Swimming Lessons

Allie had swimming lessons a couple of weeks ago and I am just now getting the chance to download the pics and update you all. I do not know how some of you manage to get pics of your kids and post them on the same day- I am too slow I guess. So anyways back to the lessons. Allie has improved SOOOO much. She went to lessons at someones house this year with 3 other little girls. When we started she would hardly even go under the water and would not get in my mom's pool without her life jacket. Now she will swim without the jacket and jump off the side and swim underwater to you. She still will not open her eyes underwater to see where she is going but we have made a HUGE improvement and I am so proud of her. We have been swimming once since then and she was so excited to show off her swimming skills to everyone. We will be doing lessons with this instructor again next year for sure. Now if we could just teach Austin, but I think he will be easy. He already wants to practically jump in the water when we are at my moms and when he is in his little float thing he will put his face in the water and come up smiling. I am so glad we are over the fear with Allie she would even stress when we washed her hair so this is a big help. Anyways here are the pics of my little fish.

Ready to jump of the board

Swimming to the side underwater

I just love this one, right after she came up from under the water. (I also love it because I was able to play with the fancy lens on our new camera. I was actually at least 15-20 feet away from her. I love that I can get such close up ones even from a distance.

Sick again

Well our little man has been sick again. Last week I was supposed to take him in for his 1 year check-up. Of course the night before he started running a temp, nothing to high just enough to cut out shots at his appointment. He is growing taller about 60% but only weights around 8%. The funny thing is his head was 95%, Allie was always like that she was not on the charts for weight and barely for height but her head was always above 75%. I really think the measurements for the head must be really small because neither look like they have big heads. Anyways back to Austin's illness, So the night after the DR. it took me about 5 hours to get him to sleep and he would have these horrible screaming fits and his fever was up over 103. So on Saturday when he was still having issues we went back to see our Dr. (it is so nice that they do Saturday sick child appointments). Of course nothing was visible wrong so that meant a blood draw and a urine sample, except they could not get anything with the cath. They actually tried 2X about 3 hours apart and got nothing, so he got a shot and off we went, by Sunday he was feeling better, but on Monday I notice little red spots all over him, we are almost 100% sure he has rosiolla. He is feeling better with the exception of some teeth trying to come through.

However the best thing about this weekend is that I have the most wonderful husband around. Even though Austin was sick Heath took both kids and I went and did an overnight scrapbooking thing with 3 girlfriends. we had so much fun just catching up and working on our books. I have known these girls for 10 years (we all worked together at our 1st jobs) and they are some of my closest friends. I am so glad we get the chance to do these things together. It is also just so nice to be able to be yourself around people who know you so well. Thanks for a great weekend ladies y'all are the best.

Acting Camp

Allie finished up her acting camp today and loved it. They had a performance for all the parents and it was so cute to watch her do her little dance and sing the songs. this weeks theme was little mermaid so of course we had to watch the movie this week so she could learn some of the songs. I know that she had a great time, Thank you Angie for giving Allie a week at camp for her birthday, you are a great Aunt and both the kids are really lucky to have you. I do have some pics but my mom took them and I think we needed the bigger lens because Allie looks like she is about 100 yards away so I will have to try and play with them. I think Allie is going to do another camp later in the summer so hopefully we will get better pics then. Hope you all have a good weekend.

1 and 5 year old pictures

Just wanted to show off some of the great photos I had done of the kids for their 5 year old and 1 year old shots. I have a tone I love so here are just a few.

Happy late Fathers day

I did not get my post up for Father's day. I had great plans but honestly last Saturday night blog spot was really slow and by the time I added pics to my earlier post I was to sleepy. So happy later fathers Day. I am so lucky to have a great father and a wonderful husband. My dad has taught me so much about what it is to have a loving relationship with your spouse and to be completely devoted to that person. He has also taught us all about following Gods direction for our life and relying on him even when it is difficult. I remember when I was in Jr. high he was out of work for over a year, and yet I never once realized the hardships he and my mom were going through. I never went without. I actually remember him telling me on my 16th birthday that once he got a job he would buy me a car (not a new one but a good one to get me around), and as soon as he had that job he did just that. I didn't do anything special to deserve the car it was just how my dad has always been. I still think he would give us all the world if he could. He is great and I absolutely love getting to see him with my kids now. The love between them is awesome. He is a great Poppie and we are so blessed that they live so close. We are also so lucky that he has always accepted Heath as part of our family. He has taken him in as one of his own and loves him and prays for him just like he does his other kids which is awesome. I could not have a better father.

Now on to Heath, He is truly amazing, he loves his Allie and Austin more than I knew was possible. I honestly think if he could he would be a stay at home Dad and he would love every minute of it. He is wonderful with them, so patience and caring. The kids are so lucky to have him and so am I. I am attaching some pics of the guys I love with my kids. i hope you all had a great Fathers day and let them know how much you love them for all they do. Meredith

What has been going on? Birthdays, Birthdays, Birthdays

OK, so I know it has been over a week or was it two since I posted I was wanting to put up some pics of Austin's 1st birthday party but it took me a long time to figure out how to do everything on with the new camera. I still have not figured out how to edit my pics but hopefully I will learn more as I go. My next step is to try and figure out how to switch the color on one of the settings to black and white. So if any of you out there have a Canon Rebel and can give me some instructions I would love it. Also if any of you have a favorite editing software let me know about that also. I really love my camera but just have not had time to sit down and figure it all out like I would like to.

