In Love With The Boy

Corn Dawgs

2012-01-13T12:46:00.017-05:00

So I have to confess....we cheated on Southern Belle this year! I love Southern Belle and it is one of my favorite places to go. I love the scenery, the people that own it, and love even more their produce I can get from there! Oh yeah....and their blackberry cobbler! O-M-G! It is amazing!

But this year we didn't head there for the fall. We headed the opposite direction on the map to Corn Dawgs in Loganville. My parents took Addy last year and loved it. My mom and I took Landon for the day and he had a blast! He was free to do whatever he wanted! This place is huge! It was super fun! It had gigantic slides, a place for just kids 5 and under to play, a real race car, boat, and bi-plane to get in and play. Animals to feed, hay rides, corn maze for smaller kids, jumpy pillow, big corn pit, cars to ride on, and a million other things that I can't rememeber. It is basically Southern Belle on drugs! We spent all day there having a blast! I will continue to support Southern Belle, but for the fall, Corn Dawgs has won my heart!

Beware....there are a lot of pictures below. I won't comment on them, but they are super fun to look at!

Even Gigi joined in on the fun! :)

Hay ride!

Ms. Farmer and her cow!!

Until next year!

Annual Halloween Party

2012-01-13T12:08:00.008-05:00

We had our second annual Halloween party with my co-workers from school. I decided to host this year and it was perfect because we had just gotten our house in order from moving!! :)

The Leigh's, Hoffman's, Collinsworth's, and Colver's game over for the afternoon! We met a new teacher last year that has kids around the same age and has fit perfectly in with our group, but she couldn't make it to the party!

We had the most perfect day for our party! It was so nice outside that the kids played outside 98% of the time! We each made an appetizer or snack and then Chassidy and I made soups. I made chili and she made potato soup! We snacked and played all afternoon! The kids have such a good time together. They all play pretty well together!! Last year we carved pumpkins, but none of the kids were into it. This year we were going to carve them again, but the night got away from us and the adults decided it was too much and the kids weren't interested, so we skipped it this year! We can basically get together every month because there is some holiday or birthday so it is a lot of fun!!

This has turned into tradition to have this cheeseball at the party! It is so delicious!!!
So I got this idea from Southern Belle. They have this huge corn pit and I wanted to re-create it for the kids. I couldn't figure out what to put the corn in, but when I came across this pool at Target for $12, but I grabbed it! They had a BLAST!! It was definitely a hit with the kids, but man did it leave them dusty!

Nothing better than dinner on the kitchen floor! They were all so dusty, we just let them eat on the floor that could be cleaned the easiest!

Parker only wanted to eat cheese by the spoonfulls for dinner. So he did....

Until it spilled on the floor...then he ate it off the floor! haha

In between corn playing, they loved running back and forth and just being kids!

Carson and Parker loved smashing their face on the screen and playing hide-n-seek with Amy through it!

*Sweet face*

I am so blessed to have such wonderful people that I work with, that have kids Landon's age, and that we get along with! The kids love playing, but I think the adults have just as much fun!

Can't wait for our next get together!!

State Fair 2011

2011-11-07T08:04:00.006-05:00

Ashley and I decided to take the kids down to Perry, Ga for the state fair about a month ago. We had great time. It was just like any local fair...just on steroids! :) We took the wagon and pulled the kiddos around because they never would have made it the whole way walking. It is a HUGE place and so many people. And it also gave us a place to stash our stuff!

We started off buying tickets and letting the kids ride some of the kiddie rides while it wasn't too crowded. Maddie was not into the rides at first, but we got her to go on all of them and by the end of the day she was happy and holding her arms up in the air. Landon really wanted to go on the roller coaster, but he was about an inch too short, so we will have to go back next year! He is a dare devil like me and that makes me sooooo happy! I see Six Flags in our future!!!!

We got to see pig races, an alligator show, seals, camels, donkeys, horses (I didn't even dare go in the barn....Ashley took the kids), sheep riding (Mustin' Bustin' to be exact), and lots of other animals and fun things.

As the day went on it got PACKED. I have never seen so many people!! We were going to go see the circus, but we would have to waited an hour and then drive almost 2 hours back and we had two very tired kids, so we decided to head on back about 5:30. We had a really fun and long day!!

Going in!

Landon was very excited for his first ride!

haha Look at Maddie's face! She was not too sure!
But it was success!!

Ashley and Maddie

For some reason Landon wanted to do "peace" signs! So we did!

Landon and I

Getting ready to go on the Ferris Wheel

Maddie was actually really excited about this!

He was loving this!

Maddie was very worried about riding the flying elephant, but once it started she loved it!

See the face!

We had a lunch out at the car and relaxed in the shade a little bit!

They got a fun snack later in the day! Maddie got chocolate ice cream and Landon got a slushie!

We went and saw the alligator show with "Dave" the alligator man. They loved it because we were on the front row so the water spalshed on us while he was wrestling the alligator.

After the alligator show, we went to the Mutin' Bustin' show. This was hilarious! This show is where kids ages 3 and up ride on sheep and see who can ride on them the longest. It was the highlight of the day. A four year old came in second and a girl came in first! Landon was dying to do it, but it was expensive to enter him and we didn't want to wait around for the next show.

This little girl was holding on for dear life!

We finished up the day with some more stuff to see and then they wanted to ride the Crazy Bus one time before we left.

We had a great time and hopefully will get to go back next year!

Thankful

2011-09-06T14:33:00.003-04:00

Matthew 18:20 "For where two or three come together in My name, there I am."

I am so thankful that I work in a school that has a principal that is bold enough to pray out loud and quote bible versues at an impromtu faculty meeting.

Today, we had some sad news hit the 'creek. It's not "as bad" as it could be and things change in an instant and we are hoping they change for the good....not the bad. But it makes me so unbelievably happy to work along side people that want to pray with each other no matter what religion, etc someone might be.

So as you read this, think about the staff and students here at the 'creek and say a little prayer for us and a sweet young 4th grader who is fighting for his life. We all know he is a fighter and can pull through this, but it is hard to know that a student that you see everyday and smiles no matter what, is in a hospital bed with tubes and and cords connected to him for something he couldn't prevent.

Matthew 19:26- "...and with God, all things are possible."

Back in the swing of things

2011-09-06T10:25:00.004-04:00

We had a great and relaxing summer! I didn't really do much blogging and it was nice not to worry about it. (I know you guys were really bummed) haha

Getting ready to go to school. I didn't plan this....he litterally just stoppped and started looking!

Well, we have been in school for 27 days and are finally getting into the swing of things. Landon started going to RCA's pre-school where my mom works. I am really excited that he is going but it has definitely been an ADJUSTMENT! It has been long hard days since he has started. My mom comes to my school and picks him up and takes him with her. He loves getting to ride in "Gigi's Silver Bus"! :) He was a great napper and loved his naps-2 1/2 to 3 hours. But since school has started he is working on only 1 hour a day. So the afternoons are full of M-E-L-T downs and crying. He has gotten better, but I can still tell that the naps are being missed around our place. Early bedtimes are a must for him! He is doing great and really having a good time. Although, when you ask him about he probably won't tell you anything and will pretend that he hates it. But when I catch him on a good day, he will tell me things that make me know he enjoys it! He loves the songs and has learned so many. He is constantly singing them all the time. He loves Mrs. Dyer his teacher and I think it has taken him 27 days to get used to this school stuff too. I don't blame him....he was 3 and his world got rocked and turned upside down when school started. So I keep reminding myself that it will take time....but we/he can get through it and work the kinks out!

He found the playground on the way in!

Looking for his name to hang his stuff!

He found his Gigi!

Since school has started, we have moved from the apartments and it is in a GREAT location. (I don't have to drive to work!) :) It is so nice and we have an extra bedroom so all of Landon's toys are in the play room and he can have a bedroom!! We have a huge yard and an amazing drive way so he can play, play, PLAY! He has loved it so much. We are going on week number two of being there and loving every minute of it! I will post pictures soon!

Ok, quick update. I'll try to get more posts up about our fun adventures!

Cinderella

2011-06-01T14:02:00.002-04:00

Please meet the new Cinderella.....

And then "she" took a tumble and about broke the ankle....I think "she" needs to learn to walk in heels! :)

School's out for the SUMMER!

2011-06-01T13:11:00.007-04:00

Yep, school is O-U-T and this girl could not be happier! This has been a very intense school year, but I finished alive and now have the summer to rejuvinate for next year!

We spent the whole weekend at the pool and had lots of fun. Sunday we spent the day at Jay's bosses pool with their families. Landon had a great time and we enjoyed every minute of it. Monday we hung out at our pool, and just relaxed! I hope all of you had a great Memorial Day. Here are some pictures from our pool day on Sunday!

Landon loved not having to go inside to use the restroom! :)

Thomas!

2011-05-23T13:01:00.008-04:00

*Blogger is being silly so my pictures are first! :)

Since everything was RIDICULOUSLY priced, we went for the free train tattoo's!
Tattoo's!!!!!! SUUUGGGAAARRRR!!

see how crazy they were being! haha

And more funny boys!

All the trains!

They could not stand still for the life of them! William running around with Matt and Micah didn't want to get his picture taken so we went with these four who would more interested in the curtain that opened!

SILLY BOYS!

Braden really wanted us to take his picture over and over and over!

We had tons of fun!

Braden really wanted to be in it with Landon and I so we let him! :)

Sunday afternoon Landon and I met the Cardoza's, Collinsworth's, Hoffman's and May's at Gwinnett Areana to see Thomas Live! I got the tickets as part of Landon's birthday presents. He loves anything that has to do with trains so I asked the other families to come along with us! We had great seats and kids LOVED it! All of the kids were shocked when there was a "real" Thomas and Percy on stage! We sugared them up with cotton candy, popcorn, and sprite! I seriously have never seen Landon any funnier. He and Braden were seriously on cloud 9! They loved every minute of it. We weren't technically supposed to have flash photography, but everyone else was taking pictures so I figured what the heck....I would too! :) The show was about an hour long and then we headed home! It was a fun experience and glad we got to spend it with some of his best buds!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-05-05T10:48:00.002-04:00

*This was supposed to be uploaded yesterday, but I totally forgot because it was field trip day! :)

Melts my heart!

Spring Break

2011-04-20T12:37:00.012-04:00

Ben and Amanda just got stationed in Jacksonville for their new place in the Coast Guard so I got to keep Addy while Amanda and my mom headed to Jacksonville to look for a house. We stayed at our house while they were gone and had tons of fun on our adventures of me having "twins".

The first day she was there she lost her beloved MAM in the drain outside my apt. She was looking in the drain with Landon and it fell out of her mouth and straight down to the bottom.

There were lots of tears but we graciously gave her another one of Landon's and she was happy! Addy staring down at her MAM wondering how she can get it out!

Bubbles!!

Love him :)

The weather was so nice while they were here so we ate up the sunshine!
Monday night we went on an adventure to Dunwoody to visit Kelsey and have dinner and dessert with her.

Being silly with MAM's while waiting for Kelsey to get there!

Chick-Fil-A dinner and playhouse was a hit!

Gigi's cupcakes for dessert! They are the BEST cupcakes!

Couldn't wait for their cupcake with *pink* icing!!! Tuesday got very cold and chilly so we decided we would head to GameTime with the Leigh's and Collinsworth's. It is the best place ever! $5 per kid and they can jump their little heart's out. We brought a sack lunch and the kids had a blast!

Yep, head first down the slide!

The rest of the week was consumed with lots of outdoor time. Both kids would stay outside if they could. While my dad was cleaning up the back yard, he found a frog. Landon fell in love.

I told Landon to kiss the frog and when he was about to kiss it, it jumped right at him. Hence the face in this picture.

They had so much fun playing with Papa and riding in the wheelbarrow.

We went to Atlantic Station so Amanda could see it and also meet up with one of her friends that just moved to Marietta. We ate at Doc Greens and then spent the next 2 1/2 hours with kids letting them run all over the green space. Addy really just wanted to lay on the beach and read her book she said. She could care less what anyone else was doing while she was on her beach with a book! :)

We had a great visit and can't wait until they are only 6 hours away from us and we can visit them and the beach anytime we want! :) I see a lot of beach trips in our future!!

3

2011-04-20T11:47:00.011-04:00

I can't believe Landon is already 3. Time has flown by. He is so full of energy and brings so much joy to my life! He is developing into a very bright child and the kid can literally see or hear something one time and it is embedded in his memory forever. Seriously. I have to be very careful sometimes with what I say because he will remember it and remind me of it every day. He is so sweet and has recently become obsessed telling me how much he loves me and anyone that is around how much he loves them. He is a pure blessing!

He wanted to have a Mickey Mouse birthday this year so we went with it. My friend that I teach with, Lisa, has a friend that does cakes on the side and has done some really cute ones for her kids and some other teachers we teach with and she did a fabulous job on this one as well. I really wanted to make his cake because I knew that it would be a pain being the week before spring break. So maybe next year.

We had a great time with all of his friends and family that came. We had it at my parents house which is normally big enough. O.M.G.-we were out of room and none of my dad's family even got to come because it was the same weekend as our family reunion. I really don't know what we would have done if they were all were able to make it. Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE a party and don't mind a lot of people, but we were busting at the seams. Looks like I might need to be thinking about next year and where we can have it so everyone is comfortable! It was a super fun time though. What more could you ask for than loud, chaotic, rambunctious children running around to celebrate the cutest curly blonde haired littel boy!?!? NOTHING more! :)

I really don't know what blogger is doing with these pictures, but here are some from the day. I just realized that all the present pictures are on friend's cameras or my mom's. So this is what we have! :)

This was by far his favorite gift he got...a chainsaw like Papa's! :) It goes everywhere with us! Actual birthday night:

Since Ben couldn't be with us we Skyped with him on Landon's birthday and he got to sing happy birthday with us over the computer! :)

April

2011-04-20T10:12:00.004-04:00

It has been super busy since the last time I was here to blog. I have been so busy with teaching and preparing my little angels for their End of the Year Test (previously CRCT), that I am drained by 3:00 and have no motivation to blog. And not to mention that something "happened" to my internet at the apartment and they cancelled it without me knowing so I don't have internet access at the moment. But here is a little list of things that have happened since we last met: (pictures will follow)

* Landon got into RCA's 3 year preschool next year!!!! Which means no more daycare expenses! WOOHOO!! (Still accepting the fact that we are leaving Amy though. :( *tear*)

* Landon turned 3

* Amanda and Addy flew in for his party and we got to spend a week with them over Spring Break

* Financial Peace is going great

* Jay and I attended Opening Day for the Braves which makes me beyond happy that the season has kicked off

* Actively looking for safe houses to possibly rent instead of staying at the apartment when my lease is up in Sept. (I really have a fear of living by myself in anything but an apartment so we'll see if it actually happens. :/ )

* I became the "official" pool monitor this summer for the apartment's pool

* And there are only 26 days left of school!!!!!!! :)

* And the best for last.....Landon is potty trained!!!!!!! :) This was an impromtu idea the last Friday of Spring Break and it was beyond successful!

