This is my second post on Christmas. I suggest starting below with Christmas Eve and then reading this post on Christmas day to follow chronologically.

Christmas morning was a new tradition for us. We stayed home and opened presents from Santa and ate delicious eggs benedict that Dusty made. Santa even brought Dusty a present, the new Jay-Z CD.

Max woke up and found a new John Deere tricycle waiting under the tree for him. He was very excited and climbed right on it. Of course he wouldn't sit still for at least one cute picture of him on it but I guess that is a good thing. He is a bit too short for pedaling but it will be perfect come spring. He currently just climbs on and off of it and dumps the back over and over again.

We then proceeded over to my Grandma's home for gifts and food. Of course GG had frosted cookies which means a big mess with my little man. Luckily Grandma was willing to keep track of him while he ate them.

Bopa was kind enough to dress up as Santa and hand out the gifts. Max wasn't into sitting on Santa's lap but he was more than willing to help unload the gifts from the bag. Rory was perfectly happy sitting with the fat man in the red suit and posed nicely for pictures. Yep, she's going to be my beauty queen!

Tara got Dusty and Dad special hats for Christmas. Max was terrified of them so they didn't get to wear them long, but Tara was happy she got a picture with them.

It was a very exciting Christmas. The kids make Christmas special in a whole new way and its fun living the season through them. Here's to a great end to the year, and looking forward to what 2010 will bring!

I have too many pictures to share, so I'm going to have to do at least two blog posts to get as many pictures up as I can. We'll start with Christmas Eve.

We started out at Joe and Bridget's home in Stillwater. Luckily it really wasn't a bad drive as all that snow that was forcasted just didn't show up. We had a great time and found out that purple was the color this year! It's become a joke that the last few Christmases almost all the women end up wearing the same color, and this year was no exception as most of us were in purple. We naturally had to get a picture of this and then decided to take a sassy picture for our good friend Don who lives in Miami. He'll love our Christmas picture for him!

We then proceeded to Annette's home for the evening where most of Dusty's family congregated. They brought back out the pinata game since we finally had some little kids big enough to hit it. It was so cute to watch. Jody helped Rory get in a swing.

Lyla was just a ham as she would hit the pinata and then turn and smile at everyone that was cheering her on. Naturally both her and Max got very upset when their turns were over.

Max even went so far as to hit his auntie Rosie for taking the bat away. It was very naughty but so, so funny too. Luckily no one was laughing loud enough over his crying to encourage that behaviour. Max did get in quite a few good hits though!

I also had to get a picture of Max with Brayden since the two of them looked so handsome in their sweater vests!

Christmas Eve was very fun with Dusty's families. I am really looking forward to next year as both my kids will be big enough to run around and play with all the cousins!

Rory is 3 months old and I was finally able to get a picture of her big smile. She can really turn on the charm when she wants to and especially likes when you are giving her your uninterrupted attention. This is usually when she'll give you her biggest grins.

Max was of course helping me take Rory's pictures and I finally let him go up and pose with her too. Of course then he'll only look at "baby" instead of me. Oh yeah, and he is quite the fashionista. He loves taking mom's headbands and hair ties and wearing them.


They are a handful at times, but then I look at pictures like this and I wonder how I got so lucky!

We celebrated Christmas with Dusty's siblings and parents on Saturday. It was a great night with 20 lbs of crab leg, steak, and of course some beverages. Isn't my little girl adorable in her Santa outfit? Yes, Katie is cute also.

Max riding the Barbie tricycle we got Lyla. Yeah, he spent the evening on that bike, good thing Santa has decided to bring Max his own tricycle on Christmas Eve. (And even better that he can't read this to find out in advance!)

Suzanne and Curt with all the grandbabies! From left to right, Oliver (4 days), Lyla (17 mos), Max (19 mos), Allison (2 yrs), Rory (3 mos).

Dusty and I in our Christmas finest. Nothing says Happy Holidays like a Santa tie and Christmas sweater!

