Our Sugar Filled Weekend

Friday night we all went on a coffee date to Midnight Oil.  I figured Collin could run around outside while I got my fix :)  It turned out they had some really yummy chocolate, layer cake that day, so we HAD to get a piece of it as well.


Yummy cake



Collin giving Daddy a kiss with chocolate cake all over his mouth!



Collin dancing on the deck outside

Saturday was just a Collin-and-Mommy day since Jarrod had to work.  Collin has been a very good sleeper since he turned 1 and he usually will sleep, or lay in his bed playing, until we go in to get him.  For some reason he decided not to do that Saturday morning. 
He decided to yell,   "Mommy...Mama...Daddy..Mommy..........Mommy..Daddy....Mama!" until I went to get him up.  Let's just say that by the time 10:00 am rolled around, I was looking forward to naptime!  We had breakfast, played with toys, worked on putting a chunky puzzle together, and we watched videos of a circus on my phone because that's the theme for his upcoming birthday party.  Then we had lunch, snuggled and went down for a nap.  Mommy too!

Collin being silly

Collin in Landry's bed after he dumped the contents of his wagon into it.  He thought it was really funny!

Today has been spent at church, getting Jarrod off to work and then going back up to the church so Collin could get a smoothie.  Our Community Group has been selling smoothies from Tropical Smoothie Cafe to help raise money for our church's building fund.  Jarrod and I usually get one (or two) and share with Collin on Sundays.  Today, since Jarrod had to be at work by noon and it was 11:45 when we rushed out of church, we neglected to get Collin a smoothie.  He was fussing and kept saying, "nuh-nuh....nuh-huh!"  I finally said, "Are you saying, smoothie?", and he got a big smile on his face and nodded.  Lucky for him we live 5 minutes from the church, so we hopped into the car and went back for a smoothie.  I had to get him a large so we could share, and it's a good thing because I probably got a few sips before he drank the whole stinking thing!


SMOOTHIE !

Also, I tried teaching him on the way home to say, "smoothie", but he can only get as far as "moonie".  I'll take it!

It's beginning to feel a lot like FALL

How is it that anything less than 90 degrees can make us so excited for Fall?  Maybe it's the way the light falls this time of year or the fact that school is back in session.  I've been fighting it and wanting to hold on to the end of Summer, but all of you people who keep posting on Facebook about how beautiful the weather is have forced me to get on board.  

So, I made myself purchase some Fall decorations and candles, and I think I'm officially ready!  Plus, who wouldn't be excited about the return of Pumpkin Spice lattes in a couple of weeks and the chance to see how much Collin Henry has grown since our visit to the pumpkin patch last year?

One of my favorite pictures of him!

If you know me, you know I really want a pig, but Jarrod says NO.



LOOK at how little he was!




He couldn't even walk yet.

So like I said, to get myself pumped for Fall, Collin took me to Tuesday Morning last night and we got a few things.  Then we had to run into Wal-Mart to pick up something.  Somehow, when getting back in the car at Tuesday Morning, he noticed his sun hat laying in the floor of the car and he wanted to wear it.  No big deal.  Until we arrived at Wal-Mart and it was time to go inside.  I said, "Don't you want to leave that hat in the car?"  Collin said, "Nnnoo".  So we went inside and my child looked like a hill-billy.

    

PS: Courtney, if you're reading this, check out the "Saxon outfit"!!

Back to School

I feel like it was Friday afternoon 5 minutes ago!  I remember thinking, "Wow, this week started off slow and ended quickly.  The weekend is already here!" and now, the weekend is gone :(

On Saturday we all went to Little Rock for most of the day.  We did some shopping and worked on ideas for Collin's birthday party in less than a month!  More on all of that at another time.

Poor Collin is experiencing some anxiety lately when it comes to Mommy and Daddy.  Jarrod has been working a job that requires him to be gone at random hours.  When we get up in the morning or get home from daycare Collin has come to expect his Daddy to be here, but now he's occasionally at work.  Collin walks around asking for Daddy and usually spends the rest of the time a little bit fussy and clingy.  In the evenings, I can't leave him to go to another room without him running behind me.  He doesn't want to eat dinner at the table by his self while I clean the kitchen either; he will say, "Mommy sit" and pat the spot next to his at the table.  Sometimes he'll even try to lean out of his seat and pull my chair out for me!

So this weekend when it was all three of us, Collin wanted us to all be together, all the time.  At one point, Jarrod went into Gander Mountain and I took Collin into Mardel, right next door.  I just knew he would be excited to look at the toys, books and movies but he wasn't.  He lasted for a minute and started asking for Daddy and pointing to the door.  When we got back to Jarrod in Gander Mountain, I walked off for a minute and Jarrod said the whole time I was gone Collin was asking for me.  I'm not sure what to do to help him with this anxiety...

