It's My Party

Yesterday, my family and a few friends came over to celebrate my birthday. Thank goodness the weather cooperated and it was a beautiful day. Randy grilled burgers and hot dogs and we even tried a new recipe for stuffed jalapenos. They were delicious, but the jalapenos were HOT! We had cake and ice cream and I got a lot of good gifts. Including money, gift cards, a new scentsy scent, a sweater and a NEW CAMERA! My 365 Project starts tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Thanks everyone for coming over yesterday, we had so much fun!

Happy Birthday to ME!

Happy Birthday to me,
Happy Birthday to me,
Happy Birthday dear me-e,
Happy Birthday to me!


Yep, another year has flown by and it's my birthday. It started out as a great day! I got the best hugs from my sweet little boy and a new hand mixer from my baby daddy, well it's been ordered at least. (No, this is not a hint that I need to be cooking/baking more often, this is what I requested. More on that later.) My parents volunteered to play with Jack all day, so I could get my nails and hair done and do a little shopping. I was on my way to the mall when this happened...


Yep, you're seeing it right. That's my car, newly wrecked. Some idiot not-so-good driver ran into the back of me. And. I was stopped at a red light. Dead stopped. Crazy. Thankfully, no one was hurt and he does have insurance, or at least that's what the officer told me. So instead of shopping at the mall, I am now shopping for a good repair shop. NO FUN! Happy Birthday to me! HA! At least I did get my toes and nails done before heading to the mall.

Now we're just hanging out at home waiting for a call from the insurance company. Here's a pic of Jack and Papa chillin'!

Supper Time

Tonight's supper was SOOOOO good! Randy has been wanting to try the French's Fried Chicken, so this afternoon I went to the grocery store and got all the stuff. At the grocery store, Jack even sat in the buggy like a big boy instead of in his carrier. I think he enjoyed sitting up there. But anyway, here are pictures from our dinner and the recipe for the chicken. I added Frank's Red Hot sauce for a little kick and I thought it was awesome. We had roasted red potatoes and steamed broccoli, also. For the potatoes, I just quartered them and tossed them in olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic and baked them at 400 degrees for 40 minutes. I steamed the broccoli for about 10 minutes and added salt and pepper. This was by far one of the best dinners I've cooked in a while. I also made my favorite cheesecake, but I'll post more about that next week.





While I was fixing dinner, Randy was giving Jack a bottle and Jack has finally learned how to hold the bottle. He's been trying to hold it for a few days now, but couldn't quite keep the bottle in his mouth. Just another indicator of how much he's learning and how fast time goes.




And here's a pic of Memaw and Jack from when everyone came to visit last month.


My birthday is Friday and we are so excited because Grammy and Papa Jeff (my parents) are coming tomorrow and Daddy, Memaw, Grandad, Aunt Deb, Aunt Sherry, Misty and maybe Am and Bit will be here on Saturday to celebrate with us.

Having Trouble

So, I have the cutest video of Jack to upload, but I'm having trouble getting it to upload. I even brought the Flip to work to see if it would upload faster here, but I thought I was being smart and checked the box to delete videos after upload, so the video I want is no longer on the camera. Go figure! I tried emailing it to myself, but you can't save the video from email. So my "user friendly" Flip, it not so user friendly these days. Or maybe it's the operator. HA! I'll try again tonight to get the video up here, because it really is so cute.

*Update* Yay! It finally worked. But it's in 2 parts because it was too big to upload in one file.

Weekend Recap

"Santa" brought us a Wii for Christmas and Randy finally hooked it up before the Super Bowl. Little did we know how much fun we'd have, or we would have been playing much sooner! We really like to bowl and on Friday Randy finally bowled a PERFECT 300... TWICE! He had to take a picture the first time, because no one was there to witness this perfect score, but I saw it with my own eyes the second time. Ugh, I was so hoping I'd bowl a perfect game before him, but in my defense, he has bowled about 50 more games than me! HA!

Saturday, I was doing laundry and walked into the living room to find Jack like this.

I have no idea how he managed to get himself underneath the Jump-a-roo, but he seemed perfectly happy laying there playing with his toys. Just another reminder that we can no longer leave him in a room alone, uncontained. He can army crawl to wherever he wants to go. And the fun begins!!

Saturday night we went to Autorama. Not my thing, but it was nice to get out. We don't go too many places since we have Jack, but I pack light and he loves the stroller, so it wasn't bad at all. After Autorama, we went to Spaghetti Warehouse downtown. It was Jack's first time in a high chair at a restaurant and I think he liked it. I gave him some Puffs and his sippy cup and that kept him occupied the entire time we were there. Maybe we'll have to get out more often.

