It's been a while

Well,the boys are doing great. In fact we just recently moved them into the same room. Matt is in his twin sized bed, and Drew is in his toddler bed. We made the move somewhat out of necessity. Drew learned how to crawl out of his crib, and so a move to a toddler bed was in the works. However, the decision to move him into Matt's room was made because Drew's room was not "Drew-proofed", where Matt's room was safe. They now have slept 3 nights together and they do great. Matt was happy to have Drew share the room and Drew is more than thrilled to be with his brother. We actually had them nap together today. It took about 10 times of me reminding them it was quiet time and they had to remain in their beds, but they eventually both took naps. It is really quite sweet to see them in the room together. We are still deciding if this is going to be a long term thing or not.


Drew will be 2 in less than a month and he is talking up a storm. He uses 3 word sentences and repeats most things you say...so we need to be very careful. He is a total monkey....climbing up and over, and on anything he can. It is a normal day for him to have several bumps on him. He has no sense of fear...which is kinda scary. He doesn't cry much when he is hurt, but will wail when he is upset. This kid has a temper that I didn't see in Matt. He is a lot more like his mama. God help us all. But overall, this kid is way fun, and you never know what he will do next. He keeps me on my toes! I love him, love him, love him!!!


As for Matt, he is doing great at school. It is hard to believe that he almost finished his first year in preschool. He is coming out of his shell at school and is pretty much totally potty trained. He is 3, so we do have the occastional accident, but it is VERY rare! He loves to help me, and tries to mommy his brother all the time, telling him what he can and can't do. He often is happy to tell me when Drew needs to go to time out. Isn't that helpful....NOT! He is so much like his daddy, not only in looks, but also in his quiet and gentle personality. He is a fun kid and such a joy!



As for Jeff and I, we are doing great. In less than a month we will celebrate our 7 year anniversary. Hard to believe! I love him more now than I did then, so I count that as a major blessing. We pray you all are doing well. Sorry it has been so long since we have updated the blog. We love you all and pray all is well with you. Love from Frisco.

My baby boy is 3 today!

Well, for some reason it seems so....well I don't even the word I am looking foward to, but I am amazed that my sweet Matthew is 3 today. Where oh where does the time go? He is talking up a storm and is just such a sweet guy. Well, most of the time at least. He is doing well at school, is 99% potty trained (we have a few accidents from time to time, but he is in underwear 100% of the time, so an accident here or there is not a biggie!) He is a truely amazing guy!

We had a fun, yet understated celebration today. We had a small family party at Chuck E. Cheese's. We pretty much threw it together at the last minute, but it was great. Both of the boys had a great time. It was so much fun to watch them get so excited about all the games, seeing Chuck E. Cheese in person, and just enjoying the place. They loved the pizza and the cake and Matt loved opening his presents. He even got to open some presents from family members who weren't able to be with us. Overall it was a great party. We also got to celebrate with a smaller party at home when the boy's Aunt Tania was in town. We had some yummy cookies and had a fun time celebrating.

Christmas was also a lot of fun! We celebrated with a white Christmas this year....not very normal for the DFW area. Although it was pretty, it did keep us from going to the Christmas Eve service...which I missed. I think my anxiety on the drive home from Church on Christmas eve may have inadvertently led to Matthew's fear of snow. He was totally freaked out from step one. He absolutely refused to go outside while there was snow on the ground unless I held him. This is a major deal if you know Matt. He would live outside if I let him. Well, not in the snow apearently. Drew didn't mind the snow as much. I guess being younger he didn't pick up on his mommy's fears. In my defense though....there were cars in ditches and slipping and sliding all over the place...so I was justified being freaked out. However, I now realize that Matthew especially is very sensative to my reactions to things, so I must be more careful in the future.

We had a house full of doggies for the week after Christmas. My parents went up to DC to see my uncle and his family, so we babysat Sam, their dog. We also had my sister's new puppy Shanti, and then our dog Sadie. As you can imagine...it was crazy with the 3 pups and the boys. However, we had a blast and the boys were in heaven with all the doggies. However, with all the snow melting....our backyard was a mudpit and with 3 dogs...our floors were a bit worse for the wear after all was said and done. I know now that the dogs and Aunt Tania have all returned home, it is much quieter...but we miss them all very much!

Overall, it has been a great holiday and birthday celebrations. I pray that 2010 is a wonderful year for you all. We love you and pray you are all well. Love from Frisco.

Potty Training and more....

