Houston is getting so good at moving around. He will regularly will go from laying flat, and do a sit up to play with things in his lap. Such a strong little guy. 

 Heath has officially adopted Houston's BearBear. He takes such good care of him; nurses him with his belly button, puts him in Houston's bed for naps, and even made him a carseat to sit in.

 Lately Heath will come into the room and say, "Hey Mom, whatzup?" 

It always sounds so weird coming from him.

 Houston is getting to such a fun age. He babbles a lot now, "dadadada" is his most common sound.  He loves to play with Heath and laugh and squeel. 

 He's such a sweet little guy.

 Baby Tylenol bottles may be "childproof" but they are not "Heathproof" Sometimes I'll let Houston play with one because they rattle, but we won't be doing that anymore. The other day while they were playing it got pretty quiet so I looked over at Heath and he had a huge hand full of pink Tylenol pills heading for his mouth. Luckily I caught it. 

This was a toy I played with as a girl. Heath really enjoyed it.

 Heath has become a pretty crazy little boy lately. Just a ball of energy that loves to get into everything. There are some times though he'll just come up to us and want to snuggle and say "I love you mommy" Those little eyes just melt your heart.

 We love all the birds around our house and Heath has been doing really well learning most of their names. The most recent being the woodpeck-turds.  It makes me laugh every time he says it.

 Heath was supposed to be taking a nap, I went into check on him but he wasn't in his bed.  He was hiding in a pile of his stuffed animals, much like ET. 

He was saying, "Shhh mommy, the puppy's sleeping." He loves to pretend like he's a puppy these days. 

 I think Heath is going through a growth spurt. He has been eating so much lately. Quite frequently we'll be eating dinner and he'll finish his plate then grab mine and start spooning the food off it onto his plate. He loves food!

I've started slowly painting our carport which as you can see is very needed. We go play outside every day we have good weather so I've been painting about a pole a day. 

 Matt picked up a gallon of "oops" paint for the job. Heath really enjoyed "helping" me paint with his water and brush, but kept trying to lick the poles saying they were  peanut butter. It probably didn't help that I used an old peanut butter jar for the paint cup.

For your viewing pleasure...

Grandma sent us some Easter Treats!

 Heath just had to eat breakfast out of the little BearBear cups from his basket.

 and then spent close to an hour sticking and re-sticking the clings to the window.

It was a lot of fun. Thanks Dama!

Happy Burthday Tooles Daddy! 

I told Heath we could dye eggs when Daddy came home, it was a hard wait.

All of his eggs turned out to be about the same colour, since they all went into every colour. He sure had fun doing it, and surprisingly didn't make too much of a mess.

Then Daddy strategically placed the eggs outside...

 and we came in and enjoyed the loot just as it started to rain.

 It was a really good day!

 We sure love you Daddy! Happy Birthday.

Sunshine Award

"My wonderful sister by mariage gave me a blog award which came with some rules that were made to be broken.  So now you get to read 10 random things about me." -Well said Katie. ...And since I'm too tired to think of another way to put it

This is kinda new to me: talking about myself on here. I started this blog to be a "scrapbook" for our kids so they could look back at their lives someday, and because I have a horrible memory and didn't want to forget everything. I know my mom kept calendars with little things written on them about us (me and my sibblings) and I've always loved that. But I guess it's good that there's something about their Mommy on here too.  :)

The Questions: 

1. What is your Favorite color? All my life I would have answered that with Green, but I realized a few months ago that I don't really feel that way anymore.  I would say I'm still in the process of picking a new color, but that bright Red and Toothpaste Blue have been in the running.

2. What is your favorite animal?  When I was in elementary school my nickname was Cheetah Girl because I was the fastest kid in my class every field day. I've always been somewhat partial to them because I love to run fast and I think they're beautiful but as far as having one for a pet, NO WAY! I think I would love to have sheep someday.  Sheep to live on my roof (since we hope to build an in ground house) and to mow my lawn for me (a chore that in my mind is always wonderful, until I'm actually out there doing it.) and to just be beautiful against the green yard.

