Random Cuteness

Just some random pics of the kiddos!

Reaggie is READY for bathing suit season :)  She has been wearing bathing suits around the house and seeing it as a "treat" to even wear one for her nap!  haha!

I should note she doesn't like this one anymore because her belly hangs out and she doesn't want anyone to see her belly...again, fine by me!  I told her that mommy doesn't like for her belly to hang out either :)  We wound up getting this one in a bigger size!

On Tuesday we went to the mall with Mum-Mum, it happened to be a yucky day outside too, so I didn't feel guilty having the kids at the mall :)  Anyway...of COURSE we had to ride some rides and this time Bubby got to join in the fun!  You can tell he was excited right?! :)

Uhh Mom, she's strangling me here?!  Gonna help me or just keep snapping pictures?!

We had to rush out of the mall to get Reaggie to her first "big girl" hair appointment with Miss Ashlee, the girl who cuts my hair.  Reaggie loved it!!  Ashlee has the nerve to be getting married, SOOO I had to squeeze in a trim before her THIRD birthday pics!!

Just some cute kiddos hanging out together :)  Love them!

Mother's Day 2012!

Mother's Day 2012 was the best yet!  I think they just get better and better because I realize more every year how blessed I am to be a mom to two of the sweetest kiddos I know.  There are plenty of days that I want to pull my hair out, that the kids are driving me crazy, or that I have just had it...BUT I honestly give myself a pep talk and remind myself how truly blessed I am and that my babies will only be this little once and need me like they do. 

Keith took Bubby with him Sunday morning to pick up breakfast, while Reaggie and I snuggled in bed.  He got me donuts AND Bojangles...and I wonder why I have gained a couple pounds!! ;)  Reaggie gave me the SWEETEST gift that she made at school...I just cried when I opened it.  I always loved making these crafts with my kiddos at school and now I AM the mom getting sweet gifts like this!  I will always treasure it :)

This man just pulls himself up on EVERYTHING these days and wants to stand, stand, stand!

Peek a boo sweet girl!

Okay so we tried REALLY, REALLY hard to get a decent picture of me with the kids...not too much to ask on Mother's Day right?!  Riiiiiiiight!  They are all terrible...seriously, I think Keith snapped about 50.  Ugh!  Anyway...this one is just to show our Magnolia tree and how tall it is now.  When Keith got it for me for Mother's Day 2009, right before Reaggie was born, it was somewhere around my lower back.  Time flies!  SOO last year I wrote this and I'll write it again...2009 pregnant with Reagan, 2010 my first "real" Mother's Day, 2011 pregnant with Landon, 2012 my first Mother's Day with TWO kiddos...I wonder what 2013 has in store?!  :)  (If you notice the pattern...preggo, not preggo, preggo, not preggo, kind of really hoping I do NOT follow the above pattern for next year!)

After pictures, Reaggie and I left for the airport to pick up my mom.  She was flying in to help me with Landon on Monday and Wednesday while it was my last two volunteer days at preschool.  It just so happened to be Mother's Day too!!

Reaggie couldn't wait to give Mum-Mum the mug that she made for her!

Such a fun and wonderful Mother's Day!  It is so nice to have a day be all about the Mommy!! :)  It really is about my kids though who have given me the honor of being their mom!  My heart overflows with love.

Parker Turns 3!

On Saturday, May 12 Reagan was BEYOND excited for Parker's third birthday party!!  She had ballet in the morning and then right after was the party.  ( I am LOVING having 10:00 parties....seriously, it's the best time of day!)

Parker's party was at Jumping Beans, an inflatable bounce house, SOOO it has kind of hard getting action shots, but based on the sweat factor of the kids, I would say everyone had a great time!  I even got in for some fun, but I think I committed the cardinal sin of bounce houses, I was bare foot...gah!  Oh well...I wasn't in there long and I knew my feet were clean :)

The birthday boy with his Cars cake!

Reagan could NOT wait to sing Happy Birthday...she kept asking over and over and over again when we would sing to Parker!

This little man LOVES ice cream...he was crying because Daddy wasn't feeding him quite fast enough!