We had a great time and it was a perfect way to start out the holidays by having a relaxing evening with family. The kids were up way to late but of course there was too much going on to even consider going to bed early. I hope we have as much fun for the rest of the holidays as we did Saturday, because that is going to be hard to beat!

Oliver William Wirth was born December 16th, at 7:52p.m. He weight 8 pounds and 4 ounces and was 21.5 inches long. Here's a picture of Ed, Katie and Oliver at the hospital.
And proud Grandma Suzanne with her newest grandson!
He has his Mommy and Sister's cheeks, his daddy's nose and slate blue eyes. He also has quite a bit of dark brown hair on his head. He is just beautiful - or handsome if you prefer that for a boy.

I'm so excited to add a nephew to my family! Allison, Max, Lyla, Rory and Oliver are going to have so much fun together as they grow up and it is going to be so much fun to witness it all. Congrats to the happy parents, Katie and Ed!

Pretty sure I couldn't be more proud of my sister than I am at this moment. She has finally taken the advice of MANY people and is going to try her hand at writing. She has been accepted to write for the St. Paul Examiner. Please make sure to visit her column to see what interesting things she has to write about.

http://www.examiner.com/x-33356-St-Paul-Best-Friends-Examiner

Oh yeah, her first article hasn't been published yet so there may not be anything but her picture and a link to her bio when you click, but I was so excited about it I wanted to brag in advance. Keep checking it out as I'm sure she will be very entertaining.

Saturday we loaded up the family and headed over to Target Portrait Studios for Rory's 3 month pictures and also for a family picture. Of course, it never goes according to plans. First off, Max burnt his hand grabbing my curling iron. We also didn't have as much time as I had hoped for and in our rush out the doors I forgot to put any jewelery on which means no wedding rings for Dusty or I in our family photos. Also, Rory needed to eat the minute we got to the studio so if you look closely, you will see a bottle between Dusty and I in the family photo as we spot fed between shots. But the pictures turned out great in spite of it all! Here's my little sweetheart...
Don't forget a cute shot of both my babies. Don't they look so angelic here? I don't know how they pulled that one off!

And lastly, one of the best looking families around, if I do say so myself!
I'm looking forward to getting my pictures up on the walls of our house. I mean, who doesn't like to show off their kids?

Since returning to work we've been very fortunate that both my sister and my mother-in-law have been able to help watch the kids when Dusty is working. While getting ready to leave I decided to get a picture of Grandma playing on the floor with her grand babies. They love when she comes over!

Max naturally has to run over to the camera so we took a picture together. (I can turn the screen out so he can see himself as we take the picture.) Yeah, he is pretty dang cute!

Dusty surprised us on Saturday by bringing home a Christmas tree. Naturally he insisted on screwing it into the ground so it couldn't tip over like a past Christmas, that was really upsetting! I had Max help me decorate the tree and showed him how the ornaments go on. The next time I looked, I found this big heap of ornaments on the tree; maybe he'll get it next year.

After Max went to bed I restrung the lights and hung all the ornaments so they were out of his reach. He was having too much fun pulling them off and on. Good thing Dusty screwed it into the ground because it would have tipped over that day with all the time Max spent pulling on the ornaments. The tree looks a bit funny decorated only on the top half, but at least we have a decorated tree. Plus, it is a useful visual point to have Rory look at while doing her neck exercises!

The Petersons were kind enough to lend us their Bumbo so Rory can work on strengthening her neck muscles. You can tell she still favors her left side but she is getting a lot better at turning to the right, and making her use all her neck muscles will help out with that. Thank you Petersons!

Also, as I stated in my previous post, I was able to take Rory to her second physical therapy appointment and I learned a lot while I was there. For starters, I was disappointed to hear that we could have started therapy at 2 weeks when we first told our pediatrician about our concerns. I understand that some babies may just grow out of the problem, but it is frustrating to know we could have been helping her weeks earlier.

The therapist also informed me that I should expect Rory to go back to favoring her left side with major milestones like crawling and sitting up. When she starts using new muscle groups she'll stop focusing on the neck muscles. This is just like how a talking child may stop talking as they start to walk, basically they are focused on just the one activity. It makes sense, but I didn't know to expect that so I'm glad I found out beforehand.

