catch up.

I hate that I have gone almost a whole week without posting. I have quite a lot stored in my head to tell. Some funny quotes and of course some movies and pictures from last week's snow.

Here is some footage I promised of getting Hannah to walk. Unfortunately, she hasn't performed as well as she did at church last Wednesday night. Notice: my horrible taping due to me trying to coax Hannah to walk, Lizzie lending a big sister helping hand, and Hannah not wanting to walk again.

Here is another bit of fun. The kids playing out in the snow on Thursday. Take note of: Lizzie trying to repeatedly go the wrong way on the slide, Jackson not being able to get up, Lizzie again lending a sisterly helping hand, and Hannah "talking " in the background.

We have had a great week. Another trip to the doctor on our "date night" thrown into the mix makes for a fun Friday night. Jackson had bad belly pains all week and was throwing up as we were getting ready to leave on Friday. We decided to call the doctor because the pain seemed to worsen. They gave us an 8:40 pm appointment only to tell me it is a virus and will probably be around a few more days. Great...here's another $10 for you. I feel like I have done nothing but meet all of the 20,000 doctors at this practice and visit both their offices this last month. I hope this is it. Unfortunately, I think Hannah may be getting another ear infection. She has not been sleeping really well and has been crying a lot at night. We'll see.
Oh...and I have lost 7.5 pounds so far, which doesn't seem like a lot, but I am seeing numbers on the scale I haven't seen in a long time. So far, I have cooked quite a lot and enjoyed most the meals I've gotten from Weight Watchers Online.
I guess that is it. I will leave you with some pictures from the week and a few quotes.

Feel the Love

Meanwhile, back in her crib...

Rub a dub dub...
three Carters in the tub.

Quotes of the days: "Hannah, stop sticking your throat down your fingers." -Jackson said at dinner the other night as Hannah was gagging herself.

"E-F-G, no!" -Jackson would say and Lizzie would quickly correct him, "N-O, no Jackson!"

"Mommy, you look like a boy with that little bit of fur on your lip." -Lizzie said to me as we played Memory tonight.

updates.

Today is update day!! I will update you on the kids and I updated my iPod Touch, I was so excited. First the kids. We had a dress-up party the other evening and Joe snapped some cute ones of the kids together. Jackson was wearing his costume from 2 years ago (funny it still fits) and Lizzie of course wearing Belle, this year's costume.

Hannah was napping at the time, poor Hannah, never in pictures. I will definitely grab some pictures, if not video, of her tomorrow. She officially took her first set of steps at church tonight. She walked about 4 steps to Joe and about 3 to me, but then was very tired. She is so cute because she gets so proud of herself and she squats and smiles and stands back up again!! I will try to grab some footage tomorrow.

I was so excited to see the new updates for the iPod Touch. I was kinda bummed when I started playing with it that it didn't have more apps and was set and I couldn't changed the dock. Today, all that changed. I was able to get the upgrades, to my surprise pretty inexpensively, and now have a customized Touch. I watched the tutorial, and was having fun trying out the new additions!! I also was drooling over the new laptop the "Air" that they brought out. It is so awesome. It is really, really thin (it fits in a manila envelope) and it is so slick! Fun stuff!!

Quote of the day: "Daddy, I Love You!"-It is simple, but how do you not tear up as you listen to your guys in the next room getting ready for bed and Jackson pauses to let Daddy know he loves him--ahhh!!

kop.

Tonight I had off so we spent last night and this morning trying to decide what to do. We went out to breakfast with the Carters to the Fractured Prune. It is a doughnut shop that makes your doughnuts to order. They are hot when you get them and delicious.

We got home and there was a message from Jenn and Eric about meeting somewhere to visit. We haven't seen them in a while. It is hard because whenever we go down to NJ we feel we need to catch up with all the family. Anyway, we decided to meet them at King of Prussia Mall to walk around and eat a meal together. It was so fun and their son Brayden was so cute with Lizzie and Jackson. It always amazes me how great kids are at remembering their friends and picking up like no time has passed. It was great catching up with them and we had a fun night off.

Quote of the day: "Ho, Ho, Ho...Little girl what do you want for Kissmas?"-Jackson and Lizzie somehow got talking about what they wanted for next Christmas and were taking turns being Santa Claus. He even had his hand to his chin as a beard!!

feel the love.

Happy Wednesday!! Today I admit there was a little more TV watching then necessary, but I had to work on the computer this morning. We basically hung out until 12 and then went to Giant to do some major "healthy" food shopping. (I know, I know, naptime, but thankfully all went pretty well aside from several seat rearrangements.) We decided to do Weight Watchers online to lose a little weight and to start eating a little more healthy. It is a great place with tons of resources for food, recipes, and activity ideas. It tracks everything for you and even gives you the reward stars as you pass your milestones. We had some delicious meatloaf and homemade mashed potatoes tonight. Even Hannah loved the meatloaf!!

