My Special Girl

Here is Mallory at 22 months. I took these last week, but I'm just now getting around to posting them. This is a very special little outfit, which I'll explain more later. I'm heading out of town tomorrow (visiting my folks with the kiddos).

Mom and Dad - do these pictures bring back any memories? I think Mal looks a little like me in these...

Recent Gigs

Check out my photography blog. I've notice several of our local pros keep up photo blogs. I thought it was a good idea.

Kaitlyn
The Longs

Peptalk

Dad, thanks for getting Peyton to send Patrick this peptalk. It's helped. We're feelin' 'im.

Minivan Momma!

Well, I have reached a new level of motherhood - I'm now driving a minivan. Yep, a minivan. A vehicle I NEVER thought I'd have, but as I get older and have more children, I see the beauty of these super-sized cars.

Patrick was in training in Knoxville on Tues/Wed and I suggested that he look over at the CarMax there for a van. We had our eye on Odysseys and there were a couple there that looked nice. We weren't in desperate need of a new vehicle, but with both of our cars over 125,000 miles, we knew it was inevitable. So, Patrick traded in the Maxima and came home with a minivan. He says that he's now half a man because he owns an "appliance" (as our former, former pastor Clint would say), but I see him as more a man now that he sacrificed our hard-earned funds for a more convenient means of transportation for his family. He's a good man.

Ok, so now we have room for more chillin's. No, no, I'm not in "the family way". But, we at least can drive an extra kid or two around now.

"Peace on Earth", right Dad?

Oh, and Mallory kicked and screamed the first time I tried to put her in it. Wonderful.

Ethan (...and Mallory)

...by the way, Mallory "kisses" with her forehead. We're not quite sure why, but Patrick thinks it's because he kisses her a lot on the forehead. Maybe so...

Valentine's Cake

Here's a video of Mallory eating the Valentine's day cake.


And by the way, " 'ops" is probably the word Mallory says the most, referring to Patrick's father.

Valentine's Day

For Valentine's Day, Daddy brought me and Mallory some flowers and a cake, though Mallory and I had already made a cake for Daddy. ;-) We'll just save the cake Daddy bought for when Gram and Pops come to visit this weekend(!!!!!).

It was fun to share our Valentines with each other and watch Mallory devour the cake. She made quite a mess and ate almost the whole piece. We received Valentines from Gram, Pops, the Hebert gang (Aunt Karen, Uncle Rick, Skye and Colton), and from Grandma and Grandpa. Our mantle is covered in Valentine cards!!! Fun, fun.

Happy Valentine's Day!

It Came!

Well, I finally got to upgrade my camera, thanks to all of my clients in '07. It came in the mail last week, but I'm just now getting around to playing with it!!! (It's been a busy week). Anyway, I have a gig tomorrow that I will debut it at, though I've already taken some pics of the kids with it. It's a great camera (Canon 30d) and has many new features from my old-school 10d.

Anyway, I'm VERY excited to have this camera and hope I will take many, many pictures with it. :-)

The Kids

Tough week!

I have to say that last week/weekend were probably one of the hardest weeks I've experienced in a while where dealing with my children have been concerned. Both Mallory and Ethan were taxing on me and I prayed daily that I would remain calm and that my frustration wouldn't overcome my patience with them.

Mallory started dealing with a fever on late Monday afternoon (about 99.5 under the arm). It fluctuated throughout the remainder of the day and when she woke up on Tues, it was about the same. On mid-Tues afternoon, though, it spiked to about 103.1 (under the arm), which, according to my pediatrician, is more like 104. She barely slept at all on Tuesday, only an hour in the morning, and I worked hard at getting her fever down so we could avoid any type of side effects that high fevers have. I stripped her clothes off, put cool cloths on her head, and gave her a bath in tepid water (while feeding Ethan on the bathroom floor!). Her fever cooled down considerably by Tuesday evening, which was good because I had tentatively scheduled an apt at 7:30pm in case she still had a high temp. She ended up crashing about 7pm and we checked on her periodically to make sure her temp didn't flare up again. But, around midnight, her fever shot back up to 104. We woke her up, stripped her clothes off, put cool cloths on her, and made sure her fever went back down. After about an hour, it was down again, but we had an awake girl. She ended up sleeping in the pack n' play in our room so we could keep an eye on her.

