"Down in the dumps" blogger

Sorry for being such a 'poor' blogger this week. I will try to be better next week. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. I sure am looking foward to mine!

HAPPY, HAPPY Friday! ;)

Happy NEW YEAR & Gunner's 3 month pictures

2012 is here! This is the year the world ends, right? Haha. I kid. I am a true believer that no one knows when the world will really end. If it DOES end this year, I know one thing is for SURE... I have been BLESSED in my 25 (almost 26. EEK) years of life! Anyways, Happy New Year!!! We had a very low key New Years Eve/New Years Day! Our little baby boy was fighting the pink eye (in both eyes) and an ear infection. Poor bud. Luckily the big baby didnt catch it. Speaking of little baby boy, we got his 3 month pics back today. Here are a few of my favorites...

It's hard taking pictures of a baby at 3 months old because they are at that awkward stage where they can't sit up on their own and if you try to "prop" them up they slide and fall anyways. So I give kuddos to my friend Anita for being able to capture as many good ones as she did. And of course since he is mine, I'm in LOVE with them all. But I do have a few favs. I do know we have some stinking cute kiddos... after seeing these pics, that was double confirmed! ;)

What are ya'lls favorites?

I have to take a minute to brag on our sweet Gunner baby. He is officially sleeping SO much better. I guess I should say he's sleeping through the night since the Dr. would consider 6-8 hours straight sleeping through the night. But until he's sleeping as long as big brother, it's not sleeping through the night in our house. HA! Anyways, he's been sleeping 8-9 consecutive hours every night after his night time bottle. Depending on when he eats it, it's been awesome! Last night he ate at 7:30, went down at 8:30 and didn't wake til 4:30! WOOO HOOO!!!! Go Gunner Baby!

Gunner has also found his toes. Now that he's found his toes, he can't seem to get enough!!! Every time he's laying flat this is how he looks....

I think we have a little acrobat on our hands ;)

Happy Tuesday!

Candlelight for you, Nana!

My sister snapped this picture and I just had to steal it.

I love how both of our sweet boys are staring at the light in amazement.

As my sister said here, we all know Nana was there in spirit.

Bring on the New Year!!! :)

Christmas Eve & Christmas 2011

Our shopping trip on Friday afternoon was MUCH better than expected. I got off early at 2 and Jordan and I were completely done and back to my mom's by 6 to pick up the babies. I was pretty happy about that. I was expecting the lines to be the worst part and they weren't bad at all. The traffic on the other hand... wasn't so great! Saturday morning was spent mostly in the kitchen cooking & baking things for our Christmas Eve party at my sister's house. We attend the candle light service every year at my sister's church on Christmas Eve afternoon and then we usually go to a family member's home afterwards to celebrate Christmas together. The candle light service is my favorite part of Christmas Eve. It's something we've always done, no matter where we've lived, because it's something my NANA always wanted to do but also something we've all grown to love. We've always spent Christmas Eve with my NANA. It was hard her not being there this year. I kept trying to remind myself that she's having her best Christmas ever this year!

Tuff got some fun stuff from my family. Clothes, toys and this bad boy.

I think I was more excited about it then he was. While we were shopping I asked Jordan if he wanted to get him one and he replied with "Naw." I said "Why? I loved it when I was little." Anyways, we decided to pass. So I was super excited when he unwrapped it. Too bad he hasn't had ANYTHING to do with it yet. HA! I took it for a spin before we left my sister's house. I told everyone "it doesn't work as good as it used too." Definitely not because I weigh 100+ pounds more. I didn't take TOO many pictures at my sisters. And I didn't get any of Gunner. He was asleep not long after we got there. Poor Gunner always misses out on all the fun. We didn't even get to open his presents. We had to take them home and put them under the tree for Christmas morning. Here are some of the pics I did get.

Tuff opening his very first Christmas present for 2011.

Sit n' spin! YAY! ;)

Truck from meme & pa

Blocks from Uncle Kevin

Sweet Greer.

 He loved his Discovery Table.

Sophie. In her adorable Christmas-wear.

Harrison.

Tuff was excited about Santa Claus coming to see him Saturday night. He kept talking about him and he went to bed without a fight! :) He didn't forget to leave him some cookies and milk first. He woke up a few times throughout the night before Santa came and the first time he woke up he said "cookies." I told him Santa had not came yet (Jordan was up putting together his Santa gifts) and we had to go back to sleep. Then when it was finally time to wake up... he was sleeping like a log. We had to wake him up since Gunner woke up before him because I wanted them to be able to open gifts together and Gunner was due for a bottle 30 minutes after he woke up. Tuff was pretty excited when he saw what Santa brought him.

