Ready for a slow down!

I have been so busy this week! Staying up late working on Christmas party invitations and birthday party invitations is wearing me out! I have lots more to do, but I think I have everything that was urgent finally wrapped up!

There haven't been any Stratton catastrophes this week thank goodness! He has been really good for the most part. He has starting going "Nite, Nite" now. He has always been really good about going to bed (Thank you Laura for BabyWise!) but here lately instead of us carrying in his room for bed he will go hug his daddy and grab my hand and lead me to his room when it's bed time! I love it! It's amazing what a big boy he is getting to be! We thought he was just about to give up his bedtime sippy cup of milk, but all the sudden the last few days he has really been chugging it down. I fear another growth spurt might be on it's way! Great and we just bought some new clothes!

I am looking forward to next week. It will be a short week since Thanksgiving is Thursday! And I am ready for a few days off! Even though Thanksgiving day is probably more busy and tiring than work!

I actually took these the 1st weekend of November at my Nanny and Papa's house in HR. Stratton was playing on my Papa's garden tiller. . .real safe I know, but my mom started it!

I love fixing his hair, but he has started to play with it after I fix it and it's hard to keep it looking cute!

He is so silly!

the devil made him do it. . .right?

I almost forgot to mention what our "perfect little angel" did Wednesday night while we were rushing around like crazy trying to get ready and out the door in time for church. . . .

He got the hand held video monitor off my nightstand and decided it needed to take a swim. . .in the toilet!!! Yep, probably one of the most expensive things sitting out and he chooses it of all things!  Not a ball or a toy truck, nope. What's funny is that he didn't even get in trouble because we were more worried it would ruin the monitor we hurriedly took it apart, dried it off and Jarrod dropped it in a ziploc and pour some rice on it (it worked for the ipod so we thought why not try it?). Well, after three days in the bag of rice it is miraculously working! I just knew we were going to have to buy a new one, whew! And we will now definitely remember to close the lid!

Stratton is 16 months and we are busy, busy!

So no pictures tonight. I have been working on christmas invitations and I thought I would sit down and update the blog real quick! I only have one new one and it's not that great. . .I am getting to be a bad mom! I used to take several a week and now I'm lucky to get one good one every couple of weeks. He is never still. Not even for a second! I am amazed at how much he is learning! He can tell you "no, no" when he doesn't want something, and likes to voice his opinion now that he has one! He also knows all kinds of commands like "arms up, arms down, wave, clap". He knows where his nose, eyes, ears and mouth are, he can say more word than I have room to type! He is on an animal kick right now. His favorite book is a farm animals book with pages full of pictures of different farm animals. He can tell you what just about every animal "says", and it's so fun to hear him make a pig sound! He grunts just like a pig! I am just shocked on a daily basis from something he says or does or recognizes!

The past couple of weeks since Halloween have been super busy! I got sick right after Halloween. Sinus infection and bronchitis and maybe a touch of pneumonia! Whew! After a couple of days in bed on meds, I was much better! We hosted a couples shower for our friends Dustin and Amy who are expecting their first baby any day now last Saturday! It was so much fun! We gave them gag gifts so it was really interesting and some of the things they got were down right hilarious! Definitely more people need to have these kind of showers to get the men involved. Except there was no game playing. . .well the only game being played was the Razorback game on our tv! Then the following Sunday we had a bday party for my papa in Hickory Ridge. And of course Jarrod and I both have been super busy at work. He is still working a lot of overtime, hopefully it will let up soon! Stratton has been sick again too, also we just finished up the last dose of antibiotics tonight! I blame the weather! It's been so crazy!

Stratton was 16 months on Friday. We celebrated by taking him to get his 2nd round of the flu vaccine. Yay! Haha. Would you believe he didn't even whimper!? Nope, I was prepared for the worst since I took him by myself, but he was great. In fact before we left the nurses, secretaries and even a pharm rep were all oohhing and ahhing over what a well dressed, well mannered little boy he was, and the fact that he let just about anyone hold him. . . as long as he had that sucker they gave him in his mouth he was more than happy to be the cutest kid ever. I took off work on Friday. I have some vacation days left so Stratton and I spent the day together and he was perfect all day. After we left the Dr office we went to Cracker Barrel and had lunch, where he put on a show for all the people sitting around us. . .he was waving and telling everyone "Hi!", that's my little socialite these days! After we ate we went to the mall and did some walking around. He was so good! We got home around 1:30 and he went right to his room and took a nap! Did I mention what a good boy he is? Friday night I went with Amy to get a mani & pedi. Probably her last time for awhile, she is 38 weeks this week! Then we went to get a bite at Lazzari's. It was fun to get to spend some time with a girlfriend. I haven't had much time to myself lately! And as you might expect all we talked about was baby stuff!!

