SLO in Arkansas: April 2010

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Thankful Thursday

There is a lot to be thankful for today! Here is my random list......

I feel good:) I have officially lost all of my pregnancy weight from Jace. 9 months on, exactly 8 months off! Now I am just working on improving my health overall and being in shape. I love weighing less than I did before I had children:)

My Tyson....I am so thankful for my oldest little booger. He is so sweet and funny and full of life. He still loves the water and calls it "swimming" when we play with the hose in the front yard! I have never seen such uninhibited joy than when I watch Ty run wild through the water in the yard. It makes me smile just to think about how precious children are and how they find such fulfillment in life's simple pleasures.

A rare shot of Tyson's face:) He had just finished stuffing it with cookies after dinner:)

My precious baby Jace. I love that he will wear a hat...Tyson never would at this age. He is so content and happy outside and loves to watch and take it all in. He was 8 months old on Monday this week too!! My how the time flies. He is officially crawling, even though it is still pretty slow at times. He actually prefers cruising around holding on to the furniture. We just put up the baby gate for the stairs this week to mark his accomplishment of going mobile:)

My sweet husband who almost has the bathroom finished!!! We just lack the finishing details of pulling it all together, but the hard work is done:) We just have to paint and install the baseboards and crown molding, finish connecting the sink, install the shower door, hang the mirror and re-attach the light fixture. Then it's just finding new towels I like that match and a bathmat and we are back in business baby!!! I can't wait to post the pictures.....should be soon I hope:)

I am so very thankful for the awesome spring we have had as well. This has been the best year of weather!! I love having days in the mid-70's and sunshine. I appreciate so much the gradual change of seasons and not just tons of rain and going straight to HOT like it seems to usually do:)

Life is good friends, and I am thankful:)

Thursday, April 22, 2010

All Aboard

Just a random cute picture of Jace after stuffing his face:)

We finally took the plunge and got Tyson a train table this week. He has loved every one we have ever come into contact with and we were getting tired of hanging out at bookstores to play with their cool trains!! We had to order it online and Tyson knew he had a "surprise present" coming...just not what it was. Here he was opening the box.

The finished table. The thing is pretty big and takes up a lot of space, but hopefully he will love it for years:)

My two sweeties playing trains together. More like Tyson trying to keep Jace from tearing it up:) Jace loves everything his big brother does and always wants to see what is going on. They will be playing together before I know it though. Tyson has loved having the table and I am hoping it gets tons of daily use for a while:)

Stay tuned for some pictures of the bathroom in the next week or so too!! We are getting very close to having it finished (thank goodness!!) It is looking really good so far and is almost ready to have all the new stuff installed. Our estimate is to have it finished by next week sometime, and I hope it is:) It will definitely be a major transformation for sure.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Tuesday

Just checking in for a minute. Here are a few highlights from our past week or so. The bathroom re-model is coming along great!! Silas and Michael work until late at night on it almost every night, and we are getting close. They are currently tiling the shower and should have it and the floor done this week. We should also be able to get everything repainted in the next few days as well. That just leaves installing the vanity, toilet, lighting, finishing touches, etc in the next week or so. We have already purchased most of that, so it should be pretty easy! I am getting really excited. You will love the before and after pictures:) I can't wait to share them.

Jace has cut his top two front teeth this week. Poor baby doesn't feel good, but is still doing ok.

Tyson has a big surprise due to show up at our house either today or tomorrow! Pretty much a super early birthday present, but we wanted him to be able to enjoy it as long as possible. I will do a post once his "surprise present" arrives:)

I have lost 15.2 pounds!!! I am super excited and feeling good. Still working on losing some more, but I am really happy with my progress. I have started running this past week and have managed to go a lot longer than I thought I would. My neighborhood is pretty hilly as well, which makes it a lot harder than I am used to:) It's a great workout though, and I love having Amy to run with....definitely easier to keep motivated with a buddy:)

Still doing my coupons and loving it. I think the initial frenzy of excitement has worn off from finding some awesome deals and I am able to be much more discriminating with what I am looking for.

