Thankful

Thanksgiving!!! Only 3 days away. I have SO much to be Thankful for this year....

• A wonderful, loving & caring, providing & helping husband to me and daddy to our little man. We would be absolutely NO WHERE without him. God has truely blessed me and Tuff with the best husband/daddy in this world.
• A beautiful, healthy 16 month old who makes his mama and daddy the proudest and luckiest parents in this world.
• Both mine and Jordan's family/friends
• My job and Jordan's job
• A home for my family
• Our freedom to be able to celebrate this Holiday

These are at the top of my list this year!!! :) I've been thinking back to last Thanksgiving and can't believe how much Tuff has grown since then...

I have to admit, I reeeeeallly miss him being that little. But I do love watching him grow and learn new things today! It's so hard to believe how fast they grow up. Me and Jordan are excited to say, we definitely have brother/sister plans brewing for the beginning of 2011. :) (Hopefully sister, hehe.)

Anyways, we plan on going back to my home town for Thanksgiving and visiting these fine folks...

This picture includes everyone except my cousin Bubba, his gf, and little boy... and my Aunt Stacey and her husband, Jeremy who will be our hosts for the week! :) I am excited to get down there since it's been almost 3 years since I've last visited. It should be a good time since everyone is getting to go together. It's very rare that we all get to visit together and at the same time. Jordan, Tuff and I will be riding down with April, Brandon and Harrison. (They have an SUV with 3 rows) We will be leaving out tomorrow afternoon hoping the boys will sleep most of the way while we drive. Then we will come back Saturday night, hoping for the same on the way back :). It's a 9 hour drive so pray for us to make it there and back with 2 toddlers in the same vehicular. I have to admit, I'm most excited about seeing my Aunt Stacey whom I love SO much! She was supposed to come up this past summer but couldn't make it last minute. We really missed her, especially since I haven't seen her since May for a family reunion that only lasted a few hours. She is now expecting her first baby boy (due the end of March) and I hate that I don't live closer to be able to go through all her firsts with him/her. I guess that's life though.

We had a pretty laid back weekend. We've had a few of those this month and it's so nice sometimes. We did our normal grocery store run Friday night. On the way back home we swung through and picked up Victoria and her friend Kelsey to stay the night. We stayed up talking to the girls and laughing until around 1. It made for a looong Saturday with no nap. :) Jordan and I worked hard in the yard getting all the Christmas decor up. It took us almost all day but everything turned out beautifully. I haven't taken pictures yet but I will try to get some up soon. Tuff really enjoys the outside decor. He likes to walk around and touch everything, point, and talk about it. It's so sweet! I was exhausted Saturday night and ended up falling asleep on the couch after we laid Tuff down for bed. Sunday morning we got up and went over to BaBa's for breakfast. Tenderloin, eggs, biscuit & gravy. YUM. Then we headed to MeMe's so she could help color my hair. After that we headed home for a nice NAP... All 3 of us together. I made a pot of vegetable soup for dinner when we got up, everyone had baths, and then we packed for our trip the rest of the night. All-in-all, it was a nice weekend with my boys! Jordan is off for 10 days so me and Tuff are really looking foward to spending some time with him.

Hope everyone is having a good Monday! At least it's a short week! :)

The Alford's

16 months & Birthday

Baby Boy turned 16 months old on Sunday and I thought I'd do a little post about what Tuff has been up to these days....

