Sick

Well my precious baby boy is sick! He's had a relatively high fever the past 2 days and has lost his voice. He doesn't cough much but when he does it is the horrible croup cough that makes him sound like a sea lion. No fun. He just wants his mama to hold him and he is sleeping a lot. It's always so hard when you see your child so sick and acting pathetic. Pray he gets better soon!
I'm in Christmas mode and can't wait to get our tree up! I just bought a tree stand today. This is our first real tree as a married couple. A couple from our church is selling trees to help fund their adoption from Russia. Someone bought a tree from them and told them to give it to someone and they asked us if we wanted it! How awesome! Matt and I were talking about how we wanted to get a real tree but couldn't afford one, what a blessing! Another blessing is that I am COMPLETELY done with all my Christmas shopping. I have been shopping Friday, Saturday, and today. Taking advantage of sales and reward bucks I earned! Most of it is already wrapped, so i'm on my game! Maybe now i'll actually get my Christmas cards out this year. I have never sent out Christmas cards before, but have bought them the past 2 years, ha. I have no excuse now, I need to get them out this year! Off to cuddle my youngin'!

Black Friday and an interesting gift idea!

So my mom and I were amongst the crazy's out shopping this morning. Although we didn't arrive at Kohls when they opened at 4:00, we made it there by 4:30a.m.! Every Thanksgiving mom and I go out shopping. Although we think we are insane for waking up so early and are exhausted by 10:00 a.m. (yes, I said 10:00 A.M!) we thoroughly enjoy this time together. This morning we hit up Kohl's then headed to Target and of course got some Starbucks in between. We then went home to eat breakfast with Matt, Ethan and my niece Ashlyn who is here for the weekend. Mom and I took the kids to the mall and we were done by 10:30! I got some great gifts and can't wait to see people's faces when they open them! I LOVE seeing excitement and giving people gifts! Speaking of interesting gifts. Here is a craft idea for those of you who claim to be crafty. Let me know if you end up making one of these ORNAMENTS!

Baby's 1st Hair Cut

Today my precious baby boy got his first hair cut! Ethan is 21 months old and got his first trim. He was practically bald the first year of life and now his hair is really starting to grow. We decided to get a little trim before we get family pictures done this Saturday at the mall. Silly me thought he would sit there just fine and let her cut his hair. Nope. Not even with a lollipop in hand. He cried big ol' crocodile tears and did not want her touching his head. It was a very quick cut and I didn't think she cut much until I looked down on my fleece. Because I was holding him I got his little blonde hair all over me. It pretty much looked like I held a cat and it shed all on the front of me. Ethan cracked me up because he was scowling at everyone in the place. As soon as he got down from the chair he walked over to a man who was sitting with is son and Ethan said, "SHOO!" I told him that we don't shoo people. It just cracked me up. Within 2 minutes he was over it and hamming it up with everyone saying "thank you" and "bye bye"! I am definitely not emotional about it at all, it was just neat to see my little boy growing up and passing another stage in life. I love being a mom.
Now Matt took a few pictures (4 to be exact) but if I would have had the camera I would have taken 100. No exaggeration. So here is a picture of my baby crying as he is getting his first hair cut! I don't know how I managed to get his hair all over me because we both had capes on!

Thanksgiving

I have a busy week ahead of me with eating food, visiting with family, and shopping! I'm not sure if I will get a chance to blog, so I wanted to go ahead and check that off my "to do" list! I pray that you will find a chance to stop and be still in the midst of all the holiday hustle and bustle. Take time reflect and note what you are thankful for. I know I have SO much to be thankful for. I never want to take anyone or anything for granted, although I know I do. I am just so thankful for my husband and son! I pray that we are able to add more children to our family one day. I am so thankful that we have everything that is "essential" to living and so much more. We have a great family, church and work place. Although there is a lot of hurt and pain going on in our world right now, I know that everyone can find at least one thing (if not, more) to be thankful for! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Simple Pleasures

