One Pound of Hair!

I went and got my hair cut today, I decided to chop it off and donate it to "locks of love". Once the ponytail was cut off, it immediately felt lighter, but I didn't realize it was a whole pound heavier! I weighed it when I got home!! Here are some before, during, and after pictures!

I really like the final product! It is completely different and I like it! I have only had short hair like this two other times in my life, once when I was six. My brother cut my hair when we were fighting and we had to trim it to my ears to cover the cut. The other time was in the eighth grade, and I didn't like it on me then. I have a really round face and it made it look even rounder then! Somehow I don't feel the same today even though my face has not changed.

Last week I worked Mon-Wed. and we spent the other two days catching up on everything I wasn't doing at home! We also decorated for Christmas, but minimally because we will be moving in the next couple of weeks.... still waiting for a closing date! Here are some pics of Joya putting the star on the tree and Timmy finding his reflection in the dishwasher!

Piggy Flu

We are going on day 8 for Joya and day 7 for Timmy. Timmy spiked a fever back up to 102 this morning. Joya had another low grade fever yesterday after her nap. We have not been fever free for over a week now! I told Tim this morning that I don't know if were going to make it through this! My flu is in my back, probably also due to always having to hold one of the kids! Both Joya and Timmy liked to be held and cuddled while they don't feel good. Here are some pictures of the poor little darlings, res around the eyes and running noses. All that didn't stop us from dressing up to support our beloved beavers today! Its a big day for the Beavers and we will watch the game with our orange on and from the comfort of our couch!!

Thanksgiving

Well we had an interesting Thanksgiving! It started the Sunday before Thanksgiving, I got sick with bronchitis and was put on meds on Monday. We left on Tuesday for California after Tim and Paul worked for a half a day. We stopped in Redding and staying the night at my Grandparents house, they weren't there, but we invaded their house anyway. We got on the road at 10:30 the next morning and got onto Grammy's ranch at about 3 on Wednesday. At this point I am still the only one sick!! We all go to bed and I took a night quill because Tim told me to get a good nights sleep and he would take care of Timmy. The only problem is when I am not the one to replug Timmy or tend to him he really wakes up and has a hard time with me not being there...Mamma's Boy! Anyway Tim woke up with Timmy at 1am and tried to settle him down, he woke me up at 2ish and I was so drunk on cold medicine that I could not nurse him in good conscious! Anyway Tim got him settled down until he woke up again at 6am, by then I was able to nurse him and he went back to bed for a couple more hours. Joya woke up Thanksgiving morning feeling "puny", those are her words. She took several naps and by the time we found an old school thermometer she had 102. We gave her Tylenol and took her in Friday morning because nothing was helping get her fever to go down. She was treated for Strep Throat. Timmy came down with the really high fever that night, so we decided to leave Grammy's ranch early on Saturday and make the whole trip home in one day. Both kids just wanted to be held but they did a great job on the way home. Timmy had such a high fever that he would sleep for 20 min and wake up for just a few minutes and then go right back to sleep. It was a fast trip with everyone getting sick including Tim's parents, we are praying hard that Grammy and everyone else we exposed does not get sick!!

It wasn't all sickness while we were on the ranch. The first day we were there Joya got to see and feed a lot of animals! We took her up to the horses and put her and Timmy on an old mare bareback, she wasn't so sure of it but Timmy loved it. She also helped Aunt LarryAnn feed all of her wild pigs. Aunt LarryAnn gets a truck load of old bread and feeds her pigs and some of the cows that. They sat in the back of the bed of the truck and tossed the bread over the edge. It was so cute, Joya would yell to the pigs to "come and get it or I'm throwing it out the window." She loved it!! On Thursday after our big meal, Aunt LarryAnn went and caught Rosie for Joya to ride. By this time she was not feeling good at all, but she still wanted to ride for a minute. She rode for a small time, but then wanted off and to go lay back down. I know if she was feeling better she would have been on Rosie all day! Timmy loved it though! On Friday a friend that played with Tim in Arizona now lives int he Bay area, he and his girlfriend came out for the afternoon. It was really fun to meet his girlfriend Christie and to see Troy again. We took them around the 16000 acre ranch on 4wheelers. It was a fun time before everyone got sick! That evening everyone got sick. Paul and Marilee were so sick they went to bed at 7. I was up during the night a lot with both kids. We packed up Saturday morning against Grammy's wishes, but we felt like we needed to get the doctor. We made it home by 12:30 Sunday morning. The kids did a great job on the way home! This is Great Grammy painting Joya's nails because she found her nail polish in the bathroom, and Grammy was sweet enough to do it even though it was very hard for her to see!

He's Walking!!

