Just Living Life

I have been putting this off for a long time. I know I am behind on the blog, and I don't want to work on it unless I have time to catch up. Well, I'll never have time to catch up! So as the FlyLady says (http://www.flylady.org/) don't try to catch up, just jump in where you are. I'm going to try to give a very brief summary of what has been going on and then share pics from the last few months. (At this rate, when I have 3 kids, I'll update the blog quarterly. Haha!)

• Gracie will turn 3 on Friday and Cooper will turn 1. Yay! We're so excited! A party with family is planned. (I should post pictures before their next birthday.)
  
• Gracie had her first haircut.
  
• Cooper is crawling and pulling up on things. He seems very close to cruising.
• Cooper has gone from no teeth to 5 and has two more waiting to come through.
• Cooper's personality is really starting to show. He is much more shy than Gracie when he is around other people, but he is very loud and very assertive at home.
  
• Cooper went from sleeping and waking once to waking up about 3-4 times every night. My breastmilk dried up, and at first, we thought that was the problem. When the night-waking continued, we thought it might be teething. Nope. We tried switching formula, baby food, more food, less food, more clothes, less clothes...all kinds of stuff. I was like a zombie for about 5 months due to lack of sleep. I got so tired of getting out of bed from a dead sleep that I eventually dreaded going to bed. I knew we HAD to figure out what was going on. Eventually, when Cooper had an episode for a few days in which he could only sleep sitting up in his swing or carseat, we realized that he must have reflux. Poor thing, after months of no sleeping (for both of us), a prescription of Zantac did the trick. Now he is sleeping through the night, and I have a new lease on life. Haha!
• Cooper had RSV and we had to venture out in the snow to get him to the doctor.
• Gracie had a very bad allergic reaction to antibiotics in late January, which gave us a big scare. All of her joints swelled up and she couldn't really walk or climb for about a day and a half. At first, she was misdiagnosed, which made things worse. She was tested for all kind of scary stuff like juvenile arthritis and lupus. Steroids and benadryl (along with a lot of prayers) helped Gracie make a speedy recovery.
• The kids have 2 cousins on the way. Hunter Luke should be making his appearance in the next few weeks (Woo-Hoo) and "Sweet Baby" (name unknown...Gracie came up with that one) will be here in June. We pray for them every night, and Gracie talks about her new cousins and what she will teach them.
• The Lord blessed us with a van. We LOVE it! Oh my gosh, I am in heaven with my van! I can't even begin to describe how much easier it has made things for me. No pics yet. I keep forgetting to get one.
  

There has been a lot of rough stuff in the last few months for us, but the Lord has brought us through it all. We still feel very blessed, and while it is always hectic, I am thankful for every day that my family is healthy and safe.

Gracie's first haircut. I only got a couple of pictures and then my camera died! Ahhh! Rookie mistake!

Cooper's first tooth

Gracie got these awesome coveralls in a bag of hand-me-downs from someone at church. They really came in handy in the snow.

An impromptu picnic at Tallulah Gorge on an unseasonably warm Sunday afternoon

Christmas in March

Due to my lack of free time and general slacker-ness, I have decided to continue the pattern of posting pictures several months after they have been taken. Oh well, better late than never.

Visiting Santa at Babyland General

I have always wanted to make a gingerbread house. I got a kit on sale and Gracie and I spent about an hour on Christmas eve making one. It was fun...and sticky.

For the second year in a row, I forgot to take pictures of the kids opening gifts on Christmas morning. I got everything on video, but I guess I was so excited to see them open their gifts, that I didn't think about the camera. I could kick myself!!

Christmas Shopping

Halloween at Last

Finally, here are my Halloween pics! Gracie was a princess and Cooper was a lion. I thought Cooper's costume was ADORABLE! I found it at a consignment sale for $10 (which is actually kinda high for a consignment sale, but it was too cute to pass up).





Gracie loved her costume. We had some cute princess high heels that matched her costume, but eventually we had to trade them in for her church shoes so that she could actually walk at a decent pace.

We stopped and got a picture with the cousins and some treats from Aunt Melanie.

We had a great time, even though it got COLD when the sun went down. We went to the Halloween thing that they had at Truett McConnell College. It was awesome because they had Christian music blasting, trick or treating through the dorms, face-painting, and all kind of other stuff! Afterwards, we took Gracie to a few houses in some random neighborhoods to trick or treat "old school style," like we had to when we were younger. Don't you remember when we actually had to work for our candy...going door to door, running from dogs, etc.

Cooper was very good, but there were a couple of times when he got fussy and cried...so we said that he was just practicing his "roar."

Gracie loved the Truett mascot.

Halloween Flashback

Here's Gracie and Cooper in their Halloween duds. Cooper's shirt says, "I love my mummy." I thought it was too cute.

Halloween and Hugs

Gracie and I carved our first pumpkin this year. It was the first one I had carved since I was really little, and I am very proud of the end result. We didn't go for any fancy design, but I think it turned out well. Her favorite part of the process was trying to put the eye and nose pieces back in after I had cut them out. Daddy was keeping Cooper occupied and taking pictures for us. Gracie kept wanting give her pumpkin hugs, and she was very upset when Halloween was over and we had to get rid of it.

Santa's Little Helpers

Baby + Santa Hat = Cute Picture

So I realized a few weeks ago that I have gotten REALLY behind on the blog. During the month of November, the kids and I were all sick with that junky sinus stuff that doesn't seem to go away. John had the flu last week. Add Christmas shopping in to the mix and the blog is wayyyy down my list of priorities.

So anyway, I was trying to figure out what to do to update the blog because I feel like I am so behind. I haven't even put my adorable Halloween pictures up yet! John suggested that I start with what I currently want to post and catch up on the stuff I missed in November and early December when I get a chance. I like that idea, so here are a couple of festive pics. I LOVE the pic at the top of the post. There are so many comments or captions that I could put on that pic.