Yesterday, was a lazy day for us. I did go to Target and bought a whole lot of stuff that I didn't need, but I needed a little retail therapy. Target had the cutest patchwork overalls for Jack, but of course they didn't make them big enough for him. So disappointing! And I got us the new Super Mario Bros for Wii. It is almost exactly like the old school Mario with a few little upgrades... SO FUN! Well, that's all for now. Happy Monday!

Happy 7 Months Little Man!

Oh my goodness! I can hardly believe that you are 7 months old today!

The past 7 months have been the best and fastest of my life. You are still such a happy baby, thank goodness! You just laugh and smile and play and are making all kinds of noises. Sometimes it sounds like you say "mama" or other words when you're babbling and I cannot wait to hear you say "mama" and know what you're saying. Oh how sweet! You can get up on your hands and knees and rock back and forth, but no crawling yet. Hopefully, we'll get the house "baby" proofed this weekend, so when you do start crawling we won't have to worry so much about what all you can get into. Although, you are already rolling and scooting to where ever you want to go. You still love George, or any other stuffed animal in your crib. You laugh out loud now when Daddy tickles you and it is so funny to watch. And, little one, you do not like it when I take things away from you. I can already see lots of "fits" in our future. You eat almost everything and have just started eating Puffs. You really like them, but you have a hard time getting them in your mouth, but once they are in there, you go to town! You are beginning to like fruit again, but still not as much as you like meat and veggies. Typical BOY!


Jack's Stats:
about 22 lbs
about 28.5inches long
no teeth yet
goes to bed at 7:30pm
wakes up between 7-8am
usually one 2-3 hour nap

Happy 7 Months Little Man!
We love you!

Ran-Ran's Barber Shop

Now open for business! HA! For those of you who don't know, Randy cuts his own hair and has for a few years now. To this day, I still cannot figure out how he gets the back and sides cut without messing them up, but somehow he manages and most of the time his haircuts turn out really good. (I tell you, the man can do almost anything.) Occassionally, I'll shave his neck, but not that often. Now, I'm glad he can cut his own hair and save the $10-15 but really, is it necessary? It makes a mess in my our bathroom - there is hair EVERYWHERE! He tries to sweep it up, but it is nearly impossible to get all of the hair off the floor and cabinets. So, the money saved from being your own barber is spent on a cleaning lady; although, I think he cuts it himself because it's more convenient, but whatever. All of this to say...

Randy has gotten his first customer!! And I bet you can guess who it is. Yep. That's right. It's Jack! He had his very first "real" hair cut tonight! Complete with clippers and all. I have cut the sides of his hair a few times, but it was NOTHING like this. The hair on top of his head was really long and we've been talking about cutting it for a while now and tonight was the night. Jack's sippy cup leaked and got him all wet while he was eating dinner, so when he finished I stripped him down to a diaper to play for a little while before bathtime. Well, Randy and I were sitting on the floor playing with him and decided we should cut his hair and I'll let the video tell the rest of the story...

I was shocked, to say the least, at how much hair we cut, but it doesn't look bad and it will grow back. Next time we'll use a bigger guard so the clippers don't cut so short, but for now Jack has a little flat top. So cute!

Wordless Wednesday

Isn't this the funniest picture?

Happy Wednesday everyone!

365 Project

I've been inspired by OhMommy, Heather and countless others. I am going to try to do the 365 Project of taking one picture a day for an entire year. I tried to start it at the beginning the year, but that only lasted a week. It is harder than you might think. I had to consciously remind myself to take a picture everyday. And what makes it even harder is that I only have one kid to take pictures of and no animals. I would take pics of myself and Randy, but I hate being in pictures and Randy is always wearing the same shirt when we're at home, so that would get pretty redundant! HA! Oh well, we'll see how it goes. I really hope that at the end of this little project I will be a much better photographer (I got a new camera for my birthday and really want to learn to use it) and I hope I will have a ton of good pictures so I can make a fancy coffee table book of our year in pictures. (I LOVE OhMommy's book!) Plus it will be really cool to see how much Jack changes throughout the year.

My 365 Project will start on March 1, 2010 and I've created a new blog to post the daily picture. I want to do all of the pictures in black and white, but will probably post both the black and white and color pics. We shall see.

Bath Time...

Or not! I bathe Jack almost every night. He loves bath time and just laughs and plays in the bath tub. But the past few nights, he has not gotten a bath. One night was because I was being lazy. It was Valentine's Day and we went to Scott and Kim's for dinner. (BTW, we do this every Sunday, so it being Valentine's Day is completely irrelevant.) Nonetheless, it was late when we got home and it was past bedtime for Jack, so we skipped the bath. 8:30 is late for us these days. Party animals! Well, last night I had full intentions of bathing Jack and putting him to bed, just as I do every other night, but he had other plans. School must have worn him out, because I laid him down for what I thought would be a cat nap at 5:30 and he. was. out! Poor baby woke up hungry at 11:30, so I quickly put him in jammies, changed his diaper, gave him a bottle and put him back to bed. By 11:30, Mama was already sleeping, so this goes in the category of him waking up in the middle of the night, which thankfully hasn't happened in a while! So tonight, Jack must have a bath! I'm sure he's feeling yucky, or maybe not since he is a boy, after all.

