Happy Easter!

My little princess Easter morning before church.


Caleb dressed in his cute little Easter outfit from Memaw and Pawpaw.


Well atleast I tried to get a picture of the kids together. This was after church, Caleb was very tired.


Hannah at the big easter egg hunt at the park. Caleb wasn't too interested.

Daddy and the kids

Caleb had fun learning what sand was, he liked to eat it too. Oh well, we figured a little sand wouldn't hurt anyone. In this last picture, Caleb is pulling Hannah's hair so he can eat it. He has this fascination with hair. He likes for me to hold him, and he like to suck on his fingers while holding my hair and go to sleep. I'm not sure what would happen if I cut my hair.

Sandhills

This is one of my most favorite pictures of the kids. I love it. We went to the Monahans sandhills and had fun.


Mmmm what is this stuff??


I like sand, this is fun! Such a cute picture, I love this one.


Family picture.


Hannah just being cute!

Ok, I have so many more cute pics, but I think i can only post 5 at a time....so I'll add more later. We had fun, I didn't know if I'd enjoy it, but I loved it. The weather was perfect, not hot at all. The sand was cool to touch. Hannah had fun chasing her ball up and down the hill.....oh the energy little kids have. I'll post more pics later.

A Fun Week!

So we decided to get Hannah a tricycle. It's a classic dual decker tricycle, just like the old days. She loves it. At first she wasn't real sure about it, but now she wants to ride it all the time. We're still working on the whole pedaling thing, but other than that she does pretty good. I feel like she's so big now. I mean I took pictures of Jeremy putting the tricycle together, and I thought, this is the first of many "assembly required" toys. This is a fun part of life.

Maybe we're close to potty-training. Today we were getting ready to go to the park, and Hannah brought me her panties and said, "I want to wear panties like mommy".....I said Oh good, once you go in the potty and keep your diaper clean we can. So we'll see, atleast she may be showing a little interest now. I'm not really rushing the issue at all!!

Then theres Caleb who is still very much in the infancy part of life, he's discovering so much these days. He is so close to crawling. He gets on his knees and kinda rocks back and forth, he hasn't quite figured how to get on his hands yet. He scoots a lot. This morning, I laid him on his blanket on the floor in the middle of the living room, and came back in and he was in the corner eating the answering machine, and the phone cord. So I'll need to rearrange things soon.

As far as sitting goes....he just doesn't really like to sit I don't think. He'll be 8mos old in 3 days, and he really doesn't sit well yet. We're working on it. He arches his back when you position him and he just wants to lay down and roll around. So a friend showed me, that I should put him in a sitting position and just hold onto his hips or the top part of his legs, that way he is forced to use his torso to balance, and hopefully this will help with strength and balance.

Ok now for the pics....some are of Hannah and the tricycle. Then theres daddy and Caleb at the park, they're just so cute! Caleb looks so much like Jeremy, but his hair is getting blonder and blonder. His eyes are still blue. We also had a great time with Jeremy's family, they came for a visit....there was a cute pic of grandpa and Hannah looking at some fish. Enjoy!

Stay Tuned

Ok, I tried to upload a video...yeah I know, kinda hi-tech. Anyway, it didn't work. So...when Jeremy gets home I'll try to let him figure it out. So until then...you just get some pics.

These are just some cute ones I like.

The Park

We went to the park when my parents were here and Hannah had a great time. This was the first time that she has really "ENJOYED" the swing. She wasn't scared. She also liked to go down the biggest slide by HERSELF...she's growing so fast! Enjoy the pics.


Look close....she's holding on by herself!


My sweet little girl.


She didn't like this swing too much.


Loved this one!!


I'll post more pics soon. Our computer is up and running, and all the pics are reloaded to the hard-drive. So keep checking the site....let me know what you think. I'd love to hear from you.

My Children

My parents were here this weekend and got to visit it was great. We were talking, and I was like....I can't believe I have 2 kids. I mean Hannah is about 2.5yrs old, and Caleb is getting close to 1yr (sorta). It's just kinda this surreal, out of body observation...this is my life, I'm a mom, a wife....we are living life. Anyway, hope that makes sense. I love my kids and I'm so glad God has blessed me with my family . They are wonderful!!!!!


