Life Happens

All work and no play? Not for us

2011-01-22T21:08:00.019-05:00

An impromptu trip to the park on Wednesday afternoon was the last thing I felt like doing after working for ten hours but it was exactly what we all needed. I was tired and they were grumpy and whiney and they wanted to go the park. So we went. I got some great pictures of them and they had so much fun.

This little sweetie is officially potty-trained starting this week! Yay!

The sun was setting fast so we didn't have time to play long. Even though we were all tired, this trip to the park was very enjoyable. Sometimes it's important to slow down and have some fun. Everyone should try it!

Oh, snow?!

2011-01-16T13:17:00.007-05:00

Last week we had some ice/snow/really cold weather. It started Sunday night so we enjoyed two "snow" days at home on Monday and Tuesday. It was mostly just ice but it looked like snow. It was really pretty and we never get weather like this in the middle Ga area so it was a BIG deal. All the northerners were laughing at us. We took the boys out for about 20 minutes and let them play in it. They loved it. Here are some pictures, of course.

Such fun pictures! I wish the "snow" would have stayed around a little longer. Maybe it will visit again soon.

Holiday Randomness

2010-12-27T18:08:00.035-05:00

Can you say, 'holiday hangover'? I am definitely suffering from one right now and it's great. The last five days with family, friends, and Christmastime fun have been absolutely wonderful. We are truly blessed to have such great family and friends and holidays always make me appreciate everyone of them.

Look at all of these boys! Poor Emileigh is the only girl right now!

My Beautiful niece, Emileigh

Two of my four sisters, Crystal and Caitlyn

Me and my Grandma Janet- my Dad's mom

More boys!

My sister Crystal and her son Eli

Baby Cohen- my cousin Ashley's son

Santa came!

I hope everyone had a great holiday with their families. This is such a great time of year. I can't believe it's about to be 2011. Wow!

Busy BLAH

2010-12-18T23:07:00.011-05:00

The past couple of weeks have been SUPER busy. There are not enough hours in the day for me. With this new job I am always on the go. Getting the boys to school, going to work (til dark), picking the boys up from school or Nana and Papaw's, and then coming home to figure out dinner, get the boys bathed and in bed, and the day is over. Phew! I'm tired from just writing about it. The weekends are definitely more important to me than ever before. Because me and my boys finally get some play/hangout time. :)

Really looking forward to next week. It should be short and very sweet. Lots of family holiday fun! Less work, more family time= a happier me!

Ok, I just HAVE to gloat for a moment. Because I got my grades back from this semester and I did really good. Five A's and one B!!! I am so proud of myself! I worked hard for it! That's all the gloating I have.

I hope everyone reading this has a great holiday with their family this next week. I know I will soak in as much as possible.

Here are some pictures, of course!

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, Back to work I go...

2010-12-05T10:03:00.003-05:00

By "work", I mean an actual job outside of my home. There's still plenty of work left at home and I'm not just now going "back" to it.

I just got a new job and I start tomorrow. So many different feelings about this. First of all, I am very thankful that I found a job and will be able to contribute a little money to our family (emphasis on the "little" part.)

Secondly though, trying to juggle school, the boys, homework, housework, and my husband these past few months has been really tough and now I'm adding a job on top of it all. ANOTHER job.

Am I crazy?

Hopefully it will all work out and be fine. *fingers crossed*

Guess who's Four?

2010-11-28T22:29:00.011-05:00

My sweet "baby" boy Carter will turn four on Tuesday. It seems that every year I can't believe he's another year older. He is such a precious little boy, my first born. His life has changed mine in so many ways- and they are all wonderful! I cannot be more thankful to have Carter and Carson in my life. Motherhood is AWESOME! Happy Birthday Carter Mikey!

We celebrated Carter's birthday at Monkey Joes! So many family and friends came. It is great to see how much Carter is loved by everyone. :)

Hope everyone had a great weekend, we did!

I'm a loser!

2010-11-22T21:41:00.008-05:00

Carter is at the age where he wants to "win" at everything he does. He wants to be the fastest, the best, the winner. He and Carson make everything into something that one of them will win- eating, running, racing toy trucks around the house, etc. Well Carter usually wins because he's older. So when he does win he says, "I'm the winner!" And he tells Carson, "You're the loser." Not in a mean way just sort of matter-of-factly.

