Such a bad blogger

I am SUCH a horrible blogger......it's been over a month since i've done any posts, and I am so, so sorry. Can you forgive me?!? Pretty please?


I did have some computer trouble that made it very difficult to get online.....I mean, I could get online but I had to use my old computer and I have to restart it every 40-45 minutes because it ends up going sooooo slow. So that made doing anything online a total pain. And it took FOR-E-VER to get my regular computer working again.....and to this day no one knows what was wrong with it! We ended up having to buy a new modem (which we had a new one put in just this past January....curse you, dial-up internet!!) and now it's working fine. So, let's see if I can remember all that has happened the last month....

In July the in-laws came back down again.....only this time, Z's brother, sister and niece came with them! It was so nice to finally have Z's sister meet Chase, and it was great that we got to meet her daughter as well!! Ty and her daughter hit it off perfectly.....it was as if they knew each other their whole lives. We got to go swimming with them at the hotel they stayed at in Pigeon Forge, and I am so impressed with how well Ty and Chase did with swimming. They both loved it!

Z and I hit a big rough patch a few weeks ago, but so far things are going better. We are working together on things and hopefully things will continue to improve. He did find out the company he works for has once again switched hands, but this time it seems to be a great thing! Health insurance is supposed to be MUCH better, and he will get more vacation time and somewhat better pay. I'm looking forward to the better insurance, that's for sure! This past weekend our big freezer died on us. Ugh, we lost so much food. And what we did manage we had to shove into our little freezer in the kitchen. Hopefully this weekend we'll be able to get another freezer. We can't complain too much, though......the one we have lasted us 10 years and survived several moves.

The boys are doing GREAT!!! Ty is getting excited about school starting next month. I am as well.....I feel so bad that he doesn't have kids his age to play with. Chase is walking all OVER the place! Crawling still seems to be his preferred method of travel, but he is walking like crazy.....and the look on his face is priceless! He is SO proud of himself. I have a video of him walking on Facebook, so if you're on my Facebook and haven't watched it yet, I highly recommend it! He's still hit or miss with talking.....he loves to sing, though! He just keeps growing and getting so big.....they BOTH do!

Well, I guess that's it for now. The boys are wanting mama to play. Hope everyone is doing good and staying as cool as possible in this nasty heat!! It's been in the 100's here, and we only have a/c in the bedroom and living room so trying to cook dinner in this heat has been super rough.

I promise to do my best to update more frequently!!

Long overdue mail update

Mail has been pretty decent, but i'm sure it'll be slowing a little since I didn't get much time to sign up for things when we had company and with being sick. Anyhoo, all of this is from 04.05.10 to present:

- Coupon for free Sun Chips/Facebook
- $5 cash/Opinion Outpost
- Degree Deodorant sample/Walmart
- Ritz Munchables/Facebook (soooo yummy!!)
- American Lung Association Layard
- Test product from In Home Product Testing (will pay $30 Target GC once completed!)
- Stride Gum/Facebook
- $12 Survey Check
- KLM Photo tags/Facebook (they turned out GREAT!!)
- Loreal Hair Color Coupon (2)
- Pretzel M&M's/Facebook
- Orville Cheddar Cheese Popcorn/Krogers
- $12 Pinecone payments/Paypal
- $5 Buzzback Payments/Paypal
- $5 Family Dollar GC
- $10 CVS ECBs
- Uncle Bens Coupon
- Nail Polish/shoptext (so cute!)
- Thermos/Copenhagen
- Kraft Sample Pack/Facebook (came with 3 packs of Dried Tomato and Basil Wheat thins and coupons for free Oscar Meyer Lunch meat and Kraft Barbecue sauce!)
- P&G Samples/Cascade and Pantene
- Legos
- Butterfinger Coupons/Facebook (2)
- Fusion Proglide Razor (Z really likes it!)
- Pot Holders/Stouffers (2)
- Underwear/Warner
- Dove Deodorant/Walmart
-Dr. Scholl's for her insole/Facebook (and only one...so weird!)
- Secret Clinical Strength/Walmart
- Old Spice Body Wash/Walmart
- Cophart hat
- Kraft coupons (for 6 free things! )
- Ritz Crackerfuls Bacon and Chedder/Facebook (YUM!!!)
- Red Gold Tote Bag (2)
- Pedometer/Nature's Bounty
- Thong
- Kraft Mayo Samples (not sure if these are safe to eat....they were in the heat for who knows how long! )
- $20 Amazon for a survey

I LOVE Target!!!

