Here comes Peter Cottontail…

We did it!!  We finally got pictures of the kids in these adorable clothing sets.  We have a personal seamstress that makes the most beautiful outfits for the kids.  Our friends, Kathleen and Homan, have let us adopt Kathleen’s grandma as our own!  She is super sweet and keeps the kids looking adorable.  Thanks, Grandma!  Trey is 9 1/2 months now and Haley is 3.  Haley LOVES her brother so much.  We had to make her stop squeezing and kissing him and just look at the camera.  It was fun.  Trey is a trooper and handles her love well.  We couldn’t ask for cuter kids and they are equally as sweet.  We are getting ready for the Easter Bunny but are looking forward to celebrating St. Patrick’s Day first.  Haley is on Spring Break this week so we’ll get to spend the whole week together. 
Other big news at the Simons house…we are now Pacifier-Free!!  Haley has handled it very well and I am very surprised.  I was SUPER anxious to tell her they were gone.  We told her the new babies being born needed them.  She’s proud of herself for being a big girl and has only asked about it a few times.  Whew!

Bath Time

Just a quick picture of our little buddies.  Trey’s been taking real baths for a couple of weeks now.  Haley and Trey LOVE bath time.  There are usually tears involved when it is time to take them out.

Penguin Family

The penguin family (that’s us) is in full effect.  We are iced in here in Memphis.  I mean really iced in.  I took a little drive this morning to check out how icy it actually was.  But, before I could drive, I had to let my heat run in the truck for about 45 minutes to get the ice melted enough to scrape it off the windshield.  Schools were cancelled Friday.  They’ve already cancelled church for tomorrow.  So we’re just hanging out.

With the weather as cold as it is, we don’t plan on leaving the house anytime soon.  In fact, Haley thinks it is too cold to even go out and see the snow.  Since we’ll be indoors for a while, we figured we should find something to pass the time.  What better to do on this Arctic day than take some penguin family  pictures.  Hope everyone is staying warm!

Alive…Barely

Wow, this past week has been a doozey.  A week ago today, Laura went to bed early feeling bad.  She thought she was just tired.  About halfway through church on Sunday, she ended up going home.  She felt miserable.  Laura was completely out of commission on Sunday and Monday.  I worked from home to help with the kiddos.  They were SO good for me.  Although I did feel guilty for putting Haley in front of the TV for a good portion of the day. 

Tuesday, Laura was feeling a little better, but the kids weren’t doing so hot.  Laura decided to go on to the doctor.  The result – there wasn’t much the doc could do.  Laura was just to get some more rest.  I still felt fine so I went on to work that afternoon.  As the day went on, though, I started losing my voice.

I came in and went straight for my universal remedy…NyQuil.  That stuff does wonders.  It wasn’t quite powerful enough though.  I tossed and turned all night coming in and out of fever.  I felt decent when I woke up on Wednesday morning, even though it sounded like I’d swallowed a bag of sand.  I started getting ready for work when my loving wife told me that I had to be insane.  That there was no way I was going to work if I’d had a fever all night.  I couldn’t speak above a whisper so I got her to do the dirty work and call in sick for me.

I’m glad she did.  I started to set up my laptop and I got smacked in the face with tiredness.  I spent the entire day Wednesday in bed.  I popped Mucinex, NyQuil and Tylenol all day.  Fever came and went.  Luckily, Laura was feeling better and dealt with a sick Haley and Trey.  Thursday was a little better, but I was up nearly the whole night on Thursday coughing.  I finally decided on Friday morning to go to the Doctor.  Diagnosis, Sinus Infection gone mad.  So now I’m a day and a half into antibiotics and all is well.  Still a bit coughy, but doing great.  Kiddos are out of the woods too. 

You know, you never realize how much you take your health for granted until everyone in the family is sick. 

Trey had his 8 month birthday this past week so we had a quick photo shoot for him.  Pictures came out pretty good.  He’s getting to be such a big boy.  Its a blessing to have two of the most content kids in the world.

