Put the Passy in the Trash-y

I'm a little afraid to post about this because I could jinx the whole thing, but Will has been pacifier-free for about 36 hours (give or take). We decided to try an incentive to get him to give up the pacifier. We've been reading a book for a couple of months now called "Pacifiers are not Forever," and talking about how we'll need to throw it away soon.

On Saturday I went to Toys R Us and bought him something I knew he really wanted...Mack the truck from the movie "Cars." His cousin Cade has this truck and he fell in love with it when we visited with Cade this summer. It's very fancy; you open it up and it has all this stuff for Lightning McQueen--a bathroom, weight room, refrigerator...yeah, pretty crazy. Anyway, I wasn't going to show it to him until later but he found it on Saturday night. I told him that we would open it when he decided to throw his pacifiers away. At first he was all for it, but I knew he would want to get them right back out of the trash. So we discussed (several times) that once the pacifiers go in the trash, we don't get them back out. The trash-man will come and take them to the dump and they'll be gone forever. So, he then said, "I will tell the trash-man that I need it." So we had to discuss further that it doesn't quite work that way.

Anyway, he really wanted to open Mack, so he threw his pacifiers in the trash. That night, he went to bed really well and didn't even mention his pacifier. He didn't even wake up in the night asking for it. Then yesterday afternoon he did ask for it and we just went through it all again and I told him they were gone. Same thing happened last night. But, we've stood firm, which is what we have to do and haven't given in. We couldn't even if we wanted to, though, since he threw all the passies away and I refuse to buy more! So, REJOICE with me everyone and say a little prayer for Will as he has lost a good friend. But, it's a very good thing and we are so very proud of our growing boy!

New Me

I feel like a new woman. I have new glasses and a new hair color. I used to have my hair highlighted all the time in high schoool and college. So often, in fact, that my own aunt thought it was natural. Well, since I've stareted having kids, I've let my hair go and it's become totally brown...and not the prettiest of browns, either. So, I am now a blonde once more!! Hooray! And my husband can start saying his favorite answer to "how do you like your coffee?" again--"Blonde and sweet, just like I like my women." Ha :)

Here I am before the color:

And after:

And with my new specs:

Splish Splash, I Was Taking a Bath

Will and Claire took a bath together for the first time last night. It will also probably be the last time for quite a while, just because of the sheer volume that was created in that short time frame. My ears are still ringing. All they did was shriek at each other. Albeit, it was happy, laughing shrieking, but it was still shrieking nonetheless. They had a great time, though. The picture below captures it perfectly:

Will also got a pretty major goose-egg on his forehead yesterday while running through the house and not looking where he was going. OUCH!!

Fun with Laundry Baskets

Bow-dacious Blooms

Thanks, Melanie, for these awesome blooms! We love them.

No News...

...equals good news. Nothing interesting is happening with us lately...sorry for no postings, guys! We are just living :) Scott starts back to school tomorrow. Unfortunately his first class it at 8:00 AM, so that should be interesting seeing as Scott is not a morning person! He has to leave here by 6:00 to get there on time...wow!

For me, the newest thing going on is that I am getting new glasses. Woo hoo! My prescription has actually improved which explains the headaches I've been getting with my current prescription. I have been wearing my glasses a lot more now that I'm home with my kids three days a week. So, hopefully by this time next week, my glasses will be in and they will look fabulous! (Yes, because I have such horrible vision, they actually have to send off for my lenses and can't just make them in an hour).

The kids are doing great...Claire is six months old as of last week and she is doing fabulous. She is sitting up on her own quite well and eating more an more solid foods. She really likes sweet potatoes and pears. She's been such a good baby...we are so very blessed. She is still waking two or three times at night and we're really working on that; it's been a battle. Other than that, I can't complain.

Will is just hilarious. He cracks us up. Last night he bowled for the first time using the bowling ball slide (I don't know how else to describe it). He loved it and even scored about a 75. It was fun. He still has not decided to fully convert to the potty, but we're working on that, too. My goal is to get him completely potty trained by his birthday. So we now have four months before our time is up!

I don't really have anything else to report right now. I will try to take some pictures and get them up soon...

Well!

Yea, we are well again! Hopefully for a long time, too. That was the sickest I had been in quite some time. Now that we are well, we have the wonderful tasks of finding our house again under all the clutter and then taking down Christmas decorations. That's always such a bummer. I enjoy having them up so much! Oh well, we got to enjoy them a little longer this year since we were sick :) We also have to get used to "normal" life again...going to work, school for Will, church, etc. Last night we all went to church and it was so nice just to get out of the house!

