The past few weeks...

Holy cow -- I can't believe that it has been 3 weeks since I last posted. Things have been crazy around here. Jon has been sick with an upper respiratory infection for just about 3 weeks. He sounds horrible and I'm surprised that his lungs are still intact. He sounds so bad that I forced him to go to the doctor TWICE (I know, I'm a really mean wife) just to make sure that there was nothing seriously wrong with him. Of course, it's just a virus and the doctor's can do absolutely nothing for him. So he just has to let the illness run its nasty course. I feel so bad for him!

BOTH of the kids were sick last week. Fortunately, they seemed to have recovered a lot quicker than Jon. I seemed to have completely escaped the sickness altogether (hallelujah). Last week was pretty rough though. For the majority of the nights my head rarely hit the pillow as I was playing "musical kids". Lizzie would cry and I would go into her room and find her burning up with a fever. So I would have to take care of her (give her medicine, put a washcloth on her forehead, get her a drink, sing her songs, etc.). Then when I thought that all was well and I could finally get some shut-eye, Bryce would cry and I would find him burning with a fever as well.
The kids kept switching off and on and I literally thought that I was going to go insane!

I was honestly more tired last week than I was when I first took Bryce home from the hospital. Crazy! Besides the lack of sleep, I was worrying like crazy. I always do when my kids are sick. Why are the having fevers for 3 days straight? Is something seriously wrong with them, or is it something minor? Will Bryce get brain damage from all of the heat in his head? Does Lizzie have a bladder infection? Oops...the Tylenor expired last November. What are the side effects of giving your kids expired medicine? The list of worries just went on and on and on. I was going crazy!!! And more than once last week I told myself that I was NEVER going to have another kid because I just can't handle it mentally. How in the world am I going to be able to worry about ANOTHER kid someday?! Anyway...I'm really glad that last week is history! :)

Here are some pictures of the last few weeks...

Jon and Lizzie watching "Muppet's Treasure Island". Jon really likes that movie and so I bought it for him for Christmas. He and Lizzie have already watched it twice. I have yet to watch it. Oh, and you'll notice in many of the following pictures that Lizzie has finally decided to smile BIG for the camera when I tell her to. It's kind of funny. :)

On one of the days we decided to venture out to Apollo Park so that we could get some fresh air after being cooped up in the house for so long. I love Apollo Park!

I love it how the trees are reflected on the water in this picture...

As usual, I took Lizzie on a bike ride. She loves going on bike rides! We also played on the playground equipment and fed the ducks. :)

While Lizzie and I were playing, Jon played his banjo while Bryce sat patiently in his car seat -- he's such a happy baby!! I just love him so much!!

More of Lizzie's smiles! She wanted me to take pictures of her holding Bryce.

Bryce tolerates Lizzie pretty well. :)

One of our favorite things to do is to sit in our den and listen to music. Lately, we have been enjoying Disney music and the Primary Children's songbook. It's cute because Lizzie gets all comfy in her pink fuzzy chair and snuggles up with her "beet" (her blanket) when we listen to music. Speaking of her "beet" (I'm not sure why she calls it that), she told me the other day when we were looking at pictures of the temple that she loves her beet and wants to marry it in the temple. :) I told her that she should probably marry a person in the temple, not her beet. She told me that she wanted to marry me, or Brycie-boy, or Daddy. :)

Lizzie has two collections (or "cowections", as she refers to them).

This is her "eraser" collection. It's actually a bunch of erasers that I have had for YEARS and some new ones that I bought her for Valentines Day. She likes to take them out of the box, one by one, and tell me about them.

This is her "Baby" collection. Jon's Mom was given a bunch of tiny babies with some accessories and she gave them to Lizzie, thinking that she might enjoy them. They are actually pretty funny looking, but Lizzie loves them!!

She likes sticking these things on the play toilet!! It makes me laugh.

And here is our little Brycie-boy all ready for church with his hair slicked back. :) I can't believe that Bryce will be SIX MONTHS on Monday. I swear that it took CENTURIES for Lizzie to hit the six-month mark. With Bryce, it felt like I just had him yesterday! I just love our little chunky man. I could just eat him up!

He likes standing up...

And he likes to sit on Daddy's shoulders.

Just for fun, I thought that I would throw in some pictures of Lizzie at the same age for comparison purposes. They look very similar, but there are some differences.

Here is Lizzie...

Bryce playing with his train...

Lizzie playing with the same train 2 years ago...

Bryce LOVES these red cups!! I remember Lizzie did too at that age.

Here's Lizzie...

Bryce loves chewing on ANYTHING!!!

And he started liking his binky a lot over the past few days. He didn't want to have anything to do with it for MONTHS, but he suddenly decided that he loves it and it is unfortunately the only thing that will make him happy sometimes. Bummer. I have created a monster! :)

Here are just a couple of pictures of him sitting up all by himself. He can do it pretty well now without support, but he still occasionally falls over and gets carpet burn (ouch!) if I don't have pillows around him. I don't think that he will be crawling for a while. I thought for sure that he would be a faster crawler than Lizzie, but I'm not so sure now! Every time I put him on his tummy, he promptly rolls over to his back. He despises being on his tummy! :)

Well, that's pretty much the last few weeks in a nutshell. We are truly so blessed and I am extremely grateful for all of my many blessings.