Christmas in Brandon

What a quick week!  Crazy busy, but quick.  Part of the reason it was so busy and so fast was that we spent last weekend in Brandon with my parents.  I took Monday off so we could stay an extra day.  One of the reasons we went is to celebrate Christmas.  We did the regular for Christmas…visited, opened presents and ate.  And ate.  And ate.  I kid you not, I had 1 and 3/4 chocolate pies.  All by myself.  They were amazing!

Haley seemed to have a ball.  She started out a little leery of sleeping somewhere besides her room, but it didn’t take very long for her to warm up.  I laughingly told Laura that I was ready to go home so that I could see my daughter again.  She had absolutely nothing to do with us the whole time we were there.  Everything was “Mamaw and Papaw”.  Mostly “Mamaw”. 

If you sat down beside her, she’d tell us to get up, that it was mamaw’s seat. 

Trey, on the other hand, didn’t have such a good time.  Not sure what the deal was.  I think it was teething.  But he did NOT want to sleep.  He wailed when we put him to bed.  The only thing that would stop it was getting him back up.  Strange thing was, he wasn’t tired.  When we did get him up, he giggled constantly.  Usually around 11:30 or midnight he’d get tired and go right down.

I spent a lot of time with dad hunting.  We went duck hunting a couple of times and deer hunting once.  The hunting was fun, but I think I most enjoyed the time of talking in the car.  One thing I realized is how much I enjoy duck hunting.  I used to go a lot when I was younger, but have been on a hiatus for the past 10 years or so.  I can probably count the number of times I’ve been on two hands in the past ten years.  I hope that changes next year.  I’ve got to find a place close.

Christmas Day

We left off our last post with what happened Christmas Eve.  So here’s Christmas Day.

Laura and I made it to bed around midnight.  It took us a while to get all of the gifts out.  And, one thing I failed to mention in the previous entry was that we definitely took time before putting Haley to bed to read the Christmas story and put some reindeer food out.

So, I think I’m more excited about Santa than Haley.  I’d set up a couple of flashes in the corners of the room so I can get some good pictures (after all, I’d have no natural light since Haley would be up before dawn in excitement).  I had a camcorder set on a tripod so I could record everything.  I set my alarm for 6 and hoped I wouldn’t be late.

So, 6:00 comes.  I drag out of bed.  I don’t hear anything so I quickly check my lights and double check the camcorder.  Good.  I make me some coffee.  I wait.  I wait.  I wait.  I wake Laura up about 7:30.  We wait.  We wait.  We wait.  8:30 passes.  Trey’s up and eating.  No sign of Haley.  9:30, no Haley.  We put Trey back down for his morning nap and decide it would be best to go check on Haley.  We thought that maybe she was afraid to come down in fear that Santa might still be around and wouldn’t leave her gifts.

When we got to her room, she stirred a little.  I laid down beside her and asked if she was ready to come downstairs.  She burst into tears.  Hysterical.  I asked her what was wrong.  No response.  I asked if she was sad.  She said no and kept wailing.  I asked if she was scared.  She said no and kept wailing.  I asked what she wanted to do.  She said, “I want to take a nap.”  We said okay and she laid right back down and shut her eyes.

So FINALLY, about 10:30 she comes moseying downstairs.  The wait was worth it, though.  She had a ball opening gifts and playing with the things Santa brought her.  For some reason, she kept asking for stockings.  She didn’t get real stockings, but she wore the stockings hanging from the mantle around and appear to be in heaven.  After we opened gifts, I made pancakes for a nice family brunch.

Haley spent the entire day with her new dollhouse.  At dinner, Laura and I were talking about how nice it was to be “home for Christmas”.  I missed being with my family and she missed being with hers.  But, there was something special about starting our own family Christmas.  For the first time since entering the working world, I went back to work rested and relaxed after Christmas.

