Live, laugh, love

Whew...

2012-01-24T18:36:00.005-05:00

Just enough time to do a QUICK post! Thank goodness this little one slept good last night because this mama needed some uninterrupted sleep. I don't think I moved all night! Whew, I started my Masters class this week and to say that I have been over-whelmed and stressed is an understatement.

Here's just what I have to do in Week 1:

Read five articles that are all a minimum of 10-15 pages, except one that is like 143 pages

Do a progress monitor (quiz) over the articles

Watch 5 videos

Video progress monitor (quiz)

Begin a discussion topic (and find an article related to topic and cite a quote from it)

Respond to 2 other people's discussion

Assignment: Analyze behavior referrals for 3 consecutive years in 3 graphs, interview my administer, print a school's behavioral referrals (including incidents, ethnicity, etc) for 3 years, and analyze it and write a paper over all of it

Week 1 Quiz

If you were here at this point, you would hear me...."AAAAAHHHHH"! I know I'm probably just stressing because it's the first week and the unknown, but it's still overwhelming. My mom event put me on the prayer list, bless her! I've already said, "Once I get my masters, I ain't never going back to school!" And yes, I realize "ain't" is not grammatically correct, but I don't give a hoot right now! :)

Lazy Saturday

2012-01-21T18:54:00.003-05:00

We have had the perfect lazy, good nap, rainy Saturday! Me and Easton both took a LONG nap and it was nice, I must say! I got all of my Etsy orders in the mail this week and love them all! We also got Easton's grill built that he got for Christmas. He loves playing with it and his food.
On Friday, I took him back to the doctor because he's still been pulling at his ears. His right ear looks better, but his left ear is still pretty infected. We are heading back next Thursday and I am PRAYING he feels better soon.

My Masters class starts this week and I have to say I am a bit nervous. Just looking at the readings alone due in the first week, I am overwhelmed. I know I can do it, but I just worry about how much time it is going to take.

Hope you have a good weekend!

Here we go again

2012-01-16T16:03:00.009-05:00

Well, just like I thought...Easton has an ear infection. Not only that, but a double ear infection. Poor baby.

His pediatrician said if he gets one more infection within 4-6 weeks, we will get tubes again. Honestly, I would prefer to get them NOW. He said most children don't have to get tubes again after the first time, but I just feel that Easton needs them. His left tube has now came out so he has no tubes at all. All I want is my sweet baby to feel better!

We did just a little bit of organizing today. I decided to go through my jewelry box so I bundled up two ziploc bags of jewelry to get rid of. Yay! I also did a little bit of shopping on etsy! Oh, how I love that site! I bought this leather from bracelet from HERE.
I also got a few toddler sized pillowcases. I bought Easton a toddler sized monogrammed pillow and pillowcase, but the fabric is SO hot on him at night! So, I got him a nice, organic sateen pillowcase:
And a cute polka dot pillowcase:
And a Mickey pillowcase:
These should be much better!

Weekend Wrap Up

2012-01-15T09:53:00.008-05:00

We have had a relaxing and lazy weekend! Friday night we just enjoyed a lazy night at home playing with Easton. Joe built a tower of blocks.
Easton enjoyed knocking it over! He LOVES these blocks he got for Christmas. He's played with them every day!

He wore his new Darth Vader pajamas to bed. Cutie pie!

Joe had to work most of the day on Saturday so me and Easton just played around the house since it was so cold outside. We both took afternoon naps, even though it was a short nap.

We are participating in a book exchange where you buy a book for one child, send the form to 6 people, and then they send it to 6 people, etc. If everyone participates your child would get 36 books. Well, I am not naive enough to think we will actually get 36 books, but my thoughts were "If Easton gets at least 1 book, we will have broke even." Yesterday Easton had a package in the mail! So, we opened it and there was his first book from the book exchange! He was excited!

We may be visiting the doctor on Monday. We think Easton may have another ear infection. Last night he screamed when water got in his ears when I gave him a bath. He also pointed at his ears and when asked "What hurts?" he points to his ears. He was also up crying last night. BLESS HIS HEART! Thank goodness I am off Monday so I can take him.

Quick Catch Up

2012-01-13T13:00:00.003-05:00

I've been an awful blogger this week, but I've been busy at school preparing for parent-teacher conferences. I haven't even taken any pictures, except a few on my phone. There's nothing sweeter than a sleeping baby is there?
After Easton got all kinds of new toys at Christmas, I decided we needed to do some organizing in the toy department! One day Easton WILL have a toyroom! I would LOVE a toy room. But, for now our living room will be our living room/room for Easton's toys! I am going to take some of his stuffed animals up to his room, but until then...here is what his toy area looks like!

Hope you all have a good weekend!

Monday Cheer

2012-01-09T16:45:00.001-05:00

New Year and New Goals

2012-01-07T10:12:00.001-05:00

Well I have wanted to do a re-cap from last year, but I just haven't gotten around to it. I will say that my goal this year is to get more organized.

First, I thought I'd start with my Christmas decorations. I read on I Heart Organizing that she puts her ornaments in bags so I decided I'd give it a try. It worked really well!

Then, I bought clear totes and made labels with pictures.

Easton has been a big helper.

I also went through ALL of his clothes from newborn-now. Wow! I could not believe how little his newborn clothes were.

I ended up with quite a stack of clothes to give away.

We also decided to go through the totes in our garage. We ended up with 3 bags of trash, 2 bags for Goodwill, and 1 bag of classroom decorations to give away. Here's to de-cluttering and organizing!

Bbbrrr!

2012-01-03T21:35:00.001-05:00

Y'all, I am over this cold weather! It was so cold today. That wind was just frigid! We've actually had a very mild winter, but I'll tell ya, now that Christmas is over, I am ready for warm weather and I've found myself especially ready for summer! Maybe that 2 week break from school sparked this, or those country songs that are "summer" songs. Either way, I'm already looking forward to it!

I'm ready for beach vacations, sand between my toes, cute bathing suits (let the weight loss begin n.o.w.), and the smell of the ocean!

I'm ready for playing outside, birthdays, picnics, grilling out, flip flops, tank tops, and cute Jon-Jons for Easton.

I'm just ready for little things like sleeping past 5:00 am, warm weather, and the relaxing parts of summer.

Anyone else already dreaming about summer?!

Our Week in Pictures

2011-12-31T21:51:00.008-05:00

We had a great time with friends and family the rest of the week after Christmas. On Tuesday we hung out around the house most of the day and then went to meet Ashley and Hadley at the mall. Easton was tired and hungry and he just wasn't having it! No pictures to say the least. Thankfully, Ashley totally understands how it can be with a baby! Afterwards we went to Mike and Heather's house to have Christmas with them, Ann, and our niece and nephew. We sure missed Grandad, though! I was so mad at myself for forgetting my camera so I will have to get their pictures from the night. We had such a great time seeing them and even got to Skype with Joe! On Wednesday, we stayed around Gram's because that Gracie was there! We also had a big first...Easton's first hair cut! His Aunt K did it which was so special that she was able to be a part of this first! He was not a fan of the cape, which you can tell below! We ended up taking it off, but other than that he did good! He wanted Mimi to hold him and he watched "Easton TV" on my phone (videos of himself).
Then, it was time for nap and then back to Gram's to hang out with Gracie!! They just make me laugh so much!

On Thursday, we met my other friend name Ashley and her little ones at the mall to play in the kid area! We had a great time catching up. She had some tokens for Chuck E. Cheese so we stopped by there to ride a few rides. Easton LOVED the Barney ride! Oh my goodness, I think he actually thought it was the REAL BARNEY! He loved him so much. We started off in the Barney ride, then went to another ride with a little miniature Chuck E. in it...Easton was not too impressed so he just hit ole' Chuck E. and went back to Barney for the rest of the time! Poor thing loved him so much he just cried when we left. Thanks Ashley for letting us use half your tokens on the Barney ride!

Afterwards, we went shopping and then ate ham and potato soup for supper at Gram's house. On Friday, Mimi babysat and I went with Emily to go register at Babies-R-Us! We had a blast doing her baby registry and of course, I did a little shopping while I was there! Then, we had lunch at Olive Garden! I had a GREAT time! That night, we ate dinner with Mimi, Gram, Grandee, Justin, Aunt K, Amber, and Gracie! We had our own little room at our restaurant which is so nice with two toddlers! We had a great time visiting and eating a wonderful meal. Easton just loved Amber so much. He just smiled at her!b
After I made this collage, I realized I forgot my favorite picture of the night...Gracie hugging on Easton! Aren't they just pbrecious?!

Christmas with the Family

2011-12-30T23:15:00.002-05:00

After we celebrated Christmas, we got up EARLY on Monday (4:00 am) and headed for Tennessee. Just me and Easton on this trip. Gram, Ed, and Mom met me halfway and Mom rode back with me to help me with Easton. Toddler + 7 hours in a car does not always = a fun time! I love that my sweet family is willing to drive that far just to help me out. Luckily, Easton did GREAT on the trip. Now, let's hope he does great on our way home (by ourselves, this time). As soon as we got here, we did a little shopping! Afterwards, Justin, Kelly, and Gracie came over so we could switch gifts with them!
Easton got the most AWESOME chair from Uncle Justin and Aunt K! He absolutely loves it! It is perfect for him. You can't tell it here, but it is monogrammed with his name and a baseball. SO SWEET. Gracie loved strolling her baby doll around in her new baby stroller. And they both had fun in the tunnel!

Seeing these two babies is just precious. Their smiles are just as sweet as can be! How blessed we are!

Christmas Day

2011-12-30T08:46:00.002-05:00

On Christmas Day we actually slept in a bit (7:00 am) and went downstairs to see what Santa had brought! Easton was so cute looking at all of his new toys. Of course, he's too young to understand Santa or Christmas, but it was still sweet nonetheless.
Easton is REALLY into animals right now. Yall, he loves them! So he gots lots of animals. Santa also brought him books, puzzles, a wooden tool set, a monogramed pillow, and a few other things!

For lunch, I baked a ham and we had potato salad, rolls, and macaroni and cheese with pumpkin pie for dessert. We had a really nice, laid back Christmas. We literally stayed in our pajamas almost all day! The next morning it was time to hit the road!

Christmas Eve

2011-12-29T22:58:00.005-05:00

We hope you all have had a wonderful Christmas! We sure did! We are still having a blast with family and friends. I've got a lot to get caught up on! Let's start with Christmas Eve. We spent Christmas in South Carolina this year. On Christmas Eve, I let Easton open up one gift: Christmas pajams. You can imagine the excitement. He pulled the pj's out, threw them, and then looked in the bag like "Is that all that's in there?" Bless it! He got his new Christmas pajamas on, I made hot chocolate for me and Joe, and we headed to look at Christmas lights. We went to a drive through Christmas lighting and it was really pretty.
Easton did a great job of "driving" us around.

Our favorite part was this scene:

Then, it was time to bake cookies for Santa!
Check back soon to see what Santa brought Easton!

Here we go again...

