A Christmas Surprise!

Many of you know I had my ultrasound at the beginning of December and the doctor was not able to determine the sex of the baby. I was totally bummed because I was really wanting to know and we were hoping to find out that day. Well, a few weeks ago I was talking to Kelsey, Travis' sister, about how we were disappointed because we still didn't know what this baby was. She suggested that I get a 3D ultrasound, but the last time I heard about someone getting one of those they were really expensive. She said that she had a friend who recently got one and the prices had really come down. I knew McAllen had a 3D ultrasound place so I checked into it later that night. They had a decently priced package but Travis and I couldn't decide if it was really worth paying the extra money to determine the sex of the baby. I thought about it some more and then I came up with a fun idea. I told Travis that I should go and have an ultrasound and have the ultrasound tech write down the sex of the baby and we could open it on Christmas morning together! He loved that idea and so that is what we did. We didn't tell anybody what we were up to so it would be a total surprise for our family. I had the ultrasound done last week and we opened the results this morning to discover that we are expecting a baby........................




GIRL!!!!!!


We are beyond thrilled and it was such a fun way to find out! We wrapped up the pictures and let his parents find out today as we all opened presents. The ultrasound tech also sealed an envelope up that I sent to my parents last week and told them not to open it until Christmas. They called today totally shocked. This little baby girl is the only girl among 5 boys on the Fleming side of the family. My parents are coming down next week so I'm sure my mom and I will have to hit the stores for some dresses and bows!

Things I Love!

I love when my boys play well together and you can hear them running around the house laughing and using their imaginations!

I love DVR! Especially at 6:00 in the morning when my 3 year old wakes me up and asks to watch a certain cartoon. I can put the cartoon on and go back to bed for a few more minutes!

I love when my kids say silly and funny things. Some things the boys have said in the past couple of days:
Tyler ran in after church on Wednesday night and exclaimed, "Mom, I made you a hornament for the Christmas tree!"

Last night at dinner Cooper told us he had seen some green beans at the zoo one day. He said they were swimming around in the water!

I love when my kids use their manners without any prompting!

And by far the thing I love most is when I tell my boys I love them and I hear a "I love you, too!" back!

Booties!

I couldn't resist taking a picture the other night of these precious booties in the bath tub! They were both laying on their tummies in the bath showing off their very white booties. So I ran to grab the camera to capture it. By the way, the water is red. We had some color tablets for the bath that they dropped in that night!

Not your typical Thanksgiving!

Many of you know we had a very rough Thanksgiving, so here is the whole story! The week or so leading up to Thanksgiving Cooper had a runny nose and cough. The runny nose went away, but the cough persisted. On the Thursday before Thanksgiving Cooper woke up from his nap with a fever. The fever went down with some Motrin, but then returned in the middle of the night and early the next morning. So I took him into the doctor here hoping it was just an ear infection especially because I was supposed to leave with the boys on Saturday and drive to Houston to spend the night with friends. I was then going to continue up to Tyler on Sunday morning.

At the doctor they looked at his ears and did a strep test and both were negative. They listened to him and considered pneumonia and even had a second doctor listen to him, but ultimately decided that it wasn't pneumonia. They thought it might just be a virus, but went ahead and prescribed Tamiflu since we would be traveling. Cooper continued to run fever and we were shoveling Tylenol or Motrin in him every 3 hours to control the fever. During the times that he didn't have a fever he played pretty normally and was still very active. I decided not to leave on Saturday because he was still running fever and I wasn't going to be able to stay with friends in Houston because of the possibility that he had the flu. So I decided to leave Sunday morning and make the long 10 hour drive in one day. Every three hours I would pull over and give Cooper Tylenol or Motrin because he was still battling fever. We finally arrived and he seemed to be in a good mood and was playful that night.

