Hakuna Matata

Last week we took a road trip to visit family and to go play in the snow in Idaho.  Our first stop was Las Vegas.  I am usually not much of a Vegas fan (at all) but Marc and his dad were golfing and then I had plans to go see the Lion King.  The Lion King has been my favorite Disney movie forever and I am obsessed with the soundtrack (unfortunately for those around me, I like to sing along).  Me, Marc's mom, and the girls wandered around the strip while the boys golfed, and then in the evening the grandparents stayed with Sawyer & Harper and Marc & I got to go to the show.  The Lion King was amazing, I may have even had a tear or two when they did the opening "Circle of Life". So so wonderful. 

Sawyer was recovering from being sick and Harper was on the brink of an ear infection, so both of the girls were really mellow the whole time.  

I didn't really take any pictures.  I know, that is sort of unbelievable.

Checking out the town...

Harper was so impressed she fell sound asleep.  We forgot to bring a stroller so we stopped at Babies r Us and got Harper this new ride.  I was worried she was going to hate it, but really, I think she kind of likes it.

Harper is sketched out by hotel comforters too, she asked if she could sit on a blanket instead of directly on the bed :)

We were taking a time out before heading to dinner.

Me and my babe in our room at Mandalay Bay.  We had a great view of the roof :)

This was a fun start to a fun week...minus the part where we had to take Harper to the walk-in clinic to get some drugs because she had a 104 fever.  

We have such a great family.  I feel so lucky.

For the Glory

We just got back from a fun week of hanging out with family and playing in the snow.  I will post more pictures later, but for now I leave you this.  Marc challenged his sister and niece to sticking their heads in the snow and to see who could keep it there the longest.  I asked Mauri, Marc's sister, why she would agree to doing that and she pumped her fist in the air and said it was "For the glory!".  She was into it.  As soon as Mauri and Matisse stuck their faces in the snow I realized Marc was just teasing them and he wasn't actually planning on doing it himself.  I am a terrible videographer but I wanted to share this video anyways :)  This was the highlight of my vacation (well, the "for the glory" part was really the best...too bad that isn't recorded).  Thanks for the fun memories...I love you guys!

Little Harper Ray of Light

It has been kind of a long week.  It started when I stayed up way too late last Sunday.  I was greeted early Monday morning by a kid that didn't feel well (Sawyer).  The week has been full of boogers, snotty noses, tears, cranky pants, fevers, coughs, a little vomit, concern, frustration, sleepless nights and not a whole lot of fun.  Sawyer is finally on the mend and apparently that means it is time for her to be extra bossy and ornery. We are hoping today was the worst of it and tomorrow she will wake up like her regular old self ready to go see Grandma & Grandpa and go play in the snow.  Her medicine certainly seems to be helping, so that is reassuring.


Through this whole week Harper has been a little ray of light.  She has been so sweet, easy going, smiley, extra lovie and well, pretty much perfect.  I am so glad she has been so mellow, I would have lost my mind if both of my kids were being high-maintenance.  

I can't believe how big Harper is getting...she is right on her way to turning 9 months old.  9 months?! That is ancient.  Today she showed some signs of trying to crawl.  My kids are kind of late bloomers, Sawyer didn't crawl until 10 months, I wouldn't be surprised if Harper didn't actually figure the crawling thing out until then either.  I like my late bloomers...makes them feel like little babies just that much longer :) 

The Diagnosis

After looking at this all day...

I decided to take Sawyer to the doctor when Marc got home from work.   Sawyer told me she was broken (how sad is that?) and that she wanted to be fixed, so to the healer we went.  


There were moments when Sawyer didn't seem so sick.  Like when she did some stamp and paint projects this morning, and when she wanted to play with the toys at the doctor's office.

But as it turns out, our sick little lady has pneumonia.  She got some drugs and hopefully she should be feeling better in 24-48 hours.  Sawyer has started to be a stinker about taking medicine (including Tylenol) so I bribed her with a lollipop.  

Harper slept loads today.  When Marc got home from work at 3:00 Harper was still in her jammies.  I am pretty sure she napped for like 4 hours?  I am not sure exactly, but I know it was a long time.  She still seems like she feels OK, I just think she is growing.  And she only took one nap, as opposed to the two she normally takes, so maybe that was why?  Regardless, our kids did a lot of snoozing today.  I took the time to get my house sanitized.  My hands feel raw.  I bleached, washed and Lysol'd everything.  I need to finish up some (or a lot) of laundry and our house will be cleaner than it has ever been.  I want these sicky germs out of my house!

I can't wait for both of our kids to be healthy again...it is no fun having little ones under the weather!  


Here is a random iPhone video of Harper today, during the 2.9 seconds she was actually awake.

I love my babies.  I am so anxious to have Sawyer healthy again!

104

Oof.  So in my last blog post I mentioned Sawyer having a fever and that I was hoping it was a random fluke thing and I was hoping she would wake up fine in the morning.  No such luck.  Yesterday, Sawyer barfed on me twice and she ended up with a 104 fever by mid-afternoon.  She was miserable.  