The sweet birthday boy and Reaggie...it is so hard to believe Parker is THREE and Reagan is just a week away...how did that happen?!

Lately

Things have been crazy around here...having a walker and a crawler is exhausting! :)

Keith had a good day at work last Thursday, so we decided to have a "celebration" with ice cream!  Who doesn't like a little celebrating?!

Devouring some cheese!  ...that was supposed to be for our homemade pizza!...

BUSY MAN!

SOOO on Friday morning I took Landon to the allergist...I was TOTALLY dreading this.  I KNEW he would be pricked to make sure he didn't have any allergies.  I told myself over and over to keep my cool and not LOSE it.  Well I did really well, until we started talking about pricks.  The nurses came in to do it and sweet Landon was so happy to see them.  Poor guy had no clue.  We laid him on the table and he did SO great for the first 6 or 8, then he started to cry.  It only last seconds to do the 18ish pricks, but still it's just so pitiful.  My heart just broke.  I was crying just as badly as him.

Look at this poor back...

The GOOD news is though that LTK isn't allergic to any of the fruit or any of the "top 8" things (which includes peanuts and eggs!).  He MIGHT have a slight allergy to shrimp and cashews, but I seriously am NOT planning on giving him those things anytime in the near future.  He was such a trooper!  I was SO relieved too...now why the heck does he still get a little red around his eye sometime?!  Noone seems too concerned, so I guess I won't be either.

We celebrated on Friday night by going out to dinner...seriously, this is a rare treat for us these days.  Both kids did great though and we had a good time!

Saturday Keith took R to ballet and then I ran a few errands that afternoon.  I kind of just needed a little "me" time.  After last week it was totally necessary for my sanity :)  Saturday afternoon we were invited to a Kentucky Derby party.  I felt so bad because it was a frieckin' monsoon the whole time!  They had a bartender, a bluegrass band, and it really would have been SO much fun if it wasn't raining so badly.  We stayed until just after the derby finished, it was fun to be there though.

Sunday we had the Greene's (baby Evie and parents) over for lunch.  It was so great to see them!  Reagan LOVED playing with "baby" Evie.  She is getting SO big!  The funniest thing was how she and Landon were "arguing" over certain toys.  And it starts!  We had a lot of fun though.

Sweet little Lion after his bath...I was hoping Keith was zooming in on his face and not getting my arm in the picture :)

SOOO that's what's been going on.  Reagan's had school this week and then yesterday we hit up the park!

9 Months!

LTK is NINE MONTHS old today!  Crazy huh?  He is just a little too big!!

SOO first and for most...the screaming issue we were having seems to be getting much better.  I am BEYOND thankful for that.  He still needs soothing as he is going down, but a little singing, a little patting, and a little "shhh"-ing seem to do the trick.  FINGERS are CROSSED that this continues!  I am a MUCH happier momma knowing that he won't be screaming his head off...that was just terrible!

Seriously Mom?!? :)  You're going to let her do this to me?

Now a close up?  You are not nice!

Landon man is a crawling man these days!  It's so cute to watch him get around.  This is the "good crawling" because he isn't super fast yet.  I know it won't be long until he is a speed demon chasing after his sister.  haha!  She thinks it's cute now, I don't know how long that will last :)  It's funny this time around though because I have to constintly remind Reags to make sure she picks up her jewelry, Barbie shoes...the little things off the floor.  It's scary to think of the little man getting his hands on any of that.  There really is no leaving him alone right now.

Not feelin' the picture at the moment..

Landon eats three meals now.  He LOVES to feed himself.  I am trying not to introduce new foods right now, just until we go to the allergist on Friday and hopefully get some answers.  He has tried chicken though and his new favorite is saltines.  He is eating bananas, puffs, toast, pears, cinnamon maple sticks, saltines, Gerber veggies, and cheerios. 

It's so rough being 9 months old!

Some new tricks recently are when you say "how big is Landon?" he'll put his arms up when we say "SOOO big!"  (it's the cutest!)  He is into waving, big time!  He waves at everyone :)  He also loves to clap...I think he is starting to pick up on us saying "yay!" and associating that with clapping.  Stinkin' cute!

