Update

It's been a really rough couple of days. I guess I was under the impression that once I started the Tamiflu I would start to feel better- not the case. It's been 48 hours since I started taking it and I'm just starting to feel even a little relief. The body aches are gone, luckily. Now I'm just left with a massive headache and nausea. My fever broke this morning and that has made a difference. I'm not supposed to be around the boys until I'm fever free for 24 hours and I miss them so much it hurts. Austin keeps asking me if he can get in bed and snuggle up with me...just breaks my heart. Wayman's parents watched the boys all morning which was a big relief. I slept all morning and it was much needed. I've been out of bed more today than I have been since Saturday, I'm really trying to get some strength back. There are only 3 days left til Christmas and I'm determined to be well by then. Thanks for all your prayers, calls & emails...they mean a lot!

Emergency Room

I decided this evening that since I was not feeling any better and actually getting worse that I wanted to go to the ER to be checked out. I waited until Wayman gave the boys a bath and we left them on the couch watching Toy Story with my parents. Luckily we only had to wait a half hour to be seen because I was so week and dizzy that I could hardly sit in the chair. The doctor said I definitely have a bad case of the flu, they don't test for H1N1 anymore because its treated the same as regular flu. So they hooked me to up to IV fluids, Morphine for pain and Zofran for the nausea. They also gave me Tamilfu & Motrin. I felt like a druggy- I rarely take more than tylenol haha. I had to wait another hour and a half to finish the fluids and be re-checked but my fever has gone down (it was 103 when I got there) and I'm feeling a little bit better. The pain medicine is wearing off so all the body aches are coming back but other than that, I feel much better than a few hours ago. I have to go get my prescriptions filled in the morning and once I'm on the antibiotics hopefully it wont take long to get rid of this dumb flu!

My Christmas Gift

Friday was Austin's last day of preschool before Christmas vacation. He brought home a whole grocery bag full of artwork, crafts, goodies & a gift for Mommy and Daddy. He wanted me to open the gift right away and of course, I got tears in my eyes when I opened it...

I just love our "Aussie Star" ornament as he calls it. Its a great picture of him and I love that its truly homeade. He painted the star yellow and glued the buttons on all by himself. He was very proud of the "gift" he made for us and very proudly hung it on the Christmas tree! I took a picture of him holding the ornament in front of the tree, but of course I couldn't get a nice, normal smile...

It was wrapped in a bag and tied together with this string.  Attached to the string was a sweet little note.  I've already put it in his box of keepsakes because this is something I never want to forget!

(In case you can't read it, it says:

This ribbon is very special, you see

Untie it, and its the same size as me!)

Under the weather

I just haven't felt the same since I was up all night on Thursday, and then Saturday morning it hit me like a ton of bricks. High fever, nausea, headache, severe body aches, cough/sore throat, dizziness...you name it, I feel it. Luckily, I have a wonderful husband who takes care of me so well. He took care of the boys all day so that I could rest....

  

He also managed to make a delicious homeade dinner for everyone...TGIFriday's Broccoli Cheddar Soup and Red Lobster's famous Cheddar Biscuits

...followed by a yummy dessert! The Cheesecake Factory's Pumpkin Cheesecake

I got this really neat cookbook that has recipes from national food chains and there are tons that sound really good and easy to make. Wayman did a great job and has already picked out a few more recipes he wants to try. The Cheddar biscuits he made tasted JUST like Red Lobsters, they were SOOO good (I just wish I actually had an appetite so I could eat without getting sick!)

Babe, thank you so much for taking care of me while I don't feel good. You are a true SuperDad and I'm  one lucky girl to have such a great guy. I Love you!

