Blog-o-McCammo

Gymnastics

2012-01-24T16:20:00.005-05:00

One of Katie's Christmas presents from AZ papa and grandma was another course of Gymnastics. She started last week with a new coach and a new class. She has been doing well and learning new things. She really enjoys gymnastics.
KY papa and grandma gave Jared and I a new camera for Christmas, which allows me to take better pictures while at gymnastics. I'm still learning my way around this camera, so some of the videos are a little shaky/blurry. Also, william terrorizing the waiting area doesn't leave me much time and focus to take good pictures and videos. Here's what I got today:

Butterfly wings

2012-01-24T16:14:00.003-05:00

Aunt Jenna and Uncle Nathan dropped off some butterfly wings for Katie last week. She absolutely loves them, loves getting photographed in them and loves asking about said photographs to be printed so she can look at them...
The girl loves her wings!

Here she is 'flying' with her wings.

AZ Fun

2012-01-24T14:15:00.015-05:00

We had a lot fun out in AZ after Christmas. The eating of mass quantities continued, and Jared and I were able to go to 2 movies, at the movie theater- such a treat! Thanks for the fun times!

Playing on the stairs

McCormick Train Park

Cecelia's Blessing

Build-A-Bear with Aunt Millie:
Katie loves her new 'lots of hearts' bear that she built. Aunt millie generously took katie to build-a-bear and katie loved it. She was shy at first, but once the bear was stuffed, she was in love :)

Christmas

2012-01-24T13:56:00.005-05:00

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. The kids were spoiled, I was able to watch all my Christmas movies and massive amounts of Nestle Crunch Jingles were consumed. It was good ;) We had a lovely Christmas here in KY, then flew out to AZ for some post-Christmas fun. We are lucky to have two great families who care for, support and spoil us. Now that Christmas is over, bring on spring! Winter is sad, cold and sad again. Katie keeps asking me to bring the sun back...I wish I could!

Santa's Loot

Ready for Church

McCammon Loot

Katie in her Backyardigan Tasha Hat. The kids were beyond spoiled this Christmas!

Katie's decorations

2012-01-21T10:22:00.003-05:00

When we started putting up the Christmas decorations, Katie became slightly obsessed with continually decorating with her own decoration creations. She had at least one hanging in every room in the house...she still has one in her room that she won't let me take down. My favorite ones are the ones she put on the tree. Full page decorations! The googly eye one is awesome ;)

Popcorn string part 2, Christmas crafts

2011-12-23T12:30:00.004-05:00

Katie requested another popcorn string, it was mommy's turn to thread ;)

Katie and I crafted up a storm this morning. I had all these crafts that I wanted to do with her, but kept putting it off for other things. Since Christmas Eve is TOMORROW, we had to get it done. Funny enough, we didn't actually do anything that I had planned, we just let the glitter, glue and stickers guide us as we crafted. We ended up with some really cool Christmas trees and ornaments. Note to self- once the glitter is out, nothing else matters or will be used. GLITTER! The girl loves glitter. Fun times!

Popcorn Strings, new hats and parties!

2011-12-22T14:57:00.006-05:00

We've had a busy schedule these past weeks. It's been fun to be able to go to some fun parties, see Christmas lights and hang out as a family. This is such a fun time of year!

Our Ward Christmas party...I don't think either kid was excited to sit with Santa.

New winter hats!

Making a popcorn string for our tree!

William's contribution to the popcorn stringing ;)

Funny videos

2011-12-07T12:34:00.001-05:00

If Katie doesn't know the words to the song, she makes them up as she goes ;)

Christmas is here!!!!

2011-12-05T21:04:00.003-05:00

We picked out our tree, we decked the halls, Christmas music has been playing in our house for two months...bring on the Season! I love Christmas. That is all.

Christmas Card

2011-12-01T16:39:00.002-05:00

When Aunt Millie was visitng back in October, we took some shots of the kids for our Christmas cards. The kids weren't very cooperative and the sun/shadows were not on our side...
I still think Millie did a great job and the card looks pretty cute! Yay Christmas!

Mod Merry Ornaments Christmas

Create Christmas cards for the 2011 holiday season.

View the entire collection of cards.

New Cousin!

2011-11-15T10:13:00.003-05:00

Here is the latest addition to our family, miss Cecilia Rose! She's beautiful, perfect and I can't wait to hold her!!! Congrats Davie and Amy, you did good!

Dance Fever

2011-11-15T10:06:00.001-05:00

The kids are dancing machines these days. Christmas music, backyardigans music, dancing dora doll...they all make for some fun dancing times with the kids.

Funny kids

2011-11-15T09:59:00.002-05:00

Dress up, trying to fit into a fisher price school bus, being cute. Love them!

Halloween! Uncle Nate and Arizonas Papa came to town!

