Fall Festivals and The Croup

With Halloween being right around the corner, I have been trying to find things to do with Logan that will be fun for both of us. We did a pumpkin patch with Jon and JR last week(pics to follow) where the dads(Jon and Jerry) carved pumpkins and the kids and I watched. Then last night was the Great Pumpkin Escape in downtown Starke so I dressed Logan up, he's a lion:) and went with Emily in tow to get our loot of candy and treats! But this week hasn't been all fun....Thursday, we found out Logan had a cold, which was to be expected with the weather changing- however, it turned out to not be a cold:( Thursday night, we went to bed as usual. Jerry stayed up and since Logan was congested, we put him in bed with me until he fell asleep and then put him in the crib. Well, he woke up an hour later and Jerry grabbed him and he was having some problems breathing---we suctioned out his nose and gave him a few minutes while I googled some ideas of what he has- that's when the seal like bark cough and wheezing type sound started happening and the shaking...so we took him to Shands Pediatric at UF again and they found out he had croup along with 102.7 temperature. He has been on steroids for the past three days and we did motrin this morning for a fever...he's doing a lot better and we haven't had any distress since that night. He's back to being his normal self with the exception of a slight cough and runny nose.
 Luckily, he decided to do this stuff when Jerry had the week off....I get too paranoid with Logan when Jerry is at work.

Logan and Daddy with their pumpkin

The Big Pumpkins

Logans Pumpkin

JR and Logan with their Pumpkins

Jon and JR

Logan, Me and Jerry

Jon's Pumpkin

Jerrys Pumpkin

Logan 9 months old

JR 4 years old

 Yesterday was mom's birthday- so we packed up and headed over there! I made a cake and a homemade streamer that had to be about 4 feet long----it was ice cream cones with the letters spelling HAPPY BIRTHDAY on them....a pinterest idea:)

Crawling, Standing, Learning to Walk and Babysitting

Logan is crawling just about EVERYWHERE! We have blocked the stairs because he is determined to try to get up them. He's standing up in the playpen and when I get him out of his crib in the morning he is there standing with a smile on his face:) He just started standing on his knees and before too long he will be standing without holding on to anything....He has let go of the playpen and the couch when he stands up, he only lasts a second though before he falls down though-this is something I AM NOT PUSHING! I am however, trying to get him to start holding his own bottle again. We have tricked him with the sippy cup, he loves that thing, and from time to time, I will put his formula in that and he'll drink it.
Walking- when I hold his hands and he's facing me, he will try to walk to me. We have also re-arranged his room a bit and have decided that after Christmas, I am going to redo his room....The monkeys will still be a major part of the theme, but I found cute bedding with monkeys flying planes and driving cars. His theme will be transporation(planes, trains and cars) with monkeys. At Walmart there is peel and stick wall decor for 10 dollars....of clouds, airplanes, cars, and monkeys....I am going to get some of them and decorate his room. they are "guaranteed" not to ruin the walls...and I am putting my trust in it...lol

 Onto babysitting,
My friend Amanda got a job at Walmart and needed someone to keep her 1 1/2 year old daughter Emma a few days a week...I gladly accepted the challenge and come to find out, it's not really a challenge. Logan and Emma get along well for the most part. I didn't expect that I would have to be telling Logan to be nicer to Emma, I thought it would be the other way around...the only time there is conflict is when Emma wakes up from her nap and is very clingy- Logan slept the same time as her and it was a challenge to change both of their diapers with them both being attached to me. Luckily Jerry was home that day so even with Emma crying, he held her and comforted her until I was done with Logan.
 We have postponed our honeymoon trip until after Christmas. It seemed every weekend we planned, something came up. This time, Grandma Janice is having a procedure done and Mom is going to help out for a few days. And by the time we started figuring out other dates, we were getting into Thanksgiving and Christmas...It is easy to plan with Jerry being off every other weekend but the weekends just got scrambled with other things, so we figured tax season, we will go for a couple days and leave Logan with mom....before then, she will have him for one night. I need to start training him on this, well train me for this. I can't go more than a couple hours... wonder how I will do for a whole night?!

