Thankful

Today I am thankful that Westin Kate's surgery is over and it went well. I was dreading it and it went SO well. I woke her up last night at 1150pm (she couldn't eat after MN) and fed her a bottle of mostly formula-hoping it would last longer!! I also gave her her first dose of benadryl to try to see it it would help her sleep. Well it worked like magic and we had to wake her at 545am to leave. If you know my child you know this is RARE. Normally should would have been up between 3-4am after eating at midnight. She was hungry when she woke up and wanted to eat but once we got into the car she got distracted and did great. She did not cry one time at the surgery center while we were waiting. Everyone kept telling us how "happy" and "good" she was and we were so thankful. I was thinking it was going to be a night mare. The surgery center was wonderful and everything was quick and on time. We got there at 6am and she went back as scheduled at 715am. Surgery only lasted 10-15 minutes and then we got to go back and see her.

She was crying when we went back but quickly settled down when I gave her a bottle. You could tell she was confused and not feeling great from anesthesia. She would cry off and on and cried for about 5 minutes in the car until she went to sleep. Wade did the exact same thing :) Thankfully she is still sleeping now an hour and a half later. Zach has Wade-I am so happy about this!!! I sneezed loud today and she cried...I forgot Wade was sensitive to loud noises at first too. I think when you always have fluid in your ear you tend to hear a little muffled so this is new to her. I completely forgot to ask her doctor if her ears were infected so I may call them today. One surgery down and one procedure to go. It is so nice to have this done before the Holiday's. I am so glad we changed our minds and went ahead with it. Here are some pictures of WK today. My mom came by to see her this morning but left right before they took her back. She started crying and didn't want to watch them take her back. I cried with Wade but this time I did ok. It really helped that the nurse took her and carried her back. With Wade they took him back on the big stretcher. Later mom called and reminded me that today is the day that my Grandma and Uncle both died. It was quite a few years ago but my Grandma died during surgery so mom said "Don't ever schedule another surgery on this day again" :) She was kidding but I didn't even think about it before hand.

Thanksgiving pictures

Here are our pictures from Thanksgiving. The first few are of us at my Aunt's house and the rest are from our weekend in Winston!!

Sweet cousins!!

Sunday after naps we went and picked out our tree. We still  have not decorated it yet but things have been busy this week so we are planning on doing that tonight!!

Plans have changed!!

We had a great thanksgiving. We had a great lunch at my Aunt's house and a wonderful dinner at my in laws. We have so much to be thankful for and we just enjoyed being together. I am so thankful we were all well (I am always so excited when no one is sick over the Holidays!!) WK was on antibiotics for her ears but other than that they were both well. We did a little shopping while Josh's mom kept the kids and got most of our Christmas shopping done. We just have a couple of little things left to get! I am so thankful for this because we have had a change in plans and we will now have 2 surgery's before Christmas.

Thankfully they are both minor surgery's but still makes life a little hectic (and expensive!!) Originally we were planning on waiting until Jan to do WK's tubes and Josh's surgery. However enough is enough and I just can't have her not sleeping another month. She is miserable at night and tosses and turns and I have to believe it is because of her ears and that fluid that will not drain. So WK is having surgery this Thursday (like in 2 days!!!) I know how easy of a surgery it is but it still doesn't make it any easier seeing that sweet baby on a stretcher in a hospital gown. I am honestly worried more about her not eating after midnight. It is going to be awful. I think I am going to feed her some rice cereal around 9pm and wake her a few minutes before midnight and give her a bottle and pray that she doesn't scream too much. I think I am going to try to sleep in another room and let her sleep with Josh. She will try so hard to eat if I am beside her. She has become a mamma's girl in the past week. It is crazy because she used to love for Josh to hold her at night but the past week she just cries if he takes her at bedtime.  We are really hoping that tubes will help her and that we can get her back to a good sleeping schedule. Sleep training 101 starts a couple of days after surgery. I know it will be rough for a few nights but we have to do it.