Well, I think I've posted a pic maybe like this before, but this is Caleb's absolute FAVORITE thing to do. I mean he has his fingers in his mouth ALL the time. Atleast it keeps him happy. I think he just woke up....he kinda has a startled look. Isn't he cute though.


Mmmm..peas I think. Peas are his absolute LEAST favorite thing to eat. Poor kid, I make him eat them. He will learn to LOVE peas.


Ok, the other night after Hannah's bath, we took some pics of her HAIR. She has so much hair. We now only wash hair once a week on Saturdays, then we blow dry it. It takes about 5min to blow dry....she really doesn't like it much but we've been drying her hair for probably a year. She's not quit 2 1/2yrs old yet. So of course we love her hair....I'm figuring she got it from the McCarver side of the family. My 2 sisters-in-law (Larissa and Carrie) have long thick beautiful hair..YEAH. So I'm just sharing a few pics.



This past weekend we had a good visit with my parents. They came to visit for a couple days, it was great!! Hannah absolutley loved them being here, and then this next weekend Jeremy's parents are coming to visit!! She's getting to see ALL the grandparents....I'm so glad. She misses them (we do too), so I'm glad we all get to hang out.

We CAUGHT You!!!!

Yeah...take a good look!! This creature was in my HOUSE! I know, there are probably mice in every house in America but still...it grosses me out! So the kids are napping, Jeremy is in Odessa, and I'm checking my e-mail on the couch...it's a peaceful day UNTIL, I notice out the corner of my eye....A MOUSE. Yes this mouse was walking SLOWLY (so I could get a good look), by the bathroom door, then it scurries behind the couch. My heart immediately starts palpating, and I'm getting hot. I think, OH MY GOSH, I really just saw a mouse. Now where did he go. I get up and and sitting on the kitchen table calling Jeremy who is 40miles away. I call like 5 times and finally he picks up his phone. I'm whispering, "There's a mouse in our house...what do I do". He says, "Oh really, well I'll buy some traps". I'm thinking OK....well what do I do until then. I mean this is really making me nervous. I said the kids are gonna wake up, then what do I do.....he said "Carry on with daily life". YEAH RIGHT. Like I'm so paranoid about this creature, I'm thinking I'm definitely NOT putting Caleb on the floor, the mouse might attack him. I don't want to scare Hannah really, so I'm thinking about what we're gonna do. In the mean time I call my mom.....and she was so great, there absolutley wasn't anything she could do being 6hrs away, but still, she sympathized with me while I'm holding back the tears.

I called him back...one of my 3 phone calls to him during this whole ordeal. I told him to buy every trap that Wal-Mart had....so he bought a LOT. He came home and we set them up (glue traps). I thought...ok this is good, we'll be at church tonight and when we come home, he'll be caught and I can sleep in peace. So keep in mind....I came home with both kids BY MYSELF in the DARK (Jeremy was finishing up things at church). I slowly come inside and listen..no rustling heard. I turn on ALL the lights, and look at all the traps, NOTHING. So I'm like great...I do my best to put Hannah to bed, and then get Caleb ready. Jeremy came home, and we all went to sleep. We put towels at the entrance of the bedroom doors to keep him out...atleast it made me feel a little safer.

The next morning....still NOTHING. Great, I mean the joy had really been sapped from me. Maybe I'm letting this be too big of a deal, but I really couldn't handle this creature being in my house somewhere and I didn't know where. YUCK. So we leave for the day to go to Midland. We come home about 2:30....and AHHH HAAAAAAAA......I made Jeremy go in first, but there it was stuck on a trap that we had put by the bathroom door. WHEW...we showed Hannah and told her that the mouse had to go back outside to his OWN home, and that it wasn't nice for him to be in OUR home. So daddy disposed of the mouse in the dumpster. I was even brave enough to take a picture!

So hopefully he doesn't have any friends and if he does, I don't need to know about them!

