I think we found something that this little girl really likes!!

I forgot

Here are the pictures of Grace from Easter Sunday. My little brother Jon hid some special eggs for Grace to find after all the crowd left so that she could have her own hunt.

She still looks pretty pale in this picture...After all that hunting, I think she threw up again...I guess we wore her out with all 15 eggs that we hid!

She is wearing her pajamas that she got for Christmas. Yes, I know, she is outside in her PJ's, but she was sick and didn't feel good, so let the girl get by this time. Besides, who wouldn't want to wear "The Incredibles" PJ's?

Now it is her turn...

Not to be outdone by her big sister, Susie came downstairs last night a little after 8:00 (they went to bed at 7:00 because they both didn't feel good) to tell me that she had thrown-up in her bed. So, I went to take the linens off of her bed and bring them down to wash and fix her a new place to sleep in and she fell asleep in my bed and did fine. This morning Grace woke up bright and bushy tailed, so ready to go to school (she really does love it and I'm soooo glad) and Sus wanted water for breakfast. Good thing too, because when we got to the garage to load up to all take Grace to school, Sus let the water fly on the garage floor and it was not in the cup anymore.... Needless to say, she will NOT be having her normal glass of warm milk while she watches Sesame Street this morning!

As the cooped up mother of these sick children, I have to say...AKKKKK!!! If Parker gets this mess, I feel like I want to quit! I didn't say I would, but boy, I would love to get to go for a car ride with OUT cleaning up a child or a mess afterwards! he he he. Oh well, maybe I will get to go back to the gym next week and work out some stress!!

We do have to go to the store today, though. I know, I am a horrible mother for taking her sick child to Wal-Mart. But, I have no relief help and Parker has 3 diapers left. I have used all the ones in the diaper bag and the extras that I keep in the car so we REALLY do have to go and replace all of my diaper stashes! To all the single mothers out there....wow, you have a super hard job. And to all of us that have husbands that like to disappear because of work....we will be rewarded by our husbands when they get home, right honey??????

More Easter pictures

Here are the kids that did the Easter egg hunt this year....Next year will be really exciting because "our Easter family" has 3 little ones that will be walking and joining the hunt! As for this year, it was just these cute little ones minus sick Grace, of course! We call this the "official egg hunt picture" We have the same pose of all of our family when were were kids and hopefully will still take it when our kids have kids!!

Jonas and Parker are 10 days apart and are so much fun to watch play together. About 30 seconds after I took these pictures, they dumped out the basket and were trying to eat the candy inside.

Parker wants to pull up and stand on anything he can...he will be walking any day. Let's hope he waits until Daddy gets home some weekend!!

They really wanted to watch some baseball, Grandma!! Come on, you don't want them to chew on the TV? Grandma loves her little great grandsons, for sure!!

Trip Pictures

The girls always get to go to Little Rock and spend the night with their Aunt Jess and Uncle Cliff. Of course, their favorite part of the visit is playing dress up in Aunt Jess' huge, clothes filled closet. Jess' says what is really funny is that Sus picks the same shirt (it's a dress on her, but a long shirt on Jess) every visit and says, "I want my dress." What ever works, little one. The cute little blonde boy is my nephew, Jesse. We like to call him Jesse Monster, because he is a cute little monster!! The girls love their cousin and love having play time at Aunt Jess and Uncle Cliff's house, even if it is only for one night. Of course, with all that Aunt Jess takes them to do, they are worn out after one night!! I just love that they love their Aunt Jess and Uncle Cliff so much. I'm so thankful for a loving family!!

Here is Sus with her Easter basket. It was freezing Easter morning and Aunt Jess saved the day with a little sweater that she bought in Little Rock for her to wear with her new dress. Of course, Grace didn't even get in her Easter dress because she was sick, so we got to take her sweater back to the store!!

Sus took Grace her Easter basket upstairs for her to look at and enjoy the books inside. She wasn't very excited about anything at that point and went back to sleep.

