Getting Sick.....

This is not good. I got sick on the way home from a roadtrip a couple of weeks ago and thought I had shaken it. I don't think I have and it's getting worse. The problem with that is I have a half marathon to run in 16 days! I am still doing my training but it is just not pretty. If I have to cough and crawl to finish that thing, I will, because this is the THIRD one I have trained and paid for! The first one, I was 7 weeks pregnant with Harris. My OB very obnoxiously told me, "Go for it, Mama!" While she has 3 kids herself she clearly did not deal with morning sickness. There was absolutely no way I could have made it. The last long run I did was 10 miles, so the training part was basically done but no reward of actually finishing the race. BUMMER. The 2nd time, Harris was about 8 months old and still in daycare. I gave up on my training because he was on breathing treatments around the clock. He wasn't sleeping through the night anyway but then having to get up every couple of hours and give him breathing treatments in addition to bottles, then go try and be productive at work was just too much to handle. I only got up to 7 miles or so that time. However, I paid for all 3 of them. The first one was in Oklahoma City so I paid for the race AND the flights back. I also helped give a baby shower that weekend so it wasn't a wasted trip, but still. I'm doing a run this evening, maybe it will go well and I won't have anything to worry about.

Harris-isms
Since I don't scrapbook or journal, I want have these entries printed into a book eventually. So I want to remember these random things Harris has done. There are several, so feel free to skip this section.

He was playing with some tools and I asked him if he wanted a snack. He told me, "No thank you, I've got some work to do."

Janee asked him what letter his name started with and he told her "FOUR!"

We were in the car and he randomly told me "I'm doing such a great job."

I was putting him down for a nap and he asked for his Volkswagon. Couldn't find it. He asked me to get a different car. Couldn't find that one either. He finally asked for some water and called out. "It's in my highchair!"

After a particularly long day,  he made a man out of play-doh, then sent him to time out for whining.

When we were reading potty training books, he would consistently say "Harris not do that." Finally one day he said he was done with diapers. (2 1/2)

His prayer one day was: Dear God, Bless your heart.

I shouldn't leave Walker out. He's been working on his poker game.

Here's his poker face. It's good, right? You have no idea what he's holding. Play the opponent Walker, not the cards.

Anyway, our weekend should be fun. We are going to yet ANOTHER pumpkin patch, hahaha, and this time we're getting family pics made. It has more than just pumpkins so hopefully we'll get some cute pics. My friend taking them mentioned a cute idea for a pic, but it involved both boys sitting still by themselves. Ummmm.. we'll see how that goes. If anyone has any tips for family pics with two active little boys, please share.

"So he said to me, "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: 'Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the LORD Almighty." Zechariah 4:6

Nurseries!

This is linked up to Kelly's Korner to show your nurseries. I haven't done one of these but couldn't resist this one!

I LOVED decorating these nurseries. Harris' looks so different now and I'm glad I took pics before it became a toddler territory. His bedding is toile, but the print is children playing baseball. There are red corduroy and black plaid accents. The name above his bed is scrapbook paper with letters glued on. Hanging 6 things straight was not an easy task. I'm sure some would have used a level, but I went with the trial and error method of putting 200 nail holes in the wall. It's time to take these down, actually, but I know what's under there so we're leaving it for now.

The mobile plays Boomer Sooner. Even if we're in Texas we are starting our boys off on the right path.

That chair is now in Walker's room and looks a little worse for the wear. Countless hours were spent in that thing. And the diaper genie is gone and didn't come back for nursery #2. I think they just make the room stink but maybe we weren't using it right.

 The toy bag above and the frame below were made by my sister. Didn't she do a great job???

 As Harris got older, he would stand in his crib and point out the different things on his shelf. He loves to get the train down and play with it.

I put these pics together. I don't have a crafty bone in my body, so I'm happy with how they turned out. 

Here's little Walker's room. It's totally different but I think it's just as cute.

The sign above the bed was painted by my sister. She was a lifesaver on both nurseries!

 The prints above his changing table are the vinyl wall decals, but I thought they would look better framed.

 I wanted to do something above the closet doors and couldn't think of anything. I found these a few days before he was born and went with it to get it done. 

These shadow boxes were supposed to be really simple, but since I am in no way crafty they turned into an ordeal. But they're cute now, as long as no one touches them. They're not the most stable creation. The back is a cereal box lid that's covered in fabric and jammed into the box,

Here's a closer pic of his bedding. I loved the blue/white giraffe print.

 Another frame my sister painted. With a super cute little boy in it.  :)  He was 2 weeks old here. Love that sweet sleeping smile.

This pic is not the best but shows the cute animals on either side of the window. Just a disclaimer, both valances have been taken and replaced with blackout shades. That and a sound machine are must haves for good long afternoon naps.

Hope you enjoyed these rooms!

"See that justice is done, let mercy be your first concern; and humbly obey your God."  Micah 6:8

I WILL NOT GIVE UP!

Pumpkin patch, you will NOT defeat me! Ok, ever since I found out I was pregnant I was looking forward to taking our kids to the pumpkin patch. I thought it looked so fun and Tom and I could enjoy watching out little ones run around with excitement and check out all the pumpkins, while occasionally stopping to sweetly smile at the camera. I  had really been anticipating this outing. So, the first year, Harris was 10 months old and completely freaked out by the whole thing. This is what he did.

I always forgot what an enormous baby he was until I see those pics. Anyway, the 2nd year he was pushing 2 and did a little bit better.

Not much enthusiasm but better than tears.  He enjoyed himself that day, sort of.  Poor Walker was only a few weeks old the first time we took him. Of course he didn't like what we did to him.



