Our poor little guy has been sick. He started to get week about a week and a half ago. I thought it was a bad cold but he just wasn't getting any better, in fact, his cough got worse so I decided to take him in on Monday. I was so glad I did because he had a light case of RSV and small ear infections in both ears! After giving him two medications for almost a week now he is doing so much better! Our little happy guy is back and we are so thankful. There was a couple of days he even got hoarse and it was comical to hear him.

With potty training Samantha (she's doing great by the way) we've spent quite a bit of time in the bathroom. Blake has come to love it. He flushes the potty, would love to play in the water (I've caught him twice) and unroll all of the toilet paper. We're back to either keeping the door closed or closing the lid and putting everything else out of reach.

Blake has figured out how to climb onto Samantha's bed. After a couple of tumbles he's even figured out how to get off of it feet first to. He loves to walk back and forth and just climb on and off. They both get on there and have a great time on it.

Blake continues to cruise around objects and is getting less afraid about reaching for things. If we hold his hands to walk he can sure cruise. Now, he just needs to work on his balance and bravery:)

Samantha has been fighting a cold herself and she's not been quite up to par the last couple of days and thankfully right now that's all it seems to be.

We (I mean Travis really) have been working on her letters. She recognizes quite a few of them and can point them out no matter where we are. She is obsessed with the letter "S" and loves to also point out "T" (T is for Travis) and "B" (B is for Blake).

We have quite a few books that deal with one color and each page is a real short phrase with an illustration on the opposite side ("Pink as a banner." for example.) Samantha loves to "read" these books to us and does quite well as she's memorized a lot of them or can figure it out by the picture.

We haven't been working on her numbers as much as her letters so this week we bought her a dot-to-dot book that goes up to 10. I figure not only can she work on learning her numbers but can work on her writing skills to. She has really enjoyed this book and has asked to do it several times.

When Samantha is on the potty she often likes to sing. How can little kids sing about nothing?? Lately she'll sing "Hobby Lobby, turkey bacon..." How silly can she be??

Travis was gone this past week to Atlanta for a conference and with Blake being sick we didn't go far so we enjoyed a lot of playtime inside. One day, however we did get out for a walk on the Greenway. It was nice just to get out of the house and get some fresh air.

Tonight Travis mistakenly said "let's go eat." instead of "let's go to bed." Samantha said, "Silly Travis!"

We're looking forward to everyone getting well so we can get out and about and get to our "normal" routine.

It's official, both kids have now played in the potty...


Random shots...

Blake has learned to crawl up onto Samantha's bed and play. He loves it!

He was so sick and this was the way he fell asleep last Sabbath...
We got to play outside this week for a bit...

Samantha has asked several times to play in her sandbox so today we let her...

I've decided to skip this blog. It was a pretty usual week for us with nothing significant. Watch next week for another update.

Just another update...

We, like other parts of the country have been freezing. This meant that we didn't get out much on Thursday or Friday, in fact, we asked Travis to run some errands for us on the way home from work.

Monday we visited Travis' work and ended up going out with his co-workers for lunch. We went in afterwards to walk the halls again and the staff took Samantha around and gave her candy. Of course, she was thrilled but it took everybody a bit if time to get back into work so we decided we wouldn't do that again.

Wednesday we had a play date with Alex, Maddie and their brothers which Samantha really enjoyed. Alex's mom found the kids writing on the back of our closet wall with a highlighter and we're not sure exactly who the culprit was. I've heard several stories:) Oh well, at least it was the back the closet.

Blake has often rejected solids this week and I'm not sure why. He will turn his head and put his arm over his mouth and cry if he doesn't want to eat. Another time that day he'll eat a lot. I just keep working on him. We have started to feed him more table foods. I tried lasagna, mashed potatoes, cut up bananas for him to feed himself, tofu, etc. He does enjoy feeding himself and is a royal mess afterwards.

He has also really started to walk around things and can get both up and down things. He loves to reach for things on tables, couches, chairs, etc.

Samantha had a pretty good week with the potty training. As long as we were home she only had 2 accidents all week. Going out is a different story and I think it's just because she doesn't want to stop to go potty. We will just continue to work at it. Her poor little hands are raw though from washing her hands so much because it's so fun:)

We had a busy weekend with things on Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday morning. We enjoyed the company of Tracy and Cheryl Friday night. David, Mindi, Ethan, and Andrew came over Saturday night for pizza and playing. Sunday we celebrated Travis' birthday a bit early. We invited some friends to join us for Krispy Kreme and bowling (thanks for the idea Donnie and Kim!!). It was Samantha's first time bowling and she really enjoyed it. Blake was the his usual trooper self and ended up falling asleep before we left.

