What in the world is all this nonsense?

As most of you know by now, Taylor was finally diagnosed with Pneumonia yesterday. After a few days full of tests and medications, she is now feeling better...FINALLY! We give her steroids twice a day, antibiotics twice a day and her nebulizer treatments at least 3 times per day. I am just so thankful that she is feeling better now :). She does the treatments so, so well and just hangs out breathing her nebs. What an awesome baby girl I have. I know she is feeling better b/c she has been crawling all over the place!

On another note, this week has made me appreciate Tricare. What a blessing not having to pay out of pocket expenses for all that she has gone through. This month alone her medical bills would tobble $2000 (allegist, Prescription formula, ER visit, Ped visits, RSV test, Xray, meds, etc....). Craziness. Thank you sweetie for working so hard to provide for our family!

Top Ten First Year Picks by me :) Part 1

I have been wanting to write a post about the 10 things that I consider a must-have for the first year of a baby's life. This is as much for my memory as to help anyone else :).

1. Medela Pump in Style Breast Pump

This Pump literally saved my babies lives as neither one latched on for several weeks. Especially with Bailey, this pump allowed me security in knowing that I had a ton of milk in the freezer that if something were to happen to me (Blair was deployed), Bailey would get her milk :)

2. Chicco Car Seat/ Travel System and Britax Boulevard Car Seat

This car seat is super easy to install. I love the "click" that it makes, letting you know the car seat is secure.

Love this car seat so much that I am going to get one just like it for Taylor. Goes up to 65 pounds, has side impact protection and has some of the highest safety ratings. Also super easy to install.



3. Moby Wrap/ Ergo Carrier

This wrap was great for the first 8 months. Taylor was snug as a bug and content as could be whenever in the wrap.



I just got this a few weeks ago, but it has been amazing. I have even carried Bailey (yes, all 33 pounds) comfortably on my back. I love this to put Taylor in for all our errands, as well as on my back when I am cooking! (That 5-6pm time slot is fussy a lot)

4. Velcro Swaddle Wraps and Blanket Sleeper

The wrap I use until they keep getting their hands out...

This is an awesome sleeper that comes in sizes all the way up to 5 I think. We keep our house cool, so these allow them to have "blanets" on safetly. Once walking, they make them with feet holes.

5. Dr. Brown bottles

These bottles were great with Bailey and Taylor. Bailey had horrible reflux and these really seemed to help!

The last 24 hours...

The last 24 hours has been full of fun... We went back to the Pediatrician and have had several nebulizer treatments (see Penguin above) along with more doses of steriods. We also had the fun time of taking Taylor to get a chest xray. They put her in this awful holder exactly like the one above. Poor girl. She seems to be feeling better as she slept much better last night and is talking up a storm. Thank you all for praying. I'm waiting to hear back the test results today.

Taylor's First ER Visit....

Taylor has been battling a viral Upper Respiratory Infection for a couple weeks now. I though she was turning the corner this week as she began to sleep better, eat better and overall seem to feel better. Last night was rough- she woke up every few hours coughing and then this morning she started to wheeze pretty significantly. My good friend Bethany picked Bailey up (THANK YOU!!!) and I took Taylor to the ER.... A nebulizer treatment and dose of steroids and she is SO much better. We have a couple more doses of the meds, but I hope that this will knock it out for good. She was a champ through it all :).

Sweet friends...

Emma and Bailey....sweet friends. What do girls do?


1. Hugs

2. Ring a round a rosie...
3. Play kitchen stuff all dressed up like a princess..
4. Peek A Boo

So much fun with girls! We also blew kisses and played hide and seek :)

It is all about the accessories.....

Bracelets....hair ties....
and bows...
She picks each one out and lets you know if it is not the one she wants! My girlie girl... I love her so much!

Bread Machine Cinnamon Rolls

Uh, yeah. They are THAT good. Enjoy yours!

Taylor 9 months....sick version

Taylor turned 9 months old on Jan. 29th!

She has been a bit under the weather and is having a hard time fending off this cold...she finally seems to have turned the corner yesterday, but she spent her 9mo bday feeling like these pics :(.

