Almost made it.....

Well, it happened. Leah got the flu for the first time. :-(  We almost made it through another whole flu season without getting sick at all. On Monday after dance class I could tell Leah was probably coming down with something since she wasn't acting quite right. Then Tuesday morning she woke up with a cold but still nothing terrible.

At one point she went to her little table to color and I got excited that meant she was feeling better, but nope it lasted about 10 minutes before she went back to the couch.

When she woke up on Wednesday though, she had a high fever, chills, lethargic, tummy ache, no appetite, etc. This is the most sick she has ever been and it breaks my heart to see her like this.

We have watched pretty much every kid movie and show that we have. My coffee table is laid out with a bunch of different snacks in hopes that something with look good to Leah and she will eat. She even turned down ice cream. That's never a good sign.  The only thing she wants is cold water so at least I know she isn't getting dehydrated. I have no idea where she picked up this bug. I tried so hard to keep my family healthy and am so disappointed that this happened, like it is my fault or something....It's weird because I was looking back through blog posts and was reminded that last year in March she got sick too!

Today she is a little better but still not eating hardly anything. She will take a bite of something and then say "Yuck" and stop eating. Sigh.....but at least I got her to smile!

Well I hope she fights it off soon and that Carter and I continue to avoid it. My hands are literally cracked and bleeding from washing them so much. Trying to keep Carter away from where Leah is has been hard too and a few times they have both been screaming for me at the same time. So hard!  Hoping my next post is to say we are all healthy and happy again!!

Carter - 7 Months

This has been a big month for Carter! He seems like he is growing and looking older every day!  Just a few days ago, his first tooth popped up! He had one night of fussing a little more than usual and then the next morning I noticed the tooth! I really hope he has as easy of a time with teething as Leah did. She showed minimal discomfort throughout the process which was so nice!

Carter still isn't that into eating solid foods. So far he has tried apples, banana, avocado, pear and carrot.  He liked carrot so far the best.  Not sure if he actually liked it the best or he is getting used to new textures. But he actually opened his mouth for the spoon and ate several bites - no gagging! Yay! And he is still exclusively breastfed.

Wrong end of the spoon bud :)

I gave Carter a big piece of really ripe pear to chew on!

First taste....doesn't look like he liked it but he kept putting it in his mouth!

Love that face!

Last night he slept 9 hours in a row for the first time. But most of the time he still wakes up usually once around 4am and sleeps until around 8 unless sister wakes him up earlier.

He is bigger and stronger and wanting to crawl so bad! He will push way up while on his tummy and then kick his legs and put his arms out like Superman trying to propel himself forward. Not too much longer until he figures it out I think! He is also starting to hold onto my arm when I hold him. And he gives the wettest slobbery kisses on my cheek :-)

He is sitting up sturdy now and doesn't topple over very much. It is nice being able to set him down so that he is can play with his toys and look around. I can't put him in the bouncy chair anymore unless he is super tired and will just lay back. And even then I have to make sure his straps are on tight!

Still such a smiley and happy baby. As long as I am nearby or holding him, he is very content for the most part. He is sooooo obsessed with his big sister!  He LOVES watching her play. If she starts laughing or tickling him he will start laughing too. It is my favorite thing EVER to watch the two of them interact!!! 

St. Patrick's Day Party!

This morning we hosted our annual St Patrick's Day party! Lots of little kids in our house, but lots of fun!

Mini photo shoot of my cuties before their friends arrived - 

Then we prepared for our friends to come over -

Coloring station

I tried to have healthy party snacks. I did a couple of fresh fruit rainbows, snap pea puffed chips, tortilla chips, guacamole, and Leah's requested green food - pickles. Oh and I put out a pitcher of water with rainbow cups. And guess what? Not one kid asked where the cupcakes, cookies, juice, candy, etc. were!  Can't go wrong with fresh fruit! :-)

 All the kids!!

Carter and his buddy Greyson

Look at that absolute chaos, haha! Fun times! Can't wait until the next party!

House Projects

Since we have been spending so much time at home, I have started being annoyed by a few things in our house! The wall in the living room was painted a reddish brown color when we moved in. At the time it was fall and went with our fall season decor. But now a year and a half later it was driving me nuts. It was too dark, especially during the winter when it is dark outside too. So last weekend my hubby painted the wall the new color I picked out.......

Ugly wall before.....

Daddy won't let me paint with the BIG brush by myself!

Yay helping with the little brush is fun too!

And.........our new living room!!!  I love it so much! So light and bright! I also got new pillows for the couch. Now I just need to decide what to put on the wall to the right of the tv......A photo wall, a shelf for decorations, some sort of wall art??? 

Another thing that has been annoying me since we moved in was our oven.  Back at our condo we had a flat top oven which is so nice as far as cleaning and looking nicer.  The oven here was older and black with the coil burners. I could not keep them clean looking! And also our fridge and microwave were stainless steel so it never really matched!  So last week we had this new baby delivered.....

I love it! So much nicer, especially since I have been trying to cook more :-)

I also recently got a new down comforter which we have been wanting for years!

And in the bedroom I also took down some dark blue curtains that the previous owner had left and they went with our old bedding so I left them up.

Making those little changes really made a difference in brightening up my house for spring!!

Finally, a new blog post!

Almost every day I think, I really need to do a blog post about this or that......I almost never get a chance to sit down with my computer these days!! Whenever Carter and Leah are content & playing or sleeping, I have tons of other chores to do or I just want to go to sleep myself! :-)  My "break" used to be while Leah napped and now the last few days she has decided she doesn't want to take a nap. So I am pretty sure her napping days are numbered. I don't think I am ready for that yet!! Carter still isn't on a set nap schedule but I guess I need to start trying to get that to happen.

Here is what happened yesterday while Leah was supposed to be napping. That is the contents of her pillow...

The month of February was so boring and dreary! Almost all of our friends seemed to have one sickness or another the whole time! So we stayed home a LOT and I was really trying to keep Leah entertained with projects and activities. But I will admit she ended up watching more TV then I liked, so I felt guilty about that. A few days I would just load the kids up in the car and drive around just to get out of the house!  Thank god for Starbucks drive thrus :-)

March so far has been a much better month. Spring is on the horizon and our friends are healthy so we have been back to our normal playdates and get togethers.

Last week we went to a storytime at the library which Leah loved!! And then on Friday it was nice and sunny so a bunch of my mommy friends and I met at the trail with our strollers to get some exercise. My friend Linnea and I decided to jog off and on (which is really hard when you are pushing about 50lbs worth of stroller and kids!!) and then finish it off with some squats and I am still sore!! But it felt great to get some exercise again!!!

Last night Dustin and I went on our first real date night since before Carter was born! We don't count his work Christmas party because that was just with work people and not a real date to connect with just eachother! Auntie Esther and Uncle Neil came over to play with Leah and we took Carter over to my mom's house. We went to dinner at Purple Wine Bar and then went to the Melting Pot for a yummy dessert of some chocolate fondue!! It was really fun but I felt like I blinked and our time was up and we had to go back home to our babies. I think we just need to make more of an effort to make a date night be a regular thing.  (OK Esther and Mom???  Let's just say the first Saturday of every month? hehehe)

Our wine samplers!

Also, I am obsessed with Instagram! I love taking and sharing pics of my kids but I was getting sick of posting them to Facebook.  It has been fun following some of my blogger friends too! :-)