Target has a dollar section as soon as you walk into the store and I just love it!!! I always seem to find some super cute scrapbook things, specially ribbon. I had only been in their scrapbook section of the store once but they were SO expensive! Well, the other day I finally looked more in the isle and found TONS of stickers for only .99!!! I got some cute alpha stickers and a few packs of chipboard alphas that I had been needing. I also found some adorable glitter monkey stickers that go with Chase's party theme.....and they also had some packs of 12x12 paper for only .99! I need to build up my survey money more and get back into that scrapbook section to stock up!!! (Then all I need to do is find the time to get some scrapping done! LOL)

Recent layout

Ugh, I am so far behind in scrapbooking.......trying to find the time to scrap is tough!!! And most of the time, when I do get a chance to scrap I have no creative mojo. :( I worked on a digital layout yesterday and i'm not quite sure i'm happy with it. I still want to do a paper version of this layout but i'm not quite sure what I want to do with it. Anyhoo, here is what I came up with....

So bittersweet.....

Chase is officially off of formula! We used the last bit up yesterday and he is now on whole milk. The only downside is, he's had some super nasty diapers since he started getting whole milk bottles. I'm hoping today will be better but if not i'll give the doc a call to make sure it's ok.

Chase has also started chatting up a storm!! On his first birthday he started just chatting like crazy! He loves to "talk" to you. He has also started crawling backwards, which is hilarious!!! We have a big plastic play thing in the living room with a slide on it and he loves crawling up the slide, then scooting backwards to get down. Here is a pic of him going up.....



I need to get a pic of him coming back down....it's so cute!! He still only has 4 teeth completely in, but he has two more up top that just barely broke through and two more on the bottom that are just at the surface. Having only 4 teeth hasn't stopped him from eating, though!! He LOVES anything to do with potatoes, whether it be mashed potatoes or french fries! He also loves his veggies, like green beans and peas. His favorite snack by far is Pepperidge Farm Baby Goldfish. Although, just recently I gave him some Gerber Cheese Curls and you would have thought I gave him the best tasting thing in the world!! So I guess he has two favorite snacks. And it's soooo cute....whenever he is ready for another bite of something, he smacks his lips together and it almost sounds like a kiss. It's adorable!! He also likes graham crackers and Cheeto brand cheese curls. We still give him some baby food in a jar, but mainly if he doesn't eat much at meal times. He will easily eat a whole jar of Beechnut pears with rasberries (he LOVES pears of any kind!) and he also with eat close to a whole jar of the oatmeal cereal with pears and cinnamon. He can be such a good little eater for the most part, but there is a time or two where he won't eat hardly anything. I just can't get over how fast my baby is growing........with him being our last I am totally enjoying every little thing but I just wish that sometimes time would slow down.....just a little?!?!?

So sick and tired.....

.....of being sick!!! Last Friday night/Saturday morning I woke up with yet another scratchy throat. That makes 4 in about 3 months!! I told Z I wanted to see the doctor because I was sick and tired of getting those nasty sore throats......my tonsils swell almost completely closed and it's so hard to eat or drink anything. And when it's super hot it's hard to breath. It's been in the 100's the past few days so i've been struggling to breath when i'm not in the a/c. (we have air conditioning in the living room, our bedroom and one of the upstairs bedrooms only, so it was miserable trying to breath when I had to go pee or be in the kitchen) We tried to get an appointment on Monday but the insurance company was giving us a hard time...they were supposed to call us back but didn't, so I told Z to just call the doctors office anyway for Tuesday. They had no open appointments, and I was really having a hard time breathing so we decided to head to the ER. Z left work to come and take us as I was way too weak to drive anywhere. We got checked in quickly and even got called back quick! After I was called back, Z and the boys had to wait in the waiting room because the ER was packed. I ended up having to sit on a gurney in the hallway! After 10 minutes a doctor came and checked me and said I have a very severe case of strep throat. I told him the last 3 times I had it I was on antibiotics and it did clear it up but it kept coming back......I also mentioned that if I had strep why hasn't anyone in my family caught it?!? (especially Ty since he is always drinking from my cup) He said it could also be a mean case of tonsillitis but I really needed a super strong antibiotic to help clear it up, and if it didn't clear it up I would most likely have to have my tonsils out. He did say I needed to follow up with my regular doctor and he may even recommend my tonsils come out anyway since they keep getting infected so bad. So i'm now on an antibiotic that I have to take two pills every 6 hours and i'm on an anti-inflammatory med to help with all the swelling. (my tonsils were swelled completely closed by the time I went to the ER) I'm so glad I was finally seen......and i'm not too worried about my tonsils coming out if need be, i'm more worried about how I will take care of the boys while trying to heal myself.