("Oh Toodles," Joy is saying. She loves the Mickey Mouse Choo Choo Express)

He's walking...just kidding, but he is pulling himself up on everything!! He gets very angry when he can't pull himself up on things like a card board box, his sister, and the little rocking chair. He hasn't figured out that somethings move and he can't put his full weight on to it to get up. He also hasn't figured out that if his legs are not right under him he will fall to the side...good thing its not a far fall!

Here is a video of Joya singing to Timmy, she wanted to put on a little show for him. We are becoming very creative as we are quarantined at home with "hoof and mouth." We are doing better with that too, Joya has been without a fever for 24hours now, and her shots are looking better but not gone. Timmy's three spots on his face are almost gone, but he got a bunch on hes bottom yesterday, and they look painful!! Maybe a few more days and we can get out!!

Hoof and Mouth

"Hoof and Mouth" disease is what my father in-law calls Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease. And YES we have it...I don't, but both kiddos do! Joya was so sick on Friday she ran 102 while on Motrin and couldn't even swallow her throat hurt so bad. She was just letting her saliva run down her chin and had a nice wet ring around her collar. She looked a lot like Timmy, but she's not teething!

I called our doctor and my sister, they both said the same thing, its a "virus" and there is nothing you can do but make sure they stay hydrated! My sister also recommended equal parts of liquid Benadryl and liquid Maalox and paint Joya's tongue and throat with it and it will take the sting out of her throat for her to swallow. I did that and it works great, I can tell when it wears of, about every 2 hours and we do it again.

Today Joya had low grade fevers of 99-100 and had many more moments of being alive and able to play, not like yesterday all she wanted to do was lay on the couch and watch a "little show." Today she still has the little white pox marks in her throat, but she wasn't having the same trouble swallowing like yesterday. And thank the Lord she wasn't as whinny today either. I can tolerate quiet a bit, but I can not take much of the whinny talking and attitude. I know its different when she is sick, but I think she knows how to play it up now too!

Timmy woke up with one of the little boils/pox marks on his lip. He doesn't have any other symptoms other than that one mark...lets all pray right now that he stays healthy!!





Here is a picture of Timmy chewing on a duck, sorry to all our family and friends who are duck fans, but I think Timmy is choosing his allegiance early!

Timmy also decided that crawling is not challenging enough for him, so he started pulling himself up to a standing position today! It was fun to watch both my parents, Tim's parents and my sister were all in the room when he performed for us! So naturally we put him on the walking toy and he did great. We held on to the toy so it didn't slip out in front of him, but he took a few steps with it!! I think he might be cruising the couch next !!

It's Official!

It's official, Timmy is crawling. He is extremely slow and makes it around the family room floor just fine, but has not ventured outside of the family...which is fine with me!! We used our baby gates for the Toby outside at this house, so I will have to get new ones for inside. He also hasn't figured out the speed factor yet, but that again is only a matter of time! He has been doing the worm thing and been mobile, but now its on hands and knees and I got his first few steps on film!!

Timmy also was dedicated on Sunday. The whole family was up on stage and Joya was making Tim and I laugh through the whole time. We told her it was time to pray and so while the Pastor was praying she started praying too. She prayed for her carebears, carebear cousins, her Sunday school class, penguins that she didn't know their names, and named everyone names in our family. After she was done praying she said, "OK I'm done, lets go back to my class."

The dedication was presented by Pastor Andy Buchanan, and he did a great job! We had Joya dedicated also, but this one felt different and was more community based, I really liked it! So here are some pictures from that, I will post more when I get more from my sister, she has a better camera than us!

Happy Halloween!

These pictures are from Friday we went to the aquarium. We had a great time and got to see scuba divers with masks on in the shark tanks!

We had a great time last week, cousin Josh was here. Him and Joya had a great time together, they wore each other out, but had a fantastic time together. On Saturday we had a fun, but long day. We started the morning with the OSU fall carnival. It was a bunch of booths with ring toss, cakewalks, and a blow up bouncy obstacle course. Then the OSU football game started, I took Joya and Timmy home for a nap while Tim, Josh, Dan and Tim's parents went to the game. On our way home we stopped by a friends birthday party, but then went home for a good nap...for me too! When everyone came home from the game we all ate dinner and then went trick or treating. The kids were so cute, Josh was really into getting candy, Joya just liked telling each person at the door that she was a care bear! We took them around our five houses in our neighborhood, and then to my parents and sisters neighborhood, then we took the kids to see coach Riley and Mrs. Dee. Mrs. Dee had told Tim at the game that she really wanted to see Joya and that she missed her, we went to see them, Joya was so excited to see Mrs. Dee!

He did it!!

