Halfway There!

I am not one who normally wishes time away...except for when I am on hospital service.  This month I have been praying for patience, peace, energy, and sanity!  So far, so good; I am doing much better than I usually am by this time of the month.  I sure sound proud of myself, but it has little to do with me.  My family has been spectacular!  I have someone arranged to be "on call" with me every call day to watch the babies for me.   My mom has been here (even when I just need some rest and an extra hand at night) to watch the babies for me (and she somehow manages to cook more than one meal, clean up the house, and finish up any laundry!).  Aunt Carrie and Leslie came and helped one night and the babies had a blast playing and being held.  Dawn and Roger have been here to play and let me rest and help around the house.  Aunt Lydia and Uncle Dan have the kids right now!!  They are great with the kids also...and Matthew loves playing with them.  They are going to make wonderful parents someday.

That is basically my life right now.  Here is a quick recap of my week if you are wondering why I am so proud of my sanity!

Monday:  get up at 4:30 feed Cambell, shower, pump, off to rounds, finish rounding before all of the other residents so I can pump before checkout at 8:30, finish rounds at 1pm, pump, start clinic at 1-5pm, on call as soon as clinic finishes, put in about 7 people to the hospital overnight, sit down at 4 am for the first time (to pump of course), wash my face, brush my teeth and start rounding again, finish rounds at 1pm, sign papers to close on our house, go home to see my babies.....(oops, now it is Tuesday...aren't you supposed to sleep between the days??)

Wednesday:  sleep in today (until 5:30), pump, rounds, pump, eat lunch, clinic, pump, people getting very sick right at 4 o clock, late to leave the hospital, late to pick up the kids, barge into Page's house for dinner, eat dinner, kids baths and kids to bed, me bath, pay bills, read some journal articles, off to bed.  Matthew needs him mommy to rub his back at 2am...repeat.....

Thursday...same

Friday...now I am on call!  I at least have a second to sit here and type!

...it will all be worth it soon!  Thanks again to everyone for helping and for the prayers!

Mother's day was wonderful. I had the day off and Corey was off also.  He pampered me and the babies and we had a great day!  

My little water bug!  He love putting his face in the water.

What could be better than playing in a basket of balls?    Playing in a basket of balls with your sister of course!

Cambell has been so hungry lately that I though I would give her some cereal.  She acted like I was trying to poison her!

Matthew playing with one of his new toys and Aunt Lydia, Uncle Dan, and Grandpa Roger.

It May Be a While....

I am coming up on my last month of service as a resident, EVER! :) I will be so glad when this month is over. It is a stressful exhausting month for me working an average of 80 hours a week with 30 hours stretches of call at a time. I LOVE my job and my patients, but this will not be something I miss. Needless to say I barely have time to love on my babies so I doubt I will have time to blog (unless it is during a lull in the middle of the night!). BTW...early thanks to all of my family who pitches in to help me care for the babies and even volunteer to watch the kids while I have a nap. Here are some pictures we took over the last week. They are growing up so fast. Cambell's newest thing is that she loves to be tossed up in the air (I guess she must have some of that Locker daredevil blood in her!) and she will talk and squeel to you. Matthew is so cute putting words together to make sentences like "da ball go?" for where did the ball go. He says "back back Harden" for get back Harley (the dog) when we go outside (E-ow). He runs everywhere he goes and is into everything! He occ. has to be put into time out for throwing fits or throwing balls in the house! He is such a sweet little man.

The expression on her face is so cute! What a darling little angel.

More of the Locker blood, look at those cute little hands.

Corey can't get over her beautiful eyes.

Fun!

Corey got Matthew a seat for the back of his bike. Matthew had a blast riding on it with Corey. I don't think I feel confident enough to ride with a baby on back, but Corey is great on bikes. He actually taught the bike officers last week how to ride for work.

Sweet Babies!

This weekend my mom came and gave me some much needed rest.  Corey has gone back to his usual schedule and I have had a hard time being by myself with the kids again (even though they are the most amazing and well behaved kids ever!).  My mom decided to come and spend the night with us Friday night and let me play doctor.  I cut off some skin lesions that she had!  It was a little stressful using a scapel on my mom!  :)  We had a great time.  As usual my mom seemed to work the whole time she was here, and I appreciate all she does for us.  

Also this past Tuesday I got to babysit little Jackson while his mom and dad got some much needed alone time!  We had a good time with Jackson, he is such a little miracle baby and it is just precious to watch him in action.

Miss Cambell all dressed up in her jeans, looking way to grown up.  She is the happiest little girl.  She will just talk and coo until she totally wears herself out!

Mammaw reading to the babies.  Matthew has become very interested in choo choo trains lately and that was the only page he wanted to look at.  His new word for the day is booger!  

Laundry basket filled with 100 balls!  What could be better??  Nothing.

Last Thursday we had some very intense Thunderstorms.  The hail was pounding down at this point and it was so loud inside the house, but it didn't seem to bother Matthew at all.  He was quite amazed!

