A photographer, I am not.

Sorry we've been absent from the blog-world. We have things to share, but haven't had the time to elaborate.

So, for tonight, just a quick note and a great picture. (And a couple not-so-great pictures)

This morning I put my girls in matching dresses for church. We don't have very many matching outfits because the girls are too far apart in sizes to find affordable twin get-up. They wore their dresses all day, so I tried more than once to grab a great shot of our girls. On the first try, we plopped Natalie in Ally's lap, but she was unimpressed with that arrangement and promptly threw her head back into her sister's cheek. So, here's the picture that resulted from that maneuver.
As you can see, Natalie was promptly abandoned.

The second photo op was an impromptu snack time, designed to force the children to sit...for more than a split second. Here's the best shot from that go-around.
Apparently snacking and smiling don't go hand-in-hand.

The last try of the day provided the best shots, in the worst lighting. We built a fort with a sheet, two chairs, and the baby gate. Sometimes we'll do anything to provide 10 minutes of entertainment. As it turns out, I also got a couple of fun shots of our girls.A non-traditional pose, yes, but pretty cute, right? (Next time, I'll try to remove the pacifier before the photo session.)

Please pray...

Hi friends and family. I am writing to ask a quick favor of you.

I have an acquaintance named Tara. She is a friend of a friend. Whenever I see her, she stops to say hi and chat a bit, but I have had very little other contact with her.

She was in her vehicle with her four-year-old, Sophie, and her one-year-old, Lilly on Monday. They were broadsided by a bus. Tara and Sophie sustained only minor injuries, but baby Lilly was badly hurt. She died about 24 hours later (Tuesday afternoon). This has just made me sick. Like I said, I didn't know her well, but I knew her well enough to ache for her today.

Would you take a moment and pray for this family? Thank you!

Is that a verb?

Ally's morning routine often involves a snuggle in our bed with a cartoon. This morning was just such a morning.

The three of us were snuggling under the covers, when Ally proclaimed, "Mom, your legs are sharping me!"

There's the ugly truth. I need to shave.

An Allyson Flashback

As Natalie's personality is coming out more, we find ourselves often trying to remember what Allyson was like when she was one-year-old. There are many similarities that we see, but our girls our also very different.

As you can see by these pictures, which were taken in June and July 2005, they definitely look a lot alike.

These are some of my favorite photos of Allyson. This image to my left is the picture of Ally that I see in my mind when I think about when she was younger.

It is hard to imagine that this little girl in these pictures is going to be five-years-old in a few weeks! Kristen and I are starting to feel old, and we are starting to understand the people who have told us that time will go too fast when your kids are young.

A Video to End the Week

I have been saving this video for a while now, and decided that it would be a great way to end the week.

If you have been reading the blog, you know that we have had quite the week here in the Fox family. Two of us have had strep throat, one of us had outpatient surgery, and we parents are exhausted! Thank God for the weekend and the hope of Spring that is just looming around the corner.

Here is a short video of Natalie playing with her school bus last week. It is moments like this that remind Kristen and I that parenting is the best job in the world!

I thought we had escaped!

Sick House, part deux.

When we were all healthy yesterday morning, I thought that the rest of the family had dodged the strep throat bullet.

However, when David came home from work yesterday, achy and feverish, I knew we were in for it. This morning he was officially diagnosed with strep throat and a sinus infection.

He is now in bed, hopefully sleeping, while I'm at work and the girls are at a friend's home.

Who will be next...

Let's NOT do that again, kay?

The title statement is one that David and I have repeated to each other at least 6 times in the 20 hours or so since we left the hospital yesterday. I may have even said it a few times in my sleep (I use the term "sleep" quite loosely since it was more like 7 hours of unsettled rest).

Our Natalie made it through her traumatic day yesterday, although it was equally traumatic for her parents. It was tricky to keep her away from food in the morning, but it didn't get bad until we were shown to our mini-room at the hospital. I don't know if the hunger truly hit at this point, or if she started to become aware of our nerves and reacted accordingly. We had to be at the hospital about 2 hours before the surgery, so you can imagine this time period with a hungry and tired baby was long. About 20 minutes before the surgery, Nat was given a liquid medicine that we will call "happy juice." If a day like that could have a highlight, that was certainly it! Within moments of taking it, she became fabulously happy and totally weak. We carried her around like a big, happy, wet noodle. She could hardly hold in her pacifier because she couldn't stop grinning. It was totally goofy! (And kinda fun...we told the nurses she had never been that relaxed or that happy in her entire life!)

