Keira's First Snow

I hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas and is looking forward to the wonderful new year!

This is a picture of Keira in her first snow. She liked it a little bit. I just set her down in the snow for a few minutes. Don't worry everyone she was only outside for about 10 minutes and I picked her up out of the snow after I took the picture. Her bother's loved going down in the woods behind our house with Daddy. Then they came in and had some homemade hot chocolate.

Here is a picture of Cameron at his first Christmas production. He is on the right hand side 2nd or 3rd row up. We are so proud of him. It was so fun watching him. He was looking all over the place because everything was so pretty and there was so much going on. He did good.

We also have some super special news to share. This past Monday Cameron asked Jesus into his heart. We are going to go forward this Sunday and then soon Cameron will be baptized. He just came up to his Daddy and told him that he accepted Jesus as his Savior and asked for forgiveness of his sins. That is a really cool Christmas present. In fact it is the whole reason that baby Jesus came down to this earth. He came to die for our sins so that we could all go to heaven because we wouldn't make it there on our own due to the fact that God cannot even look at sin because he is holy.

Tonight through this weekend Mike and I are singing the First Baptist Church of Maryville's Getting in the Christmas Mood production. This is the 8th year that it has been going on. It is not the same every year so even if you came out in the previous years feel free to come on out again. It starts at 7pm each night and there is also a matinee on Sunday afternoon at 3pm.

Thanksgiving Blessings

Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone out there in the blogging world! We are so grateful for this time of year where we can count all of our blessings and remember all the things that God has done for us. This past week on Tuesday night into Wednesday I caught the flu. It had me out for two days. I was really tired but Mike was here to look after the kids. It is so great that he has a job with enough time off to do things like that. His boss even made it so that he didn't have to take a vacation day. Bonnie was here to take care of the kids on Thursday. She is such a blessing to me and my family. She has pretty much adopted us like we were her own. I look forward to every Thursday spending time with her.

On Thursday night, Cameron had his Thanksgiving celebration at school. I was glad that I was well enough to go to that. I wouldn't have missed it for anything. He got to dress up like and Indian with an Indian name, Wise Wolf, and be our guide for the night. He showed us all that he had been up to at school and some of the artwork that he had made. He is so creative. I don't know where he would have gotten that from ;) Then we were able to partake of a bountiful harvest of desserts. Unfortunately, I did not think that desserts would be so good for my newly recovered stomach so I stuck with only a couple. It was fun to see Cameron interact with his friends and teacher. He just adores her. She might even be better than Mommy. Probably because she never yells at him.

We will be heading out to the family's house this week for the Thanksgiving festivities and work. I can't wait. It will be such fun. Oh, by the way Mom and Dad, I just want to warn you ahead of time that Keira screeches at mealtime. We are working on it, and I think she did better today. She just gets excited about eating. She also started eating real food and her feeding herself has helped with the screeching. She just thinks that Mom and Dad are too slow about getting the food to her mouth.

Tonight is Mommy Night

I am so glad that tonight is Mommy night. It is so good to get some piece and quite once in a while. I have not really done much of anything except to relax tonight. I woke up very early this morning and have not had much time to rest. I should be in my sewing room working on some of my jobs that God has blessed me with this week. So far my sewing business has gotten off to a great start. Just this week I have had an order for an embroidered ladybug, two pairs of pants to hem, and two place mat purses to make. Yeah! I also have about 14 other purses that I am making to send with Bonnie to a craft fair in Columbia. I hope to sell at least a couple of them. I haven't even begun my Christmas shopping yet because we have had so many seasonal bills and unexpected expenses. Yikes! Christmas is sneaking up on me. I had better get to work.

Check out My New Sewing Business

I have recently started up a sewing business. It is basically custom orders with a few specialties like my place mat handbag/diaper bag. This is the item that really prompted me to start the business. Friends have seen the purses I have been making for myself and they have urged me to start selling them so I thought why not? I love making them and I definitely do not need all those purses so here is the result, a new business. Check out my new blog with some pictures (I promise to have more soon). The link is below under my favorite links. I will have more pictures with other stuff later. Oh, the name of the company is "The Scarlett Thread" which is a name that Mike thought up because it has a spiritual meaning also. It is the connecting thread (story) throughout the Bible of God's redeeming love for all of mankind. Pretty cool. Anyway I am really excited about my new endeavor and if you ever need anything sewn for you, you know where to look.

Happy Halloween!

The boys are out trick or treating as I write this down. Keira is on the floor in her little ducky costume. So cute. The boys are Cameron, a pirate, and Garrett, Robin Hood. I will have to post pictures later. Last night we went out at Memaw and Pops house and got some candy. The boys love it and when we go out there I can go with them since I don't have to man the door. It is fun for all.

Yesterday during the day was spent at the Magic house with the family. Cameron was off school on Thursday and Friday because of Teacher conferences. We had our first parent/teacher conference on Thursday and Cameron got a glowing report. We sometime thought is this the same kid? We were not surprised as far as his grades. I am going to brag a little, he got E's on everything except things that you expect boys not to get E's on. If you are the Mother of a boy you know what I mean. Like sitting still in class and listening all the time. He does pretty well, but not excellent. Anyway, back to the Magic house. We had a great time. It was the first time that we had been there since they expanded. It is now so big and we didn't even get around to everything. However, it was a great family time which we have had two days of in the last week. We are trying to make up for the crazy busy times in the past and to come.