Today's picture was taken yesterday, when the kids decided to love each other most of the day. It was done all on their own. I had to quickly take it because my camera battery was dead, so I only got one shot. Ahhh...how cute. Fast forward 24 hours and, well, lets just say there were no picturesque moments today. Just a lot arguing and upsetness.

One final note, we are officially now part of the Lancaster County Population. We decided to attend the Pennsylvania Farm Show last night. WHAT A TREAT!! All I can say is "live and learn." They did sell good milkshakes (which caused me to go over my points yesterday--great start.) If you get a chance this week, check out the live feed for the Duck Slide and the Egg Hatching--quality. The kids had fun looking at the hundreds of cows and chickens (seriously, there were hundreds). Joe and I had fun laughing at people who "dressed-up" for the show with their flannel shirts, cowboy boots and hats. (I don't think they dressed-up, I told Joe that is probably their everyday attire.) Tonight's quote is from that. Again, you all remember Joe's love of crowds.

Quote of the Day: "What are we, in the retarded lane (retarded referring to the pace not the people in that lane I'm pretty sure.) Everyone seems to have a limp. Geez!" --Joe's sensitivity to people taking in the show.

it's january?

Yesterday and today we seem to be having Springlike weather. It is even supposed to be almost 70 degrees tomorrow. We took advantage of it and went outside to grill hot dogs yesterday and played outside before nap time. (Which by the way we all desperately needed due to the fact that Lizzie decided to wake up at 3am on Sunday Morning and stay awake.) We played some tee ball and did some swinging.

Today, Joe is sick with some stomach thing again. I opened some windows to air out the place and it is just so nice out. We went outside to give Daddy some quiet so he could rest. We played with chalk in the driveway, took turns with the roller skates and rode bikes. Even Hannah hopped on a bike. Notice Hannah's dirty knees from crawling around outside.

drums please.

Today was the first day back on schedule and of course it was the busiest of all in the week, Thursday. We had my meeting at church, which ran late, so we had to inhale lunch and get Lizzie off to school, which I was late for. Jackson was tired so he had a meltdown because he didn't get to open the door at school with the key card. Nice!! He came home and fell asleep immediately.

Hannah's hand is looking better, her diaper rash is less red and raw, and everyone is sound asleep and in bed after only 2 minutes on their pillows-God is Good!!

Friends of ours, the Goss's, made some new boundaries for the new year one of which is everyone only gets 1 hour of media time during the weekdays. I thought that was great. I feel like the TV is on 24/7 some days in my house. Sometimes out of necessity. Anyway, today, we didn't have the TV on once. Tonight, when I usually would turn it on before bed, I actually had the kids pull out the drums and instruments and we played drums to Mighty to Save. It was pretty fun.

Mighty To Save.mp3

Quote of the Day: "Lizzie, do you love me?" "Yes, Jackson, I love you. Do you love me?" "Yes Lizzie, I love you." -while Lizzie and Jackson were sharing their dessert after dinner.

trips to the doctor.

This morning I was playing with Hannah after she had just woken up and I noticed a gross sore on her hand at the base of her thumb. Of course, right away I thought of MRSA, so I called my nursey mom and asked her what she thought. She, of course, told me to call the pediatrician's office to ask what they thought. I did, and the nurse told me because of her age and possible infection, she needed to be seen today. Thankfully, Joe was able to come home and stay with Lizzie and Jackson because apparently the office was inundated with sick kids today. I knew it would be a long visit. In the mean time, Joe was feeling worse with his cough and decided to make an appointment for himself.

We finally saw the doctor 30 minutes after I was in the room waiting. She examined her hand, diaper rash (which, by the way, is awful. I just can't get it cleared up), and her congestion. Apparently, her antibiotic did not do the trick the other week and she still has an ear infection and the doctor prescribed a stronger one for her to get rid of the infections on her hand and in her ear.

So...now she is on more medicine and we are hoping it will do the trick. I do not like the fact that she now has been on two antibiotics at 9 months. She is leading the way with most trips to the doctor so far.

Joe found out he has an upper respiratory infection and is on meds for that. I hope this is it for the winter. The rest of us are still struggling with colds and coughs but that's it.

happy 2008.

I hope everyone had a restful week. We actually stayed up to usher in 2008 this year. We joined some friends in Strasburg to watch the first ever ping-pong ball drop at midnight. Much to our disappointment, the drop didn't go so smoothly, but it was fun to be awake and celebrate with friends. Lizzie and Jackson had a good time saying Happy New Year to everyone. All three of the kids were real troopers and were still wide awake at 12:00am.

We had a very fun ending to a nice holiday week! We decided on New Year's Day to open up our "new" sofa bed (donated by the Chris and Liz Reif family) and eat popcorn and watch movies. What a great time that was. The kids enjoyed some popcorn and we laid and watched TV.


I guess our New Year's Resolutions didn't start until today, the 2nd!! We are going to try to eat better and exercise more as a family. I know same old, same old, but at least we have a goal.

Quote of the Day: "Happy New Year 2...1000...28, wait, what is it Mom?" -Lizzie said to me today, out of the blue, after lunch. I think she was stalling before her nap.