Whoo hoooooo! We got #2!!!

Wow, I never thought that I would be so excited about poop, but I am. Hayden finally went #2 in the potty yesterday. He has done it before, but not without pulling teeth. We are so proud of his new accomplishment! After a couple of days of him running around and avoiding the toilet, he couldn't wait any longer. I was really beginning to worry about him and what that system back-up would do to his poor little body. We rewarded him with some ice cream from Sonic afterwards. He was ecstatic :)

Free iPods!!!

Clayton is really wanting one of these and his birthday is right around the corner. Being a SAHM, I have NO money to buy him one. I would really like to give him one. I found out that many people have earned them for free on a couple of websites. On 2 Peas, many gals earned theirs and have already received them. Because it sounds kinda fishy, I decided to further investigate the program. It turns out that it is a legit deal. If you are interested in earning one, please sign up using this link: http://ipods.freepay.com/?r=20432487 . All you have to do is sign-up, complete 1 offer, and then get 5 people to sign-up under you. You do not have to give your credit card or pay shipping for the iPod. The offer that you do can be anything from applying for a credit card to getting a trial of Blockbuster's movie program. I opted to sign up for a 7 day trial of some kind of discount program. It cost me $1 and I can cancel in 7 days (which is just before I would have to pay a monthly fee of $14.95). Even if I did pay the $14.95 monthly fee, it would still be well worth it. I mean, a $300 iPod for less than $15?! Come on, that's a steal! The iPod you can get is the 20GB one that has a color screen. Skeptical? Do your research. You will find many people that have already done it. Here's an article to read about it from wired.com: http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,64614,00.html

Uh oh, big E is on the move! 

2 

3 

Freedom-He's free at last!

Wow, Emerson learned to crawl last week and he has been all over the place since. I am amazed at his ability to get into anything and everything. He has already smooshed his finger in the fireplace door, gotten stuck behind the playroom door, gotten his foot stuck in a toy that you slide beads and wooden toys on (not an abacus, but like one with curvy wire), and he frequently makes his way into the hallway to play the air conditioning vent like a banjo. He also likes to find the door stops on the baseboards so that he can make them go doing-doing-doing. I don't like having to watch him like a hawk, but I will say that he is pretty darn cute!

Anyone can be a father, but it takes a man to be a daddy.

This is my latest masterpiece for The Scrapbook Stand. I made it for Clayton to display on his desk at work. It's an altered coin book. To check out TSS's website, click on the link in my sidebar. They offer fabulous monthly kits that are always loaded with goodies. This month's kit features the new Chatterbox Loft.

Hayden's masterpiece

Hayden's artwork

Hayden and his artwork 

Holy Space Ships Batman!

I have no idea how Hayden knew how to draw it, but he drew a pretty darn good picture of a space ship. I thought that Daddy had helped him, but he drew it all by himself. Clayton had never even drawn one for him, so it is amazing that he just randomly did it. I am so proud of him!

By the way, potty training is going great. He even goes on his own sometimes. He will pee in his potty and then empty it into the toilet so that he can flush it down. The only thing he will come to me for is to get his undies back on. He struggles with that part.

Emerson has officially started crawling. Yay :)

Me and Big E 

I just love this photo of Emerson :) 

Big E 

Hayden 

A Day at the Park

We decided to treat the boys to a picnic in the park today. The park that we went to is awesome! It has the coolest playground I have ever seen. We sat in the shade and enjoyed our lunch of roast beef/swiss croissants, string cheese, peaches, grapes, crackers and Coke. Hayden had a grand ole time running around. I swear that kid was sweating buckets by the time we left. I don't understand why both of my children sweat so badly. Emerson works up a sweat just by sucking down a bottle, LOL. Anyway, the photos are posted above.

