Smitten!

appSmitten is a company that specializes in finding the perfect apps for you! I've been getting their newsletters since September and they have been so helpful. I've been able to determine what apps I want and need!

Seriously, what did we do before apps that told us the weather, organized our lists and found the best coupons! The list goes on.

Get this - appSmitten just me know there is a Girl Scout app that will tell me WHERE to buy Girl Scout cookies, because let's be honest, I will run out and need to find more.

They have people. People that find apps, test them out and decide whether or not they are worth your time! There are over a million apps out there. Which are worth downloading? Will you use them? Is there one that is comparable or better? The appSmitten people answer all these questions for you. They send you all the information you need to know right to your email address via newsletter. You can have the newsletter, with the app info, come daily or weekly.

By signing up for the newsletter, you will find out what apps you must get and believe me, I've saved a time by trusting them to let me know!

They even have an appSmitten Kids newsletter that lets you know about fun and educational apps for kids and family.

One of my blog buddies, Katie, happens to be a contributor for appSmitten!! Her page is HERE. This makes this even more legit for me because I know she is trying and recommending good apps. Her focus is on family related apps, such as memory-keeping, toddler education, & probably soon-to-be baby apps and such! 

So, if you need some helpful app tips, be sure to get the appSmitten newsletter :)



disclosure: I teamed up with BlogHer to affiliate with appSmitten. I was happy to do this because I had been already using appSmitten and believed in the service. Therefore, wanted to share it with you all :)

Midweek Randoms

Happy Leap Day!

• The babies seem to be on the mend, thankfully. Sloane is still pretty stuffy, but her good mood is returning so I think she feels much better. They both still hate to be suctioned. Poor things. 

• I'm helping host a baby shower in a few months and I'm so excited. It's a my house so, needless to say, quite a bit more unpacking will be happening between now and then. 

• My taste is starting to come back a little bit. I guess I hadn't been sick like this in a few years because I do not remember it being gone for so long. I'm going on like five days of not being able to taste anything and it's weird. Last night, homemade margarita pizza sounded good, but I really couldn't taste much at all :( Before going in the oven...

•  I received a prayer request for this little girl who had surgery on her skull yesterday. I know she was in a lot of pain and they were trying to get her pain medications under control http://cherishthisday.blogspot.com/

• This picture cracks me up. I was taping off where the couch is going go and Knox reached out like he would hold the tape for me. They are reaching for things so much and moving things from hand to hand. All kinds of things. Blows my mind. 

• Oh yeah, the ottoman table pictured above, and that I posted here, is from HauteLook. I've gotten several emails and comments asking. I love it. It won't go in the room above, though, it's just in there right now until that room is finished.

• I gave into Girl Scout cookies the other day. They were outside Walgreens and I couldn't resist. The little girls were so sweet. 

• I've got to get some curtains done for our living room. It's getting too dusty too quick. I'll dust and within a day or two, it's returning. We have four big windows.

• I think One Tree Hill is good this season and I'm bummed it's the last season. Brent and I have been watching since it started and it was definitely great back in the day, but I know it can't go on forever. I think we will have a marathon from the beginning soon.

•  I'm excited about Titanic 3D. 

• Since the cameras in the nursery are mounted on the wall, we don't really move them around. I was sleeping in the guestroom over the weekend and Knox was in our room. I wanted to be able to see him because that's what I'm use to. Brent found a camera at Best Buy that I can watch on my iPhone/iPad. How great is that? It's called D-Link. It can be watched from anywhere. So, he we can set it up when the babies are playing and our parents are here and we've gone to dinner, etc. Pretty neat. testing to make sure it worked with a cute little subject.....

• Last day to take advantage of the specials from February Sponsors as well as the February fundraisers for iPods from Cohen!

• You can also still enter to win an Olive Garden gift card from BlogHer here!

All you need is....

super cute love platters....

and pancakes!