While therapy will eventually drop down to once a month, we should expect to do the exercises with Rory through her first year as major milestones will bring set backs and we'll have to make sure she gets back on track to using her neck to its full potential. After that we shouldn't have to worry about it. I really wasn't expecting all of this so it was a bit overwhelming at first, but I'm glad to know it all now and am thankful that she shared this with me in advance. It is a joy watching Rory as she is changing so much and the exercises just mean we'll be even more focused on her so we shouldn't miss anything!

What a horrible start of a week! Sunday I was up at 4am waiting for Rory to wake up as she usually gets up between 1 and 4am. Max woke up first, at 6am, which was really exciting but would have been better had I slept. Later that day, I had a little bleach incident which resulted in getting both bleach on Max's sleeve and also on the bathroom rug. Luckily both were small spots and not very noticeable but that all happened by 11am! The rest of the day was at least uneventful.

Sunday night Rory was up at 2am, Max was crying at 4am, and then Rory was up again at 5:30am! Thankfully Grandma came over to our house to watch the kids as I was far to exhausted to try to get them dressed and out of the house in time for me to get to work. After work I had to jet home and grab Rory to go to her physical therapy appointment. By the time I got home, ate dinner, got the kids into bed and finished up with chores around the house it was 9pm and time for me to get to bed. (I know, early, but did I not mention the recent sleeping schedule?!)

We had another terrible night with Max up screaming at midnight, Rory up at 2am, then Max was up for the day at 5am (much to our dismay) and all his jabbering got Rory up for the day at 5:30am. I had to be out the door early to get to a doctor's appointment before work this morning and after work I'll be taking Rory to the chiropractor. (This is in hopes to prevent any more ear infections as one was more than enough for me!)

Tonight when I get home for the chiropractor Dusty will be making tacos for dinner which is one of my favorite dinners to have so here's to a more positive rest of the week! I'll post more about Rory's therapy later, that was a very informative visit.

Wednesday we headed out to Jeff and Cyd's for our monthly dinner. Chris and Jill have finally brought Brayden John into the world so we decided it would be cute to get a picture of Jeff and Cyd with their "farm babies" as I like to refer to them. From left to right we have Lyla (15 months), Max (18 months), Jeff holding Brayden (2 weeks), and Cyd holding Lorelei (2 months). Needless to say these kids are going to be growing up together and getting into lots of trouble if we continue the farm dinner tradition for years to come!

Rory and I visited with our pediatrician Thursday to check her ears now that she is off all medication and believe it or not, they were clear! Unfortunately this week Rory has become a bit crabbier so I was worried things weren't going to go well. Now I know I can associate the crabbiness not to illness but just to the fact that she is still adjusting to sleeping flat on her back in the crib instead of in her carseat or swing. It is a relief, although I wish she would adjust quicker. I really don't enjoy being up for hours in the middle of the night, especially since I've returned to working full time! Of course, she does seem to enjoy falling asleep whenever Daddy rocks her.


Max has become a toddler in just a few weeks time! He really enjoys saying "no", even when that isn't an answer to a question. Like this morning Suzanne was over to watch the kids and asked Max what type of clothes he wanted to wear today and his response, "no". It was pretty funny. He also enjoys waking up in the morning and then finding the first naughty thing he can. I'm learning to be on top of him the minute I let him out of his crib. He also is still enjoying his new trick, "the hulk", as Daddy taught him. He tenses up all his muscles and it is really funny. I snapped this great picture of him doing it after a spaghetti dinner so he is especially cute with out his shirt, a very blotchy face and drool down his front.

As I stated above, I returned to working full time this week. Since Dusty's work schedule has been so unreliable these past few months it made sense for me to move up my return date. I very much enjoy when Dusty has to be Mr. Mom so this isn't a very hard transition for me. We also are very lucky in having both my sister, Andrea, and Dusty's mom, Suzanne, to help watch the kids when Dusty does work and the kids love spending time with both of them. It's been a tough first week as there was a lot going on for us and I'm still adjusting to moving things around my work schedule, but I know it will get better as time moves on just like it did when I returned to work after Max's birth. I'm also very fortunate in having a family oriented employer which makes the transition a lot smoother!