Last Saturday we reserved for a day trip. It did not turn out exactly as we planned, but we ended up having such a good time together. Our plan was to go on a trip down through Defiance, Mo and on through Washington and come back the highway. On the way over Mike and I had a big disagreement and ended up driving the first hour in silence. That was not what I would have chosen. However, by the time we reached my old High School we were starting to talk again. Mainly because Mike didn't know where we were going, but we opened up from there. When we reached Defiance we got out and took a walk on the Katy Trail. It was beautiful weather, but the trees were not quite as pretty in MO as they were here. The leaves had already started to fall over there. Mike and I had a nice walk and talk on the trail and completely made up. The boys were entertained while they were walking because they each found a caterpiller that they carried with them along the way. Cameron's caterpiller kept pooping all over him so he generously gave it to Garrett when Garrett lost his somewhere. Then we hopped back in the car to continue on our way. We decided to take a little detour to Daniel Boone's house because neither of us had been there in so long. The detour ended up changing the whole course of the day (I'm sure God had this in mind) because on the way there Mike and I were both distracted by Garrett in the back seat and Mike went off the very narrow road. He got back on but we had a flat tire. The blessing was that God had made sure we had this mishap right by an intersection so that we could pull off. It's just a flat no biggie. We had a spare so Mike and the boys changed the tire. I even helped a little and it was a good lesson for everyone. The flat was on and now we were ready to go right? Wrong, the spare was flat also. No problem we'll call AAA. Mike looks at his phone and he is almost out of batteries and my phone is completely dead. Better talk fast. Mike calls and finds a place to be towed to but they will only haul 1 person in the tow truck. At last count we have 5 people in our family. Luckily, being out in the middle of nowhere lends itself to people stopping and asking if you need help. A nice couple stopped to let us use their phone to call Mike's parents to come pick us up, mind you they are an hour away. They weren't home anyway. Well, beforementioned nice couple says they can give us a ride once they drop of a ladder. Ok. They leave us one of their phones to call them when the tow truck comes. Meanwhile, we break out the snacks that we brought for the trip. Let me just mention that through all of this none of us were upset or angry or anything except enjoying our time together. I guess we got all of that out earlier in the day. Plus, we had already spent several hours as a family which is when we all get filled. The tow truck comes and so does the other couple. Unfortunately, they didn't notice the baby before. They didn't have enough seats for everyone because they were in their work van. No problem, Cameron was able to ride in the very fast tow truck. The couple that I was riding with did not know their way to highway K and N because they were from Heritage Landing and everything had changed to much that I didn't know the way either. It certainly was not a small two lane road anymore. The tow truck driver was going so fast that he lost us. Eventually we found our way through calling someone to give us directions. What an adventure! In the meantime Mike's parents were frantically on their way to get us. Mike called and told them that we were at Dobb's getting a new tire which cost us a small fortune between that and the tow. Dobb's was our only option and they were getting ready to close in half an hour so beggers can't be choosers. After our great adventure we were very hungry so we ate at Bandana's Barbeque and began our journey home. All in all, it was a great family day even though it didn't end up the way we had planned.

At Home

The last two weeks have not been a normal schedule for me because Cameron has been off of school for so long. On Monday the twelfth he was off for Columbus day. That was fun. Memaw took us out to the fabric store (to buy slip cover material for her wing back chair) and the toy store for the boys. They each got to pick out a toy because they were so good in the fabric store. Then last Tuesday and Wednesday Pop took Cameron to school and picked him up so I didn't have that part of my routine to do. Then starts the sickness cycle. On Wednesday Cameron came home from school and that night he had a fever, no other symptoms except the fever. Well, the policy at school is that they don't come to school for twenty-four hours after the fever. Okay, he stayed home Thursday. He doesn't have the flu he just has a bad cough. No fever again until that night. Great, I have to keep him home again. I call the doctor on Friday but since he has a low grade fever they don't want me to bring him in because he might get something worse there. He still acts just fine, still bouncing off the walls. All through the weekend he seems good just the cough and sniffles I suspect has more to do with allergies and less with anything else. Monday morning we get up and he goes to school. Yeah, he's better, I can get on with my normal routine. No! At noon the school office calls and Cameron has a headache. I bring him home and give him some tylenol and he goes straight to bed, naps for an hour and a half and wakes up just fine. No fever, just a headache. Tuesday he goes back to school and he is just fine in the morning. I asked him about 5 times if his head hurt or anything like that. The answer is no. At 10:30 I get a call from the office, Cameron is crying because his head hurts. He has another headache, by the time I pick him up his head is fine and he is bouncing off the walls and playing like a normal boy. Okay, what is wrong with him? I call the doctors office again and insist that I bring him in. That was yesterday at 1:45. He has a sinus infection so he is not contagious. He is on antibiotics and will be on some allergy meds as soon as the insurance company approves them. At least let's hope they approve them. They are the same ones that he was on last year at this time and they worked in getting rid of his congestion. The doctor says he is okay to go back to school. That brings us to today. I take him to school and the princepal says he has to go back home because he hasn't been symptom free for 24 hours, even though he no longer has a headache and he his sinus infection is not contagious. The media hype about H1N1 has everyone on edge so even though Cameron is just fine, in fact he is outside playing on his big wheeel right now, he can't go to school. He has missed 3 whole days and 2 half days of school due to a sinus infection. None of those days has he been really sick. He has just been playing and doing his normal things. It's a little frustrating.

What's Up?

Hello everyone in cyber world! Let's see what is new in our neck of the woods. It has been raining for two whole days. That is a bummer, but on Wednesday I took Garrett and Keira to the park for an afternoon of fun. Cameron had chapel earlier that day and his class was on stage performing a song called "Adam and Eve" set to the tune of the Adams family. It was very cute. He is learning so much and having great fun at it. Garrett is adjusting to life without his brother. He has discovered pbskids.org on the computer and he loves playing all of the learning games.
He is also my lap buddy while I am sewing which has been quite a bit lately. I've been busy with embroidery, hemming pants, making quilt blocks and so forth. I have learned to divide my day into three phases and I am very productive this way. The house chores are the thing that falls off the plate most often. If I do one or two little things in a day it's good. Speaking of which, I guess that I had better go make dinner soon. What to make, what to make...

Just a few things to let you all know about if you live in the area. Next week at First Baptist church of Maryville we will be hosting Team Impact. They are a group made up of several very, very strong men who will be demonstrating their feats of strength as well as sharing the gospel. It looks like it will be really cool. I think that the boys are really going to like it. If you think you would be interested I can give you more details. Another thing is that my MOPS group is having a fund raiser by selling some homemade mixes for a donation of $5.00 each. We have Oatmeal spice cookie mix, Leftover soup mix, rich and creamy hot cocoa mix (this is so delicious, nothing like the mixes in the store) and whole grain pancake mix. These would make great Christmas gifts for teachers, bosses, work gift exchanges or whoever. If you would be interested in these items I need to know by November 5th that is when we are making the mixes.

Cameron can Read

I am just amazed at how fast kids can catch on to reading once they start learning the sounds and letters. Cameron has only been in school for six weeks (I think) and he just read to me about 10 pages of Dr. Suess's "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish". I had to help him with some of the words, but he did extremely well on the words he recognized and even some of the ones he didn't. I am amazed.

He had his school pictures taken today. He looked so very handsome. I can't wait to see the results. I will have to take Garrett and Keira up to Wal-Mart soon to get their pictures taken. That will have to be when I have a little extra cash (ha, ha). I haven't had Keira's pictures taken at all yet and the last time Garrett had professional pictures by himself was when he was 6 months old. I guess I am a little behind. Time goes by so fast. I blink and then they are all so much older. Keira is only four months away from being a year old.