So, Sus went out in the backyard with the rest of the kids and hunted eggs...she had a blast and got so very much candy. We need some help eating it all because I sure do NOT want it lying around here when I can't even go to the gym and work it off with these sick little ones still here at home!!

At least we're home...

We thought that all the fun sick stuff was over. Oh my, were we so very wrong. Yes, I got sick on Monday morning. Yes, me, the mother, the one who isn't supposed to get sick, EVER, got sick. Good thing for me, we were in Searcy at the home of MY mother and she took off of work to take care of the kids so that I could sleep most of the day. She had to go to school for Monday morning to get her sub plans ready, so my Grandma came over to watch the kids while I was "praying to the porcelain gods." I'm so thankful for family!!

Yesterday, I knew that we had to get on the road and get back here so that Grace could go to school. Of course, my body did not want to cooperate so my mom had me go back to bed. After another nap I was back to normal and we set off for the ride home. Very easy and we got thru Dallas in record time. It was a great trip and the kids went straight to bed when we got home...Sus said I didn't even have to tuck her in, I did, of course, but that tells you how tired that they were last night.

This morning around 5 am I woke up just freezing and then Parker woke up shortly after to come in my bed and nurse and be my cuddle bug. It was a great morning, the alarm went off and I walked upstairs to get Grace up for school. It looked like something out of a horror movie. I'm not kidding. Her bed and pillow were covered in throw-up. It was so gross. She was sound asleep in the middle of it and it was all I could do not to throw-up myself. I got her up and she just wanted to go back to sleep until she realized what had happened. Bless her little heart. We have a baby monitor upstairs, but I honestly think she didn't even wake up for this incident. So, now she is on the couch, the clothes and bed linens are in the washing machine soaking, and I'm trying to enjoy my cup of coffee. At least we are home! Thanks for taking care of us, Mom. We had a great visit despite all the sickness.

Sick Easter....

The kids and I made it here to my parents house just fine on Thursday. Pretty uneventful trip except for the side trip into McDonalds. I think we stopped in the smallest McDonalds in the US. It is in Arkadelpha, Arkansas and they are also the slowest....the small order we made took over 10 minutes! We all went inside and used the restroom and then while we were waiting on our order (about minute #8) Sus says that she really needs to use the restroom and can't wait. So, I had Grace take her to the restroom (I could see the restroom from the front counter, remember it was small) and then Grace runs out yelling, "Mom, Susie has diarrhea all over the bathroom floor and you need to come and get her!!" So, I got our food, put it on the table closest to the bathroom and went in to survey the damage. Yes, Grace was right and I had to clean up a mess that was not in my bathroom all the while holding Parker on my hip. Yes, gross, very, very gross. I used LOTS of soap afterwards, to say the least. And, I don't think I ate after that...the girls did, but I did not really want to eat anymore for some reason. We made it to mom and dad's house in plenty of time and the rest of the drive was fine.

Friday and Saturday were fun and relaxing. We just hung out with Miss Tammie, Miss Beckie, Miss Vivian and Reagan mostly and it was great. Saturday night, we all got ready and went over to Spring Sing on campus. Parker and Susie lasted for 40 minutes and then we left to come back to mom and dad's house...Grace stayed at Spring Sing with my mom and her friends and LOVED every minute of the show. She was so cute when they got home. She got to meet some of the kids in the show and to her it was like meeting a movie star. Pretty cute. She went to sleep saying, "Thanks mom, it was the best show ever." And then fell asleep.