I guess it doesn't take much to make me happy, because I am delighted about a few things that most people would see as "simple". Tonight we have arranged a date night. Well my parents agreed to take Ethan earlier so we could have some of the day to ourselves as well. So I dropped Ethan off at their house around 10:00a.m. Matt and I headed to Sams Club to buy some sweetner for our church coffee. Sams is apparently having a special day where they are serving foods for ideas for Thanksgiving. They had 3 or 4 huge tables set up with free foods like ribs, lamb, quiches, hot wings, meatballs, and more to try. So we went through several lines to snack on some food. We were seriously giddy with excitement. HA! We then proceeded to get our hair cut and buy our digital cable converter box. Matt sent off for the $40 coupon for the converter box and we heard friends of ours already set theirs up and got GREAT channels. We've never had cable as a married couple so we were happy to get some better channels with our rabbit ear antennas! So we picked up our box and headed to get our hair cut. Now, I will try not to sound snobbish, but I just never have liked places like Great Clips. I've always preferred forking out the dough and going to a salon. I just trust them with my hair more. Well because we are trying to save money Matt convinced me to try Great Clips because a hair cut is $13.00 as opposed to my $35! Well to make a long story short, the lady cut my hair and barely dried it and it looked AWFUL! I about had a break down in the parking lot. She cut WAY MORE layers than I wanted. I was so upset. But I kept telling myself, stay calm...wait until you get home and style it again. So we got home, I wet it, dried it and straightened it and IT LOOKS GREAT! I cannot believe the difference. It definitely restored my trust in Great Clips. You can get a decent hair cut for low cost! To finish off our morning we plugged up our converter box and were practically jumping up and down with excitement! We not only have a few more channels than before but they are ALL perfectly clear!! Now Ethan can watch Sesame Street and not be confused as to whether he is seeing cookie monster or elmo because of all the static on the channel! We have just had the best day so far and it's only 2:30!!! HA! Simple pleasures! Tonight we are using a gift card Matt received for his birthday and we are heading to TGIFridays! Then we are stopping by the dollar store and maybe the movies! I'm practically giggling right now, how goofy am I?!
p.s. Tip, the dollar store has wrapping paper and gift bags for only a $1!!! They are super cute and look like ones you would buy at Target. I highly recommend going there to save some money! Also, I stopped by there (the new store that opened in Apex by the Beaver Creek movie theater) a few days ago and bought all my Christmas cards. They were SOOOO cute and a box of 6 cards for only $1, who can beat that?! Check out the Dollar Tree, they have some great stuff!

Happy 400th post!

WOW, Have I really blogged 400 times in the past 3 years?! Crazy!! In honor of my 400th post I thought I would give you the easiest recipe for the yummiest treat! My friend Natalie gave me this recipe almost 2 years ago and I bring it to almost every occasion. I have yet to meet a person that doesn't rave about them!

OREO BALLS

1 8 ounce tub of plain cream cheese (you can use low fat and you cannot tell the difference)
1 package of the original oreos
Chocolate flavored bark coating (Found in the baking section)

* Crush the entire package of oreos. We put them all into a ziploc and use the flat side of a meat mallet to crush them. Some people throw them in a food processor. Doesn't matter how you do it, but you want to crush them into almost a fine powder. (Cream and all!)
* Mix your crushed oreos with 8 oz. of cream cheese. (It will mix up like a thick cake batter) I use my hands to do this. It is so fun to make with children, I make them with my niece and she loves it!
* Melt your baking chocolate, then roll your oreo mixture into balls.
* Dip the oreo balls into the melted chocolate and then place them on a cookie sheet. I cover my cookie sheet with wax paper to keep them from sticking and also it is one less pan to clean.
* Put all the oreo balls into the fridge and let them harden and cool.
*YOU'RE DONE! SOOOOOO easy and SOOOOOO yummy!

Tips: I have used dark chocolate and it is VERY good but milk chocolate will do. You can put the oreo balls into the freezer for a quick freeze and they come out just as good. Also, store them in the fridge after they harden. I usually put mine into a tupperware container for easy access :)
When Natalie gave them to me for the first time she had them in cute inexpensive cellophane Christmas gift bags. Great for gifts at the office for people and for your child's teacher! ENJOY! I know i'll be making a ton over Thanksgiving and Christmas!

Bath time!

