I'm aching for spring

Joshua learning how to eat rice cereal - didn't do too bad

On Tuesday the weather was so nice. We went out to measure for a new fence and Josh just loved being outside. He was happy as a clam and I can't wait for it to get warm so that we can go outside more. I think that he is starting to get a little cabin fever like the rest of us. I am really excited for our new fence. We weren't going to do anything, but Tyler really needs to be able to go outside and play without me worrying about him. So instead of putting some of our tax return towards Tony's student loan, we are going to fix and extend our fence. I am really going to love having a completely fenced area to send Tyler out to play in. I just wish that it didn't cost so much money to do so. Honestly, we don't know how much longer we are going to stay in this house. If we will be here a

couple more years then it will be good to have the fence, but if it is shorter then I will feel like we wasted our money. I'm sure that it will only help us when we sale our house, so I will have a better attitude about spending the money. It will totally be worth it when I can just send Tyler out to play...I can't wait!

Boys are getting better (knock on wood)

Both boys seem to be doing a lot better these past couple of days. Josh seems to be feeling better and better (thank goodness for antibiotics). Last night he slept all through the night without coughing or making too much noise. Tyler even slept all through the night without calling me in (second night in a row for Tyler). Now that I have actually written this information, they both will probably wake up a lot tonight -- that always seems to be the case. Josh was an excellent sleeper before he got sick, so it is nice to see that he is going to back to sleeping through the night. He is such a happy baby, I love him so very much. I am kind of surprised how much he uses his left hand. He uses is right too, so it will be interesting to see which hand he ends up using. Both grandpa's are left handed and Tony is pretty ambidextrous, so it is defiantly in the family. Vamos a ver.
We are getting really excited to go to California in a couple of weeks. We could really use a vacation and it has been a while since we have been to Disneyland. I am really excited to see Tyler's reactions to the rides. He last went when he was about 20 months and really liked it then, but didn't show much expression. I think this time will be different. I hope that Josh has a good time too. He is such a happy baby, I think he will be good. The hard part might be when he is ready for a nap. Normally we just put him down and let him talk/whine/cry himself to sleep, but that might be hard there. I guess it will all work out. Lets hope for good weather and healthy kids!

What one has, so must the other...

I took Josh back to the doctors today and he now has an ear infection. He was pretty much all better, but started back with a funny cough and getting all stuffy. So...lucky him, he is on his first antibiotic. He took it well and I hope that he gets better for good this time. This whole thing has made me definitely not want to have another baby in the winter. Tyler never got any thing like this crap that Josh has had to deal with.

I am going to go to Desert Star Playhouse tonight with my mom and sisters. It should be lots of fun. I wasn't sure if I should cancel with Josh being sick, but I am taking the boys to Tony's mom and she is really good with them, so they should be good. Tony will get off of work and go and get the boys. It will be nice to have a night out.

What to say?

I am sitting here watching the Olympics and wondering what I should say. What am I thinking about? I am tired..and a little lonely. Tony is working evenings this week again and I always get lonely when he's on the late shift. Both boys are in bed (thank goodness). While I was trying to put Tyler to bed Josh started crying in the swing, so I had to cut our time short. Tyler did not like that and started crying. So I let him come out and sit on the couch until I put Josh down. Tyler was so tired that he fell asleep on the couch. I was happy about that. Then I put Josh down in his bed, awake, and he talked/whined himself to sleep. This is something that I never did with Tyler, which is partly why he is a bad sleeper. Josh is a great sleeper and we are so blessed to have him.

Do you ever want something really bad, but it just seems so hard to have it? I am feeling like that a little bit these days. I get into these ruts about working out and/or eating right and then I think, "Why should I even bother?...I have so far to go...it is just too hard...it is too over whelming." I have never really felt like this before, it is weird, and a little depressing. I am just trying to figure out what will work for me. Tony changes just a couple little things (like not drinking a gallon of chocolate milk a day) and he has already lost 16 pounds since the beginning of the year. I am happy for him, but that depresses me. I will work out hard and really do good on eating and I have a hard time losing a couple pounds...but I can gain a couple pounds with no problem. I don't know...it is something that I will probably struggle with my whole life...that really sucks.

I am really blessed! If my main problem is that I am overweight, then I am doing pretty darn good. Even for being heavy, I don't have any big health problems or too many limitations. I have a great husband, two awesome boys, a cute little clean house, the best job a mom could have, good friends, great in-laws, and a fabulous extended family. We definitely aren't rich, but we make enough to live comfortably and enjoy life. The church is true and our testimonies are strong. I really am blessed.

Happy Valentine's Day...and birthday

Today I turned 29. I can't believe how fast time has gone by. It has been a pretty good day today. It is hard to have a birthday on Sunday sometimes, because you can't go out and really party. Tony and I were going to go out on Friday, but the boys were sick so we didn't get to go out.

Tyler is still doing the breathing treatments with Josh. The first day we did it, he fell asleep each time that we gave it to him. The poor thing was just so sick and tired. The next day he was feeling a lot better and was a much happier kid. He had to go back and get two shots on Saturday for his antibiotic and then he will go again tomorrow and then be done. He is so funny that he would prefer to gets shots over taking medicine. Luckily both boys are feeling and doing much better. Both are cute and as silly as ever. I am so happy about that.

