Kitchen after
Kitchen before
Home Sweet Home

Catch Up...

I know it has been forever since i have blogged, but chasing around 2-18 month old boys is absolutely consuming all of my time!! Let me take a minute to catch up on what's been going on in our lives lately...

we bought a new house on March 31st that we refer to as "the money pit" but we absolutely love it!!

The boys are getting HUGE!! P weighs 24 lbs. and M weighs 26 lbs. They are into EVERYTHING...I mean everything!! I can't take my eyes off them for a second before they are into something they shouldn't be into...for example,

they somehow got a tuperware dish off the counter one morning, opened it and had cake and icing painted all over the kitchen.

Then, one afternoon I gave them a broom to play with, only to find them sitting in the floor surrounded by shattered glass from a picture frame I had just put on the wall.

I put P down for a nap one day and couldn't find M anywhere. After searching the house, I looked out the front door only to find him hanging out on the front porch.

At my parents house, mom found Parker inside the oven.

They both love to splash around in any open potty.

Last week we were playing in the back yard at my sisters when we got the pool out. I didn't have their swim suits so we just took their diapers off and let them play in their clothes, well P somehow pooped on the ground without anyone noticing it until mommy steps in it. And the only reason we knew it was him was because he left evidence on his john john~ha!!

They both love the pool, but P is WAY more into it and less fearful than M.

They love toys with a string on them so that they can pull them.

They also love to throw food and their sippy cups on the floor while in their high chairs.

Today, I was loading Parker in the car at TJ Maxx and Mitchell was sitting in the wagon when a mini-van rolled past us giving me a strange look. I thought it was weird, but when I turned around to get Mitchell I noticed he was gone so I ran around the back of the car only to see him rolling down the parking lot with a HUGE smile on his face.

They are climbing on everything in sight...chairs, tables, beds, furniture appliances etc.

They have finally mastered going up and down stairs.

Their new bad behavior is biting and they, especially Mitchell have a MAJOR problem with it to the point where Mitchell bit my face last night and had me in tears...Daddy was furious!! If anyone has any ideas on how to handle biters we would greatly appreciate it!! We have tried time out, popping their leg/hand, putting Tabasco sauce in their mouth (which M just lapped up and smiled), and calmly correcting the bad behavior with an appropriate behavior...nothing seems to faze them!!

On a lighter note, they recently got a new baby cousin who they are obsessed with, especially M. They love kissing her face/hands/feet and patting her. It is really sweet how much they love her!! But, I am paranoid that one of them is just going to haul off and bite her so we have to be really careful and protect her from them!!

They have both started saying "bah" (with an extremely southern accent) while waving good bye to people.

They are also obsessed with pointing at lights and saying "da".

They can do the sign for "more" when they want something.

As crazy as all of this sounds, they are getting SO much easier to handle and much less whinny than they used to be. They have started having a little bit of separation anxiety, but it kind of makes me feel special that they never want me to leave!! I feel like they have really tackled a lot of developmental milestones lately!! They are so much fun and I love being their mommy!! What a sad day it will be, when they don't think we're super cool anymore...ha!!

Boys will be boys...

Since the weather has been so nice lately, we have found ourselves loving the great outdoors with a couple of minor exceptions. The other day we were in our driveway talking to the neighbors when I noticed Mitchell putting something in his mouth (which was no big deal, considering the fact that he's always putting rocks, mulch, etc. in his mouth). Anyways...I leaned down only to notice that it was a cigarette butt...ewwww!! When I went to pull it out, the whole thing broke open and all the little nasty particles were floating around in his mouth~I thought I was going to puke!! In this case, the bad news was that we don't know anyone who smokes which means that cigarette butt was probably one that the trash man or somebody threw out the window as they were driving by...oh my goodness, it still gives me the willies that he's gonna get some nasty disease!! But, so far nothing has shone up,thankfully!! ha!!

Next, Daddy decides he wants all of us to go to the park in our neighborhood yesterday so that I can see how the boys love to go down the slide head first...I am totally thinking this is a terrible idea, but I just thought I would go along with it b/c he was so excited. We walk over to the play ground that was full of kids and parents. We get the boys to the top of the slide and get Mitchell in position to slide down and off he goes...only to get his arm caught behind him and face plant the slide and bite his lip. Needless to say, he totally freeked out screaming and blood was just pouring out of his mouth!! So we scooped him up, grabbed Parker (who was looking at us like, "are you kidding me, I didn't even get to try it!!"), scurried to the car, getting some very interesting looks from all the spectators like, "are you seriously that stupid?? Honestly, who sends a 1 year old down the slide head first". So, we got him home and cleaned up with only a fat lip to show for it.

