30th Celebration

My 30th birthday was awesome! If I knew turning 30 would be so much fun, I would turn 30 every year!!! My celebration started last Sunday with Jarod surprising me with tickets to the season opener of the Cowboys game. I honestly had no idea that he had gotten tickets. He and my mom had been conspiring together to convince me to come to Arlington to watch the game at my parents house. I had a lot to do, and didn't want to go, but was guilted into going. We had decided to go to our church (8 am) and then head to Arlington to my parents house to watch the game with family. We had not been gone 5 min. from our house and Jarod insists we just go to church with my family (their church starts at 10:15 and currently it is 7:35). That made no sense to me and he didn't listen to my plea's of not wanting to do that and just go to our church since he made me get up early. Then he threw papers at me during our conversation. I had no idea why, but when I finally looked at them, there were are tickets to the game. I was shocked! So, we headed to my parents house to drop of the kids and then made our way to the game.

I had never been inside Cowboy Stadium. It really is amazing! I was in awe of it all! We had amazing seats and a fantastic time, even if they did lose!

I looked forward to the weekend because my b-day was on Saturday and we had planned some fun activities for the day. We had planned to go ride go carts, bumper boats and play miniature golf, but mother nature had a different idea and we didn't get to because it rained! So, Jarod cooked us a big breakfast of eggs, pancakes, biscuits and turkey bacon. Yummy!!! Then we lounged around and Jarod and Allie left to go get a present. This confused me because they had been out the night before too, but I wasn't going to argue :) When they came back they let me open a present. They had gotten me a Wii!!! I was very excited because Allie is at a good age where we can play games together as a family. Then Jarod brought out another gift (oh, and at breakfast Allie game me a black watch from Charming Charlies and 4 cupcakes). I was shocked again, b/c I really thought the tickets to the game was my gift. When I opened the gift it was a new Mac Book. I'm pretty sure my mouth was hanging wide open. He told me he couldn't decide what to get me so he got both! Crazy boy! Oh well, I am very appreciative and I'm glad I can share my gifts with my family! Later that afternoon, Allie came with me to get our nails painted. I got a pedi and Allie had her toes and nails painted a pretty purple! It was fun just being us girls!

We had a family dinner planned at Buca di Beppo. I thought we were meeting my family, but Jarod had another surprise in store...he had invited friends too! I had no idea and was quite shocked at seeing everyone when I got to our table/room!!! It was so awesome to have so many people there who are so important to my life. Thanks to all who helped me celebrate. I had a great time talking with everyone. I wasn't very good at getting pictures of all who attended and I didn't get any of me with my hubby or my kids!!! One of the funniest events of the evening is when they had me stand up in the booth and sing I'm a Little Teapot! Very funny and embarrassing.

I feel truly blessed to have a husband who went to great lengths to make sure I had a fun and memorable birthday. I love you Jarod! Thanks to my friends and family for celebrating with me.

Jerry's World

How awesome is this drink? I ordered a diet coke and this is how they brought it!

Greer, Karlie and Allie

Poppy, Mimi, Jack and Sara

Chandler, Aunt Peggy and Uncle Jack

Me and my brother Chad

The girls enjoyed my drink too!

Me singing "I'm a Little Tea Pot"

Five Months

I'm a little late with this post, but we've been pretty busy at our house adjusting to me being back at work! We are all surviving and I know once things settle down, everything will be a little more calm! Jack was 5 months old on the 2nd day of school. I really can't believe he is 5 months old! He grows and changes all of the time. I only get a couple of hours with him before he goes to bed and I try to take it all in and pay attention to how much he has changed. We are really cherishing our weekends more than ever as a family. Jack is such a sweet little boy. In a new place or when meeting new people, he likes to take it all in. Once he does, he will give you one of his great big smiles or even laugh; especially if Allie is around! Jack and Allie are such sweet friends. He loves to watch her in the car and she loves to entertain him! He isn't sleeping very well at day care and Allie isn't happy when I tell her to leave him alone so he can sleep in the car. He is still an awesome sleeper at night! He is usually down by 7:30 and I wake him up at 6.