I am going to attempt to blog each of the major things that has happend recently! Stay tuned! :)

Secret Cupid

2011-02-18T09:26:00.005-05:00

Since Monday was Valentine's Day and we were here at school, I got together "Secret Cupid" for our staff. We played it just like Secret Santa except it only took place for one day. It was super fun because we had a smaller group and it was really fun people who participated. We were to give a small item in the morning such as chocolate, card, etc and a little clue. That afternoon we had a revealing party and all brought snacks and then revealed who our secret cupid was. I had Stephanie who teaches 3rd grade and I wanted to make her something. I totally stole the idea from Kroger, but it was $28 to buy...so I made it for only $11. These were my supplies...glass (I was originally looking for the 1950's soda fountain glass, but couldn't find it anywhere, so I went with the beer glass from Dollar Tree for only $1!!), 4 inch foam ball from the flower department, 4 bags of Twix, and hot glue!

I set the foam ball on the glass and kind of outlined where it touched so I would know where to start gluing the Twix on. (I did not glue the foam ball to the glass. It actually sat there just fine without being glued on.) I put a little hot glue on the end of the wrapper and then attached it to the foam. You have to hold it there for just a few seconds to get it to stick.

Half way done with it.

Another view of the half way point.

I started out using the "fun size" Twix and had only bought two bags of them. I ran out so Jay went to the store and bought me more. I told him to get me mini's (totally thinking that is what I had been using, but it wasn't) so when he got back I realized it was the wrong size, but it actually worked out better to use mini's on the top half. The mini's stuck out a little more and looked cuter like that.

At the top I attached some red stuff....I don't know what it is called, but you put it in presents and it's that curly looking stuff. I also cut a straw and poked into the foam to create a "milk shake, coke float", whatever you want to call it kind of look. Since it was Valentine's Day, I added the candy hearts to the glass just to be more festive!

Here is final picture! I wanted a better one, but the light at school made everything really bright.

It was a huge hit and everyone wanted to know how to make them, so I thought I would share it with you guys! You can use any kind of candy you want!! :)

Happy Making Friends!!

My life is changing...for the good...in only 13 weeks!!

2011-02-17T10:36:00.008-05:00

Last night my little financial world was rocked and it's because of the man on the picture above!! For the next 91 days I am going to start to get myself out of debt and start saving. I joined 6 other adults (well 7 including the teacher) last night at Crosspoint Church to start Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. (I will now refer to it as "FPU" for the sake of my fingers!) I have struggled with money and finances for a while now, but just never put my mind to it to fix the problems.

I was meeting with my assistant principal one day after school and we were just discussing life in general. I mentioned that I was just stressed about money and she offered this class to me through her church! I immediately knew I needed to do it. It is the perfect time in my life to start this so I jumped on board.

*These next points will be all over the place because my mind is racing with everything I want to tell you guys. So forgive me please! :)

*Sidenote story(this is neat for me and was almost in tears of how happy this made)....at the end of the meeting we were asked to find one more accountability person if we wished outside of our meeting group just to help us along with any "struggles" during the week. I sat and thought of who I should ask to do it. I thought of someone but decided that against that person for various reasons. I thought of someone else, but quickly "x"ed them off the list for other various reasons. I thought of my friend Kelsey because I talk to her a lot and she is good with money and numbers. So I called her on the way home and was telling her about my new adventure and asked her to be my accountability partner. She told me that she had just said that she wanted to be a financial advisor for friends!! How cool!! I had no idea that she wanted to do that and she was wanting to do it for friends! Super exciting!! We were both blown away by it and knew that it was meant to be! ;)

So this is the point of me blogging about this....I have 13 weeks of "lessons/meetings" on Wednesday nights. I have 7 other accountability people to walk through this with me, but I would love for you guys to walk through this with me too in prayer. I'm really excited about this class and can't wait to see how everything works! My goal is to blog after every meeting just to keep myself accountable and to let you guys follow too!!

My first goal is to get $1,000 in a savings account. My plan is to start putting money towards it, but also using some of my tax return money to get me to that $1,000 quicker. Dave Ramsey says that this is the "easiest, but hardest step." This is the step that makes you think "am I going to take this step or not?"

We have to change our priorities in order to save....if it is that important to us, we will save!! Saving money is about emotion and contenment. I have to be ok with where I am than buying something. I have to tell myself that it doesn't matter about anyone or anything else...I am content with where I am.

Proverbs 21:20 "In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has."

Everyone in life is looking for a quick fix, but building weath is a marthon, not a sprint. Will it take a while, absolutely. But you must be disciplined and focused in order to get there. We must be patient.

20% of this is math, 80% is discipline.

Money is "as you will it"!

I am super excited about these next 91 days and the rest of my money saving life!! :)

I'll be back next week with more updates!!

Happy Savings Friends!!

Marvelous Monday

2011-02-07T12:53:00.003-05:00

I really don't blog much about me and Jay. Not because I don't like him (because I REALLY do), but I just always blog about Landon and by the time that is done, I am out of time. So this is a quick post with a cute picture of us! ;) We celebrated Kelsey's birthday this weekend at Taco Mac and she took this lovely picture of us!

We are normally acting silly and being stupid so our pictures aren't always the greatest, but this time we got a good one! He is my favorite!

It's a framer friends!! :)

But anyways Happy Birthday to Kelsey and happy picture taking to us!!!!! haha

Hair Salon

2011-02-04T13:52:00.004-05:00

So this is what I walked into when I went to pick up Landon yesterday from Amy's!

Landon loves Amy's house and never wants leave. Yesterday when I came in she was in the middle of playing hair salon with the girls. Of course, Landon and Mac wanted their hair done too. It was really funny to watch them sit so still have have their hair done too.

Getting his braids done.

"I would hate to do this everyday" hahahaha

Lila

Taylor

Mac

Thankfully he didn't mind taking them out before we went in the store! :)

Guns and Scissors

2011-02-04T13:32:00.009-05:00

This past weekend was B-E-A-U-TIFUL weather!! We were outside as much as possible. Sunday we spent the day at my parents. I got to wash and clean out my car (which by the way made me mad that it rained Monday) while Landon napped and then we played outside all afternoon and evening. Landon's new favorite thing to do is to shoot the bad guys and take them to jail. It's not my most favorite thing that he does, but he's a boy...what am I supposed to do? haha My dad was cleaning his gun from duck hunting so Landon wanted to use it to shoot the bad guys. So he spent some time shooting the hose, I mean bad guys, and carting them to jail.

Practicing his shots

On his way to look for the bad guys

I'm sure the neighbors loved looking out the window and seeing a little boy with a gun pointed at their house! haha

Finding them in his scope

Finally found the bad guys! haha

His other favorite thing to do is cut paper with his "little boy scissors". He decided that it would be fun to cut leaves in the grass and trim Papa's bush. So we spent the other half watching him squat around the yard to cut leaves and bushes. It was pretty entertaining!

Trimming the bush!!

Getting the ones way inside the bush!

Hope you guys were able to enjoy some of the beautiful weather last weekend. This week of weather has really made me wish for spring to be here. Like NOW!!!!

Beech Mountain

2011-01-27T14:52:00.002-05:00

Jay and I had plans to go to Beech Mountain, NC weekend after the snowstorm. Jay's sister and 17 (!) of her college friends were all going and invited me, Jay, and his brother to go too! I knew some of the other people that went just from knowing Jay for so long and being around his sister. I was a little worried that we might not be able to go since NC got it worse than us and the fact that we would be driving at night because Jay had to work most of the day Friday since they had been off. But a couple of car loads went up Friday during the day and said everything seemed fine and we shouldn't have any trouble!

We left Grayson about 6:15 and got to the cabin about 11:30. The drive was super easy and no problems at all. I was exhausted and quickly went to bed so I was well rested for skiing the next day. :) But....the college kids had a different idea. They thought it would be super awesome to stay up ALL NIGHT long and be crazy loud until 4:30 in the morning. I was up with them tossing and turning from about 2:15 on. Grrr....

(See I never really did that in college or anytime for that matter. I like my sleep and especially when you know you are going to be skiing/snowboarding the next day. But they obviously didn't mind)

I know I'm not that much older than the people that went on the trip, but I forget how lazy college kids can be. I was thinking we need to get up and head out to make the most of our day, but at 10:00 people were still sleeping and moving very slowly from their previous night. We skied all day and I forget how much I love it. I really want to live out west so that I have access to the mountains because I love skiing!! We headed back to the cabin, which was only 2 miles down the other side of the mountain for dinner and then back out to the mountain for night skiing.

Night 2: I figured would be a little calmer because they would have been tired from skiing. Nope. I was wrong again. This night was until 5:30. Lovely.....but they were up earlier and ready to go. We did basically the same thing again that day and used every last minute since it was the last night.

I have always wanted to try snowboarding, but never wanted to waste rentals and time to see if I really liked it or not. Megan (Jay's sister) snowboards and has never skiied before so we decided that we would switch Sunday night and try each others out. BIG MISTAKE!! hahaha We went to the green slope (which is the easiest and one we hadn't done all weekend) and got on the lift. We got to the top and we didn't realize that the exiting process would be a decline/major hill to us so we slid the whole way down on our butts. Megan got up and started doing pretty well. I on the other hand, couldn't even stand up. I kept falling and tried everything they were telling me. Jay finally held my hands and got me up but when he let go I just went sliding and couldn't stop so fell again. My wrists and butt hurt soooo bad from just trying to stand up that I unstrapped the board and proceeded to walk down the entire mountain. I don't like giving up, but I could not figure it out and wasn't wasting anymore of my time. Megan did make it down the mountain and didn't even fall. :) We quickly switched and liked our own things better!! I was glad to be able to try snowboarding without having to really get any of the stuff and waste too much time!

Night number 3: I knew for sure it would be an early night because they would be exhausted from staying up late the other two night, skiing for 2 days, and the fact that we had to be up at 9 so pack up and leave. WRONG AGAIN! This was the latest night of all. They were up until 6:30!! AHHH I was up with them from about 3:00 on. I was pissed by now, but didn't really want to say anything because I knew I would be "that girl". I hung in there and just dozed on and off, but was so over the being up every 10 minutes thinking I had slept for an hour! GRRRR!!

We had a great time and made some awesome memories!! We had the perfect weather. Sun was shining and wasn't too cold. And we had REAL snow! They didn't have to blow any snow that whole previous week so it was a real treat to get to ski on real snow on the east coast!! I really loved this trip also because a.) I didn't plan it and was just along for the ride, b.) didn't have to worry about anything because it wasn't my place to worry, c.) didn't have to worry about cooking because it was their trip, and d.) I didn't fall once!! They invited me to the next winter olympics! haha See you there!!! It was really nice to finally just take a seat on the back burner and just have fun!! Some of the group watching people do the jumps!! This was his "look" for the weekend. He would only take pictures like this!! Josh and Casey in line waiting on the liftThe end of night 1! Worn out and tired! Looking up the mountain as we went upOn the liftLooking back down at the lodge and ALL the peopleView from the top! It was so pretty!This was the only picture with his mask off. He was about to kill me for this too! haha What I had to do because Jay and his brother wouldn't do it with me....You can't really tell, but that is the drop off half way down the black diamond. Yep....this is where they saw me and asked me to be in the olympics! ;)Why hello there Megan!

The beautiful sunset over the mountains!

'Snow'mageddon 2011

2011-01-25T12:11:00.006-05:00

We had our first real snow storm since the blizzard of '93 the week of January 10th. I don't think anyone really believed that it would be as bad as it was. (since we hardly ever believe the weather man down here in the south about snow ;)) And no ever really believed that they would cancel school for the WHOLE week. (now we are paying for it with no winter break), but we had the whole week off and it just made for some great family time. Landon and I stayed home Sunday night and we woke up to a blanket of white! It was breathtaking. It is times like this that sometimes I wish I lived in the north just so I could see this more often. I love it!! We packed everything up and headed to my parents house to shack up with them for how ever long we needed to. I seriously don't think I got out of my pajamas for 3 days! It was great!! We played in the snow on Monday and then after that it was an ice skating rink and Landon just enjoyed getting "ice cookies" for everyone. Jay got snowed in at his house in Grayson and then finally decided to venture to Conyers on Wednesday. He still couldn't get to so he bummed it with us until Thursday when it was a little safer for him to travel. We really had a great week off and enjoyed the extra family time!! :)

Landon didn't believe me that the snow would be cold on his bare feet...so I showed him. He quickly retracted that statement. :)

What we woke up to Monday morning!

this is Landon's "ice cookie" since the snow didn't really do what snow should

This was the only day that we would sink in the snow. After this we just ice skated on it! :)

Waiting to catch a snowball

Loving Joe's 4-wheeler from across the street!

Christmas Break

2011-01-05T12:17:00.006-05:00

Why hello long lost blogging friends!! It has been a while, but we have been super busy and super sick so this was last on my list of things to do.

We had a great Thanksgiving!! Our holiday spirit consisted of 3 different sicknesses, all within 4 weeks. It started out with Landon having mono the 2 weeks before Thanksgiving which carried over for the next couple of weeks. The week before we got out he broke out in a rash on his face and arms that looked like chicken pox, but wasn't. Fever with that for 5 days. The next week he had strep (which is what I think the rash was from and it just didn't show up as strep the first week), then we got better for a week and then he was sick on Christmas. :( BLAH!!!! And in between there, I got sick with a sinus infection the first 2 days of Christmas break. Anyways....we didn't do much of anything over the break. This was the first break that actually felt like a break and was somewhat relaxing.