2011-11-08T08:05:00.011-05:00

Trick or Treating at Wesport Village shopping center:

Katie always refers to Arizona as 'Arizonas'. For some reason she likes to add a 'S' on there. She's now starting to realize that she has two sets of Grandparents, Arizonas Grandma and Papa and Kentucky Grandma and Papa. I don't think she understands how lucky and spoiled she is, but she knows there are 4 people who love her more than anything.
Anywho, Dad and Nate made a trip out here to see the kids (and the UofL vs. Syracuse game). They had fun playing with the kids. Katie and William loved the attention. Katie liked having someone else to boss around- "Play with me. Color with me." Good times!
Walk to the Train Park:

UofL vs. Syracuse:

Making cookies (which mommy really needs to stop eating!)

Trick or Treating!

Slide fun

2011-11-03T08:15:00.001-04:00

Katie needed a drink in her way down

Trunk or Treat!

2011-10-26T08:44:00.006-04:00

I was flying solo at our ward's trunk or treat last night. Jared had a softball game to get to, and since our church building is so far away from our house I told him to stay home, save gas and go to his game on time. It wasn't too bad without him, we just missed daddy being there with us. Anywho, William and I manned the trunk while Katie went out trunk or treating with her friends. I borrowed William's adorable blue monster costume from my friend Ad'lynn (anything fun I do or fruit my kids eat, is all credited towards Ad'lynn). Katie was set on dressing as Uniqua again this year (the girl loves the Backyardigans...other shows come and go, but Backyardigans remains constant and favorite). I was fine with it as the costume still fits and it didn't cost me any money! I thought they both looked cute and it was a fun night. Success!

Katie danced the night away

2011-10-23T22:24:00.003-04:00

The girl was in heaven up on the podium with all the lights and music...she had so much fun. Much of the video is grainy and taken from a distance, but I hope you can see how much she loves to dance. She had so much fun :)
I think we are going to start dance classes next!

Wedding time!

2011-10-23T09:40:00.006-04:00

Yesterday our neighbors, friends and family, Uncle Nathan and Aunt Jenna, were married in a beautiful ceremony. It was a fabulous wedding.

Katie was the flower girl. She was so pretty in her little dress. It took her a while to warm up to everybody and everything, but she did really well and really enjoyed the dancing part at the end ;)

Congrats to Nathan and Jenna! Thank you for letting us be a part of your special day!

Pumpkin Fun

2011-10-15T18:44:00.006-04:00

We've had some fun times with pumpkins this past week. For craft day Katie and her friend painted pumpkins. Today was a beautiful fall day, so we went out and picked our family pumpkins. I love the fall!

Pumpkin Picking!

Millie came to town, fun and Fall!!

2011-10-11T13:51:00.009-04:00

My sister Millie came to town to play with us. We had so much fun while she was here. The kids were spoiled, but they were very good while Millie and I ate and shopped to our heart's content :) Fun times!
It's officially Fall here. The leaves are falling like rain. If only the temps matched the season. It needs to cool off so I don't feel so dumb for playing Christmas music already ;)

Katie thought Millie's iphone was a great toy :)

Pinterest is a wonderful resource for non-crafty people like me. We made crayons for our craft day with Aunt Millie. They turned out really well and Katie loves to color with them.

Playing in the leaves.

William was bored with the leaves and decided to crawl into the stroller in the garage. The kid is a drool machine!

Making our Pumpkin Man for the front yard.

Katie really liked the pumpkin man...William did not.

Videos:
William 'mowing' the driveway with his toy mower.

Katie playing in the leaves.

My name is William, and I'm addicted to climbing in and out of baskets!

Where does the time go?

2011-09-23T14:28:00.008-04:00

It's been a while since we blog-o-updated. Here are some pics of the kids this past month.

William playing in his dresser cabinet (that papa made for katie, which kaite loved to play in too)

Daddy knows he not supposed to nap, right?

Daddy reading to William, Katie enjoying games on daddy's phone.

William and Katie enjoying my laundry tub.

Katie and William playing in the backroom. This is how the room looks from the minute they get up until we put them to bed. I clean it up every. single. day. after they go to sleep. Messy kids!

Katie and I made a Fall Family tree. Katie did all the painting and finger tracing. She also helped me write some of the names on the leaves. Thanks to Pinterest for the idea! Thank you Millie, for pinterest ;)

William climbs and stands on everything. He has plenty of head bumps and bruises to prove it. Here he is standing on Katie's green chair, while I tell him to sit back down on his bum. He does not listen, falls, then goes right back to do it again...

He is such a stinker!

Minnesota!!

2011-09-07T14:23:00.013-04:00

We went to MM to visit MM ;)
We were Minneapolis bound to visit Aunt Melissa over Labor Day weekend. The drive to and from was endless, but so worth it. Aside from having a beautiful, comfortable and awesome place to live, Aunt Missa showed us that there is sooo much to do in Minneapolis. First, we hit up the Minnesota State fair- eating waaay too much fried food, but loving every minute of it. Later that day we hit up Mall of America's Nickelodeon Universe, which is unspeakably awesome. Backyardigan statues- enough said.
The next day we had fun driving around experiencing the city, followed by the Como Park Conservatory and Zoo (both of which have free admission, can't get any better than that!).
The day we left we took a stroll across the Mississippi River, ate lunch and hit the road again. We packed a lot in two days, but it was so much fun. Thank you Aunt Melissa for the fabulous weekend!