We chatted for a moment with the surgeon and the anesthesiologist before a nurse lovingly took her from my arms. I believe in being truthful, so I won't lie and say I held it all together. I'm a crier. It takes very little for me to cry. So, you might imagine that watching my daughter being carried away from us was not pleasant for me. I might have even had that ugly-cry face going. It was somewhat helpful that Natalie was so happy, but it was still very difficult for us. We were told that the surgeon would come to talk to us as soon as he finished, while Natalie would be "waking up" in the recovery room. After that, she would rejoin us in our mini-outpatient room for about an hour before we could go home. Only about 25 minutes after we kissed her goodbye, the surgeon was back with us saying, "She's mad now."

Here's where things got interesting. Apparently some children have a very hard time coming out of the anesthesia. Some are whiny and out of sorts, others scream. Can you guess which was Natalie? As we finished a follow-up chat with the surgeon, we heard Natalie screaming down the hall. A nurse smiled as she brought her to us and for the next HOUR we fought with a SCREAMING, FLAILING, KICKING, BACK-ARCHING, CRYING Natalie. I know you just read over that without comprehending, so I gotta reiterate. For an entire hour we fought to keep her safely in our arms while she behaved as if her fingernails were being pulled out, one by one.

We lived through 6 months of colic, but I'm here to tell you, this was the LONGEST HOUR OF OUR LIVES.

About halfway into it, two nurses came to relieve us so that we could take a walk, get a drink, and take a deep breath. As we were standing outside the room (yes, I was crying again), another nurse approached and gave me a tissue. Then she said, "This is totally normal." HUH? Okay, I'll accept that Nat awoke quite disoriented with strangers all around her, and maybe a headache or some discomfort from the actual procedure. I'll even accept the whole crying thing. But wouldn't it have been helpful if someone had WARNED us that this could be her reaction? We still would have been helpless to solve her problem, but at least we wouldn't have been so shocked and unprepared. I'm just saying, a warning of the possible waking-up routine would have been appreciated.

So, after the longest-hour-in-our-lives, Natalie collapsed in my arms, fast asleep. She slept through a final check from the nurses, putting on a coat, leaving the hospital, stopping for gas, stopping to pick up Allyson, arriving home, getting out of her coat, and being laid in her bed. It was a little freaky how out-of-it she was. She awoke about 3 hours after the screaming thing with the appetite of a lion and ate 2 1/2 blueberry pancakes and 1/2 of a banana.

This morning, we met with the ophthalmologist/surgeon for a follow-up visit. One of her eyes is still a bit teary, but he said this could be the case for a few days. He said that if it continues for a month, we'll need to head back in and repeat. (Wanna know how I feel about that? Please see title.)

Thanks for your prayers on our traumatic day. I'm telling you, I would be a blazing hot mess if my children had a "real" surgery...you know, one that requires scalpels and IV's and such. I'd be a puddle on the floor outside the operating room. Last night we were totally exhausted...it was one of those nights that you're so tired you can't sleep. And the whole day kept swirling through my mind, over and over again.

I asked David this morning how he slept...he sleepily replied, "I took a Tylenol PM, I was out." Yet another downfall of pregnancy...no Tylenol PM allowed.

What's In a Name?

I read a forwarded email this morning from my step-mother-in-law. (Right, that's David's Dad's wife...Hi Paula!) We've been thinking a lot about names lately, so this email was certainly timely.

Read and be amazed (quoted from the email)

How would you pronounce this child's name? Le-a

Leah?? NO
Lee - A?? NOPE
Lay - a?? NO
Lei?? Guess Again.

This child attends a school in Livingston Parish, LA. Her mother is irate because everyone is getting her name wrong. It's pronounced "Ledasha". When the Mother was asked about the pronunciation of the name, she said, "the dash don't be silent."

SO, if you see something come across your desk like this please remember to pronounce the dash. If they axe you why, tell them the dash don't be silent.

All morning I've been thinking how this could affect our child-naming process. We're getting close to finalizing our son's name, but now I have a whole new world to consider.

What do you think of "Dav-id" (Davdashid) or "Chris-opher" (Chrisdashopher)? Any other ideas for us?

Ahhh, the childhood memories of strep throat...

I was born with monstrous tonsils. Seriously. Everyone who saw them ooohed and aaahed. Every nurse, every doctor, every curious onlooker... I was quite accustomed to the proclamations heard when anyone saw the golf balls at the back of my throat.