Austin's Christmas Program

This morning Austin had his very 1st preschool Christmas performance. I've always looked forward to this part of motherhood- watching my kids perform & participate in activities. He didn't have a very restful night so he was pretty tired and yawned quite a bit through his singing. He also, in true Austin fashion, covered his eyes for a majority of the performance. Oh that little boy, he cracks me up. He sang his songs, recited his poems and knew all the hand motions to go along with each one. He had a little stage fright and you could tell he was literally whispering the songs, but he didn't run off the stage like a few of the others did haha. He's been telling me for weeks that his class was going to sing "Santa Baby", his favorite Christmas song, and was disappointed at the end when they didn't sing it (for the record, they didn't even learn that song at school)

The quality of these pictures aren't great because it was dark in the church, this one would have been really cute if the lighting was better

Pastor Steve telling the Christmas story (and Austin was scared of the puppets...can you tell?)

These next two pictures are probably close to my all time favorite pictures of Aus...I have such a little stud on my hands!

It makes me kind of sad that next year Austin probably won't be going to the same preschool since we're moving to Madera. I love his school and his teachers so much and they do such a great job with the kids. We're definitely enjoying his first year of preschool and everything that goes along with it.

We're proud of you Aussie, you did a great job buddy!!

How can that be?

As I sat in the living room rocking my "baby" last night (my baby who didn't sleep one single bit alllllll night long), I realized that right now he is the exact same age as Austin was when Carson was born- 20 months.

How can that be?

Austin, as a big brother, seemed so grown up and mature when Carson was born. I look at Carson now, at the same age, and although he's bigger than Austin was at that age, he still seems like a little baby to me. I guess he'll always be a baby to me. He's just as mature and grown up as Austin was, but hes still my baby. It makes my heart so sad to see him change from a baby to a toddler. I love watching him grow, learn and develop into a little boy, but I just wish I could bottle up my chubby cheeked baby and keep him this way forever.

He looks like such a big boy in these pictures (taken on Thanksgiving)

Last night as we rocked, we talked and sang songs and read every Christmas book we owned. When he would start to doze off, I would turn down the lights and just snuggle him and think about how incredibly blessed I am. While I was definitely exhausted as each hour passed and he couldn't fall asleep, I was also so grateful to be able to comfort him. I was happy to have someone need me and want me like that. I know that someday he won't need me in the same ways as he does now and so I really need to cherish each and every minute right now. As 4:00 am approached, I was deliriously tired and so I tried bringing him back into our bed in hopes that he'd fall asleep. He is not a co-sleeper at all...he likes his independence and space, so I knew I probably wouldn't have any luck. After lots of wrestling him and scolding him to sit still, he finally laid there between Wayman and I. I shut my eyes, hoping he would follow, and he reached up with his little stuffed lion, smacked his lips and made the lion kiss both me and Wayman on the nose. It was the cutest thing and it was so hard not to be frustrated with him at that point. He did finally drift off into a very light sleep from about 5:00-7:00 but was very restless. I put him back in his crib after Austin got up this morning and poor thing cried and cried until he crashed. I knew he was crying out of sheer exhaustion and that eventually he'd give in. Unfortunately he fought it so long that he only got to sleep about 45 minutes before I had to wake him up to get ready for Austin's Christmas program at school (pictures of that coming later tonight). When we got home he ate a good lunch and played a few minutes and then I put him back to bed. Tears, Tears and more Tears. I think he's teething and/or having some seperation anxiety issues. He will cry and cry for about 10 minutes and then stop and be totally fine for 10 minutes. Then it starts all over again. I've checked on him multiple times and he is fine, just fighting sleep. I don't know what else to do for him. I know if he'd just close his eyes and sleep all afternoon he would feel a ton better. Not to mention the migraine I'm now dealing with from the lack of sleep would probably start to feel better if there were some peace and quiet too! Poor little guy, I hope tonight is not another repeat of last night. We all need sleep!!

I love you Carsie Doodle- you will always be my little baby, no matter how big you get! 

