ME? CRAFTY?

So if you know me, you know that I don't have a crafty bone in my body! I just truly don't have a knack for being creative nor do I have the patience to sit and scrapbook, sew (I've broken 3 sewing machines), redoing furniture or anything else along those lines. It's just NOT ME! I've come to terms with that and instead of the stress of making or fixing something--and trust me when I say it STRESSES ME OUT--I'd rather just spend more money and buy it. SO MUCH EASIER! So now that you understand that about me, you will understand why I'm so proud of myself with my little project these past few days while Kent's been gone. Kiersten came over on Tuesday, we went to Hobby Lobby, got our supplies and headed home to get to work! Okay, now once I show you what we did, don't laugh because of the NON-difficult level of work that some may think it is but to a NON CREATIVE/CRAFTY person this was really impressive!

WE PAINTED BOSTON'S AND ISABEL'S NAMES TO PUT IN THEIR ROOMS! NOW THAT'S HARD WORK! HA!

I PAINTED THESE BLOCKS TO PUT ON SOME SHELVES IN BOSTON'S ROOM--honestly, this wasn't the quickest, easiest thing to do--maybe for you pro's but not someone like me!

So that was my project! I know it might seem little but I'm happy and proud that I didn't go and buy his letters from PBK for $10 a piece! I think a spent just a little bit more than that for supplies, letters, and blocks! MARTHA STEWART HERE I COME! Actually, I'm done in the creative department for awhile.....

P.S. Hobby Lobby isn't a place that I've ever really been to and shopped around. I've been their a few times but just briefly and I never realized how much home decor they have. I got really excited to go back and pick up some things for my house! If you've never been (I'm sure most of you have and have known this FOREVER) go and take a look, there's some really cute stuff!

ON THE GO!
Boston was the BEST baby today! Lately it has been very difficult for me to leave the room while he's awake because Boston just wants to climb up on me or have me in his sight. But today, he just wanted to ROAM FREE! I would leave the room and come back and he'd be in the most random places--he was just going and going!

Chillin in Stella's bed

Peace out ya'll, I've got more to explore!

VITAMINS? YUCK!

So with this new "Best Life Diet," I'm supposed to take daily supplements. I have ALWAYS hated taking vitamins because my whole life, I've always gotten sick after taking them. I decided to give it another shot because I'm really trying hard to do everything it says to make sure it works as much as it can! Well, I bought vitamins yesterday, took one today, and again it didn't fail because within 20 minutes of taking it I felt nauseous! I don't know why this happens, probably because my body needs the vitamins and it isn't used to having such healthy things, but I don't know if I can do this! But I've decided to hold out for a week or so and see if things begin to change. Does this happen to anyone else?

CRAVING!!

Why is it that after my hard workouts everyday, that all I want afterwards is to stop at Jack and the Box on the way home and get an egg, sausage, and cheese croissant?!? I NEVER crave them ANY OTHER TIME ACCEPT when I get done with my workout! That's like 580 calories!!!

ALONE AGAIN!

Boston LOVED playing in Kent's suitcase today while he was packing!

We sent Kent off today for his monthly recruiting trip to Utah/Idaho! I've said it before, but I'll say it again, I hate it when he goes out of town! Seriously, at night I have SUCH a hard time sleeping and I always have my eyes and ears peeled for anything strange going on! I'm trying to get myself to relax more but I don't know if that's going to happen anytime soon!

AND IT BEGINS.....again

You may remember a previous post last year about me starting on "The Best Life Diet." Well, I did it for about 1 month...lost about 4 pounds and then with the holidays it messed me all up. So after my workout today, I told Kent that it is time to start up again and this time I'm making him do it with me for support and motivation. I'm a major advocate for this diet because it's not really a "DIET" it's more of a change of lifestyle to help you lose weight and keep it off and live a happier, healthier life. I've read alot of the book and I totally agree with everything Bob Greene has to say! If any of you are trying to lose weight, I highly reccommend trying this.

Anyway, there are 3 stages that you go through with this "diet" and I'm starting back over at the FIRST PHASE since I was such a slacker the past month+. I'm blogging this because it helps me stay more committed to it. So here are Kent and mine's first few steps for the next 4 weeks:

WEIGHT IN: Weight yourself for starting weight; no weighing in until atleast 4 weeks.
FOCUS: Moving more and changing your meal patterns
OBJECTIVES:

• Increase activity level
• Stop eating atleast two hours before bedtime (we've set this for 9:00 pm)
• Eat three meals, INCLUDING BREAKFAST (hard for me), plus atleast on snack daily
• Stay hydrated--48 ounces of water a day
• Eliminate alcohol (SOOO HARD! HA!)
• Bolster you diet with daily supplments

So there you have it, our new change of lifestyle is just beginning. Swimsuit season is JUST around the corner!!!!

