Thanksgiving

Our first Thanksgiving as a family of 3 has been a pretty good one. I cooked a German chocolate cake and cupcakes on Wedneday so Thanksgiving was actually pretty stressfree...which was very odd! Bishop wasn't in the greatest of moods (I think he might be teething...but I've thought that before and still haven't seen a tooth so who knows!). He perked up after we got to Grandmothers though. We had a wonderful meal, attempted a photosession, played outside in the 75 degree weather, and put up Grandmother's tree. Jacob, Jonah, and Cole all love Bishop and I can tell he is ready to get up and run and play with them...crazy to think that next year Bishop will be right along with them rolling in the yard! I got a little picture happy today (ok, a LOT happy) even though Bishop really wasn't in the mood and J & J weren't really into cooperating. And, I really have to learn to do one of those collages so I can fit more pics....any help on that would be appreciated!

Happy about his Thanksgiving meal...sweet potatoes and apples with cinnamon

This is the best I can come up with of the three of them...and I have none of the 4 that are postable

I love these two...and the face Jonah is making!

They really are happy...they just don't look it!



 Jacob loves Bishop and it just melts my heart! He is so sweet to him. They were playing in the floor for about 20 minutes and I heard Jacob tell him..."It's ok Bishop, you can pull my hair" How nice of him!

I have to say, Jonah is maybe one of the funniest kids I know of. As we were having the photosession, Heather had all of the boys sitting on the brick wall entrance to grandmother's and he says very seriously "Look, I'm like Honkey Donkey". You know, Honkey Donkey sat on a wall...don't you remember that version?

Watching these boys play "football" was quite funny. They basically just like to yell "hut, hut, hut" and run in a circle and roll on the ground and yell "touchdown". 



Wishing he could be in on the fun



Happy Thanksgiving!

10 things...

...I am thankful for. Sometimes people tend to overlook Thanksgiving. Stores especially overlook it.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Christmas! It is one of my favorite times of the year! BUT, it seems that we go from Halloween to Christmas nowadays. I went to get some turkey decorations or fall sprinkles for cupcakes and all they had out was Christmas stuff! SOO, out of respect for the day of thankfulness, I decided to blog about a few things that I am thankful for. And for the record, I am thankful for so many things it is absolutely impossible to name them all!

1) My child....duh.  Honestly though, he is perfect. Literally perfect. I could not ask for anything more. He is healthy, smart (like mommy, haha), sweet, funny, lovable, snuggly, cute, smiley and I would not trade him for the world. I honestly believe there has never been a child as great as he is (as I'm positive every mother feels the same ;) I never dreamed that being a mother would be so wonderful! I know that I am blessed beyond measure and thank God every single day for this little miracle!

2) My husband. And yes, he knows he comes in second in everything now! Kidding! I am so thankful to have someone who is my best friend to spend the rest of my life with. We just "get" each other...which is probably scary. To top that off, he is one of the best daddy's I know of!

3) Jobs. I am including both my job and Leon's job in this but really it is two totally different things. It's more like a 3a and 3b.

• To start, Leon's job (which I'll call 3a) Leon spent the past 2 years working every single weekend and going to school at night during the week so he could one day get a "normal" job. We missed a lot of birthdays, parties, family get-togethers, football, and church during those two years. Now, he is actually happy about his job, which is more than most can say. AND, we get to do things on the weekends together!
• Now, 3b....MY job. I only started this job 3 weeks ago and I am already SO thankful for it. I was fortunate enough to stay home for the most part of the last 7 months, but now I am back at it. It is so nice working for an independent pharmacy. I never knew that I would like it this much. The people are fabulous and I have a great schedule that allows me to be with my little guy as much as a working mom could ask for. Sure, I would rather be home with him all of the time....it is still my dream to stay home with my babies, but for now, I am thankful for the job I have.

4) My family and wonderful parents. ALL of them! My mom is one of my best friends and I don't know what I'd do without her. I have such a great "step" family that I rarely even use the term....they are just my family and I love them dearly. Family is there when no one else is...they kinda have to be!

5) Rainy days at home with my boy. Well, any day at home with my boy...sunny, rainy, cloudy, hot, cold, whatever!  One day, I'm sure rainy days won't be so great because he won't like to be cooped up inside, but for now...he is happy and so am I!