Blake loves to get into the potato bag and often grabs a potato...


Playing around...

Samantha painting...
Blake in the tub...

Samantha on the computer...

Enjoying a donut before bowling...

There are hardly any pictures of just the two of us now days...
Look at that form...

These were Samantha's rental shoes. Aren't they cute???

The guys...
The girls...
The "older" kids...

Looking back at our week, we had another busy one!


Monday we made the trip down to Travis' work. We hadn't been there in over a month so we wanted to stop in. Besides, he moved offices so we wanted to check that out to.


Tuesday we had Blake's 9 month check-up (a month late). The doctor again gave him a clean-bill-of-health. There were no shots but they took some blood. Can you believe he cried more for the doctor as she examined him than when they took the blood? He weighs 18 lbs, 7 oz. and is 29 inches long. It basically puts him in the average category.


Wednesday Kathryn came over to play. We hadn't seen her and Christy in ages so it was good to see them and get caught up. It was so nice of them to pick us up special things at Starbucks too:)


Thursday was errand day and then it was Friday again. We had a nice Sabbath as we took a walk that was shortened due to the rain and then we went over to some friends for yummy food (homemade popovers with raspberry butter. Yummmmm!) and conversation.


There are a couple of things that always gets Blake's attention and that is the dishwasher, either loading or unloading it. We've caught him up on the door when we have it open to. The other thing is the tub. He gets a bath about every other night and Samantha gets a bath every night. The nights that he doesn't get a bath he's right there almost diving head first into the tub.


He's gotten into looking for either Travis or myself often. He will come up to us and climb onto our legs and just stand there. It makes moving very difficult!


Blake's sleeping habits got seriously messed up at BeBe and Papa's house due to the new scenery and his sickness so we are desperately working on getting him broke of some very bad habits:)


Samantha has been obsessed with puzzles this week. She got several for Christmas and after and had basically mastered each one of them with little or no help. She has also really started to pretend and use her imagination. She is often making something with her new kitchen or playing doctor on us with her new doctor kit.


Apparently Blake didn't get very many pictures taken of him this week.


Blake got his 9 month pictures taken this week and Samantha wanted her pictures taken so we snapped a few at home...






Wednesday Kathryn came over to play and the girls helped make lunch...

Friday it was finally a very nice day that we went outside and took a walk around our place. Here are a few shots from our walk...





Blake has had a difficult time falling asleep lately. This is how he did it one night...

We left Wisconsin for home Monday afternoon. It was a short time on the road as we only went to Uncle Paul and Aunt Jenney's. Samantha was able to spend a bit more time with the cousins before returning home.

Our long trip began at 7:00 Tuesday morning and it went well again. My kids are troopers when it comes to traveling! Samantha never asked to get out of her seat and Blake really only fussed when he got really tired or hungry. This time the trip took about 13 1/2 hours which was pretty decent time. When we got home Samantha was so wired-she ran around and played with toys for quite a bit and needless to say, it was hard to get her settled back down.

Wednesday we ran a few errands with BeBe and took the afternoon off. That evening, however we opened the gifts we had bought the kids along with the gifts that the Renfro family had sent. It was fun to see the kids open their gifts and get excited again. Luckily we had pretty early so that the kids had plenty of time play before heading to bed.

Thursday we started off with a big breakfast than we took BeBe to the airport. It was sad to see her go but we know that we had spent enough time with her and she needed to get back home.

We enjoyed our weekend, it was so fun to get caught up with friends. It was especially nice that our friend Tracy and Cheryl surprised us with a little get together Friday night to celebrate Travis' passing of his exam.

Today was the first Sunday in months that Travis hasn't had to study and we really enjoyed it. We started off with getting Blake's pictures taken and then took the rest of the day at a slow pace.

The kids are SLOWLY getting back into a routine and adjustment of the time. It's been really more difficult for Samantha rather than Blake.

Blake's top two front teeth broke through last week and he's still working on pushing them through although you can really see one of them quite well. He is really enjoying crawling everywhere in the house and where ever we are we can be sure that he will find us and be right there.

I've found that Blake really enjoys looking at books. The other day he found me in the kitchen and I wasn't able to pick him up at the time so he crawled off to the book case and found some books to look at.

Samantha just continues to say crazy things and often when she says them with an expression it's something I've done. She sure can copy you to a "T". We're still working on potty training although not full on. BeBe bought her a pretty pink potty that plays a song when she goes in it so that's helped be a motivator. I think now it's just getting her to not be to busy to go.

We are so thankful to Papa and BeBe for allowing us to live with them for a month. It was precious time for the children. We just hope that they can catch up on their sleep and get used to the silence once again.

Christmas at home...