Rory had her physical therapy evaluation on Monday. Dusty took her since I have returned to working full time so I don't have a lot of information regarding the actual visit. I wanted to offer this WebMD link for all of you that are curious about Torticollis. I think it gives helpful information in explaining the issue and why we need to stay on top of treating Rory:

http://children.webmd.com/tc/congenital-torticollis-topic-overview

I haven't actually asked our pediatrician, and I won't meet with the physical therapist until next week when I take Rory to her appointment, but I don't believe Rory has a severe case of this. She is able to turn her head to look at her right side, she just doesn't do it often or for very long.

She seems to be adjusting to the stretches. She didn't like them while Dusty was showing me what to do, but I was learning it and jerking her around so I don't blame her for being upset. Later in the evening I tried them on my own and she did just fine. I don't think they hurt her, it seems like she is more bothered by the fact that she is being pinned into one position for 30 seconds at a time. We will continue with the physical therapy (or PT for those in the know) once a week for 4 more weeks and then every other week for 4 more visits. If she adjusts well to her exercises it could drop down to once a month, so we'll continue in hopes she gets better fast!

Thank you to everyone for all your support and advice with this! It is especially nice to have a couple of you to talk to about this as you have or are also going through this with your children. I didn't even realize it was so common - its been amazing to have your advice and encouragement!

It was another beautiful stay up at my parent's lake house. Look at this sunset! I love when the clouds turn purple. Mom met me and the kids Tuesday night and we all headed up to spend the rest of the week together and to celebrate Thanksgiving. Dad and Dusty met us for Thanksgiving but then left to continue their pursuit for the big buck. (As noted in my previous post, my grandpa got said buck, but both Dusty and Dad left empty handed.) I got this very funny picture of Grandma with all her grandbabies. Don't you love how she has Rory over her shoulder and then on her lap are Max and Peanut fighting over a stuffed animal with their mouths! Max is a special little guy.

We also were able to get lots of "dimple smiles" from Rory. She has my dimples and I'm very pleased about that. I didn't get a good picture of the dimple smiles, but here she is smiling at Grandma while enjoying her bath in the kitchen sink.

We had a very nice time up there. We got to play a lot of Wii, visit with the Gazdik's on Thanksgiving, and most importantly, I got to get some extra sleep! Dusty is already busy trying to figure out the next weekend we can go back up there. Of course, he's hoping for a little ice to squeeze some fishing in too.

Well the great hunting season is over and Dusty is back home with his family. (So happy to have another adult around!) Here's a picture of Dusty's deer....

Oh wait, that's right, he didn't get one this year. hehe

He was hunting in Northern Wisconsin where you could only shoot bucks this year because the population was down, so we are deerless this year. Luckily Grant and Lisa were lucky enough to get a deer during bow hunting season and sent us some meat...

Oh, and lets not forget to brag about my grandpa's 12 pointer. At least someone will be eating well this year!

Yes, I love my husband for cooperating with this. I'm almost done milking the fact that he left me home alone for 5 days with two kids under 2...almost.

I am exhausted, two kids under two is tough. It's even tougher when you're a single parent! Dusty left with my dad to go hunting last Friday and I was home taking care of the two kiddos until Tuesday evening. (My mom met us and we headed up to the lake for Thanksgiving.) That was 5 whole days of me being a single parent and let me tell you, sleeping and eating are pretty much non-existent. We had Rory's 2 month checkup, Santa pictures, a football game with the cousins, Rory's chiropractor visit and Thanksgiving grocery shopping to do. In the evenings after I got both kids to bed I would binge eat, clean up and crash in my bed until one or both of them would wake me up. (Max had been having some bad nights; I think he really missed Dusty since he also became very needy when Dusty left too.)

