27 pounds....

Well, I started slacking on the posts again. Things have been crazy busy around our house. I've been working on income tax issues for mom for a few weeks now, and I'm hoping to get it resolved soon!! This weekend was a fun one. Saturday evening we had my nephew Ben's birthday party at mom's house. Then yesterday we went to a swimming party for my god-son Miles, who is all ready turning 3!! Madelyn had a blast in the pool with Daddy. now we're just counting down until the beach! Only 4 more weeks!! Aunt A and Houston were in town this weekend. We love seeing them, but it always makes me sad when they leave! But, we'll get to see them again soon. Amanda took some cute pics, so hopefully she'll send them to me and I can post some.

I've been working hard to lose weight since Aubrey was born. Thanks to the yucchy pregnancy, I only gained 20 pounds, and have now lost 27 pounds!! I'm pumped about it and feel like I'm off to a great start! I can use all the encouragement I can get, as I'm hoping to lost a huge amount of weight!

Here are some recent pics of the girls. This was before church Sunday. I always seem to take pictures then because that's the only time I have them both dressed up...

Aubrey has been starting to be a lot more alert. She smiles a lot, but this is the closets thing we've gotten captured on film...This is what she's doing as I write. actually since I took this 5 minutes ago, she's fallen asleep. We should have another fun week. Mom's out of school now, so she's coming over one day to play the Wii Fit with me. I'm totally hooked on it!! Saturday is a birthday party at the zoo, which Madelyn should love! Until next time....

Chillin'

MOMMY, HOLD YOU, ME

That's the comment I'm hearing from Madelyn all the time now. She's starting to want to be held all the time, probably a bit of sibling jealousy. On this Mother's Day, I'm realizing that it won't be forever that she looks up to Mommy, who in her eyes at this age is the most important person in her life. So instead of getting irritated that I have to stop washing the dishes to pick her up, I realize that I should cherish every "Mommy, hold you me" that I hear. It honestly feels like yesterday that she was the size Aubrey is now, and it's unreal how in the blink of an eye she became our Little Girl from our Baby.

To the 2 women who are the most important in my life -
Mom, you're my best friend and I lean on you more than you'll ever know. I just hope I can teach my daughters a real love for Christ, and how to be a good friend and care for others, as much as you have taught me. You're my strength when I feel overwhelmed, and my confidant and friend. I love you!!

Gisele, I don't know how I have been so blessed with a mother-in-law that I adore so much. I have always felt as if you were my 2nd mom, and feel so blessed to be a part of your family every day. You help me out more than you know, by helping watch the girls, keeping me company while Clint is at work, and just being my close friend. I love you!!

I took Aubrey to church today for the first time. She was all dressed up and everyone oohed and ahhed over her...I did Madelyn's hair in pigtails for church. It took me a few tries to get it right. Don't worry, she didn't leave the house with it looking like this....
To all you moms out there - Happy Mothers Day!! And to my 2 precious girls - you could never know how much joy you've brought to my life. I love you!!

Sick Babies

Well, we went to the doctor this morning to see about Aubrey's ears. She has gotten worse over the last few days, and sure enough - she now has a sinus infection and her ear infections are still there. I also took Madelyn just to check her out, and she also has a sinus infection. UGHHHH!!

Aubrey is obviously eating well, as she now weighs 9 pounds 6 ounces!! madelyn's 24 pounds :)

Lazy Sunday

This is the current status of the girls....

We still haven't convinced Madelyn that the swing is only for the baby!!

As promised...

This is what she does most of the time....
Awake!!!

Medical Mysteries....

Well, we've made it to the 3 week mark!! I can't believe how much Aubrey has changed all ready. I promise to post some recent pics tomorrow of her!! I think she looks less like Madelyn did every day and is definitely proving to me that she is not just like her sister!! The antibiotics seem to be helping her ears and her eyes. She's such a good baby thus far! We rarely hear anything out of her besides her squeaking sounds, which we love. She has been going to bed at nioght around 9:30, waking up to eat around 2:00-3:00. then sleeping again until anywhere between 5:00 and 7:00. We finally got Madelyn back to her normal sleeping routine, so I feel very well rested - especially considering I have 2 young ones at home!

On another note, I went to the pulmonologist last week and had another CT scan to look at the mass on my trachea. I went today to talk to the doctor about the scan, and was happily surprised with what he told me. Basically, he said that the mass hasn't grown any and looks exactly the same as it did in August. He explained what caused it. It appear to be a remnant of the mycobacteria fortuitum infection that I had in my lung in 1998. He said that because the infection is not active and causes me no symptoms, he would NOT recommend having it surgically removed. I was mistaken all this time thinking that the mass is in my throat. it's actually down in my chest, and I feel that the surgery would be quite a big deal. So we've deiced not to move forward with surgery and to monitor the mass like we do the one in my lung and make sure it doesn't cause future problems.

Unfortunately, we've had some scary health issues with my nephew, Colton. He turned 1 in February and the last few weeks he had suddenly stopped walking and crawling and was whiny a lot. Clay and Kelly took him to the doctor, where they couldn't find anything wrong with him. They then sent them to the hospital for blood work, which turned up nothing. Finally, this week he had a bone scan and a MRI which revealed the culprit. it appears that he has an infection in a pocket surrounding a disc in his spine. The good news is that it doesn't look to have started in his bones, as cancer does. Today Colton was sent to LeBonheur where he will have an "aggressive antibiotic drip" for at least 5 to 7 days. Hopefully this will fix everything and he will be able to go home as soon as possible. Please pray that he will recover quickly and that Clay and Kelly will find the strength they need to care for him and the other kids.

I've also been thinking about making my blog private to view. I'm just not loving putting pictures of the girls online for the whole world to see. Anyone who reads this regularly, send me your email address to sbuchanan25@bellsouth.net so I can add you to the list of approved viewers.

I'll post pics soon!!