A Lightning McQueen Tricycle that says a ton of phrases in his actual voice from the movie.

He also got clothes, CARS 2 (since we could practically quote CARS we thought Santa should bring CARS 2), a CARS umbrella (he loves playing with my umbrella), a remote control Tow Mator, a buzz light year and a basketball goal with basketball. I might have left something out... but I did my best to remember it all. He seemed to enjoy everything he got. This was the first year he actually got into opening his presents. The only problem we had was him wanting to play with everything he opened before opening everything else. It was exciting. He LOVED his Tricycle the best. It took us a little while to get him off of it to open all his presents.

Buzz

Basketball goal

Loaded up and ready to drive off ;)

Gunner didn't rack up as much as Tuffy this year because let's face it. He's just too small. First of all, it's nearly impossible to buy for a baby so small. So we went with things he *needed* We did get him a play mat. So that was somewhat fun. Santa also brought him a high chair and new clothes. Here is what our sweet boy thought of all his stuff.

Getting ready to open (or watch mommy open) all his presents.

"Look mommy, a play mat"

(Mommy didnt want to be in the picture)

He LOVES his new high chair. Can you tell?

Right now he's really into trying to pull his self up and sit up so I think that's why he likes it so much. He can sit up and look around at everything/body.

Here he is sitting up in his boppy.

You can see how happy he is to be sitting up "on his own."

Hope you're Christmas was as Merry as ours!

Oh, almost forgot to post the note Santa left for Tuff.

(Couln't leave Snitch out of Christmas)

;)

Sick Day

Mom called me at work Wednesday around noon and said Tuff was running a low grade fever. I thought "wonderful." Nothing like a sick baby a few days before Christmas. I told her to keep an eye on him and let me know if he got worse. She called back around 4 when he woke up from his nap and said he was fever free. I knew we probably weren't in the clear though. I picked him up after work and we headed home. He was fever free all night and acted fine before bed. While I was up feeding Gunner at 230 yesterday morning Tuff comes trotting in. Burning up. I gave him some tylenol and got him back to sleep. He woke up around 7 burning up again. I figured it'd be best to go ahead and keep him home for the day. He didnt really do much that involved moving from the chair or couch all day. Poor bud. I really know he isnt feeling good when he doesn't get up and move around all day. I don't really know any 2 year olds that sit that still ever unless their sick. I hate seeing my babies sick. But I have to admit, I do love the extra snuggle time. He didn't sleep too well last night and he still wasn't back to his normal self this morning so I'm not sure what's up. I really think its something viral since he hasn't had any other sypmtoms. Let's hope so since it's the day before Christmas Eve. Anyways, we watched a lot of cartoons yesterday and Aunt Amanda brought by cookies.

Nothing a cookie and some E.E. (Curious George) can't cure.

I am at work today but they are planning on letting everyone leave early. Since everything is a secret around here, I'm not sure what time yet. The rumor is no later than 3 but we're all hoping they break down and let us go a little earlier. We'll see I guess. Jordan and I plan on getting all of the boys Christmas shopping finshed/done this afternoon. I'm not really looking foward to the last minute crowds but I'm praying it won't be too terribly bad. HA! We'll see.

Gunner Bear is still sleeping 8 hours after his night time bottle every night before he wakes for another bottle. This is a HUGE relief in our house. Praying it stays this way! Now if we could just get him to hold off until later to eat his night time bottle we'd be set. The child can't seem to stay awake past 7-7:30. He wants to be laid down so I don't know what to do to fix that. If he could eat at 8:30 and sleep until 4:30 for another bottle, this would be one HAPPY and rested mommy! :) Maybe Santa will bring me a sleeping baby for Christmas! Ha Ha Ha. Or should I say Ho Ho Ho.

Well I'm sure you won't be hearing from me until after Christmas so

Christmas Spirit

I'm getting giddy thinking about all the Christmas events coming up. :) I can hardly believe it's almost Christmas! Where did the month of December go to??? I haven't been taking any pictures this week but I did snap a few of Tuff infront of the tree the other night. For some reason he was really hamming it up for me.