Therefore, I was plagued with strep throat at least twice each winter until the time that the pesky things were removed. (How old was I, Mom?)

Just a few weeks ago, a 4-year-old at church had her tonsils removed and her mom said that they were just plain huge. It wasn't until that moment that I truly thought, "Hmmm, Ally is almost five and has never had so much as a sore throat." Sure, she's had colds, coughs, the big D word, she even lost her voice once. But I have never heard her say, "My throat hurts." Until now...

Early Friday morning...very early Friday morning...like 4:30 AM Friday morning...I heard that awful sound that makes every mother panic. "Mommy! Mom!" I raced upstairs because, well, Ally RARELY wakes in the night. She deliriously asked me if her music was still on. (This is fodder for another post...she must have her music playing ALL NIGHT LONG.) This was, of course, a ridiculous question because we could both hear said music. Then she said the second thing that makes every Mother panic at 4:30 in the morning: "I feel so hot."

True enough, the sweet little chickadee was burning up. I got her some water, assured her that her music was on, changed her into a t-shirt, and put her back to bed. Then I returned to bed, worried about the day ahead of me.

About three hours later, David moved a little TV from our room into her room and settled her in for the day. From 8 to 5, she hardly moved. It was a little creepy. She moaned a bit, but didn't say much at all. I checked on her regularly, fully expecting another dreaded exclamation, "Mom, I threw up!" However, that never came and she went to bed after a nice dose of Tylenol at about 8:30 PM. I was restless, consumed with what the night would bring. Sick always seems to get worse in the wee hours.

After several hours of restless sleep, I heard her footsteps in our room and THOSE words I referred to earlier: "Mom, my throat hurts." This was accompanied by tears. There was still a fever, although it was much lower, and I knew we'd be making a trip to the doctor.

Just a few hours later, Ally is back in her bed, in those cozy PJ's, watching Toy Story. And here I sit, ever vigilant, making sure the antibiotics prescribed for her strep throat don't have any ill effects. Poor little miserable thing.

Just this morning I read a fun little article by a blogger I like to read. Her blog address is suburbanturmoil.blogspot.com. She's a snarky little writer, with lots to say about motherhood and living in 2009. She makes me giggle. I like that. Anyway, she also writes for the online Nashville newspaper, The City Paper. Her recent article was about a horror movie that she would like to submit to writers entitled, "THE SICK HOUSE." I can totally get that. We have been sick for what seems like months and I AM DONE! You can read the article here. (Just a note: she's a bit hard on her husband. It's funny, but don't read into that! I have nothing to complain about in that department.)

Just in case you didn't remember, Natalie is scheduled to have her "procedure" on Tuesday. You can review the story here if you missed it before. Anyway, if you have a moment, please pray that she (and David and I), somehow escapes the strep throat germs prevalent in our household. Obviously, if she develops symptoms, we'll have to reschedule her tear-duct-unclogging. As much as we ARE NOT looking forward to the "procedure," we would like to get it over with and stop worrying about it! Thank you.

Uh Oh....Natalie's New Favorite Word!

Just this week, Natalie has begun saying, "Uh oh!" at just about everything.  She knows how to use it in the right context, but since it gives mom and dad such joy, she has been saying all the time.  Here is some video footage of our little talker!

Natalie Dancing

Natalie's personality has been coming out more and more in the last few weeks. She has begun dancing every time she hears music. Our favorite move of hers involves her putting one arm in the air and moving the other arm back and forth. We were trying to capture that in this video. She didn't do her move that much, but this was still cute.

Have a great day!

Hi Tyrone....

As most of you know, Kristen's ultrasound was two weeks ago. Here are a couple of the ultrasound pics, as promised. Kristen does not think we need to post the "It's A Boy" pics, so I have left those off!

We have agreed that I can call our baby boy "Tyrone" for the time being. We are working on coming to an agreement for a boy's name. Any suggestions? (Post them in the comments)

Wild and Crazy Parents

Since Kristen's parents are here, we decided to take advantage of having "free" babysitters in our house and we went out on a date.  We saw a movie ("New In Town"), ate dinner at Applebee's, and walked around Target.  Yeah, I know, we are beyond exciting!  Party Animals would probably be a good descriptor!  We arrived home at 8:08 p.m.  We had exhausted all that Janesville has to offer on a Sunday night!

Even though Janesville is not an exciting dating destination, I have to say that spending time with my beautiful wife is something I cherish every opportunity we can find.  Unfortunately, with 2 kids (+1 on the way) and limited finances, we don't get these moments often enough.

Have a great week.