Great Strides 2012

This cheesy boy and I enjoyed our time at Great Strides this year. He got fussy quickly though so we didn't get to stay until the end but nonetheless we had a good time while there. He had a m&m donut, made a sign to show his support for Aunt Coco, went inside a PINK firetruck and saw some great friends! We ended up reaching our goal of $150 which we were happy about and came up with some ideas on how to raise more for next year. 

He wants....

Have you ever had one of those moments where your heart melts and your heart breaks in the same instant? Where as soon as you are filled with joy you have a realization and then the sadness hits making all the joy disappear. For the past couple of weeks Colt has been telling me he wants a baby. One day its a brother the next day its a sister. Either way he wants a sibling. He wants what I don't have to give and I'm not even able to promise him that he'll get one soon. It makes my heart sad.

They come in pairs...

The good and the bad. You can't have one without the other. 

The good: Colton loves school. He is enjoying it so much that we decided to move him from half days to full days. He loves his teachers and all of his classmates. He is learning more - this boy has to be a genius! He can read off quite a few of the names on his classmate list. He is improving with his speech, saying more full sentences and pronouncing things correctly. He calls his aunt - Cassie now instead of Assie. :)

And then comes the Bad: He gets in trouble almost every day. He was doing good for awhile but as soon as I switched him to full days he started landing on 'red' again. It's so frustrating sometimes. I feel bad for his teachers because they are so great with him and I know he is a handful at times. I don't want him to be 'THAT' kid in class. You know the one I'm talking about-- the one the teachers say a silent thankful prayer when he misses a day. I know eventually he'll get it but man I don't think that time can get here fast enough. The beginning of this week he got sent to see the director which is the same as the Principal. So my three year old( he'll be four in two months) has already been sent to talk to the principal and be hasn't even started kindergarten yet! Lord help me!!! 

Rooster Days 2011

Looking at the Ferris Wheel

The husband took us to Rooster Days this past Friday night. Its like a super mini-fair. There are rides, games, rude talking clowns, live music, and lots of yummy food. We had a great time. We let Colt play a couple of games and attempted to have him go on a ride.

We paid three dollars to sit on a dog and take a picture before backing out right before she hit the power button. She was nice and gave our tickets back. Thank you! Of course we couldn't use them since he is deathly afraid of rides but we did pass them on to our besties. So then we let him go digging in a pool of blue sand with a kitty litter pooper scooper upper. Oh and the little treasure he had to uncover was just laying on top of the sand. Bummer. We paid five dollars for three digs. She was serious about the three digs. There were like four stations(baby pools) and NOBODY at any of them except Colt. She squatted down and had to help him, he couldn't even do it himself, not that he couldn't but that she wasn't really letting him. You would think she would want him sitting there playing having fun so that maybe some other children would say hey mom I want to do that too. Nope, instead she counted. She literally only let him stick the scooper in three  times. After two times he had had enough of her and wanted to leave. We got an annoying blown up squealing Monkey out of it. It made him happy though. I on the other hand can't promise that the Monkey won't be running away soon. Kidding....kind of. 

So then we went fishing. The kid that ran this one was very nice! We paid five dollars and I think you were only suppose to fish so many times but he didn't bug us. I fished with him for a bit and got a couple of fish and then Jay helped him get a couple more. We quit when we were ready and had a great time. He got a little stuffed puppy dog out of it which he held on to for the rest of the night! 

Back to the digging game.  The reason I was so disappointed with it was because he has been talking about a sandbox for forever now so we he was excited to play in this blue sand. I thought it'd be a great way to see how he would do with it before I go spend money on one. I've been looking at them, I don't know what to get him. He is a big  Dirt + Water = Mud kid so that's been my biggest concern so far.

Do you have a sandbox? If so how do you make sure the kiddos keep the water out of the sand?

 

April Bunco 2011

Went to bunco Friday night. Had a blast as usual and I won most wins! Yay! Go Me!!! We had some yummy breakfast foods and a lot of great laughs. We were missing four players and we are down one permanent player so we had 2 subs and 3 ghosts. I'm ready for it to be next month so I can go play and see the girls again!
Yesterday we stayed home and did some spring cleaning all day long! I'm still exhausted. I thought Colt was better and he was but yesterday he started saying his ear hurt and then today he woke up with a snotty nose and sounding congested. I'm debating whether I should take him to the doctor or wait a day. The ear thing worries me though because he has never said his ear hurts before. Oh and he woke me up crying the other night saying his head hurt. He is playing around and acting fine, a little more clingy than normal but I just don't want him to have an ear infection and I not take him. Hmmmm....what to do.

