Seeing The Important Things

The past month has just been a worlwind at our house. There has been so many things going on. We have definetley had our highs and our lows this month . We started out the month with our first Youth Retreat as a family of 4, which by the way was amazing to say the least. The Sunday that we left for retreat we were awakened in the middle of the night to Korbin unconsolible screaming. This went on for about 2 hours and there was nothing that was going to make him stop. So we headed to the ER at the children's hospital close by to find that he had an abcess on his bottom. The doctor had said that it was a pretty fresh abcess and wanted to try some oral antibiotics and send him home. We arrived back at the retreat by about 6:00 am Monday morning and headed back to the Pediatrician that afternoon around 4:00 pm. After seeing our regular doc he lanced his abcess and  Korbin felt immediate releif. We went back to the retreat and had such an amazing time with our church family. The Lord was with us through our services and the time spent there was worth every second.

When we got home we immedietley began working on Do Re Mi. Mom had come into town at the beginning of the week and she was in charge of the food so we began to get everything together for that. After a few ton of trips to Sam's and Aldi we were ready to feed the masses for 6 days of breakfast lunch and dinner. About half way into the week Korbin's abcess began to fill up again. So we made a trip back to the Pediatrician's office to have it lanced for the second time. The next day the doc called to see how he was doing and things were bad again. So he sent us straight to the Peds Surgeon to have him take a look at the abcess and decide if it needed to be operated on. One look at it and he knew that he for sure needed to be operated on. It had turned into an abcess fistula which would never go away by lancing. It would have to be operated on. We were then scheduled for surgery for the next day, Friday at 9:00am.

After a pretty restless night sleep we headed to the hospital to arrive by 7:00am.To say that I was nervous was an understatement. I know that they do this every single day but that was my baby that they were about to put under. I knew who was in control of this whole situation and looked to Him for my comfort. Everthing went so smoothly. The surgery only lasted about 30 minutes and the surgeon came to talk to us and told us how amazing the surgery went and gave us Post-op instructions. We were told that it would be about 45 minutes to an hour before he would wake up and we would get to see him. After about 20 minutes they were already calling our name to see our sweet boy. When we arrived to the recovery room he was wide awake holding his bottle of pedialite on his own. The nurse then handed him to us and he gave us a sweet, sweet, smile. After about 20 minutes in recovery he was released to go home. He did amazing! I am so thankful that God was able to comfort us during this time. I know that it was a minor surgery but anytime your baby is being put under it is a big deal. He has been there for us so strongly in these past few weeks.

The Sunday to follow we began our church VBS themed The Firehouse of Faith. Throughout this whole thing I was feeling the Devil on me each step of the way but the Faith that I had through Christ helped me to perservere through the rough times and see the important things that were in front of me. The time spent with our church family at the retreat, working for VBS and seeing lost souls saved through out the week, making some amazing friends through working VBS, and feeling God comforting us through Korbin's surgery was just some of the highs that I have felt this month. I am so thankful for the things that I have experienced in this past month. God has been working in our lives and showing us so many great things. We are so blessed with great family, friends and church.

Youth Retreat 2012

Playing with sidewalk chalk at retreat. Love these sweet kiddos.

Our sweet boy before his surgery.

At home with his sister after his surgery. He was so glad to be back with her. He misses her so bad when she is away !

Working on VBS with her favorite boy Gaving : )

Chillin out at the Youth House after a long night of working on VBS.

Korbin is 7 months

Our sweet boy is growing like a weed !! We can't believe how quickly he is growing and learning. He is learning so many new things each day. Here are a few things our big boy has been up to this month.

• He weighed in at 18lbs. 4oz and 271/2 inches long.

• He learned how to crawl the first week of his 6th month.