All I Want for Christmas…are lights and stockings

I’m loving this time of year! Christmas is in the air. It is hard to believe how quickly the past 6 months or so have gone. Things are good around the Simons household. We’ve gotten the house decorated. Well, the inside at least. The outside looks the same as it did a month ago. I know it sounds bad, but I opted out of doing the outside. The lights on the outside of the house are always a lot of fun to put up, but taking them down is a nightmare. I’m thinking that we should do wreaths on the windows with lights pointing up at them. We’ll look into it. Next year.

Trey and Haley are doing great. Haley’s been getting ready for Christmas. Her main items on her wish list are pretty easy. Stockings and lights. I’m not sure why she always says those two things when we ask what she wants for Christmas. Trey has been as happy as a clam. He finished up his last dose of antibiotic for an ear infection today. I’m telling you, that kid doesn’t have a bad day. The only way we knew he had an ear infection is because he wasn’t sleeping much and had a fever. He wasn’t fussy a bit. He is starting to smile and laugh a lot. And, he’s reaching out for things. If you get anything near him, he’s going for it. That includes remote controls, cups and faces.

We took family portraits this week. We needed something for the Christmas card. I think they turned out great. I got a new tripod, which seemed to make it easier. Of course, I’m sure it was all in my mind. What really did seem to help was the remote I bought a few months ago. It allows me to have the camera snap a shot at a pre-defined interval. I set it for every 3 seconds. So, once the lights were set up, focus adjusted and exposure nailed, it was just a matter of sitting with the kiddos in front of the camera until a we got a good picture. Easy Peasy.

Cute Kids

That’s all.  Now, back to your regularly scheduled program.

Christmas Time is Here

Over the past couple of days we’ve been decorating the house.  Haley has been having a ball.  Every morning she gets up and starts grabbing the ornaments and bringing them around the house with her.  She even did most of the decorating of her tree that we put up in her room.  It was really cute watching her decorate the tree downstairs.  Laura and I walked out of the room for 10 minutes or so and when we came back in, there was one gigantic clump of ornaments in one tiny section of the tree.  Near to the ground of course.

We took Haley and Trey to see Santa.  Haley was extremely excited about about seeing him before she got there.  Unfortunately, once we got there it was a different story.  She bawled.  We finally got her on Santa’s lap and all was semi-okay.  Trey wasn’t phased.  I guess he was just happy that Santa’s sleeves were absorbent to help out with his drooling!

Trey’s got an ear infection right now.  It doesn’t seem to phase him too terribly, much, but you can tell he’s under the weather.  Laura took him to the doc and got some meds for him.  So, he should be in tip top shape before we know it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Another Thanksgiving has come and gone.  We spent the day yesterday with Laura’s family.  We had a great time just sitting around and doing not much of anything.  The food was great, as was the board game that was played after dinner. 

While Thanksgiving means turkey and football for some, for Laura and her sisters it means shopping.  They’ve come to grips with the fact that when you consider the value of time and sleep, there aren’t that many deals out there.  But for them, it isn’t about deals.  Its about the thrill of the hunt and the time they spend together. 

Of course, Laura rose at 3:45 a.m. to make sure they were there when the doors opened.  She met her sisters at Target and the fun began.  You would think that most people would look like zombies at 4 a.m.  Not Laura.  She was ready.  List in hand. (yes, the picture below was taken at 4 a.m.)  Unfortunately, after being woken up at 4, I had trouble getting back to sleep.  Even though I was awake, I had ABSOLUTELY NO DESIRE to go fight those crazy crowds.

In other news, Haley got her first haircut this week.  It really looks cute.  Although, I’m going to miss the wild and crazy curls.  They’ll come back.  I definitely think getting it straightened up was the right thing to do.  Laura took some pictures while she got her hair cut.  She jumped right up in the chair and smiled the whole time.  Every time someone mentions her hair she gets this bashful grin on her face.  So sweet!

Trey is getting a lot more interactive.  I’ve gotten to spend some good time with him lately.  He’s starting to get some personality, which is fun to watch unfold.  We’re going to be taking his six month pictures over the next few days, so stay tuned!