Like Sister, Like Brother

Hannah at 5.5 months old


Caleb at 7 months old

So I'm taking pictures of Caleb in his Einstein toy....he loves it. And actually the spitting up is getting much better so he gets to play in it a lot more often. As I'm taking pictures I'm thinking....gosh I remember Hannnah doing this same thing JUST THE OTHER DAY. I kinda got all sentimental about it. Now she's a big kid and running and doing her own thing. They grow up so fast I can't believe it. So I had to go into the archives and find the picture of Hannah eating the same toy Caleb is....and compare the 2 kiddos. I've concluded that Hannah was just a big baby....Caleb is getting there he's just 50th % on all his measurements and Hannah was always 90th % Anyway, just wanted to get some pics back on here.....since we'd kinda been out of pocket for awhile.

On another note....as a mom, I'm thinking ok, I've raised Hannah so far and she's doing just fine, so now raising Caleb....I do the same things I did with Hannah....and well they just don't always work the same way. KIDS ARE DIFFERENT. Duh....I know that but it's just funny, one thing that worked with Hannah just isn't gonna work with Caleb. Like baby food stuff.....I think well at this age Hannah ate ALL this food, so Caleb you need to eat it too. Well they all work and grow at their own pace. Hannah wanted to be cuddled all the time, and definitely for sleep time. Caleb is kinda getting to the point where he'd just rather you put him on the floor or in his bed so he can play by himself. He still likes me to rock him, but he's so squirmy. So I enjoy the cuddling of Hannah, and the independence of Caleb. I love being a mom, and comparing my 2 kids (in a good way)...I can't wait to see how they're gonna grow up and what their interests will be etc.

To Cry or Not to Cry

Ok, so I know there are a lot of theories on how to put your kids to sleep, and how to teach them to go to sleep on their own. Well with Hannah, I rocked her until she was ASLEEP every day of her life until 11mos. Then we ventured into the journey of letting her put herself to sleep. Well after 3 weeks of long nights of crying (both her and me) she finally learned how to go to sleep on her own. She sucks her thumb so that his her comfort aide along with her pink blanket. We had long nights of crying maybe 1.5hrs was the max, but she learned to do it. We're glad now that we did it that way.

Now Caleb, I thought lets try this a little sooner before he is able to stand up and jump wildly banging the crib against the wall. So lately he has been putting himself to sleep for nap times....I'm guessing he's so tired that he just sucks he 2 fingers and lays on his stomach and goes to sleep. YEAH!! So he'd been doing good for nap time for several days, both morning and afternoon nap.....I thought this is going to be EASY. Well first of all I don't think anything about being a parent is easy...so anyway last night he went to sleep after I nursed him around 9pm...well at 3:45am he wakes up, now the past several nights he'd kinda stir in the middle of the night and just go back to sleep. OH NO not anymore. He now rolls around all in his bed and wedges himself in the corner of his crib, pushing with he legs to scoot further only to be stopped by his bumper pads in his crib. This makes him quite upset. Then he'll flip onto his back and scream...very loudly. Not the tiny scream of an infant. I lay there waiting for miss Hannah next door to wake up....so far she has been a trooper. I just tell her that Caleb is learning to go to sleep on his own and he'll be ok so stay in your bed and go to sleep. She's such a good little girl : )

Back to my story, so last night I would get up, flip him back onto his stomach, wipe all the snot off his face and we'd try again....well this went on until about 5:30am. As soon as I would flip him to his tummy he'd flip back over onto his back, and then he just couldn't figure out that he needed to be back on his stomach like he likes to go to sleep. Anyway....Jeremy and I are laying there in bed thinking "Are we doing the right thing". I'm praying boldy for the Lord to give little Caleb peace and for him to just go to sleep. Psalm 127:2 says that the Lord gives sleep to those he loves....I'm thinking I need sleep, Lord you love me, so make my baby go to sleep so that I can sleep. I praying believing it can happen. Well after 1.5hrs I think, maybe I should get him. Well I don't EVER feed him in the middle of the night anymore and haven't for months, but I think at this point, anything to make this baby be quite.....so I nurse him for maybe 10minutes and he is OUT LIKE A LIGHT. I put him back in his bed and he sleeps until 9:30am. I finally get back to sleep about 6am and Hannah is up and ready to go at 7am. She never heard a peep all night....atleast she's the well rested one of the bunch.

