January Cruise 2013

For Justin and my Christmas present to ourselves we decided to go on a cruise.  Originally we weren't even planning on getting each other anything, but Justin was obsessed with getting in one last vacation before our third addition arrives.  We found a great deal on a 5 night cruise out of New Orleans at the last minute and decided to book it.  Justin's parents agreed to watch the kids while we were away.  Although it was great to get away and a lot of fun, I am not a fan of a January cruise.  It was way to cold!  New Orleans was freezing as well as on the boat.  It only got warm the two days we were in Mexico.  So I was not a fan of that.  On a tropical cruise vacation I want to be hot!  Also I do prefer week long cruises vs. only the 5 nights.  You can tell a difference in the food quality as well as the nicer boats are reserved for the longer cruises.  We went down the night before the boat left and stayed at a really nice hotel that one of Justin's friends was able to get us at a great rate.  It was at the Hyatt convention center literally right across from the cruise port!  It also had the best free breakfast I have ever had.  Delicious!  We were also walking distance to Bourbon street and the French quarters so we went exploring that night.  Neither of us had ever been and I can say that neither of us were impressed AT ALL!  It was one of the dirtiest places I have ever been.  I don't mean dirty like litter, but just dirty bars, sex clubs everywhere, and basically just tons of people that make you uncomfortable.  We had to dart into Harrah's casino to escape these two crazy homeless people that were begging us for money.  Below are a few pics of the trip.

Bourbon street.  Hard to really see much from the picture, but it was gross.  Just bars and sex clubs every other place.

The next morning in front of the Mississippi River.  We did try some of the famous Beignets at Café du Monde and they were delicious!

Mississippi River again

 

During our stop at Progresso, Yucatan Mexico, we took a tour of the Uxmal Mayan Ruins.  We were going to do Chichin-Itza, but decided against it because apparently it has become so touristy and you are not allowed to climb anything anymore.  At Uxmal we were allowed to climb absolutely anything we wanted except for the main pyramid.  But some of the secondary pyramids were VERY high.  After climbing them, I don't think I would have wanted to attempt the main one!

 Climbing up the secondary pyramid.  Very steep and no handrails! haha!

 About to board our boat in Cozumel.  All we did in Cozumel was walk around the town and make our phone calls back home to the kids who were both doing good.  Kaitlyn would get sad at night, but they were very well entertained while we were gone!  They got to do all kinds of fun stuff.  We also loved Cozumel b/c they have drug stores at like every corner where you can just buy whatever medicine you want!  No prescriptions! haha!  So we bought some antibiotics and extra strong Ibuprofen you can't buy in the states just to have if we need it.

 

Overall it was a fun trip.  Except unfortunately we got sick on our last day.  And I am still sick 3 weeks later!  Ugh.  I am ready for this baby to be born so I can start taking some stronger medicines again as well as cold/flu season to be over in general.  This has definitely been the worst ever!  But it was very nice to have one last getaway since it will probably be the last one alone for a while since it will be a lot more difficult to leave 3 kids!

 

 

 

Brayden's first Haircut

We got Brayden's first haircut back in December. It was getting pretty long and I have no idea how to cut hair so we had a coupon for one of those special children's salons. I think after this though, we will attempt to do it ourselves just b/c I can't justify having to pay that much money for a baby/toddler haircut when it grows so fast!

I forgot to get a BEFORE/ AFTER at the hair salon, so here is a recent picture before we went: 

 

At the Salon.  He didn't cry the entire time until the very end when they tried to blow dry the cut hair off of him.

 

Fresh haircut and of course another shot of how I can never get them both to pose for a good picture!

 

Christmas 2012

We had a good Christmas this year.  Luckily I got my wish and we were all healthy for Christmas and pretty much through the end of the year.  Unfortunately January started back up full force in the sickness department, but I'll talk about that in another post.  This year it was our turn to be in Charlotte for Christmas and we had our first Christmas where we woke up as a our own immediate family alone to see what Santa brought and open presents.  We introduced the "Elf on the Shelf" this year.  At first Kaitlyn was not so sure what to think about him.  I think he made her nervous (as most things do...haha)  but by Christmas time she was happy to wake up to see where he had moved to and find him.  Our elf didn't do anything crazy.  Just move to a different spot/ hiding place each night.  She was a little disappointed when he went back to live with Santa.  We also succeeded in getting our first Santa picture without her crying.  Unfortunately Brayden was tired and grumpy from waiting in the long line that he was not having the picture!  Kaitlyn cried the entire line, and then stopped when we got up there and put her fingers in her mouth to comfort her.

Baking Christmas Cookies for Santa

 

I attempted several times to get a good picture of them in front of the tree, but they were all failures :/

 

Opening presents Christmas morning.

 Brayden in his new Tom Brady jersey Justin got him.  AS you can see, Justin is a bit more excited about it than Brayden.

 What Santa brought Kaitlyn

 What Santa brought Brayden

 

 

After our family Christmas at our house, we went over to my Mom's house for Christmas over there and lunch.  There were lots more presents and then we went over to my Dad's house for our third Christmas of the day!  That weekend we drove down to Justin's parents house for the family Christmas with them!  Overall the kids got WAY too many presents!  I will definitely need to be having a yard sale this spring to clear our some of our old toys to make room for everything they got.  Overall it was a great Christmas!





