/> SLO in Arkansas: June 2010

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Why I Love My Coupons


I got 12 full sized Old Spice body washes at Target last week and paid a whopping total of 97 cents plus tax out of pocket after coupons and the gift cards I received from the purchase. Don't forget to notice that almost every single one of them has a free deodorant or sample body wash included with it. Not bad for under a buck, not bad:) And this my friends is why I am loving my coupons! Not to mention that I have the best smelling husband on the block:)
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posted by Lauren at 1:17 PM 1 Comments

Friday, June 25, 2010

Boys Being Boys

My boys are excellent eaters. They are eating me out of the house!

They are sweet brothers too. Tyson's favorite thing to do is crawl in Jace's crib every time the baby wakes up and play with him before I can get him out. They have so much fun wrestling around the crib together. I love how they both break into HUGE grins when they wake up and see their brother there waiting for them to play. Love it!
Jace holding his own at the mall playground. He actually attracts quite a few girls and had several older girls petting his head constantly, holding his hand to help him walk, and just following him around. Good grief this stuff starts early!
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Thursday, June 24, 2010

Summertime

We are still loving our summer out here and have enjoyed spending our days with a wonderful combination of fun and relaxation. We stay in during the day to avoid the triple digit heat and try to venture out in the mornings or evenings to have a little fun. One way I have been keeping the kids entertained is through music and singing. Of course Tyson adores all music, and Jace is loving it too. We have a wonderful praise and worship CD that has become our favorite and we listen to it daily around here. Tyson loves singing along and it is a nice way to keep the TV off for most of the day. The top picture is of Tyson after he found my ipod and put his "microphone" on so he could get on stage and lead singing like they do at church:) Sweet boy!
We had fun taking Daddy to lunch at Fuji's for Father's Day this year. We all love that place so much, and it is always a fun family outing.
I love Chik-fil-A because they do so many cool events for free all the time. They happened to have a "Touch a Truck" event here in town last weekend, so Saturday afternoon after naps we loaded the boys up and headed over to play on some big boy toys! Here is Daddy and Jace manning the Bobcat.
Look how enthusiastic Tyson is to have his picture made on the tractor!!! I think maybe it was more the fact that it was almost 100 degrees outside and probably much hotter than that on the hot black parking lot we were on. We played with the big equipment fast and then had a nice supper inside to cool off. We have managed to make a few trips to the mall indoor playground the past few weeks which the boys love. We continue to swim several times each week and are starting to get really excited about our upcoming weekend at the lake for the 4th of July. Tyson keeps talking about the firecrackers and the boat. We are having fun and still loving our summer! I can't believe the boys have their birthdays coming up in the next two months! I gotta figure out how we are going to celebrate:)
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Monday, June 14, 2010

Lazy Summer Days

We have been loving this summer so far!! I guess our theme has been water, since we have managed to find some way to swim or play in it about every other day so far this week:) My little munchkins are already turning a nice tan and love all our water activities.
Jace LOVES floating in the pool or lake and splashing whenever he can. We just pop him in a float and off he goes! Our neighbor one house down goes to church with us and has a fabulous pool which they are wonderful to let us use. Our family has really enjoyed having some swim time together, and I love that it totally wears the boys out! The plan is to have Tyson swimming on his own by the end of the summer, so we will see how that goes:)
Tyson has been doing great swimming so far this summer. He loves his water wings and is everywhere in them. We have a swimming day on Tuesday mornings with other moms and kids from church, which we really look forward to every week. Last Thursday we went out for a pizza lunch and to the water park with some friends for an awesome afternoon of fun and sun. The picture below is of Cole, Ty, Susan and Jace. Cole and Jace were born on the same day only 14 minutes apart last summer, and we love spending time with our "twin"!
When we aren't swimming or at the lake, we try to pull out the sprinklers and let Tyson play while we conveniently water the yard! I may blow up their little pool for the backyard too, and we still need to hit the water sprinklers at the park before too long. Little boys need to be outside, and we are taking advantage of every opportunity we can!
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Friday, June 11, 2010