When we were feeling great we just hung out and then went on the adventure of riding the The Pink Pig at Lenox. We went with my friend Lisa from work and her kids. I really wanted to take Landon the previous two years, but always forgot about it and then it would be gone. This is something that Ben and I went to as little kids back in the day when Rich's was still around. It used to be on the top of Rich's and it was a pig that you got in and rode around the track. They stopped doing it and since it has been brought back it is a little different set up, but I did include a picture of the old one. Which by the way, was SOO much cooler. We went the Wednesday before Christmas, which was a mistake. We got there and it was a 2 hour wait to ride the stinking 2 minute and 7 second ride. My mom was sweet enough to wait in line while Lisa and I took the kids to the food court to waste a lot of time. We came and waited the last 3o minutes or so with my mom. The kids did great and we really had a fun time. Good memories made!!

Landon waiting patiently to ride!!

There's Priscilla!! Me, Landon, Lisa, Amelia, Carson, and Jordan (he's hiding behind her...he was being shy!)

They've got their ticket for ride....he was soooo happy about it!

This is what the old one looked like. See....soooo much cooler!

On the ride. He was excited because it was on train tracks so it was a "Pig Train"!

We had a great Christmas. I was excited about this Christmas because Landon would get it so much more than last year. He has been talking about what Santa would bring him since right after Christmas. There were only a couple of things that Landon would constantly say that he wanted from "Ho-Ho". They were cars, dump truck, fire truck, fire truck station, and an airplane. I felt like I needed to accomplish those things more than anything since that is what he constantly asked for. And I did.....and he was happy!!

We were up at 6:30 to start the festivities! We quickly distracted Landon upstairs with Alex while we got Da and everyone downstairs to get ready. Landon came down and was so happy to find his 3 story fire truck station. That was by far the best present ever! He loved going through all of the other things that Santa brought. We played and then we decided to do some presents. Landon thought everything was for him and opened everyone's present for them. He loved it!! We did brunch and enjoyed all of that. Landon went down for a nap and then that is when he woke up with a 102.7 fever!! The rest of the day was just hanging out and taking it easy. This Christmas was so much fun and I can't wait until next Christmas!!

drinking "coffee" with Papa

playing his piano...one of his other favorites!

Playing with his firetruck station!! It is all wooden and very heavy duty so this will be a keepsake. It's like a doll house for a girl!!

This is how the night ended at 6:15...sound asleep and down for the night....you know this one didn't feel good if he was asleep in.my.arms. and at 6:15! haha

Jay came to visit us on Christmas night and it snowed!! WooHoo!!! I was happy! :)

Since Ben couldn't be there with us on Christmas, we skyped with him and showed him our "White Christmas". He laughed at us....haha

Hello snow!!

BIG SMILES!! Cheeeesssseee.

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!!

(My New Year's post is coming.....whenever I get time! haha)

red ribbons make everything better

2010-11-04T14:44:00.003-04:00

She might kill me for even putting this up, but this is how we spent our Teacher Work Day in meetings.....a red ribbon that we had to wear in honor of Dr. Suess.

Red ribbons make everything happier....and the fact that she is pregnant makes it even HAPPIER!!!!!!! :)

Halloween

2010-11-04T12:36:00.005-04:00

To be honest...I really don't like Halloween at all. I never have been a fan of it and I think that is because we didn't do it as kids. We went to a private christian school through my elementary years so it was always looked down upon, but I really want Landon to experience it because it is fun for them. Halloween also marks the kick off to my oh so favorite time of the year so I have to learn to enjoy it!!

We had a laid back day and made sure that Landon got a good nap in so that he would be ready for some trick or treating. Last year, my dad and Mike rigged up this cooler with a fake snake in it. He put a huge sign on it telling the kids to help themselves to the candy. When kids would walk up he would just simply say that he thought they were going to be out of town but weren't, so the candy was already in there. I've never heard screams like that before....and the funnier part is that fact that he recorded all the kids so we just laugh and laugh. Anyways, this year he thought he would do the same thing and most kids already knew. But we did get some pretty funny laughs from the newbies. I told him that next year he will have to think of a new plan next year.

So a couple of family's from church came over to our neighborhood and we all went together. All the kids did a great job and after we were done with the ohhhh, 10 houses we hit up, we went back and sat on the porch and just laughed at the kids. It was a super fun first Halloween experience!!!heading out on the adventure....wagons in tow....Landon getting candy from his favorite JoeThis is his wife...Landon and William really couldn't figure out why they could hear her voice but couldn't see her. Looking kind of puzzled...not sure if they should approach that "thing". hahaGetting candyThis is how he spent the last couple of houses...."choo chooing" as loud as he could on Jay's shoulders! "cheeeeese"

My sweet friends that I keep after school...Alyssa and Tyler!

My favorite! :)

Until next year....

October

2010-10-25T11:16:00.013-04:00

This has been such a super busy month so this post will have a lot of random things we have done combined in one. I think there has been something go on every weekend which has made it fun but super busy. And along with school that has literally made me crazy already...I have to say this month seems like a blur.

The pumpkin patch really happened in September, but I will just include it with October stuff since it seems to fit better in October. Southern Belle Farms offered a teacher get in free day for the first day that they opened so the Merritt's, Collinsworth's, Hoffman's, and Leigh's all headed out there. It was fun, but it was HOT. I don't think we stayed longer than 2 hours. It all worked out fine because we got to do everything, have a picnic, and get some pictures.

My favorite Saturday of the month was on October 2nd! It was the Bobby Cox Tribute game. I have been waiting and not waiting for this game since the beginning of the season. I knew it was going to be an emotional tribute and a super fun game. Jay and I went and I knew from the beginning that it would probably make me cry. No, I didn't ball my eyes out, but I did tear up when Chipper gave his little speech. It was so sweet and Bobby really appreciated everything that everyone has done for him. We had great seats in the outfield and in the shade which was a huge plus because it was once again a hot day! Unfortunately, we lost the game, but we had such a good time cheering Bobby and the Braves on. *Sidenote...Santa decided to take a break from the North Pole and visit Turner Field to see who was being good! ;)

*Does this suit make me look fat?* haha

Ben and Amanda were here for 10 days at the beginning of the month and we had a super fun visit with them. We got to cheer on our Dawgs to a victory over Tennessee and just hang out and be together. Normally they are here for only a short amount of time and it is always go, go, go, but this time it was a little more slow paced and relaxing.

This was her version of tailgating....reading her horiscope.

Yay for a win!

*These 2 northerners were amazed by the cotton field on the way home and had to stop and pick some!

I went to Augusta with Jay for one of his best friends wedding. It was super fun and hilarious to actually just sit back and watch everyone and not worry about a thing because I knew no one except Jay who was in the wedding and the groom that I had met once. I did thankfully have Jay's mom, sister, and brother to sit with at the wedding and reception. We had such a good time dancing the night away and making great memories. We went to church with Jay and after church we decided to go play golf......hmmmmm NOT so good at golf. I have only gone one other time and that was with my grandparents and they swore they would never take me again because I tore the fairway up. Well I was hoping that was just because I was 11 and just not good yet. hahaha That was a lie. I still am HORRIBLE! You know when you see in the movies where they will miss and it will spin the person around...well I really didn't think it could happen, but it can. I think I missed more than I hit the ball. Me and Megan (Jay's sister) were awful. It was just pure comic relief! I don't think I will take up golf. :)

Best friends!

We had our first Halloween Party with some teachers from school. Me, Ashley, Chassidy, Lisa, and Amy all have kids around the same age so we decided we would have a dinner/pumpkin carving/Frankenstien cookie making/lots of noise party! It was an absolute BLAST! All of the kids played in the backyard and for the amount of kids and different ages, everyone played really, really well together. We only had one bloody nose and that was purely accident. We had chili, potato soup, cheese ball, cornbread muffins, carrots and dip, and lots of other yummy foods. We decided to all bring a pumpkin and let the kids carve them, but it immediately turned in to the moms carving them as the children played. It was probably better that the kids were not around with all the knives and carving tools that were being passed around as some people decided to throw pumpkin guts on people. (Love you Lisa!) Ashley found a cute recipe to make Frankenstien's out of brownies so she led the troops in making them. They turned out really cute. We truly had a great night and now we are just trying to figure out the next time we can make up an excuse to get together.

Parker loved him some pumpkin to gnaw on! haha

Until next time!!

A no reason gift

2010-08-31T08:51:00.005-04:00

So today was the first day that I have recieved a gift for no reason from one of my students! It made me unbelievably happy since it has just been one of those years already! Not necessarily regarding the students, but just EVERYTHING we have to get done for each student, on top of everything that needs to be done for teaching, the county expectations, etc.

I envy those teachers that always get gifts for no reason! There are a couple of teachers that I work with that get gifts all the time. And they aren't dumb gifts that won't get used...they are awesome, use everyday type of gifts!! I feel like a have a great relationship with my students and parents, but never have just gotten a gift for no reason!

Until today....this was delivered to me....

My sweet little friend walked in with the cute brown bag with red tissue paper coming out. He said, "Here, this is for you!" I simply asked him why and he repsonded with "Just cause....I made it for you!!" Insert my thought here of "Great, probably something that I am going to have to act like I love it." But when I pulled it out, it was this precious Georgia Bulldog face that he had painted at the pottery place!

It was so sweet of him to think of me. His mom just so happened to call about a totally different issue and I thanked her for the gift. She said that he earned points over the summer for doing school work and different things and he wante to use his points to paint pottery. She said once they got there he was determined to paint something for me! It made it even more special that he used his points for something for me. Super sweet and I love my first "gift for no reason"!!! :)

Thanks S!! You brightened my day!

Painting

2010-08-26T12:20:00.004-04:00

Sooner or later I will be converting Landon to his "big boy" bed and room. I was considering doing it over the summer, but I kind of like the fact that he is in a bed and can't get out unless I help him. He can get in all by himself, but he won't venture the out part. I think because he knows he has to fall in and doesn't want to fall out! haha

So anyways, the other day we worked on painting so that I can frame his artwork in his room and it will be all the colors of his bedding. They are all the normal and bright primary colors! We had sooo much fun and he loved painting, but truthfully had more fun painting his body, than the paper! :)

Some of the masterpieces he created!!! This might be my favorite picture!! Looks like a little model with the "gaze" lookThis is where he decided to roll down the hill so that "grass stick to me, Mom"!!
And it got all in his mouth on the roll down! haha

So hopefully I will have pictures of the room soon whenever I decide to take the leap and let him have a big boy bed. I'm just not sure that I am ready!! :/

6

2010-08-18T10:19:00.002-04:00

Small group time...a teacher that is helping my class and playing Chip-O with the kids....

Chip-O card says: "hose"
Mrs. W: What does hose mean?
Girl: a person

WOW!

Another day....
As we are talking about words that have the "ow" sound and writing them on the board someone says "vow". We were discussing what a vow was and someone said "a vow of silence".
Me: What is a vow of silence?
Boy: "It's what that little preacher man says"

What it's like to 6 and the things they know and say!! I absolutely love my class this year. They are so sweet and it really is a change from my overall class last year!!

I will update later about all the new things going on in general! :)

2010-05-18T10:12:00.004-04:00

So my birthday was April 30th and I wanted to do something different and fun! I found out that Ezells Studios does an art class call Splash Into Art. You choose the class you want to attend according to what the art picture is for that night. My birthday was on a Friday and it was the perfect picture for the group that wanted to go. It was "Funky Martini Glasses"!! I am not an artist by any means and have no painting skills either. So I was a little nervous about going, but the teachers are awesome and can fix ANY mistake....which I made several! hahaha There were 5 of us that went and we had soooooo much fun! It was definitely a night to remember! Here are some pictures of the process and a look into our artistic abilities! :)

We all signed the wall prior to the class
(Bailey, Ashley, Nancy, Laura, and Krysti)

My blank slate.....the chaos hadn't started yet. Nerves were still down! ha It didn't last for too long though....

First strokes....

Ms. Rhiannon helping Laura. She became our best friend pretty quickly! :)

Working hard!

Me and Ashley trying to make a masterpiece!!!

The progress of the glasses....don't worry, they do get better!!! And this was the point where my blood pressure began to escalate!! I wanted everything to be perfect and I was struggling to get that!
Our table slaving away. (Look at all our faces...I'm not sure if those are "what color to do next" or "what the crap are we doing"! hahaha
Yay for my fun friends that braved this class with me!!! Love Krysti!
My finished product! I'm pretty proud of what I accomplished!!!! I will be going back for another class in the near future!!!

The gang! :) I am so happy that I have made such great friends at Shoal Creek this year! I can't wait for more of the fun times together!! Thank you ladies for being such awesome friends and co-workers!!!!!

(More picutres to come of the after party once I get them from Laura and Krysti!!)

Upgrading

2010-05-14T11:55:00.003-04:00

*UPDATE*

So my amazing teacher friend, Ashley, got on the hunt for the bedding for a better price than the link below. And of course she found it at Target online, entire set (not just comforter), all for $65!! So I bought it! I'm sooooo excited to get it on May 21st!!!! THANKS ASHLEY!!!!

So as the summer approaches there are many things I want to accomplish in my short time off. As I was thinking about everything that I am doing this summer, I realized that my short 7 week summer isn't going to be filled with empty days just laying by the pool. I have already booked a lot of things to do....it will all be fun though!!!
So one major thing I want to accomplish is getting Landon into a toddler bed. He sleeps on a mat at the babysitters house, so I'm hoping that it won't be too hard. (But then again, because I'm doing it......he will make it a problem! haha) Anyway, my parents have a red toddler bed that I can use. So I have that under control, but I'm having a problem deciding what I should decorate with. He loves Thomas, so I could do that. Or I was thinking maybe like a truck, car, airplane, construction something since he loves all of those things! I was thinking I could do the bold red, orange, green, etc and go with that. Get pictures and what not to hang up! And that is kind of his theme in his bathroom so I thought it would flow good. Well those things are only on the shower curtain so I don't think it would be too much.
Sooo.....anyone have any ideas? Like it, don't like it......let me know what you think!!!!

http://www.blanketwarehouse.com/cat.cgi?s=tpt_ok%20BD-TPTX-201&?nt999

(I love this one if it wasn't so darn expensive!!)