• He is wearing a size 5 diaper, size 7 shoe, and 24 months - 2T in clothes
• The last time we were at the doctor he weighed in at 27.2 lbs.
• He is sleeping through the night and in his own bed.
• He has became a pretty picky eater the past month or so. It's hard to get him to eat much of anything other than cheese puffs, butter cookies, and hot dogs :)
• He LOVES a ball. Anything that involves a ball, count him in. He owns every kind of ball you can think of and probably has 2 or more of each kind. The first thing he does when he wakes up in the mornings is look for the nearest ball.
• He's starting to try to talk more. It seems like he always has something to say but it's just jiber-jaber right now. His current vocab consists of "MaMa, DaDa, Juice, Shoes and Cat"
• Other than a ball, his favorite thing to do is read. He likes to read to his self but sometimes he lets mommy read to him. I think the older he gets, the more interested in books he becomes. I had a friend recently tell me about Dolly Parton's Imagination Library. If you go to that website, you can sign your child up for free to recieve a book every month until they turn 5. I thought this was a great idea. If you're reading this and you didn't know about it, click here to learn more. 
• He loves to dance when he hears any kind of music
• He's really becoming more affectionate lately. He loves to give kisses and hugs these days. I hope this continues forever :)
• He loves his cousin Ada. I have no doubt in my mind that he will be a GREAT big brother one day.
• He's in a climbing stage where he wants to climb on everything. We are trying to enourage him not to do this because we know he can get hurt.
• We have recently started trying the "time out" method instead of a spank on the butt and he seems to enjoy time out... So... I'm not real sure where to go from here. Haha.
• He is waving bye bye every time we leave somewhere or anytime someone is leaving us.
• He is very alert at all times. It's hard to get anything past him. (Just like his Daddy) 

Here is a picture of baby boy a year ago.

It's so hard to believe how big he's gotten in just one year.

We are so proud of our sweet boy and how much he seems to be learning every day. Jordan and I couldn't be any more blessed. Our hearts are definitely 110% FULL at all times because of his sweet little smile.

Today is my half sister, Bree's, Birthday!

Happy Birthday Bree! Hope you are having a fabulous day. We love you MUCHO!!!!

The Alford's

Rainy Day

It's a nasty rainy day here. I wish I could have stayed home and snuggled up to my baby boy all day instead of being here at work. Blah! I want to start by saying I am still working on getting the wedding pictures up. I have to get with my sister for her to show me how to do a slideshow on Blogger. We just haven't had a chance to get together on it yet. Hopefully by the end of the week I'll be able to have them up. I did snap a few pictures of the new curtains and wall sticker I was telling you all about... We have alot of browns, tans and blues in our living room....

(Old Picture)

Notice the cheap sheer curtains in the background of this picture??? Those ugly things were hanging when we moved in and we are about 7 months late on getting new ones but we finally did and we were both pretty pleased with the outcome. What do ya'll think?

We got the light blue tie backs to match the other blues in the living room colors.

I'm pretty into the wall sticker decor. I think they're super cute and can be used just about anywhere. Since we have such a tall head board I thought the best thing to put above it would be a wall sticker. Here is the outcome of that one...

We have plans to go to Florida for Thanksgiving next week. We are going to spend it with my mom's side of the family. I'm pretty excited since I haven't been down in almost 3 years. Isn't that crazy? Since we plan to be gone almost all week, we went ahead and decorated a little bit for Christmas this past weekend. We got the tree up in the living room and we also put one up in Tuff's room. I got pictures of the living room tree but forgot to take some of Tuff's.

We also decorated the table...

All we have left to decorate is the outside... which is my favorite part. I'm thankful to have a husband who gets into all the Holiday decor with me. My parents didn't do much decorating when we were little and Jordan's family was really into it.  I think that's why I crave doing it so much for Tuff. I love to see his little eyes light up when we pull into the driveway and he see's all the decorations we have outside the house. He really seemed to enjoy all the Halloween decor. So this weekend, we'll be starting on the outside! :)

The rest of our weekend was pretty relaxed. It was nice...

On another note, Jordan and I have been talking/praying alot about something that will definitely be a HUGE adjustment for our family in our (possibly near) future. We feel God has BIG plans brewing for our family. It's not really set in stone for us to talk about publicly yet, but please pray for us in the hopes that we make all the right decisions.

Hope everyone is having a fantastic Tuesday!

The Alford's

Tuff here!!!

Mommy said I could stop in to give everyone this big "clean" smile...

Along with a....

TGIF!!!!!

