Did God use a cookie cutter???

(1st - Allie, 2nd - Lexi)

Precious Times

A Win Win Situation

Daddy gets to play video games, and Mommy gets a break - all at the same time!

And he said he would never wear a baby carrier!! Hee Hee

I love to Dance

Allie Update

We took Allie to the Dr last Monday and he said that she is doing great! Her lungs are totally clear. We can start to wean her off the breathing treatments and will only have to continue them for another week.

Please pray that our family stays well. Lexi is battling an ear infection, so we are trying to stay home as much as possible. We would like to be able to resume our play dates and Mommy and Me Preschool, but until both of the girls are well, we have to stay at home. (Pray for Mommy's sanity too!)

Life

Big Girl Bed - The Video

Here is a video of me when I saw my bed for the first time

I'm doing really well in my bed. I've had it for 2 nights and 2 naps. I go to bed very easily and I dont even get out of bed when I wake up. I wait for Mommy or Daddy to come get me!

My Big Girl Bed

Mommy and Daddy bought me my Big Girl Bed. It was time to give up the crib (because baby Allie needs it more) and I was SO excited.

Here is our room.
(Mommy and Grandma are going to put up curtains soon)

This is for me???Just had to make sure that it works for jumping
I got to try it out for the first time at nap time. Mommy and Daddy thought that I wouldn't sleep in it, but guess what? I went right to sleep and didn't try to get up!

-Lexi

Breathing Treatments

Here is a picture of me getting my breathing treatments. I have to have this done every 4 hours around the clock. My Grammy was such a big help to my mommy this last week. She looks pretty tired in this picture. I think that she out did herself.

-Allie

Home Sweet Home

Allie finally came home today. After 9 LONG days at the hospital, we were so excited to finally bring our baby home. We will have to continue breathing treatments at home for the next few weeks, but she will not have to be on any other medicines. It was a very exhausting time, but thankfully we had family and a few friends that helped us out. It would have been very difficult if we didn't have them to lean on.

Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers!

Snug as a bug - in the hospital

Well our little miss Allie is still in the hospital. We are now shooting leave on Thursday (12th). They have been trying to wean her off of the oxygen, but have not been successful. She cannot keep her oxygen saturation levels high enough. Her Dr decided to take a more aggressive approach and start her on a steroid to help clear this up. Kids with RSV are typically treated with a steroid, but he was trying to be as conservative as possible. She is so young and he didn't want to be too aggressive. He wanted to see her fight this on her own as much as possible.

Tomorrow (11th) we are having a chest x-ray done to be sure that her lungs are clear.

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. This has been a much longer journey than we anticipated and it is exhausting. Grammy and Papa are extending their stay just so that we dont have to worry about Lexi during this time. Grammy has been taking the night shifts at the hospital so that I can try to catch up on my sleep.

We'll keep you posted.

Happy even in the hospital

Even in the hospital, we have a happy girl.

This is one of the first smiles I've caught on camera! She is starting to smile so much now. She has been waking up with smiles all over her face.

Getting her breathing treatments

Her hospital room.

She is in her carseat because I thought she would enjoy sitting up a little, instead of laying down. I wish it meant that we were coming home.

Still at the Hospital

Allie is still at the hospital. They were unable to wean her off of the oxygen and at this point it looks like we will be staying for a few more days. She has a lot of coughing to do to clear her lungs. She is in good spirits and giving us lots of smiles when she is awake. Her Dr came by several times today, and said that she will get worse before she gets better. Its really tough for babies to cough all this junk up.

Our sick little Allie

Our family has had enough sickness to last us the rest of the year. In the last 3 weeks we have had 2 colds and the stomach flu.

Well, since Allie is so young, a cold can turn serious, very quickly. We went to see her Dr on Wednesday (Feb 4th) and immediately he was concerned. She had a pretty wet cough and was not wanting to eat. He listened to her lungs for a while and determined that it was best to send her to the hospital for observation.

So off to the hospital we went. Mike was able to come home from work and go with us. They checked her in, started an IV and have been doing breathing treatments on her. She has RSV, which is a respiratory infection that can be very serious if its not treated. Thankfully we caught it early and it didn't turn into pneumonia.

She had to be put on oxygen because she was having a labored breathing and having a hard time clearing her airway (phlegm in her throat).

We should be going home tomorrow (Friday Feb 6) as long as she keeps doing well. They are trying to wean her off the oxygen and so far so good. So as long as she can keep her oxygen levels up without assistance, she should be good to go.

Keep us in your prayers. This has been hard, but we are thankful that the Dr caught it early and it wasn't an "emergency" situation.

We will keep you all posted.

Our Trip to Northern California

This trip was full of lots of little surprises. I could write a book, but I'm going to keep it short and simple. There are LOTS of pictures, so be sure to look at them all!

