Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Tag - I'm it

I was tagged by Rikki and this was much harder than I thought. Especially the tv part - I dont watch near the tv I thought I did!

Here are the instructions for 8 Things:
* Mention the person that tagged you
* Complete the list of 8 things
* Tag 8 of your wonderful bloggy friends
* Go tell them you tagged them

8 Things I look forward to:

- Listening to life from jackson's point of view
- Growing old with Ben
- Getting back into the gym like I used to
- Meeting little AnnaBelle Ritter
- Becoming DEBT FREE!
- Writing a book with Katie
- watching my children grow into amazing children of God
- going back to school

8 Things I Did Yesterday:

- Went on a walk with Jackson
- Made up songs with Jackson
- Took a 3 hr nap :)
- Made Dinner
- Watched Y&R
- played in the backyard for hours
- Drew pictures with sidewalk chalk
- Had some pretty amazing quiet time

8 Things I Wish I Could Do:

- Run a marathon
- Bake everything from scratch
- live on a stricter budget
- move closer to family and friends
- go on lunch dates with faraway friends
- have Ben work from home :)
- sew
- go on a very long, very tropical vacation

8 Shows I Watch:

- The Office
- Frasier reruns
- Biggest Loser
- The Wiggles (hmm - wonder who requests this one)
- Young and the Restless
- Wheel of Fortune (man, I'm 80 and I didnt know it)
- Psych
- Ally McBeal reruns

I tag:

Mary
Laura S.
Lauren M.
Hannah
Lindsay
Katherine
Ben ;)
Sam and Ashley
Courtney

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Random Sunday Fun

This was the day that the Lord made so we rejoiced and were glad in it...



Thursday, April 23, 2009

Oh my...

So Ben often wonders why I make jackson tag close along with me during the day when I'm here by myself with him. I make him go with me to each new room, unless he is sleeping, even the bathroom. Well, this morning I'm feeling brave and as we're playing outside I think "I'll just run inside and use the bathroom and come right back out." It took me maybe, MAYBE, 45 seconds and this is what I return to:
In the 45 seconds I took for myself my toddler got the box of cereal off the counter and proceeded to make this mess.
It's as I'm racing against the impending rainstorm to clean up the debris from my toddler's tropical tornado that I remember a story my mom told me about the one time she let me go down for Saturday morning cartoons without her and how she came down 10 minutes later to find me with a giant mixing bowl filled with an entire box of fruit loops and a half gallon of milk. It's in this moment I realize -
Oh Lord...he gets this from me...

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Walgreens Earth Day Sale

If you have a Walgreens in your area go TODAY and use this coupon to get a free bag and 15% off your order. There are some good deals this week that will go nicely with this discount! Remember the prices below are BEFORE the 15% off and you can only use this TODAY! The below deals are good through Saturday.

The small Glade Soy Candles are $5.99
Use the $4 coupon from here
Plus, use the $2 EasySaver coupon
Final cost FREE

Physicians Formula Organics Wear 40% off
Buy $10 and get a $10 EasySaver Rebate
Look for $5 Organics Wear Tear pad coupons found at Walgreens
Or use the $1 coupon from the 3/22SS
Final cost free after rebate plus a possible profit

Aveeno Nourish Hair Care 2/$13=$3RR (on 2)
Use two $2 coupon from here or here-IE or Firefox
Final cost $3 each

7-up, A&W, Canada Dry, Hawaiian Punch, Sunkist 12 packs 3 for $11=$5RR (on 3)
Use this $1 7-up coupon from here (will have to plant a cherry tree)
Final cost as low as 3 for $3, ONLY $1 per 12 pack

Tums Dual Action (25 ct) $7.99=$3RR
Use the $3 coupon from here or the 3/22SS
Final cost $1.99

Angel Soft (12 rolls) 2 for $6 with in ad coupon
Use the $1 coupon from Coupons.com(Type in this Zip Code if the coupon doesn't show up: 85219)
Final cost $2 for each 12 pk-that equals out to just .17 per roll

Tums Quik Pak $3.99 with in ad coupon
Use the $2.25 coupon from here
Final cost $1.74

Select Edge & Skintimate Shaving Gel $2.99=$3RR
Final cost FREE

Pledge multi-surface Cleaner 2/$7=$1RR (you HAVE to buy two)
Use two $2 coupons from here
Final cost $1 each( I realllllly like this cleaner!)

Thursday, April 16, 2009

How we roll

Or should I say jump? The other night Jackson wanted to put his dad's belt on and fly off the couch onto pillows on the floor. Seriously people. My next post will be "how we spent our time in the ER" sigh. All boy.



I mean I guess you could say he's a happy kid...

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

The GrandEaster Bunny

Well turns out the Easter Bunny came early, right on time and a day late at our house! We must be pretty important people on his list :) My mom and dad sent Jackson a box for Easter full of books on cd, a super cute polo shirt, a mini chocolate bunny and his very own ball and glove - orange for Clemson..big surprise! There were even jelly beans for me and a butterfinger bunny for Ben. Gotta love family :)

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Easter 2009

This may have been the very first Easter I have not spent with my side of the family. It was really hard on me at first, but we are blessed enough to not have to spend it all alone. I had to work over the weekend so we weren't able to go too far out of town. I got off at 715 Sunday morning and got home just in time to see Jackson find his easter basket full of goodies.
He enjoyed his first "chocolate" as you can tell by the chocolate ring around his mouth!
We then headed up to Ben's dad and Glennis' house since they are only 45 minutes up the road to go to church with them and Ben's sister Diana and family. We enjoyed the very moving church service and then headed back to the house for some yummy food and inside play since it decided to rain all day! As you can tell later, the kids did.not.care. that it was raining - they wanted to play on the new swing Glennis made! Here are a few pictures from our day. And no, I didn't go to sleep at all, like usual on Sunday, which made for some AWESOME sleep Sunday night :)
Here's sweet Baby Hudson who just got his first new tooth!
Me after I had a powdered sugar explosion while making icing...