Last Saturday Timmy went with me on a women's retreat while Joya stayed with Daddy. While on the retreat he said "Mama". He said it all day Saturday and Sunday, but as soon as we got into Tim's presence he stopped saying it and has not said it since!! I try so hard to get him to say it and he just looks at me and says"mmmmm."
Yesterday on Monday Timmy started army crawling. No one was around to see it and I tried to get him to do it again when Tim was home again, and again he didn't perform!
Last night I had Timmy on the floor and got him to inch his way forward for the little Elmo doll that Joya has. Timmy did it, he army crawled toward Elmo and Daddy was so excited to see it. Joya was even excited for Timmy and told him "good job, Timmy!"
It's been an exciting few days, crawling is next and he will probably be a lot faster at that and we will have to set some serious boundaries for him and for Joya as far as picking up after herself!!
Here are some pictures from the Picture Me studio. They turned out great!

Whats that smell?

Well I walked into the house a few days ago and smelt something really bad!! So I did what anyone else would do, emptied the garbage, cleaned the sink, ran the disposal, Lysol everything. Anyway the smell was covered for a little while but then it came back, so I started following my nose. I followed the smell to to corner of the room where Joya has her kitchen, I thought Toby had puked or pooped back there so I was on my hands and knees searching. I found the culprit...it was a white butcher paper covered, pound and a half of beef! Joya was playing with one of the frozen packages of meat when we got the half a cow and we were putting it away. Tim was working in the garage putting it away in the outside freezer and I was putting a few pounds in the inside freezer. Joya was walking back and forth between us bringing meat from Tim to me and visa versa. Well neither Tim or myself realized that Joya still had a package and she put it in her kitchen. She was cooking her meat in the oven, and that's where I found it! A couple weeks old, nasty smelling, rotting meat! Bing...it's done!

Big guy eat'en some food!

Here is Timmy eating food!

And here is my babies in a row!

Timmy is 6 months!

Timmy turns 6 months old today! He is back to nursing every 4 hours through the night because he broke his first tooth through on the 18th and now is breaking the next one through! Some how that makes him more hungry or just needing more mommy time! Timmy is sitting up by himself and doesn't like to sit in the exersaucer anymore because it is too confining. He likes to be on the floor where he can scoot to what he wants to pick up and put in his mouth. I tried giving him rice cereal today, but he was not having it! He just wanted to nurse and not have anything to do with a spoon! We will try again this evening.

This is Joya's Halloween costume, I just finished making it and she loves it. I am not letting her wear it all the time yet, but it has been on everyday since I finished it. She is so excited to be a care bear!

Here is our half of cow! That's right we shared a cow with some friends from church, it was a good deal for a completely healthy cow that wasn't fed crap! We are having the first steaks tonight, so we will see if there is a huge difference! The white packages on the ground, we had to organize the cuts of meat before putting it in the freezer. Here are the kids before Tim's first home game as a high school coach. We went to the home game, Timmy is wearing his Jordan outfit and Joya is wearing Tim's steelers jersey! They both were big hits at the game!

"I know what I want to be when I grow up."

Well Joya knows what she wants to be when she grows up. We were watching a show on TV and their was a commercial for a chocolate company and it said their "chocolatiers" make the chocolate. Joya asked me what a chocolatier was and I told her it was someone who makes chocolate for their job when their grown up. She thought for a while and then looked at me and said, "mom when I grow up I want to be a sprink-a-latier, I want to make sprinkles!" I thought it was so cute, she loves sprinkles and loves to put them on everything!

Joya also has decided that she wants to be a care bear from Halloween. The pink one with the rainbow on its tummy, Cheer bear. So I have to get going on that costume.

Timmy is rolling all over the floor, sitting up for longer and longer periods of time, and he is trying to cut a tooth. He is screaming when not on Tylenol and the tooth is right under the surface, i can feel it but it hasn't come through the gums yet. This is way sooner than Joya got her teeth. She was 11 months, Timmy is almost 6 months.

Beaver Game and Wild Life Safari

It was a busy weekend, on Saturday we went to the beaver game as a family. We didn't know how it would go with Joya and Timmy, but Joya was so excited to go to a beaver game that she did excellent. Timmy did great also and it reminded me of when I used to take Joya to Tim's games and where her on the front pack. Timmy was a little heavier this time around, but he fell asleep during the game and was cheerful when he was awake. This was big Tim's first beaver game as a spectator and fan and it was the first time that Tim and I sat next to each other. We really enjoyed ourselves. It was awesome because Tim could still read the quarterback signs and was telling me what was going to happen on offence before it happened...it was awesome!! The beavers ended the game in a victory and Joya did a great job of making it through the day without a nap!