2011-12-23T12:40:00.001-05:00

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you'd know that when Easton was little he had ear infection after ear infection. When he was 6 months old he had tubes put in his ears, which were a HUGE blessing. He's only had a few ear infections since. Well, the past few nights he's been really restless and he's started pulling at his ear. Plus, coughing, runny noise, and a fever that kept us up for a couple hours last night. This morning I asked him "Does your teeth hurt or does your ear hurt?" He pointed at his right ear. Off to the doctor we went.

Minutes after this first picture he was asleep until the doctor started to check his ear.

The cough, runny nose, and fever is a viral infection. But we also found out that the tube in his right ear has fell out and he has an ear infection. He couldn't tell if his left tube was there because of a wax build-up, but there was no infection in his left ear. So, we started our antibiotic and hope to feel better SOON! Here's my sweet baby at nap today. You can just tell he doesn't feel good. :(

Please pray for a speedy recovery!

What a Difference Two Years Make

2011-12-21T11:13:00.003-05:00

This morning I logged on to my Compassion International website to write my sponsored child, Emily, and my correspondent child, Sagar, a letter about our new fish. I LOVE Compassion's new letter writing templates online. Emily has a birthday coming up so I will be sending her some goodies in the mail soon. Shortly after will be Sagar's birthday! When I logged in, I saw that I had a new and updated picture of Emily! This is the first picture I saw of Emily. We decided to sponsor her when our church did Compassion Sunday almost 2 years ago. I was pregnant with Easton at the time.

Almost two years later, here is Emily! My how she has grown!

I was SO excited to see how she had changed! She has been such a blessing to write to and I love writing letters to her. I even have her artwork hung up in our hallway. What a great reminder to see every day!

If you are reading this and you have ever thought about sponsoring a child, please click the picture above to go to the Compassion Internatioal website! I know in my heart that Compassion International is what they say they are and they do what they say the do, release children from poverty in Jesus' name. I know in today's world there are companies and people that try to trick or steal, but NOT this one. We did our research, our church did research, and every year we have a Compassion Sunday! It is REAL! What better Christmas present could you give this season, the gift of sponsorship.

Masters

2011-12-20T13:06:00.004-05:00

Yesterday I did almost ALL of my Christmas shopping! I have procrastinated this year, but I am almost done. YAY! I enjoyed shopping and drinking a white chocolate mocha! Yummy!

Big news! This morning I signed up to start my Masters degree! I've needed to do it for so long now, and I just finally decided to get started! I will be completing it all online through the American College of Education. Wish me luck! I'm a little nervous knowing that I'll be taking on a big responsibility in addition to being a full time mommy, wife, and teacher. But I'm sure I'll manage!

Lights Before Christmas

2011-12-19T14:12:00.012-05:00

Last night we took Easton to see the Lights Before Christmas at our local zoo. The lights were so pretty as we walked around the zoo.

It was a little chilly, but we all bundled up!

Santa was at the zoo and I was SO EXCITED for Easton to see Santa! Before we got up there, he would wave at Santa. But then, when he sat in his lap it was a whole different story!

Bless his heart, he hated Santa! Haha, it'll make for a cute and funny picture to look back at one day! Poor thing! He waved bye to Santa immediately after he got out of his lap, though! Silly boy!

We had fun!

Christmas Decorations

2011-12-18T13:17:00.013-05:00

I wanted to share a few of my Christmas decorations. First, a few pictures of Easton in his new Christmas pajamas. Sweet, silly boy!

This is our tree in the formal living room, mostly red and silver.

Then, we have this one in the corner of our kitchen right as you enter our main living room. It has reds, golds, and the ornaments we made this year!

In our room we have our Tennessee tree! It has a few Gators ornaments but mostly Vols!

A few things around our house...

This isn't all, just a few pictures! My favorites are my trees. Next year I plan on doing a tree with colored lights!

Easton's room at Christmas

2011-12-17T07:05:00.007-05:00

Well, I am officially out of school for Christmas break! Woohoo! We had a great Christmas party yesterday and now we have a much needed 2 week break! The best news is...Easton is over that stomach bug! Whew, thank goodness! I hate that he missed his Christmas party though! Anyway, I wanted to share Easton's room since it's decorated for Christmas. It's nothing major or spectacular by any means, just a few decorations! This sign is hanging on his door.
My mom got him this stocking last year and it's hanging on his closet door.

I knew his bookshelf would need to be kid friendly since he can reach it, so I used Christmas books we already had and a cute little colorful "Merry Christmas" sign!

This little gingerbread man sits on a shelf.

My favorite part about his room is his Christmas tree. Almost every ornament has some type of meaning to it or a story behind it. Joe's mom, Ann, bought him a Christmas ornament every year so most of Easton's ornaments are Joe's ornaments from his mom. They are all so sweet and cute. Of course I've added some photo ornaments, "E" ornaments, and a few others that all have some meaning to them.

This little Rudolph has been in our family for so many years. I can remember him sitting at Gram's house every Christmas. He's now at our house by Easton's tree and is probably one of my absolute favorites!

I'll be sharing our Christmas decorations around our house soon!

Stomach bug of 2011

2011-12-15T20:57:00.001-05:00

Last night we were having a great night of playing and reading books. Not 1 hour after this picture was taken...

The stomach bug of 2011 hit Easton. He hadn't been asleep in his crib 5 minutes until he started puking. We got him in the tub, changed, and back asleep in the bed with me in our guest room. About 10 minutes later when he rolled over, it happened again. Poor baby, he's never thrown up like that. Finally we got him cleaned up and he slept all night with no fever and no other happenings. So we thought maybe something just didn't settle on his stomach. This morning he was happy-go-lucky so we took him to daycare. Well, he made it a few hours until the stomach bug hit again and Mommy was on the way to get him. Thankfully he hasn't had any symptoms other than a low fever. Joe is staying home tomorrow with him so I'm hoping the stomach bug is almost over. There are 2 teachers and I think 8 children in his room. 1 teacher out sick and only 3 kids left in his room today when I picked him up so the stomach bug hit HARD! I hate he will miss his Christmas party and special Christmas family gathering tomorrow. :( Speaking of Christmas, we now have an Elf on the Shelf. Meet the elf without a name.

I decided to wait until next year and let Easton name it! He will be 2 1/2 next year so I'm sure Mr. Elf will have an interesting name!

One of my favorite things in Easton's room is his books. He loves his books so much. I have a lot of the little Golden books. The Tommy book, Hansel & Gretel, & Katie the Kitten were mine growing up.

Easton goes through phases where he likes to read certain books at bedtime. His new favorite is:

I love this sweet book! Pray we have an uneventful night and that this stomach bug moves outta this house!

Test

2011-12-15T20:38:00.001-05:00

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Shopping and Eating

2011-12-10T09:20:00.002-05:00

Usually I am really ahead of the game with my Christmas shopping, but this year I am behind! So last night we went to Toys-R-Us to buy Easton's presents and shop for our nieces and nephew! Easton LOVED this animal book so much that I went ahead and gave it to him! He kept saying "OH BOY!" over and over!
After shopping we went to Cracker Barrel! I love their food! Easton had fun coloring and trying to trace his hand. He's such a cute boy!

Cheese!

2011-12-06T18:58:00.003-05:00

Well, I am sad to report that we had one fish death today. The dalmation molly died. We have a heater and the middle notch is supposed to be between 72-77 so I thought it was fine. Well, the other fish were all huddled around the heater and one was dead (on the other side of the tank) so I thought maybe the water was too cold. So I turned the heater up a bit and now 3 of the 5 are swimming all around. Maybe it was too cold? I had fish all my life and I never once had a heater so this is new to me! Hopefully these 5 will live! Anyway, I had to share these cute pictures of Easton! He was hiding behind the chair and then cheesing!

He is too funny!

Easton's first pet

2011-12-05T22:08:00.001-05:00

We decided it was time to get Easton his first pet! So, Friday night we headed to Petsmart. He loved seeing the people's dogs. First, we looked at the birds. Just looked, ain't no bird coming in this house! Ha!

We decided to go with a fish tank! We bought a 36 gallon bow front fish tank.

We got it all set up Friday night & have waited the 3 days like they said to put fish in.

This afternoon I picked Easton up from daycare and we met Joe at Petsmart to buy our fish.

We bought 3 red wag platies, 1 dalmation molly & three black molly's.

Easton loves them so far! We sat and watched them for about 15 minutes tonight nonstop!

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Test

2011-12-05T22:01:00.001-05:00

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Christmas crafts + 18 months

2011-12-03T19:15:00.001-05:00

We have been doing a few Christmas crafts lately! Easton loves to color and he doesn't mind his hands being in paint at all. First project: handprint reindeer ornaments! Just gotta hole punch and add red ribbon.

I also did a handprint ornament with Easton. I got the kit at Babies-R-Us & it was super easy. What a great keepsake!

This was inspired by pinterest, as well as the reindeer ornaments. I think it'll be a great keepsake as well.

Next, I bought the letter "G" from Hobby Lobby's craft department and painted it red & am using it as an ornament.

I also made an ornament wreath, again inspired by pinterest. It's not perfect by any means, but it's a nice addition for my pantry door!

My little man is 18 months old now! Seriously, how in the world is he 18 months old!

His 18 well visit was great! He weighs 24.4 pounds & is in the 25th percentile. He is 34 1/2 inches tall and is in the 96th percentile. His tubes are still in place after being in for a year, which is a great blessing! He's doing great! He's learning how to eat with a spoon/fork, which makes quite a mess! :)

He is quite the picky eater! His favorite food is chicken. He's very picky about it though, if it's the least bit stringy he isn't having it! Some foods he likes most of the time: potatoes, green beans, any kind of fruit, and he loves his milk! Today he really enjoyed a chocolate Oreo.

He says these words regularly: da-da, mama, shoe, oh, tree, and bye-bye. He says these words sometimes: sock, rabbit, please, ishes (fishes). He also does "more" in sign language when he wants more food or drink! I am so proud that he can do that & love that his daycare works with them so much! They say he knows please in sign language, but I haven't seen it yet.

He loves to put puzzles together, play with blocks, read books, and color! I'm glad Christmas is coming up so he can get some new toys since he's outgrowing some of his. He still loves his stuffed animals! He has been by far the biggest blessing in my life!

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Our Thanksgiving Break

2011-12-03T07:11:00.025-05:00

I am finally able to blog about our Thanksgiving break! We have just been so busy with nothing in particular, just life! We had a wonderful break that was so refreshing! As you read in my last post Easton and I hopped on a plane and headed for Nashville. The flight was good and I definitely see us traveling that way again. We got to Nashville on a Wednesday afternoon. That night we went to my mother-in-law's house for their family Thanksgiving! We had a wonderful meal and everything was just so beautiful. Easton liked playing with his cousin Yates football.
Anna Clark was wathcing a Calilou video so Easton decided he should see what was going on!

You can tell Easton just looks up to his big cousin Yates so much!

Before we left I gave Easton a bath and put him in his pajamas since I knew he'd go to sleep on our way to mom's house. We had to take a picture with Uncle Mike! I think Uncle Mike reminded Easton of his Daddy.

And of course we had to get sweet cousin pictures! Love how they're holding hands! Precious!