3. I absolutely HATE tornadoes, and bad thunderstorms too for that matter. Maybe it's a control thing, but they terrify me. Can you blame a poor girl, if we've been hit twice who's to say there's not more? I may be slightly ridiculous about it, but when the weather turns bad (which it seems to do quite frequently around here) it's pretty safe to say that I will be in the hidie hole with our kids and the weather radio. Matt has (over the years) become really good about it and usually doesn't put up too much of a resistance about going down. I think what I'm most afraid of it the thought of one coming and pulling one of our kids away.  During the one that hit Joplin, and our house (after it had weakened to just an F2) I remember thinking "If this gets any stronger it's going to suck us out" I think my biggest fear is not being strong enough to hold on to one of our kids and them being pulled away : (     In my mind it's worth it for me to be slightly psychotic about it, if it means I am educated about what's coming our direction and prepared as much as I can be to prevent something horrible from happening. So if you see me with our weather radio out in public, or I don't go somewhere because they're predicting bad weather don't be too surprised.


4. I am definitely a shower at night sort of person for several reasons: 1) Matt is home then and can watch the kids so I can shower in peace, not worrying about anything just enjoying my only me time of most days. 2) I really don't like the dry feeling you have when you shower in the morning, just starts my day of weird. 3) I love knowing that my bed is clean and my body is clean. If I shower in the morning my bed will always have dirty me sitting in it for several hours making it dirty (may not be quite logical, but that's what goes on in my brain)

5. I love quiet. Most people I know can't stand it and always need some sort of background noise, but not me. I love silence. Don't get me wrong, there are definitely times for noise, but when Im home just relaxing i'll take the quiet.

 6. My favorite pattern is the stardust shoe pattern. I love this pattern because these were the only shoes that would fit onto Heath's feet, and they are super cute! If you observe my sewing habits though you would notice I'm not really a "pattern" person. I kinda like to get the general idea and do my own thing. Sometimes it works great, other times I learn things, but I always enjoy it.

7. I'm not really that much of a movie person, I use it mostly as a social tool, but there are two movies I think I could watch over and over, A Knights Tale, and That Thing You Do.

8. I love to listen. I'm not so much of a talker but give me someone who initiates most of the conversation and I love it! I really enjoy visiting!

9. My favorite day of the week is Sunday. I love it because I know Matt won't work and will just enjoy the day with me and the boys and not have to feel guilty about it.

10. My favorite flowers are anything bright and happy and beautiful! I'm not picky when it comes to them.

Nominees: I'll let you know on your blog!

Houston was pretty tired, but I wanted to get the next load of laundry going before I put him down for a nap. I guess he didn't need me after all.

 He had his 6 month check up & shots. He was 29" and 20.5#  Still off the charts in everything.  He got a fever the next day and seemed pretty miserable.  It was new to me, the first time either of them have had a fever from shots.  poor little guy. 

We spent most of conference weekend at Matt's parents house.  It was a wonderful conference with lots of uplifting talks that have helped me to be a better person. We had a great time with family too!

 

We took a trip to Louisville to visit Uncle Pete and Aunt Amy for a few days. It was a really fun visit and seemed to go way too quickly. Sadly our camera is going crazy so we don't really have any of the pictures of the cousins together : ( but here are some from out visit to the zoo.

Lily, Me, Owie, Bertie, Tahnee, Houston (inside the blanket covered carseat) Heath, and Maren.

It was a wet trip complete with a tornado warning but we had a really fun time.  Heath was scared of most of the animals (such a silly boy), but really liked the zebras and turtle/lizard exhibit. 

We sure miss everybody and Heath talks about the cousins, especially Bertie a lot. It was sure nice to get to go!

The weather has been Beautiful here lately so we have been enjoying!

Heath kept talking about "Hockey Birds" which I realized are Mocking Birds.

He also found a stick that is shaped like a gun and started shooting it out into the field saying, "Shoot My-woooodies!" I figured that one out the other night when we were getting home pretty late and could hear the coyotes howling. "Shoot Coyoties!"

We hit the road again. This time for an interview in St Louis. The weather on the way there was horrible. We drove most of the way in pouring rain and several patches of hail. It was super loud and took quite a bit longer than normal. Luckily the boys were super good and enjoyed watching the rain out the windows. 

 We stayed with the McGees and it was really fun to catch up with them. Heath really enjoyed their Guenna pig.  :)

 

While Matt was at the school touring and interviewing the boys and I went to the science center. We were hoping to go to the Zoo, but it was pouring most of the day. We got there just about lunch time so stopped and ate our pb&h sandwiches.

Houston was super good the whole time and Heath wasn't too crazy either.

Im not sure but I think we had a puzzle just like this growing up.  Blocks with views of different birds on each side. I know I played with one somewhere as a child, it definitely brought back memories.