Yesterday, Jarrod had to work so Collin and I went to church by ourselves for the first time.  It wasn't a big deal to me for us to do that, but Collin just knew when I picked him up from the Nursery that his Daddy was down the hall.  He went running and was saying, "Daddy" while pointing down the hall.

We went home, had lunch and took a nap.  While I was working on lunch, Collin decided to play a game we have around here called Fake Sleep.  It requires you to fake sleep, and he decided to do it in the kitchen where he could keep an eye on me.




Fake sleeping with his "banky"



"Surprise! I'm not really asleep, Mommy!"

After naptime, we got up and had a snack and then headed up to Collin's daycare where it was Open House yesterday afternoon.  When I told him we were going to school to see Ms. Shannon he got all kinds of upset.  I had to tell him it was for fun and that I was going to go with him.  Even once we got there, he acted bashful and clingy.  Poor kid was all mixed up this weekend!

They had a bounce house and free sno-cones, so I took him to observe the bounce house (I'm pretty sure he's too little to try getting inside of one yet) and we got a Strawberry sno-cone.  I was feeling adventurous, but that quickly ended when I saw just how much of a mess an almost 2 year old can make with a red sno-cone! 

Red teeth, red lips and red on our white tennis shoes but a happy boy!

Thankfully, our Daddy was back home before dinner last night and here this morning with Collin before he left for daycare.  They love playing, reading, singing and dancing together and just over-all driving Mommy nutso together.  And Collin said an entire phrase this morning that involved his Daddy; "Daddy pee-pee".  Yep.



First Day of School @ Daycare 2012 - 26 days until he turns 2!



Just another Tuesday night

Welp.  Kit-Kat is gone, and since we had her for so many days, now I don't know whether to be happy or sad!

Poor Baby Collin can't help but look for her every time he gets in and out of the car.  He says, "Titty? Titty!" and walks around the car bent at the waist with his cute little hands on his cute little knees.  Jarrod says to give him a few days and he'll forget...

Last night we had our friends, The Guinns, over for dinner.  To be correct, Mr. Guinn invited his self and his family over for dinner, but they let us know on their way out the door last night that we can return the favor.  Don't think we won't do it!

We are on a pretty good schedule around here, especially during the week, so when 8:30pm rolled around (an hour past normal bathtime), I had to go ahead and start getting Collin's bath ready.  Well, little Miss Jensen heard it and decided to go investigate.  We walked around the corner and found her sitting in the bathtub full of water, fully dressed!  She acted like it was perfectly normal!!  So there was nothing left to do but strip her down and bathe them together.  Collin has now enjoyed two baths with this little girl!  We got a few really cute shots of them in the tub together, but Jarrod didn't put a lot of effort into concealing their little baby parts, so you'll have to settle for some cute pics of them playing together before bathtime.



Playing with Collin's tool box.



When I told them to stand together and say, "Cheese", Collin got closer and put his arm around Jensen.  Awww!

 And for anyone who noticed, my child declared about 20 minutes before the Guinns' arrival that he was "Hawt" and needed to take his shirt off.  He will even tell me when his feet are "hawt" so I will help him take his shoes and socks off.  He is becoming more and more of a "little boy" each day.  Read:  He wants to run around naked as can be!

I'm in a pickle, people!

Alright, here's the dill (get it?!), we still have the stray kitten that showed up at our house over a week ago.  Every day for the past week and a half, we have said, "We should really call Animal Control to come get that thing", and every day for the past week and a half, we have fed and watered the thing and let Collin ooh and ahh over it.

It is a "he", I'm fairly certain, and he is gray with white paws and insane goldish eyes.  Jarrod named him Bullet, but I call him Kit-Kat.  Collin calls him Titty.  <--- Scratch all of that, I just checked and it's a girl.  I'm pretty sure.  (Oh man, I can already hear my mom, "Don't you know how to tell if it's a boy or a girl??!"  One day I'll tell you people my embarrassing story about growing up on a farm.)

He She lives outside, near our trash can.  He She plays under our cars and in the front flower beds.  He She tries to dart inside the kitchen door whenever we open it to come and go.  He She tries to play with our feet, when we're walking!  He She meows loudly at the kitchen door when we haven't given him her any attention (or food) in a while.  He She has taken to jumping in my car when I'm loading/unloading Collin.

The thing is, in spite of the fact that I am incredibly allergic to cats and we just really aren't Cat People, we have seriously considered keeping him her.  He's She's pretty low maintenance and has never lived inside, so I don't feel bad about him her being outdoors.  He's She's tiny and pretty cute (once you get past the weird gold eyes).



