Catching up...

It's been so crazy the past few weeks! Once school started and I started back to work, things..well..let's just say we've had some up's and down's!

Let's start with the kiddos...

Ryan Down's: Ryan has had a rough 3 or 4 weeks. After his bout with the unusual rashes that we still have no clue about, he started daycare. Within a week he had the typical stuffy nose, crusty eyes and overall yuckiness brought on by babies who slobber all over each other. The next week, he was "written-up" at school for gnawing on another babies leg and leaving redmarks, (I still think the other baby asked for it!), and the following week he started with a terrible stomach virus that lasted 6 days! Yuck. Of course, just when that started clearing up, he cut another tooth and the runny nose returned! This week we had two babies go home from his class with the chicken pox. So far we're still in the clear!
Ryan's Up's: He cut another tooth!! That makes three on bottom. I feel like the top teeth are well on their way as well. He also started saying "da-da". Soooo cute! He's still commando crawling everywhere, but is constantly pushing up on his knees and rocking, so I just know it'll be any day now that he'll start crawling. He's also clapping (he really is!)-although he never claps for the public apparantly! Lastly, he will shake his head 'no-no-no', which I'm sure will eventually get him into trouble!

Grace's Down's: She, too, had the aweful stomach virus and decided to share it with Nana, Pop, and Uncle Chris and Aunt Jodie. I just love scrubbing carpet at 3am. I honestly have no idea how Rick and I made it out of those two weeks without getting sick. I guess the good Lord knows we just couldn't have handled one more sick body!
Grace's BIG BIG UP!!!: No more "blanket"!!!! It officially mysteriously disappeared, and after only a couple of nights of sadness (without tears though!), she's totally forgotten about it! She is doing so well at pre-school. All the teachers adore her and she's always getting little stamps and stickers for "being good". She also got her first little cheerleading outfit to wear to her Daddy's football games.

We feel so blessed and honored to have been given two amazingly beautiful children!

Rick's football team isn't doing as well as they had hoped, but he is still optimistic about basketball season, which is just right around the corner. He really enjoys the staff he's working with and hasn't complained too much about his classes, so I'm assuming those are going good as well! School for me is finally settling down a bit. This was the first full week we've had due to hurricane Ike and a couple of holidays. The best news I've had since school started was that my sister is pregnant! We are so excited for her! Please pray with us that God will wrap his angels around this baby and cause him/her to grow healthy and strong.