Today started out SLOW!! I was texting Cody by 9:45 am asking what was on the agenda for this evening. I was bored and hungry, well mostly hungry because I was bored! Anyways, I made a decision to get up and DO something! I got up and asked the kids (my two plus the other two I had today) if they wanted to color. OF COURSE they did. I got out the Aqua Doodle and also the crayons and paper. We went to town coloring! Then we got out the "dot markers", for lack of a better term, and polka-dotted away too. As if I weren't the best mom ever by that point (I'm laughing out loud!) I then decided to really get wild and crazy and get out the play dough. Our little buddy, Lucas, could not get past the fact that he thought it really was food. So, after the second red play dough between the teeth I decided that really was a little too wild and crazy for today. But, before that happened we rolled at least 15 snakes. They were mean ones too.....kept hissing and striking at me. I was lucky to survive! We had a lot of laughs and I had a lot of fun too. Funny how that works huh??

Safe to say that I didn't get anything done today around the house....but we did have a good day. Preston is really getting used to staying with me during the day and he didn't cry when his mom dropped him off, just walked right in ready to play! I finally figured out how to get him to actually eat his lunch as well. I let them watch a little bit of Cars right after lunch so he doesn't associate lunch with going straight to bed afterwards. Also, I never use the L word, I have to call it a snack so that he is excited about going to sit down at their little table! Don't know why that makes a difference, but he is ready and willing to sit at the table for a snack, but doesn't want anything to do with lunch!

Time Out

Ok, so I just had to share the cutest thing about my little man, Jace. He's almost 16 months old now, getting so big! Anyways, when he gets in trouble I usually send him to time out now. He's been going to time out for about two months now. Before then he would go sit with Jack whenever he had to go to time out so I knew he was probably ready for his own time out spot! Ok, back to the story... So, today I got onto him for getting into an arrangement that he knows he should not get into. So, I swatted him and told him that he knows he should not do that. He started crying and sent himself to time out! He's done that a few times whenever I have gotten onto him but not told him to go to time out. It's so funny. He sits there until I tell him to get up too. It made me laugh out loud today.

Also, I get my own time out again. We started back our Wednesday morning Bibly study with other moms of preschoolers this morning. We are doing "Victoriously Frazzled" by Cindi Wood. Thought I would share today's verse, "The Lord will fight for you. You need only to be still." Exodus 14:14 The lesson for today really showed me this verse in a very day-to-day helpful way. The Lord told me that when I get stressed or overwhelmed that if I would just pause to say a quick prayer that He will fight that battle right then, even if it only meant that he would give me patience, compassion, or understanding to get through that moment with peace.

I had a hot date today!

Ok, maybe not so much of a date as it was a "let's meet for lunch". But, whatever it was called, it was a lunch with my husband without any kids! I had a day off today because the boys and Preston (the little boy I keep) were in Mother's Day Out and the house I was supposed to clean today got cancelled at the last minute. So, instead I cleaned out my car, got my oil changed, HAD LUNCH WITH MY HUSBAND, cleaned out a few drawers and random spots at the house, and even went to get the cute little boogers early because I found myself missing them! What a few hours alone will do!!

Christmas Blur

Well, first of all forgive me that my blog template still says "Happy Thanksgiving". Not that I don't want you to continually give thanks all year round, but it's not my intent to leave it up that long!! I KNOW how to change it but can't seem to get this lovely computer to make my wishes come true. Anyways...

Christmas this year was a blur. Seems to go by faster and faster each year. I remember hearing my parents say things such as that, but didn't understand what they meant by that until I had kids. Jack (just have to know him) was not too terribly excited about Christmas this year. He is two and a half and doesn't get too terribly excited about many things. He's my laid back child. Jace, at 15 months, was still too young to understand. So, hopefully next year they will both be able to really get it and get excited about it.

