Tuesday, September 28, 2010

A Wise Person Once Said

At Lifeway a few weekends ago I was flipping through a book about long and happy marriages.  I was just browsing through and just happened to land on a page that said:


"The secret to being able to spend more time with your husband once you

have kids is to realize you have to let some of the


housework go."


 


Wow.  Let that sink in for a moment.


 


It really convicted me right there in the store.  I don't know about you but I struggle on a daily basis just to keep our house from looking like an episode of Hoarders on TLC.  One lazy day and we dive into chaos. Pure happiness is when JM is at Mother's Day Out and Matthew is sleeping and I can clean.  That is clinially insane.  I should be doing something fun, not constantly cleaning and trying my best to organize, all the while knowing once Matthew is out of the crib all of my efforts will be fruitless!



I don't think we have an over abundance of stuff, but we don't have a super-simple lifestyle here, either.  I've been trying really hard to make a meal and freeze one and it seems to be working and helping out a lot. We're not super-duper clean Type-A cleaners around here so we're just about middle of the road and most days all the stuff, toys, books, dishes, sippy cups, and clothes to be folded overwhelm me!


My two little laundry helpers are cute, though, aren't they?!



Being home a lot during the day, how do you learn to let it go?  I know this statement is so true!  I am a work in progress and I am slowly learning to let it go...........


but I still wish I had a cleaning lady!  ha!!


feminist-housewife

Monday, September 27, 2010

Sweet Moments & 10 Months

As the weather starts turning cooler and cooler, it subtly reminds me that my sweet bay #2, Matthew, will soon be turning one.  Like I always say, I can never believe how fast a year blows by.  I can remember this time last year thinking that I was getting close to the home stretch of the pregnancy and being so anxious to find out if he was a boy or a girl!  Alas, he was a boy, and a big ole sweet one at that.

It never ceases to amaze me how much you just fall deeper and deeper and deeper in love with your little ones on a daily basis.  I feel so special that I am privy to these moments with them during the day. 


Just silly, funny, sweet things that I try to tuck away in my brain and hope I can fish them out when I'm 80!



Like letting John Michael play in the rain and look at flowers....



And watching those sweet little toes in the fountain downtown!



Or just watching my 10 month old consistently tackle my two year old!  He is SO strong!



So what is "Baby Dat-chew" up to at 10 months?



Baby Matthew is into just about everything!  He is a busy little guy!  He pretty much breaks things or I catch him about to be breaking or pulling something down.  He loves to get into magazines and toilet paper, too!


I have been putting he and JM in the same size diaper to make things easier.  Matthew will be wearing all of JM's clothes from last fall this year...when JM was 1 1/2.  Matthew is only 10 months old though!


He weighed right under 25 pounds at the doctor last week when we went to get his ears checked for an ear infection.  Note to self: he can NO LONGER have Augmentin.  Ugh.  It definitely makes him barf!



He is starting to stand for 10-15 second all on his own, even if he's holding a toy.  He feels like a ton of bricks when you hold him.  He is built so big and thick.  He is a super-fast crawler too!


He ate Cheerios for the first time last week and he finally decided that he likes puffs, but only the generic kind!


He learned to clap one day after he turned 10 months old!  JM learned to clap on the day he turned 10 months old.


Last Wednesday when he woke up he started waving at John Michael.  It was so cute and sweet!  He can now wave like a pro and usually JM waves back!



Matthew still has his super-sized chunk-ola thighs and most places we go people want to squeeze them!  They are endearing!


I know I'm his mom, but he is just the sweetest thing. His smile always brightens our days.  I have been so blessed to have two healthy boys that are the lights of our lives!


I heard this song on the radio the other day and it just made me think of my boys and how I will forever be grateful to the Lord for blessing us the way He has. It makes my heart want to sing!   He has been doing so many small and big things in our lives lately.  A few Sundays ago our preacher said that if God even did one good thing for you, it's more than we deserve and it's so true.  I feel thankful God did two great things for Jordan and I by gifting us these two boys.  I just hope we don't mess up!



"How Can I Keep From Singing" by Chris Tomlin


How can I keep from singing your praise


How can I ever say enough


How amazing is your love


How can I keep from shouting your name


I know I am loved by the king


and it makes my heart want to sing!

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Our Fun Football Saturday!

In case you were on another planet today and didn't know it, today was the big Alabama vs. Arkansas game!  My family came up for a visit and we all went to the game.  We also celebrated Mom's Birthday yesterday!  We went out to eat and then came home and had cake and opened presents.


And of course we just had to have a Rick's Bakery cake!



We didn't really "tailgate" today.  We just grabbed some sammiches and chips and I made some brownies.  We ate once we got to our spot.  Before we hopped on the bus to go to the stadium we changed diapers, packed the diaper bag, and packed everything back up.  And yes, that's a Razorback chair, but Jordan won it, we didn't buy it!



Roll Tide!  We didn't get to go to a game last year, so we were super-excited to go to this awesome SEC match-up!



Uncle Ray has an arm-FULL!



Once I put Matthew in his carrier he promptly fell asleep and stayed that way through a bus ride, a walk through 70,000 crazy fans, and waiting in a big line to get in our gate!