Adventures in Potty Training

I have totally neglected to post about Tyson's potty training experience! Now I can't even remember when we did it, but oh well. It had to be back in mid-May, since I know we were done before we left on our trip for Texas Memorial weekend. Anyway, I'm not sure how it happened really. I think I had been dragging my feet doing it because I knew it would be a lot of work, and it meant my little boy was growing up. One Wednesday morning we woke up and I announced...."today you are wearing big boy underwear!!" And thus our journey began.
He did great the first day and only had an accident at church that evening. Then I put him in a diaper the next day for Mother's Day Out since we had just started the process and I wanted him to be successful. He did great the second part of Thursday and Friday. The weekend was awesome too, and the rest is history really. He has been in undies ever since that day. He wore them to school the next Thursday and stayed dry all day there too:) I was pretty amazed at how quickly he picked it up and how easy it was! He stays dry in his undies during nap, and I still put him in a diaper for bedtime. He wakes up almost every morning dry though, and even gets up in the night and comes and gets us if he has to go! I am not ready to start changing lots of sheets yet, so he will stay in diapers at night until I run out of his size or feel pretty confident there won't be too many accidents. He loves his underwear and flushing the potty. Just a funny story too.....there is a Pull-Ups commercial out on TV right now where a little kid is playing and then jumps up and says "I gotta go potty!" and runs to the bathroom. When he is finished he yells "I did it!" Well every single time that commercial comes on, guess what Tyson does??! Jumps up, yells I gotta go potty, and goes. Then finishes with a big "I did it!" It is pretty funny:) I am so glad the TV helps me remind my child to go to the bathroom too!!!

So we are now down to one in diapers, and the end is in sight for cutting out formula too, thank goodness! Jace is almost 10 months old (can you believe it??) and hopefully he will transition to milk close to his first birthday. Or not drink a drop of milk ever again if he follows in big brother's footsteps:) Anyway, I am thankful to be cutting some of these costs of babies out, since I am about to have to go back to work just to be able to afford the human garbage disposals I have to feed everyday!!!
Jace and daddy:) I love how they are making the same face:) I found a picture of Silas at almost a year old and showed it to Tyson, who grinned and said..."it's baby Jace!" They do look a lot alike as babies:)

All my boys:) Love 'em, love 'em, love 'em!! Silas is such a great dad and the boys have so much fun playing with him in the evenings.
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posted by Lauren at 1:45 PM 1 Comments

Tuesday, June 08, 2010

Summer Time

We spent a perfect weekend at the lake and the whole family had a wonderful time. The weather was in the 90's and water temp right around 85 which made for a perfect combination. We were just planning a day trip for Saturday but we got invited to stay by our friend's with a house right on the water, so it turned into a weekend getaway full of fun, sun and great food:) I am so stinking proud of Tyson for getting out on the tube all by himself for the first time this year!!!! After watching mama take an easy little ride around he was all pumped up to do it himself. He loved it and it is just so much fun watching your child try and enjoy new things:)
Jace is my second water baby, thank goodness!! He loves splashing and kicking and would just float around out there all day. He went swimming twice and had a ball.
Here is Silas getting ready to tear it up on the tube! I actually went pretty easy on him....have I mentioned how old we are getting by how sore we are after a long day out on the water??!!! We both had fun riding though. I am thinking of trying to learn to ski since that may be more age appropriate for me soon!!!
Me enjoying a relaxing day on the water. We are super fortunate to have good friends to stay with, which offers so many benefits for our family. We were able to lay Jace down for his morning naps at the house and then Silas and I got to take Tyson out on the water by himself both days. He loved the attention and we were able to swim, tube and play without having to watch the baby constantly. It was a special time for all of us and Silas and I are absolutely loving our lake time and making memories with our kids:)
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Tuesday, June 01, 2010

Texas!!!

We piled the family in the car and drove to Texas this Memorial weekend to spend time with friends and family. It was a LONG trip, but very worth it! When all was said and done, we drove 1,315 miles in 4 days. That my friends, is a lot of time with small children strapped into car seats!! The boys did amazing though, much better than I anticipated, which definitely saved my sanity:) The top picture is of Tyson and Olivia. We have been friends with her parents since college and have seen each other through dating, engagements, weddings and multiple children. These are our oldest, who were fast friends:)
A group picture of the Orbison boys and Simmons girls. Brandy and Jonathon will be adding a little boy to the mix in the next few weeks too:)
All of the great-grandchildren at the Orbison family reunion. The kids had a blast playing with all of their cousins. I think it is wonderful that our kids get to know not only their first cousins, but second cousins too:) What fun memories for them.
A 4 generation Orbison picture. Four generations of Orbison boys! I love it:) We had a great time eating, chatting, and just spending time with friends and family over the weekend. The weather was beautiful, the food was fabulous, and we are so thankful we were able to make the trip. Tyson had a ball and hasn't stopped talking about "Texas" since we got home!
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posted by Lauren at 12:32 PM 1 Comments