Even though they are doing better, they still have a little cough so we didn't take them to church today or to dinner at my parents. Tony was so good to stay home so that I could go to church and go to my parents for my birthday dinner. It was nice to go and eat there and hang out with the family. I got a couple of nice gifts and enjoyed chatting with my family without having to worry about the kids. It was a nice break.

Tony set up a nice massage for me on Saturday morning. It was a really nice birthday gift and he was so thoughtful to set it all up for me. I liked the massage, but didn't feel that I really got to enjoy it fully because I just kept thinking of all different types of things, so it wasn't as relaxing as I wish it was. If only I could turn off my brain. I wish I could do that at nights too sometimes so that I can get to sleep easier. Tons to think about all the time. Mostly I just want to think about how much I love my family! Tony is the best husband and is so wonderful to me and the boys. My two boys are gorgeous, smart, and so loving. I love them so much and feel so grateful to have such amazing guys in my life, all three of them.

What comes up...must come down

So now Tyler is pretty sick. He has had a cold for a couple weeks and got a little worse last week. When I took him to the doctor, she said that he probably got a new bug, but he didn't have an ear infection or anything that she needed to do for him. So then Wednesday, Tyler's cough got really bad. He has coughed all day and night since then. So today I decided to take him in to make sure that their wasn't something that had developed since the last time I took him in to the doctors. Well, come to find out the he has an ear infection and his oxygen was low, so they gave him a breathing treatment while we were at the doctors. He thought that maybe he had pneumonia, but after x-rays he saw that he has a mucus chunk in his lung. So they gave us a prescription for the ear and told us to do some of Josh's breathing treatments on Tyler.

Tyler does not do medicine. He hates taking it and when we have to give it to him we end up pinning him down and gagging it down his throat. Then he normally spits or throws most of it up. So while doing this today, Tony decided that we had had enough. So he called the doctor and made an appointment to just have them give Tyler a shot instead of doing the liquid antibiotic. It is three days of getting one shot a day vs 10 days of 2 doses daily with the liquid medicine. So the nurse said that this type of shot hurts a lot more then other shots, so too bad for Tyler. The doctor wanted us to bring him in again tomorrow just to get checked so he will be able to get is second shot tomorrow and then go again on Monday and then it will be done. So I guess that will be good to have it all over.

Josh is still doing better. Still has a cough, but besides that is really great. We are still doing breathing treatments on him, but we don't have to do it as much and, hopefully, in a couple of days we can stop doing the treatments because he will be all better. We really need us all to just get better. We definitely don't appreciate being healthy until we are sick. Tony and I were going to go out on a date today to celebrate Valentine's Day and my birthday, but now we are just sitting home with sick kids. Happy Valentine's Day to us!

Things are looking up

Josh seems to be doing quite a bit better these past couple of days. He hasn't been wheezing at all, and just has a cough that comes and goes. We are still doing the breathing treatments, but I am going to call his doctor tomorrow and see how much longer she says we should continue with the treatments. I went into work today and took the boys to Tony's mom. I wasn't sure if I should take Josh out of the house, but since he was doing better I thought it would be okay. I am glad that I did because I got a lot done at work and Josh and Tyler did great at Grandma's. Now I won't feel bad about taking them back to Grandma's on Friday so that Tony and I can go on a date for my birthday and Valentine's Day. It should be fun, it has been a long time since we have gone out.
The other night while I was on my bed blogging, Tyler was playing and then he climbed into the pack-in-play and fell asleep. It was only 6:30 pm and I totally forgot that he was even in the room with me until Tony came in and found him there. We just had to take a picture of him sleeping in Josh's bed. He still thinks that he doesn't need naps on most days, so he gets really tuckered out in the evenings. I still think that he needs naps and I hope that he soon will agree with me and stop being a pill about it.

The Journey Continues

Josh seems to be doing a little better today. He doesn't sound quite as bad as he did yesterday. We have been doing the breathing treatments around the clock and he generally does pretty good with them. Sometimes he is done before the medicine is, so that can be hard. Here are a couple pictures of Josh using the nebulizer.
He is such a trouper and I am so proud of him for being so strong. I am still worried that he will get worse and then I will have to take him to the hospital, but we pray that won't happen. He is still smiling through this whole thing and I am so happy that it seems to be doing a little better.
We have him sitting up in his swing most the day and then put him down at night. I was so proud of him last night how well he took the treatments in the middle of the night and then was able to talk him self right back to sleep.

He hasn't been able to eat very well with this whole thing. It takes a lot of work for him to eat, so he usually only takes about 3 ounces of milk a feeding, where before it was more like 6. We have found that if we give him 6, he just ends up throwing most of it back up when he coughs. Not so much fun. So we give him the 3 ounces and then feed him more often. We are not out of the woods yet, but here's to praying that he will get better soon.

