We HEART you!

We had a good Valentine's day!
Here are some recent pictures since we love you so much (and because I have to show off Kaitlyn's cute outfits :) )

Alex loving his trains

Alex taking pictures

He was also taking pictures of his trains. It was quite cute.


I found this adorable thermal suit for the Kaitlyn girl. I'm in love with it!

And I'm in love with her adorable face

This is Kaitlyn's other Valentine's outfit. It's a bit big for her since she's barely getting into the 3-6 month size. Alex helped me pick out the skirt. He choose the denim one with the heart over the hot pink one. Good choice buddy!
I need to get a picture with the bow and all since we didn't snap a picture while it was light yesterday.

We also made a heart shaped cake and cupcakes yesterday.

Jon took this picture and looked at it on the camera and sighed. His words: "you're just so un-photogenic honey".
This has actually become quite funny to us and we have a good time trying to get good pictures of me.

attempt #2 was a little better

love the chunk of heart missing? Jon neglected to grease the pan. Getting it out resulted in a chunk missing.
Jon also was going to put all of the batter in the heart pan (it was full nearly to the top). I made him take out enough to make 10 cupcakes. Good thing I did or we would have had a mess in the oven!

Alex picked the color for the heart and decided that it should say Kiss Me.

The finished cake!

mmm... cupcakes!

Day 18

Just a little update on how we're doing over here.

Kaitlyn is still coughing.

We started doing a megadose of vitamin C (Sodium Ascorbate) to hopefully help lesson the symptoms (coughing and congestion).

I'm hoping that her cough is the typical 21 days, but it could go on for months. I'd like to hope that we're on the downward slide and won't be seeing the coughing fits that we saw the first week again.
We just keep watching her and her breathing. I worry at night that she'll get some of the thick mucous stuck and won't be able to breathe and I won't hear her.
Whopping cough with a baby means constant worry.

I feel so incredibly thankful that we haven't had any issues.
My SIL mentioned that 20 -40% of babies under 3 months old with pertussis die.
I don't know how we got so lucky.

Or maybe I do.

Yesterday I gave a talk in church about coming to know our Father in Heaven and one of the points I talked about was being able to recognize God's hand all around us.

I talked about how day to day things become more meaningful when we stop to think about the role that God has played in them. How much is just coincidence and how much is God?

For me, I can't help but wonder if a well timed ear infection played a role here and was more than coincidence.

When we got back from our Christmas vacation, Kaitlyn was miserable. By Wednesday, January 6th I noticed discharge from her ear. She was started on a 10 day course of amoxocillan that day.
She finished her antibiotics on the 16th of January.
Her coughing started just 12 days later.
Seeing as pertussis' typical incubation time is 7-10 days (but can be longer), she probably was exposed within days of finishing her antibiotic. She very well could have still been on the antibiotic when she was exposed since she could have been exposed up to 21 days before she started showing symptoms.

It may just be that having that antibiotic in her system made the pertussis bacteria less severe.

I think it is truely miraculous that we haven't had any issues despite Kaitlyn's young age and not even having her first vaccination for pertussis in.
I don't know if the antibiotic she was on before or while exposed to pertussis saved her, but I do know that God is a God of miracles and mercy. I thank Him every day that Kaitlyn is doing okay.

PERTUSSIS

Because I feel the need to blog it. Because I feel it's important. Because I don't think people get how serious and dangerous it really is (I know I didn't).

I feel so incredibly blessed that we are not sitting in a hospital with Kaitlyn. That we never had to worry about her coughing so much that she couldn't breathe (though it was close a few times). That we never had to worry about the possibility of losing her.
And I'm still a little worried that the antibiotics won't be enough and that she'll continue to cough with us having to worry about her getting enough air. (umm... ya. This page freaks me out a little.) We're on day 4 of 5 of antibiotics and she's coughing more today than she was 3 days ago. My days are filled with holding her and watching to make sure she's breathing okay through her coughing.