Meanwhile, Ethan had still been waking up at least 2 times in the night. I was pretty exhausted on Tuesday and especially on Wednesday because of my night with Mallory. On Wednesday, Mallory had a small temp, which gradually went away by the end of the day, but then she started with the whining. Oh, how she whined at EVERYTHING. I didn't get a nap on Wed and by Thurs (after waking up AGAIN with Ethan), I was pretty edgy. Fast forwarding to Friday, Mallory started refusing her food. She didn't eat anything for dinner and on Saturday, she only at a banana, a handful of grapes, and maybe two bites of oatmeal. And, of course, she continued with the whining. I had to put her in her room several times on Friday for inexcusable wining (well, is any whining excusable!!!). Patrick took her out on Saturday morning so I could get some rest, since Ethan still wouldn't sleep well. I started feeling sick on Saturday and by Saturday night (after we had company over for dinner), I had a fever and was excremely quesy and worried about my daughter who wouldn't eat and my son who wouldn't sleep.

So, on Saturday night, we tried a first. We put Ethan to bed on his tummy. He woke up about 1am and then slept until about 5:45 after a brief feeding. That was great! His disposition on Sunday was much better. Well, Mallory was still having issues on Sunday (though I was feeling much better) and lasted only about 15 minutes in the church nursery before she had to join us for the remainder of our Sunday morning (at the new members class with about 30 people in attendence...). She ate much better on Sunday afternoon and Sunday night and actually stayed in the nursery for the entire time at church!!!

AND then the GREAT news...the saving grace of the whole week...was that Ethan slept through the night last night!!! From 9pm to 5:30am, we didn't hear a peep from him. And then after he ate (and Lord, did he need to eat for my sake!!!), he slept for another hour!!! YEAH!!! And Mallory ate a huge breakfast this morning and ate her entire lunch. She's still a little whiney, but I think all of the fever, food aversion, and excessive whiny-ness may be because she's getting her incisors (I think...). *sigh*

After this post I'm planning on resting for a while. I'm tired, even though last night was the first time I had slept for 6 hours straight since AUGUST(!!!!).

3 months!

Ethan is now 3 months old, as of last Tuesday. I haven't had a lot of time to make posts lately because I've been dealing with sick little girl. Anyway, this will have to be yet another quick post because I have to feed Ethan in a minute. But, here's my cute boy at 3 months!!! (Mallory at 3 months)

A rare family photo

While the kiddos are napping, I took a few minutes to organize hundreds of photos I have on my computer (though I should be finishing my taxes...oiy!). I came across this family photo taken over Christmas at my folks house. We have very few family photos!!!

Courtney and Erin...

Has it really been a year since our last visit together??? We need to do this again!!! Little MD is a tad bit bigger than he was in this picture, right C? :-)

Happy "Our" Valentines Day

Read here why this day is important to us.

A few milestones...

Well, we've reached a few milestones in our household over the past few nights. First, Mallory went to bed two nights ago (and last night) without screaming!!! YEAH!!! It had become routine for her to start screaming as soon as we said "Amen" after her bedtime prayer. This had been going on since Christmas. She has been waking up about 5am with a very wet diaper, but as soon as she's changed, she'll go back to sleep. I might have to start putting diaper doubles back in her drawers...

Second, Ethan has slept the past 2 nights in his own room. This is HUGE for me. I was initially concerned about Mallory waking up when he wakes up, but with her radio and her humidifier going, his cries are drowned out. Ethan is still waking up about 3am and I'm hoping that his body will get used to that missed feeding. Confession: I am putting a few teaspoons of rice cereal in a bottle for him at 11pm. I figured it would make his belly a little fuller. He's not really used to sucking on a bottle, but I'm REALLY ready for him to start a 6-8hr stretch (now that he's 3 months today!!!) and will try just about anything.

I'm am a bit sad today because it's hitting me that my kids are growing up so quickly. It's an inevitable reality. Time is fleeting. And this phase of their lives (newborn and toddler) are the shortest. I love 'em.

Playtime in Mallory's Room

Well, I've been pretty faithful at keeping my camera handy while we're playing during the day. The good thing is that I have tons of pictures of the kids playing. The bad thing is that I have TONS of pictures to sift through! But, it's fun!!! Enjoy.