Ethan has recently discovered that he can lay on his stomach and "swim" in the bath tub! He loves to do this. Except he has a bad habit of sticking his face down into the water and trying to eat the soap bubbles. He is at such a fun age right now! Minus the temper tanrums. We had to explain to our neighbor that we aren't beating our child, he is just screaming and throwing a tanrum! I can't wait for this phase to pass!

Disappointing, yet trusting

We just found out that a nanny position I was looking into has been retracted. The couple decided to let their parents watch the baby. So we are out the $800 we thought we would be getting every month. It's so hard to understand why things happen. We were looking forward to this money so that we could add maternity coverage and think about adding another baby to our family. While it was hard to hear this today. I was strangely calm and comforted. Matt and I have been praying about this nanny position and ways that our financial needs will be met. Obviously it's not going to happen in the way we thought, so we are going to look expectantly at the way God will choose to provide. We are choosing to trust although sometimes things look bleak and we get discouraged. We know our needs will be met!

Ham

No, I am not blogging and sharing a recipe for cooking a ham. Those of you who know me, understand that cooking is not a skill that I have! I am referring to my precious son who was hamming it up ALL morning. It started at the bank. We went through the "drive through" at the bank and Ethan was waving and yelling "HI" to the woman who was inside helping us. She was in love with how friendly Ethan was being and even called a coworker over to point out my ham. Then as if that wasn't enough, he flashed a big smile and blew her a kiss. I think that probably made her morning! Then in Target he was saying "HI" to EVERYONE. More like yelling it. Everyone that passed got a loving greeting from my son. If they didn't say hello back he would say it even louder. He just made me smile this morning. I think i'll keep my ham and remind myself of these times when he's throwing a tantrum that he has just perfected the art of. We are definitely in the "terrible two's"!

Redesign

So sad. I was messing around with my blog look and I lost my background. I can't find it on the website anymore. So now I definitely HAVE to redesign. If anyone finds the polka dotted background I had, please let me know. I want it back! HA!

Nap time

Well on this rainy cold Friday afternoon you would think I would be relaxed that it is the weekend and ready to spend time with my family and unwind. Well, that is not the case. It is 4:00 and I am just now sitting down and that is because it took my son 2.5 hours to fall asleep for his nap! He was just talking, laughing, playing, jumping, throwing everything out of his crib. I try to ignore him, but I just can't fully relax or breathe until I know he is asleep. He hasn't gone #2 in 2 days so I was constantly running in there to see if he messed his diaper, thinking maybe that is the reason for his wakefulness. There was no such luck. He apparently just got a second wind and was ready to play. I am texting my husband during all this and he isn't answering his calls. I text a friend who is supposed to be with my husband and he isn't answering. I e-mail my husband at his work e-mail and I am hearing nothing from him. So the whole time this thing is going on with Ethan, I am wondering if something is wrong with my husband. Did he get in a wreck on his way to work after lunch out in all this rain.
No wonder women get gray hair early. It's not easy being a mom or a wife. Taking care of your kids and husband. Making sure they are comfortable, all their needs are met and well loved. Moms, and women in general, do a whole lot more than they will ever get credit for. It's not about the credit though, is it. (Although a little is nice sometimes) Because as soon as my precious son wakes from his nap and gives me that smile that melts my heart, all those 2.5 hours of frustration will diminish. As soon as I heard from my husband and knew he was safe, the worry went away. I love and adore my family. I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. I am ready to add to our family and I pray that the Lord will bless us with more children. More children will cause more worry, but the joy and love that it brings will far outweigh any stress that is added.
I am just so thankful that I am able to stay-at-home with my babies. Believe me, if we can do it, anyone can do it. If you have the desire to stay home and aren't sure how ends will be met please pray about it and trust that God will provide your needs. You may not have a house or a new nice car or other material possessions that you desire. You will have to sacrifice some things and time, but it can be done. Sometimes I complain that we don't have a house. Get envious of other's possessions. But then I am quickly reminded of God's faithfulness to meet our needs. Quickly reminded of that desperate plea of a prayer that I said when Ethan was born, "Lord, if you just meet our needs, I will be happy with wherever we live. I will live in an apartment the rest of my life if I can stay home with my son!" All that matters to me is taking care of my family. Some people ask about my college degree and if I will go back to work. Yes, I plan on it. I love teaching and have a passion for kids. But my first priority right now is my son and any other children that we may have. My career can wait, but I only get one shot at spending time and raising my children.
So for all you women out there who are mom's or not. Who stay at home with your children or work, know that you are loved and appreciated. Know that even when things seem to go unnoticed or you are stressed and barely making ends meet, financially or in other ways, you are beautiful. The Lord sees you and your efforts and the desires of your heart. If you commit to Him your plans, you will succeed.

