Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, Back to school we go!!!

Tuffy has been E-X-C-I-T-E-D about going back to school. We've been talking a lot about it over the past weekend and throughout the day yesterday! When he woke up this morning, he was wild ready! We got dressed, did our hair, brushed our teeth, ate our breakfast, packed lunch, packed back pack, took a few pictures and headed out the door.

Doesn't get much sweeter than this!!!

He talked about school all the way to school. When we got there he said he wanted to wait for Jace. We sat in the car and as we sat, I watched all the new children and their parents and remembered back to Tuff's first day last year. I can't believe it's been a year already. Time really does fly! I'm so thankful he grew to like school, all his new friends and his teachers.

 Here's a little flashback from last year on his first day...

He looks so little and a little less excited! ;)

As soon as Jace got there this morning, he was done! He grabbed his hand and said "Come on Jace, let's go!" And they never looked back! I may or may not have had a harder time holding back the tears this year than I did last year....

My baby isn't a baby anymore! He's a big boy! And I couldn't be more proud of him!!!!

Happy first day of school baby boy, mommy loves you!

Gunner Blake has been sick all weekend! We're going on day #4 with fever and day #3 with barely anything to eat. He's looking and acting pretty pitiful!

 I stayed home with him yesterday and took him to the DR to find out it is just a virus and we just have to let it run it's course. But man is it hard to see them sick and pitiful! Poor bud!

He'll be 1 on Thursday and we'll be celebrating his birthday party on Saturday. Hopefully he's feeling better by then!!!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful week!

Happy Tuesday!!!

Life lately.

Life...

Lately....

Has been full of lots of firsts, laughs & giggles, tears & tantrums, snuggles, hugs, kisses & love!

Life lately.... couldn't be much better!

The boys have been enjoying their summer (that's quickly coming to an end) at MeMe & Pa's. Tuff has been out of summer school for a few weeks but the regular school year will start back up next Tuesday. He's more than ready. Talks about it daily. I'm not so sure Gunner will be ready for it. He tends to get a little lonely without big brother.

We've been keeping extra busy with....

a little shopping

a little outside fun

a little visiting with mommy at work

a little football scrimmaging (nephew)

a little tongue discovering

a little sweet posing

and you know it always ends with a little DR visiting....

Speaking of DR appointments... I had to take Tuff in yesterday for a possible bladder/kidney infection. He's been having some issues the past week with going potty. He'd been going alot more frequently and acting like he couldn't hold it. Then when he'd finally get to the bathroom, he'd barely go. He's also been waking up in the middle of the night whining/crying and getting up to go potty. Again, when we'd get in there, he'd hardly do anything.

Dr. C said his pee was clear from a bladder infection but since he was having these issues he wants to get a sonogram of his kidney's just to be safe. He tends to think it could just be some kind of phase he may be going through but my mommy instincts are telling me something different. The nurse should be calling sometime today to schedule his sonogram. Hoping everything checks out ok but if not, will be glad to get the problem taken care of. When I left there yesterday I was thinking the same thing as Dr. C about it being a phase. But when we got home I decided to watch him pretty closely. He didn't drink hardly anything last night. I think the last thing he had was at 6:45 p.m. (which isn't usually normal but we had somewhere to go). When we got home around 8:30 he peed outside, a pretty good amount. Then he peed again right before bed around 9:30. 4 and a half hours later, he peed in the bed. This is something he NEVER does. That's why my mommy instincts are telling me something may be wrong. I guess we'll find out soon.

Gunner Blake has just been hanging out. We've not had to go to the DR for him since before his tube surgery! ***Keeping my fingers and toes crossed!*** He's been taking 4 or 5 steps here and there. Eating ALL the time. I don't know if I've ever seen a child that likes to eat the way he does! :) Still LOVES his mommy, but also LOVES his daddy and big brother, too!!! Pretty sure we might be his 3 favorite people... Papa following close behind! :) He will be ONE a week from today? Where has the time gone??? We will be celebrating our sweet boys 1st birthday next Saturday! I'm not so sure I'm ready for ONE. It flies by so quickly, that's for sure!

Happy Thursday, Friends!!!!!

A Saturday night full of reminiscing

Saturday night I hosted a 12 year reunion. I know you're thinking "why 12 years?" But we did things a little different. We had a "grade school" reunion when most of the time people only do High School reunions. In the county I'm from, grade school goes from K-8th grade and there are 6 grade schools in the county. These are the people we grew up with for the first 12-13 years of our lives. A while back some people starting putting old pictures up on Facebook and tagging everyone so we decided then we wanted to get together. What better way than to have a reunion? We missed a lot of people but for the most part, we had a wonderful turn out. We catered BBQ/wings with all the fixings and we played lots of cornhole and mostly enjoyed each other's company. I didn't take any pictures but a lot of friends did and here are some of my favorites.

Me and Kimbery Jean.

 Me and Lane!

 The Woodland boys.

 The Woodland girls!

 The whole crew minus a few!

It was a fun night and everyone really seemed to enjoy themselves! We are even talking about trying to do it yearly from here on out.

It's Monday again and I'm not really looking foward to another long work week. But since I don't have a choice, I might as well make the best of it.

Happy Monday!!!

Wordless Wednesday

(ordered a week or so ago, arrived yesterday)

Happy Birthday to our BIG boy!

 :)

Birthday Planning & growing up!

