Happy Easter

I have spoken a couple times about Josie's ears here lately. She had an appointment with her ENT yesterday and he said her tubes are not falling out. Joe is the one that took her to the appointment and I asked him, is he sure? I then asked why her ear had been bleeding. He said she had a sore in her ear that she must have picked at. Dr. Rand said everything looked great and that we wanted the tubes to stay in there as long as possible. Well I think we are doing good on that because they have now been in there for almost a year and three months.

Joe worked on the girls' playhouse before he took Josie to the doctor. He got the inside painted and a shelf put up. When I got home we moved their kitchen set out there and some of their plates and utensils. Our neighbor gave them a little bench to put in there so now their house is quite homey.

We have also been trying to figure out where we were going to put everyone when the baby got here. We tried for several weeks to get the girls to sleep together in the queen sized bed that is now in Lol's room. Well it has never worked. Each night we heard "She touched me," "She pulled my hair," "She isn't laying right," etc. So we came to the conclusion that that was not going to work and that we were going to have to get another twin bed and put them in Josie's room. Well it just so happens that Aunt Sheila & Uncle Quint had a twin bed we could have for Lol. Uncle Quint brought it over last night. So now we have to get a mattress for it. Anyone out there have a twin mattress and needs a queen, I'll trade you. We will be getting rid of the queen bed and will be setting up Lol's room as the nursery for Baby J.

Speaking of Baby J, we have decided to change the girl name. If this baby is a girl we are going to name her Josalyn. We do not have a middle name yet. We are working on it.

The rest of this week with the exception of tonight is going to be busy for us. Thursday night we have Maundy Thursday service at church, Friday night we have pictures of the girls as a donation to Relay for Life (we purchased a $10.00 package and the money goes to Relay for Life) and then we have our Good Friday service, Joe works the weekend but the girls and I will go to the Easter Egg Hunt at church and then that night we will have Easter dinner and egg dying with some good friends, and then Sunday is Easter. I'm actually thinking of getting the girls up early enough to attend the sunrise service, but I don't know if that will happen or not. I guess we could all get up with Joe when he leaves to go to work. And at some point the Easter Bunny has to go shopping for the girls' baskets. The Easter Bunny hasn't done that yet. Bad bunny.

Well I hope everyone has a good rest of the week and hopefully you are all remembering why this is such a special time. Jesus loves you so much that he died for you. How awesome is that. Jesus knows me this I love !!!

Catching Up Again

Here I am playing catch up again. The weekend of the 19-21 not too much happened. Friday after work I took the girls to see my grandmother and dad. While there I got a call from Erica saying that she had forgotten to tell me that she had been working with the girls about 911, firefighters, and policemen, and basically told me to watch them around the phone to make sure that they did not call 911. And then she said that Josie was so cute when they were talking about it because she told Erica that that was what we needed the night our cat had the kittens. I thought that was sooo sweet. Speaking of the kittens they are growing like weeds. They are learning to walk and Claire is having a hard time keeping them contained. I find it funny that I am not the only stressed out mother in the house.

Joe worked almost the entire weekend and so the girls and I just played outside and went to church. That Saturday night we did visit with MeMaw and Paw-Paw. Saturday Joe did bring home a playhouse that someone had given us. It needs some work, but the girls are really excited about it. This weekend we did do some painting on the inside and I hung up an old baby swing so that the girls could swing their "babies."

March 22nd I had a doctors appointment. I got to hear baby Js heartbeat and I was able to record it on my phone for Joe since he couldn't make the appointment. Everything is looking good so far. This Thursday I will be 12 weeks. It is flying by and we still have not done anything besides getting the van to get ready.

We had Chris, Crystal, Elias & Annaleigh over for dinner one night and Quint, Sheila, Caden, and Ansleigh over another night. Friday night we took the girls to the circus. We went with Chris, Crystal, Elias & Annaleigh. We went to the preshow and that was the best part. We were inches away from an elephant and not a caged one. The girls loved it. Saturday Joe and Josie went fishing with Chris and Elias on Chris' boat. She caught 3 fish and had a blast. Lol and I played with Crystal and Annaleigh and then went and visited with Other Mama. Yesterday was Palm Sunday and so both the girls walked in with the plam branches. They both did a great job. Josie took it so serious, she actually waved her branch and didn't just hold it. She was so cute. Lol did great too. After naps we played outside and worked on the yard a little.

My next doctor's appointment is April 20th. I still have no energy and this weekend I threw up twice to either the sight or smell of something. After the second time Joe looked at me and said yep you are definitely pregnant. I guess the other proof I had provided to him (ultrasound pictures, heatbeat, and growing belly) were not enough. He has been so great though dealing with my moodyness and helping out more when I don't feel 100%.

