We have been struck with sickness at our house, and I don't think it's ever going to end.  Last Tuesday, I had to take Madelyn in for her one year appointment (which meant five shots-yuck), and her nose was running just a little bit.  They weren't worried about it, so we went ahead w/ the vaccinations.  Then Thursday night she woke up around midnight and could barely breathe she was wheezing so hard and coughing.  She had a pretty nasty nose too.  I was up all night with her, poor baby.  So Friday I took her in and sure enough....croup.  Ugh.  She has gotten a little better, she doesn't have the really nasty cough and nose, but she is still sick.  She woke up this morning and it sounds like it's down in her chest again.  *sigh*  Poor kid.  Parker has had a nasty cold since Saturday, and he slept in 'til 9:00 today (he's usually up by 7:30), so I hope he's not getting worse.  At least he hasn't come down with croup, because it can cause a spiking fever which would not be good for him.

So, needless to say, I haven't left my house much in the past two weeks.  The week before that it rained all week too!  In two weeks I've been to the dr's office twice, the grocery store twice, went for a walk twice, and been to Target (yesterday).  I'm ready for my kids to get well!  They have been so good though, to be feeling so crummy.  They haven't been super whiny or fussy or anything and for that I am grateful!

I can't believe I still haven't taken Maddie's one year pictures.  It was raining two weeks ago and since then she's been sick, and a snotty nose isn't conducive to pretty one year pictures!  Our small group is starting up again this week, and I am ready for that.  I've missed seeing everyone.  Plus, it's at our house, so it helps keep me in line with my housework!  Parker is repeating everything I say now.  The other day, he walking around, hitting his legs saying, "Oh crap! oh crap!"  Oops!   I'm going to have to be really careful what I say around him now.  Maddie now says:  thank you, all done, daddy, mommy, no (although it say more like "ope," it's so funny).  And she nods yes and no and waves bye and gives hi-fives!  I love it when they're starting to talk.  She growing up on me.

Fall is in the air.  Yay!  We've had some cooler days here and there.  This week it's been in the mid-70's all week and it's been so nice.  Too bad I've been stuck in the house.   But it's supposed to be nice all weekend, so maybe the kiddos will be better by then.  We'll see.  I'm so ready for fall weather and my boots!  LOL.  I pulled out my fall/winter pants last week and oh my gosh....they were huge on me!  The pant legs were twice as wide as my leg.  I didn't realize I had lost that much weight.  So I'm on the hunt for some jeans because I don't have any long pants to wear this fall.  Wish me luck!  I always have a hard time finding jeans that fit just right.  And I refuse to pay $100 for a pair of pants.  Refuse.

Well that's about it.  I need to get off here and play with my kids.  Have a wonderful Thursday!

Maddie eating a messy spaghetti dinner with a spoon!  This was on her actual birthday night...

Playing "peep-eye"

Parker "cooking" with the microwave that Maddie got for her birthday.  He played with that teapot and microwave for hours.  He kept saying, "Look, it's cooking!  It's cooking!"

Madelyn's birthday party was a great success yesterday!  Today, we are all pretty tired though.  But it was a great afternoon and I think Madelyn had a good time.  She definitely "racked up" on presents and got so many cute little outfits and some fun boots.  I don't know where I'm going to put everything!  I spent the morning doing some serious organizing!  We were going to have her party at the park, but it rained, so we ended up having it at our church in the "Commons" area where we had Parker's party last year.

Without further ado....pictures:

The table....deli rolls, cake and icecream, drinks....

Maddie's "smash cake" and the other cake (it says "Happy Birthday Maddie")

On the tables I had chocolate dipped pretzels that I found a mold for, pixie sticks and taffy.

Party favors

Maddie and Grandma Mary

Left to right: Brian, Miranda and Caraline Ragsdale, Mark Wagner, Randy and Cade Ragsdale

Papa "chillin'"

Randy's brother Joey...."Mr G.Q"-calm down girls, he's taken!