Yep, that's right, today is National Pancake Day. I love pancakes, so I thought why not eat some. I can almost taste them, haha. No, I didn't eat all of these, though I probably could.

I meant to post the platter around Valentine's Day, but time slipped away from me and somehow it's the end of the month. It's from Rosie Posie Designs. She is one of my sponsors and I LOVE the things she does. She wants to team up to do a platter for iPods from Cohen soon, too :) So, there will be a specific design and all the the profit from those who purchase will go towards the iPods. So nice!

Brent's mom posted some pics of Knox & Sloane today from when they were bitty!

two posts in one day. who am i.

Thankful

I actually started this post last week at the hospital. Therefore, it kind of pertains to our hospital stay. I was trying to be as optimistic as possible. I kept thinking how I had a baby in the hospital, but I knew he would be okay. I kept praying he would get well soon. I was just thankful to have him. So thankful to have two babies to hold now. I was feeling stretched thin between going back and forth from home to hospital and starting to feel a little under the weather.

I'm also working on optimism today. Sloane went to the ped yesterday and tests came back that she also has the  metapneumovirus. The doctor does not think that it will get as bad as Knox's did, but we have to keep a close eye. Her cough has been much worse and she looks so sad. I know they will both be back to 100% in no time, and so will I, but it's not been an easy week. No matter how rough, still so much to be thankful for.

And yes, the title of my post yesterday was supposed to be "Man, oh man" ...ha. Sorry for the delirious, overlooked typo.  

I'm thankful Knox is getting closer to 100% everyday.

I'm thankful Sloane slept better last night with her crib elevated.

I'm thankful it was just a respiratory virus and it will pass. It's been a bad respiratory virus, one that's put us in the hospital, but I'm thankful we came home. I'm thankful Sloane hasn't been to the hospital and praying that continues.

I'm thankful the initial scare of being in the hospital with another sick baby wore off rather quickly.

I'm thankful for a good hospital with a good staff, in the same town, to take care of Knox.

I'm thankful for grandparents that kept Sloane, at our house, on her schedule and happy as a lark.

I'm thankful for the smiles I got from sick children around the hospital. They are sick and they are still smiling.

I'm thankful I can function on little sleep.

I'm thankful Brent was able to be at the hospital all last week as well. Our kids will always come first.

I'm thankful for modern technology. When Brent took Sloane to the ER Sunday night, texts and calls wouldn't go through. We used the app "Tango" on his iPad & my iPhone. I was able to hear what the doctor said and see Sloane. We also used this while Knox was at the hospital and Sloane was at home.

I'm thankful even though I got sick, it didn't last long.

I'm thankful for medicine.

I'm thankful this, too, shall pass.

Again, we greatly appreciate your prayers!

Hope you have a good day!

Man, oh man

There may be a few complaints throughout this post. I don't feel like I do it often, but now is probably expected :p

So, the sickies hit us and they hit us hard.

I do think we are on the mend, though. Knox seems to be doing really good. He is pretty much quarantined to our room. We thought by today we would have he and Sloane back together, but yesterday her cough got really bad. It's like she coughs and then starts to gag or choke at the end. It doesn't seem to bother her, but she looks awful and it just sounds like she is straining so hard to hack something up and nothing comes. Anyways, last night, her fever spiked. Brent took her in and they said it really sounded like she had drainage and that was what was causing her cough and choke. Honestly, Knox's never sounded that bad. It was more so his breathing that sounded bad. So, if they think it's drainage, I'm not sure about the fever. They were going to swab her for the virus Knox had. They told us to call in 24 hours to get the results. Hmm, okay. So, until she seems better, we are going to keep them separated.

I started feeling awful on Friday afternoon. By Saturday morning I felt so awful and I knew I had to get meds or I was going to get worse. I went to Urgent Care and they checked me for the flu. Thankfully, it was negative. The doctor said she was surprised I could still talk as red as my throat was. Shockingly, my throat hasn't really hurt at all. They said I more than likely have a upper respiratory infection. They gave me a shot and some antibiotics and told me avoid babies until my fever broke.