On Thursday we headed to Gram's for my families Thanksgiving! It was SO nice seeing all of my family and just hanging out together! Here is me and my brother.

Gram always prepares a wonderful Thanksgiving meal. Heck, she always prepares wonderful meals anytime! We had more than enough food and it was all SO, SO good.

Quick picture with Aunt K before we ate!

After lunch Easton and Gracie had the BEST time running around Gram's house and chasing each other! When they'd "catch" each other, they would get so tickled!!

On Friday I met up with a few friends. First, I saw April and her little girl, Tinsley who is just precious! Then, I met up with Emily! Emily is having a sweet baby GIRL! She just found out before Thanksgiving and I am beyond excited for her! We had the best time looking at baby girl names, talking about pregnancy, and all that fun stuff! Then, we up to Justin and Kelly's house to spend the afternoon at their house. It was SO NICE to just spend time with them and letting Easton and Gracie play!

We had planned on letting Easton and Gracie get on their horses! I knew Easton would love it and boy, he did!

Love how he's holding on to Uncle Justin....sweet, sweet, sweet.

Gracie had a fun time, too! They were too cute!

I was so glad we were able to spend time with them!

After riding the horses we let the kids take off through the field. Gracie looks like she's saying, "Hey yall, wait for me!"

Then, back up the road to their house! Don't worry, it's a country road without a lot of traffic!

Years and years ago when we (me and Justin) were still living at home we got a black lab that we named Girl. I know, what an original name. Well, Girl now lives at Justin's house and gosh she is probably 10-12 years old. She is the SWEETEST dog in the world! I could.not.wait. to let Easton see Girl. I just knew he'd love her.

But, he wasn't quite sure what to think about Girl! You could tell he wanted to pet her so bad and he finally did, but he was a little unsure about her!

On Saturday we had planned on seeing my friend Ashley and her little ones, Tuff and Gunner. However, on my way there I realized I had set my purse on the top of the car and drove off with it that way. YIKES! After much stressing and in tears, the nicest man came by my mom's house and brought my purse back to me. He said he saw it on the side of the road and apologized for having to go through it to find who it belonged to. He found an old voters registration card that had my mom's address on it and brought it by. WOW! There ARE truly still GOOD people in this world! The only thing I lost was my glasses. You could tell the case had hit the pavement and opened, it was all scratched up. Considering what all I could've lost, I wasn't too upset! I hated not seeing Ashley though! Then, we met my other friend named Ashley at Cracker Barrel! It was so good seeing her and her little girl, Hadley. After breakfast we (my mom and I) did a little shopping! That night my mom participated in a Christmas parade for her church while me and Easton went to dinner with Gram and Ed. The next day it was time to get back on a plane! We had a GREAT time!

Check this off the bucket list!

2011-11-23T23:38:00.001-05:00

Well this morning Easton and I hopped on a plane and flew home! I chose to fly rather than drive because 1)driving the day before Thanksgiving with a baby...no thank you. 2) driving that long with a toddler by myself...no thank you. 3) a one hour plane ride sounded GREAT to me! Unfortunately Joe didn't get to come. For work, this is their busiest time of year! Here was Easton before we left while we were waiting to board the plane!

Easton was pretty good on the flight, he thought it was absolutely hilarious to throw his snacks. The lady next to us was so nice and totally understood traveling with a baby.

Within one hour we landed at Nashville airport and met my mom to head to baggage claim! The clouds were just beautiful while we were flying!

Within minutes of getting in my mom's car Easton was sound asleep! I guess traveling just wore him out!

Tonight we had Thanksgiving with Joe's family...I'll post about it soon!

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Hodge Podge

2011-11-22T18:03:00.001-05:00

I've been so behind on blogging and I've been super busy with things at home and at school so here is a quick blog of what's going on around here! Easton is getting more and more fun everyday! He's such a funny little guy.

He's doing all kinds of art projects at school. His teacher says he loves arts and crafts!

We made a Christmas ornament on his handprint. This may now be my favorite ornament ever! I got the kit at Babies-R-Us & it was super easy to make!

I also got this cute monogrammed ornament at a local shop. Love it!

I always order books from Scholastic when Easton has a book order, but this book may just be my favorite so far!

That's all for now! We have lots to be working on tonight to prepare for Thanksgiving festivities ahead!

Saturday morning ramblings

2011-11-19T09:29:00.004-05:00

We have a LOT on our to-do list this weekend before Thanksgiving next week! We only go to school on MOnday and Tuesday, but I am going to try to get most of my stuff done this weekend! Sleeping in until 8:00 (except for a minor wake-up at 4:30) was amazing this morning!

I have been watching this show on CMT called "Sweet Home Alabama". Have yall watched it? I watched it the first season with Devin and I jokingly called it the "poor man's Bachelor" because it's the same concept but with realisitic dates (rather than those type of date on the Bachelor) and this one is set up so the contestants are city girls and country girls. Tribble was on the first season as a country boy, but didn't win so he now has city girls and country girls after him! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this show!

I wanted to share a prayer request that many of my hometown friends are asking for and basicaly our whole town. I don't know the family personally, but a little boy (5th grade) found out he has cancer. From what I understand they are hoping it's treatable and they think they caught it early, but it was inoperable. My hometown is a small, small town and being in a small town has so many advantages. For example, a prayer vigil was held on the square for little Branden and from what I heard from Facebook, around 300 people showed up. Is that not amazing or what?! I'd ask that you prayer for Branden Schwartz and his family during this time. I absolutely cannot imagine what they are going through.

Sweet Moments

2011-11-15T22:07:00.001-05:00

I hope y'all are having a good week. We are, just a busy with with lots to do! Even through the hectic and busy parts of the day, it's important to enjoy the little moments. Here are some of our sweet moments lately.

I'm loving our Christmas decorations. Two trees to put up and I'll be done on the inside of the house. :)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Christmas Decorating

2011-11-13T21:28:00.001-05:00

Normally I am not a fan of putting Christmas up early, but I really wanted to get a head start because Easton and I will be traveling for Thanksgiving and I wanted it to be put up when we get back home. So this morning we unpacked all my Christmas decorations and I separated out what I was going to be getting rid of vs. what I wanted to keep. I see a trip to Hobby Lobby soon to stock up on a few things! I got most of the decorations that sit around the house put up except for one nativity scene and I got Easton's room completely decorated and his tree put up!

He was absolutely amazed by his tree! You could tell he was so excited by the look on his face and the "Oohhh's" he said! He was so sweet looking at the tree with the lights reflecting in his eyes. Precious moment! I knew I'd have to decorate his bookshelf with kid-friendly items because he always takes the stuff off so I used Christmas books we already had and a stuffed bear from Gram. All I need to do is put Easton's picture in the frame.

We have had such a productive weekend! We have:

* went Christmas shopping
* organized gifts at home
* switched summer/winter shoes
* took down fall decor
* went through Christmas decor
* put Christmas decor in the house
* put up Easton's Christmas tree
* had a nice, long nap each day

Hope y'all have a good week!

Busy Weekend!

2011-11-12T16:03:00.005-05:00

Yesterday afternoon I had this big idea of creating a fort and I just knew Easton would love it. Well, my fort making skills needs some serious help! Easton loved it for about 5-10 minutes, but wasn't impressed after that!
Today we got up and did a little bit of Christmas shopping! I can't share most of it since my family reads my blog, but here's a few things we got. I picked Easton up an Under Armour shirt and I bought the orange one on clearance for next spring/summer!

I picked up this handprint ornament and I cannot WAIT to try it with Easton! I think it will be such a treasure! And I picked up some fun photo ornaments, as well.

I also got me some new lotion from Bath & Body and picked up some smaller lotions for Easton's daycare teachers. I thought for Thanksgiving we'd give them a little gift from Easton with a saying like "I'm thankful for you!" I also picked Easton up a puzzle for Christmas. He LOVES puzzles!

After shopping we had Chick-Fil-A for lunch and took a nap! Since nap, we have switched out my summer/winter shoes in my closet (yes, I still had summer shoes out!) and I have taken down all of my fall decor!

Whew, the fall un-decorating has exhausted me! Easton was ALL INTO IT! I don't know how I'll ever get Christmas out! But, it is coming soon! Yay! LOVE this time of year!

Giveaway Goods!

2011-11-11T16:59:00.006-05:00

I was SO excited to win Patty's giveaway and I opened up my goodies this morning! First, a gift card to Starbucks!! Yummm....I cannot wait to get a white chocolate mocha! Yumm, yumm!!

Patty is so sweet and didn't stop there! She and I have one big thing in common: we are both big TN VOLS fans! She was so sweet and sent me a TN VOLS shirt! Love, love, love it! Thank you SO much, Patty! You so did not have to do that! I LOVE it though! :)

This has been a long week and I am glad it's the weekend! I may even try to do a little Christmas shopping! Have you started yet?

Here's a picture of some of Easton's latest artwork! Love his sweet art!

Yall have a good weekend! I'm going to be trying to catch up on blogging this weekend!

Easton's Latest Word

2011-11-07T21:16:00.004-05:00

I'm so excited to be able to share Easton's latest word with yall! Words he uses regularly: Dada, mama, go, bye bye, and now.....Jesus! Yes, you read that right...Jesus! Last night I was reading this book to him: When I finished reading it, I said to Joe "How awesome would it be if he said Jesus." And Joe asked him, "Easton, can you say Jesus?" Easton responded in the sweetest voice imaginable "Je-sus". Awww, just melt my heart! I got tears in my eyes and was SO proud of him! He said it over and over. Now, when I try to get him to say it, it's more of a "Je-Je" so we will continue working on it! But, he said it as CLEAR AS DAY to begin with for several times!! I've been trying to read to him from his bible, but he's so picky with his books right now so we are working on that!

Simple Saturday

2011-11-05T20:58:00.001-04:00

I hope y'all have had a great Saturday. Easton's teeth have been bothering him and he ran a low fever at daycare Thursday. If those canine teeth don't hurry up! Since he isn't feeling the best we lounged around today and enjoyed staying home. We also took a 2 1/2 - 3 hour nap together. That was so nice! Tonight we've been watching some of the MTSU vs. UT game. Y'all know I love my Vols, but I went to college at MTSU so my heart has been conflicted watching it. I loved MTSU! No doubt if/when (better be when!) we move back to TN, if we live in middle TN we will go to MTSU games! Joe used to have season tickets when we lived there. Miss those days.

After nap I ran a few errands and picked up a few Christmas items. I'm not ready to decorate but I went ahead and bought these.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Puzzle Video

2011-11-04T17:18:00.003-04:00

This afternoon I caught a cute video of Easton playing with a puzzle. He loves puzzles! One of our favorites is this Melissa & Doug construction video.