Jesus' Birthday Party

Last night at AWANA they had a Christmas Birthday party for Jesus. The kids were supposed to wear their pajamas so of course Austin chose to wear his new Mickey Santa jammies. I felt kinda bad for him because he was one of the only ones in his class who rememered to wear their jammies and I was worried he'd feel embarassed. His teacher told me that there would be a "special visitor" coming at 7:15 in case I wanted to come back and take pictures (she knows me all too well!). I didn't tell Aus I was coming back though. When I walked in the room they were all sitting together getting ready to sing Christmas songs

Thats my boy...the music comes on and he MUST get up and dance (even if he is the ONLY one!) He still had no idea I had come back to watch...

Oops! Caught :) While he was dancing he turned around and spotted me...and was a little embarassed haha

The Cubbies acting out the manger scene- theres Mary & Joseph :)

And look who the surprise visitor was!!...

I must make a little (or big) note to all other parents (especially parents with kids who are around my own). If you do not want your child "believing in Santa", then thats perfectly fine but please, please, PLEASE keep that within your family. Do not ruin it for the rest of our kids. I can't tell you how aggravated I was when a couple of  the kids jumped up and had to proclaim to everyone that there parents told them Santa is not real. C'mon now, these kids are all 3 and 4 years old...there is no reason they shouldn't still believe. Thats such a fun & magical part of childhood and I hate knowing that some kid could of spoiled it for Austin (he didn't hear anything, luckily).  I completely agree with the fact that kids should know the true meaning of Christmas and Austin DOES. He totally understands the reason we celebrate Christmas is because of Jesus' birth. However, I also don't think theres anything wrong with letting him believe in Santa either. Just my own opinion. Anyway, here is a picture of Austin and his class with Santa

Aus and his cousin Savannah

After Santa read them Christmas stories, they went back to their class and had the birthday party, complete with balloons, party hats & cake. They also made these adorable mangers with baby Jesus'.

When it was time for the birthday cake, Mrs. Jennifer asked who wanted to pray and Austin volunteered. I was so proud of him :)

Cake time!!!

Austin loves AWANA so much and is learning a ton. He has memorized more bible verses than I can count and he knows and understands what they all mean. I feel so blessed to have this little boy who loves learning about the Lord and is excited to read bible stories and pray each night. When we were snuggling in my bed the other night he looked at me and said "Mama, lets pray". I asked him what he wanted to pray about and he said he wanted to thank Jesus for making dinosaurs and for giving him the best, best brother. So, so sweet!

Lets Go Longhorns!

Just when I thought we could put away our Desmond shirts, Wayman signs up to coach basketball! So we put our red & black on and headed out to support the Longhorns. I was suprised at how much Austin was into the game, he really loved watching the boys play and asked a million questions.

At one point he asked what they were doing and I told him that the guy got to "shoot the ball". He thought about it for a minute and then said "Mommy, they need to wear helmets if they are shooting, thats dangerous!" I thought it was really cute and its so true, kids really do say the funniest things! I let him hold my cell phone during the game because he wanted to "take a video for daddy"

He also took pictures of Carson, himself, me, his shoes, the people sitting next to us...you get the picture. He took about 115 pics by the time we left haha

Carson enjoyed the game too, kicked his feet up and enjoyed his apple juice and chex mix (their new FAVORITE food haha)

This picture is just for Wayman...haha he'll be so proud of his boy :)

Austin saw the cheerleaders doing their flips down the court and decided he'd try one too!

He also said "When I'm a big kid, I wanna be that man wif a whistle in his mouf" (the referee!)

After the game, dribbling the ball with daddy (this is the part of the game that he loves best, getting to see daddy!)

