Azaleas and Porch Swings

We had a busy but GREAT weekend!  Late Thursday night, I went to Walmart to go browse through the Garden Center after Christopher had gone to bed and Stephen and I had watched Big Brother.  (I never EVER thought I would find that relaxing, but I love going through all the plants and finding half-off pretties and such.  :)  I’m turning into my mother!)  While I was there, I noticed that all the Azalea shrubs were marked 50% off.  I have been wanting to put Azaleas across the front of my porch, but there were some OLD, big holly bush stumps/roots there that needed to be pulled up first.  We had started working on pulling them up several months ago, but decided we were going to need a truck to actually get them out of their spots.  It’s like they were cemented in!

I called Stephen to see if he would be up for starting Operation Holly Bush removal on Friday morning, and he said that would be fine… so we spent Friday digging, and digging, and digging, and digging some more.  It was HOT and we got sweaty but it was SO worth it!  We were using Stephen’s Isuzu Trooper to pull up the stumps once we had dug around and chopped enough roots off, but on of the holly bushes was crazy huge and we actually had to use Ty’s F-150 to get it out. 

 Before -- it’s hard to see the bushes because I had cut them back, but trust me -- they’re there. 
Four empty holes…
Four evil bushes… (Can you guess which one was hardest to get up?)

That night I went and bought 5 gorgeous Azaleas for $7.50 a piece and we planted them the next morning!

    

Saturday afternoon, after planting Azaleas, my brother and Britney came over and we all decided to head to Hot Springs to hang out and play some mini-golf at Pirate’s Cove.  We did some shopping at Sam’s and the mall, ate at Buffalo Wild Wings, played mini-golf, then headed home.  Christopher spent the afternoon with his Nana and had a blast.  =)  So did we!  We love hanging out with Ty and Britney.

Also -- did you notice the front porch swing in the above pictures?  It’s finally up and hanging, and I LOVE IT!  This is an old swing that my dad built a long time ago… my parents eventually replaced it, but they never got rid of it, and when I started talking about wanting a swing they gave this one to us! 

We sanded it, primed it,  painted it white, and replaced the chains, and I just love the way it looks on my looooong front porch.  =)

And because I know our extended family who reads this doesn’t really care about Azaleas and porch swings, here’s a picture of the adorable C-Monster.  =)  Y’all have a great week!

Wordless Wednesday

 

 

I just want to add: One year ago today, I was put on modified bed rest.  Exactly four weeks later, Christopher graced us with his presence.  :)

busy and tired

i'm alive... somewhat.  i promise that one day i will post something other than Wordless Wednesdays and Christopher's monthly birthdays.  (although that i going to stop after 1 year and i am just going to do it every three months or six months, one or the other.)  right now i am pretty busy.  and pretty tired.  every monday through thursday, i get up at 7:30 and leave my house at 8:30 so that i can make it to arkadelphia by 10:15 for a 10:30 Educational Psychology class.  we normally get out around 12:15 or 12:30 and then i roll back into mena around around 2 or 2:30.  i am also in an online Microeconomics class, which consists of weekly lectures (two to three 1-hour lectures that i watch online) along with a LOT of homework, 2 or 3 quizzes, and 1 big test.  add in an active 11 month old, laundry, dishes, meals, (just general everyday LIFE!) and i find myself on the computer very little nowadays.  uuum, with the exception of my online class, that is.  ;)

stephen and i have been working on a few different projects around the house - our latest one is a porch swing.  i'll share before and aftere pictures soon -- stephen still has to hang it.

my off days are usually spent sleeping in, lounging around, catching up with houswork and tv shows, and spending time with my sweet little family.  hopefully once the fall semester comes around, i won't be quite so busy.  :)

11 months

Christopher, you are eleven months old. 

You are the apple of my eye!  You aren’t my “baby” anymore.  You are definitely entering toddlerhood, and it makes me sad and happy at the same time.  You are getting more independent (as long as you are not hungry & not sleepy) but recently I have been really nostalgic thinking about your newborn days.  (But don’t worry, no little brothers or sisters for you for a long, looong, looooooong time.  A cousin sometime soon would be nice, though!)

You are advanced for  your age (at least I think you are!) One funny thing you are doing is “unlocking” the door.  When we get home from riding in the car, you hold my keys for me while I am taking you out of your car seat, and I always take them back and unlock the front door. The other day, I asked for my keys back, but instead you leaned forward and tried to put the key in the deadbolt for me!

You still wear size 4 diapers and 12-18 month clothing.  You are slimming up, so you’re not longer wearing bigger clothing.  Alot of the stuff that you are wearing right now, you’ve been wearing for several months. 

You walk probably 75-80 percent of the time now.  You are really good at it!

You still have  4 teeth.

You are on a sleep schedule that I LOVE!  You go to bed between 6:30 and 7:30 and usually wake up between 8:30 and 9:00.  You lay down for a nap around 11:00 and sleep for about an hour and a half.  Some days you take an afternoon nap around 4 for an hour or so, and some days you are good to skip that nap.  (Although those are the days you are in bed at 6:30!) And you sleep all night long, always!

You still eat anything and everything I put in front of you!

You say “Nana” now.  Last weekend we were at her house and you walked up to her, tugged on her shorts, and said “Nana!” It was soooo cute and I know that she just loved it!