Saturday we had to be in Memphis by 3pm to get our "Holiday" pictures made with Daisha. Dad go finished cutting beans on Thursday so we asked them to come along and we would take daddy out to eat for his birthday, which is tomorrow. So even though it was a icky rainy day, I think she got some good pictures and my mom and dad even got to jump in some. We did a little shopping, too. I went to Charming Charlie's for the first time- I could seriously spend days in there. It was amazing! All the jewelry, handbags and accessories in any color you could ever want! And no trip to Memphis would be complete without a trip to Gigi's cupcakes!! We got home a little after 9pm and Mom and Dad took Stratton home with them for the rest of the weekend. So we had a really nice laid back Sunday! Sunday night we had our "friends forever" group meeting at our friend's John and Holly's house, which was a lot of fun.

This week shouldn't be as busy. All we have this upcoming weekend is my dad's bday lunch on Sunday. And maybe, just maybe Jarrod won't have to work this weekend!

I will try to make myself be better about taking pictures! I know that's all you people come to see on my blog anyway! Lol!

Couples Baby Shower

Since moving to Jonesboro (4 years ago!) we have made some really great friends from church. We are so blessed by these friendships! They have become like a second family to us and we just love hanging out with them. . .which we do quite frequently! We jokingly say that Stratton is the "community child" because he was the first born out of our little group! But we are about to have another! And a girl at that! Amy and Dustin soon be the parents to a baby girl named Juliet! We decided that it wasn't fair that the girls get to have all the fun so Jarrod and I had a couples shower for them. Everyone brought "gag-gifts" in lieu of real gifts since most of the girls had been at their church shower. It was so much fun! I think more guys should have baby showers, it was too funny! Oh and Christina made the AMAZING cookies that matched my invitations perfectly!

 

Just can't get enough?

So as you can tell from pretty much all my blog posts now, our life revolves around Stratton. Whatever did we do before he was around?? Lately he is such so much fun! Exhausting? Yes. But still such a joy to be around, I just can't get enough. . . and I even find myself a little sad when he's gone to bed lately! There isn't enough time to spend with him these days! He is so full of energy and is learning new things everyday! It amazes me how much he has grown in the last couple of months, he's a walking, talking toddler now! He is such a mess, too! He's always doing something funny and loves to be silly and make us laugh!

 

Halloween 2010~The Party

We have started a tradition, I guess. We have had a halloween "get together" for three years now. It started out just being a place to hang out with some friends from church, and Brian and Christina always brought the girls by. Then last year I invited the Todd's to come over and we took pictures of all the kiddos together. Then this year we had all the regulars plus a few more. At one time there were a total of 8 kids here! I wish we had a bigger house! It's so much fun to have everyone over, but it's a lot of work! So worth it though! I didnt' get many pictures, I was too busy running around!

The Gibson grand and great grand kiddos

Isabella was Pippy Longstalking (she had a coat hanger in her hair, to make it stick out!), Laney was a lady bug, Alexandra was an 80's girls, Stratton had already shed his lion costume and Cooper was a train conductor! Aren't they adorable!

Stratton digging in the candy bucket for a kitkat. If he didn't get a kitkat he'd throw it down and try to fish out another one! Don't you love his wranglers and boots?! And already wearing his pants like his daddy. . .

 

Dustin opening a kitkat for him at 9pm after we told him no. .  .hmm paybacks are coming. . .Juliet is due to make her arrival in just a month!

Alicia is reading him one of his favorites, 5 Little Monkeys. We laugh about Stratton being the "community" child but if you came to church with us you would see that he loves our friends as much as we do and he's like one of their kids, too! He's not a bashful guy at all! I tell people all the time (like when we are in the grocery store and he is telling everyone hi!) that he's never met a stranger!

 

 

Halloween 2010~ The costume . . .

We sent the skunk costume back and I found an inexpensive lion costume at Old Navy that had a hood instead of a separate piece like the skunk had. When I brought it home I tried it on him and he actually wore it around for a long time, he didn't act like it bothered him at all! I was really excited and we practiced "roaring" all week! Well when Saturday rolled around he decided he didn't like it again. Figures. He had it on for about half an hour before he threw a major fit. Honestly I don't blame him. The lion suit was fleece and lined and it was pretty warm outside, so he was burning up in it. So it didn't make it to the party and no one got to see it but Jarrod and I. He actually went through three different outfits that night after a couple of spills and accidents.