(sorry about the quality, I took w/ phone)

I've been lazy about SNITCH the past week or so. He actually hasn't moved in over a week. That's my mommy fail for the week. :-/ The good thing is, Tuff isn't really old enough to FULLY understand the concept so he hasn't even noticed. Thankfully. I'm sure I won't be able to slide that easily next year. For some reason I haven't been feeling too good the past few days. I've been having headaches and feeling pukey. I think it may be the weather. Who knows? But I blame a lot of my laziness on that. It's been pretty nasty and rainy here the past few days. I don't think that is even supposed to be clearing up until a few days from now. Lucky for me and my headaches. Gunner is finally getting over his stoppiness. Thankfully. The night before last we had a first. And one of my favorite firsts! He slept from 7p to 3a. Wooooo Hooooo! Everyone kept saying maybe he will start sleeping better. I wasn't holding my breath. Good thing I wasn't because he slept like poo last night. Urgh. I don't know if Santa will be bringing him anything this year or not. I KID! I KID! Speaking of Santa..... We still have not bought ONE gift. We will do all of our shopping for the boys Friday afternoon. Nothing like waiting til the last minute, eh? I did find what I wanted to get for Tuff's gift from Santa today in the Toys R Us ad. The boy is obsessed with CARS right now. Check this bad boy out.

I just know he would LOVE it. It's regular $60 and today (only) it was 50% off. Well I'm sure you can all guess what happened when I called the store to see if they had any. Nope. Got online to look. Nope. Out of stock. No rain checks. Go figure. That's why they put it in their pretty little ad. Because they don't have any!!! You can't beat 30 bucks though. I would almost consider paying full price for it because I'm positive our CARS mania 2 year old would be ecstatic on Christmas morning when he sees it. I'll be talking it over with Daddy tonight. If Daddy says yes to the full price and they get them in stock before Christmas, you might be seeing some pictures of baby boy pulling this sweet wagon in the next few weeks. :)

I'm itching to get one of these and put together/decorate with Tuff.

Have any of ya'll done these this year? I'd like to make this a tradition for the boys. I was talking with my SIL's last night about getting together and doing them. But then when I got online to check out the prices I was like "WHOA!" $10-15 a piece for these bad boys. That could get expensive. Eh. I might still try and sneak out and get one for me and Tuff to do tomorrow or Friday night. :)

Is there any other last minute shoppers out there other than me??? What traditions do you and your families do every year for Christmas?

On another note, my cousin started a blog today. I'm super excited since I don't keep up with that Facebook stuff. You can check her out here @ Livin' La Vida Luke! (Sweet name huh? She came up with that one all on her own! Luke is their last name!) Anyways, stop in and see her!

Happy Wednesday, Friends!!!!

weekend & 4 months! :)

I realize I put "3 months" in my title. I have fixed it now. (For any that even noticed.) I guess I'm trying to go back and slow down time.

Friday night we went to cousin Dalty's ball game. Daddy wasn't feeling up to it so Aunt TT went with us! The game was complete chaos. The refs were horrible which caused Coach Rigsby to get a technical and after that it was over for our boys. Gunner Bear wasn't feeling to good and passed out not too long after we got there.

Nothing to serious. Just a stopped up nose. The 3rd one he's had in his 4 months of life. Ugh. I can already tell he's going to have his daddies alergies, too! (Tuff got that from Daddy as well.) He seems to be feeling some better today and his stoppiness has seemed to reside some. Hopefully in a few days he will be breathing back to normal again! Poor bud. 

Saturday morning cousin Harrison came over for a short play date. His mommy and daddy had a breakfast to attend at a local restaurant so we told her we'd keep him for a couple hours. Lots of fun was had...

Sweet cousins!

We didn't do much of anything else after Harrison left on Saturday. We all had naps. Made a trip to the grocery store and cooked a big dinner. We were all in bed by 8:30. Sunday morning we got up and ready to head to my uncle's Christmas musical at the church he attends. This musical was special to all of us, especially my uncle. When my Nana was in the hospital before her passing, my uncle repeatedly talked about his Christmas wish for her. His Christmas wish was for my nana to be at his Christmas musical. Since she couldn't be there, we all felt the need to be there. I know none of us can take the place of his sweet mother/my grandmother but we all love and support him just as much. We were very proud of him yesterday.

[Goodness, my big baby looks as big as me on my hip]

So... I'm not normally a big candy eater, especially chocolate. But who has had these Holiday treats?

OMG.

 There is just something about the special holiday candy. The chocolate and filling always tastes so much fresher than regular candy bars.

I think I've gained 5 pounds since I've found them.

Have ya'll had them? If not, DON'T. Haha.

