Back from the dead!

The past week has been brutal to our little family. A week ago on Monday Rylie got sick. Violently sick all of Monday night. It was bad. She woke up doing pretty well and after pretty much washing and wiping down the whole house i was thankful no one else seemed to get it! Then, Thursday night before bed Tristan kept saying his tummy hurt. He would go in the bathroom and put his face over the toilet like i had assumed he saw Rylie do a few days before. I thought it was a genius tactic for him to stay up and continually told him to go back to bed. Bad Mommy. Then, Jay got home around 9:00pm and Tristan ran over to say hi (he was still awake). He immediately ran to the bathroom and straight to the toilet he went with the same head over pose. But this time, he wasn't posing. That's when it hit me!! He really was sick, and his tummy really did hurt, and he was really trying to tell me the whole time. Dang i felt so bad!! He continued to visit the porcelain throne a few more times throughout the night. At the same time Jay was complaining he didn't feel so well and wanted to go to bed. I told him to stay in Tristan's room so he wouldn't get sick and Tristan could stay with me in our bed. Seriously, it wasn't even 10:00pm before Jay was in the bathroom completely sick as well. Perfect. 2 sick boys on the same night! Luckily Tristan was done about 1:00am, but i really can't say the same for Jay as he was up at least every 45 minutes. So sad. As with Rylie, the next day Tristan was in good spirits and acting as if nothing happened. Well, he did have the occasional bout of exhaustion but that is to be expected. Jay, however, SLEPT. The entire day. Seriously, i think we saw him for all of one hour and he was back to sleep. It was crazy. We have spent the weekend trying to recover and I really cannot believe i did not catch it. Especially since i was the one taking care of everyone!! God is good. Anyway, yesterday was the first day everyone felt well enough to get out for a bit. We weren't up for going to church yet (which, by the way, is where i think we caught it to begin with.. such is life) so we relaxed in the morning and then headed to Islands for lunch, walked around the mall for a bit, the kids got their face and hand painted, went to Rite Aide for some ice cream in a cup, and then hit up Petco to look at the pets. After all of that it is safe to say we were all ready for a nap. Anyway, I am so glad the flu has left our family and I am still praying i don't get it. Here are a few pictures of the kids with their paint. Rylie wanted a cat and it turned out awful, but it was because she moved a lot i think. This is when it looked the best. Tristan asked for a spider (looks more like a scorpion?!) on his hand and was so funny after.. he didn't want to move his arm at all. Too cute.

I love my kids!

I think sometimes I complain a little too much about my children. Yes, they are 2 and 3 and only 16 months apart (which I admit is very challenging) but I love them so much. I thought I would dedicate this post to them and 10 things I love about them!

1. The smiles on their faces when they wake up and see me in the morning. Complete joy.
2. I love their cuddles and sweet hugs and kisses.
3. I love that they pray for their Mommy and Daddy and sweet friends every single night.
4. I love to hear Rylie call Tristan "Brother"
5. I love hearing Tristan tell me to "Leave Rylie alone" if I have been too hard on her.
6. I love how quick they are to forgive me when I lose my cool.
7. I love that I look at them every day and see how much God loves me.
8. I love to hear Ry Ry shriek (very loudly) when she sees a balloon or birdie or something outside.
9. I love to hear them call me Mommy.
10. I love watching them hold hands and play together.

There are obviously so many things I love about my kids. This only scratches the surface. I needed to write this for me though. It is easy for me to get caught up in the messes and fights and little things like that. But I am blessed. I love them. So next time you hear me complain remind me of this...

Our beautifully dirty girl.

In awe that she caught the bubble. I love her.

Deals!!

I suggest all you Mamas out there rush on over to your local Toys R Us TODAY! I had to run some errands with the kids today and stopped by to pick up a writing toy for Tristan. (Remember, I am going to start teaching him to write and do Preschool stuff at home now. This thing is super cool and shows you how to write upper case, lower case, and shapes. This alone was $21.99) I walked in to find Crayola crayons, colored pencils, and markers on sale for Buy 1 Get 2 FREE. Yes! I spent $7.49 on 6 packages of Crayola products. I managed to walk out the door for $40 with all the Crayola stuff, the writing toy, construction paper, flash cards, and a Preschool workbook. Seriously, i feel so frugal! Yay for good deals! Now go tell your friends.

Change

I have spent the last few months trying to adjust to our new life here in California. I can't say that i feel like i have fully adjusted yet, but i know that will come with time. Anyway, Jay and I spent a lot of time with our new one income budget and quickly realized money would be tight and some things needed to be cut. One of those things was Tristan's Preschool. It was going to be $200/month and i can spend way less teaching him the same things at home. I was really looking forward to him going so he could get interaction with other kids but it was only 2 days per week and 3 hours per day. Who knows, maybe next year. The other thing we knew we had to cut out of the budget was, sadly, my hair. We just can't afford to get highlights like i did in Georgia. My hair was in desperate need for color so we talked about it and Jay wanted me to go Red. Well like a burgundy. I have done this before so it scared be but i took the plunge. My rockstar husband put the color on my hair, and let me tell ya.. it was RED. It freaked me out. So the next day he dyed it dark brown. I must say i really like it. Though i really am partial to blonde i think it is fun (and cheaper) to do something like this which is closer to my natural haircolor, minus the red of course. Anyway, here is the final result. It is going to take some getting used to for me. Here is to change...