Of course we also had to squeeze in another visit to Urgent Care for Rory, and of all times it had to be Tuesday evening as we loaded up to leave. It was pretty funny having the truck all packed for going up to the lake and taking a detour there, mainly because it has just become routine for me. So Rory is on her third set of antibiotics for the same double ear infection she has had for 2 weeks now. Luckily these are only for 5 days instead of 10 and we plan to take her back in next week to see our pediatrician and have her ears looked at again. Like I said, it is just becoming routine to go there.

Thankfully, once we got to the lake Dusty was more than willing to get up with Rory for her night feedings and let me catch up on my sleep. It definitely worked out to my advantage that every time he called, both kids just happened to be crying. We're all back together now though and I'm very, very thankful for that!

Ho Ho Ho! Max, Rory and I went and visited Santa at the mall today. Cousin Lyla and Auntie Katie also came with and it was great! There was no line at all and Santa even waved and talked to Max before we went into the photo area which really helped. Rory was a bit crabby when we got to Santa but she was a trooper also. I'm standing just to the right of them during the picture so naturally the kids kept their eyes on me the whole time but I'll take what I can get.
Max wasn't thrilled to be sitting on Santa's lap, but he didn't cry. We even got a chance to talk to Santa and tell him what we wanted for Christmas, but we didn't stay too long, Max just wanted to get his candy cane and Rory was not OK with sitting still. A typical day in my life, Rory wants to move and Max wants to eat!

The best part? We all went to Olive Garden for lunch! Mmm mmm, or maybe that was just the best part for me...

Rory's healthier, that's good news. Of course, I still feel like she is falling apart! I remember going in for Max's well visits and having a list of questions and leaving feeling reassured and a little embarrassed by some of the obvious answers. (Of course, also frustrated that there wasn't a cure for colic!) I certainly don't feel that way after this last one for Rory. Let's start with the growth and then work our way down to the more frustrating parts.

Rory is 22.5" long which puts her at 57% for her age and she weighs 12.5 lbs which puts her at 88% for her age. I was shocked at this since the reason we have to put her in 3 month clothes already is that her arms and legs are too long for the 0-3 months. She doesn't fill the clothes out and a lot of them are baggy on her in the stomach; I'm guessing all that weight is in her legs since she has got some strong legs already!

One of the most obvious concerns we had were her ears. She still has her ear infections, they aren't as bad but they are still there even after being on her meds for 5 days which stinks! She will continue the meds for another 5 days so hopefully that will clear it all up. The good news was that she still had clear lungs and her coughing has gone done significantly over the last week.

I also discussed with the doctor one of the concerns we had at her 2 week check up, her head is always turned to the left. We assumed she must have been that way while in my belly and that she would eventually stretch her neck to the right but she really hasn't over these last 2 months. After Rory got her ear infections I started to consider taking her to a chiropractor and with her head always being turned to the left I told our doctor that I planned to do that for both issues. Our doctor isn't fond of a chiropractor working on an infant, and she wasn't when we took Max to one for his colic, but I'd like to give it a try to see if it helps. The doctor wants me to take Rory to a physical therapist and gave me a referral for that. I think we'll probably end up doing both so that Rory can get all the help she needs to get this fixed as it can lead to a much more serious condition. Of course, we may decide to only do one or the other depending how we feel the outcomes go, but I think we'll at least try them both out.

Lastly, Rory has had a diaper rash for over 3 weeks now. It isn't terribly bad, but it just won't go away and I had the doctor look at that. I guess her body is reacting to her medicine and she has developed an infection so I had to pick up an over the counter fungal cream. While it sounds really gross, I am pleasantly surprised with the results. After one diaper change most of the rash is already gone!

So my little girl isn't 100% healthy but she is doing a lot better than she was even a week ago - its good news, not bad. And just for the record, as much as this all sucks, colic is WAY worse so she's still the better infant!

Sorry the pictures are grainy, they're from my cell phone. It's hard to take pictures of Max with my camera because the minute it comes out he goes running to get behind it to look at where the camera is pointed. Needless to say he is getting too dang smart. Anyway, Max has developed a bit of a shoe fetish and I've been documenting it on my cell phone. I got a picture of him taking on and taking off his new galoshes today in the basement. Keep in mind this is the fourth pair of shoes he's done this with today.