A Halloween to Remember

2011-11-02T21:05:00.004-04:00

I hope yall had a great Halloween! We had quite a memorable Halloween night. We had planned on taking Easton trick or treating around our neighborhood on Monday night. Let me back up a bit...we had a cleaning service come clean our house on Monday (I wasn't too impressed...they came back today and started over) and they must have found change in our couch and they sat a good handful of change on the coffee table. Well, we got home from school/work and I was getting things put up around the house and all of a sudden, I see Easton near the change (that I hadn't noticed until this point) and he was gagging. I absolutely PANICKED! I ran over to him and checked out his mouth which made him gag 10x more, but didn't see anything. Still, I was terrified that he swallowed something! So, I called the nurse at his pediatrician and she said change usually passes naturally and if it didn't in a few days we'd have to do an x-ray. Then, she decided to call his pediatrician to see if he wanted us to do an x-ray now. Sure enough, when she called his doctor he wanted him to have an x-ray right then so they sent us to a local Urgent Care.
Our Halloween night was spent at the Urgent Care getting stomach, chest, and neck x-rays. First, we just did the stomach X-ray, which didn't show anything. The x-ray technician said if he did swallow change and it wasn't in his stomach, it could be lodged in his lungs. Insert 2nd panic attack of the night. So, we went back once again to do a chest & neck x-ray. Thankfully, that also showed nothing so he didn't actually swallow anything, praise the Lord!

He was quite the little ham while we were there! He thought he owned the X-ray room, he played peek-a-boo with the doctor, had a snack and some juice, and thought it was just hilarious to take off running! That's better than him being scared to death of the X-ray, right? He wasn't scared at all. While we were doing all of this, I left Joe home to pass out candy to trick or treaters. Well, since we've lived in this house we haven't been home for any Halloween's so I had NO idea how much candy to buy. When I left I showed Joe our candy bowl and he asked me "Where's the back up candy at?" My reply: "What back up candy?" Yall, I grew up in the country and we literally had like 3 trick or treaters every year so I didn't know how much to buy! WELL, Joe ran out of candy REALLY fast! So what did he decide to pass out after he ran out of candy? Let's see....Capri Sun, pudding packs, Jello, raisins, and diced peaches! HAHAHA....oh my gosh, can you imagine the little kids when they got home to go through all their candy and a pack of pudding falls out of their bag?! I just hope they don't remember which house gave it to them!! Finally, he decided to just close the door and turn off the light! He handed one little boy the Jello and the little boy said, "OH! Cool, Jello!" Only us. Only we would spend our Halloween passing out pudding, raisins, and peaches and having x-rays done! This is definitely going down as the most memorable Halloween for us and definitely going in Easton's scrapbook. Seriously though, I am SO THANKFUL it turned out to be nothing!

Boo at the Zoo

2011-10-30T16:47:00.009-04:00

Last night for Halloween, we went to our local zoo for Boo at the Zoo! I've never been before, but it was really cute. They had lots of lights in the trees and around the bushes to look like spiders, ghosts, etc. They also had a dance area for the kids. It was a cute atmosphere! The kids (and some adults) dressed up. Easton was a giraffe for Halloween this year! He was the CUTEST giraffe I have ever seen!
We mostly just walked around and looked at the lights and at some of the animals. They had candy stations for the kids, but since Easton is still so little we didn't stop at any. Here we are before walking through a haunted maze!

We walked over to the giraffe overlook and found the CUTEST little giraffe ever! :)

I was so glad Easton wore his headpiece because the first time we tried it on, he wasn't having it! I think there was so much going on at Boo at the Zoo that he didn't even pay any attention to it. Isn't he the cutest thing ever?

Family Photo - Halloween 2011

Happy Halloween, yall!

Saturday Ramblings

2011-10-29T11:02:00.002-04:00

I'm so excited that I finally won a blog giveaway! Yay! I never win, haha! Patti is giving away a Starbucks gift card...score! A white chocolate mocha coming my way....yummy! Thank you so much Patti! Click over and visit her blog at In The Hills of Tennessee. I don't even remember how we clicked on each others blogs, but I have always loved reading her blog! She is so sweet. And she loves our VOLS!

This morning me and Easton have been watching a little Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, doing a little laundry, and running a few errands.

He does an art project everyday at his school (daycare) and at church. I always enjoy seeing them! Here's a few from the last 2 weeks.

This morning we ran to Dollar General to pick up some Christmas gifts for our Compassion International kiddos, Emily and Sagar. It's such a blessing to send them little goodies and receive their letters. It is my hope and my goal one day to be able to visit at least one of them, if not both. It would be amazing and certainly life-changing! Here are a few goodies for Emily in Peru:

And here's some goodies for Sagar in Bangladesh!

I am putting them in the mail on Monday and praying they make it to them by Christmas! I also plan to print a few Christmas coloring sheets to send. I normally don't send this much at once, but it's Christmas! I also picked up some goodies to put on our Christmas shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child.

I enjoyed shopping for all of it so much! I've bought a few Christmas gifts for family, but not a lot. Have you started Christmas shopping yet?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Mid Week Random!

2011-10-27T20:19:00.001-04:00

This week has been one of those "went by fast" weeks, nothing too exciting, just an ordinary week. Still special, nonetheless. It was Red Ribbon Week at school where we had dress up days. I posted these pictures on my school blog as well. I participated each dress up day. The kids love it when teachers dress up! Here I am on tacky day and patriotic/military day.

Our church always participates in Operation Christmas Child and we picked up our boxes last Sunday. I can't wait to fill them up with goodies!

Easton finally slept all night last night...woohoo! I think his teeth are bothering him. He's been a little more clingy to me than normal, but I love the extra hugs! Here is our wild man throwing toys out of the pack and play.

We have a fun weekend planned so I'm glad tomorrow is Friday! :)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-23T16:33:00.015-04:00

Yesterday we took Easton to the pumpkin patch! It was the perfect weather, not too hot, not too cold, and beautiful blue skies. We had a good time and Easton enjoyed it, too.
First, we got in the back of a truck that had hay bales and took pictures and let Eastono play!

Then we went to the kiddie maze and let Easton go through it. He started off holding his Daddy's hand...

But he quickly got that "big boy attitude" and decided he could go through all by himself and he made it to the finish line! Woo hoo!

He was quite proud!

Then, we let Easton play on the swing set they had there and he went down a huge slide with Joe! After that it was time to look for our pumpkin!

I think he looks so grown up here!Family picture...

And we found the perfect pumpkin and gourd! Easton loved picking up the gourds! Silly boy!

We had a good time!

Mid Week Check In

2011-10-19T21:46:00.003-04:00

We're still here, even though I've been slack on my blogging. I've been so. tired. lately.

Why am I tired? Someone around here isn't sleeping through the night anymore (any guesses who?!) and we are all tired. I do enjoy my extra snuggling time though. BUT, I am looking forward to my weekend nap! :)

My favorite, most comfy pair of work shoes broke today. Go figure.

This little cutie just melts my heart. He's getting too big, too fast.

We've enjoyed putting puzzles together lately. I never thought I'd be picky about puzzles, but I love Melissa & Doug puzzles. They seem easier for him to put together!

I am LOVING Pinterest and am finding my to-do list gets longer and longer! Anyone else addicted to it?

I'm going to get fat if I keep trying recipes from Pinterest. :) I have GAINED some serious pounds and when you go over your limit as a Weight Watchers lifetime member, you have to pay $. So didn't like that this week.

I have the sweetest video of Easton tonight, but I am just too tired to wait for it to upload. Keep an eye out for it, coming soon.

If you're still reading, I'm shocked! :) I'm all sorts of random thoughts tonight. Lucky for you, I'm ready to go to bed! Night!

Sunday Ramblings

2011-10-16T09:57:00.006-04:00

We are staying in from church today...Easton isn't feeling too well. His teeth are bothering him (with a low temp), we were up several times during the night, and he's still battling allergies ! I don't know if I mentioned it before, but we've been on breathing treatments as well. In between all of that, he is still having tons of fun on his swing set. Best investment ever! He LOVES it.

A while back I think I shared how we were working on framing Easton's artwork. It's a work in progress, of course, and we'll be adding and taking some away over time. But, here is our start! The red handprint is my sponsored child's, Emily from Peru. So far, I LOVE it!
Here is another picture we hung up in the living room...love it!

Hello? Can you hear me?

2011-10-13T21:00:00.001-04:00

Tonight I snapped this sweet picture of Easton and his telephone! I thought it was too cute not to share! He literally cracks me up, y'all!

A Walk Down Memory Lane

2011-10-11T21:53:00.018-04:00

It's amazing how fast they grow. I LOVE seeing him learn so many new things, it's wonderful and bittersweet all at the same time!

Blessed

2011-10-10T16:59:00.011-04:00

For the past couple of days I've had several moments where I've just felt blessed in what may seem like "little things". For example, Saturday night we were blessed to see such a beautiful sunset!
I feel incredibly blessed to call this little cutie my son.

Last night he was so sleepy and I sang him songs as he fell asleep in my arms. Those moments are priceless. Today I felt blessed to go to work a little later than normal (Professional Development Day) and get out of a meeting almost an hour early. Little things like that make me smile! I was also blessed to find a CD my husband made for me, all with special songs on it. In other thoughts, I bought two books last night on Barnes and Noble's website so I haven't gotten them yet, but I think I'll enjoy them.

Have you ever read either of them?

Fun at the Zoo with Mimi

2011-10-09T08:59:00.033-04:00

While my mom was here I took a half day off school so we could spend the day together and go to the zoo! I've debated getting a membership to the zoo and I finally decided to. The great part is that they have a reciprical agreement with over 100 zoo's across the US so I get in free to lots of different zoo's. Yay! It was the perfect day to visit the zoo. The weather was beautiful and we had lots of fun.
Our favorite part is always the giraffes because you can feed them! Easton got so tickled at them, he just laughed and laughed.

Here are lots of pictures of animals we saw.

A quick stop for family photos!

After we saw the animals outside, we went to the Aquarium & Reptile Complex.

I thought this picture would be great to use when I teach camoflauge to my 4th graders! Can you see the fish?

We had SO much fun at the zoo!

Our latest project...SWING SET!

2011-10-08T14:13:00.017-04:00

Two posts in one day...I know it's rare, but I am trying to get caught up on my blogging! This past week my mom was able to come stay with us because she was on fall break. We loved having her here! She kept Easton during the day instead of him going to daycare so they got in some much needed Easton/Mimi time. She took these sweet photos of Easton on their "pajama day".

I'e been SO excited to show yall our latest project...Easton's swing set!! We have researched and looked at so many until we finally decided on this one:

A BIG thank you to Joe and Josh who put it together! Easton LOVES it so much!

We were so happy that they were able to get it put together before my mom came so they would have something to do during the day!

He flies down the slide and he LOVES it!

Birthday's Galore!

2011-10-08T07:43:00.015-04:00

This past week we celebrated two birthday's: Joe's and my mom's! Happy birthday, yall! First, we celebrated Joe's birthday! Easton was quite the helper opening gifts! Would you look at this....Joe has a Tennessee polo! Love, love, love!

Happy birthday Joe! Hope you had a great birthday!

Next was my mom's birthday! She loves Pat Summit and recently Pat announced she had the early stages of dementia. So, they have shirts that say "We back Pat". I knew she'd love to support Pat this way!

She loved her Dr. Seuss bracelet!

Earlier in the afternoon my mom asked me where I got the ring I was wearing (it's a monogram ring) and I just played it off saying my secret pal got it for me but I didn't know where. When she opened hers up, I think she was excited!

