New Years Rock'n Eve

We had a wild and crazy New Years Eve!?

 

Addison made chocolate chip cookies...

 

 

We wore our festive party hats...

 

And we rang in the New Year at 8:30 thanks to the King Julian countdown on Netflix

Good Bye 2014...

Hello 2015!

Family Fun

When we make the trek to Michigan we make sure to pack as much family fun in as possible.

Sadly, I was not as good about documenting this trip with my camera as I typically am.  I blame the kids or the lack of sleep or the sickies that seemed to spread like wildfire....regardless I regrettably have only a handful of pictures to document the all fun that we had while in Michigan.

 

Avery was very excited to say HI to Asher...she was all about touching him and looking at his face.

 

Auntie Abbey getting in some squeezes while she can.

 We took the kids to Breton Village to see the Train and since Santa wasn't there we hijacked his chair for some photos of the kids.

 

Trains!

Cousins!
I HEART ASHER

4 Generations

The Doughertys & The Gormans

Christmas 2015

Although it wasn't the white Christmas we had imagined when we decided on making the journey to Michigan, it was wonderful spending Christams with the Malaney side of the family.  We went to early mass on Christmas Eve and then most of our extended family on my dad's side came back over to my mom and dad's for the "Malaney Food Challenge." The theme this year was sliders, so as our entry we (and in this case we means John) made "Moink Ball" sliders. Moink = moo and oink so it was a meatball wrapped in bacon that John smoked ahead of time and covered in a apple jelly bbq sauce.  Words really can't do these things justice...they are addicting.

 

Of course Mimi had lots of surprises for the kiddos but Addison was in rare form.  After LOTS of tears we finally got it out of her that she didn't like all the people at "her" Mimi's house.  We left for church and she was ruling the place and we got back and it was full of people and kids who also felt like it was "their" Mimi's house. So it goes...we attempted to still enjoy ourselves while dragging one kid around on our ankle and another one that still wasn't 100% himself.

 

 

 

This is a PERFECT representation of our family on Christmas Eve!

 

 

 

 

Avery and Asher were the first to rise on Christmas morning, luckily they were content chasing their toes until the rest of the troops woke up. 

 

 

 

Christmas morning Addison ruled the roost again, so she was happy.  The Gorman's were a little under the weather still so they stayed home, so it truly was the Addison Dougherty Show...I think she opened every single present under the tree, she helped everyone! 

 

Too much fun...had to take a nap!

Showing off her new necklace.

Taking her new dog for a walk amongst all the wrapping paper.

Addison - Official 2014 Gift Opener

Aunite Mallory got all the kids fish...
Addison Fish and Asher Fish made the long trip all the way back to Arkansas
Sadly, only Asher Fish is still with us.

 

Took the Tonka truck for a test drive.

 

We had a wonderful and relaxing Christmas Day! 

Over The River and Through The Woods

So John talked me off the ledge and convinced me to just take things as they came and we slowly started packing and getting ready for our trip to Michigan.  John was planning on driving through the night (even though he said he would never do it again) so our goal was to leave around 11pm on Saturday, Dec. 20.

 

We got everything packed and John even got a little sleep before we got everyone in the car Saturday night.  As we pulled out of the neighborhood everyone was awake!?  What...the kids were supposed to be sleeping, that's why were driving at night?!  Asher quickly fell back to sleep and after one show on the iPad so did Addison.  We made our first stop on the south side of St Louis at about 4am.  We got gas, I fed Asher and changed his poopy diaper.  As we got on the road again, everyone was wake!  What...luckily again Asher quickly feel back to sleep and Addison did too after another show on the iPad. 

 

 

 

 

Both kids slept until about 8am on Sunday morning, when we stopped for breakfast and gas just south of Chicago. Addison was up for the rest of the trip at this point and was super excited to watch a movie and play with all her toys. Asher was a trooper and did great being stuck in his car seat for that long...I suppose it helped that the doctor gave us the go-ahead to give him Benadryl to dry him up, so he was a sleepy boy.

 

 

 

Sick Babies

The week of Dec. 15th (the week I was supposed to be preparing for a long road trip with my little ones, yeah that week) I visited the pediatrician's office THREE times...THREE times!