On another note, Mike and I did get the big toys that we had been saving for. I saved for a fabric die cutting machine that cuts out quilt blocks perfectly every time. I already cut out a whole wall quilt. Now I need to sew it together. I only have two dies for it so far so I will be adding more throughout the year as the money allows. Mike and I both give ourselves an allowance and that is how we save for the things we want. It is not a large allowance so it gives us patience as well. Mike said that I could also have the money that I have been earning from my sewing jobs unless I make a lot of money at it and then we will have to make it family money. I think that I have a lot more patience than Mike. He has only wanted his new computer for a little over five months while I have wanted mine for over a year. He wanted a new computer to play games on. I get his old laptop to put my embroidery designs on for my embroidery machine. It worked out well, I guess. Now the laptop that I am using now, which is our home computer, the lid will not shut because it broke. I'm not getting it fixed though because they want a rediculous amount of money to fix a hinge. I could almost buy another computer for the kind of money they want to fix it, but I won't because there is nothing wrong with the electronics of this computer.

Well, I had better go make some birthday cards and then head off to bed. Talk at you all later if anyone still reads this blog.

A New Week

Here are some new updates from this week. Mike and I had a great time on date night for my birthday. He took me to dinner at a local restaurant and then we went to see the Time Traveler's Wife at the theater. It was pretty good. He also got me the book to read which I am assuming will probably be even better than the movie. The books always are. I have no idea when I will get around to reading it since I only read a couple of pages at night before I fall fast asleep. Pam when I get done with it you can read it. We also had a blast at our dance lesson. It was great to get away and spend some fun time together. I can't wait until next weeks lesson.

I sold the nap mat to the lady who ordered it and she brought me some more pants to hem. That is great except that my serger is acting up and I am not able to use it right now. I have spent several hours on trying to fix it and cannot figure it out. Argh! I may end up hemming the pants without the serger. I also worked on some quilt blocks for Cindy's quilt.

Mike spent Sat. tearing out the rest of the walls in the downstairs bathroom. It is now completely empty except for the tub which will go out on big trash day. Then begins the remodel part. I can't wait for the finished project which won't be for a while. I'll post pics later. I don't have time now. I have to go pick up Cameron from school and then make dinner and take Cameron to choir and then go to choir myself. Busy night!

Life

Wow, where has the time gone? Cameron seems to be getting into the school routine. He says that he loves school which is great. I am kept quite busy every day and I fall into bed at night. I have been working on a few sewing projects for different people to earn a little cash on the side. I just recently finished an adorable nap mat for a preschooler. I'll have to take a picture before I give it away. I also hemmed up some jeans. I've done some embroidery and my Mom has commissioned me to make curtains for her new addition.

This past weekend we took the kids to Indiana to see their cousins. They had a lot of fun despite the many arguments between the three boys. It was nice to see my parents and siblings and to hang out with Michael's girlfriend Andi. She helped me to keep the kids entertained while everyone else worked on the addition. On the way home all of us were exhausted from the long weekend. It was fun though.

Tonight is the start of another weekend and my birthday celebration. Mike is taking me to dinner at a local restaurant and I don't know what else we will do. Tomorrow will probably be errands, chores and maybe working on the bathroom. Then Sunday I am looking forward to church and then Mike and I are taking ballroom dance lessons for six weeks. I took lessons when I first went to collage and I loved it. That was way before they had TV shows about it. Then when Mike and I got married we took a couple of lessons for the wedding dance so we wouldn't just be standing there. Ever since then we have wanted to take some more lessons. We had signed up a few years ago but it was canceled due to lack of interest. Now we are finally going to have lessons. There must be enough this time because of the TV show.

Kindergarten Pics

Tying his shoe for the first day of school.





This is actually right before he walked into his classroom and we called him back for one more picture. He just wanted to get in his room and start the day.




Here is Cameron in the parking lot of church, then in the hallway leading to the classes, and finally getting his folder out of his Spiderman backpack. The folder is our lifeline with the teacher. It holds his homework and all other communication with his teacher so it is the first thing he pulls out in the morning. It is really cool.


So far he has gotten all green smiley faces at school. That means that he has done what the teacher said and she didn't have to warn him too many times. She also has paper bears that she uses in the classroom. A green for very good, and yellow for pretty good and a red for we need some improvement. He did tell me today that he got a yellow bear for stepping out of line with another girl. He is already blaming all his trouble on the girls. Ha, Ha! Otherwise he has gotten all green bears. I will say that he already gives me some attitude, that didn't take long, and he asked me why he has to do his homework all the time. His homework is not difficult and only takes him about 10 minutes or less, but he is already complaining. And so it begins.

Garrett has problems of his own. He doesn't know how to play without his brother around. He hardly touches his toys and he is always getting into some mischief or other. Luckily, today we had a play date so he did fine even though he didn't really play with the other boy too much. I guess that I will have to plan more of those to keep him occupied. Maybe, he'll get used to it soon. It is just that he has never had to play by himself before. The funny thing is Cameron has and he came home today and told us to leave him alone for a few minutes because he doesn't have any time to himself. They are such opposites.

My days seem to go so quickly now. First I drop off Cameron and then either go on an errand since I am already out or I come back home and do a few chores while Keira goes for her morning nap. Then it is lunchtime and we eat and at 1 Keira goes down for her second nap. When she wakes up at 2:30 we prepare to go pick Cameron up at school. I have figured out that if I leave around 2:40 then I get there at 2:45 and I turn off the car and have 15 minutes to hand quilt this table runner that I have been working on for a year. I am now almost done because I have 15 spare minutes a day to work on it. This is how I will get all of those hand sewing things done. It is great. Anyway, when Cameron gets out we come home, get a snack (he usually finishes his lunch), do homework, I feed Keira and read Garrett a book and then I have to make dinner. Then the evening caios begins and the day is over. Speaking of that I had better get ready for bed. Have I mentioned that I do not like 6 am? I really do not like the annoying alarm that Mike has that I have to get out of bed to turn off. I guess that I will get used to it someday.

Kindergarten is great

The first few days of Kindergarten have gone very well. Cameron loves going to school and he is not shy at all so he has no seperation anxiety or anything. He doesn't even give me a kiss when he walks in the room. He just says, "bye". I'm glad though. It would be hard if he was emotional. I am trying to get used to the new routine of waking up at 6am. It is not fun. Garrett is also having a hard time adjusting to not having his brother around. I have noticed that he gets into a lot more trouble lately. I am always telling him to stay out of that, don't do that and leave your sister alone. He really misses his brother. The only problem is when his brother comes home then they argue back and forth for about an hour. I thought they missed each other?

Well it was just a quick update to let you know that Cameron loves school. I'll post some pictures a little later when I have more time and feel a little better. I just caught a cold which makes the day even more exciting.