Hope yall both had a great birthday!

Art project coming soon!

2011-10-02T08:13:00.003-04:00

I saw this on a blog (I can't remember where, please let me know if this is yours!) and I love how she frames her children's artwork. Easton's daycare does art several times a week so I have saved some to frame. I can't wait to share this project with you. Of course, I won't have this many pieces of art but we'll work up to it. I figured throughout the years I can just switch out pieces.
We had such a beautiful sunset the other day! Love pretty sunsets.

Easton and I both are having some sinus/cold issues and I'm hoping we feel better soon! His nose is running so bad and I've got a scratchy throat so we decided to keep our germy-selves home from church. Hope you have a good Sunday!

First Book Order

2011-09-29T21:52:00.006-04:00

So yall know with me being a teacher, I LOVE books. I love to read books myself (when I have the time), I love to read books to my students, and I really love to read books to Easton. And I especially L.O.V.E. that Easton loves to read books! So, you can imagine how excited I was when we got his first book order from school (daycare)! Oh, we will definitely be ordering a few new books!
I think Easton is pretty excited about it, too!

Anna Clark turns TWO!

2011-09-27T17:06:00.010-04:00

As mentioned in my last post, we went home for our niece, Anna Clark's birthday! She turned TWO!
Here is a picture of their family, minus Yates. Anna Clark is such a cutie!!

Here is my little family before the party started!!

The party was held outside at their house and they had an inflatable for the kids to jump in and all the kids (including Easton) enjoyed their swingset! We had LOTS of fun swinging and going down the slide with the big kids!!

Anna Clark got lots of precious clothes and lots of fun gifts! She seemed to really enjoy her new Jeep!

Heather told me that she loves cell phones so part of our gift was a little cell phone. I think she liked it! This picture is priceless!

Happy 2nd birthday Anna Clark!

Tennessee Weekend Part One

2011-09-26T17:12:00.006-04:00

This past weekend we made a QUICK trip home! Our main reason for going home was Anna Clark's birthday (next post!) but of course we snuck in some family time. We got home Friday night just in time for a snack, bath-time, and then bedtime. Saturday morning we got together with Easton's Aunt K and Gracie at Cracker Barrel for breakfast. Yumm! I LOVE Cracker Barrel. Here's a few pictures with Mimi before breakfast.

Gracie is just growing like a weed! It makes me sad that I am missing so much of her growing up. Her and Easton are only 6 weeks apart so I know if we were together more, they would for sure be a handful! Love those babies!

After breakfast we caught up with Emily to just chat and catch up! Emily is expecting her first baby and I am SOOOOOO excited! We have been friends for forever, and I am just so tickled for them! I am ready to start buying baby stuff! After catching up with Emily, we did a little shopping before going to Anna Clark's 2nd birthday! That post coming soon!!

First Trip to the Dentist

2011-09-25T17:17:00.006-04:00

Well, our first trip to the dentist was a success! The office was so cute decorated with an ocean theme. Easton especially loved the ocean stuffed animals. The dentist said the swelling was completely normal so that was good news! He went ahead and did a little check-up and said everything looked good, no cavities! Yay!

We spent a wonderful (but quick!) weekend in Tennessee that I'll blog about soon!

2011-09-23T20:29:00.001-04:00

Just a quick post about first trip to the dentist! The swelling is normal and it's from teething. No cavities and everything looked good! Pics coming soon!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Dentist

What we've been up to

2011-09-23T07:16:00.006-04:00

Well friends it's been a week since I last posted! Taking care of a busy toddler and 20 kiddos at school has left me feeling drained! Here is what we've been up to! Easton loves playing with the shapes that go in the Mickey airplane!

We bought some goodies at the Dollar Tree for our Compassion kids, Emily and Sagar! I love finding things at the Dollar Tree!

We enjoyed a beautiful sunset! And we started a NEW project! More to come on that in the next couple of weeks!

Now, if you're wondering why I'm posting when I should be teaching....well, let me start by telling you that Easton has been getting up during the night crying, every night and he's had a low fever. He hasn't been eating as much and wants to eat softer foods, like pudding, applesauce, etc. Well, we just figured it was teething. Then, we noticed his gums were really swollen at the base of the gum rather than at the top where a tooth would come through. So I took him to his pediatrician to let them look at it to see if it was just normal teething swelling. They said they had never seen anything like that so they referred us to a pediatric dentist.
So, we are waiting on the phone call to find out what time his dentist appointment is today. Who knew you would go to the dentist when you only have 6 teeth! I hope it's this morning so we can find out what's going on and get him some relief. I'll let you know!

New Tennessee gear

2011-09-15T21:00:00.009-04:00

I was so excited when I got home today and saw a package that I ordered full of Tennessee gear!! Part of this post has pictures from the website that I ordered from and some are my pictures. For some reason, blogger is taking me FOREVER to upload pictures, like 5+ minutes PER picture. I finally just gave it up! Anyway, on to the GOOD stuff! Easton got a Smokey pillow pet!!
I LOVE this new jacket I ordered! It is so nice and comfy!!

Yall know I am trying to get Joe transformed into a Tennessee fan and I think I am getting there! He will read this and disagree, but I think so! He even had a shirt in our package today! Yesterday he brought this home for Easton from a local sports store! I couldn't believe he brought something home that was Tennessee! He even brought me home a new Tennessee tumbler, too!

I am SO ready for Easton to be able to wear his new hat and coat!! His

This weekend my VOLS are going to play the Gators (which was/is Joe's favorite team)! Let's go VOLS! We will be wearing our orange!!

A little bit of everything

2011-09-14T21:15:00.006-04:00

I have some exciting news to share! About 6 weeks ago I told you that I met my final goal at Weight Watchers. After you meet your goal, you have to do a 6 week maintenance. During this time you can go 2 pounds above or 2 pounds below your goal weight. Last night was my week 6 weigh in and I lost a pound!! So, that means I am a LIFETIME member! Wahooo!I haven't talked about my Compassion kiddos in a while, but I have been gettings lots of letters from Sagar in Bangladesh! I've gotten about 5 letters in the last six weeks. This week I sent off a package to Sagar and Emily in Peru. It was a zoo themed letter! I sent about 12 pictures from our trip to the zoo and 2 stickers to go with each letter. I hope they enjoy seeing the pictures of the animals!

My azalea bushes are blooming and they are so pretty! My knockout roses are pretty, too!

Where were you?

2011-09-11T08:31:00.004-04:00

It almost doesn't seem real that 10 years ago today our nation was attacked by terrorists. I think anyone who has lived through that will always remember where they were and what they were doing that day.

I was a sophmore in high school. I was sitting in Home Economics when another teacher came to the door and pulled out my teacher to talk to her. My teacher came in and told us what happened and we turned on the tv. I remember thinking it must've been a horrible accident and then as we were watching, the 2nd plane flew straight into the World Trade Center. For the rest of the day in every class we watched the news in disbelief and sadness. It seemed like we were watching a horrible movie that wouldn't stop.
After 9/11 everyone flew their American flags proudly. I read somewhere that on that day and days afterward we truly were the United States of America.
This week I talked to my class about the events of 9/11 and was surprised that they knew so much about it, considering they were not even born or were newborns when it happened. They were so interested in learning about it and hearing my story of where I was when it happened. I think Alan Jackson's song "Where Were You" is the most beautiful song.

Today I am praying for all of those families who lost loved ones on that day 10 years ago, whether they were on the planes, at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, Flight 93, firefighters, paradmedics, police officers, or just people close-by that were killed. I am also thanking God that I live in the greatest nation there is, the UNITED States of America. We will always remember this day in history. Where were you when the world stopped turning?

Fall Decorations

2011-09-10T08:48:00.019-04:00

I have almost got all of my fall decorations out and I am loving them! I have to get a few more pieces of garland to finish my kitchen, but other than that we are done! I love my fall wreath on my door!
I'm so excited my new TN flag came in the mail this week to cheer on my VOLS this football season!

Right as you enter the front door, here is my foyer table.

One of my favorite places to decorate is my kitchen so we'll start there!

I'm missing my burgandy tablecloth so that's missing, but other than that I like my table.

The rest are decorations I have around the house! I love that fall feel so the house!

All of my decorations are compliment of Hobby Lobby!!

Fall Decorating Day

2011-09-05T13:57:00.005-04:00

This morning Easton and I headed to Hobby Lobby to buy some new fall decor! I absolutely LOVE fall decor! Fall is my favorite season! Before we shopped, Easton wanted to see his daddy so we saw him in his office and Easton decided he needed to take a tour!
Sorry for the bad i-phone picture, but here is most of what I came home with! I've worked all afternoon while Easton has been napping on getting things where I want and seeing what else I need/want.
I cannot wait to show you the final product of everything! I LOVE it!

The Big 2-5

2011-09-04T08:38:00.010-04:00

Well I am turning the big 25!! Happy birthday to me!
We went out last night to shop (my favorite!) and out to eat dinner! I got lots of nice things, but I had to share the deal I got on this dress! This dress was on sale for $13.97, originally $70.00 at Dillard's. I think it is SO cute!

Yesterday was a big day...it was the start of college football! Sadly, we didn't get to watch our VOLS, but we were there in spirit!

This may be one of the worst pictures of us, but hey we had our orange on for the VOLS!!

This morning I have been shopping at Football Fanatics and I bought me, Easton, and Joe some new TN VOLS gear!! I cannot wait to get it! Here is what I got for Easton!

Last night I got out all of my fall decorations and I am starting to go through it. This year I am wanting to get rid of the stuff I don't really like/use and buy some nice, new fall decor. Right now my table looks like this:

I think tomorrow me and Easton will head to Hobby Lobby to look at their fall decor!!

Saturday ramblings

2011-09-03T08:02:00.012-04:00

It was so nice sleeping in until almost 7:00 this morning! We were up with Easton last night for about 30 minutes. Yesterday he had his 15 month well visit and I don't think he's feeling too great from the shots. He weighed 22 pounds, which puts him around the 20th percentile, but his doctor said he wasn't concerned about that. He measured 32 inches, but his doctor said he didn't think the nurse got a good measurement since that's what he was last time, too! Everything else was great! His doctor said to expect tantrums to start to emerge and that the "terrible two's" actually start around this age. Oh me! Surely not this sweet boy....hahaha! After we got home from the doctor, we snuggled up on the couch to watch a little bit of Barney.

I have to share a funny from this week at school. We were at lunch one day and this little girl counted her grapes and as she ate them, she'd subtract and tell me how many she had left. Then, a little boy said "Well, those grapes I just ate....they are going to be in the porcelin tank in about an hour." Hahaha!

Have yall been watching Big Brother? I was sad that Jeff got evicted! Have yall heard about how Shelley's family has been getting death threats because she evicted him? Yall, that is CRAZY! It's a game! Now, I am rooting for Rachel and Jordan.

Have yall watched the show "Sweet Home Alabama" on CMT? I have loved it! I read somewhere it was like a poor man's show of The Bachelor, but I really enjoyed watching it. I think it was much more REAL, like real life dates, etc. I was so happy she chose Adam! I felt a little bad for Tribble, but then I saw that he will on the show next so I am excited to watch that this fall!