Gunner will be turning one in less than a month. Did I really just say that? My baby is going to be ONE! I have been stalking browsing Pinterest and Etsy A LOT over the past few weeks. Everyone wants their first childs first birthday to be perfect. I have looked and looked and looked at different ideas. The best one I could come up with... construction theme. I was leaning towards rainbow or construction and after I was told rainbow is a little, uhm, "girly-like" I decided I better go with construction. Here's a peak of what I'm leaning towards...

picture from:

 http://catchmyparty.com/photos/439947

Love, Love, Love the pom poms hanging from the ceiling. Love the Mixture of orange, black and yellow. I feel so overwhelmed looking at the picture that I'm not even sure where to start. HA! The birthday shirt he'll be wearing is being made as we speak. Once that is finished, I will have his picture made in it for his invitations. That's a start, right? Now I have to find an invitation I like enough. That has been harder than deciding on a theme! It'll all come together before party time.

I have been horrible about blogging lately. So sorry. Summer time, vacation, outside activities and lots of fun in the sun has kept me away from blogland quite a bit. I promise to try and do better. I know I posted a little about Tuff on his birthday last week. I'm sure you're all wondering what my little Gunner has been up too....

Well, like I said he'll be ONE in about 3 weeks. He has a total of 4 teeth. He is crawling, pulling up on everything, standing up on his own and even climbing! Yes, you heard right, the child climbs on everything!!! It's exhausting trying to keep up with him. I have a feeling he is going to be my wild child. He has actually (and thankfully) been sleeping better. He mostly sleeps all night without waking up and lately instead of waking up at 5:30, he's been sleeping until around 6:30-7. It's been nothing short of amazing for this mommy!!! :) :) :) He still absolutely positively LOVES his big brother. He laughs and laughs at him. He follows him everywhere and loves to play with him any chance Tuff will let him (that's a whole nother story). Here's a few pictures of my mischievous little mess....

Upset cause he got caught!

Playing in the Tupperware cabinet

"Hey mom!"

A little more climbing

Riding in the dump truck

But this....

 makes it ALL worth it!

Tuffy is spending his last week at summer school this week. He'll have a little break before he starts the regular school year on August the 14th. I love to see how far he's come since the beginning of last year's school year! He loves school and asks for it on the days he doesn't even have school. He just kisses me bye and walks right in with NO tears when I drop him off. He's getting so big. Don't let this sweet little face fool you, though........

He's definitely hit the terrible 3's stage! You hear so many people say "terrible 2's." For any parent who is dealing with the "terrible 2's" let me tell you something.... You ain't seen NOTHING yet! 2 has absolutely nothing on 3! We have been dealing with lots and lots of rebellion. Some days I wonder if I'm going to make it to the end of the day. This past Sunday being one of those days. We butt heads ALL day and it didn't matter what I did, he was still looking for the next thing to do/get into. To say it was a stressful day, would be an understatement!!!!

But when we laid down for bed and I heard that "wuv you mama!" in the sweetest little 3 year old voice I'd ever heard... the stress was gone in an instant! God is good. Good at making you realize how worth it, it all is!!! No matter how much we butt heads, he knows mommy loves him and mommy knows he loves me!

BLESSED....

 that is what I am!!!!!

:) :) :)

Other than taking care of my sweet babies and working all week, we haven't been up to much of anything else. I tried a new recipe off pinterest last night and it was DELICH! Check it out....

Sour cream noodle bake

(click on name for link to recipe)

Happy Tuesday, friends!

3 years, what?!?!

My first born turned 3 years old this past Saturday.

Gosh, I swear he was JUST this little a few weeks ago...

I have SO many words... I'm not even sure where to start.

I'll start by stating this, my feelings for this sweet boy run deeper than deep. Why wouldn't they? He changed me in an instant from a woman to a mother. Once he entered this world, my life was forever changed by his sweet face, tiny hands, tiny feet and tiny body.

All the nervousness was gone after they placed him in my arms for the first time. It all came naturally just as every woman will tell you when you're pregnant and you're unsure of what to expect. All I remember thinking was "this is real. this real life baby is mine!" From that second on I have NEVER loved anything or anyone more than this sweet boy & his brother! Sometimes I think my heart could BURST it's so full of love for my babies.

Life is hard. Life is really hard.... But there is absolutely nothing I can't handle with the love of my boys! Every day is worth living when I can wake up to the sound of "mommy" and "ma-ma-ma-ma" The Lord has truely blessed me with 2 of the sweetest babies ever and I could never thank him enough!

Happy 3rd birthday to my very first baby boy! The baby boy who made me "mommy!"

I love you with all my heart & soul!

We're Back!

Sorry for the HUGE delay in posting. We were on vacation until this past Saturday and I pretty much took a vacation from the blog world too. We headed towards FL on the afternoon of the 29th. It was a MUCH needed trip that went by way too quickly.  :) Here's a little of our trip to FL in pictures.

Beach Day

Family time on the porch @ night

On our way to the river

Pool time

Pancakes @ G.G.'s. YUM!

Meeting sweet Zoe for the first time :)

Celebrating Independence Day!

Pictures of all the grand children and great grand children with Papa...

....And with G.G.

Chuck E Cheese

...and the after affects....

I think everyone was getting a little homesick by the time we were pulling out and heading home on Friday night. We had a wonderful time with great family and friends! Looking foward to our next vacation now! :)