Happy Birthday, Mema!!

Today is my beautiful mother's birthday! I hope you have a wonderful day, Mom! "We love you Mema!!" (from Keegan and Delilah, of course - their typing skills are amazing)

DAY026

Day 26 of the 365 Day Project

Fall has officially begun!! I love watching the leaves change colors and leaving my windows open. It was so nice out today! I am soooooo looking forward to this season!

DAY025

Day 25 of the 365 Day Project

"With every death, there comes new life." The drought has been brutal on us here in the South, but somehow, Nature still pulls through for Man. My bushes in the back are budding!

DAY024

Day 24 of the 365 Day Project

He's bringing sexy back! Haha, he thought it would be funny to put on my boots and vest from today - and it was! :)

DAY023

Day 23 of the 365 Day Project

We put the "one size fits all" costume on Sophie for the first time... not so much one size fits all!! It was way too tight on this chunk of a cat!

DAY022

Day 22 of the 365 Day Project

My Red Spider Lily's (Lycoris radiata) finally bloomed!

DAY021

Day 21 of the 365 Day Project

My baby girl is not so much a baby anymore!! These kids grow up way too fast. :(

Happy Birthday, Moma!!

Wishing Moma a very happy birthday today!! We are so glad you were able to come see us recently, and we already miss you bunches! We hope you have a WONDERFUL day!! :)

Also, wishing Babs's twin brother Nobe a happy birthday as well!! Or, as Keegan calls him, his great-uncle "Fish"! :)

Brutal Week

The title says it all. We have had a BRUTAL week here in the Schuster household. The kids have had runny noses for a couple weeks now, but on Tuesday morning it went downhill fast with Lila's vomiting. She was miserable, warm, sleepy, couldn't eat, couldn't drink.. Luckily it passed quickly, by the time she woke up from her afternoon nap she was feeling better. Wednesday was a kind of quiet day, Jonas wasn't feeling very well but he typically doesn't feel very well pretty often, due to bad allergies and shift work. On Thursday morning, Keegan came to sleep in bed with me (Jonas was working nights) at around 5:00, and around 6:00 I woke up to him gagging. He was still asleep but gagged four times, so I woke him up and brought him to the bathtub. He seemed fine after his bath, but then at 6:45 he started throwing up. He threw up twice by the time Jonas got home around 8:00. I tried to give him some soup but within minutes of taking his first bite, it all came back up on him. He went to sleep with Jonas, around 8:30 (mind you, Keegan slept from 8pm-6am Wednesday night). Keegan woke up briefly at 12:30, then slept again from 1:30-4:30. He was feeling better after he woke up, thank goodness, but I kept him home from school Thursday and Friday just to be safe. So, from 8:00pm Wednesday - 7:00am Friday, Keegan slept 28 out of 35 hours! So as soon as Keegan felt better, when he woke up around 4:30, Jonas woke up from his nap and was feeling terrible. I, too, felt just awful. Jonas was able to get the night off, thank goodness. Long story short, the same thing that happened to the kids happened to both me and Jonas on Thursday night (it is the first time in our four years together that we have EVER been sick at the same time!) - vomit, fever, fatigue, headache.. We somehow managed to make it through those few hours before we all went to bed, and Friday we were just dragging, like a really really really bad hangover. We are ALL feeling better today, and about to head out for some frozen yogurt! I hope all of you had a better week than we did! :)

DAY020

Day 20 of the 365 Day Project

Keegan was using the restroom today when he started yelling, "Mommy! Come look at the giant spider in here! It's SOOOO so big! Come look at the giant spider!!" This goes to show that he really is my son!

DAY019

Day 19 of the 365 Day Project

My beautiful blue rose.

DAY018

Day 18 of the 365 Day Project

EVERYBODY in the house is very sick, here are my boys comforting each other (taken yesterday). Shortly after this was taken, Keegan turned to Jonas and said, "Daddy, you are sick like me. I want to make you feel better." It was so sweet!

DAY017

Day 17 of the 365 Day Project

Keegan got this new lego man night light for his birthday, and Delilah met his "buddy light" for the first time today. She hugged him and played with him for the longest time, it was adorable!