Well, it has been a while since my last entry. Since then we got a new camera. I absolutely love it. It is fast and takes great pictures. I will post some very soon. (I promise). We are all doing well. (Well sort of....I am sick with a cold as I write this, and so is Jeff...but the boys are well). Since the last post, Drew has had a bout with acid reflux. He was getting up every night around 2 am throwing up. We finally put him on baby Prevacid and he is doing well. We have had no more issues since then. I am praying that he grows out of this, because I really don't want to have him on this long term. Drew is talking more and more. He absolutely loves his big brother and trys to do everything Matt does. This sometimes doesn't work out so well, but it is very sweet.

As for Matt....well the big news is the potty training. We did a 3-day potty training method. It took a week...not three days, and he still has trouble at school, but yesterday was our first day of no accidents. He told us every time he had to go. We even went to a birthday party and he still stayed accident free. I am so proud of him. He amazingly never has had any nighttime accidents. He even work up one morning at 5:30 am and we took him to the potty and he went right back to sleep. He didn't do too well at school the one day he went last week, but that is different. That might take a bit longer, but we are now on the second day of no accidents. I feel like one of those factories that have those signs..."We've been accident free for 2 days." I am just so proud of him. He is such a big boy now. He is talking more and more and has long conversations with you. He can be so sweet to Drew one moment, giving him hugs and kisses, and then the next moment he body slams him. Gotta love brothers. Also, Matthew got his school pictures done. You can view them by going to www.images4kids.com (Access code: 7MU3-02 Password: 022535 and you can leave the email field blank). We are doing the ordering, but I thought some of you might want to get a sneak peek. They are crazy cute!!

As for Jeff and me, we are doing well. (other than being sick). Jeff enjoys his job and I enjoy mine....most of the time. The potty training was a bit hard on me...staying home for a week working on the training. I got a bit stir crazy. But things are getting a bit more normal now that Matt is really getting the hang of this potty business. We have a bunch of stuff coming up...my parents' birthday this Wednesday, Thanksgiving next week, and going to Arkansas soon after that. I still can't believe the holidays are upon us. Crazy how time flies. I promise to get some pics up on the website, on facebook, and on snapfish very soon. Praying you are all doing well.

Love from Frisco!

Fevers, fevers, go away.....

Well, overall we are doing well. However, my kids have been sick for the past couple of days. Last night was the first night in a couple that they both slept through the night...and therefore the first night that I slept through the night. They both have been running fevers, so I took them to the doctor on Monday. I wasn't too worried about the fevers, but Matt threw up on Sunday night. My fear was H1N1. I was happy to hear that neither of my boys tested positive for flu or strep. However, it seems they both have Hand, foot, and mouth disease. Horrible name...isn't it!! It is not the same as Hoof and Mouth that cows get, for those of you who don't know...but is appearently a common childhood virus. Drew has actually had it before. It just leaves sores by their hands, feet, and in their mouths. (Hence the name Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease). Matt has none of the sores, so I think he might just have another kind of virus, but Drew has them. :-( They both have been a bit cranky and have had diminished appetites. The doctor says that it should resolve itself in about a week or so. Until then, keep us in your prayers as I have to keep Matt home from school and I can't go to my bible study since they can't go into childcare. Pray for healing, and patience on my part.

As for other goings on...Matt is doing well and is starting to talk up a storm. He seems to think that he is in charge of Drew. He tells him no a lot and has even spanked him on occation. My favorite was when he spanked Drew (barely a tap on the bottom) and said "No Drew, hurt yourself" Gotta love my little helper. The sibling thing can work to my advantage when it comes to Matt. If he won't do what I want him to, I will just ask Drew and then Matt is first to comply. He is doing great in school and loves to go there. In fact when I drop him off he walks right in and barely says goodbye to me. He is however, always happy to see me when I pick him up.

Drew is doing well. He is talking a lot as well. He loves to wave goodbye and is going to be my little troublemaker. It is fun to see his little personality coming out. He is my daredevil. He has had a black eye, a bloody head, and several more bumps in this week alone. He is full on drama. He will cry like he is seriously hurt for even the smallest bump, but then be right back to getting into trouble the next minute. He loves to screech when his brother takes a toy from him (if Matt can actually successfully pry it from Drew's hands---the kid is strong!!). He is also the sweetest, and loves to give hugs and currently thinks his Daddy hung the moon. (My sister tells me they go back and forth on this one between Mommy and Daddy...which is true).

