THESE ARE A FEW OF OUR FAVORITE THINGS...

I thought I'd share in some of our little one's favorite things at 20 months old. It's never a dull moment around here and laughter fills most of our days!

• First and formost, our days absolutely MUST start with the little ones running to the refridgerator FIRST THING to get their favorite drink in the whole entire world...Dannon's Danimals yogurt drinks! They MUST shake them up themselves and then they make a mad dash to the drawer where we keep our straws so that we can open it for them. BEWARE if this routine is not possible for some unforseen reason such as heaven forbid Mommy forgot to get more from the store...
  

• Our children continue to LOVE the Noggin channel and PBS with their favorite cartoons being The Backyardigans, Dora, and Diego. They enjoy all the singing and dancing that goes on during these shows. I like them because 1) my kiddos really enjoy them and 2) they teach good lessons to children. My personal favorite is the Backyardigan's which I find just absolutely adorable!
  

• They love calling one another "Bubby" or "Bubba" despite having a "Sissy"...to them she is "Bubby" too!




• Little Miss Brooke has become quite the "Little Mommy" around here! If the boys are doing something they are not to be doing she does not hesitate in letting them know that they should not being doing that. I find myself sometimes telling Brooke, "OK honey, Mommy knows. I will take care of it..." It's rather funny to see her pointing that little finger at her brothers and saying "no-no". Both the boys will occasionally try to be the enforcers too but it's much more rare to see that as opposed to Miss Brookie.




• I have noticed here recently that all three of our sweeties will run to each other to comfort one another should someone get hurt or even be upset. That really warms my heart when I see that! It's funny to me though because they do not seem to have a problem with making one another upset and they are fine with that but you let me or Daddy say "NO" or scold one of them and that be the cause of them getting upset and they (the other two) do NOT like it.




• Our kiddos are very affectionate with us and also one another which I absolutely LOVE! They love to cuddle, give kisses, blow kisses and give hugs.




• I've mentioned this before but Brooke absolutely loves her baby dolls right now. She will spend most of the day washing the babies hands and face, feeding the baby, carrying it around, pushing it in a stroller or in their toy shopping cart. She's very caring towards it and it's absolutely adorable.




• Logan loves to play with puzzles, Lego's, and anything else he has to "think" about. I so can see him being our little engineer or scientist some day~very scholarly.




• Chase really loves his cars and trucks right now. He has a tote full of them and he loves to dump them out and he will play with most all of them for quite a while.




• They all three love their Little People from Fisher Price, their Crayola Color Wonders (I love these as they CAN NOT make a mess...the markers only write on a particular type of paper!), and their farm animals.




• They also enjoy walking around the house with other peoples shoes on. It doesn't matter how big or who's they are but if they're sitting unattended they are fair game:)
  
  
  

• Another thing that our little one's really like right now is to go "Bye-bye". They get so excited and can't wait to get their coats, hat, shoes, etc on so they can go with me. They also eagerly get into their carseats so they can watch their Backyardigans on their DVD player while in transit.

I could go on and on but I will end this post by saying how very much I absolutely love and adore my children and that every day they bring so much joy and excitement into my world...I look forward to the many new things they learn and do all the time and they will never cease to amaze me! How did I ever get so lucky???

Please Take a Moment and Watch...

I recently found these videos from a website I visited...what an eye opener!!! Take a moment as this can save your child's life! Visit Kyle Miller's story and Belle's story. Also, to parent's who have children 35 pounds or less... visit Madison's site.

EAR TUBES ARE IN PLACE...

Today I took Brooke and Chase to have their ear tubes placed. Both surgeries were successful and Brooke and Chase did excellent! By this evening they were both running around, laughing and playing and no one would have ever guessed that they had been in surgery earlier in the day. WHEW, I am so glad it is over!!!!! Now all three of my little ones have their ear tubes in place so hopefully we can say "bye-bye" to ear infections and being sick so often. On a good note btw, in the last entry I mention how ill my little ones were...well not any more :) They are all feeling much better now :) :) ;)

Logie Bear, Where are You???

