Time for an update... I think so!

So I guess I haven't blogged since Septemeber 2009! lol... nearly 2 years later I decided I wanted to blog again. I keep thinking of things & think man I should put that in writing for memories or just to feel like I said it, so here I am again. Guess we will see how long I last this time! This may just be my "naptime" fun from time to time :).

Anyway, just an update since September 2009! Chloe is now 2.5 years old, she weighs 28lbs and is 34.5 inches tall. She is average for weight and on the shorter side for her age. She is a very bright little girl. She knows how to count to 15 now, knows her colors, shapes, her ABC's from about L to Z, the sound each letter makes, and much much more. She in the past couple of months has really started to be able to communicate well to us & hold conversations with us. She amazes me all the time with the things she says and does!

We have added another daughter to our family on March 8, 2011. Her name is Courtney Jean. Jean is named after Eric's Mom's middle name. (Chloe's Jo is after my grandma's middle name). Courtney was born at 8lbs 10oz at 8:01am. She was taken by C-Section as she was larger in size and breech. The recovery for the C-section was more difficult then that of vaginal birth I did for Chloe, but I was up moving around pretty well within a week or so (even tho I did a lot I wasn't supposed to be doing). Courtney ended up having to go to the NICU for 3 days because she had taken some fluid into her lungs at birth & had some labored breathing. Most of her being there was precautionary measures. They adminstered her antibotics to keep her from getting any infections from the fluids. She did great, the hardest part was re aligning my expectations. I expected things to be just fine and have my baby in my room with me while in the hospital. It was tough at first because I wanted to see her so badly and I wasn't able to move around too much after having a c-section, so I didn't feel I got that inital bonding I would have liked to have had with her. We had Eric's parents and Eric's brother Phillip & his finace Amy there when Courtney was born.

Courtney, like Chloe, suffers from acid reflux. We feel like she actually has it a bit worse then Chloe did. We had to try a couple medicines @ different doseages to get her comfortable with it, but she is doing much better now. She spits up quite a bit more then Chloe did. She rolled over from her tummy to her back when she was 13 weeks old. She is now 18 weeks old. Today she had her 4 month well visit, which went good. She weighs 13lbs (30%) is 24.5 inches(50%) and her head is measuring in the 70% for size. I think she is a little small on the weight side from her acid reflux and how much she spits up. We are going to start putting rice cereal in her bottles to see if that will help keep her food down a little better. She smiles a lot, loves to play on her playmat, watch the tv, watch her sister, and loves her Mommy & Daddy. She has come very close to rolling from her back to her tummy a few times now, but hasn't done it just yet. She has also the past couple of days started to pull her legs up and lift her butt up a bit, she has moved forward a little bit pushing off with her legs too. We don't have her on too much of a napping schedule at this point, but are pretty good with a feeding schedule. She gets a 6oz bottle at 7,11,3,7 & we top her off with a 4oz at 10 before going to bed. She sleeps anywhere from 7-9 hours a night now.

Chloe is a great big sister to Courtney. She talks to her now and then, she will show her toys to look at. Chloe ALWAYS has to at least tell Courtney she loves her before she goes to bed. She likes to give her a hug and kiss, but when Courtney is sleeping we just tell her to say that she loves her. I think it will be interesting to see how Chloe reacts when Courtney begins to crawl and get into her toys and things. Chloe helps Mommy get things like rags, diapers, throws diapers away for Mommy. She enjoy's helping give Courtney a bath when she can. Now and then if we are playing with Courtney she will start to raise her voice or start acting a little silly to get our attention on to her. I hope they are so close as sisters, but time will tell. Im sure we will have quarrals as any siblings do as well.