I went up to Northern Cal with my Auntie. We flew on a plane, the DVD player broke, and I was a busy girl. During the week, I played with my Cousins Jack and Caroline. I slept over at my Grammy and Papa's house, and I ended up getting a stomach flu.

I was really sick by the time my parents got up there. I didn't even feel like getting off the couch when they walked it. I was excited to see them, but I was just too sick.

We had a meet the baby party, LOTS of people caught the stomach flu from me, even Daddy who NEVER gets sick. It snowed one day. I got to see lots of family and friends.... and Mommy accidentally lit a fire in the house!!!!!

(She made a fire in the wood stove upstairs and then went back downstairs for a while. All the sudden she heard a faint beeping noise. After looking around to find out what it was, she realized it was the fire alarm upstairs (Its a studio apartment above the garage). She ran up there and saw flames. It was a box of matches that caught on fire. Thankfully they were on top of the stove. But apparently matches will spontaneously light on fire if they reach a certain temperature! Who knew? Thankfully she got the fire out, but unfortunately she used Daddy's jacket to do so. There was no damage, just a lot of anxious people in the house realizing how devastating it would be if we didn't catch it soon enough!)

So that is the scoop. It was a fun trip, but we are glad to be home! Enjoy the pictures!

Auntie Heather juggling 3 kids!

Allie is all set for the cold weather in Nor Cal.

Grammy and Papa

Grammy and Papa LOVE spending time with their grandkids! They spoil us rotten!

The Kids

The 4 grand-kids!

Jack showed me how easy it is to move chairs over to the sink so we could play in the water. All you have to do is move the rug out of the way, push the chair and climb up. GREAT IDEA!

What are you looking at? Let us play.

After we were done in the water, we had to take our shirts off because we were so wet. So we just ran around the house in our pants.
It was raining like crazy and Jack and I were going bananas being in the house all day. Papa put some jackets on us and let us run around in the rain.

Yes, Jack is wearing a purple jacket. Apparently Papa couldn't find his, so he let Jack borrow one of mine.

Caroline was such a nice cousin. She just loved to snuggle Allie. She even let the adults know when it was time for them to pass the baby along so she could get a turn. Silly Caroline.

Helping Papa

Papa always has a project going on outside, and loves to have company from his grand-kids. On this particular day, he was spreading out gravel on the driveway.

Just showing us how its done

Now its our turn to try

Lauren and Emily

Remember Mommy's friend who had her baby on the same day as Allie? Well we got to meet baby Emily for the first time. They live in Sacramento, so we hadn't been able to see them. Lauren and baby Emily came up for the day. We had a lot of fun snuggling Emily and the Mommies even traded babies for a while!

My Auntie YaYa did a "professional" photo shoot of the 4 of them. The pictures are GREAT! We will get them up on the blog very soon!

Northern California Meet the Baby party

We had a "Meet the Baby" party for Allie at my Grammy and Papa's house. It was a lot of fun. We got to see all of the family and there were lots of kids to play with.

There were also lots of babies. All of my Mommy's friends are having babies these days. There were 3 little babies and a 1 year old.

Mommy's friend Regan and her son Landen came to join the fun.

This is Audra and her baby Jayel. Mommy and Audra were roommates in college and had babies just a few weeks apart.

I got to eat a bunch of yummy cupcakes!

My Great Grandma and Grandpa got to snuggle Baby Emily. They LOVED it.

Special Friends

The Herron Family is a special family to my Mommy. She babysat their kids when they were 2, 3 and 5. It is really fun for my mommy to "show" us off to them!

This is David. He was 3 when Mommy first met him. He is now 16.

(Mommy is getting old!!!! hee hee)

My very own vacation

I'm leaving for my very own vacation. I'm taking a break from my Mommy, Daddy and baby sister, and going to Northern California without them. My Auntie Heather "YaYa" was at our house visiting with us, and she decided to take me back home with her today. I'll be hanging out with my cousins, Jack and Caroline, and also Papa and Grammy.

Mommy and Daddy are going to drive up in a 5 days to get me. I'm planning on doing lots of fun things while I'm there. I know Mommy and Daddy are going to miss me bunches, but I thought I would be nice and let them have some special time with Baby Allie for a while.

I'll update with lots of pictures when I get back!

Love, Lexi

All ready to go with Auntie Ya Ya

Getting some smooches from my emotional Mommy.

Allie's Baby Dedication

This last Sunday, we did a baby dedication for Allie. Basically Mommy and Daddy made a commitment before God, our church, family and friends, to raise Allie according to God's will, and to teach her morals and values. (They did the same thing for me when I was little too).

Here are some highlights from the event

Grandma and her friends, Debbie and Elaine

Debbie, Auntie Ya Ya, Me, Grandma, Mommy and Allie

After the service, we had everyone over for lunch. Once the party got started, we forgot to take pictures. Whoops! Sorry Allie!