OK, I may be overly celebrating Miley's birthday but I feel that she was shorted with the holiday's an all. This is a very special birthday for her and a glorious celebration for my family. As most of you know I had wanted to have a second baby for a long time but Curtis didn't feel the same. Many of my friends began announcing their news of becoming pregnant while I was sad and disappointed that my dream of having another child would never happen. Then to OUR surprise we became pregnant! Curtis was still not too thrilled of the idea but our little girl was coming regardless. I knew once she got here she'd win her Daddy's heart and so she has. You should see them together. Our lives have changed forever and my miracle baby has just made the last of year of my life so much more enjoyable. Riley is her HERO and she is his pride and joy! Please bear with me as I commemorate this special child and the impact she has made on my family. I love you Miley with all my heart!

I finally got around to taking the kids to Sears for a cheap package of pics to share with our rather large family. I went in with the intent to buy the $9.99 package & be done with it since my kids nearly give me a nervous breakdown when I try to get their pictures made. Surprisingly they both did EXCELLENT and every single picture was GREAT! I still bought the one package because I had to have way too many pics to pass out to buy by the sheet but I'm thinking of ordering more after viewing them online.

Riley's First Field Trip

4 out of the 7 Brookland Kindergarten classes went on a very special field trip to help a child in need this Christmas. Each class chose a child from the Angel Tree to adopt for Christmas. The lucky child for Riley's class was a 6 year old little girl named Faith. Faith wanted a new bike for Christmas so Riley made it his goal to raise enough money to buy her that bike. He did really well collecting $40.00 on his own. He insisted on giving all the money in his piggy bank to his class so we took his full jar of change to Walmart to the coin changer and he then donated his $11.00 to the collection for Faith.
Let's just say that I admire the bravery of the Brookland Kindergarten teachers for taking on such a LARGE task. 3 bus load of 80 screaming Kindergarteners headed to Paragould Walmart to spend the money they had collected for their adopted kids. It all went a lot smoother than most had expected and they were able to get everything the children needed with the $1,000.00 collected between the classes.
Riley's teacher was impressed with his determination on getting a bike for Faith so she let him and 4 other students go with me to pick one out along with a helmet and knee/elbow pads. The kids were so proud of what they had accomplished.
Next we headed to the theatre to see "Bolt". Our group was so large that we jam packed a theatre. The movie really held their attention and they all behaved remarkably well. Riley and I ended up having to move to another seat because 3 girls were throwing a fit to sit by him but other than that it was a great experience.
After the movie it was off to McDonald's. OK, I was one the first 5 to pull into the parking lot and there were NO parking spots available! OH NO, there were 100 some odd people coming in behind me and NO parking spots. I managed to get one after someone was leaving but I don't know where everyone else parked. What were they thinking bringing 3 bus loads of kids and their parents to McDonald's at NOON! The buses ended up having to park in the cemetary across the street! As you can imagine - this part of the trip was total CHAOS - LOUD, LOUD, CHAOS! We stayed way too long and I ended up developing a really bad headache and checked out sooner than most. There were no seats so most of us had to eat standing up - that was not too much fun but the kids had a blast!

Miley's Allergic Reaction

Well, we had intended to get the tree put up this weekend but like many weekends before - our plans were changed. We picked Miley up from my Mom's house Saturday afternoon and she had a rash all over her body. My Mom thought it looked like the Measles so we took her to see our family doctor since the Pediatrician's office was closed (what's the deal with that anyway - I always need them on the weekend). Dr. Barber said he couldn't rule out measles except for the fact that's really rare to see it in the U.S. these days. He thought it was probably a drug reaction and sent us home with a steroid. She went ahead and spent the night with my Mother-N-Law as usual on Saturday night and we were woke up with an early morning call saying her rash was much worse. After talking on the phone with Dr. Barber he thought we should take her to the emergency room. We spent 2 hours & $75.00 more there for them to tell us the exact same thing. He thought she was probable allergic to penicillin. We were sent home again with a much worse baby by this time and no more information than we started out with. I have to say she is looking much much better on this Monday morning though. We had to reschedule our family picture this week just to be sure! The steroid had her jumping all over the house and she CAN'T SLEEP so we CAN'T SLEEP. Lucky for me Curtis is on vacation this week so I have some help but it's put a damper on our weekly plans. Keep Miley in your prayers. Her month long ear infection seems to have cleared up but her throat doesn't look good and they don't want to keep dosing her until the rash is gone to be safe.

My Happy Girl

Miley's Birthday Pics

My computer is not cooperating right now but as soon as I get it straightened out I will post the rest of Miley's pictures from her birthday session. We have not actually had a party for her yet so I'll get back to you soon. Just wanted to show off one of my favorites! Happy Birthday little one!

Week of Sickness!!!

I can't even begin to stress how SICK my family has been this week. I think I should've been in the hospital. It started 3 weeks ago with Miley having her first ear infection (double ear infection). She did her round of antibiotics and seemed better. The next week Riley had his turn with double ear infections. Antibiotics seemed to work and things were getting back to normal until the day I was to leave for a weekend with the girls at a scrapbook retreat. I woke up spitting dark green stuff and feeling really yucky. I should've gone to the doctor but I had so much to do before I left that I thought it could wait til Monday. Boy, I wish I'd listen to my gut and went to the doctor. I was miserable all weekend. After returning home I noticed that the kids didn't seem to be feeling all that well so off we all 3 went to the doctor first thing on Monday. Turns out the kids were both still suffering from the ear infections and one of Riley's ears was "leaking". Yeah, green stuff running out of his ear-gross! On top of that Riley had the croop! More medicine to fill and more to come. I kept feeling worse and worse because I couldn't get the rest I needed because the kids needed their Mommy, of course. On Wednesday night Miley started throwing up and having really bad diarhea. This went on most of the night. Curtis let me sleep about 3 hours the next morning. I dealt with the kids and myself not feeling well until I started throwing up about 8:30pm. I was very VERY upset at this time because my husband wouldn't stay home and help me out. I was vomiting about every 15 minutes and didn't know how I was going to manage 2 sick kids through another night alone. Thankfully, my Mom kept Miley overnight so I could take care of myself. That didn't last for long though because Riley started vomiting about midnight. Now it was me vomiting, Riley vomiting, me cleaning it up and then vomiting over and over and over. Riley threw up so bad upstairs in my bed that I called Curtis to come home from work and clean it up. I tried but the bed had to be moved - REALLY BAD!!! Curtis wouldn't come home so it sat there all night fumigating the house. I got to sleep about 2 hours the next morning while Curtis dealt with Riley and then he had to go to bed. Miley is home now and I'm alone with the kids once more. Miley continued to have explosive diarhea which most of the time demanded a bath afterwards. It's Sunday now and I think my household has recovered - except me. There's lots more to the story but I won't go on. I know most of you can relate so I'm spilling my guts, literally. I think my sinus congestion has moved to my chest now. I may return to the doctor tomorrow and demand a SHOT! I'm in great hopes that since I have the time to tend to myself a little bit and get some rest that I will recover promptly.