Whole Bunch of Randomness

Life has been crazy lately with all these Dr. Appts - we have had some major sleep deprivation.  But I think it's official to say - we have 1 in diapers!!!  Yay for us.  We use cloth so really no financial impact but our lives are easier.  I don't have to do diaper laundry as much now and I am loving only changing 1 baby.

We had our parent/teacher conference yesterday for Brady and it went very well.  He is advanced in math and reading.  He needs to put more pride into his writing but she has seen improvement.  She feels sometimes he is bored in class so she is trying to challenge him.  But with 25 kids that is easier said than done.  I vote for smaller class sizes!

PBK came out with the hammerhead shark wrap.  We already have the light blue and dark blue shark and I was all concerned with not having a 3rd for Reid.  Well they took care of that!  Now all my little sharks will be looking good this summer.

We are going to Great Wolf Lodge this weekend and I am so excited.

We have such a good time every year and the breakfast buffet - yum!  And I get to wear a bathing suit I ordered over a year ago.  It's a mono-kini but I am so afraid to wear it in the sun for fear of horrible tan lines.  And obviously I won't look a thing like her but here is a pic!

So really an indoor waterpark is the perfect place!!  It would be great if my mother-in-law didn't bring over 8 red velvet cupcakes.  There has been a lot of stress eating going on over here!

Valentine's Day is right around the corner.  The hubs asked what I wanted and I sent him the link for these:

They are from West Elm and they are so cute.  I have that black dress organizer thing for jewelry and I like it.  And I am good at storing necklaces and dangle earrings in there.  But my "stand-by" studs that I wear all the time, my Tiffany silver balls and a pair of Kate Spade gold sparklers, are always loose on my dresser.  Well now they will have a home!  I think I like the heart envelope one better so lets hope he got me that one :)

And now about some awesome face products I was introduced to.  I have always had such sensitive skin so when I find a product I don't react to I usually stay with it.  So Clinique has been my go-to since college.  I was using their face wash and toner, Hope in a Jar by Philosophy for moisturizer, a clarisonic for extra exfoliation and some eye serum from Pride n Glory around my eyes.  And yeah all the products worked but I wouldn't rave about any of them.  I started using Rodan & Fields Redefine line with the amp roller and their eye cream and my skin looks so good.

The overall texture has really improved!   I posted a no makeup selfie and I mean NO makeup!!  I was surprised at how my eyes didn't have dark circles anymore and my skin look so bright.

I am seriously considering selling these products because they are just that good!  Check them out. Here's a link to my friend Kristen's page and tell her I sent ya'!  www.kristenlunsford.myrandf.com

Reidy-roo Update

Ok so to catch anyone up with our little man who missed it.

Photo credit: Jenean Mohr

Reid had his 1st seizure back in September and it was a BIG one.  Lasted over 45 minutes, 2 different meds given in 4 doses and finally a 3rd drip that stopped the seizing.  Saw the hubs cry and lost it!  After checking in with the Neurologist and his pediatrician he was diagnosed with febrile seizures.  We had to keep him healthy. Easier said then done with 2 older brothers, 1 of whom comes home with all kinds of germs from elementary school.  I make Brady change his clothes, shoes off  and wash his hands every day.  But we were all really sick around Christmas: pink eye, stomach bug and a nasty head cold.  Well it proved to be too much for the baby and he had another seizure.  And let me just admit we were totally unprepared!  Which I take all of the blame for.  I dropped the ball - big time!

I don't have rock solid faith or anything but I prayed and prayed to the Big Man upstairs and felt pretty confident he heard me.  So maybe its ignorance on my part but I felt like the whole thing was a fluke and our baby was fine.  Well when you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail.  BAM!  How's that little quote for ya'???  I didn't even have the number to the Neurologist in my phone, the medication was buried in the cupboard (but you do have 3 minutes to find it), we didn't have a home phone to call 911 and still be able to communicate to the outside world, aka. me on my way home from work and when you call 911 you get bounced all over because they don't know where you are calling from on a cell phone.  Why is it always a Friday when I am at work that he has a seizure?  I don't even work that much for crying out loud.  OK so it turns our he was fine but we made some changes. Medication is now taped to the door - check, home phone - check, Neurologists number in both of our phones - check!   And now to that outpatient EEG they mentioned having.  Yeah I was putting that off too until the 2nd seizure.  That got done yesterday.

He needed to be majorly sleep deprived so he could fall asleep during the test.  Well, when you sleep deprive a baby, you sleep deprive yourself! So that explains the NO makeup selfie I posted on FB and you know how I feel about my naked brows.  Haha.  But thanks to my new skin from R + F, it wasn't too scary.  OK so he did awesome, fell asleep right after he had all the electrodes on his head.  And they got a real good picture of his brain and what it is doing.  It was a 30 minute test and he slept through the whole thing.  They put a strobe light on him at one point and then at the end we had to wake him up. Here's a pic of him sleeping with his head all wrapped up.

