One Day at a Time...

Merry Christmas!!

Posted in: on Tuesday, December 27, 2011 at at 10:28 AM 0 comments  

Our Christmas Eve tradition is that Logan gets to sleep in our room so that he wakes up with us on Christmas morning. Here he is peacefully sleeping, waiting for Santa. Sweet sweet boy.

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Posted in: on Saturday, December 24, 2011 at at 10:41 PM 0 comments  

Here are our family pictures taken in October 2011. We thought the photographer we used did an excellent job! Her turnaround time was about 6 weeks, though, so we didn't get these back until the beginning of December. I felt really on the ball getting our Christmas card pictures taken in October though!

We have a series of black and white close up shots of Logan at 12 months on our wall in our bedroom. We asked her to take similar shots of Graham and can't wait to add his pictures to our wall! I'll have to post a picture of our wall whenever we get them framed and up.Love this sweet picture of the boys together. Must frame immediately.

I think that this is one of my favorite pictures of Logan ever taken. BUT, when I first got the pictures back, my first thought was, "He looks so.....OLD!" Where did my baby go?!?

We went back and forth trying to decide which family picture was our favorite, and I think we decided that we liked the one on the couch the best. But, it was a pretty close race.


These were taken by B4 Photography in DFW.
www.b4photography.com

Posted in: on Friday, December 23, 2011 at at 9:01 AM 0 comments  

But, somebody has to live it

Don't worry, Booker wasn't left out. He had a whole couch all to himself. (This was the view of my living room as I headed to bed tonight.)


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Posted in: on Tuesday, December 20, 2011 at at 11:44 PM 0 comments  

Got into the baking soda....

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Posted in: on at at 10:15 AM 0 comments  

My sweet boys, just one year ago.....sigh.....where does the time go?

Posted in: on Thursday, December 15, 2011 at at 11:23 PM 0 comments  

Saturday was Breakfast with Santa at church. We had so much fun with the boys this year!



Graham liked the Elf....

Santa? Not so much.

Posted in: on Monday, December 12, 2011 at at 12:41 PM 0 comments  

Here is a little sneak peek of our family pictures. I'm not showing any of the others because I've ordered our Christmas cards and I don't want to spoil it. Yes, I'm silly like that...I didn't use this one on the card, because, really, who wants to see a picture of Shane and I when you could see our cute boys?! But, I love, love, LOVE this picture of us. I think that it is one of the best ones ever taken of us. I love my sweet husband, too, and think he looks so handsome ;)

Don't worry, if you happen to not get a Christmas card from us (Sorry!!) I'll be posting the rest here after I send them out.

Posted in: on Friday, December 9, 2011 at at 11:13 PM 0 comments  

On November 13th, we participated in the Purple Stride 5K to raise money for pancreatic cancer. We did this same walk last year only 6 weeks after Dad passed away and Graham was only 5 weeks old.

Here is a group shot of our team. (My awesome sister-in-law Jill is missing because she is ABOUT TO HAVE A BABY!! Can you tell that we're excited?!)

The boys in their "I wear purple for my Granddad" shirts that I made and the buttons we did for our team.

Posted in: on at at 10:51 PM 0 comments  

I feel kind of silly posting fall and Halloween pictures in December, but better late then never, right?!

One of our favorite fall events was taking the boys to the pumpkin patch. They got to feed and pet lots of animals, ride the hayride and run around in the pumpkins. Loved it!

My little scary ghost and monkey :)

Halloween night we went to Grandma and Grandpa's church for trunk-or-treat. The kids had a ton of fun trick-or-treating and going down the huge slide. (Well, Logan did. I don't think Graham really got Halloween this year LOL)





Afterwards, we headed over to Memaw's for some trick-or-treating in her neighborhood. Logan really enjoyed Halloween this year and was WORN out by the end. Luckily, we had an event at church and could donate all of our Halloween candy to be sent overseas to the troops. He had WAY too much candy!

Trick-or-treating with Memaw
Trick-or-treating with Daddy

Posted in: on at at 9:13 PM 0 comments  

Thanksgiving 2011 I thought I'd do a general update on the family since I've been seriously neglecting the blog this fall. I'll try to go back wards and fill in some things that I have been meaning to get on the blog after this. I've finally started downloading pictures directly to my lap top so that I can (hopefully) do some blogging while I have shirts going through my embroidery machine in the evenings.