We went to Cody's dad's in Dallas a couple weekends before Christmas and had their annual extended family gathering. Crazy Uncle Pat is always the entertainment for the evening. This year we added our family to the entertainment list. Somehow in trying to be a good mom I sat both of my children down in the only fireant hill on the property in an effort to try to get their hats and gloves on. Jack began riding around on a little truck of some sort and mentioned in passing that his neck hurt. He's at the age that you know he knows what he is saying but you still can't trust that he means it so Cody and I didn't think much of it. After he said it about 5 times and I actually HEARD it then I took him in the ManCave where there was light and saw that he had 3 fireant bites on his neck! I stripped him down to his diaper (mancave is a barn that is barely heated) slapping at the ants all the while. I think that Cody and I must have began to think about 'the other child' all at the same time because we grabbed Jace and began stripping him as well at the same time. Of course Jace had them in his hair, neck, arms, legs, you name it! We took them both inside, naked (or nakey as Jack says) only to find there really wasn't any medicine or cream for them. They both did amazingly well not scratching at them or crying. They got distracted by playing with the toys and were fine. I did have some spray lanacaine or something and Jace giggled every time I would spray him! That's my Jace!

On Christmas Eve the boys and I did last minute packing and baking that morning (it was a lot more frantic than that just sounded) while Cody was at work. He got off a little before noon. He came home, we did last minute things, packed up, and made FOUR stops before we could get out of town! Who can't leave town without stopping at Target, Bryant Water Dept, Gas Station, and Chick-Fil-A right? We pulled onto Gravel Ridge where my parents live in the big city of Alma around 3:30 that afternoon. We stretched, changed, then had to leave for my grandparents house there in town. We ate dinner and opened presents that evening. The boys got a home made two-sided tool bench that weighs about 100 pounds made by my brother! It sounds kinda scary, but it is really neat. My brother is a welder, so it's all steel! It is really big so they can grow into it. Jace has to stand on a stool to reach the work table. I had the idea to paint on one side "Jack & Decker" and on the other "JAce Hardware". I think it's pretty funny!

We left there around 7:00 or so to go home and get Santa's cookies and milk ready. My dad also reads the story of Jesus' birth from the Bible every Christmas Eve to the grandkids. It's pretty precious. He asks questions to make sure that they are retaining everything and is really serious about it! The kids went to bed and, as always, the adults hung a blanket on the ironing board in the hallway to deter any wandering kids during the evening! The rest of us "helped Santa" for a couple hours, took pictures of the final products, and got in bed before midnight! We had to wake up some of the kids around 7:00 am in order for them to line up in the hallway from youngest to oldest then run in and see what they got!

After breakfast we all got ready then the adults exchanged gifts. Then it was already time to prepare for Christmas lunch. After lunch we packed up the car and drove 3.5 hours to my Nana and Pop's house where we had dinner and exchanged gifts with my extended family of around 40 people! Kids draw names and adults play dirty santa. People always get upset because they're gift is not popular or someone makes fun of it or something! Traditions.....beautiful!

That night we drove home and put the kids in bed. My parents stayed with us as well as one of my sisters kids. Mom and I got up the next morning and went to clean an office building that my friend, Ashley, and I clean each weekend. Ashley met us there. Nothing like working the morning after Christmas! When we got done there we went back to my house and we all put up all of my Christmas in about an hour! It didn't get packed up as well as it came out, but it was gone! I am blessed to have such giving parents. They give me their time, money, food, blessings, legacy, etc. I can honestly say that my parents would do anything for me.

Then we waited on my sister to pass through town and we met her for lunch then all caravanned back to Alma to my parents house. Cody and I decided to go back there for the weekend. He was going to hunt (rain spoiled that plan, darn!) and mom and I were going to work on some grant-writing. We have started a 'company' for grant writing and fundraising services.

Whew! I'm tired just writing all that. I was exhausted when we came home on Sunday night. Then, we had company come on Wednesday to stay through Saturday, January 3rd! We love our friends Zack and Crystal and their precious girls Rylee, Avery, and baby-to-be!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Everybody! I pray that I will be a more disciplined person, more loving wife, and more Christ-like teacher for my boys! I also pray that you and your family will be blessed so that your cup runneth over!

Catch up!

Wow! I'm way behind in the blogging world! Oh, wait..... I'm way behind in the real world too! Seems to be a prevailing theme in my life! Behind in laundry, cleaning in general, fashion (what's that again?), cooking (ha!), getting to bed (it's after midnight right now), and pretty much everything else I could think of! I think I've decided that I can continue blogging, but that I cannot ready others blogs. It only serves the purpose of reminding me how good other mothers are at things and how ill-prepared I am to be a Godly teacher to my children. I'm just not a teacher at heart and those things do not come to me naturally. I don't naturally make teaching moments out of everyday tasks, situations, etc. I don't know all the catchy songs for clean-up time, being patient (thanks Ash!), and learning the days of the week (Nat).