So then there's today...we were playing outside on our deck enjoying the beautiful weather!! Parker was pushing a cooler around when he fell down a step and slammed the side of his forehead into the deck. Luckily, he didn't bleed, but there is a huge knot on his head!! Then, we decided to hit another park and have a picnic dinner. It was great~the weather was perfect, we had a big quilt with all of our stuff on it so the boys could eat their dinner and play. So, kyle and i are just sitting there eating while M & P are walking around under this tree when all of the sudden, Mitchell trips over a tree root and literally plows into the ground with his forehead while managing to scrape the rest of his face across to ground to catch his fall. Then, if that isn't traumatic enough, there is one of those old fashioned jungle gyms on the play gound. Well, kyle crawls inside it and yells for the boys to come over and crawl in too. Parker gets right in, but then Mr. Clumsy comes stumbling over and reaches out to grab one of the metal bars with his hands and totally misses only to kiss it with his tooth at a record breaking speed. We literally heard the "ting" of the tooth to metal bar impact...it was awful!!! The blood came pouring out yet again. Mitchell looked up at me like, "what are you doing to me??" It was soooooo pitiful!! Fortunately, we were the only ones there tonight, so we didn't get any weird looks from spectators!! Parker; however, looked at us like, "what is Mitchell's deal??? He keeps ruining everything!!" So, tonight we left the park with Mitchell screaming bloody murder in pain and Parker screaming bloody murder b/c he was absolutely furious to be leaving!! I can only imagine what this summer will bring if we have already had this much drama being outside!!

Boy have Mitchell and Parker changed our lives!! With them, life is so much more exciting!! I can only imagine what they will be like as teenagers~ha ha!!

A bad day gone right...

Let me rewind to Tuesday night...Kyle is out with work people, the boys are down, and I am anxiously preparing for our first Wednesday morning play group at Otter Creek by laying out the boys clothes, fixing their lunches and packing their diaper bag. I am so excited for this play date, as we have all had a hard time getting together at anyone's house this winter since our kids are starting to get into everything. Wednesday morning we had breakfast, got ourselves together and off we went (a little early in hopes that the boys would take a cat nap in the car...but much to my dismay, that didn't happen). Anyways, we all get there and we're playing in this big carpeted room and everyone's having a great time for about 5 seconds until my little monsters start up with the whining..."uhhhhhh" I think to myself, "come on, PLEASE be good!!" but the whining continues the entire time, then I think, "ok Julie, you can get through this, hold back the tears every child has their moments..." So, finally it's over, we made it to the car, I fed them their lunch in the parking lot, and they fell right asleep. So that was yesterday...pretty crappy!! Today I wake up with high hopes of having a good day because nothing could be as bad as yesterday....I turn on the today show to find out that the high was going to be 68...oh boy!! Jennifer called to see if we wanted to go with them to Otter Creek to play on the playground and have a picnic, I thought "perfect....we'll be outside, we're sure to have fun!!!" I told her we would meet her there around 10 so that maybe once again the boys would cat nap in the car...Parker did, Mitchell did NOT. So, we get there and we're playing and having a great time, until the whining starts again...by this time it's 10:50, so I'm thinking we'll just eat lunch early today. So we all got our lunches out and I sat on a picnic blanket with the boys to eat and Cole sat at a little table by a tree and Jennifer ran to potty. In that short time, Mitchell decides he doesn't want his lunch and he would much rather have Cole's, so he crawls over to him and gets on top of the table, trying to steal his lunch!! Sweet Cole just sits there, so I ran over and grabbed Mitchell, hit my head on a tree limb and told him no, then I sat him down in front of his lunch. By this time Jennifer is back, Mitchell does the same thing again, then Parker sees him and starts crawling off too, so I again grab Mitchell, hit my head and that dumb tree limb, slipped a bad word, called Mitchell a brat, sat him down firmly, then he screamed so I grabbed him and through him in the car. I go back to get Parker only to find that he has turned over his whole thing of peaches on Jennifer's picnic blanket. So, by this time, I am just boo whooing!! I grabbed him, threw him in the car, and told Jennifer sorry and that we had to leave!! By the time I pull out of the parking lot, they are both asleep!! I called Kyle, picked him up and boo whooed to him all during his lunch break!! Then, I dropped him off and just drove around for another hour. So, needless to say, today was worse than yesterday until tonight...my sweet husband got home with steaks for dinner, mint chocolate chip ice cream for dessert and after dinner mints (if you know me, you know those are my favorite!!) just for a pick me up!! So, if that wasn't enough to turn my frown upside down, Parker decided to start walking tonight...he just took off!! Isn't it wonderful to know that the Lord just knows when you've had enough...and He just makes everything wonderful!! So, all of that to say, I feel so blessed....for the good times and bad!!

