This s our Addie. Spunky, unique, full of energy, and the joy of our lives. We love her so very much.

Addie is such a good little mama

Jaron gave me a foot spa and she had to try it out. She loves it

Wonder what this is? It's a banana. Jaron was trying to take a selfie with Addie while she was eating a banana. She decided the banana deserved a selfie all by itself.

Here's the banana-less selfie. It couldn't be in the picture anymore because Addie is stuffing it in her mouth.

We tried potty training. It didn't work. But here we are in desperation trying to get her to go in her potty, complete with her tablet in the kitchen

Addie ready for school!! And yes, she did wear a coat, I'm holding it in the background. She is so photogenic

In Xander's carseat. It's crazy she used to fit this

Now onto our little man. He is very large, over 18 pounds. He has the best smiles. He has a fiery temper and loves to complain. He seems to have two moods: sleeping and crying. He is the neediest baby I have ever met. He constantly needs attention and to be held. It is not unusual for him to cry for over six hours in a day, and I mean full on, face red, tears streaming, yelling at the top of his lungs crying for six hours. It is very frustrating and hard to get anything done. But even still, this little boy has won our hearts.

His hat that Jaron got him. The orange ball as Addie's addition

He loves his toes

Update on our family: we are sick again. It seems to be our normal state. Over the past week and a half we have had a series of three illnesses: cold, diarrhea, and worse cold with a fever. I don't think they are related or the same illness because all three have happened individually and without the other symptoms for a few days. Today was Stake Conference (last night too) and we decided not to brave it. Addie, Xander, and I had a fever and Jaron has bad congestion and headache. We would have infected everyone there and probably not lasted more than five minutes. I still feel guilty though; a lot of people skip Stake Conference for a free Sunday so we always make a point to go every time. I think this weekend is an exception though

Addie and Xander are best friends. Every day we are blown away at how she is such a good and loving big sister. And Xander just idolizes her, you can tell by the way he stares at her and lets her be his sister mama. Some of these pictures are a bit older, you can tell because Xander looks so much younger in them!

Addie and Xander on a swing together at the park.

Giving Xander hugs

Sharing a shopping cart together at Costco

Watching the ipad together

This was taken this morning. Addie showing Xander how to play with his new toy. He loved having her play with him

Taking a bath together in our sink. This was taken while Xander was still tiny (because he's definitely not anymore) but Addie and Xander still bathe in our sink about once a week or so. It is a good way to entertain Addie while I'm busy with Xander, and she gets clean at the same time

Look at that tired mama! This is at the dinner table, and is often how I eat my meals. A baby on each leg and I'm lucky if I get anything in my mouth. But I love my babies <3

Proof that Uncle Jacob was here!

Look at that smile! And look at that little boy!! Oh, he melts my heart.

He is so big. He is four months old on the 9th, but he is over 18 pounds! He is in size 4 diapers. Addie, who is almost two and a half, is 28 pounds and size 5 diapers. They are only 10 pounds and one diaper size difference! He is such a chunk!!

He's a pretty cool little dude. And he loves to read!!!

We have been having to put Addie in time out a lot lately. We were trying to leave, to get ice cream no less, and Addie didn't want to get in the car. So she stuck herself in timeout!

We have had some visitors from Jaron's family! His brother Jacob came for a weekend and then his mother came for two weeks. We went to the amusement park King's Island with Jacob, but I didn't get any pictures with him! Jaron has some on his phone and I need to get them from him.

Addie and Xander on the caurasel at the zoo. Riding the horses is Addie's favorite part!! And this was Xander's first time. He wasn't sure what to think.

Addie on her horsie!!

They have a boat at the zoo that takes through a path with mechanical dinosaurs. I think it was a little scary for Addie because we asked her if she wanted to go on it again and she said no.

At the amusement park at King's Island. Addie told me she flied on his ride. I wish I had gotten a picture of her smile when it was going but they all turned out blurry.

Driving a car. I think this was her favorite ride.

Addie and my sister Mary who came with us to the park. I need to get some pictures from Jaron of Addie and Jacob, we got some good ones!

Well, in this family we believe in fairness. So Xander's turn for the up-all-night/fever/ear-infection/urgent-care-visit came last night. When it rains it pours people, especially with children. I think we need a frequent user's punch card at urgent care.

Xander was up all night screaming as loud as his little lungs would let him. He started running a fever at about 4am so I gave him some motrin. About 30 minutes later his fever broke and he was able to fall asleep around 5. Urgent care opened at 8am and we were there as soon as it opened.

The nurse that took Xander's vitals didn't think he had an ear infection and also lectured me for giving him motrin, saying he was too young. I was of course embarrassed and felt like I had done something akin to abuse to my baby for giving him motrin- even if it was the correct dosage for his weight and age. But, guess what? He DID have an ear infection and the doctor DID approve giving him the dosage of motrin I gave him, and in fact encouraged it because it got his fever down and made him comfortable enough to sleep a few hours before urgent care opened.

