My heart is full!

I just LOOOOVE my babies so, so much! I'm so extremely blessed and thank the Lord 100 times a day for giving me such a sweet life. 

Sweet Ethan. I love you so much, little man! I love how when you are awake, you are WIDE awake. 

I love that you are soaking up the world around you. You spend most of the day just starring at different things. I would love to know what's going on in your head.  You love being outside.  I guess there's more to look at out there than inside these 4 walls that we've been cooped up in for weeks!

Oh, Hannah. You have stolen your momma's heart and you could pretty much get away with anything with me. YOU. ARE. SPOILED. 

I love how you look after your 3+ hour naps. Like a train hit you. Ha!  But still soooo precious. 

Right before your nap when we change your diaper we typically keep your pants off if you aren't in a dress.  After naps you never want to put them back on, so most afternoons you are in a shirt and diaper. I love it. But when daddy gets home the first thing you want to do is go outside with him to play. I make y'all play in the back yard so the neighbors don't think we are hillbillies. 

Even with your crazy bed head and no pants, you are just gorgeous. 

Thank you, Jesus, for these sweet blessings. And for the man who is always behind the camera. We are blessed!

Hannah-isms

Several of my friends have been blogging recently about funny things their kids do or say.  All kids are so funny and do the cutest things.  Since I print my blog and use it as a scrapbook of memories, I thought I'd better document some of the sweet things this little angel comes up with...

Lately she's been saying "ummmm" before she answers a question we ask her. Example:

Us: Hannah, what do you want for a snack?

Hannah: Ummmm, CHEETOS!
(Like she really has to think about this - it's ALWAYS cheetos)

We've also really been working on colors.  She totally knows her colors, but I think she thinks it's funny to mess up. Example:

Us: What color is the grass?

Hannah: Ummm, Yellow.

Us: No, grass is green.

Hannah: Yeah, not yellow (while shaking her head no)

She also mocks everything we say. If I say something to Ethan, she repeats it to him in a sweet, mommy voice.  Love this!

"I do it" is HUUUUGE right now.  This is anything. Getting in her booster seat at the table, getting in the car, putting on her clothes, feeding herself. Everything is taking double the time right now and I daily have to remind myself that raising my babies is my biggest purpose right now and I need to be patient and let her try things on her own, instead of hurrying her in the car so we can be on time somewhere that's not important. 

"Help, pleeeeease." When Hannah runs into something she can't do on her own (unstrap the car seat buckles, reach something up high, etc.) She says in a sweet, but frustrated voice "Help, pleeeease."  At least she's saying please, but it's certainly not a patient "please."

"Thank you, mommy."  "Thank you, daddy."  She's become so good at saying thank you for everything. After I give her a drink in the morning, put her shoes on for her, etc. she'll say, without prompting, Thank you, mommy. It melts my heart and makes me think that she DOES listen to me sometimes. Ha!

Well, there are many, many more, but these are just some things that I don't ever want to forget.  I've tried to get the video camera out a lot more lately because I know these days are slipping away and I want to have as much documented as possible.

I LOOOOOVE being a mommy, especially to this little girl and her sweet little brother! 

Firsts

We've had a couple of "firsts" around here lately.  On Saturday morning Hannah had her first pop tart!

It was a hit! I know it's not the healthiest choice, but we are in a breakfast rut and I thought a pop tart would be a nice treat for her.  It's got to be a little better than a powdered donut, right?!

And drum roll please....Ethan made his first appearance at church on Sunday!

This is not a great picture. I was in a rush to get out the door and wanted to be sure I captured how cute he looked before his outfit was ruined by spit up or a diaper explosion (both of which haven't happened yet, but there's always a first time). He had on the cutest shoes from none other than Aunt Jenn!

 Wesley played bass during the service this week, so he brought Hannah to church early and I was able to just get Ethan and I ready. It was so nice to get out of the house!  Ethan can't go to the church nursery until he's 8 weeks old, so I probably won't be going back to church until then. I worry about his little noises and distracting the people sitting around us, but I really wanted to hear Wes play this week so I decided to take Ethan and keep him with me. So, a few more weeks and I'll be back in the swing of things!

Lastly, we took our first trip in real public on Monday!

We went to hobby lobby. I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to tote an infant carrier around and still have room for Hannah in the basket, plus the things I'm buying.  But today we just needed 1 thing and so I put the carrier in the basket and let Hannah walk.  She's actually really good about not touching and listening when I tell her to follow me. She did EXCELLENT, but was a little distracted by a display with Mickey Mouse and Tinkerbelle. I can't blame her.  So, our first outing was a success! And I was actually there by 9:15! Impressive with 2 kids, right? Ha!

Daddy's Shoes

Well, I haven't blogged in a while (for me, anyway, who usually blogs every day or ever other day). To be honest, most of my free time is spent napping! Ethan has started falling into a good night time sleep pattern the past few nights, though, and I finally feel like I don't need to nap every day! Let's hope that lasts.

