Homemade Marshmallows!

If you've known me long you know I don't want a cake at my birthday, I want Rice Krispy Treats. YUMMY! Two years ago Jared took the time to make me homemade marshmallows but I never even tried them. And for two years I've acted like I did. EEEK! I was pregnant and super sick at the time and the thought of anything sweet made my stomach turn. I knew how much time (they take hours) he'd put into it so I've just always said they were really yummy. Last weekend they somehow came up and I finally fessed up. Jared immediately set out to make them again. Matney loves "helping" in the kitchen right now so she and Daddy played in sugar for hours.






And they were really great. J let me lick the bowl and I was covered in marshmallow goo, especially after I poured rice krispies in the bowl and just grabbed a spoon. Nothing like several types of sticky sugar to make a weekend with sick kids a little more tolerable! Thanks honey, your homemade marshmallows were SO GOOD. I am sure that they were great two years ago too! PS - don't worry. I don't think I have any more secrets, I really did try that coconut soup you made when we dated :) Love you!

Stuck home

These are random pictures from last weekend when we were stuck home for days. Matney and Daddy got yummy ice cream from the McDonalds drive through. Life looks a lot like this again. Matney's fever turned out to be croup and she's been miserable. She woke up 2 nights ago unable to breathe well and the more upset she got to worse her breathing got. The first time it happened I was so scared and ready to scream for Jared to call 911. Apparently being upright helps open her airways back up so my picking her up was enough to help and as she calmed down she got better. For the past 2 nights we've repeated that cycle. I think I slept two hours night before last and 3 last night. We're crossing our fingers that HK doesn't get it but it is highly contagious so I'm not that optimistic. Welcome back to the sick house!


Halle Kate and Duck Daddy got rid of some extra energy rolling around on the floor.


Oh my goodness, I love my house but we were so ready to get out beyond these walls!

Germs, germs go away!

Germs, germs go away. Come again another day...or NEVER! Funny story from last week. It was pouring rain on Friday when we were getting ready to leave and meet Jared for dinner. I watched the radar and knew it was about to stop (stop quickly and for good). I took her to the back door and we looked out. M heard the "rain, rain go away song" last week on Dora so we started singing it. Within 2 minutes (and MANY verses of the rain song later) it totally stopped and Matney was beside herself. She's talked for days about how she sang the song and the "rain cloud went away". Ha! Now I don't know what we'll do next time it rains, she sings and nothing happens but for now she is very impressed with her abilities!


This is a picture of Halle Kate last week when she had big sores in her mouth and wouldn't swallow. We changed her shirt more at least every hour because she was soaked.
Wouldn't you know that we're sick again, just when J and I were talking about taking a trip next weekend. We're not going anywhere, although it isn't because of the girls. However, next time I wake up and both girls wake up well and still feel good at lunch I am packing our bags, throwing the girls somewhere and heading to J's office. I'll just kidnap him and we'll be off. I am fairly confident that just talking about a trip makes my girls go lick something germy so that we can't leave. Ha!
Today Matney had a fever by early morning and was pitiful by lunch. She said her "chin, nose and hair hurts". I assume that means a sore throat, stuffy nose and headache. I thought she did a good job trying to explain "hurts" to me. Sweet baby girl. Who bets we've got about 24 hours before HK has a hurting chin and hairs too?!?!

Presents from Target...for me? Again?

I think these are some of my new favorite pictures. Thanks to Mom, Dad and the WR Target the girls have been going wild with these cute new bean bags. Aren't the adorable? Both the bean bags and the girls!

Sick of these 4 walls!

We've spent A LOT of time in this house during the last week. Sickness stinks. Thankfully, the adults have avoided any illness but our girls were certainly pitiful. Matney did catch the bug but she seemed to handle it better than HK. I forgot to mention that Friday night M was bouncing around in her bed and pulled her elbow out of joint again. I didn't realize that is what it was at first but at 2am when she and I were downstairs because she was hysterical I knew there was a big problem. Saturday morning I was ready to walk out the door to run to CHOA Urgent Care when J decided to try and pop it back into place one more time...and it worked! Whaaa hoo!!!
One day when HK was finally taking a nap Matney spilled on her clothes. I didn't dare walk up the stairs because I was scared the noise would wake her up. I had on two shirts so I put one on Matney. Oh my, the child loved it! She wore it all day and tried to talk us into letting her wear it to bed. She is so silly. My big girls loved making messes this week and playing with every toy in the house. And how cute is this? They are just starting to play together. I LOVE THEM!