I think this is the cutest picture. He was probably about a month old and I had just finished bathing him. There is just no sweeter smell than a freshly bathed baby. Awe, I can smell him now.

We Might Have Another Lefty in the Family

We might have another lefty in the family. Now, I know it is too early to tell, but it would be kinda cool. Jack is named after my grandad who just happens to be left-handed. Jack almost always grabs his toys and blankies with his left hand first. This could be because his right hand is usually tied up since he sucks his right thumb and 90% of the time, the thumb is in his mouth. We can only hope this habit subsides as he begins crawling and walking and using his hands to explore. Anyway, here's a video of Jack trying to drink out of his cup. Hope everyone is having a Happy Valentine's Day. I'll post about ours later.

OMG! I thought I would never get this video to upload, but after about 10 failed attempts, it finally worked!

Snow Day

Yesterday set a record for snow in Dallas. I think we got a little over 9 inches. Crazy! But thankfully, it has finally stopped snowing and is beginning to melt. I can now understand why people in other parts of the country get cabin fever when they get snow like this. I'm just glad it doesn't happen very often here. I think I'd go nuts!

Since there was so much snow and the roads were pretty bad this morning, we are staying home today. Randy just went to the grocery store and Jack and I are just hanging out.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow...

This morning we woke up to a few inches of snow.

Of course, Randy questioned my decision to go to work, but the roads really weren't too bad since the temperature was still above freezing. But coming home from work was a different story. I sat in traffic for 2 hours and 15 minutes to get home. It sucked! The roads weren't too bad, but traffic was sitting still.

But I finally made it to pick up Jack and we got home ok. I couldn't get my car in the driveway though because there was just too much snow. And I could just see me flooring it and running into Randy's new car. That would not be good! HA! It took Randy a few back and forths up and down the driveway, but he finally got my car pulled into the garage.

Needless to say Jack and I had fun in the snow. I tried to get him to taste it, but he really didn't know what to think about the snow. He was not a big fan of the snowflakes in his face though. If he were just a little older, I'm sure he would love to make snow angels and snowmen. Maybe next year!

Look Who Can Sit Up...

Jack can officially sit up all by himself! Of course, I still have to put him in the position, but he can sit for a while. Last night, he sat on his blanket playing with his toys for a good 30 minutes while I fixed dinner. His balance is getting better everyday. I'm sure in the next few weeks, he'll be able to sit up from laying down. I'm constantly amazed at the things he can do and how much he changes from day to day. He's becoming such a "little boy" so quickly. Sometimes it's hard for me to remember the tiny baby he was a few short months ago.


Thanks to Aunt Sherry for the high chair. It's a pretty fancy one! It has different height settings so I can make it taller or shorter depending on where it's sitting, it folds up completely for storage and it even reclines. Pretty cool! Jack eats all his baby food meals in the high chair - dinner during the week and lunch, snack and dinner on the weekends. I've been giving Jack a sippy cup with water at dinner time and he really likes it. I don't think he really drinks much of the water, but he LOVES to chew on the squishy plastic spouts. I decided to introduce the cup early, so hopefully we won't have such a hard time getting him off the bottle when he turns one. I'll let you know how that works out for us. HA!


I found these cute little bags of heart shaped chocolate covered pretzels at Wal-Mart and thought they would make the perfect Valentine treat for his teachers. I just used scrapbook paper to make the name tags, then tied them with ribbon.


Since the kiddies in Jack's class are all too young for "real" candy, I thought Puffs would be great little gifts. I put them in cellophane bags and tied the names tags on with ribbon. Genius, in my opinion! I hope the other kids bring little Valentines for everyone.

What do you take for your kid's Valentine treats?

Jack's 6 Month Photo Shoot

Last Sunday we went out to see Jennifer for Jack's 6 month pictures. He did so good and there were some really good pics of him, but my hopes of a cute family picture did not happen. The pictures with Randy and me were not good at all. Oh well, we'll try again some other day.

You can see all of the pictures by clicking here.

The password is brandy.

While we were at Jennifer's studio, Jack sat up for about 10 minutes all. by. himself. Talk about one proud mama! And he had the best toothless smiles and giggles. He's getting more and more fun everyday! He rolls all over the place and is really trying to crawl, but just hasn't quite figured it out yet. He loves Curious George and has started sleeping with him at night. I put George in the corner of Jack's bed, but when I go check on him, George is almost always laying right next to him. I think it's so cute.

Napping with George