Stuffy noses

are just so much worse when they are in your kids and not you! Madeline started getting a stuffy nose yesterday and last night it was horrible. I feel so bad for her! Especially while trying to eat! She is a champ though and did not complain a lot. I raised her mattress, let her sleep in bed with me (on a wedge) and finally put her in her bouncy seat to sleep. It helped a little, but not a ton. Right now she is sleeping in her car seat, and it seems to help also. Hopefully it will go away soon!
Last night we took the kids to the pool and while sitting in the pool area she was doing great, so it might just be because of the dry air in our house.

Forgive me Friends, for I am not keeping up!

Over two weeks have passed and I am not doing well with keeping the blog going. Sorry!
I really have plenty of time. All I do is dork around on facebook, play with the kiddos (which is very important by the way!), drink hot chocolate (my new love), surf the web for a new cell phone, and making my to-do-list grow! Oh, and every now and then I clean a big and do some laundry too. Such busy life I tell ya!

Next week I am going back to work at my nanny job and I am looking forward to it. It is good to have a reason to get out of the house for a bit, even if it is for work! I will have four weeks of nannying before I go back to the Y to work. My mom will be here the last of those weeks. I am so excited!

Oh, good news! Our friends in Fargo who delivered their twins the Friday before Madeline was born finally got to bring their little girl home today! I am so excited! She was not gaining enough weight, so she had to stay behind when her brother came home. It made me so sad to hear! I know their mom and dad are just thrilled to be all together in one home, which will be amazingly busy now I am sure with a 15 month old and newborn twins!

Today the girl I nanny for (not that she really needs me anymore other than for rides) turned 16!! I have worked for this family for almost 7 years now, so she was only 9 when I started working for them! hmm....feels like I might have written this before - I have to go back in the blog and check. I can't remember anything from one day to the other anymore! I blame it on the nursing fog (or something like that anyways).
Which reminds me, I only had to wake up twice to feed Madeline last night! Then she woke up again around 6:30, but only to snuggle, not eat. It was awesome! She certainly is a grunter though, so throughout the night I did wake up a bit as her grunts are louder than Kevin's snores! No need to get out of bed for grunts though:)

Well, I better get back to being busy ya know :) Lots of facebook talk and status changes to keep track of:)

My cousin is getting married

on my wedding date! I think it is so awesome! On my 12th anniversary she'll be saying yes to her fiancee. Just wanted to throw that out there! She is an adorable girl and he is a cute looking guy too, although I have never actually met him! I hope we can change that in not too long. If only the economy in this world was better! I'd be racing home to hang with family right away.

I know I am behind on blogging, so I promise to TRY to make up in the next few days. I have had to promise to nap every day the rest of the week though, so I am not sure I can make that blogging thing happen.
I start work again next week (one of my jobs) so life is slowly but surely picking up its normal pace.

Showing off the princess

I finally got out to go to the Y while Kids Care was open and I got to show Madeline off today! Kevin took the kids to the pool and I just hung with my co-workers. It was great! I really miss working there, but know it is good to have this time off for now too.
Kevin's parents came down this afternoon and is loving on the kids. This is their first meeting with Madeline and she is sleeping through it.
Kevin's mom gave us a Winnie the Pooh bedding set. It is so cute! She also brought us a convertible car seat - the rear facing to forward facing kind, so now we're set for a while!

Tomorrow is our baby shower that is held at the Y. It will be very fun to see so many people again (feels like I have been gone from work for more than 2 weeks!) Then on Tuesday is the baby shower for my supervisor's baby. She was born right before Thanksgiving, but due to scheduling issues the shower is not until now. So, I get to go back again on Tuesday!

I have only one more week left before I go back to my nanny job. that is be good too! I miss the kiddos. I will stop by on Thursday with Sarah's birthday present. She'll be 16 then. Man, she has grown up so fast! She was only 9 when I started working for them!

Anyways, time to go feed my porker. This time for my own comfort rather than her hunger!
Have a wonderful weekend you all!

That imaginary wall was hit today

Man, you know that wall they talk about in "she's going to hit the wall"? Well, I think I hit it! Does not hurt much, but man I am tired! It is not that Madeline was up a lot - she even slept a 4.5hr stretch making me wake up in pain needing to feed her. It is more that Kevin wakes up when she wakes up, and then he can't go back to sleep so he plays computer games until he feels tired enough - thus making me sleep not very well. I am thinking that tonight I will head to the living room when she wakes up and feed her there and put her to sleep in the bassinet and then myself to sleep on the couch. The kids don't have school tomorrow, so I don't have to get up at 7:30 to get them ready. I meant to nap yesterday, but Kevin fell asleep, so I got up. Didn't want to let the older girls have the run of the house:)
I am hoping Kevin can get enough sleep so that he won't get sick. He tends to run out of steam after a few days of little to no sleep, and then he gets sick. He goes back to work part time next week, and with the IBM layoffs he'll have plenty of work to do.

Kevin's parents are coming down tomorrow afternoon also, so that will be great. The kids will have a blast, and I know Lois is itching to hold Madeline:) I am going to take advantage of having grandma here and nap as much as I can!
Saturday is my baby shower at the Y. My awesome friend Karen is throwing it for me! She is the best! I am excited to get out and see people, and to show our little princess off! Not sure what the guys will be doing, but I have a guess they will head to the pool while the girls party:)

Tonight we're eating dinner that a great friend from the Y brought over yesterday. We're so lucky to have people bring us meals! I am hoping that by the time I head back to work at my nanny job (another week) I can get some meals made and put in the freezer so that we can just take them out and pop them in the oven.
Well, I am going to head out and pick Victoria up, then back home for a nap!
Maybe later today I will find some more energy to take more pictures of the kids to post.

Have a wonderful day all!

A picture of the kids

I finally got around to resizing one of the pictures from when I was in the hospital. So here it is:)


Now, I will go work on the other ones as well:) I am using handy, dandy paint to re-size them, so it will take me a few minutes:)

Here we go:Victoria with baby sister Madeline Can you tell she is proud?!

Michael with baby sister. Looks like a pro at holding babies!

Some of the pictures taken after we got home. I was hoping to get a good one for the birth announcements.

This was taken in the hospital soon before leaving.

Just a little something to brighten your day

My friend Michelle posted this on her blog and I find myself going back to read it over and over. And I laugh each time too! So, I decided to steal her joke and post it here for more people to see since her blog is private.

Supposedly this is from the diary of a Pre-School teacher, but I am sure if you search it on the internet you will find many different versions.

My five-year old students are learning to read.
Yesterday one of them pointed at a picture in a zoo book and said:

"Look at this! It's a frickin' elephant!"

I took a deep breath, then asked..."What did you call it?"

"It's a frickin' elephant! It says so on the picture!"











And so it does...

" A f r i c a n Elephant "

I just laughed out loud when I first read it. Then I went back to show it to Kevin, and then to Michael, and I just keep laughing so hard! The joys of working with children!

Have a wonderful day all, and stay warm. I know we are:)