8 months old

Yeah- Monkey is 8 months old(on the 25th)....He started crawling yesterday, pulling himself up on things and he's more vocal than ever!!!! Kate just posted that Aidan turned five- but I swear yesterday, I went to see him in the hospital after being born! With as fast as he has grown, mine is growing just as fast and its scary!
 We now have 2 teeth on the bottom and now we are working on the 2 teeth on top as of last night...Tuesday afternoon, Logan decided he was going to start crawling, and really standing up in his crib. Today, I grabbed his hands and stood him up and he proceeded to take 4 steps while I was holding him, though he wants so badly for me to let go of his hands. Now we are enjoying vanilla wafers while waiting for grandma Karen to get back from grocery shopping. He's more vocal now, and is weighing in at 21 pounds. Eating strictly table food now, he absolutely HATES baby food, and if it comes in a jar that even resembles the baby food, he will not eat it! Which is why, for some meals he lives on cookies and baby puffs....or chicken nuggets, as I have found are his favorite right now.

Wedding Reception!!!!!!

We had an amazing time this weekend celebrating our Wedding:) Alot of family and friends showed up and there was food, cake, dancing, laughing and even Logan getting in on the cake and eating away. We have a ton of pictures, which will be put up eventually lol...Now we are just relaxing and getting back to our routines and I am getting back to my diet...which I completely blew this weekend, but it was well worth it! A huge thanks to my mom and dad for setting everything up. Now I know how much work goes into a party and I'm getting started on Logans birthday party already.

7 months:)

Ok, so technically he wont be 7 months until the 25th, but who cares? lol.... Logan's weighing in at around 22 pounds...and this past week we went on our first day trip with Rachel:) we went to Orlando to see Shelby who just acted like the hospital was going to be her "disneyworld" for a few days....She needed some cheering up so off we went to take Logan to her-I had been sending "get well pics" of him to her since she was admitted I believe anywhere from once to three times a day...but she was ALL SMILES when he was in her room playing:) We hung out with the boys for a while at the Orland Science Center where Logan fell in love with the dinosaur section and then made our way back to the hospital to see some family and make sure Shelby knew that she needed to go home cuz that room was too small to put all of us in there. We headed back home and Sunday was the first time I took Logan to church! He did amazing but I was the one in the sanctuary waiting for our nursery number to pop up instead of listening to the preacher....then Sunday night/Monday morning we started getting diarrhea, nothing big, he's teething and did it with the last tooth so I was thinking he'd be getting another one soon- however he went all week and calling his doctor, they told us to do the BRAT diet which is Bananas, Rice, Applesauce and Toast....well, Logan isn't able to eat toast, I don't give him apples and rice cereal upsets his stomach so we finally realized that he eats fresh bananas but not jar ones so I bought a bunch of bananas and fed him those as well as normal food- we stuck to just veggies until diarrhea was over...however-Friday he started getting fevers, though not very bad ones, regular low-grade you would get with teething, he got one around 9am then 1pm and then 6pm....I told Jerry if he gets one more fever I would be considering taking him to the dr because diarrhea had been going on for about a week and now fevers...well he made our minds up when he woke up and had another fever but felt different than the others, checking his temperature, we found it to be 102.3....so getting dressed we go to UF/Shands Pediatric Hospital and check him in- the doctor weighs him and checks his temp again, 101.8, it went down but was still a little worrysome because this child NEVER gets sick. They put us in a triage room and we are focused on Logan but also admiring the decor of the hospital. Completely themed to Finding Nemo and underwater images, the doors have circular windows that would be found on a ship, waves on the walls and the ceiling tiles have been painted by nurses and doctors in the theme of finding nemo...so the doctors come in to evaluate Logan and decide to take a urine sample from him, well he peed in the emergency room so there wasnt any chance of collecting so they try to do a catheter.....not fun, I was told to be the comforter for when everything was over and Jerry was gonna help hold Logan with the 2 nurses....Logan was crying pretty badly and kept looking over my way and when it was over, he was happy to have mommy back....they take it back to get results back and we sit there waiting for about 1 1/2 hours, by then, his fever has completely broken, hes eating and playing around...they come back in around 3am to tell us everything is normal, keep doing what we are doing and its either a viral bug or teething but with no "major" symptoms, they can't really tell us anything...so we pack up and go home, where Logan pukes formula ALL OVER me....and Jerry and I begin to take shifts on sleeping to keep an eye on him. Yesterday was better, he was pretty fussy and clingy but fevers weren't as bad. About 3pm, he decided to stop having fevers so we fed him some formula(no puking this time) and go to my parents house...we get home around 9:30 and hes really fussy...so tired from not sleeping these past couple of days finally caught up to him and he just cried and cried and cried. Didn't have a fever or anything so we fed him formula again and tried to get him to calm down enough to sleep. After about 30 minutes of continuous crying, I changed my rocking position to a very odd way and he fell right asleep. Not knowing how long the sleep would last, I tell Jerry(who stays up til 330) that I'm putting him in the bed with me until you come upstairs....he's ok with it since Logan's been sick and there Logan and I fell fast asleep til 530 when he decides its feeding/pooping and playing time...lol... no more fevers and drinking formula....he's been on water for two days and we introduced pedialyte(Which he absolutely HATES grape) so that bottle of milk really made him happy and full enough to sleep:) Now we are (he is) napping on the couch next to me. As long as I am in his sights he does fine....even started talking and smiling/laughing again:) Hopefully this doesnt happen again anytime soon and the ER visit will hopefully never happen again....