Guess Where We Went. . .

Where a kid can be a kid....and so can the parents! :)

That's right, we went to Chuck E Cheese's! It was Colts first time and the first time I have been in the past ten years. It has changed a lot! My mom called me yesterday morning and said she was taking us to lunch and that it was a surprise for Colt. I was a bit nervous about how the lunch would go because I had called one of my friends up and she gave it a bad review. I'm glad I'm the type of person that likes to take others opinions in consideration but still enjoys making my own because we went and we absolutely LOVED it! The pizza wasn't the best but it was still good and Colton had so much fun. I'm sure it helped that there were only like five other families there so it wasn't crowded or busy. The only thing I was disappointed in was that the main stage that they used to have with all the characters playing in the band has changed. A LOT. Now there is just Chuck E Cheese the mouse in a little booth. Boo! I loved how it was when I was a kid. I know its more open now and they have the smaller games and the toddler section so that's great but I wish they could still have the old stage. We had a lot of fun and it was nice that Colt could pretty much fun free(with me tagging along behind trying to keep up of course) but I didn't have to hold his hand the whole time. I only had to get on to him one time when he stole a little boys ball during one of the games. Ha.

We will definitely be going back again sometime. I'd love to take the husband with us, I know he would just love it. Oh and I didn't know you could just go and play, I thought you had to eat but you don't! So that's nice to know. When we are out shopping we can stop in and let him play for a bit to get some energy out so he has fun too!

Colton & his Marnee

Its My Birthday, So I'll Cry If I Want To

Okay so maybe it wasn't my birthday but I sure did want to cry!
Wow!!
I can't believe my baby boy is already three years old. It feels like it wasnt' that long ago that I first laid eyes on him. He is growing up so fast. It's fascinating to me at how quickly they grow and learn. He has been a three year old for a week now and he is already acting older. He is talking in sentences nonstop, he repeats just about every word you say. He is becoming a homebody. He likes to be at home and play. When we are out at the store he says he wants to go home with our dog. He loves going to church and asks daily "church tonight?". He is super sweet, always giving hugs and kisses and saying thank you. He is the best child any parent could ask for.
He is quiet when you first meet him but quickly turns to a chatterbox when he warms up, I have no idea where he gets that! Ha!
He is truly just an awesome child!

Cutest Kid EVER right! :) 

So for Colts birthday we just had a small family get together. He invited his Marnee(my mom), Papa, Uncle Garrett, Memaw & Pepaw(but pepaw couldn't make it he had to work). We also invited his Aunt Marisa and her kiddos but they were all sick. We wish they could of made it but we were grateful they didn't share the germs!
Before the party started I had to run to the store to pick up a few last minute items and when I came back home the Birthday Boy was passed out! All of the guests arrived and sat around while he snoozed on the couch. We finally had to wake him up so he was quiet and not fully awake as you can tell in most of these pictures.

Colt and his party guests

Birthday Cake! 

Blowing out his candle! Happy Birthday Baby! 

It was a nice little celebration. We had fun spending time with our families together and then afterwards Daddy went golfing and we headed to meet our friends for church. It was a fantastic day. Since we didn't have his friends to his party I had them over during the week to do a mini celebration.

Colt and his buddies eating cupcakes!

And Smile I Did

Today was absolutely fabulous! We hung out with our awesome friends Diana and Logan again. It was a laid back lazy day, just went to target, walmart and back home to play. Somebody SUPER Special is having his Third Birthday on Saturday so I was looking around for Thomas the Train gifts. We already got him a couple of things but I was hoping to find a little bit more. We went way overboard on Christmas this year I think so I was trying to keep it a bit simple for his birthday. We aren't going to have a big party just family and then I will take him and a couple of friends to bounce sometime next week. Anyhow so we looked around for a bit and then came back to my house to play. I think the boys had a great time. I promised Logan on Sunday that he could come over and play in Colts room so I hope he enjoyed it. They were a bit rough with each other as boys are but poor Logan got a boo boo right by his eye. :( Praying a black eye doesn't come of it! Yikes. Sorry DY if it does! 