Lila's Stomach Bug

At about 7:00 this morning, Delilah vomited in her bedroom. At 7:45, just as we were about to walk out the door to take Keegan to school, she did it again. I won't go into too many details, but she wound up doing it two more times on the way to Keegan's school, and once more at the doctor's office. Turns out she has a violent and contagious stomach bug. The doctor said these things typically leave as quickly as they show up, that we couldn't do much but give her some Pedialyte so that she would stay hydrated (she couldn't keep anything down) and gradually give her bland food. After a good almost four hour nap and a couple bottles of Pedialyte, she seemed to be mostly recovered. Thank Goodness!! It was a scary morning, the way she got sick scared me because she was having difficulty getting it out on her own (when she did it in the car I had to pull over and get her out of the seat and hold her face down to help her). During her nap, my friend Laura watched Keegan for me (since the doctor suggested it is contagious, I didn't want Keegan anywhere near her) and I spent the entire time hardcore disinfecting the house. Now, both my babies are in bed and seem quite healthy! Not to mention my house SPARKLES right now. I am just happy that Miss Delilah is feeling better, I felt so bad that there was nothing I could do to help her, I couldn't even feed her. :/

Keegan did a good job of trying to make her feel better though! He gave her lots of hugs and kisses, and brought her everything she wanted or needed.

Also, I am officially the Room Mom for Keegan's class! That means that I am in charge of all the events that will go on, such as parties and teacher appreciation week and stuff like that. I will notify all the parents of these events and ask for volunteers and delegate, plan the parties, etc. I am excited that his teacher reached out to me for this position! She said that she felt most comfortable talking with me (probably because Keegan's birthday was last week so she's had more contact with me than any other parent) and that I seemed comfortable with the other adults (she would much rather be in a room with the three-year-olds than with their parents!) so she feels I would be good for this. I am so glad that we decided not to wait another year to put Keegan in school, it has already done so much good for him, and for me and Delilah as well! :)

DAY016

Day 16 of the 365 Day Project

Before school this morning, Keegan was taking very good care of his sick little sister. So sweet!!

DAY015

Day 15 of the 365 Day Project

Keegan drew a self-portrait today. When Jonas asked him if the thing at the bottom was a shoe, Keegan responded, "No, it's a puddle of pee!" He is definitely a crazy little boy! (P.S. I had a case of the Mondays and didn't take a whole lot of pictures today!)

DAY014

Day 14 of the 365 Day Project

Daddy's Little Girl Delilah getting some loving from Daddy at the airport today.

DAY013

Day 13 of the 365 Day Project

Keegan fell (this picture was taken yesterday, I forgot to post) off his playground and landed on his face. He looks like a true crazy little boy, with the scar on his forehead, scrape on his nose, and scrape on his cheek from his fall at school.

DAY012

Day 12 of the 365 Day Project

This planter and the rocks in my courtyard remind me of my birthplace, Arizona. I love it!

Happy [Belated] Birthday Keegan!!

Yesterday, my sweet angel Keegan turned THREE YEARS OLD.. 3!!! Can you believe it?? Where did the time go?! Here are some pictures of our activities from his big day!

His new kitchen! Thanks Moma!

His new basketball hoop! Thanks Bopa!

He stayed so busy that he even tired himself out early and took a nap. He hasn't done that in forever! He told us at the end of the day "I had a lot of fun today. It was the best birthday." It was such a contrast to the beginning of the day when he said, "What? It's my birthday? I thought you cancelled it! [last week, Keegan was causing trouble and Jonas said that if he didn't stop, he was going to cancel his birthday] Okay, it can be my birthday, but I'm NOT three, I'm two!!!"

DAY011

Day 11 of the 365 Day Project

This sweet boy is three today, enjoying his birthday cake!

DAY010

Day 10 of the 365 Day Project

World's Coolest (and possibly weirdest) Parents? I think so. :) (Although I'm sure that if I showed Keegan's friends this picture when he is 16, he would be mortified)

DAY009

Day 9 of the 365 Day Project

Keegan had to sit in the time-out-corner for hitting Lila with a toy. Within seconds of him sitting down, Lila didn't like to be apart from him so she waddled on over there, sat next to him, and made him laugh by being silly and bonking her head against the door.