Memorial Day Weekend

Our long weekend in review:

• Friday (Landon's 4th birthday!!!): Landon & I played hooky from school/work and had a day full of fun
• Saturday: Some good ol' family house-cleaning, church & watermelon
• Sunday: Cook-out & swimming at Jess & Rich's
• Monday: Geocacheing

I'll be posting details throughout the week of our weekend adventures. I also owe you a P90X update...we finished 3 weeks ago!!! I need to take after pics first.

Small Comforts

Little things can be such a comfort. Our Lazy Boy chair makes the slightest squeak while rocking back and forth. It reminds me of my Granny rocking in her chair when I was a little girl. It warms my heart.

Nighttime Prayers

I wanted to share Landon singing his bedtime prayers, "Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep". Such a sweet little voice.

Toofers

Finally I have a picture that shows off Carter's 2 teeth!

Four Years Come & Gone

My sweet Landon,

How has four years passed us by so quickly? Wasn't it just yesterday that I held you in my arms for the very first time, kissed your soft cheek, watched your tiny fingers curl around mine, and felt a type of love that I could have never imagined?

You have taught me things that no other could have taught me.

Thank you for this gift. You will never realize how much you have changed me. And how you saved me. I promise to love you until the end of time.

Happy birthday to you Lovie, my sweet mama's boy.

Soaked Mommy

What started off as the family sitting on the back deck on a warm, summer-ish night while watering the strawberries with a Spiderman water gun quickly turned into 2 of my 3 boys soaking me through and through, from head to toe and giggling madly all the while. And I am pretty sure the 3rd would have joined in had he been able to walk and squeeze the water gun trigger.

How did they all turn on Mommy so quickly?

Stinkers.

Boy Scout Motto: Be Prepared!

To make my week easier, I prepare everything I need for the week at daycare on Sunday.

Labels for the bottles (all bottles and tops must be labeled with name, date & Breastmilk/Formula) - I stick these inside my cabinet & pull off as I need them.

Oatmeal in Tupperware & labeled, also all baby food containers labeled

Spidey

Landon's 4th Birthday Party

My sweet Landon will be 4 this Friday (May 28th). We had a Mickey Mouse birthday party for him this past weekend at our church in the Fun Zone for family and close friends. Landon had a blast playing with his cousins & BFF Clark. Even some of the grown-ups played on the play gym!

The birthday boy

The party spot


The cupcake cake (ps - I tried to go easy & stress-free this year and order a cupcake cake from Walmart...to make a long story short, after they made the wrong cake & gave me attitude about it, I ended up getting the correct one for FREE!)


The family & friends

My family

Miss Olive


Jeter



my Carter Miles


Landon & Clark

Boxer Briefs

Landon received these boxer briefs for his b-day. I couldn't help but sharing how stinkin' cute he is in these!!!

Lashes that girls spend lots of $$$ to get...

Trust The Mommy Instincts

Carter has been sick off & on for the past 3 weeks. I took him to a pediatric urgent care 2 weeks ago & they said he had pink eye so we did a week's worth of drops & it got better. I took him to the urgent care because it was late Friday afternoon & we couldn't get in at the doctor's office. I thought it was a really weird case of pink eye since he only had yellow goop coming from the eyes...they weren't really pink. *Note to self: trust your Mommy instincts* Last weekend he pretty much cried (day & night) for 2 days straight. I was planning to take him to the doctor on Monday morning because I was sure he had an ear infection...& then he slept through the night Sunday night. So I didn't take him...thought ok, maybe it was teeth & he's good now. *Note to self again: trust your Mommy instincts* He was better the beginning of this week, but started going back downhill Wednesday afternoon - extremely fussy, runny nose, diarrhea, low-grade fever & green goop in the eyes. So I took him to his doctor this afternoon & guess what? Ear infection. A bad one. One that had been festering for A FEW WEEKS. Sometimes when babies have ear infections, the infections can come out of their eyes (nasty I know). So my baby never had pink eye. He's had an ear infection this whole time. My pobrecito. We've got Augmentin & hope it wipes this mess out quickly.

Growing Pains

& I ain't talking about Kirk Cameron...

I guess this all started about a year ago. Landon would wake up screaming after being asleep for a few hours. When we'd go in there, he'd complain of his knees or legs hurting. He'd grab them and sob about how bad they hurt. We'd rub them and finally get him calmed back down after 20 minutes and he'd go back to sleep. This would happen for a few nights in a row and then stop. A month or two would go by and it would start up again. And this has been happening ever since.