The girls are loving the warmer weather on the days when it is warmer. They would much rather be outside than inside. It was so sweet watching them play with their dolls yesterday and reminded me of me when I was little playing with my dolls in my playhouse. Josie continues to soak everything up and grows smater every day. Lol is doing better with her colors and is starting to recongnize some letters. They both still love to sing, dance, and read. A lot of mornings or nights we are privilege to our own little concert with Jolie rocking out on her little guitar to "This Little Light of Mine." The way she says shine is so cute. Jolie is hilarious and definitely will be the class clown. She loves making people laugh. I'm curious as to what kind of personality this third little one will have. I guess we will find out soon enough.

Catching up

We have had a lot going on and I have just been way too exhuasted to update. But I am finally making myself.

First things first, our cat had four kittens last week. I'm trying to remember the exact day and it was either Tuesday or Wednesday. There are two dirty white ones, a reddish brown one, and a dark gray one. The girls love them and Claire (our cat) has done so well. She lets the girls look at them and pet them without get aggressive or defensive. However after having them in a box in the bathroom for a couple days she did move them to behind our dresser. Everyone tells us that this is completely normal. Joe seems to think that one of them has their eyes open, but we haven't really seen them since she moved them. We hear them crying when she leaves to get food or go potty, but we have left them alone so that Claire feels better about the whole situation. We might keep one, we really haven't talked about it so if anyone wants a free kitten, please let me know. Claire is a great cat. She is awesome with the girls and has never gotten aggressive with the girls no matter what they may do to her. A lot of times she sleeps in the hall where she can see all three bedroom doors. We know nothing about the proud papa.

We finally got the van on Tuesday. You know what, that was the same night/morning that Claire had her kittens. So some were born Tuesday night and some Wednesday morning. Anyway, back to the van. It has been awesome. The girls love it. It has two bucket seats up front, a row for two adults or three children (without car seats) and then a row for three adults or three-four children (without car seats). So we put the girls in their car seats on the last row so that way little bit can be on the second row right behind the driver. The girls are getting adjusted to Mommy not being able to reach to hand them things anymore because they are two rows back, but other than that they love it.

Friday night I helped Mary Kelley decorate for Jesse's birthday. We worked from 6:00p.m. to 9:30 p.m. It was Mickey Mouse theme so we hung a parachute from the ceiling to make it look like Mickey's clubhouse. We had balloons every where and had the fellowship hall looking pretty darn cute. Saturday we got up and go get presents for the two birthday parties we were attending that day. Jesse's from 11-1 and Elias' from 2-4. Elias had a deer birthday party. It was also decorated pretty darn cute. The girls had a blast at both parties. Here are some pictures from Elias' party:

Elias opening our gift:


Josie & Elias looking at the birthday cake:


Josie, Nana, & Elias with the cake:


Lol & Annaleigh playing:


Josie, Elias, and me watching Joe blow up balloons to do balloon animals. (He actually did pretty good. I was very impressed with him):


The kids playing:


Joe and Annaleigh:

After the party we stayed and helped clean up and get the fellowship hall back together. Well actually Joe did most of the helping, I did do a little. But as we were cleaning up Nana called us all outside to see this:


It was beautiful. And what was sweeter was Josie said, "He got a rainbow for his birthday." Like God had placed it right there in the sky for Elias. After doing two parties back to back with no naps we headed straight home. The girls and I were asleep by 7:00 p.m. There could not have been a better day to daylight savings on because they never knew the difference. Sunday we went to church. Joe had session after church and Other Mama took Josie shopping for the baby. So Lol and I went home and took naps. I love Sunday afternoon naps. Everyone got home about the same time as Josie showed us what she had helped pick out. She even took one of the bibs and put it on my stomach to make sure it would fit. That night we actually got some cleaning done.

I have been asked to lead Vacation Bible School again. It is kind of a tradition to lead it while pregnant so I glady said yes. I have asked Mary Kelley to help me and we already have the material picked out. It is called "Backstage with the Bible." It is has a concert/hollywood/red carpet theme. It is going to be so much fun and we are super excited about. We brainstormed while decorating for Jesse's birthday party.

I am 10 weeks today. It is so hard to belive that I am 1/4 of the way and that I'm almost out of the first trimester. I did get sick last week but I really think it was because I had not eaten enough. I also tried to get sick Sunday during church but I scrounged around and found some crackers to eat. Compared to my pregnancies with the girls this has been heaven. It just feels too good to be true. I just know I'm going to start throwing up non stop like I did with them at any time, but so far I haven't. Everyone keeps trying to convince me it is definitely a boy because of this. We shall see. I have a doctors appointment Monday. I will get to hear Baby Js little heart beat. Some days I'm still in shock that Joe and I are going to be parents of three and then others I remind myself that this is actually what we had always wanted. We had just convinced ourself otherwise because of finances. Niether one of us ever had the desire to be parents of four so we will definitely put an end to this no matter what the sex of this baby is :)