• He loves his jumperoo so much !
• He discovered many rooms in our house including his sisters room and the bathroom (lots of things to get into in both rooms )
• Took his first car trip to Indiana to visit his Nana and Pa.
• Loved swinging at the park for the first time.
• learned to pull up on everything.
• Loves to climb up on the end table.
• Had his first fall off of the end table

• Missed his first Easter at church because he was sick with an ear infection.

• Smiles all the time.
• Went swimming for the first time at Nanny and Poppy's pool.
• Loves to eat Avocado and Applesauce. And that is about it!
• Went to the GI doctor and they upped his meds.
• Sat in a high chair at a restaurant for the first time
• Rode in the front of the shopping cart for the first time
• Went strawberry picking.

• Loves to be with his sister.

Wow, I can't believe all the firsts we have experienced in one month! I know that next month there will be so many more. Looking forward to what this new month has in store for our sweet boy !

Pulling up for the first time!

Sitting in the high chair at a restaurant for the first time.

He loves playing with sister!

He found the dishwasher!

Sweet, sweet, smile...

His favorite place to be under the end table.

Easter Morning playing with his new truck from the Easter bunny.. He was sick and still smiling... The second picture is the week after in there Easter outfits since we missed Easter Sunday.

Visiting with Nana and Pa...

If you look closely in the mirror you can see a screaming boy on our trip back from Indy. Poor boy just does not like riding in the car.

Getting ready to eat some yummy Avocado and Applesauce.. Yum.

Wordless Wednesday

Sweet Sibling Love

1 Peter 4:8 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.


These two have such a sweet love. I can't even begin to explain the way their love is. The other day Korbin was getting told "no" for the first time and I thought Addyson was going to break out in tears. She was so upset that her brother was being told not to do something. She said "Mommy don't tell him no he is just a baby." I explained to her that Korbin needs to start hearing "no" so he can learn the meaning just like we did to her when she was a baby. She still was not to happy about the whole situation. I have been thinking about this all week and isn't that just like God he will tell us "no" because he loves us just like our parents telling us "no." As our Heavenly father He knows whats best for us in our lives. If we would just listen to Him our life would be in the center of His will, right where it is suppose to be! I needed this lesson so bad this week.

I think Addyson would rather it be her being told "no" then Korbin!! Now that is a great big sister if you ask me : ) I hope that these two have a love like this for as long as they are alive.
I know that one day I will be hearing her say Mom he won't get out of my room, he's touching me, and he is not sharing... But for now I am going to just enjoy the moment of this sweet love these two have.

Strawberry Pickin

We have had such a great Saturday. Korbin slept in this morning and that never happens so today I was so thankful for a little extra sleep. It was much needed. Addy has been looking forward all week to going strawberry pickin. So this morning we went to a little restaurant on the way to the strawberry patch that has a better than Cracker Barrel breakfast. I know that is crazy hard to believe but it was delicious!! We then went to pick strawberries at the farm down the road. Jimmy and I picked about 2 buckets full of berries while Addy ate berries and Korbin slept in the Ergo. I just have to say that I got a great workout wearing an almost 18 pound baby and squating to pick berries. The berries just melt in your mouth and are so addicting! While I was putting them up I could not stop eating them. I think the majority of them ended up in Addy and my tummy!

After berry pickin we came home and got a few things done around the house. We had our own little Cinco De Mayo celebration with fajitas, homemade guacamole and salsa. Addyson said that is was even better then our favorite Mexican restaurant so I guess it was a hit !

We have had such a fun day today with our sweet babies! Love spending time with them and making memories like these.

Korbin is Crawling

Our sweet baby boy is CRAWLING !! I cannot believe it! I keep saying he shouldn't be doing this already he is only 6 months ! I do not know why I am surprised these two never cease to amaze me! He tries so hard to keep up with his big sister. He despises when Addyson or Mommy leaves the room so the other day while the both of us were in the kitchen I was helping Addy fix her snack and I turned around and there was Korbin with a sweet grin on his face ! He had crawled all the way from the living room ( in the middle of the rug) to the kitchen. If you have ever been to our house this is quite a long way for a 6 month old. Ever since then he has been all over the place. My floors are a big sticky mess because everywhere he crawls he has to leave a huge puddle of spit up to let everyone know where he has been ; ) Today he climbed underneath the end table and left a nice puddle under there also! I can't believe how big he is getting! Time sure does fly by when you are having fun !