She also forgot to tell everyone yesterday that it was the 2 year anniversary of her finding out that I was in her belly!!!! How blessed is she to have me as her baby boy? I sure do love her and daddy and I hope they know it. Yesterday was also a special day for MeMe and Papa. They were celebrating 26 years of marriage. WOW! That's a LONG time. They must really be in love. I'm glad they loved each other that long cause if they didn't, I wouldn't have my mommy. :) Well, I better go. MeMe says I have to take a nap now. I hope everyone has a good weekend. I love the weekends cause I get to spend the WHOLE time with my mommy and daddy.

Love,

Tuff..

Delay

Sorry about the delay in posting. I've been a little blank the past few days. I thought this whole blogging thing would be easy since I have a job that doesn't really require much work but it's hard when you don't have much to say or much going on. I guess I can start with our weekend (even though it's almost weekend time again). Friday night we all relaxed. We had originally planned to go to town and run a few errands but when I got home from work Hubby was still sleeping, Tuff was whiney and I was exhausted from not getting any sleep all week. So, we had a night in. It was definitely much needed and I think we were all in bed by 10 pm. We were up and at it Saturday morning. We dropped Tuff off at BaBa's and headed to run our errands. While we were out, we got new curtains for the living room and I had ordered curtains for the kitchen earlier in the week that came on Thursday. I also ordered a wall sticker for above our bed that came earlier in the week as well. Can you guess what we did once we got home? Everything turned out good except the kitchen curtains. They didn't turn out the way I was thinking they would so I need to get my handy dandy mom over to check them out and see what she can come up with. If we can't come up with something better, we will probably be returning them and going with something different. I forgot to take pictures so I will try and do that tonight if I think of it. Saturday night, me and Tuff went with Mom to the Alumni game at the High School. The High School has a yearly alumni game where anyone who is alumni that use to play ball comes out and scrimages the high school team. Since football is now over and Dalton has started playing basketball, I went to watch him play. He actually did pretty good. He blocked out well and got a few rebounds. I was proud, as usual! :) Tuff usually does pretty good at the ball games but this night in particular, he decided he wanted to be a wild man. I was definitely ready to get home once it was all over. Here is a pic of baby boy with his love, Ada (baby cousin), in their matching Lions attire.

Sweet, huh?

Sunday we headed over to mom and dad's for a nice steak dinner to celebrate Bree's birthday. It was extra YUMMY and we all had a good time. I didn't take any pictures though. I had plans to take some more pictures of Tuff with our fall arrangement outside once we got home. I know I posted some a few weeks ago but 1. He had a football on his shirt because it was the only shirt he had that was a fall color and 2. He didn't smile or hardly look at the camera for any of them. Sooo... What did I do? I went out and bought him a fall colored shirt and drug him back out for another photo shoot. I say "drug" but really anything that involves outside, he loves, even if it means he has to take some pictures. Now that doesn't mean he's gonna show me a smile. Anyways, these pictures turned out WONDERFUL. Way better the last ones. Here are a few...

Now, I know he's mine, but ya'll can't tell me these are anything other than SWEET!!!! He did such a good job even though I hardly got any smiles out of him. (This is normal) He sure does have two PROUD parents that's for sure. He seems to be learning so much every day. It's crazy how much he actually "knows" and understands even when he isn't talking yet. We love him very much and we are extremely blessed to have such a beautiful and healthy baby boy!

This week has been pretty slow and relaxed. Not alot going on other than work and home. I did get our wedding pictures back and they turned out SO good. I'm working on learning how to get them on here using a slideshow since there is so many so stay tuned! Until then, here is a sneak peak....

Hope everyone is having a fantastic week!

The Alford's

A dreary, boring, sleepy kind of day but....

FRIDAY

I am SO glad it's finally Friday. I know everyone always looks foward to their Friday's but I was especially anxious for it this week. No particular reason. It's just been a looooong week. Today is also a very cold and dreary day. It's made me extremely unmotivated. Not that I have any specific reason to be motivated it just seems like it's making my day drag. I also just had lunch, which made me even more dreary feeling.