Whoa you say. Isn't all of that being a little over dramatic?
No.

75% of infants under the age of 1 are hospitalized because of Pertussis.
1 in 200 babies will die of pertussis.
Another 1 in those 200 will have permanent brain damage.
2% will have seizures and 22% will develop pneumonia.

Those are not good odds people.

Here's where it gets fun.
Pertussis looks just like a cold. ESPECIALLY in kids and adults. If you have a lingering cough, it's probably pertussis. You are contagious if you're coughing. And the coughing lasts for 21 days.

A 21 day contagious period is a LONG time to be contagious. And if you think it's just a lingering cough and are out and about... you're spreading pertussis.

Here's another fun part.
Even vaccinated kids can get pertussis. Pertussis was the furthest thing from my mind with Alex's symptoms because he had been vaccinated for it. I thought he had a cold. He coughed and had a runny nose for 8 days and was done. Occasionally I'd hear him give a little cough randomly during the day. He's been deemed a probable case.

Guess what else?
It doesn't even have to be a whopping sounding cough. My kids both had coughing fits that made them gag. But Alex had done the same thing with a cold earlier in January. Or maybe it wasn't a cold then either...

Please read more about pertussis here and here. And a heartbreaking story about a baby a couple weeks older than Kaitlyn who got pertussis at 8 weeks old.

Friends in our area: there is an outbreak of whooping cough right now. Please watch yourself and your kids. If you have a cough or cold like symptoms (or even allergy symptoms! Alex's runny nose was clear for days) stay FAR away from babies. Do your best to keep your germs to yourself in case it is pertussis. Get in to see your Dr. and ask about the possibility of pertussis since there is an outbreak going on.

EVERYONE (myself included): get a whopping cough booster!!!

Sound Effects

Or effecting the sound... whichever.

Today Alex told me that he couldn't get a ball and said it was "in dare" and pointed to our subwoofer, which looks like this:

Great place to stick a ball, right?

I couldn't imagine that leaving a ball in there would be good for the sound quality, so I decided to try to get it out.

My hand didn't fit, so I got some tongs. They were slightly too short and I couldn't maneuver them around to find the ball.
Simply dumping the ball out wasn't an option since that circle part is actually a cone that goes back into the subwoofer.

So I made Alex reach in there to see what he could find. I knew there was at least some kind of coin in there rattling around in there as well.

Alex reached in and got excited when he got the ball. But he couldn't get his hand out if it was around the ball (monkey trap!). So he had to hold onto the ball while I held the subwoofer upside down and then I had him let go of it so the ball would fall down the cone and out.

It worked perfectly!
Out came the yellow nerf ball that we lost I think in July when Grandma and Grandpa were here. AMAZING!

I could still hear something in there besides the coin though, so I told Alex he had to reach in there and find it. He didn't really want to, but I was a mean mommy and demanded that he did.
He finally agreed and reached in.
This time he was able to pull his hand out without the lift and drop and what did we discover was in the subwoofer?

This guy.

please excuse the blurry picture.
It was the only one like the frog that was residing in the subwoofer that the internet could find!

SNOW!

Umm... so my friend Lynsey reminded me today that she has been WAITING for pictures of Kaitlyn in her blessing dress and that I had not blogged anything about Utah.

So here is part one of many of our Utah trip.

When we first got to Utah it was surprisingly warm! I was SO HAPPY that it wasn't freezing!!! Alex went out to play in the snow the first day we were there. I was a bad mommy and totally left Alex's coat in Texas, but he made do with sweaters and such.

Here he is having a great time in the snow!

I couldn't NOT post this one! Love the plummer bum you've got going on there Alex. :)

Oops. Too tasty.

Alex decided he wanted some chips and salsa for a snack. Igot out some salsa in a container we had put it in for the suoerbowl. i looked at it and thought it looked a little watery, but thought, "that's good though because Alex doesn't really eat the chunks". After a few minutes he tld me it was too tasty and he didn't like it.
Well that makes no sense. I told him that tasty meant it was good and that he likes salsa.

