Collins' Birthday

We celebrated with Cookies and Milk and it was a huge hit! We love our little man.

Liebster Blog Post...

Thank you Jennifer Smith for the Liebster nomination!

The rules are:

1. Post 11 random facts about yourself.

2. Answer the 11 questions the nominator(s) asked.

3. You (the nominee) come up with 11 new nominees (no tag backs) and 11 questions for your nominees to answer.

4. Nominees should have less than 200 followers and should link back to you on their Liebster blog post.

5. Lastly, be sure to actually let the nominees know they've been nominated.

11 Random facts about me:

1. I hate thunderstorms. I mean I HATE THEM. My husband tries to hide weather situations from me.

2. I read magazines back to front.

3. I like to eat beans mixed with mustard and chips.

4. I have broken the same bone 3 times in my life. I finally had surgery to repair it.

5. I can only drink milk in cereal.

6. I am a rule follower. I can’t handle people who break rules no matter how small they are.

7. I am addicted to reality TV.

8. I love Women of Faith and would like to be friends with all of them.

9. My secret Dream is to be a Women of Faith speaker when I grow up.

10. I love couponing! I am not extreme about it, but always shop or go places with coupons.

11. I am the worst speller ever!

Questions for new nominees:

1. What is your favorite season & why?- I absolutely love Winter! It is my favorite season. I love how my super curly hair does not frizz as much in the Winter. I love the foods we can eat in the Winter. I love the clothes you can wear in the Winter. If I could wear leggings and boots all year I would. Living in Texas that is not possible.

2. What is your most embarrassing moment?- I used to sleepwalk as a kid. When I was in Middle School at a sleepover, I slept walk into the girl’s parents room. SUPER EMBARRISING. Lucky for me, we moved that year. HAHA

3. How do you sleep? (back, belly, head under covers)- I am a belly sleeper, so when I am pregnant I don’t sleep well at all.

4. When was your first kiss?- I had my first kiss at a George Straight concert.

5. What is your favorite animal?- I love dogs!

6. Would you rather go skydiving or bungee jump?- I would rather skydive with a skydiving instructor. As I have gotten older, I have become more aware of doing things that might injury me or take my life. Therefore, I try to stay away from them.

7. Biggest fear?- Loosing someone I love.

8. Best life lesson you have learned thus far?- It is better to kill someone with kindness

9. Describe your best friend in 5 words or less- researcher, honest, loving, reliable, kind-hearted

10. Favorite board game? Catch Phrase

11. If you could go anyplace in the world where would you go? Italy

Here is who I am nominating:

Life with The Leons

Dear Memphis,

http://www.lifeasacoacheswife.com/

Matus Family

Jill

shannon

One year check up

Collins went for his 1 year check up today. Can you believe that it's been one whole year since he was born? I know that I can't. It could be because its been a rough little year for him. With being two months early he's had a lot of doctors appointments since he was released out of the nicu. In the past two months things have finally started to calm down. We have on average only 4 appointments each month rather than the 3 weekly that we had been doing. He weighed in at 16 pounds, which was only slightly under 1 pound smaller than Carter at 1. For technically being only 10 months old, he should be bigger than Carter at 1! This makes my heart smile.... He 4 teeth and is so long that it makes him look even thinner than he really is. She was very excited about the growth that he has made since starting regular food.

We are so blessed to have Collins and thank The Lord every day for blessing our family with him.

Update in food: tonight's menu was buffalo chicken potatoes from skinnytaste.com
I put the chicken in the crockpot before work this morning with franks hot sauce. It was good. I had yellow potatoes and cooked them like baked potatoes when I got home. Then we put the chicken shredded on top. Not bad! Not my favorite way to have the chicken but not bad.

Food for Thought... And health!

I try not to have New Year Resolutions but more personal goals for semesters. As a teacher my mind works a little differently than most. Ha... I go in terms of what semester we are in school wise. So everyone's new year starts in January, but mine starts when the new school year begins. In January I told Ryan that we were going to set a personal goal for our family for this new semester. Let me tell you how excited he was! I found two really awesome and inspiring blogs www.100daysofrealfood.com and www.skinnytaste.com I read up on both of them and decided that our family goal would be to eat healthier meals. I made monthly calendars for 4 nights a week and tried to expand our normal recipes by not repeating the same meal this semester. At first I thought it would be impossible. After I planned it out though, I was surprised by how excited I was to try this. I chose the meals off these two websites and let me tell you they have been so good!!

I'll keep you updated!
These shrimp quesadillas have been the family favorite. These were made with gluten free tortillas since I'm gluten free.

