Welcome

THIS IS THE REAL LIFE DOCUMENTARY OF....

Faith and Fear...

Trust and Doubt...

Ups and Downs...

A God that still performs miracles...

A 1-pound baby girl and 3-pound baby boy...

This is our story; this is our life.

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In the race of life, God our heavenly Father has come alongside us through the person of the Holy Spirit. And

~when we think we can't go one more step,

~when the race becomes painful beyond endurance,

~when our hearts feel heavy,

~when our minds become dull,

~when our spirits are burned out,

we have the comforter who comes alongside us, puts His everlasting arms around us, and gently walks with us.

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Rash Decisions

Well. Yesterday was fun. (Insert sarcastic sigh here). It was one of those days where you think, "I'll probably look back on this and laugh one day"....Happy to report, that day is today. I'm over it. It's all good. Here's how it all went down. 


Both babies were taking their morning nap as usual. Around 10:45, Dylan woke up screaming, and I mean S-C-R-E-A-M-I-N-G! This is so unlike him, that I ran in there and swooped him up and tried to comfort him. He was squeezing and hanging on to my neck so tight. I thought maybe he had a bad dream....Anyway, I could smell him...he needed a dipe change. When I laid him down to change him, he flipped out on me and tears were flowing like I've never seen....When I opened the diaper, I saw why. He had a retched diaper rash that was bright red all over his little body. He was hurting so bad and he did NOT want me to change him. So after a battle that resulted in me sweating and having a big mess all over the place, I finally got him calm. This was a rash that no amount of Desitin or Boudreaux's Butt Paste was going to solve. He was still a little fussy, so I gave him some juice to calm him down. After they both woke and ate lunch, I needed to change him again....This time, worse. Very. Dirty. Very. Messy. Like, all-up-his-back, dirty. He was reallly, upset. This drama was happening right around 12:30. I put a call in to my pediatrician's office (and of course they are closed from 12 - 1 for lunch). On to Plan B. A call in to my friend Melody. Her little boy has recently had a diaper rash and I wanted to know what I should do. She suggested that I take his diaper off and let him crawl around dipe-less. Ummmm.....yes, I know. There are risks involved with this decision. But, it needs to air out/dry out to heal. 


Soooo, off comes the diaper. That only lasted aprox 30 minutes before he had peed twice, once all over the couch, and once all over the leather toy box ottoman. Then, made his way over to the corner by the swing and proceeded to, ehem, go #2 all over the floor. Yeah, that totally happened. The irony is he messed all over his 'dump truck' that he got for his birthday. (a little immature humor for ya). 


Meanwhile, I'm going to get towels to clean him as he has now slipped in it and is covered from his waist all the way to his feet. His curious little sister was anxious to see all the excitement so she crawled right over to it to join the fun. Thankfully, my ninja like reflex mom skills allowed me to grab her with my right arm and throw a towel down on the floor with my left. Crisis averted. 


I got the mess cleaned up and then hosed off Dylan. As I'm cleaning him, I'm trying to keep one eye on Kaylan who has crawled right under my feet and hanging on to my leg while Dylan stands in the kitchen sink splashing water everywhere. Well, he wasn't so much splashing as he was trying to block me from spraying the water on him. I've got one arm on him and the other on the faucet hose. He was crying the whole time cause he was hurting. So, that was enough "airing it out time" for me....the diaper was going back ON. My pediatrician's nurse called back and called in a prescription cream for him and suggested that we lay off of fruits and JUICE (see earlier paragraph where I had given him JUICE!) Ugh, bad mom. I didn't know!


Landon went and picked up the prescription after work. On a VERY bright and THANKFUL note, our deductible has been met and therefore we did NOT have to pay the $284.99 for a DIAPER RASH CREAM. That's right, I said TWO HUNDRED EIGHT FOUR DOLLARS and NINETY NINE CENTS! WHAATTT??? I'm quite positive that Landon would have had a small heart attack at the Walgreen drive-thru pharmacy had we been required to pay this. This better be a MIRACLE cream and he better never get a diaper rash AGAIN! That's just insane that any medicine would cost that much. But I digress. I'm happy to report that the cream does seem to be working -- quickly. The rash is still there, but he's much more tolerable for us to change his diaper. Hoping it clears up by the weekend. 


Update on Kaylan -- the last TWO nights she has slept ALLL NIGHT LONG! YAY! We are so excited about this. We've been doing a little sleep training with her the past few days and it's WORKING. Google really knows what it's talking about ;-) ...oh and Dr. Ferber. :) 


Looking forward to the weekend...and really looking forward to Landon having a day off tomorrow so we can all spend the day together. 


Despite the mess Dylan made all over our house yesterday, isn't this the cutest little caboose you've ever seen? 


Monday, June 27, 2011

Fog

Signing in this Monday morning in a complete fog. Our little Kaylan has staged a major sleep revolt and it is kicking our tail. I have dreams about hiring some sort of professional sleep nanny nurse. Maybe Jo from Super Nanny can swoop in with her PT Cruiser and British accent and make her sleep through the night. A girl can dream, right? 


This past week we've just tried to get through the night with rocking, feeding and yes, even the WORST sin of them all...allowing her to sleep in our bed. GASP! It's only happened a few times. Don't judge. Poor Landon...he gets up with her more than I do. He always has. We're both exhausted and running on fumes. We're getting close to some serious sleep intervention for Kaylan....the middle bedroom has officially been staged with the pack-n-play and a night light. Something has got to change, and FAST.  It feels like everyone else has this sleep thing all figured out. Sigh. Kudos for Dylan...he's a sleep champ. (Most nights, that is). So, glass half full, I suppose?? We'll think positive :) 


On another note, the Twiblings are all over the place during the day. It's time to baby proof cabinets, doors, etc. Case in point...see picture below from this morning. Thank God it was just paper plates! And, not to be outdone, the little peanut is trying to scale the brick hearth. Someone get me some coffee!





Friday, June 24, 2011

Happy Friday :)

Okay, I'm going to make an *attempt* at updating this thing a little better...I know, I know. We've said that before. So much of this blog was dedicated to a very desperate time while Kaylan and Dylan were in the hospital and this was our outlet for communicating feelings, emotions and prayer requests. So thankful to be in a new place these days. It's not always easy, but it's oh so worth every ounce of sleeplessness.


Both of these little stinkers are crawling now and I'm pretty sure our life is about to get really chaotic...anyone know where I can get a helmet for these guys to wear...ALL THE TIME?! Dylan is all boy...climbing, crawling, and pulling up on anything and everything. He's fallen twice this week and has a war wound on his left cheek. He's tough. Kaylan is a little bit more conservative. She crawls, but only for a few special little toys that she thinks is worth the effort :) She has all the ability (and great form I might add), to crawl wherever she wants...just not always the motivation.

Happy Friday! Hope everyone has a great weekend. 


Here's a little Friday morning silliness to get you smiling.







Saturday, June 11, 2011

We Made it Through Year 1...

WOW!  What a year!  Today, Dylan and Kaylan celebrated their first birthday.  It was a roller coaster year with a lot of ups, a lot of downs and several upside down loops along the way, but we managed to make it through.  Here's a little video highlight of the past year. We are blessed beyond measure. We know we haven't updated in awhile...hopefully this will make up for some lost time :)