Eric is doing good. He now works for a company called Rest On 7, which was started by his old regional from Sofa Mart. We really want to get to Nashville (Currently in Missouri) to be closer to Eric's parents and have the girls close to them as well. We are hoping to open a Rest On 7 in the Nashville area and then we will be moving there when that happens. I so badly want to get there and be able to settle down and not have to worry about moving again (well besides probably from a rental to a home we will eventually purchase). We want to buy a nice home to raise our girls in with good schools for them to go to and grow up in without having to worry about moving them around! I know if we just keep focused on our ultimate goals and not become sidetracked with needless things we can do it! We want the girls to have a family structure around them and there to support them in their everyday lives. People to come watch them in the activities they partake in, and even to watch them so Mommy & Daddy can go enjoy a night out now and again. I have a very hard time just leaving my kids with anyone, I gotta really trust someone before I will ever leave them. Eric is a great Daddy & he is doing what he can to make our families goals become a reality for us. We could careless about having all things "material", we just want to be surrounded by those who love and care for us enough to show it to us and our girls with their time and love. Material things will only get someone so much happiness in life, more then anything most end up with a pile of bills at the end of the day that they don't need. We as humans were designed by our creator God to love one another & that is where our hearts will feel fufilled and happy while at the same time we are making others feel the same way! God didn't say go out and make yourselves "things" and be happy and fruitful. He said to go and multiply... see we as people make one another happy! Okay I got on a tanget... haha.

As for me I am doing well. I LOVE my husband and my girls so much, they fill me with so much joy and happiness! I wouldn't trade being able to stay home with my girls for ANYTHING! Yes there are days I wish I could go out and hide from them for a break, but it doesn't matter. I just have to look at their sweet faces & know it is all worth every bit of time I put into them! Probably for another blog for me to go off on this tanget, but I have such a hard time understanding how people can't see what their kids are worth. They just expect they can have a kid and the kid will do what they say when they say because they are the parent. I guess they miss the point in many aspects of it! Like I said that maybe for another day. I do have goals for my own life. When I get my girls into school I plan to get back to the workforce, not exactly sure what I may want to do just yet but I do want to work and feel like a party of the adult society ;). For now I feel like I personally want to be home with my girls raising them to be all they can be in life and all God created them to be!

I lost my Dad on May 25th 2010. He choose his life of drugs and mainly alcohol. He basically got liver disease that took his life from being so hard on himself. He had a disease that he let control his life. That is a whole nother thought too... far to many people abuse themselves, many thinking it is okay to do because they aren't full blown addicts. There are people out there worse then themselves so it's okay.

Following loosing my Dad, Papa (the man who really was my Dad) passed away on Septemeber 7th, 2010. He died from pancriatic cancer that spread to other organs. He didn't even know he had cancer until September 5th! The docotors estimated he had it for 2 years or more by how far along the cancer had progressed. Papa had suffered with diabetes since his mid 40's as well. So cancer of the pancreas (while only 5% live past 5 years with it) was espically not good for him at all. It is one of the worst most painful cancers out there, and one with a very low survival rate right now. Papa's passing has been a rollercoaster ride for me. In the beginning I felt kinda numb to it all, like it wasn't real (I suppose they call it denial). Then I went through a bout of why's... didn't understand why he had to die and leave me. Then after that I hit a wall of sadness, didn't want to do anything but lay around, almost anything would set me off to tears. I still think of Papa constantly, still cry, but I am accepting it more now. I feel I suffer a bit with insecurities of loosing everyone that I feel close too. So in many ways I put barriers up so that if I do loose someone it wouldn't hurt as bad (so I think). It's been tough loosing Papa, and my Grandma at 13. I'm sure most anyone that looses people that close to them knows what I am talking about!

Anyway, we as a family unit are doing wonderful. We try to be loving people, raise our girls to be loving girls. We don't plan to have any more kids now. We only wanted 2, so no not going to try for that boy. We are very happy and feel blessed to have our girls in our lives!

I love doing these to have to look back and remember where the girls were and where we were in life. After reading the ones I did from 2 years ago about Chloe I thought I should do that again, it was so neat to read about what was going on with us, things I didn't remember anymore!

Well I hope I can do some more "naptime" blogging later, for now naptime is over :)

Love to whoever decided to take the time to read this, & those that may think I am crazy for doing it too :). And I hope that anything I ever write doesn't offend anyone in anyway. That is not at all the purpose of this. For me it is because I enjoy writing, and sharing my feelings, and that is what they are MY feelings. Not me trying to tell anyone anything, just me expressing how I feel, may not be the same as you feel on certian subjects & I may not always have the correct wordings or meanings for things, but as I said this is just my thoughts and feelings.