6 months:)

Well,
Logan is 6 months old...hes saying DaDa, trying to crawl, eating a lot, sleeping through the night and just being a very happy and energetic little boy. We went to the doctors yesterday for his 6m checkup= he weighs in at 19lbs 9.5oz, 28 inches long....lol...has a tooth coming in so we were told to introduce him to a toothbrush by gently rubbing the tooth(its halfway in) with water only....also, he had to get shots:( 3in the leg and one oral medicine...the boy was not happy and with him being like he is, another nurse had to come in and hold him down...luckily, his next appointment will have no shots-just a wellness checkup...he did fine up until 3:30 this morning where he was running a pretty good fever, but after some tylenol and me and him laying on the couch watching blues clues, he went back to sleep but was up and fussy every 20-30 minutes because his legs were sore and uncomfortable-  I was up all night rubbing his legs so that he'd actually sleep a little...one of the shots bruised his little leg too:( his fevers are gone but so is his appetite which is rare, but understandable. all he's really wanted today is bottles- he doesn't want to eat food, be put down or left alone. So I have had him on my hip all day....
 And we are also saving for his Christmas/1st Birthday which really shouldn't be so close to being here, but it is...and you know he wasn't planned with him being born exactly 1 month after Christmas...lol... we are putting back 10-20 every paycheck and start finding deals and sales now so we aren't rushing and looking for money when these events are here... Can't believe it's almost here- 6 months have already flown by...............................

Being Frugal

Everyone by now has had to cut back in one way or another to keep ends meeting....well between bills, gas, food, and formula for Logan(which is 15.00 a can!), we usually just barely make the mark.
 So, with that being said- I've started couponing and sale watching....I used to think it was a waste of time and I had enough money to do that and whatever else I wanted..boy was I wrong! So I started grabbing the Sunday papers, clipping the coupons we would use for the shopping trip and go on- I usually go shopping once a month, which means we have to stockpile groceries so we save money-I did pretty good my first time around, I matched the coupons with the sales going on for the week I was going, made sure to buy what wasn't on sale at the cheaper place and this is how I did=
Walmart-
total was 117.63
I came out at 100.99
Winn Dixie-
327.98
came out-212.43- Granted Winn Dixie does fuel perks so they do alot of b1g1f and I will gladly take it! I buy alot of baby food and diapers at winndixie because for every 25$ I spend there I get 10c off every gallon of gas(20gal max) - well this shopping trip put me at 2.05 off per gallon? and gas is 3.38 up here so I will be saving money and only pay 1.33 at the pump:)

In the end I spent 313.42. Jerry nearly freaked when I told him the price until I started hauling in the groceries and handed him the receipts to see for himself... he said I spent a little much, but so far we haven't had to go to the store for anything extra for lunches/dinners!