TWO!!!!

2010-04-23T09:53:00.008-04:00

*I don't know why my pictures are so small.....sorry!!

So my computer has been acting up and would never let me get to this page to post so that's why I'm just posting about his birthday.

This is my silly little boy!!

Landon turned TWO on April 6th. I still can't believe that he is two. He is growing up so fast and is so much fun! He is definitely ALL boy and is non stop. He is so full of energy and just loves to play! He would be outside all day long if I would let him. Unfortunately, he has gotten my allergy genes so the pollen has kept us in a lot this spring. But it seems like it is slowly going away so we have been out a little more.

We had his party this first weekend of Spring Break at Papa and Gigi's!! He loves "Choo-Choo" (which is Thomas...funny, he'll call all the others by their name. Like "Percy", "Emily", and "Diesel 10", but won't even try to say Thomas. He is just "Choo-choo") so we did a Thomas party! He was soooo happy about his cake when he saw it. A lady I work with owns "Sweet Treats" on the square in Covington and she made it for us! It was so stinking cute!

We such a fun day and it was just fun and mostly relaxing. We had family and a few friends over to help us celebrate. Landon loved himself and especially loved his bike from Papa and Gigi. Even though he won't ride on it...he just pushes it. But he sure does love it!!

Landon is so big and is the ever Mr. Independent!! He wants to do everything by himself, which sometimes in nice, but sometimes not so good. :/ He is talking so much and is putting multiple words togethe to try and makes sentences. He is finally drinking milk out of a cup. I hated that he was still on a bottle, but one day I tried it and he just drank it, so I put the bottles away that afternoon and it is GREAT! haha He loves, loves, LOVES Papa, Gigi, Amy (have I mentioned she is the child whisperer....if you need a babysitter, talk to me!! ), Tay-Tay (her daughter who is at SCE with me), and outside. He loves that they are doing all the construction by our apartment because he gets to watch "tractor digt, tractor digt" everyday! He loves "ebu's"(airplanes), "hac-cu-cas" (helicopters), "sides" (slides), and "bigt trucks"!! He has so many more words in that vocabulary, but those are just some of the funny ones.

He shocks me every day at his memory. I know every mom thinks that their child is smart, but he really does impress me with his memory. He knows the route to the gym, Amy's, Papa and Gigi's house, Publix, and church. If I tell him that we are going to go somewhere, but have to take a detour or go another way, he freaks out if we pass the road and don't turn on it. Sometimes I do it on purpose just to see if he realizes. haha That's mean....but it is funny. He remembers everything. I don't think that he will be a child that I can slip things by.

Super excited!!

2010-03-10T12:34:00.002-05:00

So my favorite books of all time are by Nicholas Sparks!! His most recent book, The Last Song, was the best book so far and my all time favorite that he has written!! I have been waiting for the movie to come out and it will be here March 31st!!! I'm kind of confused because that is a Wednesday, and we all know big movies don't come out until Friday. So I watched the trailer again and it says in theaters April 2nd. So what I'm thinking is that the release date of it is March 31st and then it will be here in theaters on the 2nd!

I am like BEYOND excited and can't wait. I hope the 'ol Miley Cirus doesn't ruin it. I like her, but I'm not a huge, huge fan.....so we'll see. So if any of you haven't read it....go get it today and read it!!!!

2009-12-15T13:43:00.003-05:00

I love the things that kids say sometimes, especially the ones in my class. Oh they make me laugh. Ok, so today....one little boy that doesn't ever listen was reading in the reading center. Me and my para had asked him like 8 times to come over and bring us his binder so we could put something in it. Well he wasn't listening, so when he finally started over I told him to clean his ear wax out on the way over so he could hear me. He is standing in the middle of the room with both of his fingers deep inside his ears trying to clean it out.
After that he says "Can I wash my hands because the ear wax that I just got out is diirrttyyy"!!! hahahahaha

They do make me laugh! :)

Catch Up

2009-10-16T12:00:00.003-04:00

It has been so long since I blogged and I am sooo sorry about that. A lot has been happening in mine and Landon's life!! We moved out on our own, Landon had a near death experience with some medicine he took, I had an allergic reaction to something, and school is still going good!! Anyway. I know, me who never really wanted to live on my own moved out!! I didn't expect to do it so soon either, but I just happened upon a great deal at the apartment complex and I just couldn't pass it up!! I love it and there are about 8 other teachers that live in the same complex so that should be fun. We have been there for about a month now and Landon did great transitioning. He had no problems at all and loves that he has free reign over the house!! :) Let's see what else....Ben and Amanda came in to town 2 weekends ago and we had so much fun getting to hang out with them. We're going up to Boston for Christmas and we didn't think we would get to see them before them, but Amanda surprised Ben for his birthday and flew them down here for a long weekend. While they were here, Amanda and I wanted Landon and Addy to have pictures done, so Zack May (check his blog out....http://blog.zachmay.com/) did some AWESOME pictures of them. I uploaded a lot of them, but I didn't even come close to uploading them all. So take a look and call to book him to take pictures of your family or whatever!! He is amazing!
So that's basically all that is going on with us!!

Waffles, Crackers, Bananas, and Juice!!

2009-09-08T21:43:00.003-04:00

Yep. The title says it all. That is all that Landon will currently eat. Well there are a few more things that I can get him to eat without a fuss. This all started prior to him getting sick about 3-4 weeks ago. (Maybe 5). Once he got sick I totally understood. I was in survival mode while he was sick so that is all he would eat and I let him. But prior to him getting sick he would at least eat turkey, ham, and hotdogs for meat. Now he will eat NONE. And I seriously mean none. I have tried everything, every which way, covered up by a sweet potato bite (which he discovered my trick), pureed (sp?), just about any way to get it down. But nothing will do. So his daily meals consist of a Kashi waffle in the morning with banana, maybe some dry cereal for a snack mid-morning (since he can't have dairy), who knows what is for lunch....cereal bar. Whatever I can get him to eat. And then dinner is just a battle...probably oatmeal with bananas. The other night my mom and I seriously could only get him to eat Chex Mix and Potato Chips!! SERIOUSLY?? I have that child that I said I would never have and never let eat like this!! Ugh. And this is why I feel like he eats constantly because he is never full. But he knows I will give it to him because I feel like he will starve! Ahhh, what to do-what to do!?

So if any of you have any great ideas of how to get him to eat, I would greatly appreciate it. I'll give you a list of things he will eat with no problem:
1. Bananas (he does not lack calcium! haha)
2. Baby oatmeal (with bananas)
3. Baked sweet potato
4. Chex Mix
5. Any type of cracker that doesn't have cheese in it
6. Bread
7. a few grapes/strawberries
8. French fries (yeah, that was his lunch 3 days in a row along with Frosted Mini Wheats) I'm such a good mother! :)
9. Any type of dry cereal

Healthy food advice or anything that would increase his list of food is welcome! :)

Out of crackers as we speak,
B

ER trip #2

2009-08-20T17:45:00.004-04:00

Yep. So the other night when I said that I hoped we wouldn't go anytime soon...well I think I jinxed myself because we went again today!! :( Ever since last Thursday night when we went, Landon has never stopped running fever. He has pretty much had one at some point during the day, every day. Not too much fun! A couple of nights ago I started feeling like I was getting a cold and had the whole sinus headache, etc. Well I started taking Tylenol Sinus Nighttime. I guess that mixed with me just being exhausted from school, I'm OUT at night. The other morning my dad told me that he had been up with Landon at some crazy time of the night and that he just got him up and played with him downstairs for 2 hours!!! And I never heard them....I normally would.

Anyway, last night was evidently another one of those nights where he was up, but did I hear him, nope. Thankfully they did! haha Well they were basically up with him all night because he never slept because he couldn't stop coughing and had a fever of 103!! They took a shower, somewhat played, laid on the couch, etc. And I never heard them again. I guess it was a good thing since I had to get up and go to school. I talked to his doctor yesterday morning and she said that if he had run fever the night before, she was sending him to the ER because she didn't know what else to do. He only had a low grade fever so she didn't send us. But I talked to her this morning after I was already at school ( :/ ) and she said she really felt like we needed to go to Egleston to have chest x-ray done and more tests run since it's been a fever for a week. So I call my mom and she gets him packed up, I call a sub even though I haven't earned a day off yet, and mom gets him packed up and she comes to get me at the school.

Off we go to the ER. Feeling like we have a legitimate reason for going. Ok, never been to a Children's ER, but I loved it!! It was so nice and clean and so sweet to the poor, sickly child! But, before we could be seen the nurse said that since Landon was here for a "respiratory" problem, he had to wear a mask so that he was spreading germs every time he coughed. I told her I would attempt it, but I would make NO promises as to keeping it on him because he is not the type for that. But, he actually wore the thing. He looked so funny, but so cute. He definitely didn't feel good because he kept it on the whole 1 1/2 that we waited in the waiting room. I'm sure he was so worn out from not sleeping last night, so he would doze off in between fits from another little girl in the waiting room. As we were sitting there, he was getting hotter and hotter by the min. When we finally went back, our sweet nurse Megan took his vitals. Hold your breath for his temperature....104!!!! Holy freaking smokes.....he was so, so hot and really just out of it.

The resident came in, took a look at him, reported to his boss, boss came in asked the SAME EXACT questions, and then I think about 3 other people needed the same story. Why couldn't they just all come in at the same time and let me tell them!?!? Motrin was given, chest x-ray done, a lot of crying and whimpering, a lot of nasty coughing, another huge shot in to each leg, and then the same exact diagnosis....still a horrible ear infection. Grrr....won't they just go away sometime soon. So we were ordered for the exact same shots for the next 2 days (yeah his legs will be hurting because they will do them in the same spot each time) and then hopefully he will be on the road to recovery. We are going to the ENT next Tuesday for them to check on tubes since this is his 3rd ear infection in 5 1/2 weeks. This trip to the ER didn't result in bruised feet and hands trying to get an IV in and it resulted in a super cute gown he had to wear! I know he didn't feel good, but the gown was probably the cutest thing ever. Just take a look below at the pictures! :)

Now I really think this was a last trip to the ER because they took great care of us this time!

Loving my little patient,

Dozing off with monkey right by his side! ;)

Not too happy about sitting on the bed for any length of time....just wanted to be held.

So pitiful....but the gown is SOOO cute! My mom wouldn't let me bring the gown home because she said they wash them and reuse them?? Is that true?? I figured I was entitled to it since I'm paying for the piece of gauze they used too. But I didn't take it. :(

This is where we spent our day...on the bed together!

This is the only time in his life when he has cuddled for 7 days straight!!

Wishing everyone would leave him alone so he could finally get some sleep!

Our first trip to....

2009-08-15T15:30:00.002-04:00

the ER!!!! Yes, I never really wanted to blog about our first trip, but having a boy, I knew I was bound to have to do it eventually. I must say though, it was not to get stitches or fix a broken bone (knock on wood....I really don't want to do that ever either, but I'm sure I will). So Thursday afternoon, I get a phone call as I'm leaving school from Ms. Janet saying that Landon really doesn't look good and that he had a 101 fever at 3. Well at 4 when I got him, it was 102.1. I knew he didn't feel good because when I got to her house he was sitting in her lap, monkey and mam and sleep sack all on him. Not a good sign.....Landon doesn't sit in my lap, much less her lap and "take a break". He really didn't look good at all. His face was kinda ghostly white. It freaked me out when I saw him. He just seemed out of it. We pass Dr. Jattan's office, the pediatrician, on our way home and I knew they didn't take walk-ins, but I knew something was wrong with him so I stopped in. I walked in and the nurse that I love was at the desk. (Yes, thank goodness!!) I couldn't say one word and she said "He doesn't look good at all." I started in on my "I know y'all don't take walk-ins, but I can't take a day of work tomorrow and I thought....." She just stopped me and said sign him in. I know Dr. J will want to see him. Perfect. I literally couldn't sit down before they called me back in front of other people (I felt really bad, but they were in the well room, so then I didn't feel so bad). Temp now 102.5. It is going up and he has medicine for it in him. He falls asleep in the 10 min. that we are waiting for her to come in. Dr. J comes in and notices this and says "Something is really wrong with this boy if he is asleep in my office" because normally he is a holy terror. Anyway she takes a look at him and notices that both of his ears are infected again. (This is the 3rd time since June, now. ughhh) He also has thrush from being on the antibiotics 2 weeks ago. She gives him a shot of some crazy powerful antibiotics which had a needle that I thought seriously might come out the other side of his leg. OUCH!
We left and came home and he laid in my lap all afternoon and evening. Was not interested in anyone, not even Pops! He wouldn't eat or drink all night and so the on-call dr. said I would need to take him in if he didn't eat/drink before 9. Well we got a little down him and I put him to bed about 8:15. I go to bed about 10 and at 11:15-11:30 I hear him crying. I walk in and as I pick him up....throws up all over me. Great. I go to put him on the changing table and he does it again. Ok...I'm going to now take all his clothes off to get him cleaned up and he does it a 3rd time!!! I finally call for back up, and we take his temp and it's over 103. (The on-call dr told me that if he started throwing up, he was dehydrated.) So me, mom, dad, and Landon all head to Rockdale. I really wanted to go to Scottish Rite, but I knew that I had to work and didn't want to be that far away not knowing how long we would be there. So we get there, and as we're getting checked in, I become sick. And then mom becomes sick and then Landon is sick again. The nurse checking us in seriously thought we were crazy!! haha I feel fine then and get taken back to our room. We wait a little while before we're seen and mom still isn't feeling great so Alex comes to get her about 2:30 am. They proceed to start an IV and our sweet nurse Joy is trying her best to take care of my sleepless child who is pitiful. The first attempt at the IV is in the foot so he couldn't mess with it much. I'm holding Landon, dad is holding the legs and she goes in for the kill. It wasn't too bad, but she can't get the needle in the vein. She finally does after tons of wailing and she says it's not good enough so she has to pull it out. Grrr. So dad and I switch spots and he is now holding him and I'm the helper. Ok. We can do this, I know we can. We're going for the hand now. (Blood, needles, stuff like that doesn't bother me, I guess until someone is doing it to my child.) So she starts again and we finally get the needle in the vein. I'm feeling fine until some unknown reason I start to feel light headed and I realize I'm going down unless someone is there to catch me. I voice what is about to happen and she can't let go of his hand because there is a needle in his hand!! Ahhh...I seriously felt helpless and didn't know where to go. I just lean on my dad's bad shoulder (thanks!) and hang out until she can walk me to the chair to sit down and EVERYTHING is spinning, I can't hear anything, and then it hits again. I'm sick.....once it was over for the 2nd time I felt fine again. So I re-evaluate myself and decide I'm going back to help finish up and get everything taped up. As I'm getting to the bed, I hear her yell "NO" and I look down and the IV has come out and blood is squirting all over from his hand!! Anyway, we get all of it cleaned up, get anti-nausea medicine in him so we can try to get him to drink fluids. Needless to say, he drinks, holds it down, has color back in his face, and we are set to go home at 4:30 am!! It was seriously the longest night of my life and after 1 hour of sleep, I arose to go greet my lovelies at school and try to function. I think I did ok for the most part!!!
So, I really hope that there are no more trips to the ER anytime in our near future because they are never fun!!