On Monday morning Cooper was very tired and I figured since we traveled all day and he was sick he should get as much sleep as he could. I laid him down around 10:30 that morning and he slept off and on until around 2:30. He would cry out occasionally, but was very adamant about not getting out of his bed. He just wanted to lay down. About 4 my Dad came home and we went to check on him because I was getting worried about how Cooper was acting. He wouldn't let me hold him and just repeatedly asked to lay in his bed. If you know Cooper, you know he LOVES to be held. His breathing had changed and he was working a lot harder to take a breath. We decided I would take him in to an Urgent Care Facility and get him checked out. By the time I got there he was really working hard to breathe.

The doctors there did an x-ray and confirmed he had pneumonia. They started an IV and some antibiotics there hoping he would perk up and we could treat him at home. We exhausted all efforts there and the doctors decided it would be best if we took him to the hospital. So we headed over to the hospital and got set up in a room. From Monday night until Thursday morning we really weren't seeing much improvement. I spent the night at the hospital on Wednesday night and was completely exhausted after a long night caring for Cooper. Travis came to relieve me that morning so I could rest before some extended family came over for Thanksgiving lunch. I was sleeping when my mom came and woke me up to inform me that Cooper might be taken to Children's Hospital in Dallas. I immediately thought the worst and being physically and emotionally exhausted I totally lost it. I broke down into tears and called Travis to get the full story. The doctors in Tyler were concerned because part of his lungs were not responding to the antibiotics and fluid was building up in his lungs and he was fighting very high fevers. At one point his fever reached 104.8! They were concerned that he was going to need surgery to drain this fluid and relieve the pressure on his lungs. This really made us nervous- who wants to send their precious 2 year old in for surgery? We immediately began to pray that Cooper would not need surgery and that the antibiotics would begin to work on that fluid in his lungs. In the meantime, the transport crew from Children's came and got him ready for his first helicopter ride!

Travis and Cooper flew on the helicopter and I went home to pack up our stuff and eat a little Thanksgiving lunch. I then drove to Dallas to be with Travis and Cooper. Cooper was in ICU when we first arrived, but the doctors quickly decided he could be moved to a regular room. We got settled in our room there and felt great about the staff at the hospital. At some point the doctors decided that the level of antibiotics he was receiving were too low and therefore increased them to a higher level. Once the antibiotics were increased we saw an improvement in Cooper and the pediatric surgeons agreed that surgery was unlikely! Praise the Lord!!! Each day brought improvement and we were so relieved. On Wednesday, our 10th day in the hospital, Cooper was released to go home. Cooper is still on two antibiotics for two more weeks, but he is doing great at home. He has not had any fever since we left the hospital and he is pretty much back to himself.

During all of this drama with Cooper, Tyler was at my parents house with my sister and her family and my parents. Tyler was a real trooper! I know it was hard because he didn't totally understand what was going on. He had so much fun playing with his cousins and that was a huge distraction. On Saturday my parents drove Tyler up and we spent the afternoon doing fun things with him and giving him some undivided attention. We owe a huge thanks to the Hoovers and my parents for helping us with Tyler. We would have never survived without them!

Cooper went through a lot in the hospital- IV's, finger pricks, breathing treatments, x-rays, constant checking of vital signs, and lots of medicine! He really was a trooper. Many of the nurses had fallen in love with him while we were there. They all talked about how cute he was and they paid special attention to Brownie his bear.

We are all so glad to be back home! We really appreciate all of your prayers that were lifted up on behalf of Cooper. Even though we had a really hard Thanksgiving we still have so much to be thankful for. We are so thankful for modern medicine and God's healing power, for family and friends who are willing to help us in a time of need, and that we got to bring our baby boy home. We heard of so many other tragedies over the holidays that broke my heart. Our 10 days in the hospital was just an inconveinience.

Cooper in the hospital in Tyler. Some sweet lady makes blankets for kiddos in the hospital. This was Cooper's special blanket and he has become quite attached to it!

I'm pretty sure he was enjoying this ice cream at around 9 in the morning. We pretty much let him eat whatever he wanted. I felt so sorry for him for all that he was going through!

Cooper is showing off his dinosaur mask he used for his breathing treatments.