*WARNING* massive amount of pictures ahead, proceed at your own risk.

Ready to start the Fair!

Cotton candy and Corn- they're in the same food group, right?

Melissa & Katie, Jared & William going down one of the slides at the fair. I wasn't very good with the camera, sorry. I know both kids enjoyed it though!

William loved his view ;)

Princesses carved out of butter!

Worn out after the fair:

The Backyardigan statues were so cool. When Katie saw them she started to climb over the fence so she could go be with them ;) It was so neat to round the corner and see all five of them there. I got a little giddy myself. I'm a 29 year old Backyardigan junkie!

Inside the Dora Ride Ferris Wheel:

View of Nickelodeon Universe from the Ferris Wheel. Awesome, right?

View of Mommy and William from the ferris wheel ;)

The best ride inside the house- the blowup mattress ;)

Every morning William would wake up first, then have his baba in bed next to daddy. It was really cute :)

Because Jared is a Civil Engineer ;)

We were waiting for a big boat to come out, but out came a tiny fishing boat!

It was nap time for William ;)

Katie Gym

2011-08-30T13:19:00.003-04:00

Katie had her first gymnastics class today. She loved it (as you can tell in the videos). I didn't get any great photos- I had William to watch, and the other parents thought I was a weirdo for having my camera out. I guess they are all gymnastics veterans. Well, this is new to me, and it is Katie's first organized activity outside of her church class. So, I was the embarrassing mom, treating it like it was the first day of school :p
It was so much fun to watch her out there. She couldn't stop bouncing around and I could tell she was really having a good time. When it was over I wanted her to talk about it non-stop in the car, chatting up about how cool it was...but she didn't do any of that. When I asked her if she wanted to go back, she did her usual "shyeah", shrugged her shoulders and scrunched her nose. Little fart.
I know she liked it ;)

Videos

2011-08-25T16:56:00.005-04:00

It's been a while since I posted any videos on the blog. Here are some cute ones from the past few months.

The boy is walking now, he thinks he's pretty cool ;)

More William pics

2011-08-25T15:27:00.006-04:00

It seems like these posts have been primarily about william, but I promise Katie will have her some posts. My girl just got a cute new hair cut, and she starts her very first gymnastics class next week. She's super cute and super excited! Plus, I really had to get some pics on here where william is actually dressed...even if it is combined with pics of him completely naked.

Here are some pics of my boy being cute, crawling under Katie's chair, playing with the play kitchen (he loves that thing) and hanging out nekkid!

The Princess and the ball boy

2011-08-25T09:41:00.004-04:00

I bought this container at Ikea in AZ, hoping to store the stuffed animals in there. Somehow it became the ball storage and has actually turned itself into a fun throwing game we all like to play. Every now and then I catch william climbing in and out of it. This time Katie was putting balls in there while he was climbing in and out, all the while wearing her princess crown, naturally ;)

Standing man

2011-08-25T09:34:00.003-04:00

William has evolved from an army crawl to a crab walk to standing, and now he is actually walking. Here are some pics of him, extremely happy with himself for standing up :)

Katie, showing us she can stand as well. "Who's cuter now?"

Better late than never...

2011-08-25T09:08:00.007-04:00

Here are some random pics from the last few months that I have neglected to get up on the blog. To my defense, the computer room is now assembled with all the necessary software for my lame attempt at blogging ;)

I have to preface these pics by acknowledging that poor william does suffer from second-child syndrome in the sense that he is almost always only clad in his diaper. We usually bust out the camera after dinner (after he demolished an outfit) or right before bed (when he's about to be forced into PJ's). He's also very annoying to put clothes on...

These pics are a mix of AZ and the homefront-
William using his feet like a monkey, katie 'brushing' william's hair, Aunt Millie, mom and dad with the kids, katie and william eating :)

William is 1!!!

2011-08-05T10:46:00.007-04:00

He made it. Thankfully he's healthy and happy. He still doesn't sleep well...that's pretty rough (for mommy), but all in all he is really doing well. We are so thankful he is a part of our family! We celebrated yesterday with a family BBQ at our house. William enjoyed his cupcakes and presents (Katie did too). Today he enjoyed a birthday breakfast of champions- blueberry waffles with a side of mini oreos. Excellent. Happy Birthday to William!! You've come a long way little buddy, we're so happy you're here!

Family Pictures

2011-07-22T11:07:00.008-04:00

My brother was once again nice enough to take some pics of our little family while we were out in AZ. I think he did great, especially considering location, time of day and two cranky kids (both of whom were in the beginning stages of a cold). Thank you Davie, you really got some good ones! I love them!

Notes for family journal, July 2011

2011-07-14T12:26:00.002-04:00

Here's a few funny things they kids have been doing since we've arrived in Arizona. William started crawling. He alternates between 3 different styles of crawling. He army crawls, which makes him look like a little snake slithering along the floors. He crawls like a normal baby (only on the carpet) and then he does this one legged crawl with one leg straight and the other bent...it is hilarious! Once I get a video of it I'll post it on the blog. He also sits on his little butt and turns himself in circles with one leg. He laughs and gets such a kick out of himself doing it. He's a hoot :)

Katie has developed a pirate face when she talks. She squints one eye and talks out of the side of her mouth while talking about serious things. Funniest. thing. ever. She is such a nut! I'll try and get a video of that too.