Ups and Downs

This has been a crazy week, but I guess I'll start with our weekend first. Friday night we went to Chris and Crystals to visit. Elias, Annaleigh, and the girls had a blast playing together. Saturday morning we were up bright and early and headed to MeMaw and Paw-paw's for breakfast. After breakfast Josie, Joe, and Paw-paw went squirrel hunting. I headed to Birmingham for my best friend's from high school baby shower, and Lol stayed with MeMaw. I got home around 4:30 and all of us headed to Montgomery to pick up our van. Yes, that is right, we are getting a van. It is a 1998 Ford Windstar. It is sand colored with tan interior. I am so excited and can not wait for it to get out of the shop. (It had an electrical issue that we are having checked out.) As soon as we found out we were pregnant my mind started racing with all the changes we would have to make and vehicle was one of them. So I am so happy that this is one thing off of my checklist of worries. Saturday night we ate dinner with MeMaw, Paw-Paw, Quint, Sheila, Caden & Ansleigh. It was really nice. It had been a good while since we had all gotten together to visit. Sunday we went to church and then Other Mama, Josie and I went shopping. The girls got their Easter dresses and two other dresses. Now we just have to find shoes. That night we just vegged at home. Monday morning Josie woke up with a horrible cough and a slight fever. I sent them to Erica's thinking it was just a cold. Erica called me around 2:30 p.m. saying that both girls had fevers of over 101. I called Joe and he left work to head this way to get them. By the time he got to Wetumpka to get them it was almost 5:00 p.m. so he just stopped at my office and waited for me to get off work. We got to Pri-Med a little after 5:00 p.m. and the waiting room was full of people. We waited around for 30 minutes and then asked if we could go to dinner and them call us on our cell if it was our turn. They said that was fine so we took the girls to eat. We were gone about an hour. When we got back there was still 2 people ahead of us. So we had to wait around for another 30 minutes. When we finally got back to see the nurses Josie had a fever of 102.4. We went over all the symptoms and they did flu and strep tests-- both came back negative. Then they wanted to do chest x-rays. Lol was being really clingly to Joe so I told her that I would take Josie back there and then Joe could go with Lol. But I couldn't because I am pregnant. So I had to hold Jolie in the door way from our room so that she could hear Josie and Daddy a few doors down. It helped that the nurses thought she was so cute that she needed a sucker. Jolie's x-ray came back good but Josie's lungs had a good bit of fluid. They finally determined that Jolie had an ear infection and the beginnings of what Josie had and Josie didn't quite have croup and didn't quite have pnemonia, but close. The doctor was so worried about her that they gave her a liquid steriod and an antibotic shot before we left. Because people can react to the shot she was given we were required to wait 20 minutes. So Joe and Lol headed to Wal-Greens to drop off the prescriptions while Josie and I waited. Bless her heart she fell asleep in my arms while we waited our 20 minutes. After our 20 minutes were up we finally got to leave at 8:45 p.m. (We had been there since a little after 5:00 p.m.) Joe took the girls home while I headed to Wal-Greens to wait on our prescription and pick up a humidifer. I got to Wal-greens a little after 9:00 p.m. and did not leave until 10:15 p.m. They were that backed up from Pri-Med being backed up. Needless to say I was exhausted by the time I got home. We woke up the girls to give them their medicines (3 a piece) and Josie even got a Pedalyte popsicle before going back to sleep because her fever was running high again. Joe stayed at home with them Tuesday and Mrs. Emily stayed home with them yesterday. Monday night I slept with Josie and Joe splet with Lol so we could keep an eye on their fevers during the night. Tuesday night Joe slept with both of them in Lol's bed so he could watch over them as they slept. It was soooooooooooo sweet. Lol did not run a fever yesterday so she got to go back to school today. I have talked to Erica a couple of times and she said she is doing really good. Joe stayed at home with Josie again because she ran fevers yesterday. So far no fever today, but she has been telling Joe that she does not feel well. Bless her heart. Maybe today she can rest up some more and get lots of good snuggling time with Daddy.

I am 8 weeks along today. BabyCenter says the baby is the size of a kidney bean. So far I still have not had any sickness. I usually feel a little nauseas in the morning, but so far it has not been bad enough for me to get sick. I am still amazed and I know that I could start getting sick at any time, but I must admit it is very nice. I was very very sick with both of the girls. I do have a lot less energy. I can definitely tell I'm older chasing after two little ones with this pregnancy. Josie has been telling us she wants a brother and Lol could care less as long as it is a baby. She has become very protective of her babies these days. By my counting it should be towards the end of May or beginning of June before we find out if it is a Joel or a Joelle. We have picked out names as that is the one of the things we can do at this point. If it is a boy we will name him Joseph Randall Burdick, Jr. and call him Joel, and if it is a girl we will name her Joelle Brylee. What is everyone's guesses on what it is?