While they were here I saw that Coastal Contacts was having a free glasses giveaway AGAIN! How awesome. The only thing though was that they were only giving away 100! Last time it was like 10,000 pairs so I figured 100 would be gone within ten minutes. I jumped on the computer and ordered the first pair I found that I liked! I got the free deal! Yea. Only paid $13.00 in shipping. So then Diana hopped on and she scored a free pair too! What an awesome day!!! 

It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness. - Charles Spurgeon


"If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you, if the simple things of nature have a message that you understand, rejoice, for your soul is alive..." - Eleanora Duse

source

Ever since Sunday I just feel really great about the way things are going. I'm excited to see what 2011 has in store for us! I'm excited to let things go and just live and be happy. 

Playing Catch Up

Last week was filled with fun, friends and lots of laughter! Colton and I met up with our friends Diana and Logan for lunch and playtime at McDonald's on Tuesday. We had a really good time. The boys ran around and played while we talked and enjoyed each others company. A lot of times when we get together its hard to really have a conversation because of the boys but it was nice not having to chase after them this time and being able to just talk. I'm so grateful that I've had the chance to really get to know this girl! She is awesome and totally ROCKS my world! :) She is such a wonderful person and great friend, I don't know how I ever survived without her in my life. She is proving to be one of those friends that you know you're going to have in your life forever and you wouldn't ever want to be without their friendship. I hope I can be as good of a friend to her as she is to me!

My bestie came over one morning last week(I can't for the life of me remember when though) and we enjoyed a quick cup of coffee together, well she stole the last of my coffee so I had creamer with a splash of coffee. :) It was nice getting to see her though, we haven't really had time to get together much lately. 

On Thursday we went to Bouncy Barn with Diana and Jessie so that Colton could play with his friends Logan and Maia. They had a blast. We only had one rough moment where a kid threw a ball at Coltons face! He was fine, just a little blood blister. Afterwards we met my mom up at Hideaway Pizza for lunch. We always get the paradise pie. It was absolutely delicious! 

Maia as cute as can be!

Diana holding baby Jayde

Jessie and her girls

Logan & Maia

Colton(with his blood blister) & Momma

That same day we also got a package in the mail from Aunt Coco. She spoils us! She sent Colt his winter outfit. Every year she sends him a super cute outfit. He also got a Toy Story activity pack that had colors, stickers, and a coloring book. We took it with us when we went to eat and it kept him occupied! :) 

Colette also sent me a book to read that she had been telling me about. I'm very excited to read it.

Raising Kids for True Greatness: Redefine Success for You and Your Child by Dr. Tim Kimmel

She read it in her bible study group and passed it along for me to borrow. I will let you know what I think about it. She also sent me an awesome coin that I love! I tried to get some pictures but they didn't turn out very well. The coin goes along great with the necklace my sister gave me for Christmas.

'I carried you' its from the Footprints in the Sand poem

For New Years we stayed home. We are such an old married couple. Ha! Colton and I had spent the day grocery shopping and running errands. I got some new shoes AGAIN. I got a pair the week before Christmas I believe and had a 50% off coupon to use from it so we went back by and I found some sketchers that were already on sale so with my coupon I only paid $16 for some tennis shoes. Awesome! We went by Kohl's to exchange some pajamas I had gotten and the line only took about an hour! It was awful. Worse than any Black Friday event I've ever been to! I was a bit annoyed because after we stood in line for forever and were 2 people away from being done I heard someone say how the cashiers could do exchanges just not returns. I was in the return line. Seriously?!? You mean I could of been out of here within ten minutes and instead stood in line for an hour? Yep that's how my luck goes. Owell Colt surprisingly behaved very well. Jay had been out disc golfing all day and so for dinner we just went to iHop and had breakfast. It was good but Colton didn't have a nap that day and he was tired of being gone from the house so he was acting up. We hurried and ate and came home. Jay played his game and I watched a movie. Boring old couple! :) I got my midnight kiss though and that's all that matters! 