But today was our day. I just knew it. Harris has been excited about pumpkin sightings for weeks and Walker is totally fearless, so I thought these boys would love the pumpkin patch. Didn't really pan out. The first 30 min or so Harris kept requesting to "PLEASE GO HOME" while Walker would start to cry if I even acted like I was going to set him down. They finally calmed down and dealt with the situation, but neither one of them loved it. They did like snack time.

And they enjoyed the garbage truck that drove by.

Harris got a pumpkin painted on his hand. He wanted to do that for awhile, so we would go over and he would tell me he changed his mind. He ended up being brave and doing it, but requested that I wash it off as soon as we got home.

Not sure what Walker was doing here.

Here's the best I could get of the two of them.

I do realize neither is looking at the camera, but at least they aren't screaming. My expectations are low. After all that, we got in the car and Harris told me "What a fun punkin patch!" You just never know what they're thinking.

Anyway, this weekend Tom was out of town, so I went to spend the weekend with my friend Aimee, since he husband was gone with Tom. So fun! We got brave and took all 4 kids to a farm type thing. I had no idea what all we were getting ourselves into. They had goats, petting zoo, duck races, trains, tractors, bounce things, pumpkin carving, food, toddler playground, hay swings, climbing fort, and I'm sure I'm leaving things out. We ran out of steam before we ran out of things to do. Here's a few pics from that.

Jack and Harris

Harris intent on the duck races. His duck actually stalled out and had to be picked up and moved, but he didn't mind.



Harris has ALWAYS loved Aimee and here's a good example of why. She picked him up to pet that horse even with her baby in a carrier. That was beyond the call of duty.




Aimee and Ms. Landry.




Harris is only smiling because Jack was behind me hamming it up.


It was a super fast trip, but a good one. We watched some football Sat night while the boys did what boys do.

Landry was sitting and playing nicely with a toy through all of the mayhem. What a sweet baby!

Thanks for having us! Hope we didn't tear anything up.

"He must become greater, I must become less." John 3:30

Roadtrip

Tom and I had a roadtrip planned to Oklahoma for my friend's wedding. We were going to make a week or so out of it and see all our family and friends while we were there. It ended up that Tom just wasn't going to be able to get off work, but there was no way I would miss the wedding, so I drove the boys BY MYSELF. This may not see like a big feat to some people, but I was scared to drive Harris across town when he was born, so this was a leap for me. Thanks to dual screen dvd players and endless amounts of cheerios, we made it. I gave Walker this holder for his snacks.

The idea with this thing is that they can't reach their hand in and dump all the snacks out. Well, over the 9 hours in the car, he had stretched the opening out a little and figured out how to shake the cup just right so the snacks would fly out all over the place. He thought that was hysterical. I'm pretty sure I'll be picking cheerios out of my seats for the next several years. But the trip was good. I forgot my camera so there are no pics, but the bride and the wedding were both GORGEOUS. Kind of like this.

Seriously, the wedding was beautiful and it was so good to see my college friends. The party favors were cute little baskets that you could fill with your favorite candy from the candy bar they had set up. I wish I had a pic! I am a candy-holic, so that was a treat. I managed to wait until after the ceremony to dig in. They also had a photo booth set up. I had never seen that before, thought it was such a cute idea.

And the boys did whatever they wanted to at my parent's house, just like these two.....

Harris is still adjusting to hearing the word "No" again. He could not possibly have had any more fun. Walker is pretty social when we're at home but he was not really loving anyone while we were traveling. He barely let me out of his sight without fussing, which made things a little more complicated. I mean basic things, like SHOWERING. But whatever, we made it through.

Tom was a trooper while we were gone. This was kind of a vacation for me and he was stuck at home working so I didn't ask him to do any  chores while we were gone. But, when I came home, he had cleaned out his office, totally organized the upstairs and gotten things put in the attic, and the house was cleaner than I left it. There was a candle burning and lunch was ready when I walked in the door. So nice!

Hopefully I'll get some real pics of the boys to post later. Walker eating his birthday cake is too cute not to be adored.  

"He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Philippians 1:6

First Fruits

So one of the things I have been thinking about lately is my quiet time, the time I spend reading my Bible and communing with God. I usually do it right before I go to bed, and this is when I have always done it. And that works for me. Except when it doesn't.......so I've been thinking of making the commitment to get up before the boys and do it first thing in the morning. So I tried it once and was NOT impressed. So this morning was morning #2 of trying it out. Let me just show you one of the first verses I read.
Psalm 119:147 "I rise before dawn and cry for help. I have put my hope in your word."  Seriously! I also read "At midnight I rise to give you thanks for your righteous laws." Psalm 119:62. I love love love when things in scripture are so crystal clear and speak right to my heart. God is so faithful to use His word to communicate, if we just read it. When I got to church this morning, the message was on the importance of scripture. How appropriate! Our church just finished up a series on movies, today was the Book of Eli. They showed several clips from the movie and were able to avoid showing any with violence. Kudos to whoever did the clip finding.


So the weather has finally started cooling off here. We've been taking some walks.

Making some messes.

Hitting the park.

Harris is attached to a book right now, Watch Me Throw the Ball. Tom and I have read it easily 20 times this weekend. Luckily, it's cute.   Walker still throws anything off his tray that he doesn't immediately recognize. Our M.O. is to hand him something, then immediately dive to try to catch it mid-air. We're both getting quicker on our feet. Harris gives a commentary on the whole process. "Is Walker going to eat that? No, no, he's throwing it! Hahahahahahaha, mommy dropped it." Walker also is in a stage of making this random noise and launching himself backward.

I have no idea why this is so entertaining to him, but he likes it and doesn't seem to mind falling straight back on the floor. He hasn't tried it on the tile yet. I bet he only does that once.

"Wait for the Lord. Be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord." Psaml 27:14