I think they're pretty cute and sweet (especially when they eat, sleep and poop on schedule), and I'm thankful they're mine!

More AZ pics!

2011-07-14T11:34:00.008-04:00

I'm not a fancy blogger, and as mentioned before, I'm kinda lazy with all this. My idea of blogging is just throwing a bunch a pics up there, with minimal description. No artistic flair or wit, just pics of my kids being cute. Hopefully that speaks for itself ;)

AZ Pictures

2011-07-14T10:18:00.013-04:00

Pic overload :) Here are some pics of us swimming, 4th of July, celebrating my sister Rachel's bday, more swimming and having fun!

AZ fun

2011-07-14T09:55:00.005-04:00

We are having fun out here in AZ, hanging with my family, swimming, eating, swimming, watching movies, relaxing, swimming (katie is such a fish, we swim twice a day sometimes and she loves every minute of it). It has been wonderful. My brother has been nice enough to take some pics of the kids. I really appreciate it because I have been too lazy to capture these moments with my own camera ;) Thank you Davie for busting out your camera and sharing your talent!

Here are a few pics of the kids while eating dinner at Davie and Amy's house (delicious pork tacs BTW). I'll post some more when I get them all downloaded.

Attempting to move

2011-06-14T23:37:00.004-04:00

William is so ready to crawl. He hasn't been able to do it yet, but he's trying pretty hard. He gets up on his hands and feet but doesn't understand that he needs to get on his knees and move :) He makes a little William body bridge all the time that cracks me up. He wants to move so much, he just needs to figure it out!

The collector

2011-06-14T23:19:00.003-04:00

Katie has always been a bit of a collector. She went through a googly eye stage, button stage, penny stage...anything small and round, really. She would carry them around in her hands and pockets, group them in piles, store them in places all over the house. Now that she's older she's been collecting and grouping anything and everything, storing them in every container we have, stuffing them in drawers, the musical train...EVERYWHERE!!! She mixes all of her toys, William's toys, books, flashlights, crayons, markers, kitchen magnets...just about EVERYTHING, and carries it around with her, playing some sort of game in her own little world. She does this all the time and the total randomness of the items seems to make sense to her. I tried to take something out one of her piles the other day (to let William play with his toy) and she flipped out, quickly placing it back in the pile. It's pretty annoying to clean up these piles at the end of each day. I basically have to filter it out and put everything back in it's proper place and container. Well, I had NO energy to do that last week, so the piles went unchecked. As a result, the pile kept getting transferred from one location to another...leaving little bits of itself all over the house. I finally got everything filtered out on Sunday, only to find she had started all over again today! This kid is such a nut ;) We love her though. She makes us laugh when we found portions of the pile stuffed into every one of our sock/underwear drawers.

Come on ride the train..

2011-06-14T23:13:00.003-04:00

The love of trains is genetic...it comes from my dad. I didn't inherit the gene, but apparently my kids did ;) ChooChoo!!

Bath time!

2011-06-14T23:10:00.002-04:00

Rub a dub dub, two cute kids in a tub :)

William eats sand ... regrettably

2011-06-14T16:09:00.001-04:00

Hot day!!

2011-06-07T12:54:00.007-04:00

We're having a record setting heat wave out here. Thankfully there are a few options to help us stay cool outside. Grocery shopping is out- I'm not sweating and dragging kids in and out of the hot car for groceries. So, our fridge is empty, but the splash park is fun :)

Katie and Bella trying to turn the water back on (there's a button on the ground the kids can push- Katie loved having that power)

Playground time:
Katie wouldn't put on her shorts...so her little cheeks got some sun :)

I really hope that 'cheese' face is on its way out. Silly girl!

Sand box time

2011-06-05T19:51:00.001-04:00

A box of sand, a sandbox

2011-06-01T14:13:00.006-04:00

Katie inherited a cute sandbox from her cousin Nolan (thank you nolan!). We've had it for a year without filling it with sand...Anywho, uncle Nathan took pity on the poor sandbox and decided he would buy some sand for Katie. Katie LOVES her sandbox. She's been out there everyday since Uncle Nathan put sand in there. Thank you Uncle Nathan and Aunt Jenna :)

I asked Katie to look at the camera and say 'cheese', she kept telling me "I am! I am!" when she is clearly not looking at the camera at all...funny girl :)

The sand people Katie and Uncle Nathan made. Katie still wouldn't look at the camera :)

Memorial Day fun

2011-05-30T16:54:00.007-04:00

We had a fun BBQ today at grandma and papa's house. It's in the 90's out here...which I am not happy about (seems too early for such temps). We had a friend give us an awesome blow-up pool that was perfect for the kids to play in. It was a fun day with good food, family and lots of lemonade! Happy Memorial Day!!!