Still playing nurse to him,
B

Shoal Creek

2009-08-15T14:57:00.003-04:00

Ok, so I know many of you already know, but there are a few that have been bugging me to blog about my new job!! :) I am happy to say that I am a 1st grade teacher at Shoal Creek Elementary!! I had an interview on the Wednesday before the week of pre-planning for teachers and got hired that night at 7:15!! I was super pumped, and I actually had to start working the next day at 8:00. It was New Teacher Orientation so I had to go and do all that fun stuff. I was in a rush to get as much done as I could in my classroom because I new the week of pre-planning was going to be busy with things that did not include my classroom! The room I got was literally, EMPTY. Nothing was in there except some art paper and that's about it. So, it was nice that I didn't have to go through a lot of stuff, but it also meant that I had to get TONS of stuff to make it look like a classroom. I thought my walk-in closet at home was full of stuff for my class until I got it up there and realized that it took up barely any space. My mom and I basically worked from morning 'til night trying to get things organized and buying stuff. We worked until late at night, but it really paid off in the end. The week of pre-planning was busy with meetings and such, but it was such a fun week of meeting new people and getting accustomed to the school. I forgot to mention earlier, but I seriously have the best team of 1st grade teachers. There are 5 of us and they are so much fun! I am so blessed that I have people that are willing to help me when I feel like I am just overwhelmed with what to do next. (Thanks girls!!! :)) I also am at a school where the entire staff is willing to help. I haven't come across one person that has not wanted to help. I met all my kids at Open House and everyone was super sweet. I started out with 16 students, dropped 2, and then gained 4 more, so now I am at a total of 18 sweethearts! It really is a fun place to be working at. It is also great because Landon's babysitter is just 1 1/2 miles away from the school. He started going to Ms. Janet's when I started working at Glenn's for the end of the summer. I was nervous about getting a teaching job somewhere that was the total opposite direction of her house, but I couldn't have asked for a better place to get a job since it is so close to her.
So....I have completed my 2nd week of teaching and I think I've pretty much got the swing of things now! :) Or at least I hope I do. No....I really do. No worries for the kids in my class. I'll post pictures of my super cute kids as soon as my whole class is there on the same day! ;)

Now being called Ms. Merritt,
B

St. George Island

2009-06-25T12:30:00.009-04:00

We got home last week from our beach trip to St. George Island. This was our 19th summer going. My dad's mom takes all of the family every year and we always stay in the same house! It is such a fun week to just be with family. There is nothing to do on the island, except for a few restaurants and a couple of gift shops; therefore, we just stay at our house all week and hang out on the beach all day long! Last summer, I took Landon and it was fun, but he didn't get to enjoy the beach part of it! (He was only 3 months old!) This year he had sooo much fun! He absolutely loved the sand and the water. We brought our hose from home and ran it all the way down to the beach so that he could have some fresh water and something to play with...you'll see plenty of the hose below! ;) Amanda and Adalyn were able to fly in for the last 4 days, so it was fun to have them there this year!

The week flew by way too fast, but we really enjoyed being with everyone!

Here are some pictures from the week! Hope you enjoy!

Landon doing his first coloring! Had to keep him occupied somehow!

Check out that beach view! ;) His best friend on the beach...The Hose!!

Working really hard to keep all his shells in the bucket!
He loved this box and that spoon!
I know you can't see us very well, but me, Landon, Amanda, Ben and Addy out in the ocean!
Soo sweet! Relaxing on the beach together!
Doing her face! If you did this face to her, she would do it right back to you! I think he must have been hungry or something!
Such a handsome man! He loved this drawer...and he loved more than anything to stand in it....thankfully it didn't break
"Where did it go?" Laughing on the porch!
There it is again!
Sharing their food Almost all the cousins...missing one this year! Can you find me?? hahaha
This is the height line up...next year all the Merritt's will be right next to each other! :)
The additions to the family...Amanda, Landon, and Addy

3rd times a charm!!

2009-06-10T16:21:00.002-04:00

So I still have not heard back from Pine Street!! :/ I emailed the assisstant principal yesterday and I am still waiting to hear back from her. I had an interview on Monday at a private daycare here locally to be the pre-k teacher. The ladies were all super sweet and it seemed to be a decent place and the interview went pretty good. BUT, the pay is not good at all and the hours would be LONG and I would still have to pay for childcare for Landon even though he would be with me. I would get a slightly reduced rate, but what I would get paid, I just don't think would be worth it.

I do however have another interview tomorrow morning at 7:15 (ahhh!) at Barksdale Elementary to be the Pre-K teacher! I am super excited about this because Barksdale was actually one of my top choices to work at. It would be super close and super nice to be at. They have been waiting on approval for their Pre-K program and just got approved to start it next year! So I am hopeful that I will still either hear from Pine Street about 5th grade or that something will come from Barksdale. Man, what a difference in age....one week I'm thinking 5th and the next I'm thinking 4 year olds. My head is spinning trying to keep all my thoughts organized for these principals and what age I'm even talking about!! :) So please continue to pray that I get some kind of offer from some school. It might not even be either of these schools that I am interviewing with, but that I would be at the school that God feels I can make the biggest impact on!! I'm hoping that the 3rd times a charm!!

Thank you all for continuing to pray and think about me! If any of you happen to be up oh so early and you think about it, just say a quickie for me!! I'll let you know how it goes!

New Discoveries

2009-06-05T12:18:00.005-04:00

So we are learning all kind of new things around here now!! Landon is the biggest investigator ever and he is in to EVERYTHING!! He is obsessed with going outside and just stands by the door and cries to go out. He also loves the vacuum and loves to lay it down and just play with the different gadgets on it.
The newest thing I have been wanting him to learn is how to drink out of a straw, eat of a plate without chunking the plate across the room, and try to use a fork. We have finally accomplished one of those which is drinking out of a straw. There have been several times where we have gone to a restaurant and I have forgotten his cup and it is so difficult to get any liquid down him since he couldn't drink out of a straw. I had been trying different times to show him how to do it while we were out, but he was more interested in eating the straw and playing in the cup of water than drinking it. While Landon and I were out to eat with Sara L. last night, I once again forgot his cup and by the end of the meal he was so thirsty. So we tried and it didn't work. Darn!!
We went by Jim n Nicks for dessert because Sara had never had their chocolate pie and was in dire need of some eye candy, so she decided that would be it for the night!! Well while we were there, Landon really had had enough of the high chair for the night and we were just trying to entertain him. I just thought I would practice once again with the straw and guess what...he did it!! It caught him so off guard that something came out of there and then he got the hang of it!!It seemed so super easy, but I guess it just took him practicing some and then he discovered that there really is something to come out of there!!

Here is is below this morning practicing yet again with his cup and straw!

We are still working on not turning it up when he drinks it though...he hasn't quite figured that out yet!

I have also been wanting him to at least practice using a fork for some easy to pick up foods. We have been working on it, and he knows he is supposed to use it, but we are still mastering how to actually get it on there and it stay on there all the way to his mouth! :) He is a hard worker trying to get his waffle on the fork!

He just decided to give up and realized that it is a lot easier to just pick it up with his hands! And the whole plate thing....that is a different story. The minute it is empty it is either on his head or thrown across the floor. I am still working with him to ask for more, via the sign language that he finally has mastered, and to keep his plate on his tray. He just thinks I am funny and that I am speaking a different language!! :)

And this is the other cute thing he is doing...he loves to crawl in to the dryer while we are folding laundry. Of course the will close the door on him if we would let him so someone has to make sure they are holding the door down so he doesn't.

And he's in...he just likes to get in and out and look at the light in the background!

This is just a picture that Leslie took of me and Landon while we were over at their house the other night. I seriously don't think I have a picture with Landon since he has gotten older where he is smiling. He is always too busy to take a picture so when she snatched this one, I was super excited! Just thought I would share a couple of pair of dimples with you! ;)

Walking in confident....

2009-05-26T14:23:00.005-04:00

***UPDATE 6/5: I still have not heard anything from Pine Street. I was told that I would hear something by this past Wednesday, but I am still playing the waiting game! :( I'm sure is busy and what not, but I am becoming slightly impatient....doesn't she know she has a girl sitting at her house where there are no jobs to come by and that girl at least got an interview and now is really wanting to know how it went? haha I seriously am ok with waiting, but I just would like to know even if I didn't get the job so I know if I need to start looking other places again. Thanks again for all the continued prayers!! I'll let you know as soon as I hear something!

** UPDATE: So the interview went awesome today!! There was the principal, assistant principal, and the teacher of the year, which also happened to be the grade chair for third grade. I felt unbelievably relaxed and calm....I think because there were so many prayers going around! A big thanks to everyone! :) I sat in there with them and talked for an hour! It obviously was a lot of questions, but the principal also gave me a lot of input and advice for being a first year teacher! I felt so relieved when I left there. I was interviewing for a 5th grade position, but she informed me that a 3rd grade position had opened up unexpectedly yesterday so I was kind of interviewing for both. I was super happy about that because 3rd grade happens to be my favorite! Everyone assured me as I was walking out, that they really enjoyed talking to me and that I should know something by next Wednesday, if not sooner! So please continue to pray and let's keep our fingers crossed to get good news soon!!

Yep, you see it...this could be my official teaching home next year and I could officially be a Road Runner after tomorrow.....

So this is just going to be a quick update, but I got a call from Pine Street today and I have an interview with the principal tomorrow at 1:00 for a 5th grade position!! I am beyond excited and seriously can't believe that something might just work out. I am extremely nervous because 90% of my experience is in the lower grades (3rd and below), and I'm not giong to lie, these really big 5th graders kind of intimidate me, (who by the way is only 5'2"!!) I will gladly accept the position if it is offered, but I just never dreamed I would be teaching older kids.

So please pray that I am confident in what I have learned and that I can portray to these lovely lasdies that will be interviewing me that I may not be experienced with 5th graders, but I am willing to take on the challenge and will do any and everything to get accustomed to the 5th grade scene! I will DEFINITELY be back to update tomorrow and let you know if I get it or at least how the interview went. So, if any of you think about it tomorrow around 1, say a little prayer for me and pray that they feel like I am the person that is supposed to join the Pine Street faculty next year! :)

Preparing and calming my nerves for tomorrow,

The Magic of Turner Field!

2009-04-15T17:57:00.010-04:00

Baseball has officially started!! (It actually started last Sunday, the 5th but I am just now getting around to blogging) This is by far my most all-time favorite thing in the world! I love the Braves and seriously crave baseball when it is the off season! Turner Field is my favorite place and I seriously want to go there all the time! (I possibly would consider living there...ok not really) If you ask anyone who knows me well what my favorite sport is...they know it baseball, and Braves Baseball at that!

Landon and I started preparing for Opening Day the week before....see pictures below! :) Well last Friday night, April 10th was Opening Day for Turner Field! Of course I bought tickets and we planned on going. I just couldn't think of missing it...and Opening Day is just a ritual for me. I was staying with my girlfriend, Whitney for a couple days at the time because she and her boyfriend were going with us! Whitney's parents just ADORE Landon so they were thrilled that we were leaving and they could have him all to theirself. We were going down early to tailgate and cookout and they were literally throwing us out at 3:30 so they could play with him.

Well as we all know...that Friday night was the storms of the century!! Go figure...it would all be coming through Atlanta on that night. But we decided we were going to brave the storms! And we did!! We got down there about 5 and the weather wasn't all that bad then. We had a great time hanging out and grilling out together. Kacy met us there and then we all proceeded in to the game before hand to watch all the fun things!! The weather did hold out until the middle of the 4th inning and then the bottom fell out...Hail and all! I did come prepared with my umbrella and we stayed out in our seats (which were not covered) until they delayed the game and it starting hailing. Everyone headed up to the walkways where it was covered. We just hung out and then as it got later and later we decided that we probably should go because there was no way they would start the game due to the rain!

So we left, and unfortunately they did start it back and it lasted until 1 am. I was all for staying, but Whit had to work early and I had to get home to set up for Landon's party, so we ran through the rain to our car!! I don't have much luck with Friday night baseball games at Turner Field. This one was rained out and last year Michael, Krista, and myself headed out to a game before Landon was born and it was just straight up cancelled because of rain! Either way I am a devoted fan and will still show up in the rain just for an attempt to see my favorite players play! Maybe next time will not rain...but we had tons of fun in the rain!

WELCOME TO THE BIGS!

Loving the game,
B

I think he should be a baseball player when he grows up!

haha I love this picture of him!

It was just a little windy...

That's better...love her! :)

Pregame festivities!
These are my FAVORITE boys!!

Pure fun!

Beginning of the rain delay....check out all the people under the overhang!

Just hanging out during the storm(We were really waiting in the funnel cake line!!) :)

We were trying to enjoy the rain

Whitney(By this time we were soaking wet and I really don't even know why we had an umbrella...)Loving the rain that night!

Happy Birthday!!

2009-04-07T15:25:00.003-04:00

Landon- 1 year ago!!

Wow...I seriously can't believe that Landon was 1 yesterday!! It is so crazy how time flies by. It has been such a fun year and Landon has learned so many things. He has just started walking and it is so cute to watch him look like a drunken sailor sometimes! :)
This past year has been such a whirlwind, but I couldn't have gotten through it without all the help from family and friends! Thank you all from the bottom of heart...I really do appreciate everything!!
I just wanted to say Happy Birthday to my little man!! I love you! :)

Do you have Direct TV....