You still say “Dada” and “Mama” and “Baba” (Baxter) but that is pretty much all the words you are saying.  You go “Ehhhh?” and “Ahhhh!” alot but I’m not sure exactly what you mean!  Haha!

You hair is gorgeous and I am going to be SO sad when you get your first haircut!  I am going to wait till after you are one year old.  It’s getting curly again (it was very curly when you were born and then it wasn’t for several months!) and the blonde curls are just too stinkin cute.

Bella is in the house a lot now and you really love her  -- and she loves you too!  You love Bax but he isn’t too sure about you yet -- sometimes you are a little rough.  But Bella will just let you crawl and hit all over her and she just lays there and licks your hair!  It’s precious and I just KNOW y’all are going to be best buds.

I have to be careful when you are in the bathroom with me.  You like to play in the toilet water.  Ew.

You’re getting more curious by the day!  You are constantly wanting to get into something, and usually it is something that you KNOW you aren’t supposed to be messing with.  You test me every single day!

Even though you are growing up and getting to be more independent, you still like for me to hold you (especially if you are getting tired) and you are a GREAT cuddler when you are getting ready for bed or when you first wake up from sleeping.  I never get tired of your head on my shoulder and arms around my neck!

You are the best thing that has ever happened to me and your daddy, and we love you with all of our hearts, C-Monster!!!

Kinda Sorta Wordless Wednesday

{I'm late posting my WW again}

The reason I haven't been blogging...






Yes,that's my E key and Enter key, missing. Well they actually aren't missing, they're just broken. Let's just say C likes my laptop. :)

Needless to say I haven't been doing much typing at all from my laptop, and I have zero pictures on Stevo's desktop. Not sure what we are going to do yet. (Yes we tried popping the keys back on, but it didn't work. Annoying.)

Another reason I haven't been around much recently?







The first picture is from my notes app on my iPhone -- I made a note of my mileage on my odometer last Tuesday morning when I left for Arkadelphia. (You can see the date & time on the note). The second picture is my odometer on the way to school this morning, about halfway there. That's a thousand PLUS miles in 8 days, peeps. It's nice to be back in school, but sheesh. I'm tired all the time, y'all!

And because you know I can't do a Wordless Wednesday without posting a picture of C-Monster, here's a pic from yesterday. He bumped his head on the underside of our dining room table and got a big goose egg and bruise from it, but he is such a sweet happy baby and he really hasn't let on that it is even hurting or bothering him. I love this kid!




So much for WORDLESS Wednesday!

-- posted from my iPhone using blogpress

Wordless Wednesday

…except by the time you read this, it’ll probably be Thursday, so should I title it “Wordless Thursday?”

Should I even call it “wordless,” since I always type something to go along with my pictures?

Here’s this weeks picture -- believe it or not, I didn’t catch any funny Christopher sleeping positions this week.  {gasp!}

However, I am going to go ahead and share a few normal sleeping positions… mainly because I want to share how loooooong (tall?) he is getting.

     

More about college classes and broken keyboards coming soon!

back to school tomorrow... goodbye, life!

Tomorrow, I go BACK TO SCHOOL.  Back to college.  I'll be a student again.  I'll be traveling back and forth from Arkadelphia 4 days a week for the next 4 weeks.  That's 76 hours of driving just in the next month alone.  I'm taking two classes this summer; one online and one in-class.  I'm excited, nervous, anxious, and a little bit scared.

I had hoped to spend lots of quality cuddle time with the C-Monster today, but I woke up at 6 this morning with a headache that stayed with me all morning long and eventually became a horrible full-blown migraine.  Thankfully, Christopher was only awake for about 2 or 3 hours, then he took a 2 hour long nap and I was able to lay day and chill on the couch until Stephen came home with Excedrin Migraine (it's been months since I've had a migraine, and I didn't realize I was out) PLUS a diet cherry Pepsi from Cruizzers. {more caffeine!}  By the time he got home, I was curled up in a ball in bed, covers over my head blocking out the light, crying from the pain and trying not to lose my breakfast.  =(  I took my Excedrin and then took a hot shower, and by the time I ate the sandwich Stephen had made me for lunch, I was feeling much, much better!  My mother-in-law came over and picked up Christopher for the afternoon so that I could continue to take it easy and rest my head.

My migraine was gone within about an hour and a half after Stephen got home with the medicine.  Thank you, makers of Excedrin Migraine... you have saved my poor head so many times!  =)

I need to finish the housework and laundry while I am still home alone so that I can spend plenty of time with my boys tonight.  I have to be in Arkadelphia EARLY tomorrow morning to take care of everything before my class starts at 10:30.  I'm ready to start -- mainly because I'm ready to be FINISHED!

Friday

I seriously big time love this kid. I am such a blessed Mommy :) I say thankful prayers every night for my sweet healthy boy.

Tonight Stephen and I went to ft smith with Tyler and Britney to watch Eclipse and eat. The movie was GREAT! Bad news -- apparently I can no longer drink strong alcohol/liquor because I broke out AGAIN tonight after just a few sips of a margarita. Boo hiss. I know my mom and dad will be happy to hear that though. ;)


My poor Italian margarita :(

I'm blogging from my iPhone while lying in bed again. Lots to do tomorrow so I'm signing off for tonight!

--posted from my iPhone using blogpress

day of silence

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