So if you know Wes, you know he likes things organized. He wants a place for everything and laughs at me because I think if things are hidden, then things are considered picked up. You should see our junk drawer. ha!  Anyway, one thing he doesn't seem to have a place for is his shoes.  They are kinda just thrown at the bottom of his closet.  Well, Hannah took advantage of daddy's un-organization...

Slippers!

I didn't realize how many pairs of shoes Wes had!

I love that her right toes aren't in the right place. ha!

Eventually she got bored. I think there were a couple more pairs in there, but it was quite a task carrying size 11 shoes all the way from daddy's closet to the living room for mommy to take a picture. 

Photo Shoot

For Christmas I got 2 picture frames for our hallway to hang pictures of the kiddos.  They've been empty ever since we hung them a couple of months ago.  Wesley finally got tired of the empty frames and yesterday we decided to take some pictures to put in them. 

Our favorite of Ethan:

It's so hard to get a good picture of a newborn who hasn't started smiling yet.  Of course I think he's precious, but he has absolutely no expression - ha!  This will be a sweet picture, though, until he has a little more personality.

This is our favorite of Hannah:

It is equally as difficult to get a good picture of a 2 year old!  We have to go with the "action" shots rather than  the "look at the camera and say cheese" shots. Ha!

Although, I joked with Wes when he was taking the pictures that if Hannah wasn't so shy we could make some big money off of her modeling skills.  She does just about anything we ask her to do during a photo shoot.  When we tell her we're getting ready to take pictures she'll start saying cheeeeese and let me fix her hair and everything. So cute.

Here are some others that we got.

Love these two!

Father's Day

On Saturday evening Wes brought Hannah to Chick-fil-A for a daddy/daughter date that Chick-fil-A put on. It was a great time for both of them.  I hope that we continue the tradition of daddy/daughter dates as Hannah gets older.  I want Wes and Hannah to have a great relationship as she grows. I know they will, because Wes is already so involved in her little life.

HAD to have her shades on.

We celebrated Father's Day on Sunday.  Wesley and Hannah headed to church and I stayed home with Ethan.   Since we couldn't go out to lunch because of Ethan, Wes decided he wanted a big ole Jucy's hamburger.  So, Hannah and I headed to Jucy's to get just that.  Sunday evening we headed to my sisters house for fried fish. So yummy!

Hannah and Ethan, you are SO lucky to have such a great daddy. He loves you both so much and he portrays that through his actions.  He loves spending time with both of you and has gladly sacrificed so many things to make you two happy and spend time with each of you, together and individually.  I hope one day you are both able to appreciate what a great man he is. He is a a great leader, provider and caregiver to all of us. 

We love you, daddy and we're SO lucky you are ours!

1 Month!

Ethan, you are 1 month old today! I can't believe it was exactly a month ago that I held you for the first time. In some ways it feels like yesterday and in other ways it feels like you've been here forever! I fall more in love with you every day!

At one month you are:

• Wearing newborn diapers
• Wearing newborn clothes
• Weighing in at about 8 1/2 pounds
• Starting to get interested in ceiling fans
• Following voices and will look in the direction of a noise
• Loving your big sister
• Enjoying tummy time
• Sleeping in your room.  We moved you when you were less than a week old. You're a grunter!
• So happy all the time.  You rarely cry, and that's such a blessing
• Completely content laying on the ground, in the swing, in your bouncer
• Haven't gotten out much, but hopefully that will change soon
• Starting to give us some of those accidental smiles and we can't wait until they are real
• So loved by so many people

I love that you are one of those babies that looks like a little old man.  Your little receding hair line makes me smile.  And as you can tell from this picture, you got your first scratch on your face.  I guess I put the baby mittens away too soon. Oops!

Love you so much, little dude! 

Life as we know it

Life at the Tyler's has changed a bit lately.  Not just since Ethan was born, but since he was sick.  You see, apparently there is a magic number with newborns, and that number is 28.  Once your baby reaches the age of 28 days, you avoid alot of the things Ethan had to go through at the hospital.  Ethan's 48 hour stay at the hospital and some of the tests he had to go through were because he was less than 28 days old.  So, the doctor advised that we keep Ethan at home, quarantined, until he was at least 28 days, and actually recommended that we wait even longer than that.  So, we've been spending lots of time at home...

In our pajamas!

Wes and I have been taking turns staying home with the kids while the other runs some errands that we need to get done.  Also, this little girl who is used to getting out of the house almost every day, has become a little irritable.  So, Wes took her to the lake on Sunday, knowing we wouldn't be able to leave much this week.

(Don't pay attention to our scratched up door.  That's the aftermath from our dog during a thunderstorm. Fun, huh!?)

Ethan has been doing lots of resting.

And when daddy is at work, we've been spending lots of time outside.

