July in a Nut Shell

I can't believe this is the last day of the month of July! It has flown by so quickly. For this post I wanted to put a compliation of pictures together to "capture" our past month. We were involved with my adorable kiddo's, of course, a few projects, some get-togethers, and celebrations! Enjoy!

                 Happy Independence Day! I forgot to snap pictures of the friends we had over on July 4th...;(
We did have a great time swimming, grilling, and eating though!

                               A few little projects......

                                     More family photos....fun, fun, fun!

                                Having friends over is always a blessing....

        Aunna Hill, Mary Margaret Carley, and Lydia Russell; below is baby Isaac Russell. 7-14-12

And this is what Katelyn was doing most of the time we had visitors....

                                                           My sweet baby girl!
Katelyn also turned Seven Months Old on July 18th! Here are a few pictures taken on her seven month birthday....

                                              Dad and Jackson had some fun too!

Katelyn was pooped out from all the family fun time.

Here are a few other pictures from the month...

                                 Baby Shower for my sweet friend, Anya Keen. 7-21-12

My sweet baby in her Sunday best!

I can't believe my baby is seven months old!! And that Jackson will be 3 Years old next month! I love my sweet babies! God has truly blessed me with a wonderful family. What a month it has been....and now onward into August!

PS. Today is the unofficial Chick-Fil-A appreciation day, so be sure to dine with them and tell them how much you appreciate them supporting traditional marriage.

Exhaustion

So today I decided I would post something that was "real" about me...and that is that at least 3 to 4 times per month my body goes into complete "crash" mode and I have to stop my life to catch up on my sleep. I'm not sure why this happens, other than the fact that I am sleep deprived most of the time, but I have often wondered if I needed to see the doctor about this. And, it could be that I am an exhausted mother of two children under the age of three!

As a mother of an almost three year-old, and a six month old daughter, I don't have an early bed time as often as I would like. Most nights its around 10:30 p.m.or 11:00 p.m., and my alarm goes off between 5:30 a.m. and 5:45 a.m. every morning. So, you do the math, that gives me around 6.5 to 7 hours of sleep most nights, with an occoasional 8-hour night. For most people, that would probably be adequate, but for some reason, not so much for me. Most days I feel like a zombie walking around not being able to concentrate on the task at hand due to my constant obsession with sleep depervation.

So, yesterday, was one of those days where my body just decided to crash on me. I woke up around 6:30 a.m. to my crying daughter who was ready to eat like 30 minutes ago! Gave her the breakfast bottle and got breakfast for my son, while Andrew slept a little later. We try to alternate on the weekends, with "sleeping in", if you want to call it that. Andrew takes care of the kids morning routine on Saturdays while I get to sleep in a little bit, and I do the same for him on Sunday mornings.

Well, half way through Katelyn finishing he bottle I realized that this Sunday morning I wasn't going to make it to church because my body simply couldn't muster the energy to get myself ready, and all it wanted to do was climb in bed and sleep, and that is all I could think about doing as well. So, I helped get the children ready for church while Andrew got ready, and they headed out around 9:20 a.m. At that point I went to bed and slept solid until they came back home at 12:25 p.m. and announced the time. I was still asleep when they walked in our bedroom....did I really sleep 3 solid hours?? Was it really 12:25 p.m. and half the day is gone? Yes my friends, I did sleep 3 solid hours and it was already 12:25 p.m. and I didn't have any lunch ready for the family. I felt somewhat guilty for that second detail, but what can you do when you know your body needs rest? Well, you REST.

I have to admit that as much guilt as I feel for putting things on hold and not accomplishing anything during that time of rest, it was needed in order for me to be a better, well rested, mother the remainder of the day, and life still went on! ;)

That was a little "Real" tid bit from my life....have a great Monday!

Happy Father's Day !

Andrew had a wonderful Father's Day this year. I served breakfast while he read his cards from the kiddo's, then we had a wonderful church service, lunch at Ryan's (complete with steak), then home for some relaxation. Later that afternoon we invited some friends over for a swim in the pool. It was a very nice day and I believe he enjoyed it very much!

For my Father, Ron Willison, I took the kids down on a Friday night and stayed the night and the day Saturday. My brother, Matthew, and I went in together on a new bbq grill and tested it out Saturday for dinner. We grilled steaks, squash, and had some other fresh vegetables from their garden. My Dad loved his card I made from the kids and me. Thank you Dad for always being there for me and loving me through the good and bad times of my life. I love you!

I have failed to tell Andrew how much he means to me and the children. So, I decided to write it in this post.
Andrew, you are a wonderful husband and father to our children. They think you hung the moon.....and often times I do too! I know I don't tell you enough, but I do. I think you are doing a fabulous job raising our children. I am so proud when you read the Bible to us after dinner, the way you have so much fun with Jackson and Katelyn (and me) everytime you can, and how talented and handy you are around the house. You are the ultimate DIYer!! You have learned to do just about everything over the six years we've been married. You make things lively and fun around the house, like no one else can. Thank you for reminding me so often that I need to be more of a kid! I love you with all my heart and am so blessed to call you my friend and my love....and the father of our two adorable children! ;)

                        Dad and Children June 9, 2012

              Dad with Jackson (almost 4 months) January 2010

              Dad with Katelyn (almost 6 months) June 2012

                                               Easter 2012

                         Bedtime with Jackson June 2012

I hope you had a wonderful, and memorable, Father's Day this year Andrew. We love you very much!