And then we waited a whole day for the follow-up appointment.  But it was good news!!  His EEG was normal.  No evidence of epilepsy or a seizure disorder.  Now out of 10 kids that have febrile seziures, 2 go on to seizures later in life.  But hopefully that won't be him and he will outgrow them by age 5.  We need to keep monitoring him for fevers, especially when he gets sick or has shots.  We will be trying to keep the germs away and keep him healthy.  I have to carry his rescue med with me at all times when we are out.  And everyone has been instructed on how to use it.  Thanks for all the prayers.  They worked!!  

Me and Contouring

Ok I know you have all seen the pics.

Contouring is all the rage and I want to do it.  Sounds better than losing weight right?  And these chubby cheeks of mine could look a little slimmer.  I have been watching A LOT of you tube videos. And I am ready to try.  The hubs got me a certificate for a makeup lesson to learn to contour but I kinda want to save it for our family pics in May.  Then I will have professional makeup done and look good and maybe like myself in the pictures :)  So for now its you tube and and some fabulous new products from sephora.  Like this one:

Tarte has amazing makeup products.  And this one is no exception.  And don't you just love the name!  Park Ave. princess?  Doing contouring in liquid makeup scares me so this is a powder.  It's everything you need to contour in 1 package.  Do you know this girl?

Her name is Emily Eddington and I just recently found her and I love her.  She is gorgeous, reviews makeup, shops at target and gives awesome honest reviews of products,  She is on fb and has a great blog.
www.beautybroadcast.net/

 Here's a link to her review of this product!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHuN2lUYvgk

Thermometer

This post is to help the moms and dads out there when in the market for a thermometer for the kids. Most of us get knocked up and head to babies r us to make the registry not having a clue what to get. We were those parents 3 kids ago!  And you really end up learning the hard way.  Trial and error. For us, a good reliable thermometer is important.  We have a child with febrile seizures.  And we have gone through a lot of thermometers.  We tried a lot of different brands and methods and they all ended up in the garbage.

I was a PACU nurse for a bit and the unit had Exergen temporal thermometers, hospital grade.  But those things were amazing.  Just a lap around the forehead of a patient ending up behind their ear and voila!  Well, Exergen makes a thermometer for everybody.  I was shopping and as soon as I saw the name I knew that was our thermometer.  I don't remember what we paid because it was a while back but it is now $34.99 at Target.  Best money spent especially now that we take little guys temp at least three times a day.  It takes a 9v battery and you just clean the tip with alcohol every now and again.

And with all these bugs going on at this time of year, this thing is getting a work out!

New Year, New Us

I am not one of those people that get all excited for the New Year.  I can count on 1 hand how many times I have actually been awake in my 35 years to watch the Ball Drop.  But this time I was ready to see 2014 go.

Honestly, 2014 was a tough year for me personally.  It was one of the hardest years of our marriage. But we made it!  And we are both committed to making every year better from now on.  Steve and I both agree that the biggest gift you can give your kids, is 2 loving parents in the same home.  Steve has made a lot of changes and I am so proud of him for finally "growing up".  He wakes up with the goal to give us his best: to be the best husband and father and son.  And since May it has been amazing.

Being a person who dislikes New Years Eve/Day and all that crap I think resolutions are stupid.  If people need to change something they should do it, there is no time like the present!  But I guess I do have some priorities in the new year.  And that is: US!  I don't know about you but everything you do when you have kids is for them.  You get up go to work for them, or stay home and spend all day tending to their needs.  At the end of the day we are exhausted over here.  So we need more date nights for sure.  And our first date of the New Year was at Russell's Steak House and it was great.

Wish we could afford to eat there every week!

They really prolong your dinner there and we just sat and talked and laughed and enjoyed every bite of our surf n turf.  It was an amazing evening.  And we were home by 10, in our pj's sharing our desserts on the couch and it was prefect :)

Another priority for us is: to enjoy the crazy that is life with 3 little ones!  It is bananas at times.  But we need to remember that one day our house will be quiet until 11am with a bunch of teenagers sleeping in.  So we need to greet every little one crawling into our bed at 5:30am with a smile.

And to do as much as we can with them.  Vacations, overnights, parks, pools, festivals, etc.  We go on vacation every year and I hope we can continue that every year till they don't want to vacation with us anymore!

And the last priority is: (I think this goes for every parent) but save more for their college funds.  I just read a statistic that one should save $250 per kid each month!  That was depressing.  We save that for 3 kids each month.  I would say our goal should be to spend less but that isn't possible.  Especially when we want a bigger house which means a bigger monthly payment and more taxes.  I wish I could pay less taxes but as a New Yorker that is a joke!  So I guess to continue to have Zero credit card debt and keep contributing to those 529 plans is it for us.    

Looking at this responsible post thinking "Man I'm old!"