Well the other day we were getting ready to leave the house and I told them both to go wait by the door. Carter made it into a race and yelled, "I'm going to be the winner!" And Carson replied, "I'm a loser!" It was so cute. He obviously doesn't know what he's saying he just knows that he's usually the loser. And he was very proud of it!

Love those two!

Here are a couple of pics I took with the most awesome app ever- the Hipstamatic camera app. I love it!

These were taken at Skydog Fest in Macon this past Sunday. It's a yearly event that takes place on the birthday of Skydog who was a member of the Allman Brothers. Different people play Allman Brothers music. It was a perfect day at Central City Park.

Turns out not where but who you're with that really matters

2010-11-12T13:42:00.000-05:00

Some recent pics that I adore! No explanations needed. :)

Best Brothers, Best Friends

2010-11-10T20:08:00.001-05:00

Click here to view this photo book larger

I made this Photobook on Shutterfly so that I could enter a contest at dooce.com to win an amazing camera. So glad I did it because Shutterfly is apparently awesome and I will definitely be buying this photobook! I decided to make a photobook of all/most of the pictures I have of Carter and Carson together. I thought it would be a good idea to see how they've grown together. It was a lot of fun to make and it brought back a LOT of wonderful memories. It also made me a little bit sad because they are growing so fast. TOO FAST. I love them so much. :)

Wordless Wednesday

2010-10-27T23:03:00.001-04:00

Wonderful Weekend

2010-10-17T21:55:00.000-04:00

Phew! What a busy weekend we had! I'm exhausted both physically and mentally. More mentally than physically though. Anyways, Friday I took the boys to Atlanta to see Toy Story on Ice. It was really great and they loved it. But I really could have used an extra pair of hands while we were there. We found out about the tickets at 10:00 the night before and couldn't find anyone to go with us in such short notice. The tickets were free and I couldn't pass up the chance to take the boys so we just decided to go by ourselves. It was quite a struggle to say the least. Let's just say that me and Atlanta aren't friends anymore and leave it at that.

Saturday we went to The Rock Ranch near Barnesville, Ga. They were having a hot air balloon rally. It was really neat to see all of these huge colorful hot air balloons. The boys fed some animals- two ponies and some goats. We walked through the giant corn maze. We explored Tiny Town. Carter played in the corn box. Horseshoes, a train ride, and lots of pumpkins- we had a blast!

It was a really great weekend! Hope everyone else had a great weekend as well!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-10-13T12:41:00.001-04:00

Nap time!

2010-10-10T15:35:00.001-04:00

What a great time of day! Both boys are napping! Always gives me a chance to recharge myself for the rest of the day. Usually have to do some major clean-up once they're down but today I've been working on a paper for my Film class. (While writing this Carson woke up- so no more "me" time. :)

Today is 10•10•10! JSYK

Couple more pics of this summer: (playing catch-up b/c I didn't blog for about 7 months)

Monkey Joes- our new 'Island Playground'- we live right down the road from this place, very convienent!

Hope you're having a great day! We are!

Life happened (again)

2010-10-09T09:00:00.000-04:00

So much has happened since my last post I don't even know where to start. I guess that happens when you don't post for 7 months. First off, we moved! Not just to a different house but to a different city and a different state! BIG move! From South Carolina, back to good ol' Georgia. Daniel found a new job and we were wanting to move closer to family so we did! We found out he got the job and we literally had two weeks to find a house. Not cool. Oh well we did it. And we've been here since the 1st of July. It's going pretty good but I have to say we ARE missing good ol' Bluffton, SC. Something about the marshes and the palm trees and the so-very-closeness of the beach is really something to be missed. Why can't we just have the best of both worlds? Why can't all of our family/friends (all the people we care about) pack up and we can all just move near the beach? Who's in?

Another big change- I'm finally back in school. Five years after taking just (one) semester off. Yeah right. Well the title of my blog says it all- life happens! And it did, and now here I am back in school with a bunch of 18-22 yr olds. But I must say I am enjoying it and I'm glad I finally made the plunge back in.

With me being back in school, that means both boys are in "school" too. Carter has been going to preschool (I hate calling it daycare, even if that's what it is) for a while now but this was all new to my baby (he just turned two this summer!) Carson. It was a little hard for him the first couple of days. But now he loves it. He loves his teachers. He loves his friends. And I can feel comfortable taking them there while I'm in class all week.

So no more stay-at-home-mommy time. Well, not as much SAHM time. It will be better for all of us in the long run though.