A few minutes later he told me that it wastoo tasy and that his lip hurt. I thought that maybe he had a cut on his lip or something that the salsa was hurting. I told him to take a drink.

A few minutes after that he came up to me SOBBING because his lip hurt and told me it was too tasty.

I got all frustrated and told him that if we hurting his mouth to stop eating it!
I offered him a different snack of bread or toast and opened the fridge to get the bread and butter out and saw a container of salsa in there.

It dawned on me that I had given him the remains of a can of HOT (with habanero) rotel that I used in some queso on Sunday. The little bit I put in the queso was super hot, so I can't imagine how hot it was by its self for Alex!

I got out the regular salsa and a big glass of stawberry milk for him and apologized profusely for giving him the salsa that was "too tasty", which I figured out he was trying to say spicy. Sorry buddy!

More pictures of Kaitlyn

Since I have the card in, I may as well blog the pictures that I took the other day of Kaitlyn. I can't tell you how lovely it has been to have a mostly cooperative photo subject again! At least one that can't run away. It is a bit of work to get her to smile AND take the picture though. And since Alex isn't into Kaitlyn and not at all interested in helping Mama make her smile, it appears that I need a photo assistant. Hmm... any friends want to get together for a photo session?


I LOVE this picture of Kaitlyn. Her eyes just turned out super clear and focused.

And now some pictures of my many attempts to get a smile and I just got a bored face.

suckin' the lip

ALMOST a smile!

and just for laughs

Kaitlyn the Ladybug

Grandma M. got this adorable outfit for Kaitlyn for Christmas.

I put it on her a couple of weeks ago and walked upstairs with her where Alex was. He looked over at her and got so excited! He said, "She's dressed up like she in a costume!"
I asked him what she was dressed up like and he goes, "a ladybug!"

You really have to hear him say it to hear how excited and cute he was.

Yesterday for church, she was wearing her ladybug outfit again and when I pulled her out of her carseat Alex exclaimed, "she's a ladybug!"

I think Jon told him that she was a watermelon. Umm... okay...

Look how cute she is!

The hat is way too big on her. It's pretty funny. My kids have super tiny heads though, so I'm not too surprised. :)

Better in the front

My little brother when he was around Alex's age would insist on wearing his Barney underwear with the back on the front because he wanted to be able to see Barney and just couldn't see him when he was on his bum.

With that in mind, I just couldn't NOT take pictures when Alex put his underwear on backwards today.
And he wore them like that all day.

Wall-E Commentary

Alex is obsessed with watching Wall-E. I love that he sings along to the songs and I love all of the things he says while watching it.

"Robots need lots of sleep!"

"Evea has her mean eyes on... and all robots have mean eyes"

"he has a little hat right on the top his head"

"The pant (plant) goes in her belly!"

"wall-E is playing a game!"

"now Evea and Wall-E is coming together!" (when the rocket comes to pick up Eve)

"That's a sparkle right there. We saw that in outerspace when we sang that song."

"That's a sleep cloud." (milky way)

"There's a lots of babies!"

"That white captain is going to go to sleep."

"They going to go back to Earth when the pool closes."

"Now they're going to learn how to walk." (when the captain stands up to fight Auto)

"There's the Axium! Now Wall-E is going to go back to Earth!"

"They're going back to Earth!!!!"

"Now Eve is happy now"

Old movie time

I feel bad that I never post any movies or pictures these days. I promise I will try to do better!

I was talking to a friend tonight about this awesome ice cream video we have of Alex and realized that I have never posted it to the blog.
In looking for that video I found some other cute ones that needed to be shared as well.
So you're going to be getting some old Alex videos. These were in June and July of 2008, so Alex was 20/21 months old.
Hope you enjoy them!