My brother Josh-he's not taken...any offers?  LOL

My way too grown up littlest brother and sister-Timothy and Jessica

Parker and Carson Ragsdale on the indoor playground

Opening presents.  Maddie kept getting so frustrated that I was taking all of her new presents away everytime she opened one!

Look at our expressions in this pic...we look identical!

Excited about the cake!

Not too sure about the cake....

She was not a fan.  She kept trying to "pick" the icing off and throw it off the tray.  She really didn't eat any of it.

"Get this stuff off of me and get me outta here!"

I made the little shirt she was wearing for her (painted it), and I didn't even get a good pic of it!  I'll have to post a picture of it when it gets washed.  Right now it has purple icing all over it!  I'm so sad that my little girl's first birthday party is over.  It came so quickly and was over so quickly.  Her actual birthday isn't until Thursday, so I'll do a one year post then.  I want to get some really pretty one year pictures first!

We've been home all day today and it's been so nice.  The kids have had fun playing w/ all of Maddie's new toys and I've been organizing and figuring out where to fit everything.  We're going to go get groceries tonight because we are destitute in the grocery department.  For lunch today I had hot dogs on hamburger buns b/c we were out of bread and lunch meat.  Yea. Well I'm going to get off here and fold some laundry.  Have a great week!

I figured it was about time I updated on here!  Plus, I got in trouble w/ Nana for not updating!   So, without further ado, here is an update.

We've been doing pretty good here.  Our trip to Colorado was wonderful and bittersweet.  The kids had so much fun playing together (my sister's kids and mine are all about 8 mo. apart) and Becca, her husband Ragan and Randy and I had a lot of time to visit and catch up.  It was so hard to leave.  I just can't stop wishing we lived closer.  Becca and I would be together all the time and the cousins would have so much fun together.  I posted pics on my Facebook, but it takes too long to upload them on here and I had so many!  So if you know me on Facebook, make sure and look at them.  On the way home from the trip, Parker got a stomach bug and threw up all night Saturday night (from about 5:00 to 4 a.m.), after we'd been in the car all day.  So we had to stop much sooner than we wanted to and spend the night.  The next day, around lunchtime, I stared feeling crummy. Yep, threw up in McDonalds all over the seat.  Talk about humiliating.  I then preceded to throw up about every 20 minutes for the rest of the 8 hr. trip home.  It was wonderful.   I was so weak toward the end I was crawling to the car.  Throwing up on the side of the highway is no fun, let me tell ya.  Ugh.  It was horrible.  We recovered though!  And at least the actual TRIP was wonderful!

We've just been getting back into a routine since then.  We have stripped all the wallpaper in our kitchen and painted it a really pretty caramel color.  I love it.  It took me a while to get used to it, because it was white and blue striped.  So it is very different.  I'll post pics once I get all of my decorations back up and everything.

I've been planning Maddie's one year birthday!  Hard to believe.  She is so close to walking.  She won't take any steps by herself, but she'll walk like a madwoman if she has your fingers for support!  She is such a silly little girl and is constantly trying to make new sounds with her mouth and make us laugh.

(She crawled around with this in her mouth for almost half an hour.  She always has something in her mouth!)

Quick bath in the sink!  I don't bathe her here very often, so she got a kick out of it.  You can see the caramel color behind her.

Eating watermelon at Nana and Papa's house (we went down this weekend), she went NUTS over the stuff!!

Parker is doing well.  He's just about got the potty training thing down.  He still has accidents occasionally, and he regressed a little while we were in Colorado b/c he wore pull-ups all week (I didn't want to be cleaning "accidents" off of Becca's carpet all week!), but he in underwear all the time except for naptime and bedtime.  My brother bought him some superhero underwear and it's all he will wear.  He loves his "superheroes pants."  He hasn't had any seizures recently (we were so grateful he didn't on our trip, that was just God), so we're hoping that continues!  He's growing like a weed and is in size 8 shoes now.  He's talking up a storm and is definitely all boy.  I can tell when he hasn't had a chance to get his energy out!  He's into everything!  He is dealing with quite a bit of jealousy toward Madelyn right now.  Don't know what brought it on, but I think she's just so much more fun to interact with now and she takes his toys and takes all of the attention than he's just having a hard time dealing with it.  I didn't expect it to show up now as opposed to earlier.  But MAN, she just drives him crazy!