Run for the L of it

2011-05-28T21:16:00.003-04:00

Jared and I ran the UofL 5K this morning. I had been trying to train and get in shape to prepare for it...but I am in no way in shape and am not a runner by nature. It was a rough course with bad directions. Jared and I didn't even run the same route! So many people were confused and running the course differently. I ended up running more than 3.1 miles and Jared ran a little less ;)
I know I've got a lot more work to do to get back in shape, but I'm glad we did it and I hope we can keep it up.

When it's not raining, we go outside ;)

2011-05-26T11:14:00.006-04:00

We've had some CRAZY weather out here lately. Last night was another fun, stormy night. We lost power and had the threat of tornadoes hanging over our heads all night. Thankfully we are safe, the house is intact and the power is back on. In between these crazy storms, we've had a few nice days to play.

It's hard for me to believe that William is still a little small for his age...look at those rolls!! His cheeks and chin make me laugh all the time- chubby chubby chubbs!

Katie picking a wedgie after going down the slide ;)

Spring

2011-05-25T09:28:00.004-04:00

I need some pictures of us actually outside, enjoying the season. But here's some of William rolling around and Katie playing with her new bat and ball (she is actually pretty good at making contact).
We've been enjoying a few weeks w/out doctor's appointments, etc. It's been nice to play with friends, picnic, ice cream, and family walks...reminds me that I do like other seasons besides fall ;)

Balloon Glow fail, my cute boy

2011-05-16T10:24:00.010-04:00

We attempted to attend the Balloon Glow this year (part of the Derby Festival) and it was a complete waste of time! We sat in traffic for 1.5 hours, walked 20 minutes only to find there was no entrance. We were surrounded by thousands of other equally confused and angry people with kids and disappointed views of the balloons. I was very sad Katie wasn't able to see all the balloons up close and glowing, but the man selling the light-up swords on the corner of the street saved the day. That sword saved the night and katie still sleeps with it on in her bed. Silly girl!
You can barely make out the balloons in the background, but that's as close as we got. Lame.

William with his standard drool fountain :)

Here's my boy- cute, rolling and drooling :) Love this kid!

Katie's big 3

2011-05-11T17:22:00.000-04:00

Before William's health issues took over life, Katelyn turned 3 and had herself a few parties ;)
We had a family party on her actualy birthday, then we had a big co-birthday party with her friend Bella and all our friends. We went to Kazoing, aka the bouncy park, to celebrate Bella's 4th and Katie's 3rd birthdays.
I didn't get any pics of the kids in the jumping part (sad) but here's some of them in the playroom and during the cake/snack time. A good time was had by all!!

Catch Up

2011-05-11T08:44:00.013-04:00

Katie turned 3- scored some good presents ;)

We are all healthy and happy now! Katie thinks she's pretty cool in her shades- she wears them all the time, no matter rain or shine!

Papa came to visit- Katie scored some more cool stuff, Papa spoiled the kids, took good pictures and was very supportive of Katie's love of the choochoos :)

Visiting with Great-Grandma :)

Easter! We took some pictures of fun times coloring eggs...I'm not sure where those went. Once I find them I'll blog it up.

Surgery is over!

2011-05-05T23:48:00.001-04:00

Pre-op/post-op

Backyard Fun

2011-04-30T23:27:00.001-04:00

Back to Blogging

2011-04-26T14:38:00.003-04:00

Well, we've been neglecting the blog these past months. William's health has been priority #1, so it's a forgivable neglect ;) The boy seems to be doing 100% better. He's gaining weight, eating, smiling and laughing. He is a totally different baby and we are so happy he's feeling better and doing well. He's now rolling and sitting up. He's back on track! He still rejects any and all baby food, but will eat whatever kind of table food he can dissolve down to mush that he can swallow. He's not sleeping any better, but he does wake up and eat very well. Since he is so far behind on his weight, I am trying to accept the waking up every 3-4 hours to eat...

We love this little boy and we're so happy he's healthy!

Before:

After:

Easter pictures

2011-04-24T23:51:00.001-04:00

More pics

2011-04-21T21:44:00.001-04:00

2011-04-17T21:55:00.001-04:00

Good times at rhe "train park"

2011-04-17T21:51:00.001-04:00

We had a nice walk and good time at the playground until some dog decided to try and attack Katie before she was rescued by Daddy.

More photos from the past week

2011-04-11T23:10:00.001-04:00

Swinging at the park

2011-04-11T00:01:00.001-04:00

William was thrilled ;)

More tricycle

2011-04-08T13:17:00.001-04:00

Katie is really good on her tricycle now. My little girl is growing up so fast... ;)

Popsicle time

2011-04-07T21:30:00.001-04:00

Popsicle for Katie after a long ride along the block on her tricycle

2011-04-01T18:37:00.001-04:00

william likes baby cheetoes

William Update

2011-03-20T22:13:00.005-04:00

We're home! We were discharged Saturday evening with massive amounts of antibiotics and instructions, making sure we keep a medical eye on William so his electrolytes don't get so messed up again. The Doctors said his sodium was so low when he was admitted, they were surprised he wasn't having seizures or in a coma...
After being off the IV for a few days, he did very well at maintaining everything so they decided he was good to go. Unfortunately, he caught a stomach virus the 5th day we were there...which messed up his potassium and masqueraded as a possible symptom for his digestive woes. Once I started getting sick, followed by Jared, Grandpa and Katelyn, it became apparent that poor William wasn't in need of any more tests (for the time being) but just needed some rest and time to fight off the virus. He's doing better now, happy, sleeping and smiling. I'm hoping once his stomach gets back to normal he'll start eating better.

