Good Ole Days filled weekend

For starters, I AM still alive after our looong and crazy weekend. Barely, but I am. :)

Both pageants were a success. Neither Tori or Ada placed but that's not really what they entered for either. They entered for fun and fun is what they had. We worked hard all afternoon on Friday to prep Tori for her pageant Friday night. Everything turned out beautifully. Here are some pictures to prove it...

I was one proud sista! :)

Here are a few other pictures from our night at the Good Ole Days!

Having a bite to eat

And a mini photo shoot of my sweet boy, who's starting to look all grown up :(

Trying out mommys sunglasses

LOVE those kisses! :)

And he LOVES his mommy!

Ada was also a little sweetie in her pageant.

It was a long but fun weekend. Sunday we celebrated Ada's birthday at the park but that will be a later post! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!!!!

Wouldn't you love...

To win a cute monogrammed tee for your sweet miss or mister.

Hop on over to Megan's blog and check out the details to enter for a chance to win!

http://www.inthiswonderfullife.com/2011/05/giveaway-discount-monday_23.html



TGIF

First off, I'd like to wish my beautiful niece a Happy 1st Birthday!!!

[enjoying a delicious cupcake for breakfast this morning]



HAPPY FRIDAY!

HAPPY WEEKEND!

Bring on the festivities!!!

Only Thursday?

Is it really only Thursday? I know ya'll are probably thinking "You're crazy, tomorrow is Friday!" But this week has just drrruuuuuggg by for me. And this sweet baby...

[picture taken last night before bed time]

Must have been feeling the same way this morning. I knew it was going to be a long day for him when I went in to wake him up this morning. As soon as I touched him, I got a long, loud "eeehhhhhhh!" Followed by a mini fit when I started to dress him. Once we got to MeMe & PaPa's house it continued with a grip tight hold onto mama. He wasn't letting go of me, that's for sure!! Mom said that was his way of telling me he wanted to stay home today. Poor Bud! Sometimes I wish I could stay home with him every day! I know I would most definitely enjoy the all day lovin'. But for now, this mama is a workin mama!

We have a long eventful weekend ahead of us and every time I start to think of all the plans we have, I have to stop and inhale/exhale. Our small town is hosting it's annual "Good Ole Days" event this weekend and 2 members of our family are attending pageants/parade. I'm not sure how much I've mentioned my younger sister on my blog but she is 13 years young (going on 25) and she's entered herself in the "Miss Teen" pageant tomorrow night. Now, for most girls this may sound like something in the norm. But for my sister, this is taking a big step outside of her box. She's always been the quiet/stand offish type. So we were all shocked to hear that she was interested in something like this. Shocked, but happy! I'm excited to see her try something out of her "norm." Anyways, my weekend officially starts tomorrow at 2. I am taking off work a little early to be there for the preparation process and I am excited to be apart of it! :)

Here is a picture of me with my 3 sisters...

Pageant queenie is on the left of me.

Isn't she puuurdy?!?!

Good luck tomorrow night sista!!!!

Love you! :)

The other member of our family attending a pageant is attending one a wee bit younger. I'd like to introduce you all to a current runner up for the Baby Miss pageant....

Now if that's not enough cuteness for a possible 1st place, I'm not sure what the heck else is ;)

Good luck sweet baby Ada!

We'll be there cheerin you on.

Love you!!!

Following all the Friday and Saturday shenanigans, Sunday we will be celebrating the sweet girl above's very 1st Birthday party in the park! It should be a fun time for Ada and everyone else attending. It's so hard to believe this sweet girl is already turning one. I know I keep talking about how fast they grow but it really is unbelievable at times. It seems like just yesterday we were at the hospital awaiting her arrival. We've gone from

THIS:



to

THIS:

in NO time at all!

Happy 1st Birthday sweet girl!!!

I'll let ya'll know if I'm still kickin after Sunday. :)

Oh and I almost forgot....

 

A little pre-planning

Tuff will be 2 in less than 2 months. Oh my, where did by newborn baby go?

[minutes old]

It's hard to believe I'm already in planning mode for a 2nd Birthday party for our first sweet boy. He is getting so big, almost a little too fast. He's smarter than a whip and he's my WHOLE entire world. Not just a little bit, a piece, or most, he's ALL of it. I love him more and more with every day that passes. And my very most favorite thing about this sweet little boy of mine... He LOVES his mama. He loves his daddy and the rest of his family too but there's just something about Mama to him. :) And that my friends, is the best feeling in the world. :)

I am planning on doing a Blue's Clue's theme this year for baby boy. He's really into a few different shows right now but for the past few months his favorite has been "Blue's Blue's" (that's what he calls it). Since I know he's only going to be turning 2 and will probably never remember any of his 2nd birthday, I've decided not to "go all out" on a theme for a few different reasons. 1 being just as I said, he'll never remember it anyway. 2 being that I'm not a big fan of "themed" parties. I never really have been. Not sure why. I'd rather color coordinate some stuff and have a party. Which leads me to 3. being that I know in a few years, maybe even next year, he'll be requesting "themed" parties for every birthday until he's old enough to be out of that phase. Which is probably several years, if I had to guess. :) So.... I only plan on doing a few things in an actual Blue's Clue's theme, 3 to be exact. And the rest, I will color coordinate with. Here are a few peaks at what I'm leaning towards for my only 3 items that will be themed....

