Oh Frankie!

Whenever we call him 'Frankie', I am reminded of this cartoon. So cute.

I really need to upload all the cute video and edit them together to share, but it's so busy here, whenever I set time to do a task, it is always interrupted. I will do it soon though. Look at my chubby cutie! He's probably close to 15 lbs, and he is only 2 1/2 months. He smiles a lot, although he is fussy often as well. Still trying different foods to see how my milk affects him. I definitely think he is overly sensitive to almonds and dairy so I avoid those as much as possible. I also used Mustela stelatopia cream on his skin and scalp, which helped clear off his eczema/cradle cap pretty well. He is always scratching his head and face though...may have to put socks over his hands :(

He loves to be called 'Honey Bunny' :) and tries to say "I love you" back, using his whole body excitedly haha.

Houston Trip

The kids aren't used to getting up this early...or having cable tv :)

Last week we took a trip down to Houston, to look for another rental property. We were initially wanting to find a property we could rent to my brother Norman, so he could go to school down there for a process technology degree (they don't offer the program up here in Dallas). But even if he needs to stay with us a little longer, we are still interested in investing in another property out there to either rent or flip. It was a fun trip, even though I admit things are much more hectic with a third kid...especially since I was pumping every 4 hrs. The kids loved staying in a hotel--Lucas was excited to sleep with daddy in one bed, and Olivia slept with me and Frankie--who didn't end up using his travel crib. 

In the morning, it had gotten down in the teens and the rain froze our car solid. It was hard just breaking the ice layer enough to open the doors. This is Olivia freaking out about the windshield wipers scraping the ice. The hotel poured warm water on our windshield to clear it off.

Then we met up with John's ex-co-worker Scott and his family. It was so nice to visit with them, and L & O loved playing with their son. They were so generous they offered to watch L & O when we met up with our realtor the next day to look at houses.

Connie made this delicious vegetable pasta bake, with catfish filets. Very good---they are really into healthy diets and non-GMO products. They even have a garden in the back where they have all kinds of vegetables. 

They did puzzles, and then we did some karaoke! Lucas did a little break-dancing too. 

We looked at quite a few houses, but nothing seemed worth the listing price, or our efforts renovating. So we decided to look into this Foreclosed property, that happens to be right next door to our other rental. It is bank-owned, and the listing price is higher than we are willing to pay, so we are looking into comparable homes for the rental market in the area, and also re-sell value. This house has "good bones" as they say, but the previous owners did not maintain anything, and there is a lot of work to be done. It has a lot of potential though, and we are thinking we can make it a 'crash pad' for airline employees that need temporary places to stay, since although they will be paying us more than a year long tenant would, it is cheaper than staying in a crappy hotel/motel for a week to a month etc. Lots of possibilities, still considering them all.

The pictures don't truly show all the work we will need to do in fixing, removing, painting, replacing etc to make this house livable. We did it with the other house, but this will be truly a challenge considering how far away we will be living and that we have a 2 mo old...

Can't you just see it remodeled with crystal blue water? Probably going to have to put in an additional ~$20k to make it how we want it. 

Anyway, even if we don't buy right now, it was a worthwhile trip to check on our rental, and meet with John's friend Scott and his family. Since we drive long distances quite often, this trip was very short, about 4 1/2 hrs. We took a little drive through the city of Dallas on the way home. This city scene is really pretty at night, especially when this ball thing lights up green.

To be continued!

Birthdays For Everyone :)

I haven't posted in a while because there has been a lot of illness lately: firstly my brother James is suffering from a mysterious illness, still being looked at by doctors. Please keep him in your prayers. Then my mom was in a car accident after leaving work; a girl in the oncoming traffic turned left into my mom, who was driving straight. She is okay, but has multiple spasms in her neck and back according to Xrays, the car is going to cost $4,000 to repair, and she doesn't know how long or even if the other girl's insurance is going to pay, meanwhile she is trying to work to be able to afford gas for the rental car her insurance gave her for a few weeks. Please also pray for her to get through this.
     And now, all of us have come down with a bad virus, that feels like the flu, but evidently was not. First Norman, then me, then the kids, and John and Susan. Everyone exhibits the symptoms differently--mine and Lucas' seems to be our sinuses, everyone else their throat. Frankie had a little bit of the symptoms, but I am pretty sure the antibodies in my milk prevented the worst for him. The kids didn't get as bad off as I did, and I credit that to our new vitamin regimen. I give them Elderberry syrup, with a vitamin D drop, a gummy multivitamin and Vitamin C chew daily. Since we have been sick, I also have been buying Oscillococcinum, which is a homeopathic remedy, derived from duck heart and liver. Who knows if it works, but it's better than taking constant medicine. I should've been taking all those vitamins as well--my second day I had a bad fever and couldn't stay awake, but had to for Frankie. Susan helped me and John stayed home the next 2 days thankfully---but now they are sick. I hope this is our one bad cold for the year to strengthen our immune systems! We are all on the mend now.

   The day I got sick, was John & Lucas' bday but we also celebrated Olivia's (which was the week before), and we went to the big Grapevine Mills mall to let them pick out a toy. We went to this "Play" game store that has all the cool strategy games and they were moving so everything was 50% off! So we picked out a bunch of fun stuff with the kids.

  L & O's godparents sent them bday gifts too---Olivia got more "Olivia" Lego Friends toys, Lucas got an aquatic 200 piece puzzle (he is determined to do it without my help...not there yet though!), and a 'spot it jr" game to share. Thank you~~ they have way too many toys now! Need to buy some more shelves :)

Then we let them ride the carousel (by this time my sneezing was constant...no longer thought it was my allergies..). 

 And then we had dinner at the Rainforest Cafe, which we had never been to. It was fun for the kids to see and hear all the animals, and it seemed to be EVERYONE's birthday that night. The food was surprisingly really good ! I had half a clam chowder, half salad---a delicious vinaigrette salad with cranberries pecans and strawberries. John had a pasta dish with zucchini and squash.

Ages 30, 4 & 5 :)

 Grandma brought them some gifts from her work~~they never tire of opening presents!

We also got this hot wheels set half off:

 Olivia picked this real key-lockable locker---and loves it.

And here is my honey bunny :)

Franco!

Thank you Newara's for his guitar outfit!

Frankie had his 2 month well-child visit today. His skin has greatly improved, and the doctor said his skin is clear not showing any food allergy signs. So she said to try different allergens and take note of his reactions, but to continue to stay away from almonds---even try other nuts like pistachios and pecans--yay. He is 13 lbs and 13 oz, which is in the 92nd percentile lol. chubby boy! But he smiles all the time now and is excitedly trying to form words! I realize I am not keeping up with taking pictures and video..still too much to keep track of daily. But we will strike a balance. I hope!
  These are some cute pictures I took a few weeks ago:

 Lucas got this new puzzle out, and wanted to do it alone--so I told him to separate all the outside pieces as always...not realizing it was shaped like this: (it was pretty hard even for me..)

And this is the beautiful gift we got from Teresa and Tim for Christmas: