Wednesday, November 30, 2011

The End of the World.

(an end of the world day ala Brayden at 3 months old)

Do you ever have those moments with your kids where you just know that your child thinks it's the end of the world? You know, those moments where all hell breaks loose because the peanut butter and jelly sandwich is running just 2 minutes too late, or the shoe laces are tied too tight, or they have to endure a 2 minute car ride so they can go get ice cream. You know, the end of the world.

Today, as both kids were screaming at the same time, I felt like I just might join in on the end of the world drama. Life right now doesn't really seem like what I want it to be. Truth be told, I'm not sure life is ever truly how we want it to be. God doesn't really say that we're in for a fun ride... just that we're in for a ride. The funny thing about my life is that it's a lot like those end of the world dramas that my toddlers throw. They throw a fit about being buckled in the car seat so that they can go get ice cream. Ice cream. Pretty much every kids dream, right?! Yet somehow they bemoan the 5 minute carride as the end of the world, when all I'm really trying to do is get them a fun treat! They throw a fit because the sandwich is (to them) taking too long, and if only they'd wait 2 minutes they'd know that it was taking a bit longer because I was cutting it out into fun shapes.

I guess today I made the correlation between me and my toddlers. You see, I kick and scream about the seat belts and the late sandwiches of life. They seem like such inconveniences, and I feel like I don't really need them, but in reality they are necessary to get me to the end prize. I kick and I scream about, what in the grand scheme of things, is a minute part of the entire journey. Kind of makes me feel silly even writing about the drama of it all. The best part is though, that even through the kicking and the screaming, God is patient with me. He allows me to voice my frustrations. But what he really wants me to do is to quit fighting and to enjoy the ride. To buckle up in His arms and to rest in knowing that He has a great journey for me that will bring me to something far better than I could have ever planned on my own. I'm not good at the whole "Be still and know that I am GOD" part of life. But I'm learning. And maybe one day, I'll look past the seat belts and late sandwiches and realize that just down the road, there's an end result that's worth the wait.

Target Giftcard Winner.

I have a few apologies I need to say before I announce the winner of my Target giftcard giveaway.

First, I feel I need to apologize for not getting this posted sooner. We had a lot of family stuff going on over Thanksgiving week that just made it impossible to do much on the computer. I'm sorry for leaving you all hanging. It's not my intention to post about a giveaway saying when it will be drawn and then not get to it... so sorry!

The second is that for some reason there was a glitch in my Disqus comments during the giveaway. That means that some of the entries were posted on blogger's comment form. You can't see them as reader, but I can since I get them in email form too. Thankfully I do get the emails and I have them saved. So basically what I had to do was go in and find exactly when I get each comment on date and time and then made an excel spreadsheet with the comments so I could figure out the winner based on the number that random.org gave me. If you want to question how I did it, I understand, and I can send you all of the emails and the spreadsheet for proof. I don't think most of you are like that, but I realize that we live in a world where people can lie, so I figured I'd offer that to you if you think it's fishy.

And now... for the winner. Here's the info from random.org:
And the 12th comment (from both the blogger AND disqus comments) was from Laura at A Hearty Overflow! Yay Laura! Email me your address and I'll get the giftcard mailed out :) Thanks to everyone who entered... I'm sure I'll have something else for you soon!

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Thanksgiving 2011.

This Thanksgiving we:
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helped Poppa D with yard work
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went on our first carousel ride
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celebrated our first birthday (again)
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(and this time he wasn't quite sure about everything)
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we played outside in the warm Louisiana weather
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played with our Aunts
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(the dogs had fun together too)
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went fishin' with our Uncle
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(he was saying "the fish are right THERE!")
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someone thought it was warm enough to go swimming
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laid out after Thanksgiving lunch
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took an afternoon snooze
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met Uncle Mike again...
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he makes us laugh :)
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Uncle Mike celebrated all of the kid's birthdays... I should have gotten a picture of him singing too :)
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we got in Mommy's makeup during naptime
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we went to see Mike the Tiger (despite the Tigers beating up on our Hogs)
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we rode on the Tiger statue, and called the Hogs while we were at it ;)
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We're recuperating from the long car rides and being away for a week. I'm glad to be home, and am hoping to get back into the blogging swing of things soon, including drawing for the winner of the recent Target giftcard giveaway (you didn't think I forgot about it, did you? ;) )

Friday, November 25, 2011

Heisman.

It's no secret that my son has a deep love for football . He will tell people that he's the "torterback" when he wears his Hog jersey. He asks to throw the football just about every second of the day. And he talks about one day playing for the Hogs. While I am not sure that dream will become a reality, I try to encourage him to chase his dreams. And for the moment the other day, we both dreamed that he was the Heisman winner. He's got the pose down pretty good, don't you think? ;)
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down. set. hut hut hut!


GO HOGS GO! BEAT LSU!

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Connor's 1 Year Stats.

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Monday Connor had his 1 year well check appointment. At one year, Connor:
  • weighs 23 pounds (50th percentile)
  •  is 30.5 inches long (50-75 percentile)
  • I can't remember his head circumference measurement, but do know it was in the 90th percentile. Boy's got some big brains :) 
Some of the things C man is up to:
  • Says "dada" and "baba" (bye bye). These are hit and miss when he says them.
  • Signs "all done", "more," and "milk"
  • Wears size 5 diapers (B and Connor both wear the same size diaper now-ha!)
  • Completely off formula and bottles. We transitioned cold turkey and he did great! He eats 3 meals a day plus snacks, and drinks anywhere from 4-6 cups of milk a day (I know that's a lot, but I don't deny milk at this young of age since he needs the protein). 
  • Wears 18-24 month clothes. 
  • Pulls up on everything and has started cruising along the furniture, and walking behind toys sometimes. 
  • He loves to play independently. He'll go into Brayden's room and play by himself for 30 minutes. It's AWESOME.
  • He still takes 2 naps; about an hour in the morning and an hour and a half in the afternoon. He goes to bed at 7 and wakes up between 6 and 6:30 in the morning.
  • He loves to play with Brayden. They now get in trouble together. I often find them in the bathroom unrolling the toilet paper, into the tubs of lotion in Connor's room, or pulling apart all of the puzzles. I love their little friendship growing, but I'd be remiss if I didn't say that I am slightly fearful about how these two are starting to play off of one another. I think I am in for some fun surprises in the next couple of years.
  • Connor loves when Drew gets home. He starts squealing, and sprint crawls to the door to the garage. Drew getting home is probably the most celebrated event in our home by all of us each day :)
  • Connor loves to burrow his head into us as a "love sign." If you're holding him he'll smile really big and then burrow his head into our shoulder, or if we're laying on the ground he'll crawl full speed into us and just press his head as hard as he can. It cracks Drew and I up. 

I can't believe how fast this last year has gone. I'm so grateful for Connor and the blessings he brings to our family. I love you baby Con-Con!

Monday, November 21, 2011

Weekend in Review.

We had a great weekend, but it was busy, thus the reason I am typing up this post on Monday morning and not Sunday night.

Friday we kick started the weekend by meeting up at Chick-Fil-A with my new friend Whitney. You may remember how I met Whitney at a blogger meet up a few weeks ago. She lives fairly close to our area and was coming up for some errands, so we jumped on the opportunity to spend a little time with her again. Of course, lunch with me and the boys is never a dull moment. Brayden did several laps around CFA, stole another boy's sweatshirt and ran away from him, Connor threw half of his lunch on the floor, and at the end spit up all over the table. Thanks for putting up with us Whitney!

Saturday was Con-Con's 1st birthday! We celebrated with swim lessons, pizza at Sam's Club, watching the Hogs beat Mississippi State (and we are now #3 in the nation thanks to an incredible performance by unranked teams knocking off people ahead of us), and then ending the day by watching the lights on the square turn on and some fro-yo. I have to say, the lights on the square was slightly stressful. C wasn't in the best of moods, and B wanted to RUN everywhere. He even tried to pull down some of the lights right before we left. Never a dull moment with our family!
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(this is the little Cox robot. Brayden was mesmerized by him!)
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Sunday we had a great service about being grateful. The pastor started the sermon with a graphic that said "What if you woke up tomorrow with only the things you thanked God for today?" Would you wake up with clothes? Running water? A home? Made me really stop and think about all the things that I take for granted, but are all gifts from God. I challenge you to think the same as we embark on Thanksgiving week 2011. Be mindful of even the smallest of things that God has blessed us with... we truly do have A LOT to be thankful for!
 

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