Jack is quite the big boy! He still wears 6-9 or 6-12 month clothes. He is close to 17lbs and he is 27in. long! He has big hands and enjoys being able to hold all of his toys. He tries to help assist me in feeding him and becomes very messy! He enjoys grabbing his feet and chewing on his toes. Right now he is teething and we are waiting for his bottom tooth to come in. It's pretty painful and we can't wait to see a little white tooth! He loves to chew on anything and everything. He loves to snuggle and hug and grab your hair! He is starting to get mad when you have something that he wants or gets frustrated when he can't get to something. I fear the day he starts to crawl! He is obsessed with watching us eat or drink. I think he is wondering why he can't have our food! We have enjoyed these last 5 months with our little guy and feel so blessed by God to have him in our lives.

*sorry for the poor quality of the pictures. They were taken with my phone.


It is hard to change Jack's diaper and clothes these days. He loves to get away from us and be naked!

Balancing Act

Most of you know that I went back to work last week. I've had just under 5 months off with my sweet kids and I feel so blessed to have had that time with them. Going back to work is always an adjustment in our family. It usually takes us a while to balance everything! This will probably be the hardest one yet b/c we now have two kids to get ready and out the door in the morning. I really do feel like we are trying to balance everything right now. Hopefully we will all adjust sooner rather than later.

We all survived our first week! We were all exhausted by bed time, but we all survived! Allie has stayed at an in home day care since she was 4 months old. This year, our friend went to part time and I decided it was a good time to make a change. Allie really needed Pre-K and I wanted both kids at the same place. I enrolled both of them in my district's child care program. I absolutely love it there! I couldn't have asked for a better fit for both of them. Allie already loves Pre-K. She has already made lots of friends and loves being there. Jack is also doing well. His teachers tell me that he is the most spoiled! He is the oldest in his class and the most active and aware of what is going on, so he is having a harder time with naps. They have to put him to sleep (which has made this weekend difficult), but hopefully he will be able to do it himself soon. His teething has also gotten worse this week and he is working on cutting a bottom tooth. You can see just a little white and his gums are so swollen. All in all, Jack is doing well. They love how much he smiles and how happy he is (until nap time or time to eat!). I'm so glad that they already love the things about him that I love too!

I feel like Jarod and I have our system down pretty well. I feed Jack at 6 while Jarod gets Allie up and dressed. Then I pass Jack to Jarod and he gets him burped and changed and I fix Allie's hair and finish packing up our things. The night before, Jarod cleans bottles, fills bottles and then makes lunch for Allie while I feed Jack. Once both kids are down, we are in bed too! We are exhausted! After everyone eats dinner, we are able to spend a little family time together. It's weird going from being with my kids for 12 hrs. to only a total of 3. It's a very hard adjustment, but we really try to make the most of it!
Thanks to all of you who checked in on me or sent me a message this week. I really appreciated the thoughts and prayers. It was hard, but I am so blessed to have a two beautiful and healthy children, a thoughtful and helpful husband, caring friends and family and a job that allows me to have as much time off as I can with my children.

I think Allie is the only one who looks good in this picture!

Jack's face cracks me up!

Had to have pictures on our first day! I did the same thing when I went back to work with Allie.

Love this kid! (please ignore the mess in this picture)

I think this was taken Tuesday night during our family time!

Jack started oatmeal last night! This kid is obsessed with watching us eat and drink. He loved biting on the spoon and you would never have known it was his first time to try food. He was a natural!

More please!

Mmmm!

More Pictures

I got the rest of the pictures and wanted to share them with all of you! I had a really hard time deciding and I really could have added a lot more. I'm sorry there are so many! I think Jenn did such a wonderful job of capturing the relationship between Allie and Jack. They really do love each other so much and have lots of fun together.

