Updates

I've been a horrible blogger lately. There really is no excuse other than laziness. Oops...

 

Life has  been crazy/hectic with a 3 year old (with lots of attitude) and a 1 year old (also with lots of attitude). Love my babies though. The boys are getting SO big. How about a little update...

 

Tuff has been back in school for about a month now. He is loving it. I can't even come close to telling you all how thankful I am for this. It was a long hard road getting him where he is. School has helped him to come out of his shell so much. He's talking so much more and interacting with people so much better. He's such a sweet boy! His smartness amazes me daily.

He still LOVES his mommy...

 

I get lots of "loves" throughout the days. I'm trying to hold on to this stage as long as I can. I'm sure it won't be long before he doesn't want as many "loves." 

 

 

As for Gunner Blake, he's had a lot going on. He just turned the big 1 and he's definitely got the brightest personality of both my boys.

 

 He's walking everywhere. He's got 6 teeth. 4 on the top and 2 on the bottom. He's still going to bed around 7 and he'll sleep from anytime between 6 and 7 am. He just had his very first hair cut last week and it makes him look like such a big boy....

 

 

Him loves to eat. I've never seen a baby so small who can eat so much.

 

And Gunner Blake's ALL TIME favorite thing to do....

Playing outside.

 

 

 

 

Life is good!

:)

 

 

 

Gunner's 1st Birthday party

We celebrated Gunner's 1st birthday this past Saturday, originally planned for the Saturday after his actual birthday but he was still sick so we moved it up a week. Everything went great. The decorations turned out better than expected and he was the perfect birthday boy!

 

 Here are some pictures from his big day!

(party was construction/dump truck theme)

 

cupcakes

decor

the kiddos playing

opening presents

he really thinks this toy is hilarious

posing with daddy, mommy & brother

taking a stroll in Gunner's new ride

cake time!

"Mmmmm dad, you want some?"

kisses for the birthday boy

getting messy

brother enjoying his very black cupcake

 

our little cake monster!

 

one with Meme and Papa

 

and one with Aunt Bree!

 

 

Thanks to everyone who came to be apart of our babies special day. And an even bigger thanks to Meme for all her help with everything.

 

 

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

 

Football, Fall & Hoodies... OH MY!

My favorite time of the year is quickly approaching...

Football, Fall & Hoodies!

Actually tonight, starts the high school's football season. My nephew Dalton will be playing again this year. We always enjoy going to watch him play football. He's really got some potential when it comes to the sport. I couldn't be more proud! I love him just like he's one of my own! I'm having Tuff a shirt made as we speak.

[Dalton: midnight madness picture]

A few more of my favorites for the FALL season...

COLLEGE FOOTBALL!!!!!

[2 weeks until first game]

Bonfires....

 Soup!

Pumpkin Patches with the kiddos

I don't know about ya'll but these are a few of my favorite things about FALL. I really start looking forward to all these things about this time every year and... I've already got the fever!

:)

HAPPY FRIDAY, Friends!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dear Gunner Blake...

This morning,

 1 year ago today,

I was preparing myself for the arrival of my 2nd sweet baby boy....

We got to the hospital early.

6 a.m.

I was nervous but excited to meet you!

At 12:01 p.m. the sweetest little 7 lb. 5 oz. baby was placed in my arms...

You were absolutely beautiful in every way.

We bonded for a good hour or maybe even a little longer while you laid on my chest reaching your desired temperature.

Visitors came and left within that hour. Including big brother...

MeMe, Papa, Baba, Poppy, Aunt April, Aunt Bree, Aunt Tori, Aunt Emily and lots of cousins...

The day was perfect.

YOU were perfect!

Mommy, Daddy and big brother couldn't have been more proud!!!

You will never know just how much you mean to me. I will always do my best to prove it to you, though. I look forward to watching you grow from a baby to a boy, from a boy to a teenager and from a teenager to a man! Always know that mommy loves you more than anything in this world and will always be here for you no matter what.

Today, we will celebrate your life.

Today, we will celebrate YOU!

Happy, Happy Birthday sweet boy!

Mommy loves you to the moon and back!

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!!!