LEARNING MORE EVERYDAY!

Boston can officially pull himself up on furniture....or anything for that matter! I think since it's a newly learned skill, that that is ALL he wants to do now. It cracks me up. If I'm just standing there he'll slowly pull himself up on my leg! Most of the time when I go in to get Boston from his naps, he's standing up on the side of his crib. Now that he's pulling himself up so much, he LOVES walking around on the furniture that much more. It's so funny because I think he thinks that he is able to walk all by himself but he's not quite there yet and he'll let go of the furniture, take one step then fall straight on his face! Is it bad that I think that this is funny? He never cries after, he'll just crawl to whatever he was trying to go towards and pull himself back up on it. It is crazy how fast they learn new skills at this age! Before I know it, he'll be walking!!! AHH!

THE RESULTS ARE IN!

Boston went in today for his 9 month checkup! Gosh I can't believe our little guy is 9 months already! I'm excited that Boston can officially eat meats (okay, maybe not quite a full steak yet) now and it's something new that he gets to try! No shots today!!!! I was SOO happy about that although we do have to go this week and get his blood taken. Here is where our guy stands right now:

WEIGHT: 22 lbs 73%

HEIGHT: 28 inches 50%

HEAD: 17.5 cm 45%

Boston hasn't gained as much weight as I thought he had! Maybe that's because he's becoming mobile and is now burning those calories! He is still staying about average with his height and his head has FINALLY started to get bigger! It was always in the 20th percentile and now it's almost average! I'm so proud of be little growing guy!

A FEW RANDOM SHOTS:

Auntie Kristin and Uncle Chad were SO sweet to let us borrow this fun little toy for a little while which Boston LOVES!

Boston is going through a "stage" (I hope it's a stage anyway) where he can not STAND it when I leave the room. I have to be able to be seen or else he cries! Sometimes I think it's kinda cute but other times it really does get stressful and annoying. Well, on this day I was really trying hard to finish all our laundry and everytime I'd walk away, he'd start crying. So I got creative and sat Boston in the clothes basket, slid him across the floor to the drier, piled all the clothes in his lap, and slid him back to the family room! He LOVED it!!

By the way his nose is really red in this picture..Kent says he gets that from me but I disagree!

Lovin on his footballs! He also HATES wearing clothes so after church I took off his sweater and pants and let him go...He LOVED the FREEDOM!

On Sunday, Kent lowered Boston's mattress because he's slowly trying to pull himself up on things and we thought it was about that time.

And once again...loving on his football! I promise I'm not lying when I say that whenever he eyes them in his room he crawls over to them and does just what he is doing in this picture. Future football player? Guess we'll see!

HOUSE UPDATE:

I haven't posted pictures of our house in awhile, maybe that's because we haven't been out there in awhile and maybe THAT'S because we are officially backing out.....

Crazy I know! LONG STORY! So about 2 or 3 weeks ago, I had really been contemplating our move out to Keller. I kept thinking I was just getting the jitters because we were set to close in about 6 weeks. But it kept coming back to my mind, so finally I went to Kent to talk about it and shared my feelings with him. I was just having serious doubts about settling out that way. I don't know who is familiar with Dallas (it's HUGE) but the area we were building in (Keller) is on the west side of Dallas or technically more north Ft. Worth. It's not a very central location for us since Kent works in Carrollton which is about 15 min north of downtown Dallas. Keller would be about a 30 minute+ drive NOT including the crazy traffic for Kent everyday. I knew this from the beginning, yes, but ignored that part of the issue and justified it. I would have to say the MAIN reason we chose to move out that way is because we have friends out there. It's always nice to have friends close by and that was really our deciding factor. If we didn't have friends out that way we would have NEVER even THOUGHT about moving out there. Kent and I are planning on spending the rest of our lives in Dallas, his job right now will never require us to move and he is planning on starting his own company here in about 2 years. Who knows how long our friends in Keller will be here---it could be 2, 5 or 10 years but WHO KNOWS! So for us, we are settling and I really feel strongly about settling in an area that I can still see us loving and living in for the rest of our lives and that side of Dallas isn't it for us. We started to go search for houses elsewhere and it felt like we were starting from the beginning all over again. But after much thought, prayer and fasting we really feel good about staying in this area for now. Houses are a little bit pricier here because it's closer to downtown Dallas but we stumbled across these cute homes (patio homes) on the border of Lewiville and Coppell which is about 10 minutes from Kent's work and much more central for us. Our plan now is to start building this home in a few months (we can't run our credit again right now or else it will get docked since we have already had it ran from our pre-approval and approval so we have to be patient and wait) and are hoping to be in by fall unless we get a good deal on a prebuilt....and as long as we don't change our minds again...HA!