Here are some pics from this summer:

These were taken on vacation to St. Simons this summer with Daniel's family. We were at putt-putt and Carson loved it but Carter was ready to leave. (It was super hot!)

Carson's first time at the movies! While on vacation we took the boys to see Toy Story 3.

First day of school!

We took pictures before for the first couple of weeks, they thought they had to every morning. We didn't do it for a while but now they've started wanting to again. There are some really cute one I need to post.

That's all for now!

March for Babies

2010-04-12T13:33:00.000-04:00

On July 28, 2008, my son Carson was born two months premature. He weighed only 3lbs 14oz. and struggled for the first weeks of his life. He stayed in the NICU for a month before being able to come home. We have been blessed by the fact that he has been very healthy since then. He is now a happy, thriving, toddler and will be two years old soon! You would never know he was a preemie.

I walked in the March for Babies last year and have decided to do it again this year. It is great opportunity to raise money and awareness to the March of Dimes.

Every day, thousands of babies are born too soon, too small and often very sick. I'm walking in March for Babies because I want to do something about this. And I need your help.

Please support my walk. http://www.marchforbabies.org/personal_page.asp?si=E60668A7-C2DC-498F-B700-C98FBA446AA8&prefill==

Thanks so much!

Spring has Sprung!

2010-04-03T21:20:00.000-04:00

It has been much warmer lately so we've been able to spend more time outside. YAY! Just wanted to post some really cute pictures of the boys playing outside. They're finally getting good use of the water table we bought them for Christmas. Playing in water is one of their top 3 fave things to do! It is going to be a very fun spring/summer this year!

"Cheeeeese!"

Playing with our best bud, Max.

St. Pat's Parade on HHI

2010-03-18T10:50:00.000-04:00

We went to the St. Patricks Parade on Hilton
Head Island with Leslie, Kelly, and Ella Rae!
It was so much fun!

Snack time!

Carson and Mommy- he was eating a tootsie
roll and really making a mess with it.

Carter and Daniel- Carter didn't want his
picture taken (big suprise)- not!

Gotcha! No smile but atleast I got his face.

Snow in Bluffton, SC 2/12/2010

2010-03-17T10:51:00.000-04:00

It actually snowed in South Carolina and Carter and I played in it! ( Carson was sleeping and Daniel was working, so they missed out :( boo. ) It didn't start til almost 9 pm so we didn't get to have as much fun as if it was during the day. Most of it was melted the next morning.

We didn't exactly have the best snow gear- we used socks for gloves!

Here's our little snowman we built- he has chocolate heart eyes, a piece of pink chalk for a nose, and yellow bottons for his mouth. He borrowed one of Carter's hat's too!

2010-01-29T20:48:00.000-05:00

Eeeee... Last post was in September. That's pretty bad. I'm always thinking "hey, I need to blog about this" but never do. And then I forget all about the great blog idea. Oh well.

Updates on the boys:

Carson just turned 18 months old yesterday! He is seriously the smartest 18 month old I've ever encountered. He just knows things that normal babies his age don't usually know. For instance, if I say "Carson, go get that train and turn it off", he goes right to the train and turns it off. He then proudly smiles at me and turns the train back on with a sneaky grin on his face. Yesterday, he spilled water on his shirt and came to me saying "wet, wet, mama". He is such a sweet little boy! :)

Carter is three now and I think it should be called the terrible three's instead of the terrible two's. He is still the sweetest mama's boy EVER but he has some serious meltdowns these days. If he doesn't get what he wants, when he wants it, he's going to cry, scream, and kick. It's not good. I know he will grow out of it soon. He is still going to "school" three days a week and he loves it very much. There is another boy in his class, Oscar, who he talks about every day. The first thing he says when we walk into the classroom is "Oscar's here!". I wonder if Oscar knows or likes Carter as much as he likes him. :)

Random thoughts:

I have an amazing husband. Yesterday, he was home with the boys for a few hours. When I got home, he had cleaned the entire house and he did like four loads of laundry! I was shocked that he had gotten so much done with both boys home with him. Still not sure how he pulled it off...

