4.05.2013

Friends

These aren’t that great of pictures- I took them with my phone and doesn't take good pictures at all! But I snapped these Sunday night, we went to Mazzio’s after church with Ryan, Erica, Carson, Livy and Parker! Livy and Stratton are about 3 months apart (she’s older)and Parker and Arden are about 6 months apart (he’s older). Erica is one of my sweetest friends and we love spending time with their family!! Stratton follows their oldest son, Carson (who is 7) around like a little lost puppy. He thinks Carson is the coolest!! We have always tried to get Stratton and Livy to play together, but just recently they have really taken a liking to each other! After church Livy will come up to him and say “Stratton, come chase me!!” and off they go! It’s too cute. I hope they will be good friends as they grow up. And if it just so happens to lead to more. . .well that would be alright with me!! Are arranged marriages totally obsolete these days?? I’m thinking we could have a 2 for one deal. . .

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Arden (6 months) & Parker (12 months)

I have a similar picture of Stratton and Livy at this age.

And here they are today!

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Stratton & Livy ~ Sweet Friends!

New Adventures

PRE-K

Yesterday afternoon was Pre-K registration at Valley View! I can’t believe we are getting Stratton ready for Pre-K already?! He did so good! He was excited about his “Big, New School”. They did an evaluation on him while Jarrod and I did some paperwork and they told us he did really good. Turns out we still lack ONE shot. Apparently, the some of the vaccines that are in the “combo” shots they get when they are babies have valid dates. He got one 5 days before he actually turned 6 months, so the hepatitis part it’s not considered valid because he wasn’t 6 months yet. UGH!!! So, we now have to go to the health department to get it because the doctors office don’t keep single doses of hepatitis vaccines in their offices. I didn’t get all that information till yesterday. It just so happened that one of the nurses from the doctors office was at registration with her son the same time we were, and she was the one that gave Stratton his shots last week, so when she got back to the clinic she figured it all out and called me about it! I am so glad she was there to help- this is confusing!! So we have to get the last shot done pretty soon and get the paperwork to the Pre-K office and we will be all set!

I was going to take a picture of Stratton in front of the school, but it was raining and SO cold! So that didn’t happen. Since he was so good, afterwards I took him to get ice-cream. He chose blue raspberry sherbet- of course the darkest messiest kind possible.By the time he was done he looked like a smurf.  He had it everywhere!

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Crazy Boy!!

T-BALL

baseball slide

Last night was also our first Tball meeting.

Jarrod is coaching Stratton’s team! The Pirates! Here’s how that happened. . .when he signed Stratton up he offered to be an assistant coach if they needed. Then last week he got a call that there were too many kids and not enough head coaches, so he was moved to coach! They had a coaches meeting last week and Jarrod got some of our friends kids on his team! Yay! And one of them is Livy! I hope it will be a good experience and they will have fun. The meeting went really well, almost all the parents showed up! Wow! And Jarrod had a couple of guys offer to help (thank goodness!). We have our first practice on Tuesday and first game on April 15th.

This is not a good picture, but as we were going home I look back and Stratton is wearing his Pirates cap- too cute!

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4.01.2013

Easter 2013

Easter Afternoon

It was such a dreary and cold morning. So much for cute outside pictures! We managed a few quick pictures of the kids dressed in their Easter outfits right after church.

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Family shot

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I cropped this from another picture. . .Too funny. . .Priceless expression!

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We spent the afternoon at my grandparent’s house eating, visiting and hunting more eggs!

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Arden driving across the road

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“Give me the wheel dad!”

Easter 2013

Saturday morning we got up and around and went to Searcy to see my old roommate Sam and her kids. It was fun to catch up, but of course wasn’t long enough. Searcy is crazy on Easter/Spring Sing weekend and we would have liked to have met at a park but since it was raining we decided to meet at Chick-Fil-A so the kids could at least play, but it was so packed we didn’t stay long and of course didn’t take any pictures. Then we went back to their hotel and let the kids swim for awhile, but it was really cold and we ended up not staying in there long at all. (Long enough for me though!) Of course there were no cameras present since we were in our swim attire!! Jarrod had some errands to run so he and Arden did that and Stratton stayed with me and it worked out pretty good. After that we ran by Hays and it was nuts!! Like day after Thanksgiving kind of crazy! We didn’t stay long at all. Then we stopped by the Bulldog and had a snack before heading for Hickory Ridge. We stayed in HR Saturday night so we could get up and go to church with the family and have lunch at my grandma’s house.

