Ok, Thirty isn't so bad!

I have had birthday cards running out the mailbox this week, I got a ton of facebook messages and my guys gave me some awesome gifts this morning (a new Nixon digital SLR camera and a FAB pair of Rayban sunglasses!!) And this is what I found at the office this morning!!. . . .

They worked so hard on all this decorating!

Close to 300 balloons COVERED my office floor!

 

They saran wrapped everything! Even my scissors!

My boys came to see the decorations

It was really hard working in this environment, so made the girls help me take it all down around 10. We had several visitors that morning, no explanation was necessary, but I could have done without all the laughing and the "pity" looks.

I had to forgive Brandy and Candace since they special ordered me my favorite cookie pops from Cookies  N' More with (of course) Pink 30's on them! It made my day!! Turning 30's not such a bad thing after all!!

We are sick of sickness!!

Sorry no pictures today! Not that anyone in our house has been in the mood to smile lately! I came down with the stomach bug last Wednesday afternoon. Luckily my mom and dad came and got Stratton asap and took him to their house. I was feeling better by Friday afternoon and Jarrod and I had previously planned to to to Memphis and stay the night for our birthdays (his was the 18th and mine is the 25th) and so we went ahead and decided to go. We had a great time, did some eating out, went to a movie, slept in and then did some shopping. And the weather was perfect! We got back to Jonesboro late Saturday and crashed. Sunday we headed to Hickory Ridge for church and our birthday party with the family. We ended up staying the whole day there. We got home about 9:00pm. Monday was super busy, I had missed Thursday and Friday from being sick the week before so I had A LOT to catch up on. Tuesday about 3pm Stratton's daycare called to tell me his was throwing up and had a fever. I assumed it was the stomach bug. Well, the vomiting part ended but he kept running a fever so Jarrod stayed home with him on Wednesday, since I had meetings at work. About 11am Stratton's fever spiked and so Jarrod decided to take him to the Dr. They got an appt at 2pm and Jarrod said poor Stratton was like a zombie. He didn't leave his lap for almost the whole time they were there. The Dr decided to swab him for strep and it came back positive. I didn't know that vomiting was a symptom of strep throat? I learned something new! Any they put him on an antibiotic and told him to keep rotating the Tylenol and Motrin for the fever. I guess by the time I got home the meds had kicked in and he seemed to be feeling much better! He helped me make eggs and we played for awhile. Then after his bath at 7pm things went downhill. You could tell he felt awful and his fever was so high he was wringing wet and wanted to be all balled up with blankets. It was a rough night to say the least. He only slept in his crib for about an hour then we tried to sleep with him in the recliner and that didn't work, so finally we put in him bed with us and he finally went to sleep. we were up and down a lot until about 3am when he finally really crashed. Yep, we (or he I should say) was up eating cheese puffs at midnight. I didn't put up much of a fight. It made him happy and he quit crying and fussing! The hardest part was just seeing him cry and cry and cry and there wasn't anything we could do to make him happy or help him feel better. He hasn't ran a fever since about 5am this morning and has seemed to be much better today! I am hoping we have a better night tonight. Now, if Jarrod gets sick (I won't be surprised) but I am sending him to his momma's!! Haha.

February is flying by!

This month is always a busy one for us, but it seems like it is just going by really fast! Here are some pictures from the past couple of weeks!

Cookie! Here are the pictures we took of him with his first cookie pop a few weeks ago. Since then I think he’s had two more! We just can’t get enough!!

How does he sleep like that?! We are debating getting a toddler bed in the near future? Any thoughts?

So much personality and attitude! On this particular evening he found a pacifier (which he hasn’t wanted since he was about 5 months old) and decided to chew on it. Then he found a vest from an outfit and decided he needed to wear it. We were getting ready to take a bath and he didn’t even want to take it off to get in the tub!? He is such a Silly boy?!

Bath time. . . the pacifier has remained in the bath toys. He throws it in the water and then finds it- apparently it’s a fun game to him?! He’s finally got a head full of hair, but since it’s so blond you can’t really tell! He won’t hardly let me “fix” it anymore. Well, I fix it and then he tries to fix it too and it usually just ends up getting smashed down so I don’t fight it anymore. . .and Jarrod isn’t complaining!

Yep, he’s got a headband on. {His dad is So proud!} I am telling you this kid is so full of silliness! I guess his hair was in his face when he was mowing?!

My Valentines

I don’t have the pictures downloaded yet, but for Valentine’s day I got TWO flower arrangements! One with lilies and gerber daisies (my favorites) from Jarrod and then another one with one single rose from my little guy! I was really surprised when the delivery came to my office! Jarrod makes all the other husbands look so bad, doesn’t he! I am so lucky!!

Bday dinner with the Staggs

Terry and Margie had us over Friday night for our (Jarrod and myself) birthday dinner. It’s so much fun to see Stratton and cousin Archer interact. I have a feeling once Archer gets mobile they are going to be some kind of trouble!! Right now Archer just wants to grab Stratton and touch him and Stratton isn’t too sure about all that. . .

 

Archer is such a cutie!

Nan and Pa got Stratton a Valentine surprise!

Books! He immediately wanted to read!

Reading about Tractors is serious!

Archer and Stratton with Pa

It's February?!