So what has been going on since I posted I will do a quick run down over the last few weeks. Memorial day weekend was Allie's Birthday- you can see the post below. The following week I worked and then me the kids and my mom went to Tyler to get my grandmother so she could be with us for Austin's 1st Birthday party. We also got to go and pick blueberries and a few blackberries. The picking was easy and fast I think we got around 16 lbs in just over an hour. (I did not have my camera so I will try and attach some of Allie from last year).
Austin tried his 1st blueberry and loved them. Saturday the 1st we celebrated Austin's birthday because my family was going to be gone over his actual birthday. We just did a nice party at our house with family. Austin loved his cake (it is hard to tell from the pics but he had it all over his face and about half was down his bib. ) It was a great time to celebrate him and his first year. On Sunday we went and had our pictures done for Austin's 1 year shots at a local park. I do not have them yet but will put some up when they come in.

I traveled to Chattanooga TN at the end of the following week. The trip was fine but the travel home was from (well you know). I was supposed to be home by 5 on Friday and did not get home till 2:30 Saturday morning. Saturday the 7th was Austin's actual 1st Birthday. I was determined to get home for his special day. We were going to go to the zoo but I was just to tiered so we put it off till Sunday and just did stuff together as a family, and Austin had more cake- this time chocolate and you can see he liked it alot. On Sunday the 4 of us and my mom went to the Fort Worth zoo. I will post pics later because we used my mom's camera and I do not have copies yet. Austin really liked it, it was fun when we would take him out of the stroller to see the animals he would smile really big and "talk" to all the animals. You could tell he loved it, he is a total lover of the outdoors. Even when he was just 6 weeks old and was having awful reflux if I took him outside he would always calm down and relax. Over all with the exception of the flight issues it was a great weekend, and I can hardly believe I have a 1 year old and a 5 year old. Wow it just goes so fast. So that is our last few weeks, hope you all are enjoying your summer. We are enjoying swimming and letting the kids stay up a little later. Allie has a camp and swim lessons the next couple of weeks so we will continue to stay busy but isn't that just how life is with kids. I wouldn't change it for anything.

One, One, Wonderful One

Welcome to the world little man. Look at how excited your sister is to see you. First photo shoot at 6 weeksWho does not love a sleeping baby.Happy Halloween.Your 1st time to eat cereal- not sure if you like it. Happy Thanksgiving

Merry Christmas- little Santa. I just love how you have this huge smile on your face as you pull Allie's hair and she is trying so hard not to laugh.

I could add hundreds more but I thought this was a cute one to end on- You waving Bye Bye

Well, One year ago today I became a mommy again, but this time to the cutest little guy around. Where did the year go, I swear it was just a few months ago that we brought you home, just a few months ago that I was stressing about you nursing and your jaundice. Just a few months ago that I worried that your sister would never be the same again, that I would never sleep through the night again. A few months since I worried your reflux would kill us both (if not from the pain but from the constant cries after each meal and at bed time), but honestly I really have to think hard to remember all the things that stressed me out so much just one short year ago. This year has seemed to go faster than the last and yet our family just seems so much more complete. We have grown by one little person but have so much more love. I never realized the bond between a mother and her son. It is different than that of a daughter. All of my friends with sons told me about it but I never really realized it till I had you, it is different and so special, just like Allie is Daddy's girl you are my mommies boy and my little Man. Your entrance into this world scared us all, daddy says he is not sure who was more blue you or me but you arrived with a big scream and was healthy as can be. I just knew I was having a boy with you, and I was right. I really think if they had not induced you would have just continued to hang out in there. You just take your time at everything but when you decide to do something you, you do it with everything you have. You have changed my life so much and just make every day a little brighter. You have such a joy and excitement for life. It is so fun to get to see the world through a boys eyes, you have no fear. You will be sitting on the bed with me and crawl right to the end and then dive head first right off it. Boy are you going to keep me on my toes. You are our little man and we love you and can't wait to see what the future brings you. Lots of love your mama.

Crisis Diverted

Well we almost had a small crisis on Wednesday night. Heath and I were at Allie's last dance class and the parents get to come and watch and take pictures. Well after I took like 2 pics I got this great idea to try and get some in black and white. Now mind you this is our new camera and I really have no idea how to change things to black and white, but I figure it can't be that hard, so I start messing around with stuff and see the format button. On our old camera if you hit format it changes the color or look of a photo so i thought that was it--WRONG. I reformatted the entire flash drive that had ALL of the pictures from Allie's birthday and other stuff on it. Over 150 pictures. As soon as I did it and it did not change the color I realized something was wrong and then I saw I was on picture 1 of 1 and I instantly got sick to my stomach and wanted to cry or scream, or both. Let me just preface by saying a couple of years ago our computer crashed and I had not backed up all the photos so we lost almost a years worth of pics, so needless to say I was freaking out about this. Thankfully Heath was smart enough to Google how to restore our pics and we found a program we could download for about $20 that offered a 100% money back if it did not work. After over 5 hours of work I was able to recover 133 of the 155 photos- so all in all it was totally worth the money. And believe me I have learned my lesson. I will not longer mess with things on this new camera without reading the directions. That is why it took me so long to get the last 2 post's up, It was very early Thursday morning before I went to bed and then me and the kids went to pick up my grandmother in east Texas so we have been busy. So let this be a lesson to you all- read the directions.

Pool time

My mom recently came across an little inflatable pool she had bought when they were in Iowa for Allie to swim in. Since they now have a pool in there yard she gave us the little one. So last Sunday we blew the pool up and filled it up. Allie swam in it 2 times 1st while Austin napped and then by I got in with both of them later. Austin LOVES the water. He crawled all around the pool and did not care if he got splashed in the face. He is completely different then Allie. She still does not like to get her face wet and he just loves it. He has no fear, which is going to make his mommy one crazy and busy lady. Here are a few pics- I have more but will not put the one's with me in my swim suit on this blog- that is not going to happen. Enjoy