Did you notice Jack's initials?

Sneak Peek

My sweet, talented and good friend Jenn took pics of the kids a week ago. She sent me a sneak peak of 6 pictures, so I thought I would go ahead and share them. I think she did a wonderful job!!! I can't wait to see the rest. Jack was great during pictures and Allie was a little crazy at times but I think she got some great ones! It was hard getting the two of them together b/c at times Allie was a little "too affectionate" with Jack. She just loves him and loves being in pictures with him!

My sweet baby girl!!!

Jack gave us lots of silly faces!

4 Months Old

It's hard to believe that Jack is already 4 months old. Time really has flown by and we have been soaking up every bit of our time with our little guy. I have been so blessed to be able to have spent so much time with him. It's hard to believe I go back to work in 2 weeks (insert sad sigh). Jack has changed so much over the last month. I had forgotten how much babies change so quickly. I really love the age he is right now. He is so much fun b/c he loves to interact with you. We had his check up this past Tuesday. He is doing very well and met all of the milestones for 4 months. I should probably tell you what those are, but honestly I don't remember! Here are his stats: height: 26 inches (90%), weight: 16. 11 lbs. (80%) and his head was also in the 90%. As you can see Jack is quite the big guy!!!

Here are some things I would like to remember of Jack at 4 months:
* He is very active! At 3 1/2 months he started rolling from his tummy to his back and a few days later from his back to his tummy. He loves to be on the floor and roll around and play. I love that he likes to do this, but with his reflux, it ends up being a big chore! Any time he is on his tummy he spits up constantly. He can inch worm his way around the floor. I am amazed at how mobile he is getting. We have a huge quilt that we put on the floor and he always manages to find his way off of it.
* He loves to put toys, hands, fingers, thumb or anything in his mouth! I'm not sure if he is teething or not. I can't feel anything right now in his mouth, but he drools and chews on things constantly.
* He loves people and loves it when he is talked to and sang to. He is one of the smiliest little guys! I don't remember if Allie smiled as much as Jack does, but he smiles a lot! He laughs more and more all of the time; especially if you act goofy. Allie loves to make him laugh and smile.
* He has mellowed out a lot. I think our road trip to Memphis helped with that. He is not quite as high maintenance and is a lot more content to be in his car seat while we are out and about.
* Still loves to stand and can hold on by just holding our fingers. He has been trying to stand on us since he was very little. He has also always tried to "sit up" since he was little and continues to try now. He does this the most when he is in his car seat. It makes me a little nervous when we are in the car and he is doing this.
* He is still a great night sleeper! He usually sleeps any where from 9-10hrs. We are trying to get his bedtime back to 9. He got "off" his routine a few nights and we are having a hard time getting him back on it. It will be interesting to see how he adjusts when I go back to work and have a definite schedule.
*For the most part he is a good napper. We have some bad days but usually he takes at least one back nap (any where from 2-3 hrs.). and the other naps are 45 min to 1 hour. He is still pretty good at putting himself to sleep, but if we wait too long, I have to put him to sleep. Now that he can roll over it takes a while to get him down b/c he rolls from his tummy to his back and gets his leg stuck outside the crib and ends up on the bumper. Not quite sure why he doesn't just roll back over. I think it's his sneaky way of getting me to come up and see his sweet little smiling face.

I'm sure there are more things I could add to this big list, but I honestly can't think of anything else! My good friend Jenn was so sweet to take some pictures of Jack and Allie for me the other day. I can't wait to get them and share them with you!

This probably isn't the best picture of Jack, but it makes me laugh, b/c he looks like this a lot in his pictures when the flash goes off.

Allie was jumping up and down to make Jack laugh in this picture. I'm not quite sure why Jarod is hiding behind him :)

My sweet boy after his nap

Allie loves to help tickle Jack to get him to laugh

He had just rolled over when I took this picture

If you look at his feet you can see one hanging out of his crib. This happens daily!