So today I think....do we need to wait until he's older to do this crying thing, is he too little, I know he can soothe himself, why does he do this?? Is he being manipulative? Is he teething and just uncomfortable. So we'll see how tonight goes. I'm not quite sure what we're gonna do.

However today at nap time, I rocked him and put him down. After he'd been sleep for an hour, he woke up crying. So i'm peering into his room to see what he's doing, of course he'd flipped over on his back and he's holding his blue blanket and sucking his fingers....I watch as he rolls around for a little while, and then suddenly he gets on his side, his eyes get heavy and he goes to SLEEP, sucking his fingers, holding his blanket.....ALL BY HIMSELF. YEAH!! Maybe he'll do this in the middle of the night. So pray for my little man to sleep good and maybe tonight we'll all get some sleep.

Happy Valentine's Day at the doctor's office

My poor little guy, yesterday morning he woke up and I thought, he sure does feel warm...yep fever 101.5. Poor thing, so we call the doctor and make the trip to Odessa. I thought surely he has another ear infection. We were in her office 3 weeks ago and he had an ear infection, then 1.5 weeks ago for a follow up and 6mos shots, then yesterday. I'm glad we have health insurance to cover all these visits. Still we have a $25 copay which can get costly if you go to the doctor every week. So anyway I thought surely he has another ear infection....nope his ears looked great, his throat was a little red but not bad, I said does he have the flu?? She said he didn't look like it, so we're on antibiotics again in case this is a bacterial infection. So hopefully little Caleb will feel better soon. While we were there, I asked again about the spitting up problem, so she said well we can try some different medicine...Prevacid. She you can try this if you want or you can do smaller more frequent meals. So we're at the pharmacy..and the first initial dose of this medicine is $86. then every 2 weeks we would have to get it refilled (because of the way the drug is reconstituted it's only good for 2 weeks)...so every 2 weeks we would pay $45. So we thought about it and decided we'll continue with the laundry etc. Surely he will outgrow this phase soon : ) So we had a happy valentines day at the doctor's office and taking care of my little guy. I'm thankful he slept good last night, and his fever hasn't been as bad today.

My Life

Long time no update I know...so sorry. So this is whats going on in my life. First our computer crashed, luckily we had our pictures and video backed up on another hard-drive, but basically we are sending our computer away to "computer fix-it land" and will get it back with a NEW hard-drive. I'm so glad we had our pictures saved...I think right now thats my most valuable posession....you know like what would you take with you if your house burned down. Anyway, so thats why there is no precious pictures of my kids on this post. I'm on a loaner computer that has just the basics, so until we get our back, you'll just have to read. And for the record our computer was on this apple care program for only 40 more days, so we didn't have to pay for a single thing...YEAH. I never realized how much I LOVED checking my e-mail, and doing my daily blog reading, until I have to use this other unfamiliar keyboard and mouse etc. So enough of that.

My kids are well, Jeremy was kinda sick for a few days which put me into "super mom mode"...it wears you out. I'm glad he's well and can help out again. I didn't like being a somewhat "single" mom....it's hard and I'm blessed to have a wonderful husband. So now we're just praying that me and the kids don't get anything. As for the kids, Caleb rolls all over the place, like why do I bother to put him on a blanket on the floor, I should just put him on the floor because he doesn't stay on the blanket anyway. Atleast sometimes it kinda acts as a buffer for the spit up so my carpet isn't stained green and orange depending on what he ate that day. We're working on the sitting up, he's not quite there he just kinda rolls over to the side or else he falls on his face. Now Hannah is great, but I think I'm about to enter the world of potty-training. I don't understand it, everytime I get her from the nursery at church they tell me she "tee-teed" in the potty, I said are you sure? They say YES, I said you actually heard it going INTO the potty, they say YES. Well, why doesn't she do this at home. She absolutley will NOT pee in the potty at home. Maybe I need to get a more exciting potty. We have the big girl panties ready to go, so I'm just waiting on her to be ready.

Bless his little heart

I promise I picked up as soon as I finished taking the picture. See it was a progression and it just kept getting worse. He was laying on the floor playing, rolling over, laughing, then he just became unhappy. He kinda whimpered, then fussed, then would kinda scream, then the tears started flowing. Poor kid, and I'm there taking his picture. I do love my son, and as soon as I picked him up...he was all smiles : ) I just kinda liked this picture (is that wrong)?