2009-03-30T17:16:00.003-04:00

I so love listening to 1st graders and their conversations they have with each other when they think no adult is listening....it really makes me laugh!!
So this morning as I am aimlessly walking around the classroom getting stuff ready for the day, the kids are trickling in and I hear them all rambling about the Nickelodeon Awards (not really sure what this is, but I was informed by the radio this morning that it is like the Oscars for Nickelodeon) behind me....
Everyone: "Oh my gosh!! Miley Cirus won!!! I love her...She is so cute...etc, etc"

Boy 1: (from across the room) "G, do you have Direct TV?"
Boy 2: (from across the other side) "No....I have Comcast"
Boy 1: "Oh never mind, Comcast sucks so you wouldn't know what I'm talking about"
Boy 2: "No, Direct TV sucks. My mom and dad told me that we can't have Direct TV because it is bad and their satellites suck."
Boy 1: "Well, I'm not going to tell you what I was going to say because you're being mean!"

How do 1st graders know that SATELLITES suck?? Seriously...it's crazy to me. I just turned around and started laughing!

I seriously think I'm going to pick out a conversation every day and blog about it!! I only get through my days by laughing at them!! :)

I need prayers please!!

2009-03-05T20:56:00.002-05:00

So tomorrow morning at 9 AM I will report to Rockdale Career Academy for the Job Fair!! Oh you don't know how desperate I am for a job. Since the economy is so down, they are not hiring many teachers and only have a select number of teaching positions open!! Gwinnett and Henry are on a job freeze right now and there are not really many other options for me around here. So....pray as much as you can and keep your fingers crossed that I either get a job offering or that I will have a second interview.....ANYTHING that leads to a job somehow. Now I know all of this is not on my timing, but I just really need a secure job for next year so that I can provide for Landon, etc.
So thank you in advance for all the prayers and I owe each and every one of you the BIGGEST thanks I can give you for all the good words you put in to several principals! You guys are the best and I appreciate all the effort from the bottom of heart!!
I'll give you the update tomorrow afternoon...maybe you'll hear that I am the future teacher of some grade between Pre-K and 5th!! :)

Practicing my interview skills,
B

Snow Day

2009-03-02T15:23:00.005-05:00

I love the snow!! Everything about it makes me happy. I love how everything is just a blanket of white! As we all know, living here in Georgia isn't exactly the best place to live if you like the snow. But yesterday was a good day...It started to snow around lunch time and I'm so glad that is snowed all day and evening. We even got to have our 1st fire of the winter!

I stayed home from church because Landon just needed a good nap (not one in the board room at church, haha) and it began to snow while I was here. Mom and Kacy got home from church and Mom and I were heading back out to go set up for Krista's shower at Stephanie's house. While we were setting up for the shower, it began to really snow. The entire time at the shower, people were just amazed that it was really snowing AND sticking!! I called Kacy to make sure he didn't put Landon to sleep before I got home because we definitely had to get pictures of his first snow because there is no telling when we might see it again....probably another 5 years or something! :)

I got home and our street was so pretty. I grabbed Landon, bundled him up and we went out to see what he thought. Now this child is an outside baby. He LOVES to be outside. He did like the snow, but he just couldn't quite figure out what this white stuff was that was falling from the sky. And why when he looked up these white things would fall in his eyes!! We put him down to get some pictures and he fell straight in the snow. Unfortunately, we didn't have any water resistant clothes for him so he couldn't really play in it. We just took some pictures and tried to stay warm outside.

I was super happy when I got up at 5 am this morning to get ready for school (yes, Gwinnett waits until 5 am to cancel...grrr) that they had indeed cancelled school for today!! YAY, just a lazy day with my little man and mom!! I have loved the extra day off and even got to catch up on some sleep this morning...Thanks mom! :)

So here are just a few pictures from our snow adventure yesterday....

Until our next snowfall,
B

And the snowflake fell right in front of my face...

Trying to sit in the snow!

Our pretty street :)

Eating the snowball Alex made him!

Wordless Wednesday

2009-02-25T19:59:00.001-05:00

This is what greets me when I walk in the door from a long day at school. How can you not just enjoy these moments!?!? He is just so darn cute and the sweetest thing ever!!
Hope you're enjoying your Wednesday as much as I am!

Enjoy!

We've been plagued

2009-02-04T16:56:00.004-05:00

with sickness in this household for the past week or two. :( Alex was sick first with a sinus infection and then I got it for just a weekend and then last week got another round of it that I am still recovering from. Landon got the worst of it and is just now feeling better from about 2 weeks ago. It's always worse when babies are sick because you never know what is really hurting them. Landon ran fever for about 3 days and finally the doctor wanted to see him. I was only nervous once when his fever got around 104. (Ladies from the Bible Study know about this...thanks so much for your concern and prayers!!) The doctor said he just had a virus and an ear infection. After last Thursday it just turned into a cold where he couldn't breathe, nose constantly running, etc. Thankfully we're on the uphill side of it and he is on the road to recovery. Those teeth of his decided to start coming through once we thought he was feeling better. So then he just felt crabby because of the 2 teeth, but that second one just finally broke through today!! Now he has a total of 6 teeth! Of course since he hasn't felt good he didn't really want to eat food except for his bottle. So him not eating enough throughout the day caused him to not sleep through the night. Darn it, the minute I get him sleeping through the night, he gets sick and is not totally off again. He still isn't crazy about food right now, but I think he's slowly feeling the food again. Let's hope it won't take him too long. I was totally loving those 3 full nights of sleep! :)
Now that the sickness is getting better in this house I am hoping we are all going to be feeling up to doing things again. It was pure torture last week to go to school. If I could have only just stayed curled up in my pj's. What a dream that is! :)

Until the next update...

Hallelujah!!!

2009-01-22T20:25:00.005-05:00

*UPDATE: So Landon did sleep through the night last night again!! YAY I'm hoping that he has done it himself! We're trying for 3 nights in a row!!

So if you have talked to me lately about Landon sleeping through the night, you know that is a touchy subject because he still is not sleeping through the night! I have taken away the middle of the night of feeding, but he still has been getting up around midnight. I keep telling myself that I am going to work on it, but every night I would just rather feed him and then be back sleeping soundly in my bed with no screaming since I have to be up at 5:30am! :)
But last night for the first time EVER....he slept from 8 pm to 7:20 am!! WOOHOO. I honestly just assumed that I somehow slept through the crying and my mom rescued him, but this morning there was still milk in the fridge and she said she never even heard him! How exciting is that!?!?! I'm super happy, but still skeptical because he will trick me all the time. He will have a good night and then the next night it will be horrible. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we have another good night tonight!! Keep your fingers crossed for me too!!

Love,
-A pretty happy Mom!!

Pictures Continued

2009-01-18T15:34:00.009-05:00

As promised, here are the rest of our pictures from the trip...

Just hanging out
Precious

Kacy and his dad

Mr. Bill and Landon playing

Landon loved this rug

Resting after such a big lunch :)

At the dock...their boat is in the background!! Can't wait to go on it this summer :)

My little Georgia Bulldog!!

Playing with the drum

Landon and Kacy exercising

My two favorite boys Mrs. Karen and Landon
Kacy, Me, Adriene (Kacy's sister), and her boyfriend, Griff

Kacy's parents!

Playing on the porch our last day there

How cute is that smile!?

We had the best time in Florida and can't wait to go back. Thanks again to Kacy's parents for having us!! We can't wait to see you all again!!

New Year's

2009-01-13T21:26:00.008-05:00

Kacy and I had decided to go down to Orlando to visit his parents for the week of New Year's. Kacy had a lot of time that he could take off from work, so we decided to go down on Monday for the whole week. We left Monday after Landon's last nap, hoping that it would be a little easier ride since Landon would probably go to sleep. We headed about 5:30 loaded down with stuff. I think there was a short time before we left, that Kacy was rethinking this whole trip!! You just totally forget how much stuff you have to take and how much room it takes up.

I fed Landon his dinner in the car so we could go ahead and get going. We drove for about and hour or so and decided that we better go ahead and stop for dinner so that whenever Landon was ready to go to sleep he could. My goal was to keep him awake until 7 and then he could go to sleep anywhere after that. We ate and it bought us about 30 minutes of time. By then it was 7 and he was free to go to sleep. The rest of the drive was smooth sailing except for when we had to stop and get gas. I figured he would wake up (which he did) and then go back to sleep. He had a hard time for about 45 minutes and then he was out cold. I just couldn't keep my eyes open anymore so I think I slept the last 4 hours of our trip. Kacy was so sweet to let me sleep and drive with nothing to do! We got to Orlando about 12:30 and went straight to sleep.

Tuesday we woke up ready to be at the beach!! We hung out at his parents house for a little while and then decided we wanted to be at the beach. His parents live in Lake Mary and their condo is in New Smyrna, so it is about a 40 minute drive. We packed everything up and headed to the condo because we were all staying there the rest of the week. We were just lazy on Tuesday and walked around the grounds for the condo, went and got on their sailboat, went to the grocery store, and then cooked dinner.

I kinda decided that since it was my last week before Student Teaching started, I didn't really want to have an agenda for the week. And Kacy didn't mind either. After Landon woke up from his morning nap, Kacy, his mom, Landon, and I all headed to Publix for subs and then to the beach to let Landon crawl around in it since the last time he was at the beach he was only 3 months old and didn't get to play. We of course decided to go on the windiest day we were there. It was fun and Landon was a trooper. And of course since there were wind gusts that about blew us over, Landon was bundled up in corduroy pants and a long sleeve shirt. Just FYI....don't wear corduroy pants to the beach...sand sticks to them!! He had a good time exploring the sand, but really couldn't stand the hard packed sand. It hurt his knees and by this time, his pants were off. The water was freezing, but we still put his feet in it just for fun. We headed back for his afternoon nap and just relaxed at the condo. Kacy's dad had to work New Year's Eve day so he came a little later in the evening after he got off work. Kacy mom was going to cook Pork Scalapinni for the four of us that night. I know none of ya'll know Kacy's parents, but let me just tell you about their cooking. Oh my goodness is it A-mazing!! They make all these fancy meals (well fancy to me, but to them I don't think it is...), and they make everything from scratch. I love just watching them. Oh how I wish she would just come a cook for me every night!! Anyway...she fixed a wonderful meal and then we all planned on staying up until midnight, but you know what happens after a few tasty drinks!! haha His mom and I were asleep on the couch I think at about 10:30, and we simply woke up at 11:58, watched the ball drop, said Happy New Year and headed to bed!! We were such party people!! :)

Ok, so talk about things being made from scratch...she even made waffles for us on Thursday morning with homemade syrup!! Seriously....who does that?? She does...simply the best!! We headed back to his parents house after breakfast to hang out there and have the traditional New Year's Day meal with his sister and her boyfriend that night. His dad had already headed back and on our way back to their house, we got a call from his dad saying that their house had been broken in to while they were gone. They stole all of his mom's real jewelry (which is a lot) and thankfully didn't do anything else to the house. So once we got there, it was just a lot of cleaning up glass, and trying to recall everything she had so she could report it. What a way to start the new year. We hung out there and then had dinner that night which consisted of turkey, greens, black-eyed peas, and cheese and grit casserole. It was delicious!!

Friday we got up and just hung out. We went to see his grandfather's boat at the beach and then ate at a fun little burger place right on the water. We walked around down town and got ice cream. Of course, the last day we were there was the warmest, but at least we got to enjoy the sun for a little while. Landon took his nap and we loaded up for our journey home. :( We didn't want to leave and really contemplated staying another night, but then we wouldn't have been home until late Saturday night and I really wanted two days to recover before school started. We said our goodbye's and then we were on our way.

The ride home was great. Landon did even better on the way home. And I did even better on the way home. I only slept for 45 min. instead of like 4 hours. We got in about the same time as before. We just left everything in the car and went to bed! Our week with his parents was great and we had so much fun being able to spend time with them!! We can't wait until we get to take another trip down there to visit! I'll go anytime... I really didn't plan on rambling this much, but there are certain someones who like to know about each and every day!! :) Hope everyone had a great New Year's too.

This is where Landon found his love for pickles :)

Landon fit in to this huge vase and loved standing in there and also pulling it over on himself and busting his nose...thats boys for you!!
Kacy and Landon on the boat

Me and Landon just hanging out on the boatSee what corduroy pants do....(the car really isn't as close as it looks)

We need to get a tan!!

My little beach baby

New Year's Eve

I can't get enough of him!!

More pictures will be up...Kacy must give them to me first!! :)

Christmas

2009-01-13T21:02:00.008-05:00

As you can see from the comments on the previous blog...Mary is once again on my case about blogging! :) I really do think about doing it, but I can't blog until Landon goes to sleep and by that time I am trying to eat and then go to bed!! I so want to be as good as Mary and keep everyone updated...Mary I'm striving to be as good as you!! :) xo
So Christmas was great. Landon had a very good first Chrismas. My grandfather spent the night with us on Christmas Eve which was fun to have him here. I woke up early Christmas morning with Landon. Mom was of course already up and baking! We don't tons of family traditions that we have to do or anything, but it is a must in this house to have Monkey Bread and Breakfast Caserole on Christmas morning. We always make both the night before so all we have to do is just put them in the oven and cook them. This year since it was little more low key, and not everyone was here, we had a nice breakfast and then played for a little bit before we opened presents. We were a little hesitant to start opening gifts with Landon still awake, but we decided we would try it and he really did good with everything. We let him open his gifts first and then we put him in the pack-n-play to play with his new toys while we opened. After we opened gifts Landon went to sleep for his nap and we got ready to go to our friends the Abarr's house down in Hampton. They always invite friends over Christmas afternoon to eat and just hang out. We had a great time and came home when Landon was ready for bed! Not a bad first Christmas for us!!

Landon opening up his stocking

Playing with toys

Da, Landon, Dad, and Me after opening presents

Pops and Nina with Landon's new favorite toy :)
(Thanks to Uncle Ben, Aunt Amanda, and his cousin Adalyn)

I'm back!!