Tyler came to visit Cooper one day while he was in the hospital.

The cookie bouquet Cooper's cousins sent him to cheer him up!

Papa was taking silly pictures of Cooper wearing his glasses.

Seriously, Papa! I don't feel good!

The helicopter that Cooper and Travis took to Dallas.

The transport team taking Cooper out to the helicopter on a stretcher.

Taking off!

Starting to feel a little bit better!

I took this picture to show how little he was in that big hospital bed!

He had so many wires connected to him monitoring his every breath.

His little IV.

This is how I spent a lot of my nights at the hospital- curled up in bed with Cooper! He would often cry out in the night espeically is he was fighting a high fever. He often times wanted me to hold his hand, so it was easier if I just laid in bed with him. Plus, the chair that folds into a "bed" was not very comfortable for this pregnant mama!

The last day in the hospital and feeling much better. He didn't have his IV anymore so he was able to get out of bed. He learned how to move the bed up and down with the buttons and Papa taught him how to turn the TV on with his remote!

Boys Room

The entire house had popcorn texture on the ceiling and the first thing we did was get rid of it! It was a very messy task and this is one thing I actually helped with before getting pregnant. I looked like a ghost every night from all of the dust coming off of the ceiling. I felt like we were never going to finish the ceilings because after scraping the popcorn texture we had to go back and prep the ceiling for new texture. Travis then came in and sprayed a new texture on it before we primed and painted it. It was a LONG process, but I'm so happy that the popcorn is gone! On to the boys room:

Before pics:








After pics:

We painted the walls and the trim throughout the room. We also pulled up the carpet and put wood floors in their room. That is really all of the cosmetic changes we did in their room.

Another shot of their beds. I still need to find a rug to put in their room. I haven't been able to find one that will work yet. I still haven't figured out what to put on the walls adjacent to their beds. I've tried a couple of things and they just haven't looked right. I'll figure something out!

We pretty much used all of the decorations we had in Tyler's room at our old house. We used the oar to hang the curtains instead of just hanging it on the wall. Please excuse the curtains- I still need to steam them and get the wrinkles out!

A shot of their "bulletin board" and the bookcase Travis made.

Kitchen Remodel

Here are some more pictures of the house for all of those people who have been bugging me to put more up- Christine!

Before I start I can't take all the credit for our kitchen. Last summer before we moved I knew we were going to be remodeling. I was already stressed with moving and the thought of having to pick out everything for the house was overwhelming me. I had lots of ideas, but was having trouble narrowing them down to a cohesive plan. That is when I found Layla at the Lettered Cottage. I asked her to help me with some of the rooms in our house and she did a fabulous job. One of the rooms she helped me with was the kitchen. She basically gives you ideas of how to get the look you want and then you implement her ideas. It was really fun and Layla did a great job! Here is one of the pics she sent us for our design plan.


Anyway, here are some before, during, and after shots. I'm only letting you see half of the kitchen today because the breakfast area is still incomplete. We are picking up my sister's old kitchen table over Thanksgiving because ours is WAY too big for the space. I'm going to refinish the legs on her old table and I think it will work perfectly in the space!

Before shot of the kitchen. They had actually put in new cabinetry which is really nice- we just didn't like the color scheme, tile floors, or ceilings!

Here you can see the WEIRD before tile floor. They had two different color tiles that met in the middle with this zig zag alternating each color tile.

Another side of the kitchen. You can peer into the family room from here.

From the kitchen looking into the breakfast area and sunroom. I'll show you what we did to cover up that horrible ceiling fan alcove.

Here is the kitchen during renovations. We (Travis and his dad) busted out the backsplash and tile floor and installed a V-groove ceiling to cover up all of the weird stuff going on with the ceiling and the popcorn texture.

Another picture during the renovation.