I love my kiddos.

Hannah is showing Caleb how to use her sticker book. This book is one of her very favorite things to do.There are like 600+ stickers in this book and you find where they go...sometimes I have to hide the book or she would want me to help her do stickers ALL day long : )

I just love this one, I love to see my kids laugh!

Restoration

After yesterdays blog, I want yall to know, that my kids were asleep from like 9pm-7:30am...no waking up inbetween.Thank you for praying!! So today, I was in a great mood because I had actually slept. I took a couple of nap time pictures because they were just so darn cute.


Look...Caleb put himself to sleep for naptime today : )


Hannah after she woke up from her nap...she is so cuddly and cute.

Tired Mom

Well, time for some advice, or atleast listen to my venting. I used to brag just a little because my kids have been pretty good sleepers. Well...not so much. Lets start with Hannah, she is right at 28mos old, she goes to sleep wonderfully. We have our routine, of reading, singing, and prayers. She gives hugs and kisses and gets in her bed and goes to sleep in her bed in her own room. We put her to bed right around 8pm. However lately she's been waking up like 2-3 times a night, we change her diaper, put her back in her bed...we usually sing a fast version of "God is so good" and she goes back to sleep. However if she wakes up at like 5:30am or later...good luck getting her to go back to sleep. We go in and pat her, put her in her bed, and she may be quiet for like 10minutes, then she's standing at her door saying "mommy mommy"....just kind of whining. We repeat the patting and putting her back in her bed OVER AND OVER AND OVER. Sometimes she has had full blown tantrums at like 5am, if I go in the room, she wants daddy and vice versa. If it's 7am, we will usually let her get in bed with us and lay there which only lasts about 10minutes and she is up and ready to go. Now Caleb's crib is in our room, for lack of space, and it's right by the door that goes into Hannah's room (Hannah's door open directly into our bedroom)....so when she makes noise we usually go immediately so that she won't wake him up. So there is the story on her.....I don't really know what to do...oh and also lately she's been having all these wonderful excuses to get you to do things for her, for example...she has started the "I need some water", then if she has the slightest cough "I need medicine for my cough AND water", then she had a really good one "Mommy I have boogers in my nose"..so I procede with the nasal aspirator that we still use with her and there were no boogers to be found. I tell her...get in your bed right now and go to sleep, it is the middle of the night, it is dark outside. Then she wants daddy to come in and give her a kiss. I say daddy is sleeping and I'm not waking him up to come in here right now at 3am to come give you a kiss...sometimes that one turns into a "throwing herself down on the floor" tantrum...and I remind you, I'm threatening her to BE QUIET and DO NOT wake up her brother. So, I think that completes the Hannah chapter of nighttime sleeping. It may not be every single night, but it's most nights. She still takes a nap in the afternoons anywhere from 1-3hrs.

Now for my little man. Caleb is almost 6mos and a week old now. At around 4mos he started sleeping well, meaning 8-10hrs of sleep in a row at night. I don't nurse him in the middle of the night anymore, that stopped at about 4mos, so he eats basically 4times a day now. The bedtime nursing is usually for comfort because he doesn't really eat a ton, but he gets really sleepy which makes going to bed much easier. So after Hannah is in bed, I nurse him and put him to bed, so he's usually in bed by 9pm. Now he used to sleep all night until like 7 or 8am, however this little guy now almost like clockwork wakes up around midnight....so I usually rock him and put him back to sleep. For comfort he sucks his first two fingers on his right hand, he usually can find them pretty well. Now there have been times where he has put himself to sleep by himself, which is kinda rare but I LOVE IT. Anyway, so I put him back in bed (yes and he sleeps on his stomach contrary to studies these days...he DOES NOT LIKE to sleep on his back). Then the whimpering usually starts up again around 5am or so....now usually I pick him up again and rock him, sometimes this time it takes 20min or so to get him back to sleep. I don't change diapers or anything like that that would "wake him up more". Keep in mind, if Hannah is sleeping, I am desperate for her to stay sleeping, so I don't really want him to be loud in his crib because I think she might hear him. So here is my nighttime drama. Now with Hannah, I rocked her to sleep everynight and in the middle of the night until she was 11mos old. Then I decided she has to go back to sleep on her own. We would let her cry.....you know go in and pat at periodic intervals, and after about 3 weeks, she would go to sleep fine. She sucks her thumb, so it was pretty easy for her to be comforted.