2008-12-19T16:25:00.004-05:00

Ok, I know I officially win the title of the worst blogger in the world!! I don't think I even remember how to blog! :) My life has been a little crazy and everytime I would even think about blogging, something would happen and then I would say "Ok tomorrow I will blog". Obviously that has never happened!So to play catch up and keep this from being the longest blog ever, I will just hit the high points...

I started going to Honeycreek Elementary every day for the last 5 weeks of school. Once I got home, the last thing I wanted to do was look at the computer...so I didn't. I finished school 2 Friday's ago. So I officially only have 1 more semester and I'm done!! YAY!! May 12th can't come soon enough!! Anyways..
Landon got his first two teeth the first week in October. Since then he had been on a mad dash of growing. He is crawling EVERYWHERE and his a little cruiser. He will now walk down the coffee table or couch or anything he can hold on to. He is definitely my little investigator. He also had his first Halloween. Sadly, I have no pictures because we were at Alex's homecoming football game and he slept the whole so he didn't even get to wear his costume...next year he will wear one! He also had a great Thanksgiving!! He was great on Thanksgiving day and even got to eat "Turkey and Rice with Vegetables" with us...although his was from a jar though!

He had his first visit with Santa on Tuesday and loved him! Pictures are below of how cute he was with him. He absolutely loved his beard! He is pretty excited about Christmas next week. He already has a love for the wrapping paper. Basically he is just getting some boxes wrapped up!!

Nothing else major has really happened since our last visit here. A few bumps and bruises along the way, but he mostly has just gotten bigger and experienced a few firsts of some things. Such as, his new car seat! Love it...his new love for newspaper, magazines, cords, and shoes.

We are heading to the Merritt family Christmas on Sunday so that should be fun and lots of paper and boxes for him! Kacy is headed to North Carolina on Christmas Eve, so he won't be here for Christmas. :( But he will be back on the 29th and then we (the 3 of us) are headed to the Orlando and New Smyrna Beach on the night of the 29th for New Years!! I'm super excited about that. We will be gone through the 2nd or 3rd! We are going to make the long drive at night, hoping that Landon will sleep most of the way! (All of you out there that have done long road trips with little ones...any pointers?? I'm hoping the night thing will work great. He sleeps good in the car and Kacy likes to drive at night. Works for me ) I think that is the quickest update I can do. I know it's not a lot, but I promise to be better at blogging now. I gave you details through New Years just in case I don't make it back before I leave! Hopefully I will...

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Waiting to see Santa

Loving Santa's beard

My precious little man!!

"Mommy, please don't make me be a Gamecock"

2008-09-12T14:31:00.008-04:00

In honor of the Georgia vs. South Carolina game this weekend, I put him in this sweatshirt that he got as a hand me down from one of my family members. I'm not sure if she was trying to drop hints that she wanted Landon to be a South Carolina fan, but it will never, ever happen. I had to try this on him for a certain friend, and look what happened when he wore it.... He was really upset that he had a South Carolina sweatshirt on. He secretly knows that this is what all the South Carolina fans will be doing when they lose this weekend. I am happy to see that he already knows that he doesn't like the Gamecocks! I hated to make him wear it any longer, but I quickly took some pictures of him in it. He never became happy in it. Screamed the whole time.

The sweatshirt part is so cute, just not the name on it....so if there is ever a Georgia sweatshirt, I'll take it!!

"What is the awful thing I am wearing?"

"Will you please take this off of me, now!"

Hide-n-Seek

2008-09-12T13:52:00.005-04:00

Landon's first hide and go seek attempt!! After leaving Landon on the floor in the living room for approx. 2 minutes on his blanket...this is what I come back to.....He was trying to hide from me, but didn't succeed too well because he left his little legs out for us to see!! He had his head lifted up looking around trying to figure out how he had gotten himself in that situation. Too cute!!

*Update*

Here are some more pictures of his crawling attempts!! He is sooo super close to doing it. I can't wait for him to start moving!! He is just so stinking cute....(sorry, I'm just slightly obsessed with his cute little face!)

They are such friendly little things...

2008-09-08T14:12:00.003-04:00

So I was looking through some photo folders today and I came across these pictures that I had taken!! Daisies are by far my all time favorite flower. How could you not like something as pretty and friendly as this?? I love flowers...if my entire house could be filled with flowers in every room...I would do it. The only bad thing is, I can't seem to keep them alive for very long. I think I forget to change their water and then they end up dying. But when they're alive....they are simply amazing. One day when I do get married, this is what will be in my hand, my bridesmaids hands, and all over that church, where ever that might be. I do look forward to the day that I (or whoever is helping me with my wedding) can decorate the church with these. Until then, I will just settle for them in my room or around the house. So if that certain someone is ever wondering what kind of flowers to get me...daisies will win my heart! Sorry I got a little posting happy today...I think this is my last one!!

The cutest GEORGIA fan ever!!

2008-09-08T10:12:00.003-04:00

Just a quick update to let you know that I have the cutest Georgia fan ever!! He already knows how to say "Go Dawgs" and we're working on "Sic 'em"!! :) I just had to put these cute pictures on here so you could see his cute game day attire!! Hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

I love this picture!! He looks like a little man here.

Talking to his "Pops" about the game

He loves his Georgia football team!

Craziness rules my life....

2008-09-06T15:28:00.005-04:00

Once again the last month has been crazy!! I unfortunately had to attend another funeral in 1 month for my grandfather, Papa. He was my dad's father and he passed away from alzheimer's. We miss him so very much! I started school back, so Landon is staying with his Nina and it seems to be going very good. The commute isn't too bad back and forth and it is so nice that I miss traffic. I got it approved to be at Honeycreek to do my observations and that is a BLESSING!! I have to be there at 8am and I can leave at 7:55 and make it on time!! :) So great.

In Landon's world....he is babbling like crazy. I have been teaching him to go to sleep on his own (Thanks Dr. Ferber) and it is going great. I started it last week before we went to Nashville and he has adapted to it so well. If he cries at all now, it's only for about 2 or 3 min. It is such a relief to not have to fight with him to go to sleep. He is almost crawling!! This morning he was laying on the floor and pushed up on all four and then moved his leg in! It's so cute to see him develop this. He is going to be a mover when he can finally go. He is now eating rice cereal and loves that too. I have put him in the excersaucer and he really likes to play in there. Because of his reflux, it is so nice to have a place to put him where he is upright and not laying on the floor.
We went to Nashville over Labor Day weekend! A group of friends were all going up there and they so kindly invited Landon and I! We had such a good time. We stayed at the Opryland hotel and just did all the fun touristy things you do there. He did really really good.

Ok...thats all the update I have time for. Landon is in his bed now crying because I have left him in there for a while!! I will leave you with some cute pictures!!

His cowboy hat that his Uncle Ben bought him!

Rather upset that his cousin is leaving!! (He really might be upset because we told him he couldn't eat her face)

Loving his cereal

Loving his excersaucer

...Playing...

Doctor Appointment

2008-08-12T22:55:00.000-04:00

Me and Landon playing on the floor

I can't believe how fast time has gone. Landon is already 4 months and it seems like yesterday he was born. He can do so many things now and it's so fun to watch him learn something new everyday. So anyway....yesterday was Landon's 4 month check up!! He weighed in at a whopping 18lbs 14oz (ahhh....) and 27 inches long! He was in the 97th percentile for both. None of this shocked me....but it sure did the nurse! She came in with her jaw dropped. Dr. Jattan hasn't seen him since he was 6 weeks old so he definitely had changed. When she walked in she just looked at him and said "Um, we can see he isn't a starving baby!" No no, he isn't! We are all aware of that! Everything went very well except for the shot part...Oh it makes me so sad. I hate it...and this time was worse because it was his nap time so he fell asleep and had to be woken up to that. :( So other than that he checked out great and everything is going good! Can't wait to see what he will be doing in 2 more months for his 6 month check up!!

Here is just a small list of what he can do:

Roll over, smile, laugh, suck his thumb, suck all his fingers on one hand at the same time :), hold teething rings by himself, scream at the top of his lungs in the car, sleep in his own crib :), and just be the sweetest baby in the world! :)

This is his new favorite toy

Playing with his blow up duck (He really doesn't know what to do with it...it's just funny to watch him try and figure it out!)

And sitting like a big boy :)

All smiles

2008-08-01T19:46:00.001-04:00

So last week when my family was in town, the ladies were ready to get out of the house so we decided to go have a pedicure and then a cup of coffee (or a Chocolate Creme if you are me) at Kaiteur Coffee House. It next to the Publix near the hospital! It is so delicious and my mom and aunts became frequent customers since the nursing home was right there. Anyways...while we were there Landon was laying on my legs and I grabbed his feet and bent them towards his face as if he was going to eat his toes. I would jiggle his cheeks with his feet and he would just laugh and laugh! My mom got some of he cutest pictures of him laughing so I had to share them with you! It is now his new favorite thing to do with his feet. :) Hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I do!

Step 1...

Step 2...

THE RESULT!! :)

(Both top and bottom picture)

A Sad Farewell...

2008-07-30T17:16:00.000-04:00

to my wonderful grandmother, Tissie. Tissie passed away last Sunday night after a hard fought battle against cancer. Cancer is a nasty thing and I really don't like it right now. It took someone away from me that I loved so very much. It makes me sad to think that my cheerleader on the sideline for so many years, my shopper at heart, my traveler of the world, and my crazy but loving grandmother was taken away from all of us. I never really thought the day would come that I had to say goodbye to someone that I love so much. Well last Sunday was that day. My family and I had been at the nursing home that morning and we decided to go get some lunch. We went to Sweet Tomato's (my mom and grandfather's all time favorite) and enjoyed a nice lunch together. After Da's 12th time to the dessert bar, we decided we should head back to visit with Tiss. When we got back, it was kind of a disaster in my eyes. I could tell she wasn't doing good at all. We just sat there and talked to her, even though we got no response from her, I knew she was listening to us. I told her that I loved her and that Landon was there to see her. That made her come to life!! :) For the 2 previous weeks, she really couldn't talk at all. But last Sunday, she clearly said, "Hi Landon" and smiled! Oh how that warmed my heart!! She touched his foot and rubbed his leg for a little while. Landon was getting a bit fussy and finally fell asleep and I decided that it was time for me to take him home after his long day. I said my goodbyes knowing deep down inside it was probably my last time seeing her. We got the call that same night telling us Tissie had past away. Ugh...that day was here. I didn't want it to be here, but I knew that it was for the best. She was in so much pain, and if anyone knew Tissie, you know she liked to be up and out and not stuck in a hospital bed. None the less, it was hard. The following days were kind of a whirlwind now looking back. I don't think any of us knew which end was up. Family calling, food like you've never seen arriving, my family coming and going, etc. Let's just say my house was CRAZY!!! So for the next couple of days family started coming in. We had the visitation on Wednesday night and the Memorial service was on Thursday. It was a very nice service. It finally hit me as I walked down the aisle to the front of the church with Da on my arm, that Tissie was gone forever. Only the memories we had made were left. It such a sad feeling. As these next couple of months go by, it will get better for me, for my mom, for my family, and especially for Da....I am determined to think so.

I said from the time that she was hospitalized 2 months ago that under these unfortunate circumstances, it brought tons of family in that I either had never met before or hadn't seen in a long time, and it was nice to catch up. But it makes me sad because now that everything is done with, family won't be coming in every other week or so. Please understand what I'm about to say...I by no means wanted to see her sick, but I liked her holding on to life because it made family come and see her and therefore, I got to see them. Now I'm sad because I won't get to see them near as much. So as I finish writing, I must say Thank you to Tissie...Thank you for being the grandmother that came to every sporting event no matter how far away, thank you for all those crazy outfits you wore (we secretly liked them no matter how crazy they were), thank you for all those pajama sets from Hong Kong even though we never wore them, thank you for all those Christmas presents wrapped in the newspaper comics because you ran out of wrapping paper (Christmas won't be the same anymore), thank you for all those times you wanted to take a roll home from a restaurant so you wrapped it in a napkin, thank you for all the crazy jewelry you gave me, thank you for eating all those rolls with me :), and thank you for all the thank you's I can't remember, but most of all....thank you for loving me no matter what!! You are going to be missed more than you will ever know! I can't wait for the day that we will all be together again!!

I LOVE YOU!! 11/18/28-07/20/08

This was her crazy self!! :)

Our last picture together...I love you Tissie!

Beach Trips

2008-07-21T22:50:00.000-04:00

I feel like I've been so out of touch the past couple of weeks, but it's been a crazy past couple of weeks. I left you last with Landon and I on our way to the beach!! :)
I loaded up Saturday the 5th with Landon, my grandmother, my aunt, and my three cousins all in one minivan!! That was a sight in itself! haha. We were trying to all go together to save on gas and we were pretty determined to do it. I was ok with it, but you have to understand that my three cousins that went with us are all between 5'10" and 6'2", and they were all cramped in the backseat. I felt bad for them, but I needed to be by Landon on the ride down so I sat up there with him. On the way down, we always go in two days just to make it easier on the little kids. We stop in Thomasville and get a hotel. All the little kids play and swim and we always make our anual trip to Ruby Tuesday to eat and get dessert! :) This year was a very smooth ride down with Landon and the gang. He did very good and really was a good car rider! We got up on Sunday and headed to the beach! Our beach trips are not like any other family beach trips. There are about 22 of us that go and everyone basically knows what room they stay in and what food they are going to cook. I definitely won't go in to every detail of the week, but it was a great week to be with family and "relax". It was just nice to just get away from the house. I didn't go down to the beach expecting to go out to the beach everyday, but I did make 2 appearances on the beach! The second one...probably a little too long for my pale little body and boy did I pay for it. But it was worth it now...I at least have tan lines to show for it! Landon did make 2 evening outings to the beach to put his feet in the sand and water. He loves the outside, so he was so happy to be out there looking at all the news things! All my family was so helpful with Landon and really made the week fun for me too!
I got a call on Wednesday that my brother was going to be having his baby sometime in those next couple of days so I started to prepare how I could get to them in South Carolina without having to go all the way back to Atlanta and then drive up to Myrtle Beach. I decided to fly on Saturday from Tallahassee to Charleston so that I could be with them when the baby arrived. This would be Landon's first airplane ride!! I absolutely love airports and love to fly so I was so excited to take him on one so early in his life! He did so good on both flights. I fed him before my first flight left and then he slept the whole plane ride to Atlanta. I had an hour layover and he ate then and then slept the whole way to Charleston. He was such a good trooper. My parents and brothers met me at the airport and then we made the 2 hour drive back to Myrtle Beach. We hung out on Sunday and then Monday was the big delivery day! I will post more about precious Adalyn Paige soon!! :) We stayed through Wednesday and then mom and I made the 6 hour ride home with Landon. He did very good on that ride also! It was so fun to take Landon on his first beach trip! I can't wait for next year when he will actually be able to play in the sand and water! :)
Several people mentioned to me that I needed to update the blog, but I don't have the pictures from the beach yet, so as soon as I do, I will put them up! I will also put pictures up soon of Adalyn!!