6) Diet coke. How did I go nine months (ok, well ALMOST...I did cheat a little) without it? Amazing what you will do for your child that you won't do for yourself! The caffeine free stuff is just not the same. I know that Diet Coke is no comparison to how thankful I am for my baby or my family, but I am thankful for the little things in life too!

7) Good friends. I may not have an abundance of friends, but I sure love the ones that I have!

8) Holidays off. This goes back to 3b, but after working nearly every single holiday at the hospital (they don't close!!), I am thankful to be able to spend time with my family. I just can't imagine waking up Christmas morning and leaving my baby to go to work. It wasn't so bad before I was a mother because I felt like I was WAY more fortunate than those I was taking care of...not like they really wanted to be in the hospital on Christmas...at least I was getting paid. Now, however, I am thankful that I have found a job where I can still put my family first.

9) Good health. Nothing like the stomach virus, a bad cold, or a headache to make you appreciate feeling good! Good health is something that I don't want to take for granted....So many bad things can happen so I am thankful that all is well at the moment!

10) Vacations. I LOVE vacations! I am thankful that almost every year, I get to go to my favorite place...the beach! I'll take any vacation, big or small. These days I consider Starkville a vacation. It is so nice to get out of the every day routine and go somewhere different...adventurous or relaxing. I'll take either!

Ok, I know I said only 10...but I have to at least mention that I am thankful for all of the fried turkey, ham, dressing and all the fixins I had today, [stretchy] PJ's that I am now wearing, and having an obnoiously loud kiddo screaming playing happily in his jumperoo (see below).

Oh, and chocolate peanut butter Bugles....DEVINE.

Crafty Couple

Leon's work:

                                                                         My work:

These pictures are from my phone, so they are not the best...but you get the idea.

 Leon made us a coffee table from a door that he found in the basement. He banged it up a little (more than it already was), sawed the top off, added legs, glazed it, and voile...coffee table. Pretty crafty, I think.

 I made Bishop the turkey outfit from start to finish. I was so proud. I sewed the jon jon and was going to have someone applique a turkey on it, but then I took the advice of Jan, and did it myself. It is nowhere close to being perfect...but to be worn once, I think it will do just fine! I got a light iron on sew adhesive, not sure if it matters or not. Also, I read you can use a coffee filter as a stablizer on the underside of the fabric, but I had so much material that I don't think I needed it. I love sewing! It frustrates me to absolutely no end...and it is probably much cheaper for me just to buy the outfits if you consider the ridicous amount of time I spend doing it but I LOVE it! I wish I could stay home and sew all the time!! Seriously though,  I would never make any money because I have to start over so many times. At one point when I was doing the button holes, my machine kept messing up (user error, I'm sure), and I literally thought about throwing it out the window. I am getting a little better if the machine will cooperate! Hopefully I can get a better pic of the the little guy wearing his turkey day outfit tomorrow!

Thanksgiving round one....

We celebrated Thanksgiving with Leon's family at our house this weekend and had the best time. Friday night Kenny (Papoo), Pojo, Page, and Max came and stayed with us. We ate Mexican, made cupcakes, cooked breakfast, played in the woods, watched movies, ate a HUGE Thanksgiving meal, watched some football, and just hung out. It is so nice to relax and spend time with family. Sometimes it is easy to get caught up in making everything "perfect" with the perfect decorations, food, clothes or whatever but it so nice to have a weekend with those you love to be reminded of what it is all about!

Making cupcakes

Silly Max

Sweet girl...she is soo good with B!

Playing with Abby

Hard at work

Beautiful!

Dinner is served!!

Seven

Yes, here we are at 7 months and I still haven't blogged about his 6 month checkup and shots. I'm getting behind...it is the whole job thing I think. Just when I think I can't love this little guy any more, another day comes and proves me wrong. He is amazing. He changes every single day...growing up so fast!

At 7 months Bishop:

