Exploring our Creative Side!

Life has been pretty quiet lately so there's not too much to update y'all on! Between being sick for awhile and cold temperatures, we've enjoyed cozying up in the house and doing things indoors. The kids LOVE anytime we break out the crayons, markers, or paint for art projects. The kids have spent a lot of time coloring birthday signs...and themselves! Ethan apparently wanted to explore body art so Emerson soon followed suit =)

 

The kids do an awesome job playing by themselves while I'm working out, in the kitchen making lunch, etc. Emerson plays with everything Ethan does so she's really into choo-choo trains, bulldozers, and making fast cars go zoom on our hardwood floors. Ethan's also been perfecting his golf game during the winter months. This kid never misses! The best part? He took it upon himself one day to grab an empty toilet paper roll and he set it up as a golf tee! Kid's a genius!

 

Ethan loves to line his trains up on the windowsill.



Watching the trains go around and around.



My little Godzilla =)

 

The kids have a new 'hiding' spot - our pantry. They love to sit on the floor, close the door, talk to each other, and be mischievous! One day, I had a friend over and was in the living room while they were playing. I should've known after quite a long time went by without me hearing anything that they were up to no good. Sure enough, Ethan had pulled the baking soda AND cornstarch down from one of the shelves and they were having a field day. Mountains of white powder...of which Emerson (of course) decided to walk through and track alllll over the main floor. Haha, no worries though - just a little mess, right? Without even prompting him, Ethan went and got his broom and helped me clean up =)

 

The kiddos are doing awesome - both learning and growing so much. People keep telling me how much they look alike right now...probably because Emerson's hair is finally growing! I was at the grocery the other day and this older gentleman walked by, smiled, and said "what a blessed life you have." Indeed =)

 

 

 

 

 

 



A New Year...And a Whole Lot of Sickness!

I'm telling you what - this new year has brought us nothing but colds, germs, and major sickness! Starting with the first weekend in January, Ethan came down with a 24-hour flu bug. It really came out of nowhere and he just got up from the dinner table and started throwing up. Poor little guy got sick about five more times that night and each time Eric and I were right there with towels and blankets =) There was a lot of cuddles and a lot of Bob the Builder that night! I went to bed that evening feeling pretty crummy, but thought it was just nausea from the pregnancy. Little did I know, I caught the flu and spent the next 13 hours (literally) throwing up. It was so, so brutal. I couldn't even keep one tiny sip of water down. By mid-afternoon Sunday, I had called my OB and she prescribed some medicine to stop the vomiting, but I was throwing that up so she directed me to the ER so I could get an IV and get pumped full of fluids.

I think we were healthy for about a week before Emerson started getting sick - but from the other end =) She had some sort of gastrointestinal virus which caused her to have non-stop diarrhea/fever for probably 8-9 days. Whew. So much information, right? Poor Eric was home all weekend with both kiddos while I was away for a girls weekend in Washington, DC and I felt like I needed to come home with Lysol and baby wipes!

The past two weeks has been a real doozy though. Eric took Ethan to the Wonderlab and he picked up lovely pink eye while there. So not a big deal, but his poor little eye was so red and watery and you could tell it bothered him. We had to put drops in his eyes three times a day and it cleared up around day four.


 

Fast forward a couple days and Emerson came down with a fever pretty much all day. She was really fussy and wanted to be held all the time and by the time she went to bed that night, her fever was 103.2. We gave her the appropriate dose of Tylenol and put her to bed. She was asleep about a hour or so before she woke up and started crying. I was gone, but Eric gave it a few minutes to see if she would fall back asleep. He knew something was wrong when she started crying, "daddy! daddy, daddy!" in the saddest little cry ever. He went in to grab her and she was soaked to the bone in sweat - clearly her fever had broke so he took her down on the couch with him for awhile. I walked in and she was just laying with her daddy...right where she wanted to be =)

The next morning I woke her up and discovered she was covered in a red and bumpy rash. I called the doctor and they said to bring her in and they confirmed she had Hand, Foot, Mouth Disease (HFM). HFM is a viral illness that is common in children and shows up in the form of bumps/sores/blisters on their hands, feet, in their mouth, legs, bottom, etc. Unfortunately, there's nothing you can do for it except make them comfortable and give Benadryl if they're itchy. She was definitely bothered and irritated by all her bumps and we just felt so terrible for her. Thankfully, only one boil has blistered open and the rest have seemed to just scab over which is a sign of healing. We are on day four of the virus and hopefully it'll be all out of her system in the next couple days!

 

Pictures don't do it justice!

Needless to say, we've been spending a LOT of time at home the last couple weeks! The kids have been so great though and love playing with their toys, reading books, chasing each other around, jumping on cushions, coloring, painting, and any other fun indoor activity you can think of. Warmer weather is in store for the weekend so we are very much looking forward to getting out in the fresh air!







Dr. Ethan checking out baby sister

Thank goodness they were washable crayons!

Our Christmas Recap!

Eeekkk, almost a month has gone by since Christmas and here I am just posting about it! Our Christmas worked out really well this year by celebrating with different families on different weekends. This was a change from how it's been in the past where we usually split time on the actual Christmas holiday. Our first Christmas was with Pa and Gigi who came up from Tennessee. The kids were super excited to have them stay with us and made a welcome sign to decorate their door. It was a perfect weekend for them to visit because Ethan had his choir performance at church so all seven grandparents got to see his choir debut! How special! Ethan was definitely more into opening presents this year and was so excited to get a cool dump truck shirt, new books, and fun bath toys from Pa and Gigi.

 

The following weekend we headed up to Uncle Jeffrey and Aunt Kristen's house so we could have Christmas with Grandpa Joe! Anytime you get all five kiddos together it's bound to get chaotic at times, but Kristen and I both agreed that was one of the most smooth and...dare I say...relaxing visits we've all had!! GASP! The kids were so funny - of course they just wanted to play with each other's toys and we all had to make sure we went home with the right stuff!

That's about right...all we wanted was one picture. Just one.

Next up was our Christmas with Mamaw and Papaw Steve over at our house. Ethan was getting quite used to opening presents with this being his third celebration already! haha! We were most excited about Ethan's "big" gift which Mamaw was nice enough to ask permission from Eric and I to make sure it was okay =) Check out his new set of wheels...

Ethan and Emerson were having a blast riding in the Jeep and we've had a couple nice days this winter where they've taken it for a spin!

 

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were spent out at Papaw and Ginka's house with ALL the aunts, uncles, and cousins...18 people total plus two dogs!! The adults were bound and determined to make this year different from years past when opening gifts turned into a chaotic mess of clutter and confusion. The kids did AMAZING - we sat them in a circle and they took turns opening one gift at a time so we could all see what they got. Keep in mind, five out of the seven were under four years old so to keep them seated for longer than one minute was a huge success! =)

 

It was such a special time to spend Christmas with our entire family. We say it all the time how lucky we feel whenever our kiddos get to see all of their grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Ethan just adores his oldest cousins, Aidan and Sydney. I think he would be Aidan's shadow if he could. And the more we see Kaleb and Emerson together the more we think they are two peas in a pod =) {Most comments regarding them should be followed up with...God love them!} Haha. So thankful for all the great pictures and memories we made!

One of my favs.

Couldn't pick a better role model for Ethan! =)

This girl is OVER the Christmas cheer.

Cousins, Cousins, and more Cousins!

 

These two...=)