I don't have the cutest clothes for my kids, I don't get the cutest pics taken of my kids, I don't make gingerbread houses with them (seen two blogs in the last 10 minutes with pics of theirs), I don't even get pics of my kids in the blogs! Maybe these are things that will begin to come more naturally to me as the boys get older (have to keep reminding myself they are only 1 and 2). I want to be an example to them and not just someone who tells them what they should be doing. This means I need to have my life in order. I don't have the answers, except that I need to be spending more time with God. He has the answers and He's not hiding them from me....if I spent time looking for them I know He would reveal them to me.

Illnesses

Seems like it's that time of year for EVERYTHING to be passed around from snotty nose to snotty nose! Today is day 3 for Jace to have a temperature averaging 103 degrees. Doc says it's a fever virus and there's nothing to be done for it, go figure! That poor guy has been coughing and having a snotty nose for over a month now. He has been on an allergy medication which didn't help, Amoxicillin which didn't help, and today we're trying Omnicef to see if we can get rid of his upper respiratory infection. He's so pitiful laying in our laps ALL day long. I don't blame him, when I have a temperature at all I want to be in my pajamas and lay in bed all day too!

Also, my Nana is having surgery tomorrow to try to remove as much of her cancer as possible. She was initially diagnosed with ovarian cancer about 4 months ago. She has been receiving chemo treatments and has had a really tough time with them. They have decided that it's time to go in and remove as much cancer as they can. We now know that she has cancer not only in her ovaries, but also in her abdominal wall and in her lungs. Her husband, my Pop, has been sick off and on for the past couple of weeks with a fever and such. He is in the emergency room tonight (in the same hospital where my Nana is) with fever, chills, chest pain and some other scary symptoms. My family is not telling my Nana that he is in the E.R. She just thinks he's with family at a house in Little Rock and that he can't be with her because of his fever. It's so sad to watch them get old and have so much trouble. Please pray for them.

ABC's and 123's

Last night Jack, unprovoked, finally put all the letters together and said his ABC's to the very end. Neither Cody nor I asked him to do it but we both noticed it was happening about half way through it. Normally I say a letter or two and he says about 5 or so and then I add a letter and he continues and so on. But, this time he did it all! The only letter he missed was 'E' but he misses that one every time. Also, the L M N O P was more like "eliminopeee", but what two year old gets it all right, right? Anyways, it was fun and we got out the video camera and did an 'update' as I call them. My updates are where I realize one day that it has been a while since we videoed the boys. So, I get out the camera and press record. I announce the date and how old each of them are and just interact with the boys. Jack did say his ABC's for the camera with a little bribery!

Quote of the Day.....

I was just looking at my friends' blogs and linked off of one of theirs to another one and found this quote. Thought it was worthy to pass on, so here goes...

"Woman was created by the rib of man: Not from his head, to be thought of only, nor from his hand to be owned, nor from his foot to be beneath, but from under his arm to be protected, from his side to be equal and from his heart to be loved."

Perfect!

Just some pics of the summer and Jack's first day of Mother's Day Out in September! I just got my camara fixed, so I'll actually be putting pics in my blogs now! We went to my Aunt Amanda's in Hot Springs one day this summer and had the pool to ourselves! So, the only way I could take pics was to put them in a float or on the side of the pool!

My Kids

I have to admit that I am now realizing the benefits of having my children so close together. Jack is now 28 months old and Jace is 13 months old. As I am typing, Jace is hiding in the corner and Jack keeps running up to him and saying, "Pee Pie" and Jace just laughs hysterically! They really are starting to play well together and love on each other. It's pretty fun to see one of them lay down in the floor and the other one come over to lay their head on top. They typically do not take toys from each other (but they have NO problem taking toys from other children) and they are pretty loving towards each other. Jace is extremely mobile now that he learned to walk about 3 or 4 weeks ago.

Jack is in a big learning phase right now. He recognizes letters on road signs, tells me, "Momma don't run over that tree" or car, or person, or whatever he happens to see in or next to the road. The other day Jack and I had a day alone together and we went shopping! While we were in Linens 'N Things (which the Little Rock store is going out of business) he was in the cart. I was backing up out of an aisle and he said, "Momma watch out for that lady!". There was an older lady in the main aisle behind us. She laughed and said something about how cute kids are.

