Swim Lessons

Did I already post about Coop's swim lessons?  I can't find it anywhere but it's late and I am half typing/half watching Justin Timberlake on Jimmy Fallon. ;)  Hilarious.

Moving on...swim lessons are incredible!  Cooper goes once a week....it's just him and another girl his age with an instructor for 30 minutes.  He will go every week thru June with the end goal being swimming on their own underwater for 5 feet (i think).  We are so surprised and happy by his excitement to go each week and how willing he is to try anything his instructor asks!  The reason we signed him up for swim lessons is because how timid he has been in the water...his sister is definitely not timid so I am sure to have my hands full at the pool this summer.  I wanted him to have some skills and more confidence so that he's not attached to my hip.  

 Parents sit on the other side of a glass wall...he often turns to us during lessons to give a thumbs up.

 kick, kick, kick.  He has a male instructor which I love...as a former teacher I think it's so important to for kids to have men role models as teachers as well as women.

This week they moved to just one flipper...big deal ;).

March Visitors - Part 1

There is a great reason why I have been a bit behind on blogging...every weekend in March is full of visitors!  Woo-Hoo!  We love hosting visitors!  The first weekend of March we had quite the crew....Papaw and Mamaw, the McCormacks and the Zicks.  We sure missed the Kansas City Jones' but they might have had to sleep on the back patio, we were almost out of room ;).  

They made it in Friday about noon and even picked up lunch on their drive in.  Laney was loving the cheese dip!

Laney was tired of her bow, so Hadley doubled up!

 Cooper had my phone at dinner and this is one of about 50 pictures...this is my fave ;)

These guys had the job of watching the concrete dry on the patio...tough work but somebody had to do it.

 These 2 were in heaven together all weekend, make that Super Hero heaven.  They were in their own world living the Super Hero life and tearing out every toy in the house.

Here they were attacking Aunt Maggie with their webs.

Laney totally loved following Emily around.  Em was so sweet with her and even laid next to her crib at naptime!

The guys bought and installed that big ole' tv, not an easy feat on a brick wall.  There were many trips to the local hardware store.  Papaw helped with some spring cleaning.

 

Mamaw treated the big kids to a Target trip.  The boys got awesome Jake and the Neverland Pirate swords and Em got a fun coloring bag.

We did at home mani/pedis,

celebrated Papaw, Kellen and let's pretend that's Brynn instead of Laney since her birthday was the same week :),

managed to get a picture with these 3 adorable girls,

and played outside, even though the weather wasn't cooperating :(.

The whole gang!  Thanks for coming to see us guys and gals, we truly enjoyed it!

Up next, some good STL friends were here last weekend!

House Love

This month marks our 2 year anniversary in our house!  I can.not.believe.it.  One year-yes.  Two years-no way.  Moving in feels like yesterday!  If you know us, you know our house record doesn't last much longer (if that) than 2 years...it's almost like I expect Adam to come home anyday with a new job proposition somewhere other than here :).  But, it looks like we are going to be here for awhile and with that we completed our first big project...and by project I mean we hired people to do it ;).  Besides a couple furniture pieces we luckily haven't had to do anything (even change paint colors!) to the house since we moved in. 

 Sooo, we decided to expand our back patio and make it a more liveable (sp?) space.

Here are a couple before pics...

 We love our playset but we didn't love its location...right off the patio.

 First they moved the playset farther down the yard.  

Here's the original view from our backdoor to the patio...we didn't even have room to set up our patio furniture.

We had a few different design options for the layout.  See the playset off to the side?  Love its location!

Concrete poured, woo-hoo!

Adam's fam was in town the weekend the work started on it (more on their visit later) so all the boys went to help Adam get a tv.  At first I thought it was a great idea...I hate Best Buy and anything electronic.  And then they walked in with a TV box that seemed as big as the wall they were going to put it on.

The next week they built the stone wall.

Add some cobblestone, landscaping and it's finished!

Those stepping stones are the kids favorite part.  And yes, we have had the conversation with Cooper that the rocks are for the the ground, not to throw at sister, window, etc.

We adore our new space and have already spent lots of time out back.  It's the perfect addition to our home!

The nights haven't quite been warm enough for me but Adam has swayed me with that fancy heater.

Family and friends, come visit us!  

Happy 1 and a half years Laney Faith!

18 months...one word, exhausted.  

Me, not Laney.  

She is definitely not exhausted.  

A couple weeks ago I told Adam, "18 months is definitely not my favorite age!!!"  Girlfriend never stops, more details below.  

I was holding back on this post until I took some cute pics of the girl.  Then I remembered Laney doesn't sit still.  So instead I will just post some random pics I have caught of her on my phone lately.  But first, here is what our sassy Laney is up to these days...

-Weighs 23 lbs, 13 oz, 63%ile.  She's in the 96%ile in height and 90%ile in head size.  I swear she has grown inches in just the last month!

-She goes to bed around 7:45-8 and is back up in the 7 o'clock hour.  She naps for about 2 hours.  We always know she is awake because she is yelling, "Mom, mommy, moooommmmmmyyyyyyyyy!!!"  Girl is ready to get moving the second those eyes are open.

-She has a lot to say, we just don't exactly know what she saying yet ;).  Here's what we do know....mom, dad, Lola (yo-ya), gall for milk, Jakey (Jake and the Neverland Pirates), Minnie (for Mickey and Minnie), bow, ba-ball for basketball, puppy.