The case of the missing sock(s)

Being that I'm the one that does laundry for our family of 4, I'm also the the one who is always accused of losing/shrinking/fading things. I've also been known to wash electronic devices that get left in pockets (cell phones, ipods...those types of things)  Now I'll admit, sometimes I'm just not thinking straight and a red sweatshirt will accidentally make it into the "lights" load. Not often though. I'm usually right on top of things when it comes to laundry. Everyone has clean, de-stained clothes that are hung up in their closet or nicely folded in their dressers. Except, however, when it comes to socks. Wayman has always accused me of losing his socks because even after the last of the clean laundry has been put away, he still only has 2 or 3 pairs of clean socks (when he started out with more than a dozen). I usually search the house for the missing socks and sure enough, they can be found stuffed in the tennis shoes he wore the day before, sitting on the bathroom floor, hiding under the couch, or thrown in his closet with the rest of his shoes. Of course, its still my fault though...right? Anyway, when I can't track down the missing socks, I usually head to Walmart to get a brand new 10 pack of socks and call it good. I swear I'm going to put tracking devices on those things some day (how is that I never have this issue with MY socks?!). Unfortunately, I think that Wayman has passed down this silly sock business to his kids. Well, one of his kids however. Like their daddy, they never have clean socks (even when I've done all of their laundry). Their socks are tiny and a lot easier to lose so I just figure that they really are "lost". Until today that is. I went into the boys room to strip their beds and wash their sheets. I had to scoot Carson's bed out from the wall and to my amazement, look what was underneath it:

Yep, that would be 17 itty-bitty socks. All under his bed. If only he could talk a little more, maybe he would tell us where he's hiding daddy's socks.

Christmas Jammies

A friend of mine gave these pajamas to Austin & Carson and I just thought they looked so sweet and snuggly in them.  They are so soft and warm and the Mickey Santa's are too cute!

Story of my life...this one will NOT sit for a picture!

Giving kisses

Ready for bed! (No they don't share a bed, I just threw them in together for a picture!)

Grandma & Grandpa's House

After a very, very lazy day (we all stayed in our pajamas til 4:00 this afternoon!) we headed out to Caruthers to visit Wayman's parents. His mom made a bunch of good snacks and then homeade chicken soup for dinner. We helped decorate the tree and then watched Opus, something we do every year. Grandma had all her Christmas decorations out and the boys had a great time fighting over playing with them. The favorites? This Snoopy thing that plays the Charlie Brown theme song and a John Deere snowglobe.

Austin helping daddy and Uncle E hang the ornaments. Carson was not included in this process because he likes to un-decorate

He had fun rocking in Grandpas recliner

The boys in front of the tree after it was done

Our annual "try and get a good family picture for Christmas cards" pose....luckily we already got those taken care of and mailed out, these were just for fun

Potentially Grandma & Grandpa's Christmas card? :)

I'm pretty sure I'm NEVER going to get a good, smiling picture of them together under the tree. Ever.

This one would be okay if Carson wasn't being suffocated

Individual shots didn't work too well either!

We had a fun evening and the boys are worn out from playing. They went straight to bed and I haven't heard a peep from either one. Tomorrow is a school day for Austin and laundry & errands for me and Carson.  Its the last week of school before Christmas vacation, yaaaay!!!!

A long, rainy day

Our day started at about 4:00 am with a sick, crying little boy. Carson caught Austin's cold/cough that he had last week and is not a happy camper. He was extremely cranky all morning and would not go down for a nap no matter how hard we tried. Austin, however, slept til 7:30 and woke up in a great mood! He got to go the bakery with daddy & Papa for their weekly coffee & muffin. He looked so cute in his little beanie but unfortunately you can't really see it in the picture

Carson got to stay home with me :) This half-smile is deceiving because he really threw one big, continuous fit the whole time Wayman was gone. He's been a daddy's boy lately.

When the big boys got home we went to Sears (in the pouring rain) to pick out appliances for our new house. Man oh man I could have spent thousands and thousands of dollars in there. Unfortunately for Wayman, I have expensive taste. I do realize most of the things I wanted where way out of our budget though so we settled on some less expensive, but still really nice appliances. Carson cheered up a little bit once he got out of the house and got some fresh air, lucky for us!