Jace has an attraction to the TV remote and can always find it no matter where we have put it. I just laugh when I look down to see him "running" as best he can off to a corner or another room once he finds it and snatches it! He has started stomping his feet when he wants something. Not in a throwing a fit kind of a way, but in a getting my attention and letting me know he wants something kind of a way. It's pretty cute, I think! He's my baby and I hope to keep him that way for a while! I still rock him to sleep and as soon as I lay him on my chest to start rocking I always ask if he wants momma to sing to him. He always grunts and shakes his head 'yes'. I love it.

Halloween

Just wanted to share about the fun the boys had this Halloween. The boys are in Mother's Day Out at our church on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This past Thursday was October 30th, so they all got to dress up in their costumes and "trick or treat" around the church offices and the staff all gave them something in their bags that the teachers made for them. One of the teachers and a friend of mine, Kristen, took pics of them all and had them developed in a one hour lab so all of them had a frame with their pic in it from that day! They were adorable!

Friday Jack and I were talking about how it was Halloween and that we were going to be trick-or-treating that evening. He asked if "miss mewanie" (Mrs. Melanie) was going to be going with us. I told him that she was not, but that daddy was coming home and was going with us. He started crying and said he wanted Mrs. Melanie to go and that he did not like daddy! He's started saying that he doesn't like people lately???

Guess I should say that the boys both went as Cowboys this year. Jack wanted to keep his hat and all his gear (chaps, hankerchief, etc.) on because he was a "real cowboy". Jace threw things off faster than we could get them on him. He was supposed to be a horse, but an ebay mishap made me redirect and just do both of them as cowboys.

We went to our church Fall Fest on Friday night just in time to miss the costume contests with all his friends in it. We let Jack play for a little bit in the bounce-arounds and that sort of thing, then we left to actually go trick-or-treating. Jack enjoyed going up to all of the houses and getting candy but he wasn't actually that interested in talking to them. He just wanted to hold his bag open and have them drop in the candy, then turn and do it again at the next house! It was pretty funny. We didn't really get Jace out of the stroller to go up to the houses much. He didn't have a clue what was going on.

Hope you all had a great Halloween. It's much more fun for me now with kids!

Pigtails and Crewcuts

After the boys went to mother's day out today and I was finished working, Cody and I took Jace for his first haircut! I'm pretty sure that when your little boy's hair goes halfway down his back when it's wet in the bathtub that it's time! Jace turned 13 months old today, just had that revelation as I was typing! Anyways, so we took him to a new Kid's Salon in West Little Rock called Pigtails and Crewcuts. It's the cutest little salon. They sit the kids in cars that are barber seats to cut their hair. We paid for the first haircut package and therefore got a photo of him after his cut in a really cute card that also included his first lock! We took pics and again....wish you could see them!

Sales and Slaughters!

Cody is taking off of work all this week and he began his vacation early by hunting all this past weekend. So, that means that I have the boys by myself all weekend. Normally, it would have been fine.... not ideal.... but fine. But, this weekend was the Inviting Company semi-annual clearance sale!! I can't AFFORD to miss a sale! So, Natalie and I decided to hit the sale at the last minute. It opened at 9 am Saturday morning and by the time we got all four kids (yes we took all four kids to the warehouse sale) ready we made it to North Little Rock by 10:00 am. When we drove up there was no place to park in the parking lot or in front of the warehouse or up and down the street! We circled and hovered and found a front row spot! Good thing because I didn't want to haul the kids in a mile or two!

We piled out of the car and put the kids in two double strollers and headed inside. The aisles were packed with vultures! There was no room to maneuver the strollers because of the LINE of women waiting to check out! Natalie is a fierce shopper and I was not about to lose that challenge so off I went! First stop: Christmas cards to put pics of the boys in and send to friends and family this Christmas. Check! I found them within the first 10 minutes!

Second stop: Invitations for the boys' birthday parties for the next four years! Check! They had the cutest invitations that I actually planned out a few years worth of parties in my head and found corresponding themed invites! And, just so you know you don't have time to count out exactly how many you need, you just grab a stack and keep going! I could continue on with everything I got, but lets just list them instead: Valentine's for the boys to hand out for a couple of years, "We've Moved" cards for just in case, "J" stickers for envelopes of the boys' thank you notes, Christmas "to" and "from" labels, a t-shirt that actually has jace's name on it, a tu-tu for my niece for Christmas, 3 cases of Christmas paper plates and 2 cases of matching napkins, and I think that's it! And, the kicker is that I left without even handing over $25!