Two days until Kindergarten

It is only two days until Cameron has his first day of Kindergarten. We are gearing up for a very busy week. Tonight Mike and I go to the Parent Orientation at Maryville Christian School. This is where we will find out all we need to know about the school procedures and such. Last Thursday we went to the Kindergarten parent orientation where we met Cameron's teacher. She is very petite and she has a cute British accent. She reminded us of Audrey Hepburn in "My Fair Lady". I think that she will be great. This is her first year of teaching. On Tuesday Mike is taking a half day so we can all take Cameron's boatload of school supplies up to the school and he can meet his teacher. I don't know that I could have handled taking all three kids and the stuff by myself. Good thing Mike gets 4 weeks of time off. Tuesday night I have a TNT (quilt guild) meeting to go to. Wednesday Cameron has his first day of school which is only a half day. Mike is taking off that day to see our first child to his first day of school. That will be emotional. We also start back to our Wednesday night activities at church. At least since Cameron's school is at the church they do not give homework on Wednesday nights so that we can go on Wednesday nights. That's really cool. Cameron's homework should only take 10 minutes a night anyway, mostly reading a handwriting. Thursday is Bonnie day and Cameron's first full day of school. He has to be there between 8:15 and 8:30. That is going to be very early for us considering if I want to go anywhere now I don't get out of the house until 10. I think that God is already starting to prepare me though because for the past week I have been miraculously waking up at 5:30. This is something that I do not particularly like this time of morning. Seven o'clock is my ideal time. Thursday night I have a Threads of Life meeting at church. We are going to start working on some quilts for Paster Fred's wife and daughters and then for the Crow family who lost there daughter in the accident. Friday is the day to relax and then Saturday seemed to be something that I can't remember and Sunday after church Mike is going with a group from church to St. Louis to hand out supplies to the homeless near the New Life Evangelistic center.

Weekend News

We went over to St. Charles and The Mills on Saturday to take advantage of the tax free school supply weekend. We bought Cameron some jeans to wear because everything from last year is too short. Keira also needed some cold weather clothes. She had none. I bought a few things for her. I also bought some material to make Cameron and Garrett two pairs of pants a piece.

On the way home we stopped by the Tye Dyed Iguana in O'Fallon, IL to ask some questions about Teeter our turtle. Come to find out she needs a much bigger cage and more water filters. We will be looking into that when they get the tanks in stock. It is a little pond and dry land space for her about 4ft by 2ft by 1ft. She is supposed to be much bigger than she is right now and having her in the small tank causes her bones to become brittle. Things we did not know.

Sunday after church Mike started the demo on the bathroom downstairs. He tore out the ceiling, the toilet, the fixtures and some of the tub parts. We found some mold behind the tub. We thought that we would. It is now a construction zone. I am really excited about a new bathroom down there. I just hope that it doesn't take more than a year to complete.

I updated the page background in honor of Cameron starting school in just two weeks from yesterday. I can't believe it.

Family Fun Times

This past week we did two family events together. On Wednesday we went to Six Flags with the family. We took Memaw and Pop along for help. Unfortunately, Mike convinced his Dad to go on the Batman ride first thing and he was out of commission the rest of the day. Cameron would have gone but he was not tall enough. Cameron is a definite thrill seeker like his Daddy. He went on every roller coaster he could. Those were the Tony Hawk (twice), Screamin Eagle, Evel Kenevel, The Boss (twice) (I screamed the whole time), the Mine Train and everything else that was a thrill. Garrett spent most of his time in the kiddy section because he couldn't go on much else. Hey Pam, I just wanted to let you know that they must have new management at Six Flags this year because the park was much cleaner and there were flowers everywhere just like we remember from when we worked there. It was much different that last year. There was a new rule which was kind of a pain though. You couldn't have any purses of any size on the some of the rides and they charged $1.00 for lockers by those rides which were only for use during the rides. I got all the way on the Mine Train ride with Cameron and they told me I couldn't have my wallet purse on there so we had to get off. Luckily, the lines were very short that day. At 4:00 Memaw and Pop took Keira and Garrett back to their house to spend the night while we kept Cameron with us to close the park. We had been wanted to go out with just Cameron for a while. First thing we did after the other kids left was to eat. Our diet must be working because we bought three kids meals at the moose lodge and we were each full from one kids meal. Later on in the night when we watched the glow in the dark parade, which was really cool, we had some ice cream but each of us threw away half because we were full. Next time we will know to only buy one. All in all it was a very fun day.

Yesterday, was our other family fun event. We went down to the arch grounds because Franklin Graham was putting on an event called Rock the River. This was more of Mike's music than mine but it was such a nice day to sit in the shade in our chairs and enjoy the day. The two bands that Mike wanted to see were Red and Skillet. It was seven hours of bands and Red was the first one so we missed it and Skillet was next to last. The kids did very well considering we were there so long. Mike would take one of the boys over to see the bands and then com back to get the other one. We brought our chairs so I sat there in the shade with Keira. It was back a little bit so it wasn't too loud but I could still understand everything. We brought a picnic dinner and just had a good time. Of course good times right now take a lot of work with young kids but I hope that we are making memories that will last a lifetime. Out of all my childhood the memories that stand out the most are the times we spent together as a family. Even now Mike is amazed that I can remember so much of what we did on each of our vacations.

Updates

Life has been really crazy, busy lately. I have been running errands and hauling kids all over so that they won't drive me crazy. I have also been doing some custom sewing and I've had my first Mary Kay party in two years. It has been busy.

Keira has had a few milestones lately. She went to the Doctor for her six months checkup and she weighs 14lbs. 14ozs. and is 25 inches tall. She is also getting her first tooth coming in and she just rolled over for the first time this morning. I unfortunately missed it because I was getting some juice for Garrett. Now she won't do it again while I have the video recorder out.

Cameron will start school in just about three weeks. He is really excited. We as the parents have several events that we have to go to before hand. It is going to be a new normal that I will have to get used to. I'm not looking forward to waking up at 6am every morning. I haven't had to do that since I quit work 7 years ago. I like staying up until 11 for some me time when the house is very quiet. Quiet is good.

Mike and I have also started a new diet and exercise program where we hope to shed 20 lbs. a piece. It is hard work and I do not like being hungry, especially at night. We have also been skipping dessert. For anyone who knows me real well this is definitely a sacrifice.

Well, I had better go for now because Keira and I need breakfast and the boys are arguing over a balloon. I also need to exercise and vacuum today. That is a must. Then I need to work on some embroidery for my customer. As they say, "There is no rest for the weary."

In Memory of Grandpa

Last week was another sad week. My Grandpa passed away on the 1st of July. My parents came in for the weekend of the 4th. That was a good time. Dad helped Mike to work on replacing our sink drain in the pink bathroom. Now we have all new pipes and fixtures in our two upstairs bathrooms. Yeah! On Monday we went to Grandpa's funeral in St. Louis. It was a small and quiet affair. Almost everyone there was family. We were able to see my cousins and her new baby girl whose name is Sarah not Keira as we had at first thought. The one thought that I had at the funeral was that it wasn't very personal. Since my Grandpa didn't go to church he was just buried by someone from the funeral home and they just quoted a few Bible verses and said a few nice impersonal things. Grandpa was in the Navy in WWII so they mentioned a few things about his service. It was all a little sad to me. So unlike the church funerals that I have been to where they know the person and can say things about that persons life.

