New blog

Here's a link to my new blog:

http://mommyandher2boys.blogspot.com/

Stay tuned...

As most of you know, we are downsizing from a family of 4 to a family of just 3. I won't go into detail, but from this day forward it's just me and the boys. Although there's a lot of my life that's unclear right now, what I do know is that my boys deserve a phenomenal life and that's what I'm going to provide them with.

To those that have been there for me throughout this whole ordeal (you know who you are), I cannot thank you enough for your support. It's because of all of you that I have been able to hang in there and be strong for my kids.

As a side note, I will be retiring this blog and will be posting the link to the new one soon, so as the title says, stay tuned...

~Kerry

Exhausted

The title pretty much sums up how I feel tonight. Jackson sure is having a rough time lately and it sure is wearing on me, and it's clearly wearing on him too. I know it's just him building up his immune system now that he's in daycare, but the poor thing has only had a handful of healthy days since starting there at the end of March.

Two weeks ago we got a call from daycare that he had a fever. I picked him up and his eye was goopy as well, so I took him to the Dr. The diagnosis? Double ear infections AND double pink eye. I knew there was a reason to his restless nights. 8 days into taking the medicine and he broke out in a rash - yet another call from daycare. Took him to the Dr who confirmed he's allergic to pe.nicillin, and since his ears were clear, he didn't have to be put on any other meds. Day 3 (last Friday) of the rash was by far the worst - he was itching like crazy (got another call from daycare to come give him some Benadryl to stop the itch), and just looked like a mess - a stranger probably would've guessed chicken pox because he was covered in bumps, including his head & ears. By Sunday, the rash had cleared, but he was still quite clingy & whiny, not to mention his sleep at night worsened. I was guessing teething since he had just finished up meds and the Dr said his ears were cleared not even a week ago. Obviously I was wrong.

Today I got a call from daycare that he spiked yet another fever, not to mention that he was just laying around, not interested in playing, and had taken 3 naps by 2pm, which is completely unlike him. So I leave work yet again, take him back to the Dr (have I mentioned how well they know us at this point?), and guess what?? Another double ear infection. The poor kid :( At this point we're on #8 or 9 ear infections in the span of the past 6 months, and now we're being referred to an ENT to get tubes placed in his ears. Colin had them and despite having to put him under for surgery, it was so worth it. I am actually looking forward to Jackson getting them at this point. He deserves to not spend so much time being sick and actually being comfortable when sleeping at night. And okay, it might benefit me a bit in actually getting a full night's sleep for a change too ;)

Here's a couple pics of my poor little guy when he had his allergic reaction. Poor thing looks so sad and pathetic, doesn't he? The pics don't even do the rash justice.

Thankfully, although Colin tends to get jealous when Jackson's attached to my hip, he's been a trooper the past couple weeks. For some reason, the past 2 nights he's been exceptionally good... maybe it's due to the brownies I made and have been bribing him with....hmmm...

Montages

My latest projects were our annual Mother's Day gifts to the Grandma's. Now that they've finally been delivered and viewed, I can finally share them with the rest of you :)

This first montage is of the boys together (it's about 6-7min long):

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

This next one is Jackson's First Year, followed by Colin's Third Year (this one is super long - almost 20min, so only watch if you have a lot of time on your hands LOL):

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

A tad bit late...

But here's some birthday bash pics :)

And guess what Colin got for his birthday???

(He's in his pj's in this pic because we didn't put the bike together until the morning after the party)

The boys had a great birthday party and had a blast spending time with all 4 of their Grandparents!

The Boys

I just realized I never posted pics of the boys together. Here's a few....

And the grand finale (aka the one we chose to purchase):

They sure are cute!

Happy 1st Birthday, Jackson!!!!!!!!!

I cannot believe my baby is already a year old!!!

One day old

One year old

Happy Birthday, Colin!!!!!!!!!!!

One day old

One year old

2 years old

3 yrs old

Real quick

Just wanted to let you all know that pictures went great. Colin was hilarious - I think he's aspiring to be a model the way he walked out on the floor and did his thing. Jackson was a bit more difficult only because he did not want to sit still, and definitely had zero interest in actually looking at the camera. I was dripping sweat by the end of the session! I am beyond grateful that he can't walk/run yet LOL

I'll be posting pics on a couple of special days we have ahead of us this week (aka a couple of birthday's!!!). My babies are growing up *sniff*

Big day today

We took the boys for haircuts this morning. No big deal for Colin since he's had many, but today was Jackson's very 1st haircut! Scott's been harping on me to just do it for awhile now and I kept saying not until he's a year old, well.... he turns a year old in 6 (!!!) days, so I figured now was as good of time as any. Here's the big moment caught on camera:


"You're going to do what to my hair???"