Our seats were pretty high up, but we didn't care!!  We were just glad to be there and we were so excited to take JM to his second Alabama game!  He loves football and he did really, really well today.  I was so proud of both boys.  They acted great and were entertained the whole time.  Granted, we only stayed until after half time, but still, that's a long time for little kids!



John Michael just took everything in and watched the players and clapped and yelled "ROLL TIDE ROLL!"



Me and Matthew!  He was so sweet today!  I could just eat them up in their matching houndstooth outfits!



Snack time!  Luckily I packed whales, juice, and graham crackers.  Apparently, Matthew can eat graham crackers now!



Jordan and Matthew enjoying the day!



We had a great day.  The biggest problem of the day was leaving with Mom and the boys after halftime.  We got to the car and discovered that I didn't have the car keys.  Yikes!  Poor Jordan just went ahead and left the game and came on to bring us the car keys.  We promptly got on the road and we made it to our house pretty quickly!  What a fun day!  We were so glad Alabama pulled out a win!  Roll Tide!

Monday, September 20, 2010

Jewel the Camel Has One Hump!

I have one more post relating to our Labor Day adventure to the Drive-Thru Safari!  The last time we were there we didn't get to ride the camel, so this time we made sure to make time for it.  Originally, I was going to ride the camel with JM, but he wanted his dad to ride it with him!  Oh well!

Here they are waiting their turn.  I think JM was really excited!  I have come to realize that weekends are now strictly "dadin-time".  JM only wants to hold "Dadin hand" when we're out and about on the weekends.  And of course, he only wants to play "Dadin football" with Jordan.  Little boys love their dads for the guy stuff that they are learning to do!


We found out the camel's name is "Jewel" and John Michael is still talking about her!  He'll be talking and he'll say "bye, bye, Jewel!" and he now has a funny camel walk that he can do!  It's pretty spot-on because he walks on all-fours and hops up and down.  It's pretty cute!



He and Jordan had a really good time and made a fun memory in the process.  I mean, how often do you get to ride a camel?!  Pretty neat!



Have a happy Monday!  Matthew is developing an ear infection so we are hopefully going to get our prescription filled from the pediatrician we saw this morning and get him started on some antibiotics tonight!  Matthew has been sleeping through the night for most of the last week.  I'm not sure if he's going to always do this now, or if it was a lovely, wonderful side effect of the prescription allergy drops?!!  Either way, it feels so wonderful and refreshing to get an uninterrupted night's sleep.  Nothing like it!

Saturday, September 18, 2010

It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Food, football, and my favorite fall fragrance candle!  All of these things scream "FALL" to me!!  Only, I wish it wasn't 95 degrees and high humidity outside! 



I am in love with my mulled cider candle!  I had one last fall and I used almost the whole candle up!  It smells just like fall should.


John Michael and Matthew were ready for the game this morning!  They were ready to cheer on The Tide, even though they're napping during the game.



We've been getting the world's best salsa from Sam's for our football snack.  It is so fresh and it goes so well with crunchy chips!  We're eating some right now as we watch the game!




We all moved from our regular seats to watch the football game during dinner!  JM was showing us his Alabama jersey.  He thought it was fun because he got to eat at his little table and he got to watch football!



One big happy Alabama family!


Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Safari, Take 2!

We couldn't decide what to do for Labor Day, so we decided to go back to the Drive-Thru Safari since Jordan didn't get to go with us last time.  Once again, we had a blast!  This time, we drove through first, visited the different animals that you can pet, and then ate lunch there.  We wanted to visit Pioneer Pizza again, but they were closed for Labor Day.

Here's John Michael looking at some buffalo!



And the evil ostrich.  Those are everywhere!



Look, a baby zebra! He was very dusty and very cute.



I felt like I was in Texas with all these longhorn cattle blocking our way!



The camels loved to come up to our car.  I think it's so cool to be so close to them!



And there's the rhino.  He was pretty big!  JM liked him too!



Now, when we got to the petting zoo part, John Michael really surprised us.  He ran right in and went up to every animal there.  He loved petting them and he even ran after some roosters, but they weren't very happy about that!



He really liked the roosters!



I pretty much stayed away from every animal there.  I'm afraid of lots of animals, but I didn't want it to show because I wanted JM to really enjoy them, and he did!  Matthew wanted to pet them too!



JM really enjoyed petting the donkey....



and the little cow (which I am also afraid of).  He even loved petting the little baby camel!



 



If you'll remember from my last post about the safari, the baby lemur was JM's favorite animal there!  Well, they had her out again that day.  He was so happy!  She really is very cute and quite sweet.  He was so excited to get to pet her again.



So then the lady who works there put her on my arm.  I have to admit, her little paws were so soft and felt like little bubbles on my arm.  And yes, I am freaking out here.



She was a little interested in Matthew and he was sort of interested in her too.  I'm starting to freak out more here....



And then my worst nightmare came true.  Matthew opened his mouth and the lemur got a really good lick in his mouth.  I was really, really freaking out then!  I kept annoying Jordan all day about whether or not he thought the lemur had any exotic diseases and whether or not Matthew could have gotten them from it.  I guess Matthew was OK, but he wasn't happy about it at all!



Both boys were really interested in petting the turtles.  I think I got laughed at by another mom because I was right there with my hand sanitizer right after they touched them.  Turtles are icky and I was prepared for the petting zoo with lots of hand sanitizer.



 



We had so much fun!  I'm hoping to go back again in a few weeks!