Mobile Chloe

Well I offically have a crawler now.. She took her first crawls on 8-25-09 in the hospital waiting room (get to that in a bit). She was so intrigued by a watch my Aunt Deb has that sings and has a little red light on it that she went for it! It was soo much fun to watch her crawl for the first time.. I am so glad I didn't miss that! Now I know why I stay home with my girl! She also now sits up on her own started doing that on 8-22-09. What I mean by sit up is she can take herself from her stomach to a sitting position. She gets better and better with each day. She has a hard time getting around in certian clothes (her PJ's & dresses) so I try not to have her in them for to long. She is very attracted to our TV stand. It is all open with Glass shelves, so she sees the lights on the electronics and all the DVD's and game controlers etc... I worry that she will hurt herself on the glass if she falls near it... So I currently have made a blocker with our laundry hampers.. may not b to creative, but it gets the job done! I am pretty sure she is trying to pull herself up also.. She trys to climb the walls sometimes and can get onto her knees when holding on to something so far. I don't know if I can help her in anyway or if she just has to do it on her own? She tends to fall down the most when she is attempting to pull herself up though and I hate to see her fall. So yea... she is a busy little girl getting around now.

About why I was at a hospital, my cousin Mandy was in the hospital in kidney failure. They said she had a condition called TTP and they were treating her with platlate transfusions which seemed to help her. She did however find herself in the ICU for a couple of days, she def had the family worried for awhile there. Now I have heard she is home with her baby, but still recovering.

Papa came here for a visit along with my sister and nephew. That was fun. I think my sister was in awe of how pretty the mountians are here. She couldn't get over the view we have from our very front yard. I am glad that she could get away from all the drama in her life and come here for a couple of days though. My sister, nephew (Dom) and I all went to a waterpark for a day. That was very fun. That was the first time I was away from Chloe for more than just 2 hours. Chloe stayed with Papa and Eric at home until they later met us in Branson for dinner. It was great to enjoy that time with Denise and Dom though. I think they had a good time also.

Eric has been doing good at work. He lost one of his best sellers a week or so ago. That seems to be a lil hard on him, because not many of his other people are that good. They have decided not to rehire right now either until things pick up a little bit more. Eric did sell a lot more last week and is having a good week this week also so I can't complain about that too much. I know it is just going to be a little more stress for him for awhile though. He does really good with Chloe also. It seemed hard in the beginning as I felt he didn't really want to help a lot and he felt I just wanted to push her off on him as soon as he got home from work. We went in circles with that for a couple months. I know that I stay home with her, but that doesn't mean he gets out of everything either. I did night duty pretty much everynight (except maybe the first couple weeks, that was bc we kept her in our room). I slept in the livingroom with Chloe for a good month - 6 weeks. She was a hard baby the first couple months as she had acid reflux and colic... yea. She literally cried 10-12hrs a day. I was lucky to get 1hr of sleep at a time. But we made it through it, and now she is a really good girl. She is on a schedule (not to the minute), and she seems to do well with it. She takes 2 naps a day eats 4 bottles and 3 solid meals, and plays a lot! Now when I lay her down for naps/bedtime she goes to sleep on her own without a fuss. I am so lucky that she is doing so good now and thankful. Anyway, I don't really know where all that came from.. lol guess thats bloggin right!

Anyway, Eric and I are doing great today is actually our 3 year anniversary. I am making ham, mashed tators, and green beans for us for dinner tonight. We will be together for 9 years on the 12th. I bought him the newest iphone a couple weeks ago and I get an iphone in Oct when I can upgrade so that is our gifts to each other this year. Oh yea... when we were at the waterpark I lost my new diamond cross necklace I got for our ann. last year. Sad sad... I miss that thing it was soo pretty and expensive too. but what can ya do... Okay well, I think thats about it for now... maybe I need to get on here more so these are so long lol!

Smooches ;)

Changes...

My title "Changes" of course referring to Chloe... what else right? I mean she is a pretty big part of my world. Anyway, She has been chaning so fast lately. She is now clapping, waving, giving high fives, and of course saying Mama. The best of the three is clapping... she just loves to clap and she does it at the cutest times. She was getting good at waving, but seems to be back stepping a little bit on that one. She also is becoming mobile. OH MY! She rolls all over the place and uses her arms to spin her while her tummy is the pivot point. It is so cute. She just rolls around and has to figure out what everything is about. I can see now that crawling isn't too far away. Just one day out of the blue she starting rolling all over the room. Now i set her down and look back in a couple minutes and shes in a whole new spot. She has been such a happy girl and it just melts me that she is content just laying on the floor giggling away. Pretty independent, but likes company as well. She has recently also went from 3 naps a day to 2. She takes one in the morning usually around 9ish and then one in the afternoon around 2-3. The morning nap is about an 1-1.5hrs. The afternoon nap is usually 2 hours. She used to take three 1 hour naps or longer sometimes.