Speaking of fall, I am SO ready for it! I think I may put out a few fall decorations this weekend since I have a long weekend! I am really wanting to buy some nice new fall decorations! Maybe that's what we'll do Monday. Today is the first VOLS football game! GO VOLS!

Giraffe

2011-09-01T22:02:00.007-04:00

Last weekend when we went to the zoo, we stopped by the gift shop and I couldn't pass up this cute little giraffe! Easton loves, it too! Here he was giving it love!!
I am looking forward to a long weekend since we are out of school Monday for Labor Day! Yay!! I'm looking forward to (hopefully) sleeping in a little later than usual, catching up on things around the house, and spending time with little man! :)

Fun at the Zoo

2011-08-28T15:12:00.022-04:00

Today we decided to take Easton to the zoo for the very first time! It wasn't too hot and we had a great time! I have always said that when I became a mom, I couldn't wait to go to the zoo, the aquarium, the pumpkin patch...all those fun things because I knew I'd also enjoy them! We had so much fun!

Easton was hilarious...he loved the statues of the animals! Here he is on an elephant!

Our favorite part was feeding the giraffes! I had never seen a giraffe up close so I was excited as well! Easton held the lettuce in his hand and the giraffe ate it right up!

We saw lots of animals...zebras, lions, alligators, elephants, monkeys, birds, etc. You name it, we probably saw it!

Here we go again with the statues...silly boy!

They had an area that you could stand under and feel a refreshing mist...he loved that!

We went inside to the fish and reptile area. Easton loved standing in front of the diver watching her feed the fish! He was so funny watching the fish swim by him!

We had such a blast!

Fun at the Park

2011-08-23T20:46:00.009-04:00

This weekend we decided to take Easton to the park for a little fun! He's been in the baby swings before, but he's never been down a slide and I was a little unsure if he was really big enough to fully enjoy it. Well boy was I wrong! Oh my goodness, he laughed and laughed! He had SUCH a fun time. I took SO many pictures, but I tried to narrow it down for you to see!

My sweet boy was ALL SMILES the entire time we were there! He loved the slides SO much and went down every.single.one! When he would get to the bottom he would just giggle and then try to climb back up the slide! Silly boy!

There is nothing that makes me smile more than seeing him have so much fun! He was a little ball of energy!

We had the best time at the park! After we left we decided to go to a local restaurant for lunch. Poor Easton was so exhausted he fell asleep after eating about two bites of food and slept in the seat of our booth, all the way home, and then for another 3 hours at home! He was so tired! We had a nice, long family nap after a fun family day at the park!

Bedtime Routine

2011-08-20T12:26:00.003-04:00

Bedtime is one of my favorite times of the day! Every night, we eat supper and I usually play a little longer. Then, we head up to take a bath. Easton loves playing in the tub. After that we get our pj's on and spend about 10-15 minutes reading. Easton LOVES reading books. It's one of my favorite parts of our bedtime routine.
In that basket I have his board books. He always reaches in there and gets out the three we read EVERY night! We usually read them all at least twice.

This morning we ran a few errands! Here is Mr. Man before we left!

Hope you all are having a wonderful night!

Look Out!

2011-08-17T20:49:00.002-04:00

Right after we got back from Tennessee a few weeks ago, Easton learned to climb our steps! OH MY! Needless to say, we now have gates because he loves to climb the stairs. He is pretty fast at, it too!
Now, he's got to figure out how to get back down! He makes me a nervous wreck!!

Easton & his new turtle

2011-08-15T15:54:00.002-04:00

Last week we were excited when we got home and saw a package to Easton from his cousin, Gracie, in Tennessee! Gracie was SO sweet to send us a souvenier from her trip to the Tennessee Aquarium! Easton got a very cute shirt that he is sporting today at daycare!
He also got a new toy, a stuffed turtle that we have named Squirt! Oh my goodness, he just LOVES Squirt! He will go to him and give him a kiss, hug him, and give him love! See below:

It is just SO, SO sweet!! Thank you so much, Gracie!!

I also wanted to let yall know that I have started a new teaching blog over at For the Love of Teaching. Click the name to go to it! When I started this blog I wanted it to be about my family and our adventures/journey. I've been posting school stuff here, but I thought it would be best to stick to the basics here and post about family life and keep school business aside so I created a new blog!

Moving on Up

2011-08-11T16:55:00.004-04:00

Easton has had a great first week of daycare! He is in a toddler room and will be moving up to an older toddler room in September! He has had such a great week! I wanted to highlight some of the things he did this week!

When I picked him up on Tuesday they were having snack so I waited outside the room and just watched him. There were about 10 kids (and 2 adults) in there and all the kids were sitting at a little table eating watermelon and drinking juice. It just really made me realize that he is no longer a baby! He was such a big boy sitting at the table eating!

That same afternoon when I went in and picked him up this little girl walked over and just cried, like she was upset he was leaving. The teacher picked her up and said, "Can you say bye to Easton and give him a hug? He'll be back tomorrow!" The little girl waved and hugged him! It was SO sweet!

On Wednesday when I got there they told me he had a little fall and bruised his head. Poor fella! They put up little tents for them to play in and his teacher said he had a BLAST!

She also informed me that "all the little girls just love Easton"! She said two of them will just go and hug on him! PRECIOUS!

Here is a picture of my sweet boy today!

Today at daycare he got to fingerpaint! I just LOVE having these little art projects to keep as memories!!I really think he has had fun this week! I'm excited for Open House to meet his next teacher!

Friends & Family in Tennessee

2011-08-09T11:49:00.010-04:00

Last week when we went to Tennessee we had a good time visiting with friends and family! I didn't take any pictures, but we went over to Ashley and Tuff's house to see them and bring a baby shower gift for Gunner. Gunner will be making his appearance into the world next week! We also had breakfast with Ashley and Hadley one morning! That same day we met Ashley, Ashton, and Analyn at the mall to let Ashton and Easton play before heading to lunch! Analyn is so sweet and did so good while the boys played!!

Ashton had a great time, too! He is just too cute and sweet!

On Wednesday my family decided to have a cookout! We had a good time. Easton was so HOOKED to my brother! He would holds his arms out for Justin to hold him and was constantly going to him! Once he even fell and when I went to hold him and comfort him, he reached to Justin like "Hold me, Uncle Justin!" We were cracking up at how he just wanted his Uncle Justin! We loved it!!

I love this picture of Justin reading to Gracie and Easton! SO SWEET!!

On Thursday we met Joe's family at Cracker Barrel!! Yummy! I loved that Yates and Easton was wearing MTSU Blue Raiders shirts! We had to get a picture! GO BLUE! I wish we still lived there because he would most definitely be going to MTSU football games this fall!

That day was also Yates first day of KINDERGARTEN! Wow! I cannot believe he is already in kindergarten! I know Heather and Mike can't believe it, either. He seems so grown up now!

Fun at the Discovery Center

2011-08-08T16:10:00.005-04:00

While we were home last week, we headed to the Discovery Center with Kelly, Carson, Autumn, and Gracie! I've only been to the Discovery Center once, but it is really nice! There was a nice area for kids under 5 to play in.

Gracie and Easton had fun climbing into the treehouse and getting on their tip toes to look outside the treehouse!

We had such a great time!! Afterwards we went to Toot's to eat! We had some amazing fried pickles!!! YUMMM!!

I'm Still Here

2011-08-08T09:40:00.001-04:00

I am still here! I haven't posted in forever! We spent last week in Tennessee with friends and family. On the day we came home Easton got sick. Poor thing felt awful. He's better now and started daycare today, but only for a few hours. I've been trying to work on school stuff and rub errands! More to come soon!

Classroom & Certified Mentor

2011-07-28T13:13:00.010-04:00

This week I have been in a 3-day training and I am now a certified mentor! I can be a mentor to a first, second, or third year teacher and I am certified within the state. Yay! I think it is super exciting, especially considering it's only my 4th year teaching. I was very honored to be asked by my principal. I have been working in my classroom this week, too. There is a LOT to do! This is the view I had when I walked into my room and my thoughts were WOW. It wasn't a good wow. Ha!
I've always had class jobs, but I wanted to do something a little different. I took away some jobs and added some others. I used to have them on a clip-chart with students names on clothes-pins but I thought I'd use my smaller bulletin board. BUT, it just doesn't look like what I want it to. I want it to be functional, so my thought was I would have each job listed (with a brief desciption) in the middle. I would type the students names on paper and laminate it and then use velcro dots to put them beside the jobs. This way, I can just pull each name off and switch it to another job. Now, I don't have the students listed because I don't have my roster yet. Some jobs will have more than 1 person. Do you have any suggestions on how I can make this bulletin board look cuter?? I'm stumped. I want to change something, I just don't know what exactly. SUGGESTIONS, PLEASE!!

On my door I will have "Welcome to 4th grade, where you are a STAR!" and I will have students names on starfish.

I like my blue/green theme.

I still have to complete this HUGE bulletin board behind my reading area. But, I LOVE my chairs! This pictures made the color look so funny...they are actually a bright green!

Here is a little glance at my side of the room! Again, not complete but getting closer!

Please leave suggestions for the bulletin board if you have any!

More Shopping!!

2011-07-24T19:03:00.008-04:00

This afternoon me and Easton decided to do a little more school shopping! I think I've been school shopping almost every day this week and I am still not done!
We went to Target first where I saw these cute Dr. Seuss bowls! They were too cute not to buy so I got three for Easton!

I picked up a couple things for school, but I was mostly looking for an over-the-door shoe holder and buckets to use in my classroom because I am implementing the "bucket filling" this year.

Well, Target had buckets in their $1 section, BUT they were pink and purple. That just wouldn't work! We looked and looked and couldn't find anything. I did find an over-the-door shoe holder at Wal-Mart (they are clear unlike Target's). I bought cups to use as buckets but once I got home I realized they won't work so I placed an order from Oriental Trading! These buckets should be coming soon!

Teaching Goodies Galore!!

2011-07-23T15:06:00.006-04:00

Lately I have been reading all of these wonderful teaching blogs and I have found all kinds of WONDERFUL ideas! I am so inspired for this school year and have so many new things I want to implement. Our classrooms are being cleaned and we haven't even been able to get into our rooms and probably won't for a while and school starts in 3 weeks! Yall, I am stressing just a little bit! I'm going to be putting in some HARD work to get everything ready! This morning we went to Hobby Lobby and Barnes and Noble to pick up some teaching goodies!! I have seen on several blogs the book "Have You Filled Your Bucket Today?" and I've seen several awesome bucket filling bulletin boards! I am going to look for buckets tomorrow and can't wait! I've printed off a few things to have laminated to go with them! I also signed Easton up for the Kids Club at Barnes & Noble!Each year I have students a little welcome bag at the beginning of the year. To go along with my green and blue theme, I found these cute green bags and bought blue tissue paper to go with them! The fabric will be used to cover up some of my extra desks and one bulletin board. Our school collects box tops so one of the small green baskets will collect our box tops!