I also have an excellent picture of Max in our closet putting on Mom's stilettos. Like I said, he's developing a bit of a shoe fetish and who can do that without adding stilettos to the list?

He actually prefers to wear Daddy's shoes. He's brought two different pairs upstairs today to put on and also was putting on Daddy's work boots in the entryway. It is really cute to see but also somewhat annoying because he becomes very frustrated when he can't walk in them and cries. It's also an annoyance because he likes to bring them upstairs which means everything else that was on the shoes also makes their way upstairs. I'm sure it is just a phase though so I might as well enjoy it while it lasts. And he's so dang cute, who can stay mad at him anyway?

Urgent Care again. This morning I went to give Rory her bottle when she woke up only to get thrown up on. She proceeded to do that two more times after her bottle too. I know, this may be TMI, but I'm tired and exhausted and tired, so I don't feel like sugar coating it.

Since I feel as though I've become that paranoid mom I proceeded to call the nurses line to see what they thought. You'd think by now I'd know that if an infant is at all sick they're going to tell me to take her in, yet I proceeded to call in hopes they'll say something like "wait it out". So naturally I was told to take her in to get checked out. Luckily Urgent Care wasn't busy and we got in real quick. I hate the idea of introducing her to any more diseases. I mean, when my car broke down at the Dr's office I refused to go back in and wait, we walked around outside until she fell asleep. (Keep in mind it was in the high 50's - if it was too cold I wouldn't have done that.) Anyway, back to today's visit, we met a very nice pediatrician who took one look in her ears and said "whoa". Apparently her ears were very infected and the medicine she was on had not been working. So he gave her a shot of some new medicine and we will proceed to orally give her the medicine for another week.

We have her 2 month check-up with our pediatrician on Friday. I really hope we do not have to go to the doctor's office anytime earlier than that. I don't know if I mentioned this, but I'm tired. Rory has been a trooper through it all. She continues to work on her smiling and cooing and tries real hard to not let this all bother her too much. Man I hope this is the last time I write about Rory being sick. We're all hoping for that!

Day 6 was MUCH worse!

Tuesday's blog left off complaining about my car not starting after everyone was sick and I had taken Rory in to the doctor for the second time already that week. Don't worry, later that afternoon while helping Andrea I stepped on a staple and lodged it into the bottom of my foot.

Wednesday morning at about 3am Rory decided she was not going to sleep for more than a half hour at a time so we had a really rough morning. Dusty was feeling better and went to work so I was home alone with both kids sick. Yeah, it was a fun day of whining, crying, and illnesses. Rory's temperature started to slowly creep up and sure enough by 7pm it was 100.7 degrees which means we were once again heading off to the doctor's.

Thankfully, Uncle Randy was able to come over and stay at our house so Max could stay home and sleep. His fever was over 102 degrees, but no need for alarm at his age. Dusty and I both went since we weren't sure what to expect; I knew there was a strong possibility we'd be heading to Children's with this fever. The doctor that evening just happened to be our pediatrician that we had seen all week! I have to admit, it was really relieving to see her frustrated at seeing us and seeing that Rory was still getting worse. It's just nice to know you're not crazy. I mean, we'd been to the doctor's office 3 times in the last 4 days now and I hate feeling like I'm just being overprotective.

She asked some questions and then told us we'd have to take the next step now that she has a fever and do some blood work. Both Dusty and I were nervous because we weren't sure if that meant she was sending us to Children's and we really didn't want that outcome. Our doctor started to examine Rory and lo-and-behold, she has developed ear infections in both ears! On Tuesday, both our doctor and the resident she is training checked Rory's ears and they were fine, so between Tuesday morning and Wednesday evening they flared up. Apparently that isn't all that uncommon. Since she is so young, and has been sick for 6 days, there was no question that they were going to treat it. (We have never once treated an ear infection on Max yet.) Also, because of the ear infection, we had reason for the fever and there was no longer a need for blood tests. Yippee!