Fall Photos & date update

I just got a CD full of CUTE pictures that my friend Amanda took. I LOVE them, they turned out really good! Of course I can't post them all on here, but I will put some on Facebook for those of you that have it. This one is one of my favorites. Amanda is very talented so I highly recommend her if you want some pictures of your kiddos! I'm in heaven. Thinking of all the ones I want to print and some I want to get blown up to put up as art in our apartment. It's like it's Christmas for me. HA! THANKS AMANDA!!!!!!!!!!!!!
p.s. I forgot to mention my daddy date that I had this past Monday. We had a great time with my dad (Papa). He of course spoiled Ethan and me. It was fun to have some time with my dad one on one. We did a lot of Christmas shopping at ToysRUs, Target, and the mall. He even treated me to a Starbucks! The way my dad shows his love is by either making yummy food or buying toys. You know we are loved because my whole family is chunky and has a lot of toys, HA! It's a good thing my mom has a budget for him because there is no limit when it comes to spoiling his kids and grandkids. My dad is a very special man who would do anything for his family. I am so glad that Ethan gets to see him so much and have a good relationship with him. We love you, Papa!!!

I feel like so much has been happening lately. Our lives are constantly on the go. But when I sit down to write about it, my mind goes blank.

Ethan is making us laugh on a daily basis. He is so funny! He is also testing us on a daily basis which is so hard. Sometimes we just want to ignore him and let him get away with misbehavior, but we are standing firm! A couple of weekends ago I had a 15 minute stand off with him at church. I was setting up the kid's rooms at church and Ethan hit me for some reason. So I sat him in timeout. I simply asked him to say sorry when he was getting up and with attitude he looked at me and said, "NO!" so we had a stand off with him refusing to say sorry. It wasn't that I wanted him to say it so badly, it was the fact that he had such bad attitude and knowingly was resisting. It became a power struggle to him. So I knew if I backed down then he would feel he could get away with something similar in the future. So he was SCREAMING and it was echoing throughout the halls of our church. Fun times. I know there will be many more of those, but I was happy that I was consistent even though it was hard.

His latest obsession is "dip dip". He wants to put ketchup on EVERYTHING. He dipped his strawberries and oranges in it the other day. Every time he has chicken nuggets he asks for "dip dip"! He will also just dip his fingers in it and licks it off. It makes for a real messy meal!

Another latest and greatest from him is his daily request for people. He runs through a list of people, sometimes multiple times a day. He is even remembering his buddies from church, like "Ry Ry" and "Nate"! Of course the list always includes his favorites, "Papa, Mammy, Memaw, Granddaddy, Dee, Jacks, Michael, Ki Ki (Courtney), Ben, Abby, and Brat (Brad)" It's so funny how he picks certain people and names out and remembers them and asks about them. And they are all at "work" according to him. So funny. Matt and I are absolutely loving being parents and wouldn't trade it for the world. We love snuggling with our boy and love sitting on the couch together and watch him dance and jump around the living room. We have even gotten Ethan in on some of our silly games we play. It is also fun to see him love going to church and asking to pray. He loves to pray and it so precious. He bows his head, jibber jabbers for a minute and then says, "MEN" for AMEN! SO cute!

Well I could bore you with other stories, but I won't for now. I am trying to get back into running but it has been so hard with self discipline. Matt is so busy with school, work, and church. Thankfully flag football is over but he still has several more basketball games. I enjoy it when things slow down, but then I get bored and wish we were more active. I can tell you one thing, I am VERY ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas. These next few months are such a fun time of year.

My cute dates

Last night Matt and I had a date night out. He was able to get Carolina Hurricanes tickets for REAL cheap through where he works. Granddaddy and Dee were able to come over and watch our little one. We had a great time together and the Canes even won. We almost saw a fight, not between hockey players though, but 2 guys behind us almost got into it because one knocked the others' beer over. Yikes. Other than that it was a great night with my hubby!