It's been a pretty boring week. (hints: the lacking of blog posts) Tuff is just now losing the runny nose but still isn't sleeping well. I am TIRED. I feel like I'm more tired with him lately than I was when he was a newborn. He's 15 months old. Isn't it supposed to be easier now? I wouldn't really call it "hard" but I am so TIRED. He use to have a routine which I thought was O.K. until he took advantage of it. Once we moved into our house (in March) he was sleeping with me. He had been for about a month. There are so many reasons why that is NOT ok so we decided to try the "cry it out" method. The first night in our house I tried it. After an hour of screaming bloody murder, streaming tears, and on going gasps for breath... I gave in. I told Jordan that night (he was working) that I had decided I couldn't do it alone. I needed him there with me for some motivation and someone to tell me "Just ignore him, he will eventually go to sleep." Jordan can do those kinds of things. He's good at not giving in. Especially when it comes to discipline. Anyways, I ended up getting lucky. Tuff got sick a day or two later and was NOT sleeping at all one night. I got so frustrated with him around 3 or 4 in the morning and finally decided to put him in his crib. He whined for a few minutes and went right to sleep. The next night I thought I'd try it again but at bed time instead. It worked! We never had to go through the whole "cry it out" method. From then on, he was sleeping in his own bed (crib). So... Back to his routine... So he's sleeping through the night but for some reason waking up every morning anywhere between 4 and 6. I started getting him and laying him in the bed with me and he'd go right back to sleep for another hour or 2. This is where the routine started. I looked at this as "snuggle time." Well the past month it's been getting earlier and earlier. So this "snuggle time" routine has technically turned into him sleeping with me half the night every night. He is now waking up every night between 1:30 and 3. Mostly being 1:30. I want so badly to start breaking this habit right away. The past few nights I've been going in, rocking him, and laying him back in his crib when he wakes up. I don't want him to start relying on that too, though. The only problem I have with nipping this in the bud is that I'm already so TIRED. Literally, exhausted. I don't know if letting him "Cry it out" is a good idea for me right now. If I were to get any more exhausted, I wouldn't be able to work. So PLEASE, if anyone has any suggestions, let me know.

We traveled to watch Westside play Auburntown last night. Tuff really seems to enjoy the basketball games and everything that's going on. He claps and yells and points and talks and mostly EATS. Every time I take him to a game he eats SO good. I'm thinking I need to try and find some type of game to take him to every night. Ha! He hardly ever eats good at home anymore... Both Westside girls and boys lost. Our niece Sydney got some playing time and she did really well. Courtland didn't get playing time at this game so maybe next game. I really enjoy watching all of our nieces and nephews play ball. It really takes me back and makes me miss those days oh so much. Basketball was the best time of my life.

We don't have to much planned for the weekend. My friend Kel is cutting buddy's hair tomorrow and Sunday we have dinner at Mama's for Bree's birthday. I'm glad for ONCE we don't have to much planned. Because as you all know... I'm TIRED. Haha. Hope you all have a fan-tabulous weekend.

Happy Friday!

The Alford's

Scary Scarecrow=Success!!!

Buddy was a perfect little scarecrow! I didn't know how well he'd do with the trick or treating scene since he really isn't the type to get into those types of things but he surprised us all. He did GREAT. He actually enjoyed the whole trick or treating scene. He walked right up to the door steps of each house and put that bucket right up in their faces. :) Here is a few pictures from our night...

Scary Scarecrow :)

Getting ready to go Trick or Treating

"Hey! He looks like me, Mom!"

"Let's see what kind of candy they got, dad!"

"Who is that?"

"Oh, it's my cuz, Jace!"

Stopping for a pose with MeMe, Papa, & Ada

Takin a break with Daddy

One more stop!

"I love cousin Dalty!" :)

The rest of our weekend was pretty calm. Our little scarecrow has had a runny nose since last Wednesday. I have been giving him benadryl but it just seemed to keep getting worse. We finally made a doctor's appointment yesterday and Dr. Collins verified a severe sinus infection. Poor baby boy! Needless to say, I'm still lacking sleep. I'll let you all know when I ever get to sleep again :(

Hope everyone is having a good start to a new week!

The Alford's