*Disclaimer--I have hard time doing updates like this about my kids because I always feel like I'm saying, "Look how great my kids are! They are WAY smarter/cuter/sweeter than YOUR kids!" LOL Please know that is not my intention. I'm just trying to give family and friends some insight on what the boys are up to these days :)



Logan: Logan is 4 1/2 now and getting smarter every day. He loves his pre-k class and goes to school on M/W/F. He can write his name, all of his letters, is learning to add and subtract and is constantly asking "How do you spell_____?" and questions like, "2 plus 21 is what?" He still loves trucks, trains, airplanes, construction vehicles and anything else with wheels. He's singing in the 4 and 5 year old church choir this year and it is stinkin' adorable! They sang in church for the first time in October and we could not have been more proud. We're also doing a service oriented program at church that is geared towards teaching pre-school age kids to give back. We did a bake sale to raise money for the angel tree kids (these kids raised $2,000!!!) and will go this weekend to buy presents for the angels that were selected to match our children's ages. We also have prepared gift bags for children in the hospital and sent care packages over seas to our military. I'm *hoping* that he is getting what Christmas is really all about and learning to think outside of his little world. The MOST important lesson that I can teach my children is gratitude. I heard a quote the other day that said, "To be grateful is to be happy." and I think that is absolutely true. If you are thankful for what you have, you are not stuck in that constant need/desire for more and more all the time and you are simply happy with where you are and what you have.

Every day he does or says something that reminds me what a neat little person he is turning into. I enjoy being around him and hearing his thoughts on things. We're slowly broaching the subject of kindergarden next year. Logan does not handle change well and would be perfectly happy to eat the same things/do the same things day after day. He is SUCH a rule follower and does not understand why sometimes the other kids do not follow the rules. (Sound like anyone else you know?! Apple doesn't fall far from the tree.....Shane.....You know I love you, honey! xo) We work extra hard to encourage him to try to new things and to reinforce it with something postive when he does. He is very hard on himself, so I do not have to correct him often. Sometimes when I praise him, he'll come back and say soemthing like, "No, Mommy. I wasn't very good because I didn't listen to you." I have mixed emotions about it. On one hand, I like that he can recognize when he makes mistakes and that he is honest enough to admit it. However, I want him to have a high self esteem. I'm always looking for ways to build his confidence through experiences and for opportunities to praise him when he is stepping outside his comfort zone.



Graham is now 14 months old and changing every day. If you blink, you miss something with him. Today, he learned how to flush the toilet! (I'm not sure that is a good thing...) In bigger news then that, he is now walking! About a week ago, he started taking some steps here and there, and he's getting braver. I've seen him take about 7 or 8 steps at a time now. He's also talking and says, "Dada," "Mama" "kitty cat" and "bye bye." (We're also pretty sure that we heard him say, "Logan" today.) We're doing sign language with him, as we did with Logan, and he now signing "eat" and "more." We had to remove the knobs from our bathtub because figured out how to turn on the water. One of his favorite things to do is crawl out of the bathroom while I'm in the shower and then shut the door behind him. Then, I have to rush through my shower because I have no idea what he is getting into while I'm in there. (We have those double swinging doors that don't look. Mental note: I need a child proof thing for that door!) He can be half way up the stairs before you even blink, so we have to be extra diligent with our baby gates. He is a huge eater and can out eat almost anyone in the family. He signs "more, more!!" over and over. He loves to laugh--especially at Logan--and is already loving his big brother's cars and trains. I can say that I have honestly enjoyed every single baby phase with him to the fullest. I stare at him every night while I'm putting him to sleep and just soak in those moments. You just blink and they're four. (Just FYI, I still sneak into Logan's room and stare at him while he is sleeping too.)



And, me? Well, things are going good for me! I'm working my way closer to the mystical word of "balance." I'm trying to be more present in my life and live in the moment more. I've had to let go of some things and activities in order to make time for my business and allow plenty of family time. It's been a tough process, but I'm learning that I cannot do it all. It's better to keep the things in your life that you truly love and that make you a better person. My business is going wonderful. I'm truly grateful and amazed by what this has turned into. I'm finishing up my second highest sales month ever (second only to September 2011 which was insane. I think I'm still recovering from September...) My new mantra is: "Stress is a choice." I heard that on a pod cast the other day, and it's really helped me put things in perspective.



Okay, I promise to update again soon! I have Halloween pictures still to post that you can't miss because the boys were super cute and scary :)

Posted in: on Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at at 10:45 PM 1 comments  

Posted in: on Tuesday, November 1, 2011 at at 9:44 AM 1 comments