Christmas Spirit

Wow! What a week! We had a pretty good Christmas. We went to my parents house on Thursday evening to celebrate with my side of the family. It was fun. I love spending time with my parents. Maybe because when I was younger I never wanted to be there and now that I'm older and have a family of my own I appreciate them so much more. I don't know what I would ever do if I didn't have them. It would absolutely crush me. Sob Sob Okay moving on.....
My sister and her kids were there so it was a full house. Lots of delicious food, great gifts and lots of love shared! My poor husband though, his sinuses and allergies were bothering him really bad. I ended up having to push us out the door to leave because I could tell how miserable he was feeling. :( He very rarely gets sick and when he does he hardly ever complains.

I was worried about how our Christmas was going to turn out but it was good. Jay had enough energy in him to get Coltons bike put together when we got home from my parents and then we called it a night. We had decided to have our little family Christmas on Friday morning(Christmas Eve) so that we would have the entire day to just lounge around and play with all the presents. Colton woke us up around 8am so we laid in bed and let him go discover what Santa had brought. The previous night after I had gotten in bed Jay brought me my glass of water and told me I could NOT leave the bedroom all night long so I was banned to my room. ha ha. Santa had some tricks up his sleeve. So when we came into the living room to see what Santa brought Colton I found out he had also left a surprise for me. A BIKE! I've been wanting this bike for many months now but I didn't know Jay knew which one it was. I had briefly pointed it out when we were out shopping for presents once but he didn't stop and look at it so I didn't think he had even noticed it. It was a great present!! Thanks Santa! I also got some awesome cozy socks, a cute pink camera case, and a itunes gift card that I was secretly hoping for! Now for my nerdy gift I received that was super awesome was the Harry Potter Bluray disc-set!! I love LOVE Love all the HP movies but only have 3 on DVD and the rest on VHS so getting them ALL on bluray ROCKS my WORLD! :)
I've been watching one every night.

Oh yeah you probably want to know what Colton got huh? :) He also got a bike and helmet from Santa. He got a desk/chair that he can use to eat at or color and Pinocchio movie. Mommy and Daddy got him Toy Story potato head set(has woody, buzz, potato head, and Jessie characters), TS alien, TS Hamm, TS Rex, 3 sets of PJ's, slippers, 2 ice age movies, a woody and bullseye, and some clothes. He had a great Christmas.
Jay got some movies, disc golf basket, a snow shovel, OU jacket, ipod speaker, and games.
We opened all the presents and then I went and got us some breakfast. We ate and then Jay was feeling bad so he took a nap and I took Colton out to my parents to get my camera that I had left there. We stayed for a couple of hours and ate leftovers. Jay was able to get a good nap in and when we came home we watched his new movies. It was a nice day together just wish he would of felt better. I'll write about our other Christmas celebration in another post later. My sexy hubs just got home! :)

Stitches??

So today was super eventful. Jay ended up coming home around 8am. He got the day off so he was going to take me shoe shopping. I've been needing a new pair of tennis shoes for awhile now so I was very excited. Colt and I got ready to go and after I got Colt out of the bath and wrapped the towel around him BAM he slipped and fell. And of course stupid me, I had wrapped the towel under his arms and he said he was cold so i fixed it and wrapped it over his arms so he didn't have use of them. He couldn't even try to catch himself when he fell so what hit first? His chin. He split the bottom of his chin open. It was the worst feeling ever. It didn't bleed too bad but there was my baby with his chin split open and my heart just stopped and dropped to the pit of my stomach. I didn't know what to do. We finally decided that he needed to go see the doctor to make sure he didn't need stitches. Oh how glad I was that Jay was home from work when this happened, I would of been like a chicken with its head cut off had he not been here to keep me calm. He is the one that is 'in control' when everything is complete chaos. Love him. Anyways so we took Colton to the urgent care and they fixed him up and numbed it and then put on the liquid stitches stuff. He did great and didn't cry. It was pretty exhausting though. I'm glad he is okay. The doctor said he didn't break through all the layers of skin so that's good. I'm so thankful they didn't have to give him the 'real' stitches. I can't even imagine how bad that would of been!