I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to stay at home with my boys. Atleast until they are both in school. It sometimes seems that everyday is the same- wake up, make breakfast, clean breakfast, dress, play, boys nap, make lunch, clean lunch, play, play, play, cook dinner, clean dinner, give bath, put boys in bed. Ok it doesn't always go in that exact order, and there's a lot of diapers and pottying in the mix, but you get the point. Anyways, some people may think it sounds kind of... boring. To me, no matter how "boring" everyday is, at night I lay in bed and think about how lucky I am to be a mother to these wonderful, beautiful, boys. I thank god for every "boring" moment I get to spend with them at home because I know it will not last forever. They are growing faster every day. When I think back to all of the days we've had together, none of it seems boring to me. There may be some boring, tedious parts, but to me they are precious moments that will be cherished.

That's all for now!

#2, finally!

2009-09-29T10:54:00.000-04:00

AHHHH! Fall is here! Yes! The weather has officially turned cooler, not that it will stay that way, but it got me excited.

So much for keeping up with this blog? Haven't wrote again since the first blog and that was in April. Well I'm going to say, that I'm going to try, to write more.

Just a few days ago I experienced my 26th birthday. I have to say it really got me thinking about how close I am to the big 3-0! Kinda exciting, Kinda scary. Oh well. It was a great birthday even though the Flu was visiting our house and we couldn't do anything because we were all sick. But that's ok, because we were all together all day and that was a perfect day to me!

Now for updates on my Boys!

Carter: He has grown so much over the summer! His vocabulary is rapidly expanding and it's very funny to hear him using words like "weird" and " disgusting". That boy makes me constantly laugh. :) He will be turning three in November and I don't know how he has grown up so fast!

Carson: At 14 months old, he is such a smart and well-mannered baby! He says "thank you" just about more than anyone I know. It's very cute to see him play with his big brother Carter. He learns so much from him. Still waiting on his walking legs to show up! That's when I know I will be in big trouble.

Ok, enough for now!

First Blog Ever

2009-04-10T16:45:00.000-04:00

Yes, this is the first blog I have ever even attempted to write. Blogs have always kind of intimidated me, if that's possible. Anyways, I just thought I would start writing a little about my life; my children, my husband, all the crazy things that happen on any given day.

First off, I'm 25, married and I have two beautiful boys, Carter and Carson. Three years ago I would have never thought my life would be anything like this. It's crazy! I'm a Stay-at-home-mom and it's a full time 24/7 job. I know that some people probably think a SAHM means someone who is unemployed and just stays at home with the kids. WRONG! It really is a very challenging, frustrating, rewarding, fun, job. I wouldn't change it for the world. I feel very fortunate to be able to stay at home with my boys.

Carter Michael, my first beautiful boy, born on November 30th, 2006. Yes he was a BIG surprise but a welcome one. I don't know what my life would be like if he hadn't come along. He has the bluest eyes, blondest hair and biggest heart of any 2yr. old I ever known. This boy has mommy and daddy wrapped around his finger and he knows it! At 28 months now, he is at such a fun age! Learning how to say EVERYTHING that everyone else says, everything. Trying to put sentences together, learning how to run, seeing how far he can push mommies buttons. He just started going to playschool last month and so far so good. He wasn't too sure about it at first but everyday he loves it a little more. We wanted him to go mainly for the socialization. So he goes three mornings a week. I love picking him up after playschool. He always runs to me and says "mommy'! And then he tries to tell me whatever he can about his day. It's adorable!

Carson Joshua, my second angel, born on July 28th, 2008. He came two months earlier than he was "supposed" to. I think he was just ready to come out so he could catch up to big brother Carter as soon as possible. He has brown hair, dark eyes (color still to be determined, I'm hoping for brown :) ) Pretty much the opposite of Carter. Carson is such a cutie pie. He always has this huge smile on his face, he's a very happy boy. His main goal in life right now- to figure out how to do everything Carter is. He just stares at Carter when they're in the same room. I know they will be best friends. He just learned how to hold his own bottle and feed his self. Sadly for me, this means it's one less thing he needs me for. He is growing up way too fast, already 8 months old.

Daniel, my husband of one year and five months now (I don't want to leave him out of the first blog). The first thing I would say about him is that he is such a great Daddy to Carter and Carson. He loves his boys more than anything. I know he would do anything for them. The second thing I would say is that he is a wonderful husband. Marriage is sometimes difficult but he tries really hard. He's such a laid-back kinda guy who would do anything for anyone. I love him.

Well I guess this was my first blog. I conquered it. Still don't know if I'll let anyone else read it or not. I guess if you're reading it then I gave in. Oh well. One down, many more to go... hopefully.