Family Photos

On the Sunday of B's 1st birthday party, we also had a great photographer come out and take pictures. I wanted him to capture B's one year photo and then do some quick family shots. Micah, you did such a good job!!

Family (or friends), if you are interested in ordering any of the pic's from Micah, you can do it via his website.
Otherwise...click here to see them.

Progress

We made some progress on the house this weekend. We did some painting, hung blinds, re-hung and added some closet hanging rods, and even did some weeding. It still hasn't sunk in that this is our house!?!
Breeson already loves playing and exploring in the backyard. I'm so excited and thankful that we're moving right in time for summer.
Thanks to some friends who helped us clean and paint...it made the load a lot lighter! (Theresa and Becca)
(Jamie and Joe)
B's room before...
and after...
I can't remember the name of the color of paint. It's by Behr and it's a blue/grey. But in this picture it looks more blue than grey. I'm very pleased with it.
B's room doesn't have a closet, so we bought this armoire on Craig's List (plus a matching headboard for us). There a few scratches b/c it was a bit tight fitting it through the doors. But we made it! I'll need to get one of those correcting paint pens.
So I'm going for BOLD colors, as you can see!! Jamie was afraid it would make the room feel too dark. But I think he's pleased with how it turned out.
This may sound funny, but I've always wanted a room this color. Ever since I saw the movie, "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2", I've wanted a room this color. In the movie the dad has an office similar to this. I've never forgot. :)
Well, stay tuned as to how our kitchen looks after the paint drys...

Tomorrow I run my 10k. I need to get to bed. I ate a ton of carbs tonight. I'm feeling somewhat prepared. My monthly came at the wrong time, so I didn't feel like running last week, plus I drank a ton of pop, and I'm pretty sure I ate McD's at least 3 times last week. ?? Yikes, I know.

Then early afternoon we'll head over to Joe and Becca's for a Memorial Day BBQ. Oh, and my last day at DFN was Friday. So I am taking the next few days to pack up the house and then on Thursday I start my new temp job. I'm praying and hoping it'll turn into a permanent part-time job, b/c it is only a few blocks away from our new house.

(almost) Homeowners!

Tomorrow...we sign on the house. WE'RE GONNA BE HOMEOWNERS! :) Eeeeek. I'm so so so excited, but nervous at the same time. The looming thought of a mortgage payment scares me, but excites me b/c I know God provides. He has always been faithful and for that I'm so thankful. We prayed so much over this house. We kept telling God that if He didn't want us to have it to close the door, as He can easily do. But apparently, He wants us there for a reason. Our prayer is that He can use us in this neighborhood to be a light and testimony.
(Breeson was w/ a babysitter, as we were doing the walk-thru on our way to work)
the backside of the house...as you can see needs some TLC. I have my work cut out for me this summer!
the basement bedroom, it's small but it'll suffice for a bedroom/office
This will be the family room. The pole is a supporting beam so it needs to stay - unfortunately.
This is the view looking from our dining room/living room to the backyard
Here's our funny little kitchen. We're still not sure why they put the fridge where they did, b/c it doesn't allow us to the use counter behind it. ? We hope to do renovations in the future which will fix this problem!
el bano
view from our room to Breeson's room
Breeson's room
the view from the front door looking at the kitchen

Big boy

Here's our big 1 year old! Today is his birthday. Life hasn't been the same since he came along. Lately, he's been sleeping longer. This morning I really needed to get going to work, but I couldn't leave w/out seeing the birthday boy first. So while he was sleeping...I just sat on the couch and waited. :)
Here is in his new car seat:

This is what he's up to, to date:

• walking everywhere
• pretty much on all milk - although we're still adding a little formula just to finish it off
• still figuring out the new sippy cups. The one sippy cup he uses for water he's got down, but these new ones are still a mystery.
  
• smells everything!
• scared of the vacuum and ironing board (strange?!)
• sleeps around 11 hours every night and has lately been stretching it even longer
• waves hi/bye and says it somewhat
• LOVES reading books.
  
• likes his balls, trucks and any toy that makes noise
• not the greatest at eating vegetables, but loves fruit and pasta; also not a big fan of meat
• doing much better in the nursery - but occasionally still cries when I leave
• can now sign "please" and is beginning to do it all the time for everything
  

to see birthday party pic's, see below...

Breeson's Birthday Party Pic's

This was supposed to be his smash cake, but it was so cute that I couldn't bear the thought of him tearing into it w/ his hands...so we gave him a cupcakes instead. (I made the cupcakes above, but I can't take credit for the cake. A lady from our previous church made it. She did a fantastic job! thanks, Susie)

waiting...

hmm...

he has to smell everything...


he likes it!






