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.