Here are a few other goodies I bought today! I still need much more, though!

I'm hoping I can find some buckets tomorrow!!

New Books & Critters

2011-07-22T11:29:00.004-04:00

A while back Tara over at 4th Grade Frolics posted about a book series about a little hamster named Humphrey. Each story is told from the perspective of Humphrey. It sound so cute that I just had to check them out. This morning we went to Books-A-Million and I got several of the books! She also posted about how she has two of the Zhu Zhu hamster pets and she lets her students take them home with a journal and they journal the adventures that their hamster had with them! Seriously, how cute is that? I love that idea and am going to incorporate that in my room this year!! Thanks Tara for posting this! Kids always LOVE Mad Libs so when I saw these on sale for $1.00, I snatched them up!

Teaching Goodies!!!

2011-07-21T18:36:00.009-04:00

This morning Easton and I set out for the Dollar Tree, Wal-Mart, Educational Wonderland, and Big Lots to buy some items that I need for school! We met my friend Amanda at Educational Wonderland (she teaches 4th grade at another school) and then ate lunch at Chick-Fil-A. I got a lot that I needed and wanted!! The starfish border will go on my door that will say "Welcome to 4th grade, where you are a star!". I'm using the solid blue on my cabinets (got it at Wal-Mart for $0.97 each!), and the other is for a bulletin board!
I love the print and colors on this!

Here, you see a cute pillow I got at Big Lots for kids to use to read in the Reading corner, a cute clock (ours rarely worked last year & it drove me crazy!), some cute green and blue tubs (not sure what I'll use them for yet), and some pencils! One set of pencils says "Fantastic 4th Graders" and will go in their Welcome goodie bag! I really want to use the blue and green this year in my classroom!!

Here I have some die-cut letters (the right two are from Dollar Tree), postcards, bookmarks, clocks, and post-its!

I was SO excited when I found these starfish cut-outs to use on my door! I also got the starfish nametags and certificates. This expanding file is where I will store my die-cut letters above! I never even thought about that until I read the blog, 4th Grade Frolics! Click the name to check it out! I have found SO many fabulous ideas on there!!

I bought this poster today! The games are great for inside recess and I purchased them with money I received from Adopt-A-Classroom, as well as the literature unit guide!!

Tomorrow I am hoping to go to Barnes and Noble or Books-A-Million to look for a book series that I saw on 4th Grade Frolics! We may even stop by Toys-R-Us for something, too!

School Inspiration

2011-07-20T13:02:00.008-04:00

I can't believe that summer is coming to an end and back to school is drawing closer and closer! Seriously, where did the summer go?!?! I am trying to get myself back into that school mode! This year I want my classroom to have somewhat of a beach theme! When I say somewhat, I don't plan on completely transforming my room to an underwater adventure, but I do plan on adding a few cute "beach-y" items! I have this bulletin board paper that looks like water, similar to this below, that I am going to use to cover my door.

Then, I am going to add the words "Welcome to 4th grade, where you are a star" and have my students names written on a starfish! Minus the octopus, they come as a package deal!
I wanted to update my reading corner because the chairs I had were just plain-falling-apart! So, I bought two green plastic adirondack chairs! I think it will look so cute and just go right along with my beach-y theme! I also have a bean bag that will go back there with the chairs.

I am going to add some type of fish/beach/underwater fabric over my extra desks that I use for materials.
This morning me and Easton ran to the Dollar Tree and Wal-Mart. In my room I will have a blue basket for each group to store their materials. I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do with the flower lei's, but I think they will tie in with the beach-y theme I have going. The composition book will be my teacher Social Studies notebook since we are doing notebooking this year. And the little calendar will be perfect for me to keep up with my small group scheduling and will fit perfectly in my teacher's binder!
Tomorrow we are headed to Educational Wonderland to look for my starfish and a few other things!!

What is Easton up to?

2011-07-19T11:46:00.008-04:00

I'm not doing monthly posts on Easton anymore, but I don't want to forget any memorable things he does so every now and then I am going to update what all he is doing! Easton has grown up so much in the last two months. He is now walking constantly and even tries to speed walk or run (which is usually pretty clumsy looking). He is climbing onto everything...chairs, ottomans, people, anything! He now has 6 teeth!
He loves to play with the remote control and the phone. He had our house phone the other day (now I take the batteries out when he plays with it) and he called my cell phone! Haha! He loves to GO-GO-GO!

He loves to play a little hiding game where I say "Where is Easton?" and he hides behind me and he gets so tickled when I "find" him! He is eating all big boy food now and loves to eat chicken! We love Chick-Fil-A. He loves to read books so much. We read books at least 5 times a day, and as a teacher I LOVE it! His favorite book right now is Ten Little Fish. We read it at least 3 times every single night!
He is full of energy and loves to play outside! He is such a BOY and often gets so excited and plays a little too rough!!

His cousin, Gracie, taught him to dance!! Here is a video of him dancing! Sorry it's sideways...I didn't know how to fix that.

New Blog Look

2011-07-18T10:26:00.003-04:00

What do yall think about my new blog look? I am loving it! Patrice over at Purrfect Blog Designs did it! Click the link to go to her blog. I highly recommend Patrice if you are needing an update to your blog!

This weekend I completely went through my closet and got rid of so much! It is so nice cleaning out and getting rid of things I don't wear/can't wear anymore! I also went through my purses (which I might have a slight obsession with) and my scarves! This week I am trying a new approach to cleaning! I like to keep my house neat and tidy, but deep down cleaning...I just don't enjoy! So, instead of taking one day to do nothing but clean, I am going to break it down a little and see if that works better.

Monday: Dust
Tuesday: Sweep/clean hardwood floors
Wednesday: Clean all bathrooms (my least favorite)
Thursday: Clean mirrors & change sheets on bed
Friday: Vacuum

So, we'll see how it works. Most will probably be done during Easton's naptime because it's just easier that way! Speaking of Easton, he is doing and learning so many new things! I will be blogging about that soon!

Looks I'm Loving

2011-07-17T11:30:00.001-04:00

Hope y'all are having a good weekend! We've went to church this morning, ate lunch, and are about ready for a nap! I really want to clean my closet out sometime today. I tried on a pair of my dress pants that I wore last school year and they are WAY too big, like I'm not even able to make it work! So, in a desperate attempt to find something to wear to church I pulled out a pair khakis that are 3-4 years old, thinking to myself "No way these are going to fit". I actually wore them when we took our engagement photos! Well, lo and behold, they FIT! Woohoo!! I am so excited to buy some new clothes and really update my wardrobe. This morning I've done a little online shopping. Here are some looks I'm loving!

Love this dress from Ann Taylor Loft, but I'm not sure its long enough for school. I'd definitely have to try it on

Another Ann Taylor Loft...

I'm not one that can do online shopping. What looks good online doesn't always look good on! But, it gives me an idea of the style I'm looking into. Speaking of styles, here is a picture of "My Style" board on Pinterest. I just discovered Pinterest and I am loving it!!!

If you want an invitation to the site, let me know!

Shopping

2011-07-16T18:06:00.001-04:00

One exciting thing about school starting soon is shopping for new clothes! Once I meet my Weight Watchers goal, I am looking for a new and improved wardrobe! Today I bought a few cute tops at Target. I love that store!

This black cardigan will be cute to wear over some of my dressy summer tops.

This isn't something I can wear by itself, but it would be cute under the cardigan underneath.

I've saved up a few gift cards and I can't wait to go shopping!

Country Scenery & Food

2011-07-14T11:47:00.007-04:00

Last night I cooked the chicken, rice, and veggies and it turned out GREAT! I'm not sure what we'll have tonight!
I think being in the country has to be one of the prettiest places you can be. I like the slow pace, the crickets chirping, the cornfields, and everything about it. I snapped a few pictures of what I think is pretty country scenery!

I like the simple life.

Back on Track

2011-07-13T11:37:00.003-04:00

I haven't updated about how my Weight Watchers is going, but I am really close to my goal weight. Like, really, really close! Of course, I think we always want to lose more, but I'm kind of at the point of that extra 5 pounds is not going to get me in a smaller pant size because these hips just aren't getting any smaller. Since we were on vacation, I wasn't as strict with my eating and I didn't keep track of what I was eating, but now I am back on track! I have never been one to do meal planning, but I have planned four meals for this week (in no particular order, just whatever I feel like eating that day) and already calculated my points!

Option 1 (tonight's supper): I am going to bake boneless, skinless chicken breasts with McCormick seasoning. I am also going to cut up squash, zuccini, green pepper, and yellow pepper and drizze it with olive oil and bake it. We will have the chicken and veggies over rice. Total points: 13

Option 2: Whole wheat pasta (1 cup) and spagetti sauce (1/2 cup), total points: 7 However, I will probably eat more than that! :)

Option 3: One night I will cook pork chops (2 for each of us) and add green beans and corn. Total points: 10

Option 4: Joe will grill out hamburgers (93/7). One hamburger with a bun and ketchup. For a side, I will eat Weight Watchers barbeque chips (delicious!) and a pickle. Total points: 13

So, there it is! My dinner plans for the next few days! I also tried a new recipe while I was in TN that was in our Weight Watcher weekly's. You cut peaches in half, take out the seed, and grill them for a few minutes. Add honey and sliced almonds. Yumm! It's different, but good!

Does anyone have any healthy recipes to share? I will let you know how these meals turn out!!

Two years

2011-07-12T09:14:00.001-04:00

Two years ago yesterday I walked down the aisle and married my best friend. It's hard to believe how our life had changed since that day! It has been the best two years and I'm looking forward to many more!

Exactly two years ago today we were in the beautiful St. Lucia. If you ever get the chance to go, do it! It is so beautiful! It was the trip of a lifetime and I would love to go back.

Happy anniversary, Joe!

Tuff's birthday

2011-07-10T13:15:00.001-04:00

Yesterday we went to Tuff's 2nd birthday party! His mom, Ashley, and I have known each other since she moved here from Florida in 5th grade. We were best friends and I'm so glad we've remained friends all these years later! We played basketball together, spent the night at each other's houses, and always had a blast! Tuff is 2 years old and she is expecting another little boy named Gunner soon!

They had hamburgers, hotdogs, beans, potato salad, chips, and yummy cupcakes! They had a big pool and smaller pools for the kiddos and a cute sprinkler!

I was so glad we were in town and able to go visit!

Happy 2nd birthday Tuff!

Monogramming & Books

2011-07-09T20:25:00.001-04:00

I finally found someone local (well, local when I'm in TN) to do some monogramming for me! She is so, so good! Thanks to my sister-in-law for telling me about her! I took 6 blank shirts to her and gave her some ideas of what I was looking for her and told her I trusted her judgment! I'm so happy at how they turned out!

I've read two books while I've been home! "Heaven is for Real" is one of the BEST books I've read in a long time! I highly recommend it.

I didn't use this book as a devotional like it's designed for, but it is a book with stories of miracles that has happened in people's lives. It was wonderful!

Today we went to birthday for party for Tuff, one of my friend's little boy! It was so, so cute! I'll be blogging about it soon!

