Really Fast Recap!

I can not believe that I have gotten so far behind on blogging. This month flew bye! I can not believe that we are already getting into October. So, here is a quick recap of what has been going on...

The twins were baptized! Congrats girls!

Football season started! We always "snack" on football days. It is so cute b/c Haylee will say,

"Is it cootball nack day?"

Beginning next week we will have healthier "nacks" since I am planning on starting my diet...AGAIN!

Madi turned 8 months old!! Our precious baby girl is growing so fast. I can not believe that she will be 1 in 4 months! OMG!

Madi is so precious! She is definitely the baby in the family. Madi is a fast crawler. She pulls up on everything and has begun walking around furniture. Madi is still toothless. I am beginning to wonder if there is anything in her mouth! She is ready to eat real food and so are we. Madi likes to talk about her dada. She just laughs when I try to get her to say mama. Madi's favorite time of the day is bath time. She loves sitting in her bath seat. She likes to chew on the toys and kick her feet in the water. Madi likes her play table, her new jumperoo, and anything that has music.

Madi is wearing 6/9 month clothes and size 3 diapers. She is 18 pounds and have the cutest little leg rolls!

We love you so much!

It turned Fall. I think we had 4-5 days of cool Fall weather last week! It was AMAZING! Here are 3 of my favorite things.

Fall decor, Fall candles, and a Pumpkin Spice latte!

Haylee has a new favorite game...Hide and Seek! We caught a picture of her hiding. It is so cute!

Where is Haylee??

and of course...Our furry children

It's Over...

and I am SO going to miss these two precious faces!

Tomorrow I go back to work!

For the past few months I have spent 24/7 with my babies. I am so blessed to have a job that allows me time with my children. Although I didn't do 90% of the things I said I was going to do, I did get to spend a lot of quality time with my girls. I was able to see Madi learn to sit up, crawl, and begin "talking". I have been able to watch Haylee absorb and learn so many new things. She amazes me daily with her intelligence and her desire to want to know/learn.

What I will miss the most is watching my two girls love on each other and laugh all day long. I love when Haylee wakes up in the morning and asks if her daddy is home. Then sees her sister(Madi is already awake) and says, "Hi baby Madi, you sleep good?" I love cuddling with Haylee after her nap. I love playing with Madi on the floor in the mornings, before Haylee gets up. Her favorite game right now is, "Where is Madi?". I love cooking breakfast and making cookies with Haylee. I love that Madi smiles ALL the time now, except when she is hungry. I love that Haylee talks NON STOP now.

I could go on and on about all of the little things I will miss about staying home with my babies, but I won't. I just hope that as they get older they will remember summers and the special time that we get to spend together.

The Artist

I decided it was time to let Haylee explore her creativity. I went to Michael's one evening and picked up a bunch of random craft items and created a craft box for her to play with at the kitchen table. Her favorite thing to do is paint. Here are a couple pictures of Haylee painting a picture for her daddy. Check out her serious face.

The Masterpiece

The orange "circle" on the right with the green hair is a happy face for daddy and the blue circle on the left above the black cloud (?) is daddy.

-per Haylee

Sisters are funny!

It is really easy to make Madi smile. You just look at her and she grins from ear to ear! Haylee is the only one that can make Madi laugh on cue! I watching the girls interact together. Madi LOVES Haylee and Haylee LOVES Madi.

**disclaimer... Sorry Haylee is only in panties. She takes her clothes off and says its hot in the house all the time. I really don't blame her, it is hot! It is her summer wardrobe! :o)

Lots of people ask if the girls look alike. You decide. This is Madi the other day and Haylee when she was just about 6 months, like Madi.

You can tell that Madi likes to eat and Haylee was picky!

I love my girls!

Haylee's New Favorite "Do"

Haylee gets into little routines. Every morning after we (Haylee and mommy) put on our makeup, we fix our hair. We have gone through different hair styles that she prefers. Right now Haylee likes to have her hair braided.

We are on a "roll"!

I have been such a slacker with taking pictures the last couple of weeks! Things have been busy at home and work. Unless you are a teacher, you just don't realize how much work the end of the year is! Melissa sent me a few pictures of my girls that she took yesterday. Thanks Missy!

Here is Haylee! She has some BIG news...

"I am potty trained!"

Haylee has been wearing big girl panties since last Monday and hasn't had any accidents! She decided she was ready to be a big girl! Once school is out in the next couple of weeks I am going to work on night time. Right now we are wearing pull ups to bed. We are so proud of Haylee Bug!