The initial celiac tests are coming back negative, but we're still waiting on the cystic fibrosis results...which should also, hopefully, be negative.

We will be going to his pediatrician's office regularly to have blood taken to make sure he's still maintaining his electrolytes. He will also need a follow-up ultrasound of his kidneys to make sure everything is still good there as well. Needless to say, William has met his deductible and more ;)

We still don't have any kind of diagnosis or exact reason as to why William's sodium was so low. He was a puzzle to every single Doctor there. He did have a UTI, which could account for his lack of appetite, which could have slowly dropped his sodium to such a low level...but no one could say for sure. They thought it was his kidneys not doing their job, but he had 3 different tests to check his kidneys and they all showed they were functioning. One of his ureters is dilated, but they couldn't find any evidence of blockage...or any other reason as to why it would be like that. We have to meet with his urologist to discuss that further. He went through so many tests, procedures and poking. The poor kid was so brave and good.

2011-03-18T19:15:00.001-04:00

update 3/18

2011-03-18T18:09:00.001-04:00

Waiting for results for celiac disease (gluten) and do a scope for malabsorption on Monday...a few more days in the hospital at least.

2011-03-16T17:42:00.001-04:00

He doesn't know this isn't supposed to be fun ;)

Weight gain

2011-03-16T13:53:00.001-04:00

When William went into the hospital Saturday he was under 13 lbs. As of Wednesday morning he is now up to 14.01 lbs and looking good. Go buddy! keep on adding on the chub!

Big Sister Time

2011-03-15T22:56:00.002-04:00

William was happy to have his big sister come and cheer him up. She got him smiling running around the room and being silly.

2011-03-15T18:57:00.001-04:00

2011-03-15T18:56:00.001-04:00

2011-03-15T18:55:00.002-04:00

She was smiling, i just couldn't catch it with the camera ;)

2011-03-15T16:05:00.001-04:00

Mommy cradling a sleepy William between xrays

Update 3/15

2011-03-15T16:02:00.003-04:00

poor buddy is staying tough through all of his tests. here we were waiting between scans for his gi test. thankfully he looked normal and healthy - but still no answer why he's sick.

Soccer Monster

2011-01-24T09:18:00.004-05:00

Backyardigans has once again influenced our lives for the better- Katie has become enamored with Soccer after watching a soccer themed backyardigan episode ;) Santa brought Katie a soccer ball for Christmas. Since Arizona grows grass in the winter she was able to kick it around before we came home to snow and ice!

For the love of trains...

2011-01-24T08:33:00.006-05:00

With my dad's blessing and happiness, Katie is a big fan of trains and all things choochoo.

Katie was able to ride a train while we were out in AZ, which she loved. She was also able to have B, New B and Zebra dog ride their very own train as well :) Good times.

Terrible twos, threes and William

2011-01-24T07:36:00.008-05:00

I guess my blog can be used a family journal, and if that's the case, I never want these two to forget how challenging they have been at this point in their lives ;)

Katelyn: Everything is a power struggle with this child. She is fiercely independent and stubborn. She will not accept help from anyone, even if it is obvious the task she is trying to complete cannot be done by a two year old. We have a conversation like this everyday- "Can mommy and daddy help?" "No, Katie do it." or "No, Katie help." I have to admit that she is getting better at putting her clothes on 'Tags in the back', and making sure her shoes are on the right feet. She is very helpful with William. Always getting me anything I need for diaper changes and bath time. She really is a wonderful big sister. She has been irritated that she can't do everything for William...it's been a bit of a battle to get her to understand that she can't give him his vitamin, or put lotion on him, etc. We've had to name certain things 'Mommy and Daddy' jobs and others 'Katie' jobs. This has helped a bit, but I still feel like she has a hard time accepting it. Which leads me to our biggest Katelyn challenge at the moment- eating. Katie has always been a picky eater, anyone who knows me has heard me lament on her eating habits. Now she is refusing to eat ANYTHING we make for her. She slowly started taking away meals that she has always eaten that didn't make me feel like a horrible mother for feeding them to her. Turkey and corn were the first to fall, she has now added beans, potatoes, mac & cheese, spaghetti, chicken nuggets, ham, pancakes, bananas, apples, cheese to her 'no eat' list. Peanut butter, and cheese sandwiches are hanging on by a thread. I know she likes these foods, but she will not eat what we prepare for her. She will request that I make something for her, or I give her a choice on what she can eat, but once I put that food in front of her she looks at it, then calmly tells me 'I not eating'.......irritates the heck out of me. Jared and I have learned that this is a normal behavior for her age, we're just not sure how to handle it. I know now that I need not to yell or make a huge deal out of it...I guess that just stresses her out and makes it even more of a control issue- making her want to not eat even more. She has gone to bed hungry, given only the option of eating her dinner if her belly is hungry. But she is so darn stubborn, she would probably go to bed hungry every night. We're still at a crossroads on how we're going to handle this, but I have a feeling that turning 3 isn't going to solve any of the issues we have dealt with while she was two...