This morning we had a family date for breakfast. I made M&M pancakes and bacon for breakfast, as well as orange juice. Ethan ate all his pancake and bacon. He loves dipping both into his syrup. We even gave him a sippy cup with orange juice in it and he LOVED that. It was a great family time around the table.

This weekend is actually a low key weekend for our family. We'll be watching football all day today and Matt has a huge Hebrew exam on Monday so he'll be studying a lot. Ethan and I are looking forward to a date with my daddy (Papa) on Monday. He is taking the day off from work to do some early Christmas shopping with my mom but Ethan and I get to spend the morning with him and we are excited!

Hoping to get my fall pictures soon from Amanda (hint hint). She really has a gift of taking pictures and I can't wait to see them and share.

MIA

I've sorta been MIA the past few days. I haven't been feeling well at all and i've been laying low. I realized that i've barely taken any pictures the past few months compared to this past summer. I was uploading pictures like it was my job in June and July and I haven't had near as many the past few months because things have sort of slowed down. We had a fall photo shoot with Ethan and my friend Amanda took all the pictures the other day. She said they turned out great, I can't wait to see them. Of course i'll be posting some of those soon. I just can't believe that Thanksgiving is this month and Christmas is just around the corner. I feel like this past year just flew by. I really cannot believe that my baby boy will be turning 2 years old in a few months. That just doesn't even seem possible. I am thinking of transitioning him to a big boy bed here soon. Some great friends of our are giving us a twin mattress and box springs. (What a blessing!) He isn't crawling out of his crib yet, but he's definitely out growing it. If he knew how to crawl out, he could do it in a heart beat. Well I don't have anything all that exciting to post about. Just that with the holiday season coming up and winter blowing in, I am sure we'll be taking more pictures. I am praying that we get snow this winter. I cannot wait for Ethan to use a little sled I bought him at a consignment sale a year ago! (We didn't have snow last winter to use it!)

Election Night

Most television stations are filled with the news of polls and election results coming in. My hubby has been glued to his laptop for the past few hours, awaiting the results of this years' presidential election. We both voted and appreciate those who did so as well. Most blogs and news stories have been about the election the past several weeks and even months. I feel that so many people over-give their opinion, that I didn't want to post mine. But here are a few of my thoughts. Most of my decision on the presidential election I am basing on moral grounds. I know both candidates are not perfect and I trust and know that God already knows the outcome. I just pray that no matter who is in office that they will seek the council of God. One thing I am very passionate about is that I am extremely against the name calling and bashing of people. I am frustrated with what this process has done to people. It is amazing that something so small like our tongue can be so powerful in the words we say. So I just hope that no matter who "wins" tonight that everyone will have respect for whoever is next in office. Our world is in very scary and unstable times. It's easy to cast blame on others. But we all need to take responsibility for our actions and how they influence others as well. I know this sounds so cheesy and cliche, but we need to BE the change that we want. How are we ever going to influence others in a positive way if we aren't living it out ourselves. We also need to PRAY. Pray for our nation, its leaders and the responsibility of us as citizens. We have been a VERY blessed nation, but we don't need to take ANY credit ourselves. Praise GOD for our blessings and just hope that He continues to bless our country so that we can be a blessing to others. Hope this all made sense.

Potty training

I've never been so confused about something in parenting YET as potty training. My child is so hard to read. We have tried (when I say tried, I mean it was no more than a day worth of "trying") potty training. This morning Ethan randomly came into the bathroom and said, "pee pee" then he grabbed his potty seat and he went pee pee. Then he proceeded to do that 2 more times today. What in the world?!! I just don't know when to officially start and if he's ready and whatnot. IF we do it, do we just take a week or more or less (I know nothing about this process) and try it hard core? I still don't think we can reason with him about making a goal to keep his pull up dry. But everything else shows that he's ready. So I don't know. More confusion. Any thoughts, tips, advice, warnings, comments, questions, concerns... you get the hint... are more than welcome. I know he's "early and still young" but Ethan has done most things earlier in his life than his peers so maybe i'm just making an excuse for him. Potty woes. I know it won't stop here.