New Library (to us anyway)

So we have been going
To the library in the next town over for a while now. We didn't go very often but when we did we would go to that one. We were not very impressed at all. So the other day I was trying to think of things that we could do every week that didn't cost money ( which meant somewhere close by because gas is out the roof) but was fun. So we decided to go to our local library. We walked in the door and went straight to the children's section. We were greeted by a sweet librarian who immediately welcomes us to the library and asked if we needed any help. As we talked she told us about every thing they had to offer for the kids.

We decided to go to the story time the next morning. Let me just say that I was impressed!! Addyson loved every second of it. The librarian read 2 books to hem and then when she was finished they did a little craft to go along with the books. We had such a great time. So excited to go back this week.
We also decided to try out the music hour also.I will be honest I was not sure what to expect. But let me just say that hour exceeded my expectations majorly !

~ To me it's all so clear, everyone of us is here, all because two people fell in love.....~

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Easter Weekend

We started off the weekend great.

Everyone was feeling well. We spent Friday afternoon with daddy (after he got done mowing) since he didn't have to work because it was Good Friday. Friday night we colored eggs with Nanny and Papa. We had 3 dozen eggs ready to color and I think Addy colored every one of them except for maybe 3 or four. She was really into the egg coloring this year. I was so proud of her with how well she knew the real meaning of Easter. I love that she is already learning the real meanings and not just the fun aspects of holidays. Her telling the real stories just melt my heart and really truly has me looking deeper into the real meanings ! Love this sweet girl.

Korbin with his new truck

Saturday afternoon we headed to meet Nanny and Papa for dinner and Addy started to feel under the weather. We took her to a clinic to find that she had strep throat. When the doc showed me her throat it was just blood red and had pockets on it. We came home and rested until Sunday afternoon and made it to Nanny and Papa's for Easter lunch. She still wasn't feeling up to par but she hunted a few eggs and then decided that Papa and Daddy could find the rest of the eggs. We had a great dinner thanks to Nanny. Great food and good company. Thankful for the resurrection of our Savior. So thankful that He is alive and lives in my soul!

Poppy and Addy after the egg hunt...

Our Easter arrangement thanks to Pinterest!

** picture of the sweet girl and boy will be up next week due to the illness : )

Check Up...

We went back to the doctor today with Korbin to check his breathing. After sitting in the waiting room watching my sweet girl befriend every kid that walked in the door ( by the way it was way crowded) we were finally taken back to a room. They checked his breathing and it seemed to have improved some since Friday. The doctor did mention that it will take quite a while for him to get completely better. But as the doctor went further with the exam he checked his ears to find that they were both infected. This poor sweet boy is on 4 different meds
right now including the new antibiotic for his ears and also the as needed Tylenol for the fever. He is sleeping peacefully right now and I hope that continues through the night ( not just for him to get better but so this momma can get a few hours of shut eye)I am praying that he is better by the weekend and ready to spend time with family on this holiday weekend.

Cleaning Supplies Know How

For as long as I can remember my mom has used either Tide or Gain as her laundry detergent. It was just something we knew we would have to buy when we went grocery shopping. Each time that we would buy it would cost us about $20 something for a big jug at Sam's Club. Even with coupons this was still a high ticket item. I just never thought you could get it any cheaper. Well the other day a friend of mine was telling me all about the Laundry soap she made and how it made a ton of soap and also how cheap it was. When she was telling me about it I was thinking she was crazy there was no way that something you make could clean your clothes as good as store bought laundry soap. Well was I WRONG !!! One afternoon last week I made my own batch and let me tell you I am so in love with this laundry soap. I don't think I will ever go back to buying it! The first load I did was some of my husbands work clothes. It cleaned those clothes BETTER than store bought laundry soap! Yes you heard me right BETTER !!!

