Update

Well, it has been a whirlwind month. Hadley had her third birthday! She is now a big kid. She has shared a lot of wisdom in the beginning of her third year. Such as, “mommy, we don’t say stupid.” That is one of her favorite things to say. She also asks why…a lot. She now understands to tell us, “we only ask why if we have a question, and not when mommy or daddy has told me to do something.” She can say that to us, but putting it into practice is another story. We will continue to work on it. She is consumed with everything princesses.

Zoey Belle is on the fast track to growing up too. She is walking and climbing all over the place. We thought Hadley was a handful at that age, and now we realize she was just preparation for Zoey Belle. I am considering renaming Zoey Belle. I believe “Head Trauma” would suit her better. I suppose the name Eric chose does fit her, since Zoe Bell is actually a stunt woman. (That is where Eric got her name, in case anyone wasn’t aware.) Zoey is doing great at falling, but is also getting hurt. She has had a bloody nose and mouth within two days from her antics. You cannot take your eyes off of her for even a second.

The two girls are loving playing with each other and have so much fun. They laugh and giggle and Zoey finds it especially funny to watch Hadley hit herself, fall down, or bonk her head against things.

Zoey Belle had her first birthday party this weekend. April seems to be filling up already with fun things to do and her first birthday is officially on Thursday. Hopefully it will be a quiet day.

We have also been extremely busy serving our friends in any way possible right now. Our dear friends Garrett and Jenna lost their father last week to ALS. Kimball Matkins was Jenna’s father and a wonderful man, and we are very sad for this loss. The girls have been helping to shop for them, deliver them meals and bake for them. We are staying busy being of help in any way possible and the girls are learning a valuable lesson of service to others. I think I am learning too during this process and although we are all sad, we also have peace knowing that Kimball is at home now.

This past few weeks has been hectic, and the next few weeks will likely be just as busy, but we will do our best to keep everyone up to date on the crazy life of our little three year old and one year old! It’s a busy house for sure. Eric has been updating the girls pictures, so you can pop over on the photo page to see how much they are growing!

Busy folks

Sure, everyone’s busy, but unfortunately, that has led to the lack of updating lately.

The good news is is that I have been putting lots of photos up, so feel free to click the photos link at the top or conveniently right HERE to see all the fun that is Hadley and Zoey Belle.

Eric

Tuckered out

We had a really fun day. The girls got to stay with Eric this morning while I went to my ladies bible study. They had so much fun playing that Zoey refused to take her morning nap. When I got home the girls and I played for a while and then got some groceries for lunch. We brought lunch to Eric at work and stayed to eat with him. When we got home Zoey was in need of a nap and Hadley and I went outside to play. It was such beautiful weather we stayed outside for most the afternoon. When we got inside Hadley asked for a snack. I let her sit on the couch to nibble on some animal crackers and she fell asleep very quickly. You can see from the picture that she still had her hand in the bag! Funny kid! I also asked Hadley today, “what do you think will be your favorite part about being three?” and she told me, “I don’t know, I have never been three before.”

Good answer.

Taking it easy

The girls were not feeling well again this morning. It was very obvious when Zoey Belle woke up too early and was a complete crab until I put her back down to bed. She didn’t even make it to 9am before that first nap started. Hadley moved from her bed, up to our bed, then down to the couch and fell back asleep in the early morning. She didn’t officially wake up for the day until about 10am. It was quiet so I got the laundry done and some other chores too.

We will just be taking it easy today and hopefully everyone will be on the road to recovery soon.

Seen better days

I am not going to lie. The past four or so days have been a little less than fantastic with good moments sprinkled in between. Thursday evening, Eric and I decided we would eat out. That was our first mistake. We each woke up Friday, early morning, and were deathly ill. Our bathroom was a high traffic zone and I eventually resorted to getting a bucket to take upstairs with me so I could be saved the trips downstairs. Eric ended up sleeping on the couch with both girls and he was in no better shape than I was. He actually called in sick to work on Friday too. If you know anything about Eric, you know this is a monumental thing. Garrett and Jenna came to our rescue at 9am to take the girls to their house for a few hours so Eric and I could get some sleep. I was over the hump, but I slept the full three hours and was still not feeling fantastic. We had previously scheduled a meeting with Dondi (papa) in Lincoln so Hadley could go to their house for the weekend. They were supposed to be going to the circus. I decided I would do ok with the drive and headed out. I can’t say I have made worse judgment calls than that one. The drive completely wiped me out and I got home and slept for another 2 hours while Zoey played and Eric lay dying on the couch.

Saturday I woke up feeling much better, but we got word that Hadley had thrown up over at Grandma Schmit’s house. They weren’t sure if they were going to make it to the circus. Since our house was demolished, I thought I should just start getting things cleaned. I am very glad I cleaned because Eric had a surprise party planned for me later that night. We had a really good time and it was very much a surprise!

Sunday morning we got up and went to church. Zoey Belle was a bundle of energy and impossible to keep still. Eric took Zoey out so I could enjoy the service and it was a nice birthday treat. It is so rare to actually get to listen to an entire sermon these days. We left church and headed to Lincoln to pick up Hadley and go to eat at the Olive Garden. It was delicious food and we had fun chatting with Eric’s family. The plan was to head over to Target and we did that, but Hadley had a really bad cough and said she wanted to go home.

After arriving home Eric wasn’t feeling well again and it was close to bedtime for the girls. I was getting pretty tired myself from all the running around.

At about four this morning Zoey Belle woke up crying and was pretty upset. I could hear through the monitor that she was coughing and it sounded like she was throwing up too. I went to get her and in fact, she was throwing up, but was really struggling to get everything out. Poor little thing. I could tell she ate something that either had milk or soy because she was in an extreme amount of pain, so I cuddled her and held her until she was back asleep at about 6am.

This morning I woke up feeling about the same way I felt Friday morning. It was no good. I think I just didn’t take it easy long enough. Eric let me sleep in a little, but did mention that Hadley had an accident over the night. I laid on the couch most of the morning and when Zoey Belle went down for her first nap, I let Hadley watch a movie so I could rest. Eric got home for lunch and I was still pretty out of it. He stayed for a while and let me rest and eventually headed back to work. I got Zoey Belle down for her second nap and Hadley was starting to cough really hard and looking a little worn down so I put in another movie for her to relax with. Right then our doorbell rang. It was a policeman telling me someone had complained that our sidewalks weren’t scooped from the snow and I needed to get on that asap. Right.

I did my homeowner duty and put on my rain boots over my pink sweatpants and sweatshirt and headed out to scoop the snow. As I am scooping away I hear a knocking on the window and see Hadley trying to get my attention. I come inside to see that she has vomited all over the place. I am not sure if she just spun in circles as she was throwing up or what, but it couldn’t have been more of a mess. She looked at me and said, “mommy, I puked.”
My reply was, “you aren’t kidding.”

Once I got that all cleaned up, I gave her a bucket and headed back outside to finish my snow removal.

Now that the sidewalks are cleared ( because you know I had nothing better to do) I can start on the laundry. Between the bedding that Hadley wet, which did include 6 blankets, her sheet set, mattress cover and 3 pillows, the bedding that Zoey puked all over, then the blankets Hadley puked all over, I may never come out of the laundry room.