Andrew's Birthday

I mentioned Andrew's birthday back in April, when it was his birthday, and promised to include pictures of the cake Jackson wanted to make for him, complete with elephants and balloons! I have to say, this is not the cake I'm most proud of, but it was made in such a rush that I didn't have time to decorate it creatively like I usually like to do! And the most important thing of all is that Jackson (with Katelyn's supervision) helped make the cake and Andrew loved it! Jackson loved getting to eat it too! Here are the pictures!
(Please excuse my messy and incomplete kitchen, lol ;)

 Jackson helping me mix the cake...

He had to taste test it before it went in the oven ;)

Katelyn supervising

The finished cake...

I sort of ran out of the green icing mid-way through the decorating ;(

My proud little baker man!

5 Months Old!

Yes, that's how old Katelyn is already! I can scarcely believe my baby girl is already five months old and my "baby" boy is not such a baby anymore at all. In honor of Katelyn's five months, I would like to list five things about her:

1. She has the most beautiful smile in the world!
2. She can roll over; mostly front to back, but halfway from back to front.
3. She likes to "talk" and has said a few recognizable syllables like "Ba", and "Ma".
4. She love her hands...they are nummy nummy!
5. She also found her feet about a month or so ago and likes to grab those too. :)

In addition to these things, she has been grabbing at things for a while now, and follows things, especially bright objects, and people around the room. She smiles when she hears me, Jackson, and Andrew talk to her. She can sit with support, and loves peek-a-boo as well. I realize that most Mom's start their babies on solid foods at four months, but we waited until five with Jackson and thought I would do the same with Katelyn. However, we tried some bananas and peas last night, and she did NOT like that at all. She gagged and made this face that said, "Ew...disgusting!". She pretty much spit the spoon out, but wanted to chew on it, without the babyfood, lol. It didn't occur to me until later yesterday evening that I should have tried rice cereal first.....DUH! It's been so long since Jackson was five months old that I've forgotten. So, I brushed up on the subject today and concluded that she may not be ready. I will try rice cereal this evening and see how that goes.

Anywhoo...we had a great weekend with lots of family time. Some in the pool, so that was refreshing. Katelyn got in the pool for the first time, but Jackson on the other hand, is suddently completely afraid to get in the pool with us holding him. He used to ask to "get down" in the big pool at the Wellness Center last year, but now that we have our own pool, he'd rather stay on the first two steps! Hopefully he will overcome that fear and warm back up to the idea of learning to swim soon. Until then, and even after then (maybe), my rule is that he must wear a life jacket around the pool.  So, here are a few pics from this past weekend!
                                                             
                                                                     Saturday Fun!

Getting ready to go swimming for the first time!

Katelyn Five Months! 5-19-12

Jackson playing with a stick, lol!

Daddy got to take Katelyn in first...

Then Mommy got to play with her tool :)

Jackson was happy sitting at the top, or on the first step most of the time.

Mom and Katelyn!

Sunday before church...

I had to take these pictures because Katelyn is wearing the dress I wore when I was a baby. Aww!

          I love Feltman Brother's dresses. And the yellow looked really good on Katelyn too!

I hope everyone has a blessed week!

Mother's Day 2012

I wanted to take a few minutes to update my blog and include some pictures of Mother's Day this year, and a few other pics of our life lately. This Mother's Day was special to me; Andrew and Jackson brought me breakfast in bed after I got to sleep in longer than normal. My breakfast was a breakfast burrito with orange slices and coffee. Jackson brought me the beautiful card he had made for me.

I even invited Andrew to enjoy breakfast in bed with me and the kiddo's. It was nice to have breakfast in bed with my family. ;)

After breakfast we made a mad dash to get ready for church. Not only was it Mother's Day, but it was special because we were dedicating Katelyn at church as well.

So the family pictures weren't that great, but at least we finally got one of all four of us!!
After a wonderful church service, brought by our new pastor, we had lunch at Olive Garden with Nancy, Granny Wilks, Saralyn, and Stephanie. We were so happy that Nancy and Granny Wilks were able to make it to the dedication also.

Later that evening, Andrew and Jackson bought flowers for me on their way home from church.

While they were at church, Katelyn helped me re-arrange some dishes in my built-ins. These are pictures of her cheering me on!

I had a very special and relaxing day. Katelyn and I even caught a little nap together while Jackson was napping. Andrew took a short nap on my raft in the pool, lol.

I want to thank my wonderful husband and kiddo's for making this year such a special day for me. I love you!!

PS...I have run out of time and will have to add "Other things" on a later post.