We are getting closer and closer to moving time! I am packing a box here and there, but they are all pretty small since I am using mostly diaper and wipes boxes...All of our stuff will get moved somehow! :)

We have already passed our county inspection and received our Certificate of Occupancy. Woohoo! We've had power and water turned on for over a week now, and their air conditioning untis are now functioning. There are still some things that need to be done, though, before we start moving stuff over. The carpet is going to be installed next week, along with the appliances. The entire house is getting a very thorough cleaning (not by us, thankfully!) this weekend. After that, it should look like the brand new house that it is!!

In addition, the garage doors still need to be installed and the fence needs to be finished. The fence should be done by Monday! We had our sod and sprinkler system installed last week and it really makes the entire house look different. It's so much prettier than looking out on a sea of dirt! Here's the view from the deck:

The fence will be around the entire grassy area, so it will be a nice sized yard for Addison, Fischer and Bo to play in.

More pictures to come soon!

This video is from a few weeks ago... for some reason, it's one of my favorites! It sort of reminds me of the videos at the beginning of the show The Wonder Years.  I think because it's sort of grainy, and it just shows how we spend our time outside! Also, Addison is obsessed with pushing buttons... on my phone, the camera, elevators, etc... Fischer was busy playing in the water, as usual.

I hate it when the kids are sick. It's frustrating when we try to keep them healthy, and they get sick anyway. Sometimes it seems like anytime we leave the house, someone ends up sick. But, I guess we'll just deal with it because we can't stay home all the time.

We had to visit the doctor yesterday afternoon. Fischer had been feeling yucky for several days, and it just seemed to be getting worse, and new symptoms kept popping up. Sunday, he had a rash on the bottom of his feet. How weird is that?! He didn't seem bothered by it at all though, so we gave him some Benadryl before bed just incase it got worse. The rash was still there in the morning, but again, he didn't seem bothered by it. Unfortunately, he also woke up with a nasty sounding cough. It was dry, deep, and sounded painful. That continued throughout the day, along with the rash.

By Tuesday morning, the rash was fading but the cough was still there, along with some congestion. He didn't have a runny nose, but sounded very stuffy. He also sounded very hoarse when he tried to talk. So pitiful! And, he was in a very bad mood. He was extremely emotional and would scream and cry over the tiniest thing. It was obvious he felt awful.  To make matters worse, he developed a very, VERY bad diaper rash. Sort of out of nowhere, and his stomach was clearly very upset. By yesterday afternoon, we couldn't take it anymore so I called the doctor. The nurse said to bring him in after I described the symptoms.

Luckily, Scott was around so I handed Addison off to him and was able to just take Fischer to the doctor. One kid is so much more manageable in a setting like that! After meeting with the doctor, she said he has croupe (whooping cough). She said the rashes were most likely related since it's a virus. She also got to see his diaper rash first hand, as I had to change him while we were waiting on her to enter the room. I'm sure the whole office heard him crying because he was in such pain. It was awful... and, his diaper was so bad that it leaked out of his diaper, through his shorts and onto my white skirt. I was quickly reminded why I never wear white pants or skirts anymore! :)

Anyway, she prescribed him prednisone and a prescription-strength diaper cream, along with an over the counter cough medicine. He woke up this morning feeling, and acting, like a new child!! I am so happy I decided to take him to the doctor because the medicine worked so quickly! He even felt good enough to play outside this afternoon, and he and Addison played nicely together in their pool for quite awhile.

Now, I just have to be on the lookout for symptoms in Addison, but so far so good!

In toddler bed news, the kids are doing great!! It's been over a week now and I can't complain. They didn't nap yesterday but I think it was because Fischer was out of sorts, which made Addison out of sorts. They are still getting up a bit earlier than they used to, but napping a big longer, so it all evens out!

I am trying hard to keep up with these blog posts. It's hard to keep up with things lately, and this is one of the first things that gets pushed back.

I am finally going to write about our Memorial Day weekend! We had plans to drive to Pennsylvania to visit Scott's family. Unfortunately, our plans had to change sort of last minute and we ended up not going. I was in desperate need of a routine change, so I told Scott that staying home that weekend wasn't an option. I didn't care where we went or what we did, I just needed a change.