Her eating habits have changed a little bit also. She takes 4 6oz bottles a day, I still have to help her hold them, but sometimes I can let go of them for a little bit. She eats cereal in the mornings, a meat meal in the afternoon, and some veggies or fruit in the evenings. Usually I will also give her some puffs or yougart melts for her to feed herself at least 1time a day after one of her meals. She is just learning to finger feed herself though. We have tried in the past and she would freak out and chock and throw up, but now she gets the food down when she makes it into her mouth lol. She is just growing up... so crazy to think she will be 8 months old next week.

Well, besides all of that, Denise, Dominic, and Papa are currently on thier way here to visit. I am making some lasagna for dinner when they get here. I look forward to having them here to visit us and see Chloe and how much she is learning and changing.

Oh, with Chloes new found mobility, I decided to try re arranging out living room... which I did. I wanted to try and make sure things would be as safe as possible for her, wires out of the way, nothing she can break where she can get to it, etc... Also she has lots of room to move around now. So it worked out well.

Alright, I am sure I will write more about our visit later...

Vacation & Colds

We went to TN for the week of the 12th -19th and it was fun. Eric seemed to enjoy his time with us and his parents. We went to Opry Mills mall one day, enjoyed putt putt golfing, and really just enjoyed hanging around together. Chloe was a good baby as she normally is. Eric went golfing with his Dad one morning so Chloe and I went shopping with Eric's Mom. We went to Babies R Us of course and Grandma and Mommy got Chloe all kinds of nice clothes. I think we got her pretty set for the 9month range. She was in need of some sleeper outfits so we got her a few of those also. Everything I saw I wanted to buy for her, girl baby clothes are just so stinkin' cute!! Overall it was a great vacation.





The last day or so of our vacation I started to notice I wasn't feeling so great. Of course when we got home I was pretty sick.. just very congested, sore ears and throat. I then passed it off to poor Chloe... her first time being sick. I hate having to suction her nose and she hates it too. We have been giving her saline spray in her nose also. We also gave her vapor baths and stripped her down to her diaper and put baby vicks on her. The first two nights were the worst. The first night I was up with her for a long time up and down until I finally put her in our bed with us. The next night she just went straight into our bed (this whole time I was still sick too). The thrid night she was back in her bed sleeping all night, although she is still congested as am I and now Eric may be catching it, she is doing much much better than those first days.





Things that we are looking forward to is having my sister Denise and nephew Dominic and Papa come to visit on August 10th. Denise and Dominic are going to stay thru I believe the 15th and Papa is going to stay till the end of August then Chloe and I are going to drive him home and visit people in Paxton for a day or 2. Eric's parents said they are going to see about making it here for her birthday or at least before her birthday. And Papa is talking about coming here for the holidays also. So that is going to keep us busy for awhile.





Chloe's progress is good.. she weighed 18lbs at the doctors office when we took her in for her cold. She is in the 67%. She still has no teeth, she isn't crawling yet (not really showing a lot of interest in it either), she really prefers to just be sitting up playing with her toys or in her jumperoo. She is a really good baby though hardly ever cries anymore. She is learning to wave and it is so cute!! I like to hold her when she lets me lol. She really is independent, and seems to like it. I had a great bonding experience with her when she was first sick however. I just held her so close until she feel asleep in my arms and then I just didn't put her down. I really felt like such a Mommy holding my sick baby (even tho I was sick too)... heres a pic of me holding her. That has to be one of our most close moments yet...

So that is about all I really have to say for now.. Hope all is well...

