4th of July

What a fabulous adventure our 4th was this year! We all met up at the farm to throw my sister's family a huge "Welcome to the Family" party. We always have a big Corman bash on the 4th.....it's pretty much everyone's favorite wild get together. We originally had about 65 people coming and had the house all decorated, food ready, etc. when it started raining so hard there was terrible flash flooding. We didn't think people would be able to get to my parent's house, as well as be able to fit everyone inside (usually we have tons of chairs etc. outside), so we rented a community center at the last minute. Then, we took everything down and loaded three vehicles full of decorations, food, and drinks. We headed up to Ada to the community center in the pouring rain and right when we got to Ada there was deep flash flooding going across the road to the point we couldn't even get to Ada. We had to go home, unload everything and just have the family come to the house for the party. At the time we were a stressed mess, but later we laughed our heads off at the disaster. The rain ended up stopping right before the party started and it turned out to be a blast. The kids were all able to do fireworks and it was beautiful enough to be outside! Nothing like getting 7 inches in a couple of hours! YIKES! We barely got home yesterday because there was terrible flooding everywhere and the road out of town was flooded in two spots and almost closed. What a wet mess! Overall, we had a blast with our nieces and nephew. Brandon fell in love immediatly just like the rest of us. They are awesome kids!

Cooing!

Every day with Cora is getting more and more fun. Let's face it...the newborn phase is somewhat boring. I'm so glad to be getting into constant smiles and reactions, and cooing!

Mingo Fishtrap

Not much blogging going on around here because we've been in survival mode. Cora hasn't been sleeping well from having congestion, so we're running on minimal sleep. She finally slept a 5 hour stretch last night, so I feel a lot better today. Yesterday, I was running on 4 total hours! UG! She also has been pretty fussy, which means I have to hold her a lot more and now have tendonitis in my wrist. That's what happens when you have a chunky baby :-) I'm looking forward to her being over this cold already! I took her back to the doctor yesterday just to make sure it hadn't progressed any, and it hadn't. She just still has congestion and that's it. Better safe than sorry since we're going out of town for the weekend. We're having our huge Corman bash on the 4th at my parent's farm, but this year to celebrate and welcome Becca's kids into the family. Last night we got our first date night out in a few months. We took Cora with us, but I'm still counting it! My brother babysat Eli and said he was perfect. We met up our friends at a free Mingo Fishtrap concert outside. They are a funk/r&b band that we love. It was fun to be with friends and just spend a beautiful and cool evening outside. We ate at Jason's Deli before the show. It got a little loud for the babies, so us women got our slings on and took the babies for a walk. There were thousands of people there watching the show and we had to walk through all of them. You would have thought nobody had ever seen a baby in a sling. We were quite the spectacle. People gawked and oohed and commented constantly. It was slightly hilarious! I'm curious to see if Eli likes the fireworks this year. Last year he didn't have a whole lot of interest in them, but this year will be a whole different story!

Please?

Eli still reverts back to hitting every once in a while when he's mad (which he gets a time out for). It's not very often anymore, which has been a nice relief. Yesterday, he got mad at Brandon and hit him. Brandon, of course, told him that was his warning and not to hit again. Eli said, "Please?" as in "Please can I hit?" It was one of those moments where both Brandon and I had to turn our backs so he couldn't see us smiling and biting our lips trying not to laugh. Nice manners son, but still NO! He's very good about saying "please" when he wants something. He'll say what he wants and almost always slaps a "please" at the end. At least I've succeeded at something! It's been really fun to watch the kids adore each other. Cora watches Eli nonstop and is a great sport about him touching her all day and practically smothering her with love. She'll turn her head to follow his voice and find him and smile and coo at him. Eli wants to play hide and seek with her a lot and always tells her "DONE!" if she's sleeping and he wants her awake so he can bother her. My mom was right when she said that having two kids is easier than one because they entertain each other!

Disaster Friday

This day will be forever known as "Disaster Friday". It all started yesterday when Brandon came home complaining of stomach cramps. He was feeling crappy on and off and didn't know whether it was flu or food poisoning. I about had a panic attack picturing both my kids with the stomach flu. Luckily, he's a lot better now and we're assuming it was food poisoning. Then, I realized my ingrown tonail was seriously infected and if I was unable to do a "home surgery" on it I probably needed to go to the doctor today. I was bound and determined and succeeded in my attempt! In the middle of the night, the AC stopped cooling. It was still running but the house was getting hotter and hotter. We opened the windows and prayed someone could come out first thing before it got up to 100 degrees today (which they did and it is nice and cool in here now might I add). Early this morning I noticed Cora had a gunky eye that looked like an infection. I panicked because I have serious issues when I get pink eye and have bad reactions to any medicine I've tried. Cora didn't act like anything was bothering her and has been her happy self. I took her to the doctor and it turns out she caught Eli and I's cold and stuffed up sinuses are causing her gunky eye. Her cold is very minor luckily (thank you breastfeeding) and all I'm to do is saline her nose. The doctor said, "Wow, she looks huge today!" She is BIG! She weighed in today at 11 lbs 10 oz. Eli is almost over his cold, but it has been a rough week adding to the tension of everything else today! I am really glad we're having "Disaster Friday" instead of "Disaster Monday!"

GRACKLE!

This evening I had my first mini escape from both kids...a haircut! It was the first time I've left both kids with Brandon. I was only gone 40 minutes, but it was nice to get away! Cora slept the whole time I was gone, so he had it easy! Yesterday, we had some excitement. I heard fluttering in the chimney and a young grackle flew down into the fireplace and was trapped by the wire cover. It spent all day trying to get out flapping and clinging to the side of the cover. I think it was a God send because all day Eli kept watching it and laughing and once in a while getting startled when it would fly. Brandon said he'd deal with it when he got home from work, but 20 minutes before he got home I noticed it was gone and thought it had gone back up the chimney. A few hours later Brandon and Eli went to the grocery store and I went down to the basement to do some laundry. That was when the grackle swooped by my head. Scared the crap out of me! It came upstairs and I got a towel and attempted to "shoo" it out of the house. It really was enjoying itself flying and landing on different things. At one point it even went down in the bathtub to drink some standing water. I was laughing because it was sitting on our computer, on the lamps, on the chairs, etc. It took me a while but I finally got it outside! It wasn't even that scared believe it or not. I'm glad it made it back outside without getting hurt or dying....even if it was a nasty grackle!

Farm fun!

I have too many awesome pictures to post of our great weekend at the farm. It was SUPER difficult to do on my own without Brandon's help, but he had an awesome time down in Odessa with his Dad and other relatives for his uncle's funeral. I'm so glad he was able to go, but really missed him! Eli had a blast with his cousins and grandparents. He did come down with a cold the day we got there so had some pretty miserable cranky moments, but we survived. The kids definitely had the time of their lives! The kids got to ride horses, ride the 4-wheeler, camp in a tent, go swimming, play basketball, ride in the combine, play in my mom's secret fort she made in her lilacs, eat special treats, etc. It was a wild and fun time! It was a real learning experience for my mom. I think we know now what to expect and can adjust accordingly. My dad started harvesting while we were there. Nothing like starting one of the most stressful times of the year with all 7 of your grandchildren home :-). He was a great sport! Eli loved seeing the combine running, the cows, cats, etc. He also loved swinging in the swing my dad built for us as kids. It was a great time, but we are all exhausted. I seriously lost 5 lbs :-) The best diet around! I'm really looking forward to 4th of July and another wild weekend! Cora was her usual sweet happy self. What a relief to have such an easy baby. She is just a little rolly bundle of joy! Praise God for family!