This morning, 48 hours later, it finally broke. I'm still not getting too close to them as I don't want to risk it.

It's made me sad to hear them around the house and to see their little smiles, but not be able to hold them. It's also made me sad to think Sloane is sick and not be able to hold her. Brent has been getting in lots of snuggles.

I've tried to rest as best I can, but it's not been easy. Brent has done great and my mom has been here over a week. Thankfully, I had a large stockpile of frozen milk. However, when they eat, I pump. So, I've prepared all their bottles for the past two days, and washed them after and kept up with the pumping. Fun times. We will continue bottles today and hopefully get back to nursing tomorrow. I definitely have an opinion on which is easier :o

We've also got to start the oatmeal train again. They were doing fine with it, so I'm sure they will have no trouble starting back up. So, once they are back in the same room, our schedule will pretty much change.

So, yeah, we hate the sickies around here. And to think, the doctor said it was more than likely caught from dirty hands. Of course, we have no idea whose hands, nor is it really the point. He just said as little as we have taken them out, it was more than likely spread through someone's dirty hands. So, if you come over, I'll believe you if you say you just washed your hands, but you've still touched something since then....I'll make you did it again before baby lovin :)

Sick babies break my heart.

Modeling her new hat :)

He was exhausted after coming home from the hospital...

*Don't forget there are some iPods for Cohen fundraisers going on this month. Check those out HERE. Knox & Sloane were so thankful to see each other via Face Time in the hospital.

*I had written in my planner to take time to respond to emails last week, but obviously did not have the chance. Forgive me! I'll work on it this week.

Have a good Monday!

Monogram Chick giveaway winner!

Hi all!

So sorry I'm just now posting the Monogram Chick giveaway winner. Our past week was a bit hectic with Knox being in the hospital.

Thank you to those who entered the giveaway!

A winner was picked randomly....

Jennifer, from Perfectly Imperfect....

You are the winner! Congrats! Email me for details.

Don't forget, the Monogram Chick has a discount code this month HERE.

You also have a bit longer to take advantage of the February Sponsors' specials & discounts! Let me know if you are interested in sponsoring for March :)

:)

Guess who just came home....

Yep! Knox is so happy he is home and I'm so thankful we are all home. Having two babies in two different places was close to torture.

He is ready to get his voice back and very thankful to have use of his left hand again. 

He isn't 100%, but is getting closer everyday. He is still going to be having breathing treatments and nasal suctioning. The goal is not to need the nasal cath suction. We can't do that at home. He's had a good 15 hours or so and sounded good this morning. No wheezing or choking.

He can't be around Sloane until Monday. You guys should have SEEN how big she smiled at him when we let them see each other, from afar. I really wish I would have bee recording. So sweet!

We are still praying Sloane doesn't catch metapneumovirus. We hate this virus and she has already been very exposed. We are also praying Brent and I don't get sick. I'm a little bit iffy right now, but the pediatrician basically say everyone will probably get sick and then well, so we'll see.

And no, we won't ever again think that staying at our house for 29 days will keep us healthy. ;)

Thank you all, again, for the prayers. We appreciate them SO MUCH!

Knox update

I didn't realize I hadn't posted any updates on here. I have been tweeting some, though.

I don't have too much time as Knox needs lots of TLC right now. Bless his sweet heart.

He IS doing better, but still not good enough to go home :(

He is still SO congested. He will do good for a few hours, but then the yucky stuff returns. He has to be suctioned quite often. They are also having to do some deep suctions where they have to go down his nose. It's awful. He is so horse from screaming. I absolutely hate it for him. It's so sad and it makes my heart hurt.

The doctor said he is on the road to recovery. It's just much slower for babies.