My grandparents invited us to a luncheon they were hosting for some of their old church friends. I left Carson at home with Wayman so he could go down for an early nap and my mom and I took Austin with us. We were definitely the youngest ones there (by many, many years)

My grandma and her sister

My Grandma & Grandpa

I don't really like this picture of me (I was trying to keep Austin from pulling my shirt off...can you tell?)...the man is the middle is Preacher John Boykin and he married Wayman & I. He also married my parents and my aunt & uncle. He and his wife Frances live in Turlock and they rode the train down to Fresno for the day. Such sweet people, it was fun to see them

After lunch we came home and Austin and I laid in my bed and listened to the rain outside. I told him to count the rain drops he heard and he was sound asleep by three! He really likes taking naps in my bed with me (and I like it too because it gives me a good excuse to rest, plus Carson sleeps much longer without Austin in the room to wake him up!) This evening we had our Christmas program at church. Wayman and I both hate this picture of ourselves but we are all dressed up in matching argyle sweaters so I thought I'd post it anyway haha

I couldn't get a picture of Carson all dressed up because he was in tears most of the time, but I got a couple good ones of Austin...aren't their outfits cute? I've been waiting for tonight so they could wear them and I think they'll wear them again on Christmas eve to get more use of them...they weren't cheap haha

I knew I wouldn't have much luck considering Carson felt so yucky, but I thought I'd attempt another shot of them under the tree since they were all dressed up...once again, no luck!

You can just tell in Carson's eyes that he doesn't feel good

After the Christmas program we went to Yosemite Falls for dinner. Could be my new favorite restaurant!  The boys loved it too and they ate a ton. My mom said she'd never seen them eat so much before!  Carson perked up a little once he had some food in him and he was a big goofball by the time dinner was over. He still doesn't feel good but hopefully he'll get a good nights sleep and that will help him. We're going to Wayman's parents house for dinner and to decorate their tree tomorrow night so hopefully he's a little more pleasant by then!

I'm hoping this rain keeps up for a few more days, I love it!

More Christmas Lights

One of our favorite things to do this time of year is drive around and look at Christmas lights. Obviously Christmas Tree Lane is fun but there are also lots of other neighborhoods in Fresno that are beautifully decorated. We discovered one last year (Willow & Alluvial) that we loved and knew the kids would really enjoy this year. I took a few pictures, but obviously since it was dark they didn't actually capture how pretty the lights really are.

The boys loved looking at everything (even though Carson doesn't look thrilled lol)

Austin loved this train, they even had rope lights across their lawn that looked like train tracks

I loved this house, they had lantern light bulbs hanging over their wrap around their porch and it looked so cute

Jungle Book house

The owner of this house was standing in the front yard with a snow blower, lots of walkers stopped in front of this one

This Grinch house was definitely Austin's favorite

It was a great way to end the week and start the weekend!

Christmas Card

Just in case you didn't get a real card from us this year!

It's the little things...

like-

...sleeping until 7:30 am

...staying in our pajamas until lunchtime

...taking a shower and putting clean pajamas on instead of getting dressed

...watching my boys play nicely together

...not having any "plans" for the day

...knowing that my Christmas shopping is done

....dinosaur shaped grilled cheese, spaghettios & applesauce for lunch

...Carson taking a 4 hour afternoon nap

...letting Austin 'skip' his nap and instead watch Prancer in my bed with me

...and then falling sound asleep after 10 minutes of the movie

....and then sleeping for two and a half hours, snuggled up right next to me

...visiting with Nana & letting her feed the boys at least a dozen oreos right before dinner

....Wayman getting home from work at 5, instead of 7

...having breakfast for dinner

...Carson sitting still through almost an entire movie

...making pumpkin bread with my hubby

...sitting in the living room with the lights off, watching the Christmas tree glow and sparkle

...checking on my sleeping babies who are resting peacefully in their beds

...those are just a few of the little things that make me the happiest girl around!