The After shot. The top cabinets got painted a white color while the bottom cabinets are a light green. They are Benjamin Moore colors Polar Frost and Spanish Olive to be exact. We put in granite counter tops and new brushed nickel hardware that we found on ebay for cheap! My favorite part of the kitchen is my farmhouse sink. I had to beg and plead to get this, but I ended up finding a really great deal online and Travis agreed! Travis rearranged the can lights on the ceiling to spread them out and give us more light throughout the kitchen. All the appliances were fairly new and matched the refrigerator so that was a plus! We originally planned to paint all the trim and cabinetry ourselves throughout the entire house, but we decided against that idea. We figured that is was going to take WAY too long for us to do it ourselves especially since I couldn't help after I realized I was pregnant. And since we were living with his parents during the remodel and we wanted to move in the house in this century we decided it was worth shelling out the money for painters! We were able to save some money in other areas of the remodel so it all worked out in the end!

A closer look at the farmhouse sink.

Another view. I still need to figure out curtains for the kitchen window. I just haven't had the time! My other favortie part of the kithen is the antique scale I found at an antique shop this summer. It's on the left holding the bananas.

That's all for now! I'll post pictures of the boys room later today.

Who Cleaned?

So the house has pretty much been in a state of chaos since we moved in. Boxes everywhere, toys everywhere, and stuff everywhere. It's been exhausting unpacking and just keeping up with daily laundry and cleaning. I actually did very little cleaning because of all the stuff everywhere- just enough to get by. Well, this weekend Travis took the boys hunting which allowed me to finally have an extended period of time to focus on getting this house organized and cleaned up. I actually got a lot accomplished and feel like things are finally coming together. So when the boys came home I went out to greet them and Cooper wanted me to walk inside with him. As we walked inside the first thing Cooper said was, "Who cleaned?" I about died laughing. You know your house was in bad shape if your two year old asked who cleaned when he walked in the door.

Cubbies

Before we moved here I looked up anything and everything I could get the boys involved in. I found out that the FBC had AWANA and I knew that I wanted Tyler to be apart of it. I signed him up at the beginning of the year and he has loved it! The first few weeks were hard because he was unsure of himself and didn't know anyone, but it's amazing what a little bribe of a lollipop or some chewing gum will accomplish! He loves it now and has many friends in his class.

Tyler has learned around 11 bible verses so far and surprises me with some of the things he is learning. He has earned all of his patches so far and we promised him we would do something very special with him at the end of the year if he worked hard and learned all of his verses. I'm so happy he is learning God's word at an early age and I pray that it will be apart of him for the rest of his life. Sometimes it is hard during the week to get Tyler to be serious and learn his verse, but he always manages to know it. Cooper also has learned quite a few of them and often chimes in telling me the next part of Tyler's verse when Tyler is goofing off and won't repeat the verse! We are so proud of Tyler for learning God's word!

Cooper also goes to AWANA. They just started a 2 year old program for AWANA, but they don't have a workbook and don't memorize verses this year. They have done some great things in his class though and he is also learning a lot between AWANA and his preschool. I love my boys and am SO proud of them for making the adjustment with the move and having to go to new schools and churches. They really are doing well and have made lots of new friends.

House Preview

Here is your first preview of the work we have done on the house. It is not terribly exciting, but I like the way it turned out. It is the hallway leading to the boys room, bathroom, and nursery. I found an example of this on the internet this summer and talked Travis into doing it in our house. Anyway, here are the pictures:

Before picture of the hallway.

During our renovations. The walls hadn't been painted yet and you can see we broke out the tile and tore the carpet out.

Installing the beadboard.

Travis did all of the work himself. He built a shelf and attached it to the beadboard. I wanted a ledge to put family pictures on.

Final product! I used picture frames I already had and filled them with my favorite family photos.

Looking towards the bathroom. You can see the wood floors we installed through most of the house. We still need to change out the hallway light fixture.

More pictures

You can see the new doors we installed. You can also see that we painted all the wood trim in the entire house.

I really like how it turned out. Good job, Travis!

Catching Up...