I got my recipe from this website
http://everydaypaleo.com/2012/01/11/natural-laundry-solutions/

** I made the liquid recipe.

I spent $3.99 cents on the borax, 3.99 on the washing soda, and 2.98 for a bar of Tom's Soap. (you can use any type of bar soap you would like) The borax and the washing soda will last me through quite a few batches but you use the whole bar of soap for the recipe. If you try this out let me know how you like it.

I am also in the process of making an antibacterial cleaner. I will include that in another post soon.

Better Day...

Yesterday Addyson went to spend the night with her Nanny so mommy and daddy could begin to nurse Korbin back to health and mommy and daddy could get a little bit of sleep. This was only her 2nd time spending the night away from home without mommy and daddy and I will have to say I think she thoroughly enjoyed it. She was the center of attention for about 18 hours it was all about Addyson! Since Korbin has come along the one thing that has been super hard for her is sharing her mommy and daddy and grandparents. This was a much needed "sleepover" with Nanny.

Korbin seems to be feeling a bit better today. He has taken his treatments a whole lot better than I thought he was going to. He has ran a low grade fever all day today and still has quite a bit of congestion. Addy was dying to hold him while he took his treatment. I think Korbin loved her holding him.
He would giggle every time she would smile at him. I just adore the love that these two share. When you see the way they look at each other it just melts your heart. It is such a sweet love. While I sit here and write this my heart is just focused on how blessed we are. Even though our sweet baby is sick God has overall given us healthy children . In this week I came in contact with a family that has a 7 week old son that hasn't left the hospital since the day he was born. He had an enlarged heart at birth and was put on the transplant list. On Wednesday I became friends with this family on FB and they were still waiting on a heart for baby Andrew. Thursday afternoon the family announced on their FB page that Andrew was getting a heart !PLT! Thursday night we were were at Vandy ER with Korbin with his RSV ( that is where Andrew is also). While we were sitting there in the ER a few floors up the doctors were putting in Andrew's new heart. I just thought the whole time we were in there about how blessed we were to have such healthy children ! That could easily have been us wondering if our baby was going to receive a heart. God is so amazing to me and I can see him doing a great work in our life.
I know that sometimes I am feeling sorry for myself for the things that we go through but they are so small. The situations we go through are just to make us stronger and to teach us to look to Him instead of doing what we think is best.
* If you would like to read more about Andrew's story you read about it here

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20120330/ROBERTSON01/304040036/Updated-White-House-baby-receives-new-heart

You can also watch a video here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLHT1LTg2Js

We will go back to the doctor on Monday for them to check to see if his breathing is any better. Thank you all so much for all the prayers we really appreciate each one of them.

Visit to the ER

After visiting the doctor yesterday afternoon Korbin started feeling worse. We decided it would be best if we went ahead and called the doctor on call. ( and it just so happened to be our doctor) he told us to head on in to the ER. So we dropped Addy off at her Aunt Paula's and headed to Vandy. (Addy was so excited about going she said "bye mom this is so fantastic and I will tell you all about it ok?" )

We arrived to a crowded ER, but they got us in pretty quick. They hooked
him up to the monitors and listened
to him and immediately called the respiratory therapist. They therapist cleaned out his chest and did a breathing treatment on him.They continued to monitor him for a couple of hours and decided he would be ok to go home and follow up with his pediatrician tomorrow. He was such a trooper through all of it.
We got home around 3:00 am and slept for a few hours and had to be back at the doctor at 10:45 am. When we got to the doctor he was back to about the same as he was the night before. They did a treatment on him in the office and also sent home home with a nebulizer for at home treatments every 4 hours. We are praying that the treatments help him to get better and not have to return to the ER. Hopefully he will rest good tonight.