Dad, Mom, does this scare you???

Look Mom and Dad! I found Matney "cleaning up her Strawberries" before naptime last week. Do you think she's related to her Mama? She was putting them in a line and kept switching their positions around until she had just the order she wanted.





For those of you who didn't know me at M's age those were my Strawberry Shortcake dolls. My dad saved them and gave them to Matney last year when she fell in love with Strawberry. My parents like to tell people the stories about how I had to line them all up on my closet shelf at night, in a particular order, before I went to bed. I promise she did this all on her own. I keep those Strawberries tossed in a bag now. Like mother like daughter, huh?

She also loves to load them all into her dollhouse minivan and push them around the house. I asked her not long ago where they were going and she immediatly said "to get pizza!". Ha! That is my girl!

Hand, foot and mouth disease...and sprinkles

So, Jared apparently jinxed us when he posted about "wishing for hoof and mouth disease" to wipe out M's My Little Pony collection last week because now we have the real thing. HK's throwing up Wednesday morning turned to be much more than nothing. She, and now Matney, have hand foot and mouth disease. sigh. This crazy sounding thing is a real illness and is caused by a virus so there is NO MEDICINE to make it go away. It starts with high fevers and blisters in the throat and then they'll get blisters on their hands and feet. It normally takes 7+ days for all the various symptoms to appear so we'll be hanging out in this house for a while.

My thinking that HK's barfing was nothing didn't last long when she woke up from her nap Thursday with a fever of 102. We have had several days of crying and being awake most of the night rocking. When I had her at the dr on Friday morning we hoped for strep (and an easy antibiotic cure) but no such luck. It is now Sunday and M woke up screaming today with a fever of 102 too. HK does seem to feel a little better this morning.

Jared and I are so sad our girls are sick. I cannot begin to imagine how bad their throats must hurt. HK hasn't eaten in days and getting her to take any of her bottle is a fight. Before the dr we thought HK must really be teething because she was crazy drooling all of a sudden but it turns out that she just hurts too bad to swallow. Friday I went through everything in the house and all HK would eat was...sprinkles left over from her cupcakes. HA! I didn't care. Look at this pitiful girl and her dinner.





What really stinks is that for our 5 year anniversary I'd worked hard at the last minute to arrange a night away for Jared and myself. I'd booked a villa at Calloway Gardens and had dinner reservations. I had people to watch the girls. We were so excited. But, we had flashbacks of our cancelled Vegas trip as I called to cancel everything only a day after I'd worked it all out. AGH!
All week I hugged my sick girls and was thankful, even for a cancelled trip. We know know a sweet 3 year old boy who's been fighting cancer since he was 18 months old. Last week he had to have an emergency surgery because the tumor they prayed was shrinking from chemo has actually been growing leaving them with lots of questions and more treatment ahead. And Saturday, while we were having a great time celebrating Halle Kate's birthday, one of my best friends in college held her 4 year old daughter as she passed away. Rocking sick HK all night Thursday I couldn't think of much else except how my friend has just buried her daughter hours before.
Growing up my Dad used to always say "there but by the grace of God go I"...and I would roll my eyes. Now, as an adult, and especially as a parent, I hear that phrase in my mind all the time. No matter how much I try to have control ultimatly I know I do not. Once again I have been reminded this week to be more than thankful for our health. And someday, before the girls are grown, Jared and I will take a trip alone!

5th Anniversary

So those of you close to us may recognize these outfits, either from being at our wedding 5 years ago, or from seeing pictures from that day up in our house. These are our wedding duds.

Stacey and I are especially proud of being able to don these outfits because of all the weight we have lost this past year. While Stacey had the good reason of carrying and birthing two beautiful girls over the last three years for her weight increase, I just have being lazy and unhealthy to blame. But over the last year, the two of us have spent hours sweating it off and evenings eating healthy to achieve these results. When we realized that we were at or below our wedding weight, we dared to suggest putting back on our wedding outfits and seeing how they look.

In my opinion, Stacey is more beautiful than ever. I can’t wait to continue our journey together. Especially with Elmo in the background!

Reading Buddies

Jared and I couldn't be happier that our girls love to read!

A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!

Matney wore her new summer shoes the other day and got her first blister. Sweet girl never even acted like it bothered her. When we got home I took her shoes off and her ankle and shoe had a big pile of dried blood on them. She's tough stuff! I think getting to wear a Strawberry Shortcake band-aid made it all better. We won't tell her now that this is just the beginning of blisters in the name of good footwear!