As little as we did this weekend, I didn't get around to making Gunner's 4 month pictures with "the sign" like I usually do. He just hasn't been feeling his self so I didn't think he'd be up to it. Plus, he slept alot more than usual because he wasn't feeling well so I didn't really have a lot of time either. BUT, my friend Anita who came over and took his 3 month pics on Thursday afternoon did get a few edited. So I'm going to show you all the sneak peek as his "4 month pictures" since he was a day shy of 4 months when she took them. He will just be sign-less. I might still try and get some of him with "the sign" one day this week. Until then...

Gunner Blake,

You are 4 months old!!!

[a sneak peek image]

• You are eating 5 ounces of milk just about every 3 hours. I'd like to try and up the ounces so we could go longer than 3 hours but you usually won't drink more than 5 ounces except before bed time so I don't try often because I don't like to waste formula. For any mom's who formula feed, you know how expensive it is. Too expensive to waste.
• You have just started taking anywhere from 6-8 ounces for your bed time bottle with cereal. I usually make 6 ounces and if you act like you want more, I'll make more.
• You STILL are not sleeping through the night. You STILL wake up, like clock work, at 12 and 4 am for bottle. I'm starting to think you'll wake up to eat at these times for the rest of your life. All I can say is, I can't wait until your older so you can wake up and make your own self something to eat at those times. HA! This mama is TIRED. You can't tell, can you?
• We started cereal by the spoon about 3 weeks ago. You seem to really like the cereal but this face about sums up what you think about the spoon.

We also thought this would help you to sleep through the night. We were wrong.

• I decided to try some baby food last week just to see what you would think. You didn't like it. I tried green beans and sweet potatoes. You immediately spit them both out. We plan to really start trying daily this week. I sent bananas to MeMe's this morning and she said you did pretty good. Ate half the jar. I think we will start slow and go with just one jar of the same thing, weekly. You LOVE the bottle so I think this will be a big adjustment for you. Brother was different. He didn't love the bottle as much so he was ready for any and all baby food he could get.
• You are up to a size 3 diaper! I just switched last week. You are such a roly poly and your little legs are so chunky... the 2's were just cutting into you so we made the switch. They seem to fit so much better around your chunky legs.

[another sneak peek image]

• You are wearing 6 and 9 month clothing.
• You are still SO smiley all the time. You are such a happy baby.
• You are actually getting a tad bit better about being so attentive. You will actually sit in the swing or lay on the floor for at least 10-15 minutes. Every now and then... a little longer. HA.
• You are rolling from belly to back. Every time your on belly. You have been doing this for about 2 weeks now.
• Your eyes are always changing. I can't seem to figure out what color they are going to be. They go from blue to green to brown. Although I will admit, they are mostly green and brown. So I'm thinking they will end up being one of the 2. It's so odd since brother's were SO brown by the time he was your age.
• You are STILL loving big brother. When you hear his voice, you find him and follow him anywhere he goes. I'm certain ya'll will be best buds soon.

• You have really started to drool and naw on your hands alot lately. I was beginning to wonder if you might be cutting a tooth but I have't felt any knots on your gums yet so I'm not sure what's going on. I'm not a big fan of the nawing on your hands, though. You are constantly gagging yourself. I try to keep them out of your mouth as much as possible.
• You were giving me a FIT to go to sleep a few weeks in a row. I couldn't figure out what the deal was. I finally changed your paci because you would barely take the NUK we were giving you at all. The results = magic. Amazing what a bigger and longer nipple will do. You love it. Well I wouldn't say love... Not the kind of love your brother has for his (since he's 2 and a 1/2 and still has his) but you like it enough to help you get to sleep. And that's loving enough for me. You're also still loving the Lovey too. We call him "puppy love." :)

sweet boy ;)

• You've started trying to pull yourself up into sitting position this week. When I lay you in my lap, you will pull yourself up. I'd bet you'll be sitting up by the time you turn 6 months old. If not a little sooner.
• You're still sleeping beside mommy :-/
• You are still loving bath time. Wish I had the time to give you one every day since you love them so much.
• Dr. C called your case of eczema mild, but I'm starting to think it's gotten/getting worse. I hate it. I don't like anything that messes with your beautiful complection. I'm hoping it goes away sooner than later.
• Still hating your car seat. Oh me, it's exhausting listening to you scream in the car. It makes wanting to take you anywhere, impossible!

Newborn to 4 months in no time.

You're growing SO fast!

We are excited to be a family of 4 this year for Christmas! We are SO very blessed to have you in our lives. Mommy, Daddy & brother love you more than you'll ever know! Happy 4 months sweet boy!!!!!!!