Get ready, because this post is going to catch you up from the last 4 months! We have finally moved into our house and are trying to find our things among hundreds of boxes. The boys have loved finding some of their favorite toys and have been entertained by helping us unpack boxes. Moving is definitely harder when you have two busy little boys trying to "help". We have gotten a lot done, but have so much to do to get the house the way we want it. The master bathroom isn't functional right now, so Travis and I find ourselves roaming across the house to use the restroom or shower. It is such a mess! I will post pictures of the house as soon as things are settled a bit more. I do have to brag about my husband a little bit, because he has done ALL of the work on the house except for painting the cabinets and trim and installing the wood floors. He has done AMAZING work and has worked very hard. He has been working after his day job and on weekends. Travis' Mom and Dad also helped out quite a bit by helping on the house or watching the boys so we could work. I did help before I got pregnant, but after we found out I was pregnant I didn't help much because a lot of the materials that we were using could be harmful to the baby and we didn't want to take any chances!

So back to the last 4 months...


The first week we were here we headed out to the farm because they were cutting grain and Tyler wanted to ride the combine and tractor. He absolutely loves being out there and I'm pretty sure he threw a fit when we had to go home.

Uncle Lynn, Travis, Tyler, and Cooper riding the tractor and emptying the buggy into the truck.

Grandpa and Cooper out at the farm.

Grandpa, Travis, Sarah, and Cooper going for a ride on the Combine.

We have made several trips to the beach since we moved. The boys absolutely love going and driving their dump trucks in the sand. The first trip we took to the beach they weren't real big fans of the water, but since then they have become more brave and they love to play in the water too! I think there will be many more trips to the beach in our future.

Tyler and Cooper driving their trucks in the sand.

Tyler digging holes in the sand.

Tyler and Keith feeding the birds at the beach.

The week after we moved we celebrated Cooper's 2nd birthday. Travis and I took the boys to the circus one Saturday for his birthday. They had fun, but they are probably still a little young for the full experience. It wasn't very crowded and after intermission we moved up to the very top row because Cooper was tired of sitting down. We ended up leaving early, but overall had fun. The boys really liked the animal parts of the show, but the goofy stuff they do between the animal acts bored the boys!

Before we left Grandma gave the boys some money for a treat. Tyler picked out a snowcone (that he ate one bite of!) and Cooper picked out Cotton Candy that came with a crazy hat.

Cooper and Daddy watching the show.

Mama and Tyler

Cooper in his crazy hat eating his cotton candy!

On Cooper's actual birthday we had a little party with family. We cooked out and had cake and homemade ice cream.

Thomas the Train was a big hit!

Family picture.

Cooper digging in head first.

Sugar high!

Getting ready to open presents. So serious!

The boys still love playing outside, although the flies, gnats, and mosquitoes seem to be worse down here. It is quite annoying and the boys get mad and demand to go inside. We finally have had some cooler weather down here so hopefully the bugs will go away for awhile.

The boys riding through Grandpa's fruit trees.

Tyler's truck is sporting some new paraphernalia.

Both Cooper and Tyler are going to school this year! It has been really nice for all of us. The boys love it (although I'm not sure Cooper would admit it!) and have been learning so much. The other day Cooper busted out singing the ABC's and I was shocked! Tyler doesn't even know the ABC's! They are doing great at school and have made some new friends. Tyler walks in like an old pro and doesn't look back. Cooper on the other hand, clings to me until the very last second. Once I leave he is completely fine and loves every minute of it!

Cooper on his first day of school!

Cooper's school had a pumpkin patch fundraiser so I took the boys recently to pick out some pumpkins.

Cooper showing off his unique pumpkin.

Sweet Cooper!

When we moved into the house we decided we were going to go ahead and move Cooper to his big boy bed. He has done great with it and hasn't gotten out of bed except at naptime. The boys are sharing a room and loving it. I know they are going to have so much fun together. They really do love each other and have fun together.

Cooper getting ready for his first night in his big boy bed!

Tyler helping Daddy screw in the new drain for the tub.

Well, that is all for now! I have a small preview of some of the work we have done on the house that I will post soon. I promise I will be blogging more now that we are in our house.