So now Rory is getting antibiotics, I was permitted to give her Tylenol for her fever, and I am so happy we could finally drug her! I'm sorry, I know our children are over medicated, it's a fact of life, but 6 days of Rory getting progressively worse and worse and no way to comfort her makes you very happy for a prescription. We're still treating her bronchitis with the nebulizer, and she's getting the antibiotics for her ears which makes things a bit interesting but we get to start weening her off the nebulizer starting today. Hopefully we've reached the top of the hill and it's all down from here!

You know the saying, "When it rains, it pours"? Let's just say I've invented a new one that says "When it pours, watch for the monsoon."

Dusty and I were fortunate enough to be able to get both ourselves and Max vaccinated against the H1N1 on Monday. The unfortunate part was that both of us reacted to the shot. I was just achy while Dusty had a full on reaction with nausea and the like. So I loaded up the kids and went to my in-laws to keep them out of Dusty's way and to also get a little help since I wasn't feeling 100%. Rory's coughing seemed to be getting worse while we were there and she didn't sleep much so we had a pretty crabby baby on our hands.

Last night Rory's cough got much worse so I got up and called the Dr's office to make another appointment to go in. Max woke up with a fever and Dusty was still feeling terrible. Luckily, Randy was not working today and was able to come over to help with Max while I was out. Everything is still looking great in Rory's lungs so they believe it is just yet another viral infection that should peak around days 5 and 6 and then slowly get better. We're on day 5 so hopefully it peaks today instead of tomorrow! Then I should still expect 2 weeks of coughing which is just awesome since she has been coughing for almost 6 weeks now. (Yes, that was sarcasm for those of you that didn't read it that way.)

I loaded Rory up and we left only to get to my car that refuses to drive. I say "refuses to drive" instead of "won't start" because it started just fine but then it would jerk a little bit and the engine would just shut off. Another phone call to Randy to come and get us this time! So my car is currently sitting at the clinic until Dusty can get a little more energy today and then he is going to go get it and tow it to who knows where and get it fixed. They both think it is the fuel pump but who knows. The way my day has been going the car is probably totaled and we'll dump a bunch of money into it before coming to that conclusion. OK, I may be a bit over dramatic here, but come on, you just read about my day, it's allowed.

My weekend started out great; I got to hang out with Bridget and Anna Friday evening staying out too late and enjoying a glass of wine. Saturday, Becca, Lisa and I got our books picked out for next year's book club and I was able to stop in Stillwater and have a drink with Sara, Kacie and Jason.

Upon returning home that evening I found out that Rory was once again sick. She had never gotten over her cough from when we were at the hospital and I had planned to call the Dr's office this week if it didn't go away but of course it can never be that simple. Sunday she developed a low-grade fever. We went to Jill's baby shower since I wasn't able to leave her at home, (I had stuff to bring for the shower) luckily she never really got worse, just kept coughing.

We went to the Doctor's today and they did another chest scan and oxygen level check. They are treating her for bronchitis and we are going to be doing the nebulizer for a few days now in hopes that will help with all the congestion since there appeared to be some in her lungs. Hopefully this will clear everything up and she is so far doing great on the nebulizer, we just have to hold it in front of her face since she is still too small for the mask. (Which is a cute fish...)

Hopefully this will cure her cough and I can go back to being a normal paranoid mom instead of the freak I'm becoming; don't go near my daughter without washing your hands, please! I am a little nervous the doctor may be thinking she has asthma because she gave me such an overabundance of the prescription (0ver 90 liquid capsules) but I can ask her when we see her next Friday about that. For now, I'll just focus on this cough.

Halloween and a baptism, all in one weekend! Halloween I spent most of the day cleaning my house and kicked Dusty and the kids out. I believe they spent the day at Grandma's and got in GREAT naps. Luckily Max still doesn't understand what Halloween is and the excitement didn't keep him up! We went over to Katie and Andrew's so that the men could take Max and Lyla trick or treating while us women and Rory stayed back to hand out candy. (And maybe drink a little wine, but the boys had beverages on their walk too!)

