It has been quite the week. I have to warn you, some of this blog may be TMI and may embarrass Max when he is older but I just have to share.

Starting last Friday, Max developed the "poo poos", as he so lovingly says when it happens. It was bad on Saturday but since then he has just been having issues once or twice a day. On top of that, two mornings we have gone into his room to find that he vomited in the middle of the night and then just went on sleeping. He's still in a crib so you can imagine what a mess both the crib and he are in by the morning.

The oddest part is that he is perfectly happy in the morning and just points to the mess and "talks" to us about it. I mean, who pukes and then continues to sleep instead of crying for us to come and get him?! He is such an odd ball sometimes! I've called the nurses line and they think it is just a stomach virus, as they are going around, and we've removed milk from his diet for the time being to try to help him out. But he is perfectly happy. I took these pictures the morning he threw up, does this look like a sick boy?

Daddy and Rory have been woken up both mornings that Max has vomited. Daddy is the one that does the room cleanup while I'm cleaning up Max in the tub. Trust me, both are very nasty jobs to have to do first thing in the morning!

Of course, Max and Daddy are goofballs in the morning. Here they are showing MaMa their "Zoolander" faces. As in Derek Zoolander's poses from the movie. You can thank Auntie Rosie for that pose.

Hopefully this little virus passes soon, it is really quite stressful having a little boy act perfectly normal when his body is saying otherwise!

We had Rory's 4 month checkup last night. A lot of people have commented that she looks older than 4 months in her picture and after visiting with the pediatrician we can now confirm that she is a lot larger than most 4 month olds!

Rory was in the 86th percentile for her weight at over 15 lbs. She was in the 83rd percentile for her height at over 25 in. And she was in the 85th percentile for her head circumference. We have a very large, but very proportional little girl.

She also got lots of shots yesterday and while she recovered well and was an angel while we had Acapulco's for dinner, the shots did not agree with her that evening. Dusty and I were up with her most of the night and I think we all got about 3 hours of sleep total last night. So we're going to be nice and crabby today. At least Max slept through it all!

Saturday Dusty and I took my cousin Lucas to Monster Jam for his Christmas present. We had a very nice time with him and I enjoyed watching the trucks. My favorite is Maximum Destruction. Yes, I'm that cool, I have a favorite!

Dusty and I always make little bets on each race and this time we added in a new twist where we had to try to guess the freestyle score exactly to add more points. I am proud to say that I was the winner with the most correct predictions. It's just a little something fun we've done since the very first monster truck show he took me to when we were dating.

Since we were picking Lucas up from the southern metro, we decided to take the light rail to the Metrodome. Dusty was very excited since he had worked on all the stops for the light rail previously but had never been able to ride it. It was quite the experience and I think we will be doing it again. Here's Lucas and I on my first light rail ride!

Don't mind my eyes, I was getting frustrated because my camera wasn't taking the picture. Of course it was operator error and that is what I get. While the picture doesn't show it, we all had a very fun time and it was great to spend some time with my cousin, Lucas.

Please take a glimpse into one of my busy days.

4:45am - get woken up by Dusty to feed Rory, try to protest until Dusty informs me that he has been up sick all night
5:00 - return to my bedroom with a soda and bucket for Dusty
5:35 - return to Rory's room with nebulizer in hopes of curing her sudden cough
6:00 - start to get ready for work
6:15 - Max wakes up, get him ready for the day, make breakfast, clean up kitchen from previous evening
7:00 - head out the door
7:15 - drop Max off at daycare
7:45 - get to work
4:00pm - leave work
4:30 - pick up Max from daycare and hurry home to help Dusty
5:00 - get Rory's 4 month picture (because I'm obsessed about doing it on the exact day!)
5:15 - give Max leftovers from last night, make chili for Dusty and I
6:00 - bathe Max and Rory
6:30 - give Rory one last nebulizer for the evening, feed her and put her to bed
7:15 - brush Max's teeth, read stories and get him to bed
7:45 - take shower
8:00 - complain on my blogger about my busy day!