Afterwards we stopped and got him some more breakfast and then came home. I went and did some grocery shopping and got myself some new shoes. Yea. Tomorrow I am going to my church for our special Christmas service. If you haven't already then check out the video a few posts below. The service is going to rock and I hope everyone can make it out. There are 8 showings and it is free and just a great thing to go to and take the family. I'm really stoked because my Momma is going to come with me. I've been asking her to come to church with me since I started going so I'm glad she decided to make this her first service. I hope she continues to come with me. I would really like to share this experience and journey of getting to know God with her. She does her church at home and studies every day but I want her to come to church with me, stand beside me and worship & praise God together!
Also have a couple of friends that I'm really praying for right now. One had to say goodbye to her husband as he set off to deploy for a year. The other is having to say goodbye to her baby. My heart aches for them.

Storytime with Santa

Cassie and I took the boys to our local library for Storytime with Santa this past Tuesday. It was um...fun? Colt didn't want anything to do with it. He preferred to run around the children's section and look at the books than sit in a group of kids and listen quietly. We were the parents that allowed their kids to have free roam and go in and out of the storytime room. I know the other mothers were disgusted with us but hey my kid was happy so who cares. I did get him to go sit down long enough to color a picture and steal a box of candy canes. Okay he tried to steal Santas box of candy canes....twice. I didn't let him get away with it though. See I do have morals! :) Pretty much when Santa walked in, Colton RAN out! Oh and did I mention that one of those OTHER mothers was probably pretty ticked off when she got home and looked at her pictures of her precious baby sitting on santas knee only to see me and Colt fighting over the box of candy canes in the background. Oops. Sorry.  Colton and Gabriel had fun running around the books and chasing each other and we had some great laughs so all in all it was a good day.

Pillow Pets!

Some of you may know that we've been having trouble with Colton sleeping in his own bed.
(Interruption: There is totally an owl hoo hooting outside my window right now!!! Owls + Me = LOVE).
Okay so back to Colton, he doesn't like to sleep alone. He prefers to sleep with Momma. I have been putting off stopping it because well lets face it that's the only 'baby' part I have left of him. He is growing up so fast! He will be turning 3 years old in a matter of days, 26 to be exact. He doesn't need me for anything anymore...except sleepy time, he likes to cuddle with his momma and his momma likes it, most the time. When I wake up with a toe up my nose or an elbow jammed into the small of my back...eh not so much. I know it is time though, if we don't get him out of our bed now then we never will. So the other night he fell asleep on the couch and Jay said he is going to stay there and sleep all night. HAhahaha I laughed in his face...literally. Boy was he laughing at me the next morning when Colt was still asleep where we left him. :)  So it begins!
Have you seen the commercials for pillow pets? Colton freaks out and runs around screaming 'pillow pet' when it comes on. I've showed the Pillow Pet website to him before and so now when the commercial comes on he runs over to my computer and wants me to pull up the website too. Its hilarious. Yesterday he watched pillow pet videos on YouTube and I couldn't tell who was more excited, the kids getting the pillow pets or Colt watching. So we decided Santa was going to get him one for Christmas. I ended up seeing one when I went to Walgreen's yesterday afternoon so I brought it home and resisted the urge to give it to him right away! Well if you know anything about our family you know that we have a hard time keeping secrets and keeping gifts from each other. We hardly ever make it to someones actual birthday or Christmas. It just doesn't happen. Yep you guessed it, I caved! As soon as that darn commercial came on I was running to the car to get it! Ha. Ignore my sad pathetic tree and all the ornaments that Colt has rearranged. :)

He was so shocked, it was awesome! He ended up just laying down and taking a really long nap which he rarely does, and of course he used his bumble bee pillow pet. Then last night when it was bedtime he kept going into his room and getting in bed so I turned on his movie and I went to my bedroom. Well he ran back and forth for about an hour and finally I told him it was time for bed, either get in mommy and daddys bed or go lay down with your pillow pet in your room. He didn't even have to think about it he just took off and jumped in his bed. I laid down and Jay and I decided he would be in our room in a matter of minutes well then I fell asleep. I woke up to Jays alarm and no feet kicking me or knocking me off the bed. Colton put himself to bed last night and slept all night long!!!! I give all credit to our new best friend Bumble Bee the pillow pet!