FYI-Hayden is doing really well in his new undies. He managed to stay dry the whole 3 hours that we were gone. I was so surprised! The kid is doing excellent at home. He always tells us when he needs to pee, but I was skeptical about him leaving the house for a few hours. I kept asking him while we were at the park and then later when we stopped at the store. I guess I am lucky, the kid doesn't pee too often :)

Happy Day! My Ego Has Been Boosted :)

Wow, I got hit on today while shopping at the supermarket. I ran into this good looking guy twice while circling around the store and then he walked over to me while I was looking at juice. He asked me my name and told me that he thought that I was cute. I looked at him weird and said thanks. I told him to stand back because I was embarassed that I stink like a tanning bed (I went just before grocery shopping). He looked down at my rock and then asked if I was married. I told him yes. We chatted for a minute and then he left. I was amazed that anyone would look at me that way these days. Shoot, my greasy hair was pulled underneath my Abercrombie ballcap, I was dressed down, and I stunk. Who should find that attractive??? Anyway, that incident made me realize I must not look quite as bad as I feel I do. Sometimes us moms tend to let motherhood just run us over and we lose our individual identities. This guy's flirtations really made my day. Regardless, let me say this loud and proud, THERE IS NO MAN BETTER THAN MINE! He lets me sleep in on the weekends, he does more than his fair share around the house, he will massage my feet whenever I ask, he takes over the child rearing when he gets home from work and he is always willing to go to a scrapbook store for me. I love him to death and I know that other man could ever possibly be as great as Clayton is. He is a hot tamale that is loaded with charm ;)

My big boy! His face is all sticky sweet from a sucker :)

Showing off his new skivvies (Recognize the shirt Joanna?)

What do they make that DOESN'T have Thomas on it these days??? 

Potty Time

I started potty training Hayden yesterday and let me tell ya, it was no picnic. He sat on the toilet for 2.5 hours before he finally peed. He never cried or became bored because I entertained him with books, crayons, and candy. When he finally did it, I picked him up and jumped for joy! Well, after that, I couldn't ever get him to the toilet in time to keep him from wetting himself. I started reading everything I could on the Internet and I ended up buying an e-book from a gal who had trained over 300 kids. She gave me some ideas and so I set out to find some new gadgets today. I went to Babies R' Us to see what they had and ended up buying him a little potty. I had him sitting on the real toilet yesterday. He got some books to read about pottying at the mall.

When I got home from our little venture, Hayden was so happy when I pulled out the new potty. He called it his and sat on it first thing. The kid actually wanted to pee in it! I was thrilled. We took it into the bathroom and he peed first thing after I read 2 potty training books to him. After that, he asked to go several more times and he has been pretty good about the whole deal. The bad thing is that I knew he was going to have to poop tonight. I saw him hide behind a chair and chased him to the potty. This happened multiple times. Finally, he couldn't hold it any longer and went beside the potty. He was so upset that he dirtied the floor. I had to reassure him that it was okay and that we would try it again later. I am so glad that we have hardwoods! I can't imagine cleaning up that mess if it would have been on carpet. Ugh!

Anyway, I am proud of the kid and he is trying his best. Hopefully, we can pull this thing off before pre-school begins in September ;)

No going home for me :(

Ugh. I was planning to go home on Thursday to see the family and attend Rachel's 13th birthday party, but I have decided not to go. I came to the realization this morning that it will cost me $80 to get there and back. That's not even including the gas that I will need once I am there. I can't believe the gas prices these days. It's so funny, I was getting gas last Friday and I noticed that the last person's sale was $41.00. I kinda smirked and thought about how I am glad that I was not that person. Well, after my tank was full, I looked up and it was $39.95! I decided to put another nickel in there to make it a well-rounded $40. My gosh, that is outrageous! I am seriously wondering how we are going to afford to take Hayden to pre-school in September. I will have to make 2 round trips to downtown Hendersonville 3 times per week. It scares me to think how much gas that is going to take! Will the prices ever go back down??? I surrreeee hope so.

A little behind...

Sorry I haven't updated in a few days. Everything has been a hectic lately. My mom had been watching Hayden since last weekend and then she got really sick. She was puking sick, ugh. I just knew that when I got him that he was going to come down with it too and then spread the love to E, but he didn't.

I took the kiddos to breakfast at Chick-Fil-A this morning so that Hayden could eat and play. He had a blast. Emerson even got in on the fun when I carried him up the big contraption and took him down the slide. Ahhh, to be a kid again....

Well, we have gotten some things to begin potty training Hayden. Any advice or tips? Please people, I beg of you, I NEED HELP!