Briley and Haylee

Madi also has some BIG news...

I can roll over now!

This is a great picture of Madi. It really captures her recent look (drool dripping down her face).

Tomorrow Madi will be 4 months old! I will post 4 month stats tomorrow evening.

What a week!

Can you guess where we have been??

After my post on Monday things went downhill! Haylee's temperature spiked up to 103 and never really broke completely. So I was back to the doctor on Tuesday with both children. Obviously Haylee wasn't any better and Madi was coughing SO much. Haylee was admitted into the hospital and more test were run (chest x-rays and blood work). She ended up have a mild case of pnuemonia. We caught it just in time.

The nurses at Katy Memorial are so Wonderful and took good care of my baby. All of the nurses remembered Haylee from her visit in January. They joked with us that we could stop by and visit we didn't have to come with a sick girl.

Hopefully we won't be a regular!

Haylee and her nurse Jackie

Meanwhile this little girl...

(obviously an old picture)

was not getting ANY better. She was actually worse. I was back at the doctor with Madi for the 3rd day in a row! This time the doctor said he could hear congestion in her chest and sent me to Christus St. Catherine to run tests on baby girl. She had blood work, chest x-ray, and RSV test.

That evening we found out that Madi has RSV! Luckily she didn't have to go into the hospital that day (or yet for that matter). 2 out of 3 babies end up in the hospital due to the virus. RSV is a respitory virus that is very dangerous to infants. The babies are so small and have such tiny airways that can swell shut. It can also lead to pnuemonia or bhronchiolitis (that is what Haylee had in January) I have a list of symptoms to watch for, the main ones having to do with breathing and eating. You can't give the baby any meds for the virus, it just has to run its course (2-3 weeks...usually days 3-5 are the worst and it starts getting better everyday) . Madi's main symptoms are coughing, A LOT, and congestion. The third day I took her into the dr I noticed some wheezing. She is still on an antibiotic for the ear infections which will also stop any secondary bacterial infections from developing.

I went home with Madi that night while Haylee stayed one more night in the hospital with her daddy. She came home yesterday afternoon.

I think things are on the mend and the kid-os will be feeling better in no time. We have had lots of people offer help to us and are so thankful for it. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful support system from our parents!

Thank You!!

Well, that is what has been going on with the Brew Crew! Hopefully we will have something better to post about in the next few days.

Have a great weekend!

Playtime

I love Spring weather and so do my girls!

Haylee enjoy's picking flowers and riding her bike!

Madi likes to sit in her bouncer and soak up the sun beside mommy!

6 weeks old and a chore for the hubby...

Yesterday Madi turned 6 weeks old! Time has flown bye! It is bittersweet with Madi turning 6 weeks. We are excited because her little personality is beginning to show. We are able to make her smile and are beginning to hear some little "coo's". On the other hand...I have to return to work on Monday. I am going to miss my girls so much! Part of me is ready to go back to school but the other part of me would LOVE to stay at home with the girls all of the time. I have been home since November 25. Haylee and I have had so much time together and I am thankful for it. We were really able to spend some quality one on one time before Madi arrived and after Madi's arrival I was able to include Haylee with Madi's needs. Tomorrow I am planning a special day for Haylee since it will be my last day home (for a week...Spring Break on the 16th).

"How many more pictures are you going to take Mom?"

-Trying to capture a smile on camera

Got one!

...and another!

OK...so I am sure you are wondering about the chore for hubby! Remember me saying that I was beginning a diet (I've lost 7 pounds so far) a couple of weeks a go? So I have been cooking every night of the week...BIG accomplishment. The other night I realized we didn't have light mayonaise for a recipe I was making. I quickly called Travis since I knew he would be home any minute and asked him if he would please stop for me. He called me from the little corner store and asked if miracle whip would be alright. I am not a mayo person so I said I guess and told him I only needed 1/4 cup. When he got home he put the miracle whip on the counter and then said "I went a little ghetto". This is what he pulled out of his pockets.

All I could do was laugh and grab my camera! Love you Trav! :o)

Well we have a busy next couple of weeks. Travis is finishing up a job and will continue to work the next couple of weekends. This weekend we will get a visit from Grandma O'Neill (my mom), Vicca, and Aunt Sarah, it will be her first time to meet Madi. Next week I will be back at work and the girls will return to Grandmama Brewer's (Travis' mom). The following week we will get to meet the twins, Addisyn and Audrey, and of course visit with Kristen and Dave. We will also get a visit from Great Grandpa and Grandma Glowacz. The last weekend of Spring Break Kelli (my college roomie) and Jeremy will be coming to visit.