RSV = No Fun

It is so sad when kids are sick. Yesterday after we got back from a play date at a ward members house (The Larsen's), Tyler started acting like he was sick. He climbed into my lab and fell asleep. Then after his nap he woke up with a fever. So since he had a cold for a couple of weeks, I thought that he might have an ear infection. I thought that maybe I should take Josh too because he started coughing a lot that day and sounded like he was kind of wheezing. The nurse and Tony kind of talked me out of taking Josh because he had no fever, so I just took Tyler. Turned out that Tyler didn't have an ear infection. His doctor thought that he was just getting a new sickness. So that was good to know. Then this morning when Josh woke up he sounded terrible. He was so stuffy and the wheezing was worse, so I called the doctors first thing. I got an appointment for 10:20 am and me and the two boys headed over there.
When we got there we saw an ambulance in the parking lot and I thought that was kind of weird. Then while we were waiting to see the doctor another ambulance came and the people brought the bed in and went in the back. So that was way weird too. So when we got called in the nurse told us that they already sent two kids to Primary's Children's Hospital and didn't want to send any more. Ummm, AMEN!!! I sure didn't want to have to send Josh to the hospital in an ambulance!!! So they checked his oxygen level and said that it was pretty low. So they had Josh do a breathing treatment with a nebulizer. His oxygen levels got better after the treatment, so they said that was good. So Josh has RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus). I hardly go any where or do anything and yet my kids still get sick. I guess that is just life. So the doctor sent us home with a nebulizer machine of our own and a prescription for medicine to put in it. So we have to do the breathing treatment every 3-4 hours, even through the night. Josh does really well with the treatments so far. He is such a champ. He is still a happy kid and in general has a good temperament through all this. Which has really made me feel a little better about this whole thing. I know that we are just starting this journey and I just hope and pray that we can help him at home and he wont have to go to the hospital. That would just break my heart. I tear up just thinking about it. My poor baby!

St. George Fun

This weekend we went to St. George. We left on Friday morning and got back Sunday evening. We drove down with Tony's parents, so we met at their house and then headed down to St. George. Their car has a DVD player, so that entertained Tyler pretty much the whole drive down. Josh did a great job in the car. I was worried that he wouldn't like sitting that long and would end up crying a lot, but really he did great. Tony was able to feed him his bottle in his car seat and he was a happy baby.

We first went to Tony's grandparent's house and visited with them. Then we decided to go swimming in their pool at their complex. It is an outdoor pool, but in the winter they put a big bubble over the pool and hot tub. It is really quite cool to swim in a big bubble. The water was warm and the boys had a good time. I thought that Josh would like it more then he did. He was good for a little while, but then wanted to get out. Lucky for us Tony's dad didn't swim so he held Josh while the rest of us finished swimming. Tyler really loved the pool and we had a good time playing in the water.

After swimming Tony, the boys, and I went to see my Grandpa so that we could get the key to his house. He remarried after my Grandma passed away and is living in his new wife's house, so we went there to get the key. She, Anna, only lives like 4 doors down from my grandpa's house, so it is really nice. No one is currently living in my Grandpa's house, so he let us stay there. It was nice to have our own place to sleep and to relax with the boys.

Then we went to McDonald's for dinner. Tyler played and we ate. He really liked that play ground and their were some really nice kids there that he played with. Then we went to see Tony's grandparents sing in a "Hee Haw" show. Some people from their complex do this show every year and that was the main reason that we went down. The show was really fun and his grandparents did a great job. Tyler and Josh had enough about half way through the show, so we went and put them to bed. We had tickets for Saturday night too, so we didn't feel too bad having to leave.

Saturday morning we went to breakfast and then met up with Tony's parents. We decided to do a little shopping at Costco and Walmart. Classic places, always good times. We like to go to Costco's in different cities to see what different stuff that they have. LOVE IT. Then we went back to Tony's grandparents and went swimming again. Tony's mom got the boys some cute swim robs at Costco and they worked out perfect. It was another fun time swimming. We got some fun pool toys at Walmart, so that made it that much more fun.

After we went back to my grandpa's house to shower and get ready to go to dinner with my grandpa and Anna. My aunt Connie and uncle Jeff came to dinner as well. It was really nice to spend time with them, since we don't get to see each other very often. After dinner we went back to Tony's grandparents to see their show again. This time the boys were much better and we were able to stay for the whole show. Once again, it was really good.

Sunday we packed, cleaned, and then went over to Connie and Jeff's house. It was really nice to spend some time with Connie and her kids. I got to meet my cousins fiance and get to know them all a little better. Connie gave Tyler a really cool pirate ship toy that used to be her sons and it is really cool. Then we headed over to the cemetery to see my grandma's grave. It took us a while to find where she was, but then Tony found it. It was a lovely day and it was nice to show her that we were thinking of her. My grandpa made a comment that he doesn't visit the cemetery much because my grandma isn't there, which I agree, but it was nice to go there. Then we went and met up with Tony's parents and then headed back home. The boys did good in the car again, but once we got into the valley Josh had enough. He was happy when he got out of the car. It was great to know that Josh will do good in the car since we are planning on driving to California in March. That should be a fun trip that we are really looking forward to going on. But until then, St. George was a pretty good time!