Just another day

Things have been seemingly crazy around our household this week. With the boys both starting at a new preschool, me in grad school, and Ryan's work schedule being different than normal we seem to have not been able to spend much time together. I guess it usually doesn't bother me as much, but with this past weekend being such a moment in time to our family, I have been more sensitive than normal. I wanted to tell you how thankful I was to all of you who wrote me expressing that my thoughts helped you not feel alone. It sure did help me to write it out but more than that it made me feel so good knowing that I'm not the only one feeling this way. Some of you had babies born early or maybe lost a baby. Thank you for being so honest with me and helping me to sort through this hectic time in our lives. While this week has been crazy.... I'm feeling so much better and so blessed to have our two boys who are healthy and happy! And while they may be a handful some of the time they are our handful and bring so much joy and purpose to our lives.

Collins you are 1...

You love to wave...

Collins you are 1 year old today!

Just typing this brings tears to mommy’s eyes. You are such a sweet boy. You are so good. You love your big brother so much. You think that he is the funniest person ever. You can be upset and he will just talk to you and you calm down. Not that cry very much. Mommy was concerned that you could not hear because you hardly cry at all. The doctors tested your hearing and you can hear very well. They thought mommy was funny that I was complaining that you don’t cry. You have come so far in the past year Collins.



You were born: 2 pounds 15 ounces

Came home at: 4 pounds 2 ounces

Today: 15 pounds 8 ounces

You are truly a little fighter. I know that this has been a rough year for you, but you have made us so proud of you and all of the things you have accomplished. You are an on the go little guy. You don’t like to be still. You have graduated from army crawling to regular crawling. Your favorite way to go anywhere is FAST! You have started racing with your push toys around the house. Mostly trying to find where Carter is. You have not started trying to go upstairs yet but I see this in the near future. You love to play with your toys. You have started to have a voice and a loud one at that. I guess you come by this naturally. You will talk to yourself all day. You say Dada and bubba but not momma yet. That is ok though I am sure once you start you will never stop. You love to eat food but really have always hated your bottles. Good thing we are almost done with those.



You add so much to our lives. You have brought us all closer to each other and the Lord. For that we will always be grateful. We love you so much Brother. Happy Birthday!!!!!!



Mommy loves you so much!  

The Day you were born...

Such a sweet sight...

You already did not want me to take a million pictures of you...

You were born to pray!

One year agon today......

I have no idea why, but I have dreaded this day for the whole month. The day has been taunting me like no other. I did not want to go to sleep last night. I can not explain why this is. Ryan is not feeling this way at all. I am happy that we have made it one year. I am thrilled that our little one is getting bigger everyday. But I still think about how hard it was and how much we went through. I still think there was something I could have done to carry him a little longer. Something that I could have said to the doctors to let them notice something was changing with me sooner. I know this feeling of guilt will go away and that he is doing great now. But today I am filled with emotions. Not bad emotions, just emotions. Today is one year from the start of our life changing, but I am so thankful that it has.

Fall Frump

I am in a Fall Frump! I love the season of Fall. I love the smells, the decorations, the food, the drinks but I hate that Ryan is gone all the time. I love football and going to games. I really love it when the weather changes. However, I hate being away from him for so long. He is gone a lot so the boys and I have finally gotten into a good routine. It took this long to even have a second to sit down and blog. I would think about it but be busy or need to sleep! Things have finally started to fall back into place with mommy going back to work and both of the boys going to daycare. Carter LOVES school and this makes the morings so much easier. Collins is adapting to daycare and I really feel that we have found the perfect place for him.

Today is a big day for us. Collins has his re-evaluation with ECI due to being a preemie. I am looking forward to seeing how much progress he has made in the last few months since being released from the NICU. Can't wait to share!

Collins you are SIX months old!

 

Where did half a year go???

 

Half a year has gone by buddy! SLOW DOWN..... You weigh in at 11 pounds 9 ounces. You have been sick the past two weeks with your first virus and have not eaten much at all or I think you would be at 12 pounds now.

You are the happiest baby ever. You hardly ever cry and you are always watching what is going on around you. You have the best little spirit. You love everyone and would go to a stranger if I let you. Your laughing out loud now and it's the best sound. You really like to laugh at your brother. He is always doing something silly to entertain you.

You are sleeping in your room upstairs now! HUGE DEAL. You don't seem to notice a difference but we sure do. You are still sleeping from about 7:30-7:30. A solid 12 hours. Mommy is very appreciative of this. You started rice cereal this week and really like it. It has been a battle getting it to stay in your mouth but the more we practice the better you get. You are 75% on the preemie chart now and getting closer the regular chart every day. You are wearing 3-6 months clothes mainly because you are super long and the others are not fitting you length wise. Mommy has really loved getting to stay home with you this summer. I get sad every time I think about having to go back to work. I know you are going to love playing with baby Maycee though at the daycare.