Surgeries and The Plague

Sickness swept through our house like a plague these last few months.  It started off with Justin having to have an emergency appendectemy.  One Sunday night in early November Justin wakes up with bad stomach cramps.  He thought maybe it was just gas and tried to go back to sleep, but said it was super painful.  The next day it was still hurting really bad so he worked from home.  Then he started saying that his right side was hurting really bad.  He was also really nauseous, but he thought it was just from the pain.  I mentioned to him that maybe he should google ruptured appendix for side effects.  So he did and then started getting nervous b/c he had all the symptoms.  Neither of us have a regular general physician so he decided to go to the urgent care to get tested.  His test actually came back negative, but the doctor still thought everything was pointing to his appendix so he sent him over to the hospital to have a CT scan.  He arrived at the hospital around 5:00 on Monday and the did the scan and eventually told him that it was in fact his appendix and they would have to schedule surgery that night.  Meanwhile I am at home waiting with the kids for the news.  Unfortunately this all happened during the Southern Christmas show that my mom was working at so she was not able to help us out during it all.  The actual surgery wasn't even scheduled until like 10:00 so my mom was able to come over to stay with the kids while I went up there to see Justin.  Being at the hospital past normal closing time is HORRIBLE.  There are no workers and they just sat me in a waiting room for hours.  They took my phone number and told me they'd call me when I could come back.  Well unfortunately I go to use the bathroom with my phone in my pocket and as I bend over to flush it falls out of my jacket into the toilet as it is already flushing and goes down the drain!  Completely gone!  So at 1:30AM I am still waiting and there is NOONE around to ask any questions.  I finally go wondering around and find a security guard and tell him my situation.  He is very nice and takes about 10 minutes to try and locate Justin's nurse.  I finally get to go back and see him.  The surgery went smoothly except for the appendix had shifted behind his colon or something like that and they had to remove a tiny portion of it to get to the appendix.  There was also some infection they had to drain out.  Justin was pretty out of it after the surgery so I only spent about 10 minutes with him before I left to go relieve my mom so she could go home and get some sleep since it was like 2:00AM!  The next day I didn't have anyone to watch the kids so I had to take them with me to go visit Justin for a little while.  Unfortuantly they (well Kaitlyn) was wild in the hospital and they were just too rambunctious being stuck in a tiny room for more than an hour or so, so Justin was more than ready for us to just leave :)  They were supposed to discharge him around dinner time but as hospitals go, it took forever.  Justin finally calls to let me know it was going to be around 10:00pm.  I arranged for one of our friend's from church's husband to just come sit at our house since the kids were sleeping and I could go get Justin.  After we finally get home the recovery starts.

The first week Justin was pretty much useless.  The medicine they gave him for pain knocked him out and all he really did was sleep.  It made him nauseous as well, so eventually I was like would you rather be sick or in pain?  So he eventually started taking tylenol to help with the pain and things got much better!  So to top things off, Me and the kids had all came down with bad colds right about the time Justin got out of the hospital.  Add in the fact that I was pregnant and dealing with the stress of  having to do everything, I was about to have a breakdown most every day! :)  For the first 2 weeks, Justin was not allowed to lift anything over 10 lbs.  So that was anything Brayden related.  I was so happy when those 2 weeks were up.  It took about a good month for him to be back to normal though to where the insicions didn't really bother him at all.

Unfortunately the sickness just kept on coming.  The kids and I literally had cold after cold for weeks!  Then one week Brayden comes down with Croup.  So the following Sunday I take Kaitlyn to church alone and go in to nursery to check on her and she is just sitting on one of the worker's laps crying.  She comes over and says she's sick and wants to go home.  I can tell she really is sick so we leave.  The next day Brayden starts getting sicker as well.  Croup seems better, but he has Kaitlyn's new cold.  Then Tuesday it hits me and I realize it is NOT a cold, but the flu!  It was horrible!  Plus since Justin had taken so much time off for his surgery he didn't have any days to spare to take care of us.  I think he liked escaping the flu infested house anyway.  Being pregnant with the flu is NO FUN.  I couldn't take any medicines strong enough to help and then also trying to take care of two sick kids was even worse.  Luckily Justin never caught it!  He slept on our futon for about a week to escape me :)

The flu lasted for about 2 weeks in our house and I had numerous melt-downs haha!  I prayed that when it was over I could just be healthy until the end of the year at least!  I have also started taking a daily Vitamin C supplement along with my prenatal vitamin to try and help boost my immune system.  It is just so hard with kids!  One gets sick, they spread it to each other immediately and then without fail I always catch it.  I guess it will get even worse in the next few years!  I just hope the flu doesn't return for a while b/c that was horrible.  So here we are now at the beginning of January and I got my wish.  We were healthy for about 2 weeks or so.  And then about 2 days ago Brayden got sick and now Kaitlyn is sick.  Justin and I leave for a cruise in 2 days so with my horrid immune system I am soooo afraid of spending the week sick!  I just want to enjoy my babymoon!  Ok enough of this extremely long depressing post.  Let's just say Winter 2012 was the horrible!