That Kid

Today Alex was assigned to give the prayer in primary. He was pretty excited about it and did a good job. He didn't want to sit on the chairs up in the front and he was a little quiet/hard to understand (standing up there is a little intimidating!), but he actually said some parts on his own and was happy and excited to do it.

The fun part for Jon and I was that we got to see how he is in primary.
I quickly realized that he's "that" kid who comments on every little thing.

When the primary leader was reading Jonas' spotlight paper and said that he was born in Texas, Alex pipes right up and goes, "and we live in Austin, TX!"
When they got to the part of Jonas' favorite vacation was going to Utah, Alex tried to add in his 2 cents about going to Utah as well.

Alex just gets excited about every little thing. I love it.

The greatest was when Sister R. was conducting and said that they didn't have any birthdays that week and Alex loudly exclaimed, "oh no!", complete with putting his hands up on his cheeks.
It was so funny!

Oh, another funny thing that he's been doing is that when he giggles/laughs about something he puts his hand up in front of his mouth. Think of little school girls giggling behind their hands... that's Alex. We think it's pretty funny and sometimes I can't resist doing it with him. :)

Polite

We've always told Alex to say no thanks instead of just no. And when he says no thanks, we usually respect that (except when he's saying no to something non-negotiable).

No thanks is actually one of my favorite things he says. And he usually says it with a little hand flap too which makes it even cuter.

The last couple of weeks he has a new addition to his no thanks. If I ask him to do something or if he wants to do something, he often will say, "no thanks. I'm fine with ______." Usually that is followed by another "I'm just fine". As if the no thanks wasn't enough to make me smile, the I'm fine is making me giggle. Such a cute boy.

Contest for jewelry

So a couple of months ago I found this necklace by Lisa Leonard and fell in love with it.

Adorable, no?
I wasn't as in love with paying $62 for it. :(
So I told Jon that's what I wanted for our 5 yr. anniversary.

And then I found a giveaway on Tatertots and Jello for Lisa Leonard jewelry and thought it would be fabulous if I didn't have to pay $62 for it! Thus, I'm blogging about the giveaway in hopes to win. Jon could even do some good and enter the contest himself. (*hint*hint*)

However, none of you should go and enter. Seriously. I don't need any more competition. Wait, unless you want to enter in my behalf and give up your prize if you win. That would be just fine with me.

Potty Addendum

I think that because he says it so often, I forgot to include Alex's final words on the potty today!

"My legs hurt Mama"

Still makes me laugh every time!

Remember when we went to Dallas?

No?
Ya... I don't think I ever blogged about it! I've been a horrible blogger.

I edited some scenic pictures the other day and thought that I should probably share some details of the fun time we had there!
Here are a few pictures... I'll post some more when I'm on the desktop later!

At The Grassy Knoll. This is where the motorcade passed by and President Kennedy was shot.

This is the 6th floor window at the Book Depository that Lee Harvey Oswald fired from

another shot of the book depository

The Grassy Knoll. This is the area where believers in the 2nd shooter theory think the 2nd shooter was.

Look at that cute boy!

Can't keep him away from water! On and unrelated note, I absolutely LOVE dress shorts on little boys!

Ostriches at the Texas State Fair. Ever fed one of these guys? SCARY!

Alex and Grandpa LOVED the big tractors! This tractor had double wheels this big on either side (I'll post another picture later)

Potty Talk part II

Sick of hearing about my kid pooping yet? He just says such funny things when he's pooping that I can't help but share!

So Alex came in our room this morning to go #2 again. When he came in he asked if my eyes were open and told me that he wanted me to keep my eyes open. I asked him why and he said, "I want your eyes be open so they can look at me".

So he goes in and starts pooping and he goes, "these poopers are hard to push out!"
then, "that pooper is really small!".
He finished his trip off with, "that was a really long pooper!" and "peas come wipe my bum mama".

Good times!

To leave you on a happier note, here is a cute picture of the boy.