The exciting news is that I got my most favorite picture of Rory yet when we did her 4 month photos. Isn't she just adorable here?

No, she can't sit up on her own yet, the Boppy is supporting her here, but she sure is trying! It is so nice to come home and have Rory give me the biggest grin when she sees me. (She is pretty fond of seeing her brother too.) And Max is cute about his sister, every time I get him from daycare he is quick to say "Rory?" and "Daddy?". I'd feel like roast beef if he didn't start dancing every time I show up. What can I say, I've got some amazing kiddos. Now if only everyone would let me relax!

It was a busy weekend for us!

Friday we rushed out the door to celebrate Grandpa's birthday at Jimmy and Jody's house. We had a fun time taking Max sledding on their big hill. I didn't talk much with family, but I wasn't feeling well and didn't want to worry about getting others sick. Here's a picture of the birthday boy!

My parent's had agreed to watch the children for us that night so Dusty and I could have a date night, so we left Grandpa's party early to drop the kids off, run a couple errand and have a date night. Unfortunately, I really wasn't feeling good by the end of the evening so we ended up just stopping at Buffalo Wild Wings for a quick meal and then going home. I know, it really did stink.

Saturday Dusty was up early to go ice fishing with his brother Randy. I slept in a bit since I still wasn't feeling all that great and then mustered myself out of bed and picked up my friend Sara and her friend Matt for some snowboarding at Trollhaugen. I hadn't been snowboarding in two years thanks to my pregnancies so I was pretty nervous. Thankfully it wasn't as difficult as learning the first time and I think I was pretty much back to normal by the end of the day. While I didn't get any snowboarding pictures because I was too afraid of falling on my camera I did get a picture of the trout Dusty caught. (Yes, this is pre-fillet, we're classy like that.)

Saturday evening we headed across the backyard to celebrate Chris' birthday. We had a great time with Chris' family, Andrea made some awesome steak fajitas, and we all know I love guacamole so I was very happy. Max had a fun time helping Chris open his gifts!

Sunday I was officially sick and developed laryngitis so I laid as low as is possible with two kids under two. It was a very fun weekend, but I'd like a date night do-over where I'm not sick! Hopefully we can figure one out sooner than later; the way the month is going, it's looking like later.

The cold virus has hit our house. Dusty believes it started with him since he got a little sick last week and wasn't feeling 100%. Max slowly started to get worse from Monday on and we kept him out of daycare both Wednesday and Thursday. He was his usual sick self with a constant whine and crying at the drop of a hat. Now let me just say, if we would be able to just sit and hold him all day he would be fine, but of course that isn't possible with Rory, so there were lots of tears! Luckily he was feeling much better by Thursday evening. I tried to get a couple pictures of the kids and their runny noses but you can't really tell how boogery they are in the pictures.

We were really nervous about Rory and how she would react to getting her brother's cold. We knew there was really no way to stop it from spreading to her since Max is constantly around her, so we just waited and watched. She started to get a fever Tuesday and by Wednesday her fever was too high for an infant so we were stuck taking both kids to Urgent Care to get checked out. Max was already on the downward slide, but he was a big help in figuring out if we needed to worry more about Rory since we all are assuming she got sick from him.

Since Rory has already had bronchitis this year the doctor told us that she will get a small wheeze in her lungs with every little virus this winter. That was reassuring to us since we didn't like hearing that her lungs did sound a bit congested. I have no desire to return to Children's Hospital, thank you very much. After looking in her ears and checking out some other basics he sent us back home and gave us a little list of things to watch for so we'd know when/if we'd need to return to the doctor's office with her. Thankfully, Thursday morning her fever was gone and all we have to deal with now is her runny nose and slight cough. Which I should mention, doesn't sound nearly as bad as when she had all her lung issues two months ago, so I'm quite content with this cold. She is also in a very happy mood even though she is a little snot monster. Look at how cute she is!