"Thanks Grandpa and Grandma and Granny for my new car seat! I love it"

I've decided the next time he gets a big party like this is when he graduates...from college! :)

raising a boy

I heard it said today that boys are to be raised doing 3 things:

1. go hunting
2. eat meat
3. pay for a girls dinner

I like that! Although, I might add one more...

4. open doors, especially car doors for girls

it's just the beginning...

Last night was a bad night w/ Breeson. It started off w/ us heading over to Michael's to get some stuff for his birthday party. I asked one of the employees about their 40% coupon b/c I threw mine away; she said to just ask the cashier and they'd give me one. When I got up there to pay, the cashier was terribly rude to the customer in front of me. Then when I asked her for the coupon, she wouldn't give it to me. I just walked out and didn't buy any of my stuff. And just to show her how upset I was w/ her, I dumped everything out of my cart on the shelf right by her counter. I know that wasn't very nice, but I was mad that she treated the lady in front of me that way and then not to even help me out by giving me a coupon. Plus, it didn't help that 1/2 of the stuff I was looking for I couldn't find there. Plus, while we were in there, Breeson did good for the first 3 minutes and then started throwing fits. So all around, it was not a good Michael's experience.

Next stop: the library. I let Breeson play in the kids area for a while, thinking he would be "grateful" for getting to run around before we head over to Target, where'd he have to sit in the buggy. But it wasn't long before he was creaping other kids out b/c he wanted to "play" with them while they were reading/on the computer. So I put back in the stroller and tried to check out books/movies for me. Well that didn't last long either.

So we head over to Target. This is where it went down hill. Breeson was that kid and I was that mom. He was pitching a fit in the buggy and I was trying to calm him down. So frustrating. I had a list of stuff I was supposed to get, I was only able to get 1 of the things.

On our way home, I had a coupon for Chick-fil-a, so I figured I'd stop and eat and let Breeson play in the play area. He did okay, but he wasn't too interested b/c there were some bigger, roudy boys in there. Plus, they were using some pretty foul language. I held my tongue b/c I really wanted to tell them to stop, but I didn't. We just packed up and headed home. Of course not to leave there w/ out another fit. And even when we got home, he was still a bad baby. I'm DREADING the terrible 2's.
God give me patience, love and strength...

Curious George...get it!?!

Here's Breeson's invitation. Thanks Kandyce for designing it! Now we're just praying for nice weather next Sunday!!

Running

Recent log:
Saturday, May 8 - 5 miles - 9:49/mile
Monday, May 10 - 5 miles - 9:38/mile
Friday, May 14: - 5.5 miles - 9:23/mile

May 24

We've got a little Monkey on our hands...any ideas of what his birthday theme is gonna be?!?! :)

Lady Gaga

One more reason I want a piano...so I can start giving Breeson lessons.

Big News!!!!

We have BIG news. We've been waiting to share it because we've been waiting on things to progress. And, no we're not pregnant! We are going to be homeowners, Lord willing, by the end of this month. We will be moving out of suberbia and moving closer to downtown. We're very excited to be in a place of our own. If everything continues as planned, we'll be signing on the house sometime around the 26th.

"please"

He finally did it!! This morning Breeson FINALLY signed "please". At first I was in shock, but then he did it again. Jamie said he's done it a couple more times today too! It made my heart so happy. We've been doing it for several months now. I'm not quite sure when we started, but there are times I wanted to just give up b/c I thought he was being defiant and was just refusing to do it. Because he mimicks us and picks up on other things so fast, I thought he was just messing with us. Which I guess he still could have been. But I don't care. I'm just glad our hard work is starting to pay off. It's nice to see the "fruit" from our hard labor!

I ran 4 miles over lunch break today. I was able to keep a 9:30 pace; it's no world record, but I'm okay with it. I just need to keep increasing by 1/2 mile increments each week so I can be ready for my 10K (BolderBoulder) at the end of the month.

I babysat for a friend on Saturday night. Noah is 6 months old. Jamie had to work that night so I did it solo. Well, I guess Breeson did "help" me. He did really well with Noah. He was VERY interested in him and wanted to keep touching his head and give him hugs. The only meltdown was when I gave Noah his bottle and Breeson realized he didn't have one. So as I was feeding Noah in my arms, I was keeping Breeson back with my legs. Other than that though, we had a good night. They wore each other out that night so that was definitely the nice part about having 2 around.