Josh is also having surgery. Well I wouldn't even call it surgery but he is having a procedure done (don't tell him I said this!!) This is probably TMI but I have to remember what Wade said about it, "daddy is having surgery on his pee pee- hahaha" We were planning on doing this in the Spring time but because we are already doing her surgery it is cheaper if we do the both before the first of the year. The only thing that stinks is that our deductible starts over in January so we will only be covered for one month. At this point we don't even care about the money we just want her to feel better-of course it would be nice if we had a lower deductible :)  We are going today to meet with a fertility specialist who is doing Josh's procedure. I laughed when they told me that because we (thankfully) do not need to see a fertility specialist in fact we need just the opposite. I guess he specializes in preventing it too! Josh asked how I found this guy and I joked with him and told him that I bought a groupon for his surgery. I don't think he thought it was as funny as I did. Actually the practice was recommended to us by a couple of people. I think it is bittersweet as we get closer to really doing this. I know we are "done" having babies but making it permanent really makes it official. We are SO thankful for our two precious kids and even though I am sad we won't have a baby around any more I am excited to start a new phase in our life. Plus once my sister has kids I will probably have to help raise those!!!!! Just kidding Ashley. I am excited though that one day we will have more babies on our side of the family. So we will schedule Josh's surgery today and it will be done sometime in the next few weeks.

I have a bunch of pictures to post soon.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow!! I love Thanksgiving and I am so excited for tomorrow. Tomorrow is Westin Kate's 1st Thanksgiving. I know there will be lots of pictures so I figured I better go ahead and update the blog today! We have been mostly hanging out at home the past couple of weeks. It has been so nice just spending time here and not having too much to do. We have been enjoying this great Fall weather and playing outside some.

Josh has almost finished Wade's "club house" and it looks so good. We have painted it and Josh put some rocks down in the bottom to cover the roots up. He put Wade's little chair in there and even built him a little shelf for his super hero's and toys. We got his door handle on and now we have to get him a lantern and cut out a window. It is a little dark in there with the door closed. Wade wants the sign to have two sides. He wants one side to say "No Girls Allowed" and the other side to say "Girls Welcome." Typical Wade... he wants to decide when sister or other girls can come in!!

Thankfully the "big boys" came over to play with Wade while Josh and I painted the other night. Wade picked out the colors all by himself!! WK played in her jumperoo!!



We have had some "fun" raking leaves and letting the kids play in them. WK wants to eat them and Wade loves to jump in them. We have the front yard looking pretty good but the back yard is horrible. We have so many leaves we need to get up. We are going to tackle it this weekend when we get back.  WK is pretty good about sitting and playing while we rake. Every now and then I looked over and she was trying to escape.

WK has another ear infection (#4) so we made a little visit to the ENT yesterday and we are scheduled to get tubes in January. I hate that she has to have them but it changed Wade's life so I know it will help her so much. Wade lived in the doctors office the first year and we are heading down that same path with her. She was so healthy until she turned 6 months old and now she can't seem to get rid of these infections. She is also teething so poor thing can't catch a break. She still only has her two little bottom teeth but she has two on the top trying to come in. She is moving everywhere. She still isn't officially crawling but she is rolling/scooting everywhere. She can also push up to a sitting position from her stomach now. She is SO close to pulling up and would rather stand than sit these days. She is busy and doesn't want to be held when we are out-she just wants to get down all the time. The other day I was yelling to Wade-lets go, get ready etc and WK started "yelling" like she was telling him lets go! It was so cute.

This little cutie wore shoes for the first time yesterday since she was newborn. I mostly just keep her in those socks that look like little shoes. Now that she is wanting to stand up so much I am going to have to go get her some shoes! Wade looked so cute in his little pirate vest.



This week they have both bit each other-Wade bit her two day's ago and then he got his pay back because she bit him twice yesterday. She got him pretty good too. They are playing so well together and so far really love each other most of the time. WK has cried two times now when Wade gets out of the car to go to school etc. She did it today and was so pitiful. She looked around her car seat to see him and when he wasn't there she started crying :(

We are heading to my Aunt's for lunch tomorrow. We LOVE going there because we have it in their big back garage which is also where her day care is...this means my kids are entertained with all the toys and we actually get to sit and relax and watch them play. It is heavenly. We will head to Josh's parents house around nap time and eat dinner and spend the night with them. His mom cooks the best meal and I look forward to it every year!!! Wade is so excited to see Nana and Poppy and Peyton. Tomorrow is special too because it is Peyton's 5th birthday. Wade is so happy he gets to see her this weekend. Hope everyone has a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving.

