Illness

This past week....we have been sick...all of us!

I agreed to work for all of last week and 4 days next week and the day after I agreed, Rachel got sick. Her tube in her left ear fell out and she has another ear infection!!! BAH!!! Then Saturday, Lauren developed a cough and Brice didn't feel well. Sunday, they were all 3 feeling pretty yucky so guess who got to stay home from church....YEP, ME! I felt great!! Brice's mom came down on Sunday to help me take care of the girls since they were sick, couldn't go to daycare, and I was supposed to work. She stayed until Thursday morning. I started feeling bad on Tuesday and it was really bad by Wednesday. I could barely talk. I continued to work...had no fever. Brice's grandmother got ill on Thursday morning and was put in the hospital with pnuemonia (please pray for her...she is 94 and illnesses like this can be really bad) so his mom had to leave kinda in a hurry to get back to Little Rock. The girls went to daycare. That evening I told Brice I was taking Lauren to CareNow to get checked out since she had a cough for nearly a week and it wasn't getting better. They couldn't get her O2 sats above 90 so they sent us to the ER. That took FOREVER!! Her sats were fine...95-97% and they basically told me what I already knew...she has an upper respiratory infection...antiobiotics for her now too! Both girls are taking amoxicillin. I now feel better but still sound kinda yucky. I was glad to have a quiet weekend...didn't do much but househould stuff and I loved it (well, not the chores but loved being at home). This week...same stuff...work 4 days!!! I'm tired already! =)

Sweet Friends!

I love my friends! I honestly have some of the best friends. Seriously! I have more than one best friend and I love it that way! I have many different people that I love in many different areas of my life. Many are still in Arkansas and I miss them dearly but I also have a lot of great friends here. I know that God brought us to GP and to IBC because I have made some of the best friends I have ever had. Girls that I would do ANYTHING for.

Heather is one of those people! She is almost 38 weeks pregnant with her 2nd precious baby boy and I could not be happier for her and Joel...and Big Brother Josiah. Baby Grayson Joel will be here soon and I can't wait to meet the new addition to an already adorable and godly family. Joel is the youth minister at my church. My two best friends are staff wives and even though Brice isn't on staff, I sometimes feel like he is! =) I am secretly hoping that Grayson comes this next week while I am at work. I am sure Heather wouldn't mind!

Last Sunday we had Heather's baby shower. I took a few pictures.

Halloween - I'm Only A Week Behind!!!

Here are some more pictures from Trunk or Treat.....

This is Justin - my cousin's baby...he was a yard gnome...I think he looked like one of the 7 dwarves! =)

Josiah the kangaroo and Rachel

Chelsea the pretty princess and Rachel

Disney World - Summary

I am really afraid that if I don't sit down and do a "summary" of the rest of our trip, you will never get the rest of it!! So, this post might be long but I am going to try to tell you about the remainder of our trip....

DAY 3 (Tuesday)
This was a rest day. We stayed at our condo and hung out all day. Brice's mom and I went to an outlet mall and had time to go to one store..Gymboree Outlet. She bought a bunch of ADORABLE clothes for the girls for Christmas. That evening we went to Downtown Disney mainly to go shopping and to let Rachel see the things made out of Legos.


DAY 4 (Wednesday)
We went to Animal Kingdom first (my least favorite) and then went to Magic Kingdom. Rachel really like Animal Kingdom. It really is like the best zoo ever even though they pride themselves on not calling it a zoo....I decided to put the girls in their Halloween attire this day...no reason in particular....

We went to the Finding Nemo stage show and Rachel really liked that. We also did Turtle Talk with Crush and she really enjoyed that too. Here she is with her daddy on Triceratop Spin.

She really started warming up to the characters too. She touched and HUGGED Pocahontas and Rafiki. She played the conga drums and wanted to spend more time at this....AND I did something I have never done. I touched a snake!! Rachel did too and she said, "He's bumpy!" That was about the end of Animal Kingdom. I am good with only staying there for a few hours.

We then headed to Magic Kingdom which is beautiful at night! I got my pineapple ice cream which is one of the MAIN reasons I go to Disney!!! =)

LOVE THAT STUFF!!!
I love Cinderella's castle at night. It changes many different colors. Here is one of my favorite pictures

Magic Kingdom truly is magical!

DAY 5 (Thursday)
This was Hollywood Studios (formerly known as MGM Studios) day. Some of the highlights were Great Movie Ride, Dinosaur, and Rockin Roller Coaster! I LOVE LOVE LOVE Rockin Roller Coaster...the BEST roller coaster ever!!