Easter Morning

Sunday morning I woke up (the 3rd time- Arden was up twice) to Stratton screaming “MOM!!”. You know what that means. Yep. He wet the bed. And that is why he is wearing regular clothes and not his super cute monogrammed easter jammies that matched Arden’s. So much for that. I will just have to take a “re-do” picture later in the week! Stratton and Arden both got goodies from the Easter Bunny and he hid a bunch of eggs for Stratton to find all over Gigi’s house!

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Arden’s 1st Easter basket

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Arden was more interested in what Stratton had. . .

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3.28.2013

Easter Eggs!

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Stratton had a great time!

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Arden had fun watching

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Our colored eggs!

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Our Growing Kids!

Arden had her 6 month check-up and shots yesterday. She now weighs 15.7 pounds (30th percentile) and its 26 inches long (50th percentile). She was a perfect angel the whole time and I had a great visit with doctor Bailey about Arden’s ears and the prospect of tubes. I feel so much better about everything now. I just love her, I bet she sat and talked to me for at least 35 minutes. She has 2 young sons so she can relate and shares her experiences just like she would with a close friend. It’s just so nice to be able to talk to a Dr. and not have them be annoyed like they are trying to get you in and out as fast as possible! They said she looked perfect! Arden had to get shots, and she did cry but not for long. This was the last time she’ll have to have shots till she’s a year old.

Stratton had a physical today for Pre-K. Our appointment/walk through at Valley View Pre-K is next week and they needed a documented physical. I picked him up from school to find out that they had moved their Easter Party to today!! The note had said Friday! I was so mad. Stratton was really disappointed that he was going to miss it and the egg hunt and mostly the cupcakes. PLUS I brought treats for the party I thought was tomorrow! Good thing I brought him some Lightning McQueen juice and a snack! He got over it pretty quick and he did so good at the doctor!! (And not because I was poking sour patch kids in his mouth to keep him happy). He weighs 38 pounds (75th percentile) and is 3 feet 8 inches tall (99th percentile). There was a new nurse and she just went on and on about he couldn’t believe he wasn’t a 5 year old. We get that ALL THE TIME. He’s just tall people, have you seen his daddy!

They checked him all out and I had a few questions and I thought we’d be in and out in no time. . .but no.  After looking through his chart it turns out that he missed some shots when he was around the 15 month mark and one shot he got wasn’t considered valid because they had given it to him too early. Really?. I don’t know how that happened. Especially with as much as we’ve been to the doctor! It’s not like we never go- in fact it seems like we are always there. It frustrates me! How did the Children’s clinic not notice that before?!  I am so glad we left that clinic and started going to see the Docs at NEA Peds when Arden was born!  I asked the nurse if there was a chance that he got them and it just didn’t get recorded and she said that could be a reason but it wouldn’t hurt him to have them again, and they won’t take him at Pre-K or Kindergarten unless he gets them. Oh boy. So, did I mention I took Stratton alone because I thought it was a physical and we’d be in and out?? I was worried since the last time he had to get a shot back in the fall it took 4 people to hold him down! Well, it only took two of us this time, but he still put up a good fight. I felt bad since the shot was sprung on him without warning, but it was probably better that way. I could tell one of them really hurt, he wouldn’t hardly put pressure on that leg and I had to carry him! He’s such a chunk, too! So, afterwards we went to J. Christopher's, the toy store and he got a “happy”.  He picked out a polka-dot ukulele (guitar, to him) Then we went back to school picked Arden up and came home! Stratton was in rare form all night. Not sure if it was from the shots or sugar rush from all the sour patch kids I let him have, but whew! I was glad to see him go to sleep!!

We also dyed easter eggs tonight and I will post pictures later!

Oh, and Arden had a tooth pop up on the bottom right! I felt it before I saw it! She was chewing on my finger and. . . ouch! There was something sharp in there! It’s just a little speck, but it’s there alright. I think next week we will be starting to send food to school for her to eat, instead of just giving her baby food at home in the evening. I could be wrong but she’s eating more and sleeping better, I have to think that the two might be connected? She slept thru the night 3 nights this week.

3.23.2013

Church Egg Hunt

The egg hunt had to be moved inside since it was so cold and dreary. There were eggs everywhere! The little kids hunted in the classroom hall.

Stratton was picking the eggs up and shaking them, then throwing them back down. It took us a minute to figure out that he was finding out if they had candy in them, if so he'd put them in his basket if not he thre them back down! It took some convincing to get him to pick all the eggs up, not just the ones with candy in them!


"Say cheese"


Counting eggs. He got 47!

Arden had a good time, too. She was hamming it up for anyone who'd pay her attention.


Of course Stratton didn't want to have his picture taken. They were both ready for a nap at this point, so it was a long shot (literally) anyway.



Excited about peeps on a stick!

Completely worn out! He fell asleep mid fry. . . Look in his right hand.