Recent Happenings

Lately I have had some things going on in my life. Papa had back surgery on June 24th and I went to IL for a little over a week to be there with him. His surgery was on disc's 4 and 5 in his lower back. The surgery went well, just will take a long recovery process now. Papa was transported from the hospital to a nursing home in Paxton where he lives on Monday June 29th. My Dad was also there for Papa's surgery. My Dad was having severe pains in his stomach/side area so on June 25th (Papa's worst day) my Dad went to the ER at the hospital. The woman doctor told my Dad that she thought it was his liver and his gallbladder. Not much of a shocker with how much he drinks. Anyway, he got out of the ER 7-8hrs after going in and was told to take Ibuprofen and stop drinking. During that time I was in Papa's room most of the time helping him as he wasn't doing so great with pain and comfort. My Dad and I ended up staying the night in Papa's room on Thursday night. Friday morning the 26th we went back to Papa's house for showers and so I could get Chloe (she stayed with Eric's parents as they were in town checking on Eric's grandma who had a stroke). We went back to the hospital on Saturday and took Chloe with us thinking we would stay for just a couple hours and lift Papa's spirits as he was asking about Chloe. Well, my Dad still in a lot of pain, went back to the ER, so I was stuck waiting for him. Chloe and I went to my Aunt Carol's house for awhile while we waited to see what was going to happen with my Dad. He finally called and said they were keeping him in the hospital overnight so we went and said goodnight to Papa and went home. Sunday I left Chloe with some friends of ours in Paxton (where she stayed Tues night and Wed also) and went to check on Papa and my Dad. Papa was doing better with each day at this point. My Dad was going to have his gallbladder removed, but the surgeon told him that he wouldn't do it since he didn't have insurance, he told my Dad to go to the hospital in Joliet to get it handled. He doesn't medically need it removed, but he doesn't want to have this pain ever again so he wanted it removed. Anyway, Monday Papa and my Dad were released from the hospital. My Aunt Carol took my Dad to the train station to send him back to Joliet and I took Papa to Paxton to the nursing home. Papa had me drive him by his house and a couple other places so I could tell he was feeling better. It is just really hard for him to move around. Finally on Tuesday I came back home to be with Eric and Chloe. Papa seems to be doing better with everyday and I talk to him on the phone quite a bit. So that was a very stressful trip to IL for me, but it is over now.

For the 4th of July we went to "I Love America" a celebration our church hosts. There were over 120k people this year, last year there were around 80k. This year though the city of Springfield did not have fireworks, so I know that is part of why so many more came out. It was a good time for us, we saw some concerts an air show and of course fireworks. We had earplugs for Chloe's ears, and she loved the fireworks. As soon as they started she got all excited flinging her arms around, smiling and just staring at them. I think I watched her more than I did the fireworks. I love fireworks so she must get it from me lol. I am just glad she enjoyed them and so did we.

In a week we are going to go to TN to see Eric's parents for a week and relax. This time we are not going to IL and TN as it just gets to be stressful driving all that distance, its not even a vacation for us then. So we hope to enjoy ourselves and just have some quality time together. I'm sure I'll write about that later!

That is about all that has been happening lately. Write more later...

First Time Blogger!!

I am new at this whole blogging thing.. but why not give it a go! Maybe it will be a good place to get some things off my mind.. right? So I don't exactly know where to start but with Chloe Jo of course!! I am sure anyone who would be interested in even reading my blogs will know that Chloe is my 6 month old daughter. She is my world!! I love her so very much... Here's a pic, just bc I wanna look at her... gosh she is adorable!! I know I know I am biased for sure!

Chloe has changed me so much these past 6 months into pretty much a new person. I still can't quite grasp the fact that I am a Mommy.. me.. Jen McQuinn a Mommy.. WOW! I just never was the person that had to be a Mommy growing up, but I wouldn't change it for anything (if you would have asked me when she was 1-2mos maybe different).

Of course Eric is the LOVE of my life! He and I have been going strong for nearly 9 years now.. married for nearly 3 of those years... I hope to be 73 and blogging on here someday as Eric says I will be lol. He is silly and makes me laugh all the time. He is a great husband and great Daddy too! He works hard to do whatever he can for his family. Still a typical guy though.. loves his sports, and doesn't always clean up after himself. But who cares about that... hes a guy its to be expected right? All that really matters is he loves his family and would do anything for us as we would for him.

So anyway, besides my love for Chloe... new in my life is that I will be going home (to IL) next Monday as Papa is having surgery on his back. His surgery is on Wednesday the 24th. I am nervous for him and feel kinda bad that I can't be there longer than just a mere week. He will do okay though as he is a strong man.

After I get home from going to IL, a week or so later Eric, Chloe, Boomer, & I will be going to TN to visit his parents for a week. That should be nice to get away with the family and have Eric all to us for a week. Other than that, well not much happening.

Hope all of you do well.. whoever may decide to read this. Any blogging tips are welcome!!!