We especially loved the bridge. It wasn't very busy so Houston and I parked ourselves on a bench while Heath ran and ran.

The double stroller Aunt Becca gave us has been a life saver! It wouldn't have been possible without!

After we picked up Matt we headed towards Springfield to visit my family. Shortly after getting there Heath asked me to open a candy for him he had found. 

 My first thought was,"No you don't need it." but Matt had just talked to me about how I don't let Heath do things, a lot of the time for no good reason, always too protective, don't let him learn for himself, sort of stuff. Which is pretty true for the most part. But anyways, because we had just had that discussion I went against my initial thought and opened the candy and gave it to him. Shortly thereafter Heath started choking. He was screaming every so often so I knew he could breath but the candy was definitely stuck in his throat. I was staying calm and trying to get him to calm down and hopefully get it down on his own. My sister on the other hand was freaking out and started yelling that we needed help and that I was going to kill him by not doing anything.   My dad heard her and came running upstairs and started whacking Heath on the back to dislodge the candy.  Well this just got the candy stuck, and he quit breathing. I tried the regular Heimlich a bit but nothing was happening. So we decided to just jump in the car and get to the hospital 3 minutes down the road. Dad called 911 to tell them we were on our way and drove fast! By the time we got out to the main road though Heath had worked it out and was doing ok. He started talking, "Mommy, candy, owie, neck." in a very raspy voice. 
 When we got to the ER he seemed to be just fine again and even took a drink of water for us. Dad and I checked in and talked with a nurse about what happened and asked if there was any reason to stay or if we could just leave.  She asked a Dr and they said we should probably get him Xrayed to make sure it didn't go down into his lungs which could cause problems in the coming days. By this time Matt was there (he had taken his brothers home at the time of the incident) so I was starting to feel much better. Heath and I got there about 8pm.  After we checked in they took us to a secluded area so we wouldn't be around all the sickly people in the waiting area which was super nice! Some of those people looked so horrible. Heath ran and ran and jumped all around. There was a TV with a Notre Dame tournament game on so that helped bide the time a little bit.

When we were about ready to go make sure they hadn't forgotten about us (12:00am) they called us back for the Xray. That was done really fast and they took us to another room where we waited....

and waited...

and waited...

and waited...

and waited!

about 2:00am we may have gotten a little loopy...  

Heath would not fall asleep and we were all so exhausted. About every hour they came in to check Heath's vitals which in the beginning was a huge ordeal, but as the night went on and we all got tireder Heath would just kinda lay there and let them do it. They kept saying they were waiting on a radiologist to read the xray.  When they would leave the room we may have said things like, "How hard is it to see if there is a piece of candy on the picture?" "Just let me see it, I'll tell you." "I could have driven all the way to the vet we know in Branson, had him xray Heath, and then driven home by now." but maybe we didn't. Surely we wouldn't say things like that! Anyways they brought a popsicle in for Heath to be sure he could eat ok. At 3am I went out and said I had a nursing baby we had left with family and wondered if it was going to be much longer, if they needed to bring him here so he could eat, or if we would be done soon? They said they'd check, and a few minutes later the Dr came in and said the xray was clear and we could go.

I learned a few things that day: 

1- When you have a feeling that you should or shouldn't do something listen to it.

2- When there is a crisis situation do what you know to be right, don't let others sway you. 

3- Time moves So SLOWLY when something is wrong with one of your children and nothing you're doing is fixing it. 

4- It is the worst feeling in the world when you think your child might die, even if it only lasts 30 seconds or so. 

5- Always have your insurance cards with you, inside your wallet, in your purse/diaper bag. (when we were packing to go to St Louis I almost took them out, thinking we won't need these. But then thought why take them out? and left them in) 

6- Always keep your keys in the same place as the car and somewhere easily located so you can find them quickly. Not in your husbands pocket who isn't at the house. 

7- Im sure there are other things I learned but Im drawing a blank. Anyways, it was a very scary moment and I hope it never happens again. 

The next day we woke Heath up about noon he was so tired. Houston who had a fun night with Grandma slept normally, so he was ready to be awake at about 8 the next morn.  I was pretty tired but not as dysfunctional as I thought I would be.  Kayla took me to get a relax perm/body wave as we had previously planned before our crazy night.  It was pretty fun to do something just the 2 of us and get pampered a bit.  

I really like it, it's so much easier than strait hair and I actually have some body now!

We stayed another night with Grandma and Grandpa and went to church with them the next morning.

Other than our little incident we had a wonderful time visiting!