Sorry if this is so long, complicating and boring. I tried to explain myself the best I could!

MY GROWING LITTLE GUY!

It's crazy how much babies grow and change over such a small period of time! On Monday, I was looking in Boston's mouth and I saw THREE MORE teeth that had broken through his top gums! It seems like he JUST got his 2 bottom teeth! He's getting SO big, SO fast!

I'm also a little sad because Boston was saying "Mama" for a few weeks (not addressing me but he could say it!) and now he has just suddenly stopped! Every now and then he'll hear him say "dada" but he mainly just says "baba!" He cracks me up because I KNOW he knows how to say it and I'll sit and say "MAMA MAMA" and he just looks and me and smiles and says "BABA BABA." It's like he's purposely not saying it! I guess I'll just have to sit and be patient...this isn't a sign of autism is it?!?

MARDI GRAS MAMBO, MAMBO!

Today is FAT TUESDAY or as most of you know it as MARDI GRAS!!! I'm a little upset that for the fourth year in a row, we are unable to go back home and be apart of these festivities (Kent and I were SO excited to be so close to home to go back home for this...maybe next year!). But since most of you don't know much about Mardi Gras, I decided to give you some fun facts about this fun, crazy celebration!

• The term Mardi Gras literally means "fat Tuesday" the day before Ash Wednesday (the day Catholics decide on something to give up or "fast" from until Easter--Lent).


• KREWES (organizations) were formed in the 1850's to preserve Mardi Gras through organizing, planning and management. These krewes continue to host a multitude of parades, balls and other Mardi Gras events--keeping traditions of beautiful floats, colorful throwing beads, and tasty king cakes alive as well.


• Official colors of Mardi Gras are purple (justice), green (faith), and gold (power).


• The carnival of Mardi Gras is celebrated throughout Louisiana.


• Mardi Gras attracts half a million visitors to the New Orleans area.

My mom sent us a king cake, like she does every year, on Friday and I really wanted to try to hold off eating most of it until Tuesday so we could have a little bit of Mardi Gras in our home on fat Tuesday. Well, we each had one piece and I think that it was down hill from there...we finished it that night!

HAPPY MARDI GRAS!!!

ATTACKED AGAIN!

I swear I'm the queen of getting PINK EYE! Two summers ago, I got pink eye not once, not twice, NOT three times BUT FOUR yes FOUR times!!! I was SO frustrated. I would clean EVERYTHING, steralize door knobs, wash sheets/pillows...I mean EVERYTHING but I'd still get it again and again! If anyone around me I know gets it, I'm BOUND to get it. Well at Christmas time, Boston got it probably from Kristin's girls who had it a week before. He must have touched toys or something that had it on it (this stuff is a killer and will attack over and over!). I was worried and had no DOUBT in my mind I'd get it. Well SURE ENOUGH I did! I thought I was in the clear because it had been about 2 1/2 weeks since I had it but I was COMPLETELY wrong! Last Saturday, I woke up and noticed that my eye wasn't blood shot from being so tired but that it was PINK EYE AGAIN with gunk all in my eye! UGH! This is the most FRUSTRATING thing ever. I hope this doesn't end up like my life 2 summers ago...I think I'm going to die with pink eye!

TO KANSAS AND BACK!

Kent went out of town again this past week for recruiting (more like snowboarding and fun with the recruits) and it just happened to be the same weekend Kristin was having her babyshower for her little guy and she also held off having Rylee's birthday party that same weekend! It worked out PERFECT! So of course, instead of sitting around lonely for a week, my mom flew to Dallas then SO KINDLY drove up with Boston and me to Kansas City (I was going to fly but Kristin found Boston's rug for his room 50% off at the PBK outlet so I had to have a way to get it back). It was a fun weekend spent with the family although I must admit I don't think I'll be driving anywhere soon with Boston---life in driving long distance in the car with Boston isn't always so pleasant anymore!