Uncle Paul's House

We spent the weekend after Christmas with my Uncle Paul and Mihai. The kids had so much fun.

Halloween

Happy Halloween!! We had so much fun this halloween. Zander dressed up as Tigger and Madison was a kitty cat. They were so cute!! We spent the evening at a trunk or treat at our church. Zander still wasn't quite sure about the whole trick or treat thing this year, but he sure liked the candy! After Mall the kids had gotten a ton of candy, we all went inside for a huge chili feed. Yum!! Zander even got a little nose and whiskers painted on his face at the face painting table. After dinner, Zander and I went to a few houses in our neighborhood so some trick or treating. He could have walked around all night if I had let him. He wanted all the candy he could get!

Baby Pictures

Madison is growing up so fast. She already weighs over 12 lbs. How strange it is to have a baby that actually has some baby rolls. We are loving every minute of it! Alisha and Troy took some awesome pictures of our little Maddy. Here they are...

Both My Little Buddies

Oh my goodness!! Everything at my house has been really hectic since school started on August 25th. It has been crazy trying to get 2 kids out of the house in the morning. Surprisingly, I have not been late a single day yet. I was so worried; I thought for sure that I would be late at least the first week.
I am so proud of my husband. He went to CSI last week and started taking the tests in order to get his GED. He took the last test yesterday and we are still waithing to hear how he did. I'm sure that he did just great. He did so well on all of the other tests that he only needed to score 410 out of a possible 800 points on this last test, so I'm not too worried.
Jason decided to go and get his GED so that he could join the army. It would be a great opportunity for our family. We would all have health insurance, which is a big incentive itself, and Jason would be making more money than he is now. We would also be able to see some of the world. If everything goes as planned, Jason will be leaving for bootcamp by the end of this month or the first of next month. My goodness!! Everything is moving so fast-it's nuts!! Jason would be gone at basic training and AIT for about 4 months and then when he got home we would be moving wherever he got stationed. I'm very excited for Jason. I don't think I've ever seen him so excited about anything. However, I'm also very nervous to be here alone with a two year old and a new baby and school. I'm very thankful that we live so close to family. Anyway, please cross your fingers and say a little prayer for Jason. He is so stokedand has been working so hard to get everything in order. I hope everything turns out well.

Family Pictures

On Sunday night, we went down to Alisha's house to celebrate my father-in-laws birthday with the family. We had a lot of fun. All of the kids always have a good time when we get together and it is so much fun to watch them all play together. We also had the opportunity to have some family pictures--thank you Troy and Alisha. We don't get the chance to get decent family pictures very often, so of course we were thrilled. Troy is an awesome photographer, too!! First, we went down to Granny's Pad in Declo and got some pictures on the rocks and in the creek. Then we went to a wheat field and took several pictures.

This is the only picture that turned out on our camera, but I'm sure they turned out much better with Troy's. I can't wait to see what they look like. What an awesome idea with the frame Alisha!!

First Family Outing with Madison

We had so much fun today!! Tresa and Chris stayed in town last night and offered to drop Zayne off last night and pick him up today to take him back home and save all of us another trip and therefore gas money. Anyway, since we only had Zayne for a little while, we decided we had better make the most of it. I thought it would be fun to take the boys down to Rock Creek Park to go for a walk and have a picnic lunch.

Our little princess slept almost the entire time, with the exception of waking up to eat halfway through our walk. The boys had so much fun with Jason. They climbed all sorts of rocks and Zayne freaked out because he thought there were snake holes in the rocks. It was really funny. Check them out... They also climbed a huge tree. Zayne thought the tree

was pretty cool because he could hang and swing from the branches. He had a blast. Weall had a lot of fun, much better than sitting at home driving each other crazy!! I think that we will definitely be going for a lot more walkjs in the future.

Our Family

Well, Zayne finally got to meet the newest member of the family last night. Tresa and Chris dropped him off at our house and the minute they walked in the door, their daughter, Ashlynn, was asking to hold the new baby. It was so sweet, but unfortunately she didn't sit still long enough for us to get a picture. Zayne on the other hand, held the baby like 3 times in the half hour that his mom and Chris were here. He was so excited to finally see his new sister. However, we are going to have to keep a close eye on both the boys. Zander wants to hold her all the time too and Zayne thinks she's like a baby doll, so like I said, we won't be able to turn our backs for too long. This morning Jason actually got all 3 of them to sit on the couch together for a minute and look at the camera. Look at how cute our family is....

Madison will be so lucky (or maybe unlucky--I guess we'll see in the future) to have 2 older brothers to watch out for her. It still seems so unreal that she's actually here finally!!

They Grow Up Way Too Quick!!

Oh my goodness!! Time goes by way too fast. Madison will be 2 weeks old tomorrow. I can't believe it. Today, at her doctor's appointment, she weighed 8lbs 8oz. Zander weighed 8lb. 8oz when he was born, but she still seems a lot littler to me. She won't be wearing newborn clothes for much longer. I don' t remember Zander growing this quickly. Maybe that's because this will probably be my last baby. I do have to say, though, I had a really hard time putting away my maternity clothes this time. I was going to box them up to put with all of the other stuff that I have sitting in my garage for a yard sale, but I just couldn't do it, not yet anyway. It just seems so final to get rid of them and even though there many reasons I don't think I will be having another child, it is hard to look at Zander and Madison and not want to have another baby. I guess that we will have to wait a little while and see. Ask me in a year or two when I have two toddlers running around or when Madison starts teething!! When that time comes I may be ready for it to be final. Anyway, this last week has been pretty crazy with doctor's appointments for me and Madison and a sick child. Monday Zander was acting really quiet and kind of just wanted to lay around and not do a whole lot. By Monday night, he had a little bit of a fever. Then on Tuesday, not long after we got up for the day, he started puking all over everything!! It was so crazy. I was trying to take care of Madison and get her fed and at the same time trying to run Zander into the bathroom and then chasing after him with a bucket full of Pine Sol to clean the furniture, floors, and everywhere else he was getting sick. The rest of the week was much better though. We had appointments almost every morning, but after we were done at them, we went to the park by our church to have lunch. They have a free lunch there everyday during the week for the kiddos, so I took Zander to eat and get out some energy(he sure has had enough of it lately). It has been nice to get out of the house even if it is only for a little while. I was starting to get cabin fever bad. Although we are all still getting used to there being a new baby around, things are finally starting to return to normal, or as normal as they get around my house!!