1. The Invitation- I don't want to ruin the suprise, so I'm not going to show any peaks of our invitation that we've decided on.

2. The Cake-

This is what I'm hoping for it to look like. I know things don't always turn out EXACTLY how the picture looks, but I'm hoping for something pretty close to this. I just LOVED it when I found it and I thought it was definitely not TOO much "themed" looking. It just looks like a little puppy dog to me. :)

3. Tuff's shirt for his party-

Last year, I bought 2 different shirts. One to coordinate with his actual birthday party and one for him to wear on his actual birthday (which was a different day than his party) that had a "1" on it. I ended up loving both. And since I liked the idea so much, I will probably do the same again this year. But here is a sneak peak of the applique for his birthday party shirt.

[of course it will have the #2 and Tuff on it]

So, not too much theme. Just a little. :) I have been looking around and starting my planning a little earlier this year. For a few different reasons as well. Last year I waited a little too long and stressed about everything at the last minute. I really wanted to avoid that this year. Especially since I'll be BIG and pregnant right around birthday party time this year. (9 months pregnant to be exact) :)

Still can't believe I'm planning for a 2nd birthday party. My baby is officially NOT a baby anymore. The good thing is, he'll always be a baby in mommy's eyes. Mommy's baby!



It's a good time for a new blog design...

Don't you agree?

If so, head on over to Purrfect Blog Designs and check it out. She is running a sale through Saturday.

Here is what she's offering...

Starting yesterday, Purrfect Blog Designs are $25 off!

ALSO, For the first 10 people that e-mail Patrice, she will take an
additional $10 off!  So you could give your blog a total makeover for $65
or $40…that’s a great deal!!

That’s not all.  During this sale, if 10 or more people sign up for a blog
makeover she will draw for a free blog design!!  You might be the lucky
winner and not have to pay at all except for the digital kit.

This sale began yesterday (tuesday) and will run through Saturday.

Email Patrice at jpdbj (at) dtccom (dot) net for more details.

26 weeks & an official END to the Name Game

I AM

26 weeks

[and a new hair cut, 5 in. GONE!]

[and here is the comparison of my 26 wks picture while pregnant w/ Tuff]

PREGNANCY HIGHLIGHTS:

How Far Along: 26 weeks

Size of baby: The website I googled said baby boy is currently the size of an English hothouse cucumber. He is also weighing in around 2 pounds and is close to 14 inches long.

 Total Weight Gain/Loss: My last appt still showed +3. I'm almost sure I've gained about 2 or 3 pounds since then. I don't like to use my scale at home because it's always off from the one at my Dr. office so I'm just guessing on the extra pounds.

Maternity Clothes: Almost everything is maternity except a few things.

Gender: It's a BOY!!!

Movement: Moving, Moving, Moving. Thats all this sweet boy wants to do. I wonder when he ever sleeps. And when I start wondering that, I start to get a little worried. :)

What I miss: I miss my wardrobe (haha), energy and sleep. I've come to realize how much the Unisom does help the past few nights. I ran out Sunday night and I haven't slept a wink the past 2 nights. Where as usually I don't sleep good, but without the Unisom, I'm not sleeping AT ALL.

Cravings: Haven't really been having any specific cravings lately.

Symptoms: Physical exhaustion. My doctor's office called last week and said my iron was REALLY low. So I think this may have been my problem with the exhaustion. They started me on iron pills and so far I'm feeling a tad bit better. But still tired. Maybe they'll kick in full force soon!

Best Moment this week: Coming up with an OFFICIAL name for our sweet baby boy!!! Finally!

Well, the name game has officially ended for us. I went home yesterday afternoon and told Jordan "I want a name for this child and I want it by the end of the night!" Haha. I've just been dying to call him by his name, rather than baby boy. Anyways, after about an hour and a half to 2 hours of going back and forth and debating.... we finally decided on.......

GUNNER

BLAKE

ALFORD

We will call him Gunner!!! And we went back to our original plan to go with Jordan's middle name (Blake) for his middle name. I am SUPER pleased with our decision! Especially since we decided to go with Blake as the middle name. You ALL know that's what I originally wanted from the beginning! :) I know you all probably thought Brooks would be IT, as did I.... But, Jordan just really didn't like Brooks. And even though he said we could name/call him that because it's what I wanted, I just couldn't settle with that. I wanted it to be something we BOTH liked. Afterall, he is the dad. It should be something we both agree on together. This has definitely been EXTREMELY hard. A whole lot harder than it was when we were expecting Tuff because we already had his name set in stone before we even knew he was a boy. I guess that's just the way it goes sometimes. But I'm proud to say our sweet little baby boy now has a name and can finally be called by it. Thanks for everyone's suggestions/support as we've tried to come to an final decision. We really have appreciated hearing everyone's ideas. It's definitely helped us during our whole deciding process.

I'll leave you all with some pictures of our sweet boy!

Loving his new bed and super cool bedding :)

Walking with Chopper

And cheesin for the camera as we head to MeMe & PaPa's house!

Happy Tuesday!!!