 

Addison had been running a fever for most of the weekend with really no other symptoms until Sunday evening when she started to get congested.  So first thing Monday morning (while she was still sleeping) I made a doctor's appointment for her. Sure enough when she woke up she was clearly feeling better but with the big trip to Michigan planned for the end of the week, I wanted to make sure we didn't have any lingering sickies...so off we went.  The doctor said she seemed to have "flu-like" symptoms or maybe even a mild case of the flu but since she didn't have a fever anymore and her symptoms had started several days prior, she couldn't do anything.  By Monday evening, Addison was her old self again!  I planned on her going to MMO on Tuesday but I think she tricked me into letting her stay home.  She just wanted to watch TV I think and told me she still didn't feel good.

 

 

Thursday, December 18th we were at the pediatrician's office again but this time it was for a well-child appointment.  Asher seemed to have a slight cough but the doctor said his lungs sounded good so she went ahead and gave him all his vaccines.  As the day progressed Thursday, Asher seemed to be feeling the effects of the shots.  I didn't remember until John reminded me but his 2 month vaccines hit him hard too.  So we gave him Tylenol and hoped for the best.  But then the cough started getting worse and his nose started running...and now we had a sick baby, who was also feeling the side effects of vaccines.  Nothing is worse then a sick little baby. 

 

Runny nose...poor baby!

Friday morning, after several bad feedings and poor sleeping I almost lost it...or maybe I did.  I text John and said I thought we should pull the plug on our trip to Michigan.  Mind you, I had NOT.ONE.THING. packed for our family of four to travel for a week, Asher didn't want to put him down and Addison was running around the house in PJs and "packing" all her toys to take to Mimi's.  Oh and we still had to celebrate Arkansas Christmas with John's Dad and Brother and the Remars Friday night and Saturday morning. 

 

So back to the pediatrician's office we went Friday afternoon.  The verdict and I'm quoting the doctor "the bark is worse than the bite" -- not what I was expecting to hear!  Asher's lungs were fine, his oxygen was 100% but his cough was croup-ish.  Since he had just gotten vaccines the doctor didn't want to give him steroids for the cough.  His one ear was 'pink' so we did get an RX for that and were sent home to use the humidifier and suction bulb. 

 

Lots of cuddles with my sick boy! Not the worst thing...I'm just saying!?

 

 

Asher: 4 Months

Asher's 4 month "birthday" was December 18th.  We celebrated by taking him to his 4 month check-up first thing Thursday morning and getting him his vaccines.  His weighed in at 14lb 5oz (25%) and is 2ft tall (21%) and drum roll please...his head circumference is 17.44" (99%).

 

Asher is a fantastic little brother!  He is a pretty easy going kid and despite some challenges in the feeding and sleeping departments this month, he is doing fantastic.  His daytime schedule for the most part has remained the same -- gets up around 7 and eats every 2 to 3 hours and is ready for bed around 8.  Last month I was happy to report he had slept through the night several times, well we had a little regression and I no longer need to wake him up to squeeze in extra feedings...he is waking up sometimes 3 and 4 times a night now...joy!? Hopefully this phase is very short lived, but seeing he is almost 5 months when I writing this post I can already tell you that it has lasted more than a month! He has started really grabbing for toys, loves to play on his activity mat and grab for his toes.  He is wearing a size 2 diaper and 3-6 month clothing.

 

We love our little Brother Bear!

 

 

 

We Are Santa's Elves

Addison had a little Christmas party at school on Thursday, Dec 18.  They made gingerbread houses, had cupcakes, performed 3 songs for the parents and did a book exchange amongst each other.  Girlfriend was VERY excited for the party and VERY excited that both Mom and Dad came to celebrate.

 

 

 

She was determined to use EVER piece of candy she was given to decorate that mini gingerbread house.

 

Thanks Ms Sabrina for picking cupcakes with bright green frosting?! :)

 

Our Christmas Elf!
They sang: We Are Santa's Elves, Away In A Manger, and I Want a Hippopotamus For Christmas
I use the word "sang" loosely...ha! 

 

After getting her costume on she went and stood on her piece of tape for the performance...

 

And waited....

 

And waited...
Girlfriend was given instructions and she wasn't going to move from that piece of tape.
Even though it took close to 10 minutes for the teacher to wrangle the rest of the kids...ha!

 

The party was too much for this little man!

 

Book exchange...the first of many Christmas presents for Miss Addison to open!