Ethan will be 28 days old on Thursday. I can't believe he'll already be a month old!!! We're so thankful to reach this point.  Just to know that if his fever spiked he wouldn't have to get pricked so much is a comforting feeling.  But, we're hoping to avoid a fever spike for a LOOOONG time, so we will be quarantined for a while longer.

Silly face!

Thanks soooo much to all of my friends who have offered or actually taken Hannah places for me. She got to go to the zoo with Ms. Leslie, Will and Luke this week and got an offer to go play in Ms. Tamala and Ella's pool.  We are SO THANKFUL to have wonderful friends that understand how hard it is to keep a toddler occupied when you can't get out of the house for over 2 weeks! So grateful!

So until we can get out again, there might not be any fun blog entries coming from the Tyler house! 

I'm here!

My completely awesome, talented friend Dara made Ethan's birth announcements.  Aren't they SO CUTE?!

I might be a tad biased, but is he not the cutest thing you've ever seen?  

We only sent these to family and our small group bible study.  With facebook and blogs, most everyone has already seen many pictures of Ethan, so I thought it was sufficient to just post it here for my friends to see. 

And just an update on little man.  He's doing great.  We're trying to figure out our routine again.  The hospital really messed up his schedule and made him a little more on edge.  I'm trying to figure out how to convince a 3 week old that when I touch him I'm not going to poke him with a needle or take his blood pressure. It's hard trying to re-gain the trust of your infant. He's also regressed a little with nursing, so we're working on that and I'm hoping to have my good eater back soon.  Luckily, my little chunk has some weight to spare. ha! Please continue to pray for us and Ethan's recovery. 

Before and After

Wesley's brother and his wife (James & Jenn) are in the process of remodeling their house.  We've told them stories about all the work we've done on our house, but I truly think you have to see before and after pictures to really appreciate it.  We were looking at pictures yesterday and were going to send them to them, but I decided it would be fun to show all of you the fruits of our labor over the past 4 years here.

The outside:

Living Room:

Kitchen:

Master Bath:

Guest Bath

The bedrooms just needed a little wall paper taken down and some fresh paint, so those pretty much look the same. Of course our 2 extra rooms are now Hannah and Ethan's rooms.  

Not sure if any of you care, but it's fun for me to look back and see everything we did.

The last 72 hours....

Have been the hardest of my life.  My sweet, fragile little boy woke up at 4:00 a.m. Tuesday morning running 101.2 temperature. I called Telecare (our local hospital help) and they said I needed to bring him to the ER. That's when the tears started.  I lost it.  For some reason, I just thought they would tell me to bring him to the doctor in the morning.  When we got to the ER his temperature read 101.5 and the ER doctor immediately told me the plan of action - which was not good.  It included lots of pricks and machines, including a spinal tap. Needless to say, I couldn't see straight through all of my tears.  The results from the spinal tap came pretty quickly and the news was not good - meningitis.  My tears turned more to a flood at that point and I immediately blamed myself. My thoughts were that I got him out too soon, exposed him to other people to quickly, etc.  The nurses and doctors assured me it wasn't my fault, but as a mommy, my job is to protect my babies and I felt like I had failed him.  About 10 minutes later our pediatrician (which I could never repay for his prompt response to phone calls in the middle of the night and his constant care and concern) showed up, read the results and clarified that it was not meningitis.  Praise the Lord. Our prayers had been answered.

We eventually found out he would need to be admitted. Here he is being wheeled to his room.

Once we got to his room he received an IV, which was also heart wrenching. His little veins are so small that they were almost certain they were going to have to do a scalp IV (in his head).  I again lost it and the thought of having a needle stuck in my precious baby's head was too much for this mommy to handle. Wes went back with the nurses to a different room and I stayed behind.  Luckily, an awesome pediatric nurse was able to get his IV in his arm. Praise the Lord - another prayer answered. 

Once we got "settled" and many tears cried, we tried to get some rest.  It's practically impossible to rest in a hospital, and even more so when your 19 day old child is next to you suffering.  The lack of sleep definitely took an emotional toll on me and I knew I needed some rest, but my mind wouldn't shut down. The events of the day kept replaying in my head and I think after a while I finally dozed off.  I was awaken to many nurses coming in and out, with news that his temp got up to 102.1. Another scary time for me.

Blood was drawn throughout his stay and revealed nothing too alarming, just an unknown virus that was causing high fever.  His fever has been up and down and continues to spike at times, but Praise the Lord - he was able to come home.  Another answered prayer. One more minute in that hospital would have killed me.  He's resting so much better here at home already. 

All of the prayers, notes, texts, encouragement from everyone is truly what sustained us through our stay at the hospital.  It seems as if each time we would pray we were at a loss for words. It was so nice to know that our friends were interceding for us.  Even though we are back home, the fight isn't quite over.  Ethan is tired and still sick. It might be a little journey to recovery, but we are so thankful to be on that road.

Strong and Firm - I think we chose Ethan's name accordingly.  Praise the Lord, for He is GOOD.