We LOVE you Collins!

5 Months Old

 Collins you are FIVE months old!!

Where has the time gone? This past month you have grown so much and are such a big boy now!!! You weigh in at 10 pounds 5 ounces. You are eating better every day. You still don't love food (which amazes me) but you are starting to want to eat more. You are moved up to 4 ounces a bottle and still up calorie count.

You are the best sleeper ever! You don't even cry when you wake up in the morning. If we did not have a video monitor then I would not know you were awake. You are still sleeping in Mommy and Daddy's room but you are in your pack N play now and you seem to love it. You go to sleep around 7:30 and sleep until about 7:00.

You started smiling a lot more this month. I love to see how happy you are. I have yet to get a really good picture of your smile because you are fast! You found your voice this month too. You talk all the time making for some great entertainment. You found your fingers and toes as well and love to eat them.

Right after you turned 5 months we had your first 4th of July! We had so much fun. We cooked out with Nini and Tyler and Tiffany and her kids. Then we all went to see the fireworks at our new church.

We love you baby boy! God blessed us so much when he gave us you.

Show us your life... Mantels

Show us your life... Mantels!

I am linking up with Kelly's Korner this week for Mantels. This is what our new mantel looks like. I am not  thrilled with it, but it is what it is right now. I can't wait to see what you all have on your mantel. Our old mantel was nothing at all like this and our TV now sits above our mantel so that has been a challenge.

Show us your Life... Bathrooms

I am linking up with Kellys Korner again this week for tours of bathrooms. We are continuing to decorate our new home and I have gotten so many fabulous ideas from these home tours. I have a list a mile long of things I want to accomplish before school starts. I was looking at my calendar this week and realized we are already 1 month into summer! Where has the time gone? I better get busy.

This is our downstairs half bath. I have never had one of these before so this has been a challenge for me to decorate. It is small and I don't want to over clutter it. I still want it to look cute though! I found this thing that goes around the sink at IKEA and loved it. It has a towel hanger in the front of it but I have not found a cute towel to go there yet. I think I want something with a pattern on it. I am thinking about putting baskets on the shelves. We are going to change out the mirror to an oval black framed one this week. I got it at Kirklands.  

You can't really tell but this sign hangs on the wall in the half bath and it says As for me and my house we will serve the Lord.

I also got this at IKEA this weekend. I'm looking for things to go on it.

This is our master bathroom. Our color scheme right now is brown and turquoise. I brought everything from our old house and most of it I still like. There are somethings that I want to change. I would like to add a tall vase in the middle of the counter that divides are sections. The one sided sink thing is not my favorite but I am getting more used to it. We hardly ever get ready at the same time so that helps with me needing more space them him!

Show us your life..... Kids rooms

I am linking up with Kellys Korner for Show us your life.... Kids rooms.

We recently moved and had a baby , so we are no where near done.

Carter's new big boy room:

Collins' Nursery: his room is still a work on progress since we were not ready for him to be born 9 weeks early!

Getting back to normal

Things have started to calm down around here now. For that I am grateful! Ryan finished teaching summer school on Thursday and is now home with us everyday. For that I am grateful! Carter has started to feel better and has slowly began to eat again. For that I am grateful! Collins hit 10 pounds and has probably this week hit  11 pounds. For that I am grateful!

God is so good all the time.

Surgery Day

Carter did so well at the surgery appointment. He did not freak out until we went back to the pre-op room and he saw the big bed. I climb in the bed with him to calm him down and then the nurse brought us the loopy meds. She tried to give them to him but there was no way he was going to take it from her so I said I would try. I told him to lay on the pillow and just did what any mom would have to get her child to take the yucky meds that burned his throat, I bribed him. I squeezed his cheeks and opened his mouth and down those meds went. Then I of course gave him the stickers I had promised. I was worried at first that the part he had spit out would make the meds not work, but I was wrong. Within 10 min. he was a whole new kid. He was talking about wanting to go swimming and playing in the dirt. They told him he would be going for a ride in the big bed and he went like a good boy. He looked back to see if I was there only once. I could see the operating room when I walked by and cried just a little.

It took about 45 min and he was done! They took a picture of his tonsils next to a large sized safety pin to show me how bad they were. I was glad we did it once I saw those huge tonsils. He had some issues with his tummy once he woke up so we stayed a little bit longer than normal.

Once we got home he just wanted me to hold him so we snuggled in mommy's bed and watched cartoons for the rest of the day. Day 1 and 2 are supposed to be the best days because the scabs have not started forming yet. 3-7 are said to be the much harder! Tomorrow should be  interesting with it being day 3.