Chase's 1 year check up

*First I want to apologize for being so late with posting updates.....we have company and I haven't had much time online.

Chase had his one year check up last Friday morning. My little doodle isn't so little anymore! His stats are:

Weight: 21 lbs
Length: 31 1/4 inches

He was impressed with all Chase is doing at this age and said we could continue to transition him to whole milk. I did mention that he doesn't eat hardly anything with protein and he gave us a prescription for vitamins. He also got two shots, which broke my heart......hearing him cry like that made me cry!

All in all things went good....he goes back in 3 months for more shots.

A year ago today.....

We welcomed our second little blessing into our family. At 3:32pm Chase Robert entered the world! He has been such an amazing addition to our family, and he totally completes us.

Happy birthday, doodle!! Mama, daddy and big brother Tyler love you SO very much!!!


I'll update this post with pics later today.............

My baby.......

Is about to turn a whole year old......how is that possible?!?!? I can't get over how fast the time went. It feels like just yesterday I was going to the doctor for my first pregnancy visit and now he is turning 1. And as strange as this sounds, it also feels as though he's been with us forever! I honestly don't remember what our lives were like before he came along........although, I do remember getting a little more sleep back then, but who needs sleep?!?!? It's so overrated, anyway.......

His party will be this coming Saturday and i'll be sure to get pics on his actually birth day plus at his party.

R.I.P. Blanche Devereaux

Golden Girl Rue McClanahan has died

SUPER late update

I'm sooooo sorry i'm so late with an update on Chase. He's 11.5 months old and i'm just now doing his 11 month update. I'm sorry.....:(

Chase is doing amazing!!! He is crawling everywhere, and SO close to walking! He loves to pull himself up to stand on everything and has actually taken a step here and there. He is also VERY vocal and loves to talk!!! His new thing to say now is "A baa baa", which I think is his bottle....I call it his baa-baa and I think he's picked up on that from me. He says it all the time now, though! He still only has 4 teeth, but you can see on either side of his top two teeth that a tooth is trying to come through........and I *think* i've seen on either side of his bottom teeth a tooth trying to come through......so that's a total of 4 new teeth trying to come in!! And you can tell it's bothering him, poor baby. He is constantly putting things in his mouth and chewing like crazy. Hopefully they will break in soon for him. He's also started playing ball with Licky!! He will take her ball into his hand, let it roll out and when she goes to get it he cracks up!! He is still a crappy sleeper, unfortunately.......he is still waking up at least once a night for a bottle and sometimes just wakes up crying for no reason.....and because he's still in our bed it makes it hard to just let him fuss himself back to sleep on his own. Plus, nap time has been difficult.......he fights naps something terrible!!! Hopefully this is just a phase and he'll get out of it soon. He's eating so many "table" foods now!! He loves mashed potatoes, green beans, carrots and just about whatever meat we're having. His favorite snack foods are gold fish and graham crackers. We're slowly working on getting him on whole milk, and so far he likes it. Hopefully by the time he's a year old he will be on all whole milk.

This past weekend we mailed out his birthday party invites. In the next few weeks we're going to start getting things together for his party....we can't wait!! We know the in-laws will be here for his party, and we're thinking several of our friends will be there as well so we should have a nice little get together! I'll of course take tons of pics and have lots to share. :) (well, at least I hope so......my camera is slowly crapping out on me and i'm just waiting to find out when I can get a new one.....hopefully before his birthday!!)

Here are some pics:

I am now officially....

The mom of a first grader!! Ty's last day of school was last Friday, and he brought his report card home......and on the back it said "Grade placement for the next school year...1st"! He did so well on his report card, too. It's just so strange to not have to get up early to take him to school and it will feel weird not having to leave this afternoon to pick him up! He has said he wants to ride the school bus next year, so we'll see how that goes. He's just growing up SO fast.........and we are so very proud of him!!!

Awards Day

Yesterday was awards day at Ty's school and it was SO nice!! Every kindergartner got an award, which was nice, and it emphasized something they were good at. For example, they had awards for best reader, best speller, most improved reader....etc. I can't remember what Ty's award said, and get this......they took the awards back from them after they gave them out!! I *think* they took them back because having 5-6 year olds sitting with a piece of paper in their hands would result in a huge mess of itty-bitty pieces of paper everywhere, but I thought they would have handed them back to them after the ceremony. Hopefully he'll get his award either today, tomorrow or Friday. I tried to get a few pics but my camera crapped out on me again.....the pics were so blurry and pixely. :( He had a total blast, though!!!

I still can't believe he only has 1.5 days left of school........ACK!!!!!