I must admit that I did not know my Grandpa as well as my Grandma. I did know that he loved and collected trains. He had huge tables of trains set up in the basement. We haven't been down there in years because Grandpa could no longer go down the stairs. It was fun when we were little though. I once made him a train pillowcase and at the funeral Grandma Joyce said that he was buried with it. He loved that pillowcase. I remember that everytime we went to Grandpa and Grandma Joyce's house we came home with lots of toys. That was the coolest thing. Even recently we went and now they were showering gifts on our boys. Grandpa never met Keira. That is mostly my fault because I didn't go over to see him. I did send him a picture of her though.

On Tuesday of last week we went to drop off the ashes of my Grandma who was creamated. She is buried very close to our house so I can go visit her every once in a while. She is also buried in the same cemetary as Paster Fred. I went for the first time to see his grave. They still do not have the permanent headstone up so I suspect it will take a while for Grandma's headstone.

This has been my life for the past week.

Adventures in Branson

We went on vacation from June 7th through the 14th. Sunday on the way down to our resort we stopped by Springfield, MO to eat at Lambert's (home of the throwed rolls). We arrived at our cottage at around 5ish. We were settled into our cottage and then we headed up to the pool for a swim.







On Monday it almost felt like we were at home because we went to Wal-Mart, the Grocery store and the Emergency Care Center. The last we went to because Garrett had a bad looking infection on his arm. Of course it didn't look that bad until we were on vacation. We don't know what it was but the antibiotics have gotten rid of the infection. The one fun thing that the boys did this day was to go on the go carts. I stayed home with Keira while she took a nap.







Here is what I did a lot of on vacation: feed Keira. At least it was in a very pretty and different setting each time.






On Tuesday we went for a walk by Table Rock lake. It was pretty hot that day so the walk was kind of tiresome. It was definitely not cool like our Colorado trip. We already miss our Fall vacations. In the afternoon we went to the show "Noah the Musical". We thought that it was very good.






Wednesday and Friday were the days that we set aside for Silver Dollar City. Those were the days that the boys had the most fun and Mommy and Daddy were the most worn out. Actually Mike and I were exhausted in the evenings most nights. A vacation with three little ones is definitely not as relaxing as a vacation with just Mike and I. Cameron and Garrett were able to go on a lot of the rides at SDC. I usually like to look at the vendors but there wasn't much time for that when I had to feed Keira all the time (at least that is what it seemed like anyway). Wednesday was another hot day and Friday was nice in the morning and then a thunderstorm moved in miday. We stood inside a gift shop for an hour and a half for the rain to subside so we could walk to the car. We went home to catch the weather forcast and found out that the storm was all gone and there would be no more the rest of the day so we headed back to the park for a beautiful afternoon. On the way in we talked to some other folks who were doing the same thing. It was very fortunate that our resort was very close to SDC. While at SDC we had our pictures taken at the Old Time Photo place and here is the result. Keira had fallen asleep because she was so tired.






Thursday we didn't do much. We drove to this nice nature preserve where there was a tram or you could walk a nicely paved trail but they charged $8.00 a person to walk on it. We decided that $25.00 to walk a little ways on the trail was a little steep so we left and went to another small park with a playground. It was okay. I guess that you don't go to Branson to see nature. Then we went down to Branson landing and walked on the River walk, at least the boys did, I was, you guessed it, feeding Keira. They have a nice fountain where we took some pictures.




The last day of our vacation was on Saturday and we usually reserve that day for shopping day. We went to some of the outlet malls in the area. I was really looking forward to going to the Pfaltzgraff store but it closed down in December. Bummer! Mike found all of his Father's Day gifts at Old Navy and the bookstore. This is the one time of year that he will go shopping for clothes. We were worn out from shopping by the end of the day. It was time to go to the resort and go for our last swim. The boys looked forward to their daily water play. We went every day except for the days we went to SDC. Even Keira loved the water.

On Sunday we left for the trip home. We left the resort at 9:30 and then went for breakfast at Cracker Barrel where I found a cute metal bunny for my garden. We then went to the only quilt fabric store Branson on our way out. I found a couple of yards of fabric. It was 1:00 when we finally left Branson. Then I had this brilliant (ha, ha) idea that we would go by where my Grandpa and Grandma Bushouse lived in Theodosia. It didn't look very far on the map but it took us about 45 minutes or more to get there because of all the hills. We visited my Grandparents grave and the church were they attended. Then we had to take the back roads home. On the way from my Grandparents town we came upon a women who had run out of gas. We took her to the nearest gas station which was about 10 miles away in the direction we were going. Then we took her back to her car. By the time we got back to the gas station we were all hungry so we ate at the Subway which was the only resteraunt around. It was now 4:00pm. We had barely left Branson so we had a long way to go on back roads. Needless to say we got home late and the kids did not fall asleep until we were in St. Louis even though it was an hour and a half past their bedtimes. Even Keira did not want to sleep in the car. She just took a couple of catnaps.

Whew, another vacation was over. We used Monday of this past week to recover.

Memorial Day Anecdotes

We started out the weekend Saturday with Mike replacing the tub fixtures in preparation for use when we start working in the downstairs bathroom. Everything went great. In fact, the funny thing is that Mike fixed a leak that we had in the tub faucet for the past three years. All he did was to realign the hot/cold ball joint. We laughed so hard about that because all this time Mike didn't fix the leak because he thought it was complicated. Then it turns out to be such a simple thing. Oh well! The only complication is that now we have a nasty stain where the water dripped all that time.

Sunday we went to a Sunday School party in the evening. The kids had a lot of fun playing there.

Monday we wanted to go out but those plans were dampened (ha, ha) by the downpours that we had all day long. We spent the day cooped up inside with an occasional jaunt outside for Mike so that he could scoop water out of the window well. I moped up the water in the basement corner where the water poured through the window with the full window well. Not exactly what I had in mind for my Memorial Day plans. I think that we received over 5" of rain. We did have some b-b-q pork chops with Mike's parents.

Hopefully it will not rain next weekend because we are going to go to Mike's work's annual family day event at his work. They are supposed to have blow up jumpers for the kids and a cookout for the family. Also on Friday night we are going to have date night where we plan on going to Forest Park for the Shakespeare in the Park festival. We have been to this event every year except the very first year which we missed Romeo and Juliet. If you live in the area and want to enjoy an enjoyable free evening I would advise this event. You bring your lawn chairs and enjoy a well acted performance. As I said Mike and I have enjoyed it every year. It is something that we can look forward to. It is from Memorial Day to Father's Day usually.