They were playing in his room the other day and he had wrapped up Madelyn's baby doll and was rocking it to sleep.

Bathtime!  Look at Maddie's wild hair!

Another one of Madelyn's faces.  I think she was saying, "Uh-oooh."  Or whistling.  Seriously, she almost whistles.  It's a little "airy,"  but it really is amazing how close she is to really whistling.  She rolls her "r's" too, I'll try to get it on video.

Parker with Neshia (my brother-in-law's girlfriend) at Nana and Papa's.

He loves this thing.  It's a straw and when you sip the juice goes all the way through the glasses and into your mouth.  He thought that was cool.  (look behind him and you can see what my kitchen used to look like).

I'm doing pretty good.  I got out of my routine on housework and stuff, so I'm trying to get back in the swing of things.  It's really amazing if I don't have a written schedule I have a hard time following any schedule.  It's getting cooler here and every once in a while you can feel fall in the air.  I'm excited!  I'm ready to be able to take the kids to the playground and not sweat the whole time!  I'm ready for jeans and long-sleeved shirts and boots (ah-boots! How I love thee...) and the holidays.  It's just around the corner folks!  There you go.  An update.  You thought it'd never happen!  LOL.  I miss you all and I'm so sorry, I've just been on Facebook so much more and it's hard to keep up with both.  I'd forgotten how much I love to write!

Here are some videos I had...

There was an image of a cat on the screen that Maddie was going crazy over.

Silly girl!

Arrggghhh!  I just got done writing a 10 mo. post for Madelyn but I hadn't published it yet.  I went to put Parker in bed and when I came back for some reason my internet had restarted and I lost the whole thing.  Ugh.  So frustrating.  I can't believe it, but I completely missed Madelyn's 10 month birthday!  Once I realized it, she had a nasty eye infection and would not have looked great in pictures!  Needless to say, I haven't taken any pics yet, but I'm a week and a half late already, so I wanted to go ahead and post.  I'm going to try and get some pics in the next day or two before we leave for Colorado though.  We're leaving Thursday!  I'm so excited.  We're getting to leave a little earlier than we were going too (we were going to leave Friday morning).  We going to leave right at naptime so hopefully the first two-three hours will be uneventful.  I have a lot to do this week to get ready.  I have to run to the library to get some books and movies for the trip, and I like to leave my house clean so we're not coming home to a dirty house.  Lots of laundry, cleaning and packing.  But it's well worth it for a fun time away!  Now for Maddie's post...

Maddie Grace you are changing so much!  Mommy is really enjoying you right now.  I love your constant baby babble...you sure like to make noise!  You love getting into shouting matches with your brother and you will mimic any sounds we make.  You can say mama, dada, yay and bye-bye.  And I know there are other words you're saying that we just can't understand!  You wave bye-bye and nod "yes" and "no."  And you love to make noises with your tongue and with your hands to your mouth.

(A girl can never have too many shoes! Yes, we did pick them all up)

You can definitely get around!  You can crawl w/ super-speed and will climb on anything and everything!  You can stand up holding onto things easily and can even stand on your own for a few seconds!  If mommy or daddy help you, you can "walk" a good distance and you love your push toy.  You are into absolutely everything and we are constantly pulling little pieces of things out of your mouth! 

(She pushed the toilet paper over there herself and was just sitting there playing!)