Aside from being annoyed with the nurse (who was not a doctor so she wasn't qualified to tell us those things anyway!) I'm glad I followed my mama instincts. And hey, this mama totally called the ear infection. I kind of wanted to rub it in the nurse's face as I left, but I didn't. I figured I would probably regret it later.

Xander is on antibiotics and is already doing better. Addie has no symptoms at all and is loving and living life to the fullest. Here's hoping that tonight is a better night. No more fevers, no more ear infections, no more tears, and no more urgent care visits.

But don't worry about us, we have lots of left overs and some freezer meals to tide us over. And both mom and dad are healthy which makes all the difference.

I don't have a sad picture of Xander, which would probably make me cry anyways, but here's a happy picture of Addie instead.

And thank you to whoever put happy Halloween shapes on our door. It brightened our day!

If you want to see the saddest picture in the world, keeping reading. Both the kids had bad colds this week (mom and dad did too). Addie seemed like getting better, but then on Friday she woke up from her nap very sad and clingy. She just cried and wouldn't let me put her down. After a while she started telling me that her ear hurt. I immediately thought: ear infection. But by this time we were on our way to a friend's house for dinner. In hind-site we probably should have canceled and taken her to urgent care right then, but we are still learning to be parents. Addie had a very hard time through dinner (thought it was wonderful for Jaron and me to talk to other adults!) When we left all urgent cares had already closed. We got Addie settled down and asleep in our bed with me at about 10pm, with Jaron and Xander downstairs. At 11pm though Addie woke up screaming. We could not console her at all. We did everything we knew how to do and at 12:30am Addie and I went to the emergency room out of desperation and the need to be doing something. We went to the Nationwide Children's emergency room, which was probably a mistake because it was packed. I probably should have gone to Mount Carmel by us which has a shorter wait time, which we know from personal experience. Anyway, we waited in that emergency room until 4am, Addie screaming and crying the entire time. And of course I am getting nasty looks from others in the room and I kept wanting to tell them that hey, we are in an emergency room for a reason! Addie started running a fever so I bugged the nurses to do something and they consented to bring us back to a room. They gave her a high dosage of motrin (higher than typically given for her weight, though still an acceptable amount) and sent us back to the waiting room. After about 20 minutes her fever broke and Addie stopped crying. I asked how much longer the wait would be, and they estimated 8am or later. Yikes! Because Addie looked like she could finally fall asleep I told them to take her name off the list and we went home. Addie and I slept until 10 or so, and we went to an urgent care that opened at noon. They took her right away, declared that she had a bad ear infection, and sent us on our way with a prescription for augmentin. By her second dose Addie has returned to her normal little self. She is complaining that her stomach hurts, but that's a trade off I'm willing to make to get her ear better.

I know that we didn't need to go to the emergency room, but we had run out of other things to do. I still don't know if it was the right thing to do. But they did give her that high dose of motrin that seemed to do the trick, and we never would have given her that much at home. I wish parenting came with instructions of what to do in these types of situations.

Xander has been more needy and clingy than usual. He cries more and needs held more. We don't think he has an ear infection; Jaron keeps checking his ears though it is hard to see well because his ears are so small. He is still congested and has difficulty breathing, but hopefully he is on his way up.

Love being a parent, right? Sleep deprivation and stress come with the job I think. But I still wouldn't trade it for the world. I love my two littles and they are my world.

Being a big sister is exhausting!!

So is being a dad!

And the cutest baby boy ever. He is over 16 pounds now. He is so big! He may or may not be wearing size 12 month clothing...and he isn't even officially 3 months yet (that happens tomorrow). He is a very needy and high maintenance baby. If he isn't sleeping, he's eating. And those times when he's not doing either he's crying. He loves to be held and cuddled, though he has to be held just right. Its a learning process for me to be able to balance two kids, one who is high energy and the other who constantly needs held. Addie didn't like being held (we couldn't even feed her her bottle while we held her, we had to lay her down otherwise she wouldn't eat!) Lots of trial and error, lots of experimenting, maybe some tears, but we are slowly getting there. As Xander gets older he is able to be more independent and Addie is getting better at playing by herself, which makes things easier.

We have started getting smiles though! And some giggles!

I took Addie on a mommy/daughter date, grocery shopping of all things. But she loved it. She got to have her own Addie sized cart, and I let her bring her purse that she loves to carry around, even though it is empty. She loves to be just like mom. She was so excited.

Xander and my dad, Grandpa Hilton. Xander prefers men. He is definitely a daddy's boy- Addie is a mommy's girl so its all good. Jaron can get him to settle down in minutes after I've been trying for hours. I tell Jaron he should be the mom and I'll go to medical school ;) I'm sure he'd be a great mom, but I have my doubts about me passing medical school. 

More pictures, because I can never take enough.

Even with the craziness of having two children we were able to get some good pictures.

Look at that red hair!