Cambell and Jackson laying in the floor together.  It is amazing that this 6 week old little baby wasn't even due until later next week!  What a blessing that he is here and healthy.  It won't be long until he is bigger than Miss Cambell!

Easter 2009

Easter is an amazing time and it is truly wonderful to reflect on and to remember the sacrifice that Christ made for us, for all of us.  "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."  John 3:16

We had a wonderful Easter in Muleshoe.  This was the first year that Matthew is old enough to hunt Easter Eggs (aka Easter Apples).  I wasn't sure how he would do, but he caught on immediately and had a great time playing with all of his cousins.  We also got to color Easter Eggs and spend time with Mammaw and Pappaw.  We also spent some time with Grandma Dawn and Grandpa Roger and Papa T and Aunt Carrie.  It was a lot of fun for the babies and for us as well!  

Cambell watching Matthew color Easter Eggs

This was SO much fun!

Matthew and Mommy getting ready to hunt Easter Eggs (inside, b/c it was so cold!)

Cousin Emma decided it would be a lot easier to hunt out of Matthew's basket!  He didn't really mind!

Matthew and his cousins Emma, Hannah, Kateland, Jordan (inside Elli and Ellie) waiting for the Easter Bunny to come!

Beauty in Everything!

This picture of Matthew is one of my new favorites!  (for those of you who wonder, the lady bug did make it out alive...I had my doubts!)  If we could all be so innocent and see the beauty in everyday things!  The other day he picked up a caterpillar (that's what we call the little buds our Mulberry tree drops...they look like caterpillars) and the expression on his face was priceless and said, "WOOOOOOOOW!"  What a blessing children are to help us remember that everything is a gift from God and we should appreciate all of the beauty that surrounds us. Here are just some fun pictures of the kids over the past week or so.  Enjoy!

Cambell is all bundled up (yes, this was just last week) for the freezing cold and snow before Corey and I left to go to San Antonio.  She is growing so fast...except for those cute little feet.

This is a picture of one of many boo boo's.  This one hurt momma and daddy too.  We had just got home from San Antonio and went to pick the kids up and visit with family for Dan's birthday (happy birthday Dan!)  and Matthew wanted to play outside.  Dan and Lydia's little puppy wanted to play too and jumped on Matthew's back and he face-planted into the concrete with a puppy on his back.  Ouch..he bled and bled.  Poor little guy.

The babies love to be read to.  Yes, that is a lime in Matthew's hand.  He eats the peel of most fruits (which are all called apples...actually anything that is round but is not a ball is an apple to Matthew....rocks, candles, whatever!).

For the first few seconds of silence I enjoy it, then I realize that he must be into something!  This time it was Daddy's 32 ounce ice tea!

Matthew playing in the sprinkler, that was not my intention!  It was only in the upper 60's, but he doesn't care.

Sweet baby girl.  What a cute dress!  Me and Mammaw had taken the kids to get easter pictures, but had no idea how hard (impossible) it would be to get a good shot of a 3 month old and an 18 month old.  We actually gave up and left the studio without any pictures!  

San Antonio...Just the Two of Us!

Corey and I had an amazing weekend.  This is the first time we've gotten away together, just the two of us, in a long time.  (I don't count Santa Fe since we both had stomach bugs!).  Thanks so much to our wonderful families for allowing us to go.  Everyone pitched in to take care of our babies while we were gone....my mom and dad, Corey's parents, Aunt Carrie (who kept Matthew the whole weekend!), Dan and Lydia!    I think we need to try and do this more often, we came back so refreshed and reconnected.  Thanks again family!  Corey and I drove to San Antonio on Friday, we escaped the snow and ice.  That night we walked the river walk and at dinnner there.  The next day we got up and went to the Guenter House to have breakfast which was wonderful.  After that we were off to fiesta texas where we acted like kids and had a blast riding the roller-coasters and other rides.  I guess you are showing your age when you wake up the next morning and your neck is sore from the rides!  :)  Then we went shopping at an outdoor mall.  After that we went to a popular and wonderful restaurant on the river walk for a romantic evening.  We somehow got into this restaurant without reservations and even got to sit right on the river walk.  The weekend went by so fast, but we had a great time.  I think this is the first time we've been in a picture together for at least a year!!

Headed back to our room which was across the street from the Alamo.

Walking on the river walk to go have dinner.

Eating at Budro's on the river.

Playing like kids at Fiesta Texas!!

Fun in Muleshoe!

These are pictures from weekend before last.  Corey went with his friends to Ozona to go rock crawling.  They had a great time taking their jeeps up some very rugged terrain.  Corey was impressed with how well his jeep did, unfortunately Corey forgot the camera so there aren't any pictures.  Me and the babies went to Muleshoe to hang out for the weekend.  We enjoyed spending time with all of the grandparents!

Plumber's crack!

Hanging out on the floor!

Pappaw let Matthew go outside first thing in the morning...he was only in his pj's until I brought out his coat and shoes!   Matthew's word for outside is "E-ow, E-ow"

Having corn on the cob for the first time!  He looks so grown up.