Rachel loved playing on the "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" playground. Here she is on an ant.

We got a Mickey ice cream everyday at each park, I believe. Rachel was LOVING it!!!

We ate a late lunch at Sci Fi Dine In. It is neat restaurant where you sit in "drive in cars" and watch a movie while you eat. The food really isn't anything to write home about but the experience is pretty neat.

We went back to the condo early that night. We were a bit exhausted.

DAY 6 (Friday)
We were at Magic Kingdom all day for our last day at Disney World!!! It is always bittersweet...you want to soak it all up because you know you are going home but you are so exhausted you can't wait to get back home.

Rachel got to ride the carousel horses...again....and again.....I didn't take many pictures the last day. I guess I was tired of taking them and we had already been to Magic Kingdom twice before. I took one special picture that morning that you might see on Katie's blog soon!! =)

It was such a nice trip. We had a blast but it was quite challenging with the girls. I found it a little difficult to juggle a toddler needing to go to the bathroom on a whim, an infant who needed to nurse and take naps (which she did AWESOME by the way), a toddler who needed a nap but found it hard to take one, and it is just tiring. I love going to Disney but we always come back way more tired than when we left. We will probably not go back until Lauren is about Rachel's age (given that we don't have another infant at that time).

I took a couple of pictures at the airport the day we left Orlando. I love this one of Rachel.

Sorry for the long post but I hope that you have stuck with me and have enjoyed reading about our trip. Hopefully I will catch up on posting soon!

Still Here!

We are still alive and kicking!! Rachel is getting MUCH better!!! This has been a tough illness...she was sicker longer this time than any! Lauren is getting a little better...hopefully she sleeps better tonight. Now, I have a cough and runny nose! Seriously??!!

Anyway, work today was busy and I expect that it won't be any different tomorrow!

I need to finish posting about our trip, Halloween, etc...but for now, here are my Nursery Rhyme cuties!!!

Little Miss Muffet and her Spider! =)

Sorry!

I know, I haven't posted since Tuesday and I am WAY behind on posts from our trip...

Sorry!

Rachel is sick...it's been a long couple of days. The tube in her left ear has fallen out and almost immediately (or so it seems), she has another ear infection. This is the first one in nearly 2 years!!! It's so frustrating! Dr. Hull said that we might have to go back and visit the ENT doc again if she keeps having them....talk about reinserting the tube.....

I promise I will catch up but I can't promise when. I am working tomorrow, then Truck or Treat at church, then church Sunday then I work every.single.day.next.week!!!! Yes, you read that right...this stay at home mommy is not going to be staying at home for the next couple of weeks! More about that later....OH, and YES, as a matter of fact, it will be Lauren's first time at daycare...and YES, I AM a nervous wreck!!!! Thanks for asking!

Disney, Day 2 - EPCOT

I have a friend who does not like EPCOT! Can you believe that? Actually, I can. Let me just tell you that it isn't necessarily my favorite place to go but it certainly doesn't fall into my category of things I don't like. Parts of it are/can be very educational and some other parts are just fun...again, some parts are boring, but to me, most educational things are boring, so....ANYWAY....I really enjoy the Future World parts better than the World Showcase. So, Monday, we went to EPCOT all day. We stayed until just after dark and didn't see Illuminations (the fireworks show, which I LOVE...it's my favorite show in all the parks) but my kids just weren't lasting that long. I think that Lauren turns into a pumpkin, around, oh....7:30-8:00! We did a lot of Future World the night before, so this day we focused on World Showcase. They have a neat little station in each country called Kidcot. It is a place where kids can go and get stamps from each country, color their project (this time it was a mask), and get a cutout to hang on the mask. Rachel LOVED this until she fell asleep around, I think, Japan. Brice's mom got the stamps from the countries where she was asleep so she didn't miss out on that part. These pictures are from her coloring the mask in Canada and then her showing her mask after she colored it and got her cutout from Canada. We ate a late lunch again, this time in the country of Morocco. Brice and I try to eat at Morocco everytime we go to Disney because it is different and you can't find this type food around here much. (I really think it's because of the belly dancers that Brice likes to go, but anyhow). =) The food, as always, was great! It wasn't crowded and Rachel LOVED, I mean LOVED the belly dancer. I am going to try to upload a video...let's see if it works.


She has decided that Mickey Mouse ears ice cream on a stick is her favorite!!!


Lauren slept really well in her baby carrier...I could only carry her for a little while...Brice did most of that...she is too heavy!

We had a good time! This was a long day. Day 3 was a day of rest so not much to post about tomorrow but we did go to Downtown Disney and took some pictures while we were there.