Um. . . so wasn't it Christmas yesterday?! I think I missed something {like, the month of January!} because it just does not seem like it could really be February already!! We have been so busy!! We had another snow, a couple of weeks ago, however I was sick and Jarrod was working like crazy so we didn't get out in it! And Stratton has had an ear infection in the past week. Other than that we are doing great! Just staying super busy as always!

I have some pictures I need to upload of Stratton enjoying one of my all time favorite treats (one I thought was lost forever!) which just came back into my life this past week. People from NE Arkansas will remember the Cookie Factory in the old Indian Mall?? Well those same folks have set up shop in the Daylight Donuts shop and guess what?? They have COOKIE POPS!! Remember those?! They were my favorites! And I had no shame being 20 years old carrying a cookie pop (with a big blue smiley face iced on it) through the mall!! Anyway "Cookies N' More" opened Saturday and Jarrod went and got me one {that will keep him on the "good" list for awhile!} and I went back yesterday! ha-ha! They are so good! It's the glaze they use on them, I think it's just heavenly!! And I want to support them so they don't go out of business!! I think Stratton is a fan, too!! He loved it!!

I also just figured out how to design my own blog backgrounds!! I knew just enough html from college to make me dangerous and I finally figured it out!! I am really proud of myself, especially since I didn't ever do well in my computer programming classes! I am trying to learn more about custom blog design. It's something I am really interested in, but I don't have a lot of time to spend playing with it and I think that is the key, the more you do it the better you are and more creative you can be! Maybe someday!!

You might find this interesting, too. . . I am working with a girl from London (yes, England) designing her wedding monogram and save the dates. What's so cool is that she works for a huge marketing consultancy (I didn't even know that was a word?!) in London called "Prophet" [google prophet.com- it they do stuff for really big companies in England and all throughout Europe] Her name is Anni and she is Indian (as in from India) and is getting married there in July!! Pretty neat, right?!! She was google-ing custom monograms and up popped my blog, she liked what she saw so she emailed me and we have been working together for a few weeks now! I am just about to wrap the project up!

That's all for now. I know you came for pictures and I am sorry I don't have more for you! I will try to do better this month!

18 Months

 

Really????  As I sit here typing this post, I am still not ready to deal with the fact that my BABY is a year and a half. It just doesn't seem possible!!

Here are his stats from his checkup today today! It looks like he has finally started to slow down a little! Whew!! WEIGHT: almost 27 lbs (70%)| HEIGHT: 33.5 inches (85%). He is wearing 18-24 months pants still (he's so skinny that some of these are still too big in the waist! but they are started to get a little short, will this ever not be a problem for us??), 2T tops, size 7-71/2 shoes and size 4 diapers still. He has 13 teeth and puts them to good use. He is a fantastic eater! We have found that he doesn't like the texture of some meats, but other than that he will eat just about anything. His favorites are Cheese (prefers Colby-Jack!) and loves fruit (strawberries, blueberries and LEMONS!! seem to be a big hit) and he absolutely loves french fries (which he only gets when we eat out and there aren't better options!). He has recently figured out the difference in Milk and Juice. And will let me know when I try to pass milk off to him after he asks for "juice". He is getting way too smart. 

His teachers tell me that he is very outgoing and outspoken at school (my child?? No?!) when they ask them questions he doesn't give the other kids a chance. He likes to confidently (and loudly) proclaim the answer! They tell me he is doing great on all his words, even better than most of the older kids! He knows so many words. . .even ones we don't understand yet! I think it's so funny when he is trying to tell us something and we can't understand him. . he looks at us like we are complete idiots. (I know this is only going to get worse. . .haha).

He is still all about TRACTORS!! He has 6 or 7 John Deere dvds and we are wearing them out!!  And even though we got him a battery powered four wheeler for christmas, his transportation of choice is still his John Deere tractor ride-on! He also really like Mickey Mouse (or just "Mouse" as he calls him). He doesn't seem to care about any other characters yet. But he doesn't watch much tv other than "TRACTOR!!". . .  which is what he says (ok, more like screams) as he points to the tv! Oh, and he can turn the dvd player on and play his dvd if you don't watch him!!

Stratton loves animals. He shows his affection for Taki quite frequently! And she is a really good sport about it! I think she has gotten tired of running from him, she'll just lay down and let him do pretty much whatever he wants to now! It is funny when he tries to play with her. He will try to throw her a ball and of course she just sits there! It makes him sooo mad! He has tried to get her to "ride" his tractor. He will stand by it and pat the seat and say something that sounds like "kitty, kitty". . . too cute. I think she likes him too. If you were to ask her she would deny it, but I think she enjoys having him give her attention all the time! He also likes to watch and play with Sadey. But she is just a little too rambunctious to let them play together. He really likes to talk to her when she is in the kennel in the house. He will just sit there in front of her and let her lick his hands and thinks it's so funny.

Patting the seat, trying to tell Taki to "get on!"

Talking to Sadey (and I think she's talking back. . )

This is a long post, and I have left out a million more details about all the things he is learning and doing! He surprises us daily with his growing knowledge and curiosity! There are things I miss about him being a "baby" but those sweet hugs and kisses he gives definitely make up for the craziness and chaos that we now find ourselves living in!!