More to the Story...

Okay, so we went back to our pediatrician for a follow-up today only to find out that Parker did NOT have pneumonia. That stupid resident doctor must have just been an idiot!! The radiology report came back negative. I mean, she looked us right in the face and said, "it looks like Parker does have pneumonia." UHHHHH...I guess I'm just going to try to be understanding and think that maybe that poor resident had been working a long shift and just got confused...but that is still NO EXCUSE!!!

Parker is SICK....

Well, we have had a really rough week with Parker being sick. We got home from Ohio on Sunday afternoon and Parker wasn't feeling very good. By Monday morning, he was really sick with a terrible cough. I went ahead and took him in and had him tested for RSV and it came back positive. They went ahead and did a breathing treatment in the office and then set up for home health care to deliver a nebulizer for him to use at home. We got home and he just slept in my lap all afternoon. Thankfully, mom and dad came to the rescue and took Mitchell home with them in hopes that he won't get this. By the time Kyle got home, Parker was having such a hard time breathing. We decided that we should take him to Vanderbilt Childrens Hospital. We got there at about 6:45 p.m. and waited for over 3 hours. Finally, they called us back and told us that there were no rooms available and that they would have to see us in the hallway. That seemed a little weird, but I just thought, oh well we've got to see a doctor. They decided that Parker needed an IV b/c he was dehydrated. So, several nurses surrounded his bed, in the middle of the hallway and tried to get an iv started. After 4 attempts with no luck, Parker screaming at the top of his lungs, and everyone else in the hallway staring at us, Kyle said, "ok, I am having a hard time keeping my cool, this is ridiculous!!" I agreed! He told them NOT to stick him again until we were in a room. Finally, we got a room and the nurse came in and got the iv started on the first try and then they put oxygen on him and admitted him (but b/c they were so crowded we stayed in the ER). By this point, Parker is absolutely TERRIFIED and is clinching on to me, not wanting to be put down in fear of what would happen next. The room they put us in was much like a closet, no windows or anything. At this point it is 2:30 a.m. and we are all exhausted!! I asked the nurse if I could lay in the crib with Parker so we could rest. She feared that it could turn over, so we were stuck just sitting in chairs. Finally somebody brought us a little twin sized cot for one of us to sleep on. Mom and Kyle went to get some dinner and I just layed down with Parker so he could sleep. Once they got back, mom went home. Kyle sat in the chair and tried to sleep and at 5:30 he went home b/c he had to get some sleep b/c he had a meeting at work that he couldn't miss. So, all that to say no one got ANY sleep that night. By morning, the day nurse came be-bopping in turned on all the lights and was talking really loud to her side-kick (I really wanted to clock her b/c we were so tired!!) Anyways, by this point Parker had had nothing to eat since the day before (which he pretty much ate nothing). The nurse never said anything about breakfast, so at 10:45 I asked her if he could eat and she said, "oh sure, I'll get you a menu." and I was thinking, ok if I didn't say anything would he had ever gotten to eat?? Uhhhh....by this time I am over it....I hate this stupid place!! they had taped the oxygen to his face, then when it was time for them to take it off, that same DUMB nurse just ripped it off instead of trying to use a wet cloth to ease it off like they did at Centinneal. Next, they decided to do a chest x-ray to check for pneomonia. After we finished that they moved us to an even smaller room that didn't even have any chairs and was on a hallway where the lights were out. Then, a new nurse came in and said, "Looks like y'all are being discharged." and we were like, "are you kidding me, we haven't even gotten the results back from the chest x-ray" so she went to find out what the deal was and a resident doctor came in and said, "well, the x-ray showed that he does have pneomonia but we feel like he'll be fine going home". So kyle said, " you feel fine sending a 14 month old child home who has RSV, pneomonia, and a double ear infection?? we feel like if y'all weren't so crowded there would be no question about discharging him and you would definitely keep him." She said, "well, I can't tell you what we would do if we weren't this crowded" so that of course set us off and I just went off!! Then, we ended up talking to a manager, who recognized the situation and was quite embarrassed!! We ended up going home, but we had the WORST experience there and would never set foot back there if we had another option!! The manager told us that they had plans to add on but b/c of the economy they had to put it on hold. Is that not absolutely ridiculous??? When we left, they had 39 patients who were admitted but had to stay in the ER b/c there were no rooms available in the hospital!! Uhhhhhh, just thinking about it infuriates me so for those of you that are for sociallized heathcare...there you are, what do you think?? Anyways...we are home now and about to go back for a follow up at the pediatrician. Hopefully, things are getting better with little Parker...he has been through so much and has been quite the little trooper!!