This is my, "Don't you want Kit-Kat?!" face.

BUT.  I called the vet the other day to get an idea of what it would cost us to have him neutered her spayed and to get his her shots, and I was given several amounts that pretty much add up to over $200.  Being responsible sucks. 

There aren't any shelters accepting kittens around here, and we've been told the Animal Control people will probably "put him her down".  I have even taken the advice of my mother, and I put an ad in the newspaper.  That means we're currently out the cost of kitten food and now $15 for the newspaper ad. 

I mean, really!  I know kittens are a dime a dozen, but come on people!!  Am I going to have to resort to parking at the end of the Wal-Mart parking lot with a homemade sign and lawn chair until someone takes this little guy girl?

Molly Kate Daniel

Molly Kate Daniel was born yesterday, and she has me thinking about all sorts of things.

Before there was Jarrod and Nicki, there was Sarah and Nicki - college roommates and partners in crime!  



Taking a break from rock climbing near Graham, TX

At the end of our time living together, we had a third roommate, Jill. (Jill actually went to high school with Jarrod and his sister; small world!)  Sarah and Jill immediately bonded over their love of Disney movies, and I remember thinking, "Oh, great!", but we managed to have some crazy, fun times.  We were loud and silly, and we loved to eat sweets! We also shared an obsession with the television show Friends, and even now we can quote episodes to one another. If words fail us during a life event, we'll just quote Friends!


Pioneer Drive Baptist Church

Decorating Easter eggs while watching Friends!

I thought, that like the TV show, we would all live next door to each other and be in each other's homes constantly. I thought we would raise our kids to call the others "auntie", we would share stories about our man-child husbands and we would all vacation together.

Over 7 years have passed since we lived together. We haven't danced in our p.j.'s to a Reba song or watched Disney movies at all hours of the day or eaten more baked goods than an elementary school bake-sale in almost a decade. We all live hours away from where we went to college and hours away from each other.

Molly Kate has me thinking about how life just happens to us. Just as I thought my friends and I would be like the TV show, I also thought 7 years would have put me in a different place than where I am now. I thought I would have more than one child by now. I thought we would, surely, have gotten to experience owning a home by now. I thought I would have a cookie-cutter, American Dream life by now.

The truth is that I made a commitment as a young girl to follow the Lord, and as an adult, I made a commitment to follow my husband. I can honestly say both the Lord and my husband are causing me to make good on those commitments! It's ok though, because just as Jarrod continues to take care of us, so does the Lord.  He gives us new churches and new friends and new jobs and grace to accept each new place.

So, I may not live next door to my college roommates, but I still love and admire them. I look forward to our few and far between visits and phone calls spent catching up.  When Collin does something so innately ME, I think of how only they could truly appreciate it.  I stalk them on Facebook, and want all the best things for them in life. And with Molly Kate's arrival, I declare that I will still be called "Auntie Nicki".

Molly Kate Daniel
August 6, 2012
7lbs 15.9oz; 21 inches
And I'm told "reddish brown" hair :)

Another year down.

Yesterday was Jarrod's birthday.  He's a lovely 29 years old.  I have been telling him for years that he's on the downhill slide to 30, but this time it's true!

He celebrated by going fishing before church with his new bosom buddy, Jon.  After church we were all lazy and took naps, and then we had dinner out last night.  It was pretty uneventful as far as birthdays go, but he had already purchased his gift from REI and told me not to worry about getting him anything.  Lucky for him, my Love Language is giving/receiving gifts!  I got him the most recent Underworld DVD, and I made him Rice Krispie treats.  Full Disclosure: I don't know what my problem is but I cannot make myself sit through the Underworld movies.  They are so unappealing to me and not in the least bit entertaining.  If they are on, I can't even stand to be in the same room pretending to be entertained!  It's weird.  They just don't do it for me.  But for my sweet husband who does so much to take care of us, I will sacrifice 88 minutes of togetherness so he can enjoy Kate Beckinsale doing her thing.


Collin giving Daddy a birthday kiss



Two peas in a pod



Ok, confession regarding the candles on the Rice Krispie treats, they were really an opportunity for Collin to practice blowing out candles since his birthday is next month.  And it's a good thing we did so.  The poor kid thinks blowing out candles is like blowing bubbles...meaning he wants to put his mouth on the item and then blow! 

So Happy Birthday (a day after the fact) to my husband, Jarrod.  Thank you for everything you do and for putting up with my insane antics and Collin Henry's hissy-fits (that he may or may not have inherited from me).  We love you and we are so glad you are ours!