"Ummm.... I'm still not sure what those sharp things are for..."


"I guess this isn't so bad"






Halfway done...




"Still having fun but this lady better hurry up - I got places to go!"





"Yay - all done! Am I cute or what??"

"Now I'm all ready for my photo shoot this afternoon!"

*Both boys are getting their pics done today - Colin's 3yr pics (can you believe he'll be 3 in only 3 days?!?!) and Jackson's 1yr pics. Cross your fingers that both boys cooperate and we get some good pics!

Back to work

Well, I've been back to work for a week now and boy does it feel weird to be back in the "adult" world! The kids are still adjusting... both got colds pretty much immediately and Jackson now has pink eye :( Colin is having a really hard time separating from me when I drop them off in the morning - the past 2 days we haven't even made it inside the building before he falls to the ground and has a meltdown. I feel horrible that it's so hard on him, but I know in the long run it'll be good for him to gain some independence. And I'd rather have him get it out now, rather then when he starts preschool or Kindergarten. Jackson's pretty laid back so he does alright - he just needs to learn to take better naps while he's there (Colin oddly enough takes decent naps there - anywhere from 1.5-2.5hrs).


The weekend before I went back to work, we had some family fun. We headed to the Great Wolf Lodge that just opened near us for the night on Saturday, and we sure did have some fun! Colin had an absolute blast at the indoor waterpark and wore himself out pretty good. Jackson was tired, so he didn't get much water time.




Our plumber LOL:





Sunday morning we got up, took Colin to play in the pool for a bit, then got ready for our big day with Thomas the Train. Unfortunately, Colin wore himself ragged at the waterpark that after we took our ride on Thomas, he was more than ready to go home for a nap. Even almost 3yr olds have limits ;)




Our attempt at a family pic:




And last, here's a cute bathtub pic of the boys on Jackson's 11 month "birthday"- pardon Colin's infamous cheesy smile:



The end.... for today :)

Easter

Last weekend we went to Grandma & Grandpa P's house in Louisiana for Easter. The Easter Bunny was extra nice to 2 little boys I know and love ;) Colin had a blast color eggs and doing his Easter egg hunt, and even helped Mommy with her & Daddy's egg hunt (the Easter Bunny likes to include us every year too). Of course me & Colin could've done much better had Daddy not hidden Mommy's eggs under mulch while he was looking for his own *ahem*.

Here's Colin coloring eggs:

Jackson only got to watch with Daddy - maybe next year we'll let him give it a try
The funniest thing during egg coloring was Colin's impatience. He did not want to wait for the eggs to get colored, so to buy time and let the eggs sit in the cups, we told Colin to run to a tree in the backyard, run around it twice and come back and check the eggs. He went without hesitation LOL

Here he is on his egg hunt:

And showing off his eggs:

And with his Easter basket (and cheesy smile): Jackson with some of his Easter goodies - he wasn't too interested in me taking pics of him:

And because this post was heavy with Colin pics - I'll leave you with one more of Jackson. Now based on the size of him, you can tell he likes food. So say, for example, you left a bean & cheese taco within arms reach of his booster seat. Yeah, you can pretty much bet it'll be gone if you turn your head for one second. Busted!

Thanks for looking!

We've had some crazy weather

Last Thursday, the Dallas area got hit with a snowstorm. Considering we moved here from Michigan, we thought we were escaping that kind of weather. And I probably would've let it slide if it were December or January, but snow in March... in Texas?!?!? They had predicted between 4-6", then lowered it to 2-3", but in the end we hardly got any. Colin was fascinated watching it fall out the window, so I decided to take the boys outside to play in it. It was Jackson's first snowfall! Colin had a blast throwing snowballs and Jackson just hung out and watched.

The weather warmed up and the snow melted by noon the following day - that's probably the biggest difference between a snowfall in Michigan and a snowfall in Texas LOL By yesterday it was sunny and 75 degrees, so we went out to the park. Colin loves playing there and Jackson just enjoys hanging out in his stroller.

Both boys loved the swings:

Here's a video of just how much Jackson loved the swings. You can't help but laugh right along with him!

Hope you enjoyed :)