I didn't really know what was going on. At first I thought he was doing it for attention, especially since Carter was born around that time frame. Then I thought his leg was falling asleep. But none of that seemed quite right, especially since he was already asleep and this was waking him. It's not like he was doing it to get us to stay in his room while trying to go to sleep. But then Christopher said he had growing pains as a child. I thought he was nuts...these aren't real, right? Well I talked to his mom & she told me Landon's story but flash back to 25 years ago.

So I started doing some research and found that growing pains are real. They can occur in children around this age and typically happen in the first few hours of sleep for a few nights in a row. Children usually complain of pain around the main joints...knees and elbows. They tend to grow out of them in a year or so. The best thing to do is massage the area and give Tylenol/Ibuprofen.

I'd much rather deal with Kirk Cameron's cute little 1980s mullet than these real growing pains!

Redneck Playpen

Yeah...I totally went there.

Mr. Potato Head

Carter had his first taste of table food yesterday...FRENCH FRIES!!! And he tore them up! I guess he's ready to graduate from the pureed baby stuff...

Strawberry Pickin'

The boys and I went over to a local strawberry patch Sunday afternoon to pick strawberries. I think they potentially lost money on us...the Bagley's packed away some berries wile picking!

Enjoy some pictures of our little adventure.

I'll huff & I'll puff...

Don't we all love the tale of the 3 little pigs? I can remember being dressed up as the little pig in the straw house for a school play. Well, apparently Landon is not a fan. Tonight after being put to bed, he screamed hysterically for someone to remove the book from his bedroom...the wolf scares him.

Chuck E. Cheese

Landon and I went to Chuck E. Cheese on Friday night for his BFF Clark's 4th birthday party. We had a blast running around like 2 kids, giggling and playing games. Our favorite was driving race cars!I was able to score some tickets playing Skeeball so Landon could get a prize at the end of the night...he was tickled pink with candy. It was fun to let loose and act like a silly kid!

Mystery Mozart Solved!

Just call me Katherine PI! I finally figured out where the early morning Mozart concert was coming from. We have a weather station thing-a-ma-bob on our kitchen counter. Ours is apparently much fancier than I thought because it has 2 alarms. Somehow one of the alarms got set ~ I'm sure it was one of the boys playing with it while they were on the counter. I pushed buttons until I figured out how to turn it off (I have no idea how they got it on!). And we were 6:00 AM Mozart-free this morning!

Mystery Mozart case is closed!

Mobile Grooming

We typically take Hokie to PetCo or Petsmart to get him groomed. We'd seen a mobile grooming van come to a neighbor's house so we looked into it. We found a coupon for Aussie Pets Mobile Grooming and decided to try it. They come to your house and park in your driveway or on the street and give your pet the royal treatment all in about an hour. It's about $30 more that taking them to a groomer, but the convenience is key for me. And the groomer did a much more professional and thorough job.

Mystery Mozart?

There is classical music that plays in my house every morning at the same time...and we can't figure out where it's coming from. And no, it's not inside of my head...Christopher hears it too!

At 6:00 am for the past 4 mornings, about a minute of the same classical tune plays pretty loudly. I thought at first it was coming from Carter's room. He has a little worm on his crib railing that plays classical music and he can start it by kicking it. Or maybe it was the alarm clock in his room. I checked into the alarm and saw that it wasn't turned on. And the worm usually says the name of the composer before it starts playing the music. So I wasn't quite convinced.

This morning when the music started I went into Carter's room, but realized it was not coming from his room at all. It's coming from downstairs! I couldn't get down there before it stopped to investigate.

I laid in bed thinking what could it be? Christopher's phone is upstairs at night so that's not it. My phone stays downstairs at night so maybe an alarm got set on my phone. So I checked out my phone...no alarm set, no calendar reminder set. My phone was even set on vibrate! And to top all of that off...that song is not even an option of a ringtone!!! What in the world is it!?!?!

Is there a little mouse playing Mozart on a tiny baby grand? Does someone sleep on our couch every night and use his cell phone as an alarm so he can jet out before we wake up? Has Mozart come back from the dead and plays 1-minute concerts from our living room?

I'm going to set my alarm for 5:55 tomorrow and go sit downstairs and wait for the music.

Home Sweet Home

I grew up on a tobacco farm in rural southern Virginia. I love going home and sharing this life with my boys.

Where tractors are green...


Where oaks grow strong...


Where warm breezes roll over the hills...


Where plants take hold...


Where generations tread...

Cutie Patooties

Picnic in the Park

Both Christopher and I were supposed to volunteer at church last Saturday, but because of Carter's pink eye, the boys and I stayed home. So we packed a picnic supper and headed over to the local park. We played on the swings, slides and sandbox and ate our supper in the grass. It was a beautiful day and I truly enjoyed the time with my boys.


I let Landon dress himself on the weekends...as you can tell.


Carter liked shredding dried leaves - this was right before he ate one...