OK, so today I have come to the realization that I have given birth to not only dare-devilish monkeys who climb on top of EVERYTHING but Logan has now managed to take on another title..."Little Logie Houdini". Why, you ask. Well, let me tell you. Today, while I was at work and he was home with Aunt Claudia (while the Cat's away the mice will play...), when it was nap time they all three were placed in their cribs as they have been every day before but today Logan decided it was high time for some change. Claudia was sitting downstairs and heard something upstairs. She thought it was our dog, Xavier, as he usually hangs out on the stairs but for some reason she decided to get up and look. Much to her amazement, Logan was standing at the top of the staircase walking around on the landing with his trusty sidekick, "teddy bear" (his beloved bear blankey that he MUST have before he will even consider going to sleep). Claudia said she was obviously shocked and asked Logan to sit down which he nicely obliged but needless to say I think it got her heart pumping a bit.

Later in the day when it was time for their afternoon nap, same thing, upstairs to their cribs, tucked in, given drinks... Well, a few short minutes later Claudia said she started hearing this "clang, clang, clang..." of the metal gate that we have at the end of the staircase like Xavier was trying to push it open with his nose. After the morning events, she definitely went to check it out and low and behold...there sits Logan. This time he had managed to get out of his crib, make his way out of their room, down the stairs, and he was sitting with his legs dangling between the slats of the gate swinging his feet back and forth while holding on to "Teddy bear" and the bars like he was in prison. OH, Logie Bear...what am I going to do with you. Wait, I know...CRIB TENTS. Yep, today proved that the time has come for the crib tents that we purchased a while ago following the first time we heard Chase hit the floor (aka. fall out of his crib). When I first put the kiddos in their cribs this evening prior to bed, it took all of two seconds for Logan to gracefully climb his way out of his crib. Although I must say, he has proved to be a great teacher... a possible career choice??? Brooke and Chase must have been taking notes during all of the "great escapes" today and by this evening they had worked up enough courage to give it a try. Truth be told, it likely would have worked out just as nicely for them had mom and dad not been in the room while they were doing it.

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Well, there has been a lot going on around here so I thought I'd take just a minute to fill everyone in. Unfortunately, all three of my sweeties have been sick :( Chase has a sinus infection now with a horrible cough and occasional fevers. Brooke gave me a little scare last night. She was also recently diagnosed with a sinus infection and started on a different antibiotic which she had been on for two days. Then last night sometime over the course of two hours she spiked a high fever of 103.4 with a horrible barking, deep chest sounding cough with slight wheezing. I was up with her for quite a while trying to get her feeling better and finally was able to do so but it did scare me so I called me Pediatrician today and they wanted to see her. She now has a horrible ear infection on top of her sinus infection so they changed her antibiotics around and I'm hopeful this will get her feeling better. Logan had some wheezing and bronchial irritation so they started him on breathing treatments 3-4 times every day. The first couple of treatments were painful as he was afraid of the machine likely because of the noise or the mask with the "smoke" coming out of it. Either way, he was not pleased about doing the treatments and he wasn't afraid to tell us. Whew, that little guy can be so strong when he's angry! I'm happy to say, now he sits quietly on whoever's lap giving the treatment until the treatment is over. A HUGE IMPROVEMENT!

Due to all of the kids ear infections, Chase and Brooke are scheduled to have ear tubes placed next Wednesday. Logan already has them and they have worked wonderfully for him so I'm happy to see this day come. I was informed today during Brooke's visit with the MD that once we get her poor little ear's cleared up that likely everything else will too. We'll let you know how things go.

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As far as our home construction goes, things continue to move along nicely. Our entire house is bricked and is BEAUTIFUL! They are very close to being finished with the dry wall. I have finalized wall colors for paint. All the flooring has been ordered. Our cabinets are in the local warehouse just awaiting us being ready for them. On Wednesday, all of the patios, front porch, sidewalks and the landing off the garage were poured (concrete). And, I'm very close to picking out all of our lighting as I've really stared narrowing it down here recently. I am beyond happy with the progress and so far the way the house is coming together is completely exceeding my expectations! I'd like to throw a HUGE THANK YOU out there to my SWEETIE for ALL YOUR HARD WORK AND DEDICATION TO GETTING OUR HOUSE BUILT. YOU HAVE GONE ABOVE AND BEYOND WHAT YOU NEEDED TO DO AND I CANNOT THANK YOU ENOUGH. I HOPE YOU KNOW HOW VERY MUCH I APPRECIATE ALL YOU'VE DONE! I LOVE YOU!!!

Christmas Pictures as Promised