Wadism's

This is one of those post that you may want to skip over. Its just something I want to remember one day!! Wade is a funny kid; he really always has been but lately he has been really funny! He might do something to make me so mad but one minute later he says things that are so funny. Just today his buddy got in trouble at the park and Wade says "everybody do mistakes mom!!" When I try to correct his grammar and say "you mean everybody makes mistakes Wade" he will say "yea that's what I was saying!!" Here are some other funny things from our silly boy.

• Right Mom?
• Maybe? (he says this a lot when I ask him a question)
• Yeah, really mom!!
• Really Mom?
• Um think about it...its a mustang and I'm right (he told this to Josh the other day when Josh was telling him that every convertible is not a mustang!)
• Did you vote for Romney...I voted for Graham Crackers (I loved this one-he was asking about seeing all the signs around election time and I was telling him about Obama and Romney. He came home from school around election time with a sticker on that said I Voted. When I asked him about it he said they had to vote between goldfish, graham crackers and pretzels!!)
• I don't feel very good, my tummy hurts. I need some candy for breakfast to make it feel better
• He says to WK "Sis-say (sissy) Sis-say look at brother Sis-say" He really loves her these days and gets so excited when she wakes up in the mornings. It is too cute.

Wade had scared us a few weeks back when he started complaining of headaches. At first I wasn't so worried but then one night he woke up crying saying his head was hurting. Long story short we took him in and they checked him out really well and his doctor was concerned about him waking up crying but wasn't quite ready to send him for a CT scan (which we weren't either.) He thought it may be from congestion because even though he wasn't sick one side of his nose was congested. We did a few days of sudafed and I wasn't supposed to ask him about his head. Dr. Steele wanted us to write it down when he had a headache. He only complained a couple of times here and there. One night he asked Josh to sleep in his room and when Josh said "no" Wade then said "I don't feel well I have a headache." So after that we got a little suspicious that he wasn't always telling the truth about it. About two weeks ago we were in the car and Wade randomly asks me "How do you spell headache?" I told him and then asked him why he asked and he says "Because I am going to have one tomorrow and I need to know how to spell it!!!" So needless to say we have relaxed a little about the headaches and he hasn't been complaining about them lately.

Wade's little buddy Sebastian from school went on vacation to visit his grandparents. He was gone over a week and Wade was always asking about him. Well the day he got back Wade came home from school and said "Sebastian is back from his trip to Salamia." I said from where? He said "Salamia mom!" I corrected him and said honey he is back from Colombia. Wade then tried to correct me again and said "Salamia just like Kate likes to eat salami for lunch!!"

Thanks

Thanks to my sweet friend Jessica for helping me with the blog. I think that I have almost got the hang of Picasa and making headers now. The pictures aren't centered perfectly but they will do for now. I wish they would have just left blogger alone and not changed it because it has taken me forever to get it right again!

 We hung out/helped my parents tonight....I forgot to mention in my last post that they are moving out of my Papaw's house this weekend. They are moving into a brand new house that my dad had built. It is so nice and we LOVE the location. They are about 1/2 mile maybe even less from downtown Apex. We have been taking advantage of that already and parking there and walking downtown. It is special because growing up we lived right in downtown and I am so excited for Wade and Westin Kate because downtown is so neat these days. Josh and I are excited because once they are settled we are going to drop the kids off and walk to Peak City Grill for dinner! Dad originally bought the lot for them to build on and move there but when Papaw got sick last year everything changed. Long story short after Papaw died they didn't want to sell his house so they moved into his house. Well the new house did not sell after a few months on the market and mom and dad had lots of people asking about renting Papaw's so it just made sense to rent his out and move into the new house. I think it is hard though because this is almost the exact week one year ago that they were making plans for mom to bring Papaw home to die. Its hard to believe it has almost been a year already. For the last 50 + years mom has either lived in that house or has been going there almost every day to see her parents so it is really strange to her that she won't be going anymore. Once they get settled though I think they are going to love the new house. It is so pretty. There is just something about having a brand new house; however I have seen all the stress that comes with building and I am not sure I want to do that any time soon! Josh really wants to build one day so I think we probably will but I cannot imagine building a new house with little one's!!