My scrap room is almost complete. Hopefully, I will have some pics of it to show you this weekend. We'll see. Anyway, I got the coolest gadget for holding all of my scrapbook paper. It's the cool metal trolley that Cropper Hopper makes. It's not the file cart for the hanging file system, it's the trolley cart that holds up to 10 vertical paper holders. That means that it holds up to 2000 sheets! I highly recommend this thing. I got it at Joann's website. There are codes posted on the net for 50% off of one item, so if you shop there, get a coupon before you check out. I got the trolley for $24.99 + shipping which made it just over $30 bucks. That's practically a steal in my opinion. You can check out the trolley here: http://www.joann.com/catalog.jhtml?CATID=85440&PRODID=108456&source=search

UPDATE-The trolley is on sale and they have a 50% off promo code on the home page. I highly advise you gals to check this out!

Check out these cute altered letters that I made using the March kit from The Scrapbook Stand. They are going on my scraproom wall. 

Come one, come all-Scrapbookers needed!!!

The Scrapbook Stand is currently looking for 1-2 designers to add to the design team. You can check out the info. in the following link: http://www.thescrapbookstand.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=41&sid=c30251b06b50f7523c7f1838a5c6c2e3

Come on out and introduce yourselves on the message board. We are having several contests, swaps, and challenges. See ya there!

Wow! I'm really not crazy!!!

LOL, it sure is good to be classified as normal. Clayton and I visited with a psychologist in Atlanta to determine whether or not we were good candidates for being surrogate parents. We were at the office forever, but it was very laid back and interesting. I enjoyed talking with the doctor and felt at ease. I believe that Clayton did too. We did meet our intended parents beforehand and I gotta say that they are wonderful! I am so glad that we found each other and I am very anxious to get this baby journey going. Now that we have done the initial screening, we are in a wait mode. Next will probably be the lawyers/contracts and then we will get to see the doctors at the fertility clinic. Clayton said the same thing that I was thinking after our screening, "I hope that everything goes well and that we get pregnant on the first try". I would love for this journey to be uncomplicated, but being the realist that I am, I just can't count on that. My goal is to bring a sweet baby into this world and place it in its parents arms as soon as possible. I hate that they have to wait, but at least it is going to be well worth it.

Hopefully, I will know the results of my blood test from last week tomorrow. I am going to call around lunch time to find out if I have a thyroid problem. We'll see...

Today's the Day!

We are heading out to Atlanta today to meet our IPs (intended parents). I can't wait! I have talked to M for many months now over the phone and through emails. It will be nice to finally meet her and her family in person. We will leave as soon as Clayton comes home from work. Hayden is with Grandma for the weekend, so we don't have to worry about him. Emerson is going, but he is soooo easy to handle.

Ugh! Why me?!

I have been having a problem recently. I am eating a ton (have bought 3 whole key lime pies in the past 3 weeks!), am cold all the time, my face is majorly breaking out, I'm emotional, and I can't fit into my clothes any longer. Sounds like common pregnancy symptoms, huh? Well, I haven't cycled since June 1st. Don't start jumping up and down Grandma J, let me verify, I AM NOT pregnant. Since I am not and am definitely not trying to be, I went to the OB today to see what is up. He asked me a bunch of questions about these symptoms and then said that he thinks there is something going on with my thyroid. He made sure that I wasn't pregnant by doing a test and then checking to make sure that my cervix wasn't shut. He said that it was all normal. They drew some blood, so we will know sometime next week if it is my thyroid for sure. If it is, I have to take medicine for the rest of my life for it, UGH.

Tonight is Mom's night out with the Moms Club and we are going to Applebee's and then a movie. Later!

Happy Birthday to me! The big 2-7

Yay! I love my birthday. I was originally going to have Clayton take me out tonight, but I think that I am just going to stay in and scrapbook. Hubby can bring home dinner and that will make me happy.

Sorry I took so long to get the Thomas pics posted. We did the event on Sunday, but things have been a little hectic. You can check them out below.

Later this evening, I will post a pic of the van we bought yesterday :)

The Logans go on their first train ride :) 

Thomas the Tank Engine 

Super happy boy 

The goats like to nip at Squiggy's little toes 

My gal pal Tracy and her son Austin 

I am officially one of THOSE people

OMG, I can't believe I am about to say this. I have always said that I would never be one of *those* people. Well, guess what? I am and loving it! I am now a minivan mom. I hate moving from a cool SUV to a van, but it will sure make life easier for me and the kiddos. We went to Charlotte to pick it up today. It took forever to get it, but we did. Yay! No more car sharing between Clayton and me. I can't believe we went so long with just a 4-Runner, but somehow we have managed. Now, where shall I go tomorrow?

By the way, I know I still haven't posted recent pics lately. I will do that tomorrow :)