He LOVES to be outside.  He is so chill outside.  Whether he is in his stroller, the wagon, the swing, whatever...he just loves it!  He also is loving to stand lately too.  He can pull himself up to standing in his crib, but isn't doing it on furniture yet.  He tries so hard to pull himself up on the jumperoo though...

Left our photo shoot to get the Little People van...

Much more fun!  (Side note...my dad got me this play van as a joke two Christmases ago since we had just gotten our minivan.  He put stickers on it to say "I'm Hot," "WTF," and "K Clan"...well this has turned into BOTH kids favorite toy of the moment.  Reaggie asked about the stickers and I just told her that Grandpa decorated it for us :)  haha!!)

One of the funniest things he likes to do is "chase" Reagan.  We hold Landon like he's walking and then run with him to get sister.  He just cracks up laughing...it's so sweet and Reaggie loves when we do that.  Again, once he can do it himself, I'm sure it won't be so cute anymore.

Landon LOVES his sister to pieces!  She sings him a coconut song, I have NO idea where this came from, in the car when he is fussing and he just starts laughing away.  It's so funny!  She is just the sweetest sister and loves him so much!  Oh which reminds me, his newest nickname is "Boo Boo."  Poor guy thankfully knows that he has 15 names and responds pretty well to any of them! :)

Grubbin!

I took L to the doctor today for his 9 month check up (which worked out great as a follow up to our ER visit and also a day R was in school so I didn't have two kids screaming when L got his shots) and it turns out he didn't need any shots today!!  YAY!  I was so relieved :)  Of course he is still a big man and TOTALLY off the charts with his growth, but you know what, I LOVE it!! 

Weight:  27 pounds 13.5 ounces (about 10 lbs. less than Reagan...ha!)

Height:  31 inches



He really is just such a sweet man!  His cheeks are just a little too kissable and his tummy just screams tickle me!  We love this boy to pieces and can not belive how big he is getting!!  Just three more months until his first birthday...seriously!?  It's unreal to me!

Mommy Low

Yesterday was a day that was NOT fun.  I was a mess all day.  There are days like that.  Some people think that being a stay at home mom is just a cake walk everyday...being a mom in general.  However, not the case at all!

SO we have been stressed out about Landon and why on earth his eye gets "pink" sometimes when he eats and why he is suddenly SCREAMING when we put him to bed.  Just when we feel like we've figured him out, something throws a wrench in that. 

Sunday night was a rough one, as Landon was up a lot and would wake up screaming.  I hate it.  No one likes to hear their baby crying, especially when it is the middle of the night and especially because I didn't want that screaming to wake up a certain almost three year old.  The last thing I need is TWO kids up to party at 11:30pm and 2am!  I finally took Landon into the guest room with me and he wouldn't go to sleep, around 4 I asked Keith (correction, more like told him) if he would sleep with Landon.  I cried myself back to sleep in our bed.  We all got up and had to get going to get Reags to school.  The morning was okay, aside from being a zombie.  Got R to school and usually on school days I'll come home with L to let him sleep for a little bit and then we'll go do whatever it is we're going to do that day.  Well of course he SCREAMED and wouldn't go down.  I really HATE the sound of a crying baby, who doesn't?!  SO as we are both in tears and I was just like screw it, we'll just go.  I had a few errands to run and wasn't going to fight him.  Thank goodness for best friends because I sobbed to Ellen for awhile about it all.  I think I just had a build up of all kinds of "worries."  L and I did our errands, even though he was a fussy mess because he hadn't slept, and then we picked up R at school.  Came home for lunch, all was fine...well as fine as it could be, it's pure chaos!  Then came naptime...SCREAMING again!  At some point during the day I had called Keith at work SOBBING that I couldn't listen to the screaming anymore...it was awful.  Even sweet Reaggie said, "Mommy, it okay.  We just need to let Boo Boo cry for a couple minutes."  I'm glad my almost 3 year old is more sane than I am :)  Anyway...I got Reaggie down for her nap, picked up Landon and he was asleep in 2 seconds flat.  I had rocked him for his afternoon nap on Sunday, as he didn't take one on Saturday, and decided I was not going to do that again yesterday.  SO we went into my room and I laid him on my bed and he was out!  It was after 2 and I hadn't had lunch and was starving, so I went down and as quickly as I could made lunch and came up 15 times to check on him in the process.  He hadn't moved.  The kid slept for a little over two hours, which is a FAB nap for him.  The rest of the evening was okay, although Keith didn't get home until 7:15...of all nights.  What can you do though?  Getting L to bed last night wasn't fun again.  We even tried the pack n' play to see if that would be better.  Fail.  Took that out and just let him cry, go in to sooth, cry, go in to sooth, FINALLY by about 8 he had stopped crying and went to sleep.  Of course Keith and I differ on our "lengths of time" that L should be crying so then we got into an arguement...UGGGHHHH!!  It was just a DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