We are heading to Nashville this weekend to visit my family:) It has been a while since we have been and everyone is excited to catch up:) Tyson can't stop talking about his cousins!

I promise to post pictures next time....just wanted to catch up with a few things that have been going on with us!

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

On The Move

Jace is starting to alarm me a bit these days! I don't think he wants to crawl at all....the kid wants to stand up all day long:) I put the little booger down by the basket of toys on the left and went to tuck Tyson in for a nap. I came back a few minutes later and this is what I found....a little Jace standing up by the ottoman!! Silly little guy crawled over there and pulled up on his own. My kids have amazing abilities to get into everything!!! I don't think Jace will be any different from Tyson in this respect. Bring on the baby gates! I just stand him up and give him some toys and he will play there for 10 minutes or more at a time. If he falls over he just pulls right back up.

Just a few quick pictures of the boys playing the past week or so. Tyson has loved swinging at a friend's house lately and we have all really been soaking up this gorgeous weather and playing outside as much as we can. The boys also have a ball playing together and entertained themselves for quite a while in the laundry basket last week:) Please excuse Jace's bib. He has cut a front top tooth this week and has been a drool machine lately...soaking through multiple bibs and shirts on a daily basis!

Friday, April 09, 2010

Brothers

I love my boys!

Even though they won't look at the camera!

They are still cute:)

And I finally put them in matching shirts for the first time:) Jace is enjoying a ride on the bean bag while Tyson pushes him all over the house:)

Thursday, April 08, 2010

Happy Easter

This was the best picture we got Sunday morning before church:) Tyson just does not like to look at the camera these days. At least Jace was cooperative! The boys had fun playing with their Easter baskets and Tyson crammed as much candy down as he could before we left for church.

Jace with his first Easter basket. He really enjoyed playing with the grass more than anything. He also managed to wait to spit up on his white shirt until after a few pictures were made!

Little T and his basket of candy:) He was on a jelly bean high the rest of the day. If you look behind him on the right, you can see what he was doing with his plastic eggs. He pulled a frying pan out and was trying to cook them up:)

We had fun helping Tyson dye eggs for the first time this year. We didn't want to deal with the mess last year since he wasn't even 2 years old, so we just put it off til this year. He had fun and did a good job. He ended up cracking a lot of them once we were through while he was playing with them and cooking. That kid is always cooking something:) We enjoyed a wonderful church service and simple lunch at home. Tyson had a great time hunting Easter eggs in the backyard too. It was a great weekend!

Tuesday, April 06, 2010

My Youngest

Here's a couple of pictures from the past few weeks of my youngest little guy. Jace is 7 1/2 months old now:) He eats like a horse. Daily. I am already thinking of ways to cut things out so we can up our grocery budget. These two boys are going to eat me out of the house, and they are still TINY. They may be getting an eating fund instead of a college fund if they aren't careful!! Here is what one meal looks like for Jace these days. Place Jace in highchair. Immediately hand him a mum mum cracker to eat while getting his food ready. Hurry and make food before he starts hollering. Mix one 4 oz jar of baby food stage 2 with oatmeal cereal (to thicken it up and make it go farther), and feed that to him once mum mum #1 is gone. This is a whole bowl full of food once the cereal is mixed in. Once that is shoveled down, hand him mum mum #2 to eat. Feed him another 4 oz. jar of food after that. Pour a huge pile of Puffs on the tray for him to munch on for 2 minutes while you eat your own meal. Once those are gone, start in with the saltine crackers. He usually eats about 3-4 while we are finishing our meal. Frequently there may be a mum mum #3 and possibly #4. Wash the crackers down with some water/apple juice from a sippy cup. Quickly put his paci back in his mouth to wash him up and get him out of the chair before he notices he has stopped eating!!! Repeat 2 or 3 times daily. We have also started feeding him some random table food when it is something he can eat, like mashed potatoes. Eats most of what comes near his mouth. I am not sure we have ever filled him up yet. I just cut him off because I can't afford the kid to eat 4 jars of food at every sitting!!! He has gained over a pound in the past 2 weeks!!! I have to admit I love his chunky little thighs though:)

Hanging out in the bean bag chair.

