Sick....again!!

I am going to skip "not me Monday" today and just do a good old fashioned blog post. I. Am. Sick. I hate being sick and rarely find the time to lay down, or sleep, whenever I am sick. Landon has a really nasty runny nose (for the 2nd time in 3 weeks) and I have a horrible throat infection. Before I had kids I was a very healthy person and was not ever sick! Now, I can't count the number of times I have been sick, just the past 6 months, and I am SICK of it! I can't even imagine all the germs that will be floating around our house when Landon starts school.

Besides the sickness that seems to be roaming from person to person, we are doing really well. Brynne is officially walking and uses her legs to get around the house like she owns the place! She is a confident walker, anxious to use her newly learned mobility. No fear with this girl. In other Brynne news, She has cut 4 teeth this week and has another top tooth making its debut! 5 teeth at once! I feel for my poor girl, but thankfully she has not been too cranky or fussy and seems to be fine even without Tylenol. She is learning some important lessons from Landon. Our favorite being the 'if you see mama coming run/crawl/walk the opposite direction as quickly as possible' lesson, followed closely by the 'if you have something in your hands and Mama catches you, shove it into your mouth as quickly as you can' lesson. It is so funny how early they learn right from wrong. Brynne dives into anything edible that is within her reach and shoves it into her mouth like she is starving, all while quickly trying to get away before Mama shoves her finger into her mouth to clear the food she is entirely too young to eat. It's actually very funny, and sad at the same time, as I see my little baby girl growing up and becoming independent all too early.

Landon has lately been showing his temper more and more. His favorite way to express his anger is to throw whatever he is holding and scream. He has always been a very headstrong boy and as he gets older and tests his limits I am sure we will have challenges with learning how to effectively discipline him and teach him right from wrong. As for now whenever he throws something I march him right off to his room and he sits on his bed for a 'time out.' After about 5 minutes I return to his room and have a talk with him about why we don't throw things and how if we are angry we can express our self with words not actions. I make sure to bend down to his level and always use simple, clear words that he can understand. After his time out, and talk with Mama he gets hugs and kisses and must apologize. So far this method is working great for him and he has begun to think a bit more before he throws something. He continues to play all day with Brynne and seems to love her more each day. The two of them crawl off into the other room and sit and play with toys for several minutes, many times a day. It is so cute to see them playing together and I can only hope that their friendship and bond will only strengthen as they get older.

Travis has been working on a lot of projects around here, as usual. The entire fence is finished the length of the property in the front of the house. We have enough fencing to do either side of the property too, but I think that will have to wait until spring. This week he has been working on the sprinklers. Our property has sprinklers already installed in the front, rear and sides, but because the previous homeowners didn't take care of the house the sprinklers don't seem to be working. He has started to fix them and it seems to be a pretty big project. We just had our '1 year anniversary' since moving into the house and can't believe how much work has been done in that time. I am working on a separate post to document all of the hard work that has been done thus far. We were really hoping to paint the house this past summer, and know it will make the biggest difference in how the house looks. But, we just couldn't find the time or money to do so. I am anxious to paint in the spring and change the look of the house completely.

Our annual family pictures will be taken Saturday, and I can hardly wait! I love sending and receiving Christmas cards, and having our photo taken is always the official start to the Holiday's for me. I just hope for one good shot in which the kids are both looking at the camera, lol. We'll see!!

Sorry for the long post, but like many of you my blog is my journal and I like to document the happenings of our lives so that we may look back on them one day. My head is about to explode with sinus pain so I am going to go lay on the couch now, and let the kids entertain each other. If I feel up to it I will be back later to blog about the 'Game Night' we hosted on Saturday, fun times!