Taylor, at 9 months you are:
-Filling out- you weighed 18lbs 12oz a week or so ago, so you probably are over 19lbs now!
-Drink your prescription formula, Elecare 6x/day averaging 3-6oz/ feeding. Still not much into real food...eating peaches/prunes/sweet potatoes when you feel like it.
-Sleep from 7:30-7am, waking up once or twice still :(. You take 2 naps, a short morning and a longer afternoon nap that most of the time matches up with your big sister :).
-Are CRAWLING! You started 2 days ago and are getting better everyday, albeit still slow.
-Love doing everything your big sister does (well at least watch her!)
-Smile and turn your head in a flirty way to most men!

We love you Taylor and are so happy you are a healthy, happy 9 month old!

Ice Ice Baby

It has been downright chilly the last few days with some ice/freezing rain over the weekend. No white stuff....
Please notice that a certain "Marine" is outside in this weather working in his shed. Myself...inside with 3 layers on sipping coffee. Which one of us is crazy ;)?. I know that Blair has slept in weather like this.....

Meal Planning

Pizza Bread


I am a huge Meal Planner for three main reasons: I am not creative AT ALL and need a recipe, it saves money and it saves time! For the past 9 months, my menu has been pretty boring due to all our dietary restricions (side of meat, side of starch, side of veggie, etc.). Since we are eating everything now I have experimented with two new recipes this week that turned out well. They are both yummy, fast and super easy. One recipe is of the pictures above. I made the Pizza Bread dough in my bread machine dough cycle (halved the recipe) and then followed the directions as listed (you can also hand make the dough). I froze one loaf for later eats. Blair, Bailey and I loved it and it was great twist up from pizza. I need to work on the dough staying together, but it tasted yummy all the same.

The next recipe was Crockpot Meatball Chilli. (scroll all the way down the page). You just dump the stuff in and walk away. No browning /draining ground beef! We all loved this as well and thought it had just the right amount of spice. I followed this recipe to the T, except using green pepper instead of red pepper (cheaper). I served it with sour cream/ cheese and a side of cornbread and it was good. Even better was it took 10 minutes in the morning and that is it!

Happenings....

Yesterday was a fairly low-key day. We did some errands, worked out at the mall and enjoyed each other. Here is Bailey "reading" my old photo albums. Do you see a *hint* of the attitude to come in the future?


Taylor...her hair has become a bit uncontrollable lately, but I think she is ADORABLE.
she is so, so, so, so
close! I think she might have even crawled one step yesterday.....but hasn't since. Any day now.

Guess who is eating EGGS?

We took both girls to the Allergist a few weeks ago and have some good news about Bailey. She has outgrown her EGG ALLERGY!! Yahoo! This past week she has had cookies, donuts, pancakes, muffins, and brownies :). We have eaten at church without worry of what is in the food. It is SO FREEING to be able to have her eat normal food. She loves "ncakes" as pictured above :).

Taylor's results were not as good. She is positive for Peanut and Egg (along with milk sensitivity). Due to this, I have weaned her and she is now thriving on her prescription formula, Elecare. The weaning process this time was MUCH smoother for both of us. She took right to the formula and her skin, behavior and sleep are all improved :). This makes for a happy Taylor and a happy Momma. While I am concerned about Taylor's allergies, the Allergist seemed to think she would outgrow hers as well eventually (based on the RAST levels). She is still not really eating much food yet, so this hasn't been an issue (ie-she hasn't been exposed).

Due to weaning, I am now able to enjoy a normal diet as well. Our meals around here just got a whole lot yummier!

My workout partner...

Bailey and I did Tae-Bo together the other day. I think she is so cute! What great motivation....

Taylor all smiles as usual....

Kitchen Renovation

Blair and Pete worked very, very hard over Christmas vacation to complete a pretty in-depth kitchen renovation. I finished it off with new decor and we all think it turned out really well.


Painted the walls a lighter green, hung new curtains, pillows for window seat. Spray-painted chandalier silver
Sanded and painted cabinets. Installed silver hardware. New curtains/ towels.
Installed new light fixtures.

Ta-da! Several weeks of hard labor= Successful Frugal Renovation (This all totalled less then $1000). Next up: New solid-surface countertops (will have this done professionally :)).

Look at ME!

My Taylor- this is how happy she normally is!


Look at my 2 bottom teeth! It was a lot of hard work getting these......
Hi ya!
look at me....
so, so, so, so CLOSE!