More eating...of course. I am telling you, the boy puts it away!!!!

My Easter cutie. I know, I know....there is candy in his Easter basket. He did get a book and a ride/push toy, but I needed some filler stuff for his basket. Of course Tyson ate all of the baby's candy for him! Anyway, Jace is doing good and growing so fast. He is also cutting some new teeth and has been pretty cranky the past week or so. I hope he has a mouth full once this is over so we can move on:)

Friday, April 02, 2010

Mama Said There Would Be Days Like This....

Man oh man this week has kicked my tail. There are a million and one things I need to be doing, so I thought taking a break and writing a post would be nice and relaxing. Then I looked everywhere for my camera to upload some pictures and of course I left it in the car...the car that Silas has at church. Uggghhh. Yep...it has just been one of those weeks.

So I will just sit here cramming M & M's in my face and rant about it all with no pictures!! I guess I have to say first off that single parents have my utmost and highest respect. I have no idea how you do it all by yourself. Silas has been participating in an Easter drama put on by our church this past week, and I have found myself to be home alone with the kids from the minute they wake up until past their bedtime each night. It has been a LONG week!!! Especially when the boogers decide to wake up at 6:40 am....anyway. It wouldn't have been quite as bad if I didn't have three home studies I desperately needed to finish this week as well hanging over my head. I will spare you all the whining and complaining details between last Sunday and tonight, but lets just say there are a lot of tired people in this house, lots of dirty dishes, toys everywhere, and one worn-out mama!!!

But let's look on the positive side of things! It's over tonight and I will have my awesome and wonderfully HELPFUL husband back, all to myself again!!! He does much more than I realized once he wasn't around to do it!!! The kids miss him like crazy too. We did manage to get quite a bit accomplished this week despite the craziness of it all, including raking all the leaves up in the yard and doing some weeding. Our yard is blooming like crazy with all kinds of pretty flowers and plants left by the previous owners. It has been so much fun watching each week to see what pops up next and where:) I have managed to get several wonderful walks in around the neighborhood, including one lovely mid-day walk pushing Jace in the stroller while Tyson was at school on Thursday. I managed to squeeze in some fun girl time/shopping for deals at Walgreen's with a friend last night after the kids were in bed. I did three loads of laundry today (washed, dried, and put away my friends!!). Completed and turned in all three of my home studies, thank goodness. And at 8:39 pm tonight, I managed to change out of my pajamas from last night that had spit up all over them(thanks Jace), and into some fresh pj's:) And then I had a snack attack and managed to find an almost entire package of wonderfully lovely chocolate M&M's that I have already devoured. Did I mention I ate a bowl of fruit Loops, 4 Kalamata olives, 3 slices of an apple and a hunk of cheese for most of the day?? Thank goodness for our taco salad for dinner or I would have starved to death! And speaking of starving to death, I am pretty proud to say I have lost almost 13 pounds in the past 7 weeks. No, I am not starving myself either. We are eating healthier by far and getting lots more exercise. I am enjoying the change and feeling lots better overall. Still got a ways to go yet, but I am very pleased with the progress so far. And I am having fun doing it, which is just icing on the cake.....man cake sounds good!!!

Anyway, I am really just writing all of this for myself, to document the crazy phase of life I am in right now. Because I know it's true...I'm gonna miss this. My sweet little crazy guys are growing up so fast and some days/weeks just seem like a blur. This has definitely been one of them. I am looking forward to a weekend of rest, catching up, enjoying Silas' company again, and celebrating our risen Lord on Sunday!!

SLO in Arkansas