I am so excited because it is supposed to be so nice this weekend. We plan to spend a lot of time outside while we can. Josh and Wade are building a "fort" underneath his swingset. Wade is so excited because it is going to say "No girls allowed!!" After watching Little Rascals 100 times Wade has now decided that he does not like girls that much and does not have 13 girlfriends. I can't wait to see the finished project.

Need Help

So any of you blog experts out there please help. Somehow I have deleted my old template and pretty much had to start over with the blog. Its ok but I don't love the way it looks. The old template Minima is no longer around so I have no clue what I am doing??? I also can't change or add any pictures because it says I am out of google storage with pictures? I think I have to pay google $5 to fix this...I know I had to do that one time before and then I could add pictures again. Has anyone else had to do this? I don't want to pay anyone to do a professional header/blog but sometimes I think it may be worth it. This background will do for now but if you have any suggestions I would love them.

On a good note Josh and I have a date night tonight to the Angus Barn. We haven't had a date night in a LONG time so we are excited. It is something for his work but hey a date night is a date night!! I am so excited for this weekend because we don't have any plans. Well we have to do some cleaning and yard work but other than that we are just going to hang out with our babies. Finally they are both sleeping better after this lovely time change. Wade has been up between 6-7am and it is about to kill me. He was so tired today that at 1pm he was asleep in the car!!

Westin Kate had her 9 month appt yesterday and everything looked great. Her growing has slowed down but she is right on track between the 49-68% in everything. Dr. Steele told me she had quite the personality for a 9 month old and I would have to agree. She was such a ham the entire time and LOVED all the attention she got from the staff. She barely cried at all when she got her two shots. Her ears were all clear so this weekend we are officially sleep training and I am not going to feed her during the night. It is time to do this but I am dreading it so much. Last night she did so much better and slept in her bed all night but woke up twice wanting to eat. I hate it for her but hopefully it will just take a couple of nights and she will start sleeping all night. I just hate hearing her cry :(

9 Months Old!

Westin Kate today you are 9 months old. I can't believe that in 3 months you will be 1. Why does this first year have to fly by so fast? Because you are our last baby I think I could just keep you in this baby stage forever!! Well I want to keep you a sweet little baby but a baby that sleeps through the night. You are the sweetest little girl all day and you never cry BUT you are not a good night time sleeper. Thankfully you nap well during the day. Part of this is because you have had three ear infections and it seems like every time we get you into a good routine at night you get another one. They haven't mentioned tubes yet but I am waiting patiently because I feel like it is coming. You are so funny and have started doing things to make us laugh. You love to pat us on the back when we hold you. You are waiving now...it is so cute because you entire little arm goes up and down when you wave. You have also clapped a couple of times when we say "yay!" You also love to "give kisses" and will open your little mouth up all the way and put it on our face when we ask for one.

This is a picture of you doing your silly face-you are looking around to see who is paying attention to you. You love attention!! You stick your little toungue out and make a "pluh" sound when you do it. We always laugh and usually you will belly laugh at yourself and do it again. It is so funny because Wade did a silly face around this age and he would keep doing it over and over because we would laugh. You too are so similar but so different.


You love to sit and play on the floor with toys; you also love it when I get your bowls down and let you play with those. Its hard to tell in this picture but you have a drum stick and you LOVE to bang it on things or "play the drums!" You still aren't crawling but you are so close. You can go from sitting over to your hands and knees but you are only scooting backwards. Your little arms want to go but your knees haven't quite got the hang of it yet. You are also trying so hard to pull up-thankfully you haven't mastered that yet. You are so flexible. You can put both legs out in a split position and reach so your belly is almost flat on the ground. Maybe you will be a gymnast!!