Our yummy food
Olivia making sure Jackson stayed in check - thank you Olivia!
And some super fun, muddy backyard swinging :)
Catherine
Hannah
Pawpaw and Cael
Jeff dancing a jig in the rain as they were leaving. It was also Jeff's birthday - we hope he had a happy one!

Although I could not be with my side of the family due to the distance and work schedule it was a really nice, very fun Easter Sunday. We always have a great time at Pawpaw and Gigi's house. I hope all of ya'll had a great one as well :)

Monday, April 13, 2009

Dying Eggs

This was Jackson's first year to dye easter eggs. Last year he was only 6months old and well, that just needs no explanation. Oh man was this an experience. He obviously thought it was the coolest thing ever - mostly that he could turn things BOOOOO! or blue in his very own words. The funniest part was that he didn't understand why you only put one egg in at a time. He would grab a fresh egg and try and cram it a cup that already had an egg in it, egg shells cracking all the while. Who cares if we had to just throw most of them away afterward - we had fun :)

And of course the infamous stained hands that tell the world you were one of the lucky few to dye Easter eggs the night before...

Friday, April 10, 2009

A Bunny Tale

The Easter Bunny hopped over to our house early... With a box full of goodies...
Lot's of really GREAT books about bunnies...
Must have known how much we love to read...
And even threw in a ball - my favorite...

What did we ever do to deserve such a Hoppy surprise??

Thanks Aunt Pam, I mean Easter Bunny...you are the best!

Friday, April 3, 2009

18 months

Our little man is already 18 months old. I dont know why, but that always seemed like such a big age. I mean, just this time last year he was only 6 months old.I remember thinking then how crazy it was that he was growing so fast - that was then:

this is now:
Shows you what I know. It has been an amazing 18 months and I can honestly say that Jackson is the most fun kid I know. He has got a sense of humor like you would not believe. Just today I heard him cracking up heading my way. I look up and he says, "Mama" and then busts out laughing. I look closer, he's got my clippy in his hair. The littlest things can get him belly rolling and he is such a happy kid. He listens so well, obeys about 90% of the time and we get compliments all the time on what a joy he is to others. We were out to eat last night and the manager came up as we were leaving and he said, "I've only been here a week but we've got a lot of little kids in here and he is the most well behaved one I've seen." I was like, wait, what? my kid? can you write that down, sign it and date it? That is such a blessing as a parent to hear that.Some things he's into: the park. going down the slide by himself. trains, airplanes and trucks. He wants you to let him drive the car every time we get into it. Best thing ever is that cart at Kroger that has the car built in. After we disinfect it 28 times, he is busy the entire I'm shopping. He loves reading. Loves books. He has this book he calls "tiptoe" - Ben's aunt Pam sent him a book about 'going on a bear hunt'...I know you remember that - "can't go over it, can't go under it, we gotta go through it." I loved that book and evidently so does he. There's one part where they're going through the cave and it says "tiptoe, tiptoe, tiptoe" and he turns there first and says "tiptoe!" So cute. He also loves this book called Bear and Ball. It's a super simple book, one of my favorites to read with him and his too. We love all of the books Aunt Pam has sent to us - they've been some of our all time favorites!
I can't believe his vocabulary these days. It's like in the past month somebody turned on a switch and bam he decided he was going to start trying new words. Now, don't get me wrong, he's not winning a pronunciation bee or anything. My favorite is how he refers to my brother and his dog. I'm seriously laughing as I type this. So, we call my brother Funcle (fun + uncle = funcle) and his dog's name is Lulu. We've been trying to get him to say funcle and lulu for months now but he would only say 'that' for funcle and pant for lulu. For some reason, when they came to visit a few weeks ago he busted out with "diudiu" (lulu) and "caca" (funcle). I died laughing. So, on their way home I asked my mom how it was going driving home with doodoo and caca. So funny to me.
He's 120% boy and loves, loves, loves playing outside. Ben let him go barefoot in the mud the other day and I'm pretty sure it's the highlight of his whole life up until this point. It is truly a nightmare in our house when it's raining and we can't go outside. He just sits at the door and stares waiting for it to stop.And speaking of rain. It was raining on Tuesday and I sang the "rain, rain, go away, please come back another day" song and he started the whole big boohoo's again. I think we've got some issues with goodbye. We had a cat (his fave) run away about a month ago and I think it's sinking in that she's not coming back. So, anything with go away or goodbye sends him to tears. My tenderhearted little carebear. Oh how I love him so.
We don't go to the dr until the 16th so I have no idea how tall he is or how much he weighs. We went in a few weeks ago for our first ear infection and he weighed 26 1/2 lbs so we'll see. He's been eating me out of house and home lately so I'm pretty sure he's gained some weight. Hope ya'll are doing well. We sure are loving life.