Colts Game!

The guys were going to Micah and Angi's house to watch the Colts game (in HD, which makes it so much better, I guess) and so we invited Dawn and Lucas to come watch the game with us! After we ate supper and Jason and Jer left, the kids had a bath, played a little longer, and then it was time for Jordan's breathing treatment and time for him to go to bed. He wanted to do it himself ... and then Meggan thought she needed a little bit of medicine too!

Meggan got to have a little time playing with Baby Lucas, who is growing like a weed! She just loves him and loves being able to hold him and talk to him and just lay by him! Then it was off to bed for Meggan and Dawn and I just chatted a little while.

The Colts ended up losing to the Chargers (major bummer), but it was a nice night of just hanging out!

We've Created a Monster!

A sleepover monster, that is!

Will's room - he even had a bed for each of them set up (TOO CUTE), complete with his Cars tent for what was supposed to be their campout but has now turned into them just sleeping over in the loft!

I have the feeling that any time we go over to a friend's house to play, it is going to wind up with Meggan staying the night there and/or vice versa. Tonight she is having her first sleepover at Will's house (yes, that's a boy for those that are wondering). I still think that Jason has some questions in his mind on this one, but seriously, they are only 3 and 4 years old - it's still innocent friends and fun for quite a few more years to come! They were both SOOO excited when this idea was brought up earlier this afternoon. Will says it was his idea, but I'm not so sure that Meggan didn't mention it first ... we'll probably never know the whole truth there! :)

The kids having dessert before we headed home after supper and a little play time again!

Last night we went to Target to see what we could find to spend our gift cards on that Jason's parents gave us for Christmas (thanks again, Mom and Dad). We left with not too much in our hands and with Jordan's nose bleeding and with a fat upper lip - he had a slight mishap with Daddy and a Radio Flyer tricycle ... We ended up cutting that trip a little shorter, grabbed a quick bite to eat, and came home to play a little while before bed!

Jordan last night after we got home from Target playing with his John Deere stuff from Grandma & Papa (we didn't get a picture of his latest battle wound)!

This afternoon I finally broke down and called the doctor around 2:00 when I took Jordan's temperature and it was running about 101.3. He's had this nasty tight cough come back the last couple days and a pretty bad leaky faucet (I mean runny nose) and has been grabbing at his ears off and on. They were able to get us in at 4:45, thankfully, and he has a double ear infection, the right worse than the left - poor little guy! I'm so glad that "something" was whispering in my ear and just telling me to call the doctor (sometimes only God can get through to us through our hearts, even though we know in our heads that we should take them and we don't)!!!

So we gave Jordan a breathing treatment to try and help loosen up that terrible cough and then put him to bed. We watched the movie Hairspray, which was somewhat of a letdown, but it was nice to just be able to watch a movie! We don't do that too often at all. Well, I watched it and Jason pretty much slept through most of it ...

Have I mentioned that it really feels pretty empty around here when Meggan is gone? I'm just so used to having to tell her that it's finally time for her to give up and just go to bed and then physically put her there that I almost miss it when she's not here. Crazy, I know! :)

I'm off to bed now and looking forward to my massage that I finally scheduled tomorrow morning!!!

Happy New Year!

I know it's the same thing that everyone says, but it is so hard for me to believe that it's already 2009! Our little baby girl, Meggan Rae, will turn 5 this year and will start kindergarten later this summer - YIKES!!! She's growing up so very fast right before our eyes. Our baby boy, Jordan Ray, will become a 2-year-old this year, and that just seems impossible to me. Seems like just last week that I was heading back to work after my maternity leave!!! My, how the time flies ...

We had a great day yesterday spending time with friends that were in town. They just moved during the summer to Ohio, and it's so great when they come and visit - the kids have a great time playing together, and it's always great to get to chat with them! We went over to friends' house for New Year's Eve and had lots of fun there as well ... there's nothing better than spending time with just great people who are great friends!!! We all made it until pretty close to 1:00 a.m. (well, both of our kids were konked out until Jordan ended up waking up around 12:30 or so), and then it was time to head home and crash in bed. The kids both then stayed asleep until 9:15 this morning, so that was GREAT!!! Jordan is napping now and Meggan and I are going to watch a movie and rest and Jason is watching the Iowa game - GO HAWKS!

Here are a couple fun pictures of our night. Hoping your New Year's Eve was fun and wishing each and every one of you a perfect 2009!

