If at first you don't succeed... take another picture!

I know these are over a week late... but we did get a picture of the kids on Halloween before we hit up the neighbors for some candy. If I just put up the picture below, you would never know how much effort it took to get a good picture of all three of us. But I think it is more fun to see how much effort it takes to get ONE good picture...


We are all smiles and ready to say Happy Halloween and Treat or Treat!



Umm, I don't think we were ready yet... Is anyone looking at the camera?


Well at least Sophia is smiling in this one. She is so excited to have pink pom poms!


I was little worried that Tallen couldn't breathe with the lion costume over his face so adjustments were needed...



He is clearly not as excited as I was about his costume - he looked so sweet.



Those cute little lion feet would not stay on and we had a little trouble getting Tallen to sit up...


Finally - my sweet little lion on his first Halloween. Check out those chubby cheeks. Thanks for being such a patient photographer Dad!

That is one cool kid...

"Hey, check out my new hat. I think it looks pretty cool."


"Yeah, chicks dig guys who wear cool hats. My daddy wears them all the time and my mommy thinks he looks cool."


"So I have the cool hat - now I just need to learn how to play guitar. Then I will really be just like my daddy."

Wordless Wednesday... Brother and Sister style

Time... is NOT on my side

There are many days that I wish that I could get paid to be a writer... maybe if I was paid to write my blog it would get updated more often. I can come up with lots of excuses but the main reason is that life just gets in the way.

So I will take a deep breath and quickly bring you up to date on what you have missed in the past month...

Sophia got an ear infection, a virus, hives and tested positive for Type A influenza. Tallen had a fever, had his 4 month check-up, gained 2 pounds, got a yeast infection, tested positive for Type A influenza and lost about 1/2 a pound. Trey had an upper respiratory infection early last month and 24 hours after Sophia tested positive for the flu he was down for the count. I guess I was the first one with the flu (fever and body aches for four days probably indicate the flu) followed by an upper respiratory infection and recovered just in time to take care of everyone else who had the flu. Our family has made 8 trips to the doctor since the beginning of September!

On the Saturday morning in October that I was schedule to run the IBC 5K race, I was up at 6:30 AM heading to the store to buy Tylenol, lots of Lysol, disinfectant wipes and hand sanitizer to "germ free" our house. I washed every sheet, pillowcase and blanket that was coughed or sneezed on in burning hot water, then I prayed over our house and family so that we will never get the flu again.

The weather started to turn cooler and I discovered that Sophia has grown several inches since last winter and all of her pants are too short and tight. We spent several hours at the outlet mall trying to get her to try on jeans and pants while she ran through the aisles of the stores and played hide and seek in the rack. I tried to keep her strapped in the stroller but would let her out to put Tallen in it after my arms got too tired holding him. Trey finally agreed that we need a double stroller. I will be searching craigslist this weekend.

Work is super busy this time of year so I am trying to find those extra hours in each day to work some overtime but that has been difficult when I have had to stay home several days over the past month to take care of my sick husband and kids. Trying to catch up as fast as possible and still see my kids before they go to bed each night. Did I mention that Tallen is still nursing? Yes, another reason to try to rush home by 6:30 so I can feed him. This is also why I am sometimes functioning on 4-5 hours of sleep each night once I subtract the time spent awake after nursing him. I hope we get him back on his schedule soon - the flu really turned our world upside down.

Trey and I have missed date day in September and October but we are doing our best to squeeze in some kid free dates whenever possible. Date day is the 16th of every month (the day we got married in May) and we try to set aside that day to plan a date together - which I hear is so important when you have kids. Sunday we grabbed a cup of coffee together at the bookstore. Our date last approximately 47 minutes before we had to head back to his parents house to pick up the kids.

Whew, now that I have caught my breath I have to get back to work.

Oh I forgot to mention that we did buy a new camera so check back in a few days for a new edition of Fun Foto Friday!

Fun Foto Friday - Extended Edition

Tallen was four months old yesterday! We celebrated by taking him to the doctor and letting the nurse poke him with lots of needles. He was not amused and he made sure that we all experienced his displeasure. On the bright side, he is a healthy growing boy who now weighs over 14 pounds and is taller than 80% of other babies his age. Who would have thought that Trey and I could produce a TALL child! It's not that we are both short (okay, I am slightly vertically challenged) but we definitely don't stand out as the tallest people in a room either. As long as Sophia does not grow up to be taller than me, I might be okay with Tallen towering over me one day.

Tallen had colic for the first few months of his life. Looking back, the pattern of our life went something like this... If we looked at Tallen, he cried.
If we picked him up, he screamed. If we attempted to put him down at any moment of the day while he was awake (to take care of basic needs such as eating, drinking, or going to the bathroom) he would scream and cry. And basically anytime between 5 PM and midnight you could feel the walls vibrating from his screams while we walked him around the house and constantly rocked him.
There were a few weeks there that I was not too fond of this child. But now that screaming baby has been replaced by the happiest kid on the block (and I'm pretty sure our neighbors are happy to be getting some sleep again too - now that the screaming is over).


Tallen has changed so much! Now this happy kids smiles at everyone, even at the nurse who brought lots of needles to his 4 month old party at the doctor's office! Trey got him to laugh out loud the other day while playing peek-a-boo. I got a laugh after kissing him on the neck. He watches Sophia's every move and grins from ear to ear. I love him so much that I wanted to call in sick to work the other day just so I could stay home and stare at him. (NO, I didn't actually do it but I really wanted to).

His new tricks include sucking his thumb, which he prefers over a pacifier. Tallen also learned to roll over from his back to his tummy, which is great until he realizes he is stuck and he gets mad. Or when he rolls over while he is trying to sleep and gets stuck in the corner of the bed and I have to go rescue him. It was cute the first few times but I am not in the mood to play "Mommy to the Rescue" at 11:49 PM, and 1:23 AM, and 3:42 AM. Nope, I would much rather stay home from work and play the part of his hero during the waking hours of my day.

Sorry for the lack of posts and pictures lately, especially the Fun Foto Friday posts. SOMEONE in our family dropped the camera on the tile floor and now the pictures look like you took them underwater. This SOMEONE should not have even been using the camera to take pictures. This SOMEONE must have looked up at her daddy with her baby blues and sweet talked him into using the camera, EVEN though he should have learned his lesson from past IPhone incidents. Until we get a new camera, I only have my blackberry to take quick snapshots and Tallen gets this confused look when I throw my phone up in his face. Does not make for great memories. Hope to put up some new pictures - as soon as we get a new camera.