Rory really was not into the whole party scene so I didn't get the cute pictures I was hoping for. We did stop at my mom's on the way to the party and she took pictures before Rory got crabby so hopefully she'll have some cute ones to give me. It was quite the night of fun, with Lyla pooping on the floor and Molly's dog sniffing at Max's privates, we all joked that this was one of the wildest Halloween parties we'd ever been to. We're looking forward to doing it again next year - and Chris and Jill's little one will be here by then to join in the fun too!

Sunday we were off to church to get Rory baptised. It was a little different experience than last time with only one other family getting their child baptised, and we had a priest instead of a deacon, but at least I can check that off of my list of things to do. Rory was once again not in the party mood so I pretty much bounced and pacified her the whole time so most of my pictures are blurry. Plus we didn't get a picture of Rory with her godfathers on my camera so I'll have to get one from my mom or someone else. And yes, Rory has 3 godfathers. Proud Uncles Randy, Ed, and Cecil. She is going to be one spoiled little lady!

Rory wore the same baptismal gown that Andrea, Tara and I wore so that was very special. Of course now I have to store it until someone else uses it, thanks mom! Ha Ha. Needless to say I was exhausted from this weekend and of course that means the kids will be up before 7am the next day, and no Dusty to help since he is working. Oh the joys of being a family of 4!

I doubt this is going to be long lived but the last two nights Rory has slept 7 or more hours straight. Needless to say I am over the moon! Of course I continue to check in on her while she sleeps and we are still sleeping in the same room so I hear all her noises as she squirms about. I was nervous enough to do a little research and make sure I shouldn't be waking her up and she seems to be relatively normal. Only a very small percentage of babies sleep through the night at this age, and they don't recommend more than 8 hours of her not eating but like I said in the beginning, I doubt this is going to be long lived so I'm just going to let her be and flourish in my well rested baby. I thought that if I shared it maybe I could jinx myself into having a sleep-through-the-night baby, wish me luck!

I decided while pregnant with Max that I did not like the traditional babybook and that I wanted to make my own. My mom had been wanting to make a wedding album since her original one had fallen apart years ago so she was excited to have someone else to scrapbook with. When I talked to my sister-in-law, Katie, she also wanted to make her own babybook for Lyla and our little scrapbooking get-togethers started. My mom was generous enough to offer to let us all get away for a weekend and scrapbook up at the lake. As you can see by the table, we have far too much stuff but it all comes in handy and we all want more!

Outside of my mom, Katie, and myself we also had our 3 kids, Dusty, Rosie, Randy and Randy's girlfriend, Ashley so it was a full house. We had Max sleeping in the laundry room and Lyla sleeping in the pantry! We still were able to make it outside to play in the little bit of snow before it melted, here's one of my favorite pictures from the weekend of Katie and Lyla.

Max and Lyla got lots of cousin time in. I think they may have gotten a bit more than they bargained for as they both got pretty crabby but it was fun to watch them interacting even if it was fighting over a toy. Here Lyla is trying to figure out how to pull Max.

Rory pretty much slept, cried or ate the whole time we were there. We brought up her swing that she loves so we could put her down and work on our books. I was able to finish up Max's scrapbook and even start on Rory's so I was very happy! I can't wait to get together and work on them again!

I had my first experience with Max being jealous yesterday. He didn't like me talking to Rory and pushed me back to sit on my lap and cuddle. At least he was OK with me talking to Rory after he was in my lap. Usually Max is quite the helper. He is actually a little too helpful as he brings me every blanket he can find while I'm feeding Rory and will even take the pacifier out of her mouth just to hand it to me all while saying "baby". He got to help feed Rory with Daddy the other day and he thought that was pretty cool.

Andrea and I were able to get Max to hold Rory all by himself (with a little pillow help) to get this picture. What was so funny was when we told him we were all done he wanted to give me the baby by shoving her at me.

He is constantly trying to pick up Rory and help get her in her car seat or swing. Thankfully she doesn't seem to mind all of the attention he is giving her. I have a feeling her first smile may just be at him instead of at me. I guess we'll have to wait and see!