Daddy is so excited because he will ask you "where's momma?" and you will look around and find me and smile. You can do this with daddy, mommy and wade! You also are trying hard to copy us when we do things. You love almost everyone and will pretty much let anyone hold you. The only new thing you are doing is you won't reach for anyone else when mommy or daddy are holding you. It is so funny and makes Mimi laugh. You used to always reach for her and now if mommy or daddy has you you are just content staying with us. You know what you want to do and don't want to do these days. You also throw your sweet head back at times when you don't want to get in the stroller or car seat. Oh the drama has started already. This is where you are so different from Wade. He never did this.

Happy 9 Months Sweet Girl!! We love you. Here are a few other things that you are up to:

• weighed 19.13lbs (68%)-you were actually down in weight from last time
• 27 1/2 inches long (49%)
• wear 9-12 months clothes/size 3 diapers
• take two good naps each day
• still only eating solid foods twice a day-every now and then we get some lunch in there
• drink 4 oz every 4-5 hours
• only nurse only in the morning and during the night-take a bottle during the day
• still eat once during the night (we will be stopping this if your ears are clear tomorrow)
• eating lots of table food and you love it
• can't say mama or dada yet but you can say "hey"
• still only have your two little bottom teeth
• love bath time and play time
• are starting to get more hair and I am so excited to say I am seeing some wavy blond pieces
• big brown eyes
• know your name (I forgot this one last month) and turn and look when we call you
• loves Wade and Charlie so much
• got hit in the head by brother this week and fell off our chair onto your head this week :(
• love to play with your brothers toys best- I still don't know how you know they are his and that it will make him mad
• smile so big when we get the camera out or say cheese
• are so social and nosy and you love to just ride in the cart at stores and "talk" to everyone
• LOVE anything that plays music or when we sing to you. Especially if we clap or snap you think it is so funny
• love to play with my hair. You are so sweet and will just rub it and play with it
• love other babies at church or play group and always want to grab or touch them

Not a great picture but here she is trying to crawl! I love the next one because they are playing and she is laughing so hard at her brother!!

Almost there...

I am almost all caught up!! You don't even know how happy that makes me. I still have to blog about some really funny things that Wade has been saying lately and tomorrow WK turns 9 months. 9 Months Old!!!!!! Is that really happening already? I am not ready to plan a 1st birthday. I just want to keep her a baby-a baby that sleeps through the night though. I love this kid so much but some days I don't know how I am functioning considering I haven't slept through the night in 9 months. She has given my some 6 hour stretches but those are very few and far between. It seems that most nights she wakes up every 4 hours. I think she is afraid she is going to miss something.

Even though I am so tired I wouldn't trade it for anything. Hopefully I will be back tomorrow for a 9 month post!!

Baby Dedication

Yesterday we had Westin Kate's baby dedication after church. It turned out really nice. They actually had one a church yesterday too but we couldn't go to the mandatory class so were weren't able to do that one. Our small group leader just happens to be a Pastor at our church and we asked him to do it. He did Wade's when he was 15 months old!! We did it with our great friends Erin and Britt and sweet Hadley. WK is almost 6 months older than Hadley. This picture was taken right before WK decided to crawl off the chair!

We used a room at Anna's Pizza in downtown Apex. They have this nice big room above their restaurant and it was so nice and private. Gary asked the four of us 4 questions about raising our girls and then he asked our families a question and then he prayed for both girls. It was really nice and special to us. We are so thankful that we get the chance to raise this sweet girl. After the little ceremony we all had lunch. Wade and Westin Kate did great. Wade did not feel great but he was so good-he was excited that everyone was there together. Nana got WK to sleep which helped so much-she was so tired by 130p.

This is Gary and his cute and sweet wife Martha. We love them. Gary is so biblically smart its scary-we are learning so much from them in our small group.

Josh's mom bought WK her dress and it was so sweet. It was all white and smocked and even her little hat was smocked too. She bought it when she was first born and it fit perfectly. I was hoping it would fit better than her Halloween costume :)

Since it was a special day for this sweet girl she got to have her first taste of sherbet. She loved it and kept leaning over for more. Thanks Nana for sharing your ice cream!! Wade was also pretty excited about getting some ice cream-I think he would eat it for all three meals if we let him.