As for me, I am keeping busy...bible study on Wednesdays and I just joined a MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group every other Friday. They both have been huge blessings to me. Jeff is also doing well, staying busy with work. We pray that you all are doing well. Much love from Frisco.

Matthew's first day of school/Drew's 15 month checkup

Well, the first day of school went off without a hitch. Matt was a bit nervous when we first got there, but his teacher Ms. Suzy totally calmed his nerves. She came up to him and asked him for a hug, and he was totally fine after that. He never cried. I teared up, but didn't actually cry. He just sat down, and said bye to us, with no problems at all. God really gave us the perfect teachers for Matt! When I picked him up, they said he had a great day. He played a lot with 3 other boys. Appearently, they had a lot of fun together! I am glad he is making friends. He ate a good amount of his lunch and actually slept at naptime. He was happy when I picked him up and even said his goodbyes to his teachers. I can tell he really likes school. He never cried...well that is until we were walking to the car. He was pretty tired still and he wanted me to hold him. That wasn't really possible since I had Drew on one arm and my purse and his school basket on the other. So I walked about 2 inches a minute to the car with Matt dragging on my legs crying and saying "Mommy hold you" the whole way. Thankfully one great mom helped me get them to the car so that helped a lot! Overall it was a great day.

Today was also Drew's 15 month checkup. He got a good report. We only have to give 2 breathing treatments a day for the next month, really as a preventative measure. He is doing great developmentally. His stats were as follows: weight 21 lb. 14 oz. (15th %) Height 30 inches (20th %) and Head circumference 19 1/2 (95th %). Gotta love my big headed boys. You would never guess he is small for his age. He is amazingly strong and easily keeps up with his older brother.

It was a very good day today for both of my boys. I better get going...I can hear Drew crying for Mommy. Love from Frisco, Texas.

Taking my breath away

Well the past couple days have been very stressful, but have only served to strenghthen my faith in God. Our Drew bear was having difficulty breathing on Monday during the day. He was wheezing and struggling to get his breath. I took him to the doctor and they said he was only recieving 83% oxygen. He should be getting close to 100%, so this was not good. The immediately gave him a breathing treatment of epinephran (sp), which helped a lot. However, they were still very worried about Drew at night, since this is a time when your oxygen levels drop normally. The doctor decided to admit him to the hospital right away. I took the boys up the elevator (the doctor's office is in a hospital, so that was convinient). I was going to get the boys some lunch after we went to the doctor, so poor Matt was very hungry. Drew at that moment, wasn't thinking much about food. My mom did come and bring some food for Matt, and helped out a lot while they got Drew settled. It took them 5 tries to finally get an IV in Drew. They tried 4 painful times unsuccessfully, and then decided he was dehydrated. We got him to drink a little bit, and then they were able to get the IV into his arm. The juice and more than that, a lot of prayer, helped them to get it in the first try this go around. He got breating treatments every 3 hours, and got steriods to help open his airways, and antibiotics for the ear infection he also had. He also had some x-rays and a lot of poking and prodding. He was quite the trooper. I think I cried more than he did. Jeff was a super daddy taking Matt home and taking care of him the next day so that I could stay with Drew. They warned me that he could do poorly during the night, but the many prayers said for my son were answered, and he did great. They released him the next day. There was a mix up on our home nebulizer and it didn't arrive until 6 hours after we got home, so we missed on treatment. Needless to say, I was upset, but Drew is fine, so I will get over it. That stuff about a Mama bear is so true. I am normally very non-confrontaional...however when my kid's health is at stake, I can be rather mean. I probably should have handled it in a more calm manner. Oh well. We are continuing to give Drew treatments every 4 hours, so I am pretty tired, but he is doing great. Please keep him in your prayers. Our God is wonderful and deserves all the credit for Drew's quick recovery. Even the doctor was amazed at how quickly he bounced back. I however wasn't surprised...we serve an awesome God!! Also please pray for my mother-in-law. She is in the hospital because her leg is swelling up. She had a stroke in Aug. of 2006, so she is more vuneralble to problems. Please pray for wisdom for the doctors and healing for her body. Thanks. Love from Frisco!! By the way we want to send some birthday shout outs to Aunt Tania and Aunt Cynthia!!! Have great days!

Ft. Worth Zoo

Well we had a great trip to the Fort Worth Zoo on Thursday. Matthew especially loved the animals and couldn't get enough. It was 3 digit temperatures, but we braved it and had the best time. I hope you enjoy some of the pictures. We are doing well, and pray you all are doing well too. I will update more when I have a chance.

Enjoy.