Sickness and basketball

The kids have had bronchitis this week, so I haven't had a chance to go to the gym. They've coughed and had runny noses, but no fevers. They are finishing antibiotics, but I know that with bronchitis there's always a lingering cough to look forward to. Just what I need when I'm the new Volunteer Coordinator for the Toddler nursery at church. Things are a little rough now and I have to be there a lot, so my kids have to be there, but I've been assured they are NOT contagious! They are on the mend and seem to be feeling better, now if they'd just sleep better!
Basketball is going well. The Red Devils are 6-5! This is the best they've done in a long time. The kids are excited and continuing to work hard. We hope they keep it up. Jonathan maintains that it's not him, but the kids that are working so hard and I agree. The Lord just seems to continue to bless us here.

Our Newest Addidtion

No, it's not a baby. We are NOT expecting, but we got a puppy last night. We think it's a boxer mix and Elizabeth has decided to name him Pluto. I think this is because that is the name of Mickey Mouse's dog, but that's ok. Pluto had a good first night with us. Even though it was stormy we never hear him whine. Then again we didn't hear the storm siren. Elizabeth did and she woke us up.
He and Elizabeth get along great. Sarah and Cole have mixed emotions. They seem to like him, but not in their face. They all tend to get excited and freak Pluto out, but we're working on it.
I'll take pictures and post them soon.

Thanksgiving travels

We spent one night in Cullman. Had lunch and packed up around lunch time and headed to Tennessee for a few days. We got there in time to see Uncle Joe-Joe and Aunt Manda for a little while before they left then Uncle Mike, Uncle Tracy, Aunt Donna, Aunt Julie, Grandma Sue and Grandpa Ed and the cousins came over. The girls had a big time and I think Cole did too. Shedd wasn't feeling too good though. After an eventful night we went to bed, but Sarah Grace woke us up. I noticed that she was screaming and digging in her ear and only had relief when she was sitting up. It was 12:45 AM, so we got dressed and headed to the ER with her. The two sleepers were left in the capable hands of Grammy and Peepaw. She did indeed have an ear infection and was given drops and a perscription. The next morning Shedd woke up with pink eye! Amazing I know. He got some drops and thought he was well on his way to getting better.
He missed out on seeing Mom's side of the family because he didn't want to share his pink eye with Baby Will or anyone else. He opted for a trip to Grandma Sue's and I'm sure she took good care of him. We had a good time with Mom's side of the family, but we missed lots of people (Denise, Doug, Jenny, Joey, Amanda, Jason, Gabby, Zachary we missed you lots!)
Saturday night Shedd felt really bad, so it was on with ER trip #2 for the Shedds. He was told he had a virus and to keep doing what he was doing (this wasn't working). He went to the doctor here Monday and was told that he had bronchitis. He got a shot, a prescription and some cough medicine. He's feeling a bit better now.
Hopefully after all this the Shedds are getting better. We'll see! It was an exciting time.

Basketball

I don't talk about sports much. Ok I don't talk about sports at all, but I am really proud of the hubby, so here goes. He coaches at a very small school here in Chilton County. His team hasn't won a single game since 2006, but they have won 3 so far this season!
Last night's game was won by a 3 point shot at the buzzer that put us up by one for the win.
He's working very hard these days and it's really paying off. The kids play with all they've got and don't ever give up.
I'm proud of him and the Verbena Red Devils!

Basketball has officially begun!

Jonathan started practicing his Jr High team 2 weeks ago and had 4 games last week. Tonight marks his first varsity home game of the season and I think all 5 of us are excited, well maybe not Cole. He's just along for the ride. The girls and I are excited. We miss him because he's not here much, but we know he's really enjoying himself.
Jonathan took off last Friday morning so we could all go see the Birmingham Children's Theater do their production of The Little Red Hen. We are so blessed to have them come here to Clanton for us. All the preschool in town were there, so of course Ms. Elizabeth sat with her friends. Sarah and I sat close behind them and Cole and Jonathan sat in the back on the bleachers. Cole slept through part of the show. Elizabeth seemed to have a really good time, but Sarah was terrified at the beginning of the show. The costumes seemed to bother her. She covered her face and said, "Mommy scary". I popped out the cheerios and juice. That helped until a "cywowte (coyote)" came on stage. We're still talking about this "cywowte" and possibly having some bad dreams about it. She hasn't slept all night since.
I never would've thought that my love of the arts would lead to my 2 year old having night mares. Maybe it will pass quickly.
It was nice to go as a family even if we were all spread out.