Oh, and I skipped over the part where we realized that the line was a 2 hour wait so Natalie took her kids and Jack to McDonald's playland for an hour while I stood in line with Jace! Wow, what an experience! Then we went to the park and let the kids play before heading home for naptime!

Saturday evening I hit Kohl's and got the boys' Christmas p.j.'s a fall shirt for Jack and three shirts for myself all under $60! 2 sales in one weekend!

On to the Slaughter portion... Cody came home late Saturday night and was upset because he had seen 3 deer on Saturday morning but did not have a necessary part of his gun (he assumes he lost it walking out to the stand). So, he WATCHED the deer on Saturday. Sunday morning we all got up and went to church, as usual. Most of the men were in the deer woods, but Cody made the decision to go to church and then go hunting that evening! I think that it paid off for him because he shot a buck Sunday evening! He called to say that he was going to be a while because he had shot one and was going to have to do whatever you do to the deer to get it ready. I decided to take the boys out to him and take some pics of them with Cody and the deer. The pics turned out great, wish you could see them! haha I'll get some up later, we're having camera difficulties right now!

Time for change... just something I want to share

Ok, so I went to a ladies retreat tonight at my church. I got in at the last minute, but I really was excited to go. During Praise and Worship I was singing but also praying, "Lord change me.". It's a theme I've had on my mind a lot lately. I really am hungry for God's word and longing to do His work and just become deeper in my Christianity. I have been complacent for many years. I grew up in church, was "saved" at an early age, and faith comes easily for me. I don't blame God when bad things happen, I don't doubt God's plan when things happen. But, for that reason it's hard for me to be passionate in my Christianity and my walk with Christ. It's not that I don't think that dying for ME is awesome, I just have a hard time getting really pumped about it like so many others seem to do easily.

So..... anyways back to the retreat..... after Praise and Worship the speaker (whom I have heard before and really loved) began and I pulled out my outline to follow. I am one of those who is anal about filling in blanks which she spoke and laughed about! The title for our study, I noticed, was "Change...nothing catches God by surprise". It sure caught me by surprise. I thought, "thank you Lord for providing exactly what I need". I was amazed to find out that the woman in our church who orchestrated this retreat had asked our speaker to talk about Change way back in the summer! I guess I can look at it one of two ways, either it's taken me a long time to hear God telling me I need to change or He's just been planning to let me know I need to change for a long time!

I'm not great with words and I know this is a seemingly small thing, but I was moved. I'm learning that I can become passionate for Him (and therefore change) but only if I want to and also if I pay attention to the avenues He puts in my life for me to learn.

Just something I wanted to share.

I'm new at this..... as you can tell

Ok, so the blogging desire has finally overcome me and here I am. I can't continue to just read my friends blogs and wish I had one.

Guess I should start out with a little bit of background info. My husband, Cody, and I met in college. We married before my senior year and have now been married for 7 years! We waited a while to have children, but now have a 2 year old and a 1 year old, both boys!! Jack was born June 23, 2006 and Jace came along 15 months later on September 21, 2007. Jack is the compliant and mostly laid back easy child. Jace, on the other hand, started out in this world as quite the tornado! Now that he is mobile (and may I add learning to walk this week!) he is playing better on his own and becoming as easier child.

We made the decision for me to stay at home with the boys when Jace was born. So, I have now been "at home" for a year now. They just started going to Mother's Day Out at our church on Tuesdays and Thursdays for a few hours while I earn a little money! But, no matter how much money I earn we continue to stay broke! My biggest struggle is to be content and not worry about keeping up with the Jones'. Cody is in Construction and has a degree in Construction Management. I'm not giving you a job title because I'm not quite sure what it is to be honest! He does a little Project Managing, a little Estimating, and a little bit over probably pretty much everything else. He is good at what he does and I am proud of how hard he works for our family.

I imagine that I will figure out how to make my blog look pretty and actually add pics and those sorts of things at a later date. For now this will have to do! I hope to reconnect with old friends and learn about their families and meet some interesting new people as well!