In only two weeks we leave for our vacation to Branson. I can't believe it is here already. This year is flying. The boys are looking forward to the pool and Silver Dollar City. My parents had planned on going with us but now they have to go to Florida to clean out Grandma's estate. Bummer! We were looking forward to having them with us. It will be a fun time. I just need to start preparing myself. Last year I was counting down until Colorado and this year the trip has just snuck up on me. Speaking of that I had better go so that I can exercise and then buy tickets from AAA for the trip.

Remembering Grandma

On Thursday May 21, 2009 my Grandma Snider passed away. I am glad that we made it to see her one last time. I am now left with all of the many memories of our time together. Here are some pictures of Grandma when Garrett was a baby. She only had three Great-Grandchildren at this time. At the time of her death she was up to six because my cousin just had a baby girl (named Kiera) on May 20th. I thought that it was interesting that my Grandma had two Great Granddaughters named Keira in the same year.

We have so many memories with Grandma because my family lived with her two different times and I moved in with her again after I moved out of my parents house. She also went on several of our vacations with us. There were good times to be had. Mike and I went to Florida to visit her in 2002, 2003, and 2004. It was Grandma's Bed and Breakfast and it was wonderful. She showed us all of the interesting sights to see in northern Florida. There is so much more than just Orlando.

We will miss her greatly!

A Whirlwind Weekend

This weekend was pretty crazy. It all started on Friday night when we took a trip up to Indiana. That was the night on the wild thunderstorms. We made it almost all the way to our destination while avoiding the storm, but at the last half hour we drove directly into it. That was pretty scary because it was dark and the huge thunderbolts were coming down all around us. Fortunately all of the kids were sleeping right through it. Mike and I were praying as hard as we could. We made it to Mom and Dad's house and we had a decision to make, either stay there or drive into more storm to get to Pam's house (our original destination). We stayed there. The whole point of the trip was to see my Grandma who is at my parents house. My Grandma is very, very sick. She had a kidney infection and surgery for that. Then while she was in the hospital for that she had a stroke and quit eating.

Saturday we spent the day at my parents watching nurses come in and out to take care of Grandma. My Mom and Dad and Mom's brother spend the day coaxing Grandma to eat. They finally had a doctor come in and approve an IV. Hopefully this will help her in getting the fluids she needs to flush out her system. After only one day there we started back home. We had to be home for Sunday.

We had to go to church on Sunday because Keira was to be dedicated this Sunday in the 9:30 service. A dedication is a pledge that we will as a family and church family raise our child in a Godly environment. We are given a letter and a small New Testament that the child is to open on the day that the child accepts Jesus as their personal Savior. It will let her know about this ceremony. All three of the kids have been dedicated. Then there was a big catered lunch afterward for the families and extended families.

Following the luncheon our family and Mike's parents went to a strawberry festival in a small town nearby. It was a crazy, busy weekend and we were all exhausted.

Another Layout Test

Another Layout Test

New Layout

I am just testing this new scrap blogging site that I found. Guess it doesn't work yet.

Cameron's Birthday and Mother's Day

I tried to get all of the kids to look at the camera at the same time, but that did not work. Here is the best of all the pictures I took. I'll have to get them outside and try to take a good family picture. Maybe that can happen on vacation. We will be going in about a month to Branson. We can't believe it is almost time. Where has this year gone?

I have not been very good at keeping this page updated lately. Sorry. Life has been pretty busy around here lately. The weekend before last we had a garage sale and sold some of the boys old clothes and toys. It was a pretty good sale and a nice day. We still have tons of clothes left to store. I was hoping to get rid of a few boxes worth to make room for more clothes.

This past week I was getting ready for a Discovery Toy party that I had and Cameron's birthday which was on Saturday. He is 5 already! He will be starting school at Maryville Christian School (the school at our church) in 3 months. He is very excited about this and I think that he will have great fun learning. He is already a pretty smart boy.



Here is a picture of the rocket cake that I made for Cameron's 5th birthday party. I really like the puzzle cakes. They are not to difficult and time consuming to make. After we had a nice sub sandwich dinner it was time to open presents. Unfortunately, Mike and I didn't have much for him because we are getting stuff from the party that I had and they haven't come in yet. I will wrap them for next week I guess. Memaw and Pop and Bonnie took care of the gifts though.




Here is Cameron's favorite present that he got. It is the Batman legos video game for the XBOX. Look at the excitement in his eyes. Then there is the baby picture of little Cameron 5 years ago in the hospital. He has really changed since then.





Then Sunday was Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day to all of the Mom's reading this. Cameron was actually born on my very first Mother's Day. He was the best present that I could ever get. I guess that next year his birthday will be on Mother's Day again. For this day we got up and went to church and then went over to Mike's parents house for the rest of the day. The kids and Mike bought me some Impatiens for the garden and a software program that will help me plan out a my garden and it will also help us plan out our house remodel and addition. Cool! The first thing we can use it for is to look at the bathroom remodel.

Well that is all that I have to report for today. I had better go eat breakfast and get ready to exercise. That is something that I have been trying to do at least 3-4 times a week. I think that it is working.

Easter Pics and news

Here are the boys all spiffed up for Easter Sunday.
We decided to go to the 8:15 service for the day and we like getting out of church and Sunday school by 10:45. We still have part of the morning left then. Plus, we got up and didn't fool around and make ourselves late.









Here is Keira in her Easter dress that I made her. We were supposed to get pictures of her and I in our matching dressed but that didn't happen. We will have to wear them again and get pictures. It was so cute. This was her first dress. Isn't she cute.








Other news: Garrett is finally potty trained. He has done very well the past three weeks. Only a few accidents and that includes day and night. Now we only have to buy diapers for one child. That helps out the budget.

Mike finished painting our bedroom and I made curtains so it is now a nice little retreat for us. I'll have to post pictures when I take them. I bought some material to make a matching quilt for the bed. That will complete the look of the new room.

Mike also fixed our (pink) bathroom floor upstairs by putting some sticky linoleum tiles in there. The floor looks great now. It looks like a stone path in our garden bathroom. Next project is the other upstairs bathroom. We need to make it ready for shower use while Mike is remodeling the downstairs bathroom.

I am waiting for nice weather to stick around so that I can do some gardening outside. That is if Keira will take longer naps. She was doing good until last week when she started taking little cat naps of a half hour long five times a day. I can't get much done in a half hour. That is why my blog has not been updated for a while.

And just today Mike's Mom went to the Emergency room this morning because she was really dizzy. We will find out more when a doctor can take a look at her CT scans and test results. She does have a spot on her brain, probably a cist. Pray that it is nothing serious.