Sunglasses

2008-07-02T21:17:00.000-04:00

I really don't have much to say, but definitely had to update you on one certain thing! First off...pictures went great on Monday! :) Got some really cute ones and can't wait to get them on the 17th! Secondly...still waiting on the neice of mine! She needs to hurry up. But now that we are already to Wednesday, she needs to wait until I get back from the beach next Sunday. If she would only cooperate with all of us! Thirdly...(is that even a word? I guess I should know since I'm going to be a teacher...but I don't. Who cares anyway....besides my mom?) Anyways, I met my roomate and her boyfriend today at the Avenue in Snellville. We ate lunch at Urban Flats and then went to Target to get some last minute things I needed for Landon at the beach. I got everything I needed and then came across the cutest things I have ever seen for a baby. And very practical too!! I know these have been around and didn't think I would ever use them, but I gave in! So below you will find the most adorable little boy ever with his awesome sunglasses! :) Now he can see in the sun! You can find them at Target for anyone who needs them! I must run now..just wanted ya'll to see my cute find! I will post pictures of his first beach trip when I get back!! Have a great 4th!

His first pair of sunglasses!

He loved them!! (And his tongue)

We're ready for the beach!

They stay on top of his head too!

Picture Disaster/Cookout

2008-06-29T11:18:00.000-04:00

I went and had Landon's pictures done at JC Penney when he was 4 weeks old and loved how they turned out. My mom bought me a subscription to Parents Magazine and every time one comes, there are tons of different coupons for pictures from different places. This last time there was a coupon from Olan Mills for $10 that expired on 6/29. I skipped his 8 week pictures for some reason and decided that I would have them done again when he was 12 weeks! (Which is today!) :) So I knew I had to use it soon. I made an appointment for this past Friday at 12:30. Normally that is when he is awake for a while and in a good mood. So I feed him at 11 and we head out about 12:15. We make it there with no crying (praise the Lord)!! We were the only ones there because there were no more appointments for Friday. So we sign and and head over the picture taking area. Well wouldn't you know that Landon decides to start screaming when I sit him down. So I pick him up and get him settled. He smiles while he's in my arms so I think we're ready. Nope I was wrong again! He starts crying again, but I decide to get him settled without picking him up! So then he just stares at the camera. No expression what-so-ever! We try everything. She takes some pictures but they are horrible. He looks like he could kill someone if he wanted too! She looks at me and says "I think we better quit. Maybe you should come back on a different day." I pick him up and he falls right to sleep. Grrr....every other day he is wide awake and happy at that time. I guess he had other plans! haha So we have rescheduled for tomorrow. Let's hope that it works this time!

He was so worn out from taking 6 pictures that he fell asleep on the way home and slept for 3 hours and 15 min!! Seriously?? He never does that...I guess I should take him to get his pictures done more often so that he will sleep! :)

That evening Sara Lynch had invited us over for a cookout! We gratefully accepted since my mom was in Atlanta at the Beth Moore conference and I had no clue what my dad and I would do for dinner! We went out there about 5:30 and I helped them get everything ready! We had so much fun just being completely silly and goofy! Sara loves her some Landon! :) She is great...she will always take him right when she sees him and will hold him until he is hungry or sleepy! Nancy, Sara's mom, loves him too! They crack me up with him! So we ate burgers and some tasty potatoes that Sara made and had watermelon for dessert! I had every intention of coming home at a normal time, but Landon had other plans! He wanted to stay and play with them!! After he was finally done flirting with them we left around 11! Totally didn't mean to stay that late, but they didn't mind! So the night was fun! Thanks Lynch's for having us over! Love ya'll!

The Tomahawk Chop

2008-06-28T22:09:00.000-04:00

He really did have fun!

(Sorry it's a little blurry)

So for those of you who don't know, I am slightly obsessed with the Atlanta Braves! I love any kind of baseball, but put me in front a TV witht he Braves on or at Turner Field and I am set! I feel like it is the one sport, besides soccer, that I really know what is going on and feel like I can talk about it with people and they don't look at me like what is this girl talking about!?!? I have always followed the MLB, but I really have followed it this season since I've been at home so much more. I think I've seen almost every Braves game this season....but don't get me started on that...I'm very sad at how bad they are doing! :( Anyways...I normally go to Braves games once or twice a week during the summer, but unfortunately I haven't been able to because of Landon. Although, I did get to go to Opening Night this year thanks to my father who gave me an extra ticket that he had right before Landon was born! So there I was huge as ever, doing my favorite...The Tomahawk Chop!

So I had been waiting for the day that I could take Landon to his first Braves game! The time finally came last Friday night! (If I could have, I would have taken Landon when he was 4 weeks old...but I knew I had to wait a little while longer!) My brother, Ben, surprised us last Thursday night and called and said he was coming home from Myrtle Beach with his friend Kent that also lives here in Conyers. My brother is expecting his first child in the next couple of weeks and he wanted to see my grandmother! (That will be a whole different blog) So on Friday, we decided to go the Braves game. Kent was already going with one of my great friends, Sara, but we decided to crash their party and go with them! So me, Landon, my brother, Michael Edwards, his girlfriend Krista, Kent, and Sara all went to the game! We met at Ruby Tuesdays first for appetizers and then all took the minivan downtown! :) We had 6 free tickets and got great seats on the third base line under the overhang. The Braves have been in an unfortunate slump and we were playing the worst team in the league, so we figured this game would be a great one to go to since we were bound to win. Haha. That was a joke since we lost! I've had this crazy luck that every time I go to the Braves game, I am on the big screen. Because I used to go so much and sit in the same area, one camera man knew me and all I had to do was wave to him and he would put me on there. We were not near him this time and were up under the overhang, but I still had every intention to be on there with Landon. He even has Braves onesies and I wanted everyone to see how cute he was. Unfortunately, we never made it on there, but I'm blaming that on our seats! Overall, we had a great time watching the Braves, doing the tomahawk chop, and most of all eating funnel cakes! It was super fun to get out and go somewhere with friends! I can't wait to take him to more games as he gets older! I am hoping with all my heart, that he wants to play baseball and maybe will love it as much as I do! :)

Just hanging out at the game! We were a little closer than the picture makes it look!

See his cute onesie!! It was just a little hot, so we opened it up to get a little air! :)

* A quick side note. For any of you that want to go to the Braves game sometime...go on a Friday night. It's Friday Night Fireworks!! They do an excellent fireworks show after the game. They turn all the lights off and do them over the outfield! It might be better than the 4th of July show at the Horsepark! ;)

Catching Up

2008-06-26T13:29:00.000-04:00

So much has happened since Landon was born. I didn't really know how to jump from the day he was born until now, but I'll just do some filling in to get caught up.
It was such a crazy first week with him. We came home on a Tuesday and he had his first doctors appointment on Thursday. If I would have known what that was going to turn in to, I'm not sure anyone could have made me go. I absolutely love my pediatrician, Dr. Jattan. She is an amazing woman who truly cares for each of her patients! (And their parents too :) ) We went Thursday and she checked him out, and realized that he had lost too much weight; therefore, he was dehydrated and he was also jaundice. So for the next 5 days we were up and out of the house by 9am and on our way to the hospital to have heel pricks. Some people might think that 9am is not early, but when you have a newborn and don't feel so good, this is a HUGE thing. I think my mom and I started getting ready at the 4am feeding! :) Emotions were definitely soaring that week. Landon's jaundice levels kept going up and I started freaking out! I guess when ever someone else has a baby that has jaundice, I didn't think much of it and knew they would be ok, but when it's your own child...it's a totally different story! We made it through that week...Whew!
After all that I got a little stir crazy by week two and had to get out. Thankfully my dad thought of this great idea to go to Arabia Mtn. and go hiking after church. Mom and I met them there in the afternoon and hiked about 3-4 miles. I only did 2 and that was probably too much, but I survived!
Nothing other major happened after that except he got his 1 month pictures done! So fun!! My great friend and roomate, Whitney, came and went with me. We went to JC Penny and he definitely knew how to perform. :) He had just starting to somewhat smile. I didn't think he would smile for his pictures, but he did! We got some cute ones and I was very pleased with how they turned out!
Since then he has learned how to smile for real and laugh! As long as he is not hungry or mad, if you just look at him and talk he loves it! He will smile from ear to ear! He has also been working on rolling over. He did this for 3 days straight about 3 weeks ago while my parents were out of town, and as soon as they got home...he conviently forgot how to do it. But today he rolled over and my mom was actually watching so she believes me now!
There have been other exciting things happen in his life so far, but those will come in another blog all by themselves! I really can't think of anything else that is super exciting that has happened so far. These past 11 weeks have been so much fun and I can't believe he will be 12 weeks on Sunday! It's crazy how times fly and I can't wait to see what else he will do soon!!
Well I will write more about the "major" things that he doesn't remember in a little bit. I must go feed my crying child!!
Until then,
B

04.06.08

2008-06-25T14:57:00.000-04:00

I've so wanted to start a blog, but never really thought I had the time or the energy for this, but have finally decided to give in and try it! I guess I'll try to start at the beginning and fill in a little.

04.06.08 was by far was the best day of my life! My little man, Landon Reid was born!! It definitely was a surprise for him to come on the 6th, considering that he was not due until the 18th. I had gone in for my weekly check-up on Friday, April 4th, and the doctor was concerned that I had high blood pressure. Let me first inform you of how the doctor visits normally went....I tried so very hard through my whole pregnancy to see the same midwife, Laurie. The other ones were great, but I just felt like I clicked with Laurie. Normally she was there on Wednesdays and I had to go in the morning since the office was next to Northside Hospital and we had to deal with morning rush hour. What fun!! haha So anyways, normally Mom, Isabella, and I would load up and head to the doctor. It would include us checking-in and every week someone asked if Isabella was mine or my moms. We would reply "No, we just keep her." Then we would sit in the waiting room and Isabella would climb on the chairs a few time and then it would be time for us to go back. We would get in the room and Isabella always had a look of fear on her face. She never really caught on that the doctor was not there to see her! She would look at herself in the mirror for a few minutes and then she all of a sudden would look at my mom and you could see her thinking, "I'm missing something." And then the never ending asking/begging for crackers would start. And that is how she would entertain herself in the doctors office...by eating crackers. So, back to the last visit. This time my dad decided he wanted to go since he never had gone before. So we all load up and go. We get there and they take us back and they do my blood pressure. They don't act like it is high, but I really don't even ask. We go back to the room and the doctor comes in. (I had to see the doctor because there were no midwives that week.) She says she is worried about my blood pressure and checks it again and it is still high. She informs me that I am to go on full bed rest for the weekend until Monday when they get the blood work back. So now we have Isabella scared of the doctor, my mom looking looking a little nervous, and dad trying to entertain Isabella by saying loud things that I don't even remember, and me sitting on the table going "But I'm going to the Braves game tonight...I can't be on bed rest" and all in a 7 by 7 room. And we all wonder why my blood pressure was high!! haha Well I preceded on by going to the Braves game, against doctor and moms order, and it gets cancelled. Saturday morning I wake up and call the midwife on call to ask her a question. And yes, when she calls me back it's Laurie! YAY!! So if anything does happen this weekend, I get my favorite midwife there with me! She tells me that she is going to get on her work computer and check out my blood work and let me know if I need to come in or if I can be off bed rest. She didn't want me wasting my weekend sitting if I didn't have too. So needless to say, she calls back about 2 hours later and tells me that I need to come in that day because they are going to induce me because my blood work doesn't look good. She said that they were worried about Toxemia. The Montgomery's were here at that point and we all of a sudden went in to overdrive and frantically got everything together. As we are leaving, Andy and Tom Hudgens pull in our driveway and we all stand in our kitchen and pray together. Thank you all for that!! Definitely calmed my nerves down!

Mom and I drive to the hospital and get checked in and get set up in the room! Those rooms were amazing! They were so big and had lots of room! They got all the paperwork done and then gave me Cervadil. It is something that can help you go in to labor on your own, but it didn't work for me. We finally go to bed around 11:30 and anxiously wait for the next day!!!

The next morning they started Pitocin at 8 am and at 9am they break my water! Good lord, the pain that started then!! I had every intention of going natural until that happened. I labored for about 3 hours without anything and then couldn't take it anymore, so I got an epidural. That was my saving grace. I don't think I would have survived without it! The rest of the day I just layed there and visited with friends and family. I wanted anyone that wanted to be there to come. I am so the person that loves to have people around and I really wanted all the ones I loved to be there for this! I think there were close to 20-25 people there! It was so much fun! Around 6:30 PM, Laurie came in and said at 7 I was going to start to push! So she came in at 7 and at 7:02, with everyone in there that was going to be, the pushing began!! At 7:39 PM, Landon Reid was born!! He was so precious and HUGE!! None of ever believed that he would be that big. He was 8lbs 15oz!! I never dreamed that I would have that big of a baby. Once he was out, everyone forgot about me and focused their attention on him! At one point I looked over and everyone was crowded around the scale, with just me and the midwife in the background, all screaming "Look how huge he is", "Bailey, he's so big", etc but could I see a thing...Nope! I could only see the back of everyone...they finally brought him over to me and I got to hold the most precious thing ever! He was so sweet from the very beginning. I couldn't believe that he was finally here and I was holding him. The rest of the night is all really a blur. We got upstairs to our new room sometime around 10 or 10:30. I then just got to sit and stare and love on that sweet baby. It's crazy now to think back on that night. The time has definitely flown by and I can't even imagine how fast it will continue.

I can't wait to post more about him, but for now that is how he entered the world!! More to come shortly....I'm kind of already liking this a lot! :)