Good News

Well, we got some good news this morning. We got a phone call from the doctor's office after we took Madison in this morning to have her blood drawn. Her biliruben levels were down to 12, so no more biliblanket!! Yeah!! That thing was such a pain in the butt. I'm very thankful that her levels went down so fast, especially considering how high they were just 2 days ago. Everything else is going great. Zander is absolutely in love with his little sister. He constantly wants to hold her and kiss her. He also really likes trying to help change her diaper, but I usually try to change it really quickly before he notices because when he helps, it usually ends up taking a lot longer and she ends up pooping all over me and everything else. I'm really happy that he is adjusting to the change so well. After the first couple of days I was very anxious, but everything is going even better than I thought it would. We are so blessed!!

Zander on the ATV

What A Day!!

Today was absolutely nuts. My morning started off perfectly. I got up early this morning so that I could take a shower before Jason went to work (yesterday, I had to wait until 2 p.m. when my mom came over and kept an eye on the kids for me while I took a quick shower). I was looking forward to spending some girlie time with Alisha, my sister-in-law, while Zander and Taylor, her daughter played. I had myself and both the kids dressed by 9 a.m. I was pretty proud of myself, especially since this was only the second day I have had both Zander and Madison by myself.

My mom stopped by to see the kids and drop some stuff off, and while she was here, she noticed that Madison was looking pretty yellow. She made me call the doctor's office and they told me that I needed to bring her in as soon as possible to have her blood drawn, so I scheduled an appointment at 1:30.

Alisha, Taylor, and Parker got here at about 12:45 so I was just able to say hello and then I had to run to my appointment. I didn't think that we would be gone for very long, so Alisha and the kids stayed here to play while I was gone. I ended up being at the doctor's office until 3:30. Dr. Trotter was right--Madison was a little jaundice and she must have been getting worse since Tuesday. When we saw him on Tuesday she wasn't that yellow and the whites of her eyes were still white, so he didn't even draw her blood. However, today, Madison's eyes were pretty yellow along with the rest of her.

I'm glad that my mom noticed and made me call the doctor's office right away to schedule an appointment because her biliruben levels were at 16.5, not far off from having to be put in the hospital. So after we got done at the doctor's office, I had to go and pick up a bili blanket. Needless to say, I didn't get to spend much time with Alisha. By the time I got home, it was just about time for her to leave and the kids were getting pretty grouchy anyway. The blanket is really kind of cool and I'm glad that Madison's not in the hospital, but the blanket is a pain. She has to be on it all the time except when she's eating or being changed. My poor baby!! It doesn't seem to bother her at all,though. I think that she likes the warmth from the lights.

On a good note, when Madison was weighed today, she weighed 7 lbs. 10 oz. so she has gained back almost all of the weight that she had lost when she was weighed on Tuesday, almost 6 oz. And I was worried that she wasn't eating enough. Zander is also getting used to there being a baby in the house. I think he has also realized that Jason and I still love him just as much as we did before Madison joined our family. I'm glad that things are settling down a little bit at least.

InZayne

Jason pointed out that we didn't have any pictures of Zayne on the blog, so we thought we better add one. Check out the tongue as he concentrates!! HeHe!! We'll have to add some more recent pictures the next time we see him, but this will have to do for now.

First Doctor's Appointment

Well, we had our first doctor's appointment today. Madison is doing just great and is completely healthy. Today, she weighed 7 lbs. 5 oz. Dr. Trotter said she looks wonderful. However, she is a little bit jaundice, so we are going to keep an eye on her. I still can't believe how easy she is. She eats like a champ, and takes absolutely no convincing. This is a completely different experience for me than when we brought Zander home from the hospital already a month old. I can't wait to watch her grow and change!!

New Addition

Well, after a very long wait, here is the newest addition to the Wilkinson family. Madison Marie Wilkinson was born July 19, 2008 at 4:55 a.m , after only about 3 hours of labor. She weighed 7 lbs. and 11 oz. and was 20 inches long. She has blue eyes and blonde hair. She is the most beautiful baby I have ever seen (but of course, I'm a little partial!!). She is very easygoing and only cries when she is hungry or has a dirty diaper. Talk about making it easy on her parents!!

Her older brother, Zander is still unsure what to make of his new little sister. He has only been home with us for a few hours since we brought Madison home. Zander has been staying at his Grandma and Grandpa Wilkinson's house until tonight. However, when he has been around his new little sister, he just wants to keep kissing her!! It's pretty cute, but she gets tired of it pretty quickly. I also think that he is becoming jealous already. On Sunday, when we got home from the hospital, it only took about 15 minutes before he started being mischevious. Jason and I both had turned our backs for just a minute. When I realized that he was being awfully quiet, I immediately went to see what he was getting into. He was in the kitchen and he had just dumped the baby laundry detergent we had just bought all over the kitchen floor and was slipping and sliding around in it. Then today, just minutes after Grandma and Grandpa dropped him off, he was in the baby's room spreading Vaseline all over the baby's changing table. Talk about a mess!!