Have a great day!

Life is so very precious

I just want to write that I love my husband and my children and that God is reminding me that life is very precious. Here are some pictures of my beautiful children and my Mom. I also love my Mom and Dad and sister and brother. Everyone!

I am writing this after I have learned of another tragedy that is close to home. A couple from our Sunday school class just lost their 7 year old daughter in a freak accident last night. She and her brother were playing in an old culvert tunnel when the top of the tunnel collapsed on them. It shocked me yet again to have this reminder that no matter your age when it is time to go you will be called home. I write this with a very heavy heart for the Crow family. I can't imagine what it must be like to lose a child. I hurt just grieving for them. Please pray that they will get through this. Especially because it is right on the heals of losing our Pastor. The Dad has only been a Christian for 4 years and has just started to get involved in the Sunday school. Just yesterday, he flew out for Canada where he was going to work for 5 weeks and to hear this news and have to come back has to be really hard.

Please pray for us also. All of this tragedy has burdened my heart. Mike told me the other day that he almost lost control of his car on the road and I broke down because of what could have happened. Also, Garrett put three pillows on Keira while I stepped out of the room to do something for a few minutes. What if I had been gone longer? I know that I can not dwell on the what if's. So please pray for our protection. Also pray for my Grandpa who is not doing well. He is 94 years old and things aren't looking good. I'm not sure that he knows the Lord either.

I love all of you! Please know where you are going when you die.

The Hardest Week

This past week has been very difficult for me and my church family, but it has also been an awakening. An awakening to the fact that no matter what tragedy unfolds that God is still in control of the situation and He allows certain things to happen and we will not know why until we get to Heaven. It also awakened me to the fact that I need to not be shy and to tell more people about Jesus because we never know when our last day will be. I know where I will be when I die but do you? I know where Pastor Fred is right now, he is in Heaven probably getting to hear first hand all of the stories that he taught us as a Pastor. How cool is that!

The reason that I know that God was in the midst of this tragic situation is through talking to people who were actually in the service. One man, Jesse, told us that many people in the service were not sitting in their regular seats during this service. There were also not as many people in service as there usually was because of the time change. Here are some of the events as they unfolded, Pastor Fred was in the middle of his sermon and a man came down the aisle. Pastor Fred addressed him and the man then fired a shot hitting pastor Fred's bible. Here is the part where God used Fred to save the rest of the congregation. Pastor Fred could have easily gone behind the stage and been safe but he chose to run stage right to direct the man away from everyone else. Fred ran stage right yelling someone help me and jumped off the stage. All the while the assailant was mirroring him on the ground. Note: There is a man in our church that usually sits in the front row that would have been able the stop or detain the gunman but he was sitting somewhere else that morning. Once Fred was on the ground he was shot and killed. Meanwhile two men from the congregation jumped on the gunman and started pulling him off of Pastor Fred. They were stabbed in the process. After this the gunman tried to get away but was tripped by Keith. The gunman then started crawling under the pews and tried to kill himself but was detained by other men from the church. One of those men, Jesse, started telling the gunman that God forgave him and so did Pastor Fred and that it was not to late for him to accept the Lord. You see God knew what was going to happen and He let Fred die, but He did not let anyone else die because of the stategic way he had placed everyone that day. As Cindy, Fred's wife, said, "It was not death day. It was celebration day." because we know that Fred went to heaven that day. I would encourage anyone reading this to check out Cindy's speech on kmov.com. Her strength encouraged us all.

Thursday night we went to the visitation. We waited for four hours just to pay our respects. There were so many people there because Fred truly cared about everyone. He was a wonderful man because God shown through him. They had pictures from his life playing on a big screen and in one of those pictures I saw myself when I was a little child in Cindy's Sunday School class. That was shortly after Fred became the Pastor of the church.

On Friday, we went to the funeral service which felt more like a celebration service. We were celebrating a life well lived for the glory of God. There were two hours filled with laughing, crying and worshiping our God. We have felt the prayers of the whole world and it has given us a peace that only God can give.

Tragedy Close to Home

Yesterday we woke up on Sunday morning and got ready for church just like any other Sunday. We were running a little bit late (9:38 am) but it was okay because we go to Sunday school first. Little did we know that it would be like no other Sunday and it would change our lives forever. The church is only about 2 miles from our house and as we approached we could see many cop cars in the distance. This did not look good. When we finally made it up to the church the fireman told us that there had been a shooting and that it was now a crime scene. My heart sunk and I went into shock. No, this could not be happening here. We came back home with dread in our hearts and turned on the news to find out anything we could about the shooting. Bonnie called from church to let us know that she was alright and that Pastor Fred had been shot and a couple of other guys stabbed. Later on the news we found out that he had gone to see Jesus.

It is so surreal. I still cannot believe that Pastor Fred will no longer be there to preach sermons to us. I have known him for 22 years. My parents started taking us to First Baptist Church of Maryville in 1987 shortly after he became the Pastor there. He was the one that led me to Christ when I was 11 years old during vacation bible school. He baptised me and he also performed the ceremony for Mike and my wedding. Mike played Axis and Allies on the computer with him and he was going to give Mike a copy of the book that he wrote. I was hoping that he would be the one to baptise my children when the time came. It is just so hard to believe that he is here one moment and then gone the next in such a tragic incident.

If you are reading this, please pray for our congregation and especially for Pastor Fred's wife Cindy and their two daughters. It will be a very hard time for all of us. Mike went to a prayer meeting last night and our childrens pastor told them that he asked Cindy what we could do for her and she looked up, smiled and said that Fred died doing what he loved to do (preaching the gospel).

Garrett's 3rd Birthday

We celebrated Garrett's 3rd birthday last Saturday with family. He actually turned 3 on February 25th. This is the cake that I made for his celebration. It is actually a Wilton's puzzler cupcake mold. You can make up many things using the cupcake shapes in the set. I am going to make a rocket cake for Cameron's birthday. This cake was much easier than the Lightening McQueen that I made for Cameron's birthday last year.

Here is our birthday boy opening up one of his birthday presents. He received an Indiana Jones whip, a bow and arrow set, the movie "Horton hears a Who" and a dog quilt that I made him which I don't seem to have a picture of right now.


Some good news that we have is that Garrett now that he is three is finally interested in some potty training. He has gone potty on the toilet most of the day for the past week. It is a great start. He has even been wearing real underware for the day. Unfortunately, he still goes number 2 in them.




This is a picture of Garrett in the hospital when he was born. He was only 8 lbs. 2 oz. then. Now he weighs around 35 lbs. and has a personality all his own. He is our little Garr Bear. It seems like just yesterday that we were bringing him home from the hospital to meet his big brother. Now he has his own little sister that he dotes on.