Trick or Treat

We went to a neighborhood in town that has an all out bash. Everyone on the street has a big party and the Trick or Treaters come through and have a good time. After that we came home. My parents and grandparents were here to man the candy and they started out "Spook" count. We stopped counting at 100. Not sure how many came in after that. We enjoyed counting the spooks and getting Nanny to add that number to our total. The kids had just as much fun giving out candy as they did getting it!

Happy Birthday Cole and Sarah Grace

So we had a birthday party for Cole and Sarah on the same day. We had family from TN and Cullman come. We had a really good time! I'm not sure Cole knew what was going on, but he will next year. Elizabeth helped him open his presents and Sarah was on her own. I now officially have a one year old and a two year old. The one year old kinda hurts. He's walking more than crawling which really hurts and his only bottle is at bedtime. He still lets me hold him once in a while when he's tired, but that's only for a few minutes because he loves playing with his sisters.
Sarah enjoys climbing on his back and riding him like a horse which I discourage of course.
Hope you enjoy the party pics!

Preschool Costume Parade

I'm working on getting better at doing stuff with all 3 kids by myself, so today since Elizabeth's class was having a costume parade I dressed the kids; loaded up the wagon and headed to Preschool. Elizabeth was Snow White, Sarah Grace was Tinkerbell or "Inkelbell" as she said it and Cole was Sheriff Woody from Toy Story. All in all I think we had a good time. Cole just chilled in the wagon and I think almost went to sleep. Sarah ate suckers through out the route and we went all through town. I think I counted 5 sucker sticks in her treat bag. Elizabeth of course was too cool to walk with her mom. I can't believe that has started this early! Anyway here are the before parade pictures I took. I'm sure I'll have more of them in their costumes after Halloween!
God Bless

Pumpkin Patch

We've been so busy lately that I haven't posted pictures in a long time, so I will post our Pumpkin Patch pictures with this blog.
Here's what's going on:
Jonathan is ready for football to be over with, so he can start basketball. I'm not crazy about his basketball schedule. He has games 4-5 nights a week until Christmas and then things calm down a little. He's excited though.
I'm watching the kids grow as we speak. Life was so different for us just a year ago. This time last year I had a 1 year old, and a 3 year old. Now I have a (almost) 1 year old, a 2 year old and a 4 year old. I don't think that God could bless us any more than He already has, but I don't want to tempt Him. Three kids is more than enough for me.
Elizabeth reads sight words and loves school. I was worried about it since she has a new teacher and new friends in her class, but she's doing great! She loves to run and play too. We've started walking some when it's pretty and she really likes finding "treasures" to bring home to show Daddy.
Sarah Grace turned 2 on Friday! We made a little cake and had a good time with just us that we don't get to have very often with Daddy's schedule. Her vocabulary impresses me more every day. She's starting to learn songs and sing with us in the van and I love it. Both of my girls are wonderful singers.
Cole will be 1 Friday. He has 7 teeth and bites very hard. He thinks it's funny when you say "ouch". He's been taking steps for quite some time now, but crawling is still his main means of transportation. He doesn't like shoes, but with cool weather fast approaching we're working on it.
That's about all I can think of for now. We love our house more every day!
God Bless!

October

Seems like we've been super busy this month. I've had a lot of time with just me and the kids lately. It's not been easy. We've missed Daddy a lot!
Sarah Grace will be 2 tomorrow. My how the time flies! I love my Sarah girl, but I don't like the things that come with the twos. I don't like the fits that come from not knowing quite how to communicate what she needs. She can still be the sweetest child I've ever seen followed by her doing something that definitely lets you know that she's the strongest of the 3.
Cole will be 1 next Friday! I wasn't quite sure I'd survive having 3. Let alone 2 that were so close together, but somehow we've managed to keep them alive this long. Guess we must be doing something right. I can remember a year ago thinking that I was never going to make it, but not only have we made it; we're thriving! Now back to Cole. He has 7 teeth and he's been taking steps for about a month now. He'll walk back and forth between two people and sometimes walk to get closer to his sisters, but crawling is still his main means of transportation.
Elizabeth is really enjoying school. I was worried about her having a new teacher and not being in the same class as most of her friends from last year, but she'd doing great. She's reading some sight words and for a young 4 I think she's doing great. Her vocabulary is well above her age! She says words like incredible, absolutely and disgusting all the time and she uses them the right way!
I'm getting back to the gym slowly. I had a really good run yesterday. I took today off, but I'll be back tomorrow.
We're enjoying the new house and Jonathan is busy as ever and is about to be busier with the start of basketball.
God Bless!