Other fun updates: as Claire approaches her 6 month birthday, she can successfully roll over and is very close to being able to sit on her own. She can sit on her own for several seconds, but she still falls over a little too much to "leave" her. I'm looking forward to her sitting up really well by herself so I can bathe the kids together, etc. Also, she is eating food really well and isn't nearly as messy as she once was :) I can actually leave her clothes on her while she eats now.

Will is just doing great, making us laugh all the time. He is enjoying his Christmas gifts...especially his cars, boots, tent, and Little Einsteins DVD. We have watched that DVD countless times. At least it's educational!

I suppose I'd better get busy on the housework now. Thanks for all the well wishes and prayers sent our way! We appreciate them!

Ringing in the New Year...

...from my bed :( Scott and I have both been sick for a week now. Mine started on Christmas evening with a tickle in the back of my throat. By Thursday morning it was a full-blown throat infection. I also have an ear infection. I went to the doctor on Thursday (not my normal one, because of course, she is out of town!), got anti-biotics, ear drops, and a shot. He told me I would be feeling a little better by that afternoon and to call him on Friday. I called on Friday and said, "I feel worse! And now my husband is sick, too." So we both went in on Friday. Scott got anti-biotics and I got another shot. (Oh by the way, Scott has a viral and bacterial infection in his eye. He went to the eye doctor on Thursday for that). By Friday evening, Scott was in bed like me with fever and chills. So, now we both feel like utter muck and have two children to care for. We called a mother of one of our youth group members and asked if she could take Will for the evening. As the night wore on, we knew we were in no condition to keep up with him. Our friends offered to keep him for the night and we gratefully accepted. Saturday morning came and we had no improvement. Will ended up staying with our friends until MONDAY morning. They are so wonderful and we are very very grateful. Neither Scott nor I feel 100% better yet. In fact, we both still feel pretty crummy. But we are hopefully on the upswing. And our regular doc will be back in the office tomorrow :) I am so ready to get out of the prison of my house and wear clothes other than pajamas!! Happy New Year, everyone!

Christmas Morning

Christmas has come and gone, but I wanted to share some photos from Christmas morning. We were very blessed with an abundance of gifts from family and friends. My mom and dad were able to come and spend the few days leading up to Christmas and that morning with us. Sadly, my brother who works in Austin at a retail store was not able to join us, but Mom and Dad went home by way of his house. Will was sick again, and not in the best of moods, so it was interesting, but I think he still really enjoyed his Christmas. Claire enjoyed hers as well. After weeks of being around sick people, I've finally caught the bug, so hopefully I'll be feeling better soon, too. And how could I forget...a major milestone occurred last Saturday...Scott turned 30!! Happy birthday to him! We made a cake and had balloons...fun for the whole family :) On with the pictures!

Merry Christmas!

This video is awesome...Merry Christmas everyone :)

Scott's Family's Visit

We were excited to have Scott's parents and grandmother here for a few days last week. Unfortunately, his mom started feeling bad, so they had to leave a little sooner than first expected. But they still had a good time, especially playing with the kids. Here are a few pictures from their visit.

Will's Christmas Program & Party

Will's Christmas program and party were on Friday. The picture from the program is dark because we were pretty far away, but you can see him...the only way he'd get up there was if he had his lion and pacifier, so there he is! He did well, though and although he didn't sing, he did let out a very loud and long, "yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!" after Jingle Bells. Even though we weren't really trying to hide from him, he didn't see us, so he didn't freak out or anything. Good!
We love the last picture of him. We asked to borrow the reindeer antlers so we could take his picture with them on and they let us. We told him to say cheese and this is what we came out with! As Scott said, "that's a blackmail picture!"

More Christmassy Stuff

O Tannenbaum

Mini trees!

Five Months & Lights

Claire is five months old today!! Wow, how time flies! Last week we started her on rice cereal. So far she loves it, but she is quite the messy eater. I have just forgone the bibs and now feed her whilst she is only wearing a diaper. Then, it's straight in the tub! Below are a couple of pictures from tonight's seriously messy feeding session!

Laughing girl!

And now, some pictures of our outside Christmas lights that Scott so graciously (and masterfully) put up for us!

The tree through the window