First Trip to the Grocery Store

• On Thursday (Bonnie Day) Bonnie wanted to go to the grocery store to get some soda. It was supposed to be a quick trip because I made out my list the night before and everything was ready to go. On some Thursdays at our Shop N Save they have No Coupon Thursday where you get $10.00 off any purchase over $50.00. This is very nice to take advantage of if you can. I can only get there sometimes. So we get to the store and all of the spots are full so I have to drive around the parking lot a couple of times and then I find someone backing out. We get in the store and the first item on my list is sold out. Let me back up a little bit. Shop N Save was also having a deal where if you bought 10 items from a group of certain items then you would get $10.00 off your next visit. They also had another one where if you bought $25.00 worth of items from another list then you could get another $10.00 off your next visit. I was trying to get both of these coupons so I had picked out everthing I needed to qualify for them. So, when the first thing on my list was not available I had to recalculate everything. It turns out that three things on my list we sold out so I really had to recalculate my list. While I am in the midst of this the boys are bickering so I remove Cameron from the cart and make him walk. In aisle three he decides that he has to go to the bathroom so I leave the two others with Bonnie and take off for the bathroom. We continued shopping and about halfway through Keira decides to start crying. Bonnie had to carry her the rest of the way through the store while Cameron pushed the cart with Keira's stuff in it. That gave him something to do which kept him out of trouble. We finally made it to the checkout and we were packing the groceries when I realized that I did not get my coupons for which I worked so hard. By this time all of the kids are ready to go home, but I had to get those coupons. I asked the cashier if they printed out and one had but one had not. I was sent to customer service with Cameron to get the other coupon while Bonnie watched Garrett and Keira again. They were able to get me the other coupon and while I was waiting I realized that I didn't get my gas coupon which gives me a certain amount off per gallon depending on how much I spent. She told me that she couldn't print that off but she had a leftover receipt for $.03 per gallon. I was eligible for $.09 off per gallon so I was not impressed with only $.03. Finally the manager came by and showed her how to print off a $.09 per gallon coupon. Yeah, we were finally ready to leave the store after our 2 hour ordeal. Bonnie and I are not so sure that we will be going to the grocery store with all 3 kids again. Although most of the problem was not with them it was with the store selling out of the items that I needed to get my coupons. I know that I must sound crazy but in this day and age I have to save every penny that I can. Next time I go to the store, if it is on a No Coupon Thursday than I will be able to save $35.00. That is worth it for me.
  

We are starting to get into a three hour routine around here. I usually spend most of my day feeding some person or some animal. I can't complain too much though because Keira sleeps 7 to 8 hours at night already at just 3 weeks old. That is really a blessing. The boys adore their new sister and life for them hasn't changed too much because they still have each other with which to play and argue. In fact, they are playing now. I think that the real challenge will come when Cameron starts school in August. Last night we went to the Open House at the Maryville Christian School which is located at our church. It went well. We filled out all of the paperwork needed to apply. Next, we will have an interview with the princepal and Cameron will be evaluated. I know that he is very smart I just hope that he will be able to sit still all day long in a school environment. He has never been to a preschool and that might be a little bit of a disadvantage for him, but we will see. After the interview they will let us know whether or not he is accepted into the school. The challenge will come when I have to have all three kids ready and out the door by 8:00 am every morning so Cameron can be at school by 8:15. Once we get into a routine it will be okay, but getting to that point will be a challenge. As it is now I can barely get up and get going by 10 am. Of course, I can just cut out checking my e-mails in the morning and then wake up at 6am. Yuck. That is so early. I guess that I will get used to it again. We'll just have to cross that bridge when we get there.

The Weekend News

This weekend was full of highs and lows. The high was that we spent Saturday with Memaw and Pop over at the St. Louis Mills. The kids were able to play on the indoor playground for a few hours and get all of their energy for the day out. We took Memaw to Chevy's for her birthday lunch and that was really good. Then we each got to do a little shopping. Memaw bought clothes for Keira and some toys for the boys. All in all we spent about 6 or 7 hours there. It was great fun but we were all worn out. We came home gave the boys their shower and watched Crusoe together. Then we put the boys to bed and gave Keira her bath. She liked it a little better this time. It was a great day.

Then came the low, Garrett woke up at 3 am with the croup. He sounded just awful and it was hard for him to breath. I didn't want him upset so I tried to calm him while Mike called the hospital. They said to take him out in the cold for a while so I did that and Mike set up the vaporizer. Cameron was also awake during all of this too. The only one sleeping was Keira. By the way, she has been sleeping 6 and 7 hours at night. This is a blessing. I ended up waking her up at 5 to feed her after both the boys were back in bed. Then I went back to bed and Mike stayed up. At six Garrett woke up again and we went through the whole routine again. Needless to say we didn't make it to church which is the first time in a long time except for when we are gone on vacation. We did end up going to Mike's parents to watch the Superbowl. Mike just likes to watch the commercials. Then we came home, put the boys and Keira to bed and crashed. Garrett slept a little better last night, but I think that it was in little spurts. He did not have the croupy cough, but he was still all congested. Today he has been pretty lethargic.

Update on Our Household

So far I have not been put to the test of having three kids on my own. Mike has been home for the last week and he has entertained the boys and kept them busy. He went back to work today, but his Mom and Dad have come over to help with the boys since school was cancelled today and they didn't have to drive the buses. I have, of course, spent much of my time with Keira keeping her well fed and happy. She is a pretty happy girl so far and she sleeps well when she is tightly wrapped and in her crib. Unfortunately, since Monday she has to spend 2 nights sleeping on a phototherapy bed for her jaundice. This hasn't been as nice for her because she has to sleep naked except for a diaper. The girl does not like having her clothes off. She doesn't like baths for this reason either. They are just not a fun thing for her. Because of the jaundice I have had to take her to the hospital every day and get her blood drawn. That has not been a fun chore especially with the snow and sleet that we have had the past couple of days. At least I have not had to take Cameron and Garrett out with me. We will see how everything goes next week when I have the boys and girl all to myself. It is very interesting to see the boy's different personalities come out since Keira has been born. Cameron is having a little bit of a hard time with it and it comes out with an attitude and disobedience issues. I hope that in a few months he is over it. Garrett on the other hand is the little nurturer. He wants to hug and kiss her and help feed her. He is very protective and gentle and always watching out for her. It is so cute. Here is an example of their different natures: At night when the boys go to bed I ask if they want to say goodnight to Keira. Garrett gives her a little hug and a kiss and I lift her up to Cameron's bunkbed and he tells me, "I already said Goodnight" meaning he said the words isn't that enough. I just wonder what her personality will be like.

It's a Girl!!!

Keira Esther Beckett, born 11:00am, 8lb 4oz, 18.5 in


And she's PERFECT!!!