Yes, I know Christmas is over, but her pajamas are so cute how can she only wear them for 1 week of the whole year? Thanks again Auntie Katie!

So you can't really make out the snot on either kids' nose in the pictures but trust me they both have nice gooey upper lips. It just makes for extra fun kisses! Of course now it is my turn to take on the bug and trust me, it has hit me too. Sorry, I won't be posting any pictures of my boogers though. It just wouldn't be as cute.

Sunday we had a very nice baby shower for Ed and Katie. It was so nice to get to see the Cochran family. Yes, it was nice to see everyone else too, its just that we only seem to see the Cochrans if there is a shower or a wedding to attend and we haven't had one in a while. Here are some photos of the party guests having a merry time.

And lets not forget a picture of the guest of honor, little Oliver, he was such a good baby for the festivities!

We really do have a good looking family and all the little kids reflect that. I can't remember who said it but I agree, there isn't an ugly one in the bunch!

I really enjoy when Dusty plays the role of Mr. Mom. Sure I wish Dusty was able to put in 40 hours of the work week, but coming home to a house that was cleaned, already has dinner cooking, and a daughter that was spoiled by her daddy is so nice too!

Yesterday I got to enjoy playing the role of Mrs. Dad! I came home to find a giant snow drift against my garage so I started shoveling that and look up to see Max and Dusty staring at me in the window. The exact thing Max and I do when Daddy is working outside! On top of it, since I was already dressed for the cold, I took the garbage out and brought it to the end of our driveway. Yes, I have done this numerous times before, but it was still really funny to have Dusty inside finishing up dinner while I was outside getting the snow drift down and the garbage to the curb. Take that gender roles!

I rather enjoy being Mrs. Dad and wouldn't mind doing it more, but I don't think Dusty has any plans on taking on the role of Mr. Mom as a full time gig. So I guess I'll just enjoy it when it comes and appreciate the fact that I have a great husband who knows how to play Mr. Mom.

Max has become my little helper. He helps me unload the dishwasher, pick up his toys, and all sorts of other chores I need to do, Max is usually close behind to help me out. The one chore I don't like him helping with is the laundry. He always takes the clean clothes out of the basket and throws them all over the floor. He thinks it's hilarious, I want to scream.

Yesterday I was picking up the clothes he threw out of the basket and turn around to find him in the dryer. Yup, crawled right in there to get the "boas". Naturally I made a mad dash for the camera to get this documented, hopefully I didn't laugh too hard to encourage this behavior in the future. At least he can't get the door open by himself.


Someday he'll be folding clothes like a pro!

Goodbye to 2009!

Randy and Ashley came over for New Year's Eve and the four of us spent the evening playing Wii. Ashley and I were kicking the boys' butts at bowling so we had a great end to the year! But the best part of the evening was dinner; Dusty made steak, lobster and cheesy potatoes. I don't know how I ate so much.

Uncle Randy made sure Max got to see the lobsters before going to bed. He didn't really know what to think of them, but he didn't have a problem touching them!

Daddy getting Rory ready to go to sleep.

2010 started out with a bang. That morning Rory decided that she no longer needed Max or I to help her roll over and just started doing it on her own. I haven't been lucky enough to see her do it yet, but Dusty said she was doing it all morning while I was still in bed. You'd think that would be enough of an accomplishment for the day, but Rory had more in store for us!

Randy and Ashley watched the kids for the afternoon and evening and they got Rory giggling! Dusty and I got home too late to try to get her to do it for us but we are both looking forward to hearing our little girl's laugh - apparently it is really adorable.

My exciting start to the year is that I finally got a minivan! Yup, I'm that mom now! Needless to say I am very happy, and Dusty is very unhappy, although he does see the benefits to having the van. He keeps saying he is going to go into the business of installing sliding doors on SUVs like Suburbans and that he'd make millions since so many parents want sliding doors but don't want minivans. We'll see if he actually ever does that!

2009 was an interesting year for us. We had triumphs and turmoils galour but we've survived them all. I hope 2010 is a bit less uneventful!