I'm going home to feed Sloane in the mornings and afternoons and her grandparents are with her during the other times. Brent goes to see her in the evenings so he can give her a bath, bedtime bottle & put her to bed for the night. I'm so grateful he is able to be with us during the day this week.

Knox is starting to want to play a little and his smiles are returning. Still lots of tears and whines, though.  He just doesn't feel good most the time.

He has grown a new love for napping on mine and Brent's chest, but he's doing good in the crib during the night. Of course, every few hours he gets quite aggravated with breathing treatments, temp check, CPT, etc. All part of it.

This is just a phase, but gracious a sick baby breaks my heart.

Sweet Sloaney. She is SO funny. Her grammy sends us pictures throughout the day and she gets so excited when we come home to see her. The girls nails, though, they are growing SO fast. We've been cutting and filing them almost every other day. She scratched her head up in her sleep last night. She's been giving out lots of laughs an few poop blowouts. Still stinking cute...

Thank you all again for the thoughts and prayers. We definitely feel them!!

Admitted

I've gotten lots of emails, tweets, texts, etc. and I'm having trouble keeping up so I thought I'd do a quick post.

They did admit Knox to the Children's hospital here in town last night. Yesterday about 5pm, his wheezing had gotten much worse and he was pretty much choking and projectile throwing/spitting up every time he tried to eat. So sad.

The doctor said with metapneumovirus it basically has to run it's course. They told us it could get worse before it gets better so he might be in for a few days. One nurse told me this is pretty much RSV but typically more congestion. Since he's having a hard time eating, they have him on IV fluids. He is also getting breathing treatments, chest therapy (where they tap on his chest with that little round gadget for a few minutes while he is getting a breathing treatment), medicated nose drops, suction & saline. (I'm no good with actual medical terms.)

He's pretty pitiful and I hate it for him.

He was actually pretty giddy after they transported us from the ER to Children's. He was giggling at the nurses and kicking and playing. This is before he got really mad at the blood draw & cath. Pretty cute for a sick guy.

He did sleep some last night, but had to be interrupted quite a bit for his treatments and such.

The nurses and doctors have said Sloane's chances of developing metapneumovirus are pretty high since she has been very exposed. We are praying that is not the case. I'm going to be coming back and forth to feed and spend time with her. So, I'm planning to wash up and switch clothes each time.  And because she looked ridiculously cute yesterday (she went on a car ride with Brent).....

Thank you so much for the continuous prayers!

Happy Half!

Well, kind of...

Today is Knox & Slaone's half birthday! They are six months old. I know, I pretty much say it every month, but six months? Half a year? Too fast, yes. Time, slow down.

What can I say, they I wanted a cookie cake :)

Since I honestly document the good, the bad, the ugly & the pretty......it's not such a happy half.

Knox started getting congested a few days ago, again. Then, a cough. By about 5pm yesterday, I took his temp and it was 100.6. He had spit/thrown up his previous feeding. It mostly had yucky stuff that was congesting him. So, we took him to the ER by about 6pm.

When we got there, his fever was 100.7. The tests & x-rays showed that he was negative for RSV, but tested positive for metapneumovirus. Which, from what they explained is a respiratory virus. Still, something he somehow caught. They had to suction him several times as he kept choking on "stuff" :( They had to put the tube down his nose to get more. He got a breathing treatment also. Basically, it sucked. We left exhausted and not really knowing what to do to help him besides suction, Motrin, Tylenol & snuggles. We will follow up, or go see his doctor tomorrow.

Brent snapped some pics as our families were wanting updates. What's an update without getting to see our little man ;)

We got home from the ER about 1am. He slept for a few hours on his tummy without many coughs. He woke up pretty pitiful. He ate and wanted to go back to sleep. After that nap, he actually woke up with a few giggles and smiles, but we didn't hold our breath because it didn't last long before he got fussy, stuffy and wanted to go back to sleep. Not to mention, he's still spitting/throwing up after eating. Hopefully he is keeping some down.