William: I don't know how many different ways I can say 'the kid won't sleep' without sounding like a broken record...but I am not one of those people who can function w/out sleep, so having it taken away from me for such a long time really makes me suck at life and being a good mom....
I keep making excuses for him because 'he's a baby' but he's going to be 6 months soon, he needs to sleep, eat and last for more than 2 hours, and possibly start moving. In addition to his non-sleep mode, he doesn't really like to just chill and play on the floor. Every time we put him down to play, he whines and screams til we pick him up, then he's just happy as a clam. I seriously worry he'll never learn to roll or crawl because he's never on the floor long enough to even try!

All that being said, I truly love these kids. I am thankful that they are healthy, happy and sweet. They're not bad kids, they really are sweet and Katie does try to do good and be helpful. And I know a lot of it is me needing to learn some patience and grow up, but since this is a journal, these are my thoughts. I know I'm not unique and that millions of other parents go through this and worse...it just amazes me that something as basic and necessary as eating and sleeping would be so hard for kids to do.......

Beautiful Boy

2011-01-24T07:30:00.003-05:00

I love this kid. He would be perfect if he would just learn to SLEEP!

More AZ Pictures!

2011-01-18T10:30:00.003-05:00

Katie and William with 'Grandpa' Santa Claus. Katie was pretty scared of Santa. He's better in theory than in person from a two-year old point of view ;)

Katie with her adorable Chef outfit and oven glove my mom made for her :)
William hanging out

More Pictures!

2011-01-18T09:55:00.010-05:00

Here's some more pics from our two month blogging hiatus. Sorry my posts are not in sequential order. Most of our pictures are on the PC, which is in the room William has now claimed for himself. I had to post the last batch with what I had on the laptop, and now I'm posting what I've got on the PC.

Picking out our Christmas Tree at the all mighty Home Depot :)

Katie decorating the tree :)

Reading to William, showing off all of our B's

Being cute, more reading 'The night before Christmas' to William :)

William the Cute

2011-01-17T21:06:00.002-05:00

Here's some pics of my boy being cute :)

New Stroller!!

2011-01-17T21:00:00.003-05:00

McGrandpa and McGrandma gave us a new stroller for Christmas. Both Katie and William think they are pretty cool riding around in it :)
Jared and I are both happy to have the kids in one stroller when we go out and about. Thank you McGrandparents!!

It's been a while!

2011-01-17T15:05:00.014-05:00

I have been neglecting the blog- bad blogger! We've had a very busy two months, starting with William having some weight issues.

Just before Thanksgiving William stopped smiling, interacting, or showing any kind of emotion (aside from crying and general crankiness). I feared the worst and told my concerns to his Doctor at his 4 month check-up. Well, turns out the little fart wasn't eating enough (or lost weight due to sickness) and hadn't even gained a pound from his two month to his four month check-up. We had to beef him up to get his weight checked two weeks after his four month appointment. Thankfully he packed on 10 ounces so he didn't have to go on formula. He's a very active and distracted eater. He does not eat very well when Katie is bouncing around talking to me...which makes it hard for me to feed him during the day. I've had to really focus on making sure she is distracted and entertained so that william can eat peacefully. Since he started eating better, he is back to my sweet, smiling little guy. He's still not the best sleeper. Napping is a foreign concept to him, and we have yet to have a full nights sleep. Katie was such a good sleeper, it's been hard for me to accept that William isn't one. Katie was also a lot bigger and fatter...which might explain some of it. Katie was always a good solid 50th percentile baby, William is closer to the 10th percentile (for weight). I'm hoping once we are on solid food next month, William will catch up, fatten up and sleep like a log. I love that sweet little boy. His beautiful blue eyes are so cute. I just need him to figure out how to sleep!

After all of William's weight issues were settled, we packed up and left for AZ for Christmas! We spent a week there and had soooo much fun. We took some family pictures, ate my weight in carmel chocolate rice crispy treats, shopped and finally saw Harry Potter! Katie played choochoos, watched backyardigans and ate whatever she wanted. William was spoiled and held all day long, but didn't sleep at all at night.
Aside from William's nocturnal behavior, it was a wonderful trip. I'm so glad we were able to go out there and spend Christmas with my family. Good times!

Now we're back home in the swing of things. Next month Katie will be 3 years old!

Here's some pics from the last two months!

Katie and Will in front of our Christmas tree (sadly, our tree fell down the night before we went to AZ, but it was nice not to have to take it down once we got home...):

Katie over-stimulated by her loot :)

Falling asleep while Daddy plays tetris against Aunt Amy:

Making cookies and gingerbread houses with Aunt Millie and Aunt Rachel:

Katie's first manicure compliments of Aunt Millie. Katie showed everyone her pretty nails :)

Too cute!