My parents were going to visit my Grandma that weekend, and she's only about 2 hours away, so we decided to tag along for a quick visit. We stayed at a hotel with a pool and tried out Addison and Fischer's life jackets! The pool was pretty cold, so our swimming session only lasted about 30 minutes. It was fun watching them go from scared and nervous, to relaxed (sort of) and confident. They even "jumped" off the side several times!

We hung out at my Grandma's some, and the kids made sure to destroy some things. :) They also had fun tormenting her cats, Jack and Killer. Luckily, the cats are VERY patient and let Addison and Fischer love on them a lot.

I did some research and found a really cool place about an hour away. It's called Lazy 5 Ranch, and it's  in Mooresville, NC. You can either ride through the ranch (a 3.5 mile loop) in your car and look at all the animals, or do a wagon ride. We opted for the hour-long wagon ride, and it was so cool! The animals came right up to the wagon, and we got to feed them. There were so many different types of animals. Addison and Fischer really seemed to enjoy it, and didn't seem scared at all of the animals. They did their share of dropping food into the giant mouths too! We will definitely have to go back there, maybe in the fall when it's a bit cooler.

We headed home on Memorial Day, with a sick child. Addison woke up Monday morning and started throwing up, including once about 10 minutes into our drive home. She was pretty out of it that entire day, then seemed almost back to normal on Tuesday. It was very strange, and no one else got sick!

I hope all of you had a great holiday weekend (even though it was a couple weekends ago).

After a very early wake up call yesterday morning, today was back to normal! The kids slept until 7:30, and even slept through the very loud trash truck coming by at 6:00!! I heard them playing and giggling when they woke up this morning, which is such a nice sound to wake up to! :)

We put them to bed last night, and once again, they didn't make a peep. They went right to sleep, and slept all night.  And to make things even better, neither one fell out of bed! :)

Yesterday, they ended up taking a 3 hour nap. Woohoo! Addison ended up napping in Fischer's bed, which I think is so adorable. I asked them when they got up if Addison slept with Fischer and they both said yes. :) I wish I could've gotten a picture, but I wasn't about to walk in there and risk waking them up. I could tell on the monitor they were in the same bed, but couldn't see them well enough for a picture of that either. Maybe next time....

I am so proud of them for how well they've handled this transition. Hopefully it's a sign of how they will handle our move in a few weeks!

Just a few toddler bed updates:

I was wrong about their naps yesterday. After about an hour of playing, they actually went to sleep, and slept for almost 2 hours! I was very excited!

Their bedding arrived yesterday, so Addison "helped" me make their beds. They went to bed last night, we made them "cozy" and they fell right to sleep. Not even a peep. We'll see tonight if that was a fluke or not. Fischer did fall out of the bed once last night, but other than that, they slept great....

Until 5:30 this morning, that is. They decided to start their day very early. I went in there and tried to get them to lay back down, which they did as long as I stayed in the room, until 6. I've been hearing that this is normal and that they will eventually start waking up later again. I sure hope so!

They are in there now for naps, and once again, they are playing. They are extra tired today so I hope they nap or it could be a long afternoon!

Here is what their bedding looks like... I couldn't get a picture of Fischer's from the website, but it's the same as Addison's except it's blue instead of pink. I always go for the blue/brown and pink/brown combinations. Eventually I'll have to do another color scheme!  Each set has 4 pieces: 1 flat sheet, 1 fitted sheet, 1 pillowcase and a reversible comforter! I will post pictures of their actual beds (this is from the website) made up soon.

This will be quick, since it seems Addison and Fischer aren't going to nap in their new beds today! I totally expected this though. They are in there playing and giggling, which is pretty funny to listen to.

Their first night in toddler beds went pretty well! It took them awhile to settle down... Fischer was so excited and we kept hearing the pitter patter of little feed running around the room. We went in several times and got them back into their beds. Eventually, Addison stayed in hers and it was clear that Fischer was bothering her and trying to play. Overall, we ended up having more issues with Fischer than Addison, which I wasn't expecting.

Once they were both finally asleep, the night went smoothly. Fischer woke up once and cried. I think he was confused about where he was. He quickly went back to sleep after Scott went in, laid him back down and covered him back up. About 30 minutes after that, Addison fell out of her bed. She cried, I put her back in, and she was right back to sleep. Then they slept the rest of the night!

But this morning was an early morning. We heard the pitter patter again around 6. Then I heard "Sissy! Wake up!!" They stayed in their room and played for awhile so we didn't have to roll out of bed right away.

We'll see how tonight goes. Hopefully just as well, if not better!!