This morning Sawyer woke up at 2:45 in the morning and came into bed with me (Marc had already left for work...how terrible is that?) and and then proceeded to wake me up again at 3:30, 4:15 and 6:30.  I decided just to get up at 6:30 because what was the point of sleeping if I wasn't even sleeping well.  Sawyer seemed better this morning.   Her fever was gone, she wanted to do a project, and she even asked for toast for breakfast.  After Harper's morning nap we went to run a couple of errands.  We got to Best Buy and Sawyer refused to put her shoes on and she wanted me to carry her, so I did.  By the time we finished Best Buy (which was a really quick return I had to do) Sawyer was asking to go home.  She never asks to go home.  On the drive home she fell asleep (she never falls asleep in the car) and was even snoring.  We got home and her fever was back to 102 and all she wanted to do was watch TV and lay on the family room floor in her make shift bed.  Sawyer ended up sleeping most of the afternoon, and when Marc got home from work he joined her on the floor for a nice long nap.  I feel sad, my little girl has been so miserable.

Tonight Sawyer was acting happier and I thought she was feeling better.  After putting her to bed I was thinking she was going to be feeling fine next time she woke up.  Nope.  She woke up, her fever is back, and she is sound asleep and snoring on our family room floor again (she didn't want to go back in her room).  Now I am tired and I want to go to bed but I don't want to leave Sawyer alone downstairs because I think she will freak out if she wakes up down here by herself, and I don't want to move her into her bed  in fear that she will wake up.  Looks like I am sleeping on the couch tonight. Fun.

Hopefully tomorrow things will be better.  I am hoping and praying Harper doesn't get sick next.  We leave for vacation on Saturday and I am so looking forward to it...it would be a huge bummer if we have sick kids.  Cross your fingers for us :)

 (This morning I thought Sawyer might be in the clear.  She bathed, got dressed, and even accessorized with some necklaces.)

 (Harper has just been hanging out.  I feel like she has been a little neglected, I will have to make it up to her.)

 (We got this cute banner from etsy.  I love etsy.)

 (These pictures were taken on Sunday before Sawyer started to feel like poo.  Harper was smiling then and is still smiling today.)

(I really really hate having her sick, but her cuddling and napping is pretty cute.)

Sicklet?

Sawyer went to bed with a 102 fever.  She was acting more sensitive than normal today and I knew she was tired, so I assumed the tears were due to exhaustion, not sickness.  When Marc got home from work he was holding Sawyer on the couch and he told me that he thought she was sick.  I said no and went on my way.  When we were putting Sawyer to bed tonight I noticed her eyes were all glassy and watery.  I took her temp and sure enough she was running a fever.  Poor thing.  Hopefully she wakes up all better tomorrow.  Although, it was kind of nice when she fell asleep on the couch today...

I am pretty sure she has grown and changed a lot in the last week or so.  She seems so much older to me.  I stare at her face every morning because it always seems like it changes overnight,  getting less babyish and more little girlish.  I always want to remember her baby face.

We spent the day running errands.  Sawyer got some new Crayons at Target (along with some new lipgloss) and she was pretty excited about them.  

This is right after Harper woke up from her nap.  She still has one little tear in her eye.   She is my little doll.  I could eat her up - one of the sweetest little things I have ever come across in my whole life.  

Feeling Weepy

Whenever I photograph weddings I always start to feel a little sentimental and they get me thinking about my own family.  I was working all day and came home to a sleeping family.  Although I am really tired too, I can't sleep.  Soooo I started ordering pictures for the empty picture frames in our house (it is seriously ridiculous that all of our frames aren't filled with pictures at all times...I mean, I take like 400 a day) and started looking at photos from the day Harper was born.  I started to feel a little weepy.  And then I decided to go waayyyyy back and look at pictures from the day Sawyer was born.  It is amazing how fast it all goes, but what is even more amazing to me, is how much Marc and I have changed since the birth of each of our kids.  Not that we look all that much different really (well, since Sawyer's arrival, yes, we definitely look older), but just the experiences each child brings into your life changes you forever...and those changes happen immediately after they join us in this world.  I honestly cannot find a good way to express how stinkin' much I love my kids and my family and how grateful I am for my life and the people that are in it.  I often feel like pinching myself because I am just way too lucky.  Seriously.  Marc is my bestest and I knew stalking him way back when in high school was so totally worth it.  And our kids are our world.  I am infatuated and obsessed with our little munchkins.  


Before we had any idea what it was like to be parents, we took this with our point and shoot camera and a tripod down at Strands.  I delivered Sawyer less than a week later, 3 weeks early.  

This was our first family photo at home, the day we came home from the hospital.  So totally clueless, so totally in love.  I actually get teary eyed just looking at it.

Sawyer Lee lit up our world, she changed us forever.

And just when we thought we couldn't love anyone possibly as much as we love Sawyer, Harper Ray decided she wanted to make her debut too (also 3 weeks early...19 days to be exact...Sawyer was 19 days early too) and we were proven oh so wrong.  Harper doubled the love in our house.

It was definitely an adjustment, but we figured it out.  It took a good month or two to get things down, but once we did everything was perfect.  Well, it still is perfect.  So blessed.

And these days we are some of the happiest folks on the block.  I never want to wake up from this dream because it is oh so good.

I am in love.  

Anddddd...while I was looking at old pictures on our family Shutterfly site, I came across this one of Sawyer when she was 8 months...and it reminded me of a recent picture of another little 8 month old I know.  Not identical, but there are some seriously strong resemblances.  Ya?

Now I am going to go cry myself to sleep with happy tears.  I get all sappy late at night.