Swimming with Friends

2011-07-08T23:05:00.005-04:00

Yesterday we made plans to get together with one of my good friends, Ashley and her little boy Ashton! We originally planned on swimming at my mom's house, but the weather was questionable so we thought of something else. Then, yesterday morning it was sunny and beautiful but still had a chance of showers. We decided to take a risk and swim anyway! Ashley brought over pizza and breadsticks, which were delicious! We had fun swimming, but it turned cloudy and started raining soon! So, inside we went to let Ashton and Easton play before they left. We had a great time! I've known Ashley since we were probably five years old and she is one of the sweetest friends! We went to grammar school and high school together. We lost contact for a little while, but have picked up like no time ever passed.
That afternoon I took Easton to his Grandad's while my mom and I went to Weight Watchers (I lost 0.4...not bad considering I've had 2 cookouts, birthday cake, and homemade ice cream this past week!). After Weight Watchers, we got together with Joe's family to eat at Cracker Barrel. Yates and Easton played in the grass some! Anna Clark did, too but I didn't catch her in this picture.

I've got so much to get caught up with on blogging!

July 4th

2011-07-07T09:40:00.006-04:00

I hope yall had a wonderful 4th of July! We had a good one! I woke up that morning not feeling well and was sick all day! It must've been a 24 hour bug because the next day I was perfectly fine! So, we had a laid back day! That afternoon Justin, Kelly, Gracie, and Alex came over to grill out hamburgers! Before that, Justin took the kids on a little four-wheeler ride!

They both loved it! Easton has never been on a four-wheeler so he was LOVING it!

Gram made homemade peach ice cream to go with our burgers! It was SO good!

After dinner we hung out for a while and watched Gracie and Easton play! I took something for my stomach that made me super sleepy so we didn't stay up to watch any fireworks! Easton was so tired, too! Bless him, we'll be sure to see fireworks next year!

More Pictures...

2011-07-06T08:11:00.007-04:00

We are still enjoying our time in Tennessee with family and friends! It's been really nice to not feel rushed and be able to see friends and have breakfast/lunch, or just sit and talk! We really miss Joe, though! Easton has been saying "Dada" for the past two days almost constantly! I am enjoying the extra "Mama's" that have been coming my way though! :)Easton has played in the gravel a lot! We got to thinking about it and he doesn't see gravel where we live since it is paved. So, he has been loving it!

We've been on a couple of walks (not nearly as many as we should be on)!

The one thing we haven't done as much as I thought we would is swim! But we are having a pool day tomorrow!!

Easton got a hold of Gram's watering can and loved toting that thing around!!

Hope you are enjoying your summer as well!

Happy 1st Birthday Gracie!!

2011-07-04T11:05:00.010-04:00

Today is my niece, Gracie Ann's first birthday!! Happy Birthday sweet girl! She has been the biggest blessing in my brother and Kelly's lives, as well as our whole families lives! She has the BIGGEST personality of anyone her age I think I've ever met! She is always smiling, waving, and saying "Hey!" She is fun to be around! Justin and Kelly had her first birthday Saturday evening at Gram's house!
We had a great time! They had hamburers, hot dogs, potato salad, baked beans, chips, and of course, cake! The cake was absolutely delicious and beautiful! Easton had himself a good time!

Gracie was too funny with her smash cake! She tore it up!!

Towards the end, the kids got to have sparklers! They loved it.

At the very end, Kelly took all of the ballons and let them go!

I also want to say Happy 4th of July to yall! I am so thankful to all of our military who risk their lives, sometimes give the ultimate sacrifice, and is away from their families so that WE can enjoy this holiday. It is so humbling. I am very proud to be an American and proud of what we stand for!

Happy birthday Gracie Ann!!

Our Week in Pictures

2011-07-01T13:46:00.009-04:00

We have had such a fun week in Tennessee. Me and Easton are here in TN visiting with family and friends while my hubby is working hard back home. I know he is missing Easton like crazy! But, it has been a nice visit and we still have a little time to go! If you know me, I LOVE to take pictures! I am always taking my camera wherever we go, but I just haven't taken many pictures this week at all! This must change soon! Here's our week in the few pictures I've taken!

Sunday: We went to church and Easton played in the nursery. Then, he slept in my arms the entire church service! After that we took Joe to the airport to fly back home. That was sad!
Monday: We ran to Carter's since I don't have one where we live. I didn't really find much there so we went to Alumni Hall where I got Easton an MTSU shirt and a UT polo. I got a UT bathing suit cover (sooooo cute!), a UT shirt, and an MTSU shirt!

Tuesday: It was cloudy so we just had a lazy day!
Wednesday: Gram keeps Gracie Ann on Wednesday's so we hung out over there most of the day!
Easton and Gracie looked at the kitty cats out the window!

Thursday: We took Easton to his Grandad's house and he watched him and Yates while Mom and I went shopping at The Avenue. I got such a deal at Bath & Body! I got these 5 lotions for $6.21! The coconut lime verbena has always been one of my favorites and they were 75% off and the coconut mango was 50% off, plus they had $10 off coupons!

After a big of shopping we went to Weight Watchers and then picked Easton up and enjoyed Cracker Barrel with the Geren's.

Friday: We went back to Cracker Barrel for breakfast with Ashley and Hadley! We had a fun time visiting them. I'm pretty sure I accidentally took one of mom's outside cats with me! When I pulled in, I kept hearing "meow", "meow". Easton and Hadley were both asleep so we pulled in beside each other and looked at each other's baby books and again, "meow", "meow" from under my car! Ashley looked for me (I was afraid because I don't know what I would've done!) and never saw a cat, but I know there had to be one under there! It must have jumped out because I haven't seen/heard of one since I got home! Poor thing! Now, Easton just woke up from a nap so we are about to have a POOL day!

Feathers

2011-06-29T10:58:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I got feathers in my hair!! What do you think about them? They are different and kind of cute so I thought I'd try! My favorite is the black and white striped ones! I'm still not 100% sure about the blue one! They are hidden pretty well, but here is a picture without hiding them:
And this is what it looks like when my hair is fixed like normal....you can see them a little!

What do you think about these hair feathers? I think I like them!

Fripp Island, Day 3

2011-06-24T10:08:00.001-04:00

I know I've posted lots of pictures of our vacation and people are probably tired of seeing it, but this blog is like a scrapbook for me and the most important thing in life is family so I love blogging about mine. With that said, Wednesday was a great day! We started out at the pool. Easton wasn't having it so we watched Yates & Anna Clark slide!

Every time Anna Clark would say "Yay!"

We took Easton in around lunch time for a little break before heading out to the beach. Look at his hair! It's starting to get some curl in it. He had sunscreen in it so that's why it looks like this. Usually the curl is in the back around his neck.

After we spent time at the beach we came back inside, got dressed, and enjoyed a fresh low country boil.

After supper we walked outside to the golf course to take pictures. It was perfect timing because I caught this beautiful sunset.

Easton had a BALL on the golf course!

He loved spending time with Grandad.

My awesome hubby!

Yates got his putter and practiced.

And every time someone made it, Easton would get the golf ball out of the hole.

Family pictures!

Fripp Island, Day 2

2011-06-23T12:16:00.001-04:00

We had such a good day at Fripp on Tuesday! We decided we would stay at the beach all day and that's exactly what we did. First, Easton got some snuggle time with Grandad.

Here we are ready to go to the beach!!

But first, on the way there we stopped to look at this alligator!

The weather was so nice and it was a great day to be at the beach!

I wasn't sure what Easton would think, but he LOVED it! He was so funny.

Mason and Yates had a great time jumping the waves in the ocean.

Testing the water, but holding Daddy's hand...

He loved sitting here at the edge of the water!

After a little while, he played with the sand buckets with Anna Clark.

Then, he just couldn't hang with us and had to take a nap! He sleeps so good outside at the beach. There was the perfect breeze and he slept for 2 hours. That gave me some time to lay out in the sun. I may or may not have also taken a little nap! :)

Yates and his Daddy built this sandcastle. I took this picture before Yates put his army men around it. It was too cute. A seagull came and picked up an army man before he spit it back out.

That night we ordered pizzas and I think I had the best pizza I ever ate! I've never tried a taco pizza but it was SOOOOOOO good! Easton and Anna Clark were hilarious that night. They both are strong-willed and didn't share too well with their toys. They managed, though! Day 3 coming soon!

Fripp Island, Day 1

2011-06-22T17:35:00.001-04:00

We have been vacationing in beautiful and sunny Fripp Island! We have had such a wonderful time! It's only about 2 1/2 - 3 hours away from where we live, which is really nice! Easton did this most of the way here.

This is the sight we saw as soon as we pulled up! So pretty!!

It is so neat that Fripp Island has so much wildlife! There are alligators and deer around. One family even caught a baby shark in the ocean!

Once we arrived we got ready to go to the pool! Easton had a BLAST!

His cousin Yates helped him go down the slide! He liked it! Anna Clark really enjoyed the slide this year!

After a while it was time for a break to eat a snack and get some water.

That night we cleaned up and headed to a seafood restaurant. The food was so good!

Easton wore his cute crab shirt that has his name on it!

Time for a cousin picture!

We had a great first day at Fripp!! Day two pictures coming soon!

Family Visits

2011-06-20T05:56:00.001-04:00

Last week we enjoyed visits from my mom and Joe's dad. Since it's only us here, we always enjoy it so much when we have people here! Gram, Ed, & Mom drove down on Wednesday. I met them in Greenville to pick up my mom. Gram & Ed stayed in Greenville and visited with a cousin of hers before heading to the beach. On Thursday we just lounged around the house and played with Easton outside and in the pool.

Easton definitely loved the extra attention! He even took a 3 hour nap, which he never does! That's what happens when Mimi holds him for half of it! Joe's dad also drove up on Thursday. On Friday, we went shopping!! We got Gracie's birthday gifts, a bathing suit for me, & some cute new sandals!

We grilled out hamburgers & hotdogs Friday night. We also had potato salad, chips, & crackers with hummus. I had never tried hummus before. It was good!

My new favorite family photo!

Easton sure loved having the extra attention!

Father's Day

2011-06-19T11:48:00.001-04:00

Happy Father's Day to my husband today! He is so good with Easton and Easton loves him so much. I smile watching them interact. I know one of Joe's favorite times of the day is when he gets home from work & Easton walks so fast to get to him and gives him the biggest hug. Thank you Joe for being such a wonderful father to our son and for working so hard for us. For Father's Day, Joe got a golf club he'd been wanting and I made him an album on Shutterfly on pictures of him & Easton. Here is the card I made on Shutterfly.

Looking at the album...

Easton says, "Hey, that's me!"

Before church we took a few pictures with Easton!

I also want to say Happy Father's Day to my brother, Justin! He is a proud daddy to sweet Gracie!

Enjoy your day, guys!

Playing Outside

2011-06-16T07:16:00.002-04:00

One thing Easton absolutely loves to do is play outside! He loves to pull the grass and walk around the yard. Our yard isn't very even so he falls quite a bit, but it doesn't stop him! I thought this was a cute picture of him!
I'm getting my hair cut and colored today! Can't wait!