In other great news Grandpa and Grandma Glowacz (my parents) sold their house and will be living less than 5 miles from us beginning this weekend. So we will be able to see them more often.

Things have been going great here in our household and we are looking forward to all of our upcoming plans and visitors!

Wordless Wednesday- Lipstick

"Pretty mommy?"

Bye Bye Binkie!

I am happy to say that...

WE DID IT!

I was a nervous wreck for no reason at all. A lot of people told me that it would be harder on me than on her. Thanks for all of the advice from everyone! Believe me, I asked EVERYONE I know!

Here is what we did...

On Friday afternoon following Haylee's last binkie nap, we went around the house looking for as many binkies that we could find. Haylee chose a gift bag from my stash and placed each binkie we found inside the bag. Our plan was to leave the binkie's on the front doorstep for the fairy, a.k.a Tinkerbell (we had to associate the word fairy to something she knew), and Tinkerbell would take them away to the babies that needed them. When Travis arrived home from work we left to go to HEB and Haylee left the bag on the front doorstep. After our trip to the store Haylee came home to a special gift that Tinkerbell had left her. It was a soft, BIG girl Tinkerbell blanket to sleep with. Haylee was SO excited! We unloaded groceries and ate dinner. Travis had to run to Home Depot for a couple things for work and while he was gone I took Haylee upstairs with her card and blanket to take a picture. After laying her in bed, covering her with the new blanket and kissing her goodnight I went back downstairs with monitor in hand expecting to hear the screaming any minute. To my surprise I heard Haylee talking instead. She was reading her card from Tinkerbell (copying what I read to her) and reading her book, No More Pacifiers (Binkie's to us), that we have been reading every night. 20 minutes later it was silent. She was out! No crying...nothing at all.

This morning we all woke up at 8 and Haylee hasn't mentioned the binkie but one time today when she was upset. Right now she is fast asleep...nap time! I am so proud of her!

Haylee with her card Tinkerbell left her!

Haylee with her new Big Girl blanket!

Our BIG girl!

Haylee,

You are such a BIG girl now. Mommy and Daddy are so proud of you! You just don't know how special you are and how happy you make us. We love watching you grow, explore, and learn new things. We love you very, very much! Great job!

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

Looking back...our little Binkie Baby!
(This is Haylee at 2 months...looks like Madi, huh??)

Random

Today Madi is 4 weeks old. I only use the pacifier with her to keep her content a few extra minutes before it is time for her to eat.

My girls!

What do you eat the night before you start a diet??

My favorite dessert! Mmmm! And yes, I ate the WHOLE thing!
The diet started today. I only have a couple weeks before I have to be wearing my work clothes and a few months before Summer vacation!

Grandma Jackie gave Haylee a cute little bunny rabbit that sings Jesus Loves Me. Haylee likes to sing along with different songs and toys that play music. Here she is singing Jesus Loves Me. (You may not be able to hear all of the words, but you definitly hear the inflections on her voice.) I love when little kids sing! So cute!

Pull Ups

So... we are not pushing the potty training, but we are definitely encouraging it with Haylee. We ask her frequently if she needs to go, we talk about it all of the time, we have a reward chart, we celebrate with a happy dance, we have big girl panties, and we wear pull ups sometimes when she is going through a phase when she wants to use the big girl potty.

Huggies Pull Ups

(For those who do not know)
They come in different sizes and have two different prints on them.

Obviously Huggies tried to make the princess pull ups appeal to the girls and the cars print appeal to the boys.

So, which one does my little girly, girl princess choose??

Whatever gives her the incentive to use the "big girl" potty!

She is still mommy's little princess!

When your toddler is super quiet...

you know she is up to something!

Yesterday evening I was in the kitchen cooking dinner, Madi was in her bouncer, and Haylee was running around playing. I noticed it was pretty quiet in the living room and called out to Haylee. Usually she will answer me, but this time there was no answer. I walked into the living room and this is what I saw...

Haylee decided she wanted to wash her hair with lotion! Travis was outside watering the yard, so he came in to finish dinner while I quickly gave Haylee a bath! What a silly girl!

Here are a few past pictures of Haylee "quietly" getting into trouble! LOL!