{If you were wondering if the newer iPhone takes better pictures. Here is pretty solid proof. The newer phone took the bottom right picture. The bottom two were taken within about fifteen minutes from one another so the room lighting hadn't changed really. Random, sorry.}

Here is his one sweet grin today. And here is Sloaney from yesterday. She has been such a ham with her smiles and giggles lately. I especially like how she got her toy up on her arm.

I'll do an "official" six month post in the next day or two, when they are up for it. Brent's mom was going to do a little family photoshoot today and some six month pics of them, but we had to postpone. Hopefully next weekend.

Thank you all for the prayers, tweets, texts, etc. Praying Knox feels better very soon!

Not a spider....

Someone left a comment in my last post asking if I saw the spider in my first picture.

I FREAKED OUT.....thinking I had missed a spider.

I read the comment on my phone, so I quickly tried to get a window open and my blog pulled up to see.

I thought surely I would have seen a spider, right?

Have I ever mentioned my fear of spiders? Yeah, it's huge. Major.

I HATE them.

Have I ever mentioned I'm pretty terrible at proof reading BEFORE I post a blog post?

I am.

Which, I'm sure you know if you've been reading much ;) Typos, run-ons, the whole bit, you will find.I don't sweat the small stuff, obvi.

Thankfully, it was not a spider, but I will probably analyze pictures better, haha..

Between "shake-it" being applied to the picture and our granite, the spider...

Was actually some hardware..screw top things..for something...

Creepy.

Thankfully, I didn't have a heart attack from a huge spider via picture yesterday.

Hope you are having a good weekend :)

Midweek Randoms

Is it Thursday? I'm still not sure how my days get so off.

• Well, even though I've probably been in a cupcake coma since about Monday, I still managed to lay in bed and eat half a box of Special K Vanilla Almond this morning. Lovely, Megan.

• I like cereal with a tiny bit of milk, but I swear plain milk messes the babies' tummies up. I just got some Pure Silk coconut milk from Target, so I'm going to give that a go.

• Speaking of babies, Knox & Sloane are still having skin issues. I think they just have sensitive skin..on their face, anyway. I've been using less detergent and double rinsing their clothes. I was thinking wash cloths and towels might have been getting them with the detergent in them still. Now, I'm thinking when I wipe the oatmeal off their face it's irritating them. Heck, who knows, but I feel bad about all their bumps : / Not to mention, I probably have every California Baby cream under the sun now.

• I've been pretty productive the first part of this week. I've utilized my time as best as I could during nap time and I've gotten stuff done. Last week, I felt like they weren't wanting to nap and I was listening to them talk in the monitor the whole time. This week, I feel like they've been sleepy heads.

• Some days I get quite a bit done and some days I get nothing done. I'm over the shame of either.

• So far, Brent hasn't asked me to do laundry again, so hopefully I'm caught up.

• Dinner still isn't something I've been doing much of. It seems the witch finally sucked in Knox from about 5:-6:30. He doesn't cry, but he just kind of fusses and wants lots of activity.  Brent plays with them both when he gets home at 5:30 since we are starting bath time about 6:30 right now. 

• Last night was the first night I've cooked dinner in probably a few weeks. I've cooked..or put together..smaller things, but a lot of times Brent puts something together for us after we get the babies down and I'm pumping.

• I like cooking, but then I eat and I want to do is sit and do nothing after. Therefore, I wake up to this in the morning....

 Is it as unappealing to you as it is to me? haha. To wash dishes at night or in the morning. hmmmm.

• I do NOT have a "green thumb"....but somehow I've managed to keep this African Violet going for a few years. It blooms on and off most of the year. I've always had it in the kitchen window. I think it's so pretty.

• I woke up with a crick in my neck/back yesterday, which also gave me a headache. I NEVER get headaches, so I assume it was a package deal. It got worse as the night went on, but felt better by this morning.