2010-11-20T20:34:00.004-05:00

Katie and William are blessed with very generous Aunts, Uncles and Grandparents. Aunt Melissa sends a package at least once a month. Both Grandmas throw tons of outfits our way. And thanks to Aunt Amy and Uncle Davie we have these adorable Christmas PJ's!! Thank you!! We love them :)

William, 3 Months

2010-11-06T15:24:00.004-04:00

Cute as a freaken button. Not sure his weight stats, he doesn't go back to the Doctor until Dec. This has been a VERY bad week. Both kids are sick, both kids don't sleep...which means mommy doesn't sleep. Not good. I've been crying a lot, feel like I'm on a depression medicine commercial ;) Anywho, here's some cute pics of the boy wearing PJ's that Jared had when he was a baby. I'll write some more happy stuff when we all get a good nights sleep!

Happy Birthday Daddy

2010-10-28T09:42:00.004-04:00

We celebrated Jared's birthday with a little cake and ice cream get together at our house. Good company + Costco cake = fun times :)

Happy Birthday Jared!

Uniqua and Baby Skeletor

2010-10-28T09:26:00.009-04:00

We had an eventful day of Halloween Story Time at the Library and our Ward's Trunk or Treat party at night. Katie enjoyed dressing up as Uniqua, the pink Barkyardigan. *Backyardigan factoid: Uniqua is the only Backyardigan character to appear in every episode. Now you know some Backyardigan trivia ;)

Thanks to Aunt Amy and Uncle Davie, William sported his cool baby skeletor costume :) Fun times were had by all and Halloween isn't even over yet! Bring on the free candy!

Mmmmmm, fingers

2010-10-27T17:07:00.001-04:00

William likes to suck on his little fists, it's hilarious :)

Yum Center

2010-10-27T16:38:00.002-04:00

We recently went downtown to meet Jared for a tour of the new KFC Yum Center. It's the new Arena the UofL Cardinals will be playing Basketball in from now on. It's huge, new and pretty. We hope to be able to watch a game in there at some point in our lives!

Hanging out

2010-10-27T16:24:00.004-04:00

Lazy morning with my kids :)

And yes, Katie is fully potty-trained, but still prefers her milk 'baba' style...we're working on that...sort-of. Did I mention I'm lazy? haha :)

Katie Paint

2010-10-27T16:14:00.003-04:00

Katie and I painted pumpkins a few weeks ago. She has been obsessed with painting things since we did that :) Here she is painting her now favorite 'coin box' where she keeps her pennies. She panhandles pennies from Aunts, Uncles and Grandparents at every chance she gets ;)

It's the great pumpkin patch

2010-10-16T23:09:00.007-04:00

We found a cute little farm to pick some pumpkins at today. All the pumpkins that were left were the perfect Katie size to pick. Katie enjoyed picking the pumpkins and playing in the hay castle. William enjoyed snoozing in the sunlight. Good times :)

William, 2 months

2010-10-11T12:37:00.005-04:00

I can't believe my boy is already 2 months old! He is the sweetest little guy. He has changed a lot since we brought him home. He still demands to be held, but he has come to love his carseat and does not scream in it as much. He is sleeping well at night, waking up only once or twice. He's almost 12 lbs! He is a big boy. His smiles and little baby talk melts my heart. I love this kid!

I know this is a william post, but Katie is currently potty-training and she is doing really well. it's only been a week and she's almost ready for full-time panties ;) Go Katie!!

William's Blessing

2010-10-11T09:55:00.004-04:00

Jared gave William a beautiful blessing last month. My dad was able to come out, it was a special time. Katie had fun playing with 'papa' and going on walks to the park. I wish we lived closer to my family, but it's always nice when we have time to be together :)

We had to get William dressed in the Church because it was so warm. He wore the same outfit Jared was blessed in. Since we are having such a long, hot summer, the little sweater outfit would have been too much for him in his carseat :)

More Backyardigans

2010-09-14T21:14:00.001-04:00

William's reaction to backyardigans:

Pig-Pen

2010-09-14T20:09:00.003-04:00

"In spite of my outward appearance, I shall try to run a neat inn."

Katie's new favorite past-time is to pick up acorns in the back and front yard while Jared works outside. Today she discovered that she also likes to rub dirt all over herself.....

Zoo

2010-09-13T16:31:00.003-04:00

We hadn't been to the zoo since before William made his arrival. I've been having guilt for keeping katie cooped up in the house with me while I hide away from people who will stare at my fatness. Anylame, I didn't get many pics, but thought it was cute that Katie and her friend Bella were holding hands :)

A close relative of zebra dog- ZEBRAS!! :)

Princess Katie

2010-09-13T16:29:00.002-04:00

New Time

2010-09-13T16:24:00.003-04:00

Our church time recently changed to the afternoon...needless to say we all go without our naps. Katie passed out after church this past Sunday :) She made sure she had her herd around her- 'B', new 'B' and zebra dog.