The kids in Maggie and Faith's bouncehouse they got for Christmas (this was already Meggan's second outfit change of the night, I believe)!

Amanda helping Jordan get the snowman to start singing and lighting up!

Jordan and Faith eating their cookie for dessert!

Meggan and Maggie after they helped themselves to the glitter on their faces (you can't see it quite as much in the picture, but their posing is really cute)!

Ready to settle down and watch Barbie in A Christmas Carol that Laura and Rachel brought with them (I think that Meggan only made it through maybe about 10-15 minutes before she was out cold, but thankfully she's already seen the movie 3 or 4 times anyway so she wasn't too upset about not seeing it all)!

Will This Ever End???

I am beginning to wonder if these late nights of working will ever come to an end. I don't know if I just need to buckle down and somehow find a way to use my time a little more wisely or I just need to stop working so hard, but something has got to give! I can't get it all done in the hours there are in a day, and I can't stay up all hours of the night to get it done either - it's just too tiring with all the other important things there are in life. Kind of a double-edged sword, I guess.

Feeling so tired tonight and wishing I had been in bed 3 hours ago ...

Happy New Year's Eve eve to all!

Some Pictures!

I was trying to upload some pictures this morning, but Jason said the camera was on the wrong setting and I just simply gave up. He figured it out tonight after some time reading the manual and such. He had switched some mode so that it would download onto his parents' computer while we were in Iowa without the software, and it was still on that mode (???). Now it's working just fine, and I thought I would upload a few pictures from the week/tonight!!!

The kids with Haley, Jason's cousin, on Christmas Eve!

Meggan and her buddy Colby, Jason's cousin, on Christmas Eve!

Meggan, Jess, and Jo Jo on Christmas Day at Grandma and Papa's!

Lily's birthday cake at her party Christmas night!

Great-Grandma watching the kids play with a bowl of pennies (who needs all those toys?)!

Four-generation picture with Jordan (we have one with Meggan at about the same age)! We had Meggan taking pictures with my camera and it obviously wasn't set quite right, so I will just hope that Mom's or Dawn & Jer's camera got a little better picture of this!!! :)

Almost home ... they were both sacked out in their seats!

So glad to be home again and play with Daddy!

Glad to be home and play some Barbies she got for Christmas with Mommy!

And this is what you get if you start the bath water and then run into Jordan's room real quick to get his pajamas (yes, he was fully clothed, socks and all)!!!

We are so happy to be home! How blessed we are...

Back Home Again in Indiana!

I have been absent for a couple days now. My cousin in Missouri has a computer with Internet and everything, but we just didn't get around to it. We were busy!

We got a wild idea to try and drive home overnight last night. We were just hoping that the kids would sleep well in the car while it was dark and that would pass the time so much faster for EVERYONE! Well, I am happy to report that it worked!!! It was so much more refreshing to not have to feel so bad for them and how miserable they were. They definitely weren't sleeping the most comfortably, but they got their rest nonetheless.

We loaded up the car and the kids and took off from Missouri at 8:00 p.m. Indiana time. We drove for about 3 hours and made it to somewhere (I can't remember the name of the town) about 40-50 miles south of St. Louis before we needed to stop for a potty break and gas and just to let the kids out. Jordan was none to happy about getting back into the car, but off we went. And we drove, and we drove, and we drove and got to our house at 4:30 a.m. Indiana time! That's really good time! We only stopped that one time, but that was because they were both back asleep and we didn't want to disturb them, nor prolong the trip any more than it already is...

Mom, if you're reading this, here's to you! Thank you for going along with the flow and making the trip as easy on everyone as we all could! I know it's so very hard on you to drive like that and not stop, but I also know you love me and the kids enough to suffer through it and push on! If it weren't for you, I don't know that we would have made it. I was the one nodding off this time and hardly able to keep my eyes open. I blame it on the late nights and not sleeping too well...

It was great to be with family this past week, but I am SO very glad to be home! Jason and I are going to enjoy our wonderful family this week and soak in every little bit that our precious children have to offer! I want to play with them with their new toys, laugh with them, just LOVE them and ENJOY them and BE with them!!! But first I have to get a little bit of sleep. :)

Here's to the holidays and long days and nights of traveling...

We Made It!

Just a real short post to let everyone know we made it to Missouri! We're having a nice time visiting with everyone so far!

Hope that everyone had a GREAT holiday! :)