You are a physical touch baby.  You love to hold onto us and be hugged and kissed.  As soon as daddy walks in the door from work you crawl as fast as you possibly can to him and hold onto his pant leg until he picks you up!  You are daddy's little girl, and love to be with him whenever he's home.  You love to sleep and most days will take at least two, sometimes three naps.  Mommy likes that!  You don't do well if you don't get your sleep either.  You can be a bit of a dramatic "fuss-pot" if your nap doesn't happen!  You love to nurse, and mommy has no idea how she's going to have you weaned in two months.  It may not happen in September!  You are a passy baby, but only when you're sleepy.  That's okay, mommy thinks you're cute with that little passy in your mouth!

Mommy and Daddy love you very much and thank God every day for the joy you give us.  You keep us busy, but we don't mind!  You are mommy's sweet little girl that she's always prayed for.

We love you,
Mommy, Daddy and Parker

We had a pretty good fourth of july weekend.  Randy was off on Thursday and Friday, so it was really nice having him around and being able to take a shower whenever I needed to instead of during naptime!  My sister Bethany came up (she's interning at a missions place in Texas this summer), oh my gosh...I miss her so much. 

I'm so used to her being around during the summer to hang out with.  It's so nice to have some company and she even babysits for us once in a while, which is nice!  Anyway, she got here Thursday night, so we spent the whole weekend w/ the family.  Friday we went to a park to fly kites and then went to lunch.  That night we went over to my parent's house for dinner. 

Saturday we just stayed home and relaxed in the morning and that afternoon we went to a historical museum downtown.  They have some buildings from some of the original settlers in Arkansas and it's all set up like it was in the 1800's w/ people in costume and everything. 

They had old-fashioned games, a parade, crafts and watermelon.  It was fun.

Inside the museum they had a lot of original artifacts and a neat children's area w/ a puppet stage and a dress-up booth and games and stuff.  Madelyn LOVED the puppets!  She just kept giggling and smiling at them.  It was cute.

I can't believe I caught her "scrunchy-face" on camera!

We went and ate barbecue after that and then went home to relax a little before the fireworks.

(From Left:  Parker, Bethany, Crazy Uncle Willy, Maddie, Grandad, "Tee-Tee" a.k.a. Timothy, Jessica, "Honey," and Randy)

Making cupcakes.  I wanted to do something special w/ Parker for the holiday.

We went downtown for the fireworks and oh my gosh...we'll never do that again.  The traffic was terrible and it was so incredibly crowded.  There were people drinking and smoking (not everywhere, just in little groups here and there).  We normally go to a different part of town that a small community and the fireworks are just as great, but you don't have to fight the crowds and traffic.  It was so late too, by the time we got home and got the kids in bed.

Parker kept saying, "Momma, wook! wook!  Right dere, right dere!"  Every time a firework would shoot up in the sky.  Maddie Grace wasn't a fan.  Bless her heart, she was so tense the whole time.  She started watching them after a little while, but she had a firm grip on me!

Saturday night, around midnight, I was nursing Madelyn and I heard Randy run through the house and throw open Parker's bedroom door.  I knew immediately what was happening.  He was having another seizure.  It's crazy, he went eight months without one and now he's had two in a month.  He was running a low-grade fever and it got a little higher afterwards.  The good thing is, he came out of it on his own.  We didn't have to use his kit (it's valium).  We couldn't believe he was sick again.  So we've been laying low ever since then to give him a chance to recoup.  I took him to the doctor yesterday and he has strep throat.   Poor kid.  They had to give him an antibiotic shot.  We decided to do the shot because strep is famous for causing seizures and we didn't want to risk him having another one.  The shot was terrible.  The poor thing started crying before they even did it.  He's had one once before and I think he remembered.  I went to McDonald's and got him a milkshake afterward.  I figured he deserved it.

So, this week will be pretty low-key.  I'm not planning on going anywhere the next few days.  He hasn't had a fever since yesterday afternoon and they said if he went 24 hrs. without a fever he will no longer be contagious.  So I'm hoping by Thursday we can be out and about.  That is, if Madelyn doesn't get it next.  He always in her face kissing her and they play w/ all the same toys.  So I'm just watching to her closely.  Hopefully since she's still nursing she'll be protected.  We'll see.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend!