What a week :)

We had a great week up in DFW. Lots of exciting things, but I am WORN out.

I'll catch up on the blog this week, but here is a fun pic to hold you over.

Excuse Ellie's chest hanging out of her romper... I need to tighten up those straps ;)

Bragging Rights

My husband is awesome.

Can I just brag, because I am going to.

Ok, we moved to Austin a year ago- kind of on a whim. The company he was working for was less than fantastic. He got a job offer. I was a month shy of my due date with Ellie, and although I was excited to be back in Texas- we were sad to leave our friends and family in Gig Harbor, and quite frankly, a little scared of the relocation. We prayed about it and felt like it was the right decision, and we packed up and moved 2 weeks later.

The job seemed like a good job. We hoped it would be what Charles expected. He was pretty nervous about going to work for a big company. After all, his prior experience had been working with his Dad, and then working for a small start up with about 10 employees.

Well, it has far surpassed our expectations. It is an AWESOME job, with an amazing company.

And... my husband is a rockstar there ;)

He has been there for a year.

2 weeks after he started, we had Ellie. 2 weeks off for paternity leave... oh, and a huge gift card to Target from his team. Thanks :)

As much time off as he wants, as long as he gets his work done. They encourage 4-6 weeks off.

Um... heck yeah.

He gets cell phone reimbursement, an "education allowance" for books or conferences, a wellness account, free massages once a month, and 2 fully stocked kitchens in the office with free food.

They have a "Science Fair" twice a year. It is basically a big engineering innovation competition. They have had 2 Science Fairs since Charles started a year ago. About 100 participants in each competition. Charles has won the grand prize... TWICE.

Booya.

He won a Star Performance award a couple of months ago.

He has been promoted to a senior level position.

Last week they had their big yearly "all hands" meeting. About a month before the meeting, they send out an email asking for employees to nominate individuals who exemplify the culture of Bazaarvoice. There are over 700 employees. They gave out 5 awards.

Charles won the award for Innovation and Generosity.

Each of the awards he has won have come with cash prizes, and the Culture Award came with shares of stock.

It is awesome to have Charles working for a company that realizes his potential and values his input greatly. The last company he worked for was one of those, like most, where they squeeze the life out of you and pay you as little as they possibly can.

Not Bazaarvoice. No way. They have been voted the best place to work in Austin, year after year. It is no secret why.

They are awesome... mainly because they agree, that Charles is awesome.

Anyone looking for a job? Because for real... it doesn't get much better.

Ok, I'm done bragging. :)

This is the life...

Me: "I need to go potty, Abi, just a minute."

Abigail:"Can I come have some privacy with you, Mommy?"

The Diaper Rash worth writing about.

Ellie got a diaper rash about 5 weeks ago.

It was bad. Really bad.

I took her to the doctor after I had tried everything, and things started getting bloody (TMI??).

She prescribed some creams.

It got worse.

It got a little better, then worse again.

I tried more things. Like... letting her go without a diaper while she was teething and had diarrhea (TMI, again, yeah... probably)

After about 3 and a half weeks of horror, we went to visit my family for a weekend. As we got there, it was on another downward spiral to terrible and bloody. We left the girls with my parents for a night so we could go to a football game, and so I could regain a bit of sanity.

My sister is a nurse at an urgent care clinic. I got a call as we were walking into the stadium, that Courtney was heading to her clinic with Ellie, she took one look at it and knew it needed something more. She got a new prescription cream, and oral antibiotics.

Things got better, little by little. By about a week later, there was only one open sore still healing (are you getting the idea here, it was bad.)

Then, hello downward spiral. The red rash started its cycle again. Saturday night, after two days of it, I was up in the middle of the night, holding a screaming Ellie (and crying, myself) and it hit me.

All week, Ellie hadn't had any dairy or eggs. Friday morning, I made eggs for breakfast. Friday afternoon, she had some yogurt and some yogurt melts. Saturday morning I added a teeny bit of milk to her oatmeal.

BINGO.

No Eggs. No Dairy.

Plus, I went out and bought organic diapers, wipes, and super sensitive baby wash.

Sunday... a little better.

Today- things are good, still healing from the brunt of it, but she doesn't scream bloody murder when I change her diaper. And THAT, is a beautiful thing.

I have never felt so bad and so helpless. She was in so much pain, and happened to be cutting two teeth during all of this on top of it. It was horrendous though. I could share pictures, I won't, but I have them. I had to start taking daily pictures to track how things progressed and healed from day to day.

So now, after 5 weeks of.... I really can't even think of a word- and after hundreds of dollars on creams of every kind, we are on to the life of food journaling for an 11 month old to figure out the allergies.

But thank GOODNESS for happy babies and happy hineys.

Sea World

We went to Sea World on Saturday.

It was a big hit.

We all had a blast. The shows were really cool.

I was afraid they wouldn't entertain the girls, but they loved them and so did Charles and I.

Here are the girls, totally in to the Sea Lion show.

We will be going back LOTS over the next year, so if anyone wants to go, let us know and come for a visit. It was a big hit for the whole family.

Abigail ate it up. There was a Sesame Street show, and she got to meet a lot of the Sesame Street characters. I think one of her favorite things was climbing up this big net they had and "pretending to be monkeys with Daddy." She keeps talking about it.

She also LOVED the carousel. It was the only ride I did with her, and the whole time she just kept saying, "This is SOO FUN!" And the occasional, "Giddy- up! I'm a cowgirl, YEEEHAAWW."

Ellie was a trooper too. She was having diaper rash issues

(...again- that's a whole post in and of itself, Yeah, a diaper rash that is blog worthy. It was just that bad) but she was a good sport and had fun.

I think her highlight was seeing Azul the Beluga whale up close, she just kept touching him and giggling.

(You can thank that diaper rash for how tired I look)

Seeing how much the girls loved it made me REALLY excited to take them to Disney World, some day- but for now, we will milk our annual pass to Sea World for all it is worth.

I didn't get any good pictures of the shows, because I kind of had my hands full. Next time I hope to get some of the animals. The last thing we saw before we went to the last show of the day was the sharks and the aquarium. Abigail like that too :)

I'd recognize that frizzy, curly silhouette anywhere.

Work It

Abigail wears skirts and dresses 90% of the time.
She just loves them. In the summer she would sometimes wear shorts, but its hard to get her to wear pants, especially jeans. I got her these skinny jeans for fall and fell in love with them when she put them on. I think she liked my reaction, because she will wear them. She also liked being a model in them.

Spooky Sellakin Jammies

Abigail loves her "sellakin" jammies.

She is starting to have an opinion on where pictures should be taken, and what the poses are.

She made us go all the way downstairs to take these pictures on her bench with Ellie in her lap.

Do you see the look she gave Charles when he put Ellie beside her instead of on her lap?

That's better...

Whoopsie Daisies... And we're done.

Baby Bear

Charles may or may not have been late to work this morning.

He was busy being my assistant :)

See what I was workin' with?

(um... yeah, that's Abi in her panties)

More Halloween Fun

We visited my family again this weekend. Friday night Charles and I went to the BYU vs TCU football game. Abi got to go to a carnival with Pops and her cousins that night.

Saturday, Mimi had a whole slew of fun Halloween treats.

We had everyone over and had dinner in a pumpkin (YUM!)

Abigail always has so much fun playing with her cousins.

I had to take pictures of all the cute stuff my mom did. It is pinterest gone crazy.