The Lost Fortnight.

i worked at the hospital for a long time and i never had a patient that was admitted for exhaustion. 

So i never understood what was going on when you'd here of celebrities being hospitalized for extreme exhaustion?!

well i never understood until now. 

and i realized something. Its not so much being tired (for me at least)

its the feeling of being 100%  used up. like you have 0 left to give 

and still people want more. 

so really the only way to really truly have everyone leave you alone

is to admit yourself into the hospital, its GENIUS.

nobody is gonna ask you to do crap if you're laid up in the hospital.  

thats when people bring you treats and look at you all concerned and say

"no dont get up" "its ok just sleep" "do you need anything"

and food magically shows up for YOU when its meal time.  

hello... there should be a diagnosis called MOMATOSIS, and if you have it, you immediately get sent for a 3 day respite stay.

"DOC, I HAVE IT!"

these past two weeks have been a big fat blur of pee, potty time, undies, snot, antibiotics, inhalers, doctor visits, breathing treatments, tears, cuddles, kisses, blessings, motrin, tylenol

and ENDLESS laundry. 

Thats right people we are down to one kid in diapers around these parts, 

and it is FAN-fricken-TASTIC

I'll admit, i was super worried about potty training this monster. Nothing is ever "easy" with him.

but it was time and although i tried and tried to put it off

i caved under peer pressure and we got er' done.

after the first 3 hours i was about to concede defeat as he ran around the house peeing everywhere, and i do mean EVERYWHERE. but we found our groove. and only had 3 accidents the rest of the day. 

day 2 and 3 were much better only 1 accident each day and dry during nap time. 

Day 4 he had about 20 accidents and i couldn't figure out what was going on.

and then this happened! fever of 104. he was one sick boy. 

so i'm gonna give him a big ol' pass on day 4.

cuz since then he's been accident free. 

 So after 3 hours at the doctors office and a diagnosis of

 "i dont know" 

we were sent home with an inhaler and antibiotics.

and the task of keeping big brother away from little brother.. ya right!

 Sleep... soup... nothing seemed to help. dad even bundled up for a late night walk to see if the cold air would help with his breathing.

but we were back at the doctors for suctioning and breathing treatments 

and finally an answer.

flu A, RSV, bronchiolitis and secondary pneumonia.

blah blah blah

so he got a steroid shot

we started breathing treatments at home

 and i feel like i'm constantly at work.

 when he started feeling better and all he wanted was to make cookies, how could i say no to this face. he looks so sick and defeated it was breaking my heart. 

and then this little smily innocent face got his turn!

seriously how do you avoid it, i was a freak about washing my hands, trying to keep them away from each other, its a fetching lost cause is what it is. 

you may as well just have them share a sucker and get on with it. 

 so back to the doctor,

But Mac got the added bonus of an ear infection.

winner....ding, ding, ding.

so we've done a lot of sitting around on house arrest, trying to milk these two little lovers back to full strength. 

 

and then i realize at times like this, i take way too much for granted.

my health, healthy babies and the fact that we have doctors available to help our precious cargo when we are at a loss. medicine to make them feel better.

and a husband that honors his priesthood so he can give blessings of healing and comfort. 

So i guess i'll try to hold off on my pitty party and my hospital admission for a couple more days and see if i can get a grip and be grateful that things are finally looking up around here. 

Mac - a - doo

this little lover is about the smiliest little nugget you'll ever find, but oh how he can turn on you in an instant. so beware. and by turn on you i mean start with the waterworks and the drama that is gas pain and stick with it for hours. 

figuring out what makes this kid tick has taken 6 months

and i'm sure our game plan is gonna need to change in about a minute and a half

but for now at least we've got a strategy

                                                     4 months and 5 months

6 months
17 lbs 40% *  27.5 inches 80%

 Mr. Mac does not like eating baby food, he looks at me with his baby blues and i can see the question "mom, why are you torturing me?! dad doesn't eat his vegetables, why should I"

 he's a professional rolly-polly-olly and trying to break into the sitting game. 

 he's a little heartbreaker with a smile that draws the attention of every little old lady at the grocery store and just about everyone else. 

mom and dad cant get enough of him

 and to say big bro is his biggest fan is an understatement. 

yep Mac is one awesome little dude.

 we love U mac-a-doo!

christmas 2012

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care..... how lame am i that i didnt get matchy matchy stockings for our first christmas in the new house!

next year!

