G.I. Jake!

First of all, THANK YOU to all of you for your birthday wishes yesterday,

I had a great day and so far, I guess turning 31 is not SO awful.

Now back to the post...

he's fast, he's tough, he's no other than, G.I.Jake!

Mission: to keep from getting caught by Mommy and getting TOO many hugs! Mommy sees her target...but he's hiding, he's fast and he's got a loaded Nerf gun...
Ahhhh, the suspense....

Yep, he's been captured. The Nerf gun has been taken away and now...

it's time for HUGS, HUGS and MORE....HUGS!

*a few weeks ago, our cousin had a Nerf Blaster-capture the flag birthday party! it was AWESOME! The kids were dressed in camo, had their guns and ready to go! Very cute idea and I know the kids had a BLAST :) The pics above are from my cousin, since I had forgotten my camera-whoops, and she kept snapping pics of me trying to get a hug from my boy,

ya know he'd rather be playing than huggin' on his Momma.

Happy Birthday to ME!

Not sure how I feel about turning 31 today...but so far, so good :) My mom, husband and boys surprised me with a cookie cake last night, we all sang and enjoyed cake and coffee-YUM! Today is starting off with LOTS of hugs and kisses and birthday wishes from friends and family-thank you to all of you for making my day special!

Now I'm off to let it sink in that I'm 31 years old...

a visit to MeMe's work

MeMe had promised Jacob a visit to her work, she is in environmental sales and works for a company with LOTS of things that her grandson's L.O.V.E, such as...tractors, trucks, and big equipment! All the tough guy stuff Jacob loves, so today seemed like a great day for a trip to her work, then to a delicious restaurant on the water(for my birthday,

YES I'll be 31 in TWO DAYS), and a trip over to the battleship too!

He's a big boy up on that tractor...he LOVED it!

He said MeMe's work was THE coolest :)

As we drove off, he asked if he could go to MeMe's work EVERY day!

and there's the Battleship, pretty cool huh??! We were going to get tickets and hop on board, but our littlest man was super tired and crashed out as soon as we got into the car after lunch...maybe next time! It was a gorgeous day, 60 degrees

SUNNY and breezy and best of all, NOT humid! Yayyyy!

Although I've been wishing for snow just once this winter,

this weather will work for me too :)

why I LOVE snack time

...it gives me some time to practice and play with the editing on my new D3100 camera!

And by the look of these faces, they seem totally ANNOYED with my practice time,

Don't they?!?! Ha!

and there's a smile from my little, toothless man! Poor thing :( They are still there, but MUCH shorter than before. So far, so good though...no discoloration and he seems to be doing great!

THANKS again to all of you for your kind words about his little accident

AND for wishing my hubby and I a Happy Anniversary...

each and every one of your comments brought a smile to my face!!

Happy 6 Years!

On this day, six years ago I married the man of my dreams! My true love, my soulmate and SO much more! Since this day we have grown so much, bought our first home, had two sons, changed careers, lost loved ones, watched our children grow and bond as brothers, watched our families grow closer together, met friends that have been there through so much,

moved back to where we grew up, and SO much more!

I have been blessed to have met that one person that was meant for me and for that,

I am forever grateful! Love you, Brandon...here's to 100 more!

update: Justin is doing just fine since his tooth accident. Thanks to ALL of you for your sweet comments!! Meant a lot to me!!!! We've been watching the teeth closely, we're suppose to watch for discoloration. So far, so good. He seems great and back to his good 'ol sweet self. We'll see what the next few days bring and Mommy is making sure he's stays seating in the bath tub at ALL.TIMES! Not sure what was wrong with me, because I used to never let Jacob stand up in the tub...whew, what a bad parent :(

oh, what a day!

Well, the day started off great

Dropped my oldest son off at preschool, came home to visit with my cousin and my friend, and their babies. Justin had a blast playing with his friends for a change!

I had dinner cooking on the stove, picked up Jacob from school and decided we'd do an early bath so when Daddy came home, we could play and enjoy the evening!

Boy, what a mistake that was!!

I ran the bath water for my baby boy, he stepped in

and immediately started to play, then all of a sudden

he slipped and busted his face on the side of the tub...

he started SCREAMING, Mommy teared up and didn't know what to do.

I looked for blood, scrape, redness...nothing!

After drying him off, I layed him down and he would not stop crying,

I tried giving him his "binky" which always makes him a happy boy,

but that did NOT work, he was biting down on his finger, screaming and then trying to put his whole hand into his mouth...poor, little man!

After finally getting a good look in his mouth, I noticed that

both, yes BOTH front teeth were chipped. He was screaming and I looked behind the gums, and yep...blood on BOTH front teeth

. I freaked...

called our pediatrician, then my friend who recommended a great pediatric dentist(thanks, Tarah!) and they told us to get there right away.

*My boys were both dressed in camouflage pj's...Ha, but we went anyway, no time to change them because they said I had to be there in 15minutes!

So, after flipping out for a good hour, the dentist said this is common

(so, Yay I'm not the world's MOST awful mother!) and there's nothing they can do.

We have to watch the tooth, and if there's color change we must go back immediately,

but other than that, treat it with Motrin and that's IT.

But do you want to know the worst part??!

My little baby boy went from this toothy little grin...
ahhhh, it hurts me just to look at it. Its taken on my phone, so sorry for the blur!

to this...
I guess the best part about it is that these teeth are NOT permanent...whew!
Oh my poor baby boy :(

SO proud of you!

As we come upon our six year anniversary, I look back on this time last year...if you haven't read my entire weight-loss story, its coming VERY soon but I wanted to share my husband's story of finding a healthy lifestyle

and his weight-loss journey over the past year!

Let's see...

how about a before pic to start things off ?!?

This picture below was taken December 2009!

and THIS picture was Christmas 2010, just a few weeks ago :)

To say I am proud of him, is not even enough!! Nope, not even close to enough!

He is my life, my soul mate, he completes my life and is also my best friend!!

I have been in love with this man for 10 years

and happily married to him for ALMOST six years!

(it'll be six years on the 15th of Jan!)

We have had our ups and downs, had two beautiful boys together but weight-loss is something we've both struggled with for most of our lives. When I changed my major back in college, and when I found my new way of life, I met my husband. We both worked out daily, ate fairly healthy-I ate extremely healthy, but he lived an overall healthy lifestyle. When our first son was born in Nov 2006, his weight sort of went out of control. He was gaining weight, not really sure where to begin on the weight loss journey...that was until last year at this time. Something seemed to click with him, something snapped and he said he wasn't going to live that way any longer. He started exercising alongside ME, eating everything that I cooked and I began cooking more healthy than EVER...I noticed a change in him right away! Almost immediately.

His attitude was more confident, he was more active with our boys...

it was so great to watch the man that I love, changing his life!

I am proud to say he has lost 95lbs to date!

He runs about 8-10 miles twice a week, and 3-4 miles on the other days.

He went from a size 42 waistline to a very healthy, 34!

I could not be more proud of him, I love him no matter what his weight and health, but I am SO happy that he made these changes for our family. He's a happy man, full of energy and life. I L.O.V.E to watch our four year old, wanting to run with Daddy, wanting to play football with Daddy, being active with his Daddy. It puts a smile on my face each and every day!

I love you, Brandon...you are my world, my best friend

and I am SO proud of you! Happy Anniversary too...

here's to the rest of our lives together!

*We are going to celebrate with dinner tonight,

since he works for our actual anniversary.

I'll try and take a great pic of the two of you together...

we haven't done that lately!