So all that to say, I'm sure other moms out there go through this at sometime in the raising of their children...maybe not, some people have very good sleepers. Just pray for us to get the rest we need, and for me to not be extremely frustrated. If you have any fabulous words of wisdom, I'm an open ear. I get very frustrated....I mean last night night Caleb woke up at 3:45am....he was back in bed and me in bed at 4am sharp, then at 4:05am Hannah wakes up.....and then starts the battle of staying in bed, go to sleep, etc...... I love my children so much, I even like them alot too, but I like them more in the daytime and I'm a happier mom to be around when I've slept good. That way I don't have to be a slob on the couch all day long in my jammies with my hair in a ponytail on top of my head, and Hannah sitting on her Winnie the Pooh couch watching Veggie Tales and the Muppets all day long.

Chili Dogs Anyone?

Just wanted to share a few pictures of Hannah enjoying lunch. She had chili all over her body, hands, arms, stomach, forehead...however she enjoyed it. She really wanted to feed Caleb some chili so she could "share" her food with him. How nice of her I know, but we talked her out of that one.

Dependent and Needy beckoning for Mama

My little boy has been sick. This is a new experience for me because Hannah was never sick until her 1yr birthday, she was actually sick on her birthday with an ear infection and fever. So my little guy 6mos old, he's been congested, coughing, and has a little fever. Hannah had a cold so I'm sure she passed it to him......this is also new for me, the reality of sharing sicknesses. One kid gets sick, probably all your kids will get it, and you just pray that you as "super mom" won't because you have to take care of everyone else. Anyway I took Caleb to the doctor after a night of crying, no sleep, I would hold him and he would just kind of moan.....it's those moments, I would absolutley do anything for him to make him feel better. He's so helpless and dependent on me to make it better. So the doc said he has a left ear infection, and a red throat. We started antibiotics and tylenol, and today has actually been a good day. He's back to sleeping in his bed, instead of sleeping on top of me in the recliner. The little guy napped for almost 7hrs yesterday (4 and then 2 1/2), yes I had to wake him up to feed him (isn't that against the rules...never wake a sleeping baby). Then he slept pretty good last night too. Anyway, all that to say, we're doing well now, just going through the first of many more bumps in the road I'm sure.

Breakthrough

Well today is the day! Tomorrow Caleb turns 6mos old, and today has been the first day that he has worn 1 outfit all day long. They are actually his PJ's from last night. As most of you know, he has this spitting up problem (not a true medical problem, more of an inconvenience). Now it's not just a little spit up here and there, he actually gushes, even hours after eating. So my poor baby sometimes wears no clothes, just to help me with the laundry. After eating, he is only allowed to sit propped up on my boppy pillow to help aid in digestion. He loves his einstein exersaucer toy, but we only put him in that immediately before he eats to help limit the mess. Sweet little Hannah has been gracious to "share" this toy with him, she knows it was hers as a baby, however she likes things neat and clean, and is not fond of her brothers "eruptions". So for today, it has been a good day, or else I've been a really good catcher. Now for the picture, I know it may be a little grotesque, but I was in the middle of this fabulous photo shoot, and well it just got caught on camera. So for those of you that have the luxury of very clean and neat babies, this ones for you.

Special Delivery

Kids....I just love them, well at least my own that is. You know they are so matter of fact about everything. My parents went skiing over New Years and they brought her and Caleb back a couple shirts as souvenirs. So they mailed them to us. Anyway, Hannah loves to check the mail box, so we went to get the mail, and the package was in the mailbox. She was so excited and so we went in and opened it. I said...look this is from Me-Maw and Paw-Paw, she tried on the shirt and that was that. So then today, several days later, we are getting ready to go to church and she wants to wear her new shirt. I said,"Look, Hannah, it's so pretty...do you remember who gave it to you." She looked at me and said, "Yes mommy, the mailman".