 Gabe was so much fun this year, he finally sorta gets the whole christmas thing

including but not limited to, Santa, Jesus, prizes aka presents, cookies and fun.

the Macster just went along for the non stop sugar induced roller-coaster ride that is the holiday season. while he worked on perfecting the art of being fetching cute!

we had lots of holly jolly adventures with these two love muffins, including a christmas train ride, visiting santa, {which we did not get a picture of} and spending time at station park looking at lights, and watching the water light show.

To say Gabe was OBSESSED with christmas lights would be an understatement. Once Arron reluctantly and with the help of a neighbor whom was not as scared of heights as he is, got our christmas lights up, Gabe would not stop going outside to look at the "wights". we finally hung lights around his room, and all though it looked like a garage one might find in the ghetto he loved it.
however, now he spent time and energy running from the front porch to his bed room, back and forth, yelling the colors of the lights between breaths....not what we were going for, but what do you do.

While watching one of the many christmas specials on TV Gabe grabbed a candy cane ornament off the tree and started dancing with it. i was about to "very kindly" yell at him for AGAIN playing with the ornaments, when i saw goofy dancing with a candy cane, and opted to take a picture of MY little goof ball instead. {saved by his cuteness and cleverness}

Meet Lou Lou, our little elf on the shelf {or light, or fan, etc}

she was named and received her magic

and gabe had so much fun searching high and higher for her every morning after she visited the north pole to relay to santa whether he could stay on the nice list. 

she even found his little monkey zeck that had been missing for a couple days and brought him home. 

you cant help but feel the magic of christmas in a whole new way when you have kids.

their excitement is palpable and everything is big and bright and exhausting. its so easy to get caught up in the gifts and the parties and the big jolly fat guy that is oh so integral to the holiday season.  

and in the middle of it all the responsibility to teach them the reason we have christmas and that the true meaning behind it is so much more important! 

i wasn't  exactly sure how to go about teaching a 2 year old about the birth of our Savior,

so i was thrilled when he understood that 3 wise men came to give Jesus presents because they were so excited he was born, and that christmas is his birthday, and we love Jesus.

random facts but he's two and i'm new at this, so we are counting it as a victory!

We drafted Lou Lou to help us as well, 

She spent one night riding a camel to see Jesus and then on christmas eve she spent the day in the stable with Jesus. Because that is how important Jesus is. 

Oh how lucky Santa was that he got to come to our house and eat our cookies. 

i mean thats a good 6 maybe 7 layers of alternating frosting and sprinkles on that bad boy. 

you know how if you touch your elf on the shelf, they lose their magic and cant fly back to the north pole every night, well we figured since ol st. nick just so happened to be stopping by it would be OK for gabers to give her a hug and say good bye until next year. 

he put her next to the cookies so santa wouldn't forget her. 

christmas eve,
just before heading off to sleep to dream about sugar plums and what not.

Gabe got just a tad bit spoiled this year. i'm gonna go ahead and blame this one on daddy-o.

everything that he saw he was pretty positive gabe needed, because he remembers wanting it as a kid, and therefore gabe must also want it. 

a conversation was had an agreement was reached and next year he will exercise a little more self control, 

sheesh, i hate being the bad guy. 

This happy little guy got the short end of the giving stick. he got a whopping one gift from santa. but he didn't care, he must have really understood those "true meaning of christmas" lessons we were teaching.

and how romantic is my husband. he got me a plunger for christmas, why, when i'm pretty sure i've used a plunger maybe two times in my whole life? his response. we needed one in the 1/2 bath. 

 {thats what 16 years together does to you}

he made up for it by getting me a double bob stroller and the best vacuum ever, the dyson digital slim, oh my heck i could dedicate a whole post to how awesome this vacuum is, but i wont. 

{and those gifts go to show what two kids and age does to your wish list}

i would feel a lot better about this gift if the kid didn't have to drive it balls to the wall everywhere he went while yelling faster, faster, faster.

 (yes, i said balls to the wall, sorry about that but it seemed to really get my point across)

Christmas PJ's 

So all in all christmas 2012 was a huge success 

filled with family & friends

memories, laughter, love

gifts, cookies, parties, lights

missed naps and late bed times.

and hopefully an understanding of what Christmas is TRUELY all about.

from our family to yours

merry christmas to all and to all a good night.