She woke us up at 4:45 AM throwing up....yes, throwing up. She was sleeping with my parents and she threw up all over my dad's back. It was so gross and he was such a great sport and got her to the toilet to finish her business. Of course, she was finishing her business ALL morning. She threw up until about 7:30 this morning and then she just ran out of things to throw up...she was sooo sad. So, the rest of the family went to church and I stayed at home with the little ones. My parents have a huge potluck here at their house every Easter and there were lots of people coming over. Poor Grace had to stay upstairs all day by herself while everyone else was downstairs having fun going through their Easter baskets and having a big Easter egg hunt. She still wasn't better tonight so Mom found their doctor at church and he called in something to Walgreens that made her stop throwing up and put her to sleep. I haven't decided yet if we are going to leave tomorrow or not. If Grace is still sick, we will just stay and leave for home on Tuesday. She isn't going to be able to play in her softball game tomorrow night anyway so there is no need to rush home if she is sick.

We have had a great weekend with family and many friends....despite the throwing up from Grace!! Hope ya'll had a happy Easter, I'll post some pictures when we get home!

Her first game!!

Aaron called on Monday afternoon to remind me about softball practice at 5:30 that afternoon. No big deal, just pack up the kids and head out to the practice field. Yeah, right. I got another call about 30 minutes later---it was 4:45 or so and it was her coach to tell me that they had a game, yes, a GAME that evening at 6:30 and Grace needed to be there at 5:30. Are you kidding me? Her first game so we had to get the video camera and the still camera not to mention the cheerios and water packed up and drove over to the field in record time. Grace was so excited. They just got their uniform when they got there so they were excited to have new clothes, too! She is the one in the middle, the one not paying attention....but she had fun!!

They are the Dragonflies and boy are they cute in their little uniforms and gloves out there on the field. I would just like to NOT have to be out there for over 2 hours with a 9 month old and a 3 year old by myself!! What in the world was I thinking when I gave the OK for Aaron to be gone this long? Oh yeah, I forgot, it's his job. Back to the game. Here is the huddle before the game with one of her coaches.

Here is what they all did as soon as the huddle broke...straight to climbing on the dugout fence....where are those Mamas? Oh, they are taking pictures and chasing 3 year olds!!

Grace played pitcher. In this league that is a pretty good position to play because it is coach pitch. That means your coach pitches to you when you bat. So, to stop a play when a girl is running around the bases, you throw the ball to the pitcher (Grace for this game) and she hands it to the coach. That made her feel pretty special and she can stop the ball pretty good, for a five year old, I think! They will rotate positions, I'm sure, but for now we are having fun at the ball park. Don't you love my first picture of Grace in her uniform? That is what I get for trying to take a picture, through the fence, holding a 9 month old and I had a 3 year old hanging on my leg...not bad...he he he.

We leave for Searcy tomorrow right after Grace gets out of school and I can't wait! I'm packing the car tonight while the kids are asleep and that way tomorrow I can try and keep Parker up in the morning so he will sleep in the car during the afternoon drive!!

We are staying busy!

Aaron had lots of things that he wanted to do with the kids before he had to leave this past weekend. It rained most of last week so Grace's first softball games on Saturday morning were called because of the wet fields. That didn't keep us from going to Six Flags on Saturday morning! We got there just shortly after it opened and it was great...no lines and the weather wasn't too warm, we had a nice breeze, hence the jackets. It was fun and we rode every ride they wanted to ride and were home in time to eat lunch!

Aaron and Parker mostly stayed together while we were at the park. Parker does love his daddy, for sure! Aaron would push the stroller and keep him busy with cookies and cherrios while the girls and I would ride. There are just some rides that Aaron can't ride and then there are some that neither one of us like to ride! Aaron did go by himself to the Batman ride...we passed the time by getting a drink and walking around. It was just starting to get busy when we were leaving Six Flags.

On Sunday, the kids had an Easter Egg hunt at church. The kids loved it and Parker didn't really know what to do so Aaron picked him up and then Parker wanted to get his own egg....upside down. Pretty cute. Aaron left for Houston after the hunt was over....a little crying took place, but we get to drive down to Houston to see him the last weekend in April and cannot wait to see him!! He's only been gone for 2 days and I am really having withdrawls from my husband.