-I call Laney's favorite activity, Seek and Destroy.  She rarely sits down for a specific activity.  She finds something destroys it and moves on.  

-If she does slow down for a second, we are holding/feeding her babies, playing basketball, playing cars or reading books.

-Just starting to get interested in coloring, adores stickers!!  She covers herself and usually me.  

-She's a climber, has just figured out how to get up and down the stairs!  She is usually standing on the kitchen chairs and running all over our furniture.  

-As ornery as she is, she is just as funny.  The looks she gives us and her mannerisms just crack us up!  

-She's an eater, is known to raid my pantry to find pretzels 20 minutes after breakfast.  Her favorite are fruit, cheese, yogurt, pretzels, mac'n'cheese, chicken nuggets and milk.  

-I think her favorite time of day is when her Dad walks in from work.  She gets crazy excited and yells, Daaadddd-yyyyyy!  

 People often comment on her beautiful blue eyes.

 She loves to wear Cooper's construction worker outfit.

 She still loves the Bumbo even though she has clearly outgrown it!  It was in the tub for Hadley :).

 She picks random times/spots for somersaults.  More on our new patio soon!

 We were cleaning out clothes, getting out the next size of hand me downs when we found this dance/gymnastic outfit.  It originally belonged to my cousin Ava.  Laney pulled the leg warmers out and asked me to put them on...and by asking I mean she grunted and shoved them in my face.

 She's eating apple pieces whole, even with the skin on!  On a side note...oh, that hair.  Thin, straight, no volume...sorry Doodles you got that from me.

Here she is maneuvering the stairs.  This time she had went up while I was making lunch to get her lovey from the crib.  This makes me crazy-hold-my-breath-nervous.

Her and her bestie, cheering on the Hawks.

Happy 18 months Laney Faith, we love you so much!

Tantrums

Yep, we are there with our precious 18 month old daughter.  Of course she doesn't understand why she can't have the bag of Goldfish 20 minutes after breakfast or play with the glass bowls or carry around the cleaning products...therefore she speaks her mind about it.  And she speaks it loud and clear...

I am almost certain she is growing an inch everyday.

Smile Fridays - week 36

Ok-so this week it's more like Smile Sunday.  There were a few big reasons to smile Friday that I just can't pass up, so here they are...

My favorite sister is having a BABY!  Yes, a real baby!!! Aaahhhhh!!!  I am so excited for her and Rusty and a teeny tiny tad sad for us...I told my kids they better soak up any time they spend with her in the next 6 months because they are about to drop down her priority list ;).  The even bigger news...they already know the sex, it's a...sweet (and probably sassy, if like her mom) baby GIRL!  She is due late August just after my kids birthdays.  My mom said Laney would have a friend and I said, more like someone to boss around :).  That means I am going to be an aunt 3 times around this Spring and Summer, I am one lucky gal!  Can't wait to snuggle all these newborns!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Jones/McCormacks/Zicks were here visiting us all weekend.  We had a blast!  I am pretty sure Cooper and Kellen had the most fun, they were busy boys all weekend long!  More posts and pics to come this week.  

I finally reached a big goal of mine in February with my Stella and Dot business.  I promoted up to Star Stylist!  What's this mean?  Well, I am a leader with Stella and Dot and coach and mentor other women to love what they do and inspire them to greatness!  The pay is great at STAR and makes it the sweet spot with the company!  Just 10-20 hours per week and totally fun and flexible!  Not to mention exclusive recognition and training.  Man, I am so happy to have this business in my life!

28 Days of LOVE follow up

Well, it's February 28th and I have officially completed my 28 Days of Love project I first posted about here.  It was fun, rewarding and made me a happier person.  Adam asked me what my favorite items on my list were and the first one that immediately popped in my head was taking Sonic cherry limeades to the crossing guards at our local elementary school.  Why?  They were so darn happy, surprised, grateful, gave me hugs and were the only people throughout all of this that promised to pass it on.  Overall it was an incredible experience and I hope to do it again next February.  Did you participate??  If so, what was your favorite act of kindness???

There was one thing on my list I was really looking forward to, volunteering at the local charity, Food for the Soul.  They have an incredible back pack program, it sends kids who wouldn't eat on the weekends home with a backpack of food.  Otherwise these kids can go 65 hours before being back at school where they can get breakfast/lunch.  Can you imagine?  I can barely go 3 hours without eating, so pathetic.  Well, they ended up calling me to cancel, help wasn't needed at the time. 

However, to make up for it and give a BIG send-off to these 28 Days of Love and random acts of kindness I wanted to do something special.  I was browsing the Food for the Soul website here and clicked on the backpack program.  It was there that I read this, "$95 will feed a student every weekend of the school year."  WOW!  I doubled that at CostCo today for food that will last us much less than that.  It was like a slap across the face from humble.  A few of you have commented that you wish you had jumped on the 28 Days of Love bandwagon.  

Well, I am here to make it easy on you.  I have set up an online Stella and Dot show with 100% of my commission going to Food for the Soul.  How awesome if we could donate $95 to feed a child for the whole school year!?  And...I will raffle off the hostess rewards (aka free jewelry credits) to one lucky guy or gal!  All you have to do is this, shop this link.  It's that easy.  Or, email me ash4545@hotmail.com.

Here are my current favorites!

Need an Easter gift?  This a best seller...sterling silver, delicate and perfect for all ages!  You can see more details about it here.

I will keep you posted on the 28 Days of Love finale!