The Shedds

Well, we've moved into our NEW house! It's an absolutely wonderful experience and I don't want to move again for a very long time! The kids seem to really like the new house too!
We've taken turns getting sick first with bronchitis and then with some strange virus that Elizabeth got and shared with most of us. It's been interesting to say the least!
Mr. Cole is taking steps. He started this week when Jonathan was home sick, so glad he didn't miss that.
Ms. Sarah is easing her way into the terrific twos. She tries so hard to communicate and for the most part she does a good job but watch out when you can't understand her. It's a mess. She's still as sweet as ever and as strong as an ox though.
Elizabeth loves her new teacher at preschool. She has so much fun there. I am so glad that this is a good experience for her. I know now that she is more than ready for Kindergarten next year as hard as that is for me to believe.
October will be a busy month for us. Sarah Grace will be 2 on Oct 24 and Cole will have his first birthday on October 30! Hard to believe that I don't have any babies any more. They've moved on to toddlers. Sad day. I look forward to moving out of the diaper stage for all 3 though. Just 2 years of that to go!

Town house!

We close on the town house tomorrow and we're moving in on Saturday! Those of us who understand what's going on are excited. Not sure what Sarah understands, but we know that Cole can roll with the punches pretty well.

Busy Summer!

We've traveled back and forth between Grammy and Peepaw and Nanna and Nunnie, so we haven't been home much this summer, so here's an update.
Elizabeth had surgery a little over a week ago to repair her umbilical hernia. She did very well and is almost back to normal now.
Sarah Grace is getting to be quite the handful. She's getting into EVERYTHING, but is still so sweet that it's really hard to get mad at her.
Cole is crawling. It's the funniest crawl I've ever seen. I also cut his hair. I buzzed it, so it WAY to short, but at least I know I'll never cut it this short again. He's still cute as ever though.
Well, that's about it. Still not sure when we'll close on the townhouse and be able to move. The latest we heard was that they were trying to get us in it by the end of the month. I'll keep you posted.

4th of July!

We had lots of fun during the 4th of July weekend. We spent time in Manchester and in Cullman. They were quick trips, but they were so much fun! Here are the pictures.

Busy Days

The Shedd family has had a lot going on lately. Jonathan found out he had the be accepted to the Cumulative Ed program at Auburn to be rehired, so we've put a lot of our time effort and money into that. We think that he's in though. He had to take a test today and from what we've heard his scores were good enough to get him into the program.
Elizabeth turned 4 on Sunday, which was also Father's Day. We had a good time. Elizabeth's party was Saturday and on Sunday we went to church. When we got home we ate lunch followed by left over cake and ice cream. After naps we played outside. Elizabeth got a water thing for her birthday and we tried it out. Everyone had a good time, but Sarah. She didn't like getting squirted in the face.
I ran my first 5K race Saturday morning. My dad came down from TN to run with me.He pushed me to run farther than I had been. I ran more than 2 miles of it and I was quite proud of myself.
Cole had 3 teeth and more on the way. He gets on his hands and knees and rocks back and forth. We know from this that crawling is emanate and it breaks my heart. It hurts to know that my last baby is growing SO fast. He's such a sweetie though.
Sarah's vocabulary is growing every day. She's so strong too. She is by far stronger than her sister. Her personality grows more and more every day. She's the sneaky one who refuses to be forgotten even though she's the middle child. She's also very sweet.
So that's what we've been up to.

NEW PICS

Some of these pics are from our trip to the zoo today. I'm trying really hard to do better at posting them when I put them on the computer.