• Is a mess. Period. He is becoming his own little (spoiled) person with a temper to go along with it. If you tell him "no" or take something away from him or if he doesn't get exactly what he wants exactly when he want it...he will tell you what he thinks. Its quite funny to hear him fussing. You don't really don't need words to have a little attitude.
• Is ALMOST crawling. He most certainly can get anywhere he isn't supposed wants to be with his army crawl. Ok, scratch that. He literally just crawled a for real crawl! It was after his favorite toy...daddy's shoes! He's still apprehensive about it but I know it won't be long before he is everywhere!
• Has pulled up by himself according to my mother. See, this is exactly why I did NOT want to work. I want to be the one to see that...ugh. Oh well, I feel sure he will do it again soon!
• Has started waking up way too early. I think he's still on daylight savings time..he didn't get the memo about the extra hour of sleep we are supposed to be getting. At least now he can sit up and play for at least an hour. It makes me wake up to a smile every morning listening to him have the best time in there just talking away. Makes me wish I had spent the extra money on the video monitor!
• Still hates bananas. Thats about the only thing I have found that he hates. I can't even disguise it in anything. I try and try and he just hates them. He is not the biggest avacodo fan either. I can at least mix it with applesauce though.  He LOVES yogurt...especially with peaches. He likes pumpkin (thank goodness...they were on sale after Halloween so I stocked up) and zuchinni. Still loves orange food and green beans. What can I say...baby boy likes to eat. Except bananas.
• Likes applejuice in a sippycup. He doesn't actually drink it most of the time, he just likes to bite the spout and let the juice run out of his mouth making a huge mess. Then I take it away and he has a meltdown. We don't get the sippycup much in public.
• Has recently turned his volume up. He has always been a talker but has decided he loves the sound of his voice A LOT. He babbles non stop and is very loud. It is so cute.
• Is such a people person...has never met a stranger- not even Santa (although he did poke that little lip out for about 20 seconds at first).  He loves to smile at people. It makes it a lot easier to go and do when I know that he is more than likely going to oooh and ahhh and smile at every stranger we meet.
• Still makes my world a much better place every single day! Love this little guy to pieces!

I'm slacking on dressing him up for his monthly picture. It  is definetly not because he doesn't have lots and lots of clothes, I just don't think of it I guess. So, this pic will have to do. No clothes and a crusty nose. Love him!

Some times I wish....

I could be a stay at home mom forever! But, alas,  I can't. I have been so fortunate to be able to stay at home most of the time for the past 6 1/2 months. I guess I have worked some, but I really don't consider working 30 hours every 2 weeks much work especially considering I had TWO jobs before I had Bishop. It has been fabulous. I wouldn't trade it for all the money in the world. However, now the pot is empty and if I want to give baby number 2 (whenever that might be) the same attention that Bishop has gotten, I must go back....FULL TIME! After much (I mean MUCH) debate, I have decided to work for an independent pharmacy instead of the hospital. Better money, better schedule, no holidays, shorter days....it just makes more sense. I am sad to leave the hospital and all of the wonderful friends I have made over the past 2 1/2 years: the pharmacists, technicians, nurses, unit secretaries, facility operations guys, even the doctors. I just must do what is best for my family. They come first over any job. This new schedule will allow us to go to church every Sunday! It is crazy to think that six months ago Leon worked every single weekend and I worked at least every other weekend...and we both worked 11+ hours each day. God has truely blessed the Hays's!!

Little Duck

After searching and searching for a costume for this little fellow, we found the cutest little duck. He makes a duck face a lot so I thought it was fitting. I am not into superheroes and I feel sure this may be one of the only costumes I get to pick out!!  And, yes, he may kill me for this one day! But for now, he loves me either way! This kid is sooo cute...with or without costume...

We didn't actually get to "trick or treat" this year because Saturday we had been at the pumpkin patch and had two tired boys and it was COLD. It was going to be a whole lot of trouble getting the boys dressed up and to Saltillo to trick or treat with Jacob and Jonah and be back in time for bed at 7:30. They didn't know the difference anyway...not like they can have the candy!  So, we just had a costume party in the living room floor with Harvey and that was good enough! Sunday we did go visit my parents dressed in costume, so he got a few treats at least!

Pumpkin Patch

The Warringtons came to visit last weekend and we had a fantastic time. We didn't do a whole lot, but we ate good and got to visit so that is my kind of weekend. The Kents came Saturday and we went to Adkins Farms pumpkin patch. It is a smaller place that is not very crowded and pretty close to my house, so it was perfect for what we needed. We had a photoshoot, took a hayride to pick our pumpkins, had a snack, and enjoyed the beautiful day. We had some worn out babies when we left!

Best Buddies

Bishop loves dogs. He loves Abby. He loves Sally. And he LOVES Rocket. I can't blame him...Rocket man is one of the coolest dogs I know of! Sunday after homecoming, Bishop got to play all morning with Rocket. Rocket tolerated him poking and pulling at his eyes and ears, eating his nose, and rolling all over him. Such a sweet puppy...and of course, a sweet baby!

Can't wait to get these two boys together again!!