Today we went to Wild Life Safari down in Roseburg, its a couple hours south of here. It is a drive through zoo where the animals can roam wild. They do keep the animals separate with cattle guards so they don't have predators and prey! The best part for Joya and Timmy is that they could be in the car without being in their car seats! Joya even watched the animals through our sunroof...it was awesome! Here are some pictures from the day, we had a great time with Grandpa and Grandma and saw some great animals!! I'll let the pictures tell the story!

Here are the elephants washing cars...for a fee. It was fun to watch though, their slogan was they guarantee NOT to clean your car!

Here is Joya watching the animals through the sunroof...I think she really liked this except when a tall animal came near the car, she was quick to get back in the car.

There was also a petting zoo in the safari village. We also got to ride a little train there that took us around a small part of the safari, but it was fun and good timing since it was around 3 and Joya hadn't melted down yet, but easily could have! It was a good rest time!

The Wild Life Safari is famous around the world for their cheetah breading. They are so successful because they keep the cheetah's near another exhibit of deer and it makes them think they have enough hunting to provide for their family and they can then make baby cheetahs!!

Joya in the petting zoo as a little lamb, she was so cute going in all of the cut outs!

For Your Enjoyment!

This is of Joya singing "Jesus loves the little Timmy". It was so cute I had to post it!

Last Week Was a Full Week!

Last weekend we took Joya to the Lane County Fair with Grandma and Grandpa. She got to ride a few rides which brought back horrible memories for me! I was almost killed at a ride at that fair when I was little and have never rode a carnival ride since. I got very nervous even thought they were just cute rides that she could not get hurt on. I had an anxiety attack and had to leave for a minute to regain myself, then I walked back and watched Joya have fun. We went to the fair with expectations of riding the farris wheel, but she wasn't tall enough and we told her she had to be three years old to ride it...I hope she is tall enough next year! Tim left that night for Bend and was there working at a golf tournament and came home Sunday night right before the kids went to sleep.

During the week we had a lot of fun with friends, Joya had a few play dates. We had the Trimmer boys over again and it was another wonderful experience, all the kids played great together! We also had over our new neighbor Lauren, and her daughter Jaden (18mths). Even adding another child in the mix everyone played really well together.

Thursday night we headed down to Eugene because Tim had his 8th knee surgery Friday morning at 7:00am. So we stayed the night at Grandma and Grandpa's and they watched Joya for me while Tim had his screw and staple taken out. He has been a little disappointed with how he actually feels like he had surgery. He thought he would feel fine the next day and be able to go golfing with his buddies on Sunday...not the case. After the quick surgery we went back to Grandma and Grandpa's house and ate breakfast and then packed Joya and Timmy up to come back up home. We put both kids down for a nap and Tim and I took a nap too. Then when Joya woke up my mom came and got her and they went to her house to bake some cakes. Joya had a fantastic day! Here is a picture of the screw and staple that came out of Tim's knee. My ring is next to them so you can see how big they are!

On Saturday my sister came and got Joya and they went up to Enchanted Forrest. They had a blast and Joya got to ride a Kiddy Farris Wheel, she was pumped up about that. The rest of us headed back down to Eugene for Kenny Cox's Memorial Service. We cried a lot and Tim got people laughing with Kenny stories from the past. It was a great service. We came back up to hear about Joya's day with Tia and had some friends over for dinner, it was very low key, just pizza and salad and Tim didn't even sit at the table with us, he sat on the couch with his knee propped up with ice on it.

Sunday we went to church in the morning and then in the evening we went to the church swim and BBQ. We had a great time. My mom watched Timmy and and I took Joya swimming, she even went down the big huge slide twice. It was awesome, and I loved the time with just her, usually I have her and Timmy in the other arm, so it was nice to just have her and concentrate on just her!




Timmy this last week has decided to not sleep through the night anymore! Last night he finally slept really well! It was just in time too, my eye had been twitching for four days because I was so tired!

Update on Timmy Jr.

This last week Timmy has hit some major developmental milestones! He started rolling over and now can roll to where he wants to go, within reason! He will see Joya's stuff across the room and roll to get there, he also does this scooting thing on his tummy where he doesn't use his legs or arms but cinches up his but and goes back down to make him move forward. It's funny to watch, but he can move with it. Timmy also can sit up for a little while on his own. I can't leave him sitting up by any means but I can sit him up and let go of him for about a half a minute before he starts toddling. He sometimes will correct himself and sit back up but most of the time he falls over, usually head first. Timmy is also a very loud baby, he loves to join conversation and will "ahhhhh" as loud as he can, he got the vocals from my side of the family!!!

Here are some new video of Timmy talking, he is an easy going baby with a great smile and he just wants to be heard and smiled at!