Late ChristmasPictures

"I'm diggin this new dump truck, so hands off Mitchell!!"~Parker
Christmas Morning!!
"I think I'm just going to take a quick peek to see what's inside...he hee!!"~Mitchell
"Just wanted to let everyone know that this one is MINE."~Parker

Christmas Pictures...very late, i know!!

"This is GREAT...look at all these toys!!"~Parker
"I'm just going to go along with this, but I don't know what we are doing??"~Mitchell

Our family photo...it's a miracle we were all looking at the camera!!

Brushing our teeth and eating cookies...

"Look, Noanie, I am brushing my teeth!!"~Parker
"Me too...we love our tooth brushes!!"~Mitchell
"Does life get better than this?? I LOVE cookies!!"~Parker
"YUM...this is so good!! How can I sneak another one??"~Mitchell

Now that we're 1...

I have been so bad lately at updating our blog, so I'll try to fill everyone in on what we've been up to now that we're 1. Mitchell started taking some steps at 12 months and now at 13 months he's doing a lot more, but still prefers crawling when he's in a hurry to snatch something from brother. Is it bad that he's already NOT sharing?? We went over to Hollis' house this weekend and he was a BIG BULLY!! Parker played much better with Hollis than Mitchell, probably b/c Parker's used to having Mitchell take things from him all the time! We're working on Mitchell's bulliness. Parker is crawling all over the place!! They have recently discovered each other and they crack each other up...it's very sweet!! They got this tunnel thing for Christmas and have had a ball chasing each other through it. They are currently trying to transition to 1 nap a day b/c they started only sleeping 20-30 mins. in the afternoon. This has become quite the challenge, though, as they are zombies by 10:30. They love chasing after anything that rolls including: balls, water bottles, canned veggies, trucks and riding toys. They also conquered drinking out of a straw. Their favorite time of day is still bath time. They love splashing, standing up and plopping down, putting their hands under the faucet, reading their bath book "Spot Goes Splash", and playing with all their bath toys!! They still are NOT sleeping through the night every night. Last night, for example, Parker was up at 12:30 a.m., 3:40 a.m., and 5:45 a.m. and that is getting REALLY old!! Since they share a room whenever I hear one of them, i run up there asap so they won't wake up the other one. I know i know, I need to just turn off the monitor and let them duke it out, but for some reason, I am paranoid that if I do that, they will somehow jump out of their crib and get hurt and I would never know~isn't that ridiculous?? Anyways...my sweet babies are getting so BIG and it's very hard to believe hot fast they grow up!!

"Mommy Diaries"

Well, life with two 1 year olds is quite entertaining to say the least...the other night we (mainly mommy) were anxiously awaiting daddy's arrival from work. Once he walked in the door the boys took off after him (quite cute!!). Anyways, daddy said, "ewwww, somebody pooped..." and I thought, "ahhh, perfect timing!!" So, I am in the kitchen making dinner, when all of the sudden I hear a scream, "HELP!!! Mitchell pooped without a diaper!!". I came running to see what happened and I didn't see any poop!! Kyle said, "Julie, look it fell out on the floor." I got so tickled I could hardly help!! Mitchell had on a one piece fleece outfit and his diaper had somehow fallen down his leg. Apparently, that fleece on his hynie felt cozy enough to POOP on!! And, on a side note...our children ALWAYS twist and turn when changing a diaper so you can imagine how much fun that is. So, I grabbed Mitchell's legs and kyle turned to clean up the mess only to notice Parker had something in his mouth...he immediately did the finger swoop and unfortunately he pulled out poop. I was in disbelief when he showed me. I totally thought he found a lima bean on the floor until kyle said, "Julie, smell it...it's poop!! Should we take him to the doctor?? He could get ecoli??" I couldn't help but continue to laugh!! I told him that he's probably not the first kid to eat poop, however he could be the first kid to eat his brother's poop, though. Ha ha!! Had I been alone during this fiasco, I'm sure I would have a much different attitude!! We did eventually get them both cleaned up and we haven't noticed Parker being sick from it, so that's good too!! Boy were our lives BORING before Mitchell & Parker!!