L woke up at 2:30 this morning and I calmed him down, but as soon as I would leave he would cry.  SO I brought him in the guest room again, we both slept...which in my book is key.  This morning for his nap he did so much better...he cried, but I patted his back, sang him "Twinkle, Twinkle" and "You are my Sunshine" and then just said "shhh, shhh, shhh" about a million times.  He was out and slept until almost 11!!!!!!!!!  I put him down around 2 for his afternoon nap and did the same thing...he just got up about 15 minutes ago, so 3:45.  Awesome!  I don't want to get too excited, but HOPEFULLY we are making some progress with the sleeping. 

Well as Reagan is telling my for the 15th time that she is "too big for kisses" and Landon is crawling all over the place while I type, I should continue with our day.  I think a shower should have happened today, but it didn't.  Oh well.  One day I will look back on all of this and smile.  Right now I just remind myself there are only so many years that my children will "need" me...I can do this.  It's all just phases.  I also tell myself on repeat that if these are my biggest problems, I'm very lucky.  Things could be SO much worse and I know that.  I guess it's natural for us to feel frustrated though, but I know in the grand scheme of things this is really NO big deal and we will all be fine.  Sometimes a good tear session is just what the doctor ordered :)

Emergency Room Visit

Well Landon beat Reagan by 3 months on his first ER visit...seriously!?  (Is it sad that we recognized our nurse too!?)  Well where to start...I have been having suspicions about Landon having food allergies.  I think I'm overly paranoid because of Reagan's, but still, not fun.  SOMETIMES Landon gets a little "pinkness" under only his left eye.  It's so weird.  It goes away within minutes, but something is causing it to happen.  I have been making his food, keeping a food journal...trying to be "doctor."  Well on Friday we had been out and I didn't have any food made for Landon that day, so I just gave him some apple baby food for lunch, the Gerber kind.  He was fine, no redness under his eye!  Yahoo!  On Saturday for lunch Keith cooked up some apples for Landon and gave those to him for lunch, again, fine!  By Saturday night he had started with a diaper rash, which has happened before with what seems to be apples.  Weird.  Saturday night was also really fun getting Landon to bed...poor guy.  The seperation?  The crib?  We don't know!  He did sleep through the night on Saturday night though and when I was changing his diaper on Sunday morning his "peeper" was soooo red and swollen.  We both friecked out!  Seriously?!  It looked like there was a hole around the skin...no idea.  His left eye was also slightly swollen when he woke up on Sunday morning, which I thought might be from the apple?!  Well we called our neighbor to come down to stay with Reags while we took L to the ER to figure out what was wrong.  (Urgent care didn't open until 9, this was 7:30 and we wanted to know!)  I was so scared of an infection.  SOOO scared they would have to operate.  Thankfully, it just looks like the skin is pulling away, from skin that was regrown after his circumcision.  The doctor gave us an RX for topical cream and that seems to be helping.  Thankfully!!  What a heart attack!  I also have decided I'm sick of being paranoid about what Landon eats, as he is a big man and wants to eat a lot and loves to feed himself, so I have an appointment for him on Friday with the allergist.  HOPEFULLY, after talking with him he will tell me I'm crazy and won't have to do "the shots."  But even if he does the shots, I will atleast KNOW what is going on!  Anyway...we were sooo thankful our Landon man was okay!!  Oh and he was BEYOND a trooper when they took his temperature, rectally, too...such a good man.