• Brent travels a little bit for work and I think the babies and I are going to start going with him some. We thought it would be nice for a change of scenery and to sometimes make a weekend trip out of it, too :)

• The polka dot top from my last post is from Forever21. I got it when I was about halfway through my pregnancy with Knox & Sloane, but I feel like they had it not too long ago.

• The cupcake carrier is from a local grocery store, but here it is on Amazon :)

• Oh my word. I just now about broke my ankle running to the door. I have a "please knock" sign piece of tape with marker written on it over the doorbell, but I never realized people would knock so loud. Elton REFUSES to stop barking at knocks, bells, dings, the wined, etc. Argh. 

• Our new coffee table/ottoman arrived last week. I LOVE it. I wanted something soft and squishy that the babies could pull up on, but something that could hold a tray, too. I've not used Scotch Guard, but should I? That helps prevent stains and stuff, correct? I was thinking ahead and determined we have white carpet so I know plenty of stains are in our future and stains on 'stuff' are probably the least of my worries.

• I still need to do a Christmas post. I kind of ended up skipping that. I also want to get the first year or two of my blog into a book and then start doing one each year. I've been saying I was going to for forever, but I need to do it so I'm not trying to get caught up on it in five years. I know of Blurb and Mixbook. Have you used either? Do you like?

Have a good day!

Love really is...

all around :) (Love Actually)

Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day! Ours was very nice.

Thanks for the sweet words on Knox & Sloane's Valentine that I posted yesterday afternoon. I think several people commented about having to do a double take before the noticed what their onesies said :)

Thought I'd post a few pictures from yesterday :)

\

These crack me up. They were looking at my mom.  

He loves to look at her...

Not sure what Knox is doing, but his face cracks me up in the picture on the left.

 I put together a little Valentines for them :)

I didn't decorate really this year because I've not unpacked seasonal stuff. I did post the pillows I got this year the other day, here. These are a few things around the kitchen. Who doesn't need heart shaped marshmallows and Target mini cupcakes? Don't worry, I do have some homemade treats I'll post later, in the next day or two :)

The babies got fun treats from my mom. Unfortunately, someone else, besides Knox & Sloane, will have to eat those cupcakes that she made, haha.

Speaking of, how cute is the cupcake holder? It holds them down in the inside as well...

Remember how I mentioned I will be sharing a recipe? We took white chocolate fudge to my OBs office yesterday. YUM. I'll get the recipe posted soon. The babies had fun playing with everyone.

Brent got me a few goodies, which included roses & cookies from Mrs. Fields.

I got him a few things, but I think his favorite was from the babies :) They attempted to make him handprint hearts. They kind of look more like flowers, but it's the thought that counts, right? They really wanted to grab things as quick as they could, once the paint was on their hands. Therefore, I couldn't get them to turn their hands in quick enough to shape the heart. Still pretty sweet.

I've actually since this project for a few years now. I thought this would be a good time to try it out. Probably a bit easier with older kiddos. All I used was canvases & finger paint and a lot of wet paper towel. The nice thing about these canvases (I got them at Wal-Mart. They are 8x10 & thin.), if you mess up, you could wipe off with a wet paper towel or just a wet towel. You had to do it pretty quickly, though. You can probably see where I did some wiping, but in person, it mostly looks clean white. Sloane, as you can see was all over the place, grabbed the canvas, but I was able to wipe most of it off. I will say, though the finger paint said "washable", I washed the load twice and it did not come out of the towel I used or Sloane's shirt : / Yes, I know now to do something like this while they are only in their diaper ;)

Brent and I went to one of our favorite restaurants on Saturday night to "celebrate" Valentine's with a nice dinner. No, he doesn't typically where razorback belt buckles, but it's more comical and he liked to sneak it in lately.

Hope you all had a wonderful day!!

*Don't forget the Monogram Chick giveaway this week!